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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1634-0.txt b/1634-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9407c12 --- /dev/null +++ b/1634-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9868 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Foolish Virgin, by Thomas Dixon + +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: The Foolish Virgin + +Author: Thomas Dixon + +Posting Date: October 5, 2008 [EBook #1634] +Release Date: February, 1999 +Last Updated: March 15, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOOLISH VIRGIN *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +THE FOOLISH VIRGIN + +By Thomas Dixon + + + + +TO GERTRUDE ATHERTON WITH GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. A FRIENDLY WARNING + II. TEMPTATION + III. FATE + IV. DOUBTS AND FEARS + V. WINGS OF STEEL + VI. BESIDE THE SEA + VII. A VAIN APPEAL + VIII. JIM'S TRIAL + IX. ELLA'S SECRET + X. THE WEDDING + XI. “UNTIL DEATH” + XII. THE LOTOS-EATERS + XIII. THE REAL MAN + XIV. UNWELCOME GUESTS + XV. A LITTLE BLACK BAG + XVI. THE AWAKENING + XVII. THE SURRENDER + XVIII. TO THE NEW GOD + XIX. NANCE'S STOREHOUSE + XX. TRAPPED + XXI. THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE + XXII. DELIVERANCE + XXIII. THE DOCTOR + XXIV. THE CALL DIVINE + XXV. THE MOTHER + XXVI. A SOUL IS BORN + XXVII. THE BABY + XXVIII. WHAT IS LOVE? + XXIX. THE NEW MAN + + + + +LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY + + MARY ADAMS, An Old-Fashioned Girl. + JIM ANTHONY, A Modern Youth. + JANE ANDERSON, An Artist. + ELLA, A Scrubwoman. + NANCE OWENS, Jim Anthony's Mother. + A DOCTOR, Whose Call was Divine. + THE BABY, A Mascot. + + + + +THE FOOLISH VIRGIN + + + + +CHAPTER I. A FRIENDLY WARNING + +“Mary Adams, you're a fool!” + +The single dimple in a smooth red cheek smiled in answer. + +“You're repeating yourself, Jane----” + +“You won't give him one hour's time for just three sittings?” + +“Not a second for one sitting----” + +“Hopeless!” + +Mary smiled provokingly, her white teeth gleaming in obstinate good +humor. + +“He's the most distinguished artist in America----” + +“I've heard so.” + +“It would be a liberal education for a girl of your training to know +such a man----” + +“I'll omit that course of instruction.” + +The younger woman was silent a moment, and a flush of anger slowly +mounted her temples. The blue eyes were fixed reproachfully on her +friend. + +“You really thought that I would pose?” + +“I hoped so.” + +“Alone with a man in his studio for hours?” + +Jane Anderson lifted her dark brows. + +“Why, no, I hardly expected that! I'm sure he would take his easel and +palette out into the square in front of the Plaza Hotel and let you sit +on the base of the Sherman monument. The crowds would cheer and inspire +him--bah! Can't you have a little common-sense? There are a few +brutes among artists, as there are in all professions--even among the +superintendents of your schools. Gordon's a great creative genius. If +you'd try to flirt with him, he'd stop his work and send you home. You'd +be as safe in his studio as in your mother's nursery. I've known him +for ten years. He's the gentlest, truest man I've ever met. He's doing a +canvas on which he has set his whole heart.” + +“He can get professional models.” + +“For his usual work, yes--but this is the head of the Madonna. He saw +you walking with me in the Park last week and has been to my studio a +half-dozen times begging me to take you to see him. Please, Mary dear, +do this for my sake. I owe Gordon a debt I can never pay. He gave me +the cue to the work that set me on my feet. He was big and generous +and helpful when I needed a friend. He asked nothing in return but the +privilege of helping me again if I ever needed it. You can do me an +enormous favor--please.” + +Mary Adams rose with a gesture of impatience, walked to her window and +gazed on the torrent of humanity pouring through Twenty-third Street +from the beehives of industry that have changed this quarter of New York +so rapidly in the last five years. She turned suddenly and confronted +her friend. + +“How could you think that I would stoop to such a thing?” + +“Stoop!” + +“Yes,” she snapped, “--pose for an artist! I'd as soon think of rushing +stark naked through Twenty-third Street at noon!” + +The older woman looked at her flushed face, suppressed a sharp answer, +broke into a fit of laughter and threw her arms around Mary's neck. + +“Honey, you're such a hopeless little fool, you're delicious! You know +that I love you--don't you?” + +The pretty lips quivered. + +“Yes.” + +“Could I possibly ask you to do a thing that would harm a single brown +hair of your head?” + +The firm hand of the older girl touched a rebellious lock with +tenderness. + +“Of course not, from your point of view, Jane dear,” the stubborn lips +persisted. “But you see it's not my point of view. You're older than +I----” + +Jane smiled. + +“Hoity toity, Miss! I'm just twenty-eight and you're twenty-four. Age is +not measured by calendars these days.” + +“I didn't mean that,” the girl apologized. “But you're an artist. You're +established and distinguished. You belong to a different world.” + +Jane Anderson laid her hand softly on her friend's. + +“That's just it, dear. I do belong to a different world--a big new world +of whose existence you are not quite conscious. You are living in the +old, old world in which women have groped for thousands of years. I +don't mind confessing that I undertook this job of getting you to pose +for Gordon for a double purpose. I wished to do something to repay +the debt I owe him--but I wished far more to be of help to you. You're +living in the Dark Ages, and it's a dangerous thing for a pretty girl to +live in the Dark Ages and date her letters from New York to-day----” + +“I don't understand you in the least.” + +“And I'm afraid you never will.” + +She paused suddenly and changed her tone. + +“Tell me now, are you happy in your work?” + +“I'm earning sixty dollars a month--my position is secure----” + +“But are you happy in it?” + +“I don't expect to teach school all my life,” was the vague answer. + +“Exactly. You loathe the sight of a school-room. You do the task they +set you because your father's a clergyman and can't support his +big family. You're waiting and longing for the day of your +deliverance--isn't it so?” + +“Perhaps.” + +“And that day of deliverance?” + +“Will come when I meet my Fate!” + +“You'll meet him, too!” + +“I will----” + +Jane Anderson shook her fine head. + +“And may the Lord have mercy on your poor little soul when you do!” + +“And why, pray?” + +“Because you're the most helpless and defenseless of all the things He +created.” + +Mary smiled. + +“I've managed to take pretty good care of myself so far.” + +“And you will--until the thunderbolt falls.” + +“The thunderbolt?” + +“Until you meet your Fate.” + +“I'll have someone to look after me then.” + +“We'll hope so anyhow,” was the quick retort. + +“But can't you see, Jane dear, that we look at life from such utterly +different angles. You glory in your work. It's your inspiration--the +breath you breathe. I don't believe in women working for money. I don't +believe God ever meant us to work when He made us women. He made +us women for something more wonderful. I don't see anything good or +glorious in the fact that half the torrent of humanity you see down +there pouring through the street from those factories and offices is +made up of women. They are wage-earners--so much the worse. They are +forcing the scale of wages for men lower and lower. They are paying for +it in weakened bodies and sickly, hopeless children. We should not shout +for joy; we should cry. God never meant for woman to be a wage-earner!” + +A sob caught her voice and she paused. + +The artist watched her emotion with keen interest. + +“Neither do I believe that God means to force woman at last to do the +tasks of man. But she's doing them, dear--and it must be so until a +brighter day dawns for humanity. The new world that opens before us +will never abolish marriage, but it has opened our eyes to know what it +means. You refuse to open yours. You refuse to see this new world about +you. I've begged you to join one of my clubs. You refuse. I beg you to +meet and know such men of genius as Gordon----” + +“As an artist's model!” + +“It's the only way on earth you can meet him. You stick to your narrow, +hide-bound conventional life and dream of the Knight who will suddenly +appear some day out of the mists and clouds. You dream of the Fate God +has prepared for you in His mysterious Providence. It's funny how that +idea persists even today in novels. As a matter of fact we know that the +old-fashioned girl met her Fate because her shrewd mother planned the +meeting--planned it with cunning and stratagem. You're alone in a great +modern city, with all the conditions of the life of the old regime +reversed or blotted out. Your mother is not here. And if she were, her +schemes to bring about the mysterious meeting of the Fates would be +impossible. You outgrew the limits of your village life. Your highly +trained mind landed you in New York. You've fought your way to a +competent living in five years and kept yourself clean and unspotted +from the world. Granted. But how many men have you met who are your +equals in culture and character?” + +Jane paused and held Mary's gaze with steady persistence. + +“How many--honest?” + +“None as yet,” she confessed. + +“But you live in the one fond, imperishable hope! It's the only +thing that keeps you alive and going--this idea of your Fate. It's an +obsession--this mysterious Knight somewhere in the future riding to meet +you----” + +“I'll find him, never fear,” the girl laughed. + +“Of course you will. You'll make him out of whole cloth if it's +necessary. Our ideals are really the same when you come to analyze my +wider outlook.” + +The artist paused and laughed softly. + +“The same?” the girl asked incredulously. + +“Certainly. Mine is based on intelligence, however--yours on blind +instinct perverted and twisted by the idiotic fiction you read morning, +noon and night.” + +“I don't see it,” Mary answered emphatically. “Your ideal is fame, +achievement, the applause of the world--mine just a home and a baby----” + +Jane laughed softly. + +“And that's all you know about me?” + +“Isn't it true?” + +“You've been in this room five years, haven't you?” the older girl asked +musingly. + +“Yes----” + +“And though you've kept your lamp trimmed and burning, you haven't yet +seen a man whom you could recognize as your equal.” + +“I'm only twenty-four.” + +“In these five years I've met a hundred men my equal.” + +“And smashed the conventions of Society whenever you saw fit.” + +“Without breaking a single law of reason or common-sense. In the +meantime I've met two men who have really made love to me. I thought I +loved one of them--until I met the other. The second proved himself to +be an unprincipled scoundrel. If I had held your views of life and hated +my work, I would have married this man and lived to awake in a prison +whose only door was Death. But I loved my work. Life meant more than +one man who was not worth an hour's tears. I turned to my studio and he +slipped back into the gutter where he belonged. I'll meet MY Fate +some day, too, dear. I'm waiting and watching--but with clear eyes +and unafraid. I'll know mine when he comes, I shall not be blinded by +passion or the fear of drudgery. Can't you see this bigger world of +realities?” + +The dimple flashed again in the smooth red cheek. + +“It's not for me, Jane. I'm just a modest little home body. I'll bide my +time----” + +“And eat your foolish heart out here between the narrow walls of this +cell you've built for yourself. I should think you'd die living here +alone.” + +The girl flushed. + +“I'm not lonely----” + +“Don't fib! I know better. Your birds and kitten occupy daily about +thirty minutes of the time that's your own. What do you do with the rest +of it?” + +“Sit by my window, watch the crowds stream through the streets below, +read and dream and think----” + +“Yes--read love stories and dream about your Knight.” + +“Well?” + +“It's morbid and unhealthy. You've hedged yourself about with the old +conventions and imagine you're safe--and you are--until you meet HIM!” + +“I'll know how to behave--never fear.” + +“You mean you'll know how instantly to blindfold, halter and lead him to +the Little Church Around the Corner?” + +Mary moved uneasily. + +“And what else should I do with him?” + +“Compare him with other men. Weigh him in the balances of a remorseless +common-sense. Study him under a microscope and keep your reason clear. +The girl who rushes into marriage in a great city under the conditions +in which you and I live is a fool. More girls are ruined in New York +by marriage than by any other process. The thunderbolt out of the blue +hasn't struck you yet, but when it does----” + +“I'll tell you, Jane.” + +“Will you, honestly?” + +The question was asked with wistful tenderness. + +“I promise. And you mustn't think I don't appreciate this visit and the +chance you've given again to enter the `big world' you're always telling +me about. I just can't do it, dear. It's not my world.” + +“All right, my little foolish virgin, have it your own way. When you're +lonely, run up to my studio to see me. I won't ask you to pose or meet +any of the dangerous men of my circle. We'll lock the doors and have a +snug time all by ourselves.” + +“I'll remember.” + +The clock in the Metropolitan Tower chimed the hour of five, and Jane +Anderson rose with a quick, business-like movement. + +“Don't hurry,” Mary protested. “I know I've been stubborn, but I've +been so happy in your coming. I do get lonely--frightfully lonely, +sometimes--don't think I'm ungrateful----” + +“You're dangerously beautiful, child,” the artist said, with enthusiasm. +“And remember that I love you--no matter how silly you are--good-by.” + +“You won't stay for a cup of tea? I meant to ask you an hour ago.” + +“No, I've an engagement with a dreadful man whom I've no idea of ever +marrying. I'm going to dinner with him--just to study the animal at dose +range.” + +With a jolly laugh and quick, firm step she was gone. + +Mary snatched the kitten from his snug bed between the pillows of the +window-seat and pressed his fuzzy head under her chin. + +“She tempted us terribly, Kitty darling, but we didn't let her find +out--did we? You know deep down in your cat's soul that I was just dying +to meet the distinguished Gordon--but such high honors are not for home +bodies like you and me----” + +She dropped on the seat and closed her eyes for a long time. The kitten +watched her wonderingly sure of a sudden outbreak with each passing +moment. Two soft paws at last touched her cheeks and two bright eyes +sought in vain for hers. The little nose pressed closer and kissed the +drooping eyelids until they opened. He curled himself on her bosom and +began to sing a gentle lullaby. For a long while she lay and listened to +the music of love with which her pet sought to soothe the ache within. + +The clock in the tower chimed six. + +She lifted her body and placed her head on a pillow beside the window. +The human torrent below was now at its flood. Two streams of humanity +flowed eastward along each broad sidewalk. Hundreds were pouring in +endless procession across Madison Square. The cars in Broadway north and +South were jammed. Every day she watched this crowd hurrying, hurrying +away into the twilight--and among all its hundreds of thousands not +an eye was ever lifted to hers--not one man or woman among them cared +whether she lived or died. + +It was horrible, this loneliness of the desert in an ocean of humanity! +For the past year it had become an increasing horror to look into the +silent faces of this crowd of men and women and never feel the touch of +a friendly hand or hear the sound of a human voice in greeting. + +And yet this endless procession held for her a supreme fascination. +Somewhere among its myriads of tramping feet, walked the one man created +for her. She no more doubted this than she doubted God Himself. It was +His law. He had ordained it so. She had grown so used to the throngs +below her window and so loved the little park with its splashing +fountain that she had refused to follow her landlady uptown when the +brownstone boarding-house facing the Square had been turned into a +studio building. + +Instead of moving she had wheedled the landlord into allowing her to +cut off a small space from her room for a private bath and kitchenette, +built a box couch across the window large enough for a three-quarter +mattress and covered it with velour. For five dollars a week she +had thus secured a little home in which was combined a sitting-room, +bed-room, bath and kitchenette. + +It had its drawbacks, of course. The Professor downstairs who taught +music sometimes gave a special lesson at night, and the Italian sculptor +who worked on the top floor used a hammer at the most impossible hours. +But on the whole she liked it better than the tiresome routine of +boarding. She was not afraid at night. The stamp-and-coin man who +occupied the first floor, lived with his wife and baby in the rear. The +janitress had a room on the floor above hers. Two elderly women workers +of ability in the mechanical arts occupied the rear of her floor, and +a dear little fat woman of fifty who drew designs for the New England +weavers of cotton goods lived in the room adjoining hers. + +She had never spoken to any of these people, but Ella, the janitress, +who cleaned up her place every morning, had told her their history. +Ella was a sociable soul, her face an eternal study and an inscrutable +mystery. She spoke both German and English and yet never a word of her +own life's history passed her lips. She had loved Mary from the moment +she cocked her queer drawn face to one side and looked at her with the +one good eye she possessed. She was always doing little things for her +comfort--and never asked tips for it. If Mary offered to pay she smiled +quietly and spoke in the softest drawl: “Oh, that's nothing, child--Ach, +Gott im Himmel--nein!” + +This one-eyed, homely woman who cleaned up her room for three dollars +a month, and Jane Anderson, were the only friends she had among the six +million people whose lives centered on Manhattan Island. + +Man had yet to darken her door. The little room had been carefully +fitted, however, to receive her Knight when the great event of his +coming should be at hand. + +The box couch was built of hard wood paneling and was covered with +pillows of soft leather and silk. The bed-clothes were carefully stored +in the locker beneath the mattress cushion. No one would ever suspect +its use as a bed. The bathroom was fitted with a bureau and no signs of +a sleeping apartment disfigured the effect of her one library, parlor, +and reception-room. A desk and bookcase stood at either end of the box +couch. The bookcase was filled with fiction--love stories exclusively. + +A large birdcage swung from a staple in the window and two canaries +peered cautiously from their perches at the kitten in her lap. She had +trained him to ignore this cage. + +The crowds below were thinning down. A light snow was falling. The girl +lifted her pet and kissed his cold nose. + +“We must get our own dinner tonight, Mr. Thomascat--it's snowing +outside. And did you hear what she said, Kitty dear--`More girls are +ruined by marriage in New York than by any other process!' A good joke, +Kitty!--You and I know better than that if we do live in our own tiny +world! We'll risk it some day, anyhow, won't we?” + +The kitten purred his assent and Mary bustled over the little gas stove +humming an old love song her mother had taught her in a far-off village +in Kentucky. + + + + +CHAPTER II. TEMPTATION + + +Her kitchenette was a model of order and cleanliness. The carpenter +who built its neat cupboard and fitted the drawers beneath the tiny +gas range, had outdone himself in its construction. He had given the +wood-work four coats of immaculate white paint without extra charge. +Mary had insisted on paying for it, but he waved the proffered money +aside with a gesture that spoke louder than words: + +“Pooh! That's nothing to what I'd like to do for you.” + +She was not surprised when he called the following Saturday and stood +at her door awkwardly fumbling his hat, trying to ask her to spend the +afternoon and evening at Coney Island with him. There was no mistaking +the manner in which he made this request. + +She had refused him as gently as possible--a big, awkward, good-natured, +ignorant boy he was, with the eyes of a St. Bernard dog. He apologized +for his presumption and never repeated the offense. + +Somehow her conquests had all been in this class. + +The tall, blushing German youth from the butcher's around the corner +had been slipping extra cuts into her bundle and making awkward advances +until she caught him red-handed with a pound of lamb chops which he +failed to explain. She read him a lecture on honesty that discouraged +him. It was not so much what she said, as the way she said it, that +wounded his sensitive nature. + +The ice man she had not yet entirely subdued. Tony Bonelli had the +advantage of pretending not to understand her orders of dismissal. He +merely smiled in his sad Italian way and continued to pack her ice-box +so full the lid would never close. + +She was reminded at every turn tonight of these futile conquests of the +impossible. They all smelled of the back stairs and the kitchen. Her +people had been slaveholders in the old regime of southern Kentucky. A +kindly tolerant contempt for the pretensions of a servant class was bred +in the bone of her being. + +And yet their tribute to her beauty had its compensations. It was the +promise of triumph when he for whom she waited should step from the +throng and lift his hat. Just how he was going to do this without a +breach of the proprieties of life, she couldn't see. It would come. It +must come. It was Fate. + +In twenty minutes her coffee-pot was boiling, the lamb chops broiled to +perfection and she was seated before the dainty, snow-white table, the +kitten softly begging at her feet. Half an hour later, every dish and +pot and pan was back in its place in perfect order. She prided herself +on her mastery of the details of cooking and the most economical +administration of every dollar devoted to housekeeping. She studied +cooking in the best schools the city afforded. She meant to show her +Knight a thing or two in this line when the time came. His wife would +not be an ignorant slattern, the victim of incompetent servants. No +servant could fool her. She would know the business of the house down to +its minutest detail. + +Not that she loved dish-washing and pot-polishing and scrubbing. It was +simply a part of the Game of Life she must play in the ideal home she +would build. There was no drudgery in it for this reason. She was a +soldier on the drill grounds preparing for the battle on the successful +issue of which hung her happiness and the happiness of the one of +whom she dreamed. She might miss some of the dangerous fun which Jane +Anderson could enjoy without a scratch, but she would make sure of the +fundamental things which Jane would never stop to consider. + +She threw herself on the couch in her favorite position against the +pillows, drew the kitten into her arms and hugged him violently. + +“It's all right, Mr. Thomascat; we'll show them,” she purred softly. +“We'll see who wins at last, the eagle who soars or the little wren in +the hedge close beside the garden wall--we'll see, Kitty--we'll see!” + +The room was still, the noise of the street-cars below muffled with the +first soft blanket of snow. The street lamps flickered in the wind with +a pale subdued light that scarcely brought out the furnishings of her +nest. She was in the habit of dreaming in this window for hours with +only the light from the lamps on the street. + +The Square, deserted by its tramp lovers, lay white and still and cold. +The old battle with the Blue Devils was on again within. The fight with +Jane had been easy. She had always found it easy to face temptation in +the concrete. The moment Satan appeared in human shape she was up in +arms and ready for the fray. It was this silent hour she dreaded when +the defenses of the soul were down. + +There was no use to lie to herself. She was utterly lonely and +heartsick. + +She had guarded the portals of life with religious care--with a care +altogether unnecessary as events had proved. There had been no crush of +rude men to assault her. Only an awkward carpenter, a butcher's boy +and the ice man! It was incredible. Of all the men whose restless +feet pressed the pavements of New York, not one, save these three, had +apparently cared whether she lived or died. + +The men whom she met in her duties in the schoolroom she had found +utterly devoid of imagination and beneath contempt. They had each +been obviously on guard against the machinations of the female of the +species. They had, each of them, shown plainly their fear and hatred of +women teachers. The feeling was mutual. God knows she had no desire to +encroach on their domain any longer than absolutely necessary. + +Perhaps she was making a mistake. The thought was strangling. Only the +girl who waived conventions in the rushing tide of the modern city's +life seemed to live at all. The others merely existed. Jane Anderson +lived! There could be no mistake about that. She had mastered the ugly +mob. Its cruel loneliness was to her a thing unknown. But Jane was an +exception--the one woman in a thousand who could defy conventions and +yet keep her soul and body clean. + +The offer she had made had proved a terrible temptation. The artist who +had asked with such eagerness to use her head for his portrait of the +Madonna on the canvas he was executing for the new cathedral, had long +appealed to her vivid imagination. Two prints of his famous work hung on +her walls. She had always wished to know him. He had married a Southern +girl. + +That was just the point--he WAS married! + +No girl could afford to be shut up alone in a studio with a fascinating +married man for three hours--or half an hour. What if she should fall +in love with him at first sight! Such things had happened. They could +happen again. Only tragedy could be the end of such an event. It was too +dangerous to consider for a moment. + +She would have consented had it been possible for Jane to chaperon +her. That would have been obviously ridiculous. No artist with any +self-respect would tolerate such a reflection on his honesty. No girl +could afford to confess her fears in this brazen fashion. + +The necessity for her refusal had depressed her beyond any experience +she had passed through in the dreary desert of the past five years. + +She lifted the sleeping kitten and whispered passionately: + +“Am I a silly fool, Kitty? Am I?” + +The tears came at last. She lay back on the pillows and let them pour +down her cheeks without protest or effort at self-control. Every nerve +of her strong, healthy body ached for the love and companionship of men +which she had denied herself with an iron will. At nineteen it had been +easy. The sheer animal joy in life had been enough. With the growth of +each year the ache within had become more and more insistent. With each +ripening season of body and mind, the hunger of love had grown more +and more maddening. How long could she keep up this battle with every +instinct of her being? + +She rose at last, determined to go to Jane, confess that she had been +a fool, and step out into the new world, New York's world, and begin to +live. + +She seized her hat and furs and put them on with feverish haste. + +“God knows it's time I began--I'll be an old maid in another year and +dry up--ugh!” + +She looked in the quaint oval mirror that hung beside her door and +lifted her head with a touch of pride. + +She had reached the street and started for the Broadway car before she +suddenly remembered that Jane was “dining with a dangerous man.” + +She couldn't turn back to that little room tonight without new courage. +Her decision was instantaneous. She couldn't surrender to the flesh and +the devil by yielding to Jane. + +She would go to prayer-meeting! + +Religion had always been a very real thing in her life. Her father was a +Methodist presiding elder. She would have gone to the meeting tonight +in the first place but for the snow. Dr. Craddock, the new sensational +pastor of the Temple, was giving a series of Wednesday-night talks that +had aroused wide interest and drawn immense crowds. + +His theme tonight was one that promised all sorts of sensations--“The +Woman of the Future.” The only trouble with the Doctor was that the +substance of his discourses sometimes failed to make good the startling +suggestions of his titles. No matter--she would go. She felt a sense of +righteous pride infighting her way to the church through the first storm +of the winter. + +In spite of the snow the church was crowded. The subject announced had +evidently touched a vital spot in modern life. More people were thinking +about “The Woman of the Future” than she had suspected. The crowd sat +with eager, upturned faces. + +The first half-hour's prayer and song service had just begun. +Mary joined in the singing of the stirring evangelistic hymns with +enthusiasm. Something in their battle-cry melody caught her spirit +instantly tonight and her whole being responded. In ten minutes she was +a good shouting Methodist and supremely happy without knowing why. She +never paused to ask. Her nature was profoundly religious and she had +been born and bred in the atmosphere of revivals. Her father was an +aggressive evangelist both in his character and methods of work, and she +was his own daughter--a child of emotion. + +The individuals in the eager crowd which packed the popular church meant +nothing to her personally. They had passed before her unseeing eyes +Sunday after Sunday the past five years as mere shadows of an unknown +world which swallowed them up the moment they reached the street. She +had never seen the inside of one of their homes. Not one of them had +drawn close enough to her to venture an invitation. + +Two of the stewards she knew personally--one a bricklayer, the other a +baker on Eighth Avenue. The preacher she had met in a purely formal way +as the bishop of the flock. She liked Dr. Craddock. He was known in the +ministry as a live wire. He was a man of vigorous physique--just turning +fifty, magnetic, eloquent and popular with the masses. + +Mary was curious tonight as to what the preacher would say on “The Woman +of the Future.” The Methodist Church had been a pioneer in the modern +Feminist movement, having long ago admitted women to the full ordination +of the ministry. Craddock, however, had been known for his conservatism +in the woman movement. He abhorred the idea of woman's suffrage as a +dangerous revolution and the fact that he consented to treat the topic +at all was a reluctant confession of its menacing importance. + +With keen interest, the girl saw him rise at last. A breathless hush +fell on the crowd. He walked deliberately to the edge of the platform +and gazed into the faces of the people. + +“I have often been asked,” he slowly began, “where I get my sermons.” He +paused and laughed. “I'll be perfectly honest with you. Sometimes I get +them from the Bible--sometimes from the book of life. The genesis of +this talk tonight is very definite. I found it in the liquid depths of +a little girl's eyes. She asked a simple question that set me +thinking--not only about the subject of her query but on the vaster +issues that grew out of it. She looked up into my face the other night +after my call for volunteers for the new mission we are beginning in the +slums of the East Side, and asked me if the girls were not going to be +given the chance to do something worth while in this church's work. + +“I couldn't honestly answer her off-hand and in my groping I forgot the +child and her question. I saw a vision--a vision of that broader, nobler +future toward which human civilization is now swiftly moving. + +“I say deliberately that it is swiftly moving, because the progress of +the world during the last fifty years has been greater than in any five +hundred years of the past. + +“The older I grow the stronger becomes my conviction that the problems +of the age in which we now live cannot be solved by masculine brain +and brawn alone. The problems of the city and the nation and the great +fundamental social questions that involve the foundations of modern life +will find no solution until the heart and brain of woman are poured into +the crucible of our test. + +“They talk about a woman's sphere As though it had a limit: There's not +a place in earth or heaven, There's not a task to mankind given, There's +not a blessing or a woe, There's not a whisper yes or no, There's not a +life, or death, or birth That has a feather's weight of worth Without a +woman in it! + +“The difference between a man and a woman is one that makes them +the complementary parts of a perfect unit. God made man in His own +image--male and female. The person of God therefore combines these two +elements unseparated. The mind of God is both male and female. In man we +have the strength which lifts and tugs and fights the elements. This is +the aspect turned primarily toward matter. In woman we have the finer +qualities of the Spirit turned toward the source of all spirit in God. +The idea of a masculine deity is a false assumption of the Dark Ages. +God is both male and female. + +“I used to wonder why Jesus Christ was a man, until I realized that +the Incarnation expressed the depth of human need. God stooped lower +in assuming the form of man. The form of the divine revelation through +Jesus Christ was determined solely by this depth of human need----” + +For half an hour in impetuous eloquence, in telling incidents wet with +tears and winged with hope, he held his listeners in a spell. It was not +until the burst of applause which greeted his closing sentence had died +away that Mary Adams realized that another landmark had toppled before +the onrushing flood of modern Feminism. The conservatism of Doctor +Craddock had yielded at last to the inevitable. He, too, had joined the +ranks of the prophets who preach of a Woman's Day of Emancipation. + +And yet it never occurred to her that this fact had the slightest +bearing on her personal outlook on life. On the contrary she felt in the +spiritual elation of the triumphant eloquence of her favorite preacher +a renewal of her simple religious faith. At the bottom of that religion +lay the foundation of life itself--her conception of marriage as the +supreme and only expression of woman's power in the world. + +She walked back to her home on the Square, in a glow of ecstatic +emotion. + +Surely God had miraculously saved her this night from the wiles of the +Devil! No matter what this eloquent discourse had meant to others, it +had renewed her faith in the old-fashioned woman and the old-fashioned +ways of the old-fashioned home. Her vision was once more clear. She was +glad Jane Anderson had come to put her to the test. She had been tried +in the fires of hell and came forth unscorched. + +She stood beside her window dreaming again of the home she would build +when her Knight should stand before her revealed in beauty no words +could describe. The moon was shining now in solemn glory on the +white-shrouded Square. Temptation had only strengthened the fiber of her +soul. She knelt in the moonlight beside her couch and prayed that God +should ever keep her faith serene. She rose with a sense of peace and +joy. God would hear and answer the cry of her heart. The City might be +the Desert--it was still God's world and not a sparrow that twittered in +those bare trees or chattered on her window-ledge in the morning could +fall to the ground without His knowledge. God had put this deathless +passion in her heart; He could not deny it expression. She could bide +His time. If the day of her deliverance were near, it was good. If God +should choose to try her faith in loneliness and tears, it was His way +to make the revelation of glory the more dazzling when it came. + +She drew the covering about her warm young body with the firm faith that +her hour was close at hand, and fell asleep to dream of her Knight. + + + + +CHAPTER III. FATE + +Mary waked next morning with the delicious sense of impending happiness. +A wonderful dream had come to thrill her half-conscious moments, +repeating itself in increasing vividness and beauty with each awakening. +The vision had been interrupted by the unusual noise of the snow +machines on the car tracks, and yet she had fallen asleep after each +break and picked up the rapturous scene at the exact moment of its +interruption. + +She was married and madly in love with her husband. His face she could +never see quite clearly. His business kept him away from home on long +trips. But his baby was always there--a laughing, wonderful boy whose +chubby hands persisted in pulling her hair down into her face each time +she bent over his cradle to kiss him. + +Ella was chattering in German to someone on the stairs. She wondered +again for the hundredth time how this poor, slovenly, one-eyed, +ill-kempt creature, scrub-woman and janitress, could speak two languages +with such ease. Her English, except in excitement, seemed equally fluent +with her German. How did such a woman fall so low? She was industrious +and untiring in her work. She never touched liquor or drugs. She was +kind and thoughtful and watched over her tenants with a motherly care +for which no landlord could pay in dollars and cents. She was on her +knees on the stairs now, scrubbing down the steps to be crowded again +with muddy feet from the street below. + +Mary lay for half an hour snuggling under the warm blankets, weaving a +romance about Ella's life. A great love for some heroic man who died and +left her in poverty could alone explain the mystery that hung about her. +She never spoke of her life or people. Mary had ventured once to ask +her. A wan smile flitted across the haggard face for a moment, and she +answered in low tones that closed the subject. + +“I haven't any people, dear,” she said slowly. “They are dead long ago.” + +The girl wondered if it were really true. In her joy this morning she +felt her heart go out to the pathetic, drooping figure on the stairs. +She wished that every living creature might share the secret joy that +filled her soul. + +She drew the kitten from his nest beside her pillow and rubbed her cheek +against his little cold nose. He always waked her with a kiss on her +eyelids and then coiled himself back for a tiny cat-nap until she could +make up her mind to rise. + +She sprang from the couch with sudden energy and stretched her dainty +figure with a prodigious yawn. + +“Gracious, Kitty, we must hurry!” she cried, thrusting her bare feet +into a pair of embroidered slippers and throwing her blue flannel kimono +on over her night-dress. + +The coffee-pot was boiling busily when she had bathed and dressed. Each +detail of her domestic schedule was given an extra care this morning. +The stove was carefully polished, each pot and pan placed in its rack +with a precision that spoke an unusual joy within the heart of the +housewife. + +And through it all she hummed a lullaby that haunted her from the +memories of a happy childhood. + +Breakfast over, the kitten fed, the birds given their bath, their sand +and seed, she couldn't stop until the whole place had been thoroughly +cleaned and dusted. Exactly why she had done this on Thursday morning it +was impossible to say. Some hidden force within had impelled her. + +Then back into the dream world her mind flew on joyous wings. It was a +sign from God in answer to prayer. Why not? The Bible was full of such +revelations in ancient times. God was not dead because the world was +modern and we had steam and electricity. The routine of school was no +longer dull. Around each commonplace child hung a halo of romance. They +were love-children today. She wove a dream of tenderness, of chivalry, +and heroic deeds about them all. She searched each face for some line +of beauty caught in the vision of her own baby who had looked into her +heart from the mists of eternity. + +Three days passed in a sort of trance. Never had she felt surer of life +and the full fruition of every hope and faith. Just how this marvelous +blossoming would come, she could not guess. Her chances of meeting +her Fate were no better than at any moment of the past years of drab +disillusionment, and yet, for some reason, her foolish heart kept +singing. + +Why? + +There could be but one answer. The event was impending. Such things +could be felt--not reasoned out. + +She applied herself to her teaching with a new energy and thoroughness. +She must do this work well and carry into the real life that must soon +begin the consciousness of every duty faithfully performed. + +A boy asked her a question about a little flower which grew in a warm +crevice of the stone wall on which the iron fence of the school yard +rested. She blushed at her failure to enlighten him and promised to tell +him on Monday. + +Botany was not one of her tasks but she felt the tribute to her +personality in his question, and she would take pains to make her answer +full and interesting. + +Saturday afternoon she hurried to the Public Library, on Fifth Avenue +and Forty-second Street, to look up every reference to this flower. + +The boulevard of the Metropolis was thronged with eager thousands. +Handsome men and beautifully dressed women passed each other in endless +procession on its crowded pavements. The cabs and automobiles, two +abreast on either side, moved at a snail's pace, so dense were the +throngs at each crossing. Her fancy was busy weaving about each +throbbing tonneau and limousine a story of love. Not a wheel was turning +in all that long line of shining vehicles that didn't carry a woman or +was hurrying to do a woman's bidding. + +Her hero was coming, too, somewhere in the crowd with his gloved hand on +one of those wheels. She could feel his breath on her cheek as he handed +her into the seat by his side and then the sudden leap of the car into +space and away on the wings of lightning into the future! + +She ascended the broad steps of the majestic building with quick, +springing strength. She loved this glorious library, with its lofty, +arched ceilings. The sense of eternity that brooded over it and filled +the stately rooms rested and inspired her. + +Besides, she forgot her poverty in this temple of all time. Within its +walls she belonged to the great aristocracy of brains and culture of +which this palace was the supreme expression. And it was hers. Andrew +Carnegie had given the millions to build it and the city of New York +granted the site on land that was worth many millions more. But it was +all built for her convenience, her comfort and inspiration. Every volume +of its vast and priceless collection was hers--hers to hold in her +hands, read and ponder and enjoy. Every officer and manager in its +inclosure was her servant--to come at her beck and call and do her +bidding. The little room on Twenty-third Street was the symbol of the +future. This magnificent building was the realization of the present. + +She smiled pleasantly to the polite assistant who received her order +slip, and took her seat on the waiting line until her books were +delivered. + +This magnificent room with its lofty ceilings of golden panels and +drifting clouds had always brought to her a peculiar sense of restful +power. The consciousness of its ownership had from the first been most +intimate. No man can own what he cannot appreciate. He may possess it by +legal documents, but he cannot own it unless he has eyes to see, ears +to hear, and a heart to feel its charm. This appreciation Mary Adams +possessed by inheritance from her student father who devoured books with +an insatiate hunger. Nowhere in all New York's labyrinth did she feel +as perfectly at home as in this reading-room. The quiet which reigned +without apparent sign or warning seemed to belong to the atmosphere of +the place. It was unthinkable that any man or woman should be rude or +thoughtless enough to break it by a loud word. + +This room was hers day or night, winter or summer, always heated and +lighted, and a hundred swift, silent servants at hand to do her bidding. +Around the room on serried shelves, dressed in leather aprons, stood +twenty-five thousand more servants of the centuries of the past ready +to answer any question her heart or brain might ask of the world's life +since the dawn of Time. + +In the stack-room below, on sixty-three miles of shelves, stood a +million others ready to come at her slightest nod. She loved to dream +here of the future, in the moments she must wait for these messengers +she had summoned. In this magic room the past ceased to be. These +myriads of volumes made the past a myth. It was all the living, +throbbing present--with only the golden future to be explored. + +Her number flashed in red letters on the electric blackboard. + +She rose and carried her books to the seat number assigned her near the +center of the southern division of the room on the extreme left beside +the bookcases containing the dictionaries of all languages. + +Her seat was on the aisle which skirted the shelves. She found the full +description of the flower in which she was interested, made her notes +and closed the volume with a lazy movement of her slender, graceful +hand. + +She lifted her eyes and they rested on a remarkable-looking young man +about her own age who stood gazing in an embarrassed, helpless sort of +way at the row of ponderous volumes marked “The Century Dictionary.” + +He was evidently a newcomer. By his embarrassment she could easily tell +that it was the first time he had ever ventured into this room. + +He looked at the books, apparently puzzled by their number. He raised +his hand and ran his fingers nervously through the short, thick, red +hair which covered his well-shaped head. + +The girl's attention was first fixed by the strange contrast between his +massive jaw and short neck which spoke the physical strength of an ox, +and the slender gracefully tapering fingers of his small hand. The wrist +was small, the fingers almost feminine in their lines. + +He caught her look of curious interest and to her horror, smiled and +walked straight to her seat. + +There was no mistaking his determination to speak. It was useless to +drop her eyes or turn aside. He would certainly follow. + +She blushed and gazed at him in a timid, helpless fashion while he bent +over her seat and whispered awkwardly: + +“You look kind and obliging, miss--could you help me a little?” + +His tone was so genuine in its appeal, so distressed and hesitating, it +was impossible to resent his question. + +“If I can--yes,” was the prompt answer. + +“You won't mind?” he asked, fumbling his hat. + +“No--what is it?” + +Mary had recovered her composure as his distress had increased and +looked steadily into his steel blue eyes inquiringly. + +“You see,” he went on, in low hurried tones, “I'm all worked up about +the mountains of North Carolina--thinkin' o' goin' down there to +Asheville in a car, an' I want to look the bloomin' place up and kind o' +get my bearin's before I start. A lawyer friend o' mine told me to come +here and I'd find all the maps in the Century Dictionary. The man at the +desk out there told me to come in this room and look in the shelves +on the left and take it right out. Gee, the place is so big, I get all +rattled. I found the Century Dictionary on that shelf----” + +He paused and smiled helplessly. + +“I thought a dictionary was one book--there's a dozen of 'em marked +alike. I'm afraid to pull 'em all down an' I don't know where to +begin--COULD you help me--please?” + +“Certainly, with pleasure,” she answered, quickly rising and leading the +way back to the shelf at which he had been gazing. + +“You want the atlas volume,” she explained, drawing the book from the +shelf and returning to the seat. + +He followed promptly and bent over her shoulder while she pointed out +the map of North Carolina, the position of Asheville and the probable +route he must follow to get there. + +“Thanks!” he exclaimed gratefully. + +“Not at all,” she replied simply. “I'm only too glad to be of service to +you.” + +Her answer emboldened him to ask another question. + +“You don't happen to know anything about that country down there, do +you?” + +“Why, yes. I know a great deal about it----” + +“Sure enough?” + +“I've been through Asheville many times and spent a summer there once.” + +“Did you?” + +His tones implied that he plainly regarded her as a prodigy of +knowledge. His whole attitude suggested at once the mind of an alert, +interested boy asking his teacher for information on a subject near to +his heart. It was impossible to resist his appeal. + +“Why, yes,” Mary went on in low, rapid tones. “My people live in the +Kentucky mountains.” + +He bent low and gently touched her arm. + +“Say, we can't talk in here--I'm afraid. Would it be asking too much of +you to come out in the park, sit down on a bench and tell me about it? +I'll never know how to thank you, if you will?” + +It was absurd, of course, such a request, and yet his interest was so +keen, his deference to her superior knowledge so humble and appealing, +to refuse seemed ungracious. She hesitated and rose abruptly. + +“Just a moment--I'll return my books and then we'll go. You can replace +this volume on the shelf where we got it.” + +“Thank yoo, miss,” he responded gratefully. “You're awfully kind.” + +“Don't mention it,” she laughed. + +In a moment she was walking by his side down the smooth marble stairs +and out through the grand entrance into Fifth Avenue. The strange +part about it was, she was not in the least excited over a very +unconventional situation. She had allowed a handsomely groomed, young, +red-haired adventurer to pick her up without the formality of an +introduction, in the Public Library. She hadn't the remotest idea of his +name--nor had he of hers--yet there was something about him that seemed +oddly familiar. They must have known one another somewhere in childhood +and forgotten each other's faces. + +The sun was shining in clear, steady brilliancy in a cloudless sky. The +snow had quickly melted and it was unusually warm for early December. +They turned into the throng of Fifth Avenue and at the corner of +Forty-second Street he paused and hesitated and looked at her timidly: + +“Say,” he began haltingly, “there's an awful crowd of bums on those +seats in the Square behind the building--you know Central Park, don't +you?” + +Mary smiled. + +“Quite well--I've spent many happy hours in its quiet walks.” + +“You know that place the other side of the Mall--that ragged hill +covered with rocks and trees and mountain laurel?” + +“I've been there often.” + +“Would you mind going there where it's quiet--I've such a lot o' things +I want to ask you--you won't mind the walk, will you?” + +“Certainly not--we'll go there,” Mary responded in even, business-like +tones. + +“Because, if you don't want to walk I'll call a cab, if you'll let +me----” + +“Not at all,” was the quick answer. “I love to walk.” + +It was impossible for the girl to repress a smile at her ridiculous +situation! If any human being had told her yesterday that she, Mary +Adams, an old-fashioned girl with old-fashioned ideas of the proprieties +of life, would have allowed herself to be picked up by an utter stranger +in this unceremonious way, she would have resented the assertion as a +personal insult--yet the preposterous and impossible thing had happened +and she was growing each moment more and more deeply interested in the +study of the remarkable youth by her side. + +He was not handsome in the conventional sense. His features were too +strong for that. An enemy might have called them coarse. Their first +impression was of enormous strength and exhaustless vitality. He walked +with a quick, military precision and planted his small feet on the +pavement with a soft, sure tread that suggested the strength of a young +tiger. + +The one feature that puzzled her was the size of his hands and feet. +They were remarkably small and remarkable for their slender, graceful +lines. + +His eyes were another interesting feature. The lids drooped with a +careless Oriental languor, as though he would shut out the glare of the +full daylight, and yet the pupils flashed with a cold steel-blue fire. +One look into his eyes and there could be no doubt that the man behind +them was an interesting personality. + +She wondered what his business could be. Not a lawyer or doctor or +teacher certainly. His timidity in handling books was clear proof on +that point. He was well groomed. His clothes were made by a first-class +tailor. + +Her heart thumped with a sudden fear. Perhaps he was some sort of +criminal. His questions may have been a trick to lure her away.... + +They had just crossed the broad plaza at Fifty-ninth Street and entered +the walkway that leads to the Mall. + +She stopped suddenly. + +“It's too far to the hill beyond the Mall,” she began hesitatingly. +“We'll find a seat in one of the little rustic houses along the +Fifty-ninth Street side----” + +“Sure, if you say so,” he agreed. + +He accepted the suggestion so simply, she regretted her suspicions, +instantly changed her mind and said, smiling: + +“No, we'll go on where we started. The long walk will do me good.” + +“All right,” he laughed; “whatever you say's the law. I'm the little boy +that does just what his teacher says.” + +She blushed and shot him a surprised look. + +“Who told you that I was a teacher?” she asked, with a smile. + +“Lord, nobody! I had no idea of such a thing. It never popped into my +head that you do anything at all. You know, I was awful scared when I +spoke to you?” + +“Were you?” she laughed. + +“Surest thing you know! I'd 'a' never screwed up my courage to do it +if you hadn't 'a' looked so kind and gentle and sweet. I just knew you +couldn't turn me down----” + +There was no mistaking the genuineness of the apology for his +presumption. She smiled a gracious answer, and threw the last ugly +suspicion to the winds. + +He broke into a laugh and lifted his hand in the sudden gesture of a +traffic policeman commanding a halt. + +“What is it?” she asked. + +“You know I was so excited I clean forgot to introduce myself! What do +you think o' that? You'll excuse me, won't you? My name's Jim Anthony. +I'm sorry I can't give you any references to my folks. I haven't +any--I'm a lost sheep in New York--no father or mother. That's why I'm +so excited about this trip I'm plannin' down South. I hear I've got some +people down there.” + +He stopped suddenly as if absorbed in the thought. Her heart went out to +him in sympathy for this confession of his orphaned life. + +“I'm Mary Adams,” she smiled in answer. “I'm a teacher in the public +schools.” + +“Gee--that accounts for it! I thought you looked like you knew +everything in those books. And you've been to Asheville, too?” + +“Yes.” + +“Suppose it's not as big a burg as New York?” + +“Hardly--it's just a hustling mountain town of about twenty-five +thousand people.” + +“Lot o' swells from around New York live down there, they tell me.” + +“Yes, the Vanderbilts have a beautiful castle just outside.” + +“Some mountains near Asheville?” + +“Hundreds of square miles.” + +“Mountains in every direction?” + +“As far as the eye can reach, one blue range piled above another until +they're lost in the dim skies on the horizon.” + +“Gee, it may be pretty hard to find your folks if they just live in the +mountains near Asheville?” + +“Unless your directions are more explicit--I should think so.” + +“You know, I thought the mountains near Asheville was a bunch o' hills +off one side like the Palisades, that you couldn't miss if you tried. +I've never been outside of New York--since I can remember. I'd love to +see real mountains.” + +The last sentence was spoken in a wistful pathos that touched Mary with +its irresistible appeal. Her mother instincts responded to it in quick +sympathy. + +“You've missed a lot,” she answered gravely. + +“I'll bet I have. It's a rotten old town, this New York----” + +He paused, and a queer light flashed from his steel eyes. + +“Until you get your hand on its throat,” he added, bringing his square +jaws together. + +Mary lifted her face with keen interest. + +“And you've got it by the throat?” + +“That's just what--little girl!” he cried, with a ring of pride. “You +see, I'm an inventor and I won a little pile on my first trick. I've got +a machine-shop in a room eight-by-ten over on the East Side.” + +“A machine-shop all your own?” + +“Yep.” + +“I'd like to see it some day.” + +He shook his head emphatically. + +“It's too dirty. I couldn't let a pretty girl like you in such a place.” + He paused and resumed the tone of his narrative where she interrupted +him. “You see, I've just put a new crimp in a carburetor for the +automobile folks. They're tickled to death over it and I've got +automobiles to burn. Will you go to ride with me tomorrow?” + +The teacher broke into a joyous laugh. + +“Why do you laugh?” he asked awkwardly. + +“Well, in the language of New York, that would be going some, wouldn't +it?” + +“And why not, I'd like to know?” he cried with scorn. “Who's to tell us +we can't? You've no kids to bother you tomorrow. I'm my own boss. You've +seen Asheville, but you've never seen New York until you sit down beside +me in a big six-cylinder racing car I'm handlin' next week. Let me +show it to you. I'll swing her around to your door at eight o'clock. In +twenty-five minutes we'll clear the Bronx and shoot into New Rochelle. +There'll be no cops out to bother us, and not a wheel in sight. It'll do +you good. Let me take you! I owe you that much for bein' so nice to me +today. Will you go with me?” + +Mary hesitated. + +“I'll think it over and let you know.” + +“Got a telephone?” + +“No.” + +“Then you'll have to tell me before I go--won't you?” + +“I suppose so,” she answered demurely. + +They passed the big fountain beyond the Mall and skirted the lake to +the bridge, crossed, walked along the water's edge to the laurel-covered +crags and found a seat alone in the summer house that hides among the +trees on its highest point. + +The roar of the city was dim and far away. The only sounds to break +the stillness were the laughter of lovers along the walks below and the +distant cry of steamers in the harbor and rivers. + +“You'd almost think you're in the mountains up here, now wouldn't you?” + he asked, after a moment's silence. + +“Yes. I call this park my country estate. It costs me nothing to keep it +in perfect order. The city pays for it all. But I own it. Every tree and +shrub and flower and blade of grass, every statue and bird and animal in +it is mine. I couldn't get more joy out of them if I had them inclosed +behind an iron fence, and the deed to the land in my pocket--not half as +much, for I'd be lonely and miserable without someone to see and enjoy +it all with me.” + +“Gee, that's so, ain't it? I never looked at it like that before.” + +He gazed at her a long time in silent admiration, and then spoke +briskly. + +“Now tell me about this North Carolina and all those miles and square +miles of mountains.” + +“You've a piece of paper and pencil?” + +He lifted his hand school-boy fashion: + +“Johnny on the spot, teacher!” + +A blank-book and pencil he threw in her lap and leaned close. + +“Tear the leaves out, if you like.” + +“No, I'll just draw the maps on the pages and leave them for you to +study.” + +With deft touch she outlined in rough on the first page, the states of +New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina, tracing +his possible route by Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Dover, Norfolk +and Raleigh, or by Washington, Richmond, and Danville to Greensboro. + +“Either route you see,” she said softly, “leads to Salisbury, where you +strike the foothills of the mountains. It's about two hundred miles from +there to Asheville and `The Land of the Sky.'” + +For two hours she answered his eager, boyish questions about the country +and its people, his eyes wide with admiration at her knowledge. + +The sun was sinking in a sea of scarlet and purple clouds behind the +tall buildings beside the Park before she realized that they had been +talking for more than two hours. + +She sprang to her feet, blushing and confused. + +“Mercy, I had no idea it was so late.” + +“Why--is it late?” he asked incredulously. + +“We must hurry----” + +She brushed the stray ringlets of hair from her forehead, laughed and +hurried down the pathway. + +They crossed the Park and took the Madison Avenue line to Twenty-third +Street. They were silent in the car. The roar of the traffic was +deafening after the quiet of the summer house among the trees. + +“I can see you home?” he inquired appealingly. + +“We get off at Twenty-third Street.” + +They stood on the steps at her door beside the Square and there was a +moment's awkward silence. + +He lifted his hat with a little chivalrous bow. + +“Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock in my car?” + +She smiled and hesitated. + +“You'll have a bully time!” + +“It's Sunday,” she stammered. + +“Sure, that's why I asked you.” + +“I don't like to miss my church.” + +“You go to church every Sunday?” he asked in amazement. + +“Yes.” + +“Well, just this once then. It'll do you good. And I'll drive as careful +as a farmer.” + +“All right,” she said in low tones, and extended her hand: + +“Good night----” + +“Good night, teacher!” he responded with a boyish wave of his slender +hand and quickly disappeared in the crowd. + +She rushed up the stairs, her cheeks aflame, her heart beating a tattoo +of foolish joy. + +She snatched the kitten from sleep and whispered in his tiny ear: + +“Oh, Kitty dear, I've had such an adventure! I've spent the happiest, +silliest afternoon of my life! I'm going to have a more wonderful day +tomorrow. I just feel it. In a big racing automobile if you please, Mr. +Thomascat! Sorry I can't take you but the dust would blind you, Kitty +dear. I'm sorry to tell you that you'll have to stay at home all day +alone and keep house. It's too bad. But I'll fix your milk and bread +before I go and you must promise me on your sacred Persian cat's honor +not to look at my birds!” + +She hugged him violently and he purred his soft answer in song. + +“Oh, Kitty, I'm so happy--so foolishly happy!” + + + + +CHAPTER IV. DOUBTS AND FEARS + +Mary attempted no analysis of her emotions. It was all too sudden, +too stunning. She was content to feel and enjoy the first overwhelming +experience of life. Hour after hour she lay among the pillows of her +couch in the dim light of the street lamps and lazily watched the +passing Saturday evening crowds. The world was beautiful. + +She undressed at last and went to bed, only to toss wide-eyed for hours. + +A hundred times she reenacted the scene in the Library and recalled +her first impression of Jim's personality. What could such an utterly +unforeseen and extraordinary meeting mean except that it was her Fate? +Certainly he could not have planned it. Certainly she had not foreseen +such an event. It had never occurred to her in the wildest flights of +fancy that she could meet and speak to a man under such conditions, +to say nothing of the walk in the Park and the hours she spent in the +little summer house. + +And the strangest part of it all was that she could see nothing wrong +in it from beginning to end. It had happened in the simplest and most +natural way imaginable. By the standards of conventional propriety her +act was the maddest folly; and yet she was still happy over it. + +There was one disquieting trait about him that made her a little uneasy. +He used the catch-words of the street gamins of New York without any +consciousness of incongruity. She thought at first that he did this as +the Southern boy of culture and refinement unconsciously drops into the +tones and dialect of the negro, by daily association. His constant use +of the expressive and characteristic “Gee” was startling, to say the +least. And yet it came from his lips in such a boyish way she felt sure +that it was due to his embarrassment in the unusual position in which he +had found himself with her. + +His helplessness with the dictionary was proof, of course, that he was +no scholar. And yet a boy might have a fair education in the schools of +today and be unfamiliar with this ponderous and dignified encyclopedia +of words. It was impossible to believe that he was illiterate. His +clothes, his carriage, even his manners made such an idea preposterous. + +Besides, no inventor could be really illiterate. He may have been forced +to work and only attended night schools. But if he were a mechanic, +capable of making a successful improvement on one of the most delicate +and important parts of an automobile, he must have studied the +principles involved in his inventions. + +His choice of a profession appealed to her imagination, too. It showed +independence and initiative. It opened boundless possibilities. He might +be an obscure and poorly educated boy today. In five years he could be +a millionaire and the head of some huge business whose interests circled +the world. + +The tired brain wore itself out at last in eager speculations, and she +fell into a fitful stupor. The roar of the street-cars waked her at +daylight, and further sleep was out of the question. She rose, dressed +quickly and got her breakfast in a quiver of nervous excitement over the +adventure of the coming automobile. + +As the hour of eight drew nearer, her doubts of the propriety of going +became more acute. + +“What on earth has come over me in the past twenty-four hours?” she +asked of herself. “I've known this man but a day. I don't KNOW him +at all, and yet I'm going to put my life in his hands in that racing +machine. Have I gone crazy?” + +She was not in the least afraid of him. His face and voice and +personality all seemed familiar. Her brain and common-sense told her +that such a trip with an utter stranger was dangerous and foolish beyond +words. In his automobile, unaccompanied by a human soul and unacquainted +with the roads over which they would travel, she would be absolutely in +his power. + +She set her teeth firmly at last, her mind made up. + +“It's too mad a risk. I was crazy to promise. I won't go!” + +She had scarcely spoken her resolution when the soft call of the +auto-horn echoed below. She stood irresolute for a moment, and the call +was repeated in plaintive, appealing notes. + +She tried to hold fast to her resolutions, but the impulse to open the +window and look out was resistless. She turned the old-fashioned brass +knob, swung her windows wide on their hinges and leaned out. + +His keen eyes were watching. He lifted his cap and waved. She answered +with the flutter of her handkerchief--and all resolutions were off. + +“Of course, I'll go,” she cried, with a laugh. “It's a glorious day--I +may never have such a chance again.” + + + +CHAPTER V. WINGS OF STEEL + +She threw on her furs and hurried downstairs. Her surrender was too +sudden to realize that she was being driven by a power that obscured +reason and crushed her will. + +Reason made one more vain cry as she paused at the door below to draw on +her gloves. + +“You have refused every invitation to see or know the unconventional +world into which thousands of women in New York, clear-eyed and +unafraid, enter daily. You'd sooner die than pose an hour in Gordon's +studio, and on a Sabbath morning you cut your church and go on a day's +wild ride with a man you have known but fifteen hours!” + +And the voice inside quickly answered: + +“But that's different! Gordon's a married man. My chevalier is not! I +have the right to go, and he has the right.” + +It was settled anyhow before this little controversy arose at the street +door, but the ready answer she gave eased her conscience and cleared the +way for a happy, exciting trip. + +He leaped from the big, ugly racer to help her in, stopped and looked at +her light clothing. + +“That's your heaviest coat?” + +“Yes. It isn't cold.” + +“I've one for you.” + +He drew an enormous fur coat from the car and held it up for her arms. + +“You think I'll need that?” she asked. + +His white teeth gleamed in a friendly smile. + +“Take it from me, Kiddo, you certainly will!” + +She winced just a little at the common expression, but he said it with +such a quick, boyish enthusiasm, she wondered whether he were quoting +the expression from the Bowery boy's vocabulary or using it in a +facetious personal way. + +“I knew you'd need it. So I brought it for you,” he added genially. + +“Thanks,” she murmured, lifting her arms and drawing the coat about her +trim figure. + +He helped her into the car and drew from his pocket a light pair of +goggles. + +“Now these, and you're all hunky-dory!” + +“Will I need these, too?” she asked incredulously. + +“Will you!” he cried. “You wouldn't ask that question if you knew +the horse we've got hitched to this benzine buggy today. He's got +wings--believe me! It's all I can do to hold him on the ground +sometimes.” + +“You'll drive carefully?” she faltered. + +He lifted his hand. + +“With you settin' beside me, my first name's `Caution.'” + +She fumbled the goggles in a vain effort to lift her arms over her head +to fasten them on. He sprang into the seat by her side and promptly +seized them. + +“Let me fix 'em.” + +His slender, skillful fingers adjusted the band and brushed a stray +ringlet of hair back under the furs. The thrill of his touch swept her +with a sudden dizzy sense of excitement. She blushed and drew her head +down into the collar of the shaggy coat. + +He touched the wheel, and the gray monster leaped from the curb and shot +down the street. The single impulse carried them to the crossing. He had +shut off the power as the machine gracefully swung into Fourth Avenue. +The turn made, another leap and the car swept up the Avenue and swung +through Twenty-sixth Street into Fifth Avenue. Again the power was off +as he made the turn into Fifth Avenue at a snail's pace. + +“Can't let her out yet,” he whispered apologetically. “Had to make these +turns. There's no room for her inside of town.” + +Mary had no time to answer. He touched the wheel, and the car shot up +the deserted Avenue. She gasped for breath and braced her feet, her +whole being tingling with the first exhilarating consciousness that she +too was possessed of the devil of speed madness. It was glorious! For +the first time in her life, space and distance lost their meaning. She +was free as the birds in the heavens. She was flying on the wings +of this gray, steel monster through space. The palaces on the Avenue +whirled by in dim ghost-like flashes. They flew through Central Park +into Seventy-second Street and out into the Drive. The waters of the +river, broad and cool, flashing in the morning sun, rested her eyes a +moment and then faded in a twinkling. They had leaped the chasm beyond +Grant's Tomb, plunged into Broadway and before she could get her +bearings, swept up the hill at One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, +slipped gracefully across the iron bridge and in a jiffy were lost in a +gray cloud of dust on the Boston Turnpike. + +When the first intoxicating joy of speed had spent itself, she found +herself shuddering at the daring turns he made, missing a curb by a +hair's breadth--grazing a trolley by half an inch. Her fears were soon +forgotten. + +The hand on the wheel was made of steel, too. + +The throbbing demon encased within the hood obeyed his slightest whim. +She glanced at the square, massive jaw with furtive admiration. + +Without turning his head he laughed. + +“You like it, teacher?” + +“I'm in Heaven!” + +“You won't worry about church then, will you?” + +“Not today.” + +They stopped at a road-house, and he put in more gasoline, lifted the +casing from the engine, touched each vital part, examined his tires, and +made sure that his machine was at its best. + +She watched him with a growing sense of his strength of character, his +poise and executive ability. He was an awkward, stammering boy in the +Library yesterday. Today with this machine in his hand he was the master +of Time and Space. + +She yielded herself completely to the delicious sense of his protection. +The extraordinary care he was giving the machine was a plain avowal of +his deep regard for her comfort and happiness. She had been in one or +two moderately moving cars driven by careful chauffeurs through Central +Park. She had always felt on those trips with Jane Anderson like a poor +relation from the country imposing on a rich friend. + +This trip was all her own. The car and its master were there solely for +her happiness. Her slightest whim was law for both. It was sweet, this +sense of power. She began to lift her body with a touch of pride. + +She laughed now at fears. What nonsense! No Knight of the Age of +Chivalry could treat her with more deference. He had tried already to +get her to stop for a bite of lunch. + +“Don't you want a thing to eat?” he persisted. + +“Not a thing. I've just had my breakfast. It's only nine o'clock----” + +“I know, but we've come thirty miles and the air makes you hungry. We +ought to eat about six good meals a day.” + +She shook her head. + +“No--not yet. I'm too happy with these new wings. I want to fly some +more--come on----” + +He lifted his hand in his favorite gesture of obedience. + +“'Nuff said--we'll streak it back now by another road, hump it through +town and jump over the Brooklyn Bridge. I'll show you Coney Island and +then I know you'll want a hot dog anyhow.” + +He crossed the country and darted into Broadway. Before she could +realize it, the last tree and field were lost behind in a cloud of dust, +and they were again in the crowded streets of the city. The deep growl +of his horn rang its warnings for each crossing and Mary watched the +timid women scramble to the sidewalks five and six blocks ahead. + +It was delicious. She had always been the one to scramble before. Her +heart went out in a wave of tenderness to the man by her side, strong, +daring, masterful, her chevalier, her protector and admirer. + +Yes, her admirer! There was no doubt on that point. The moment he +relaxed the tension of his hand on the wheel, his deep, mysterious +eyes beneath the drooping lids were fixed on hers in open, shameless +admiration. Their cold fire burned into her heart and thrilled to her +finger-tips. + +In spite of his deference and his obedience to her whim, she felt the +iron grip of his personality on her imagination. Whatever his education, +his origin or his environment, he was a power to be reckoned with. + +No other type of man had ever appealed to her. Her conception of a real +man had always been one who did his own thinking and commanded rather +than asked the respect of others. + +She had thrown the spell of her beauty over this headstrong, masterful +man. He was wax in her hands. A delicious sense of power filled her. She +had never known what happiness meant before. She floated through space. +The spinning lines of towering buildings on Broadway passed as mists in +a dream. + +As the velvet feet of the car touched the great bridge she lazily opened +her eyes for a moment and gazed through the lace-work of steel at the +broad sweep of the magnificent harbor. The dark blue hills of Staten +Island framed the picture. + +He was right. She had never seen New York before. Never before had +its immense panorama been swept within two hours. Never before had she +realized its dimensions. She had always felt stunned and crushed in the +effort to conceive it. Today she had wings. The city lay at her feet, +conquered. She was mistress of Time and Space. + +Again her sidelong glance swept the lines of Jim Anthony's massive jaw. +She laughed softly. + +“What's the matter?” he asked. + +“Nothing. I'm just happy.” + +She blushed and wondered if he had read her thoughts by some subtle +power of clairvoyance. She was speculating on the effects of love at +first sight on such a man. Would he hesitate, back and fill and hang +on for months trying in vain to gain the courage to speak? Or would he +spring with the leap of a young tiger the moment he realized what he +wanted? + +Her own attitude was purely one of joyous expectancy. It would, of +course, be a long time before her feelings could take any definite +attitude toward a man. For the moment she was supremely happy. It was +enough. She made no effort to probe her feelings. She might return to +earth tomorrow. Today she was in Heaven. She would make the most of it. + +They skimmed the wooded cliffs of Bay Ridge, her heart beating in +ecstasy at the revelation of beauty of whose existence she had not +dreamed. + +“I bet you never saw this drive before, now did you?” he asked with +boyish enthusiasm. + +“No--it's wonderful.” + +“Some view--eh?” + +“Entrancing!” + +“You know when I make my pile, I'd like a palace of white marble perched +on this cliff with the windows on the south looking out over Sandy Hook, +and the windows on the west looking over that fort on the top of Staten +Island with its black eyes gazing over the sea. How would you like +that?” + +She turned away to mask the smile she couldn't repress. + +“That would be splendid, wouldn't it?” + +“I like the water, don't you?” + +“I love it.” + +“Water and hills both right together! I reckon my father must 'a' been a +sea-captain and my mother from the mountains----” + +He said this with a pathos that found the girl's heart. What a pitiful, +lonely life, a boy's without even the memory of a mother or father! +The mother instinct rose in a resistless flood of pity. Her eyes grew +suddenly dim. + +“Well,” he said briskly, “now for the dainty job! I've got to jump my +way through that Coney Island bunch. You see my low speed's a racing +pace for an everyday car. All I can do in a crowd is to jump from one +crossing to the next and cut her power off every time. You can bet I'll +make a guy or two jump with me----” + +“You won't hurt anyone?” she pleaded. + +“Lord, no! I wouldn't dare to put her through that mob in the afternoon. +I'd kill a regiment of 'em. But it's early--just the shank of the +morning. There's nobody down here yet.” + +The car suddenly leaped into the Avenue that runs through the heart of +Coney Island, the deep-throated horn screaming its warning. The crowd +scattered like sheep before a lion. + +The girl laughed in spite of her effort at self-control. + +“Watch 'em hump!” Jim grunted. + +“It's funny, isn't it?” + +“When you're in the car--yes. It don't seem so funny when you're on +foot. Well, some people were made to walk and some to ride. I had to +hoof it at first. I like riding better--don't you?” + +“To be perfectly honest--yes!” + +The car leaped forward again, the horn screaming. The wheel passed +within a foot of a fat woman's skirt. With a cry of terror she fled to +the sidewalk and shook her fist at Jim, her face purple with anger. + +He waved his hand back at her: + +“Never touched you, dearie! Never touched you!” + +Mary lost all fear of accident and watched him handle the machine with +the skill of a master. She could understand now the spirit of deviltry +in a chauffeur who knows his business. It seemed a wicked, cruel thing +from the ground--this swift plunge of a car as if bent on murder. But +now that she felt the sure, velvet grip of the brake in a master's hand, +she saw that the danger was largely a myth. + +It was fun to see people jump at the approach of an avalanche of steel +that always stopped just short of harm. Of course, it took a steady +nerve and muscle to do the trick. The man by her side had both. He was +always smiling. Nothing rattled him. + +Her trust was now implicit. She relaxed the tension of the first two +hours of doubt and fear, and yielded to the spell of his strength. It +seemed inseparable from the throbbing will of the giant machine. He was +its incarnate spirit. She was being swept through space now on the wings +of omnipotent power--but power always obedient to her whim. + +With steady, even pulse they glided down the long, broad Avenue to +Prospect Park, swung through its winding lanes, on through the streets +of Brooklyn and once more into the open road. + +“Now for Long Beach and a good lunch!” he cried. “I'll show you +something--but you'll have to shut your eyes to see it.” + +With a sudden bound, the car leaped into the air, and shot through the +sky with the hiss and shriek of a demon. + +The girl caught her breath and instinctively gripped his arm. + +“Look out, Kiddo!” he shouted. “Don't touch me--or we'll both land in +Kingdom Come. I ain't ready for a harp just yet. I'd rather fool with +this toy for a while down here.” + +She braced her feet and gripped the sides of the car, gasping for +breath, steadied herself at last and crouched low among the furs to +guard her throat from the icy daggers of the wind. + +The landscape whirled in a circle of trees and sky, while above the dark +line of hills hung the boiling cauldron of cloud-banked heavens. + +“Are you game?” he called above the roar. + +“Yes,” she gasped. “Don't stop----” + +Her soul had risen at last to the ecstasy of the mania for speed that +fired the man's spirit and nerved his hand. It was inconceivable +until experienced--this awful joy! Her spirit sank with childish +disappointment as he slowly lowered the power. + +“Got to take a sharp curve down there,” he explained. “We turn to the +right for the meadows and the Beach--how was that?” + +“Wonderful,” she cried, with dancing eyes. “Let her go again if you want +to--I'm game--now.” + +Jim laughed. + +“A little rattled at first?” + +“Yes----” + +“Well, we can't let her out on this road. It's too narrow--have to take +a ditch sometimes to pass. That wouldn't do for an eighty-mile clip, you +know--now would it?” + +“Hardly.” + +“I might risk it alone--but my first name's `Old Man Caution' today--you +get me?” + +Mary nodded and turned her head away again. + +“I got you the first time, sir,” she answered playfully taking his tone. + +He ran the car into the garage at the Beach, sprang out and lifted Mary +to the ground with quick, firm hand. They threw off their heavy coats +and left them. + +“Look out for this junk now, sonny,” he cried to the attendant, tossing +him a half dollar. + +“Sure, Mike!” + +“Fill her up to the chin by the time we get back.” + +“Righto!” + +Quickly they walked to the hotel and in five minutes were seated beside +a window in the dining-room, watching the lazy roll of the sea sweep in +on the sands at low tide. + +“I'm hungry as a wolf!” he whispered. + +“So am I----” + +“We'll eat everything in sight--start at the top and come down.” + +He handed her the menu card and watched her from the depths beneath the +drooping eyelids. + +Conscious of his gaze and rejoicing in its frank admiration, she ordered +the dinner with instinctive good taste. No effort at conversation was +made by either. They were both too hungry. As Jim lighted his cigarette +when the coffee was served, he leaned back in his chair and watched the +breakers in silence. + +“That's the best dinner I ever had in my life,” he said slowly. + +“It was good. We were hungry.” + +“I've been hungry before, many a time. It was something else, too.” He +paused and rose abruptly. “Let's walk up the Beach.” + +“I'd love to,” she answered, slowly rising. + + + +CHAPTER VI. BESIDE THE SEA + +They strolled leisurely along the board-walk, found the sand, walked in +the firm, dry line of the high-water mark for a mile to the east, and +sat down on a clump of sea-grass on the top of a sand dune. + +“I like this!” she cried joyously. + +“So do I,” he answered soberly, and lapsed into silence. + +The sun was warm and genial. The wind had died, and the waves of the +rising tide were creeping up the long, sloping stretches of the sand +with a lazy, soothing rush. A winter gull poised above their heads and +soared seaward. The smoke of an ocean liner streaked the horizon as she +swept toward the channel off Sandy Hook. + +Jim looked at the girl by his side and tried to speak. She caught the +strained expression in his strong face and lowered her eyes. + +He began to trace letters in the sand. + +She knew with unerring instinct that he had made his first desperate +effort to speak his love and failed. Would he give it up and wait for +weeks and possibly months--or would he storm the citadel in one mad rush +at the beginning? + +He found his voice at last. He had recovered from the panic of his first +impulse. + +“Well, how do you like my idea of a good day as far as you've gone?” he +asked lightly. + +She met his gaze with perfect frankness. “The happiest day I ever spent +in my life,” she confessed. + +“Honest?” + +“Honest.” + +“Oh, shucks--what's the use!” he cried, with sudden fierce resolution. +“You've got me, Kiddo, you've got me! I've been eatin' out of your hand +since the minute I laid my eyes on you in that big room. I'm all yours. +You can do anything you want with me. For God's sake, tell me that you +like me a little.” + +The blood slowly mounted to her cheeks in red waves of tremulous +emotion. + +“I like you very much,” she said in low tones. + +He seized her hand and held it in a desperate grip. + +“I love you, Kiddo,” he went on passionately. “You don't mind me calling +you Kiddo? You're so dainty and pretty and sweet, and that dimple keeps +coming in your cheek, it just seems like that's the word--you don't +mind?” + +“No----” + +“You don't know how I've been starvin' all my life for the love of a +pure girl like you. You're the first one I ever spoke to. I was scared +to death yesterday when I saw you. But I'd 'a' spoke to you if it killed +me in my tracks. I couldn't help it. It just looked like an angel had +dropped right down out of the gold clouds from that ceilin'. I was +afraid I'd lose you in the crowd and never see you again. It didn't seem +you were a stranger anyhow--I didn't seem strange to you, did I?” + +Her lips quivered, and she was silent. + +“Didn't you feel like you'd known me somewhere before?” he pleaded. + +“Yes.” + +“I just felt you did, and that's what give me courage. Oh, Kiddo, you've +got to love me a little--I've never been loved by a human soul in all my +life. The first thing I remember was hidin' under a stoop from a brute +who beat me every night. I ran away and slept in barrels and crawled +into coal shutes till I was big enough to earn a livin' sellin' papers. +For years I never knew what it meant to have enough to eat. I just +scratched and fought my way through the streets like a little hungry +wolf till I got in a blacksmith's shop down on South Street and learned +to handle tools. I was quick and smart, and the old man liked me and let +me sleep in the shop. I had enough to eat then and got strong as an ox. +I went to the night schools and learned to read and write. I don't know +anything, but I'm quick and you can teach me--you will, won't you?” + +“I'll try,” was the low answer. + +“You do like me, Kiddo? Say it again!” + +She rose to her feet and looked out over the sea, her face scarlet. + +“Yes, I do,” she said at last. + +With a sudden resistless sweep he clasped her in his arms and kissed her +lips. + +Her heart leaped in mad response to the first kiss a lover had ever +given. Her body quivered and relaxed in his embrace. It was sweet--it +was wonderful beyond words. + +He kissed her again, and she clung to him, lifting her eyes to his at +last in a long, wondering gaze and then pressed her own lips to his. + +“Oh, my God, Kiddo, you love me! It beats the world, don't it? Love at +first sight for both of us! I've heard about it, but I didn't think it +would ever happen to me like this--did you?” + +She shook her head and bit her lips as the tears slowly dimmed her eyes. + +“It takes my breath,” she murmured. “I can't realize what it all means. +It seems too wonderful to be true.” + +“And you won't turn me down because I don't know who my father and +mother was?” + +“No--my heart goes out to you in a great pity for your lonely, wretched +boyhood.” + +“I couldn't help that--now could I?” + +“Of course not. It's wonderful that you've made your way alone and won +the fight of life.” + +He gripped her hands and held her at arms' length, devouring her with +his deep, slumbering eyes. + +“Gee, but you're a brick, little girl! I thought you were an angel when +I first saw you. Now I know it. Just watch me work for you! I'll show +you a thing or two. You'll marry me right away, won't you?” + +He bent close, his breath on her lips. + +Her eyes drooped under his passionate gaze, and the tears slowly stole +down her cheeks. Her hour of life had struck! So suddenly, so utterly +unexpectedly, it rang a thunderbolt from the clear sky. + +“You will, won't you?” he pleaded. + +She smiled at him through her tears and slowly said: + +“I can't say yes today.” + +“Why--why?” + +“You've swept me off my feet--I--I can't think.” + +“I don't want you to think--I want you to marry me right now.” + +“I must have a little time.” + +His face fell in despair. + +“Say, little girl, don't turn me down--you'll kill me.” + +“I'm not turning you down,” she protested tenderly. “I only want time to +see that I'm not crazy. I have to pinch myself to see if I'm awake. It +all seems a dream”--she paused and lifted her radiant face to his--“a +beautiful dream--the most wonderful my soul has ever seen. I must be +sure it's real!” + +He drew her into his arms, and her body again relaxed in surrender as +his lips touched hers. + +“Isn't that the real thing?” he laughed. + +She lay very still, her eyes closed, her face a scarlet flame. She was +frightened at the swift realization of its overwhelming reality. The +touch of his hand thrilled to the last fiber and nerve of her body. Her +own trembling fingers clung to him with desperate longing tenderness. +She roused herself with an effort and drew away. + +“That's enough now. I must have a little common-sense. Let's go----” + +He clung to her hand. + +“You'll let me come to see you, tomorrow night?” + +“Yes----” + +“And the next night--and every night this week--what's the difference? +There's nobody to say no, is there?” + +“No one.” + +“You'll let me?” + +“Tomorrow sure. Maybe you won't want to come the next night.” + +“Maybe I won't! Just wait and see!” + +He seized both hands again and held her at arms' length. + +“Don't go yet--just let me look at you a minute more! The only girl I +ever had in my life--and she's the prettiest thing God ever made on this +earth. Ain't I the lucky boy?” + +“We must go now,” she cried, blushing again under his burning eyes. + +He dropped her hands suddenly and saluted military fashion. + +“All right, teacher! I'm the little boy that does exactly what he's +told.” + +They strolled leisurely along the shining sands in silence. Now and then +his slender hand caught hers and crushed it. The moment he touched her +a living flame flashed through her body--and through every moment of +contact her nerves throbbed and quivered as if a musician were sweeping +the strings of a harp. If this were not love, what could it be? + +Her whole being, body and soul, responded to his. Her body moved +instinctively toward his, drawn by some hidden, resistless power. Her +hands went out to meet his; her lips leaped to his. + +She must test it with time, of course. And yet she knew by a deep inner +sense that time could only fan the flame that had been kindled into +consuming fire that must melt every barrier between them. + +She had asked him nothing of himself, his business or his future, and +knew nothing except what he had told her in the first impetuous rush of +his confession of love. No matter. The big thing today was the fact +of love and the new radiance with which it was beginning to light the +world. The effect was stunning. Their conversation had been the simplest +of commonplace questions and answers--and yet the day was the one +miracle of her life--her happiness something unthinkable until realized. + +She had not asked time in order to know him better. She had only asked +time to see herself more clearly in the new experience. Not for a moment +did she raise the question of the worthiness of the man she loved. It +was inconceivable that she should love a man not worthy of her. The only +questions asked were soul-searching ones put to herself. + +Through the sweet, cool drive homeward, a hundred times she asked +within: + +“Is this love?” + +And each time the answer came from the depths: + +“Yes--yes--a thousand times yes. It's the voice of God. I feel it and I +know it.” + +He throttled the racer down to the lowest speed and took the longest +road home. + +Again and again he slipped his left hand from the wheel and pressed +hers. + +“You won't let anybody knock me behind my back, now will you, little +girl?” + +She pressed his hand in answer. + +“I ain't got a single friend in all God's world to stand up for me but +just you.” + +“You don't need anyone,” she whispered. + +“You'll give me a chance to get back at 'em if any of your friends knock +me, won't you?” + +“Why should they dislike you?” + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +“Well, I ain't exactly one o' the high-flyers now am I?” + +“I'm glad you're not.” + +“Sure enough?” + +“Yes.” + +“Then it's me for you, Kiddo, for this world and the next.” + +The car swung suddenly to the curb and Mary lifted her eyes with a start +to find herself in front of her home. + +Jim sprang to the ground and lifted her out. + +“Keep this coat,” he whispered. “We'll need it tomorrow. What time is +your school out?” + +“At three o'clock.” + +“I can come at four?” + +“You don't have to work tomorrow?” + +He hesitated a moment. + +“No, I'm on a vacation till after Christmas. They're putting through my +new patent.” + +He followed her inside the door and held her hand in the shadows of the +hall. + +“All right, at four,” she said. + +“I'll be here.” + +He stooped and kissed her, turned and passed quickly out. + +She stood for a moment in the shadows and listened to the throb of the +car until it melted into the roar of the city's life, her heart beating +with a joy so new it was pain. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. A VAIN APPEAL + +A week passed on the wings of magic. + +Every day at four o'clock the car was waiting at her door. The drab +interior of the school-room had lost its terror. No annoyance could +break the spell that reigned within. Her patience was inexhaustible, her +temper serene. + +Walking with swift step down the Avenue to her home she wondered vaguely +how she could have been lonely in all the music and the wonder of New +York's marvelous life. The windows of the stores were already crowded +with Christmas cheer, and busy thousands passed through their doors. +Each man or woman was a swift messenger of love. Somewhere in the +shadows of the city's labyrinth a human heart would beat with quickened +joy for every step that pressed about these crowded counters. Love had +given new eyes to see, new ears to hear and a new heart to feel the joys +and sorrows of life. + +She hadn't given her consent yet. She was still asking her silly heart +to be sure of herself. Of her lover, the depth and tenderness, the +strength and madness of his love, there could be no doubt. Each day he +had given new tokens. + +For Saturday afternoon she had told him not to bring the car. + +When they reached Fifth Avenue, across the Square, he stopped abruptly +and faced her with a curious, uneasy look: + +“Say, tell me why you wanted to walk?” + +“I had a good reason,” she said evasively. + +“Yes, but why? It's a sin to lay that car up a day like this. Look +here----” + +He stopped and tried to gulp down his fears. + +“Look here--you're not going to throw me down after leading me to the +very top of the roof, are you?” + +She looked up with tender assurance. + +“Not today----” + +“Then why hoof it? Let me run round to the garage and shoot her out. You +can wait for me at the Waldorf. I've always wanted to push my buzz-wagon +up to that big joint and wait for my girl to trip down the steps.” + +“No. I've a plan of my own today. Let me have my way.” + +“All righto--just so you're happy.” + +“I am happy,” she answered soberly. + +At the foot of the broad stairs of the Library she paused and looked up +smilingly at its majestic front. + +“Come in a moment,” she said softly. + +He followed her wonderingly into the vaulted hall and climbed the grand +staircase to the reading-room. She walked slowly to the shelf on which +the Century Dictionary rested and looked laughingly at the seat in which +she sat Saturday afternoon a week ago at exactly this hour. + +Jim smiled, leaned close and whispered: + +“I got you, Kiddo--I got you! Get out of here quick or I'll grab you and +kiss you!” + +She started and blushed. + +“Don't you dare!” + +“Beat it then--beat it--or I can't help it!” + +She turned quickly and they passed through the catalogue room and +lightly down the stairs. + +He held her soft, round arm with a grip that sent the blood tingling to +the roots of her brown hair. + +“You understand now?” she whispered. + +“You bet! We walk the same way up the Avenue, through the Park to the +little house on the laurel hill. And you're goin' to be sweet to me +today, my Kiddo--I just feel it. I----” + +“Don't be too sure, sir!” she interrupted, solemnly. + +He laughed aloud. + +“You can't fool me now--and I'm crazy as a June bug! You know I like to +walk--if I can be with you!” + +At the Park entrance she stopped again and smiled roguishly. + +“We'll find a seat in one of the summer houses along the Fifty-ninth +Street side.” + +“All right,” he responded. + +“No--we'll go on where we started!” + +With a laugh, she slipped her hand through his arm. + +“You were a little scared of me last Saturday about this time, weren't +you?” + +“Just a little----” + +“It hurt me, too, but I didn't let you know.” + +“I'm sorry.” + +“It's all right now--it's all right. Gee I but we've traveled some in a +week, haven't we?” + +“I've known you more than a week,” she protested gayly. + +“Sure--I've known you since I was born.” + +They walked through the stately rows of elms on the Mall in joyous +silence. Crowds of children and nurses, lovers and loungers, filled the +seats and thronged the broad promenade. + +Scarcely a word was spoken until they reached the rustic house nestling +among the trees on the hill. + +“Just a week by the calendar,” she murmured. “And I've lived a +lifetime.” + +“It's all right then--little girl? You'll marry me right away? +When--tonight?” + +“Hardly!” + +“Tomorrow, then?” + +She drew the glove from her hand and held the slender fingers up before +him. + +“You can get the ring----” + +“Gee! I do have to get a ring, don't I?” + +“Yes----” + +“Why didn't you tell me? You know I never got married before.” + +“I should hope not!” + +He seized her hand and kissed it, drew her into his arms, held her +crushed and breathless and released her with a quick, impulsive +movement. + +“You'll help me get it?” he asked eagerly. + +“If you like.” + +“A big white sparkler?” + +“No--no----” + +“No?” + +“A plain little gold band.” + +“Let me get you a big diamond!” + +“No--a plain gold band.” + +“It's all settled then?” + +“We're engaged. You're my fiance.” + +“But for God's sake, Kiddo--how long do I have to be a fiance?” + +A ripple of laughter rang through the trees. + +“Don't you think we've done pretty well for seven days?” + +“I could have settled it in seven minutes after we met,” he answered +complainingly. “You won't tell me the day yet?” + +“Not yet----” + +“All right, we'll just have to take blessings as they come, then.” + +Through the beautiful afternoon they sat side by side with close-pressed +hands and planned the future which love had given. A modest flat far up +among the trees on the cliffs overlooking the Hudson, they decided on. + +“We'll begin with that,” he cried enthusiastically, “but we won't stay +there long. I've got big plans. I'm going to make a million. The white +house down by the sea for me, a yacht out in the front yard and a +half-dozen thundering autos in the garage. If this deal I'm on now goes +through, I'll make my pile in a year----” + +They rose as the shadows lengthened. + +“I must go home and feed my pets,” she sighed. + +“All right,” he responded heartily. “I'll get the car and be there in a +jiffy. We'll take a spin out to a road-house for dinner.” + +She lifted her eyes tenderly. + +“You can come right up to my room--now that we're engaged.” + +He swept her into his arms again, and held her in unresisting happiness. + +It was dark when he swung the gray car against the curb and sprang out. +He didn't blow his horn for her to come down. The privilege she had +granted was too sweet and wonderful. He wouldn't miss it for the world. + +The stairs were dark. Ella was late this afternoon getting back to her +work. His light footstep scarcely made a sound. He found each step with +quick, instinctive touch. The building seemed deserted. The tenants were +all on trips to the country and the seashore. The day was one of rare +beauty and warmth. Someone was fumbling in the dark on the third floor +back. + +He made his way quickly to her room, and softly knocked, waited a moment +and knocked again. There was no response. He couldn't be mistaken. He +had seen her lean out of that window every day the past week. + +Perhaps she was busy in the kitchenette and the noise from the street +made it impossible to hear. + +He placed his hand on the doorknob. + +From the darkness of the hall, in a quick, tiger leap, Ella threw +herself on him and grappled for his throat. + +“What are you doing at that door, you dirty thief?” she growled. + +“Here! Here! What'ell--what's the matter with you?” he gasped, gripping +her hands and tearing them from his neck. “I'm no thief!” + +“You are! You are, too!” she shrieked. “I heard you sneak in the door +downstairs--heard you slippin' like a cat upstairs! Get out of here +before I call a cop!” + +She was savagely pushing him back to the landing of the stairs. With a +sudden lurch, Jim freed himself and gripped her hands. + +“Cut it! Cut it! Or I'll knock your block off! I've come to take my girl +to ride----” + +He drew a match and quickly lighted the gas as Mary's footstep echoed on +the stairs below. + +“Well, she's coming now--we'll see,” was the sullen answer. + +Ella surveyed him from head to foot, her one eye gleaming in angry +suspicion. + +Mary sprang up the last step and saw the two confronting each other. She +had heard the angry voices from below. + +“Why, Ella, what's the matter?” she gasped. + +“He was trying to break into your room----” + +Jim threw up his hands in a gesture of rage, and Mary broke into a +laugh. + +“Why, nonsense, Ella, I asked him to come! This is Mr. Anthony,”--her +voice dropped,--“my fiance.” + +Ella's figure relaxed with a look of surprise. + +“Oh, ja?” she murmured, as if dazed. + +“Yes--come in,” she said to Jim. “Sorry I was out. I had to run to the +grocer's for the Kitty.” + +Ella glared at Jim, turned and began to light the other hall lamps +without any attempt at apology. + +Jim entered the room with a look of awe, took in its impression of +sweet, homelike order and recovered quickly his composure. + +“Gee, you're the dandy little housekeeper! I could stay here forever.” + +“You like it?” + +“It's a bird's nest.” He glanced in the mirror and saw the print of +Ella's fingers on his collar. “Will you look at that?” he growled. + +“It's too bad,” she said, sympathetically. + +“You know I thought a she-tiger had got loose from the Bronx and jumped +on me.” + +“I'm awfully sorry,” she apologized. “Ella's very fond of me. She was +trying to protect me. She couldn't see who it was in the dark.” + +“No; I reckon not,” Jim laughed. + +“I've changed our plans for the evening,” she announced. “We won't go +to ride tonight. I want you to bring my best friend to dinner with us at +Mouquin's. Go after her in the car. I want to impress her----” + +“I got you, Kiddo! She's goin' to look me over--eh? All right, I'll +stop at the store and get a clean collar. I wouldn't like her to see the +print of that tiger's claw on my neck.” + +“There's her address the Gainsborough Studios. Drop me at Mouquin's and +I'll have the table set in one of the small rooms upstairs. I'll meet +you at the door.” + +Jim glanced at the address, put it in his pocket and helped her draw on +her heavy coat. + +“You'll be nice to Jane? I want her to like you. She's the only real +friend I've ever had in New York.” + +“I'll do my best for you, little girl,” he promised. + +He dropped her at the wooden cottage-front on Sixth Avenue near +Twenty-eighth Street, and returned in twenty minutes with Jane. + +As the tall artist led the way upstairs, Jim whispered: + +“Say, for God's sake, let me out of this!” + +“Why?” + +“She's a frost. If I have to sit beside her an hour I'll catch cold and +die. I swear it; save me! Save my life!” + +“Sh! It's all right. She's fine and generous when you know her.” + +They had reached the door and Mary pushed him in. There was no help for +it. He'd have to make the most of it. + +The dinner was a dismal failure. + +Jane Anderson was polite and genial, but there was a straight look of +wonder in her clear gray eyes that froze the blood in Jim's veins. + +Mary tried desperately for the first half-hour to put him at his +ease. It was useless. The attack of Ella had upset his nerves, and the +unexpressed hostility of Jane had completely crushed his spirits. He +tried to talk once, stammered and lapsed into a sullen silence from +which nothing could stir him. + +The two girls at last began to discuss their own affairs and the dinner +ended in a sickening failure that depressed and angered Mary. + +The agony over at last, she rose and turned to Jim: + +“You can go now, sir--I'll take Jane home with me for a friendly chat.” + +“Thank God!” he whispered, grinning in spite of his effort to keep a +straight face. + +“Tomorrow?” he asked in low tones. + +“At eight o'clock.” + +Jim bowed awkwardly to Jane, muttered something inarticulate and rushed +to his car. + +The two girls walked in silence through Twenty-eighth Street to Broadway +and thence across the Square. + +Seated in her room, Mary could contain her pent-up rage no longer. + +“Jane Anderson, I'm furious with you! How could you be so rude--so +positively insulting!” + +“Insulting?” + +“Yes. You stared at him in cold disdain as if he were a toad under your +feet!” + +“I assure you, dear----” + +“Why did you do it?” + +The artist rose, walked to the window, looked out on the Square for a +moment, extended her hand and laid it gently on Mary's shoulder. + +“You've made up your mind to marry this man, honey?” + +“I certainly have,” was the emphatic answer. + +Jane paused. + +“And all in seven days?” + +“Seven days or seven years--what does it matter? He's my mate--we +love--it's Fate.” + +“It's incredible!” + +“What's incredible?” + +“Such madness.” + +“Perhaps love is madness--the madness that makes life worth the candle. +I've never lived before the past week.” + +“And you, the dainty, cultured, pious little saint, will marry +this--this----” + +“Say it! I want you to be frank----” + +“Perfectly frank?” + +“Absolutely.” + +“This coarse, ugly, illiterate brute----” + +“Jane Anderson, how dare you!” Mary sprang to her feet, livid with rage. + +“I asked if I might be frank. Shall I lie to you? Or shall I tell you +what I think?” + +“Say what you please; it doesn't matter,” Mary interrupted angrily. + +“I only speak at all because I love you. Your common-sense should tell +you that I speak with reluctance. But now that I have spoken, let me +beg of you for your father's sake, for your dead mother's sake, for my +sake--I'm your one disinterested friend and you know that my love is +real--for the sake of your own soul's salvation in this world and the +next--don't marry that brute! Commit suicide if you will--jump off the +bridge--take poison, cut your throat, blow your brains out--but, oh dear +God, not this!” + +“And why, may I ask?” was the cold question. + +“He's in no way your equal in culture, in character, in any of the +essentials on which the companionship of marriage must be based----” + +“He's a diamond in the rough,” Mary staunchly asserted. + +“He's in the rough, all right! The only diamond about him is the one in +his red scarf--`Take it from me, Kiddo! Take it from me!'” + +Her last sentence was a quotation from Jim, her imitation of his slang +so perfect Mary's cheeks flamed anew with anger. + +“I'll teach him to use good English--never fear. In a month he'll forget +his slang and his red scarf.” + +“You mean that in a month you'll forget to use good English and his +style of dress will be yours. Oh, honey, can't you see that such a man +will only drag you down, down to his level? Can it be possible that +you--that you really love him?” + +“I adore him and I'm proud of his love!” + +“Now listen! You believe in an indissoluble marriage, don't you?” + +“Yes----” + +“It's the first article of your creed--that marriage is a holy +sacrament, that no power on earth or in hell can ever dissolve its +bonds? Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, my dear! They always +have--they always will, I suppose. This is peculiarly true of your type +of woman--the dainty, clinging girl of religious enthusiasm. You're +peculiarly susceptible to the physical power of a brutal lover. Your +soul glories in submission to this force. The more coarse and brutal its +attraction the more abject and joyful the surrender. Your religion can't +save you because your religion is purely emotional--it is only another +manifestation of your sex emotions.” + +“How can you be so sacrilegious!” the girl interrupted with a look of +horror. + +“It may shock you, dear, but I'm telling you one of the simplest truths +of Nature. You'd as well know it now as later. The moment you wake to +realize that your emotions have been deceived and bankrupted, your faith +will collapse. At least keep, your grip on common-sense. Down in the +cowardly soul of every weak woman--perhaps of every woman--is the insane +desire to be dominated by a superior brute force. The woman of the lower +classes--the peasant of Russia, for example, whose sex impulses are of +all races the most violent--refuses with scorn the advances of the man +who will not strike her. The man who can't beat his wife is beneath +contempt--he is no man at all----” + +Mary broke into a laugh. + +“Really, Jane, you cease to be serious you're a joke. For Heaven's sake +use a little common-sense yourself. You can't be warning me that my +lover is marrying me in order to use his fists on me?” + +“Perhaps not, dear,”--the artist smiled; “there might be greater depths +for one of your training and character. I'm just telling you the plain +truth about the haste with which you're rushing into this marriage. +There's nothing divine in it. There's no true romance of lofty +sentiment. It's the simplest and most elemental of all the brutal facts +of animal life. That it is resistless in a woman of your culture and +refinement makes it all the more pathetic----” + +The girl rose with a gesture of impatience. + +“It's no use, Jane dear; we speak a different language. I don't in the +least know what you're talking about, and what's more, I'm glad I don't. +I've a vague idea that your drift is indecent. But we're different. I +realize that. I don't sit in judgment on you. You're wasting your breath +on me. I'm going into this marriage with my eyes wide open. It's the +fulfillment of my brightest hopes and aspirations. That I shall be happy +with this man and make him supremely happy I know by an intuition +deeper and truer than reason. I'm going to trust that intuition without +reservation.” + +“All right, honey,” the artist agreed with a smile. “I won't say +anything more, except that you're fooling yourself about the depth of +this intuitive knowledge. Your infatuation is not based on the verdict +of your deepest and truest instincts.” + +“On what, then?” + +“The crazy ideals of the novels you've been reading--that's all.” + +“Ridiculous!” + +“You're absolutely sure, for instance, that God made just one man the +mate of one woman, aren't you?” + +“As sure as that I live.” + +“Where did you learn it?” + +“So long ago I can't remember.” + +“Not in your Bible?” + +“No.” + +“The Sunday school?” + +“No.” + +“Craddock didn't tell you that, did he?” + +“Hardly----” + +“I thought not. He has too much horse-sense in spite of his emotional +gymnastics. You learned it in the first dime-novel you read.” + +“I never read a dime-novel in my life,” she interrupted, indignantly. + +“I know--you paid a dollar and a quarter for it--but it was a +dime-novel. The philosophy of this school of trash you have built into +a creed of life. How can you be so blind? How can you make so tragic a +blunder?” + +“That's just it, Jane: I couldn't if your impressions of his character +were true. I couldn't make a mistake about so vital a question. I +couldn't love him if he really were a coarse, illiterate brute. What you +see is only on the surface. He hasn't had his chance yet----” + +“Who is he? What does he do? Who are his people?” + +“He has no people----” + +“I thought not.” + +“I love him all the more deeply,” she went on firmly, “because of his +miserable childhood. I'll do my best to make up for the years of cruelty +and hunger and suffering through which he passed. What right have you +to sit in judgment on him without a hearing? You've known him two +hours----” + +Jane shrugged her shoulders. + +“Two minutes was quite enough.” + +“And you judge by what standard?” + +“My five senses, and my sixth sense above all. One look at his square +bulldog jaw, his massive neck and the deformity of his delicate hands +and feet! I hear the ignorant patois of the East Side underworld. +I smell the brimstone in his suppressed rage at my dislike. There's +something uncanny in the sensuous droop of his heavy eyelids and the +glitter of his steel-blue eyes. There's something incongruous in his +whole personality. I was afraid of him the moment I saw him.” + +Mary broke into hysterical laughter. + +“And if my five senses and my intuitions contradict yours? Who is to +decide? If I loved him on sight----If I looked into his eyes and saw +the soul of my mate? If their cold fires thrill me with inexpressible +passion? If I see in his massive neck and jaw the strength of an +irresistible manhood, the power to win success and to command the +world? If I see in his slender hands and small feet lines of exquisite +beauty--am I to crush my senses and strangle my love to please your +idiotic prejudice?” + +Jane threw up her hands in despair. + +“Certainly not! If you're blind and deaf I can't keep you from +committing suicide. I'd lock you up in an asylum for the insane if I had +the power to save you from the clutches of the brute.” + +Mary drew herself erect and faced her friend. + +“Please don't repeat that word in my hearing--there's a limit to +friendship. I think you'd better go----” + +Jane rose and walked quickly to the door, her lips pressed firmly. + +“As you like--our lives will be far apart from tonight. It's just as +well.” + +She closed the door with a bang and reached the head of the stairs +before Mary threw her arms around her neck. + +“Please, dear, forgive me--don't go in anger.” + +The older woman kissed her tenderly, glad of the dim light to hide her +own tears. + +“There, it's all right, honey--I won't remember it. Forgive me for my +ugly words.” + +“I love him, Jane--I love him! It's Fate. Can't you understand?” + +“Yes, dear, I understand, and I'll love you always--good-by.” + +“You'll come to my wedding?” + +“Perhaps----” + +“I'll let you know----” + +Another kiss, and Jane Anderson strode down the stairs and out into the +night with a sickening, helpless fear in her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. JIM'S TRIAL + +The quarrel had left Mary in a quiver of exalted rage. How dare a friend +trample her most sacred feelings! She pitied Jane Anderson and her +tribe--these modern feminine leaders of a senseless revolution against +man--they were crazy. They had all been disappointed in some individual +and for that reason set themselves up as the judges of mankind. + +“Thank God my soul has not been poisoned!” she exclaimed aloud with +fervor. “How strange that these women who claim such clear vision can be +so stupidly blind!” + +She busied herself with her little household, and made up her mind once +and for all time to be done with such friendships. The friendship of +such women was a vain thing. They were vicious cats at heart--not like +her gentle Persian kitten whose soul was full of sleepy sunlight. These +modern insurgents were wild, half-starved stray cats that had been +hounded and beaten until they had lapsed into their elemental brute +instincts. They were so aggravating, too, they deserved no sympathy. + +Again she thanked God that she was not one of them--that her heart was +still capable of romantic love--a love so sudden and so overwhelming +that it could sweep life before it in one mad rush to its glorious end. + +She woke next morning with a dull sense of depression. The room was damp +and chilly. It was storming. The splash of rain against the window and +the muffled roar from the street below meant that the wind was high and +the day would be a wretched one outside. + +They couldn't take their ride. + +It was a double disappointment. She had meant to have him dash down to +Long Beach and place the ring on her finger seated on that same bright +sand-dune overlooking the sea. Instead, they must stay indoors. Jim was +not at his best indoors. She loved him behind the wheel with his hand +on the pulse of that racer. The machine seemed a part of his being. He +breathed his spirit into its steel heart, and together they swept her on +and on over billowy clouds through the gates of Heaven. + +There was no help for it. They would spend the time together in her room +planning the future. It would be sweet--these intimate hours in her home +with the man she loved. + +Should she spend a whole day alone there with him? Was it just proper? +Was it really safe? Nonsense! The vile thoughts which Jane had uttered +had poisoned her, after all. She hated her self that she could remember +them. And yet they filled her heart with dread in spite of every effort +to laugh them off. + +“How could Jane Anderson dare say such things?” she muttered angrily. +“`A coarse, illiterate brute!' It's a lie! a lie! a lie!” She stamped +her foot in rage. “He's strong and brave and masterful--a man among +men--he's my mate and I love him!” + +And yet the frankness with which her friend had spoken had in reality +disturbed her beyond measure. Through every hour of the day her +uneasiness increased. After all she was utterly alone and her life +had been pitifully narrow. Her knowledge of men she had drawn almost +exclusively from romantic fiction. + +It was just a little strange that Jim persisted in living so completely +in the present and the future. He had told her of his pitiful childhood. +He had told her of his business. It had been definite--the simple +statement he made--and she accepted it without question until Jane +Anderson had dropped these ugly suspicions. She hated the meddler for +it. + +In the light of such suspicions the simplest, bravest man might seem a +criminal. How could her friend be blind to the magnetism of this man's +powerful personality? Bah! She was jealous of their perfect happiness. +Why are women so contemptible? + +She began a careful study of every trait of her lover's character, +determined to weigh him by the truest standards of manhood. Certainly +he was no weakling. The one abomination of her soul was the type of the +city degenerate she saw simpering along Broadway and Fifth Avenue at +times. Jim was brave to the point of rashness. No man with an ounce of +cowardice in his being could handle a car in every crisis with such cool +daring and perfect control. He was strong. He could lift her body as if +it were a feather. His arms crushed her with terrible force. He could +earn a living for them both. There could be no doubt about that. His +faultless clothes, the ease with which he commanded unlimited credit +among the automobile manufacturers and dealers--every supply store on +Broadway seemed to know him--left no doubt on that score. + +There was just a bit of mystery and reserve about his career as an +inventor. His first success that had given him a start he had not +explained. The big deal about the new carburetor she could, of course, +understand. He had a workshop all his own. He had told her this the +first day they met. She would ask him to take her to see it this +afternoon. The storm would prevent the trip to the Beach. She would ask +this, not because she doubted his honesty, but because she really wished +to see the place in which he worked. It was her workshop now, as well as +his. + +For a moment her suspicions were sickening. Suppose he had romanced +about his workshop and his room? Supposed he lived somewhere in the +squalid slums of the lower East Side and his people, after all, were +alive? Perhaps a drunken father and a coarse, brutal mother--and +sisters---- + +She stopped with a frown and clenched her fists. + +She would ask Jim to show her his workshop. That would be enough. If +he had told her the truth about that she would make up to him in tender +abandonment of utter trust for every suspicion she harbored. + +The car was standing in front of her door. He waved for her to come +down. + +“Jump right in!” he called gayly. “I've got an extra rubber blanket for +you.” + +“In the storm, Jim?” she faltered. + +“Surest thing you know. It's great to fly through a storm. You can just +ride on its wings. Throw on your raincoat and come on quick! I'm going +to run down to the Beach. Who's afraid of an old storm with this thing +under us?” + +Her heart gave a bound. Her longing had reached her lover and brought +him through the storm to do her bidding. It was wonderful--this oneness +of soul and body. + +She was happy again--supremely, divinely happy. The man by her side knew +and understood. She knew and understood. She loved this daring spirit +that rose to the wind--this iron will that brooked no interference with +his plans, even from Nature, when it crossed his love. + +The sting of the raindrops against her cheek was exhilarating. The car +glided over the swimming roadway like a great gray gull skimming the +beach at low tide. Her soul rose. The sun of a perfect faith and love +was shining now behind the clouds. + +She nestled close to his side and watched him tenderly from the corners +of her half-closed eyes, her whole being content in his strength. The +idea of dashing through a blinding rain to the Beach on such a day would +have been to her mind an unthinkable piece of madness. She was proud +of his daring. It would be hers to shield from the storms of life. She +loved the rugged lines of his massive jaw in profile. How could Jane be +such a fool as to call him ugly! + +The weather, of course, prevented them from walking up the Beach to +their sand-dune. The walk would have been all right--but it was out +of the question to sit down there and give her the ring in the pouring +rain. She knew this as well as he. She knew, too, that he had the ring +in his pocket, though he had carefully refrained from referring to it in +any way. + +He led her to a secluded nook behind a pillar in the little parlor. The +hotel was deserted. They had the building almost to themselves. A log +fire crackled in the open fireplace, and he drew a settee close. The +wind had moderated and the rain was pouring down in straight streams, +rolling in soft music on the roof. + +He drew the ring from his pocket. “Well, Kiddo, I got it. The fellow +said this was all right.” + +He held the tiny gold band before her shining eyes. + +“Slip it on!” she whispered. + +“Which one?” + +“This one, silly!” + +She extended her third finger, as he pressed the ring slowly on. + +“Seems to me a mighty little one and a mighty cheap one, but he said it +was the thing.” + +“It's all right, dear,” she whispered. “Kiss me!” + +He pressed his lips to hers and held them until she sank back and lifted +her hand in warning. + +“Be careful!” + +“Whose afraid?” Jim muttered, glancing over his shoulder toward the +door. “Now tell me what day--tomorrow?” + +“Nonsense, man!” she cried. “Give me time to breathe----” + +“What for?” + +“Just to realize that I'm engaged--to plan and think and dream of the +wonderful day.” + +“We're losing time----” + +“We'll never live these wonderful hours over again, dear.” + +Jim's face fell and his voice was pitiful in its funereal notes: “Lord, +I thought the ring settled it.” + +“And so it does, dear--it does-----” + +“Not if that long-legged spider that took dinner with us the other night +gets in her fine work. I'll bet that she handed me a few when you got +home?” + +Mary was silent. + +“Now didn't she?” + +“To the best of her ability--yes--but I didn't mind her silly talk.” + +“Gee, but I'd love to give her a bouquet of poison ivy!” + +“We had an awful quarrel----” + +“And you stood up for me?” + +“You know I did!” + +“All right, I don't give a tinker's damn what anybody says if you stand +by me! In all this world there's just you--for me. There's never been +anybody else--and there never will be. I'm that kind.” + +“And I love you for it!” she cried, with rapture pressing his hand in +both of hers. + +“What did she say about me, anyhow?” + +“Nothing worth repeating. I've forgotten it.” + +Jim held her gaze. + +“It's funny how you love anybody the minute you lay eyes on 'em--or hate +'em the same way. I wanted to choke her the minute she opened her yap to +me.” + +“Forget it, dear,” she broke in briskly. “I want you to take me to see +your workshop tomorrow--will you?” + +A flash of suspicion shot from the depths of his eyes. + +“Did she tell you to ask me that?” + +“Of course not! I'm just interested in everything you do. I want to see +where you work.” + +“It's no place for a sweet girl to go--that part of town.” + +“But I'll be with you.” + +“I don't want you to go down there,” he sullenly maintained. + +“But why, dear?” + +“It's a low, dirty place. I had to locate the shop there to get the room +I needed for the rent I could pay. It's not fit for you. I'm going to +move uptown in a little while.” + +“Please let me go,” she pleaded. + +He shook his head emphatically. + +“No.” + +She turned away to hide the tears. The first real, hideous fear she had +ever had about him caught her heart in spite of every effort to fight it +down. His workshop might be a myth after all. He had failed in the first +test to which she had put him. It was horrible. All the vile suggestions +of Jane Anderson rushed now into her memory. + +She struggled bravely to keep her head and not break down. It was beyond +her strength. A sob strangled her, and she buried her face in her hands. + +Jim looked at her in helpless anguish for a moment, started to gather +her in his arms and looked around the room in terror. + +He leaned over her and whispered tensely: + +“For God's sake, Kiddo--don't--don't do that! I didn't mean to hurt +you--honest, I didn't. Don't cry any more and I'll take you right down +to the black hole, and let you sleep on the floor if you want to. Gee! +I'll give you the whole place, tools, junk and all----” + +She lifted her head. + +“Will you, Jim?” + +“Sure I will! We start this minute if you want to go.” + +She glanced over his shoulder to see that no one was looking, threw her +arms around his neck and kissed him again and again. + +“It was the first time you ever said no, dear, and it hurt. I'm happy +again now. If you'll just let me see you in the shop for five minutes +I'll never ask you again.” + +“All right--tomorrow when you get out of school. I'll take you down. +Holy Mike, that was a dandy kiss! Let's quarrel again--start something +else.” + +She rose laughing and brushed the last trace of tears from her eyes. + +“Let's eat dinner now--I'm hungry.” + +“By George, I'd forgot all about the feed!” + +By eight o'clock the storm had abated; the rain suddenly stopped, and +the moon peeped through the clouds. + +He drove the big racer back at a steady, even stride on her lowest notch +of speed--half the time with only his right hand on the wheel and his +left gripping hers. + +As the lights of Manhattan flashed from the hills beyond the +Queensborough Bridge, he leaned close and whispered: + +“Happy?” + +“Perfectly.” + +The car was waiting the next day at half-past three. + +“It's not far,” he said, nodding carelessly. “You needn't put on the +coat. Be there in a jiffy.” + +Down Twenty-third Street to Avenue A, down the avenue to Eighteenth +Street, and then he suddenly swung the machine through Eighteenth into +Avenue B and stopped below a low, red brick building on the corner. + +He set his brakes with a crash, leaped out and extended his hands. + +“I didn't like to take you up these stairs at the back of that saloon, +little girl, but you would come. Now don't blame me----” + +She pressed his arm tenderly. + +“Of course I won't blame you. I'm proud and happy to share your life and +help you. I'm surprised to see everything so quiet down here. I thought +all the East Side was packed with crowded tenements.” + +“No,” he answered, in a matter-of-fact way. “About the only excitement +we have in this quarter is an occasional gas explosion in the plant over +there, and the noise of the second-hand material men unloading iron. The +tenements haven't been built here yet.” + +He led her quickly past the back door of the saloon and up two narrow +flights of stairs to the top of the building, drew from his pocket the +key to a heavy padlock and slipped the crooked bolt from the double +staples. He unlocked the door with a second key and pushed his way in. + +“All righto,” he cried. + +The straight, narrow hall inside was dark. He fumbled in his pocket and +lit the gas. + +“The workshop first, or my sleeping den?” + +“The workshop first!” she whispered excitedly. + +She had made the reality of this shop the supreme test of Jim's word +and character. She was in a fever of expectant uncertainty as to its +equipment and practical use. + +He unlocked the door leading to the front. + +“That's my den--we'll come back here.” + +He passed quickly to the further end of the hall and again used two keys +to open the door, and held it back for her to enter. + +“I'm sorry it's so dirty--if you get your pretty dress all ruined--it's +not my fault, you know.” + +Mary surveyed the room with an exclamation of delight. + +“Oh, what a wonderful place! Why, Jim, you're a magician!” + +There could be no doubt about the practical use to which the shop was +being put. Its one small window opened on a fire escape in the narrow +court in the rear. A skylight in the middle opened with a hinge on the +roof and flooded the space with perfect light. An iron ladder swung from +the skylight and was hooked up against the ceiling by a hasp fastened +to a staple over a work-bench. On one side of the room was a tiny +blacksmith's forge, an anvil, hammers and a complete set of tools for +working in rough iron. A small gasoline engine supplied the power which +turned his lathe and worked the drills, saw and plane. On the other +side of the room was arranged a fairly complete chemical laboratory with +several retorts, and an oxyhydrogen blow-pipe capable of developing the +powerful heat used in the melting and brazing of metals. Beneath the +benches were piled automobile supplies of every kind. + +“You know how to use all these machines, Jim?” she asked in wonder. + +“Sure, and then some!” he answered with a wave of his slender hand. + +“You're a wizard----” + +“Now the den?” he said briskly. + +She followed him through the hall and into the large front corner room +overlooking Avenue B and Eighteenth Street. The morning sun flooded the +front and the afternoon sun poured into the side windows. The furniture +was solid mahogany--a bed, bureau, chiffonier, couch and three chairs. +The windows were fitted with wood-paneled shutters, shades and heavy +draperies. A thick, soft carpet of faded red covered the floor. + +“It's a nice room, Jim, but I'd like to dust it for you,” she said with +a smile. + +“Sure. I'm for giving you the right to dust it every morning, Kiddo, +beginning now. Let's find a preacher tonight!” + +She blushed and moved a step toward the door. + +“Just a little while. You know it's been only ten days since we met----” + +“But we've lived some in that time, haven't we?” + +“An eternity, I think,” she said reverently. + +“I want to marry right now, girlie!” he pleaded desperately. “If that +spider gets you in her den again, I just feel like it's good night for +me.” + +“Nonsense. You can't believe me such a silly child. I'm a woman. I love +you. Do you think the foolish prejudice of a friend could destroy my +love for the man whom I have chosen for my mate?” + +“No, but I want it fixed and then it's fixed--and they can say what +they please. Marry me tonight! You've got the ring. You're going to in a +little while, anyhow. What's the use to wait and lose these days out of +our life? What's the sense of it? Don't you know me by this time? Don't +you trust me by this time?” + +She slipped her hand gently into his. + +“I trust you utterly. And I feel that I've known you since the day I was +born----” + +“Then why--why wait a minute?” + +“You can't understand a girl's feelings, dear--only a little while and +it's all right.” + +He sat down on the couch in silence, rose and walked to the window. She +watched him struggling with deep emotion. + +He turned suddenly. + +“Look here, Kiddo, I've got to leave on that trip to the mountains of +North Carolina. I've got to get down there before Christmas. I must be +back here by the first of the year. Gee--I can't go without you! You +don't want to stay here without me, do you?” + +A sudden pallor overspread her face. For the first time she realized how +their lives had become one in the sweet intimacy of the past ten days. + +“You must go now?” she gasped. + +“Yes. I've made my arrangements. I've business back here the first +of the year that can't wait. Marry me and go with me. We'll take our +honeymoon down there. By George, we'll go together in the car! Every day +by each other's side over hundreds and hundreds of miles! Say, ain't you +game? Come on! It's a crime to send me away without you. How can you do +it?” + +“I can't--I'm afraid,” she faltered. + +“You'll marry me, then?” + +“Yes!” she whispered. “What is the latest day you can start?” + +“Next Saturday, if we go in the car----” + +“All right,”--she was looking straight into the depths of his soul +now--“next Saturday.” + +He clasped her in his arms and held her with desperate tenderness. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. ELLA'S SECRET + +The consummation of her life's dream was too near, too sweet and +wonderful for Jane's croakings to distress Mary Adams beyond the moment. +She had, of course, wished her friend to be present at the wedding--yet +the curt refusal had only aroused anew her pity at stupid prejudices. +It was out of the question to ask her father to leave his work in the +Kentucky mountains and come all the way to New York. She would surprise +him with the announcement. After all, she was the one human being +vitally concerned in this affair, and the only one save the man whose +life would be joined to hers. + +In five minutes after the painful scene with Jane she had completely +regained her composure, and her face was radiant with happiness when +she waved to Jim. He was standing before the door in the car, waiting to +take her to the City Hall to get the marriage license. + +“Gee!” he cried, “you're the prettiest, sweetest thing that ever walked +this earth, with those cheeks all flaming like a rose! Are you happy?” + +“Gloriously.” + +She motioned him to keep his seat and sprang lightly to his side. + +“Aren't you happy, sir?” she added gayly. + +“I am, yes--but to tell you the truth, I'm beginning to get scared. You +know what to do, don't you, when we get before that preacher?” + +“Of course, silly----” + +“I never saw a wedding in my life.” + +She pressed his hand tenderly. + +“Honestly, Jim?” + +“I swear it. You'll have to tell me how to behave.” + +“We'll rehearse it all tonight. I'll show you. I've seen hundreds of +people married. My father's a preacher, you know.” + +“Yes, I know that,” he went on solemnly; “that's what gives me courage. +I knew you'd understand everything. I'm counting on you, Kiddo--if you +fall down, we're gone. I'll run like a turkey.” + +“It's easy,” she laughed. + +“And this license business--how do we go about that? What'll they do to +us?” + +“Nothing, goose! We just march up to the clerk and demand the license. +He asks us a lot of questions----” + +“Questions! What sort of questions?” + +“The names of your father and mother--whether you've been married before +and where you live and how old you are----” + +“Ask you about your business?” he interrupted, sharply. + +“No. They think if you can pay the license fee you can support your +wife, I suppose.” + +“How much is it?” + +“I don't know, here. It used to be two dollars in Kentucky.” + +“That's cheap--must come higher in this burg. I brought along a +hundred.” + +“Nonsense.” + +“There's a lot of graft in this town. I'll be ready. I've got to get +'em--don't care how high they come.” + +“There'll be no graft in this, Jim,” she protested gayly. + +“Well, it'll be the first time I ever got by without it--believe me!” + +The ease with which the license was obtained was more than Jim could +understand. All the way back from the City Hall he expected to be held +up at every corner. He kept looking over his shoulder to see if they +were being followed. + +Arrived in her room, they discussed their plans for the day of days. + +“I'll come round soon in the morning, and we'll spend the whole day at +the Beach,” he suggested. + +She lifted her hands in protest. + +“No--no!” + +“No?” + +“Not on our wedding-day, Jim!” + +“Why?” + +“It's not good form. The groom should not see the bride that day until +they meet at the altar.” + +“Let's change it!” + +“No, sir, the old way's the best. I'll spend the day in saying good-by +to the past. You'll call for me at six o'clock. We'll go to Dr. +Craddock's house and be married in time for our wedding dinner.” + +The lover smiled, and his drooping eyelids fell still lower as he +watched her intently. + +“I want that dinner here in this little place, Kiddo----” + +She blushed and protested. + +“I thought we'd go to the Beach and spend the night there.” + +“Here, girlie, here! I love this little place--it's so like you. Get +the old wild-cat who cleans up for you to fix us a dinner here all by +ourselves--wouldn't she?” + +“She'd do anything for me--yes.” + +“Then fix it here--I want to be just with you--don't you understand?” + +“Yes,” she whispered. “But I'd rather spend that first day of our new +life in a strange place--and the Beach we both love--hadn't you just as +leave go there, Jim?” + +“No. The waiters will stare at us, and hear us talk----” + +“We can have our meals served in our room. + +“This is better,” he insisted. “I want to spend one day here alone with +you, before we go--just to feel that you're all mine. You see, if I walk +in here and own the place, I'll know that better than any other way. +I've just set my heart on it, Kiddo--what's the difference?” + +She lifted her lips to his. + +“All right, dear. It shall be as you wish. Tomorrow I will be all +yours--in life, in death, in eternity. Your happiness will be the one +thing for which I shall plan and work.” + +Ella was very happy in the honor conferred on her. She was given entire +charge of the place, and spent the day in feverish preparation for the +dinner. She insisted on borrowing a larger table from the little fat +woman next door, to hold the extra dishes. She dressed herself in her +best. Her raven black hair was pressed smooth and shining down the sides +of her pale temples. + +The work was completed by three o'clock in the afternoon, and Mary lay +in her window lazily watching the crowds scurrying home. The offices +closed early on Saturday afternoons. + +Ella was puttering about the room, adding little touches here and there +in a pretense of still being busy. As a matter of fact, she was watching +the girl from her one eye with a wistful tenderness she had not dared +as yet to express in words. Twice Mary had turned suddenly and seen her +thus. Each time Ella had started as if caught in some act of mischief +and asked an irrelevant question to relieve her embarrassment. + +Mary could feel her single eye fixed on her now in a deep, brooding +look. It made her uncomfortable. + +She turned slowly and spoke in gentle tones. + +“You've been so sweet to me today, Ella--father and mother and best +friend. I'll never forget your kindness. You'd better rest awhile now +until we go to Dr. Craddock's. I want you to be there, too----” + +“To see the marriage--ja?” she asked softly. + +“Yes.” + +“Oh, no, my dear, no--I stay here and wait for you to come. I keep the +lights burning bright. I welcome the bride and groom to their little +home--ja.” + +A quick glance of suspicion shot from Mary's blue eyes. Could it be +possible that this forlorn scrubwoman would carry her hostility to her +lover to the same point of ungracious refusal to witness the ceremony? +It was nonsense, of course. Ella would feel out of place in the +minister's parlor, that was all. She wouldn't insist. + +“All right, Ella; you can receive us here with ceremony. You'll be our +maid, butler, my father, my mother and my friends!” + +There was a moment's silence and still no move on Ella's part to go. The +girl felt her single eye again fixed on her in mysterious, wistful +gaze. She would send her away if it were possible without hurting her +feelings. + +Mary lifted her eyes suddenly, and Ella stirred awkwardly and smiled. + +“I hope you are very happy, meine liebe--ja?” + +“I couldn't be happier if I were in Heaven,” was the quick answer. + +“I'm so glad----” + +Again an awkward pause. + +“I was once young and pretty like you, meine liebe,” she began dreamily, +“--slim and straight and jolly--always laughing.” + +Mary held her breath in eager expectancy. Ella was going to lift the +veil from the mystery of her life, stirred by memories which the coming +wedding had evoked. + +“And you had a thrilling romance--Ella? I always felt it.” + +Again silence, and then in low tones the woman told her story. + +“Ja--a romance, too. I was so young and foolish--just a baby myself--not +sixteen. But I was full of life and fun, and I had a way of doing what I +pleased. + +“The man was older than me--Oh, a lot older--with gray hairs on the side +of his head. I was wild about him. I never took to kids. They didn't +seem to like me----” + +She paused as if hesitating to give her full confidence, and quickly +went on: + +“My folks were German. They couldn't speak English. I learned when I was +five years old. They didn't like my lover. We quarrel day and night. I +say they didn't like him because they could not speak his language. They +say he was bad. I fight for him, and run away and marry him----” + +Again she paused and drew a deep breath. + +“Ah, I was one happy little fool that year! He make good wages on the +docks--a stevedore. They had a strike, and he got to drinking. The baby +came----” + +She stopped suddenly. + +“You had a little baby, Ella?” the girl asked in a tender whisper. + +“Ja--ja,” she sobbed--“so sweet, so good--so quiet--so beautiful she was. +I was very happy--like a little girl with a doll--only she laugh and +cry and coo and pull my hair! He stop the drink a little while when she +come, and he got work. And then he begin worse and worse. It seem like +he never loved me any more after the baby. He curse me, he quarrel. He +begin to strike me sometimes. I laugh and cry at first and make up and +try again----” + +Again she paused as if for courage to go on, and choked into silence. + +“Yes--and then?” the girl asked. + +“And then he come home one night wild drunk. He stumble and fall +across the cradle and hurt my baby so she never cry--just lie still and +tremble--her eyes wide open at first and then they droop and close and +she die! + +“He laugh and curse and strike me, and I fight him like a tiger. He was +strong--he throw me down on the floor and gouge my eye out with his big +claw----” + +“Oh, my God,” Mary sobbed. + +Ella sprang to her feet and bent over the girl with trembling eagerness. + +“You keep my secret, meine liebe?” + +“Yes--yes----” + +“I never tell a soul on earth what I tell you now--I just eat my heart +out and keep still all the years, I can tell you--ja?” + +“Yes, I'll keep it sacred--go on----” + +“When I know he gouge my eye out, I go wild. I get my hand on his throat +and choke him still. I drag him to the stairs and throw him head first +all the way down to the bottom. He fall in a heap and lie still. I run +down and drag him to the door. I kick his face and he never move. He was +dead. I kick him again--and again. And then I laugh--I laugh--I laugh in +his dead face--I was so glad I kill him!” + +She sank in a paroxysm of sobs on the floor, and the girl touched her +smooth black hair tenderly, strangled with her own emotions. + +Ella rose at last and brushed the tears from her hollow cheeks. + +“Now, you know, meine liebe! Why I tell you this today, I don't +know--maybe I must! I dream once like you dream today----” + +The girl slipped her arms around the drooping, pathetic figure and +stroked it tenderly. + +“The sunshine is for some, maybe,” Ella went on pathetically; “for some +the clouds and the storms. I hope you are very, very happy today and all +the days----” + +“I will be, Ella, I'm sure. I'll always love you after this.” + +“Maybe I make you sad because I tell you----” + +“No--no! I'm glad you told me. The knowledge of your sorrow will make my +life the sweeter. I shall be more humble in my joy.” + +It never occurred to the girl for a moment that this lonely, broken +woman had torn her soul's deepest secret open in a last pathetic effort +to warn her of the danger of her marriage. The wistful, helpless look +in her eye meant to Mary only the anguish of memories. Each human heart +persists in learning the big lessons of life at first hand. We refuse to +learn any other way. The tragedies of others interest us as fiction. We +make the application to others--never to ourselves. + +Jim's familiar footstep echoed through the hall, and Mary sprang to the +door with a cry of joy. + + + + +CHAPTER X. THE WEDDING + +Ella hurried into the kitchenette and busied herself with dinner. Jim's +unexpectedly early arrival broke the spell of the tragedy to which Mary +had listened with breathless sympathy. Her own future she faced without +a shadow of doubt or fear. + +Her reproaches to Jim were entirely perfunctory, on the sin of his early +call on their wedding-day. + +“Naughty boy!” she cried with mock severity. “At this unseemly hour!” + +He glanced about the room nervously. + +“Anybody in there?” + +He nodded toward the kitchenette. + +“Only Ella----” + +“Send her away.” + +“What's the matter?” + +“Quick, Kiddo--quick!” + +Mary let Ella out from the little private hall without her seeing Jim, +and returned. + +“For heaven's sake, man, what ails you?” she asked excitedly. + +“Say--I forgot that thing already. We got to go over it again. What if I +miss it?” + +“The ceremony?” + +“Yep----” + +He mopped his brow and looked at his watch. + +“By the time we get to that preacher's house, I won't know my first name +if you don't help me.” + +Mary laughed softly and kissed him. + +“You can't miss it. All you've got to do is say, `I will' when he asks +you the question, put the ring on my finger when he tells you, and +repeat the words after him--he and I will do the rest.” + +“Say my question over again.” + +“`Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after +God's ordinance, in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love +her, comfort her, honor, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, +forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall +live?'” + +She looked at him and laughed. + +“Why don't you answer?” + +“Now?” + +“Yes--that's the end of the question. Say, `I will.'” + +“Oh, I will all right! What scares me is that I'll jump in on him and +say `I will' before he gets halfway through. Seems to me when he says, +`Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife?' I'll just have to +choke myself there to keep from saying, `You bet your life I will, +Parson!'” + +“It won't hurt anything if you say, `I will' several times,” she assured +him. + +“It wouldn't queer the job?” + +“Not in the least. I've often heard them say, `I will' two or three +times. Wait until you hear the words, `so long as ye both shall +live----'” + +“`So long as ye both shall live,'” he repeated solemnly. + +“The other speech you say after the minister.” + +“He won't bite off more than I can chew at one time, will he?” + +“No, silly--just a few words----” + +“Because if he does, I'll choke.” + +Jim drew his watch again, mopped his brow, and gazed at Mary's serene +face with wonder. + +“Say, Kiddo, you're immense--you're as cool as a cucumber!” + +“Of course. Why not? It's my day of joy and perfect peace--the day I've +dreamed of since the dawn of maidenhood. I'm marrying the man of +my choice--the one man God made for me of all men on earth. I know +this--I'm content.” + +“Let me hang around here till time--won't you?” he asked helplessly. + +“We must have Ella come back to fix the table.” + +“Sure. I just didn't want her to hear me tell you that I had cold feet. +I'm better now.” + +Ella moved about the room with soft tread, watching Jim with sullen, +concentrated gaze when he was not looking. + +The lovers sat on the couch beside the window, holding each other's +hands and watching in silence the hurrying crowds pass below. Now that +his panic was over, Jim began to breathe more freely, and the time +swiftly passed. + +As the shadows slowly fell, they rang the bell at the parson's house +beside the church, and his good wife ushered them into the parlor. The +little Craddocks crowded in--six of them, two girls and four boys, their +ages ranging from five to nineteen. + +Sweet memories crowded the girl's heart from her happy childhood. She +had never missed one of these affairs at home. Her father was a very +popular minister and his home the Mecca of lovers for miles around. + +Craddock, like her father, was inclined to be conservative in his forms. +Marriage he held with the old theologians to be a holy sacrament. He +never used the new-fangled marriage vows. He stuck to the formula of the +Book of Common Prayer. + +When she stood before the preacher in this beautiful familiar scene +which she had witnessed so many times at home, Mary's heart beat with a +joy that was positively silly. She tried to be serious, and the dimple +would come in her cheek in spite of every effort. + +As Craddock's musical voice began the opening address, the memory of a +foolish incident in her father's life flashed through her mind, and +she wondered if Jim in his excitement had forgotten his pocket-book and +couldn't pay the preacher. + +“Dearly beloved,” he began, “we are gathered together here in the sight +of God----” + +Mary tried to remember that she was in the sight of God, but she was so +foolishly happy she could only remember that funny scene. A long-legged +Kentucky mountain bridegroom at the close of the ceremony had turned to +her father and drawled: + +“Well, parson, I ain't got no money with me--but I want to give ye five +dollars. I've got a fine dawg. He's worth ten. I'll send him to ye fur +five--if it's all right?” + +The children had giggled and her father blushed. + +“Oh, that's all right,” he had answered. “Money's no matter. Forget the +five. I hope you'll be very happy.” + +Two weeks later a crate containing the dog had come by express. On the +tag was scrawled: + + +Dear Parson:--I like Nancy so well, I send ye the hole dawg, anyhow. + + +She hadn't a doubt that Jim would feel the same way--but she hoped he +hadn't forgotten his pocketbook. + +The scene had flashed through her mind in a single moment. She had +bitten her lips and kept from laughing by a supreme effort. Not a word +of the solemn ceremonial, however, had escaped her consciousness. + +“And in the face of this company,” the preacher's rich voice was saying, +“to join together this Man and this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is +commended of St. Paul to be honorable among all men: and therefore is +not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, +discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God. Into this holy +estate these two persons present come now to be joined. If any man can +show just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him +now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.” + +Craddock paused, and his piercing eyes searched the man and woman before +him. + +“I require to charge you both, as ye will answer at the dreadful day +of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that +if either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined +together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it----” + +Again he paused. The perspiration stood in beads on Jim's forehead, and +he glanced uneasily at Mary from the corners of his drooping eyes. A +smile was playing about her mouth, and Jim was cheered. + +“For be ye well assured,” the preacher continued, “that if any persons +are joined together otherwise than as God's Word doth allow, their +marriage is not lawful.” + +He turned with deliberation to Jim and transfixed him with the first +question of the ceremony. The groom was hypnotized into a state of +abject terror. His ears heard the words; the mind recorded but the +vaguest idea of what they meant. + +“Wilt thou have this Woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after +God's ordinance in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love her, +comfort her, honor, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, +forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall +live?” + +Jim's mouth was open; his lower jaw had dropped in dazed awe, and he +continued to stare straight into the preacher's face until Mary pressed +his arm and whispered: + +“Jim!” + +“I will--yes, I will--you bet I will!” he hastened to answer. + +The children giggled, and the preacher's lips twitched. + +He turned quickly to Mary. + +“Wilt thou have this Man to thy wedded husband, to live together after +God's ordinance, in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, +and serve him, love, honor, and keep him in sickness and in health; and, +forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall +live?” + +With quick, clear voice, Mary answered: + +“I will.” + +“Please join your right hands and repeat after me:” + +He fixed Jim with his gaze and spoke with deliberation, clause by +clause: + +“I, James, take thee, Mary, to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from +this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in +sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, +according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.” + +Jim's throat at first was husky with fear, but he caught each clause +with quick precision and repeated them without a hitch. + +He smiled and congratulated himself: “I got ye that time, old cull!” + +The preacher's eyes sought Mary's: + +“I, Mary, take thee, James, to my wedded husband, to have and to hold +from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in +sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death do +us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my +troth.” + +In the sweetest musical voice, quivering with happiness, the girl +repeated the words. + +Again the preacher's eyes sought Jim's: + +AND THE MAN SHALL GIVE UNTO THE WOMAN A RING---- + +The groom fumbled in his pocket and found at last the ring, which he +handed to Mary. The minister at once took it from her hand and handed it +back to Jim. + +The bride lifted her left hand, deftly extending the fourth finger, and +the groom slipped the ring on, and held it firmly gripped as he had been +instructed. + +“With this ring I thee wed----” + +“With this ring I thee wed----” Jim repeated firmly. + +“----and with all my worldly goods I thee endow----” + +“----and with all my worldly goods I thee endow----” + +“In the Name of the Father----” + +“In the Name of the Father----” + +“----and of the Son----” + +“----and of the Son----” + +“----and of the Holy Ghost----” + +“----and of the Holy Ghost----” + +“Amen!” + +“Amen!” + +The voice of the preacher's prayer that followed rang far-away and +unreal to the heart of the girl. Her vivid imagination had leaped the +years. Her spirit did not return to earth and time and place until the +minister seized her right hand and joined it to Jim's. + +“Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder! + +“Forasmuch as James Anthony and Mary Adams have consented together in +holy wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, +and thereto have given and pledged their troth, each to the other, and +have declared the same by giving and receiving a Ring, and by joining +hands; I pronounce that they are Man and Wife, In the Name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” + +The preacher lifted his hands solemnly above their heads. + +“God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and +keep you; the Lord mercifully with His favor look upon you, and fill you +with all spiritual benediction and grace; that ye may so live together +in this life, that in the world to come ye may have life everlasting. +AMEN.” + +The preacher took Mary's hand. + +“Your father is my friend, child. This is for him----” + +He bent quickly and kissed her lips, while Jim gasped in astonishment. + +The minister's wife congratulated them both. The two older children +smilingly advanced and added their voices in good wishes. + +Mary whispered to Jim: + +“Don't forget the preacher's fee!” + +“Lord, how much? Will fifty be enough? It's all I've got.” + +“Give him twenty. We'll need the rest.” + +It was not until they were seated in the waiting cab and sank back among +the shadows, that Jim crushed her in his arms and kissed her until she +cried for mercy. + +“The gall of that preacher, kissing you!” he muttered savagely. “You +know, I come within an ace of pasting him one on the nose!” + + + + +CHAPTER XI. “UNTIL DEATH” + +The lights burned in the hall with unusual brightness. Ella stood in the +open door of the room, through which the light was streaming. With its +radiance came the perfume of roses--the scrub-woman's gift of love. The +room was a bower of gorgeous flowers. She had spent her last cent in +this extravagance. Mary swept the place with a look of amazement. + +“Oh, Ella,” she cried, “how could you be so silly!” + +“You like them, ja?” Ella asked softly. + +“They're glorious--but you should not have made such a sacrifice for +me.” + +“For myself, maybe, I do it--all for myself to make me happy, too, +tonight.” + +She dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand and placed the chairs +beside the beautifully set table. + +“Dinner is all ready,” she announced cheerfully. “And shall I go now and +leave you? Or will you let me serve your dinner first?” + +A sudden panic seized the bride. + +“Stay and serve the dinner, Ella, if you will,” she quickly answered. + +Jim frowned, but seated himself in business-like fashion. + +“All right; I'm ready for it, old girl!” + +With soft tread and swift, deft touch, Ella served the dinner, standing +prim and stiff and ghost-like behind Jim's chair between the courses. + +The bride watched her, fascinated by the pallor of her haggard face and +the queer suggestion of Death which her appearance made in spite of the +background of flowers. She had dressed herself in a simple skirt and +shirtwaist of spotless white. The material seemed to be draped on her +tall figure, thin to emaciation. The chalk-like pallor of her face +brought out with startling sharpness the deep, hollow caverns beneath +her straight eyebrows. Her single eye shone unusually bright. + +Gradually the grim impression grew that Death was hovering over her +bridal feast--a foolish fancy which persisted in her highly-wrought +nervous state. Yet the idea, once fixed, could not be crushed. In +vain she used her will to bring her wandering mind back to the joyous +present. Each time she lifted her eyes they rested upon the silent, +white figure with its single eye piercing the depths of her soul. + +She could endure it no longer. She nodded and smiled wanly at Ella. + +“You may go now!” + +The woman gazed at the bride in surprise. + +“I shall come again--yes?” + +“Tomorrow morning, Ella, you may help me.” + +The white figure paused uncertainly at the door, and her drawling voice +breathed her parting word tenderly: + +“Good night!” + +The bride closed her eyes and answered. + +“Good night, Ella!” + +The door closed. Jim rose quickly and bolted it. + +“Thank God!” he exclaimed fervently. He fixed his slumbering eyes on his +wife for a moment, saw the frightened look, walked quickly back to the +table and took his seat. + +“Now, Kiddo, we can eat in peace.” + +“Yes, I'd rather be alone,” she sighed. + +“I must say,” Jim went on briskly, “that parson of yours did give us a +run for our money.” + +“I like the old, long ceremony best.” + +“Well, you see, I ain't never had much choice--but do you know what I +thought was the best thing in it?” + +“No--what?” + +“UNTIL DEATH DO US PART! Gee how he did ring out on that! His voice +sounded to me like a big bell somewhere away up in the clouds. Did you +hear me sing it back at him?” + +Mary smiled nervously. + +“You had found your voice then.” + +“You bet I had! I muffed that first one, though, didn't I?” + +“A little. It didn't matter.” She answered mechanically. + +He fixed his eyes on her again. + +“Hungry, Kiddo?” + +“No,” she gasped. + +“What's the use!” he cried in low, vibrant tones, springing to his feet. +“I don't want to eat this stuff--I just want to eat you!” + +Mary rose tremblingly and moved instinctively to meet him. + +He clasped her form in his arms and crushed with cruel strength. + +“Until death do us part!” he whispered passionately. + +She answered with a kiss. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. THE LOTOS-EATERS + +It was eleven o'clock next morning before Ella ventured to rap softly +on the door. They had just finished breakfast. The bride was clearing up +the table, humming a song of her childhood. + +Jim caught her in his arms. + +“Once more before she comes!” + +“Don't kill me!” she laughed. + +Jim lounged in the window and smoked his cigarette while Ella and Mary +chattered in the kitchenette. + +In half an hour the scrub-woman had made her last trip with the extra +dishes, and the little home was spick and span. + +Mary sprang on the couch and snuggled into Jim's arms. + +“I've changed our plans----” he began thoughtfully. + +“We won't give up our honeymoon trip?” she cried in alarm. “That's one +dream we MUST live, Jim, dear. I've set my heart on it.” + +“Sure we will--sure,” he answered quickly. “But not in that car.” + +“Why?” + +Jim grinned. + +“Because I like you better--you get me, Kiddo?” + +She pressed close and whispered: + +“I think so.” + +“You see, that fool car might throw a tire or two. Believe me, it'll +be a job to have her on my hands for a thousand miles. Of course, if I +didn't know you, little girl, it would be all sorts of fun. But, honest +to God, this game beats the world.” + +He bent low and kissed her again. + +“Where'll we go, then?” she murmured. + +“That's what I'm tryin' to dope out. I like the sea. It lulls me just +like whisky puts a drunkard to sleep. I wish we could get where it's +bright and warm and the sun shines all the time. We could stay two +weeks and then jump on the train and be in Asheville the day before +Christmas.” + +Mary sprang up excitedly. + +“I have it! We'll go to Florida--away down to the Keys. It's the dream +of my life to go there!” + +“The Keys what's that?” he asked, puzzled. + +“The Keys are little sand islands and reefs that jut out into the warm +waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The railroad takes us right there.” + +“It's warm and sunny there now?” + +“Just like summer up here. We can go in bathing in the surf every day.” + +Jim sprang to his feet. + +“Got a bathing suit?” + +“Yes--a beauty. I've never worn it here.” + +“Why?” + +“It seemed so bold.” + +“All right. Maybe we can get a Key all by ourselves for two weeks.” + +“Wouldn't it be glorious!” + +“We'll try it, anyhow. I'll buy the doggoned thing if they don't ask too +much. Pack your traps. I'll go down to the shop and get my things. We'll +be ready to start in an hour.” + +By four o'clock they were seated in the drawing-room of a Pullman car +on the Florida Limited, gazing entranced at the drab landscape of the +Jersey meadows. + +Three days later, Jim had landed his boat on a tiny sand reef a +half-mile off the coast of Florida with a tent and complete outfit for +camping. Like two romping children, they tied the boat to a stake and +rushed over the sand-dunes to the beach. They explored their domain from +end to end within an hour. Not a tree obscured the endless panorama of +sea and bay and waving grass on the great solemn marshes. Piles of soft, +warm seaweed lay in long, dark rows along the high-tide mark. + +Mary selected a sand-dune almost exactly the height and shape of the one +on which they sat at Long Beach the day he told her of his love. + +“Here's the spot for our home!” she cried. “Don't you recognize it?” + +“Can't say I've ever been here before. Oh, I got you--I got you! Long +Beach--sure! What do you think of that?” + +He hurried to the boat and brought the tent. Mary carried the spade, the +pole and pegs. + +In half an hour the little white home was shining on the level sand at +the foot of their favorite dune. The door was set toward the open sea, +and the stove securely placed beneath an awning which shaded it from the +sun's rays. + +“Now, Kiddo, a plunge in that shining water the first thing. I'll give +you the tent. I'll chuck my things out here.” + +In a fever of joyous haste she threw off her clothes and donned the +dainty, one-piece bathing suit. She flew over the sand and plunged into +the water before Jim had finished changing to his suit. + +She was swimming and diving like a duck in the lazy, beautiful waters of +the Gulf when he reached the beach. + +“Come on! Come on!” she shouted. + +He waved his hand and finished his cigarette. + +“It's glorious! It's mid-summer!” she called. + +With a quick plunge he dived into the water, disappeared and stayed +until she began to scan the surface uneasily. With a splash he rose by +her side, lifting her screaming in his arms. Her bathing-cap was brushed +off, and he seized her long hair in his mouth, turned and with swift, +strong beat carried her unresisting body to the beach. + +He drew her erect and looked into her smiling face. + +“That's the way I'd save you if you had called for help. How'd you like +it?” + +“It was sweet to give up and feel myself in your power, dear!” + +His drooping eyes were devouring her exquisite figure outlined so +perfectly in the clinging suit. + +“I was afraid to wear this in New York,” she said demurely. + +“I can't blame you. If you'd ever have gone on the beach at Coney Island +in that, there'd have been a riot.” + +He lifted her in his arms and kissed her. + +“And you're all mine, Kiddo! It's too good to be true! I'm afraid to +wake up mornings now for fear I'll find I've just been dreaming.” + +They plunged again in the water, and side by side swam far out from the +shore, circled gracefully and returned. + +Hours they spent snuggling in the warm sand. Not a sound of the world +beyond the bay broke the stillness. The music of the water's soft +sighing came on their ears in sweet, endless cadence. The wind was +gentle and brushed their cheeks with the softest caress. Far out at sea, +white-winged sails were spread--so far away they seemed to stand in one +spot forever. The deep cry of an ocean steamer broke the stillness at +last. + +“We must dress for dinner, Jim!” she sighed. + +“Why, Kiddo?” + +“We must eat, you know.” + +“But why dress? I like that style on you. It's too much trouble to +dress.” + +“All right!” she cried gayly. “We'll have a little informal dinner this +evening. I love to feel the sand under my feet.” + +He gathered the wood from the dry drifts above the waterline and kindled +a fire. The salt-soaked sticks burned fiercely, and the dinner was +cooked in a jiffy--a fresh chicken he had bought, sweet potatoes, and +delicious buttered toast. + +They sat in their bathing suits on camp-stools beside the folding table +and ate by moonlight. + +The dinner finished, Mary cleared the wooden dishes while Jim brought +heaps of the dry, spongy sea grass and made a bed in the tent. He piled +it two feet high, packed it down to a foot, and then spread the sheets +and blankets. + +“All ready for a stroll down the avenue, Kiddo?” he called from the +door. + +“Fifth Avenue or Broadway?” she laughed. + +“Oh, the Great White Way--you couldn't miss it! Just look at the shimmer +of the moon on the sands! Ain't it great?” + +Hand in hand, they strolled on the beach and bathed in the silent flood +of the moonlit night--no prying eyes near save the stars of the friendly +southern skies. + +“The moon seems different down here, Jim!” she whispered. + +“It is different,” he answered with boyish enthusiasm. “It's all so +still and white!” + +“Could we stay here forever?” + +He shook his head emphatically. + +“Not on your life. This little boy has to work, you know. Old man John +D. Rockefeller might, but it's early for a young financier to retire.” + +“A whole week, then?” + +“Sure! For a week we'll forget New York.” + +They sat down on the sand-dune behind the tent and watched the waters +flash in the silvery light, the world and its fevered life forgotten. + +“You're the only thing real tonight, Jim!” she sighed. + +“And you're the world for me, Kiddo!” + +She waked at dawn, with a queer feeling of awe at the weird, gray light +which filtered through the cotton walls. A sense of oneness with Nature +and the beat of Her eternal heart filled her soul. The soft wash of the +water on the sands seemed to be keeping time to the throb of her own +pulse. + +She peered curiously into the face of her sleeping lover. She had never +seen him asleep before. She started at the transformation wrought by +the closing of his heavy eyelids and the complete relaxation of his +features. The strange, steel-blue coloring of his eyes had always given +his face an air of mystery and charm. The complete closing of the +heavy lids and the slight droop of the lower jaw had worked a frightful +change. The romance and charm had gone, and instead she saw only the +coarse, brutal strength. + +She frowned like a spoiled child, put her dainty hand under his chin and +pressed his mouth together. + +“Wake up, sir!” she whispered. “I don't like your expression!” + +He refused to stir, and she drew the tips of her fingers across his ears +and eyelids. + +He rubbed his eyes and muttered: + +“What t'ell?” + +“Let's take a bath in the sea before sunrise--come on!” + +The sleeper groaned heavily, turned over, and in a moment was again dead +to the world. + +Mary's eyes were wide now with excitement. The hours were too marvelous +to be lost in sleep. She could sleep when they must return to the +tiresome world with its endless crowds of people. + +She rose softly, ran barefoot to the beach, threw her night-dress on +the sand and plunged, her white, young body trembling with joy, into the +water. + +It was marvelous--this wonderful hush of the dawn over the infinite sea. +The air and water melted into a pearl gray. Far out toward the east, +the waters began to blush at the kiss of the coming sun. The pearl +gray slowly turned into purple. So startling was the vision, she swam +in-shore and stood knee-deep in the shallows to watch the magic changes. +In breathless wonder she saw the sea and sky and shore turn into a +trembling cloud of dazzling purple. A moment before, she had caught the +water up in her hand and poured it out in a stream of pearls. She lifted +a handful and poured it out now, each drop a dazzling amethyst. And even +while she looked, the purple was changing to scarlet--the amethyst into +rubies! + +A great awe filled her in the solemn hush. She stood in Nature's vast +cathedral, close to God's heart--her life in harmony with His eternal +laws. + +How foolish and artificial were the ways of the far-away, drab, prosaic +world of clothes and houses and furnishings! If she could only live +forever in this dream-world! + +Even while the thought surged through her heart, she lifted her head and +saw the red rim of the sun suddenly break through the sea, and started +lest the white light of day had revealed her to some passing boatman +hurrying to his nets. + +Her keen eye quickly swept the circle of the wide, silent world of +sand-dunes, marsh and waters. No prying eye was near. Only the morning +star still gleaming above saw. And they were twin sisters. + +Four days flew on velvet wings before the first cloud threw its shadow +across her life. Jim always slept until nine o'clock, and refused with +dogged good-natured indifference to stir when she had asked him to get +the wood for breakfast. It was nothing, of course, to walk a hundred +yards to the beach and pick up the wood, and she did it. The hurt that +stung was the feeling that he was growing indifferent. + +She felt for the first time an impulse to box his lazy jaws as he yawned +and turned over for the dozenth time without rising. He looked for all +the world like a bulldog curled up on his bed of grass. + +She shook him at last. + +“Jim, dear, you must get up now! Breakfast is almost ready and it won't +be fit to eat if you don't come on.” + +He opened his heavy eyelids and gazed at her sleepily. + +“All righto----! Just as you say--just as you say.” + +“Hurry! Breakfast will be ready before you can dress.” + +“Gee! Breakfast all ready! You're one smart little wifie, Kiddo.” + +The compliment failed to please. She was sure that he had been fully +awake twice before and pretended to be asleep from sheer laziness and +indifference. + +The thought hurt. + +When they sat down at last to breakfast, she looked into his half-closed +eyes with a sudden start. + +“Why, Jim, your eyes are red!” + +“Yes?” + +“What's the matter?” + +“Nothing.” + +“You're ill--what is it?” + +He grinned sheepishly. + +“You couldn't guess now, could you?” + +“You haven't been drinking!” she gasped. + +“No,” he drawled lazily, “I wouldn't say drinking--I just took one +big swallow last night--makes you sleep good when you're tired. Good +medicine! I always carry a little with me.” + +A sickening wave went over her. Not that she felt that he was going +to be a drunkard. But the utter indifference with which he made the +announcement was a painful revelation of the fact that her opinion on +such a question was not of the slightest importance. That he was now +master of the situation he evidently meant that she should see and +understand at once. + +She refused to accept the humiliating position without a struggle and +made up her mind to try at once to mold his character. She would begin +by getting him to cut the slang from his conversation. + +“You remember the promise you made me one day before we were married, +Jim?” she asked brightly. + +“Which one? You know a fellow's not responsible for what he promises to +get his girl. All's fair in love and war, they say----” + +“I'm going to hold you to this one, sir,” she firmly declared. + +“All right, little bright eyes,” he responded cheerfully as he lit a +cigarette and sent the smoke curling above his red head. + +She sat for a while in silence, studying the man before her. The task +was delicate and difficult. And she had thought it a mere pastime of +love! As her fiance, he had been wax in her hands. As her husband, he +was a lazy, headstrong, obstinate young animal grinning good-naturedly +at her futile protests. How long would he grin and bear her suggestions +with patience? The transition from this lazy grin to the growl of an +angry bulldog might be instantaneous. + +She would move with the utmost caution--but she would move and at once. +It would be a test of character between them. She edged her chair close +to his, drew his head down in her lap and ran her fingers through his +thick, red hair. + +“Still love me, Jim?” she smiled. + +“Crazier over you every day--and you know it, too, you sly little puss,” + he answered dreamily. + +“You WILL make good your promises?” + +“Sure, I will--surest thing you know!” + +“You see, Jim dear,” she went on tenderly, “I want to be proud of +you----” + +“Well, ain't you?” + +“Of course I am, silly. I know you and understand you. But I want all +the world to respect you as I do.” She paused and breathed deeply. +“They've got to do it, too, they've got to----” + +“Sure, I'll knock their block off--if they don't!” he broke in. + +She raised her finger reprovingly and shook her head. + +“That's just the trouble: you can't do it with your fists. You can't +compel the respect of cultured men and women by physical force. We've +got to win with other weapons.” + +“All right, Kiddo--dope it out for me,” he responded lazily. “Dope it +out----” + +Her lips quivered with the painful recognition of the task before her. +Yet when she spoke, her voice was low and sweet and its tones even. She +gave no sign to the man whose heavy form rested in her arms. + +“Then from today we must begin to cut out every word of slang--it's a +bargain?” + +“Sure, Mike--I promised!” + +“Cut `Sure Mike!'” + +She raised her finger severely. + +“All right, teacher,” he drawled. “What'll we put in Sure Mike's place? +I've found him a handy man!” + +“Say `certainly.'” + +Jim grinned good-naturedly. + +“Aw hell, Kiddo--that sounds punk!” + +“And HELL, Jim, isn't a nice word----” + +“Gee, Kid, now look here--can't get along with out HELL--leave me that +one just a little while.” + +She shook her head. + +“No.” + +“No?” + +“And PUNK is expressive, but not suited to parlor use.” + +“All right--t'ell with PUNK!” He turned and looked. “What's the matter +now?” he asked. + +“Don't you realize what you've just said?” + +“What did I say?” + +She turned away to hide a tear. + +He threw his arms around her neck and drew her lips down to his. + +“Ah, don't worry, Kiddo--I'll do better next time. Honest to God, I +will. That's enough for today. Just let's love now. T'ell with the +rest.” + +She smiled in answer. + +“You promise to try honestly?” + +He raised his hand in solemn vow. + +“S'help me!” + +Each day's trial ended in a laugh and a kiss until at last Jim refused +to promise any more. He grinned in obstinate, good-natured silence and +let her do the worrying. + +She watched him with growing wonder and alarm. He gradually lapsed into +little coarse, ugly habits at the table. She tried playfully to +correct them. He took it good-naturedly at first and then ignored her +suggestions as if she were a kitten complaining at his feet. + +She studied him with baffling rage at the mystery of his personality. +The long silences between them grew from hour to hour. She could see +that he was restless now at the isolation of their sand-island home. The +queer lights and shadows that played in his cold blue eyes told only +too plainly that his mind was back again in the world of battle. He was +fighting something, too. + +She was glad of it. She could manage him better there. She would +throw him into the company of educated people and rouse his pride and +ambition. She heard his announcement of their departure on the eighth +day with positive joy. + +“Well, Kiddo,” he began briskly, “we've got to be moving. Time to get +back to work now. The old town and the little shop down in Avenue B have +been calling me.” + +“Today, Jim?” she asked quickly. + +“Right away. We'll catch the first train north, stop two days, Christmas +Eve and Christmas, in Asheville, and then for old New York!” + +The journey along the new railroad built on concrete bridges over miles +of beautiful waters was one of unalloyed joy. They had passed over this +stretch of marvelous engineering at night on their trip down and had not +realized its wonders. For hours the train seemed to be flying on velvet +wings through the ocean. + +She sat beside her lover and held his hand. In spite of her enthusiasm, +he would doze. At every turn of entrancing view she would pinch his arm: + +“Look, Jim! Look!” + +He would lift his heavy eyelids, grunt good-naturedly and doze again. + +In the dining-car she was in mortal terror at first lest he should lapse +into the coarse table manners into which he had fallen in camp. She laid +his napkin conspicuously on his plate and saw that he had opened and put +it in place across his lap before ordering the meals. + +The moment he found himself in a crowd, the lights began to flash in his +eyes, his broad shoulders lifted and his whole being was at once alert +and on guard. He followed his wife's lead with unerring certainty. + +She renewed her faith in his early reformation, though his character +was a puzzle. He seemed to be forever watching out of the corners of his +slumbering eyes. She wondered what it meant. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. THE REAL MAN + +They arrived in Asheville the night before Christmas Eve. Jim listened +to his wife's prattle about the wonderful views with quiet indifference. + +They stopped at the Battery Park Hotel, and she hoped the waning moon +would give them at least a glimpse of the beautiful valley of the French +Broad and Swannanoa rivers and the dark, towering ranges of mountains +among the stars. She made Jim wait on the balcony of the room for half +an hour, but the clouds grew denser and he persisted in nodding. + +His head dipped lower than usual, and she laughed. + +“Poor old sleepy-head!” + +“For the love o' Mike, Kiddo--me for the hay. Won't them mountains wait +till morning?” + +“All right!” she answered cheerily. “I'll pull you out at sunrise. The +sunrise from our window will be glorious.” + +He rose and stretched his body like a young, well fed tiger. + +“I think it's prettier from the bed. But have it your own way--have it +your own way. I'll agree to anything if you lemme go to sleep now.” + +She rose as the first gray fires of dawn began to warm the cloud-banks +on the eastern horizon, stood beside her window and watched in silent +ecstasy. Jim was sleeping heavily. She would not wake him until the +glory of the sunrise was at its height. She loved to watch the changing +lights and shadows in sky and valley and on distant mountain peaks as +the light slowly filtered over the eastern hills. + +She had recovered from the depression of the last days of their camp. +The journey back into the world had improved Jim's manners. There could +be no doubt about his ambitions. His determination to be a millionaire +was the lever she now meant to work in raising his social aspirations. + +Why should she feel depressed? + +Their married life had just begun. The two weeks they had passed on +their honeymoon had been happy beyond her dreams of happiness. Somehow +her imagination had failed to give any conception of the wonder and +glory of this revelation of life. His little lapses of selfishness on +their sand island no doubt came from ignorance of what was expected of +him. + +For one thing she felt especially thankful. There had been no ugly +confessions of a shady past to cloud the joy of their love. Her lover +might be ignorant of the ways of polite society. He was equally free of +its sinister vices. She thanked God for that. The soul of the man she +had married was clean of all memories of women. The love he gave was +fierce in its unrestrained passion--but it was all hers. She gloried in +its strength. + +She made up her mind, standing there in the soft light of the dawn, that +she would bend his iron will to her own in the growing, sweet intimacy +of their married life and threw her fears to the winds. + +The thin, fleecy clouds that hung over the low range of the eastern +foreground were all aglow now, with every tint of the rainbow, while the +sun's bed beyond the hills was flaming in scarlet and gold. + +She clapped her hands in ecstasy. + +“Jim! Jim, dear!” + +He made no response, and she rushed to his side and whispered: + +“You must see this sunrise--get up quick, quick, dear. It's wonderful.” + +“What's the matter?” he muttered. + +“The sunrise over the mountains--quick--it's glorious.” + +His heavy eyelids drooped and closed. He dropped on the pillow and +buried his face out of sight. + +“Ah, Jim dear, do come--just to please me.” + +“I'm dead, Kiddo--dead to the world,” he sighed. “Don't like to see the +sun rise. I never did. Come on back and let's sleep----” + +His last words were barely audible. He was breathing heavily as his lips +ceased to move. + +She gave it up, returned to the window and watched the changing colors +until the white light from the sun's face had touched with life the +last shadows of the valleys and flashed its signals from the farthest +towering peaks. + +Her whole being quivered in response to the beauty of this glorious +mountain world. The air was wine. She loved the sapphire skies and the +warm, lazy, caressing touch of the sun of the South. + +A sense of bitterness came, just for a moment, that the man she had +chosen for her mate had no eye to see these wonders and no ear to hear +their music. During the madness of his whirlwind courtship she had +gotten the impression that his spirit was sensitive to beauty--to the +waters of the bay, the sea and the wooded hills. She must face the +facts. Their stay on the island had convinced her that he had eyes only +for her. She must make the most of it. + +It was ten o'clock before Jim could be persuaded to rise and get +breakfast. She literally pulled him up the stairs to the observatory on +the tower of the hotel. + +“What's the game, Kiddo? What's the game?” he grumbled. + +“Ask me no questions. But do just as I tell you; come on!” + +Her face was radiant, her hair in a tangle of riotous beauty about her +forehead and temples, her eyes sparkling. + +“Don't look till I tell you!” she cried, as they emerged on the little +minaret which crowns the tower. + +“Now open and see the glory of the Lord!” she cried with joyous awe. + +The day was one of matchless beauty. The clouds that swung low in +the early morning had floated higher and higher till they hung now in +shining billows above the highest balsam-crowned peaks in the distance. + +In every direction, as far as the eye could reach, north, south, east, +west, the dark ranges mounted in the azure skies until the farthest dim +lines melted into the heavens. + +“Oh, Jim dear, isn't it wonderful! We're lucky to get this view on our +first day. It's such a good omen.” + +Jim opened his eyes lazily and puffed his cigarette in a calm, +patronizing way. + +“Tough sledding we'd have had with an automobile over those hills,” he +said. “We'll try it after lunch, though.” + +“We'll go for a ride?” she cried joyfully. + +“Yep. Got to hunt up the folks. The mountains near Asheville!” he said +with disgust. “I should say they are near--and far, too. Holy smoke, +I'll bet we get lost!” + +“Nonsense----” + +“Where's the Black Mountains, I wonder?” he asked suddenly. + +“Over there!” She pointed to the giant peaks projecting here and there +in dim, blue waves beyond the Great Craggy Range in the foreground. + +“Holy Moses! Do we have to climb those crags before we start?” + +“To go to Black Mountain?” + +“Yes. That's where the lawyer said they lived, under Cat-tail Peak in +the Black Mountain Range--wherever t'ell that is.” + +“No, no! You don't climb the Great Craggy; you go around this end of it +and follow the Swannanoa River right up to the foot of Mount Mitchell, +the highest peak this side of the Rockies. The Cat-tail is just beyond +Mount Mitchell.” + +“You've been there?” he asked in surprise. + +“Once, with a party from Asheville. We spent three days and slept in +caves.” + +“Suppose you'd know the way now?” + +“We couldn't miss it. We follow the bed of the Swannanoa to its +source-----” + +“Then that settles it. We'll go by ourselves. I don't want any mutt +along to show us the way. We couldn't get lost nohow, could we?” + +“Of course not--all the roads lead to Asheville. We can ask the way to +the house you want, when we reach the little stopping place at the foot +of Mount Mitchell.” + +“Gee, Kid, you're a wonder!” he exclaimed admiringly. “Couldn't get +along without you, now could I?” + +“I hope not, sir!” + +“You bet I couldn't! We'll start right away. The roads will give us a +jolt----” + +He turned suddenly to go. + +“Wait--wait a minute, dear,” she pleaded. “You haven't seen this +gorgeous view to the southwest, with Mount Pisgah looming in the center +like some vast cathedral spire--look, isn't it glorious?” + +“Fine! Fine!” he responded in quick, businesslike tones. + +“You can look for days and weeks and not begin to realize the changing +beauty of these mountains, clothed in eternal green! Just think, dear, +Mount Pisgah, there, is forty miles away, and it looks as if you +could stroll over to it in an hour's walk. And there are twenty-three +magnificent peaks like that, all of them more than six thousand feet +high----” + +She paused with a frown. He was neither looking nor listening. He had +fallen into a brown study; his mind was miles away. + +“You're not listening, Jim--nor seeing anything,” she said +reproachfully. + +“No--Kiddo, we must get ready for that trip. I've got a letter for a +lawyer downtown. I'll find him and hire a car. I'll be back here for you +in an hour. You'll be ready?” + +“Right away, in half an hour----” + +“Just pack a suit-case for us both. We'll stay one night. I'll take a +bag, too, that I have in my trunk.” + +It was noon before he returned with a staunch touring car ready for the +trip. He opened the little steamer trunk which he had always kept locked +and took from it a small leather bag. He placed it on the floor, and, in +spite of careful handling, the ring of metal inside could be distinctly +heard. + +“What on earth have you got in that queer black bag?” she asked in +surprise. + +“Oh, just a lot o' junk from the shop. I thought I might tinker with +it at odd times. I don't want to leave it here. It's got one of my new +models in it.” + +He carried the bag in his hand, refusing to allow the porter who came +for the suit-case to touch it. + +He threw the suit-case in the bottom of the tonneau. The bag he stowed +carefully under the cushions of the rear seat. The moment he placed his +hand on the wheel of the machine, he was at his best. Every trace of the +street gamin fell from him. Again he was the eagle-eyed master of +time and space. The machine answered his touch with more than human +obedience. He knew how to humor its mood. He conserved its power for a +hill with unerring accuracy and threw it over the grades with rarely +a pause to change his speeds. He could turn the sharp curves with such +swift, easy grace that he scarcely caused Mary's body to swerve an inch. +He could sense a rough place in the road and glide over it with velvet +touch. + +A tire blew out, five miles up the stream from Asheville, and the easy, +business-like deliberation with which he removed the old and adjusted +the new, was a revelation to Mary of a new phase of his character. + +He never once grunted, or swore, or lost his poise, or manifested +the slightest impatience. He set about his task coolly, carefully, +skillfully, and finished it quickly and silently. + +His long silences at last began to worry her. An invisible barrier had +reared itself between them. The impression was purely mental--but it was +none the less real and distressing. + +There was a look of aloof absorption about him she had never seen +before. At first she attributed it to the dread of meeting his kinsfolk +for the first time, his fear of what they might be like or what they +might think of him. + +He answered her questions cheerfully but mechanically. Sometimes he +stared at her in a cold, impersonal way and gave no answer, as if her +questions were an impertinence and she were not of sufficient importance +to waste his breath on. + +Unable at last to endure the strain, she burst out impatiently: + +“What on earth's the matter with you, Jim?” + +“Why?” he asked softly. + +“You haven't spoken to me in half an hour, and I've asked you two +questions.” + +“Just studying about something, Kiddo, something big. I'll tell you +sometime, maybe--not now.” + +Slowly a great fear began to shape itself in her heart. The real man +behind those slumbering eyes she had never known. Who was he? + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. UNWELCOME GUESTS + +While she was yet puzzling over the strange mood of absorbed brooding +into which Jim had fallen, his face suddenly lighted, and he changed +with such rapidity that her uneasiness was doubled. + +They had reached the stretches of deep forest at the foot of the Black +Mountain ranges. The Swannanoa had become a silver thread of laughing, +foaming spray and deep, still pools beneath the rocks. The fields were +few and small. The little clearings made scarcely an impression in the +towering virgin forests. + +“Great guns, Kiddo!” he exclaimed, “this is some country! By George, I +had no idea there was such a place so close to New York!” + +She looked at him with uneasy surprise. What could be in his mind? The +solemn gorge through which they were passing gave no entrancing views +of clouds or sky or towering peaks. Its wooded cliffs hung ominously +overhead in threatening shadows. The scene had depressed her after the +vast sunlit spaces of sky, of shining valleys and cloud-capped, sapphire +peaks on which they had turned their backs. + +“You like this, Jim?” she asked. + +“It's great--great!” + +“I thought that waterfall we just passed was very beautiful.” + +“I didn't see it. But this is something like it. You're clean out of the +world here--and there ain't a railroad in twenty miles!” + +The deeper the shadows of tree and threatening crag, the higher Jim's +strange spirit seemed to rise. + +She watched him with increasing fear. How little she knew the real man! +Could it be possible that this lonely, unlettered boy of the streets +of lower New York, starved and stunted in childhood, had within him the +soul of a great poet? How else could she explain the sudden rapture over +the threatening silences and shadows of these mountain gorges which +had depressed her? And yet his utter indifference to the glories of +beautiful waters, his blindness at noon before the most wonderful +panorama of mountains and skies on which she had ever gazed, +contradicted the theory of the poetic soul. A poet must see beauty where +she had seen it--and a thousand wonders her eyes had not found. + +His elation was uncanny. What could it mean? + +He was driving now with a skill that was remarkable, a curious +smile playing about his drooping, Oriental eyelids. A wave of fierce +resentment swept her heart. She was a mere plaything in this man's life. +The real man she had never seen. What was he thinking about? What grim +secret lay behind the mysterious smile that flickered about the corners +of those eyes? He was not thinking of her. The mood was new and cold and +cynical, for all the laughter he might put in it. + +She asked herself the question of his past, his people, his real +life-history. The only answer was his baffling, mysterious smile. + +A frown suddenly clouded his face. + +“Hello! Ye're running right into a man's yard!” + +Mary lifted her head with quick surprise. + +“Why yes, it's the stopping place for the parties that climb Mount +Mitchell. I remember it. We stayed all night here, left our rig, and +started next morning at sunrise on horseback to climb the trail.” + +“Pretty near the jumping-off place, then,” he remarked. “We'll ask the +way to Cat-tail Peak.” + +He stopped the car in front of the low-pitched, weather-stained frame +house and blew the horn. + +A mountain woman with three open-eyed, silent children came slowly to +meet them. + +She smiled pleasantly, and without embarrassment spoke in a pleasant +drawl: + +“Won't you 'light and look at your saddle?” + +The expression caught Jim's fancy, and he broke into a roar of laughter. +The woman blushed and laughed with him. She couldn't understand what was +the matter with the man. Why should he explode over the simple greeting +in which she had expressed her pleasure at their arrival? + +Anyhow, she was an innkeeper's wife, and her business was to make folks +feel at home--so she laughed again with Jim. + +“You know that's the funniest invitation I ever got in a car,” he cried +at last. “We fly in these things sometimes. And when you said, `Won't +you 'light,'”--he paused and turned to his wife--“I could just feel +myself up in the air on that big old racer's back.” + +“Won't you-all stay all night with us?” the soft voice drawled again. + +“Thank you, not tonight,” Mary answered. + +She waited for Jim to ask the way. + +“No--not tonight,” he repeated. “You happen to know an old woman by the +name of Owens who lives up here?” + +“Nance Owens?” + +“That's her name.” + +“Lord, everybody knows old Nance!” was the smiling answer. + +“She ain't got good sense!” the tow-headed boy spoke up. + +“Sh!” the mother warned, boxing his ears. + +“She's a little queer, that's all. Everybody knows her in Buncombe and +Yancey counties. Her house is built across the county line. She eats in +Yancey and sleeps in Buncombe----” + +“Yes,” broke in the boy joyously, “an' when the Sheriff o' Yancey comes, +she moves back into Buncombe. She's some punkin's on a green gourd vine, +she is--if she ain't got good sense.” + +His mother struck at him again, but he dodged the blow and finished his +speech without losing a word. + +“Could you tell us the way to her house?” + +“Keep right on this road, and you can't miss it.” + +“How far is it?” + +“Oh, not far.” + +“No; right at the bottom o' the Cat's-tail,” the boy joyfully explained. + +“He means the foot o' Cat-tail Peak!” the mother apologized. + +“How many miles?” + +“Just a little ways--ye can't miss it; the third house you come to on +this road.” + +“You'll be there in three shakes of a sheep's tail--in that thing!” the +boy declared. + +Jim waved his thanks, threw in his gear, and the car shot forward on +the level stretch of road beyond the house. He slowed down when out of +sight. + +“Gee! I'd love to have that kid in a wood-shed with a nice shingle all +by ourselves for just ten minutes.” + +“The people spoil him,” Mary laughed. “The people who stop there for the +Mount Mitchell climb. He was a baby when I was there six years ago”--she +paused and a rapt look crept into her eyes--“a beautiful little baby, +her first-born, and she was the happiest thing I ever saw in my life.” + +Her voice sank to a whisper. + +A vision suddenly illumined her own soul, and she forgot her anxiety +over Jim's queer moods. + +Deeper and deeper grew the shadows of crag, gorge, and primeval forest. +The speedometer on the foot-board registered five miles from the Mount +Mitchell house. They had passed two cabins by the way, and still no sign +of the third. + +“Why couldn't she tell us how many miles, I'd like to know?” Jim +grumbled. + +“It's the way of the mountain folk. They're noncommittal on distances.” + +He stopped the car and lighted the lamps. + +“Going to be dark in a minute,” he said. “But I like this place,” he +added. + +He picked his way with care over the narrow road. They crossed the +little stream they were trailing, and the car crawled over the rocks +along the banks at a snail's pace. + +An owl called from a dead tree-top silhouetted against an open space of +sky ahead. + +“Must be a clearing there,” Jim muttered. + +He stopped the car and listened for the sounds of life about a house. + +A vast, brooding silence filled the world. A wolf howled from the edge +of a distant crag somewhere overhead. + +“For God's sake!” Jim shivered. “What was that?” + +“Only a mountain wolf crying for company.” + +“Wolves up here?” he asked in surprise. + +“A few--harmless, timid, lonesome fellows. It makes me sorry for them +when I hear one.” + +“Great country! I like it!” Jim responded. + +Again she wondered why. What a queer mixture of strength and +mystery--this man she had married! + +He started the car, turned a bend in the road, and squarely in +front, not more than a hundred yards away, gleamed a light in a cabin +window--four tiny panes of glass. + +“By Geeminy, we come near stopping in the front yard without knowing +it!” he exclaimed. “Didn't we?” + +“I'm glad she's at home!” Mary exclaimed. “The light shines with a +friendly glow in these deep shadows.” + +“Afraid, Kiddo?” he asked lightly. + +“I don't like these dark places.” + +“All right when you get used to 'em--safer than daylight.” + +Again her heart beat at his queer speech. She shivered at the thought of +this uncanny trait of character so suddenly developed today. She made +an effort to throw off her depression. It would vanish with the sun +tomorrow morning. + +He picked his way carefully among the trees and stopped in front of the +cabin door. The little house sat back from the road a hundred feet or +more. + +He blew his horn twice and waited. + +A sudden crash inside, and the light went out. He waited a moment for it +to come back. + +Only darkness and dead silence. + +“Suppose she dropped dead and kicked over the lamp?” Jim laughed. + +“She probably took the lamp into another room.” + +“No; it went out too quick--and it went out with a crash.” + +He blew his horn again. + +Still no answer. + +“Hello! Hello!” he called loudly. + +Someone stirred at the door. Jim's keen ear was turned toward the house. + +“I heard her bar the door, I'll swear it.” + +“How foolish, Jim!” Mary whispered. “You couldn't have heard it.” + +“All the same I did. Here's a pretty kettle of fish! The old hellion's +not even going to let us in.” + +He seized the lever of his horn and blew one terrific blast after +another, in weird, uncanny sobs and wails, ending in a shriek like the +last cry of a lost soul. + +“Don't, Jim!” Mary cried, shivering. “You'll frighten her to death.” + +“I hope so.” + +“Go up and speak to her--and knock on the door.” + +He waited again in silence, scrambled out of the car, and fumbled his +way through the shadows to the dark outlines of the cabin. He found the +porch on which the front door opened. + +His light foot touched the log with sure step, and he walked softly to +the cabin wall. The door was not yet visible in the pitch darkness. His +auto lights were turned the other way and threw their concentrated rays +far down into the deep woods. + +He listened intently for a moment and caught the cat-like tread of the +old woman inside. + +“I say--hello, in there!” he called. + +Again the sound of her quick, furtive step told him that she was on the +alert and determined to defend her castle against all comers. What if +she should slip an old rifle through a crack and blow his head off? + +She might do it, too! + +He must make her open the door. + +“Say, what's the matter in there?” he asked persuasively. + +A moment's silence, and then a gruff voice slowly answered: + +“They ain't nobody at home!” + +“The hell they ain't!” Jim laughed. + +“No!” + +“Who are you?” + +She hesitated and then growled back: + +“None o' your business. Who are you?” + +“We're strangers up here--lost our way. It's cold--we got to stop for +the night.” + +“Ye can't--they's nobody home, I tell ye!” she repeated with sullen +emphasis. + +Jim broke into a genial laugh. + +“Ah! Come on, old girl! Open up and be sociable. We're not revenue +officers or sheriffs. If you've got any good mountain whiskey, I'll help +you drink it.” + +“Who are ye?” she repeated savagely. + +“Ah, just a couple o' gentle, cooing turtle-doves--a bride and groom. +Loosen up, old girl; it's Christmas Eve--and we're just a couple o' +gentle cooin' doves----” + +Jim kept up his persuasive eloquence until the light of the candle +flashed through the window, and he heard her slip the heavy bar from the +door. + +He lost no time in pushing his way inside. + +Nance threw a startled look at his enormous, shaggy fur coat--at the +shining aluminum goggles almost completely masking his face. She gave +a low, breathless scream, hurled the door-bar crashing to the floor +and stared at him like a wild, hunted animal at bay, her thin hands +trembling, the iron-gray hair tumbling over her forehead. + +“Oh, my God!” she wailed, crouching back. + +Jim gazed at her in amazement. He had forgotten his goggles and fur +coat. + +“What's the matter?” he asked in high-keyed tones of surprise. + +Nance made no answer but crouched lower and attempted to put the table +between them. + +“What t'ell Bill ails you--will you tell me?” he asked with rising +wrath. + +“I THOUGHT you wuz the devil,” the old woman panted. “Now I KNOW it!” + +Jim suddenly remembered his goggles and coat, and broke into a laugh. + +“Oh!” + +He removed his goggles and cap, threw back his big coat and squared his +shoulders with a smile. + +“How's that?” + +Nance glowered at him with ill-concealed rage, looked him over from head +to foot, and answered with a snarl: + +“'Tain't much better--ef ye ax ME!” + +“Gee! But you're a sociable old wild-cat!” he exclaimed, starting back +as if she had struck him a blow. + +His eye caught the dried skin of a young wildcat hanging on the log +wall. + +“No wonder you skinned your neighbor and hung her up to dry,” he added +moodily. + +He took in the room with deliberate insolence while the old woman stood +awkwardly watching him, shifting her position uneasily from one foot to +the other. + +In all his miserable life in New York he could not recall a room more +bare of comforts. The rough logs were chinked with pieces of wood and +daubed with red clay. The door was made of rough boards, the ceiling +of hewn logs with split slabs laid across them. An old-fashioned, tall +spinning wheel, dirty and unused, sat in the corner. A rough pine table +was in the middle of the floor and a smaller one against the wall. +On this side table sat two rusty flat-irons, and against it leaned an +ironing board. A dirty piece of turkey-red calico hung on a string for +a portiere at the opening which evidently led into a sort of kitchen +somewhere in the darkness beyond. + +The walls were decorated at intervals. A huge bunch of onions hung on +a wooden peg beside the wild-cat skin. Over the window was slung an +old-fashioned muzzle-loading musket. The sling which held it was made of +a pair of ancient home-made suspenders fastened to the logs with nails. +Beneath the gun hung a cow's horn, cut and finished for powder, and with +it a dirty game-bag. Strings of red peppers were strung along each of +the walls, with here and there bunches of popcorn in the ears. A pile of +black walnuts lay in one corner of the cabin and a pile of hickory nuts +in another. + +A three-legged wooden stool and a split-bottom chair stood beside the +table, and a haircloth couch, which looked as if it had been saved from +the Ark, was pushed near the wall beside the door. + +Across this couch was thrown a ragged patchwork quilt, and a pillow +covered with calico rested on one end, with the mark of a head dented +deep in the center. + +Jim shrugged his shoulders with a look of disgust, stepped quickly to +the door and called: + +“Come on in, Kid!” + +Nance fumbled her thin hands nervously and spoke with the faintest +suggestion of a sob in her voice. + +“I ain't got nothin' for ye to eat----” + +“We've had dinner,” he answered carelessly. + +He stepped to the door and called: + +“Bring that little bag from under the seat, Kiddo.” + +He held the door open, and the light streamed across the yard to the +car. He watched her steadily while she raised the cushion of the rear +seat, lifted the bag and sprang from the car. His keen eye never left +her for an instant until she placed it in his hands. + +“Mercy, but it's heavy!” she panted, as she gave it to him. + +He took it without a word and placed it on the table in the center of +the room. + +Nance glared at him sullenly. + +“There's no place for ye, I tell ye----” + +Jim faced her with mock politeness. + +“For them kind words--thanks!” + +He bowed low and swept the room with a mocking gesture. + +“There ain't no room for ye,” the old woman persisted. + +Jim raised his voice to a squeaking falsetto with deliberate purpose to +torment her. + +“I got ye the first time, darlin'!” he exclaimed, lifting his hands +above her as if to hold her down. “We must linger awhile for your +name--anyhow, we mustn't forget that. This is Mrs. Nance Owens?” + +The old woman started and watched him from beneath her heavy eyebrows, +answering with sullen emphasis: + +“Yes.” + +Again Jim lifted his hands above his head and waved her to earth. + +“Well! Don't blame me! I can't help it, you know----” + +He turned to his wife and spoke with jolly good humor. + +“It's the place, all right. Set down, Kiddo--take off your hat and +things. Make yourself at home.” + +Nance flew at him in a sudden frenzy at his assumption of insolent +ownership of her cabin. + +“There's no place for ye to sleep!” she fairly shrieked in his face. + +Again Jim's arms were over her head, waving her down. + +“All right, sweetheart! We're from New York. We don't sleep. We've come +all the way down here to the mountains of North Carolina just to see +you. And we're goin' to sit up all night and look at ye----” + +He sat down deliberately, and Nance fumbled her hands with a nervous +movement. + +Mary's heart went out in sympathy to the forlorn old creature in her +embarrassment. Her dress was dirty and ragged, an ill-fitting gingham, +the elbows out and her bare, bony arms showing through. The waist was +too short and always slipping from the belt of wrinkled cloth beneath +which she kept trying to stuff it. + +Mary caught her restless eye at last and held it in a friendly look. + +“Please let us stay!” she pleaded. “We can sleep on the +floor--anywhere.” + +“You bet!” Jim joined in. “Married two weeks--and I don't care whether +it rains or whether it pours or how long I have to stand outdoors--if I +can be with you, Kid.” + +The old woman hesitated until Mary's smile melted its way into her +heart. + +Her lips trembled, and her watery blue eyes blinked. + +“Well,” she began grumblingly, “thar's a little single bed in that +shed-room thar for you--ef he'll sleep in here on the sofy.” + +Jim leaped to his feet. + +“What do ye think of that? Bully for the old gal! Kinder slow at first. +As the poet sings of the little bed-bug, she ain't got no wings--but she +gets there just the same!” + +He drew the electric torch from his pocket and advanced on Nance. + +“By Golly--I'll have another look at you.” + +Nance backed in terror at the sight of the revolver-like instrument. + +“What's that?” she gasped. + +“Just a little Gatlin' gun!” he cried jokingly. He pressed the button, +and the light flashed squarely in the old woman's eyes. + +“God 'lmighty--don't shoot!” she screamed. + +Jim doubled with laughter. + +“For the love o' Mike!” + +Nance leaned against the side table and wiped the perspiration from her +brow. + +“Lord! I thought you'd kilt me!” she panted, still trembling. + +“Ah, don't be foolish!” Jim said persuasively. “It can't hurt you. Here, +take it in your hand--I'll show you how to work it. It's to nose round +dark places under the buzz-wagon.” + +He held it out to Nance. + +“Here, take it and press the button.” + +The old woman drew back. + +“No--no--I'm skeered! No----” + +Jim thrust the torch into her hand and forced her to hold it. + +“Oh, come on, it's easy. Push your finger right down on the button.” + +Nance tried it gingerly at first, and then laughed at the ease with +which it could be done. She flashed it on the floor again and again. + +“Why, it's like a big lightnin' bug, ain't it?” + +She turned the end of it up to examine more closely, pushed the button +unconsciously, and the light flashed in her eyes. She jumped and handed +it quickly to Jim. + +“Or a jack o' lantern--here, take it,” she cried, still trembling. + +Jim threw his hands up with a laugh. + +“Can you beat it!” + +Backing quickly to the door, Nance called nervously to Mary: + +“I'll get your room ready in a minute, ma'am.” She paused and glanced at +Jim. + +“And thar's a shed out thar you can put your devil wagon in----” + +She slipped through the dirty calico curtains, and Mary saw her go with +wondering pity in her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. A LITTLE BLACK BAG + +Mary watched Nance, with a quick glance at Jim. Again he had forgotten +that he had a wife. She had studied this strange absorption with +increasing uneasiness. During the long, beautiful drive of the afternoon +beside laughing waters, through scenes of unparalleled splendor, through +valleys of entrancing peace, the still, sapphire skies bending above +with clear, Southern Christmas benediction, he had not once pressed her +hand, he had not once bent to kiss her. + +Each time the thought had come, she fought back the tears. She had +made excuses for him. He was absorbed in the memories of his miserable +childhood in New York, perhaps. The approaching meeting with his +relatives had awakened the old hunger for a mother's love that had +been denied him. The scenes through which they were passing had perhaps +stirred the currents of his subconscious being. + +And yet why should such memories estrange his spirit from hers? The +effect should be the opposite. In the remembrance of his loneliness and +suffering, he should instinctively turn to her. The love with which she +had unfolded his life should redeem the past. + +He was standing now with his heavy chin silhouetted against the +flickering light of the candle on the table. His hand closed suddenly +on the handle of the bag with the swift clutch of an eagle's claw. She +started at the ugly picture it made in the dim rays of the candle. + +What were the thoughts seething behind the mask of his face? She watched +him, spellbound by his complete surrender to the mood that had dominated +him from the moment he had touched the deep forests of the Black +Mountain range. A grim elation ruled even his silences. The man standing +there rigid, his face a smiling, twitching mask, was a stranger. This +man she had never known, or loved. And yet they were bound for life in +the tenderest and strongest ties that can hold the human soul and body. + +She tossed her head and threw off the ugly thought. It was morbid +nonsense! She was just hungry for a kiss, and in his new environment he +had forgotten himself as many thoughtless men had forgotten before and +would forget again. + +“Jim!” she whispered tenderly. + +He made no answer. His thick lips were drawn in deep, twisted lines +on one side, as if he had suddenly reached a decision from which there +could be no appeal. + +She raised her voice slightly. + +“Jim?” + +Not a muscle of his body moved. The drawn lines of the mouth merely +relaxed. His answer was scarcely audible. + +“Yep----” + +“She's gone!” + +“Yep----” + +She moved toward him wistfully. + +“Aren't you forgetting something?” + +His square jaw still held its rigid position silhouetted in sharp +profile against the candle's light. He answered slowly and mechanically. + +“What?” + +His indifference was more than the sore heart could bear. The pent-up +tears of the afternoon dashed in flood against the barriers of her will. + +“You--haven't--kissed--me--today,” she stammered, struggling with each +word to save a break. + +Still he stood immovable. This time his answer was tinged with the +slightest suggestion of amusement. + +“No?” + +She staggered against the table beside the door and gripped its edge +desperately. + +“Oh--” she gasped. “Don't you love me any more?” + +With his sullen head still holding its position of indifference, his +absorption in the idea which dominated his mind still unbroken, he threw +out one hand in a gesture of irritation. + +“Cut it, Kid! Cut it!” + +His tones were not only indifferent; they were contemptuously +indifferent. + +With a sob, she sank into the chair and buried her face in her arms. + +“You're tired! I see it now; you've tired of me. Oh--it's not +possible--it's not possible!” + +The torrent came at last in a flood of utter abandonment. + +Jim turned, looked at her and threw up his hands in temporary surrender. + +“Oh, for God's sake!” he muttered, crossing deliberately to her side. He +stood and let her sob. + +With a quick change of mood, he drew her to her feet, swept her swaying +form into his arms, crushed her and covered her lips with kisses. + +“How's that?” + +She smiled through her tears. + +“I feel better----” + +Jim laughed. + +“For better or worse--`until Death do us part'--that's what you said, +Kid, and you meant it, too, didn't you?” + +He seized both of her arms, held them firmly and gazed into her eyes +with steady, stern inquiry. + +She looked up with uneasy surprise. + +“Of course--I meant it,” she answered slowly. + +He held her arms gripped close and said: + +“Well--we'll see!” + +His hands relaxed, and he turned away, rubbing his square chin +thoughtfully. + +She watched him in growing amazement. What could be the mystery back of +this new twist of his elusive mind? + +He laid his hand on the black bag again, smiled, and turned and faced +her with expanding good humor. + +“Great scheme, this marryin', Kid! And you believe in it exactly as I +do, don't you?” + +“How do you mean?” she faltered. + +“That it binds and holds both our lives as only Almighty God can bind +and hold?” + +“Yes--nothing else IS marriage.” + +“That's what I say, too!” + +He placed his hands on her shoulders. + +“Great scheme!” he repeated. “I get a pretty girl to work for me for +nothing for the balance of my life.” He paused and lifted the slender +forefinger of his right hand. “And you pledged your pious soul--I +memorized the words, every one of them: `I, Mary, take thee, James, +to my wedded husband--TO HAVE AND TO HOLD from this day forward, FOR +BETTER, FOR WORSE, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, +to love, cherish AND OBEY, TIL DEATH DO US PART, ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY +ORDINANCE; AND THEREUNTO I GIVE THEE MY TROTH----'” + +He paused, lifted his head and smiled grimly: “That's some promise, +believe me, Kiddo! `AND OBEY'--you meant it all, didn't you?” + +She would have hedged lightly over that ugly old word which still +survived in the ceremony Craddock had used, but for the sinister +suggestion in his voice back of the playful banter. He had asked it half +in jest, half in earnest. She had caught by the subtle sixth sense the +tragic idea in that one word that he was going to hold her to it. The +thought was too absurd! + +“OBEY--you meant it, didn't you?” he repeated grimly. + +A smile played about the corners of her mouth as she answered dreamily: + +“Yes--I--I--PROMISED!” + +“That's why I set my head on you from the first--you're good and +sweet--you're the real thing.” + +Again she caught the sinister suggestion in his tone and threw him a +startled look. + +“What has come over you today, Jim?” she asked. + +He hesitated and answered carelessly. + +“Oh, nothing, Kiddo--just been thinking a little about business. Got +to go to work, you know.” He returned to the table and touched the bag +lightly. + +“Watch out now for this bag while I put up the car--and don't forget +that curiosity killed the cat.” + +Quick as a flash, she asked: + +“What's in it?” + +Jim threw up his hands and laughed. + +“Didn't I tell you that curiosity killed a cat?” He pointed to the skin +on the wall. “That's what stretched that wild-cat's hide up there! She +got too near the old musket!” + +“Anyhow, I'm not afraid of her end--what's in it?” + +Jim scratched his red head and looked at her thoughtfully. + +“You asked me that once before today, didn't you?” + +“Yes----” + +“Well, it's a little secret of mine. Take my advice--put your hand on +it, but not in it.” + +Again the sinister look and tone chilled her. + +“I don't like secrets between us, Jim,” she said. + +She looked at the bag reproachfully, and he watched her keenly--then +laughed. + +“I'd as well tell you and be done with it; you'll go in it anyhow.” + +She tossed her head with a touch of angry pride. He took her hand, led +her across the room and placed it on the valise. + +“I've got five thousand dollars in gold in that bag.” + +She drew back, surprised beyond the power of speech. + +“And I'm going to give it to this old woman----” + +“To her--why?” she gasped. + +“She's my mother.” + +“Your MOTHER?” + +“Yes.” + +“I--I--thought--you told me she was dead.” + +“No. I said that I didn't know who she was.” + +He paused, and a queer brooding look crept into his face. + +“I haven't seen her since I was a little duffer three years old. This +room and these wild crags and trees come back to me now--just a glimpse +of them here and there. I've always remembered them. I thought I'd +dreamed it----” + +“You remember--how wonderful!” she breathed reverently. She understood +now, and the clouds lifted. + +“The skunk I called my daddy,” Jim went on thoughtfully, “took me to New +York. He said that my mother deserted me when I was a kid. I believed +him at first. But when he beat me and kicked me into the streets, I knew +he was a liar. When I got grown I began to think and wonder about her. I +hired a lawyer that knew my daddy, and he found her here----” + +With a cry of joy, she seized his arms: + +“Tell her quick! Oh, you're big and fine and generous, Jim--and I knew +it! They said that you were a brute. I knew they lied. Tell her quick!” + +He lifted his hand in protest. + +“Nope--I'm going to put up a little job on the old girl--show her the +money tonight, get her wild at the sight of it--and give it to her +Christmas morning. We've only a few hours to wait----” + +“Oh, give it to her now--Jim! Give it to her now!” + +He shook his head and walked to the door. + +“I want to say something to her first and give her time to think it +over. Look out for the bag, and I'll bring in the things.” + +He swung the rough board door wide, slammed it and disappeared in the +darkness. + +The young wife watched the bag a moment with consuming curiosity. She +had fiercely resented his insulting insinuations at her curiosity, and +yet she was wild to look at that glowing pile of gold inside and picture +the old woman's joyous surprise. + +Her hand touched the lock carelessly and drew back as if her finger had +been burned. She put her hands behind her and crossed the room. + +“I won't be so weak and silly!” she cried fiercely. + +She heard Jim cranking the car. It would take him five minutes more to +start it, get it under the shed and bring in the suit-case and robes. + +“Why shouldn't I see it!” she exclaimed. “He has told me about it.” She +hesitated and struggled for a moment, quickly walked back to the bag and +touched the spring. It yielded instantly. + +“Why, it's not even locked!” she cried in tones of surprise at her silly +scruples. + +Her hand had just touched the gold when Nance entered. + +She snapped the bag and smiled at the old woman carelessly. What a sweet +surprise she would have tomorrow morning! + +Nance crossed slowly, glancing once at the girl wistfully as if she +wanted to say something friendly, and then, alarmed at her presumption, +hurried on into the little shed-room. + +Mary waited until she returned. + +“Room's all ready in thar, ma'am,” she drawled, passing into the kitchen +without a pause. + +“All right--thank you,” Mary answered. + +She quickly opened the bag, thrust her hand into the gold and +withdrew it, holding a costly green-leather jewelry-case of exquisite +workmanship. There could be no mistake about its value. + +With a cry of joy, she started back, staring at the little box. + +“Another surprise! And for me! Oh, Jim, man, you're glorious! My +Christmas present, of course! I mustn't look at it--I won't!” + +She pushed the case from her toward the bag and drew it back again. + +“What's the difference? I'll take one little, tiny peep.” + +She touched the spring and caught her breath. A string of pearls fit for +the neck of a princess lay shining in its soft depths. She lifted them +with a sigh of delight. Her eye suddenly rested on a stanza of poetry +scrawled on the satin lining in the trembling hand of an old man she had +known. + +She dropped the pearls with a cry of terror. Her face went white, and +she gasped for breath. The jewel-case in her hand she had seen before. +It had belonged to the old gentleman who lived in the front room on the +first floor of her building in the days when it was a boarding house. +The wife he had idolized was long ago dead. This string of pearls from +her neck the old man had worshiped for years. The stanza from “The +Rosary” he had scrawled in the lining one day in Mary's presence. He had +moved uptown with the landlady. Two months ago a burglar had entered his +room, robbed and shot him. + +“It's impossible--impossible!” she gasped. “Oh, dear God--it's +impossible! Of course the burglar pawned them, and Jim bought them +without knowing. Of course! My nerves are on edge today--how silly of +me----” + +Jim's footsteps suddenly sounded on the porch, and she thrust the +jewel-case back into the bag with desperate effort to pull herself +together. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. THE AWAKENING + +For a moment she felt the foundations of the moral and physical world +sinking beneath her feet. Dizziness swept her senses. She gripped +the table, leaning heavily against it, her eye watching the door with +feverish terror for Jim's appearance. + +She had never fainted in her life. It was absurd, but the room was +swimming now in a dim blur. Again she gripped the table and set her +teeth. She simply would not give up. Why should she leap to the worst +possible explanation of the jewels? The hatred of old Ella for Jim and +the furious antagonism of Jane Anderson had poisoned her mind, after +all. It was infamous that she could suspect her husband of crime merely +because two silly women didn't like him. + +He could explain the jewels. He, of course, asked no questions of the +pawn-broker. They were probably sold at auction and he bought them. + +It seemed an eternity from the time Jim's foot step echoed on the little +porch until he pushed the door open and hastily entered, his arms piled +with lap-robes, coats and the dress-suit case in his hand. + +He walked with quick, firm step, threw the coats and robes on the couch +and placed the suit-case at its head. He hadn't turned toward her and +his face was still in profile while he removed the gloves from his +pockets, threw them on the robes, and drew the scarlet woolen neckpiece +from his throat. + +She was studying him now with new terror-stricken eyes. Never had she +seen his jaw look so big and brutal. Never had the droop of his eyelids +suggested such menace. Never had the contrast of his slender hands and +feet suggested such hideous possibilities. + +“Merciful God! No! No!” she kept repeating in her soul while her dilated +eyes stared at him in sheer horror of the suggestion which the jewels +had roused. + +She drew a deep breath and strangled the idea by her will. + +“I'll at least be as fair as a jury,” she thought grimly. “I'll not +condemn him without a hearing.” + +Jim suddenly became aware of the menace of her silence. She had not +moved a muscle, spoken or made the slightest sound since he had entered. +He had merely taken in the room at a glance and had seen her standing in +precisely the same place beside the table. + +He saw now that she was leaning heavily against it. + +He raised his head and faced her with a sudden, bold stare, and his +voice rang in tones of sharp command. + +“Well?” + +She tried to speak and failed. She had not yet sufficiently mastered her +emotions. + +“What's the matter?” he growled. + +“Jim----” she gasped. + +He took a step toward her with set teeth. + +“You've been in that bag--Well?” + +Her face was white, her voice husky. + +“Those jewels, Jim----” + +A cunning smile played about his mouth and he shook his head. + +“I tried to keep my little secret from you till Christmas morning; but +you're on to my curves now, Kiddo, and I'll have to 'fess up----” + +“You bought them for me?” she asked with trembling eagerness. + +“Who else do you reckon I'd buy 'em for? I was going to surprise you, +too, tomorrow morning. You've spoiled the fun.” + +She had slipped close to his side and he could hear her quick intake of +breath. + +“That's--so--sweet of you, Jim. I'm sorry--I--spoiled the +surprise--you'd--planned----” + +“Oh, what's the difference!” he broke in carelessly. “It's all the same +five minutes after, anyhow. Well, don't you like 'em? Why don't you say +something?” + +“They're wonderful, Jim. Where--where--did you buy them?” + +He held her gaze in silence for an instant and fenced. + +“Isn't that a funny question, Kiddo?” he said in low tones. “I once +heard the old man I worked with in the shop say that you shouldn't look +a gift horse in the mouth.” + +“I just want to know,” she insisted. + +“I'm not going to tell you!” he said with a dry laugh. + +“Why not?” + +“Because you keep asking.” + +“You wish to tease me?” + +“Maybe.” + +“Please!” + +“Why do you want to know? Are you afraid they're fakes?” + +“No, they're beautiful--they're wonderful.” + +“Well, if you don't want them,” he broke in angrily, “I'll keep them. +I'll sell them.” + +“Don't tease me, Jim!” she begged. “I don't mind if you bought them at +a pawn-shop--if that's why you won't tell me. That is the reason, isn't +it? Honestly, isn't it?” + +She asked the question with eager intensity. She had persuaded herself +that it was so and the horror had been lifted. She pressed close with +smiling, trembling lips: + +“I don't mind that, Jim! You got them from a pawn-broker, of course, +didn't you?” + +He looked at her with a puzzled expression and hesitated. + +“Didn't you?” she repeated. + +“No--I didn't!” was the curt answer. + +“You didn't?” she echoed feebly. + +“No!” + +With a quick breath she unconsciously drew back and he glared at her +angrily. + +“Say, what'ell's the matter with you, anyhow? Have you gone crazy?” + +“You--won't--tell me--where you bought them?” she asked slowly. + +He faced her squarely and spoke with deliberate contempt: + +“It's--none--of your business!” + +She held his gaze with steady determination. + +“That string of pearls belongs to the man who once lived in the front +room of my old building in New York. He moved uptown with my landlady. A +few months ago a burglar robbed and shot him----” + +She stopped, seized his arm and cried with strangling horror: + +“Jim! Jim! Where did you get them?” + +“Now I know you've gone crazy! You don't suppose that's the only string +of pearls in the world, do you? Did you count 'em? Did you weigh 'em?” + +“Where did you get them?” she demanded. + +“What put it into your head that that string of pearls belonged to your +old boarder?” + +“I saw him write the stanza of poetry on the satin lining of that case. +I've heard him recite it over and over again in his piping voice: `Each +bead a pearl--my rosary!' I KNOW that they belonged to him!” + +His mouth twitched angrily and he faced her, speaking with cold, brutal +frankness. + +“I might keep on lying to you, Kiddo, and get away with it. But +what's the use? You've got to know. It's just as well now--I did that +job----Yes!” + +Her face blanched. + +“You--a--burglar--a murderer!” + +Jim followed her with quick, angry gestures. + +“All I wanted was his money! He fought--it was his life or mine----” + +“A murderer!” + +“I just went after his money--I tell you--besides, he didn't die; he +got well. If he'd kept still he wouldn't have lost his pearls and he +wouldn't have been hurt----” + +“And I stood up for you against them all!” she answered in a dazed +whisper. “They told me--Jane Anderson with brutal frankness, Ella with +the heart-rending, timid confession of her own tragic life--they told me +that you were bad. I said they were liars. I said that they envied our +happiness. I believed that you were big and brave and fine. I stood by +you and married you!” + +She paused and looked at him steadily. In a rush of suppressed passion +she seized his arm with a violence that caused his heavy eyelids to lift +in amused surprise. + +“Oh, Jim--it's not true! It's not true--it's not true! For God's sake, +tell me that you're joking!--that you're teasing me! You can't mean it! +I won't believe it--I won't believe it!” + +Her head sank until it rested piteously against his breast. He stood +with his face turned awkwardly away and then moved his body until she +was forced to stand erect. + +He touched her shoulder gently and spoke soothingly: + +“Come, now, Kid, don't take on so. I'll quit the business when I make my +pile.” + +She drew back instinctively and he followed: + +“I'll never touch another penny of yours. There's blood on it!” + +“Rot!” he went on soothingly. “It's good Wall Street cash--got it +exactly like they got theirs--got it because I was quicker and smarter +than the fellow that had it. I use a jimmy, they use a ticker--that's +all the difference.” + +She drew her figure to its full height. + +“I'm going--Jim----” + +“Where?” + +His voice rasped like a file against steel. + +“Home!” + +“Your home's with me.” + +“I won't live with a thief!” + +He stepped squarely before her and spoke with deliberate menace. + +“You're--not--going!” + +“Get out of my way!” she cried defiantly. + +His big jaw closed with a snap and his figure became rigid. The candle's +yellow light threw a strange glare on his face, convulsed. The blue +flames of hell were in the glitter of his steel eyes. + +Her heart sank in a dull wave of terror. She tried to gauge the depth of +his brutal rage. There was no standard by which to measure it. She had +never seen that look in his face before. His whole being was transformed +by some sinister power. + +She was afraid to move, but her mind was alert in this moment of supreme +trial. She hadn't used her last weapon yet. The fact that he held her +with such terrible determination was proof of the spell she had cast +over him. She might save him. He couldn't have been a criminal long. She +formed her new battle-line with quick decision. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. THE SURRENDER + +How long she gazed into the convulsed face of the man who had squared +himself before her, mattered little measured by the tick of the watch +in her belt. Into the mental anguish endured a life's agony had been +pressed. It could not have been more than twenty seconds, and yet it +marked the birth of a new being within the soul of a woman. She had been +searching only for her own happiness. The search had entangled another +in the meshes of her life. Too much had been lived in the past two +weeks to be undone by a word and forgotten in a day. She had attempted, +coward-like, to run. + +She saw now in the consuming flame of a great sorrow that the man before +her had some rights which the purest woman must reckon with. He might be +a burglar. At least it was her duty to try to save him from himself. Her +surrender of the past weeks was a tie that would bind them through all +eternity. There was no chemistry of earth or heaven or hell that could +erase its memories. Her life was no longer her own--this man's was bound +with hers. She must face the facts. She would make one honest, +brave effort to save him. To do this she would give all without +reservation--pride must be cast to the winds. + +Her voice suddenly changed to tears. + +“Oh, Jim, you do love me, don't you?” + +His body slowly relaxed, his eyes shifted, and he shrugged his square +shoulders. + +“What'ell did I marry you for?” + +“Tell me--do you?” she demanded. + +“You know that I love you. What do you ask me such a fool question for? +I love you with a love that can kill. Do you hear me? That's why you're +not going anywhere without me.” + +There was no mistaking the depth of his passion. She trembled to realize +its power and yet it was the lever by which she must move him. + +“Then you've got to give this life up. You're young and brave and +strong. You can earn an honest living. You haven't been in this long--I +feel it, I know it. Have you?” + +“No!” + +“How long?” + +“Eight months.” + +“Oh, Jim, dear, you must give it up now for my sake. I'll work with you +and work for you. I'll teach, I'll sew, I'll scrub, I'll slave for you +day and night--if you're only clean and honest.” + +He turned on her fiercely. + +“Cut it, Kid--cut it! I'm out for the stuff now. I'm going to get rich +and I'm going to get rich QUICK--that's all that's the matter with me!” + +“But, Jim,” she broke in tenderly--“you did earn an honest living. Your +workshop proves that.” + +“I've used that to improve my tools and melt the swag the past year. The +shop's all right.” + +“But you did make a successful invention?” + +“You bet I did,” he answered savagely, “and that's why I quit the +business. Three years ago I took down a big automobile and worked out an +improvement in the transmission that settled the question of heavy draft +machines. I took it to a lawyer in Wall Street and he took it to a man +that had money. Between the two of 'em, they didn't do a thing to +me! They were going to put my patent on the market and make me a +millionaire. God, I was crazy----” + +He paused and squared his shoulders with a deep breath. + +“They put it on the market all right and they made some +millionaires--but I wasn't one of 'em, Kiddo! They got me to sign a +paper that skinned me out of every dollar as slick as you can pull an +eel through your fingers. I hired another lawyer and gave him half he +could get to beat 'em. He fought like a tiger and two days before I +met you he got his verdict and they paid it--just ten thousand dollars. +Think of it--ten thousand dollars! And each of them got a million cash. +They sold it outright for two millions and a half. My lawyer got five +thousand dollars, and I got five thousand dollars. That's mine, anyhow. +It's in that bag there. I'm working on a new set of tools now in my +shop. I'm going to get that money back from the two thieves who stole +it from me by law. I'll take it by force, the way they took it. If I can +croak them both in the fight--well, there'll be two thieves less to rob +honest men and women, that's all.” + +“Oh, Jim!” Mary gasped, lifting a trembling hand to her throat as if +to tear open her collar. “You're mad. You don't know what you're +saying----” + +“Don't fool yourself, Kiddo,” he interrupted fiercely. “My eyes are open +now, and I've got a level head back of 'em, too. I've doped it all out. +You ought to 'a' heard that lawyer give me a few lessons in business +when he'd skinned me and salted my hide. He was good-natured and +confidential. He seemed to love me. `Business is war, sonny,' he piped, +between the puffs of the big Havana cigar he was smoking--`war! war to +the knife! We got you off your guard and put the knife into you at the +right minute--that's all. Don't take it so hard! Invent something +else and keep your eyes peeled. You ought to love us for giving you an +education in business early in life. You're young. You won't have to +learn your lesson again. Go to work, sonny, in your shop, and turn out +another new tool for the advancement of trade!'” + +He paused and smiled grimly. + +“I've done it, too! I've just finished a little invention that'll crack +any safe in New York in twenty minutes after I touch it.” + +He broke into a dry laugh, sat down and deliberately lighted a fresh +cigarette. + +She studied his face with beating heart. Was he lost beyond all hope +of reformation? Or was this the boyish bravado of an amateur criminal +poisoned by the consciousness of wrong? She tried to think. She felt the +red blood pounding through her heart and beating against her brain in +suffocating waves of despair. + +In vivid flashes the scene of her marriage but two weeks ago, came back +in tormenting memories. The solemn words she had spoken kept ringing +like the throb of a funeral bell far up in the star-lit heavens---- + + +“I, MARY ADAMS, TAKE THEE, JAMES ANTHONY, TO MY WEDDED HUSBAND, TO HAVE +AND TO HOLD... FOR BETTER FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS +AND IN HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH, AND TO OBEY, TILL DEATH DO US PART, +ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE; AND THERETO I GIVE THEE MY TROTH.” + + +The last solemn prayer kept ringing its deep-toned message over all---- + + +“GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, GOD THE HOLY GHOST, BLESS, PRESERVE, AND +KEEP YOU; THE LORD MERCIFULLY WITH HIS FAVOR LOOK UPON YOU, AND FILL YOU +WITH ALL SPIRITUAL BENEDICTION AND GRACE; THAT YE MAY SO LIVE TOGETHER +IN THIS LIFE, THAT IN THE WORLD TO COME YE MAY HAVE LIFE EVERLASTING. +AMEN.” + + +In a sudden rush of desperate pity for herself and the man to whom she +was bound, she dropped on her knees by his side, slipped her arms about +his neck and clung to him, sobbing. + +“Oh, Jim, Jim, man,” she whispered hoarsely. “I can't see you sink into +hell like this! Have you no real love in your heart for the woman who +has given all? Have mercy on me! Have mercy! You can't mean the hideous +things you've just said! You've been crazed by your losses. You're just +a boy yet. Life is all before you. You're only twenty-four. I'm just +twenty-four. We can both begin anew. I've never lived until these +past weeks--neither have you. You couldn't drag me down into a life of +crime----” + +Her head sank and her voice choked into silence. He made no movement of +his hand to soothe her. His voice was not persuasive. It was hard and +cold. + +“I'm not asking you to help me on any of my jobs,” he said. “I'm the +financier of the family. You can say the prayers and keep house.” + +“Knowing that you are a criminal? That your hands are stained with human +blood?” + +“Why not?” he snapped, the blue blaze flashing again in his eyes. +“Suppose you were the wife of the gentlemanly lawyer-thief who robbed +me, using the law instead of a jimmy--would you bother your little head +about my business? Does his wife ask him where he got it? Does anybody +know or care? He lives on Fifth Avenue now. He bought a palace up there +the day after he got my money. We passed it on the way to the Park the +day I met you. A line of carriages was standing in front and finely +dressed women were running up the red carpet that led down the stoop and +under the canopy to the curb. Did any of the gay dames who smiled and +smirked at that thief's wife ask how he got the money to buy the house? +Not much. Would they have cared if they had known? They'd have called +him a shrewd lawyer--that's all! Do you reckon his wife worries about +such tricks of trade? Why should mine worry?” + +She gripped his hand with desperate pleading. + +“Oh, Jim, dear, you can't be a criminal at heart! I wouldn't have loved +you if it had been true. I can't believe it! I won't believe it. You're +posing. You don't mean this. You can't mean it. You're going to return +every dishonest dollar that you've taken.” + +“You don't know what you're talking about!” + +He closed his jaw with a snap and leaned close in eager, tense +excitement. + +“Do you know how much junk I've piled into a little box in my shop the +past three months?” + +“I don't care--I don't want to know!” + +“You've got to care--you've got to know now! It's worth a hundred +thousand dollars, do you hear? A hundred thousand dollars! It would take +me a life-time to earn that on a salary. In two weeks after we get back +to New York with my new invention that lawyer advised me to make, I'll +go through his house--I'll open his safe, I'll take every diamond, every +pearl and every scrap of stolen jewelry his wife's wearing. And I won't +leave a fingerprint on the window sill. I've got two of his servants +working for me. + +“In six months I'll be worth half a million. In a year I'll pull off +the big haul I'm planning and I'll be a millionaire. We'll retire from +business then--just like they did. We'll build our marble palace down at +Bay Ridge and our yacht will nod in the harbor. We'll spend our summers +in Europe when we like and every snob and fool in New York will fall +over himself to meet me. And every woman will envy my wife. I'm young, +Kiddo, but I've cut my eye teeth. You've just been born. I'm running the +business end of this thing. You think you can reform me. You can--AFTER +I'VE MADE OUR PILE. I'll join the church then and sing louder than that +lawyer. But if you think you're going to stop my business career at this +stage of the game--forget it, forget it!” + +He sprang up with a quick movement of his tense body and threw her off. +She rose and watched his restless steps as he paced the floor. Her mind +was numb as if from a mortal blow. She brushed the tangled ringlets of +brown hair back from her forehead, drew the handkerchief from her belt +and wiped the perspiration from her brow. + +Before she could gather the strength to speak, he wheeled suddenly and +confronted her: + +“I've known from the first, Kiddo, that you're not the kind to help in +this business. I don't expect it. I don't ask it. I need a ranch +like this down here for storage. I'm going to take the old woman into +partnership with me.” + +She started back in an instinctive recoil of horror. + +“Your MOTHER?” + +He nodded. + +“Yep!” + +She drew a step nearer and peered into his set face. + +“YOU WILL MAKE YOUR OWN MOTHER A CRIMINAL?” + +“Sure!” he growled. “That's what I came down here for.” + +“She won't do it!” + +“She won't, eh?” he sneered. “Look at this hog pen!” + +He swept the bare, wretched cabin with a gesture of contempt and +shrugged his shoulders. + +“Look at the rags she's wearing,” he went on savagely. “When we talk +it over tonight with that five thousand dollars in gold shining in +her eyes--I'm going to show her a lot o' things she never saw before, +Kiddo--take it from me!” + +She answered in slow, even tones: + +“I can't live with you, Jim.” + +The blue flames beneath the drooping eyelids were leaping now in the +yellow glare of the candle's rays. The muscles of his body were knotted. +His voice came from his throat a low growl. + +“Do you know who you're fooling with?” + +The blood of a clean life flamed in her cheeks and nerved her with +reckless daring. Her figure stiffened and her voice rang with defiant +scorn: + +“Yes. I know at last--a thief who would drag his own mother down to hell +with him!” + +Not a muscle of his powerful body moved; his face was a stolid mask. He +threw his words slowly through his teeth: + +“Now you listen to me. You're my wife. I didn't invent this marriage +game. I played it as I found it. And that's the way you're going to play +it. You're good and sweet and clean--I like that kind, and I won't +have no other. You're mine. MINE, do you hear! Mine for life--body and +soul--`FOR BETTER FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS AND IN +HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH'----” + +He paused and thrust his massive jaw squarely into her face: + +“`----AND OBEY!'” he hissed, “`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART, ACCORDING TO +GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE'--you said it, didn't you?” + +“Yes----” + +“Well?” + +She turned from him with sudden aversion: + +“I didn't know what you were----” + +“Nobody ever knows BEFORE they're married!” he broke in savagely. “You +took your chances. I took mine--`FOR BETTER FOR WORSE.' We'll just say +now it's for worse and let it go at that!” + +The little body stiffened. + +“I'll die first!” + +He held her gaze without words, searching the depths of her being with +the cold, blue flame in his drooping eyes. If she were bluffing, it was +easy. She could talk her head off for all he cared. If she meant it, he +might have his hands full unless he mastered the situation at once and +for all time. + +There was no sign of yielding to his iron will. An indomitable soul had +risen in her frail body and defied him. His decision was instantaneous. + +“Oh, you'll die sooner than live with me--eh?” + +There was something hideous in the cold venom with which he drawled +the words. Her heart fairly stopped its beating. With the last ounce of +courage left, she held her place and answered: + +“Yes!” + +With the sudden crouch of a tiger he drew his clenched fist to strike. + +“Forget it!” + +She sprang back with terror, her body trembling in pitiful weakness. + +“You snivelling little coward!” he growled. + +“Oh, Jim, Jim,” she faltered,--“you--you--couldn't strike me!” + +A step nearer and he stood over her, his big, flat head thrust forward, +his eyes gleaming, his muscles knotted in blind rage. + +“No--I won't STRIKE you,” he whispered. “I'll just KILL you--that's +all!” + +With the leap of an infuriated beast he sprang on her and his sharp +fingers gripped her throat. + + +The world went black and she felt herself sinking into a bottomless +abyss. With maniac energy she tore his hands from her throat and the +warm blood streamed from the gash his nails had torn. + +“Jim! Jim! For God's sake!” she moaned in abject terror. + +With a sullen growl, his fingers, sharp as a leopard's claw, found her +neck again and closed with a grip that sent the blood surging to her +brain and her eyes starting from their sockets. + +The one hideous thought that flashed through her mind was that he was +going to plunge his claws into her eyes and blind her for life. He +could hold her his prisoner then. She made a last desperate struggle +for breath, her hands relaxed, she drooped and sank to the couch toward +which he had hurled her in the first rush of his assault. + +He lifted her and choked the slender neck again to make sure, loosed his +hands and the limp body dropped on the couch and was still. + +He stood watching her in silence, his arms at his side. + +“Damned little fool!” he muttered. “I had to give you that lesson. The +sooner the better!” + +He waited with contemptuous indifference until she slowly recovered +consciousness. She lay motionless for a long time and then slowly opened +her eyes. + +Thank God! They had not been gouged out as poor Ella's. She didn't mind +the warm blood that soaked her collar and ran down her neck. If he would +only spare her eyes. Blindness had been her one unspeakable terror. She +closed her eyes again and silently prayed for strength. Her strength was +gone. Wave after wave of sickening, cowardly terror swept her prostrate +soul. She could feel his sullen presence--his body with its merciless +strength towering above her. She dared not look. She knew that he was +watching her with cruel indifference. A single cry, a single word and he +might thrust his claw into her eyes and the light of the world would go +out forever. + +Her terror was too hideous; she could endure it no longer. She must +move. She must try to save herself. She lifted her head and caught his +steady, venomous gaze. + +A quick, sliding movement of abject fear and she was erect, facing him +and backing away silently. + +He followed with even step, his gaze holding her as the eyes of a snake +its victim. She would not let him know her terror of blindness. She +preferred death a thousand times. If he would only kill her outright it +was all the mercy she would ask. + +“You--won't--kill--me--Jim!” she sobbed. “Please--please, don't kill +me!” + +He lifted his sharp finger and followed her toward the shed-room door, +his voice the triumphant cry of an eagle above his prey. + +“`FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE--UNTIL DEATH DO US PART!'” + +Her heart gave a bound of cowardly joy. He had relented. He would not +blind her. She could live. She was young and life was sweet. + +She tried to smile her surrender through her tears as she backed slowly +away from his ominous finger. + +“Yes, I'll try--Jim. I'll try--`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART--UNTIL +DEATH--UNTIL DEATH----'” + +Her voice broke into a flood of tears as she blindly felt her way +through the door and into the darkened room. + +He paused on the threshold, held the creaking board shutter in his hand +and broke into a laugh. + +“The world ain't big enough for you to get away from me, Kiddo. Good +night--a good little wife now and it's all right!” + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. TO THE NEW GOD + +Jim closed the door of the little shed-room with a bang, and stood +listening a moment to the sobs inside. + +“`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART,' Kiddo!” he laughed grimly. + +He turned back into the room and saw Nance standing at the opposite +entrance between the calico curtains, an old, battered, flickering +lantern in her hand. A white wool shawl was thrown over the gray head +and fell in long, filmy waves about her thin figure. Her deep-sunken +eyes were exaggerated in the dim light of lantern and candle. She smiled +wanly. + +He stopped short at the apparition; a queer shiver of superstitious fear +shook him. The white form of Death suddenly and noiselessly appearing +from the darkness could not have been more uncanny. He had wondered +vaguely while the quarrel with his wife was progressing, what had become +of his mother. As the fight had reached its height, he had forgotten +her. + +She looked at him, blinking her eyes and trying to smile. + +“Where the devil have you been, old gal?” he asked nervously. + +“Nowhere,” she answered evasively. + +“You've been mighty quiet on the trip anyhow. I see you've brought +something back from nowhere.” + +Nance glanced down at the jug she carried in her left hand and laughed. + +“What is it?” he asked. + +“Nothin'----” + +“Nothin' from nowhere sounds pretty good to me when I see it in a brown +jug on Christmas Eve. You're all right, old gal! I was just going to +ask if you had a little mountain dew. You're a mind reader. I'll bet the +warehouse you keep that stored in is some snug harbor--eh?” + +“They ain't never found it yit!” she giggled. + +“And I'll bet they won't--bully for you!” + +She took down a tin cup from a shelf and placed it beside the jug. + +“Another glass, sweetheart----” + +The old woman stared at him in surprise, walked to the shelf and brought +another tin cup. + +“What do ye want with two?” she asked in surprise. + +Jim moved toward the stool beside the table. + +“Sit down.” + +“Me?” + +“Sure. Let's be sociable. It's Christmas Eve, isn't it?” + +“Yeah!” Nance answered cheerfully, taking her seat and glancing timidly +at her guest. + +Jim seized the jug, poured out two drinks of corn whiskey, handed her +one and raised his: + +“Well, here's lookin' at you, old girl.” + +He paused, lowered his cup and smiled. + +“But say, give me a toast.” He nodded toward the shed-room. “I'm on my +honeymoon, you know.” + +His hostess laughed timidly and glanced at him from the corners of her +eyes. She wished to be sociable and make up as best she could for her +rudeness on their arrival. + +“I ain't never heard but one fur honeymooners,” she said softly. + +“Let's have it. I've never heard a toast for honeymooners in my life. +It'll be new to me--fire away!” + +Nance fumbled her faded dress with her left hand and laughed again. + +“'May ye live long and prosper an' all yer troubles be LITTLE ONES!'” + +She laughed aloud at the old, worm-eaten joke and Jim joined. + +“Bully! Bully, old girl--bully!” + +He lifted his cup and drained it at one draught and Nance did the same. + +He seized the jug and poured another drink for each. + +“Once more----” + +He leaned across the table. + +“And here's one for you.” He squared his body and lifted his cup: + +“To all your little ones--no matter how big they are!” + +Jim drained his liquor without apparently noticing her agitation, though +he was watching her keenly from the corner of his eye. + +The cup she held was lowered slowly until the whiskey poured over her +dress and on the floor. Her thin figure drooped pathetically and her +voice was the faintest sob: + +“I--I--ain't got--none!” + +“I heard you had a boy,” Jim said carelessly. + +The drooping figure shot upright as if a bolt of lightning had swept +her. She stared at him in tense silence, trying to gather her wits +before she answered. + +“Who told you anything about me?” she demanded sternly. + +“A fellow in New York,” Jim continued with studied carelessness--“said +he used to live down here.” + +“He LIVED down here?” she repeated blankly. + +“Yep--come now, loosen up and tell us about the kid.” + +“There ain't nuthin' ter tell--he's dead,” she cried pathetically. + +“He said you deserted the child and left him to starve.” + +“He said that?” she growled. + +“Yep.” + +He was silent again and watched her keenly. + +She fumbled her dress and glanced nervously across the table as if +afraid to ask more. Unable to wait for him to speak, she cried nervously +at last: + +“Well--well--what else did he say?” + +“That he took the little duffer to New York and raised him.” + +“RAISED him?” + +She fairly screamed the words, springing to her feet trembling from head +to foot. + +“Till he was big enough to kick into the streets to shuffle for +himself.” + +“The scoundrel said he was dead.” + +Her voice was far away and sank into dreamy silence. She was living the +hideous, lonely years again with a heart starved for love. + +Jim's voice broke the spell: + +“Then you didn't desert him?” The man's eyes held hers steadily. + +She stared at him blankly and spoke with rushing indignation: + +“Desert him--my baby--my own flesh and blood? There's never been a +minute since I looked into his eyes that I wouldn't 'a' died fur him.” + +She paused and sobbed. + +“He had such pretty eyes, stranger. They looked like your'n--only they +wuz puttier and bluer.” + +She lifted her faded dress, brushed the tears from her cheeks and went +on rapidly: + +“When I found his drunken brute of a daddy was a liar and had another +wife, I wouldn't live with him. He tried to make me but I kicked him +out of the house--and he stole the boy to get even with me.” Her voice +broke, she dropped her head and choked back the tears. “He did get even +with me, too--he did,” she sobbed. + +Jim watched her in silence until the paroxysm had spent itself. + +“You think you'd know this boy now if you found him?” + +She bent close, her breath coming in quick gasps. + +“My God, mister, do you think I COULD find him?” + +“He lives in New York; his name is Jim Anthony.” + +“Yes--yes?” she said in a dazed way. “He called hisself Walter +Anthony--he wuz a stranger from the North and my boy's name was Jim.” + She paused and bent eagerly across the table. “New York's an awful big +place, ain't it?” + +“Some town, old gal, take it from me.” + +“COULD I find him?” + +“If you've got money enough. You said you'd know him. How?” + +“I'd know him!” she answered eagerly. “The last quarrel we had was about +a mark on his neck. He wuz a spunky little one. You couldn't make him +cry. His devil of a daddy used to stick pins in him and laugh because +he wouldn't cry. The last dirty trick he tried was what ended it all. He +pushed a live cigar agin his little neck until I smelled it burnin' in +the next room. I knocked him down with a chair, drove him from the house +and told him I'd kill him if he ever put his foot inside the door agin. +He stole my boy the next night--but he'll carry that scar to his grave.” + +“You'd love this boy now if you found him in New York as bad as his +father ever was?” Jim asked with a curious smile. + +“Yes--he's mine!” was the quick, firm answer. + +Jim watched her intently. + +“I looked Death in the face for him,” she went on fiercely. “I'd dive +to the bottom o' hell to find him if I knowed he wuz thar---- But what's +the use to talk; that devil killed him! I've waked up many a night +stranglin' with a dream when I seed the drunken brute burnin' an' +beatin' an' torturin' him to death. The feller you've heard about ain't +him. 'Tain't no use to make me hope an' then kill me----” + +“He's not dead, I tell you. I know.” + +Jim's voice rang with conviction so positive the old woman's breath came +in quick gasps and she smiled through her eager tears. + +“And I MIGHT find him?” + +“IF you've got money enough! Money can do anything in this world.” + +He opened the black bag, thrust both hands into it and threw out a +handful of yellow coin which he allowed to pour through his fingers and +rattle into a tin plate which had been left on the table. + +Her eyes sparkled with avarice. + +“It's your'n--all your'n?” she breathed hungrily. + +“I'm taking it down South to invest for a fool who thinks”--he stopped +and laughed--“who thinks it's bad luck to keep money that's stained with +blood----” + +Nance started back. + +“Got blood on it?” + +Jim spoke in confidential appeal. + +“That wouldn't make any difference to you, would it?” + +She shook her gray locks and glanced at the pile of yellow metal, +hungrily. + +“I--I wouldn't like it with blood marks!” + +He lifted a handful of coin, clinked it musically in his hands and held +it in his open palms before her. + +“Look! Look at it close! You don't see any blood marks on it, do you?” + +Her eyes devoured it. + +“No.” + +He seized her hand, thrust a half-dozen pieces into it and closed her +thin fingers over it. + +“Feel of it--look at it!” + +Her hands gripped the gold. She breathed quickly, broke into a laugh, +caught herself in the middle of it, and lapsed suddenly into silence. + +“Feels good, don't it?” he laughed. + +Nance grinned, her uneven, discolored gleaming ominously in the flicker +of the candle. + +“Don't it?” he repeated. + +“Yeah!” + +He lifted another handful and threw it in the air, catching it again. + +“That's the stuff that makes the world go 'round. There's your only +friend, old girl! Others promise well--but in the scratch they fail.” + +“Yeah--when the scratch comes they fail!” Nance echoed. + +“Money never fails!” Jim continued eagerly. “It's the god that knows no +right or wrong----” + +He touched the pile in the plate and drew the bag close for her to see. + +“How much do you guess is there?” + +Nance gazed greedily into the open bag and looked again at the shining +heap in the plate. + +“I dunno--a million, I reckon.” + +The man laughed. + +“Not quite that much! But enough to make you rich for life--IF you had +it.” + +The old woman turned away pathetically and shook her gray head. + +“I wouldn't have to work no more, would I?” + +Her thin hands touched the faded, dirty dress. + +“And I could buy me a decent dress,” her voice sank to a whisper, “and I +could find my boy.” + +“You bet you could!” Jim exclaimed. “There's just one god in this world +now, old girl--the Almighty Dollar!” + +He paused and leaned close, persuasively: + +“Suppose now, the man that got that money had to kill a fool to take +it--what of it? You don't get big money any other way. A burglar watches +his chance, takes his life in his hands and drills his way into a house. +He finds a fool there who fights. It's not his fault that the man was +born a fool, now is it?” + +“Mebbe not----” + +“Of course not. A burglar kills but one to get his pile, and then only +because he must, in self-defence. A big gambling capitalist corners +wheat, raises the price of bread and starves a hundred thousand children +to death to make his. It's not stained with blood. Every dollar is +soaked in it! Who cares?” + +“Yeah--who cares?” Nance growled fiercely. + +Jim smiled at his easy triumph. + +“It's dog eat dog and the devil take the hindmost now!” + +“That's so--ain't it?” she agreed. + +“You bet! Business is business and the best man's the man that gets +there. Steal a hundred dollars, you go to the penitentiary--foolish! +Don't do it. Steal a million and go to the Senate!” + +“Yeah!” Nance laughed. + +“Money--money for its own sake,” he rushed on savagely--“right or wrong. +That's all there is in it today, old girl--take it from me!” + +He paused and his smile ended in a sneer. + +“Man shall eat bread in the sweat of his brow? Only fools SWEAT!” + +Nance turned her face away, sighed softly, glancing back at Jim +furtively. + +“I reckon that's so, too. Have another drink, stranger?” + +She poured another cup of whiskey and one for herself. She raised hers +as if to drink and deftly threw the contents over her shoulder. + +Jim seized the jug and poured again. + +“Once more. Come, I've another toast for you. You'll drink this one I +know.” + +He lifted his cup and rose a little unsteadily. Nance stood with +uplifted cup watching him. + +“As the poet sings,” he began with a bow to the old woman: + + “France has her lily, England the rose, + Everybody knows where the shamrock grows-- + Scotland has her thistle flowerin' on the hill, + But the American Emblem--is a One Dollar Bill!” + +He broke into a boisterous laugh. + +“How's that, old girl?” + +“That's bully, stranger!” + +He lifted high his cup. + +“We drink to the Almighty Dollar!” + +“To the Almighty Dollar!” Nance echoed, clinking her cup against his. + +He drained it while she again emptied hers over her shoulder. + +“By golly, you're all right, old girl. You're a good fellow!” he cried +jovially. + +“Yeah--have another?” she urged. + +She filled his cup and placed it on his side of the table. His eye had +rested on the gold. He ignored the invitation, lifted a handful of gold +and dropped it with musical clinking into the plate. + +“Blood marks--tommyrot!” he sneered. + +“Yeah--tommyrot!” she echoed. “That's what I say, too!” + +Jim wagged his head sagely: + +“Now you're talking sense, old girl!” + +He leaned across the table and pointed his finger straight into her +face. + +“And don't you forget what I'm tellin' ye tonight--get money, get +money!” + +He stopped suddenly and a sneer curled his lips. + +“Oh I Get it `fairly'--get it `squarely'--but whatever you do--by +God!--GET IT!” + +His uplifted hand crashed downward and gripped the gold. His fingers +slowly relaxed and the coin clinked into the plate. + +Nance watched him eagerly. + +“Yeah, that's it--get it,” she breathed slowly. + +Jim lifted his drooping eyes to hers. + +“If you've GOT it, you're a god--you can do no wrong. Nobody's goin' to +ask you HOW you got it; all they want to know is HAVE you got it!” + +“Yeah, nobody's goin' to ask you HOW you got it,” Nance repeated, “they +just want to know HAVE you got it! Yeah--yeah!” + +“You bet!” + +Jim's head sank in the first stupor of liquor and he dropped into the +chair. + +The old woman leaned eagerly over the plate of gold and clutched the +coin with growing avarice. Her fingers opened and closed like a bird +of prey. She touched it lovingly and held it in her hands a long time +watching Jim's nodding head with furtive glances. She dropped a handful +of coin into the plate and watched its effect on the drooping head. + +He looked up and his eyes fell again. + +“Bed-time, I reckon,” Nance said. + +“Yep--pretty tired. I'll turn in.” + +The old woman glided sidewise to the table near the kitchen door, picked +up the lantern and started to feel her way backwards through the calico +curtains. + +“See you in the mornin', old gal,” Jim drawled--“Christmas mornin'--an' +I got somethin' else to tell ye in the mornin'----” + +Again his head sank to the table. + +“All right, mister--good night!” Nance answered, slowly feeling her way +through the opening, watching him intently. + +Jim lifted his head and nodded heavily for a moment. His hand slipped +from the table and he drew himself up sharply and rose, holding to the +table for support. + +He picked up the plate of coin, poured it back in the bag, snapped the +lock and walked with the bag unsteadily to the couch. He placed the bag +under the pillow and pressed the soft feathers down over it, turned back +to the table and extinguished the candle by a quick, square blow of his +open palm on the flame. + +He staggered to the couch, pushed the coats to the floor, dropped +heavily, drew the lap-robe over him and in five minutes was sound +asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. NANCE'S STOREHOUSE + + +The cabin was still. Only the broken sobbing of the woman in the little +shed-room came faint and low on old Nance's ears. + +She slipped from the kitchen into the shadows of a tree near the house +and listened until the sobbing ceased. + +She crept close to the shed and stood silent and ghost-like beside its +daubed walls. Immovable as a cat crouching in the hedge to spring on her +prey, she waited until the waning moon had sunk behind the crags. She +laid her ear close to a crack in the logs from which she had once pushed +the red mud to let in the light. All was still at last. The sobbing had +stopped. The young wife was sound asleep. + +She had wondered vaguely at first about the crying, but quickly made +up her mind that it was only a lover's quarrel. She was glad of it. The +girl would bar her door and sulk all night. So much the better. There +would be no danger of her entering the living-room where Jim slept. + +She would wait a little longer to make sure she was asleep. A half hour +passed. The white-shrouded figure stood immovable, her keen ears tuned +for the slightest sounds from within. + +The stars were shining in unusual brilliance. She could see her way +through the shadows even better than in full moon. A wolf was crying +again for his mate from a distant crag. She had grown used to his howls. +He had come close to her cabin once in the day-time. She had tried to +creep on him and show her friendliness. But he had fled in terror at the +first glimpse of her dress through the parting underbrush. + +An owl was calling from his dead tree-top down the valley. She smiled at +his familiar, tremulous call. Her own eyes were wide as his tonight. +No sight or sound of Nature among the crags about her cabin had for her +spirit any terror. The night was her mantle. + +She added to the meager living which she had wrung from her mountain +farm by trading with the illicit distillers of the backwoods of Yancey +County. Too ignorant to run a distillery of her own, she had stored +their goods with such skill that the hiding-place had never been +discovered. She loved good whiskey herself. She had tried to find in its +fiery depths the dreams of happiness life had so cruelly denied her. + +The hiding-place of this whiskey had puzzled the revenue officers of +every administration for years. They had watched her house day and +night. Not one of them had ever struck the trail to her storehouse. + +The game had excited her imagination. She loved its daring and +danger. That there was the slightest element of wrong or crime in her +association with the moonshiners of her native heath had never for a +moment entered her mind. It was no crime to make whiskey. This was the +first article of the creed of the true North Carolina mountaineer. +They had from the first declared that the tax levied by the Federal +Government on the product of their industry was an infamous act of +tyranny. They had fought this tyranny for two generations. They would +fight it as long as there was breath in their bodies and a single load +of powder and buckshot for their rifles. + +Nance considered herself a heroine in the pride of her soul for the +shrewd and successful defiance she had given the revenue officers for so +many years. + +She had been too cunning to even allow one of her own people to know the +secret of her store house. For that reason it had never been discovered. +She always stored the whiskey temporarily in the potato shed or under +the cabin floor until night and then alone carried it to the place she +had discovered. + +She laughed softly at the thought of this deep hiding-place tonight. +Its temperature never varied winter or summer. Not a track had ever been +left at its door. She might live a hundred years and, unless some spying +eye should see her enter, its existence could never be suspected. + +She tipped softly into the kitchen, walked to the door of the +living-room and listened to the even, heavy breathing of the man on the +couch. + +Once more the faint echo of a sob in the shed beyond came to her keen +ears. She stood for five minutes. It was not repeated. She had only +imagined it. The girl was still asleep. + +She turned noiselessly back into the kitchen, put a box of matches in +her pocket, felt her way to the low shelf on which she had placed the +battered lantern, picked it up and shook it to make sure the oil was +sufficient. + +She stepped lightly into the yard, pushed open the gate of the +split-board garden fence, walked along the edge to the corner and +selected a spade from the tools that leaned against the boards. + +Carrying the spade and unlighted lantern in her left hand, she glided +from the yard into the woods. Her right hand before her to feel for +underbrush or overhanging bough, she made her way rapidly to the +swift-flowing mountain brook. + +Arrived at the water whose musical ripple had guided her steps, she +removed her shoes and placed them beside a tree. She wore no stockings. +The faded skirt she raised and tucked into her belt. She could wade knee +deep now without hindrance. + +Seizing the spade and lantern, she made her way slowly and carefully +downstream for three hundred yards and paused beside a shelving ledge +which projected half-way across the brook. + +She paused and listened again for full ten minutes, immovable as the +rock on which her thin, bony hand rested. The stars were looking, but +they could only peep through the network of overhanging trees. + +Feeling her way along the rock until the ledge rose beyond her reach, +she bent low and waded through a still pool of eddying water straight +under the mountain-side for more than a hundred feet. Her extended right +hand had felt for the stone ceiling above her head until it ran abruptly +out of reach. + +She straightened her body and took a deep breath. Ten steps she counted +carefully and placed her bare feet on the dry rock beyond the water. + +Carefully picking her way up the sloping bank until she reached a +stretch of soft earth, she sank to her hands and knees and crawled +through an opening less than three feet in height. + +“Thar now!” she laughed. “Let 'em find me if they can!” + +She lighted her lantern and seated herself on a boulder to rest--one +hundred and fifty feet in the depths of a mountain. The cavern was ten +feet in height and fifty feet in length. The projecting ledges of rock +made innumerable shelves on which a merchant might have displayed his +wares. + +The old woman was too shrewd for that. Her jugs were carefully planted +in the ground behind two fallen boulders, and their hiding-place +concealed by a layer of drift which she had gathered from the edge +of the water. She had taken this precaution against the day when some +curious explorer might stumble on her secret as she had found it hunting +ginsing roots in the woods overhead. Her foot had slipped suddenly +through a hole in the soft mould. She peered cautiously below and could +see no bottom. She dropped a stone and heard it strike in the depths. +She made her way down the side of the crag and found the opening through +the still eddying waters. The hole through the roof she had long ago +plugged and covered with earth and dry leaves. + +She carried her lantern and spade to the further end of her storehouse +and dug a hole in the earth about two feet in depth. The earth she +carefully placed in a heap. + +“That's the place!” she giggled excitedly. + +She left her lantern burning, dropped again on the soft, mould-covered +earth and quickly emerged on the stone banks of the wide, still pool. +Her hand high extended above her head, she waded through the water until +she touched the heavy ceiling, lowered her body again to a stooping +position and rapidly made her way out into the bed of the brook. + +She passed eagerly along the babbling path and stopped with sure +instinct at the tree beside whose trunk she had placed her shoes. + +In five minutes she had made her way through the woods and reached +the house. She tipped into the kitchen and stood in the doorway or the +living-room watching her sleeping guest. The even breathing assured her +that all was well. Her plan couldn't fail. She listened again for the +sobs in the shed-room. + +She was sure once that she heard them. Five minutes passed and still she +was uncertain. To avoid any possible accident she tipped back through +the kitchen, circled the house and placed her ear against the crack in +the logs. + +The girl was sobbing--or was she praying? She crouched beside the wall, +waited and listened. The night wind stirred the dead leaves at her feet. +She lifted her head with a sudden start, laughed softly and bent again +to listen. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. TRAPPED + +The sobbing in the little room was the only sound that came from one of +the grimmest battle-fields from which the soul of a woman ever emerged +alive. + +To the first rush of cowardly tears Mary had yielded utterly. She had +fallen across the high-puffed feather mattress of the bed, shivering in +humble gratitude at her escape from the horror of blindness. The grip +of his claw-like fingers on her throat came back to her now in sickening +waves. The blood was still trickling from the wound which his nails had +made when she tore them loose in her first mad fight for breath. + +She lifted her body and breathed deeply to make sure her throat was +free. God in heaven! Could she ever forget the hideous sinking of body +and soul down into the depths of the black abyss! She had seen the face +of Death and it was horrible. Life, warm and throbbing, was sweet. She +loved it. She hated Death. + +Yes--she was a coward. She knew it now, and didn't care. + +She sprang to her feet with sudden fear. He might attack her again to +make sure that her soul had been completely crushed. + +She crept to the door and felt its edges. + +“Yes, thank God, there's a place for the bar!” She shivered. + +She ran her trembling fingers carefully along the rough logs and found +it in the corner. She slipped it cautiously into the iron sockets, +staggered to the bed and dropped in grateful assurance of safety for the +moment. She buried her face in the pillow to fight back the sobs. How +great her fall! She could crawl on her hands and knees to Jane Anderson +now and beg for protection. The last shred of pretense was gone. The +bankrupt soul stood naked and shivering, the last rag torn from pride. + +What a miserable fight she had made, too, when put to the test! Ella had +at least proved herself worthy to live. The scrub-woman had risen in the +strength of desperation and killed the beast who had maimed her. She had +only sunk a limp mass of shivering, helpless cowardice and fled from the +room whining and pleading for mercy. + +She could never respect herself again. The scene came back in vivid +flashes. His eyes, glowing like two balls of blue fire, froze the blood +in her veins--his voice the rasping cold steel of a file. And this +coarse, ugly beast had held her in the spell of love. She had clung to +him, kissed him in rapture and yielded herself to him soul and body. And +he had gripped her delicate throat and choked her into insensibility, +dropping her limp form from his hands like a strangled rat. She could +remember the half-conscious moment that preceded the total darkness as +she felt his grip relax. + +He would choke and beat her again, too. He had said it in the sneering +laughter at the door. + +“A good little wife now and it's all right!” + +And if you're not obedient to my whims I'll choke you until you are! +That was precisely what he meant. That he was capable of any depth of +degradation, and that he meant to drag her with him, there could be no +longer the shadow of a doubt. + +She could not endure another scene like that. She sprang to her feet +again, shivering with terror. She could hear the hum of the conversation +in the next room. He was persuading his mother to join in his criminal +career. He was busy with his oily tongue transforming the simple, +ignorant, lonely old woman into an avaricious fiend who would receive +his blood-stained booty and rejoice in it. + +He was laughing again. She put her trembling hands over her ears to shut +out the sound. He had laughed at her shame and cowardice. It made her +flesh creep to hear it. + +She would escape. The mountain road was dark and narrow and crooked. She +would lose her way in the night, perhaps. No matter. She could keep +warm by walking. At dawn she would find her way to a cabin and ask +protection. If she could reach Asheville, a telegram would bring +her father. She wouldn't lose a minute. Her hat and coat were in the +living-room. She would go bareheaded and without a coat. In the morning +she could borrow one from the woman at the Mount Mitchell house. + +She crept cautiously along the walls of the room searching for a door or +window. There must be a way out. She made the round without discovering +an opening of any kind. There must be a window of some kind high up for +ventilation. There was no glass in it, of course. It was closed by a +board shutter--if she could reach it. + +She began at the door, found the corner of the room and stretched her +arms upward until they touched the low, rough joist. Over every foot of +its surface she ran her fingers, carefully feeling for a window. There +was none! + +She found an open crack and peered through. The stars were shining cold +and clear in the December sky. The twinkling heavens reminded her that +it was Christmas Eve. The dawn she hoped to see in the woods, if she +could escape, would be Christmas morning. There was no time for idle +tears of self-pity. + +The one thought that beat in every throb of her heart now was to escape +from her cell and put a thousand miles between her body and the beast +who had strangled her. She might break through the roof! As a rule the +shed-rooms of these rude mountain cabins were covered with split boards +lightly nailed to narrow strips eighteen inches apart. If there were +no ceiling, or if the ceiling were not nailed down and she should +move carefully, she might break through near the eaves and drop to the +ground. The cabin was not more than nine feet in height. + +She raised herself on the footrail of the bed and felt the ceiling. +There could be no mistake. It was there. She pressed gently at first and +then with all her might against each board. They were nailed hard and +fast. + +She sank to the bed again in despair. She had barred herself in a prison +cell. There was no escape except by the door through which the beast had +driven her. And he would probably draw the couch against it and sleep +there. + +And then came the crushing conviction that such flight would be of no +avail in a struggle with a man of Jim's character. His laughing words of +triumph rang through her soul now in all their full, sinister meaning. + +“The world ain't big enough for you to get away from me, Kiddo!” + +It wasn't big enough. She knew it with tragic and terrible certainty. In +his blind, brutal way he loved her with a savage passion that would halt +at nothing. He would follow her to the ends of the earth and kill any +living thing that stood in his way. And when he found her at last he +would kill her. + +How could she have been so blind! There was no longer any mystery about +his personality. The slender hands and feet, which she had thought +beautiful in her infatuation, were merely the hands and feet of a thief. +The strength of jaw and neck and shoulders had made him the most daring +of all thieves--a burglar. + +His strange moods were no longer strange. He laughed for joy at the wild +mountain gorges and crags because he saw safety for the hiding-place of +priceless jewels he meant to steal. + +There could be no escape in divorce from such a brute. He was happy in +her cowardly submission. He would laugh at the idea of divorce. Should +she dare to betray the secrets of his life of crime, he would kill her +as he would grind a snake under his heel. + +A single clause from the marriage ceremony kept ringing its +knell--“until DEATH DO US PART!” + +She knelt at last and prayed for Death. + +“Oh, dear God, let me die, let me die!” + +Suicide was a crime unthinkable to her pious mind. Only God now could +save her in his infinite mercy. + +She lay for a long time on the floor where she had fallen in utter +despair. The tears that brought relief at first had ceased to flow. +She had beaten her bleeding wings against every barrier, and they were +beyond her strength. + +Out of the first stupor of complete surrender, her senses slowly +emerged. She felt the bare boards of the floor and wondered vaguely why +she was there. + +The hum of voices again came to her ears. She lay still and listened. +A single terrible sentence she caught. He spoke it with such malignant +power she could see through the darkness the flames of hell leaping in +his eyes. + +“Nobody's going to ask you HOW you got it--all they want to know is HAVE +you got it!” + +She laughed hysterically at the idea of reformation that had stirred her +to such desperate appeal in the first shock of discovery. As well dream +of reforming the Devil as the man who expressed his philosophy of +life in that sentence! Blood dripped from every word, the blood of the +innocent and the helpless who might consciously or unconsciously stand +in his way. The man who had made up his mind to get rich quick, no +matter what the cost to others, would commit murder without the quiver +of an eyelid. If she had ever had a doubt of this fact, she could have +none after her experience of tonight. + +She wondered vaguely of the effects he was producing on his ignorant +old mother. Her words were too low and indistinct to be heard. But she +feared the worst. The temptation of the gold he was showing her would be +more than she could resist. + +She staggered to her feet and fell limp across the bed. The iron walls +of a life prison closed about her crushed soul. The one door that could +open was Death and only God's hand could lift its bars. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE + + +Hour after hour Nance stood beside the wall of the shed-room and with +the patience of a cat waited for the sobs to cease and the girl to be +quiet. + +Mary had risen from the bed once and paced the floor in the dark for +more than an hour, like a frightened, wild animal, trapped and caged for +the first time in life. With growing wonder, Nance counted the beat +of her foot-fall, five steps one way and five back--round after round, +round after round, in ceaseless repetition. + +“Goddlemighty, is she gone clean crazy!” she exclaimed. + +The footsteps stopped at last and the low sobs came once more from the +bed. The old woman crouched down on a stone beside the log wall and drew +the shawl about her shoulders. + +A rooster crowed for midnight. Still the restless thing inside was +stirring. Nance rose uneasily. Her lantern was still burning in her +storehouse under the cliff. The wick might eat so low it would explode. +She had heard that such things happened to lamps. It was foolish to have +left it burning, anyhow. + +She glided noiselessly from the house into the woods, entered her hidden +door exactly as she had done before, extinguished the lantern, placed it +on a shelving rock and put a dozen matches beside it. + +In ten minutes she had returned to the house and crouched once more +against the wall of the shed. + +The low, pleading voice was praying. She pressed her ear to the crack +and heard distinctly. She must be patient. Her plan was sure to succeed +if she were only patient. No woman could sob and pray and walk all +night. She must fall down unconscious from sheer exhaustion before day. + +The old woman slipped into the kitchen, took up the quilt which she had +spread on the floor for her bed, wrapped it about her thin shoulders and +returned to her watch. + +Again and again she rose, believing her patience had won, and placed +her ear to the crack only to hear a sound within which told her only too +plainly that the girl was yet awake. Sometimes it was a sigh, sometimes +she cleared her throat, sometimes she tossed restlessly. One spoken +sentence she heard again and again: + +“Oh, dear God, have mercy on my lost soul!” + +“What can be the matter with the fool critter!” Nance muttered. “Is she +moanin' for sin? To be shore, they don't have no revival meetings this +time o' year!” + +She had known sinners to mourn through a whole summer sometimes, but +never in all her experience in religious revivals had a mourner carried +it over into winter. The dancing had always eased the tension and +brought a relapse to sinful thoughts. + +The hours dragged until the roosters began to crow for day. It would +soon be light. + +She must act now. There was no time to lose. She pressed her ear to the +crack once more and held it five minutes. + +Not a sound came from within. The broken spirit had yielded to the +stupor of exhaustion at last. + +With swift, cat's tread Nance circled the cabin and entered the kitchen. +The quilt she carefully spread on the floor leading to the entrance to +the living-room, crossed it softly and stood in the doorway with her +long hands on the calico hangings. + +For five minutes she remained immovable and listened to the deep, +regular breathing of the sleeping man. Her wits were keen, her eyes +wide. She could see the dim outlines of the furniture by the starlight +through the window. Small objects in the room were, of course, +invisible. To light a candle was not to be thought of. It might wake the +sleeper. + +She knew how to make the light without a noise or its rays reaching +his face. He had startled her with the electric torch because of its +novelty. She was no longer afraid. She would know how to press the +button. He had left the thing lying on the table beside the black bag. +He might have hidden the gold. He would not remember in his drunken +stupor to move the electric torch. + +She glided ghost-like into the room. Her bare feet were velvet. She knew +every board in the floor. There was one near the table that creaked. She +counted her steps and cleared the spot without a sound. + +Her thin fingers found the edge of the table and slipped with uncanny +touch along its surface until her hand closed on the rounded form of the +torch. + +Without moving in her tracks she turned the light on the table and in +every nook and corner of the room beyond. She slowly swung her body on a +pivot, flashing the light into each shadow and over every inch of floor, +turning always in a circle toward the couch. + +Satisfied that the object she sought was nowhere in the circle she had +covered, she moved a step from the table and winked the light beneath +it. She squatted on the floor and flashed it carefully over every inch +of its boards from one corner of the room to the other and under the +couch. + +She rose softly, glided behind the head of the sleeping man and stood +back some six feet, lest the flash of the torch might disturb him. +She threw its rays behind the couch and slowly raised them until they +covered the dirty pillow on which Jim was sleeping. There beneath the +pillow lay the bag with its precious treasure. He was sleeping on it. +She had feared this, but felt sure that the whiskey he had drunk would +hold him in its stupor until late next morning. + +She crouched low and fixed the light's ray slowly on the bag that her +hand might not err the slightest in its touch. She laid her bony fingers +on it with a slow, imperceptible movement, held them there a moment and +moved the bag the slightest bit to test the sleeper's wakefulness. To +her surprise he stirred instantly. + +“What'ell!” he growled sleepily. + +She stood motionless until he was breathing again with deep, even, heavy +throb. Gliding back to the table, she flashed the light again on the +bag and studied its position. His big neck rested squarely across it. To +move it without waking him was a physical impossibility. + +Here was a dilemma she had not fully faced. She had not believed it +possible for him to place the bag where she could not get it. Her +only purpose up to this moment had been to take it and store it safely +beneath the soft earth in the inner recess of the cave. He would miss +it in the morning, of course. She would express her amazement. The bar +would be down from the front door. Someone had robbed him. The money +could never be found. + +She had made up her mind to take it the moment he had convinced her that +his philosophy of life was true. His eloquence had transformed her +from an ignorant old woman, content with her poverty and dirt, into a +dangerous and daring criminal. + +There was no such thing as failure to be thought of now for a moment. +The spade in the inner room of her store-house could be put to larger +use if necessary. With the strength of the madness now on her she could +carry his body on her back through the woods. The world would be none +the wiser. He had quarreled with his wife, and left her in a rage that +night. That was all she knew. The sheriff of neither county could +afford to bother his head long over an insolvable mystery. Besides, both +sheriffs were her friends. + +Her decision was instantaneous when once she saw that it was safe. + +She smiled over the grim irony of the thing--his words kept humming in +her ears, his voice, low and persuasive: + +“Suppose now the man that got that money had to kill a fool to take +it--what of it? You don't get big money any other way!” + +On the shelf beside the door was a butcher knife which she also used for +carving. She had sharpened its point that night to carve her Christmas +turkey next day. + +She raised the torch and flashed its rays on the shelf to guide her +hand, crept to the wall, took down the knife and laid the electric torch +in its place. + +Steadying her body against the wall, her arms outspread, she edged +her way behind the couch and bent over the sleeping man until by his +breathing she had located his heart. + +She raised her tall figure and brought the knife down with a crash into +his breast. With a sudden wrench she drew it from the wound and crouched +among the shadows watching him with wide-dilated eyes. + +The stricken sleeper gasped for breath, his writhing body fairly +leaped into the air, bounded on the couch and stood erect. He staggered +backward and lurched toward her. The crouching figure bent low, gripping +the knife and waiting for her chance to strike the last blow. + +Strangling with blood, Jim opened his eyes and saw the old woman +creeping nearer through the gray light of the dawn. + +He threw his hands above his head and tried to shout his warning. She +was on him, her trembling hand feeling for his throat, before he could +speak. + +Struggling, in his weakened condition, to tear her fingers away, he +gasped: + +“Here! Here! Great God! Do you know what you're doing?” + +“I just want yer money,” she whispered. “That's all, and I'm a-goin' ter +have it!” + +Her fingers closed and the knife sank into his neck. + +She sprang back and watched him lurch and fall across the couch. His +body writhed a moment in agony and was still. + +Holding the knife in her hand, she tore open the bag and thrust her +itching fingers into the gold, gripping it fiercely. + +“Nobody's goin' to ask ye how ye got it--they just want to know HAVE ye +got it--yeah! Yeah----” + +The last word died on her lips. The door of the shed-room suddenly +opened and Mary stood before her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. DELIVERANCE + +The first dim noises of the tragedy in the living-room Mary's stupefied +senses had confused with a nightmare which she had been painfully +fighting. + +The torch in Nance's hand had flashed through a crack into her face +once. It was the flame of a revolver in the hands of a thief in Jim's +den in New York. She merely felt it. Her eyes had been gouged out and +she was blind. A gang of his coarse companions were holding a council, +cursing, drinking, fighting. Jim had sprung between two snarling brutes +and knocked the revolver into the air. The flame had scorched her face. + +With an oath he had slapped her. + +“Get out, you damned little fool!” he growled. “You're always in the way +when you're not wanted. Nobody can ever find you when there's work to be +done----” + +“But I can't see, Jim dear,” she pleaded. “I do not know when things are +out of place----” + +“You're a liar!” he roared. “You know where every piece of junk stands +in this room better than I do. I can't bring a friend into that door +that you don't know it. You can hear the swish of a woman's skirt on the +stairs four stories below----” + +“I only asked you who the woman was who came in with you, Jim----” + +His fingers gripped her throat and stopped her breath. Through the roar +of surging blood she could barely hear the vile words he was dinning +into her ears. + +“I know you just asked me, you nosing little devil, and it's none of +your business! She's a pal of mine, if you want to know, the slickest +thief that ever robbed a flat. She's got more sense in a minute than +you'll ever have in a lifetime. She's going to live here with me now. +You can sleep on the cot in the kitchen. And you come when she calls, +if you know what's good for your lazy hide. I've told her to thrash the +life out of you if you dare to give her any impudence.” + +She had cowered at his feet and begged him not to beat her again. The +fumes of whiskey and stale beer filled the place. + +Jim turned from her to quell a new fight at the other end of the room. +Another woman was there, coarse, dirty, beastly. She drew a knife and +demanded her share of the night's robberies. She was trying to break +from the men who held her to stab Jim. They were all fighting and +smashing the furniture---- + +She sprang from the bed with a cry of horror. The noise was real! It was +not a dream. The beast inside was stumbling in the dark. His passions +fired by liquor, he was fumbling to find his way into her room. + +She rushed to the door and put her shoulder against the bar, panting in +terror. + +She heard his strangling cry: + +“Here! Here! Great God! Do you know what you're doing?” + +And then his mother's voice, mad with greed, cruel, merciless: + +“I just want yer money--that's all, an' I'm goin' to have it!” + +She heard the clinch in the struggle and the dull blow of the knife. +In a sudden flash she saw it all. He had succeeded in rousing Nance's +avarice and transforming her into a fiend. Without knowing it she was +stabbing her own son to death in the room in which he had been born! + +She tried to scream and her lips refused to move. She tried to hurry to +the rescue and her knees turned to water. + +Gasping for breath, she drew the bar from her prison door and walked +slowly into the room. + +Nance's tall, bony figure was still crouched over the open bag, her +left hand buried in the gold, her right gripping the knife, her face +convulsed with greed--avarice and murder blended into perfect hell-lit +unity at last. + +Jim lay on his back, limp and still, obliquely across the couch, his +breast bared in the struggle, the blood oozing a widening scarlet blot +on his white shirt. His head had fallen backward over the edge and could +not be seen. + +Without moving a muscle, her body crouching, Nance spoke: + +“You wuz awake--you heered?” + +“Yes!” + +The gleaming eyes burned through the gray dawn, two points of +scintillating, hellish light fixed in purpose on the intruder. + +She had only meant to take the money. The fool had fought. She killed +him because she had to. And now the sobbing, sniveling little idiot who +had kept her waiting all night had stuck her nose into some thing that +didn't concern her. If she opened her mouth, the gallows would be the +end. + +She would open it too. Of course she would. She was his wife. They had +quarreled, but the simpleton would blab. Nance knew this with unerring +instinct. It was no use to offer her half the money. She didn't have +sense enough to take it. She knew those pious, baby faces--well, there +was room for two in the cave under the cliff. It was daylight now. No +matter; it was Christmas morning. No man or woman ever darkened her door +on Christmas day. She could hide their bodies until dark, and then it +was easy. She would be in New York herself before anyone could suspect +the meaning of that automobile in the shed or the owners would trouble +themselves to come after it. + +Again her decision was quick and fierce. Her hand was on the bag. She +would hold it against the world, all hell and heaven. + +With the leap of a tigress she was on the girl, the bag gripped in her +left hand, the knife in her right. + +To her amazement the trembling figure stood stock still gazing at her +with a strange look of pity. + +“Well!” Nance growled. “I ain't goin' ter be took now I've got this +money--I'm goin' to New York ter find my boy!” + +She lifted the knife and stopped in sheer stupor of surprise at the +girl's immovable body and staring eyes. Had she gone crazy? What on +earth could it mean? No girl of her youth and beauty could look death +in the face without a tremor. No woman in her right senses could see +the body of her dead husband lying there red and yet quivering without a +sign. It was more than even Nance's nerves could endure. + +She lowered the knife and peered into the girl's set face and glanced +quickly about the room. Could she have called help? Was the house +surrounded? It was impossible. She couldn't have escaped. What did it +mean? + +The old woman drew back with a terror she couldn't understand. + +“What are you looking at me like that for?” she panted. + +Mary held her gaze in lingering pity. Her heart went out now to the +miserable creature trembling in the presence of her victim. The blow +must fall that would crush the soul out of her body at one stroke. The +gray hair had tumbled over her distorted features, the ragged dress had +been torn from her throat in the struggle and her flat, bony breast was +exposed. + +“You don't--have--to--go--to--New York--to--find--your--boy!” the +strained voice said at last. + +Nance frowned in surprise and flew back at her in rage. + +“Yes I do, too--he lives thar!” + +The little figure straightened above the crouching form. + +“He's here!” + +Nance sank slowly against the table and rested the bag on the edge of +the chair. Its weight was more than she could bear. She tried to glance +over her shoulder at the body on the couch and her courage failed. The +first suspicion of the hideous truth flashed through her stunned mind. +She couldn't grasp it at once. + +“Whar?” she whispered hoarsely. + +Mary lifted her arm slowly and pointed to the couch. + +“There!” + +Nance glared at her a moment and broke into a hysterical laugh. + +“It's a lie--a lie--a lie!” + +“It's true----” + +“Yer're just a lyin' ter me ter get away an give me up--but ye won't do +it--little Miss--old Nance is too smart for ye this time. Who told you +that?” + +“He told me tonight!” + +“He told you?” she repeated blankly. + +“Yes.” + +“You're a liar!” she growled. “And I'll prove it--you move out o' your +tracks an' I'll cut your throat. My boy's got a scar on his neck--I know +right whar to look for it. Don't you move now till I see--I know you're +a liar----” + +She turned and with the quick trembling fingers of her right hand tore +the shirt back from the neck and saw the scar. She still held the bag +in her left hand. The muscles slowly relaxed and the bag fell endwise to +the floor, the gold crashing and rolling over the boards. She stared in +stupor and threw both hands above her streaming gray hair. + +“Lord God Almighty!” she shrieked. “Why didn't I think that he wuz +somebody else's boy if he weren't mine!” + +The thin body trembled and crumpled beside the couch. + +The girl lifted her head in a look of awe as if in prayer. + +“And God has set me free! free! free!” + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. THE DOCTOR + +Mary stood overwhelmed by the tragedy she had witnessed. For the time +her brain refused to record sensations. She had seen too much, felt too +much in the past eight hours. Soul and body were numb. + +The first impressions of returning consciousness were fixed on Nance. +She had risen suddenly from the floor and smoothed the hair back from +Jim's forehead with tender touch as if afraid to wake him. She drew the +quilt from the kitchen floor, spread it over the body, and lifted her +eyes to Mary's. It was only too plain. + +Reason had gone. + +She tipped close and put her fingers on her lips. + +“Sh! We mustn't wake him. He's tired. Let him sleep. It's my boy. He's +come home. We'll fix him a fine Christmas dinner. I've got a turkey. +I'll bake a cake----” she paused and laughed softly. “I've got eggs too, +fresh laid yesterday. We'll make egg-nog all day and all night. I ain't +had no Christmas since that devil stole him. We'll have one this time, +won't we?” + +The girl's wits were again alert. She must run for help. A minute to +humor the old woman's delusion and she might return before any harm +came to her. Jim had not moved a muscle. It was plain that he was beyond +help. + +“Yes,” Mary answered cheerfully. “You fix the cake--and I'll get the +wood to make a fire.” + +Nance laughed again. + +“We'll have the dinner all ready for him when he wakes, won't we?” + +“Yes. I'll be back in a few minutes.” + +Nance hurried into the kitchen humming an old song in a faltering voice +that sent the cold chills down the girl's spine. + +Mary slipped quietly through the door and ran with swift, sure foot down +the narrow road along which the machine had picked its way the afternoon +before. The cabin they had passed last could not be more than a mile. + +She made no effort to find the logs for pedestrians when the road +crossed the brook. She plunged straight through the babbling waters with +her shoes, regardless of skirts. + +Panting for breath, she saw the smoke curling from the cabin chimney a +quarter of a mile away. + +“Thank God!” she cried. “They're awake!” + +She was so glad to have reached her goal, her strength suddenly gave way +and she dropped to a boulder by the wayside to rest. In two minutes she +was up and running with all her might. + +She rushed to the door and knocked. + +A mountaineer in shirt-sleeves and stockings answered with a look of +mild wonder. + +“For God's sake come and help me. I must have a doctor quick. We spent +the night at Mrs. Owens'. She's lost her mind completely--a terrible +thing has happened--you'll help me?” + +“Cose I will, honey,” the mountaineer drawled. “Jest ez quick ez I get +on my shoes.” + +“Is there a doctor near?” she asked breathlessly. + +He answered without looking up: + +“The best one that God ever sent to a sick bed. He don't charge nobody +a cent in these parts. He just heals the sick because hit's his callin'. +Come from somewhar up North and built hisself a fine log house up on +the side of the mountains. Hit's full of all the medicines in the world, +too----” + +“Will you ask him to come for me?” Mary broke in. + +“I'll jump on my hoss an' have him thar in half a' hour. You can run +right back, honey, and look out for the po' ole critter till we get +thar.” + +“Thank you! Thank you!” she answered grate fully. + +“Not at all, not at all!” he protested as he swung through the door +and hurried to the low-pitched sheds in which his horse and cow were +stabled. “Be thar in no time!” + +When Mary returned, Nance was still busy in the kitchen. She had built a +fire and put the turkey in the oven. + +Mary was counting the minutes now until the doctor should come. The old +woman's prattle about the return of her lost boy, so big and strong and +handsome, had become unendurable. She felt that she should scream and +collapse unless help came at once. She looked at her watch. It was just +thirty-five minutes from the time she had left the cabin in the valley +below. + +She sprang to her feet with a smothered cry of joy. The beat of a +horse's hoof at full gallop was ringing down the road. + +In two minutes the Doctor's firm footstep was heard at the kitchen door. + +Nance turned with a look of glad surprise. + +“Well, fur the land sake, ef hit ain't Doctor Mulford! Come right in!” + she cried. + +The Doctor seized her hand. + +“And how is my good friend, Mrs. Owens, this morning?” he asked +cheerfully. + +Mary was studying him with deep interest. She had asked herself the +question a hundred times how much she could tell him--what to say and +what to leave unsaid. One glance at his calm, intellectual face was +enough. He was a man of striking appearance, six feet tall, forty-five +years of age, hair prematurely gray and a slight stoop to his broad +shoulders. His brown eyes seemed to enfold the old woman in their +sympathy. + +Nance was chattering her answer to his greeting. + +“Oh, I'm feelin' fine, Doctor--” she dropped her voice +confidentially--“and you're just in time for a good dinner. My boy that +was lost has come home. He's a great big fellow, wears fine clothes and +come up the mountain all the way in a devil wagon.” She put her hand +to her mouth. “Sh! He's asleep! We won't wake him till dinner! He's all +tired out.” + +The Doctor nodded understandingly and turned toward Mary. + +“And this young lady?” + +“Oh, that's his wife from New York--ain't she purty?” + +The Doctor saw the delicate hands trembling and extended his. + +No word was spoken. None was needed. There was healing in his touch, +healing in his whole being. No man or woman could resist the appeal of +his personality. Their secrets were yielded with perfect faith. + +“Come with me quickly,” Mary whispered. + +“I understand,” he answered carelessly. + +Turning again to Nance, he said with easy confidence: + +“I'll not disturb you with your cooking, Mrs. Owens. Go right on with +it. I'll have a little chat with your son's wife. If she's from New York +I want to ask her about some of my people up there----” + +“All right,” Nance answered, “but don't you wake HIM! Go with her inter +the shed-room.” + +“We'll go on tip-toe!” the Doctor whispered. + +Nance nodded, smiled and bent again over the oven. + +Mary led him quickly through the living-room, head averted from the +couch, and into the prison cell in which she had passed the night. The +physician glanced with a startled look at the gold still scattered on +the floor. + +She seized his hand and swayed. + +He touched the brown hair of her bared head gently and pressed her hand. + +“Steady, now, child, tell me quickly.” + +“Yes, yes,” she gasped, “I'll tell you the truth----” + +He held her gaze. + +“And the whole truth--it's best.” + +Mary nodded, tried to speak and failed. She drew her breath and steadied +herself, still gripping his hand. + +“I will,” she began faintly. “He's dead----” + +She paused and nodded toward the living-room. + +“The man--her son?” + +“Yes. We came last night from Asheville. We were on our honeymoon. We +haven't been married but three weeks. I never knew the truth about his +life and character until last night when he told me that this old woman +was his mother. I found a case of jewels in the bag he carried--jewels +that belonged to a man in New York who was robbed and shot. I recognized +the case. He confessed to me at last in cold, brutal words that he was +a thief. I couldn't believe it at first. I tried to make him give up his +criminal career. He laughed at me. He gloried in it. I tried to leave +him. He choked me into insensibility and drove me into this cell, where +I spent the night. He brought the gold that you saw on the floor which +he had honestly made to give to his old mother--but for a devilish +purpose. He showed it to her last night to rouse her avarice and make +her first agree to hide his stolen goods. He succeeded too well. Before +he had revealed himself she slipped into the room at daylight while he +slept in a drunken stupor, murdered him and took the money. The struggle +waked me and I rushed in. She gripped her knife to kill me. I told her +that she had murdered her own son and she went mad----” + +She paused for breath and her lips trembled piteously. + +“You know what to do, Doctor?” + +“Yes!” + +“And you'll help me?” + +He smiled tenderly and nodded his head. + +“God knows you need it, child!” + +The nerves snapped at last, and she sank a limp heap at his feet. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. THE CALL DIVINE + +The Doctor threw off his coat and took charge of the stricken house. He +sent his waiting messenger for a faithful nurse, a mountain woman whom +he had trained, and began the fight for Mary's life. The collapse into +which she had fallen would require weeks of patient care. There was no +immediate danger of death, and while he awaited the arrival of help, he +turned into the living-room to examine the body of the slain husband. + +The head had fallen backward over the side of the lounge and a pool of +blood, still warm and red, lay on the floor in a widening circle beneath +it. His quick eye took in its significance at a glance. He sprang +forward, ripped the shirt wide open and applied his ear to the breast. + +“He's still alive!” he cried excitedly. + +He examined the ugly wound in the left side and found that the knife +had penetrated the lung. The heart had not been touched. The blow on the +neck had not been fatal. The shock of the final stroke had merely choked +the wounded man into collapse from the hemorrhage of the left lung. The +position into which the body had fallen across the couch had gradually +cleared the accumulated blood. There was a chance to save his life. + +In ten minutes he had applied stimulants and restored respiration, +but the deep wheeze from the stricken lung told only too plainly the +dangerous character of the wound. It would be a bitter fight. His +enormous vitality might win. The chances were against him. + +Jim's lips moved and he tried to speak. + +The Doctor placed his hand on his mouth and shook his head. The drooping +eyelids closed in grateful obedience. + +The beat of horses' hoofs echoed down the mountain road. His nurse and +messenger were coming. He decided at once to move Mary to his own house. +She must regain consciousness in new surroundings or her chance of +survival would be slender. To awake in this miserable cabin, the scene +of the tragedy she had witnessed, might be instantly fatal. Besides she +must not yet know that the brute who had choked her was alive and might +still hold the power of life and death over her frail body. She believed +him dead. It was best so. He might be dead and buried before she +recovered consciousness. The fever that burned her brain would +completely cloud reason for days. + +He hastily improvised a stretcher with a blanket and two strong +quilting-poles which stood in the corner of the room. Nance helped him +without question. She obeyed his slightest suggestion with childlike +submission. + +He placed Mary on the stretcher, wrapped her body in another warm +blanket and turned to his nurse and messenger: + +“Carry her to my house. Walk slowly and rest whenever you wish. +Don't wake her. Tell Aunt Abbie to put her to bed in the south room +overlooking the valley. Don't leave her a minute, Betty. She's in the +first collapse of brain fever. You know what to do. I'll be there in an +hour. You come back here, John. I want you.” + +The mountaineer nodded and seized one end of the stretcher. The nurse +took up the other and the Doctor held wide the cabin door as they passed +out. + +For three weeks he fought the grim battle with Death for the two young +lives the Christmas tragedy had thrust into his hands. He gave his +entire time day and night to the desperate struggle. + +When pneumonia had developed and Jim's life hung by a hair, he slept on +the couch in the living-room of the cabin and had Nance make for herself +a bed on the floor of the kitchen. + +The old woman remained an obedient child. She cooked the Doctor's meals +and did the work about the house and yard as if nothing had disturbed +her habits of lonely plodding. She believed implicitly all that was told +her. Her son had pneumonia from cold he had taken in the long drive from +Asheville. The house must be kept quiet. John Sanders was helping her +nurse him. She was sure the Doctor would save him. + +Even the knife with which she had stabbed him made no impression on +her numbed senses. The Doctor had scoured every trace of blood from the +blade and put it back in its place on the shelf, lest she should miss it +and ask questions. She used it daily without the slightest memory of the +frightful story it might tell. + +Each morning before going to the cabin the Doctor watched with patience +for the first signs of returning consciousness in Mary's fever-wracked +body. The day she lifted her grateful eyes to his and her lips moved in +a tremulous question he raised his hand gently. + +“Sh! Child--don't talk! It's all right. You're getting better. I've +been with you every day. You're in my house now. You'll soon be yourself +again.” + +She smiled wanly, put her delicate hand on his and pressed it +gratefully. + +“I understand. You thank me--you say that I am good to you. But I'm +not. This is my life. I heal the sick because I must. I love this battle +royal with Death. He beats me sometimes--but I never quit. I'm always +tramping on his trail, and I've won this fight!” + +The calm brown eyes held her in a spell and she smiled again. + +“Sleep now,” he said soothingly. “Sleep day and night. Just wake to take +a little food--that's all and Nature will do the rest.” + +He stroked her hand gently until her eyelids closed. + +Two days later Jim clung to the Doctor's hand and insisted on talking. + +“Better wait a little longer, boy,” the physician answered kindly. +“You're not out of the woods yet----” + +“I can't wait--Doc----” Jim pleaded. “I've just got to ask you +something.” + +“All right. You can talk five minutes.” + +“My wife, Doc, how is she? You took her to your house, John told me. +She'll get well?” + +“Yes. She's rapidly recovering now.” + +“What does she say about me?” + +“She thinks you're dead.” + +“You haven't told her?” + +“No.” + +“Why?” + +“She had all she could stand----” + +Jim stared in silence. + +“You think she'd be sorry to know I am alive?” he asked slowly. + +“It would be a great shock.” + +The steel blue eyes slowly filled with tears. + +“God! I am rotten, ain't I?” + +“There's no doubt about that, my son,” was the firm answer. + +“Why did you fight so hard to save me--I wonder?” + +“An old feud between Death and me.” + +Jim suddenly seized the Doctor's hand. + +“Say, you can't fool me--you're a good one, Doc. You've been a friend to +me and you've got to help now--you've just got to. You're the only one +on earth who can. You've a great big heart and you can't go back on a +fellow that's down and out. Give me a chance! You will--won't you?” + +The hot fingers gripped the Doctor's hand with pleading tenderness. + +The brown eyes searched Jim's soul. + +“If you can show me it's worth while----” + +The fingers tightened their grip in silence. + +“Just give me a chance, Doc,” he said at last, “and I'll show you! I +ain't never had a chance to really know what was right and what was +wrong. If I'd a lived here with my old mother she'd have told me. You +know what it is to be a stray dog on the streets of New York? Even then, +I'd have kept straight if I hadn't been robbed by a lawyer and his +pal. I didn't know what I was doin' till that night here in this +cabin--honest to God, I didn't----” + +He paused for breath and a tear stole down his cheek. He fought for +control of his emotions and went on in low tones. + +“I didn't know--till I saw my old mother creepin' on me in the shadows +with that big knife gleamin' in her hand! I tried to stop her and I +couldn't. I tried to yell and strangled with blood. I saw the flames of +hell in her eyes and I had kindled them there--God! I never knew until +that minute! I'm broken and bruised lyin' on the rocks now in the +lowest pit---- Give me your hand, Doc! You're my only friend--I'm goin' +straight from now on--so help me God!” + +He paused again for breath and sought the actor's eyes. + +“You'll stand by me, won't you?” + +A friendly grip closed on the trembling fingers. + +“Yes--I'll help you--if I can.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. THE MOTHER + +Mary was resting in the chair beneath the southern windows of the +sun-parlor of the Doctor's bungalow. He had built his home of logs +cut from the mountainside. Its rooms were supplied with every modern +convenience and comfort. Clear spring water from the cliff above poured +into the cypress tank constructed beneath the roof. An overflow pipe +sent a sparkling, bubbling and laughing through the lawn, refreshing the +wild flowers planted along its edges. + +The view from the window looking south was one of ravishing beauty and +endless charm. Perched on a rising spur of the Black Mountain the house +commanded a view of the long valley of the Swannanoa opening at +the lower end into the wide, sunlit sweep of the lower hills around +Asheville. Upward the balsam-crowned peaks towered among the clouds and +stars. + +No two hours of the day were just alike. Sometimes the sun was raining +showers of diamonds on the trembling tree-tops of the valleys while the +blackest storm clouds hung in ominous menace around Mount Mitchell and +the Cat-tail. Sometimes it was raining in the valley--the rain cloud a +level sheet of gray cloth stretching from the foot of the lawn across to +the crags beyond, while the sun wrapped the little bungalow in a warm, +white mantle. + +Mary had never tired of this enchanted world during the days of her +convalescence. The Doctor, with firm will, had lifted every care from +her mind. She had gratefully submitted to his orders, and asked no +questions. + +She began to wonder vaguely about his life and people and why he had +left the world in which a man of his culture and power must have moved, +to bury himself in these mountain wilds. She wondered if he had married, +separated from his wife and chosen the life of a recluse. He volunteered +no information about himself. + +When not attending his patients he spent his hours in the greenhouse +among his flowers or in the long library extension of the bungalow. +More than five thousand volumes filled the solid shelves. A massive oak +table, ten feet in length and four feet wide, stood in the center of the +room, always generously piled with books, magazines and papers. At the +end of this table he kept the row of books which bore immediately on the +theme he was studying. + +Beside the window opening on the view of the valley stood his +old-fashioned desk--six feet long, its top a labyrinth of pigeon-holes +and tiny drawers. + +He pursued his studies with boyish enthusiasm and chattered of them to +Mary by the hour--with never a word passing his lips about himself. + +Aunt Abbie, the cook, brought her a cup of tea, and Mary volunteered a +question. + +“Do you know the Doctor's people, Auntie?” she asked hesitatingly. + +“Lord, child, he's a mystery to everybody! All we know is that he's +the best man that ever walked the earth. He won't talk and the mountain +folks are too polite to nose into his business. He saved my boy's life +one summer, and when he was strong and well and went back to Asheville +to his work, I had nothin' to do but to hold my hands, and I come here +to cook for him. He tries to pay me wages but I laugh at him. I told him +if he could save my boy's life for nothin' I reckon I could cook him a +few good meals without pay----” + +Her eyes filled with tears. She brushed them off, laughed and added: + +“He lets me alone now and don't pester me no more about money.” + +Her tea and toast finished, Mary placed the tray on the table, rose with +a sudden look of pain, and made her way slowly to the library. + +A warm fire of hardwood logs sparkled in the big stone fireplace. The +Doctor was out on a visit to a patient. He had given her the freedom of +the place and had especially insisted that she use his books and make +his library her resting place whenever her mind was fagged. She had +spent many quiet hours in its inspiring atmosphere. + +She seated herself at his desk and studied the calendar which hung above +it. A sudden terror overwhelmed her; she buried her face in her arms and +burst into tears. + +She was still lying across the desk, sobbing, when the Doctor walked +into the room. + +He touched her hair reproachfully with his firm hand. + +“Why, what's this? My little soldier has disobeyed orders?” + +“I don't want to live now,” she sobbed. + +“And why not?” + +“I--I--am going to be a mother,” she whispered. + +“So?” + +“The mother of a criminal! Oh, Doctor, it's horrible! Why did you let me +live? The hell I passed through that night was enough--God knows! This +will be unendurable. I've made up my mind--I'll die first----” + +“Rubbish, child! Rubbish!” he answered with a laugh. “Where did you get +all this misinformation?” + +“You know what my husband was. How can you ask?” + +“Because I happen to know also his wife--the mother-to-be of this +supposed criminal who has just set sail for the shores of our +planet--and I know that she is one of the purest and sweetest souls who +ever lost her way in the jungles of the world. If you were the criminal, +dear heart, the case might be hopeless. But you're not. You are only +the innocent victim of your own folly. That doesn't count in the game of +Nature----” + +“What do you mean?” she asked breathlessly. + +“Simply this: The part which the male plays in the reproduction of the +race is small in comparison with the role of the female. He is merely +a supernumerary who steps on the stage for a moment and speaks one word +announcing the arrival of the queen. The queen is the mother. She plays +the star role in the drama of Heredity. She is never off the stage for a +single moment. We inherit the most obvious physical traits from our male +ancestors but even these may be modified by the will of the mother.” + +“Modified by the will of the mother?” she repeated blankly. + +“Certainly. There are yet long days and weeks and months before your +babe will be born--at least seven months. There's not a sight or sound +of earth or heaven that can reach or influence this coming human being +save through your eyes and ears and touch and soul. Almighty God can +speak His message only through you. You are his ambassador on earth in +this solemn hour. What your husband was, is of little importance. There +is not a moment, waking or sleeping, day or night, that does not bring +to you its divine opportunity. This human life is yours--absolutely to +mold and fashion in body and mind as you will.” + +“You're just saying this to keep me from suicide,” Mary interrupted. + +“I am telling you the simplest truth of physical life. You can even +change the contour of your baby's head if you like. You think in your +silly fears that the bull neck and jaw of the father will reappear +in the child. It might be so unless you see fit to change it. All any +father can do is to transmit general physical traits unless modified by +the will of the mother.” + +“You mean that I can choose even the personal appearance of my child?” + she asked in blank amazement. + +“Exactly that. Choose the type of man you wish your babe to be and it +shall be so. Who in all the world would you prefer that he resemble?” + +“You,” she answered promptly. + +He smiled gently. + +“That pays me for all my trouble, child! No doctor ever got a bigger +fee than that. Banks may fail, but I'll never lose it. Your choice +simplifies that matter very much. You won't need a picture in your +room----” + +“A picture could determine the features of an unborn babe?” she asked +incredulously. + +“Beyond a doubt, and it will determine character sometimes. I knew a +mother in the mountains of Vermont who hung the picture of a ship under +full sail in her living-room. She bore seven sons. Not one of them ever +saw the ocean until he was grown and yet all of them became sailors. +This was not an accident. In her age and loneliness she blamed God for +taking her children from her. Yet she had made sailors of them all by +the selection of a single piece of furniture in her room. Nature has a +way of starting her children on their journey through this world very +nearly equal--each a bundle of possibilities in the hands of a mother. +A father may transmit physical disease, if his body is unsound. Such +marriages should be prohibited by law. But nine-tenths of the spiritual +traits out of which character is formed are the work of the mother. A +criminal mother will bring into the world only criminals. A criminal +male may be the father of a saint. The responsibility of shaping the +destiny of the race rests with the mother----” + +The Doctor sprang to his feet and paced the floor, his arms gripped +behind his back in deep thought. He paused before the enraptured +listener and hesitated to speak the thought in his mind. + +He lifted his hand suddenly, his decision apparently made. + +“It is of the utmost importance to the race that our mothers shall +be pure. Better certainly if both father and mother are so. It is +indispensable that the mother shall be! On this elemental fact rests the +dual standard of sex morals. On this fact rests the hope of a glorified +humanity through the development of an intelligent motherhood. Stay here +with me until your child is born and I'll prove the truth of every word +I've spoken----” + +“Oh, if I only could!” + +“Why not?” + +“I couldn't impose such a burden on you!” she faltered. + +“You would confer on me the highest honor, if you will allow me to +direct you in this experiment.” + +There was no mistaking his honesty and earnestness. There was no +refusing the appeal. + +“You really wish me to stay?” she asked. + +“I beg of you to stay! You will bring to me a new inspiration--new +faith--new courage to fight. Will you?” + +She extended her hand. + +“Yes.” + +“And you will agree to follow my instructions?” + +“Absolutely.” + +“Good. We begin from this moment. I give you my first orders. Forget +that James Anthony ever lived. Forget the tragedy of Christmas Eve. +You are going to be a mother. All other events in life pale before this +fact. God has conferred on you the highest honor He can give to +mortal. Keep your soul serene, your body strong. You are to worry about +nothing----” + +“I must pay you for this extra expense I impose, Doctor. I have a +thousand dollars in bank in New York,” she interrupted. + +“Certainly, if you will be happier. My home is now your sanitarium. You +are my patient. Your board will cost me about eight dollars a week. All +right. You can pay that if you wish. + +“Take no thought now except on the business of being a mother. I will +make myself your father, your brother, your guardian, your physician, +your friend and companion. I will give you at once a course of reading. +You are to think only beautiful thoughts, see beautiful things, dream +beautiful dreams, hear beautiful music. I'm going to make you climb +these mountain peaks with me for the next three months and live among +the clouds. I'm going to refit your room with new furniture and pictures +and place in it a phonograph with the best music. When you are strong +enough you can work for me three hours a day as my secretary. You use +the typewriter?” + +“I'm an expert----” + +“Good! I'm writing a book which I'm going to call `The Rulers of the +World.' It is a study of Motherhood. I am one who believes that the +redemption of humanity awaits the realization by woman of her divine +call. When woman knows that she is really a co-creator with God in the +reproduction of the race, a new era will dawn for mankind. You promise +me faithfully to obey my instructions?” + +“Faithfully.” + +“You're a wonderful subject on which to make an experiment. You are +young--in the first dawn of the glory of womanhood. Your body is +beautiful, your mind singularly pure and sweet. You must give me at once +the full power of your will in its concentration on Truth and Beauty. +The success or failure of this experiment will depend almost entirely on +your mentality and the use you make of it during these months in which +your babe is being formed. Whatever the shape of the body there is one +eternal certainty--only YOUR mind can reach the soul of this child. +If the father were the veriest fiend who ever existed and should +concentrate his mind to the task, not one thought from his darkened soul +could reach your babe! YOUR mind will be the ever-brooding, enfolding +spirit forming and fashioning character.” + +He paused and his deep brown eyes flashed with enthusiasm. + +“Think of it! You are now creating an immortal being whose word may bend +a million wills to his. And you are doing this mighty work solely by +your mind. The physical processes are simple and automatic. + +“The first lesson you must learn and hold with deathless grip is that +thoughts are things. A thought can kill the body. A thought can heal the +body. If I am successful as a physician it is because I use this power +with my patients. With some I use drugs, with others none. With all +I use every ounce of mental power which God has given me. You will +remember this?” + +“Yes.” + +He walked to the shelves and drew down a volume of poetry. + +“Read these poems until you are tired today--then sleep. I'll give you +a good novel tomorrow and when you've read it, a volume of philosophy. +When we climb the peaks, I'll give you a study of these rocks that will +tell you the story of their birth, their life, and their coming death. +We'll learn something of the birds and flowers next spring. We'll dream +great dreams and think great thoughts--you and I--in these wonderful +days and weeks and months which God shall give us together.” + +She looked up at him through her tears: + +“Oh, Doctor, you have not only saved a miserable life: you have saved my +soul!” + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. A SOUL IS BORN + +It was more than a month after the experiment began before the Doctor +ventured to hint of Jim's survival. He had waited patiently until +Mary's strength had been fully restored and her mind filled with the new +enthusiasm for motherhood. He could tell her now with little risk. And +yet he ventured on the task with reluctance. He found her seated at her +favorite window overlooking the deep blue valley of the Swannanoa, a +volume of poetry in her lap. + +He touched her shoulder and she smiled in cheerful response. + +“You are content?” he asked. + +“A strange peace is slowly stealing into my heart,” she responded +reverently. “I shall learn to love life again when my baby comes to help +me.” + +“You remember your solemn promise?” + +“Have I not kept it?” she murmured. + +“Faithfully--and I remind you of it that you may not forget today for a +moment that your work is too high and holy to allow a shadow to darken +your spirit even for an hour. I have something to tell you that may +shock a little unless I warn you----” + +She lifted her eyes with a quick look of uneasiness, and studied his +immovable face. + +“You couldn't guess?” he laughed. + +She shook her head in puzzled silence. + +“Suppose I were to tell you,” he went on evenly, “that I found a spark +of life in your husband's body that morning and drew him back from the +grave?” + +Her eyes closed and she stretched her hand toward the Doctor. + +He clasped the fingers firmly between both his palms, held and stroked +them gently. + +“You did save him?” she breathed. + +“Yes.” + +“Thank God his poor old mother is not a murderer! But he is dead to me. +I shall never see him again--never!” + +“I thought you would feel that way,” the Doctor quietly replied. + +“You won't let him come here?” she asked suddenly. + +“He won't try unless you consent----” + +Mary shuddered. + +“You don't know him----” + +The Doctor smiled. + +“I'm afraid you don't know him now, my child.” + +“He has changed?” + +“The old, old miracle over again. He has been literally born again--this +time of the spirit.” + +“It's incredible!” + +“It's true. He's a new man. I think his reformation is the real thing. +He's young. He's strong. He has brains. He has personality----” + +Mary lifted her hand. + +“All I ask of him is to keep out of my sight. The world is big enough +for us both. The past is now a nightmare. If I live to be a hundred +years old, with my dying breath I shall feel the grip of his fingers on +my throat----” + +She paused and closed her eyes. + +“Forget it! Forget it!” the Doctor laughed. “We have more important +things to think of now.” + +“He wishes to see me?” + +“Begs every day that I ask you.” + +“And you have hesitated these long weeks?” + +“Your strength and peace of mind were of greater importance than his +happiness, my dear. Let him wait until you please to see him.” + +“He'll wait forever,” was the firm answer. + +Jim smiled grimly when his friend bore back the message. + +“I'll never give up as long as there's breath in my body,” he cried, +bringing his square jaws together with a snap. + +“That's the way to talk, my boy,” the Doctor responded. + +“Anyhow you believe in me, Doc, don't you?” + +“Yes.” + +“And you'll help me a little on the way if it gets dark--won't you?” + +“If I can--you may always depend on me.” + +Jim clasped his outstretched hand gratefully. + +“Well, I'm going to make good.” + +There was something so genuine and manly in the tones of his voice, he +compelled the Doctor's respect. A smaller man might have sneered. The +healer of souls and bodies had come to recognize with unerring instinct +the true and false note in the human voice. + +His heart went out in a wave of sympathy for the lonely, miserable young +animal who stood before him now, trembling with the first sharp pains +of the immortal thing that had awaked within. He slipped his arm about +Jim's shoulders and whispered: + +“I'll tell you something that may help you when the way gets dark--the +wife is going to bear you a child.” + +“No!” + +“Yes.” + +“God!---- That's great, ain't it?” + +Jim choked into silence and looked up at the Doctor with dimmed eyes. + +“Say, Doc, you hit me hard when you brought what she said--but that's +good news! Watch me work my hands to the bone--you know it's my kid and +she can't keep me from workin' for it if she tries now can she?” + +“No.” + +“There's just one thing that'll hang over me like a black cloud,” he +mused sorrowfully. + +“I know, boy--your mother's darkened mind.” + +Jim nodded. + +“When I see that queer glitter in her eyes it goes through me like a +knife. Will she ever get over it?” + +“We can't tell yet. It takes time. I believe she will.” + +“You'll do the best you can for her, Doc?” he pleaded pathetically. “You +won't forget her a single day? If you can't cure her, nobody can.” + +“I'll do my level best, boy.” + +Jim pressed his hand again. + +“Gee, but you've been a friend to me! I didn't know that there were such +men in the world as you!” + +For six months the Doctor watched the transplanted child of the slums +grow into a sturdy manhood in his new environment. He snapped at every +suggestion his friend gave and with quick wit improved on it. He not +only discovered and developed a mica mine on his mother's farm, he +invented new machinery for its working that doubled the market output. +Within six weeks from the time he began his shipments the mine was +paying a steady profit of more than five hundred dollars a month. He had +made just one trip to New York and secretly returned to the police every +stolen jewel and piece of plunder taken, with a full confession of the +time and place of the crime. He had shipped his tools and machinery from +the workshop on the east side before his sensational act and made good +his departure for the South. + +The tools and machinery he installed in a new workshop which he built +in the yard of Nance's cabin. Here he worked day and night at his +blacksmith forge making the iron hinges, and irons, shovels, tongs, fire +sets and iron work complete for a log bungalow of seven rooms which +he was building on the sunny slope of the mountain which overlooks the +valley toward Asheville. + +The Doctor had lent Jim the blue-prints of his own home and he was +quietly duplicating it with loving care. His wife might refuse to see +him but he could build a home for their boy. For his sake she couldn't +refuse it. + +With childlike obedience Nance followed him every day and watched the +workmen rear the beautiful structure under Jim's keen eyes and skillful +hands. The man's devotion to his mother was pathetic. Only the Doctor +knew the secret of his pitiful care, and he kept his own counsel. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. THE BABY + +The last roses of summer were bursting their topmost buds into full +bloom on the lawn of the Doctor's bungalow. The martins that built each +year in the little boxes he had set on poles around his garden were +circling and chattering far up in the sapphire skies of a late September +day. Their leaders had sensed the coming frost and were drilling for +their long march across the world to their winter home. The chestnut +burrs were bursting in the woods. The silent sun-wrapped Indian Summer +had begun. Not a cloud flecked the skies. + +A quiet joy filled the soul of the woman who smiled and heard her +summons. + +“You are not afraid?” the Doctor asked. + +She turned her grateful eyes to his. + +“The peace of God fills the world--and I owe it all to you.” + +“Nonsense. Your sturdy will and cultivated mind did the work. I merely +made the suggestion.” + +“You are not going to give me an anesthetic, are you?” she said evenly. + +“Why did you ask that?” + +“Because I wish to feel and know the pain and glory of it all.” + +“You don't wish to take it?” + +“Not unless you say I should.” + +“What a wonderful patient you are, child! What a beautiful spirit!” He +looked at her intently. “Well, I'm older and wiser in experience than +you. I'm glad you added that clause `unless you say I should.' I'm going +to say it. After all my talks to you on our return to the truths and +simplicity of Nature you are perhaps surprised. You needn't be. I'm +going to put you into a gentle sleep. Nature will then do her physical +work automatically. I do this because our daughters are the inheritors +of the sins of their mothers for centuries. The over-refinement of +nerves, the hothouse methods of living, and the maiming of their bodies +with the inventions of fashion have made the pains of this supreme hour +beyond endurance. This should not be. It will not be so when our race +has come into its own. But it will take many generations and perhaps +many centuries before we reach the ideal. No physician who has a soul +could permit a woman of your physique, your culture and refinement to +walk barefoot and blindfolded into such a hell of physical torture. I +will not permit it.” + +He walked quietly into his laboratory, prepared the sleeping powders and +gave them to her. + +Six hours later she opened her eyes with eager wonder. Aunt Abbie was +busy over a bundle of fluffy clothes. The Doctor was standing with his +arms folded behind his back, his fine, clean-shaven face in profile +looking thoughtfully over the sun-lit valley. There was just one moment +of agonized fear. If they had failed! If her child were hideous--or +deformed! Her lips moved in silent prayer. + +“Doctor?” she whispered. + +In a moment he was bending over her, a look of exaltation in his brown +eyes. + +“Tell me quick!” + +“A wonderful boy, little mother! The most beautiful babe I have ever +seen. He didn't even cry--just opened his big, wide eyes and grunted +contentedly.” + +“Give him to me.” + +Aunt Abbie laid the warm bundle in her arms and she pressed it gently +until the sweet, red flesh touched her own. She lay still for a moment, +a smile on her lips. + +“Lift him and let me look!” + +“What a funny little pug nose,” she laughed. + +“Yes--exactly like his mother's!” the Doctor replied. + +She gazed with breathless reverence. + +“He is beautiful, isn't he?” she sighed. + +“And you have observed the chin and mouth?” + +“Exactly like yours. It's wonderful!” + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. WHAT IS LOVE? + +Eighteen months swiftly passed with the little mother and her boy still +in Dr. Mulford's sanitarium. She had allowed herself to be persuaded +that he had the right to be her guide and helper in the first year's +training of the child. + +The boy had steadily grown in strength and beauty of body and mind. The +Doctor persuaded her to spend one more winter basking in his sun-parlor +and finishing the final chapters of his book. Her mind was singularly +clever and helpful in the interpretation of the experiences and emotions +of motherhood. + +She had stubbornly resisted every suggestion to see her husband or allow +him to see the child. The Doctor had managed twice to give Jim an hour +with the baby while she had gone to Asheville on shopping trips. He was +rewarded for his trouble in the devotion with which the young father +worshiped his son. The Doctor watched the slumbering fires kindle in +the man's deep blue eyes with increasing wonder at the strength and +tenderness of his newfound soul. + +Jim had completed the furnishing of the bungalow with the advice and +guidance of his friend, and every room stood ready and waiting for its +mistress. He had insisted on making every piece of furniture for Mary's +room and the nursery adjoining. The Doctor was amazed at the mechanical +genius he displayed in its construction. He had taken a month's +instruction at a cabinet maker's in Asheville and the bed, bureau, +tables and chairs which he had turned out were astonishingly beautiful. +Their lines were copied from old models and each piece was a work of +art. The iron work was even more tastefully and beautifully wrought. He +had toiled day and night with an enthusiasm and patience that gave the +physician a new revelation in the possibility of the development of +human character. + +His friend came at last with a cheering message. He began smilingly: + +“I'm going to make the big fight today, boy, to get her to see you.” + +“You think she will?” + +“There's a good chance. Her savings have all been used up from her bank +account in New York. She is determined to go to her father in Kentucky. +I'll have a talk with her, bring her over to the bungalow, show her +through it on the pretext of its model construction and then you can +tell her that you built it with your own hands for her and the baby. You +might be loafing around the place about that time.” + +Jim's hand was suddenly lifted. + +“I got ye, Doc, I got ye! I'll be there--all day.” + +“Don't let her see you until I give the signal.” + +“Caution's my name.” + +“We'll see what happens.” + +Jim pressed close. + +“Say, Doc, if you know how to pray, I wish you'd send up a little word +for me while you're talkin' to her. Could ye now?” + +“I'll do my best for you, boy--and I think you've got a chance. She's +been watching the blue eyes of that baby lately with a rather curious +look of unrest.” + +“They're just like mine, ain't they?” Jim broke in with pride. + +“Time has softened the old hurt,” the Doctor went on. “The boy may win +for you----” + +The square jaw came together with a smash. + +“Gee--I hope so. I'll wait there all day for you and I'm goin' to try my +own hand at a little prayer or two on the side while I'm waiting. Maybe +God'll think He's hit me hard enough by this time to give me another +trial.” + +With a friendly wave of his hand the Doctor hurried home. + +He found Mary seated under the rose trellis beside the drive, watching +for his coming. The day was still and warm for the end of April. Birds +were singing and chattering in every branch and tree. A quail on the top +fence-rail of the wheat field called loudly to his mate. + +The boy was screaming his joy over a new wagon to which Aunt Abbie had +hitched his goat. He drove by in style, lifted his chubby hand to his +mother and shouted: + +“Dood-by, Doc-ter!” + +The Doctor waved a smiling answer, and lapsed into a long silence. + +He waked at last from his absorption to notice that Mary was +day-dreaming. The fair brow was drawn into deep lines of brooding. + +“Why shadows in your eyes a day like this, little mother?” he asked +softly. + +“Just thinking----” + +“About a past that you should forget?” + +“Yes and no,” she answered thoughtfully. “I was just thinking in this +flood of spring sunlight of the mystery of my love for such a man as the +one I married. How could it have been possible to really love him?” + +“You are sure that you loved him?” + +“Sure.” + +“How did you know?” + +“By all the signs. I trembled at his footstep. The touch of his hand, +the sound of his voice thrilled me. I was drawn by a power that was +resistless. I was mad with happiness those wonderful days that preceded +our marriage. I was madder still during our honeymoon--until the +shadows began to fall that fatal Christmas Eve.” She paused and her lips +trembled. “Oh, Doctor, what is love?” + +The drooping shoulders of the man bent lower. He picked up a pebble from +the ground and flicked it carelessly across the drive, lifted his head +at last and asked earnestly: + +“Shall I tell you the truth?” + +“Yes--your own particular brand, please--the truth, the whole truth and +nothing but the truth.” + +“I'll try,” he began soberly. “If I were a poet, naturally I would use +different language. As I'm only a prosaic doctor and physiologist I may +shock your ideals a little.” + +“No matter,” she interrupted. “They couldn't well get a harder jolt than +they have had already.” + +He nodded and went on: + +“There are two elemental human forces that maintain life--hunger +and love. They are both utterly simple, otherwise they could not be +universal. Hunger compels the race to live. Love compels it to reproduce +itself. There has never been anything mysterious about either of +these forces and there never will be--except in the imagination of +sentimentalists. + +“Nature begins with hunger. For about thirteen years she first applies +this force to the development of the body before she begins to lay the +foundation of the second. Until this second development is complete the +passion known as love cannot be experienced. + +“What is this second development? Very simple again. At the base of the +brain of every child there is a vacant space during the first twelve or +fifteen years. During the age of twelve to fourteen in girls, thirteen +to fifteen in boys, this vacant space is slowly filled by a new lobe +of the brain and with its growth comes the consciousness of sex and the +development of sex powers. + +“This new nerve center becomes on maturity a powerful physical magnet. +The moment this magnet comes into contact with an organization which +answers its needs, as certain kinds of food answer the needs of hunger, +violent desire is excited. If both these magnets should be equally +powerful, the disturbance to both will be great. The longer the personal +association is continued the more violent becomes this disturbance, +until in highly sensitive natures it develops into an obsession which +obscures reason and crushes the will. + +“The meaning of this impulse is again very simple--the unconscious +desire of the male to be a father, of the female to become a mother.” + +“And there is but one man on earth who could thus affect me?” Mary asked +excitedly. + +“Rubbish! There are thousands.” + +“Thousands?” + +“Literally thousands. The reason you never happen to meet them is purely +an accident of our poor social organization. Every woman has thousands +of true physical mates if she could only meet them. Every man has +thousands of true physical mates if he could only meet them. And in +every such meeting, if mind and body are in normal condition, the same +violent disturbance would result--whether married or single, free or +bound. + +“Marriage therefore is not based merely on the passion of love. It is +a crime for any man or woman to marry without love. It is the sheerest +insanity to believe that this passion within itself is sufficient to +justify marriage. All who marry should love. Many love who should not +marry. + +“The institution of marriage is the great SOCIAL ordinance of the race. +Its sanctity and perpetuity are not based on the violence of the passion +of love, but something else.” + +He paused and listened to the call of the quail again from the field. + +“You hear that bob white calling his mate?” + +“Yes--and she's answering him now very softly. I can hear them both.” + +“They have mated this spring to build a home and rear a brood of young. +Within six months their babies will all be full grown and next spring +a new alignment of lovers will be made. Their marriage lasts during the +period of infancy of their offspring. This is Nature's law. + +“It happens in the case of man that the period of infancy of a human +being is about twenty-four years. This is the most wonderful fact in +nature. It means that the capacity of man for the improvement of his +breed is practically limitless. A quail has a few months in which to +rear her young. God gives to woman a quarter of a century in which to +mold her immortal offspring. Because the period of infancy of one child +covers the entire period of motherhood capacity, marriage binds for +life, and the sanctity of marriage rests squarely on this law of +Nature.” + +He paused again and looked over the sunlit valley. + +“I wish our boys and girls could all know these simple truths of their +being. It would save much unhappiness and many tragic blunders. + +“You were swept completely off your feet by the rush of the first +emotion caused by meeting a man who was your physical mate. You imagined +this emotion to be a mysterious revelation which can come but once. +Your imagination in its excited condition, of course, gave to your +first-found mate all sorts of divine attributes which he did not +possess. You were `in love' with a puppet of your own creation, and +hypnotized yourself into the delusion that James Anthony was your one +and only mate, your knight, your hero. + +“In a very important sense this was true. Your intuitions could not make +a mistake on so vital an issue. But you immediately rushed into marriage +and your union has been perfected by the birth of a child. Whether you +are happy or unhappy in marriage does not depend on the reality of love. +Happiness in marriage is based on something else.” + +“On what?” + +“The joy and peace that comes from oneness of spirit, tastes, culture +and character. I know this from the deepest experiences of life and the +widest observation.” + +“You have loved?” she asked softly. + +“Twice----” + +A silence fell between them. + +“Shall I tell you, little mother?” he finally asked quietly. + +“Please.” + +He seated himself and looked into the skies beyond the peaks across the +valley. + +“Ten years ago I met my first mate. The meeting was fortunate for both. +She was a woman of gentle birth, of beautiful spirit. Our courtship was +ideal. We thought alike, we felt alike, she loved my profession even--an +unusual trait in a woman. She thought it so noble in its aims that +the petty jealousy that sometimes wrecks a doctor's life was to her an +unthinkable crime. The first year was the nearest to heaven that I had +ever gotten down here. + +“And then, little mother, by one of those inexplicable mysteries of +nature she died when our baby was born. For a while the light of the +world went out. I quit New York, gave up my profession and came here +just to lie in the sun on this mountainside and try to pull myself +together. I didn't think life could ever be worth living again. But +it was. I found about me so much of human need--so much ignorance and +helplessness--so much to pity and love, I forgot the ache in my own +heart in bringing joy to others. + +“I had money enough. I gave up the ambitions of greed and strife and set +my soul to higher tasks. For nine years I've devoted my leisure hours +to the study of Motherhood as the hope of a nobler humanity. But for the +great personal sorrow that came to me in the death of my wife and baby I +should never have realized the truths I now see so clearly. + +“And then the other woman suddenly came into my life. I never expected +to love again--not because I thought it impossible, but because I +thought it improbable in my little world here that I could ever again +meet a woman I would ask to be my wife. But she dropped one day out of +the sky.” + +He paused and took a deep breath. + +“I recognized her instantly as my mate, gentle and pure and capable +of infinite joy or infinite pain. She did not realize the secret of my +interest in her. I didn't expect it. I knew that under the conditions +she could not. But I waited.” + +He paused and searched for Mary's eyes. + +“And you married her?” she asked in even tones. + +“I have never allowed her to know that I love her.” + +“Why?” + +“She was married.” + +Mary threw him a startled look and he went on evenly: + +“I could have used my power over mind and body to separate her from +her husband. I confess that I was tempted. But there was a child. Their +union had been sealed with the strongest tie that can bind two human +beings. I have never allowed her to realize that she might love me. Had +I chosen to break the silence between us I could have revealed this to +her, taken her and torn her from the man to whom she had borne a babe. +I had no right to commit that crime, no matter how deep the love that +cried for its own. Marriage is based on the period of infancy of the +child which spans the maternal life of woman. God had joined these two +people together and no man had the right to put them asunder!” + +“And you gave her up?” + +“I had to, little mother. On the recognition of this eternal law the +whole structure of our civilization rests.” + +Mary bent her gaze steadily on his face for a moment in silence. + +“And you are telling me that I should be reconciled to the man who +choked me into insensibility?” + +“I am telling you that he is the father of your son--that he has rights +which you cannot deny; that when you gave yourself to him in the first +impulse of love a deed was done which Almighty God can never undo. +Your tragic blunder was the rush into marriage with a man about whose +character you knew so little. It's the timid, shrinking, home-loving +girl that makes this mistake. You must face it now. You are responsible +as deeply and truly as the man who married you. That he happened at that +moment to be a brute and a criminal is no more his fault than yours. It +was YOUR business to KNOW before you made him the father of your child.” + +“I tried to appeal to his better nature that awful night,” Mary +interrupted, “but he only laughed at me!” + +“You owe him another trial, little mother--you owe it to his boy, too.” + +Mary shook her head bitterly. + +“I can't--I just can't!” + +“You won't see him once?” + +She sprang to her feet trembling. + +“No--no!” + +“I don't think it's fair.” + +“I'm afraid of him! You can't understand his power over my will.” + +“Come, come, this is sheer cowardice--give the devil his dues. Face him +and fight it out. Tell him you're done forever with him and his life, if +you will--but don't hedge and trim and run away like this. I'm ashamed +of you.” + +“I won't see him--I've made up my mind.” + +The Doctor threw up both hands. + +“All right. If you won't, you won't. We'll let it go at that.” + +He paused and changed his tones to friendly personal interest. + +“And you're determined to leave me and take my kid away tomorrow?” + +“We must go. I've no money to pay my board. I can't impose on you----” + +“It's going to be awfully lonely.” + +He looked at her with a strange, deep gaze, lifted his stooping +shoulders with sudden resolution and changed his manner to light banter. + +“I suppose I couldn't persuade you to give me that boy?” + +She smiled tenderly. + +“You know his father did leave his mark on him after all! The eyes are +all his. Of course, I will admit that those drooping lids have often +been the mark of genius--perhaps a genius for evil in this case. If you +don't want to take the risk--now's your chance. I will----” + +Mary shook her head in reproachful protest. + +“Don't tease me, dear doctor man. I've just this one day more with you. +I'm counting each precious hour.” + +“Forgive me!” he cried gayly. “I won't tease you any more. Come, we'll +run over now and see our neighbor's new bungalow before you go. You +admire this one and threaten to duplicate it. He has built a better +one.” + +“I don't believe it.” + +“You'll go?” + +“If you wish it----” + +“Good. We'll take the boy, too. He can drive his new wagon the whole +way. It's only half a mile.” + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. THE NEW MAN + +The door of the bungalow stood wide open. Mary paused in rapture over +the rich beds of wood violets that carpeted the spaces between the drive +and the log walls. + +“Aren't they beautiful!” she cried. “A perfect carpet of dazzling green +and purple!” + +“Come right in,” the Doctor urged from the steps. “My neighbor's a +patient of mine. He hasn't moved in yet but he told me always to make +myself at home.” + +Mary lifted the boy from his wagon, tied the goat and led the child +into the house. The Doctor showed her through without comment. None was +needed. The woman's keen eye saw at a glance the perfection of care with +which the master builder had wrought the slightest detail of every +room. The floors were immaculate native hard-wood--its grain brought out +through shining mirrors of clean varnish. There was not one shoddy piece +of work from the kitchen sink to the big open fireplace in the spacious +hall and living-room. + +“It's exquisite!” she exclaimed at last. “It seems all +hand-made--doesn't it?” + +“It is, too. The owner literally built it with his own hands--a work of +love.” + +“For himself?” Mary asked with a smile. + +“For the woman he loves, of course! My neighbor's a sort of crank and +insisted on expressing himself in this way. Come, I want you to see two +rooms upstairs.” + +He led her into the room Jim had built for his wife. + +“Observe this furniture, if you please.” + +“Don't tell me that he built that too?” she laughed. + +“That's exactly what I'm going to tell you.” + +“Impossible!” she protested. “Why, the line and finish would do credit +to the finest artisan in America.” + +“So I say. Look at the perfect polish of that table! It's like the +finish of a rosewood piano.” He touched the smooth surface. + +“Of course you're joking?” Mary answered. “No amateur could have done +such work.” + +“So I'd have said if I had not seen him do it.” + +“What on earth possessed him to undertake such a task?” + +“The love of a beautiful woman--what else?” + +“He learned a trade--just to furnish this room with his own hand?” + +“Yes.” + +“His love must be the real thing,” she mused. + +“That's what I've said. Look at this iron work, too--the stately +andirons in that big fireplace, the shovel, the tongs, and the massive +strop-hinges on the doors.” + +“He did that, too?” she asked in amazement. + +“Every piece of iron on the place he beat out with his own hand at his +forge.” + +“And all for the love of a woman? The age of romance hasn't passed after +all, has it?” + +“No.” + +Mary paused before the window looking south. + +“What a glorious view!” she cried. “It's even grander than yours, +Doctor.” + +“Yes. I claim some of the credit, though, for that. I helped him lay out +the grounds.” + +“Who is this remarkable man?” she asked at last. + +“A friend of mine. I'll introduce him directly. He should be here at any +moment now.” + +“We're intruding,” Mary whispered. “We must go. I mustn't look any more. +I'll be coveting my neighbor's house.” + +The doctor turned to the window and signaled to someone on the lawn, as +Mary hurried down the stairs. + +She fairly ran into Jim, who was being pulled into the house by the boy. + +“'Ook, Mamma! 'Ook! I found a Daddy! He says he be my Daddy if you let +him. Please let him. I want a Daddy, an' I like him. Please!” + +Jim blushed and trembled and lifted his eyes appealingly, while Mary +stood white and still watching him in a sort of helpless terror. + +The child moved on to his wagon. + +“Say, little girl,” Jim began in low tones, “it's been a thousand years +since I saw you. Don't drive me away--just give me one chance for God's +sake and this baby's that He sent us! I've gone straight. I've sent back +every dishonest dollar. I'm earning a clean living down here and a good +one. I've practiced for two years cutting out the slang, too.” + +He paused for breath and she turned her head away. + +“Just listen a minute! I know I was a beast that night. I'm not the same +now. I've been through the fires of hell and I've come out a cleaner +man. Let me show you how much I love you! Life's too short, but just +give me a chance. If I could undo that awful hour when I hurt you so, +I'd crawl 'round the world on my hands and knees--and I'll show you that +I mean it! I built this house for you and the baby.” + +Mary turned suddenly with wide dilated eyes. + +“You--YOU built this house?” she gasped. + +“I've worked on it every hour, day and night, the past two years when +I wasn't earning a living in the mine. I made every stick of that +furniture in the rooms up there--for you and my boy. The house is +yours--whether you let me stay or not.” + +“I--I can't take it, Jim,” she faltered. + +“You've got to, girlie. You can't throw a gift like this back in a +fellow's face--it cost too much! Your money's all gone. You've got to +bring up that kid. He's mine, too. I'm man enough to support my wife and +baby and I'm going to do it. I don't care what you say. You've got to +let me. I'm going to work for you, live for you and die for you--whether +you stay with me or not. I've got the right to do that, you know.” + +She lifted her head and faced him squarely for the first time, amazed at +the new dignity and strength of his quiet bearing. + +“You HAVE changed, Jim----” + +Her eyes sought the depths of his soul in a moment's silence, and she +slowly extended her hand: + +“We'll try again!” + +He bent and kissed the tips of her fingers reverently. + +They stood for a moment hand in hand and looked over the sunlit valley +of the Swannanoa shimmering in peace and beauty between its sheltering +walls of blue mountains. The bees were humming spring music among the +flowers at their feet and the faint odor of fruit trees in blossom came +from the orchard Jim had planted two years before. + +“I'll show you, little girl--I'll show you!” he whispered tensely. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Foolish Virgin, by Thomas Dixon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOOLISH VIRGIN *** + +***** This file should be named 1634-0.txt or 1634-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/1634/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +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. 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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: + + http://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. diff --git a/1634-0.zip b/1634-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b3da02 --- /dev/null +++ b/1634-0.zip diff --git a/1634-h.zip b/1634-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7cdb908 --- /dev/null +++ b/1634-h.zip diff --git a/1634-h/1634-h.htm b/1634-h/1634-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3222e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/1634-h/1634-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12795 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!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" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Foolish Virgin, by Thomas Dixon + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Foolish Virgin, by Thomas Dixon + +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: The Foolish Virgin + +Author: Thomas Dixon + +Release Date: October 5, 2008 [EBook #1634] +Last Updated: March 15, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOOLISH VIRGIN *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE FOOLISH VIRGIN + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Thomas Dixon + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h5> + TO GERTRUDE ATHERTON WITH GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION + </h5> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY </a><br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> <b>THE FOOLISH VIRGIN</b> </a><br /><br /><br /> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> A FRIENDLY WARNING + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> TEMPTATION + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> FATE + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> DOUBTS + AND FEARS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> WINGS + OF STEEL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> BESIDE + THE SEA <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> A + VAIN APPEAL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a> JIM'S + TRIAL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a> ELLA'S + SECRET <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a> THE + WEDDING <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a> "UNTIL + DEATH” <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a> THE + LOTOS-EATERS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a> THE + REAL MAN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a> UNWELCOME + GUESTS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a> A + LITTLE BLACK BAG <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a> THE + AWAKENING <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a> THE + SURRENDER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a> TO + THE NEW GOD <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a> NANCE'S + STOREHOUSE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a> TRAPPED + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. </a> THE + DEVIL'S DISCIPLE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a> DELIVERANCE + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a> THE + DOCTOR <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a> THE + CALL DIVINE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a> THE + MOTHER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI. </a> A + SOUL IS BORN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII. </a> THE + BABY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII. </a> WHAT + IS LOVE? <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX. </a> THE + NEW MAN <br /><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + MARY ADAMS, An Old-Fashioned Girl. + JIM ANTHONY, A Modern Youth. + JANE ANDERSON, An Artist. + ELLA, A Scrubwoman. + NANCE OWENS, Jim Anthony's Mother. + A DOCTOR, Whose Call was Divine. + THE BABY, A Mascot. + </pre> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE FOOLISH VIRGIN + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. A FRIENDLY WARNING + </h2> + <p> + “Mary Adams, you're a fool!” + </p> + <p> + The single dimple in a smooth red cheek smiled in answer. + </p> + <p> + “You're repeating yourself, Jane——” + </p> + <p> + “You won't give him one hour's time for just three sittings?” + </p> + <p> + “Not a second for one sitting——” + </p> + <p> + “Hopeless!” + </p> + <p> + Mary smiled provokingly, her white teeth gleaming in obstinate good humor. + </p> + <p> + “He's the most distinguished artist in America——” + </p> + <p> + “I've heard so.” + </p> + <p> + “It would be a liberal education for a girl of your training to know such + a man——” + </p> + <p> + “I'll omit that course of instruction.” + </p> + <p> + The younger woman was silent a moment, and a flush of anger slowly mounted + her temples. The blue eyes were fixed reproachfully on her friend. + </p> + <p> + “You really thought that I would pose?” + </p> + <p> + “I hoped so.” + </p> + <p> + “Alone with a man in his studio for hours?” + </p> + <p> + Jane Anderson lifted her dark brows. + </p> + <p> + “Why, no, I hardly expected that! I'm sure he would take his easel and + palette out into the square in front of the Plaza Hotel and let you sit on + the base of the Sherman monument. The crowds would cheer and inspire him—bah! + Can't you have a little common-sense? There are a few brutes among + artists, as there are in all professions—even among the + superintendents of your schools. Gordon's a great creative genius. If + you'd try to flirt with him, he'd stop his work and send you home. You'd + be as safe in his studio as in your mother's nursery. I've known him for + ten years. He's the gentlest, truest man I've ever met. He's doing a + canvas on which he has set his whole heart.” + </p> + <p> + “He can get professional models.” + </p> + <p> + “For his usual work, yes—but this is the head of the Madonna. He saw + you walking with me in the Park last week and has been to my studio a + half-dozen times begging me to take you to see him. Please, Mary dear, do + this for my sake. I owe Gordon a debt I can never pay. He gave me the cue + to the work that set me on my feet. He was big and generous and helpful + when I needed a friend. He asked nothing in return but the privilege of + helping me again if I ever needed it. You can do me an enormous favor—please.” + </p> + <p> + Mary Adams rose with a gesture of impatience, walked to her window and + gazed on the torrent of humanity pouring through Twenty-third Street from + the beehives of industry that have changed this quarter of New York so + rapidly in the last five years. She turned suddenly and confronted her + friend. + </p> + <p> + “How could you think that I would stoop to such a thing?” + </p> + <p> + “Stoop!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she snapped, “—pose for an artist! I'd as soon think of + rushing stark naked through Twenty-third Street at noon!” + </p> + <p> + The older woman looked at her flushed face, suppressed a sharp answer, + broke into a fit of laughter and threw her arms around Mary's neck. + </p> + <p> + “Honey, you're such a hopeless little fool, you're delicious! You know + that I love you—don't you?” + </p> + <p> + The pretty lips quivered. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Could I possibly ask you to do a thing that would harm a single brown + hair of your head?” + </p> + <p> + The firm hand of the older girl touched a rebellious lock with tenderness. + </p> + <p> + “Of course not, from your point of view, Jane dear,” the stubborn lips + persisted. “But you see it's not my point of view. You're older than I——” + </p> + <p> + Jane smiled. + </p> + <p> + “Hoity toity, Miss! I'm just twenty-eight and you're twenty-four. Age is + not measured by calendars these days.” + </p> + <p> + “I didn't mean that,” the girl apologized. “But you're an artist. You're + established and distinguished. You belong to a different world.” + </p> + <p> + Jane Anderson laid her hand softly on her friend's. + </p> + <p> + “That's just it, dear. I do belong to a different world—a big new + world of whose existence you are not quite conscious. You are living in + the old, old world in which women have groped for thousands of years. I + don't mind confessing that I undertook this job of getting you to pose for + Gordon for a double purpose. I wished to do something to repay the debt I + owe him—but I wished far more to be of help to you. You're living in + the Dark Ages, and it's a dangerous thing for a pretty girl to live in the + Dark Ages and date her letters from New York to-day——” + </p> + <p> + “I don't understand you in the least.” + </p> + <p> + “And I'm afraid you never will.” + </p> + <p> + She paused suddenly and changed her tone. + </p> + <p> + “Tell me now, are you happy in your work?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm earning sixty dollars a month—my position is secure——” + </p> + <p> + “But are you happy in it?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't expect to teach school all my life,” was the vague answer. + </p> + <p> + “Exactly. You loathe the sight of a school-room. You do the task they set + you because your father's a clergyman and can't support his big family. + You're waiting and longing for the day of your deliverance—isn't it + so?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps.” + </p> + <p> + “And that day of deliverance?” + </p> + <p> + “Will come when I meet my Fate!” + </p> + <p> + “You'll meet him, too!” + </p> + <p> + “I will——” + </p> + <p> + Jane Anderson shook her fine head. + </p> + <p> + “And may the Lord have mercy on your poor little soul when you do!” + </p> + <p> + “And why, pray?” + </p> + <p> + “Because you're the most helpless and defenseless of all the things He + created.” + </p> + <p> + Mary smiled. + </p> + <p> + “I've managed to take pretty good care of myself so far.” + </p> + <p> + “And you will—until the thunderbolt falls.” + </p> + <p> + “The thunderbolt?” + </p> + <p> + “Until you meet your Fate.” + </p> + <p> + “I'll have someone to look after me then.” + </p> + <p> + “We'll hope so anyhow,” was the quick retort. + </p> + <p> + “But can't you see, Jane dear, that we look at life from such utterly + different angles. You glory in your work. It's your inspiration—the + breath you breathe. I don't believe in women working for money. I don't + believe God ever meant us to work when He made us women. He made us women + for something more wonderful. I don't see anything good or glorious in the + fact that half the torrent of humanity you see down there pouring through + the street from those factories and offices is made up of women. They are + wage-earners—so much the worse. They are forcing the scale of wages + for men lower and lower. They are paying for it in weakened bodies and + sickly, hopeless children. We should not shout for joy; we should cry. God + never meant for woman to be a wage-earner!” + </p> + <p> + A sob caught her voice and she paused. + </p> + <p> + The artist watched her emotion with keen interest. + </p> + <p> + “Neither do I believe that God means to force woman at last to do the + tasks of man. But she's doing them, dear—and it must be so until a + brighter day dawns for humanity. The new world that opens before us will + never abolish marriage, but it has opened our eyes to know what it means. + You refuse to open yours. You refuse to see this new world about you. I've + begged you to join one of my clubs. You refuse. I beg you to meet and know + such men of genius as Gordon——” + </p> + <p> + “As an artist's model!” + </p> + <p> + “It's the only way on earth you can meet him. You stick to your narrow, + hide-bound conventional life and dream of the Knight who will suddenly + appear some day out of the mists and clouds. You dream of the Fate God has + prepared for you in His mysterious Providence. It's funny how that idea + persists even today in novels. As a matter of fact we know that the + old-fashioned girl met her Fate because her shrewd mother planned the + meeting—planned it with cunning and stratagem. You're alone in a + great modern city, with all the conditions of the life of the old regime + reversed or blotted out. Your mother is not here. And if she were, her + schemes to bring about the mysterious meeting of the Fates would be + impossible. You outgrew the limits of your village life. Your highly + trained mind landed you in New York. You've fought your way to a competent + living in five years and kept yourself clean and unspotted from the world. + Granted. But how many men have you met who are your equals in culture and + character?” + </p> + <p> + Jane paused and held Mary's gaze with steady persistence. + </p> + <p> + “How many—honest?” + </p> + <p> + “None as yet,” she confessed. + </p> + <p> + “But you live in the one fond, imperishable hope! It's the only thing that + keeps you alive and going—this idea of your Fate. It's an obsession—this + mysterious Knight somewhere in the future riding to meet you——” + </p> + <p> + “I'll find him, never fear,” the girl laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Of course you will. You'll make him out of whole cloth if it's necessary. + Our ideals are really the same when you come to analyze my wider outlook.” + </p> + <p> + The artist paused and laughed softly. + </p> + <p> + “The same?” the girl asked incredulously. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly. Mine is based on intelligence, however—yours on blind + instinct perverted and twisted by the idiotic fiction you read morning, + noon and night.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't see it,” Mary answered emphatically. “Your ideal is fame, + achievement, the applause of the world—mine just a home and a baby——” + </p> + <p> + Jane laughed softly. + </p> + <p> + “And that's all you know about me?” + </p> + <p> + “Isn't it true?” + </p> + <p> + “You've been in this room five years, haven't you?” the older girl asked + musingly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes——” + </p> + <p> + “And though you've kept your lamp trimmed and burning, you haven't yet + seen a man whom you could recognize as your equal.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm only twenty-four.” + </p> + <p> + “In these five years I've met a hundred men my equal.” + </p> + <p> + “And smashed the conventions of Society whenever you saw fit.” + </p> + <p> + “Without breaking a single law of reason or common-sense. In the meantime + I've met two men who have really made love to me. I thought I loved one of + them—until I met the other. The second proved himself to be an + unprincipled scoundrel. If I had held your views of life and hated my + work, I would have married this man and lived to awake in a prison whose + only door was Death. But I loved my work. Life meant more than one man who + was not worth an hour's tears. I turned to my studio and he slipped back + into the gutter where he belonged. I'll meet MY Fate some day, too, dear. + I'm waiting and watching—but with clear eyes and unafraid. I'll know + mine when he comes, I shall not be blinded by passion or the fear of + drudgery. Can't you see this bigger world of realities?” + </p> + <p> + The dimple flashed again in the smooth red cheek. + </p> + <p> + “It's not for me, Jane. I'm just a modest little home body. I'll bide my + time——” + </p> + <p> + “And eat your foolish heart out here between the narrow walls of this cell + you've built for yourself. I should think you'd die living here alone.” + </p> + <p> + The girl flushed. + </p> + <p> + “I'm not lonely——” + </p> + <p> + “Don't fib! I know better. Your birds and kitten occupy daily about thirty + minutes of the time that's your own. What do you do with the rest of it?” + </p> + <p> + “Sit by my window, watch the crowds stream through the streets below, read + and dream and think——” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—read love stories and dream about your Knight.” + </p> + <p> + “Well?” + </p> + <p> + “It's morbid and unhealthy. You've hedged yourself about with the old + conventions and imagine you're safe—and you are—until you meet + HIM!” + </p> + <p> + “I'll know how to behave—never fear.” + </p> + <p> + “You mean you'll know how instantly to blindfold, halter and lead him to + the Little Church Around the Corner?” + </p> + <p> + Mary moved uneasily. + </p> + <p> + “And what else should I do with him?” + </p> + <p> + “Compare him with other men. Weigh him in the balances of a remorseless + common-sense. Study him under a microscope and keep your reason clear. The + girl who rushes into marriage in a great city under the conditions in + which you and I live is a fool. More girls are ruined in New York by + marriage than by any other process. The thunderbolt out of the blue hasn't + struck you yet, but when it does——” + </p> + <p> + “I'll tell you, Jane.” + </p> + <p> + “Will you, honestly?” + </p> + <p> + The question was asked with wistful tenderness. + </p> + <p> + “I promise. And you mustn't think I don't appreciate this visit and the + chance you've given again to enter the `big world' you're always telling + me about. I just can't do it, dear. It's not my world.” + </p> + <p> + “All right, my little foolish virgin, have it your own way. When you're + lonely, run up to my studio to see me. I won't ask you to pose or meet any + of the dangerous men of my circle. We'll lock the doors and have a snug + time all by ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + “I'll remember.” + </p> + <p> + The clock in the Metropolitan Tower chimed the hour of five, and Jane + Anderson rose with a quick, business-like movement. + </p> + <p> + “Don't hurry,” Mary protested. “I know I've been stubborn, but I've been + so happy in your coming. I do get lonely—frightfully lonely, + sometimes—don't think I'm ungrateful——” + </p> + <p> + “You're dangerously beautiful, child,” the artist said, with enthusiasm. + “And remember that I love you—no matter how silly you are—good-by.” + </p> + <p> + “You won't stay for a cup of tea? I meant to ask you an hour ago.” + </p> + <p> + “No, I've an engagement with a dreadful man whom I've no idea of ever + marrying. I'm going to dinner with him—just to study the animal at + dose range.” + </p> + <p> + With a jolly laugh and quick, firm step she was gone. + </p> + <p> + Mary snatched the kitten from his snug bed between the pillows of the + window-seat and pressed his fuzzy head under her chin. + </p> + <p> + “She tempted us terribly, Kitty darling, but we didn't let her find out—did + we? You know deep down in your cat's soul that I was just dying to meet + the distinguished Gordon—but such high honors are not for home + bodies like you and me——” + </p> + <p> + She dropped on the seat and closed her eyes for a long time. The kitten + watched her wonderingly sure of a sudden outbreak with each passing + moment. Two soft paws at last touched her cheeks and two bright eyes + sought in vain for hers. The little nose pressed closer and kissed the + drooping eyelids until they opened. He curled himself on her bosom and + began to sing a gentle lullaby. For a long while she lay and listened to + the music of love with which her pet sought to soothe the ache within. + </p> + <p> + The clock in the tower chimed six. + </p> + <p> + She lifted her body and placed her head on a pillow beside the window. The + human torrent below was now at its flood. Two streams of humanity flowed + eastward along each broad sidewalk. Hundreds were pouring in endless + procession across Madison Square. The cars in Broadway north and South + were jammed. Every day she watched this crowd hurrying, hurrying away into + the twilight—and among all its hundreds of thousands not an eye was + ever lifted to hers—not one man or woman among them cared whether + she lived or died. + </p> + <p> + It was horrible, this loneliness of the desert in an ocean of humanity! + For the past year it had become an increasing horror to look into the + silent faces of this crowd of men and women and never feel the touch of a + friendly hand or hear the sound of a human voice in greeting. + </p> + <p> + And yet this endless procession held for her a supreme fascination. + Somewhere among its myriads of tramping feet, walked the one man created + for her. She no more doubted this than she doubted God Himself. It was His + law. He had ordained it so. She had grown so used to the throngs below her + window and so loved the little park with its splashing fountain that she + had refused to follow her landlady uptown when the brownstone + boarding-house facing the Square had been turned into a studio building. + </p> + <p> + Instead of moving she had wheedled the landlord into allowing her to cut + off a small space from her room for a private bath and kitchenette, built + a box couch across the window large enough for a three-quarter mattress + and covered it with velour. For five dollars a week she had thus secured a + little home in which was combined a sitting-room, bed-room, bath and + kitchenette. + </p> + <p> + It had its drawbacks, of course. The Professor downstairs who taught music + sometimes gave a special lesson at night, and the Italian sculptor who + worked on the top floor used a hammer at the most impossible hours. But on + the whole she liked it better than the tiresome routine of boarding. She + was not afraid at night. The stamp-and-coin man who occupied the first + floor, lived with his wife and baby in the rear. The janitress had a room + on the floor above hers. Two elderly women workers of ability in the + mechanical arts occupied the rear of her floor, and a dear little fat + woman of fifty who drew designs for the New England weavers of cotton + goods lived in the room adjoining hers. + </p> + <p> + She had never spoken to any of these people, but Ella, the janitress, who + cleaned up her place every morning, had told her their history. Ella was a + sociable soul, her face an eternal study and an inscrutable mystery. She + spoke both German and English and yet never a word of her own life's + history passed her lips. She had loved Mary from the moment she cocked her + queer drawn face to one side and looked at her with the one good eye she + possessed. She was always doing little things for her comfort—and + never asked tips for it. If Mary offered to pay she smiled quietly and + spoke in the softest drawl: “Oh, that's nothing, child—Ach, Gott im + Himmel—nein!” + </p> + <p> + This one-eyed, homely woman who cleaned up her room for three dollars a + month, and Jane Anderson, were the only friends she had among the six + million people whose lives centered on Manhattan Island. + </p> + <p> + Man had yet to darken her door. The little room had been carefully fitted, + however, to receive her Knight when the great event of his coming should + be at hand. + </p> + <p> + The box couch was built of hard wood paneling and was covered with pillows + of soft leather and silk. The bed-clothes were carefully stored in the + locker beneath the mattress cushion. No one would ever suspect its use as + a bed. The bathroom was fitted with a bureau and no signs of a sleeping + apartment disfigured the effect of her one library, parlor, and + reception-room. A desk and bookcase stood at either end of the box couch. + The bookcase was filled with fiction—love stories exclusively. + </p> + <p> + A large birdcage swung from a staple in the window and two canaries peered + cautiously from their perches at the kitten in her lap. She had trained + him to ignore this cage. + </p> + <p> + The crowds below were thinning down. A light snow was falling. The girl + lifted her pet and kissed his cold nose. + </p> + <p> + “We must get our own dinner tonight, Mr. Thomascat—it's snowing + outside. And did you hear what she said, Kitty dear—`More girls are + ruined by marriage in New York than by any other process!' A good joke, + Kitty!—You and I know better than that if we do live in our own tiny + world! We'll risk it some day, anyhow, won't we?” + </p> + <p> + The kitten purred his assent and Mary bustled over the little gas stove + humming an old love song her mother had taught her in a far-off village in + Kentucky. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. TEMPTATION + </h2> + <p> + Her kitchenette was a model of order and cleanliness. The carpenter who + built its neat cupboard and fitted the drawers beneath the tiny gas range, + had outdone himself in its construction. He had given the wood-work four + coats of immaculate white paint without extra charge. Mary had insisted on + paying for it, but he waved the proffered money aside with a gesture that + spoke louder than words: + </p> + <p> + “Pooh! That's nothing to what I'd like to do for you.” + </p> + <p> + She was not surprised when he called the following Saturday and stood at + her door awkwardly fumbling his hat, trying to ask her to spend the + afternoon and evening at Coney Island with him. There was no mistaking the + manner in which he made this request. + </p> + <p> + She had refused him as gently as possible—a big, awkward, + good-natured, ignorant boy he was, with the eyes of a St. Bernard dog. He + apologized for his presumption and never repeated the offense. + </p> + <p> + Somehow her conquests had all been in this class. + </p> + <p> + The tall, blushing German youth from the butcher's around the corner had + been slipping extra cuts into her bundle and making awkward advances until + she caught him red-handed with a pound of lamb chops which he failed to + explain. She read him a lecture on honesty that discouraged him. It was + not so much what she said, as the way she said it, that wounded his + sensitive nature. + </p> + <p> + The ice man she had not yet entirely subdued. Tony Bonelli had the + advantage of pretending not to understand her orders of dismissal. He + merely smiled in his sad Italian way and continued to pack her ice-box so + full the lid would never close. + </p> + <p> + She was reminded at every turn tonight of these futile conquests of the + impossible. They all smelled of the back stairs and the kitchen. Her + people had been slaveholders in the old regime of southern Kentucky. A + kindly tolerant contempt for the pretensions of a servant class was bred + in the bone of her being. + </p> + <p> + And yet their tribute to her beauty had its compensations. It was the + promise of triumph when he for whom she waited should step from the throng + and lift his hat. Just how he was going to do this without a breach of the + proprieties of life, she couldn't see. It would come. It must come. It was + Fate. + </p> + <p> + In twenty minutes her coffee-pot was boiling, the lamb chops broiled to + perfection and she was seated before the dainty, snow-white table, the + kitten softly begging at her feet. Half an hour later, every dish and pot + and pan was back in its place in perfect order. She prided herself on her + mastery of the details of cooking and the most economical administration + of every dollar devoted to housekeeping. She studied cooking in the best + schools the city afforded. She meant to show her Knight a thing or two in + this line when the time came. His wife would not be an ignorant slattern, + the victim of incompetent servants. No servant could fool her. She would + know the business of the house down to its minutest detail. + </p> + <p> + Not that she loved dish-washing and pot-polishing and scrubbing. It was + simply a part of the Game of Life she must play in the ideal home she + would build. There was no drudgery in it for this reason. She was a + soldier on the drill grounds preparing for the battle on the successful + issue of which hung her happiness and the happiness of the one of whom she + dreamed. She might miss some of the dangerous fun which Jane Anderson + could enjoy without a scratch, but she would make sure of the fundamental + things which Jane would never stop to consider. + </p> + <p> + She threw herself on the couch in her favorite position against the + pillows, drew the kitten into her arms and hugged him violently. + </p> + <p> + “It's all right, Mr. Thomascat; we'll show them,” she purred softly. + “We'll see who wins at last, the eagle who soars or the little wren in the + hedge close beside the garden wall—we'll see, Kitty—we'll + see!” + </p> + <p> + The room was still, the noise of the street-cars below muffled with the + first soft blanket of snow. The street lamps flickered in the wind with a + pale subdued light that scarcely brought out the furnishings of her nest. + She was in the habit of dreaming in this window for hours with only the + light from the lamps on the street. + </p> + <p> + The Square, deserted by its tramp lovers, lay white and still and cold. + The old battle with the Blue Devils was on again within. The fight with + Jane had been easy. She had always found it easy to face temptation in the + concrete. The moment Satan appeared in human shape she was up in arms and + ready for the fray. It was this silent hour she dreaded when the defenses + of the soul were down. + </p> + <p> + There was no use to lie to herself. She was utterly lonely and heartsick. + </p> + <p> + She had guarded the portals of life with religious care—with a care + altogether unnecessary as events had proved. There had been no crush of + rude men to assault her. Only an awkward carpenter, a butcher's boy and + the ice man! It was incredible. Of all the men whose restless feet pressed + the pavements of New York, not one, save these three, had apparently cared + whether she lived or died. + </p> + <p> + The men whom she met in her duties in the schoolroom she had found utterly + devoid of imagination and beneath contempt. They had each been obviously + on guard against the machinations of the female of the species. They had, + each of them, shown plainly their fear and hatred of women teachers. The + feeling was mutual. God knows she had no desire to encroach on their + domain any longer than absolutely necessary. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps she was making a mistake. The thought was strangling. Only the + girl who waived conventions in the rushing tide of the modern city's life + seemed to live at all. The others merely existed. Jane Anderson lived! + There could be no mistake about that. She had mastered the ugly mob. Its + cruel loneliness was to her a thing unknown. But Jane was an exception—the + one woman in a thousand who could defy conventions and yet keep her soul + and body clean. + </p> + <p> + The offer she had made had proved a terrible temptation. The artist who + had asked with such eagerness to use her head for his portrait of the + Madonna on the canvas he was executing for the new cathedral, had long + appealed to her vivid imagination. Two prints of his famous work hung on + her walls. She had always wished to know him. He had married a Southern + girl. + </p> + <p> + That was just the point—he WAS married! + </p> + <p> + No girl could afford to be shut up alone in a studio with a fascinating + married man for three hours—or half an hour. What if she should fall + in love with him at first sight! Such things had happened. They could + happen again. Only tragedy could be the end of such an event. It was too + dangerous to consider for a moment. + </p> + <p> + She would have consented had it been possible for Jane to chaperon her. + That would have been obviously ridiculous. No artist with any self-respect + would tolerate such a reflection on his honesty. No girl could afford to + confess her fears in this brazen fashion. + </p> + <p> + The necessity for her refusal had depressed her beyond any experience she + had passed through in the dreary desert of the past five years. + </p> + <p> + She lifted the sleeping kitten and whispered passionately: + </p> + <p> + “Am I a silly fool, Kitty? Am I?” + </p> + <p> + The tears came at last. She lay back on the pillows and let them pour down + her cheeks without protest or effort at self-control. Every nerve of her + strong, healthy body ached for the love and companionship of men which she + had denied herself with an iron will. At nineteen it had been easy. The + sheer animal joy in life had been enough. With the growth of each year the + ache within had become more and more insistent. With each ripening season + of body and mind, the hunger of love had grown more and more maddening. + How long could she keep up this battle with every instinct of her being? + </p> + <p> + She rose at last, determined to go to Jane, confess that she had been a + fool, and step out into the new world, New York's world, and begin to + live. + </p> + <p> + She seized her hat and furs and put them on with feverish haste. + </p> + <p> + “God knows it's time I began—I'll be an old maid in another year and + dry up—ugh!” + </p> + <p> + She looked in the quaint oval mirror that hung beside her door and lifted + her head with a touch of pride. + </p> + <p> + She had reached the street and started for the Broadway car before she + suddenly remembered that Jane was “dining with a dangerous man.” + </p> + <p> + She couldn't turn back to that little room tonight without new courage. + Her decision was instantaneous. She couldn't surrender to the flesh and + the devil by yielding to Jane. + </p> + <p> + She would go to prayer-meeting! + </p> + <p> + Religion had always been a very real thing in her life. Her father was a + Methodist presiding elder. She would have gone to the meeting tonight in + the first place but for the snow. Dr. Craddock, the new sensational pastor + of the Temple, was giving a series of Wednesday-night talks that had + aroused wide interest and drawn immense crowds. + </p> + <p> + His theme tonight was one that promised all sorts of sensations—“The + Woman of the Future.” The only trouble with the Doctor was that the + substance of his discourses sometimes failed to make good the startling + suggestions of his titles. No matter—she would go. She felt a sense + of righteous pride infighting her way to the church through the first + storm of the winter. + </p> + <p> + In spite of the snow the church was crowded. The subject announced had + evidently touched a vital spot in modern life. More people were thinking + about “The Woman of the Future” than she had suspected. The crowd sat with + eager, upturned faces. + </p> + <p> + The first half-hour's prayer and song service had just begun. Mary joined + in the singing of the stirring evangelistic hymns with enthusiasm. + Something in their battle-cry melody caught her spirit instantly tonight + and her whole being responded. In ten minutes she was a good shouting + Methodist and supremely happy without knowing why. She never paused to + ask. Her nature was profoundly religious and she had been born and bred in + the atmosphere of revivals. Her father was an aggressive evangelist both + in his character and methods of work, and she was his own daughter—a + child of emotion. + </p> + <p> + The individuals in the eager crowd which packed the popular church meant + nothing to her personally. They had passed before her unseeing eyes Sunday + after Sunday the past five years as mere shadows of an unknown world which + swallowed them up the moment they reached the street. She had never seen + the inside of one of their homes. Not one of them had drawn close enough + to her to venture an invitation. + </p> + <p> + Two of the stewards she knew personally—one a bricklayer, the other + a baker on Eighth Avenue. The preacher she had met in a purely formal way + as the bishop of the flock. She liked Dr. Craddock. He was known in the + ministry as a live wire. He was a man of vigorous physique—just + turning fifty, magnetic, eloquent and popular with the masses. + </p> + <p> + Mary was curious tonight as to what the preacher would say on “The Woman + of the Future.” The Methodist Church had been a pioneer in the modern + Feminist movement, having long ago admitted women to the full ordination + of the ministry. Craddock, however, had been known for his conservatism in + the woman movement. He abhorred the idea of woman's suffrage as a + dangerous revolution and the fact that he consented to treat the topic at + all was a reluctant confession of its menacing importance. + </p> + <p> + With keen interest, the girl saw him rise at last. A breathless hush fell + on the crowd. He walked deliberately to the edge of the platform and gazed + into the faces of the people. + </p> + <p> + “I have often been asked,” he slowly began, “where I get my sermons.” He + paused and laughed. “I'll be perfectly honest with you. Sometimes I get + them from the Bible—sometimes from the book of life. The genesis of + this talk tonight is very definite. I found it in the liquid depths of a + little girl's eyes. She asked a simple question that set me thinking—not + only about the subject of her query but on the vaster issues that grew out + of it. She looked up into my face the other night after my call for + volunteers for the new mission we are beginning in the slums of the East + Side, and asked me if the girls were not going to be given the chance to + do something worth while in this church's work. + </p> + <p> + “I couldn't honestly answer her off-hand and in my groping I forgot the + child and her question. I saw a vision—a vision of that broader, + nobler future toward which human civilization is now swiftly moving. + </p> + <p> + “I say deliberately that it is swiftly moving, because the progress of the + world during the last fifty years has been greater than in any five + hundred years of the past. + </p> + <p> + “The older I grow the stronger becomes my conviction that the problems of + the age in which we now live cannot be solved by masculine brain and brawn + alone. The problems of the city and the nation and the great fundamental + social questions that involve the foundations of modern life will find no + solution until the heart and brain of woman are poured into the crucible + of our test. + </p> + <p> + “They talk about a woman's sphere As though it had a limit: There's not a + place in earth or heaven, There's not a task to mankind given, There's not + a blessing or a woe, There's not a whisper yes or no, There's not a life, + or death, or birth That has a feather's weight of worth Without a woman in + it! + </p> + <p> + “The difference between a man and a woman is one that makes them the + complementary parts of a perfect unit. God made man in His own image—male + and female. The person of God therefore combines these two elements + unseparated. The mind of God is both male and female. In man we have the + strength which lifts and tugs and fights the elements. This is the aspect + turned primarily toward matter. In woman we have the finer qualities of + the Spirit turned toward the source of all spirit in God. The idea of a + masculine deity is a false assumption of the Dark Ages. God is both male + and female. + </p> + <p> + “I used to wonder why Jesus Christ was a man, until I realized that the + Incarnation expressed the depth of human need. God stooped lower in + assuming the form of man. The form of the divine revelation through Jesus + Christ was determined solely by this depth of human need——” + </p> + <p> + For half an hour in impetuous eloquence, in telling incidents wet with + tears and winged with hope, he held his listeners in a spell. It was not + until the burst of applause which greeted his closing sentence had died + away that Mary Adams realized that another landmark had toppled before the + onrushing flood of modern Feminism. The conservatism of Doctor Craddock + had yielded at last to the inevitable. He, too, had joined the ranks of + the prophets who preach of a Woman's Day of Emancipation. + </p> + <p> + And yet it never occurred to her that this fact had the slightest bearing + on her personal outlook on life. On the contrary she felt in the spiritual + elation of the triumphant eloquence of her favorite preacher a renewal of + her simple religious faith. At the bottom of that religion lay the + foundation of life itself—her conception of marriage as the supreme + and only expression of woman's power in the world. + </p> + <p> + She walked back to her home on the Square, in a glow of ecstatic emotion. + </p> + <p> + Surely God had miraculously saved her this night from the wiles of the + Devil! No matter what this eloquent discourse had meant to others, it had + renewed her faith in the old-fashioned woman and the old-fashioned ways of + the old-fashioned home. Her vision was once more clear. She was glad Jane + Anderson had come to put her to the test. She had been tried in the fires + of hell and came forth unscorched. + </p> + <p> + She stood beside her window dreaming again of the home she would build + when her Knight should stand before her revealed in beauty no words could + describe. The moon was shining now in solemn glory on the white-shrouded + Square. Temptation had only strengthened the fiber of her soul. She knelt + in the moonlight beside her couch and prayed that God should ever keep her + faith serene. She rose with a sense of peace and joy. God would hear and + answer the cry of her heart. The City might be the Desert—it was + still God's world and not a sparrow that twittered in those bare trees or + chattered on her window-ledge in the morning could fall to the ground + without His knowledge. God had put this deathless passion in her heart; He + could not deny it expression. She could bide His time. If the day of her + deliverance were near, it was good. If God should choose to try her faith + in loneliness and tears, it was His way to make the revelation of glory + the more dazzling when it came. + </p> + <p> + She drew the covering about her warm young body with the firm faith that + her hour was close at hand, and fell asleep to dream of her Knight. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. FATE + </h2> + <p> + Mary waked next morning with the delicious sense of impending happiness. A + wonderful dream had come to thrill her half-conscious moments, repeating + itself in increasing vividness and beauty with each awakening. The vision + had been interrupted by the unusual noise of the snow machines on the car + tracks, and yet she had fallen asleep after each break and picked up the + rapturous scene at the exact moment of its interruption. + </p> + <p> + She was married and madly in love with her husband. His face she could + never see quite clearly. His business kept him away from home on long + trips. But his baby was always there—a laughing, wonderful boy whose + chubby hands persisted in pulling her hair down into her face each time + she bent over his cradle to kiss him. + </p> + <p> + Ella was chattering in German to someone on the stairs. She wondered again + for the hundredth time how this poor, slovenly, one-eyed, ill-kempt + creature, scrub-woman and janitress, could speak two languages with such + ease. Her English, except in excitement, seemed equally fluent with her + German. How did such a woman fall so low? She was industrious and untiring + in her work. She never touched liquor or drugs. She was kind and + thoughtful and watched over her tenants with a motherly care for which no + landlord could pay in dollars and cents. She was on her knees on the + stairs now, scrubbing down the steps to be crowded again with muddy feet + from the street below. + </p> + <p> + Mary lay for half an hour snuggling under the warm blankets, weaving a + romance about Ella's life. A great love for some heroic man who died and + left her in poverty could alone explain the mystery that hung about her. + She never spoke of her life or people. Mary had ventured once to ask her. + A wan smile flitted across the haggard face for a moment, and she answered + in low tones that closed the subject. + </p> + <p> + “I haven't any people, dear,” she said slowly. “They are dead long ago.” + </p> + <p> + The girl wondered if it were really true. In her joy this morning she felt + her heart go out to the pathetic, drooping figure on the stairs. She + wished that every living creature might share the secret joy that filled + her soul. + </p> + <p> + She drew the kitten from his nest beside her pillow and rubbed her cheek + against his little cold nose. He always waked her with a kiss on her + eyelids and then coiled himself back for a tiny cat-nap until she could + make up her mind to rise. + </p> + <p> + She sprang from the couch with sudden energy and stretched her dainty + figure with a prodigious yawn. + </p> + <p> + “Gracious, Kitty, we must hurry!” she cried, thrusting her bare feet into + a pair of embroidered slippers and throwing her blue flannel kimono on + over her night-dress. + </p> + <p> + The coffee-pot was boiling busily when she had bathed and dressed. Each + detail of her domestic schedule was given an extra care this morning. The + stove was carefully polished, each pot and pan placed in its rack with a + precision that spoke an unusual joy within the heart of the housewife. + </p> + <p> + And through it all she hummed a lullaby that haunted her from the memories + of a happy childhood. + </p> + <p> + Breakfast over, the kitten fed, the birds given their bath, their sand and + seed, she couldn't stop until the whole place had been thoroughly cleaned + and dusted. Exactly why she had done this on Thursday morning it was + impossible to say. Some hidden force within had impelled her. + </p> + <p> + Then back into the dream world her mind flew on joyous wings. It was a + sign from God in answer to prayer. Why not? The Bible was full of such + revelations in ancient times. God was not dead because the world was + modern and we had steam and electricity. The routine of school was no + longer dull. Around each commonplace child hung a halo of romance. They + were love-children today. She wove a dream of tenderness, of chivalry, and + heroic deeds about them all. She searched each face for some line of + beauty caught in the vision of her own baby who had looked into her heart + from the mists of eternity. + </p> + <p> + Three days passed in a sort of trance. Never had she felt surer of life + and the full fruition of every hope and faith. Just how this marvelous + blossoming would come, she could not guess. Her chances of meeting her + Fate were no better than at any moment of the past years of drab + disillusionment, and yet, for some reason, her foolish heart kept singing. + </p> + <p> + Why? + </p> + <p> + There could be but one answer. The event was impending. Such things could + be felt—not reasoned out. + </p> + <p> + She applied herself to her teaching with a new energy and thoroughness. + She must do this work well and carry into the real life that must soon + begin the consciousness of every duty faithfully performed. + </p> + <p> + A boy asked her a question about a little flower which grew in a warm + crevice of the stone wall on which the iron fence of the school yard + rested. She blushed at her failure to enlighten him and promised to tell + him on Monday. + </p> + <p> + Botany was not one of her tasks but she felt the tribute to her + personality in his question, and she would take pains to make her answer + full and interesting. + </p> + <p> + Saturday afternoon she hurried to the Public Library, on Fifth Avenue and + Forty-second Street, to look up every reference to this flower. + </p> + <p> + The boulevard of the Metropolis was thronged with eager thousands. + Handsome men and beautifully dressed women passed each other in endless + procession on its crowded pavements. The cabs and automobiles, two abreast + on either side, moved at a snail's pace, so dense were the throngs at each + crossing. Her fancy was busy weaving about each throbbing tonneau and + limousine a story of love. Not a wheel was turning in all that long line + of shining vehicles that didn't carry a woman or was hurrying to do a + woman's bidding. + </p> + <p> + Her hero was coming, too, somewhere in the crowd with his gloved hand on + one of those wheels. She could feel his breath on her cheek as he handed + her into the seat by his side and then the sudden leap of the car into + space and away on the wings of lightning into the future! + </p> + <p> + She ascended the broad steps of the majestic building with quick, + springing strength. She loved this glorious library, with its lofty, + arched ceilings. The sense of eternity that brooded over it and filled the + stately rooms rested and inspired her. + </p> + <p> + Besides, she forgot her poverty in this temple of all time. Within its + walls she belonged to the great aristocracy of brains and culture of which + this palace was the supreme expression. And it was hers. Andrew Carnegie + had given the millions to build it and the city of New York granted the + site on land that was worth many millions more. But it was all built for + her convenience, her comfort and inspiration. Every volume of its vast and + priceless collection was hers—hers to hold in her hands, read and + ponder and enjoy. Every officer and manager in its inclosure was her + servant—to come at her beck and call and do her bidding. The little + room on Twenty-third Street was the symbol of the future. This magnificent + building was the realization of the present. + </p> + <p> + She smiled pleasantly to the polite assistant who received her order slip, + and took her seat on the waiting line until her books were delivered. + </p> + <p> + This magnificent room with its lofty ceilings of golden panels and + drifting clouds had always brought to her a peculiar sense of restful + power. The consciousness of its ownership had from the first been most + intimate. No man can own what he cannot appreciate. He may possess it by + legal documents, but he cannot own it unless he has eyes to see, ears to + hear, and a heart to feel its charm. This appreciation Mary Adams + possessed by inheritance from her student father who devoured books with + an insatiate hunger. Nowhere in all New York's labyrinth did she feel as + perfectly at home as in this reading-room. The quiet which reigned without + apparent sign or warning seemed to belong to the atmosphere of the place. + It was unthinkable that any man or woman should be rude or thoughtless + enough to break it by a loud word. + </p> + <p> + This room was hers day or night, winter or summer, always heated and + lighted, and a hundred swift, silent servants at hand to do her bidding. + Around the room on serried shelves, dressed in leather aprons, stood + twenty-five thousand more servants of the centuries of the past ready to + answer any question her heart or brain might ask of the world's life since + the dawn of Time. + </p> + <p> + In the stack-room below, on sixty-three miles of shelves, stood a million + others ready to come at her slightest nod. She loved to dream here of the + future, in the moments she must wait for these messengers she had + summoned. In this magic room the past ceased to be. These myriads of + volumes made the past a myth. It was all the living, throbbing present—with + only the golden future to be explored. + </p> + <p> + Her number flashed in red letters on the electric blackboard. + </p> + <p> + She rose and carried her books to the seat number assigned her near the + center of the southern division of the room on the extreme left beside the + bookcases containing the dictionaries of all languages. + </p> + <p> + Her seat was on the aisle which skirted the shelves. She found the full + description of the flower in which she was interested, made her notes and + closed the volume with a lazy movement of her slender, graceful hand. + </p> + <p> + She lifted her eyes and they rested on a remarkable-looking young man + about her own age who stood gazing in an embarrassed, helpless sort of way + at the row of ponderous volumes marked “The Century Dictionary.” + </p> + <p> + He was evidently a newcomer. By his embarrassment she could easily tell + that it was the first time he had ever ventured into this room. + </p> + <p> + He looked at the books, apparently puzzled by their number. He raised his + hand and ran his fingers nervously through the short, thick, red hair + which covered his well-shaped head. + </p> + <p> + The girl's attention was first fixed by the strange contrast between his + massive jaw and short neck which spoke the physical strength of an ox, and + the slender gracefully tapering fingers of his small hand. The wrist was + small, the fingers almost feminine in their lines. + </p> + <p> + He caught her look of curious interest and to her horror, smiled and + walked straight to her seat. + </p> + <p> + There was no mistaking his determination to speak. It was useless to drop + her eyes or turn aside. He would certainly follow. + </p> + <p> + She blushed and gazed at him in a timid, helpless fashion while he bent + over her seat and whispered awkwardly: + </p> + <p> + “You look kind and obliging, miss—could you help me a little?” + </p> + <p> + His tone was so genuine in its appeal, so distressed and hesitating, it + was impossible to resent his question. + </p> + <p> + “If I can—yes,” was the prompt answer. + </p> + <p> + “You won't mind?” he asked, fumbling his hat. + </p> + <p> + “No—what is it?” + </p> + <p> + Mary had recovered her composure as his distress had increased and looked + steadily into his steel blue eyes inquiringly. + </p> + <p> + “You see,” he went on, in low hurried tones, “I'm all worked up about the + mountains of North Carolina—thinkin' o' goin' down there to + Asheville in a car, an' I want to look the bloomin' place up and kind o' + get my bearin's before I start. A lawyer friend o' mine told me to come + here and I'd find all the maps in the Century Dictionary. The man at the + desk out there told me to come in this room and look in the shelves on the + left and take it right out. Gee, the place is so big, I get all rattled. I + found the Century Dictionary on that shelf——” + </p> + <p> + He paused and smiled helplessly. + </p> + <p> + “I thought a dictionary was one book—there's a dozen of 'em marked + alike. I'm afraid to pull 'em all down an' I don't know where to begin—COULD + you help me—please?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly, with pleasure,” she answered, quickly rising and leading the + way back to the shelf at which he had been gazing. + </p> + <p> + “You want the atlas volume,” she explained, drawing the book from the + shelf and returning to the seat. + </p> + <p> + He followed promptly and bent over her shoulder while she pointed out the + map of North Carolina, the position of Asheville and the probable route he + must follow to get there. + </p> + <p> + “Thanks!” he exclaimed gratefully. + </p> + <p> + “Not at all,” she replied simply. “I'm only too glad to be of service to + you.” + </p> + <p> + Her answer emboldened him to ask another question. + </p> + <p> + “You don't happen to know anything about that country down there, do you?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, yes. I know a great deal about it——” + </p> + <p> + “Sure enough?” + </p> + <p> + “I've been through Asheville many times and spent a summer there once.” + </p> + <p> + “Did you?” + </p> + <p> + His tones implied that he plainly regarded her as a prodigy of knowledge. + His whole attitude suggested at once the mind of an alert, interested boy + asking his teacher for information on a subject near to his heart. It was + impossible to resist his appeal. + </p> + <p> + “Why, yes,” Mary went on in low, rapid tones. “My people live in the + Kentucky mountains.” + </p> + <p> + He bent low and gently touched her arm. + </p> + <p> + “Say, we can't talk in here—I'm afraid. Would it be asking too much + of you to come out in the park, sit down on a bench and tell me about it? + I'll never know how to thank you, if you will?” + </p> + <p> + It was absurd, of course, such a request, and yet his interest was so + keen, his deference to her superior knowledge so humble and appealing, to + refuse seemed ungracious. She hesitated and rose abruptly. + </p> + <p> + “Just a moment—I'll return my books and then we'll go. You can + replace this volume on the shelf where we got it.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank yoo, miss,” he responded gratefully. “You're awfully kind.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't mention it,” she laughed. + </p> + <p> + In a moment she was walking by his side down the smooth marble stairs and + out through the grand entrance into Fifth Avenue. The strange part about + it was, she was not in the least excited over a very unconventional + situation. She had allowed a handsomely groomed, young, red-haired + adventurer to pick her up without the formality of an introduction, in the + Public Library. She hadn't the remotest idea of his name—nor had he + of hers—yet there was something about him that seemed oddly + familiar. They must have known one another somewhere in childhood and + forgotten each other's faces. + </p> + <p> + The sun was shining in clear, steady brilliancy in a cloudless sky. The + snow had quickly melted and it was unusually warm for early December. They + turned into the throng of Fifth Avenue and at the corner of Forty-second + Street he paused and hesitated and looked at her timidly: + </p> + <p> + “Say,” he began haltingly, “there's an awful crowd of bums on those seats + in the Square behind the building—you know Central Park, don't you?” + </p> + <p> + Mary smiled. + </p> + <p> + “Quite well—I've spent many happy hours in its quiet walks.” + </p> + <p> + “You know that place the other side of the Mall—that ragged hill + covered with rocks and trees and mountain laurel?” + </p> + <p> + “I've been there often.” + </p> + <p> + “Would you mind going there where it's quiet—I've such a lot o' + things I want to ask you—you won't mind the walk, will you?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly not—we'll go there,” Mary responded in even, + business-like tones. + </p> + <p> + “Because, if you don't want to walk I'll call a cab, if you'll let me——” + </p> + <p> + “Not at all,” was the quick answer. “I love to walk.” + </p> + <p> + It was impossible for the girl to repress a smile at her ridiculous + situation! If any human being had told her yesterday that she, Mary Adams, + an old-fashioned girl with old-fashioned ideas of the proprieties of life, + would have allowed herself to be picked up by an utter stranger in this + unceremonious way, she would have resented the assertion as a personal + insult—yet the preposterous and impossible thing had happened and + she was growing each moment more and more deeply interested in the study + of the remarkable youth by her side. + </p> + <p> + He was not handsome in the conventional sense. His features were too + strong for that. An enemy might have called them coarse. Their first + impression was of enormous strength and exhaustless vitality. He walked + with a quick, military precision and planted his small feet on the + pavement with a soft, sure tread that suggested the strength of a young + tiger. + </p> + <p> + The one feature that puzzled her was the size of his hands and feet. They + were remarkably small and remarkable for their slender, graceful lines. + </p> + <p> + His eyes were another interesting feature. The lids drooped with a + careless Oriental languor, as though he would shut out the glare of the + full daylight, and yet the pupils flashed with a cold steel-blue fire. One + look into his eyes and there could be no doubt that the man behind them + was an interesting personality. + </p> + <p> + She wondered what his business could be. Not a lawyer or doctor or teacher + certainly. His timidity in handling books was clear proof on that point. + He was well groomed. His clothes were made by a first-class tailor. + </p> + <p> + Her heart thumped with a sudden fear. Perhaps he was some sort of + criminal. His questions may have been a trick to lure her away.... + </p> + <p> + They had just crossed the broad plaza at Fifty-ninth Street and entered + the walkway that leads to the Mall. + </p> + <p> + She stopped suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “It's too far to the hill beyond the Mall,” she began hesitatingly. “We'll + find a seat in one of the little rustic houses along the Fifty-ninth + Street side——” + </p> + <p> + “Sure, if you say so,” he agreed. + </p> + <p> + He accepted the suggestion so simply, she regretted her suspicions, + instantly changed her mind and said, smiling: + </p> + <p> + “No, we'll go on where we started. The long walk will do me good.” + </p> + <p> + “All right,” he laughed; “whatever you say's the law. I'm the little boy + that does just what his teacher says.” + </p> + <p> + She blushed and shot him a surprised look. + </p> + <p> + “Who told you that I was a teacher?” she asked, with a smile. + </p> + <p> + “Lord, nobody! I had no idea of such a thing. It never popped into my head + that you do anything at all. You know, I was awful scared when I spoke to + you?” + </p> + <p> + “Were you?” she laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Surest thing you know! I'd 'a' never screwed up my courage to do it if + you hadn't 'a' looked so kind and gentle and sweet. I just knew you + couldn't turn me down——” + </p> + <p> + There was no mistaking the genuineness of the apology for his presumption. + She smiled a gracious answer, and threw the last ugly suspicion to the + winds. + </p> + <p> + He broke into a laugh and lifted his hand in the sudden gesture of a + traffic policeman commanding a halt. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “You know I was so excited I clean forgot to introduce myself! What do you + think o' that? You'll excuse me, won't you? My name's Jim Anthony. I'm + sorry I can't give you any references to my folks. I haven't any—I'm + a lost sheep in New York—no father or mother. That's why I'm so + excited about this trip I'm plannin' down South. I hear I've got some + people down there.” + </p> + <p> + He stopped suddenly as if absorbed in the thought. Her heart went out to + him in sympathy for this confession of his orphaned life. + </p> + <p> + “I'm Mary Adams,” she smiled in answer. “I'm a teacher in the public + schools.” + </p> + <p> + “Gee—that accounts for it! I thought you looked like you knew + everything in those books. And you've been to Asheville, too?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Suppose it's not as big a burg as New York?” + </p> + <p> + “Hardly—it's just a hustling mountain town of about twenty-five + thousand people.” + </p> + <p> + “Lot o' swells from around New York live down there, they tell me.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, the Vanderbilts have a beautiful castle just outside.” + </p> + <p> + “Some mountains near Asheville?” + </p> + <p> + “Hundreds of square miles.” + </p> + <p> + “Mountains in every direction?” + </p> + <p> + “As far as the eye can reach, one blue range piled above another until + they're lost in the dim skies on the horizon.” + </p> + <p> + “Gee, it may be pretty hard to find your folks if they just live in the + mountains near Asheville?” + </p> + <p> + “Unless your directions are more explicit—I should think so.” + </p> + <p> + “You know, I thought the mountains near Asheville was a bunch o' hills off + one side like the Palisades, that you couldn't miss if you tried. I've + never been outside of New York—since I can remember. I'd love to see + real mountains.” + </p> + <p> + The last sentence was spoken in a wistful pathos that touched Mary with + its irresistible appeal. Her mother instincts responded to it in quick + sympathy. + </p> + <p> + “You've missed a lot,” she answered gravely. + </p> + <p> + “I'll bet I have. It's a rotten old town, this New York——” + </p> + <p> + He paused, and a queer light flashed from his steel eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Until you get your hand on its throat,” he added, bringing his square + jaws together. + </p> + <p> + Mary lifted her face with keen interest. + </p> + <p> + “And you've got it by the throat?” + </p> + <p> + “That's just what—little girl!” he cried, with a ring of pride. “You + see, I'm an inventor and I won a little pile on my first trick. I've got a + machine-shop in a room eight-by-ten over on the East Side.” + </p> + <p> + “A machine-shop all your own?” + </p> + <p> + “Yep.” + </p> + <p> + “I'd like to see it some day.” + </p> + <p> + He shook his head emphatically. + </p> + <p> + “It's too dirty. I couldn't let a pretty girl like you in such a place.” + He paused and resumed the tone of his narrative where she interrupted him. + “You see, I've just put a new crimp in a carburetor for the automobile + folks. They're tickled to death over it and I've got automobiles to burn. + Will you go to ride with me tomorrow?” + </p> + <p> + The teacher broke into a joyous laugh. + </p> + <p> + “Why do you laugh?” he asked awkwardly. + </p> + <p> + “Well, in the language of New York, that would be going some, wouldn't + it?” + </p> + <p> + “And why not, I'd like to know?” he cried with scorn. “Who's to tell us we + can't? You've no kids to bother you tomorrow. I'm my own boss. You've seen + Asheville, but you've never seen New York until you sit down beside me in + a big six-cylinder racing car I'm handlin' next week. Let me show it to + you. I'll swing her around to your door at eight o'clock. In twenty-five + minutes we'll clear the Bronx and shoot into New Rochelle. There'll be no + cops out to bother us, and not a wheel in sight. It'll do you good. Let me + take you! I owe you that much for bein' so nice to me today. Will you go + with me?” + </p> + <p> + Mary hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “I'll think it over and let you know.” + </p> + <p> + “Got a telephone?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you'll have to tell me before I go—won't you?” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose so,” she answered demurely. + </p> + <p> + They passed the big fountain beyond the Mall and skirted the lake to the + bridge, crossed, walked along the water's edge to the laurel-covered crags + and found a seat alone in the summer house that hides among the trees on + its highest point. + </p> + <p> + The roar of the city was dim and far away. The only sounds to break the + stillness were the laughter of lovers along the walks below and the + distant cry of steamers in the harbor and rivers. + </p> + <p> + “You'd almost think you're in the mountains up here, now wouldn't you?” he + asked, after a moment's silence. + </p> + <p> + “Yes. I call this park my country estate. It costs me nothing to keep it + in perfect order. The city pays for it all. But I own it. Every tree and + shrub and flower and blade of grass, every statue and bird and animal in + it is mine. I couldn't get more joy out of them if I had them inclosed + behind an iron fence, and the deed to the land in my pocket—not half + as much, for I'd be lonely and miserable without someone to see and enjoy + it all with me.” + </p> + <p> + “Gee, that's so, ain't it? I never looked at it like that before.” + </p> + <p> + He gazed at her a long time in silent admiration, and then spoke briskly. + </p> + <p> + “Now tell me about this North Carolina and all those miles and square + miles of mountains.” + </p> + <p> + “You've a piece of paper and pencil?” + </p> + <p> + He lifted his hand school-boy fashion: + </p> + <p> + “Johnny on the spot, teacher!” + </p> + <p> + A blank-book and pencil he threw in her lap and leaned close. + </p> + <p> + “Tear the leaves out, if you like.” + </p> + <p> + “No, I'll just draw the maps on the pages and leave them for you to + study.” + </p> + <p> + With deft touch she outlined in rough on the first page, the states of New + Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina, tracing his + possible route by Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Dover, Norfolk and + Raleigh, or by Washington, Richmond, and Danville to Greensboro. + </p> + <p> + “Either route you see,” she said softly, “leads to Salisbury, where you + strike the foothills of the mountains. It's about two hundred miles from + there to Asheville and `The Land of the Sky.'” + </p> + <p> + For two hours she answered his eager, boyish questions about the country + and its people, his eyes wide with admiration at her knowledge. + </p> + <p> + The sun was sinking in a sea of scarlet and purple clouds behind the tall + buildings beside the Park before she realized that they had been talking + for more than two hours. + </p> + <p> + She sprang to her feet, blushing and confused. + </p> + <p> + “Mercy, I had no idea it was so late.” + </p> + <p> + “Why—is it late?” he asked incredulously. + </p> + <p> + “We must hurry——” + </p> + <p> + She brushed the stray ringlets of hair from her forehead, laughed and + hurried down the pathway. + </p> + <p> + They crossed the Park and took the Madison Avenue line to Twenty-third + Street. They were silent in the car. The roar of the traffic was deafening + after the quiet of the summer house among the trees. + </p> + <p> + “I can see you home?” he inquired appealingly. + </p> + <p> + “We get off at Twenty-third Street.” + </p> + <p> + They stood on the steps at her door beside the Square and there was a + moment's awkward silence. + </p> + <p> + He lifted his hat with a little chivalrous bow. + </p> + <p> + “Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock in my car?” + </p> + <p> + She smiled and hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “You'll have a bully time!” + </p> + <p> + “It's Sunday,” she stammered. + </p> + <p> + “Sure, that's why I asked you.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't like to miss my church.” + </p> + <p> + “You go to church every Sunday?” he asked in amazement. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, just this once then. It'll do you good. And I'll drive as careful + as a farmer.” + </p> + <p> + “All right,” she said in low tones, and extended her hand: + </p> + <p> + “Good night——” + </p> + <p> + “Good night, teacher!” he responded with a boyish wave of his slender hand + and quickly disappeared in the crowd. + </p> + <p> + She rushed up the stairs, her cheeks aflame, her heart beating a tattoo of + foolish joy. + </p> + <p> + She snatched the kitten from sleep and whispered in his tiny ear: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Kitty dear, I've had such an adventure! I've spent the happiest, + silliest afternoon of my life! I'm going to have a more wonderful day + tomorrow. I just feel it. In a big racing automobile if you please, Mr. + Thomascat! Sorry I can't take you but the dust would blind you, Kitty + dear. I'm sorry to tell you that you'll have to stay at home all day alone + and keep house. It's too bad. But I'll fix your milk and bread before I go + and you must promise me on your sacred Persian cat's honor not to look at + my birds!” + </p> + <p> + She hugged him violently and he purred his soft answer in song. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Kitty, I'm so happy—so foolishly happy!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. DOUBTS AND FEARS + </h2> + <p> + Mary attempted no analysis of her emotions. It was all too sudden, too + stunning. She was content to feel and enjoy the first overwhelming + experience of life. Hour after hour she lay among the pillows of her couch + in the dim light of the street lamps and lazily watched the passing + Saturday evening crowds. The world was beautiful. + </p> + <p> + She undressed at last and went to bed, only to toss wide-eyed for hours. + </p> + <p> + A hundred times she reenacted the scene in the Library and recalled her + first impression of Jim's personality. What could such an utterly + unforeseen and extraordinary meeting mean except that it was her Fate? + Certainly he could not have planned it. Certainly she had not foreseen + such an event. It had never occurred to her in the wildest flights of + fancy that she could meet and speak to a man under such conditions, to say + nothing of the walk in the Park and the hours she spent in the little + summer house. + </p> + <p> + And the strangest part of it all was that she could see nothing wrong in + it from beginning to end. It had happened in the simplest and most natural + way imaginable. By the standards of conventional propriety her act was the + maddest folly; and yet she was still happy over it. + </p> + <p> + There was one disquieting trait about him that made her a little uneasy. + He used the catch-words of the street gamins of New York without any + consciousness of incongruity. She thought at first that he did this as the + Southern boy of culture and refinement unconsciously drops into the tones + and dialect of the negro, by daily association. His constant use of the + expressive and characteristic “Gee” was startling, to say the least. And + yet it came from his lips in such a boyish way she felt sure that it was + due to his embarrassment in the unusual position in which he had found + himself with her. + </p> + <p> + His helplessness with the dictionary was proof, of course, that he was no + scholar. And yet a boy might have a fair education in the schools of today + and be unfamiliar with this ponderous and dignified encyclopedia of words. + It was impossible to believe that he was illiterate. His clothes, his + carriage, even his manners made such an idea preposterous. + </p> + <p> + Besides, no inventor could be really illiterate. He may have been forced + to work and only attended night schools. But if he were a mechanic, + capable of making a successful improvement on one of the most delicate and + important parts of an automobile, he must have studied the principles + involved in his inventions. + </p> + <p> + His choice of a profession appealed to her imagination, too. It showed + independence and initiative. It opened boundless possibilities. He might + be an obscure and poorly educated boy today. In five years he could be a + millionaire and the head of some huge business whose interests circled the + world. + </p> + <p> + The tired brain wore itself out at last in eager speculations, and she + fell into a fitful stupor. The roar of the street-cars waked her at + daylight, and further sleep was out of the question. She rose, dressed + quickly and got her breakfast in a quiver of nervous excitement over the + adventure of the coming automobile. + </p> + <p> + As the hour of eight drew nearer, her doubts of the propriety of going + became more acute. + </p> + <p> + “What on earth has come over me in the past twenty-four hours?” she asked + of herself. “I've known this man but a day. I don't KNOW him at all, and + yet I'm going to put my life in his hands in that racing machine. Have I + gone crazy?” + </p> + <p> + She was not in the least afraid of him. His face and voice and personality + all seemed familiar. Her brain and common-sense told her that such a trip + with an utter stranger was dangerous and foolish beyond words. In his + automobile, unaccompanied by a human soul and unacquainted with the roads + over which they would travel, she would be absolutely in his power. + </p> + <p> + She set her teeth firmly at last, her mind made up. + </p> + <p> + “It's too mad a risk. I was crazy to promise. I won't go!” + </p> + <p> + She had scarcely spoken her resolution when the soft call of the auto-horn + echoed below. She stood irresolute for a moment, and the call was repeated + in plaintive, appealing notes. + </p> + <p> + She tried to hold fast to her resolutions, but the impulse to open the + window and look out was resistless. She turned the old-fashioned brass + knob, swung her windows wide on their hinges and leaned out. + </p> + <p> + His keen eyes were watching. He lifted his cap and waved. She answered + with the flutter of her handkerchief—and all resolutions were off. + </p> + <p> + “Of course, I'll go,” she cried, with a laugh. “It's a glorious day—I + may never have such a chance again.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. WINGS OF STEEL + </h2> + <p> + She threw on her furs and hurried downstairs. Her surrender was too sudden + to realize that she was being driven by a power that obscured reason and + crushed her will. + </p> + <p> + Reason made one more vain cry as she paused at the door below to draw on + her gloves. + </p> + <p> + “You have refused every invitation to see or know the unconventional world + into which thousands of women in New York, clear-eyed and unafraid, enter + daily. You'd sooner die than pose an hour in Gordon's studio, and on a + Sabbath morning you cut your church and go on a day's wild ride with a man + you have known but fifteen hours!” + </p> + <p> + And the voice inside quickly answered: + </p> + <p> + “But that's different! Gordon's a married man. My chevalier is not! I have + the right to go, and he has the right.” + </p> + <p> + It was settled anyhow before this little controversy arose at the street + door, but the ready answer she gave eased her conscience and cleared the + way for a happy, exciting trip. + </p> + <p> + He leaped from the big, ugly racer to help her in, stopped and looked at + her light clothing. + </p> + <p> + “That's your heaviest coat?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. It isn't cold.” + </p> + <p> + “I've one for you.” + </p> + <p> + He drew an enormous fur coat from the car and held it up for her arms. + </p> + <p> + “You think I'll need that?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + His white teeth gleamed in a friendly smile. + </p> + <p> + “Take it from me, Kiddo, you certainly will!” + </p> + <p> + She winced just a little at the common expression, but he said it with + such a quick, boyish enthusiasm, she wondered whether he were quoting the + expression from the Bowery boy's vocabulary or using it in a facetious + personal way. + </p> + <p> + “I knew you'd need it. So I brought it for you,” he added genially. + </p> + <p> + “Thanks,” she murmured, lifting her arms and drawing the coat about her + trim figure. + </p> + <p> + He helped her into the car and drew from his pocket a light pair of + goggles. + </p> + <p> + “Now these, and you're all hunky-dory!” + </p> + <p> + “Will I need these, too?” she asked incredulously. + </p> + <p> + “Will you!” he cried. “You wouldn't ask that question if you knew the + horse we've got hitched to this benzine buggy today. He's got wings—believe + me! It's all I can do to hold him on the ground sometimes.” + </p> + <p> + “You'll drive carefully?” she faltered. + </p> + <p> + He lifted his hand. + </p> + <p> + “With you settin' beside me, my first name's `Caution.'” + </p> + <p> + She fumbled the goggles in a vain effort to lift her arms over her head to + fasten them on. He sprang into the seat by her side and promptly seized + them. + </p> + <p> + “Let me fix 'em.” + </p> + <p> + His slender, skillful fingers adjusted the band and brushed a stray + ringlet of hair back under the furs. The thrill of his touch swept her + with a sudden dizzy sense of excitement. She blushed and drew her head + down into the collar of the shaggy coat. + </p> + <p> + He touched the wheel, and the gray monster leaped from the curb and shot + down the street. The single impulse carried them to the crossing. He had + shut off the power as the machine gracefully swung into Fourth Avenue. The + turn made, another leap and the car swept up the Avenue and swung through + Twenty-sixth Street into Fifth Avenue. Again the power was off as he made + the turn into Fifth Avenue at a snail's pace. + </p> + <p> + “Can't let her out yet,” he whispered apologetically. “Had to make these + turns. There's no room for her inside of town.” + </p> + <p> + Mary had no time to answer. He touched the wheel, and the car shot up the + deserted Avenue. She gasped for breath and braced her feet, her whole + being tingling with the first exhilarating consciousness that she too was + possessed of the devil of speed madness. It was glorious! For the first + time in her life, space and distance lost their meaning. She was free as + the birds in the heavens. She was flying on the wings of this gray, steel + monster through space. The palaces on the Avenue whirled by in dim + ghost-like flashes. They flew through Central Park into Seventy-second + Street and out into the Drive. The waters of the river, broad and cool, + flashing in the morning sun, rested her eyes a moment and then faded in a + twinkling. They had leaped the chasm beyond Grant's Tomb, plunged into + Broadway and before she could get her bearings, swept up the hill at One + Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, slipped gracefully across the iron bridge + and in a jiffy were lost in a gray cloud of dust on the Boston Turnpike. + </p> + <p> + When the first intoxicating joy of speed had spent itself, she found + herself shuddering at the daring turns he made, missing a curb by a hair's + breadth—grazing a trolley by half an inch. Her fears were soon + forgotten. + </p> + <p> + The hand on the wheel was made of steel, too. + </p> + <p> + The throbbing demon encased within the hood obeyed his slightest whim. She + glanced at the square, massive jaw with furtive admiration. + </p> + <p> + Without turning his head he laughed. + </p> + <p> + “You like it, teacher?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm in Heaven!” + </p> + <p> + “You won't worry about church then, will you?” + </p> + <p> + “Not today.” + </p> + <p> + They stopped at a road-house, and he put in more gasoline, lifted the + casing from the engine, touched each vital part, examined his tires, and + made sure that his machine was at its best. + </p> + <p> + She watched him with a growing sense of his strength of character, his + poise and executive ability. He was an awkward, stammering boy in the + Library yesterday. Today with this machine in his hand he was the master + of Time and Space. + </p> + <p> + She yielded herself completely to the delicious sense of his protection. + The extraordinary care he was giving the machine was a plain avowal of his + deep regard for her comfort and happiness. She had been in one or two + moderately moving cars driven by careful chauffeurs through Central Park. + She had always felt on those trips with Jane Anderson like a poor relation + from the country imposing on a rich friend. + </p> + <p> + This trip was all her own. The car and its master were there solely for + her happiness. Her slightest whim was law for both. It was sweet, this + sense of power. She began to lift her body with a touch of pride. + </p> + <p> + She laughed now at fears. What nonsense! No Knight of the Age of Chivalry + could treat her with more deference. He had tried already to get her to + stop for a bite of lunch. + </p> + <p> + “Don't you want a thing to eat?” he persisted. + </p> + <p> + “Not a thing. I've just had my breakfast. It's only nine o'clock——” + </p> + <p> + “I know, but we've come thirty miles and the air makes you hungry. We + ought to eat about six good meals a day.” + </p> + <p> + She shook her head. + </p> + <p> + “No—not yet. I'm too happy with these new wings. I want to fly some + more—come on——” + </p> + <p> + He lifted his hand in his favorite gesture of obedience. + </p> + <p> + “'Nuff said—we'll streak it back now by another road, hump it + through town and jump over the Brooklyn Bridge. I'll show you Coney Island + and then I know you'll want a hot dog anyhow.” + </p> + <p> + He crossed the country and darted into Broadway. Before she could realize + it, the last tree and field were lost behind in a cloud of dust, and they + were again in the crowded streets of the city. The deep growl of his horn + rang its warnings for each crossing and Mary watched the timid women + scramble to the sidewalks five and six blocks ahead. + </p> + <p> + It was delicious. She had always been the one to scramble before. Her + heart went out in a wave of tenderness to the man by her side, strong, + daring, masterful, her chevalier, her protector and admirer. + </p> + <p> + Yes, her admirer! There was no doubt on that point. The moment he relaxed + the tension of his hand on the wheel, his deep, mysterious eyes beneath + the drooping lids were fixed on hers in open, shameless admiration. Their + cold fire burned into her heart and thrilled to her finger-tips. + </p> + <p> + In spite of his deference and his obedience to her whim, she felt the iron + grip of his personality on her imagination. Whatever his education, his + origin or his environment, he was a power to be reckoned with. + </p> + <p> + No other type of man had ever appealed to her. Her conception of a real + man had always been one who did his own thinking and commanded rather than + asked the respect of others. + </p> + <p> + She had thrown the spell of her beauty over this headstrong, masterful + man. He was wax in her hands. A delicious sense of power filled her. She + had never known what happiness meant before. She floated through space. + The spinning lines of towering buildings on Broadway passed as mists in a + dream. + </p> + <p> + As the velvet feet of the car touched the great bridge she lazily opened + her eyes for a moment and gazed through the lace-work of steel at the + broad sweep of the magnificent harbor. The dark blue hills of Staten + Island framed the picture. + </p> + <p> + He was right. She had never seen New York before. Never before had its + immense panorama been swept within two hours. Never before had she + realized its dimensions. She had always felt stunned and crushed in the + effort to conceive it. Today she had wings. The city lay at her feet, + conquered. She was mistress of Time and Space. + </p> + <p> + Again her sidelong glance swept the lines of Jim Anthony's massive jaw. + She laughed softly. + </p> + <p> + “What's the matter?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing. I'm just happy.” + </p> + <p> + She blushed and wondered if he had read her thoughts by some subtle power + of clairvoyance. She was speculating on the effects of love at first sight + on such a man. Would he hesitate, back and fill and hang on for months + trying in vain to gain the courage to speak? Or would he spring with the + leap of a young tiger the moment he realized what he wanted? + </p> + <p> + Her own attitude was purely one of joyous expectancy. It would, of course, + be a long time before her feelings could take any definite attitude toward + a man. For the moment she was supremely happy. It was enough. She made no + effort to probe her feelings. She might return to earth tomorrow. Today + she was in Heaven. She would make the most of it. + </p> + <p> + They skimmed the wooded cliffs of Bay Ridge, her heart beating in ecstasy + at the revelation of beauty of whose existence she had not dreamed. + </p> + <p> + “I bet you never saw this drive before, now did you?” he asked with boyish + enthusiasm. + </p> + <p> + “No—it's wonderful.” + </p> + <p> + “Some view—eh?” + </p> + <p> + “Entrancing!” + </p> + <p> + “You know when I make my pile, I'd like a palace of white marble perched + on this cliff with the windows on the south looking out over Sandy Hook, + and the windows on the west looking over that fort on the top of Staten + Island with its black eyes gazing over the sea. How would you like that?” + </p> + <p> + She turned away to mask the smile she couldn't repress. + </p> + <p> + “That would be splendid, wouldn't it?” + </p> + <p> + “I like the water, don't you?” + </p> + <p> + “I love it.” + </p> + <p> + “Water and hills both right together! I reckon my father must 'a' been a + sea-captain and my mother from the mountains——” + </p> + <p> + He said this with a pathos that found the girl's heart. What a pitiful, + lonely life, a boy's without even the memory of a mother or father! The + mother instinct rose in a resistless flood of pity. Her eyes grew suddenly + dim. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” he said briskly, “now for the dainty job! I've got to jump my way + through that Coney Island bunch. You see my low speed's a racing pace for + an everyday car. All I can do in a crowd is to jump from one crossing to + the next and cut her power off every time. You can bet I'll make a guy or + two jump with me——” + </p> + <p> + “You won't hurt anyone?” she pleaded. + </p> + <p> + “Lord, no! I wouldn't dare to put her through that mob in the afternoon. + I'd kill a regiment of 'em. But it's early—just the shank of the + morning. There's nobody down here yet.” + </p> + <p> + The car suddenly leaped into the Avenue that runs through the heart of + Coney Island, the deep-throated horn screaming its warning. The crowd + scattered like sheep before a lion. + </p> + <p> + The girl laughed in spite of her effort at self-control. + </p> + <p> + “Watch 'em hump!” Jim grunted. + </p> + <p> + “It's funny, isn't it?” + </p> + <p> + “When you're in the car—yes. It don't seem so funny when you're on + foot. Well, some people were made to walk and some to ride. I had to hoof + it at first. I like riding better—don't you?” + </p> + <p> + “To be perfectly honest—yes!” + </p> + <p> + The car leaped forward again, the horn screaming. The wheel passed within + a foot of a fat woman's skirt. With a cry of terror she fled to the + sidewalk and shook her fist at Jim, her face purple with anger. + </p> + <p> + He waved his hand back at her: + </p> + <p> + “Never touched you, dearie! Never touched you!” + </p> + <p> + Mary lost all fear of accident and watched him handle the machine with the + skill of a master. She could understand now the spirit of deviltry in a + chauffeur who knows his business. It seemed a wicked, cruel thing from the + ground—this swift plunge of a car as if bent on murder. But now that + she felt the sure, velvet grip of the brake in a master's hand, she saw + that the danger was largely a myth. + </p> + <p> + It was fun to see people jump at the approach of an avalanche of steel + that always stopped just short of harm. Of course, it took a steady nerve + and muscle to do the trick. The man by her side had both. He was always + smiling. Nothing rattled him. + </p> + <p> + Her trust was now implicit. She relaxed the tension of the first two hours + of doubt and fear, and yielded to the spell of his strength. It seemed + inseparable from the throbbing will of the giant machine. He was its + incarnate spirit. She was being swept through space now on the wings of + omnipotent power—but power always obedient to her whim. + </p> + <p> + With steady, even pulse they glided down the long, broad Avenue to + Prospect Park, swung through its winding lanes, on through the streets of + Brooklyn and once more into the open road. + </p> + <p> + “Now for Long Beach and a good lunch!” he cried. “I'll show you something—but + you'll have to shut your eyes to see it.” + </p> + <p> + With a sudden bound, the car leaped into the air, and shot through the sky + with the hiss and shriek of a demon. + </p> + <p> + The girl caught her breath and instinctively gripped his arm. + </p> + <p> + “Look out, Kiddo!” he shouted. “Don't touch me—or we'll both land in + Kingdom Come. I ain't ready for a harp just yet. I'd rather fool with this + toy for a while down here.” + </p> + <p> + She braced her feet and gripped the sides of the car, gasping for breath, + steadied herself at last and crouched low among the furs to guard her + throat from the icy daggers of the wind. + </p> + <p> + The landscape whirled in a circle of trees and sky, while above the dark + line of hills hung the boiling cauldron of cloud-banked heavens. + </p> + <p> + “Are you game?” he called above the roar. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she gasped. “Don't stop——” + </p> + <p> + Her soul had risen at last to the ecstasy of the mania for speed that + fired the man's spirit and nerved his hand. It was inconceivable until + experienced—this awful joy! Her spirit sank with childish + disappointment as he slowly lowered the power. + </p> + <p> + “Got to take a sharp curve down there,” he explained. “We turn to the + right for the meadows and the Beach—how was that?” + </p> + <p> + “Wonderful,” she cried, with dancing eyes. “Let her go again if you want + to—I'm game—now.” + </p> + <p> + Jim laughed. + </p> + <p> + “A little rattled at first?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes——” + </p> + <p> + “Well, we can't let her out on this road. It's too narrow—have to + take a ditch sometimes to pass. That wouldn't do for an eighty-mile clip, + you know—now would it?” + </p> + <p> + “Hardly.” + </p> + <p> + “I might risk it alone—but my first name's `Old Man Caution' today—you + get me?” + </p> + <p> + Mary nodded and turned her head away again. + </p> + <p> + “I got you the first time, sir,” she answered playfully taking his tone. + </p> + <p> + He ran the car into the garage at the Beach, sprang out and lifted Mary to + the ground with quick, firm hand. They threw off their heavy coats and + left them. + </p> + <p> + “Look out for this junk now, sonny,” he cried to the attendant, tossing + him a half dollar. + </p> + <p> + “Sure, Mike!” + </p> + <p> + “Fill her up to the chin by the time we get back.” + </p> + <p> + “Righto!” + </p> + <p> + Quickly they walked to the hotel and in five minutes were seated beside a + window in the dining-room, watching the lazy roll of the sea sweep in on + the sands at low tide. + </p> + <p> + “I'm hungry as a wolf!” he whispered. + </p> + <p> + “So am I——” + </p> + <p> + “We'll eat everything in sight—start at the top and come down.” + </p> + <p> + He handed her the menu card and watched her from the depths beneath the + drooping eyelids. + </p> + <p> + Conscious of his gaze and rejoicing in its frank admiration, she ordered + the dinner with instinctive good taste. No effort at conversation was made + by either. They were both too hungry. As Jim lighted his cigarette when + the coffee was served, he leaned back in his chair and watched the + breakers in silence. + </p> + <p> + “That's the best dinner I ever had in my life,” he said slowly. + </p> + <p> + “It was good. We were hungry.” + </p> + <p> + “I've been hungry before, many a time. It was something else, too.” He + paused and rose abruptly. “Let's walk up the Beach.” + </p> + <p> + “I'd love to,” she answered, slowly rising. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. BESIDE THE SEA + </h2> + <p> + They strolled leisurely along the board-walk, found the sand, walked in + the firm, dry line of the high-water mark for a mile to the east, and sat + down on a clump of sea-grass on the top of a sand dune. + </p> + <p> + “I like this!” she cried joyously. + </p> + <p> + “So do I,” he answered soberly, and lapsed into silence. + </p> + <p> + The sun was warm and genial. The wind had died, and the waves of the + rising tide were creeping up the long, sloping stretches of the sand with + a lazy, soothing rush. A winter gull poised above their heads and soared + seaward. The smoke of an ocean liner streaked the horizon as she swept + toward the channel off Sandy Hook. + </p> + <p> + Jim looked at the girl by his side and tried to speak. She caught the + strained expression in his strong face and lowered her eyes. + </p> + <p> + He began to trace letters in the sand. + </p> + <p> + She knew with unerring instinct that he had made his first desperate + effort to speak his love and failed. Would he give it up and wait for + weeks and possibly months—or would he storm the citadel in one mad + rush at the beginning? + </p> + <p> + He found his voice at last. He had recovered from the panic of his first + impulse. + </p> + <p> + “Well, how do you like my idea of a good day as far as you've gone?” he + asked lightly. + </p> + <p> + She met his gaze with perfect frankness. “The happiest day I ever spent in + my life,” she confessed. + </p> + <p> + “Honest?” + </p> + <p> + “Honest.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, shucks—what's the use!” he cried, with sudden fierce + resolution. “You've got me, Kiddo, you've got me! I've been eatin' out of + your hand since the minute I laid my eyes on you in that big room. I'm all + yours. You can do anything you want with me. For God's sake, tell me that + you like me a little.” + </p> + <p> + The blood slowly mounted to her cheeks in red waves of tremulous emotion. + </p> + <p> + “I like you very much,” she said in low tones. + </p> + <p> + He seized her hand and held it in a desperate grip. + </p> + <p> + “I love you, Kiddo,” he went on passionately. “You don't mind me calling + you Kiddo? You're so dainty and pretty and sweet, and that dimple keeps + coming in your cheek, it just seems like that's the word—you don't + mind?” + </p> + <p> + “No——” + </p> + <p> + “You don't know how I've been starvin' all my life for the love of a pure + girl like you. You're the first one I ever spoke to. I was scared to death + yesterday when I saw you. But I'd 'a' spoke to you if it killed me in my + tracks. I couldn't help it. It just looked like an angel had dropped right + down out of the gold clouds from that ceilin'. I was afraid I'd lose you + in the crowd and never see you again. It didn't seem you were a stranger + anyhow—I didn't seem strange to you, did I?” + </p> + <p> + Her lips quivered, and she was silent. + </p> + <p> + “Didn't you feel like you'd known me somewhere before?” he pleaded. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “I just felt you did, and that's what give me courage. Oh, Kiddo, you've + got to love me a little—I've never been loved by a human soul in all + my life. The first thing I remember was hidin' under a stoop from a brute + who beat me every night. I ran away and slept in barrels and crawled into + coal shutes till I was big enough to earn a livin' sellin' papers. For + years I never knew what it meant to have enough to eat. I just scratched + and fought my way through the streets like a little hungry wolf till I got + in a blacksmith's shop down on South Street and learned to handle tools. I + was quick and smart, and the old man liked me and let me sleep in the + shop. I had enough to eat then and got strong as an ox. I went to the + night schools and learned to read and write. I don't know anything, but + I'm quick and you can teach me—you will, won't you?” + </p> + <p> + “I'll try,” was the low answer. + </p> + <p> + “You do like me, Kiddo? Say it again!” + </p> + <p> + She rose to her feet and looked out over the sea, her face scarlet. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I do,” she said at last. + </p> + <p> + With a sudden resistless sweep he clasped her in his arms and kissed her + lips. + </p> + <p> + Her heart leaped in mad response to the first kiss a lover had ever given. + Her body quivered and relaxed in his embrace. It was sweet—it was + wonderful beyond words. + </p> + <p> + He kissed her again, and she clung to him, lifting her eyes to his at last + in a long, wondering gaze and then pressed her own lips to his. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my God, Kiddo, you love me! It beats the world, don't it? Love at + first sight for both of us! I've heard about it, but I didn't think it + would ever happen to me like this—did you?” + </p> + <p> + She shook her head and bit her lips as the tears slowly dimmed her eyes. + </p> + <p> + “It takes my breath,” she murmured. “I can't realize what it all means. It + seems too wonderful to be true.” + </p> + <p> + “And you won't turn me down because I don't know who my father and mother + was?” + </p> + <p> + “No—my heart goes out to you in a great pity for your lonely, + wretched boyhood.” + </p> + <p> + “I couldn't help that—now could I?” + </p> + <p> + “Of course not. It's wonderful that you've made your way alone and won the + fight of life.” + </p> + <p> + He gripped her hands and held her at arms' length, devouring her with his + deep, slumbering eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Gee, but you're a brick, little girl! I thought you were an angel when I + first saw you. Now I know it. Just watch me work for you! I'll show you a + thing or two. You'll marry me right away, won't you?” + </p> + <p> + He bent close, his breath on her lips. + </p> + <p> + Her eyes drooped under his passionate gaze, and the tears slowly stole + down her cheeks. Her hour of life had struck! So suddenly, so utterly + unexpectedly, it rang a thunderbolt from the clear sky. + </p> + <p> + “You will, won't you?” he pleaded. + </p> + <p> + She smiled at him through her tears and slowly said: + </p> + <p> + “I can't say yes today.” + </p> + <p> + “Why—why?” + </p> + <p> + “You've swept me off my feet—I—I can't think.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't want you to think—I want you to marry me right now.” + </p> + <p> + “I must have a little time.” + </p> + <p> + His face fell in despair. + </p> + <p> + “Say, little girl, don't turn me down—you'll kill me.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm not turning you down,” she protested tenderly. “I only want time to + see that I'm not crazy. I have to pinch myself to see if I'm awake. It all + seems a dream”—she paused and lifted her radiant face to his—“a + beautiful dream—the most wonderful my soul has ever seen. I must be + sure it's real!” + </p> + <p> + He drew her into his arms, and her body again relaxed in surrender as his + lips touched hers. + </p> + <p> + “Isn't that the real thing?” he laughed. + </p> + <p> + She lay very still, her eyes closed, her face a scarlet flame. She was + frightened at the swift realization of its overwhelming reality. The touch + of his hand thrilled to the last fiber and nerve of her body. Her own + trembling fingers clung to him with desperate longing tenderness. She + roused herself with an effort and drew away. + </p> + <p> + “That's enough now. I must have a little common-sense. Let's go——” + </p> + <p> + He clung to her hand. + </p> + <p> + “You'll let me come to see you, tomorrow night?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes——” + </p> + <p> + “And the next night—and every night this week—what's the + difference? There's nobody to say no, is there?” + </p> + <p> + “No one.” + </p> + <p> + “You'll let me?” + </p> + <p> + “Tomorrow sure. Maybe you won't want to come the next night.” + </p> + <p> + “Maybe I won't! Just wait and see!” + </p> + <p> + He seized both hands again and held her at arms' length. + </p> + <p> + “Don't go yet—just let me look at you a minute more! The only girl I + ever had in my life—and she's the prettiest thing God ever made on + this earth. Ain't I the lucky boy?” + </p> + <p> + “We must go now,” she cried, blushing again under his burning eyes. + </p> + <p> + He dropped her hands suddenly and saluted military fashion. + </p> + <p> + “All right, teacher! I'm the little boy that does exactly what he's told.” + </p> + <p> + They strolled leisurely along the shining sands in silence. Now and then + his slender hand caught hers and crushed it. The moment he touched her a + living flame flashed through her body—and through every moment of + contact her nerves throbbed and quivered as if a musician were sweeping + the strings of a harp. If this were not love, what could it be? + </p> + <p> + Her whole being, body and soul, responded to his. Her body moved + instinctively toward his, drawn by some hidden, resistless power. Her + hands went out to meet his; her lips leaped to his. + </p> + <p> + She must test it with time, of course. And yet she knew by a deep inner + sense that time could only fan the flame that had been kindled into + consuming fire that must melt every barrier between them. + </p> + <p> + She had asked him nothing of himself, his business or his future, and knew + nothing except what he had told her in the first impetuous rush of his + confession of love. No matter. The big thing today was the fact of love + and the new radiance with which it was beginning to light the world. The + effect was stunning. Their conversation had been the simplest of + commonplace questions and answers—and yet the day was the one + miracle of her life—her happiness something unthinkable until + realized. + </p> + <p> + She had not asked time in order to know him better. She had only asked + time to see herself more clearly in the new experience. Not for a moment + did she raise the question of the worthiness of the man she loved. It was + inconceivable that she should love a man not worthy of her. The only + questions asked were soul-searching ones put to herself. + </p> + <p> + Through the sweet, cool drive homeward, a hundred times she asked within: + </p> + <p> + “Is this love?” + </p> + <p> + And each time the answer came from the depths: + </p> + <p> + “Yes—yes—a thousand times yes. It's the voice of God. I feel + it and I know it.” + </p> + <p> + He throttled the racer down to the lowest speed and took the longest road + home. + </p> + <p> + Again and again he slipped his left hand from the wheel and pressed hers. + </p> + <p> + “You won't let anybody knock me behind my back, now will you, little + girl?” + </p> + <p> + She pressed his hand in answer. + </p> + <p> + “I ain't got a single friend in all God's world to stand up for me but + just you.” + </p> + <p> + “You don't need anyone,” she whispered. + </p> + <p> + “You'll give me a chance to get back at 'em if any of your friends knock + me, won't you?” + </p> + <p> + “Why should they dislike you?” + </p> + <p> + He shrugged his shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I ain't exactly one o' the high-flyers now am I?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm glad you're not.” + </p> + <p> + “Sure enough?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Then it's me for you, Kiddo, for this world and the next.” + </p> + <p> + The car swung suddenly to the curb and Mary lifted her eyes with a start + to find herself in front of her home. + </p> + <p> + Jim sprang to the ground and lifted her out. + </p> + <p> + “Keep this coat,” he whispered. “We'll need it tomorrow. What time is your + school out?” + </p> + <p> + “At three o'clock.” + </p> + <p> + “I can come at four?” + </p> + <p> + “You don't have to work tomorrow?” + </p> + <p> + He hesitated a moment. + </p> + <p> + “No, I'm on a vacation till after Christmas. They're putting through my + new patent.” + </p> + <p> + He followed her inside the door and held her hand in the shadows of the + hall. + </p> + <p> + “All right, at four,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “I'll be here.” + </p> + <p> + He stooped and kissed her, turned and passed quickly out. + </p> + <p> + She stood for a moment in the shadows and listened to the throb of the car + until it melted into the roar of the city's life, her heart beating with a + joy so new it was pain. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. A VAIN APPEAL + </h2> + <h3> + A week passed on the wings of magic. + </h3> + <p> + Every day at four o'clock the car was waiting at her door. The drab + interior of the school-room had lost its terror. No annoyance could break + the spell that reigned within. Her patience was inexhaustible, her temper + serene. + </p> + <p> + Walking with swift step down the Avenue to her home she wondered vaguely + how she could have been lonely in all the music and the wonder of New + York's marvelous life. The windows of the stores were already crowded with + Christmas cheer, and busy thousands passed through their doors. Each man + or woman was a swift messenger of love. Somewhere in the shadows of the + city's labyrinth a human heart would beat with quickened joy for every + step that pressed about these crowded counters. Love had given new eyes to + see, new ears to hear and a new heart to feel the joys and sorrows of + life. + </p> + <p> + She hadn't given her consent yet. She was still asking her silly heart to + be sure of herself. Of her lover, the depth and tenderness, the strength + and madness of his love, there could be no doubt. Each day he had given + new tokens. + </p> + <p> + For Saturday afternoon she had told him not to bring the car. + </p> + <p> + When they reached Fifth Avenue, across the Square, he stopped abruptly and + faced her with a curious, uneasy look: + </p> + <p> + “Say, tell me why you wanted to walk?” + </p> + <p> + “I had a good reason,” she said evasively. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, but why? It's a sin to lay that car up a day like this. Look here——” + </p> + <p> + He stopped and tried to gulp down his fears. + </p> + <p> + “Look here—you're not going to throw me down after leading me to the + very top of the roof, are you?” + </p> + <p> + She looked up with tender assurance. + </p> + <p> + “Not today——” + </p> + <p> + “Then why hoof it? Let me run round to the garage and shoot her out. You + can wait for me at the Waldorf. I've always wanted to push my buzz-wagon + up to that big joint and wait for my girl to trip down the steps.” + </p> + <p> + “No. I've a plan of my own today. Let me have my way.” + </p> + <p> + “All righto—just so you're happy.” + </p> + <p> + “I am happy,” she answered soberly. + </p> + <p> + At the foot of the broad stairs of the Library she paused and looked up + smilingly at its majestic front. + </p> + <p> + “Come in a moment,” she said softly. + </p> + <p> + He followed her wonderingly into the vaulted hall and climbed the grand + staircase to the reading-room. She walked slowly to the shelf on which the + Century Dictionary rested and looked laughingly at the seat in which she + sat Saturday afternoon a week ago at exactly this hour. + </p> + <p> + Jim smiled, leaned close and whispered: + </p> + <p> + “I got you, Kiddo—I got you! Get out of here quick or I'll grab you + and kiss you!” + </p> + <p> + She started and blushed. + </p> + <p> + “Don't you dare!” + </p> + <p> + “Beat it then—beat it—or I can't help it!” + </p> + <p> + She turned quickly and they passed through the catalogue room and lightly + down the stairs. + </p> + <p> + He held her soft, round arm with a grip that sent the blood tingling to + the roots of her brown hair. + </p> + <p> + “You understand now?” she whispered. + </p> + <p> + “You bet! We walk the same way up the Avenue, through the Park to the + little house on the laurel hill. And you're goin' to be sweet to me today, + my Kiddo—I just feel it. I——” + </p> + <p> + “Don't be too sure, sir!” she interrupted, solemnly. + </p> + <p> + He laughed aloud. + </p> + <p> + “You can't fool me now—and I'm crazy as a June bug! You know I like + to walk—if I can be with you!” + </p> + <p> + At the Park entrance she stopped again and smiled roguishly. + </p> + <p> + “We'll find a seat in one of the summer houses along the Fifty-ninth + Street side.” + </p> + <p> + “All right,” he responded. + </p> + <p> + “No—we'll go on where we started!” + </p> + <p> + With a laugh, she slipped her hand through his arm. + </p> + <p> + “You were a little scared of me last Saturday about this time, weren't + you?” + </p> + <p> + “Just a little——” + </p> + <p> + “It hurt me, too, but I didn't let you know.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm sorry.” + </p> + <p> + “It's all right now—it's all right. Gee I but we've traveled some in + a week, haven't we?” + </p> + <p> + “I've known you more than a week,” she protested gayly. + </p> + <p> + “Sure—I've known you since I was born.” + </p> + <p> + They walked through the stately rows of elms on the Mall in joyous + silence. Crowds of children and nurses, lovers and loungers, filled the + seats and thronged the broad promenade. + </p> + <p> + Scarcely a word was spoken until they reached the rustic house nestling + among the trees on the hill. + </p> + <p> + “Just a week by the calendar,” she murmured. “And I've lived a lifetime.” + </p> + <p> + “It's all right then—little girl? You'll marry me right away? When—tonight?” + </p> + <p> + “Hardly!” + </p> + <p> + “Tomorrow, then?” + </p> + <p> + She drew the glove from her hand and held the slender fingers up before + him. + </p> + <p> + “You can get the ring——” + </p> + <p> + “Gee! I do have to get a ring, don't I?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes——” + </p> + <p> + “Why didn't you tell me? You know I never got married before.” + </p> + <p> + “I should hope not!” + </p> + <p> + He seized her hand and kissed it, drew her into his arms, held her crushed + and breathless and released her with a quick, impulsive movement. + </p> + <p> + “You'll help me get it?” he asked eagerly. + </p> + <p> + “If you like.” + </p> + <p> + “A big white sparkler?” + </p> + <p> + “No—no——” + </p> + <p> + “No?” + </p> + <p> + “A plain little gold band.” + </p> + <p> + “Let me get you a big diamond!” + </p> + <p> + “No—a plain gold band.” + </p> + <p> + “It's all settled then?” + </p> + <p> + “We're engaged. You're my fiance.” + </p> + <p> + “But for God's sake, Kiddo—how long do I have to be a fiance?” + </p> + <p> + A ripple of laughter rang through the trees. + </p> + <p> + “Don't you think we've done pretty well for seven days?” + </p> + <p> + “I could have settled it in seven minutes after we met,” he answered + complainingly. “You won't tell me the day yet?” + </p> + <p> + “Not yet——” + </p> + <p> + “All right, we'll just have to take blessings as they come, then.” + </p> + <p> + Through the beautiful afternoon they sat side by side with close-pressed + hands and planned the future which love had given. A modest flat far up + among the trees on the cliffs overlooking the Hudson, they decided on. + </p> + <p> + “We'll begin with that,” he cried enthusiastically, “but we won't stay + there long. I've got big plans. I'm going to make a million. The white + house down by the sea for me, a yacht out in the front yard and a + half-dozen thundering autos in the garage. If this deal I'm on now goes + through, I'll make my pile in a year——” + </p> + <p> + They rose as the shadows lengthened. + </p> + <p> + “I must go home and feed my pets,” she sighed. + </p> + <p> + “All right,” he responded heartily. “I'll get the car and be there in a + jiffy. We'll take a spin out to a road-house for dinner.” + </p> + <p> + She lifted her eyes tenderly. + </p> + <p> + “You can come right up to my room—now that we're engaged.” + </p> + <p> + He swept her into his arms again, and held her in unresisting happiness. + </p> + <p> + It was dark when he swung the gray car against the curb and sprang out. He + didn't blow his horn for her to come down. The privilege she had granted + was too sweet and wonderful. He wouldn't miss it for the world. + </p> + <p> + The stairs were dark. Ella was late this afternoon getting back to her + work. His light footstep scarcely made a sound. He found each step with + quick, instinctive touch. The building seemed deserted. The tenants were + all on trips to the country and the seashore. The day was one of rare + beauty and warmth. Someone was fumbling in the dark on the third floor + back. + </p> + <p> + He made his way quickly to her room, and softly knocked, waited a moment + and knocked again. There was no response. He couldn't be mistaken. He had + seen her lean out of that window every day the past week. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps she was busy in the kitchenette and the noise from the street made + it impossible to hear. + </p> + <p> + He placed his hand on the doorknob. + </p> + <p> + From the darkness of the hall, in a quick, tiger leap, Ella threw herself + on him and grappled for his throat. + </p> + <p> + “What are you doing at that door, you dirty thief?” she growled. + </p> + <p> + “Here! Here! What'ell—what's the matter with you?” he gasped, + gripping her hands and tearing them from his neck. “I'm no thief!” + </p> + <p> + “You are! You are, too!” she shrieked. “I heard you sneak in the door + downstairs—heard you slippin' like a cat upstairs! Get out of here + before I call a cop!” + </p> + <p> + She was savagely pushing him back to the landing of the stairs. With a + sudden lurch, Jim freed himself and gripped her hands. + </p> + <p> + “Cut it! Cut it! Or I'll knock your block off! I've come to take my girl + to ride——” + </p> + <p> + He drew a match and quickly lighted the gas as Mary's footstep echoed on + the stairs below. + </p> + <p> + “Well, she's coming now—we'll see,” was the sullen answer. + </p> + <p> + Ella surveyed him from head to foot, her one eye gleaming in angry + suspicion. + </p> + <p> + Mary sprang up the last step and saw the two confronting each other. She + had heard the angry voices from below. + </p> + <p> + “Why, Ella, what's the matter?” she gasped. + </p> + <p> + “He was trying to break into your room——” + </p> + <p> + Jim threw up his hands in a gesture of rage, and Mary broke into a laugh. + </p> + <p> + “Why, nonsense, Ella, I asked him to come! This is Mr. Anthony,”—her + voice dropped,—“my fiance.” + </p> + <p> + Ella's figure relaxed with a look of surprise. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, ja?” she murmured, as if dazed. + </p> + <p> + “Yes—come in,” she said to Jim. “Sorry I was out. I had to run to + the grocer's for the Kitty.” + </p> + <p> + Ella glared at Jim, turned and began to light the other hall lamps without + any attempt at apology. + </p> + <p> + Jim entered the room with a look of awe, took in its impression of sweet, + homelike order and recovered quickly his composure. + </p> + <p> + “Gee, you're the dandy little housekeeper! I could stay here forever.” + </p> + <p> + “You like it?” + </p> + <p> + “It's a bird's nest.” He glanced in the mirror and saw the print of Ella's + fingers on his collar. “Will you look at that?” he growled. + </p> + <p> + “It's too bad,” she said, sympathetically. + </p> + <p> + “You know I thought a she-tiger had got loose from the Bronx and jumped on + me.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm awfully sorry,” she apologized. “Ella's very fond of me. She was + trying to protect me. She couldn't see who it was in the dark.” + </p> + <p> + “No; I reckon not,” Jim laughed. + </p> + <p> + “I've changed our plans for the evening,” she announced. “We won't go to + ride tonight. I want you to bring my best friend to dinner with us at + Mouquin's. Go after her in the car. I want to impress her——” + </p> + <p> + “I got you, Kiddo! She's goin' to look me over—eh? All right, I'll + stop at the store and get a clean collar. I wouldn't like her to see the + print of that tiger's claw on my neck.” + </p> + <p> + “There's her address the Gainsborough Studios. Drop me at Mouquin's and + I'll have the table set in one of the small rooms upstairs. I'll meet you + at the door.” + </p> + <p> + Jim glanced at the address, put it in his pocket and helped her draw on + her heavy coat. + </p> + <p> + “You'll be nice to Jane? I want her to like you. She's the only real + friend I've ever had in New York.” + </p> + <p> + “I'll do my best for you, little girl,” he promised. + </p> + <p> + He dropped her at the wooden cottage-front on Sixth Avenue near + Twenty-eighth Street, and returned in twenty minutes with Jane. + </p> + <p> + As the tall artist led the way upstairs, Jim whispered: + </p> + <p> + “Say, for God's sake, let me out of this!” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “She's a frost. If I have to sit beside her an hour I'll catch cold and + die. I swear it; save me! Save my life!” + </p> + <p> + “Sh! It's all right. She's fine and generous when you know her.” + </p> + <p> + They had reached the door and Mary pushed him in. There was no help for + it. He'd have to make the most of it. + </p> + <p> + The dinner was a dismal failure. + </p> + <p> + Jane Anderson was polite and genial, but there was a straight look of + wonder in her clear gray eyes that froze the blood in Jim's veins. + </p> + <p> + Mary tried desperately for the first half-hour to put him at his ease. It + was useless. The attack of Ella had upset his nerves, and the unexpressed + hostility of Jane had completely crushed his spirits. He tried to talk + once, stammered and lapsed into a sullen silence from which nothing could + stir him. + </p> + <p> + The two girls at last began to discuss their own affairs and the dinner + ended in a sickening failure that depressed and angered Mary. + </p> + <p> + The agony over at last, she rose and turned to Jim: + </p> + <p> + “You can go now, sir—I'll take Jane home with me for a friendly + chat.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank God!” he whispered, grinning in spite of his effort to keep a + straight face. + </p> + <p> + “Tomorrow?” he asked in low tones. + </p> + <p> + “At eight o'clock.” + </p> + <p> + Jim bowed awkwardly to Jane, muttered something inarticulate and rushed to + his car. + </p> + <p> + The two girls walked in silence through Twenty-eighth Street to Broadway + and thence across the Square. + </p> + <p> + Seated in her room, Mary could contain her pent-up rage no longer. + </p> + <p> + “Jane Anderson, I'm furious with you! How could you be so rude—so + positively insulting!” + </p> + <p> + “Insulting?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. You stared at him in cold disdain as if he were a toad under your + feet!” + </p> + <p> + “I assure you, dear——” + </p> + <p> + “Why did you do it?” + </p> + <p> + The artist rose, walked to the window, looked out on the Square for a + moment, extended her hand and laid it gently on Mary's shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “You've made up your mind to marry this man, honey?” + </p> + <p> + “I certainly have,” was the emphatic answer. + </p> + <p> + Jane paused. + </p> + <p> + “And all in seven days?” + </p> + <p> + “Seven days or seven years—what does it matter? He's my mate—we + love—it's Fate.” + </p> + <p> + “It's incredible!” + </p> + <p> + “What's incredible?” + </p> + <p> + “Such madness.” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps love is madness—the madness that makes life worth the + candle. I've never lived before the past week.” + </p> + <p> + “And you, the dainty, cultured, pious little saint, will marry this—this——” + </p> + <p> + “Say it! I want you to be frank——” + </p> + <p> + “Perfectly frank?” + </p> + <p> + “Absolutely.” + </p> + <p> + “This coarse, ugly, illiterate brute——” + </p> + <p> + “Jane Anderson, how dare you!” Mary sprang to her feet, livid with rage. + </p> + <p> + “I asked if I might be frank. Shall I lie to you? Or shall I tell you what + I think?” + </p> + <p> + “Say what you please; it doesn't matter,” Mary interrupted angrily. + </p> + <p> + “I only speak at all because I love you. Your common-sense should tell you + that I speak with reluctance. But now that I have spoken, let me beg of + you for your father's sake, for your dead mother's sake, for my sake—I'm + your one disinterested friend and you know that my love is real—for + the sake of your own soul's salvation in this world and the next—don't + marry that brute! Commit suicide if you will—jump off the bridge—take + poison, cut your throat, blow your brains out—but, oh dear God, not + this!” + </p> + <p> + “And why, may I ask?” was the cold question. + </p> + <p> + “He's in no way your equal in culture, in character, in any of the + essentials on which the companionship of marriage must be based——” + </p> + <p> + “He's a diamond in the rough,” Mary staunchly asserted. + </p> + <p> + “He's in the rough, all right! The only diamond about him is the one in + his red scarf—`Take it from me, Kiddo! Take it from me!'” + </p> + <p> + Her last sentence was a quotation from Jim, her imitation of his slang so + perfect Mary's cheeks flamed anew with anger. + </p> + <p> + “I'll teach him to use good English—never fear. In a month he'll + forget his slang and his red scarf.” + </p> + <p> + “You mean that in a month you'll forget to use good English and his style + of dress will be yours. Oh, honey, can't you see that such a man will only + drag you down, down to his level? Can it be possible that you—that + you really love him?” + </p> + <p> + “I adore him and I'm proud of his love!” + </p> + <p> + “Now listen! You believe in an indissoluble marriage, don't you?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes——” + </p> + <p> + “It's the first article of your creed—that marriage is a holy + sacrament, that no power on earth or in hell can ever dissolve its bonds? + Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, my dear! They always have—they + always will, I suppose. This is peculiarly true of your type of woman—the + dainty, clinging girl of religious enthusiasm. You're peculiarly + susceptible to the physical power of a brutal lover. Your soul glories in + submission to this force. The more coarse and brutal its attraction the + more abject and joyful the surrender. Your religion can't save you because + your religion is purely emotional—it is only another manifestation + of your sex emotions.” + </p> + <p> + “How can you be so sacrilegious!” the girl interrupted with a look of + horror. + </p> + <p> + “It may shock you, dear, but I'm telling you one of the simplest truths of + Nature. You'd as well know it now as later. The moment you wake to realize + that your emotions have been deceived and bankrupted, your faith will + collapse. At least keep, your grip on common-sense. Down in the cowardly + soul of every weak woman—perhaps of every woman—is the insane + desire to be dominated by a superior brute force. The woman of the lower + classes—the peasant of Russia, for example, whose sex impulses are + of all races the most violent—refuses with scorn the advances of the + man who will not strike her. The man who can't beat his wife is beneath + contempt—he is no man at all——” + </p> + <p> + Mary broke into a laugh. + </p> + <p> + “Really, Jane, you cease to be serious you're a joke. For Heaven's sake + use a little common-sense yourself. You can't be warning me that my lover + is marrying me in order to use his fists on me?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps not, dear,”—the artist smiled; “there might be greater + depths for one of your training and character. I'm just telling you the + plain truth about the haste with which you're rushing into this marriage. + There's nothing divine in it. There's no true romance of lofty sentiment. + It's the simplest and most elemental of all the brutal facts of animal + life. That it is resistless in a woman of your culture and refinement + makes it all the more pathetic——” + </p> + <p> + The girl rose with a gesture of impatience. + </p> + <p> + “It's no use, Jane dear; we speak a different language. I don't in the + least know what you're talking about, and what's more, I'm glad I don't. + I've a vague idea that your drift is indecent. But we're different. I + realize that. I don't sit in judgment on you. You're wasting your breath + on me. I'm going into this marriage with my eyes wide open. It's the + fulfillment of my brightest hopes and aspirations. That I shall be happy + with this man and make him supremely happy I know by an intuition deeper + and truer than reason. I'm going to trust that intuition without + reservation.” + </p> + <p> + “All right, honey,” the artist agreed with a smile. “I won't say anything + more, except that you're fooling yourself about the depth of this + intuitive knowledge. Your infatuation is not based on the verdict of your + deepest and truest instincts.” + </p> + <p> + “On what, then?” + </p> + <p> + “The crazy ideals of the novels you've been reading—that's all.” + </p> + <p> + “Ridiculous!” + </p> + <p> + “You're absolutely sure, for instance, that God made just one man the mate + of one woman, aren't you?” + </p> + <p> + “As sure as that I live.” + </p> + <p> + “Where did you learn it?” + </p> + <p> + “So long ago I can't remember.” + </p> + <p> + “Not in your Bible?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “The Sunday school?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “Craddock didn't tell you that, did he?” + </p> + <p> + “Hardly——” + </p> + <p> + “I thought not. He has too much horse-sense in spite of his emotional + gymnastics. You learned it in the first dime-novel you read.” + </p> + <p> + “I never read a dime-novel in my life,” she interrupted, indignantly. + </p> + <p> + “I know—you paid a dollar and a quarter for it—but it was a + dime-novel. The philosophy of this school of trash you have built into a + creed of life. How can you be so blind? How can you make so tragic a + blunder?” + </p> + <p> + “That's just it, Jane: I couldn't if your impressions of his character + were true. I couldn't make a mistake about so vital a question. I couldn't + love him if he really were a coarse, illiterate brute. What you see is + only on the surface. He hasn't had his chance yet——” + </p> + <p> + “Who is he? What does he do? Who are his people?” + </p> + <p> + “He has no people——” + </p> + <p> + “I thought not.” + </p> + <p> + “I love him all the more deeply,” she went on firmly, “because of his + miserable childhood. I'll do my best to make up for the years of cruelty + and hunger and suffering through which he passed. What right have you to + sit in judgment on him without a hearing? You've known him two hours——” + </p> + <p> + Jane shrugged her shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “Two minutes was quite enough.” + </p> + <p> + “And you judge by what standard?” + </p> + <p> + “My five senses, and my sixth sense above all. One look at his square + bulldog jaw, his massive neck and the deformity of his delicate hands and + feet! I hear the ignorant patois of the East Side underworld. I smell the + brimstone in his suppressed rage at my dislike. There's something uncanny + in the sensuous droop of his heavy eyelids and the glitter of his + steel-blue eyes. There's something incongruous in his whole personality. I + was afraid of him the moment I saw him.” + </p> + <p> + Mary broke into hysterical laughter. + </p> + <p> + “And if my five senses and my intuitions contradict yours? Who is to + decide? If I loved him on sight——If I looked into his eyes and + saw the soul of my mate? If their cold fires thrill me with inexpressible + passion? If I see in his massive neck and jaw the strength of an + irresistible manhood, the power to win success and to command the world? + If I see in his slender hands and small feet lines of exquisite beauty—am + I to crush my senses and strangle my love to please your idiotic + prejudice?” + </p> + <p> + Jane threw up her hands in despair. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly not! If you're blind and deaf I can't keep you from committing + suicide. I'd lock you up in an asylum for the insane if I had the power to + save you from the clutches of the brute.” + </p> + <p> + Mary drew herself erect and faced her friend. + </p> + <p> + “Please don't repeat that word in my hearing—there's a limit to + friendship. I think you'd better go——” + </p> + <p> + Jane rose and walked quickly to the door, her lips pressed firmly. + </p> + <p> + “As you like—our lives will be far apart from tonight. It's just as + well.” + </p> + <p> + She closed the door with a bang and reached the head of the stairs before + Mary threw her arms around her neck. + </p> + <p> + “Please, dear, forgive me—don't go in anger.” + </p> + <p> + The older woman kissed her tenderly, glad of the dim light to hide her own + tears. + </p> + <p> + “There, it's all right, honey—I won't remember it. Forgive me for my + ugly words.” + </p> + <p> + “I love him, Jane—I love him! It's Fate. Can't you understand?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, dear, I understand, and I'll love you always—good-by.” + </p> + <p> + “You'll come to my wedding?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps——” + </p> + <p> + “I'll let you know——” + </p> + <p> + Another kiss, and Jane Anderson strode down the stairs and out into the + night with a sickening, helpless fear in her heart. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. JIM'S TRIAL + </h2> + <p> + The quarrel had left Mary in a quiver of exalted rage. How dare a friend + trample her most sacred feelings! She pitied Jane Anderson and her tribe—these + modern feminine leaders of a senseless revolution against man—they + were crazy. They had all been disappointed in some individual and for that + reason set themselves up as the judges of mankind. + </p> + <p> + “Thank God my soul has not been poisoned!” she exclaimed aloud with + fervor. “How strange that these women who claim such clear vision can be + so stupidly blind!” + </p> + <p> + She busied herself with her little household, and made up her mind once + and for all time to be done with such friendships. The friendship of such + women was a vain thing. They were vicious cats at heart—not like her + gentle Persian kitten whose soul was full of sleepy sunlight. These modern + insurgents were wild, half-starved stray cats that had been hounded and + beaten until they had lapsed into their elemental brute instincts. They + were so aggravating, too, they deserved no sympathy. + </p> + <p> + Again she thanked God that she was not one of them—that her heart + was still capable of romantic love—a love so sudden and so + overwhelming that it could sweep life before it in one mad rush to its + glorious end. + </p> + <p> + She woke next morning with a dull sense of depression. The room was damp + and chilly. It was storming. The splash of rain against the window and the + muffled roar from the street below meant that the wind was high and the + day would be a wretched one outside. + </p> + <p> + They couldn't take their ride. + </p> + <p> + It was a double disappointment. She had meant to have him dash down to + Long Beach and place the ring on her finger seated on that same bright + sand-dune overlooking the sea. Instead, they must stay indoors. Jim was + not at his best indoors. She loved him behind the wheel with his hand on + the pulse of that racer. The machine seemed a part of his being. He + breathed his spirit into its steel heart, and together they swept her on + and on over billowy clouds through the gates of Heaven. + </p> + <p> + There was no help for it. They would spend the time together in her room + planning the future. It would be sweet—these intimate hours in her + home with the man she loved. + </p> + <p> + Should she spend a whole day alone there with him? Was it just proper? Was + it really safe? Nonsense! The vile thoughts which Jane had uttered had + poisoned her, after all. She hated her self that she could remember them. + And yet they filled her heart with dread in spite of every effort to laugh + them off. + </p> + <p> + “How could Jane Anderson dare say such things?” she muttered angrily. “`A + coarse, illiterate brute!' It's a lie! a lie! a lie!” She stamped her foot + in rage. “He's strong and brave and masterful—a man among men—he's + my mate and I love him!” + </p> + <p> + And yet the frankness with which her friend had spoken had in reality + disturbed her beyond measure. Through every hour of the day her uneasiness + increased. After all she was utterly alone and her life had been pitifully + narrow. Her knowledge of men she had drawn almost exclusively from + romantic fiction. + </p> + <p> + It was just a little strange that Jim persisted in living so completely in + the present and the future. He had told her of his pitiful childhood. He + had told her of his business. It had been definite—the simple + statement he made—and she accepted it without question until Jane + Anderson had dropped these ugly suspicions. She hated the meddler for it. + </p> + <p> + In the light of such suspicions the simplest, bravest man might seem a + criminal. How could her friend be blind to the magnetism of this man's + powerful personality? Bah! She was jealous of their perfect happiness. Why + are women so contemptible? + </p> + <p> + She began a careful study of every trait of her lover's character, + determined to weigh him by the truest standards of manhood. Certainly he + was no weakling. The one abomination of her soul was the type of the city + degenerate she saw simpering along Broadway and Fifth Avenue at times. Jim + was brave to the point of rashness. No man with an ounce of cowardice in + his being could handle a car in every crisis with such cool daring and + perfect control. He was strong. He could lift her body as if it were a + feather. His arms crushed her with terrible force. He could earn a living + for them both. There could be no doubt about that. His faultless clothes, + the ease with which he commanded unlimited credit among the automobile + manufacturers and dealers—every supply store on Broadway seemed to + know him—left no doubt on that score. + </p> + <p> + There was just a bit of mystery and reserve about his career as an + inventor. His first success that had given him a start he had not + explained. The big deal about the new carburetor she could, of course, + understand. He had a workshop all his own. He had told her this the first + day they met. She would ask him to take her to see it this afternoon. The + storm would prevent the trip to the Beach. She would ask this, not because + she doubted his honesty, but because she really wished to see the place in + which he worked. It was her workshop now, as well as his. + </p> + <p> + For a moment her suspicions were sickening. Suppose he had romanced about + his workshop and his room? Supposed he lived somewhere in the squalid + slums of the lower East Side and his people, after all, were alive? + Perhaps a drunken father and a coarse, brutal mother—and sisters—— + </p> + <p> + She stopped with a frown and clenched her fists. + </p> + <p> + She would ask Jim to show her his workshop. That would be enough. If he + had told her the truth about that she would make up to him in tender + abandonment of utter trust for every suspicion she harbored. + </p> + <p> + The car was standing in front of her door. He waved for her to come down. + </p> + <p> + “Jump right in!” he called gayly. “I've got an extra rubber blanket for + you.” + </p> + <p> + “In the storm, Jim?” she faltered. + </p> + <p> + “Surest thing you know. It's great to fly through a storm. You can just + ride on its wings. Throw on your raincoat and come on quick! I'm going to + run down to the Beach. Who's afraid of an old storm with this thing under + us?” + </p> + <p> + Her heart gave a bound. Her longing had reached her lover and brought him + through the storm to do her bidding. It was wonderful—this oneness + of soul and body. + </p> + <p> + She was happy again—supremely, divinely happy. The man by her side + knew and understood. She knew and understood. She loved this daring spirit + that rose to the wind—this iron will that brooked no interference + with his plans, even from Nature, when it crossed his love. + </p> + <p> + The sting of the raindrops against her cheek was exhilarating. The car + glided over the swimming roadway like a great gray gull skimming the beach + at low tide. Her soul rose. The sun of a perfect faith and love was + shining now behind the clouds. + </p> + <p> + She nestled close to his side and watched him tenderly from the corners of + her half-closed eyes, her whole being content in his strength. The idea of + dashing through a blinding rain to the Beach on such a day would have been + to her mind an unthinkable piece of madness. She was proud of his daring. + It would be hers to shield from the storms of life. She loved the rugged + lines of his massive jaw in profile. How could Jane be such a fool as to + call him ugly! + </p> + <p> + The weather, of course, prevented them from walking up the Beach to their + sand-dune. The walk would have been all right—but it was out of the + question to sit down there and give her the ring in the pouring rain. She + knew this as well as he. She knew, too, that he had the ring in his + pocket, though he had carefully refrained from referring to it in any way. + </p> + <p> + He led her to a secluded nook behind a pillar in the little parlor. The + hotel was deserted. They had the building almost to themselves. A log fire + crackled in the open fireplace, and he drew a settee close. The wind had + moderated and the rain was pouring down in straight streams, rolling in + soft music on the roof. + </p> + <p> + He drew the ring from his pocket. “Well, Kiddo, I got it. The fellow said + this was all right.” + </p> + <p> + He held the tiny gold band before her shining eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Slip it on!” she whispered. + </p> + <p> + “Which one?” + </p> + <p> + “This one, silly!” + </p> + <p> + She extended her third finger, as he pressed the ring slowly on. + </p> + <p> + “Seems to me a mighty little one and a mighty cheap one, but he said it + was the thing.” + </p> + <p> + “It's all right, dear,” she whispered. “Kiss me!” + </p> + <p> + He pressed his lips to hers and held them until she sank back and lifted + her hand in warning. + </p> + <p> + “Be careful!” + </p> + <p> + “Whose afraid?” Jim muttered, glancing over his shoulder toward the door. + “Now tell me what day—tomorrow?” + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense, man!” she cried. “Give me time to breathe——” + </p> + <p> + “What for?” + </p> + <p> + “Just to realize that I'm engaged—to plan and think and dream of the + wonderful day.” + </p> + <p> + “We're losing time——” + </p> + <p> + “We'll never live these wonderful hours over again, dear.” + </p> + <p> + Jim's face fell and his voice was pitiful in its funereal notes: “Lord, I + thought the ring settled it.” + </p> + <p> + “And so it does, dear—it does——-” + </p> + <p> + “Not if that long-legged spider that took dinner with us the other night + gets in her fine work. I'll bet that she handed me a few when you got + home?” + </p> + <p> + Mary was silent. + </p> + <p> + “Now didn't she?” + </p> + <p> + “To the best of her ability—yes—but I didn't mind her silly + talk.” + </p> + <p> + “Gee, but I'd love to give her a bouquet of poison ivy!” + </p> + <p> + “We had an awful quarrel——” + </p> + <p> + “And you stood up for me?” + </p> + <p> + “You know I did!” + </p> + <p> + “All right, I don't give a tinker's damn what anybody says if you stand by + me! In all this world there's just you—for me. There's never been + anybody else—and there never will be. I'm that kind.” + </p> + <p> + “And I love you for it!” she cried, with rapture pressing his hand in both + of hers. + </p> + <p> + “What did she say about me, anyhow?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing worth repeating. I've forgotten it.” + </p> + <p> + Jim held her gaze. + </p> + <p> + “It's funny how you love anybody the minute you lay eyes on 'em—or + hate 'em the same way. I wanted to choke her the minute she opened her yap + to me.” + </p> + <p> + “Forget it, dear,” she broke in briskly. “I want you to take me to see + your workshop tomorrow—will you?” + </p> + <p> + A flash of suspicion shot from the depths of his eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Did she tell you to ask me that?” + </p> + <p> + “Of course not! I'm just interested in everything you do. I want to see + where you work.” + </p> + <p> + “It's no place for a sweet girl to go—that part of town.” + </p> + <p> + “But I'll be with you.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't want you to go down there,” he sullenly maintained. + </p> + <p> + “But why, dear?” + </p> + <p> + “It's a low, dirty place. I had to locate the shop there to get the room I + needed for the rent I could pay. It's not fit for you. I'm going to move + uptown in a little while.” + </p> + <p> + “Please let me go,” she pleaded. + </p> + <p> + He shook his head emphatically. + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + She turned away to hide the tears. The first real, hideous fear she had + ever had about him caught her heart in spite of every effort to fight it + down. His workshop might be a myth after all. He had failed in the first + test to which she had put him. It was horrible. All the vile suggestions + of Jane Anderson rushed now into her memory. + </p> + <p> + She struggled bravely to keep her head and not break down. It was beyond + her strength. A sob strangled her, and she buried her face in her hands. + </p> + <p> + Jim looked at her in helpless anguish for a moment, started to gather her + in his arms and looked around the room in terror. + </p> + <p> + He leaned over her and whispered tensely: + </p> + <p> + “For God's sake, Kiddo—don't—don't do that! I didn't mean to + hurt you—honest, I didn't. Don't cry any more and I'll take you + right down to the black hole, and let you sleep on the floor if you want + to. Gee! I'll give you the whole place, tools, junk and all——” + </p> + <p> + She lifted her head. + </p> + <p> + “Will you, Jim?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure I will! We start this minute if you want to go.” + </p> + <p> + She glanced over his shoulder to see that no one was looking, threw her + arms around his neck and kissed him again and again. + </p> + <p> + “It was the first time you ever said no, dear, and it hurt. I'm happy + again now. If you'll just let me see you in the shop for five minutes I'll + never ask you again.” + </p> + <p> + “All right—tomorrow when you get out of school. I'll take you down. + Holy Mike, that was a dandy kiss! Let's quarrel again—start + something else.” + </p> + <p> + She rose laughing and brushed the last trace of tears from her eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Let's eat dinner now—I'm hungry.” + </p> + <p> + “By George, I'd forgot all about the feed!” + </p> + <p> + By eight o'clock the storm had abated; the rain suddenly stopped, and the + moon peeped through the clouds. + </p> + <p> + He drove the big racer back at a steady, even stride on her lowest notch + of speed—half the time with only his right hand on the wheel and his + left gripping hers. + </p> + <p> + As the lights of Manhattan flashed from the hills beyond the Queensborough + Bridge, he leaned close and whispered: + </p> + <p> + “Happy?” + </p> + <p> + “Perfectly.” + </p> + <p> + The car was waiting the next day at half-past three. + </p> + <p> + “It's not far,” he said, nodding carelessly. “You needn't put on the coat. + Be there in a jiffy.” + </p> + <p> + Down Twenty-third Street to Avenue A, down the avenue to Eighteenth + Street, and then he suddenly swung the machine through Eighteenth into + Avenue B and stopped below a low, red brick building on the corner. + </p> + <p> + He set his brakes with a crash, leaped out and extended his hands. + </p> + <p> + “I didn't like to take you up these stairs at the back of that saloon, + little girl, but you would come. Now don't blame me——” + </p> + <p> + She pressed his arm tenderly. + </p> + <p> + “Of course I won't blame you. I'm proud and happy to share your life and + help you. I'm surprised to see everything so quiet down here. I thought + all the East Side was packed with crowded tenements.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” he answered, in a matter-of-fact way. “About the only excitement we + have in this quarter is an occasional gas explosion in the plant over + there, and the noise of the second-hand material men unloading iron. The + tenements haven't been built here yet.” + </p> + <p> + He led her quickly past the back door of the saloon and up two narrow + flights of stairs to the top of the building, drew from his pocket the key + to a heavy padlock and slipped the crooked bolt from the double staples. + He unlocked the door with a second key and pushed his way in. + </p> + <p> + “All righto,” he cried. + </p> + <p> + The straight, narrow hall inside was dark. He fumbled in his pocket and + lit the gas. + </p> + <p> + “The workshop first, or my sleeping den?” + </p> + <p> + “The workshop first!” she whispered excitedly. + </p> + <p> + She had made the reality of this shop the supreme test of Jim's word and + character. She was in a fever of expectant uncertainty as to its equipment + and practical use. + </p> + <p> + He unlocked the door leading to the front. + </p> + <p> + “That's my den—we'll come back here.” + </p> + <p> + He passed quickly to the further end of the hall and again used two keys + to open the door, and held it back for her to enter. + </p> + <p> + “I'm sorry it's so dirty—if you get your pretty dress all ruined—it's + not my fault, you know.” + </p> + <p> + Mary surveyed the room with an exclamation of delight. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, what a wonderful place! Why, Jim, you're a magician!” + </p> + <p> + There could be no doubt about the practical use to which the shop was + being put. Its one small window opened on a fire escape in the narrow + court in the rear. A skylight in the middle opened with a hinge on the + roof and flooded the space with perfect light. An iron ladder swung from + the skylight and was hooked up against the ceiling by a hasp fastened to a + staple over a work-bench. On one side of the room was a tiny blacksmith's + forge, an anvil, hammers and a complete set of tools for working in rough + iron. A small gasoline engine supplied the power which turned his lathe + and worked the drills, saw and plane. On the other side of the room was + arranged a fairly complete chemical laboratory with several retorts, and + an oxyhydrogen blow-pipe capable of developing the powerful heat used in + the melting and brazing of metals. Beneath the benches were piled + automobile supplies of every kind. + </p> + <p> + “You know how to use all these machines, Jim?” she asked in wonder. + </p> + <p> + “Sure, and then some!” he answered with a wave of his slender hand. + </p> + <p> + “You're a wizard——” + </p> + <p> + “Now the den?” he said briskly. + </p> + <p> + She followed him through the hall and into the large front corner room + overlooking Avenue B and Eighteenth Street. The morning sun flooded the + front and the afternoon sun poured into the side windows. The furniture + was solid mahogany—a bed, bureau, chiffonier, couch and three + chairs. The windows were fitted with wood-paneled shutters, shades and + heavy draperies. A thick, soft carpet of faded red covered the floor. + </p> + <p> + “It's a nice room, Jim, but I'd like to dust it for you,” she said with a + smile. + </p> + <p> + “Sure. I'm for giving you the right to dust it every morning, Kiddo, + beginning now. Let's find a preacher tonight!” + </p> + <p> + She blushed and moved a step toward the door. + </p> + <p> + “Just a little while. You know it's been only ten days since we met——” + </p> + <p> + “But we've lived some in that time, haven't we?” + </p> + <p> + “An eternity, I think,” she said reverently. + </p> + <p> + “I want to marry right now, girlie!” he pleaded desperately. “If that + spider gets you in her den again, I just feel like it's good night for + me.” + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense. You can't believe me such a silly child. I'm a woman. I love + you. Do you think the foolish prejudice of a friend could destroy my love + for the man whom I have chosen for my mate?” + </p> + <p> + “No, but I want it fixed and then it's fixed—and they can say what + they please. Marry me tonight! You've got the ring. You're going to in a + little while, anyhow. What's the use to wait and lose these days out of + our life? What's the sense of it? Don't you know me by this time? Don't + you trust me by this time?” + </p> + <p> + She slipped her hand gently into his. + </p> + <p> + “I trust you utterly. And I feel that I've known you since the day I was + born——” + </p> + <p> + “Then why—why wait a minute?” + </p> + <p> + “You can't understand a girl's feelings, dear—only a little while + and it's all right.” + </p> + <p> + He sat down on the couch in silence, rose and walked to the window. She + watched him struggling with deep emotion. + </p> + <p> + He turned suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “Look here, Kiddo, I've got to leave on that trip to the mountains of + North Carolina. I've got to get down there before Christmas. I must be + back here by the first of the year. Gee—I can't go without you! You + don't want to stay here without me, do you?” + </p> + <p> + A sudden pallor overspread her face. For the first time she realized how + their lives had become one in the sweet intimacy of the past ten days. + </p> + <p> + “You must go now?” she gasped. + </p> + <p> + “Yes. I've made my arrangements. I've business back here the first of the + year that can't wait. Marry me and go with me. We'll take our honeymoon + down there. By George, we'll go together in the car! Every day by each + other's side over hundreds and hundreds of miles! Say, ain't you game? + Come on! It's a crime to send me away without you. How can you do it?” + </p> + <p> + “I can't—I'm afraid,” she faltered. + </p> + <p> + “You'll marry me, then?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes!” she whispered. “What is the latest day you can start?” + </p> + <p> + “Next Saturday, if we go in the car——” + </p> + <p> + “All right,”—she was looking straight into the depths of his soul + now—“next Saturday.” + </p> + <p> + He clasped her in his arms and held her with desperate tenderness. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. ELLA'S SECRET + </h2> + <p> + The consummation of her life's dream was too near, too sweet and wonderful + for Jane's croakings to distress Mary Adams beyond the moment. She had, of + course, wished her friend to be present at the wedding—yet the curt + refusal had only aroused anew her pity at stupid prejudices. It was out of + the question to ask her father to leave his work in the Kentucky mountains + and come all the way to New York. She would surprise him with the + announcement. After all, she was the one human being vitally concerned in + this affair, and the only one save the man whose life would be joined to + hers. + </p> + <p> + In five minutes after the painful scene with Jane she had completely + regained her composure, and her face was radiant with happiness when she + waved to Jim. He was standing before the door in the car, waiting to take + her to the City Hall to get the marriage license. + </p> + <p> + “Gee!” he cried, “you're the prettiest, sweetest thing that ever walked + this earth, with those cheeks all flaming like a rose! Are you happy?” + </p> + <p> + “Gloriously.” + </p> + <p> + She motioned him to keep his seat and sprang lightly to his side. + </p> + <p> + “Aren't you happy, sir?” she added gayly. + </p> + <p> + “I am, yes—but to tell you the truth, I'm beginning to get scared. + You know what to do, don't you, when we get before that preacher?” + </p> + <p> + “Of course, silly——” + </p> + <p> + “I never saw a wedding in my life.” + </p> + <p> + She pressed his hand tenderly. + </p> + <p> + “Honestly, Jim?” + </p> + <p> + “I swear it. You'll have to tell me how to behave.” + </p> + <p> + “We'll rehearse it all tonight. I'll show you. I've seen hundreds of + people married. My father's a preacher, you know.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I know that,” he went on solemnly; “that's what gives me courage. I + knew you'd understand everything. I'm counting on you, Kiddo—if you + fall down, we're gone. I'll run like a turkey.” + </p> + <p> + “It's easy,” she laughed. + </p> + <p> + “And this license business—how do we go about that? What'll they do + to us?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing, goose! We just march up to the clerk and demand the license. He + asks us a lot of questions——” + </p> + <p> + “Questions! What sort of questions?” + </p> + <p> + “The names of your father and mother—whether you've been married + before and where you live and how old you are——” + </p> + <p> + “Ask you about your business?” he interrupted, sharply. + </p> + <p> + “No. They think if you can pay the license fee you can support your wife, + I suppose.” + </p> + <p> + “How much is it?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't know, here. It used to be two dollars in Kentucky.” + </p> + <p> + “That's cheap—must come higher in this burg. I brought along a + hundred.” + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense.” + </p> + <p> + “There's a lot of graft in this town. I'll be ready. I've got to get 'em—don't + care how high they come.” + </p> + <p> + “There'll be no graft in this, Jim,” she protested gayly. + </p> + <p> + “Well, it'll be the first time I ever got by without it—believe me!” + </p> + <p> + The ease with which the license was obtained was more than Jim could + understand. All the way back from the City Hall he expected to be held up + at every corner. He kept looking over his shoulder to see if they were + being followed. + </p> + <p> + Arrived in her room, they discussed their plans for the day of days. + </p> + <p> + “I'll come round soon in the morning, and we'll spend the whole day at the + Beach,” he suggested. + </p> + <p> + She lifted her hands in protest. + </p> + <p> + “No—no!” + </p> + <p> + “No?” + </p> + <p> + “Not on our wedding-day, Jim!” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “It's not good form. The groom should not see the bride that day until + they meet at the altar.” + </p> + <p> + “Let's change it!” + </p> + <p> + “No, sir, the old way's the best. I'll spend the day in saying good-by to + the past. You'll call for me at six o'clock. We'll go to Dr. Craddock's + house and be married in time for our wedding dinner.” + </p> + <p> + The lover smiled, and his drooping eyelids fell still lower as he watched + her intently. + </p> + <p> + “I want that dinner here in this little place, Kiddo——” + </p> + <p> + She blushed and protested. + </p> + <p> + “I thought we'd go to the Beach and spend the night there.” + </p> + <p> + “Here, girlie, here! I love this little place—it's so like you. Get + the old wild-cat who cleans up for you to fix us a dinner here all by + ourselves—wouldn't she?” + </p> + <p> + “She'd do anything for me—yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Then fix it here—I want to be just with you—don't you + understand?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she whispered. “But I'd rather spend that first day of our new life + in a strange place—and the Beach we both love—hadn't you just + as leave go there, Jim?” + </p> + <p> + “No. The waiters will stare at us, and hear us talk——” + </p> + <p> + “We can have our meals served in our room. + </p> + <p> + “This is better,” he insisted. “I want to spend one day here alone with + you, before we go—just to feel that you're all mine. You see, if I + walk in here and own the place, I'll know that better than any other way. + I've just set my heart on it, Kiddo—what's the difference?” + </p> + <p> + She lifted her lips to his. + </p> + <p> + “All right, dear. It shall be as you wish. Tomorrow I will be all yours—in + life, in death, in eternity. Your happiness will be the one thing for + which I shall plan and work.” + </p> + <p> + Ella was very happy in the honor conferred on her. She was given entire + charge of the place, and spent the day in feverish preparation for the + dinner. She insisted on borrowing a larger table from the little fat woman + next door, to hold the extra dishes. She dressed herself in her best. Her + raven black hair was pressed smooth and shining down the sides of her pale + temples. + </p> + <p> + The work was completed by three o'clock in the afternoon, and Mary lay in + her window lazily watching the crowds scurrying home. The offices closed + early on Saturday afternoons. + </p> + <p> + Ella was puttering about the room, adding little touches here and there in + a pretense of still being busy. As a matter of fact, she was watching the + girl from her one eye with a wistful tenderness she had not dared as yet + to express in words. Twice Mary had turned suddenly and seen her thus. + Each time Ella had started as if caught in some act of mischief and asked + an irrelevant question to relieve her embarrassment. + </p> + <p> + Mary could feel her single eye fixed on her now in a deep, brooding look. + It made her uncomfortable. + </p> + <p> + She turned slowly and spoke in gentle tones. + </p> + <p> + “You've been so sweet to me today, Ella—father and mother and best + friend. I'll never forget your kindness. You'd better rest awhile now + until we go to Dr. Craddock's. I want you to be there, too——” + </p> + <p> + “To see the marriage—ja?” she asked softly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no, my dear, no—I stay here and wait for you to come. I keep + the lights burning bright. I welcome the bride and groom to their little + home—ja.” + </p> + <p> + A quick glance of suspicion shot from Mary's blue eyes. Could it be + possible that this forlorn scrubwoman would carry her hostility to her + lover to the same point of ungracious refusal to witness the ceremony? It + was nonsense, of course. Ella would feel out of place in the minister's + parlor, that was all. She wouldn't insist. + </p> + <p> + “All right, Ella; you can receive us here with ceremony. You'll be our + maid, butler, my father, my mother and my friends!” + </p> + <p> + There was a moment's silence and still no move on Ella's part to go. The + girl felt her single eye again fixed on her in mysterious, wistful gaze. + She would send her away if it were possible without hurting her feelings. + </p> + <p> + Mary lifted her eyes suddenly, and Ella stirred awkwardly and smiled. + </p> + <p> + “I hope you are very happy, meine liebe—ja?” + </p> + <p> + “I couldn't be happier if I were in Heaven,” was the quick answer. + </p> + <p> + “I'm so glad——” + </p> + <p> + Again an awkward pause. + </p> + <p> + “I was once young and pretty like you, meine liebe,” she began dreamily, “—slim + and straight and jolly—always laughing.” + </p> + <p> + Mary held her breath in eager expectancy. Ella was going to lift the veil + from the mystery of her life, stirred by memories which the coming wedding + had evoked. + </p> + <p> + “And you had a thrilling romance—Ella? I always felt it.” + </p> + <p> + Again silence, and then in low tones the woman told her story. + </p> + <p> + “Ja—a romance, too. I was so young and foolish—just a baby + myself—not sixteen. But I was full of life and fun, and I had a way + of doing what I pleased. + </p> + <p> + “The man was older than me—Oh, a lot older—with gray hairs on + the side of his head. I was wild about him. I never took to kids. They + didn't seem to like me——” + </p> + <p> + She paused as if hesitating to give her full confidence, and quickly went + on: + </p> + <p> + “My folks were German. They couldn't speak English. I learned when I was + five years old. They didn't like my lover. We quarrel day and night. I say + they didn't like him because they could not speak his language. They say + he was bad. I fight for him, and run away and marry him——” + </p> + <p> + Again she paused and drew a deep breath. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, I was one happy little fool that year! He make good wages on the + docks—a stevedore. They had a strike, and he got to drinking. The + baby came——” + </p> + <p> + She stopped suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “You had a little baby, Ella?” the girl asked in a tender whisper. + </p> + <p> + “Ja—ja,” she sobbed—“so sweet, so good—so quiet—so + beautiful she was. I was very happy—like a little girl with a doll—only + she laugh and cry and coo and pull my hair! He stop the drink a little + while when she come, and he got work. And then he begin worse and worse. + It seem like he never loved me any more after the baby. He curse me, he + quarrel. He begin to strike me sometimes. I laugh and cry at first and + make up and try again——” + </p> + <p> + Again she paused as if for courage to go on, and choked into silence. + </p> + <p> + “Yes—and then?” the girl asked. + </p> + <p> + “And then he come home one night wild drunk. He stumble and fall across + the cradle and hurt my baby so she never cry—just lie still and + tremble—her eyes wide open at first and then they droop and close + and she die! + </p> + <p> + “He laugh and curse and strike me, and I fight him like a tiger. He was + strong—he throw me down on the floor and gouge my eye out with his + big claw——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my God,” Mary sobbed. + </p> + <p> + Ella sprang to her feet and bent over the girl with trembling eagerness. + </p> + <p> + “You keep my secret, meine liebe?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—yes——” + </p> + <p> + “I never tell a soul on earth what I tell you now—I just eat my + heart out and keep still all the years, I can tell you—ja?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I'll keep it sacred—go on——” + </p> + <p> + “When I know he gouge my eye out, I go wild. I get my hand on his throat + and choke him still. I drag him to the stairs and throw him head first all + the way down to the bottom. He fall in a heap and lie still. I run down + and drag him to the door. I kick his face and he never move. He was dead. + I kick him again—and again. And then I laugh—I laugh—I + laugh in his dead face—I was so glad I kill him!” + </p> + <p> + She sank in a paroxysm of sobs on the floor, and the girl touched her + smooth black hair tenderly, strangled with her own emotions. + </p> + <p> + Ella rose at last and brushed the tears from her hollow cheeks. + </p> + <p> + “Now, you know, meine liebe! Why I tell you this today, I don't know—maybe + I must! I dream once like you dream today——” + </p> + <p> + The girl slipped her arms around the drooping, pathetic figure and stroked + it tenderly. + </p> + <p> + “The sunshine is for some, maybe,” Ella went on pathetically; “for some + the clouds and the storms. I hope you are very, very happy today and all + the days——” + </p> + <p> + “I will be, Ella, I'm sure. I'll always love you after this.” + </p> + <p> + “Maybe I make you sad because I tell you——” + </p> + <p> + “No—no! I'm glad you told me. The knowledge of your sorrow will make + my life the sweeter. I shall be more humble in my joy.” + </p> + <p> + It never occurred to the girl for a moment that this lonely, broken woman + had torn her soul's deepest secret open in a last pathetic effort to warn + her of the danger of her marriage. The wistful, helpless look in her eye + meant to Mary only the anguish of memories. Each human heart persists in + learning the big lessons of life at first hand. We refuse to learn any + other way. The tragedies of others interest us as fiction. We make the + application to others—never to ourselves. + </p> + <p> + Jim's familiar footstep echoed through the hall, and Mary sprang to the + door with a cry of joy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. THE WEDDING + </h2> + <p> + Ella hurried into the kitchenette and busied herself with dinner. Jim's + unexpectedly early arrival broke the spell of the tragedy to which Mary + had listened with breathless sympathy. Her own future she faced without a + shadow of doubt or fear. + </p> + <p> + Her reproaches to Jim were entirely perfunctory, on the sin of his early + call on their wedding-day. + </p> + <p> + “Naughty boy!” she cried with mock severity. “At this unseemly hour!” + </p> + <p> + He glanced about the room nervously. + </p> + <p> + “Anybody in there?” + </p> + <p> + He nodded toward the kitchenette. + </p> + <p> + “Only Ella——” + </p> + <p> + “Send her away.” + </p> + <p> + “What's the matter?” + </p> + <p> + “Quick, Kiddo—quick!” + </p> + <p> + Mary let Ella out from the little private hall without her seeing Jim, and + returned. + </p> + <p> + “For heaven's sake, man, what ails you?” she asked excitedly. + </p> + <p> + “Say—I forgot that thing already. We got to go over it again. What + if I miss it?” + </p> + <p> + “The ceremony?” + </p> + <p> + “Yep——” + </p> + <p> + He mopped his brow and looked at his watch. + </p> + <p> + “By the time we get to that preacher's house, I won't know my first name + if you don't help me.” + </p> + <p> + Mary laughed softly and kissed him. + </p> + <p> + “You can't miss it. All you've got to do is say, `I will' when he asks you + the question, put the ring on my finger when he tells you, and repeat the + words after him—he and I will do the rest.” + </p> + <p> + “Say my question over again.” + </p> + <p> + “`Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after + God's ordinance, in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, + comfort her, honor, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking + all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?'” + </p> + <p> + She looked at him and laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Why don't you answer?” + </p> + <p> + “Now?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—that's the end of the question. Say, `I will.'” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I will all right! What scares me is that I'll jump in on him and say + `I will' before he gets halfway through. Seems to me when he says, `Wilt + thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife?' I'll just have to choke + myself there to keep from saying, `You bet your life I will, Parson!'” + </p> + <p> + “It won't hurt anything if you say, `I will' several times,” she assured + him. + </p> + <p> + “It wouldn't queer the job?” + </p> + <p> + “Not in the least. I've often heard them say, `I will' two or three times. + Wait until you hear the words, `so long as ye both shall live——'” + </p> + <p> + “`So long as ye both shall live,'” he repeated solemnly. + </p> + <p> + “The other speech you say after the minister.” + </p> + <p> + “He won't bite off more than I can chew at one time, will he?” + </p> + <p> + “No, silly—just a few words——” + </p> + <p> + “Because if he does, I'll choke.” + </p> + <p> + Jim drew his watch again, mopped his brow, and gazed at Mary's serene face + with wonder. + </p> + <p> + “Say, Kiddo, you're immense—you're as cool as a cucumber!” + </p> + <p> + “Of course. Why not? It's my day of joy and perfect peace—the day + I've dreamed of since the dawn of maidenhood. I'm marrying the man of my + choice—the one man God made for me of all men on earth. I know this—I'm + content.” + </p> + <p> + “Let me hang around here till time—won't you?” he asked helplessly. + </p> + <p> + “We must have Ella come back to fix the table.” + </p> + <p> + “Sure. I just didn't want her to hear me tell you that I had cold feet. + I'm better now.” + </p> + <p> + Ella moved about the room with soft tread, watching Jim with sullen, + concentrated gaze when he was not looking. + </p> + <p> + The lovers sat on the couch beside the window, holding each other's hands + and watching in silence the hurrying crowds pass below. Now that his panic + was over, Jim began to breathe more freely, and the time swiftly passed. + </p> + <p> + As the shadows slowly fell, they rang the bell at the parson's house + beside the church, and his good wife ushered them into the parlor. The + little Craddocks crowded in—six of them, two girls and four boys, + their ages ranging from five to nineteen. + </p> + <p> + Sweet memories crowded the girl's heart from her happy childhood. She had + never missed one of these affairs at home. Her father was a very popular + minister and his home the Mecca of lovers for miles around. + </p> + <p> + Craddock, like her father, was inclined to be conservative in his forms. + Marriage he held with the old theologians to be a holy sacrament. He never + used the new-fangled marriage vows. He stuck to the formula of the Book of + Common Prayer. + </p> + <p> + When she stood before the preacher in this beautiful familiar scene which + she had witnessed so many times at home, Mary's heart beat with a joy that + was positively silly. She tried to be serious, and the dimple would come + in her cheek in spite of every effort. + </p> + <p> + As Craddock's musical voice began the opening address, the memory of a + foolish incident in her father's life flashed through her mind, and she + wondered if Jim in his excitement had forgotten his pocket-book and + couldn't pay the preacher. + </p> + <p> + “Dearly beloved,” he began, “we are gathered together here in the sight of + God——” + </p> + <p> + Mary tried to remember that she was in the sight of God, but she was so + foolishly happy she could only remember that funny scene. A long-legged + Kentucky mountain bridegroom at the close of the ceremony had turned to + her father and drawled: + </p> + <p> + “Well, parson, I ain't got no money with me—but I want to give ye + five dollars. I've got a fine dawg. He's worth ten. I'll send him to ye + fur five—if it's all right?” + </p> + <p> + The children had giggled and her father blushed. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, that's all right,” he had answered. “Money's no matter. Forget the + five. I hope you'll be very happy.” + </p> + <p> + Two weeks later a crate containing the dog had come by express. On the tag + was scrawled: + </p> + <p> + Dear Parson:—I like Nancy so well, I send ye the hole dawg, anyhow. + </p> + <p> + She hadn't a doubt that Jim would feel the same way—but she hoped he + hadn't forgotten his pocketbook. + </p> + <p> + The scene had flashed through her mind in a single moment. She had bitten + her lips and kept from laughing by a supreme effort. Not a word of the + solemn ceremonial, however, had escaped her consciousness. + </p> + <p> + “And in the face of this company,” the preacher's rich voice was saying, + “to join together this Man and this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is + commended of St. Paul to be honorable among all men: and therefore is not + by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, + discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God. Into this holy + estate these two persons present come now to be joined. If any man can + show just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now + speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.” + </p> + <p> + Craddock paused, and his piercing eyes searched the man and woman before + him. + </p> + <p> + “I require to charge you both, as ye will answer at the dreadful day of + judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if + either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined + together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it——” + </p> + <p> + Again he paused. The perspiration stood in beads on Jim's forehead, and he + glanced uneasily at Mary from the corners of his drooping eyes. A smile + was playing about her mouth, and Jim was cheered. + </p> + <p> + “For be ye well assured,” the preacher continued, “that if any persons are + joined together otherwise than as God's Word doth allow, their marriage is + not lawful.” + </p> + <p> + He turned with deliberation to Jim and transfixed him with the first + question of the ceremony. The groom was hypnotized into a state of abject + terror. His ears heard the words; the mind recorded but the vaguest idea + of what they meant. + </p> + <p> + “Wilt thou have this Woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after + God's ordinance in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love her, + comfort her, honor, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking + all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?” + </p> + <p> + Jim's mouth was open; his lower jaw had dropped in dazed awe, and he + continued to stare straight into the preacher's face until Mary pressed + his arm and whispered: + </p> + <p> + “Jim!” + </p> + <p> + “I will—yes, I will—you bet I will!” he hastened to answer. + </p> + <p> + The children giggled, and the preacher's lips twitched. + </p> + <p> + He turned quickly to Mary. + </p> + <p> + “Wilt thou have this Man to thy wedded husband, to live together after + God's ordinance, in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, and + serve him, love, honor, and keep him in sickness and in health; and, + forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall + live?” + </p> + <p> + With quick, clear voice, Mary answered: + </p> + <p> + “I will.” + </p> + <p> + “Please join your right hands and repeat after me:” + </p> + <p> + He fixed Jim with his gaze and spoke with deliberation, clause by clause: + </p> + <p> + “I, James, take thee, Mary, to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from + this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in + sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, + according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.” + </p> + <p> + Jim's throat at first was husky with fear, but he caught each clause with + quick precision and repeated them without a hitch. + </p> + <p> + He smiled and congratulated himself: “I got ye that time, old cull!” + </p> + <p> + The preacher's eyes sought Mary's: + </p> + <p> + “I, Mary, take thee, James, to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from + this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness + and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death do us part, + according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.” + </p> + <p> + In the sweetest musical voice, quivering with happiness, the girl repeated + the words. + </p> + <p> + Again the preacher's eyes sought Jim's: + </p> + <p> + AND THE MAN SHALL GIVE UNTO THE WOMAN A RING—— + </p> + <p> + The groom fumbled in his pocket and found at last the ring, which he + handed to Mary. The minister at once took it from her hand and handed it + back to Jim. + </p> + <p> + The bride lifted her left hand, deftly extending the fourth finger, and + the groom slipped the ring on, and held it firmly gripped as he had been + instructed. + </p> + <p> + “With this ring I thee wed——” + </p> + <p> + “With this ring I thee wed——” Jim repeated firmly. + </p> + <p> + “——and with all my worldly goods I thee endow——” + </p> + <p> + “——and with all my worldly goods I thee endow——” + </p> + <p> + “In the Name of the Father——” + </p> + <p> + “In the Name of the Father——” + </p> + <p> + “——and of the Son——” + </p> + <p> + “——and of the Son——” + </p> + <p> + “——and of the Holy Ghost——” + </p> + <p> + “——and of the Holy Ghost——” + </p> + <p> + “Amen!” + </p> + <p> + “Amen!” + </p> + <p> + The voice of the preacher's prayer that followed rang far-away and unreal + to the heart of the girl. Her vivid imagination had leaped the years. Her + spirit did not return to earth and time and place until the minister + seized her right hand and joined it to Jim's. + </p> + <p> + “Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder! + </p> + <p> + “Forasmuch as James Anthony and Mary Adams have consented together in holy + wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, and + thereto have given and pledged their troth, each to the other, and have + declared the same by giving and receiving a Ring, and by joining hands; I + pronounce that they are Man and Wife, In the Name of the Father, and of + the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” + </p> + <p> + The preacher lifted his hands solemnly above their heads. + </p> + <p> + “God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and + keep you; the Lord mercifully with His favor look upon you, and fill you + with all spiritual benediction and grace; that ye may so live together in + this life, that in the world to come ye may have life everlasting. AMEN.” + </p> + <p> + The preacher took Mary's hand. + </p> + <p> + “Your father is my friend, child. This is for him——” + </p> + <p> + He bent quickly and kissed her lips, while Jim gasped in astonishment. + </p> + <p> + The minister's wife congratulated them both. The two older children + smilingly advanced and added their voices in good wishes. + </p> + <p> + Mary whispered to Jim: + </p> + <p> + “Don't forget the preacher's fee!” + </p> + <p> + “Lord, how much? Will fifty be enough? It's all I've got.” + </p> + <p> + “Give him twenty. We'll need the rest.” + </p> + <p> + It was not until they were seated in the waiting cab and sank back among + the shadows, that Jim crushed her in his arms and kissed her until she + cried for mercy. + </p> + <p> + “The gall of that preacher, kissing you!” he muttered savagely. “You know, + I come within an ace of pasting him one on the nose!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. “UNTIL DEATH” + </h2> + <p> + The lights burned in the hall with unusual brightness. Ella stood in the + open door of the room, through which the light was streaming. With its + radiance came the perfume of roses—the scrub-woman's gift of love. + The room was a bower of gorgeous flowers. She had spent her last cent in + this extravagance. Mary swept the place with a look of amazement. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Ella,” she cried, “how could you be so silly!” + </p> + <p> + “You like them, ja?” Ella asked softly. + </p> + <p> + “They're glorious—but you should not have made such a sacrifice for + me.” + </p> + <p> + “For myself, maybe, I do it—all for myself to make me happy, too, + tonight.” + </p> + <p> + She dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand and placed the chairs + beside the beautifully set table. + </p> + <p> + “Dinner is all ready,” she announced cheerfully. “And shall I go now and + leave you? Or will you let me serve your dinner first?” + </p> + <p> + A sudden panic seized the bride. + </p> + <p> + “Stay and serve the dinner, Ella, if you will,” she quickly answered. + </p> + <p> + Jim frowned, but seated himself in business-like fashion. + </p> + <p> + “All right; I'm ready for it, old girl!” + </p> + <p> + With soft tread and swift, deft touch, Ella served the dinner, standing + prim and stiff and ghost-like behind Jim's chair between the courses. + </p> + <p> + The bride watched her, fascinated by the pallor of her haggard face and + the queer suggestion of Death which her appearance made in spite of the + background of flowers. She had dressed herself in a simple skirt and + shirtwaist of spotless white. The material seemed to be draped on her tall + figure, thin to emaciation. The chalk-like pallor of her face brought out + with startling sharpness the deep, hollow caverns beneath her straight + eyebrows. Her single eye shone unusually bright. + </p> + <p> + Gradually the grim impression grew that Death was hovering over her bridal + feast—a foolish fancy which persisted in her highly-wrought nervous + state. Yet the idea, once fixed, could not be crushed. In vain she used + her will to bring her wandering mind back to the joyous present. Each time + she lifted her eyes they rested upon the silent, white figure with its + single eye piercing the depths of her soul. + </p> + <p> + She could endure it no longer. She nodded and smiled wanly at Ella. + </p> + <p> + “You may go now!” + </p> + <p> + The woman gazed at the bride in surprise. + </p> + <p> + “I shall come again—yes?” + </p> + <p> + “Tomorrow morning, Ella, you may help me.” + </p> + <p> + The white figure paused uncertainly at the door, and her drawling voice + breathed her parting word tenderly: + </p> + <p> + “Good night!” + </p> + <p> + The bride closed her eyes and answered. + </p> + <p> + “Good night, Ella!” + </p> + <p> + The door closed. Jim rose quickly and bolted it. + </p> + <p> + “Thank God!” he exclaimed fervently. He fixed his slumbering eyes on his + wife for a moment, saw the frightened look, walked quickly back to the + table and took his seat. + </p> + <p> + “Now, Kiddo, we can eat in peace.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I'd rather be alone,” she sighed. + </p> + <p> + “I must say,” Jim went on briskly, “that parson of yours did give us a run + for our money.” + </p> + <p> + “I like the old, long ceremony best.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, you see, I ain't never had much choice—but do you know what I + thought was the best thing in it?” + </p> + <p> + “No—what?” + </p> + <p> + “UNTIL DEATH DO US PART! Gee how he did ring out on that! His voice + sounded to me like a big bell somewhere away up in the clouds. Did you + hear me sing it back at him?” + </p> + <p> + Mary smiled nervously. + </p> + <p> + “You had found your voice then.” + </p> + <p> + “You bet I had! I muffed that first one, though, didn't I?” + </p> + <p> + “A little. It didn't matter.” She answered mechanically. + </p> + <p> + He fixed his eyes on her again. + </p> + <p> + “Hungry, Kiddo?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” she gasped. + </p> + <p> + “What's the use!” he cried in low, vibrant tones, springing to his feet. + “I don't want to eat this stuff—I just want to eat you!” + </p> + <p> + Mary rose tremblingly and moved instinctively to meet him. + </p> + <p> + He clasped her form in his arms and crushed with cruel strength. + </p> + <p> + “Until death do us part!” he whispered passionately. + </p> + <p> + She answered with a kiss. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII. THE LOTOS-EATERS + </h2> + <p> + It was eleven o'clock next morning before Ella ventured to rap softly on + the door. They had just finished breakfast. The bride was clearing up the + table, humming a song of her childhood. + </p> + <p> + Jim caught her in his arms. + </p> + <p> + “Once more before she comes!” + </p> + <p> + “Don't kill me!” she laughed. + </p> + <p> + Jim lounged in the window and smoked his cigarette while Ella and Mary + chattered in the kitchenette. + </p> + <p> + In half an hour the scrub-woman had made her last trip with the extra + dishes, and the little home was spick and span. + </p> + <p> + Mary sprang on the couch and snuggled into Jim's arms. + </p> + <p> + “I've changed our plans——” he began thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “We won't give up our honeymoon trip?” she cried in alarm. “That's one + dream we MUST live, Jim, dear. I've set my heart on it.” + </p> + <p> + “Sure we will—sure,” he answered quickly. “But not in that car.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + Jim grinned. + </p> + <p> + “Because I like you better—you get me, Kiddo?” + </p> + <p> + She pressed close and whispered: + </p> + <p> + “I think so.” + </p> + <p> + “You see, that fool car might throw a tire or two. Believe me, it'll be a + job to have her on my hands for a thousand miles. Of course, if I didn't + know you, little girl, it would be all sorts of fun. But, honest to God, + this game beats the world.” + </p> + <p> + He bent low and kissed her again. + </p> + <p> + “Where'll we go, then?” she murmured. + </p> + <p> + “That's what I'm tryin' to dope out. I like the sea. It lulls me just like + whisky puts a drunkard to sleep. I wish we could get where it's bright and + warm and the sun shines all the time. We could stay two weeks and then + jump on the train and be in Asheville the day before Christmas.” + </p> + <p> + Mary sprang up excitedly. + </p> + <p> + “I have it! We'll go to Florida—away down to the Keys. It's the + dream of my life to go there!” + </p> + <p> + “The Keys what's that?” he asked, puzzled. + </p> + <p> + “The Keys are little sand islands and reefs that jut out into the warm + waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The railroad takes us right there.” + </p> + <p> + “It's warm and sunny there now?” + </p> + <p> + “Just like summer up here. We can go in bathing in the surf every day.” + </p> + <p> + Jim sprang to his feet. + </p> + <p> + “Got a bathing suit?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—a beauty. I've never worn it here.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “It seemed so bold.” + </p> + <p> + “All right. Maybe we can get a Key all by ourselves for two weeks.” + </p> + <p> + “Wouldn't it be glorious!” + </p> + <p> + “We'll try it, anyhow. I'll buy the doggoned thing if they don't ask too + much. Pack your traps. I'll go down to the shop and get my things. We'll + be ready to start in an hour.” + </p> + <p> + By four o'clock they were seated in the drawing-room of a Pullman car on + the Florida Limited, gazing entranced at the drab landscape of the Jersey + meadows. + </p> + <p> + Three days later, Jim had landed his boat on a tiny sand reef a half-mile + off the coast of Florida with a tent and complete outfit for camping. Like + two romping children, they tied the boat to a stake and rushed over the + sand-dunes to the beach. They explored their domain from end to end within + an hour. Not a tree obscured the endless panorama of sea and bay and + waving grass on the great solemn marshes. Piles of soft, warm seaweed lay + in long, dark rows along the high-tide mark. + </p> + <p> + Mary selected a sand-dune almost exactly the height and shape of the one + on which they sat at Long Beach the day he told her of his love. + </p> + <p> + “Here's the spot for our home!” she cried. “Don't you recognize it?” + </p> + <p> + “Can't say I've ever been here before. Oh, I got you—I got you! Long + Beach—sure! What do you think of that?” + </p> + <p> + He hurried to the boat and brought the tent. Mary carried the spade, the + pole and pegs. + </p> + <p> + In half an hour the little white home was shining on the level sand at the + foot of their favorite dune. The door was set toward the open sea, and the + stove securely placed beneath an awning which shaded it from the sun's + rays. + </p> + <p> + “Now, Kiddo, a plunge in that shining water the first thing. I'll give you + the tent. I'll chuck my things out here.” + </p> + <p> + In a fever of joyous haste she threw off her clothes and donned the + dainty, one-piece bathing suit. She flew over the sand and plunged into + the water before Jim had finished changing to his suit. + </p> + <p> + She was swimming and diving like a duck in the lazy, beautiful waters of + the Gulf when he reached the beach. + </p> + <p> + “Come on! Come on!” she shouted. + </p> + <p> + He waved his hand and finished his cigarette. + </p> + <p> + “It's glorious! It's mid-summer!” she called. + </p> + <p> + With a quick plunge he dived into the water, disappeared and stayed until + she began to scan the surface uneasily. With a splash he rose by her side, + lifting her screaming in his arms. Her bathing-cap was brushed off, and he + seized her long hair in his mouth, turned and with swift, strong beat + carried her unresisting body to the beach. + </p> + <p> + He drew her erect and looked into her smiling face. + </p> + <p> + “That's the way I'd save you if you had called for help. How'd you like + it?” + </p> + <p> + “It was sweet to give up and feel myself in your power, dear!” + </p> + <p> + His drooping eyes were devouring her exquisite figure outlined so + perfectly in the clinging suit. + </p> + <p> + “I was afraid to wear this in New York,” she said demurely. + </p> + <p> + “I can't blame you. If you'd ever have gone on the beach at Coney Island + in that, there'd have been a riot.” + </p> + <p> + He lifted her in his arms and kissed her. + </p> + <p> + “And you're all mine, Kiddo! It's too good to be true! I'm afraid to wake + up mornings now for fear I'll find I've just been dreaming.” + </p> + <p> + They plunged again in the water, and side by side swam far out from the + shore, circled gracefully and returned. + </p> + <p> + Hours they spent snuggling in the warm sand. Not a sound of the world + beyond the bay broke the stillness. The music of the water's soft sighing + came on their ears in sweet, endless cadence. The wind was gentle and + brushed their cheeks with the softest caress. Far out at sea, white-winged + sails were spread—so far away they seemed to stand in one spot + forever. The deep cry of an ocean steamer broke the stillness at last. + </p> + <p> + “We must dress for dinner, Jim!” she sighed. + </p> + <p> + “Why, Kiddo?” + </p> + <p> + “We must eat, you know.” + </p> + <p> + “But why dress? I like that style on you. It's too much trouble to dress.” + </p> + <p> + “All right!” she cried gayly. “We'll have a little informal dinner this + evening. I love to feel the sand under my feet.” + </p> + <p> + He gathered the wood from the dry drifts above the waterline and kindled a + fire. The salt-soaked sticks burned fiercely, and the dinner was cooked in + a jiffy—a fresh chicken he had bought, sweet potatoes, and delicious + buttered toast. + </p> + <p> + They sat in their bathing suits on camp-stools beside the folding table + and ate by moonlight. + </p> + <p> + The dinner finished, Mary cleared the wooden dishes while Jim brought + heaps of the dry, spongy sea grass and made a bed in the tent. He piled it + two feet high, packed it down to a foot, and then spread the sheets and + blankets. + </p> + <p> + “All ready for a stroll down the avenue, Kiddo?” he called from the door. + </p> + <p> + “Fifth Avenue or Broadway?” she laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, the Great White Way—you couldn't miss it! Just look at the + shimmer of the moon on the sands! Ain't it great?” + </p> + <p> + Hand in hand, they strolled on the beach and bathed in the silent flood of + the moonlit night—no prying eyes near save the stars of the friendly + southern skies. + </p> + <p> + “The moon seems different down here, Jim!” she whispered. + </p> + <p> + “It is different,” he answered with boyish enthusiasm. “It's all so still + and white!” + </p> + <p> + “Could we stay here forever?” + </p> + <p> + He shook his head emphatically. + </p> + <p> + “Not on your life. This little boy has to work, you know. Old man John D. + Rockefeller might, but it's early for a young financier to retire.” + </p> + <p> + “A whole week, then?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure! For a week we'll forget New York.” + </p> + <p> + They sat down on the sand-dune behind the tent and watched the waters + flash in the silvery light, the world and its fevered life forgotten. + </p> + <p> + “You're the only thing real tonight, Jim!” she sighed. + </p> + <p> + “And you're the world for me, Kiddo!” + </p> + <p> + She waked at dawn, with a queer feeling of awe at the weird, gray light + which filtered through the cotton walls. A sense of oneness with Nature + and the beat of Her eternal heart filled her soul. The soft wash of the + water on the sands seemed to be keeping time to the throb of her own + pulse. + </p> + <p> + She peered curiously into the face of her sleeping lover. She had never + seen him asleep before. She started at the transformation wrought by the + closing of his heavy eyelids and the complete relaxation of his features. + The strange, steel-blue coloring of his eyes had always given his face an + air of mystery and charm. The complete closing of the heavy lids and the + slight droop of the lower jaw had worked a frightful change. The romance + and charm had gone, and instead she saw only the coarse, brutal strength. + </p> + <p> + She frowned like a spoiled child, put her dainty hand under his chin and + pressed his mouth together. + </p> + <p> + “Wake up, sir!” she whispered. “I don't like your expression!” + </p> + <p> + He refused to stir, and she drew the tips of her fingers across his ears + and eyelids. + </p> + <p> + He rubbed his eyes and muttered: + </p> + <p> + “What t'ell?” + </p> + <p> + “Let's take a bath in the sea before sunrise—come on!” + </p> + <p> + The sleeper groaned heavily, turned over, and in a moment was again dead + to the world. + </p> + <p> + Mary's eyes were wide now with excitement. The hours were too marvelous to + be lost in sleep. She could sleep when they must return to the tiresome + world with its endless crowds of people. + </p> + <p> + She rose softly, ran barefoot to the beach, threw her night-dress on the + sand and plunged, her white, young body trembling with joy, into the + water. + </p> + <p> + It was marvelous—this wonderful hush of the dawn over the infinite + sea. The air and water melted into a pearl gray. Far out toward the east, + the waters began to blush at the kiss of the coming sun. The pearl gray + slowly turned into purple. So startling was the vision, she swam in-shore + and stood knee-deep in the shallows to watch the magic changes. In + breathless wonder she saw the sea and sky and shore turn into a trembling + cloud of dazzling purple. A moment before, she had caught the water up in + her hand and poured it out in a stream of pearls. She lifted a handful and + poured it out now, each drop a dazzling amethyst. And even while she + looked, the purple was changing to scarlet—the amethyst into rubies! + </p> + <p> + A great awe filled her in the solemn hush. She stood in Nature's vast + cathedral, close to God's heart—her life in harmony with His eternal + laws. + </p> + <p> + How foolish and artificial were the ways of the far-away, drab, prosaic + world of clothes and houses and furnishings! If she could only live + forever in this dream-world! + </p> + <p> + Even while the thought surged through her heart, she lifted her head and + saw the red rim of the sun suddenly break through the sea, and started + lest the white light of day had revealed her to some passing boatman + hurrying to his nets. + </p> + <p> + Her keen eye quickly swept the circle of the wide, silent world of + sand-dunes, marsh and waters. No prying eye was near. Only the morning + star still gleaming above saw. And they were twin sisters. + </p> + <p> + Four days flew on velvet wings before the first cloud threw its shadow + across her life. Jim always slept until nine o'clock, and refused with + dogged good-natured indifference to stir when she had asked him to get the + wood for breakfast. It was nothing, of course, to walk a hundred yards to + the beach and pick up the wood, and she did it. The hurt that stung was + the feeling that he was growing indifferent. + </p> + <p> + She felt for the first time an impulse to box his lazy jaws as he yawned + and turned over for the dozenth time without rising. He looked for all the + world like a bulldog curled up on his bed of grass. + </p> + <p> + She shook him at last. + </p> + <p> + “Jim, dear, you must get up now! Breakfast is almost ready and it won't be + fit to eat if you don't come on.” + </p> + <p> + He opened his heavy eyelids and gazed at her sleepily. + </p> + <p> + “All righto——! Just as you say—just as you say.” + </p> + <p> + “Hurry! Breakfast will be ready before you can dress.” + </p> + <p> + “Gee! Breakfast all ready! You're one smart little wifie, Kiddo.” + </p> + <p> + The compliment failed to please. She was sure that he had been fully awake + twice before and pretended to be asleep from sheer laziness and + indifference. + </p> + <p> + The thought hurt. + </p> + <p> + When they sat down at last to breakfast, she looked into his half-closed + eyes with a sudden start. + </p> + <p> + “Why, Jim, your eyes are red!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes?” + </p> + <p> + “What's the matter?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing.” + </p> + <p> + “You're ill—what is it?” + </p> + <p> + He grinned sheepishly. + </p> + <p> + “You couldn't guess now, could you?” + </p> + <p> + “You haven't been drinking!” she gasped. + </p> + <p> + “No,” he drawled lazily, “I wouldn't say drinking—I just took one + big swallow last night—makes you sleep good when you're tired. Good + medicine! I always carry a little with me.” + </p> + <p> + A sickening wave went over her. Not that she felt that he was going to be + a drunkard. But the utter indifference with which he made the announcement + was a painful revelation of the fact that her opinion on such a question + was not of the slightest importance. That he was now master of the + situation he evidently meant that she should see and understand at once. + </p> + <p> + She refused to accept the humiliating position without a struggle and made + up her mind to try at once to mold his character. She would begin by + getting him to cut the slang from his conversation. + </p> + <p> + “You remember the promise you made me one day before we were married, + Jim?” she asked brightly. + </p> + <p> + “Which one? You know a fellow's not responsible for what he promises to + get his girl. All's fair in love and war, they say——” + </p> + <p> + “I'm going to hold you to this one, sir,” she firmly declared. + </p> + <p> + “All right, little bright eyes,” he responded cheerfully as he lit a + cigarette and sent the smoke curling above his red head. + </p> + <p> + She sat for a while in silence, studying the man before her. The task was + delicate and difficult. And she had thought it a mere pastime of love! As + her fiance, he had been wax in her hands. As her husband, he was a lazy, + headstrong, obstinate young animal grinning good-naturedly at her futile + protests. How long would he grin and bear her suggestions with patience? + The transition from this lazy grin to the growl of an angry bulldog might + be instantaneous. + </p> + <p> + She would move with the utmost caution—but she would move and at + once. It would be a test of character between them. She edged her chair + close to his, drew his head down in her lap and ran her fingers through + his thick, red hair. + </p> + <p> + “Still love me, Jim?” she smiled. + </p> + <p> + “Crazier over you every day—and you know it, too, you sly little + puss,” he answered dreamily. + </p> + <p> + “You WILL make good your promises?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure, I will—surest thing you know!” + </p> + <p> + “You see, Jim dear,” she went on tenderly, “I want to be proud of you——” + </p> + <p> + “Well, ain't you?” + </p> + <p> + “Of course I am, silly. I know you and understand you. But I want all the + world to respect you as I do.” She paused and breathed deeply. “They've + got to do it, too, they've got to——” + </p> + <p> + “Sure, I'll knock their block off—if they don't!” he broke in. + </p> + <p> + She raised her finger reprovingly and shook her head. + </p> + <p> + “That's just the trouble: you can't do it with your fists. You can't + compel the respect of cultured men and women by physical force. We've got + to win with other weapons.” + </p> + <p> + “All right, Kiddo—dope it out for me,” he responded lazily. “Dope it + out——” + </p> + <p> + Her lips quivered with the painful recognition of the task before her. Yet + when she spoke, her voice was low and sweet and its tones even. She gave + no sign to the man whose heavy form rested in her arms. + </p> + <p> + “Then from today we must begin to cut out every word of slang—it's a + bargain?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure, Mike—I promised!” + </p> + <p> + “Cut `Sure Mike!'” + </p> + <p> + She raised her finger severely. + </p> + <p> + “All right, teacher,” he drawled. “What'll we put in Sure Mike's place? + I've found him a handy man!” + </p> + <p> + “Say `certainly.'” + </p> + <p> + Jim grinned good-naturedly. + </p> + <p> + “Aw hell, Kiddo—that sounds punk!” + </p> + <p> + “And HELL, Jim, isn't a nice word——” + </p> + <p> + “Gee, Kid, now look here—can't get along with out HELL—leave + me that one just a little while.” + </p> + <p> + She shook her head. + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “No?” + </p> + <p> + “And PUNK is expressive, but not suited to parlor use.” + </p> + <p> + “All right—t'ell with PUNK!” He turned and looked. “What's the + matter now?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Don't you realize what you've just said?” + </p> + <p> + “What did I say?” + </p> + <p> + She turned away to hide a tear. + </p> + <p> + He threw his arms around her neck and drew her lips down to his. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, don't worry, Kiddo—I'll do better next time. Honest to God, I + will. That's enough for today. Just let's love now. T'ell with the rest.” + </p> + <p> + She smiled in answer. + </p> + <p> + “You promise to try honestly?” + </p> + <p> + He raised his hand in solemn vow. + </p> + <p> + “S'help me!” + </p> + <p> + Each day's trial ended in a laugh and a kiss until at last Jim refused to + promise any more. He grinned in obstinate, good-natured silence and let + her do the worrying. + </p> + <p> + She watched him with growing wonder and alarm. He gradually lapsed into + little coarse, ugly habits at the table. She tried playfully to correct + them. He took it good-naturedly at first and then ignored her suggestions + as if she were a kitten complaining at his feet. + </p> + <p> + She studied him with baffling rage at the mystery of his personality. The + long silences between them grew from hour to hour. She could see that he + was restless now at the isolation of their sand-island home. The queer + lights and shadows that played in his cold blue eyes told only too plainly + that his mind was back again in the world of battle. He was fighting + something, too. + </p> + <p> + She was glad of it. She could manage him better there. She would throw him + into the company of educated people and rouse his pride and ambition. She + heard his announcement of their departure on the eighth day with positive + joy. + </p> + <p> + “Well, Kiddo,” he began briskly, “we've got to be moving. Time to get back + to work now. The old town and the little shop down in Avenue B have been + calling me.” + </p> + <p> + “Today, Jim?” she asked quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Right away. We'll catch the first train north, stop two days, Christmas + Eve and Christmas, in Asheville, and then for old New York!” + </p> + <p> + The journey along the new railroad built on concrete bridges over miles of + beautiful waters was one of unalloyed joy. They had passed over this + stretch of marvelous engineering at night on their trip down and had not + realized its wonders. For hours the train seemed to be flying on velvet + wings through the ocean. + </p> + <p> + She sat beside her lover and held his hand. In spite of her enthusiasm, he + would doze. At every turn of entrancing view she would pinch his arm: + </p> + <p> + “Look, Jim! Look!” + </p> + <p> + He would lift his heavy eyelids, grunt good-naturedly and doze again. + </p> + <p> + In the dining-car she was in mortal terror at first lest he should lapse + into the coarse table manners into which he had fallen in camp. She laid + his napkin conspicuously on his plate and saw that he had opened and put + it in place across his lap before ordering the meals. + </p> + <p> + The moment he found himself in a crowd, the lights began to flash in his + eyes, his broad shoulders lifted and his whole being was at once alert and + on guard. He followed his wife's lead with unerring certainty. + </p> + <p> + She renewed her faith in his early reformation, though his character was a + puzzle. He seemed to be forever watching out of the corners of his + slumbering eyes. She wondered what it meant. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. THE REAL MAN + </h2> + <p> + They arrived in Asheville the night before Christmas Eve. Jim listened to + his wife's prattle about the wonderful views with quiet indifference. + </p> + <p> + They stopped at the Battery Park Hotel, and she hoped the waning moon + would give them at least a glimpse of the beautiful valley of the French + Broad and Swannanoa rivers and the dark, towering ranges of mountains + among the stars. She made Jim wait on the balcony of the room for half an + hour, but the clouds grew denser and he persisted in nodding. + </p> + <p> + His head dipped lower than usual, and she laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Poor old sleepy-head!” + </p> + <p> + “For the love o' Mike, Kiddo—me for the hay. Won't them mountains + wait till morning?” + </p> + <p> + “All right!” she answered cheerily. “I'll pull you out at sunrise. The + sunrise from our window will be glorious.” + </p> + <p> + He rose and stretched his body like a young, well fed tiger. + </p> + <p> + “I think it's prettier from the bed. But have it your own way—have + it your own way. I'll agree to anything if you lemme go to sleep now.” + </p> + <p> + She rose as the first gray fires of dawn began to warm the cloud-banks on + the eastern horizon, stood beside her window and watched in silent + ecstasy. Jim was sleeping heavily. She would not wake him until the glory + of the sunrise was at its height. She loved to watch the changing lights + and shadows in sky and valley and on distant mountain peaks as the light + slowly filtered over the eastern hills. + </p> + <p> + She had recovered from the depression of the last days of their camp. The + journey back into the world had improved Jim's manners. There could be no + doubt about his ambitions. His determination to be a millionaire was the + lever she now meant to work in raising his social aspirations. + </p> + <p> + Why should she feel depressed? + </p> + <p> + Their married life had just begun. The two weeks they had passed on their + honeymoon had been happy beyond her dreams of happiness. Somehow her + imagination had failed to give any conception of the wonder and glory of + this revelation of life. His little lapses of selfishness on their sand + island no doubt came from ignorance of what was expected of him. + </p> + <p> + For one thing she felt especially thankful. There had been no ugly + confessions of a shady past to cloud the joy of their love. Her lover + might be ignorant of the ways of polite society. He was equally free of + its sinister vices. She thanked God for that. The soul of the man she had + married was clean of all memories of women. The love he gave was fierce in + its unrestrained passion—but it was all hers. She gloried in its + strength. + </p> + <p> + She made up her mind, standing there in the soft light of the dawn, that + she would bend his iron will to her own in the growing, sweet intimacy of + their married life and threw her fears to the winds. + </p> + <p> + The thin, fleecy clouds that hung over the low range of the eastern + foreground were all aglow now, with every tint of the rainbow, while the + sun's bed beyond the hills was flaming in scarlet and gold. + </p> + <p> + She clapped her hands in ecstasy. + </p> + <p> + “Jim! Jim, dear!” + </p> + <p> + He made no response, and she rushed to his side and whispered: + </p> + <p> + “You must see this sunrise—get up quick, quick, dear. It's + wonderful.” + </p> + <p> + “What's the matter?” he muttered. + </p> + <p> + “The sunrise over the mountains—quick—it's glorious.” + </p> + <p> + His heavy eyelids drooped and closed. He dropped on the pillow and buried + his face out of sight. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, Jim dear, do come—just to please me.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm dead, Kiddo—dead to the world,” he sighed. “Don't like to see + the sun rise. I never did. Come on back and let's sleep——” + </p> + <p> + His last words were barely audible. He was breathing heavily as his lips + ceased to move. + </p> + <p> + She gave it up, returned to the window and watched the changing colors + until the white light from the sun's face had touched with life the last + shadows of the valleys and flashed its signals from the farthest towering + peaks. + </p> + <p> + Her whole being quivered in response to the beauty of this glorious + mountain world. The air was wine. She loved the sapphire skies and the + warm, lazy, caressing touch of the sun of the South. + </p> + <p> + A sense of bitterness came, just for a moment, that the man she had chosen + for her mate had no eye to see these wonders and no ear to hear their + music. During the madness of his whirlwind courtship she had gotten the + impression that his spirit was sensitive to beauty—to the waters of + the bay, the sea and the wooded hills. She must face the facts. Their stay + on the island had convinced her that he had eyes only for her. She must + make the most of it. + </p> + <p> + It was ten o'clock before Jim could be persuaded to rise and get + breakfast. She literally pulled him up the stairs to the observatory on + the tower of the hotel. + </p> + <p> + “What's the game, Kiddo? What's the game?” he grumbled. + </p> + <p> + “Ask me no questions. But do just as I tell you; come on!” + </p> + <p> + Her face was radiant, her hair in a tangle of riotous beauty about her + forehead and temples, her eyes sparkling. + </p> + <p> + “Don't look till I tell you!” she cried, as they emerged on the little + minaret which crowns the tower. + </p> + <p> + “Now open and see the glory of the Lord!” she cried with joyous awe. + </p> + <p> + The day was one of matchless beauty. The clouds that swung low in the + early morning had floated higher and higher till they hung now in shining + billows above the highest balsam-crowned peaks in the distance. + </p> + <p> + In every direction, as far as the eye could reach, north, south, east, + west, the dark ranges mounted in the azure skies until the farthest dim + lines melted into the heavens. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Jim dear, isn't it wonderful! We're lucky to get this view on our + first day. It's such a good omen.” + </p> + <p> + Jim opened his eyes lazily and puffed his cigarette in a calm, patronizing + way. + </p> + <p> + “Tough sledding we'd have had with an automobile over those hills,” he + said. “We'll try it after lunch, though.” + </p> + <p> + “We'll go for a ride?” she cried joyfully. + </p> + <p> + “Yep. Got to hunt up the folks. The mountains near Asheville!” he said + with disgust. “I should say they are near—and far, too. Holy smoke, + I'll bet we get lost!” + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense——” + </p> + <p> + “Where's the Black Mountains, I wonder?” he asked suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “Over there!” She pointed to the giant peaks projecting here and there in + dim, blue waves beyond the Great Craggy Range in the foreground. + </p> + <p> + “Holy Moses! Do we have to climb those crags before we start?” + </p> + <p> + “To go to Black Mountain?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. That's where the lawyer said they lived, under Cat-tail Peak in the + Black Mountain Range—wherever t'ell that is.” + </p> + <p> + “No, no! You don't climb the Great Craggy; you go around this end of it + and follow the Swannanoa River right up to the foot of Mount Mitchell, the + highest peak this side of the Rockies. The Cat-tail is just beyond Mount + Mitchell.” + </p> + <p> + “You've been there?” he asked in surprise. + </p> + <p> + “Once, with a party from Asheville. We spent three days and slept in + caves.” + </p> + <p> + “Suppose you'd know the way now?” + </p> + <p> + “We couldn't miss it. We follow the bed of the Swannanoa to its source——-” + </p> + <p> + “Then that settles it. We'll go by ourselves. I don't want any mutt along + to show us the way. We couldn't get lost nohow, could we?” + </p> + <p> + “Of course not—all the roads lead to Asheville. We can ask the way + to the house you want, when we reach the little stopping place at the foot + of Mount Mitchell.” + </p> + <p> + “Gee, Kid, you're a wonder!” he exclaimed admiringly. “Couldn't get along + without you, now could I?” + </p> + <p> + “I hope not, sir!” + </p> + <p> + “You bet I couldn't! We'll start right away. The roads will give us a jolt——” + </p> + <p> + He turned suddenly to go. + </p> + <p> + “Wait—wait a minute, dear,” she pleaded. “You haven't seen this + gorgeous view to the southwest, with Mount Pisgah looming in the center + like some vast cathedral spire—look, isn't it glorious?” + </p> + <p> + “Fine! Fine!” he responded in quick, businesslike tones. + </p> + <p> + “You can look for days and weeks and not begin to realize the changing + beauty of these mountains, clothed in eternal green! Just think, dear, + Mount Pisgah, there, is forty miles away, and it looks as if you could + stroll over to it in an hour's walk. And there are twenty-three + magnificent peaks like that, all of them more than six thousand feet high——” + </p> + <p> + She paused with a frown. He was neither looking nor listening. He had + fallen into a brown study; his mind was miles away. + </p> + <p> + “You're not listening, Jim—nor seeing anything,” she said + reproachfully. + </p> + <p> + “No—Kiddo, we must get ready for that trip. I've got a letter for a + lawyer downtown. I'll find him and hire a car. I'll be back here for you + in an hour. You'll be ready?” + </p> + <p> + “Right away, in half an hour——” + </p> + <p> + “Just pack a suit-case for us both. We'll stay one night. I'll take a bag, + too, that I have in my trunk.” + </p> + <p> + It was noon before he returned with a staunch touring car ready for the + trip. He opened the little steamer trunk which he had always kept locked + and took from it a small leather bag. He placed it on the floor, and, in + spite of careful handling, the ring of metal inside could be distinctly + heard. + </p> + <p> + “What on earth have you got in that queer black bag?” she asked in + surprise. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, just a lot o' junk from the shop. I thought I might tinker with it at + odd times. I don't want to leave it here. It's got one of my new models in + it.” + </p> + <p> + He carried the bag in his hand, refusing to allow the porter who came for + the suit-case to touch it. + </p> + <p> + He threw the suit-case in the bottom of the tonneau. The bag he stowed + carefully under the cushions of the rear seat. The moment he placed his + hand on the wheel of the machine, he was at his best. Every trace of the + street gamin fell from him. Again he was the eagle-eyed master of time and + space. The machine answered his touch with more than human obedience. He + knew how to humor its mood. He conserved its power for a hill with + unerring accuracy and threw it over the grades with rarely a pause to + change his speeds. He could turn the sharp curves with such swift, easy + grace that he scarcely caused Mary's body to swerve an inch. He could + sense a rough place in the road and glide over it with velvet touch. + </p> + <p> + A tire blew out, five miles up the stream from Asheville, and the easy, + business-like deliberation with which he removed the old and adjusted the + new, was a revelation to Mary of a new phase of his character. + </p> + <p> + He never once grunted, or swore, or lost his poise, or manifested the + slightest impatience. He set about his task coolly, carefully, skillfully, + and finished it quickly and silently. + </p> + <p> + His long silences at last began to worry her. An invisible barrier had + reared itself between them. The impression was purely mental—but it + was none the less real and distressing. + </p> + <p> + There was a look of aloof absorption about him she had never seen before. + At first she attributed it to the dread of meeting his kinsfolk for the + first time, his fear of what they might be like or what they might think + of him. + </p> + <p> + He answered her questions cheerfully but mechanically. Sometimes he stared + at her in a cold, impersonal way and gave no answer, as if her questions + were an impertinence and she were not of sufficient importance to waste + his breath on. + </p> + <p> + Unable at last to endure the strain, she burst out impatiently: + </p> + <p> + “What on earth's the matter with you, Jim?” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” he asked softly. + </p> + <p> + “You haven't spoken to me in half an hour, and I've asked you two + questions.” + </p> + <p> + “Just studying about something, Kiddo, something big. I'll tell you + sometime, maybe—not now.” + </p> + <p> + Slowly a great fear began to shape itself in her heart. The real man + behind those slumbering eyes she had never known. Who was he? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV. UNWELCOME GUESTS + </h2> + <p> + While she was yet puzzling over the strange mood of absorbed brooding into + which Jim had fallen, his face suddenly lighted, and he changed with such + rapidity that her uneasiness was doubled. + </p> + <p> + They had reached the stretches of deep forest at the foot of the Black + Mountain ranges. The Swannanoa had become a silver thread of laughing, + foaming spray and deep, still pools beneath the rocks. The fields were few + and small. The little clearings made scarcely an impression in the + towering virgin forests. + </p> + <p> + “Great guns, Kiddo!” he exclaimed, “this is some country! By George, I had + no idea there was such a place so close to New York!” + </p> + <p> + She looked at him with uneasy surprise. What could be in his mind? The + solemn gorge through which they were passing gave no entrancing views of + clouds or sky or towering peaks. Its wooded cliffs hung ominously overhead + in threatening shadows. The scene had depressed her after the vast sunlit + spaces of sky, of shining valleys and cloud-capped, sapphire peaks on + which they had turned their backs. + </p> + <p> + “You like this, Jim?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “It's great—great!” + </p> + <p> + “I thought that waterfall we just passed was very beautiful.” + </p> + <p> + “I didn't see it. But this is something like it. You're clean out of the + world here—and there ain't a railroad in twenty miles!” + </p> + <p> + The deeper the shadows of tree and threatening crag, the higher Jim's + strange spirit seemed to rise. + </p> + <p> + She watched him with increasing fear. How little she knew the real man! + Could it be possible that this lonely, unlettered boy of the streets of + lower New York, starved and stunted in childhood, had within him the soul + of a great poet? How else could she explain the sudden rapture over the + threatening silences and shadows of these mountain gorges which had + depressed her? And yet his utter indifference to the glories of beautiful + waters, his blindness at noon before the most wonderful panorama of + mountains and skies on which she had ever gazed, contradicted the theory + of the poetic soul. A poet must see beauty where she had seen it—and + a thousand wonders her eyes had not found. + </p> + <p> + His elation was uncanny. What could it mean? + </p> + <p> + He was driving now with a skill that was remarkable, a curious smile + playing about his drooping, Oriental eyelids. A wave of fierce resentment + swept her heart. She was a mere plaything in this man's life. The real man + she had never seen. What was he thinking about? What grim secret lay + behind the mysterious smile that flickered about the corners of those + eyes? He was not thinking of her. The mood was new and cold and cynical, + for all the laughter he might put in it. + </p> + <p> + She asked herself the question of his past, his people, his real + life-history. The only answer was his baffling, mysterious smile. + </p> + <p> + A frown suddenly clouded his face. + </p> + <p> + “Hello! Ye're running right into a man's yard!” + </p> + <p> + Mary lifted her head with quick surprise. + </p> + <p> + “Why yes, it's the stopping place for the parties that climb Mount + Mitchell. I remember it. We stayed all night here, left our rig, and + started next morning at sunrise on horseback to climb the trail.” + </p> + <p> + “Pretty near the jumping-off place, then,” he remarked. “We'll ask the way + to Cat-tail Peak.” + </p> + <p> + He stopped the car in front of the low-pitched, weather-stained frame + house and blew the horn. + </p> + <p> + A mountain woman with three open-eyed, silent children came slowly to meet + them. + </p> + <p> + She smiled pleasantly, and without embarrassment spoke in a pleasant + drawl: + </p> + <p> + “Won't you 'light and look at your saddle?” + </p> + <p> + The expression caught Jim's fancy, and he broke into a roar of laughter. + The woman blushed and laughed with him. She couldn't understand what was + the matter with the man. Why should he explode over the simple greeting in + which she had expressed her pleasure at their arrival? + </p> + <p> + Anyhow, she was an innkeeper's wife, and her business was to make folks + feel at home—so she laughed again with Jim. + </p> + <p> + “You know that's the funniest invitation I ever got in a car,” he cried at + last. “We fly in these things sometimes. And when you said, `Won't you + 'light,'”—he paused and turned to his wife—“I could just feel + myself up in the air on that big old racer's back.” + </p> + <p> + “Won't you-all stay all night with us?” the soft voice drawled again. + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, not tonight,” Mary answered. + </p> + <p> + She waited for Jim to ask the way. + </p> + <p> + “No—not tonight,” he repeated. “You happen to know an old woman by + the name of Owens who lives up here?” + </p> + <p> + “Nance Owens?” + </p> + <p> + “That's her name.” + </p> + <p> + “Lord, everybody knows old Nance!” was the smiling answer. + </p> + <p> + “She ain't got good sense!” the tow-headed boy spoke up. + </p> + <p> + “Sh!” the mother warned, boxing his ears. + </p> + <p> + “She's a little queer, that's all. Everybody knows her in Buncombe and + Yancey counties. Her house is built across the county line. She eats in + Yancey and sleeps in Buncombe——” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” broke in the boy joyously, “an' when the Sheriff o' Yancey comes, + she moves back into Buncombe. She's some punkin's on a green gourd vine, + she is—if she ain't got good sense.” + </p> + <p> + His mother struck at him again, but he dodged the blow and finished his + speech without losing a word. + </p> + <p> + “Could you tell us the way to her house?” + </p> + <p> + “Keep right on this road, and you can't miss it.” + </p> + <p> + “How far is it?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, not far.” + </p> + <p> + “No; right at the bottom o' the Cat's-tail,” the boy joyfully explained. + </p> + <p> + “He means the foot o' Cat-tail Peak!” the mother apologized. + </p> + <p> + “How many miles?” + </p> + <p> + “Just a little ways—ye can't miss it; the third house you come to on + this road.” + </p> + <p> + “You'll be there in three shakes of a sheep's tail—in that thing!” + the boy declared. + </p> + <p> + Jim waved his thanks, threw in his gear, and the car shot forward on the + level stretch of road beyond the house. He slowed down when out of sight. + </p> + <p> + “Gee! I'd love to have that kid in a wood-shed with a nice shingle all by + ourselves for just ten minutes.” + </p> + <p> + “The people spoil him,” Mary laughed. “The people who stop there for the + Mount Mitchell climb. He was a baby when I was there six years ago”—she + paused and a rapt look crept into her eyes—“a beautiful little baby, + her first-born, and she was the happiest thing I ever saw in my life.” + </p> + <p> + Her voice sank to a whisper. + </p> + <p> + A vision suddenly illumined her own soul, and she forgot her anxiety over + Jim's queer moods. + </p> + <p> + Deeper and deeper grew the shadows of crag, gorge, and primeval forest. + The speedometer on the foot-board registered five miles from the Mount + Mitchell house. They had passed two cabins by the way, and still no sign + of the third. + </p> + <p> + “Why couldn't she tell us how many miles, I'd like to know?” Jim grumbled. + </p> + <p> + “It's the way of the mountain folk. They're noncommittal on distances.” + </p> + <p> + He stopped the car and lighted the lamps. + </p> + <p> + “Going to be dark in a minute,” he said. “But I like this place,” he + added. + </p> + <p> + He picked his way with care over the narrow road. They crossed the little + stream they were trailing, and the car crawled over the rocks along the + banks at a snail's pace. + </p> + <p> + An owl called from a dead tree-top silhouetted against an open space of + sky ahead. + </p> + <p> + “Must be a clearing there,” Jim muttered. + </p> + <p> + He stopped the car and listened for the sounds of life about a house. + </p> + <p> + A vast, brooding silence filled the world. A wolf howled from the edge of + a distant crag somewhere overhead. + </p> + <p> + “For God's sake!” Jim shivered. “What was that?” + </p> + <p> + “Only a mountain wolf crying for company.” + </p> + <p> + “Wolves up here?” he asked in surprise. + </p> + <p> + “A few—harmless, timid, lonesome fellows. It makes me sorry for them + when I hear one.” + </p> + <p> + “Great country! I like it!” Jim responded. + </p> + <p> + Again she wondered why. What a queer mixture of strength and mystery—this + man she had married! + </p> + <p> + He started the car, turned a bend in the road, and squarely in front, not + more than a hundred yards away, gleamed a light in a cabin window—four + tiny panes of glass. + </p> + <p> + “By Geeminy, we come near stopping in the front yard without knowing it!” + he exclaimed. “Didn't we?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm glad she's at home!” Mary exclaimed. “The light shines with a + friendly glow in these deep shadows.” + </p> + <p> + “Afraid, Kiddo?” he asked lightly. + </p> + <p> + “I don't like these dark places.” + </p> + <p> + “All right when you get used to 'em—safer than daylight.” + </p> + <p> + Again her heart beat at his queer speech. She shivered at the thought of + this uncanny trait of character so suddenly developed today. She made an + effort to throw off her depression. It would vanish with the sun tomorrow + morning. + </p> + <p> + He picked his way carefully among the trees and stopped in front of the + cabin door. The little house sat back from the road a hundred feet or + more. + </p> + <p> + He blew his horn twice and waited. + </p> + <p> + A sudden crash inside, and the light went out. He waited a moment for it + to come back. + </p> + <p> + Only darkness and dead silence. + </p> + <p> + “Suppose she dropped dead and kicked over the lamp?” Jim laughed. + </p> + <p> + “She probably took the lamp into another room.” + </p> + <p> + “No; it went out too quick—and it went out with a crash.” + </p> + <p> + He blew his horn again. + </p> + <p> + Still no answer. + </p> + <p> + “Hello! Hello!” he called loudly. + </p> + <p> + Someone stirred at the door. Jim's keen ear was turned toward the house. + </p> + <p> + “I heard her bar the door, I'll swear it.” + </p> + <p> + “How foolish, Jim!” Mary whispered. “You couldn't have heard it.” + </p> + <p> + “All the same I did. Here's a pretty kettle of fish! The old hellion's not + even going to let us in.” + </p> + <p> + He seized the lever of his horn and blew one terrific blast after another, + in weird, uncanny sobs and wails, ending in a shriek like the last cry of + a lost soul. + </p> + <p> + “Don't, Jim!” Mary cried, shivering. “You'll frighten her to death.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope so.” + </p> + <p> + “Go up and speak to her—and knock on the door.” + </p> + <p> + He waited again in silence, scrambled out of the car, and fumbled his way + through the shadows to the dark outlines of the cabin. He found the porch + on which the front door opened. + </p> + <p> + His light foot touched the log with sure step, and he walked softly to the + cabin wall. The door was not yet visible in the pitch darkness. His auto + lights were turned the other way and threw their concentrated rays far + down into the deep woods. + </p> + <p> + He listened intently for a moment and caught the cat-like tread of the old + woman inside. + </p> + <p> + “I say—hello, in there!” he called. + </p> + <p> + Again the sound of her quick, furtive step told him that she was on the + alert and determined to defend her castle against all comers. What if she + should slip an old rifle through a crack and blow his head off? + </p> + <p> + She might do it, too! + </p> + <p> + He must make her open the door. + </p> + <p> + “Say, what's the matter in there?” he asked persuasively. + </p> + <p> + A moment's silence, and then a gruff voice slowly answered: + </p> + <p> + “They ain't nobody at home!” + </p> + <p> + “The hell they ain't!” Jim laughed. + </p> + <p> + “No!” + </p> + <p> + “Who are you?” + </p> + <p> + She hesitated and then growled back: + </p> + <p> + “None o' your business. Who are you?” + </p> + <p> + “We're strangers up here—lost our way. It's cold—we got to + stop for the night.” + </p> + <p> + “Ye can't—they's nobody home, I tell ye!” she repeated with sullen + emphasis. + </p> + <p> + Jim broke into a genial laugh. + </p> + <p> + “Ah! Come on, old girl! Open up and be sociable. We're not revenue + officers or sheriffs. If you've got any good mountain whiskey, I'll help + you drink it.” + </p> + <p> + “Who are ye?” she repeated savagely. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, just a couple o' gentle, cooing turtle-doves—a bride and groom. + Loosen up, old girl; it's Christmas Eve—and we're just a couple o' + gentle cooin' doves——” + </p> + <p> + Jim kept up his persuasive eloquence until the light of the candle flashed + through the window, and he heard her slip the heavy bar from the door. + </p> + <p> + He lost no time in pushing his way inside. + </p> + <p> + Nance threw a startled look at his enormous, shaggy fur coat—at the + shining aluminum goggles almost completely masking his face. She gave a + low, breathless scream, hurled the door-bar crashing to the floor and + stared at him like a wild, hunted animal at bay, her thin hands trembling, + the iron-gray hair tumbling over her forehead. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my God!” she wailed, crouching back. + </p> + <p> + Jim gazed at her in amazement. He had forgotten his goggles and fur coat. + </p> + <p> + “What's the matter?” he asked in high-keyed tones of surprise. + </p> + <p> + Nance made no answer but crouched lower and attempted to put the table + between them. + </p> + <p> + “What t'ell Bill ails you—will you tell me?” he asked with rising + wrath. + </p> + <p> + “I THOUGHT you wuz the devil,” the old woman panted. “Now I KNOW it!” + </p> + <p> + Jim suddenly remembered his goggles and coat, and broke into a laugh. + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” + </p> + <p> + He removed his goggles and cap, threw back his big coat and squared his + shoulders with a smile. + </p> + <p> + “How's that?” + </p> + <p> + Nance glowered at him with ill-concealed rage, looked him over from head + to foot, and answered with a snarl: + </p> + <p> + “'Tain't much better—ef ye ax ME!” + </p> + <p> + “Gee! But you're a sociable old wild-cat!” he exclaimed, starting back as + if she had struck him a blow. + </p> + <p> + His eye caught the dried skin of a young wildcat hanging on the log wall. + </p> + <p> + “No wonder you skinned your neighbor and hung her up to dry,” he added + moodily. + </p> + <p> + He took in the room with deliberate insolence while the old woman stood + awkwardly watching him, shifting her position uneasily from one foot to + the other. + </p> + <p> + In all his miserable life in New York he could not recall a room more bare + of comforts. The rough logs were chinked with pieces of wood and daubed + with red clay. The door was made of rough boards, the ceiling of hewn logs + with split slabs laid across them. An old-fashioned, tall spinning wheel, + dirty and unused, sat in the corner. A rough pine table was in the middle + of the floor and a smaller one against the wall. On this side table sat + two rusty flat-irons, and against it leaned an ironing board. A dirty + piece of turkey-red calico hung on a string for a portiere at the opening + which evidently led into a sort of kitchen somewhere in the darkness + beyond. + </p> + <p> + The walls were decorated at intervals. A huge bunch of onions hung on a + wooden peg beside the wild-cat skin. Over the window was slung an + old-fashioned muzzle-loading musket. The sling which held it was made of a + pair of ancient home-made suspenders fastened to the logs with nails. + Beneath the gun hung a cow's horn, cut and finished for powder, and with + it a dirty game-bag. Strings of red peppers were strung along each of the + walls, with here and there bunches of popcorn in the ears. A pile of black + walnuts lay in one corner of the cabin and a pile of hickory nuts in + another. + </p> + <p> + A three-legged wooden stool and a split-bottom chair stood beside the + table, and a haircloth couch, which looked as if it had been saved from + the Ark, was pushed near the wall beside the door. + </p> + <p> + Across this couch was thrown a ragged patchwork quilt, and a pillow + covered with calico rested on one end, with the mark of a head dented deep + in the center. + </p> + <p> + Jim shrugged his shoulders with a look of disgust, stepped quickly to the + door and called: + </p> + <p> + “Come on in, Kid!” + </p> + <p> + Nance fumbled her thin hands nervously and spoke with the faintest + suggestion of a sob in her voice. + </p> + <p> + “I ain't got nothin' for ye to eat——” + </p> + <p> + “We've had dinner,” he answered carelessly. + </p> + <p> + He stepped to the door and called: + </p> + <p> + “Bring that little bag from under the seat, Kiddo.” + </p> + <p> + He held the door open, and the light streamed across the yard to the car. + He watched her steadily while she raised the cushion of the rear seat, + lifted the bag and sprang from the car. His keen eye never left her for an + instant until she placed it in his hands. + </p> + <p> + “Mercy, but it's heavy!” she panted, as she gave it to him. + </p> + <p> + He took it without a word and placed it on the table in the center of the + room. + </p> + <p> + Nance glared at him sullenly. + </p> + <p> + “There's no place for ye, I tell ye——” + </p> + <p> + Jim faced her with mock politeness. + </p> + <p> + “For them kind words—thanks!” + </p> + <p> + He bowed low and swept the room with a mocking gesture. + </p> + <p> + “There ain't no room for ye,” the old woman persisted. + </p> + <p> + Jim raised his voice to a squeaking falsetto with deliberate purpose to + torment her. + </p> + <p> + “I got ye the first time, darlin'!” he exclaimed, lifting his hands above + her as if to hold her down. “We must linger awhile for your name—anyhow, + we mustn't forget that. This is Mrs. Nance Owens?” + </p> + <p> + The old woman started and watched him from beneath her heavy eyebrows, + answering with sullen emphasis: + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + Again Jim lifted his hands above his head and waved her to earth. + </p> + <p> + “Well! Don't blame me! I can't help it, you know——” + </p> + <p> + He turned to his wife and spoke with jolly good humor. + </p> + <p> + “It's the place, all right. Set down, Kiddo—take off your hat and + things. Make yourself at home.” + </p> + <p> + Nance flew at him in a sudden frenzy at his assumption of insolent + ownership of her cabin. + </p> + <p> + “There's no place for ye to sleep!” she fairly shrieked in his face. + </p> + <p> + Again Jim's arms were over her head, waving her down. + </p> + <p> + “All right, sweetheart! We're from New York. We don't sleep. We've come + all the way down here to the mountains of North Carolina just to see you. + And we're goin' to sit up all night and look at ye——” + </p> + <p> + He sat down deliberately, and Nance fumbled her hands with a nervous + movement. + </p> + <p> + Mary's heart went out in sympathy to the forlorn old creature in her + embarrassment. Her dress was dirty and ragged, an ill-fitting gingham, the + elbows out and her bare, bony arms showing through. The waist was too + short and always slipping from the belt of wrinkled cloth beneath which + she kept trying to stuff it. + </p> + <p> + Mary caught her restless eye at last and held it in a friendly look. + </p> + <p> + “Please let us stay!” she pleaded. “We can sleep on the floor—anywhere.” + </p> + <p> + “You bet!” Jim joined in. “Married two weeks—and I don't care + whether it rains or whether it pours or how long I have to stand outdoors—if + I can be with you, Kid.” + </p> + <p> + The old woman hesitated until Mary's smile melted its way into her heart. + </p> + <p> + Her lips trembled, and her watery blue eyes blinked. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” she began grumblingly, “thar's a little single bed in that + shed-room thar for you—ef he'll sleep in here on the sofy.” + </p> + <p> + Jim leaped to his feet. + </p> + <p> + “What do ye think of that? Bully for the old gal! Kinder slow at first. As + the poet sings of the little bed-bug, she ain't got no wings—but she + gets there just the same!” + </p> + <p> + He drew the electric torch from his pocket and advanced on Nance. + </p> + <p> + “By Golly—I'll have another look at you.” + </p> + <p> + Nance backed in terror at the sight of the revolver-like instrument. + </p> + <p> + “What's that?” she gasped. + </p> + <p> + “Just a little Gatlin' gun!” he cried jokingly. He pressed the button, and + the light flashed squarely in the old woman's eyes. + </p> + <p> + “God 'lmighty—don't shoot!” she screamed. + </p> + <p> + Jim doubled with laughter. + </p> + <p> + “For the love o' Mike!” + </p> + <p> + Nance leaned against the side table and wiped the perspiration from her + brow. + </p> + <p> + “Lord! I thought you'd kilt me!” she panted, still trembling. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, don't be foolish!” Jim said persuasively. “It can't hurt you. Here, + take it in your hand—I'll show you how to work it. It's to nose + round dark places under the buzz-wagon.” + </p> + <p> + He held it out to Nance. + </p> + <p> + “Here, take it and press the button.” + </p> + <p> + The old woman drew back. + </p> + <p> + “No—no—I'm skeered! No——” + </p> + <p> + Jim thrust the torch into her hand and forced her to hold it. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, come on, it's easy. Push your finger right down on the button.” + </p> + <p> + Nance tried it gingerly at first, and then laughed at the ease with which + it could be done. She flashed it on the floor again and again. + </p> + <p> + “Why, it's like a big lightnin' bug, ain't it?” + </p> + <p> + She turned the end of it up to examine more closely, pushed the button + unconsciously, and the light flashed in her eyes. She jumped and handed it + quickly to Jim. + </p> + <p> + “Or a jack o' lantern—here, take it,” she cried, still trembling. + </p> + <p> + Jim threw his hands up with a laugh. + </p> + <p> + “Can you beat it!” + </p> + <p> + Backing quickly to the door, Nance called nervously to Mary: + </p> + <p> + “I'll get your room ready in a minute, ma'am.” She paused and glanced at + Jim. + </p> + <p> + “And thar's a shed out thar you can put your devil wagon in——” + </p> + <p> + She slipped through the dirty calico curtains, and Mary saw her go with + wondering pity in her heart. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV. A LITTLE BLACK BAG + </h2> + <p> + Mary watched Nance, with a quick glance at Jim. Again he had forgotten + that he had a wife. She had studied this strange absorption with + increasing uneasiness. During the long, beautiful drive of the afternoon + beside laughing waters, through scenes of unparalleled splendor, through + valleys of entrancing peace, the still, sapphire skies bending above with + clear, Southern Christmas benediction, he had not once pressed her hand, + he had not once bent to kiss her. + </p> + <p> + Each time the thought had come, she fought back the tears. She had made + excuses for him. He was absorbed in the memories of his miserable + childhood in New York, perhaps. The approaching meeting with his relatives + had awakened the old hunger for a mother's love that had been denied him. + The scenes through which they were passing had perhaps stirred the + currents of his subconscious being. + </p> + <p> + And yet why should such memories estrange his spirit from hers? The effect + should be the opposite. In the remembrance of his loneliness and + suffering, he should instinctively turn to her. The love with which she + had unfolded his life should redeem the past. + </p> + <p> + He was standing now with his heavy chin silhouetted against the flickering + light of the candle on the table. His hand closed suddenly on the handle + of the bag with the swift clutch of an eagle's claw. She started at the + ugly picture it made in the dim rays of the candle. + </p> + <p> + What were the thoughts seething behind the mask of his face? She watched + him, spellbound by his complete surrender to the mood that had dominated + him from the moment he had touched the deep forests of the Black Mountain + range. A grim elation ruled even his silences. The man standing there + rigid, his face a smiling, twitching mask, was a stranger. This man she + had never known, or loved. And yet they were bound for life in the + tenderest and strongest ties that can hold the human soul and body. + </p> + <p> + She tossed her head and threw off the ugly thought. It was morbid + nonsense! She was just hungry for a kiss, and in his new environment he + had forgotten himself as many thoughtless men had forgotten before and + would forget again. + </p> + <p> + “Jim!” she whispered tenderly. + </p> + <p> + He made no answer. His thick lips were drawn in deep, twisted lines on one + side, as if he had suddenly reached a decision from which there could be + no appeal. + </p> + <p> + She raised her voice slightly. + </p> + <p> + “Jim?” + </p> + <p> + Not a muscle of his body moved. The drawn lines of the mouth merely + relaxed. His answer was scarcely audible. + </p> + <p> + “Yep——” + </p> + <p> + “She's gone!” + </p> + <p> + “Yep——” + </p> + <p> + She moved toward him wistfully. + </p> + <p> + “Aren't you forgetting something?” + </p> + <p> + His square jaw still held its rigid position silhouetted in sharp profile + against the candle's light. He answered slowly and mechanically. + </p> + <p> + “What?” + </p> + <p> + His indifference was more than the sore heart could bear. The pent-up + tears of the afternoon dashed in flood against the barriers of her will. + </p> + <p> + “You—haven't—kissed—me—today,” she stammered, + struggling with each word to save a break. + </p> + <p> + Still he stood immovable. This time his answer was tinged with the + slightest suggestion of amusement. + </p> + <p> + “No?” + </p> + <p> + She staggered against the table beside the door and gripped its edge + desperately. + </p> + <p> + “Oh—” she gasped. “Don't you love me any more?” + </p> + <p> + With his sullen head still holding its position of indifference, his + absorption in the idea which dominated his mind still unbroken, he threw + out one hand in a gesture of irritation. + </p> + <p> + “Cut it, Kid! Cut it!” + </p> + <p> + His tones were not only indifferent; they were contemptuously indifferent. + </p> + <p> + With a sob, she sank into the chair and buried her face in her arms. + </p> + <p> + “You're tired! I see it now; you've tired of me. Oh—it's not + possible—it's not possible!” + </p> + <p> + The torrent came at last in a flood of utter abandonment. + </p> + <p> + Jim turned, looked at her and threw up his hands in temporary surrender. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, for God's sake!” he muttered, crossing deliberately to her side. He + stood and let her sob. + </p> + <p> + With a quick change of mood, he drew her to her feet, swept her swaying + form into his arms, crushed her and covered her lips with kisses. + </p> + <p> + “How's that?” + </p> + <p> + She smiled through her tears. + </p> + <p> + “I feel better——” + </p> + <p> + Jim laughed. + </p> + <p> + “For better or worse—`until Death do us part'—that's what you + said, Kid, and you meant it, too, didn't you?” + </p> + <p> + He seized both of her arms, held them firmly and gazed into her eyes with + steady, stern inquiry. + </p> + <p> + She looked up with uneasy surprise. + </p> + <p> + “Of course—I meant it,” she answered slowly. + </p> + <p> + He held her arms gripped close and said: + </p> + <p> + “Well—we'll see!” + </p> + <p> + His hands relaxed, and he turned away, rubbing his square chin + thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + She watched him in growing amazement. What could be the mystery back of + this new twist of his elusive mind? + </p> + <p> + He laid his hand on the black bag again, smiled, and turned and faced her + with expanding good humor. + </p> + <p> + “Great scheme, this marryin', Kid! And you believe in it exactly as I do, + don't you?” + </p> + <p> + “How do you mean?” she faltered. + </p> + <p> + “That it binds and holds both our lives as only Almighty God can bind and + hold?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—nothing else IS marriage.” + </p> + <p> + “That's what I say, too!” + </p> + <p> + He placed his hands on her shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “Great scheme!” he repeated. “I get a pretty girl to work for me for + nothing for the balance of my life.” He paused and lifted the slender + forefinger of his right hand. “And you pledged your pious soul—I + memorized the words, every one of them: `I, Mary, take thee, James, to my + wedded husband—TO HAVE AND TO HOLD from this day forward, FOR + BETTER, FOR WORSE, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to + love, cherish AND OBEY, TIL DEATH DO US PART, ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY + ORDINANCE; AND THEREUNTO I GIVE THEE MY TROTH——'” + </p> + <p> + He paused, lifted his head and smiled grimly: “That's some promise, + believe me, Kiddo! `AND OBEY'—you meant it all, didn't you?” + </p> + <p> + She would have hedged lightly over that ugly old word which still survived + in the ceremony Craddock had used, but for the sinister suggestion in his + voice back of the playful banter. He had asked it half in jest, half in + earnest. She had caught by the subtle sixth sense the tragic idea in that + one word that he was going to hold her to it. The thought was too absurd! + </p> + <p> + “OBEY—you meant it, didn't you?” he repeated grimly. + </p> + <p> + A smile played about the corners of her mouth as she answered dreamily: + </p> + <p> + “Yes—I—I—PROMISED!” + </p> + <p> + “That's why I set my head on you from the first—you're good and + sweet—you're the real thing.” + </p> + <p> + Again she caught the sinister suggestion in his tone and threw him a + startled look. + </p> + <p> + “What has come over you today, Jim?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + He hesitated and answered carelessly. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, nothing, Kiddo—just been thinking a little about business. Got + to go to work, you know.” He returned to the table and touched the bag + lightly. + </p> + <p> + “Watch out now for this bag while I put up the car—and don't forget + that curiosity killed the cat.” + </p> + <p> + Quick as a flash, she asked: + </p> + <p> + “What's in it?” + </p> + <p> + Jim threw up his hands and laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Didn't I tell you that curiosity killed a cat?” He pointed to the skin on + the wall. “That's what stretched that wild-cat's hide up there! She got + too near the old musket!” + </p> + <p> + “Anyhow, I'm not afraid of her end—what's in it?” + </p> + <p> + Jim scratched his red head and looked at her thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “You asked me that once before today, didn't you?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes——” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it's a little secret of mine. Take my advice—put your hand on + it, but not in it.” + </p> + <p> + Again the sinister look and tone chilled her. + </p> + <p> + “I don't like secrets between us, Jim,” she said. + </p> + <p> + She looked at the bag reproachfully, and he watched her keenly—then + laughed. + </p> + <p> + “I'd as well tell you and be done with it; you'll go in it anyhow.” + </p> + <p> + She tossed her head with a touch of angry pride. He took her hand, led her + across the room and placed it on the valise. + </p> + <p> + “I've got five thousand dollars in gold in that bag.” + </p> + <p> + She drew back, surprised beyond the power of speech. + </p> + <p> + “And I'm going to give it to this old woman——” + </p> + <p> + “To her—why?” she gasped. + </p> + <p> + “She's my mother.” + </p> + <p> + “Your MOTHER?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “I—I—thought—you told me she was dead.” + </p> + <p> + “No. I said that I didn't know who she was.” + </p> + <p> + He paused, and a queer brooding look crept into his face. + </p> + <p> + “I haven't seen her since I was a little duffer three years old. This room + and these wild crags and trees come back to me now—just a glimpse of + them here and there. I've always remembered them. I thought I'd dreamed it——” + </p> + <p> + “You remember—how wonderful!” she breathed reverently. She + understood now, and the clouds lifted. + </p> + <p> + “The skunk I called my daddy,” Jim went on thoughtfully, “took me to New + York. He said that my mother deserted me when I was a kid. I believed him + at first. But when he beat me and kicked me into the streets, I knew he + was a liar. When I got grown I began to think and wonder about her. I + hired a lawyer that knew my daddy, and he found her here——” + </p> + <p> + With a cry of joy, she seized his arms: + </p> + <p> + “Tell her quick! Oh, you're big and fine and generous, Jim—and I + knew it! They said that you were a brute. I knew they lied. Tell her + quick!” + </p> + <p> + He lifted his hand in protest. + </p> + <p> + “Nope—I'm going to put up a little job on the old girl—show + her the money tonight, get her wild at the sight of it—and give it + to her Christmas morning. We've only a few hours to wait——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, give it to her now—Jim! Give it to her now!” + </p> + <p> + He shook his head and walked to the door. + </p> + <p> + “I want to say something to her first and give her time to think it over. + Look out for the bag, and I'll bring in the things.” + </p> + <p> + He swung the rough board door wide, slammed it and disappeared in the + darkness. + </p> + <p> + The young wife watched the bag a moment with consuming curiosity. She had + fiercely resented his insulting insinuations at her curiosity, and yet she + was wild to look at that glowing pile of gold inside and picture the old + woman's joyous surprise. + </p> + <p> + Her hand touched the lock carelessly and drew back as if her finger had + been burned. She put her hands behind her and crossed the room. + </p> + <p> + “I won't be so weak and silly!” she cried fiercely. + </p> + <p> + She heard Jim cranking the car. It would take him five minutes more to + start it, get it under the shed and bring in the suit-case and robes. + </p> + <p> + “Why shouldn't I see it!” she exclaimed. “He has told me about it.” She + hesitated and struggled for a moment, quickly walked back to the bag and + touched the spring. It yielded instantly. + </p> + <p> + “Why, it's not even locked!” she cried in tones of surprise at her silly + scruples. + </p> + <p> + Her hand had just touched the gold when Nance entered. + </p> + <p> + She snapped the bag and smiled at the old woman carelessly. What a sweet + surprise she would have tomorrow morning! + </p> + <p> + Nance crossed slowly, glancing once at the girl wistfully as if she wanted + to say something friendly, and then, alarmed at her presumption, hurried + on into the little shed-room. + </p> + <p> + Mary waited until she returned. + </p> + <p> + “Room's all ready in thar, ma'am,” she drawled, passing into the kitchen + without a pause. + </p> + <p> + “All right—thank you,” Mary answered. + </p> + <p> + She quickly opened the bag, thrust her hand into the gold and withdrew it, + holding a costly green-leather jewelry-case of exquisite workmanship. + There could be no mistake about its value. + </p> + <p> + With a cry of joy, she started back, staring at the little box. + </p> + <p> + “Another surprise! And for me! Oh, Jim, man, you're glorious! My Christmas + present, of course! I mustn't look at it—I won't!” + </p> + <p> + She pushed the case from her toward the bag and drew it back again. + </p> + <p> + “What's the difference? I'll take one little, tiny peep.” + </p> + <p> + She touched the spring and caught her breath. A string of pearls fit for + the neck of a princess lay shining in its soft depths. She lifted them + with a sigh of delight. Her eye suddenly rested on a stanza of poetry + scrawled on the satin lining in the trembling hand of an old man she had + known. + </p> + <p> + She dropped the pearls with a cry of terror. Her face went white, and she + gasped for breath. The jewel-case in her hand she had seen before. It had + belonged to the old gentleman who lived in the front room on the first + floor of her building in the days when it was a boarding house. The wife + he had idolized was long ago dead. This string of pearls from her neck the + old man had worshiped for years. The stanza from “The Rosary” he had + scrawled in the lining one day in Mary's presence. He had moved uptown + with the landlady. Two months ago a burglar had entered his room, robbed + and shot him. + </p> + <p> + “It's impossible—impossible!” she gasped. “Oh, dear God—it's + impossible! Of course the burglar pawned them, and Jim bought them without + knowing. Of course! My nerves are on edge today—how silly of me——” + </p> + <p> + Jim's footsteps suddenly sounded on the porch, and she thrust the + jewel-case back into the bag with desperate effort to pull herself + together. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI. THE AWAKENING + </h2> + <p> + For a moment she felt the foundations of the moral and physical world + sinking beneath her feet. Dizziness swept her senses. She gripped the + table, leaning heavily against it, her eye watching the door with feverish + terror for Jim's appearance. + </p> + <p> + She had never fainted in her life. It was absurd, but the room was + swimming now in a dim blur. Again she gripped the table and set her teeth. + She simply would not give up. Why should she leap to the worst possible + explanation of the jewels? The hatred of old Ella for Jim and the furious + antagonism of Jane Anderson had poisoned her mind, after all. It was + infamous that she could suspect her husband of crime merely because two + silly women didn't like him. + </p> + <p> + He could explain the jewels. He, of course, asked no questions of the + pawn-broker. They were probably sold at auction and he bought them. + </p> + <p> + It seemed an eternity from the time Jim's foot step echoed on the little + porch until he pushed the door open and hastily entered, his arms piled + with lap-robes, coats and the dress-suit case in his hand. + </p> + <p> + He walked with quick, firm step, threw the coats and robes on the couch + and placed the suit-case at its head. He hadn't turned toward her and his + face was still in profile while he removed the gloves from his pockets, + threw them on the robes, and drew the scarlet woolen neckpiece from his + throat. + </p> + <p> + She was studying him now with new terror-stricken eyes. Never had she seen + his jaw look so big and brutal. Never had the droop of his eyelids + suggested such menace. Never had the contrast of his slender hands and + feet suggested such hideous possibilities. + </p> + <p> + “Merciful God! No! No!” she kept repeating in her soul while her dilated + eyes stared at him in sheer horror of the suggestion which the jewels had + roused. + </p> + <p> + She drew a deep breath and strangled the idea by her will. + </p> + <p> + “I'll at least be as fair as a jury,” she thought grimly. “I'll not + condemn him without a hearing.” + </p> + <p> + Jim suddenly became aware of the menace of her silence. She had not moved + a muscle, spoken or made the slightest sound since he had entered. He had + merely taken in the room at a glance and had seen her standing in + precisely the same place beside the table. + </p> + <p> + He saw now that she was leaning heavily against it. + </p> + <p> + He raised his head and faced her with a sudden, bold stare, and his voice + rang in tones of sharp command. + </p> + <p> + “Well?” + </p> + <p> + She tried to speak and failed. She had not yet sufficiently mastered her + emotions. + </p> + <p> + “What's the matter?” he growled. + </p> + <p> + “Jim——” she gasped. + </p> + <p> + He took a step toward her with set teeth. + </p> + <p> + “You've been in that bag—Well?” + </p> + <p> + Her face was white, her voice husky. + </p> + <p> + “Those jewels, Jim——” + </p> + <p> + A cunning smile played about his mouth and he shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “I tried to keep my little secret from you till Christmas morning; but + you're on to my curves now, Kiddo, and I'll have to 'fess up——” + </p> + <p> + “You bought them for me?” she asked with trembling eagerness. + </p> + <p> + “Who else do you reckon I'd buy 'em for? I was going to surprise you, too, + tomorrow morning. You've spoiled the fun.” + </p> + <p> + She had slipped close to his side and he could hear her quick intake of + breath. + </p> + <p> + “That's—so—sweet of you, Jim. I'm sorry—I—spoiled + the surprise—you'd—planned——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, what's the difference!” he broke in carelessly. “It's all the same + five minutes after, anyhow. Well, don't you like 'em? Why don't you say + something?” + </p> + <p> + “They're wonderful, Jim. Where—where—did you buy them?” + </p> + <p> + He held her gaze in silence for an instant and fenced. + </p> + <p> + “Isn't that a funny question, Kiddo?” he said in low tones. “I once heard + the old man I worked with in the shop say that you shouldn't look a gift + horse in the mouth.” + </p> + <p> + “I just want to know,” she insisted. + </p> + <p> + “I'm not going to tell you!” he said with a dry laugh. + </p> + <p> + “Why not?” + </p> + <p> + “Because you keep asking.” + </p> + <p> + “You wish to tease me?” + </p> + <p> + “Maybe.” + </p> + <p> + “Please!” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you want to know? Are you afraid they're fakes?” + </p> + <p> + “No, they're beautiful—they're wonderful.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, if you don't want them,” he broke in angrily, “I'll keep them. I'll + sell them.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't tease me, Jim!” she begged. “I don't mind if you bought them at a + pawn-shop—if that's why you won't tell me. That is the reason, isn't + it? Honestly, isn't it?” + </p> + <p> + She asked the question with eager intensity. She had persuaded herself + that it was so and the horror had been lifted. She pressed close with + smiling, trembling lips: + </p> + <p> + “I don't mind that, Jim! You got them from a pawn-broker, of course, + didn't you?” + </p> + <p> + He looked at her with a puzzled expression and hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “Didn't you?” she repeated. + </p> + <p> + “No—I didn't!” was the curt answer. + </p> + <p> + “You didn't?” she echoed feebly. + </p> + <p> + “No!” + </p> + <p> + With a quick breath she unconsciously drew back and he glared at her + angrily. + </p> + <p> + “Say, what'ell's the matter with you, anyhow? Have you gone crazy?” + </p> + <p> + “You—won't—tell me—where you bought them?” she asked + slowly. + </p> + <p> + He faced her squarely and spoke with deliberate contempt: + </p> + <p> + “It's—none—of your business!” + </p> + <p> + She held his gaze with steady determination. + </p> + <p> + “That string of pearls belongs to the man who once lived in the front room + of my old building in New York. He moved uptown with my landlady. A few + months ago a burglar robbed and shot him——” + </p> + <p> + She stopped, seized his arm and cried with strangling horror: + </p> + <p> + “Jim! Jim! Where did you get them?” + </p> + <p> + “Now I know you've gone crazy! You don't suppose that's the only string of + pearls in the world, do you? Did you count 'em? Did you weigh 'em?” + </p> + <p> + “Where did you get them?” she demanded. + </p> + <p> + “What put it into your head that that string of pearls belonged to your + old boarder?” + </p> + <p> + “I saw him write the stanza of poetry on the satin lining of that case. + I've heard him recite it over and over again in his piping voice: `Each + bead a pearl—my rosary!' I KNOW that they belonged to him!” + </p> + <p> + His mouth twitched angrily and he faced her, speaking with cold, brutal + frankness. + </p> + <p> + “I might keep on lying to you, Kiddo, and get away with it. But what's the + use? You've got to know. It's just as well now—I did that job——Yes!” + </p> + <p> + Her face blanched. + </p> + <p> + “You—a—burglar—a murderer!” + </p> + <p> + Jim followed her with quick, angry gestures. + </p> + <p> + “All I wanted was his money! He fought—it was his life or mine——” + </p> + <p> + “A murderer!” + </p> + <p> + “I just went after his money—I tell you—besides, he didn't + die; he got well. If he'd kept still he wouldn't have lost his pearls and + he wouldn't have been hurt——” + </p> + <p> + “And I stood up for you against them all!” she answered in a dazed + whisper. “They told me—Jane Anderson with brutal frankness, Ella + with the heart-rending, timid confession of her own tragic life—they + told me that you were bad. I said they were liars. I said that they envied + our happiness. I believed that you were big and brave and fine. I stood by + you and married you!” + </p> + <p> + She paused and looked at him steadily. In a rush of suppressed passion she + seized his arm with a violence that caused his heavy eyelids to lift in + amused surprise. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Jim—it's not true! It's not true—it's not true! For God's + sake, tell me that you're joking!—that you're teasing me! You can't + mean it! I won't believe it—I won't believe it!” + </p> + <p> + Her head sank until it rested piteously against his breast. He stood with + his face turned awkwardly away and then moved his body until she was + forced to stand erect. + </p> + <p> + He touched her shoulder gently and spoke soothingly: + </p> + <p> + “Come, now, Kid, don't take on so. I'll quit the business when I make my + pile.” + </p> + <p> + She drew back instinctively and he followed: + </p> + <p> + “I'll never touch another penny of yours. There's blood on it!” + </p> + <p> + “Rot!” he went on soothingly. “It's good Wall Street cash—got it + exactly like they got theirs—got it because I was quicker and + smarter than the fellow that had it. I use a jimmy, they use a ticker—that's + all the difference.” + </p> + <p> + She drew her figure to its full height. + </p> + <p> + “I'm going—Jim——” + </p> + <p> + “Where?” + </p> + <p> + His voice rasped like a file against steel. + </p> + <p> + “Home!” + </p> + <p> + “Your home's with me.” + </p> + <p> + “I won't live with a thief!” + </p> + <p> + He stepped squarely before her and spoke with deliberate menace. + </p> + <p> + “You're—not—going!” + </p> + <p> + “Get out of my way!” she cried defiantly. + </p> + <p> + His big jaw closed with a snap and his figure became rigid. The candle's + yellow light threw a strange glare on his face, convulsed. The blue flames + of hell were in the glitter of his steel eyes. + </p> + <p> + Her heart sank in a dull wave of terror. She tried to gauge the depth of + his brutal rage. There was no standard by which to measure it. She had + never seen that look in his face before. His whole being was transformed + by some sinister power. + </p> + <p> + She was afraid to move, but her mind was alert in this moment of supreme + trial. She hadn't used her last weapon yet. The fact that he held her with + such terrible determination was proof of the spell she had cast over him. + She might save him. He couldn't have been a criminal long. She formed her + new battle-line with quick decision. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII. THE SURRENDER + </h2> + <p> + How long she gazed into the convulsed face of the man who had squared + himself before her, mattered little measured by the tick of the watch in + her belt. Into the mental anguish endured a life's agony had been pressed. + It could not have been more than twenty seconds, and yet it marked the + birth of a new being within the soul of a woman. She had been searching + only for her own happiness. The search had entangled another in the meshes + of her life. Too much had been lived in the past two weeks to be undone by + a word and forgotten in a day. She had attempted, coward-like, to run. + </p> + <p> + She saw now in the consuming flame of a great sorrow that the man before + her had some rights which the purest woman must reckon with. He might be a + burglar. At least it was her duty to try to save him from himself. Her + surrender of the past weeks was a tie that would bind them through all + eternity. There was no chemistry of earth or heaven or hell that could + erase its memories. Her life was no longer her own—this man's was + bound with hers. She must face the facts. She would make one honest, brave + effort to save him. To do this she would give all without reservation—pride + must be cast to the winds. + </p> + <p> + Her voice suddenly changed to tears. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Jim, you do love me, don't you?” + </p> + <p> + His body slowly relaxed, his eyes shifted, and he shrugged his square + shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “What'ell did I marry you for?” + </p> + <p> + “Tell me—do you?” she demanded. + </p> + <p> + “You know that I love you. What do you ask me such a fool question for? I + love you with a love that can kill. Do you hear me? That's why you're not + going anywhere without me.” + </p> + <p> + There was no mistaking the depth of his passion. She trembled to realize + its power and yet it was the lever by which she must move him. + </p> + <p> + “Then you've got to give this life up. You're young and brave and strong. + You can earn an honest living. You haven't been in this long—I feel + it, I know it. Have you?” + </p> + <p> + “No!” + </p> + <p> + “How long?” + </p> + <p> + “Eight months.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Jim, dear, you must give it up now for my sake. I'll work with you + and work for you. I'll teach, I'll sew, I'll scrub, I'll slave for you day + and night—if you're only clean and honest.” + </p> + <p> + He turned on her fiercely. + </p> + <p> + “Cut it, Kid—cut it! I'm out for the stuff now. I'm going to get + rich and I'm going to get rich QUICK—that's all that's the matter + with me!” + </p> + <p> + “But, Jim,” she broke in tenderly—“you did earn an honest living. + Your workshop proves that.” + </p> + <p> + “I've used that to improve my tools and melt the swag the past year. The + shop's all right.” + </p> + <p> + “But you did make a successful invention?” + </p> + <p> + “You bet I did,” he answered savagely, “and that's why I quit the + business. Three years ago I took down a big automobile and worked out an + improvement in the transmission that settled the question of heavy draft + machines. I took it to a lawyer in Wall Street and he took it to a man + that had money. Between the two of 'em, they didn't do a thing to me! They + were going to put my patent on the market and make me a millionaire. God, + I was crazy——” + </p> + <p> + He paused and squared his shoulders with a deep breath. + </p> + <p> + “They put it on the market all right and they made some millionaires—but + I wasn't one of 'em, Kiddo! They got me to sign a paper that skinned me + out of every dollar as slick as you can pull an eel through your fingers. + I hired another lawyer and gave him half he could get to beat 'em. He + fought like a tiger and two days before I met you he got his verdict and + they paid it—just ten thousand dollars. Think of it—ten + thousand dollars! And each of them got a million cash. They sold it + outright for two millions and a half. My lawyer got five thousand dollars, + and I got five thousand dollars. That's mine, anyhow. It's in that bag + there. I'm working on a new set of tools now in my shop. I'm going to get + that money back from the two thieves who stole it from me by law. I'll + take it by force, the way they took it. If I can croak them both in the + fight—well, there'll be two thieves less to rob honest men and + women, that's all.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Jim!” Mary gasped, lifting a trembling hand to her throat as if to + tear open her collar. “You're mad. You don't know what you're saying——” + </p> + <p> + “Don't fool yourself, Kiddo,” he interrupted fiercely. “My eyes are open + now, and I've got a level head back of 'em, too. I've doped it all out. + You ought to 'a' heard that lawyer give me a few lessons in business when + he'd skinned me and salted my hide. He was good-natured and confidential. + He seemed to love me. `Business is war, sonny,' he piped, between the + puffs of the big Havana cigar he was smoking—`war! war to the knife! + We got you off your guard and put the knife into you at the right minute—that's + all. Don't take it so hard! Invent something else and keep your eyes + peeled. You ought to love us for giving you an education in business early + in life. You're young. You won't have to learn your lesson again. Go to + work, sonny, in your shop, and turn out another new tool for the + advancement of trade!'” + </p> + <p> + He paused and smiled grimly. + </p> + <p> + “I've done it, too! I've just finished a little invention that'll crack + any safe in New York in twenty minutes after I touch it.” + </p> + <p> + He broke into a dry laugh, sat down and deliberately lighted a fresh + cigarette. + </p> + <p> + She studied his face with beating heart. Was he lost beyond all hope of + reformation? Or was this the boyish bravado of an amateur criminal + poisoned by the consciousness of wrong? She tried to think. She felt the + red blood pounding through her heart and beating against her brain in + suffocating waves of despair. + </p> + <p> + In vivid flashes the scene of her marriage but two weeks ago, came back in + tormenting memories. The solemn words she had spoken kept ringing like the + throb of a funeral bell far up in the star-lit heavens—— + </p> + <p> + “I, MARY ADAMS, TAKE THEE, JAMES ANTHONY, TO MY WEDDED HUSBAND, TO HAVE + AND TO HOLD... FOR BETTER FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS + AND IN HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH, AND TO OBEY, TILL DEATH DO US PART, + ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE; AND THERETO I GIVE THEE MY TROTH.” + </p> + <p> + The last solemn prayer kept ringing its deep-toned message over all—— + </p> + <p> + “GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, GOD THE HOLY GHOST, BLESS, PRESERVE, AND + KEEP YOU; THE LORD MERCIFULLY WITH HIS FAVOR LOOK UPON YOU, AND FILL YOU + WITH ALL SPIRITUAL BENEDICTION AND GRACE; THAT YE MAY SO LIVE TOGETHER IN + THIS LIFE, THAT IN THE WORLD TO COME YE MAY HAVE LIFE EVERLASTING. AMEN.” + </p> + <p> + In a sudden rush of desperate pity for herself and the man to whom she was + bound, she dropped on her knees by his side, slipped her arms about his + neck and clung to him, sobbing. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Jim, Jim, man,” she whispered hoarsely. “I can't see you sink into + hell like this! Have you no real love in your heart for the woman who has + given all? Have mercy on me! Have mercy! You can't mean the hideous things + you've just said! You've been crazed by your losses. You're just a boy + yet. Life is all before you. You're only twenty-four. I'm just + twenty-four. We can both begin anew. I've never lived until these past + weeks—neither have you. You couldn't drag me down into a life of + crime——” + </p> + <p> + Her head sank and her voice choked into silence. He made no movement of + his hand to soothe her. His voice was not persuasive. It was hard and + cold. + </p> + <p> + “I'm not asking you to help me on any of my jobs,” he said. “I'm the + financier of the family. You can say the prayers and keep house.” + </p> + <p> + “Knowing that you are a criminal? That your hands are stained with human + blood?” + </p> + <p> + “Why not?” he snapped, the blue blaze flashing again in his eyes. “Suppose + you were the wife of the gentlemanly lawyer-thief who robbed me, using the + law instead of a jimmy—would you bother your little head about my + business? Does his wife ask him where he got it? Does anybody know or + care? He lives on Fifth Avenue now. He bought a palace up there the day + after he got my money. We passed it on the way to the Park the day I met + you. A line of carriages was standing in front and finely dressed women + were running up the red carpet that led down the stoop and under the + canopy to the curb. Did any of the gay dames who smiled and smirked at + that thief's wife ask how he got the money to buy the house? Not much. + Would they have cared if they had known? They'd have called him a shrewd + lawyer—that's all! Do you reckon his wife worries about such tricks + of trade? Why should mine worry?” + </p> + <p> + She gripped his hand with desperate pleading. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Jim, dear, you can't be a criminal at heart! I wouldn't have loved + you if it had been true. I can't believe it! I won't believe it. You're + posing. You don't mean this. You can't mean it. You're going to return + every dishonest dollar that you've taken.” + </p> + <p> + “You don't know what you're talking about!” + </p> + <p> + He closed his jaw with a snap and leaned close in eager, tense excitement. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know how much junk I've piled into a little box in my shop the + past three months?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't care—I don't want to know!” + </p> + <p> + “You've got to care—you've got to know now! It's worth a hundred + thousand dollars, do you hear? A hundred thousand dollars! It would take + me a life-time to earn that on a salary. In two weeks after we get back to + New York with my new invention that lawyer advised me to make, I'll go + through his house—I'll open his safe, I'll take every diamond, every + pearl and every scrap of stolen jewelry his wife's wearing. And I won't + leave a fingerprint on the window sill. I've got two of his servants + working for me. + </p> + <p> + “In six months I'll be worth half a million. In a year I'll pull off the + big haul I'm planning and I'll be a millionaire. We'll retire from + business then—just like they did. We'll build our marble palace down + at Bay Ridge and our yacht will nod in the harbor. We'll spend our summers + in Europe when we like and every snob and fool in New York will fall over + himself to meet me. And every woman will envy my wife. I'm young, Kiddo, + but I've cut my eye teeth. You've just been born. I'm running the business + end of this thing. You think you can reform me. You can—AFTER I'VE + MADE OUR PILE. I'll join the church then and sing louder than that lawyer. + But if you think you're going to stop my business career at this stage of + the game—forget it, forget it!” + </p> + <p> + He sprang up with a quick movement of his tense body and threw her off. + She rose and watched his restless steps as he paced the floor. Her mind + was numb as if from a mortal blow. She brushed the tangled ringlets of + brown hair back from her forehead, drew the handkerchief from her belt and + wiped the perspiration from her brow. + </p> + <p> + Before she could gather the strength to speak, he wheeled suddenly and + confronted her: + </p> + <p> + “I've known from the first, Kiddo, that you're not the kind to help in + this business. I don't expect it. I don't ask it. I need a ranch like this + down here for storage. I'm going to take the old woman into partnership + with me.” + </p> + <p> + She started back in an instinctive recoil of horror. + </p> + <p> + “Your MOTHER?” + </p> + <p> + He nodded. + </p> + <p> + “Yep!” + </p> + <p> + She drew a step nearer and peered into his set face. + </p> + <p> + “YOU WILL MAKE YOUR OWN MOTHER A CRIMINAL?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure!” he growled. “That's what I came down here for.” + </p> + <p> + “She won't do it!” + </p> + <p> + “She won't, eh?” he sneered. “Look at this hog pen!” + </p> + <p> + He swept the bare, wretched cabin with a gesture of contempt and shrugged + his shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “Look at the rags she's wearing,” he went on savagely. “When we talk it + over tonight with that five thousand dollars in gold shining in her eyes—I'm + going to show her a lot o' things she never saw before, Kiddo—take + it from me!” + </p> + <p> + She answered in slow, even tones: + </p> + <p> + “I can't live with you, Jim.” + </p> + <p> + The blue flames beneath the drooping eyelids were leaping now in the + yellow glare of the candle's rays. The muscles of his body were knotted. + His voice came from his throat a low growl. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know who you're fooling with?” + </p> + <p> + The blood of a clean life flamed in her cheeks and nerved her with + reckless daring. Her figure stiffened and her voice rang with defiant + scorn: + </p> + <p> + “Yes. I know at last—a thief who would drag his own mother down to + hell with him!” + </p> + <p> + Not a muscle of his powerful body moved; his face was a stolid mask. He + threw his words slowly through his teeth: + </p> + <p> + “Now you listen to me. You're my wife. I didn't invent this marriage game. + I played it as I found it. And that's the way you're going to play it. + You're good and sweet and clean—I like that kind, and I won't have + no other. You're mine. MINE, do you hear! Mine for life—body and + soul—`FOR BETTER FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS AND + IN HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH'——” + </p> + <p> + He paused and thrust his massive jaw squarely into her face: + </p> + <p> + “`——AND OBEY!'” he hissed, “`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART, ACCORDING + TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE'—you said it, didn't you?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes——” + </p> + <p> + “Well?” + </p> + <p> + She turned from him with sudden aversion: + </p> + <p> + “I didn't know what you were——” + </p> + <p> + “Nobody ever knows BEFORE they're married!” he broke in savagely. “You + took your chances. I took mine—`FOR BETTER FOR WORSE.' We'll just + say now it's for worse and let it go at that!” + </p> + <p> + The little body stiffened. + </p> + <p> + “I'll die first!” + </p> + <p> + He held her gaze without words, searching the depths of her being with the + cold, blue flame in his drooping eyes. If she were bluffing, it was easy. + She could talk her head off for all he cared. If she meant it, he might + have his hands full unless he mastered the situation at once and for all + time. + </p> + <p> + There was no sign of yielding to his iron will. An indomitable soul had + risen in her frail body and defied him. His decision was instantaneous. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you'll die sooner than live with me—eh?” + </p> + <p> + There was something hideous in the cold venom with which he drawled the + words. Her heart fairly stopped its beating. With the last ounce of + courage left, she held her place and answered: + </p> + <p> + “Yes!” + </p> + <p> + With the sudden crouch of a tiger he drew his clenched fist to strike. + </p> + <p> + “Forget it!” + </p> + <p> + She sprang back with terror, her body trembling in pitiful weakness. + </p> + <p> + “You snivelling little coward!” he growled. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Jim, Jim,” she faltered,—“you—you—couldn't strike + me!” + </p> + <p> + A step nearer and he stood over her, his big, flat head thrust forward, + his eyes gleaming, his muscles knotted in blind rage. + </p> + <p> + “No—I won't STRIKE you,” he whispered. “I'll just KILL you—that's + all!” + </p> + <p> + With the leap of an infuriated beast he sprang on her and his sharp + fingers gripped her throat. + </p> + <p> + The world went black and she felt herself sinking into a bottomless abyss. + With maniac energy she tore his hands from her throat and the warm blood + streamed from the gash his nails had torn. + </p> + <p> + “Jim! Jim! For God's sake!” she moaned in abject terror. + </p> + <p> + With a sullen growl, his fingers, sharp as a leopard's claw, found her + neck again and closed with a grip that sent the blood surging to her brain + and her eyes starting from their sockets. + </p> + <p> + The one hideous thought that flashed through her mind was that he was + going to plunge his claws into her eyes and blind her for life. He could + hold her his prisoner then. She made a last desperate struggle for breath, + her hands relaxed, she drooped and sank to the couch toward which he had + hurled her in the first rush of his assault. + </p> + <p> + He lifted her and choked the slender neck again to make sure, loosed his + hands and the limp body dropped on the couch and was still. + </p> + <p> + He stood watching her in silence, his arms at his side. + </p> + <p> + “Damned little fool!” he muttered. “I had to give you that lesson. The + sooner the better!” + </p> + <p> + He waited with contemptuous indifference until she slowly recovered + consciousness. She lay motionless for a long time and then slowly opened + her eyes. + </p> + <p> + Thank God! They had not been gouged out as poor Ella's. She didn't mind + the warm blood that soaked her collar and ran down her neck. If he would + only spare her eyes. Blindness had been her one unspeakable terror. She + closed her eyes again and silently prayed for strength. Her strength was + gone. Wave after wave of sickening, cowardly terror swept her prostrate + soul. She could feel his sullen presence—his body with its merciless + strength towering above her. She dared not look. She knew that he was + watching her with cruel indifference. A single cry, a single word and he + might thrust his claw into her eyes and the light of the world would go + out forever. + </p> + <p> + Her terror was too hideous; she could endure it no longer. She must move. + She must try to save herself. She lifted her head and caught his steady, + venomous gaze. + </p> + <p> + A quick, sliding movement of abject fear and she was erect, facing him and + backing away silently. + </p> + <p> + He followed with even step, his gaze holding her as the eyes of a snake + its victim. She would not let him know her terror of blindness. She + preferred death a thousand times. If he would only kill her outright it + was all the mercy she would ask. + </p> + <p> + “You—won't—kill—me—Jim!” she sobbed. “Please—please, + don't kill me!” + </p> + <p> + He lifted his sharp finger and followed her toward the shed-room door, his + voice the triumphant cry of an eagle above his prey. + </p> + <p> + “`FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE—UNTIL DEATH DO US PART!'” + </p> + <p> + Her heart gave a bound of cowardly joy. He had relented. He would not + blind her. She could live. She was young and life was sweet. + </p> + <p> + She tried to smile her surrender through her tears as she backed slowly + away from his ominous finger. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I'll try—Jim. I'll try—`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART—UNTIL + DEATH—UNTIL DEATH——'” + </p> + <p> + Her voice broke into a flood of tears as she blindly felt her way through + the door and into the darkened room. + </p> + <p> + He paused on the threshold, held the creaking board shutter in his hand + and broke into a laugh. + </p> + <p> + “The world ain't big enough for you to get away from me, Kiddo. Good night—a + good little wife now and it's all right!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII. TO THE NEW GOD + </h2> + <p> + Jim closed the door of the little shed-room with a bang, and stood + listening a moment to the sobs inside. + </p> + <p> + “`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART,' Kiddo!” he laughed grimly. + </p> + <p> + He turned back into the room and saw Nance standing at the opposite + entrance between the calico curtains, an old, battered, flickering lantern + in her hand. A white wool shawl was thrown over the gray head and fell in + long, filmy waves about her thin figure. Her deep-sunken eyes were + exaggerated in the dim light of lantern and candle. She smiled wanly. + </p> + <p> + He stopped short at the apparition; a queer shiver of superstitious fear + shook him. The white form of Death suddenly and noiselessly appearing from + the darkness could not have been more uncanny. He had wondered vaguely + while the quarrel with his wife was progressing, what had become of his + mother. As the fight had reached its height, he had forgotten her. + </p> + <p> + She looked at him, blinking her eyes and trying to smile. + </p> + <p> + “Where the devil have you been, old gal?” he asked nervously. + </p> + <p> + “Nowhere,” she answered evasively. + </p> + <p> + “You've been mighty quiet on the trip anyhow. I see you've brought + something back from nowhere.” + </p> + <p> + Nance glanced down at the jug she carried in her left hand and laughed. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Nothin'——” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin' from nowhere sounds pretty good to me when I see it in a brown + jug on Christmas Eve. You're all right, old gal! I was just going to ask + if you had a little mountain dew. You're a mind reader. I'll bet the + warehouse you keep that stored in is some snug harbor—eh?” + </p> + <p> + “They ain't never found it yit!” she giggled. + </p> + <p> + “And I'll bet they won't—bully for you!” + </p> + <p> + She took down a tin cup from a shelf and placed it beside the jug. + </p> + <p> + “Another glass, sweetheart——” + </p> + <p> + The old woman stared at him in surprise, walked to the shelf and brought + another tin cup. + </p> + <p> + “What do ye want with two?” she asked in surprise. + </p> + <p> + Jim moved toward the stool beside the table. + </p> + <p> + “Sit down.” + </p> + <p> + “Me?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure. Let's be sociable. It's Christmas Eve, isn't it?” + </p> + <p> + “Yeah!” Nance answered cheerfully, taking her seat and glancing timidly at + her guest. + </p> + <p> + Jim seized the jug, poured out two drinks of corn whiskey, handed her one + and raised his: + </p> + <p> + “Well, here's lookin' at you, old girl.” + </p> + <p> + He paused, lowered his cup and smiled. + </p> + <p> + “But say, give me a toast.” He nodded toward the shed-room. “I'm on my + honeymoon, you know.” + </p> + <p> + His hostess laughed timidly and glanced at him from the corners of her + eyes. She wished to be sociable and make up as best she could for her + rudeness on their arrival. + </p> + <p> + “I ain't never heard but one fur honeymooners,” she said softly. + </p> + <p> + “Let's have it. I've never heard a toast for honeymooners in my life. + It'll be new to me—fire away!” + </p> + <p> + Nance fumbled her faded dress with her left hand and laughed again. + </p> + <p> + “'May ye live long and prosper an' all yer troubles be LITTLE ONES!'” + </p> + <p> + She laughed aloud at the old, worm-eaten joke and Jim joined. + </p> + <p> + “Bully! Bully, old girl—bully!” + </p> + <p> + He lifted his cup and drained it at one draught and Nance did the same. + </p> + <p> + He seized the jug and poured another drink for each. + </p> + <p> + “Once more——” + </p> + <p> + He leaned across the table. + </p> + <p> + “And here's one for you.” He squared his body and lifted his cup: + </p> + <p> + “To all your little ones—no matter how big they are!” + </p> + <p> + Jim drained his liquor without apparently noticing her agitation, though + he was watching her keenly from the corner of his eye. + </p> + <p> + The cup she held was lowered slowly until the whiskey poured over her + dress and on the floor. Her thin figure drooped pathetically and her voice + was the faintest sob: + </p> + <p> + “I—I—ain't got—none!” + </p> + <p> + “I heard you had a boy,” Jim said carelessly. + </p> + <p> + The drooping figure shot upright as if a bolt of lightning had swept her. + She stared at him in tense silence, trying to gather her wits before she + answered. + </p> + <p> + “Who told you anything about me?” she demanded sternly. + </p> + <p> + “A fellow in New York,” Jim continued with studied carelessness—“said + he used to live down here.” + </p> + <p> + “He LIVED down here?” she repeated blankly. + </p> + <p> + “Yep—come now, loosen up and tell us about the kid.” + </p> + <p> + “There ain't nuthin' ter tell—he's dead,” she cried pathetically. + </p> + <p> + “He said you deserted the child and left him to starve.” + </p> + <p> + “He said that?” she growled. + </p> + <p> + “Yep.” + </p> + <p> + He was silent again and watched her keenly. + </p> + <p> + She fumbled her dress and glanced nervously across the table as if afraid + to ask more. Unable to wait for him to speak, she cried nervously at last: + </p> + <p> + “Well—well—what else did he say?” + </p> + <p> + “That he took the little duffer to New York and raised him.” + </p> + <p> + “RAISED him?” + </p> + <p> + She fairly screamed the words, springing to her feet trembling from head + to foot. + </p> + <p> + “Till he was big enough to kick into the streets to shuffle for himself.” + </p> + <p> + “The scoundrel said he was dead.” + </p> + <p> + Her voice was far away and sank into dreamy silence. She was living the + hideous, lonely years again with a heart starved for love. + </p> + <p> + Jim's voice broke the spell: + </p> + <p> + “Then you didn't desert him?” The man's eyes held hers steadily. + </p> + <p> + She stared at him blankly and spoke with rushing indignation: + </p> + <p> + “Desert him—my baby—my own flesh and blood? There's never been + a minute since I looked into his eyes that I wouldn't 'a' died fur him.” + </p> + <p> + She paused and sobbed. + </p> + <p> + “He had such pretty eyes, stranger. They looked like your'n—only + they wuz puttier and bluer.” + </p> + <p> + She lifted her faded dress, brushed the tears from her cheeks and went on + rapidly: + </p> + <p> + “When I found his drunken brute of a daddy was a liar and had another + wife, I wouldn't live with him. He tried to make me but I kicked him out + of the house—and he stole the boy to get even with me.” Her voice + broke, she dropped her head and choked back the tears. “He did get even + with me, too—he did,” she sobbed. + </p> + <p> + Jim watched her in silence until the paroxysm had spent itself. + </p> + <p> + “You think you'd know this boy now if you found him?” + </p> + <p> + She bent close, her breath coming in quick gasps. + </p> + <p> + “My God, mister, do you think I COULD find him?” + </p> + <p> + “He lives in New York; his name is Jim Anthony.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—yes?” she said in a dazed way. “He called hisself Walter + Anthony—he wuz a stranger from the North and my boy's name was Jim.” + She paused and bent eagerly across the table. “New York's an awful big + place, ain't it?” + </p> + <p> + “Some town, old gal, take it from me.” + </p> + <p> + “COULD I find him?” + </p> + <p> + “If you've got money enough. You said you'd know him. How?” + </p> + <p> + “I'd know him!” she answered eagerly. “The last quarrel we had was about a + mark on his neck. He wuz a spunky little one. You couldn't make him cry. + His devil of a daddy used to stick pins in him and laugh because he + wouldn't cry. The last dirty trick he tried was what ended it all. He + pushed a live cigar agin his little neck until I smelled it burnin' in the + next room. I knocked him down with a chair, drove him from the house and + told him I'd kill him if he ever put his foot inside the door agin. He + stole my boy the next night—but he'll carry that scar to his grave.” + </p> + <p> + “You'd love this boy now if you found him in New York as bad as his father + ever was?” Jim asked with a curious smile. + </p> + <p> + “Yes—he's mine!” was the quick, firm answer. + </p> + <p> + Jim watched her intently. + </p> + <p> + “I looked Death in the face for him,” she went on fiercely. “I'd dive to + the bottom o' hell to find him if I knowed he wuz thar—— But + what's the use to talk; that devil killed him! I've waked up many a night + stranglin' with a dream when I seed the drunken brute burnin' an' beatin' + an' torturin' him to death. The feller you've heard about ain't him. + 'Tain't no use to make me hope an' then kill me——” + </p> + <p> + “He's not dead, I tell you. I know.” + </p> + <p> + Jim's voice rang with conviction so positive the old woman's breath came + in quick gasps and she smiled through her eager tears. + </p> + <p> + “And I MIGHT find him?” + </p> + <p> + “IF you've got money enough! Money can do anything in this world.” + </p> + <p> + He opened the black bag, thrust both hands into it and threw out a handful + of yellow coin which he allowed to pour through his fingers and rattle + into a tin plate which had been left on the table. + </p> + <p> + Her eyes sparkled with avarice. + </p> + <p> + “It's your'n—all your'n?” she breathed hungrily. + </p> + <p> + “I'm taking it down South to invest for a fool who thinks”—he + stopped and laughed—“who thinks it's bad luck to keep money that's + stained with blood——” + </p> + <p> + Nance started back. + </p> + <p> + “Got blood on it?” + </p> + <p> + Jim spoke in confidential appeal. + </p> + <p> + “That wouldn't make any difference to you, would it?” + </p> + <p> + She shook her gray locks and glanced at the pile of yellow metal, + hungrily. + </p> + <p> + “I—I wouldn't like it with blood marks!” + </p> + <p> + He lifted a handful of coin, clinked it musically in his hands and held it + in his open palms before her. + </p> + <p> + “Look! Look at it close! You don't see any blood marks on it, do you?” + </p> + <p> + Her eyes devoured it. + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + He seized her hand, thrust a half-dozen pieces into it and closed her thin + fingers over it. + </p> + <p> + “Feel of it—look at it!” + </p> + <p> + Her hands gripped the gold. She breathed quickly, broke into a laugh, + caught herself in the middle of it, and lapsed suddenly into silence. + </p> + <p> + “Feels good, don't it?” he laughed. + </p> + <p> + Nance grinned, her uneven, discolored gleaming ominously in the flicker of + the candle. + </p> + <p> + “Don't it?” he repeated. + </p> + <p> + “Yeah!” + </p> + <p> + He lifted another handful and threw it in the air, catching it again. + </p> + <p> + “That's the stuff that makes the world go 'round. There's your only + friend, old girl! Others promise well—but in the scratch they fail.” + </p> + <p> + “Yeah—when the scratch comes they fail!” Nance echoed. + </p> + <p> + “Money never fails!” Jim continued eagerly. “It's the god that knows no + right or wrong——” + </p> + <p> + He touched the pile in the plate and drew the bag close for her to see. + </p> + <p> + “How much do you guess is there?” + </p> + <p> + Nance gazed greedily into the open bag and looked again at the shining + heap in the plate. + </p> + <p> + “I dunno—a million, I reckon.” + </p> + <p> + The man laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Not quite that much! But enough to make you rich for life—IF you + had it.” + </p> + <p> + The old woman turned away pathetically and shook her gray head. + </p> + <p> + “I wouldn't have to work no more, would I?” + </p> + <p> + Her thin hands touched the faded, dirty dress. + </p> + <p> + “And I could buy me a decent dress,” her voice sank to a whisper, “and I + could find my boy.” + </p> + <p> + “You bet you could!” Jim exclaimed. “There's just one god in this world + now, old girl—the Almighty Dollar!” + </p> + <p> + He paused and leaned close, persuasively: + </p> + <p> + “Suppose now, the man that got that money had to kill a fool to take it—what + of it? You don't get big money any other way. A burglar watches his + chance, takes his life in his hands and drills his way into a house. He + finds a fool there who fights. It's not his fault that the man was born a + fool, now is it?” + </p> + <p> + “Mebbe not——” + </p> + <p> + “Of course not. A burglar kills but one to get his pile, and then only + because he must, in self-defence. A big gambling capitalist corners wheat, + raises the price of bread and starves a hundred thousand children to death + to make his. It's not stained with blood. Every dollar is soaked in it! + Who cares?” + </p> + <p> + “Yeah—who cares?” Nance growled fiercely. + </p> + <p> + Jim smiled at his easy triumph. + </p> + <p> + “It's dog eat dog and the devil take the hindmost now!” + </p> + <p> + “That's so—ain't it?” she agreed. + </p> + <p> + “You bet! Business is business and the best man's the man that gets there. + Steal a hundred dollars, you go to the penitentiary—foolish! Don't + do it. Steal a million and go to the Senate!” + </p> + <p> + “Yeah!” Nance laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Money—money for its own sake,” he rushed on savagely—“right + or wrong. That's all there is in it today, old girl—take it from + me!” + </p> + <p> + He paused and his smile ended in a sneer. + </p> + <p> + “Man shall eat bread in the sweat of his brow? Only fools SWEAT!” + </p> + <p> + Nance turned her face away, sighed softly, glancing back at Jim furtively. + </p> + <p> + “I reckon that's so, too. Have another drink, stranger?” + </p> + <p> + She poured another cup of whiskey and one for herself. She raised hers as + if to drink and deftly threw the contents over her shoulder. + </p> + <p> + Jim seized the jug and poured again. + </p> + <p> + “Once more. Come, I've another toast for you. You'll drink this one I + know.” + </p> + <p> + He lifted his cup and rose a little unsteadily. Nance stood with uplifted + cup watching him. + </p> + <p> + “As the poet sings,” he began with a bow to the old woman: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “France has her lily, England the rose, + Everybody knows where the shamrock grows— + Scotland has her thistle flowerin' on the hill, + But the American Emblem—is a One Dollar Bill!” + </pre> + <p> + He broke into a boisterous laugh. + </p> + <p> + “How's that, old girl?” + </p> + <p> + “That's bully, stranger!” + </p> + <p> + He lifted high his cup. + </p> + <p> + “We drink to the Almighty Dollar!” + </p> + <p> + “To the Almighty Dollar!” Nance echoed, clinking her cup against his. + </p> + <p> + He drained it while she again emptied hers over her shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “By golly, you're all right, old girl. You're a good fellow!” he cried + jovially. + </p> + <p> + “Yeah—have another?” she urged. + </p> + <p> + She filled his cup and placed it on his side of the table. His eye had + rested on the gold. He ignored the invitation, lifted a handful of gold + and dropped it with musical clinking into the plate. + </p> + <p> + “Blood marks—tommyrot!” he sneered. + </p> + <p> + “Yeah—tommyrot!” she echoed. “That's what I say, too!” + </p> + <p> + Jim wagged his head sagely: + </p> + <p> + “Now you're talking sense, old girl!” + </p> + <p> + He leaned across the table and pointed his finger straight into her face. + </p> + <p> + “And don't you forget what I'm tellin' ye tonight—get money, get + money!” + </p> + <p> + He stopped suddenly and a sneer curled his lips. + </p> + <p> + “Oh I Get it `fairly'—get it `squarely'—but whatever you do—by + God!—GET IT!” + </p> + <p> + His uplifted hand crashed downward and gripped the gold. His fingers + slowly relaxed and the coin clinked into the plate. + </p> + <p> + Nance watched him eagerly. + </p> + <p> + “Yeah, that's it—get it,” she breathed slowly. + </p> + <p> + Jim lifted his drooping eyes to hers. + </p> + <p> + “If you've GOT it, you're a god—you can do no wrong. Nobody's goin' + to ask you HOW you got it; all they want to know is HAVE you got it!” + </p> + <p> + “Yeah, nobody's goin' to ask you HOW you got it,” Nance repeated, “they + just want to know HAVE you got it! Yeah—yeah!” + </p> + <p> + “You bet!” + </p> + <p> + Jim's head sank in the first stupor of liquor and he dropped into the + chair. + </p> + <p> + The old woman leaned eagerly over the plate of gold and clutched the coin + with growing avarice. Her fingers opened and closed like a bird of prey. + She touched it lovingly and held it in her hands a long time watching + Jim's nodding head with furtive glances. She dropped a handful of coin + into the plate and watched its effect on the drooping head. + </p> + <p> + He looked up and his eyes fell again. + </p> + <p> + “Bed-time, I reckon,” Nance said. + </p> + <p> + “Yep—pretty tired. I'll turn in.” + </p> + <p> + The old woman glided sidewise to the table near the kitchen door, picked + up the lantern and started to feel her way backwards through the calico + curtains. + </p> + <p> + “See you in the mornin', old gal,” Jim drawled—“Christmas mornin'—an' + I got somethin' else to tell ye in the mornin'——” + </p> + <p> + Again his head sank to the table. + </p> + <p> + “All right, mister—good night!” Nance answered, slowly feeling her + way through the opening, watching him intently. + </p> + <p> + Jim lifted his head and nodded heavily for a moment. His hand slipped from + the table and he drew himself up sharply and rose, holding to the table + for support. + </p> + <p> + He picked up the plate of coin, poured it back in the bag, snapped the + lock and walked with the bag unsteadily to the couch. He placed the bag + under the pillow and pressed the soft feathers down over it, turned back + to the table and extinguished the candle by a quick, square blow of his + open palm on the flame. + </p> + <p> + He staggered to the couch, pushed the coats to the floor, dropped heavily, + drew the lap-robe over him and in five minutes was sound asleep. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX. NANCE'S STOREHOUSE + </h2> + <p> + The cabin was still. Only the broken sobbing of the woman in the little + shed-room came faint and low on old Nance's ears. + </p> + <p> + She slipped from the kitchen into the shadows of a tree near the house and + listened until the sobbing ceased. + </p> + <p> + She crept close to the shed and stood silent and ghost-like beside its + daubed walls. Immovable as a cat crouching in the hedge to spring on her + prey, she waited until the waning moon had sunk behind the crags. She laid + her ear close to a crack in the logs from which she had once pushed the + red mud to let in the light. All was still at last. The sobbing had + stopped. The young wife was sound asleep. + </p> + <p> + She had wondered vaguely at first about the crying, but quickly made up + her mind that it was only a lover's quarrel. She was glad of it. The girl + would bar her door and sulk all night. So much the better. There would be + no danger of her entering the living-room where Jim slept. + </p> + <p> + She would wait a little longer to make sure she was asleep. A half hour + passed. The white-shrouded figure stood immovable, her keen ears tuned for + the slightest sounds from within. + </p> + <p> + The stars were shining in unusual brilliance. She could see her way + through the shadows even better than in full moon. A wolf was crying again + for his mate from a distant crag. She had grown used to his howls. He had + come close to her cabin once in the day-time. She had tried to creep on + him and show her friendliness. But he had fled in terror at the first + glimpse of her dress through the parting underbrush. + </p> + <p> + An owl was calling from his dead tree-top down the valley. She smiled at + his familiar, tremulous call. Her own eyes were wide as his tonight. No + sight or sound of Nature among the crags about her cabin had for her + spirit any terror. The night was her mantle. + </p> + <p> + She added to the meager living which she had wrung from her mountain farm + by trading with the illicit distillers of the backwoods of Yancey County. + Too ignorant to run a distillery of her own, she had stored their goods + with such skill that the hiding-place had never been discovered. She loved + good whiskey herself. She had tried to find in its fiery depths the dreams + of happiness life had so cruelly denied her. + </p> + <p> + The hiding-place of this whiskey had puzzled the revenue officers of every + administration for years. They had watched her house day and night. Not + one of them had ever struck the trail to her storehouse. + </p> + <p> + The game had excited her imagination. She loved its daring and danger. + That there was the slightest element of wrong or crime in her association + with the moonshiners of her native heath had never for a moment entered + her mind. It was no crime to make whiskey. This was the first article of + the creed of the true North Carolina mountaineer. They had from the first + declared that the tax levied by the Federal Government on the product of + their industry was an infamous act of tyranny. They had fought this + tyranny for two generations. They would fight it as long as there was + breath in their bodies and a single load of powder and buckshot for their + rifles. + </p> + <p> + Nance considered herself a heroine in the pride of her soul for the shrewd + and successful defiance she had given the revenue officers for so many + years. + </p> + <p> + She had been too cunning to even allow one of her own people to know the + secret of her store house. For that reason it had never been discovered. + She always stored the whiskey temporarily in the potato shed or under the + cabin floor until night and then alone carried it to the place she had + discovered. + </p> + <p> + She laughed softly at the thought of this deep hiding-place tonight. Its + temperature never varied winter or summer. Not a track had ever been left + at its door. She might live a hundred years and, unless some spying eye + should see her enter, its existence could never be suspected. + </p> + <p> + She tipped softly into the kitchen, walked to the door of the living-room + and listened to the even, heavy breathing of the man on the couch. + </p> + <p> + Once more the faint echo of a sob in the shed beyond came to her keen + ears. She stood for five minutes. It was not repeated. She had only + imagined it. The girl was still asleep. + </p> + <p> + She turned noiselessly back into the kitchen, put a box of matches in her + pocket, felt her way to the low shelf on which she had placed the battered + lantern, picked it up and shook it to make sure the oil was sufficient. + </p> + <p> + She stepped lightly into the yard, pushed open the gate of the split-board + garden fence, walked along the edge to the corner and selected a spade + from the tools that leaned against the boards. + </p> + <p> + Carrying the spade and unlighted lantern in her left hand, she glided from + the yard into the woods. Her right hand before her to feel for underbrush + or overhanging bough, she made her way rapidly to the swift-flowing + mountain brook. + </p> + <p> + Arrived at the water whose musical ripple had guided her steps, she + removed her shoes and placed them beside a tree. She wore no stockings. + The faded skirt she raised and tucked into her belt. She could wade knee + deep now without hindrance. + </p> + <p> + Seizing the spade and lantern, she made her way slowly and carefully + downstream for three hundred yards and paused beside a shelving ledge + which projected half-way across the brook. + </p> + <p> + She paused and listened again for full ten minutes, immovable as the rock + on which her thin, bony hand rested. The stars were looking, but they + could only peep through the network of overhanging trees. + </p> + <p> + Feeling her way along the rock until the ledge rose beyond her reach, she + bent low and waded through a still pool of eddying water straight under + the mountain-side for more than a hundred feet. Her extended right hand + had felt for the stone ceiling above her head until it ran abruptly out of + reach. + </p> + <p> + She straightened her body and took a deep breath. Ten steps she counted + carefully and placed her bare feet on the dry rock beyond the water. + </p> + <p> + Carefully picking her way up the sloping bank until she reached a stretch + of soft earth, she sank to her hands and knees and crawled through an + opening less than three feet in height. + </p> + <p> + “Thar now!” she laughed. “Let 'em find me if they can!” + </p> + <p> + She lighted her lantern and seated herself on a boulder to rest—one + hundred and fifty feet in the depths of a mountain. The cavern was ten + feet in height and fifty feet in length. The projecting ledges of rock + made innumerable shelves on which a merchant might have displayed his + wares. + </p> + <p> + The old woman was too shrewd for that. Her jugs were carefully planted in + the ground behind two fallen boulders, and their hiding-place concealed by + a layer of drift which she had gathered from the edge of the water. She + had taken this precaution against the day when some curious explorer might + stumble on her secret as she had found it hunting ginsing roots in the + woods overhead. Her foot had slipped suddenly through a hole in the soft + mould. She peered cautiously below and could see no bottom. She dropped a + stone and heard it strike in the depths. She made her way down the side of + the crag and found the opening through the still eddying waters. The hole + through the roof she had long ago plugged and covered with earth and dry + leaves. + </p> + <p> + She carried her lantern and spade to the further end of her storehouse and + dug a hole in the earth about two feet in depth. The earth she carefully + placed in a heap. + </p> + <p> + “That's the place!” she giggled excitedly. + </p> + <p> + She left her lantern burning, dropped again on the soft, mould-covered + earth and quickly emerged on the stone banks of the wide, still pool. Her + hand high extended above her head, she waded through the water until she + touched the heavy ceiling, lowered her body again to a stooping position + and rapidly made her way out into the bed of the brook. + </p> + <p> + She passed eagerly along the babbling path and stopped with sure instinct + at the tree beside whose trunk she had placed her shoes. + </p> + <p> + In five minutes she had made her way through the woods and reached the + house. She tipped into the kitchen and stood in the doorway or the + living-room watching her sleeping guest. The even breathing assured her + that all was well. Her plan couldn't fail. She listened again for the sobs + in the shed-room. + </p> + <p> + She was sure once that she heard them. Five minutes passed and still she + was uncertain. To avoid any possible accident she tipped back through the + kitchen, circled the house and placed her ear against the crack in the + logs. + </p> + <p> + The girl was sobbing—or was she praying? She crouched beside the + wall, waited and listened. The night wind stirred the dead leaves at her + feet. She lifted her head with a sudden start, laughed softly and bent + again to listen. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XX. TRAPPED + </h2> + <p> + The sobbing in the little room was the only sound that came from one of + the grimmest battle-fields from which the soul of a woman ever emerged + alive. + </p> + <p> + To the first rush of cowardly tears Mary had yielded utterly. She had + fallen across the high-puffed feather mattress of the bed, shivering in + humble gratitude at her escape from the horror of blindness. The grip of + his claw-like fingers on her throat came back to her now in sickening + waves. The blood was still trickling from the wound which his nails had + made when she tore them loose in her first mad fight for breath. + </p> + <p> + She lifted her body and breathed deeply to make sure her throat was free. + God in heaven! Could she ever forget the hideous sinking of body and soul + down into the depths of the black abyss! She had seen the face of Death + and it was horrible. Life, warm and throbbing, was sweet. She loved it. + She hated Death. + </p> + <p> + Yes—she was a coward. She knew it now, and didn't care. + </p> + <p> + She sprang to her feet with sudden fear. He might attack her again to make + sure that her soul had been completely crushed. + </p> + <p> + She crept to the door and felt its edges. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, thank God, there's a place for the bar!” She shivered. + </p> + <p> + She ran her trembling fingers carefully along the rough logs and found it + in the corner. She slipped it cautiously into the iron sockets, staggered + to the bed and dropped in grateful assurance of safety for the moment. She + buried her face in the pillow to fight back the sobs. How great her fall! + She could crawl on her hands and knees to Jane Anderson now and beg for + protection. The last shred of pretense was gone. The bankrupt soul stood + naked and shivering, the last rag torn from pride. + </p> + <p> + What a miserable fight she had made, too, when put to the test! Ella had + at least proved herself worthy to live. The scrub-woman had risen in the + strength of desperation and killed the beast who had maimed her. She had + only sunk a limp mass of shivering, helpless cowardice and fled from the + room whining and pleading for mercy. + </p> + <p> + She could never respect herself again. The scene came back in vivid + flashes. His eyes, glowing like two balls of blue fire, froze the blood in + her veins—his voice the rasping cold steel of a file. And this + coarse, ugly beast had held her in the spell of love. She had clung to + him, kissed him in rapture and yielded herself to him soul and body. And + he had gripped her delicate throat and choked her into insensibility, + dropping her limp form from his hands like a strangled rat. She could + remember the half-conscious moment that preceded the total darkness as she + felt his grip relax. + </p> + <p> + He would choke and beat her again, too. He had said it in the sneering + laughter at the door. + </p> + <p> + “A good little wife now and it's all right!” + </p> + <p> + And if you're not obedient to my whims I'll choke you until you are! That + was precisely what he meant. That he was capable of any depth of + degradation, and that he meant to drag her with him, there could be no + longer the shadow of a doubt. + </p> + <p> + She could not endure another scene like that. She sprang to her feet + again, shivering with terror. She could hear the hum of the conversation + in the next room. He was persuading his mother to join in his criminal + career. He was busy with his oily tongue transforming the simple, + ignorant, lonely old woman into an avaricious fiend who would receive his + blood-stained booty and rejoice in it. + </p> + <p> + He was laughing again. She put her trembling hands over her ears to shut + out the sound. He had laughed at her shame and cowardice. It made her + flesh creep to hear it. + </p> + <p> + She would escape. The mountain road was dark and narrow and crooked. She + would lose her way in the night, perhaps. No matter. She could keep warm + by walking. At dawn she would find her way to a cabin and ask protection. + If she could reach Asheville, a telegram would bring her father. She + wouldn't lose a minute. Her hat and coat were in the living-room. She + would go bareheaded and without a coat. In the morning she could borrow + one from the woman at the Mount Mitchell house. + </p> + <p> + She crept cautiously along the walls of the room searching for a door or + window. There must be a way out. She made the round without discovering an + opening of any kind. There must be a window of some kind high up for + ventilation. There was no glass in it, of course. It was closed by a board + shutter—if she could reach it. + </p> + <p> + She began at the door, found the corner of the room and stretched her arms + upward until they touched the low, rough joist. Over every foot of its + surface she ran her fingers, carefully feeling for a window. There was + none! + </p> + <p> + She found an open crack and peered through. The stars were shining cold + and clear in the December sky. The twinkling heavens reminded her that it + was Christmas Eve. The dawn she hoped to see in the woods, if she could + escape, would be Christmas morning. There was no time for idle tears of + self-pity. + </p> + <p> + The one thought that beat in every throb of her heart now was to escape + from her cell and put a thousand miles between her body and the beast who + had strangled her. She might break through the roof! As a rule the + shed-rooms of these rude mountain cabins were covered with split boards + lightly nailed to narrow strips eighteen inches apart. If there were no + ceiling, or if the ceiling were not nailed down and she should move + carefully, she might break through near the eaves and drop to the ground. + The cabin was not more than nine feet in height. + </p> + <p> + She raised herself on the footrail of the bed and felt the ceiling. There + could be no mistake. It was there. She pressed gently at first and then + with all her might against each board. They were nailed hard and fast. + </p> + <p> + She sank to the bed again in despair. She had barred herself in a prison + cell. There was no escape except by the door through which the beast had + driven her. And he would probably draw the couch against it and sleep + there. + </p> + <p> + And then came the crushing conviction that such flight would be of no + avail in a struggle with a man of Jim's character. His laughing words of + triumph rang through her soul now in all their full, sinister meaning. + </p> + <p> + “The world ain't big enough for you to get away from me, Kiddo!” + </p> + <p> + It wasn't big enough. She knew it with tragic and terrible certainty. In + his blind, brutal way he loved her with a savage passion that would halt + at nothing. He would follow her to the ends of the earth and kill any + living thing that stood in his way. And when he found her at last he would + kill her. + </p> + <p> + How could she have been so blind! There was no longer any mystery about + his personality. The slender hands and feet, which she had thought + beautiful in her infatuation, were merely the hands and feet of a thief. + The strength of jaw and neck and shoulders had made him the most daring of + all thieves—a burglar. + </p> + <p> + His strange moods were no longer strange. He laughed for joy at the wild + mountain gorges and crags because he saw safety for the hiding-place of + priceless jewels he meant to steal. + </p> + <p> + There could be no escape in divorce from such a brute. He was happy in her + cowardly submission. He would laugh at the idea of divorce. Should she + dare to betray the secrets of his life of crime, he would kill her as he + would grind a snake under his heel. + </p> + <p> + A single clause from the marriage ceremony kept ringing its knell—“until + DEATH DO US PART!” + </p> + <p> + She knelt at last and prayed for Death. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, dear God, let me die, let me die!” + </p> + <p> + Suicide was a crime unthinkable to her pious mind. Only God now could save + her in his infinite mercy. + </p> + <p> + She lay for a long time on the floor where she had fallen in utter + despair. The tears that brought relief at first had ceased to flow. She + had beaten her bleeding wings against every barrier, and they were beyond + her strength. + </p> + <p> + Out of the first stupor of complete surrender, her senses slowly emerged. + She felt the bare boards of the floor and wondered vaguely why she was + there. + </p> + <p> + The hum of voices again came to her ears. She lay still and listened. A + single terrible sentence she caught. He spoke it with such malignant power + she could see through the darkness the flames of hell leaping in his eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Nobody's going to ask you HOW you got it—all they want to know is + HAVE you got it!” + </p> + <p> + She laughed hysterically at the idea of reformation that had stirred her + to such desperate appeal in the first shock of discovery. As well dream of + reforming the Devil as the man who expressed his philosophy of life in + that sentence! Blood dripped from every word, the blood of the innocent + and the helpless who might consciously or unconsciously stand in his way. + The man who had made up his mind to get rich quick, no matter what the + cost to others, would commit murder without the quiver of an eyelid. If + she had ever had a doubt of this fact, she could have none after her + experience of tonight. + </p> + <p> + She wondered vaguely of the effects he was producing on his ignorant old + mother. Her words were too low and indistinct to be heard. But she feared + the worst. The temptation of the gold he was showing her would be more + than she could resist. + </p> + <p> + She staggered to her feet and fell limp across the bed. The iron walls of + a life prison closed about her crushed soul. The one door that could open + was Death and only God's hand could lift its bars. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXI. THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE + </h2> + <p> + Hour after hour Nance stood beside the wall of the shed-room and with the + patience of a cat waited for the sobs to cease and the girl to be quiet. + </p> + <p> + Mary had risen from the bed once and paced the floor in the dark for more + than an hour, like a frightened, wild animal, trapped and caged for the + first time in life. With growing wonder, Nance counted the beat of her + foot-fall, five steps one way and five back—round after round, round + after round, in ceaseless repetition. + </p> + <p> + “Goddlemighty, is she gone clean crazy!” she exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + The footsteps stopped at last and the low sobs came once more from the + bed. The old woman crouched down on a stone beside the log wall and drew + the shawl about her shoulders. + </p> + <p> + A rooster crowed for midnight. Still the restless thing inside was + stirring. Nance rose uneasily. Her lantern was still burning in her + storehouse under the cliff. The wick might eat so low it would explode. + She had heard that such things happened to lamps. It was foolish to have + left it burning, anyhow. + </p> + <p> + She glided noiselessly from the house into the woods, entered her hidden + door exactly as she had done before, extinguished the lantern, placed it + on a shelving rock and put a dozen matches beside it. + </p> + <p> + In ten minutes she had returned to the house and crouched once more + against the wall of the shed. + </p> + <p> + The low, pleading voice was praying. She pressed her ear to the crack and + heard distinctly. She must be patient. Her plan was sure to succeed if she + were only patient. No woman could sob and pray and walk all night. She + must fall down unconscious from sheer exhaustion before day. + </p> + <p> + The old woman slipped into the kitchen, took up the quilt which she had + spread on the floor for her bed, wrapped it about her thin shoulders and + returned to her watch. + </p> + <p> + Again and again she rose, believing her patience had won, and placed her + ear to the crack only to hear a sound within which told her only too + plainly that the girl was yet awake. Sometimes it was a sigh, sometimes + she cleared her throat, sometimes she tossed restlessly. One spoken + sentence she heard again and again: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, dear God, have mercy on my lost soul!” + </p> + <p> + “What can be the matter with the fool critter!” Nance muttered. “Is she + moanin' for sin? To be shore, they don't have no revival meetings this + time o' year!” + </p> + <p> + She had known sinners to mourn through a whole summer sometimes, but never + in all her experience in religious revivals had a mourner carried it over + into winter. The dancing had always eased the tension and brought a + relapse to sinful thoughts. + </p> + <p> + The hours dragged until the roosters began to crow for day. It would soon + be light. + </p> + <p> + She must act now. There was no time to lose. She pressed her ear to the + crack once more and held it five minutes. + </p> + <p> + Not a sound came from within. The broken spirit had yielded to the stupor + of exhaustion at last. + </p> + <p> + With swift, cat's tread Nance circled the cabin and entered the kitchen. + The quilt she carefully spread on the floor leading to the entrance to the + living-room, crossed it softly and stood in the doorway with her long + hands on the calico hangings. + </p> + <p> + For five minutes she remained immovable and listened to the deep, regular + breathing of the sleeping man. Her wits were keen, her eyes wide. She + could see the dim outlines of the furniture by the starlight through the + window. Small objects in the room were, of course, invisible. To light a + candle was not to be thought of. It might wake the sleeper. + </p> + <p> + She knew how to make the light without a noise or its rays reaching his + face. He had startled her with the electric torch because of its novelty. + She was no longer afraid. She would know how to press the button. He had + left the thing lying on the table beside the black bag. He might have + hidden the gold. He would not remember in his drunken stupor to move the + electric torch. + </p> + <p> + She glided ghost-like into the room. Her bare feet were velvet. She knew + every board in the floor. There was one near the table that creaked. She + counted her steps and cleared the spot without a sound. + </p> + <p> + Her thin fingers found the edge of the table and slipped with uncanny + touch along its surface until her hand closed on the rounded form of the + torch. + </p> + <p> + Without moving in her tracks she turned the light on the table and in + every nook and corner of the room beyond. She slowly swung her body on a + pivot, flashing the light into each shadow and over every inch of floor, + turning always in a circle toward the couch. + </p> + <p> + Satisfied that the object she sought was nowhere in the circle she had + covered, she moved a step from the table and winked the light beneath it. + She squatted on the floor and flashed it carefully over every inch of its + boards from one corner of the room to the other and under the couch. + </p> + <p> + She rose softly, glided behind the head of the sleeping man and stood back + some six feet, lest the flash of the torch might disturb him. She threw + its rays behind the couch and slowly raised them until they covered the + dirty pillow on which Jim was sleeping. There beneath the pillow lay the + bag with its precious treasure. He was sleeping on it. She had feared + this, but felt sure that the whiskey he had drunk would hold him in its + stupor until late next morning. + </p> + <p> + She crouched low and fixed the light's ray slowly on the bag that her hand + might not err the slightest in its touch. She laid her bony fingers on it + with a slow, imperceptible movement, held them there a moment and moved + the bag the slightest bit to test the sleeper's wakefulness. To her + surprise he stirred instantly. + </p> + <p> + “What'ell!” he growled sleepily. + </p> + <p> + She stood motionless until he was breathing again with deep, even, heavy + throb. Gliding back to the table, she flashed the light again on the bag + and studied its position. His big neck rested squarely across it. To move + it without waking him was a physical impossibility. + </p> + <p> + Here was a dilemma she had not fully faced. She had not believed it + possible for him to place the bag where she could not get it. Her only + purpose up to this moment had been to take it and store it safely beneath + the soft earth in the inner recess of the cave. He would miss it in the + morning, of course. She would express her amazement. The bar would be down + from the front door. Someone had robbed him. The money could never be + found. + </p> + <p> + She had made up her mind to take it the moment he had convinced her that + his philosophy of life was true. His eloquence had transformed her from an + ignorant old woman, content with her poverty and dirt, into a dangerous + and daring criminal. + </p> + <p> + There was no such thing as failure to be thought of now for a moment. The + spade in the inner room of her store-house could be put to larger use if + necessary. With the strength of the madness now on her she could carry his + body on her back through the woods. The world would be none the wiser. He + had quarreled with his wife, and left her in a rage that night. That was + all she knew. The sheriff of neither county could afford to bother his + head long over an insolvable mystery. Besides, both sheriffs were her + friends. + </p> + <p> + Her decision was instantaneous when once she saw that it was safe. + </p> + <p> + She smiled over the grim irony of the thing—his words kept humming + in her ears, his voice, low and persuasive: + </p> + <p> + “Suppose now the man that got that money had to kill a fool to take it—what + of it? You don't get big money any other way!” + </p> + <p> + On the shelf beside the door was a butcher knife which she also used for + carving. She had sharpened its point that night to carve her Christmas + turkey next day. + </p> + <p> + She raised the torch and flashed its rays on the shelf to guide her hand, + crept to the wall, took down the knife and laid the electric torch in its + place. + </p> + <p> + Steadying her body against the wall, her arms outspread, she edged her way + behind the couch and bent over the sleeping man until by his breathing she + had located his heart. + </p> + <p> + She raised her tall figure and brought the knife down with a crash into + his breast. With a sudden wrench she drew it from the wound and crouched + among the shadows watching him with wide-dilated eyes. + </p> + <p> + The stricken sleeper gasped for breath, his writhing body fairly leaped + into the air, bounded on the couch and stood erect. He staggered backward + and lurched toward her. The crouching figure bent low, gripping the knife + and waiting for her chance to strike the last blow. + </p> + <p> + Strangling with blood, Jim opened his eyes and saw the old woman creeping + nearer through the gray light of the dawn. + </p> + <p> + He threw his hands above his head and tried to shout his warning. She was + on him, her trembling hand feeling for his throat, before he could speak. + </p> + <p> + Struggling, in his weakened condition, to tear her fingers away, he + gasped: + </p> + <p> + “Here! Here! Great God! Do you know what you're doing?” + </p> + <p> + “I just want yer money,” she whispered. “That's all, and I'm a-goin' ter + have it!” + </p> + <p> + Her fingers closed and the knife sank into his neck. + </p> + <p> + She sprang back and watched him lurch and fall across the couch. His body + writhed a moment in agony and was still. + </p> + <p> + Holding the knife in her hand, she tore open the bag and thrust her + itching fingers into the gold, gripping it fiercely. + </p> + <p> + “Nobody's goin' to ask ye how ye got it—they just want to know HAVE + ye got it—yeah! Yeah——” + </p> + <p> + The last word died on her lips. The door of the shed-room suddenly opened + and Mary stood before her. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXII. DELIVERANCE + </h2> + <p> + The first dim noises of the tragedy in the living-room Mary's stupefied + senses had confused with a nightmare which she had been painfully + fighting. + </p> + <p> + The torch in Nance's hand had flashed through a crack into her face once. + It was the flame of a revolver in the hands of a thief in Jim's den in New + York. She merely felt it. Her eyes had been gouged out and she was blind. + A gang of his coarse companions were holding a council, cursing, drinking, + fighting. Jim had sprung between two snarling brutes and knocked the + revolver into the air. The flame had scorched her face. + </p> + <p> + With an oath he had slapped her. + </p> + <p> + “Get out, you damned little fool!” he growled. “You're always in the way + when you're not wanted. Nobody can ever find you when there's work to be + done——” + </p> + <p> + “But I can't see, Jim dear,” she pleaded. “I do not know when things are + out of place——” + </p> + <p> + “You're a liar!” he roared. “You know where every piece of junk stands in + this room better than I do. I can't bring a friend into that door that you + don't know it. You can hear the swish of a woman's skirt on the stairs + four stories below——” + </p> + <p> + “I only asked you who the woman was who came in with you, Jim——” + </p> + <p> + His fingers gripped her throat and stopped her breath. Through the roar of + surging blood she could barely hear the vile words he was dinning into her + ears. + </p> + <p> + “I know you just asked me, you nosing little devil, and it's none of your + business! She's a pal of mine, if you want to know, the slickest thief + that ever robbed a flat. She's got more sense in a minute than you'll ever + have in a lifetime. She's going to live here with me now. You can sleep on + the cot in the kitchen. And you come when she calls, if you know what's + good for your lazy hide. I've told her to thrash the life out of you if + you dare to give her any impudence.” + </p> + <p> + She had cowered at his feet and begged him not to beat her again. The + fumes of whiskey and stale beer filled the place. + </p> + <p> + Jim turned from her to quell a new fight at the other end of the room. + Another woman was there, coarse, dirty, beastly. She drew a knife and + demanded her share of the night's robberies. She was trying to break from + the men who held her to stab Jim. They were all fighting and smashing the + furniture—— + </p> + <p> + She sprang from the bed with a cry of horror. The noise was real! It was + not a dream. The beast inside was stumbling in the dark. His passions + fired by liquor, he was fumbling to find his way into her room. + </p> + <p> + She rushed to the door and put her shoulder against the bar, panting in + terror. + </p> + <p> + She heard his strangling cry: + </p> + <p> + “Here! Here! Great God! Do you know what you're doing?” + </p> + <p> + And then his mother's voice, mad with greed, cruel, merciless: + </p> + <p> + “I just want yer money—that's all, an' I'm goin' to have it!” + </p> + <p> + She heard the clinch in the struggle and the dull blow of the knife. In a + sudden flash she saw it all. He had succeeded in rousing Nance's avarice + and transforming her into a fiend. Without knowing it she was stabbing her + own son to death in the room in which he had been born! + </p> + <p> + She tried to scream and her lips refused to move. She tried to hurry to + the rescue and her knees turned to water. + </p> + <p> + Gasping for breath, she drew the bar from her prison door and walked + slowly into the room. + </p> + <p> + Nance's tall, bony figure was still crouched over the open bag, her left + hand buried in the gold, her right gripping the knife, her face convulsed + with greed—avarice and murder blended into perfect hell-lit unity at + last. + </p> + <p> + Jim lay on his back, limp and still, obliquely across the couch, his + breast bared in the struggle, the blood oozing a widening scarlet blot on + his white shirt. His head had fallen backward over the edge and could not + be seen. + </p> + <p> + Without moving a muscle, her body crouching, Nance spoke: + </p> + <p> + “You wuz awake—you heered?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes!” + </p> + <p> + The gleaming eyes burned through the gray dawn, two points of + scintillating, hellish light fixed in purpose on the intruder. + </p> + <p> + She had only meant to take the money. The fool had fought. She killed him + because she had to. And now the sobbing, sniveling little idiot who had + kept her waiting all night had stuck her nose into some thing that didn't + concern her. If she opened her mouth, the gallows would be the end. + </p> + <p> + She would open it too. Of course she would. She was his wife. They had + quarreled, but the simpleton would blab. Nance knew this with unerring + instinct. It was no use to offer her half the money. She didn't have sense + enough to take it. She knew those pious, baby faces—well, there was + room for two in the cave under the cliff. It was daylight now. No matter; + it was Christmas morning. No man or woman ever darkened her door on + Christmas day. She could hide their bodies until dark, and then it was + easy. She would be in New York herself before anyone could suspect the + meaning of that automobile in the shed or the owners would trouble + themselves to come after it. + </p> + <p> + Again her decision was quick and fierce. Her hand was on the bag. She + would hold it against the world, all hell and heaven. + </p> + <p> + With the leap of a tigress she was on the girl, the bag gripped in her + left hand, the knife in her right. + </p> + <p> + To her amazement the trembling figure stood stock still gazing at her with + a strange look of pity. + </p> + <p> + “Well!” Nance growled. “I ain't goin' ter be took now I've got this money—I'm + goin' to New York ter find my boy!” + </p> + <p> + She lifted the knife and stopped in sheer stupor of surprise at the girl's + immovable body and staring eyes. Had she gone crazy? What on earth could + it mean? No girl of her youth and beauty could look death in the face + without a tremor. No woman in her right senses could see the body of her + dead husband lying there red and yet quivering without a sign. It was more + than even Nance's nerves could endure. + </p> + <p> + She lowered the knife and peered into the girl's set face and glanced + quickly about the room. Could she have called help? Was the house + surrounded? It was impossible. She couldn't have escaped. What did it + mean? + </p> + <p> + The old woman drew back with a terror she couldn't understand. + </p> + <p> + “What are you looking at me like that for?” she panted. + </p> + <p> + Mary held her gaze in lingering pity. Her heart went out now to the + miserable creature trembling in the presence of her victim. The blow must + fall that would crush the soul out of her body at one stroke. The gray + hair had tumbled over her distorted features, the ragged dress had been + torn from her throat in the struggle and her flat, bony breast was + exposed. + </p> + <p> + “You don't—have—to—go—to—New York—to—find—your—boy!” + the strained voice said at last. + </p> + <p> + Nance frowned in surprise and flew back at her in rage. + </p> + <p> + “Yes I do, too—he lives thar!” + </p> + <p> + The little figure straightened above the crouching form. + </p> + <p> + “He's here!” + </p> + <p> + Nance sank slowly against the table and rested the bag on the edge of the + chair. Its weight was more than she could bear. She tried to glance over + her shoulder at the body on the couch and her courage failed. The first + suspicion of the hideous truth flashed through her stunned mind. She + couldn't grasp it at once. + </p> + <p> + “Whar?” she whispered hoarsely. + </p> + <p> + Mary lifted her arm slowly and pointed to the couch. + </p> + <p> + “There!” + </p> + <p> + Nance glared at her a moment and broke into a hysterical laugh. + </p> + <p> + “It's a lie—a lie—a lie!” + </p> + <p> + “It's true——” + </p> + <p> + “Yer're just a lyin' ter me ter get away an give me up—but ye won't + do it—little Miss—old Nance is too smart for ye this time. Who + told you that?” + </p> + <p> + “He told me tonight!” + </p> + <p> + “He told you?” she repeated blankly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “You're a liar!” she growled. “And I'll prove it—you move out o' + your tracks an' I'll cut your throat. My boy's got a scar on his neck—I + know right whar to look for it. Don't you move now till I see—I know + you're a liar——” + </p> + <p> + She turned and with the quick trembling fingers of her right hand tore the + shirt back from the neck and saw the scar. She still held the bag in her + left hand. The muscles slowly relaxed and the bag fell endwise to the + floor, the gold crashing and rolling over the boards. She stared in stupor + and threw both hands above her streaming gray hair. + </p> + <p> + “Lord God Almighty!” she shrieked. “Why didn't I think that he wuz + somebody else's boy if he weren't mine!” + </p> + <p> + The thin body trembled and crumpled beside the couch. + </p> + <p> + The girl lifted her head in a look of awe as if in prayer. + </p> + <p> + “And God has set me free! free! free!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIII. THE DOCTOR + </h2> + <p> + Mary stood overwhelmed by the tragedy she had witnessed. For the time her + brain refused to record sensations. She had seen too much, felt too much + in the past eight hours. Soul and body were numb. + </p> + <p> + The first impressions of returning consciousness were fixed on Nance. She + had risen suddenly from the floor and smoothed the hair back from Jim's + forehead with tender touch as if afraid to wake him. She drew the quilt + from the kitchen floor, spread it over the body, and lifted her eyes to + Mary's. It was only too plain. + </p> + <p> + Reason had gone. + </p> + <p> + She tipped close and put her fingers on her lips. + </p> + <p> + “Sh! We mustn't wake him. He's tired. Let him sleep. It's my boy. He's + come home. We'll fix him a fine Christmas dinner. I've got a turkey. I'll + bake a cake——” she paused and laughed softly. “I've got eggs + too, fresh laid yesterday. We'll make egg-nog all day and all night. I + ain't had no Christmas since that devil stole him. We'll have one this + time, won't we?” + </p> + <p> + The girl's wits were again alert. She must run for help. A minute to humor + the old woman's delusion and she might return before any harm came to her. + Jim had not moved a muscle. It was plain that he was beyond help. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” Mary answered cheerfully. “You fix the cake—and I'll get the + wood to make a fire.” + </p> + <p> + Nance laughed again. + </p> + <p> + “We'll have the dinner all ready for him when he wakes, won't we?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. I'll be back in a few minutes.” + </p> + <p> + Nance hurried into the kitchen humming an old song in a faltering voice + that sent the cold chills down the girl's spine. + </p> + <p> + Mary slipped quietly through the door and ran with swift, sure foot down + the narrow road along which the machine had picked its way the afternoon + before. The cabin they had passed last could not be more than a mile. + </p> + <p> + She made no effort to find the logs for pedestrians when the road crossed + the brook. She plunged straight through the babbling waters with her + shoes, regardless of skirts. + </p> + <p> + Panting for breath, she saw the smoke curling from the cabin chimney a + quarter of a mile away. + </p> + <p> + “Thank God!” she cried. “They're awake!” + </p> + <p> + She was so glad to have reached her goal, her strength suddenly gave way + and she dropped to a boulder by the wayside to rest. In two minutes she + was up and running with all her might. + </p> + <p> + She rushed to the door and knocked. + </p> + <p> + A mountaineer in shirt-sleeves and stockings answered with a look of mild + wonder. + </p> + <p> + “For God's sake come and help me. I must have a doctor quick. We spent the + night at Mrs. Owens'. She's lost her mind completely—a terrible + thing has happened—you'll help me?” + </p> + <p> + “Cose I will, honey,” the mountaineer drawled. “Jest ez quick ez I get on + my shoes.” + </p> + <p> + “Is there a doctor near?” she asked breathlessly. + </p> + <p> + He answered without looking up: + </p> + <p> + “The best one that God ever sent to a sick bed. He don't charge nobody a + cent in these parts. He just heals the sick because hit's his callin'. + Come from somewhar up North and built hisself a fine log house up on the + side of the mountains. Hit's full of all the medicines in the world, too——” + </p> + <p> + “Will you ask him to come for me?” Mary broke in. + </p> + <p> + “I'll jump on my hoss an' have him thar in half a' hour. You can run right + back, honey, and look out for the po' ole critter till we get thar.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you! Thank you!” she answered grate fully. + </p> + <p> + “Not at all, not at all!” he protested as he swung through the door and + hurried to the low-pitched sheds in which his horse and cow were stabled. + “Be thar in no time!” + </p> + <p> + When Mary returned, Nance was still busy in the kitchen. She had built a + fire and put the turkey in the oven. + </p> + <p> + Mary was counting the minutes now until the doctor should come. The old + woman's prattle about the return of her lost boy, so big and strong and + handsome, had become unendurable. She felt that she should scream and + collapse unless help came at once. She looked at her watch. It was just + thirty-five minutes from the time she had left the cabin in the valley + below. + </p> + <p> + She sprang to her feet with a smothered cry of joy. The beat of a horse's + hoof at full gallop was ringing down the road. + </p> + <p> + In two minutes the Doctor's firm footstep was heard at the kitchen door. + </p> + <p> + Nance turned with a look of glad surprise. + </p> + <p> + “Well, fur the land sake, ef hit ain't Doctor Mulford! Come right in!” she + cried. + </p> + <p> + The Doctor seized her hand. + </p> + <p> + “And how is my good friend, Mrs. Owens, this morning?” he asked + cheerfully. + </p> + <p> + Mary was studying him with deep interest. She had asked herself the + question a hundred times how much she could tell him—what to say and + what to leave unsaid. One glance at his calm, intellectual face was + enough. He was a man of striking appearance, six feet tall, forty-five + years of age, hair prematurely gray and a slight stoop to his broad + shoulders. His brown eyes seemed to enfold the old woman in their + sympathy. + </p> + <p> + Nance was chattering her answer to his greeting. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I'm feelin' fine, Doctor—” she dropped her voice confidentially—“and + you're just in time for a good dinner. My boy that was lost has come home. + He's a great big fellow, wears fine clothes and come up the mountain all + the way in a devil wagon.” She put her hand to her mouth. “Sh! He's + asleep! We won't wake him till dinner! He's all tired out.” + </p> + <p> + The Doctor nodded understandingly and turned toward Mary. + </p> + <p> + “And this young lady?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, that's his wife from New York—ain't she purty?” + </p> + <p> + The Doctor saw the delicate hands trembling and extended his. + </p> + <p> + No word was spoken. None was needed. There was healing in his touch, + healing in his whole being. No man or woman could resist the appeal of his + personality. Their secrets were yielded with perfect faith. + </p> + <p> + “Come with me quickly,” Mary whispered. + </p> + <p> + “I understand,” he answered carelessly. + </p> + <p> + Turning again to Nance, he said with easy confidence: + </p> + <p> + “I'll not disturb you with your cooking, Mrs. Owens. Go right on with it. + I'll have a little chat with your son's wife. If she's from New York I + want to ask her about some of my people up there——” + </p> + <p> + “All right,” Nance answered, “but don't you wake HIM! Go with her inter + the shed-room.” + </p> + <p> + “We'll go on tip-toe!” the Doctor whispered. + </p> + <p> + Nance nodded, smiled and bent again over the oven. + </p> + <p> + Mary led him quickly through the living-room, head averted from the couch, + and into the prison cell in which she had passed the night. The physician + glanced with a startled look at the gold still scattered on the floor. + </p> + <p> + She seized his hand and swayed. + </p> + <p> + He touched the brown hair of her bared head gently and pressed her hand. + </p> + <p> + “Steady, now, child, tell me quickly.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes,” she gasped, “I'll tell you the truth——” + </p> + <p> + He held her gaze. + </p> + <p> + “And the whole truth—it's best.” + </p> + <p> + Mary nodded, tried to speak and failed. She drew her breath and steadied + herself, still gripping his hand. + </p> + <p> + “I will,” she began faintly. “He's dead——” + </p> + <p> + She paused and nodded toward the living-room. + </p> + <p> + “The man—her son?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. We came last night from Asheville. We were on our honeymoon. We + haven't been married but three weeks. I never knew the truth about his + life and character until last night when he told me that this old woman + was his mother. I found a case of jewels in the bag he carried—jewels + that belonged to a man in New York who was robbed and shot. I recognized + the case. He confessed to me at last in cold, brutal words that he was a + thief. I couldn't believe it at first. I tried to make him give up his + criminal career. He laughed at me. He gloried in it. I tried to leave him. + He choked me into insensibility and drove me into this cell, where I spent + the night. He brought the gold that you saw on the floor which he had + honestly made to give to his old mother—but for a devilish purpose. + He showed it to her last night to rouse her avarice and make her first + agree to hide his stolen goods. He succeeded too well. Before he had + revealed himself she slipped into the room at daylight while he slept in a + drunken stupor, murdered him and took the money. The struggle waked me and + I rushed in. She gripped her knife to kill me. I told her that she had + murdered her own son and she went mad——” + </p> + <p> + She paused for breath and her lips trembled piteously. + </p> + <p> + “You know what to do, Doctor?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes!” + </p> + <p> + “And you'll help me?” + </p> + <p> + He smiled tenderly and nodded his head. + </p> + <p> + “God knows you need it, child!” + </p> + <p> + The nerves snapped at last, and she sank a limp heap at his feet. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIV. THE CALL DIVINE + </h2> + <p> + The Doctor threw off his coat and took charge of the stricken house. He + sent his waiting messenger for a faithful nurse, a mountain woman whom he + had trained, and began the fight for Mary's life. The collapse into which + she had fallen would require weeks of patient care. There was no immediate + danger of death, and while he awaited the arrival of help, he turned into + the living-room to examine the body of the slain husband. + </p> + <p> + The head had fallen backward over the side of the lounge and a pool of + blood, still warm and red, lay on the floor in a widening circle beneath + it. His quick eye took in its significance at a glance. He sprang forward, + ripped the shirt wide open and applied his ear to the breast. + </p> + <p> + “He's still alive!” he cried excitedly. + </p> + <p> + He examined the ugly wound in the left side and found that the knife had + penetrated the lung. The heart had not been touched. The blow on the neck + had not been fatal. The shock of the final stroke had merely choked the + wounded man into collapse from the hemorrhage of the left lung. The + position into which the body had fallen across the couch had gradually + cleared the accumulated blood. There was a chance to save his life. + </p> + <p> + In ten minutes he had applied stimulants and restored respiration, but the + deep wheeze from the stricken lung told only too plainly the dangerous + character of the wound. It would be a bitter fight. His enormous vitality + might win. The chances were against him. + </p> + <p> + Jim's lips moved and he tried to speak. + </p> + <p> + The Doctor placed his hand on his mouth and shook his head. The drooping + eyelids closed in grateful obedience. + </p> + <p> + The beat of horses' hoofs echoed down the mountain road. His nurse and + messenger were coming. He decided at once to move Mary to his own house. + She must regain consciousness in new surroundings or her chance of + survival would be slender. To awake in this miserable cabin, the scene of + the tragedy she had witnessed, might be instantly fatal. Besides she must + not yet know that the brute who had choked her was alive and might still + hold the power of life and death over her frail body. She believed him + dead. It was best so. He might be dead and buried before she recovered + consciousness. The fever that burned her brain would completely cloud + reason for days. + </p> + <p> + He hastily improvised a stretcher with a blanket and two strong + quilting-poles which stood in the corner of the room. Nance helped him + without question. She obeyed his slightest suggestion with childlike + submission. + </p> + <p> + He placed Mary on the stretcher, wrapped her body in another warm blanket + and turned to his nurse and messenger: + </p> + <p> + “Carry her to my house. Walk slowly and rest whenever you wish. Don't wake + her. Tell Aunt Abbie to put her to bed in the south room overlooking the + valley. Don't leave her a minute, Betty. She's in the first collapse of + brain fever. You know what to do. I'll be there in an hour. You come back + here, John. I want you.” + </p> + <p> + The mountaineer nodded and seized one end of the stretcher. The nurse took + up the other and the Doctor held wide the cabin door as they passed out. + </p> + <p> + For three weeks he fought the grim battle with Death for the two young + lives the Christmas tragedy had thrust into his hands. He gave his entire + time day and night to the desperate struggle. + </p> + <p> + When pneumonia had developed and Jim's life hung by a hair, he slept on + the couch in the living-room of the cabin and had Nance make for herself a + bed on the floor of the kitchen. + </p> + <p> + The old woman remained an obedient child. She cooked the Doctor's meals + and did the work about the house and yard as if nothing had disturbed her + habits of lonely plodding. She believed implicitly all that was told her. + Her son had pneumonia from cold he had taken in the long drive from + Asheville. The house must be kept quiet. John Sanders was helping her + nurse him. She was sure the Doctor would save him. + </p> + <p> + Even the knife with which she had stabbed him made no impression on her + numbed senses. The Doctor had scoured every trace of blood from the blade + and put it back in its place on the shelf, lest she should miss it and ask + questions. She used it daily without the slightest memory of the frightful + story it might tell. + </p> + <p> + Each morning before going to the cabin the Doctor watched with patience + for the first signs of returning consciousness in Mary's fever-wracked + body. The day she lifted her grateful eyes to his and her lips moved in a + tremulous question he raised his hand gently. + </p> + <p> + “Sh! Child—don't talk! It's all right. You're getting better. I've + been with you every day. You're in my house now. You'll soon be yourself + again.” + </p> + <p> + She smiled wanly, put her delicate hand on his and pressed it gratefully. + </p> + <p> + “I understand. You thank me—you say that I am good to you. But I'm + not. This is my life. I heal the sick because I must. I love this battle + royal with Death. He beats me sometimes—but I never quit. I'm always + tramping on his trail, and I've won this fight!” + </p> + <p> + The calm brown eyes held her in a spell and she smiled again. + </p> + <p> + “Sleep now,” he said soothingly. “Sleep day and night. Just wake to take a + little food—that's all and Nature will do the rest.” + </p> + <p> + He stroked her hand gently until her eyelids closed. + </p> + <p> + Two days later Jim clung to the Doctor's hand and insisted on talking. + </p> + <p> + “Better wait a little longer, boy,” the physician answered kindly. “You're + not out of the woods yet——” + </p> + <p> + “I can't wait—Doc——” Jim pleaded. “I've just got to ask + you something.” + </p> + <p> + “All right. You can talk five minutes.” + </p> + <p> + “My wife, Doc, how is she? You took her to your house, John told me. + She'll get well?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. She's rapidly recovering now.” + </p> + <p> + “What does she say about me?” + </p> + <p> + “She thinks you're dead.” + </p> + <p> + “You haven't told her?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “She had all she could stand——” + </p> + <p> + Jim stared in silence. + </p> + <p> + “You think she'd be sorry to know I am alive?” he asked slowly. + </p> + <p> + “It would be a great shock.” + </p> + <p> + The steel blue eyes slowly filled with tears. + </p> + <p> + “God! I am rotten, ain't I?” + </p> + <p> + “There's no doubt about that, my son,” was the firm answer. + </p> + <p> + “Why did you fight so hard to save me—I wonder?” + </p> + <p> + “An old feud between Death and me.” + </p> + <p> + Jim suddenly seized the Doctor's hand. + </p> + <p> + “Say, you can't fool me—you're a good one, Doc. You've been a friend + to me and you've got to help now—you've just got to. You're the only + one on earth who can. You've a great big heart and you can't go back on a + fellow that's down and out. Give me a chance! You will—won't you?” + </p> + <p> + The hot fingers gripped the Doctor's hand with pleading tenderness. + </p> + <p> + The brown eyes searched Jim's soul. + </p> + <p> + “If you can show me it's worth while——” + </p> + <p> + The fingers tightened their grip in silence. + </p> + <p> + “Just give me a chance, Doc,” he said at last, “and I'll show you! I ain't + never had a chance to really know what was right and what was wrong. If + I'd a lived here with my old mother she'd have told me. You know what it + is to be a stray dog on the streets of New York? Even then, I'd have kept + straight if I hadn't been robbed by a lawyer and his pal. I didn't know + what I was doin' till that night here in this cabin—honest to God, I + didn't——” + </p> + <p> + He paused for breath and a tear stole down his cheek. He fought for + control of his emotions and went on in low tones. + </p> + <p> + “I didn't know—till I saw my old mother creepin' on me in the + shadows with that big knife gleamin' in her hand! I tried to stop her and + I couldn't. I tried to yell and strangled with blood. I saw the flames of + hell in her eyes and I had kindled them there—God! I never knew + until that minute! I'm broken and bruised lyin' on the rocks now in the + lowest pit—— Give me your hand, Doc! You're my only friend—I'm + goin' straight from now on—so help me God!” + </p> + <p> + He paused again for breath and sought the actor's eyes. + </p> + <p> + “You'll stand by me, won't you?” + </p> + <p> + A friendly grip closed on the trembling fingers. + </p> + <p> + “Yes—I'll help you—if I can.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXV. THE MOTHER + </h2> + <p> + Mary was resting in the chair beneath the southern windows of the + sun-parlor of the Doctor's bungalow. He had built his home of logs cut + from the mountainside. Its rooms were supplied with every modern + convenience and comfort. Clear spring water from the cliff above poured + into the cypress tank constructed beneath the roof. An overflow pipe sent + a sparkling, bubbling and laughing through the lawn, refreshing the wild + flowers planted along its edges. + </p> + <p> + The view from the window looking south was one of ravishing beauty and + endless charm. Perched on a rising spur of the Black Mountain the house + commanded a view of the long valley of the Swannanoa opening at the lower + end into the wide, sunlit sweep of the lower hills around Asheville. + Upward the balsam-crowned peaks towered among the clouds and stars. + </p> + <p> + No two hours of the day were just alike. Sometimes the sun was raining + showers of diamonds on the trembling tree-tops of the valleys while the + blackest storm clouds hung in ominous menace around Mount Mitchell and the + Cat-tail. Sometimes it was raining in the valley—the rain cloud a + level sheet of gray cloth stretching from the foot of the lawn across to + the crags beyond, while the sun wrapped the little bungalow in a warm, + white mantle. + </p> + <p> + Mary had never tired of this enchanted world during the days of her + convalescence. The Doctor, with firm will, had lifted every care from her + mind. She had gratefully submitted to his orders, and asked no questions. + </p> + <p> + She began to wonder vaguely about his life and people and why he had left + the world in which a man of his culture and power must have moved, to bury + himself in these mountain wilds. She wondered if he had married, separated + from his wife and chosen the life of a recluse. He volunteered no + information about himself. + </p> + <p> + When not attending his patients he spent his hours in the greenhouse among + his flowers or in the long library extension of the bungalow. More than + five thousand volumes filled the solid shelves. A massive oak table, ten + feet in length and four feet wide, stood in the center of the room, always + generously piled with books, magazines and papers. At the end of this + table he kept the row of books which bore immediately on the theme he was + studying. + </p> + <p> + Beside the window opening on the view of the valley stood his + old-fashioned desk—six feet long, its top a labyrinth of + pigeon-holes and tiny drawers. + </p> + <p> + He pursued his studies with boyish enthusiasm and chattered of them to + Mary by the hour—with never a word passing his lips about himself. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Abbie, the cook, brought her a cup of tea, and Mary volunteered a + question. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know the Doctor's people, Auntie?” she asked hesitatingly. + </p> + <p> + “Lord, child, he's a mystery to everybody! All we know is that he's the + best man that ever walked the earth. He won't talk and the mountain folks + are too polite to nose into his business. He saved my boy's life one + summer, and when he was strong and well and went back to Asheville to his + work, I had nothin' to do but to hold my hands, and I come here to cook + for him. He tries to pay me wages but I laugh at him. I told him if he + could save my boy's life for nothin' I reckon I could cook him a few good + meals without pay——” + </p> + <p> + Her eyes filled with tears. She brushed them off, laughed and added: + </p> + <p> + “He lets me alone now and don't pester me no more about money.” + </p> + <p> + Her tea and toast finished, Mary placed the tray on the table, rose with a + sudden look of pain, and made her way slowly to the library. + </p> + <p> + A warm fire of hardwood logs sparkled in the big stone fireplace. The + Doctor was out on a visit to a patient. He had given her the freedom of + the place and had especially insisted that she use his books and make his + library her resting place whenever her mind was fagged. She had spent many + quiet hours in its inspiring atmosphere. + </p> + <p> + She seated herself at his desk and studied the calendar which hung above + it. A sudden terror overwhelmed her; she buried her face in her arms and + burst into tears. + </p> + <p> + She was still lying across the desk, sobbing, when the Doctor walked into + the room. + </p> + <p> + He touched her hair reproachfully with his firm hand. + </p> + <p> + “Why, what's this? My little soldier has disobeyed orders?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't want to live now,” she sobbed. + </p> + <p> + “And why not?” + </p> + <p> + “I—I—am going to be a mother,” she whispered. + </p> + <p> + “So?” + </p> + <p> + “The mother of a criminal! Oh, Doctor, it's horrible! Why did you let me + live? The hell I passed through that night was enough—God knows! + This will be unendurable. I've made up my mind—I'll die first——” + </p> + <p> + “Rubbish, child! Rubbish!” he answered with a laugh. “Where did you get + all this misinformation?” + </p> + <p> + “You know what my husband was. How can you ask?” + </p> + <p> + “Because I happen to know also his wife—the mother-to-be of this + supposed criminal who has just set sail for the shores of our planet—and + I know that she is one of the purest and sweetest souls who ever lost her + way in the jungles of the world. If you were the criminal, dear heart, the + case might be hopeless. But you're not. You are only the innocent victim + of your own folly. That doesn't count in the game of Nature——” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” she asked breathlessly. + </p> + <p> + “Simply this: The part which the male plays in the reproduction of the + race is small in comparison with the role of the female. He is merely a + supernumerary who steps on the stage for a moment and speaks one word + announcing the arrival of the queen. The queen is the mother. She plays + the star role in the drama of Heredity. She is never off the stage for a + single moment. We inherit the most obvious physical traits from our male + ancestors but even these may be modified by the will of the mother.” + </p> + <p> + “Modified by the will of the mother?” she repeated blankly. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly. There are yet long days and weeks and months before your babe + will be born—at least seven months. There's not a sight or sound of + earth or heaven that can reach or influence this coming human being save + through your eyes and ears and touch and soul. Almighty God can speak His + message only through you. You are his ambassador on earth in this solemn + hour. What your husband was, is of little importance. There is not a + moment, waking or sleeping, day or night, that does not bring to you its + divine opportunity. This human life is yours—absolutely to mold and + fashion in body and mind as you will.” + </p> + <p> + “You're just saying this to keep me from suicide,” Mary interrupted. + </p> + <p> + “I am telling you the simplest truth of physical life. You can even change + the contour of your baby's head if you like. You think in your silly fears + that the bull neck and jaw of the father will reappear in the child. It + might be so unless you see fit to change it. All any father can do is to + transmit general physical traits unless modified by the will of the + mother.” + </p> + <p> + “You mean that I can choose even the personal appearance of my child?” she + asked in blank amazement. + </p> + <p> + “Exactly that. Choose the type of man you wish your babe to be and it + shall be so. Who in all the world would you prefer that he resemble?” + </p> + <p> + “You,” she answered promptly. + </p> + <p> + He smiled gently. + </p> + <p> + “That pays me for all my trouble, child! No doctor ever got a bigger fee + than that. Banks may fail, but I'll never lose it. Your choice simplifies + that matter very much. You won't need a picture in your room——” + </p> + <p> + “A picture could determine the features of an unborn babe?” she asked + incredulously. + </p> + <p> + “Beyond a doubt, and it will determine character sometimes. I knew a + mother in the mountains of Vermont who hung the picture of a ship under + full sail in her living-room. She bore seven sons. Not one of them ever + saw the ocean until he was grown and yet all of them became sailors. This + was not an accident. In her age and loneliness she blamed God for taking + her children from her. Yet she had made sailors of them all by the + selection of a single piece of furniture in her room. Nature has a way of + starting her children on their journey through this world very nearly + equal—each a bundle of possibilities in the hands of a mother. A + father may transmit physical disease, if his body is unsound. Such + marriages should be prohibited by law. But nine-tenths of the spiritual + traits out of which character is formed are the work of the mother. A + criminal mother will bring into the world only criminals. A criminal male + may be the father of a saint. The responsibility of shaping the destiny of + the race rests with the mother——” + </p> + <p> + The Doctor sprang to his feet and paced the floor, his arms gripped behind + his back in deep thought. He paused before the enraptured listener and + hesitated to speak the thought in his mind. + </p> + <p> + He lifted his hand suddenly, his decision apparently made. + </p> + <p> + “It is of the utmost importance to the race that our mothers shall be + pure. Better certainly if both father and mother are so. It is + indispensable that the mother shall be! On this elemental fact rests the + dual standard of sex morals. On this fact rests the hope of a glorified + humanity through the development of an intelligent motherhood. Stay here + with me until your child is born and I'll prove the truth of every word + I've spoken——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, if I only could!” + </p> + <p> + “Why not?” + </p> + <p> + “I couldn't impose such a burden on you!” she faltered. + </p> + <p> + “You would confer on me the highest honor, if you will allow me to direct + you in this experiment.” + </p> + <p> + There was no mistaking his honesty and earnestness. There was no refusing + the appeal. + </p> + <p> + “You really wish me to stay?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “I beg of you to stay! You will bring to me a new inspiration—new + faith—new courage to fight. Will you?” + </p> + <p> + She extended her hand. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “And you will agree to follow my instructions?” + </p> + <p> + “Absolutely.” + </p> + <p> + “Good. We begin from this moment. I give you my first orders. Forget that + James Anthony ever lived. Forget the tragedy of Christmas Eve. You are + going to be a mother. All other events in life pale before this fact. God + has conferred on you the highest honor He can give to mortal. Keep your + soul serene, your body strong. You are to worry about nothing——” + </p> + <p> + “I must pay you for this extra expense I impose, Doctor. I have a thousand + dollars in bank in New York,” she interrupted. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly, if you will be happier. My home is now your sanitarium. You + are my patient. Your board will cost me about eight dollars a week. All + right. You can pay that if you wish. + </p> + <p> + “Take no thought now except on the business of being a mother. I will make + myself your father, your brother, your guardian, your physician, your + friend and companion. I will give you at once a course of reading. You are + to think only beautiful thoughts, see beautiful things, dream beautiful + dreams, hear beautiful music. I'm going to make you climb these mountain + peaks with me for the next three months and live among the clouds. I'm + going to refit your room with new furniture and pictures and place in it a + phonograph with the best music. When you are strong enough you can work + for me three hours a day as my secretary. You use the typewriter?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm an expert——” + </p> + <p> + “Good! I'm writing a book which I'm going to call `The Rulers of the + World.' It is a study of Motherhood. I am one who believes that the + redemption of humanity awaits the realization by woman of her divine call. + When woman knows that she is really a co-creator with God in the + reproduction of the race, a new era will dawn for mankind. You promise me + faithfully to obey my instructions?” + </p> + <p> + “Faithfully.” + </p> + <p> + “You're a wonderful subject on which to make an experiment. You are young—in + the first dawn of the glory of womanhood. Your body is beautiful, your + mind singularly pure and sweet. You must give me at once the full power of + your will in its concentration on Truth and Beauty. The success or failure + of this experiment will depend almost entirely on your mentality and the + use you make of it during these months in which your babe is being formed. + Whatever the shape of the body there is one eternal certainty—only + YOUR mind can reach the soul of this child. If the father were the veriest + fiend who ever existed and should concentrate his mind to the task, not + one thought from his darkened soul could reach your babe! YOUR mind will + be the ever-brooding, enfolding spirit forming and fashioning character.” + </p> + <p> + He paused and his deep brown eyes flashed with enthusiasm. + </p> + <p> + “Think of it! You are now creating an immortal being whose word may bend a + million wills to his. And you are doing this mighty work solely by your + mind. The physical processes are simple and automatic. + </p> + <p> + “The first lesson you must learn and hold with deathless grip is that + thoughts are things. A thought can kill the body. A thought can heal the + body. If I am successful as a physician it is because I use this power + with my patients. With some I use drugs, with others none. With all I use + every ounce of mental power which God has given me. You will remember + this?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + He walked to the shelves and drew down a volume of poetry. + </p> + <p> + “Read these poems until you are tired today—then sleep. I'll give + you a good novel tomorrow and when you've read it, a volume of philosophy. + When we climb the peaks, I'll give you a study of these rocks that will + tell you the story of their birth, their life, and their coming death. + We'll learn something of the birds and flowers next spring. We'll dream + great dreams and think great thoughts—you and I—in these + wonderful days and weeks and months which God shall give us together.” + </p> + <p> + She looked up at him through her tears: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Doctor, you have not only saved a miserable life: you have saved my + soul!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXVI. A SOUL IS BORN + </h2> + <p> + It was more than a month after the experiment began before the Doctor + ventured to hint of Jim's survival. He had waited patiently until Mary's + strength had been fully restored and her mind filled with the new + enthusiasm for motherhood. He could tell her now with little risk. And yet + he ventured on the task with reluctance. He found her seated at her + favorite window overlooking the deep blue valley of the Swannanoa, a + volume of poetry in her lap. + </p> + <p> + He touched her shoulder and she smiled in cheerful response. + </p> + <p> + “You are content?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “A strange peace is slowly stealing into my heart,” she responded + reverently. “I shall learn to love life again when my baby comes to help + me.” + </p> + <p> + “You remember your solemn promise?” + </p> + <p> + “Have I not kept it?” she murmured. + </p> + <p> + “Faithfully—and I remind you of it that you may not forget today for + a moment that your work is too high and holy to allow a shadow to darken + your spirit even for an hour. I have something to tell you that may shock + a little unless I warn you——” + </p> + <p> + She lifted her eyes with a quick look of uneasiness, and studied his + immovable face. + </p> + <p> + “You couldn't guess?” he laughed. + </p> + <p> + She shook her head in puzzled silence. + </p> + <p> + “Suppose I were to tell you,” he went on evenly, “that I found a spark of + life in your husband's body that morning and drew him back from the + grave?” + </p> + <p> + Her eyes closed and she stretched her hand toward the Doctor. + </p> + <p> + He clasped the fingers firmly between both his palms, held and stroked + them gently. + </p> + <p> + “You did save him?” she breathed. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank God his poor old mother is not a murderer! But he is dead to me. I + shall never see him again—never!” + </p> + <p> + “I thought you would feel that way,” the Doctor quietly replied. + </p> + <p> + “You won't let him come here?” she asked suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “He won't try unless you consent——” + </p> + <p> + Mary shuddered. + </p> + <p> + “You don't know him——” + </p> + <p> + The Doctor smiled. + </p> + <p> + “I'm afraid you don't know him now, my child.” + </p> + <p> + “He has changed?” + </p> + <p> + “The old, old miracle over again. He has been literally born again—this + time of the spirit.” + </p> + <p> + “It's incredible!” + </p> + <p> + “It's true. He's a new man. I think his reformation is the real thing. + He's young. He's strong. He has brains. He has personality——” + </p> + <p> + Mary lifted her hand. + </p> + <p> + “All I ask of him is to keep out of my sight. The world is big enough for + us both. The past is now a nightmare. If I live to be a hundred years old, + with my dying breath I shall feel the grip of his fingers on my throat——” + </p> + <p> + She paused and closed her eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Forget it! Forget it!” the Doctor laughed. “We have more important things + to think of now.” + </p> + <p> + “He wishes to see me?” + </p> + <p> + “Begs every day that I ask you.” + </p> + <p> + “And you have hesitated these long weeks?” + </p> + <p> + “Your strength and peace of mind were of greater importance than his + happiness, my dear. Let him wait until you please to see him.” + </p> + <p> + “He'll wait forever,” was the firm answer. + </p> + <p> + Jim smiled grimly when his friend bore back the message. + </p> + <p> + “I'll never give up as long as there's breath in my body,” he cried, + bringing his square jaws together with a snap. + </p> + <p> + “That's the way to talk, my boy,” the Doctor responded. + </p> + <p> + “Anyhow you believe in me, Doc, don't you?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “And you'll help me a little on the way if it gets dark—won't you?” + </p> + <p> + “If I can—you may always depend on me.” + </p> + <p> + Jim clasped his outstretched hand gratefully. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I'm going to make good.” + </p> + <p> + There was something so genuine and manly in the tones of his voice, he + compelled the Doctor's respect. A smaller man might have sneered. The + healer of souls and bodies had come to recognize with unerring instinct + the true and false note in the human voice. + </p> + <p> + His heart went out in a wave of sympathy for the lonely, miserable young + animal who stood before him now, trembling with the first sharp pains of + the immortal thing that had awaked within. He slipped his arm about Jim's + shoulders and whispered: + </p> + <p> + “I'll tell you something that may help you when the way gets dark—the + wife is going to bear you a child.” + </p> + <p> + “No!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “God!—— That's great, ain't it?” + </p> + <p> + Jim choked into silence and looked up at the Doctor with dimmed eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Say, Doc, you hit me hard when you brought what she said—but that's + good news! Watch me work my hands to the bone—you know it's my kid + and she can't keep me from workin' for it if she tries now can she?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “There's just one thing that'll hang over me like a black cloud,” he mused + sorrowfully. + </p> + <p> + “I know, boy—your mother's darkened mind.” + </p> + <p> + Jim nodded. + </p> + <p> + “When I see that queer glitter in her eyes it goes through me like a + knife. Will she ever get over it?” + </p> + <p> + “We can't tell yet. It takes time. I believe she will.” + </p> + <p> + “You'll do the best you can for her, Doc?” he pleaded pathetically. “You + won't forget her a single day? If you can't cure her, nobody can.” + </p> + <p> + “I'll do my level best, boy.” + </p> + <p> + Jim pressed his hand again. + </p> + <p> + “Gee, but you've been a friend to me! I didn't know that there were such + men in the world as you!” + </p> + <p> + For six months the Doctor watched the transplanted child of the slums grow + into a sturdy manhood in his new environment. He snapped at every + suggestion his friend gave and with quick wit improved on it. He not only + discovered and developed a mica mine on his mother's farm, he invented new + machinery for its working that doubled the market output. Within six weeks + from the time he began his shipments the mine was paying a steady profit + of more than five hundred dollars a month. He had made just one trip to + New York and secretly returned to the police every stolen jewel and piece + of plunder taken, with a full confession of the time and place of the + crime. He had shipped his tools and machinery from the workshop on the + east side before his sensational act and made good his departure for the + South. + </p> + <p> + The tools and machinery he installed in a new workshop which he built in + the yard of Nance's cabin. Here he worked day and night at his blacksmith + forge making the iron hinges, and irons, shovels, tongs, fire sets and + iron work complete for a log bungalow of seven rooms which he was building + on the sunny slope of the mountain which overlooks the valley toward + Asheville. + </p> + <p> + The Doctor had lent Jim the blue-prints of his own home and he was quietly + duplicating it with loving care. His wife might refuse to see him but he + could build a home for their boy. For his sake she couldn't refuse it. + </p> + <p> + With childlike obedience Nance followed him every day and watched the + workmen rear the beautiful structure under Jim's keen eyes and skillful + hands. The man's devotion to his mother was pathetic. Only the Doctor knew + the secret of his pitiful care, and he kept his own counsel. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXVII. THE BABY + </h2> + <p> + The last roses of summer were bursting their topmost buds into full bloom + on the lawn of the Doctor's bungalow. The martins that built each year in + the little boxes he had set on poles around his garden were circling and + chattering far up in the sapphire skies of a late September day. Their + leaders had sensed the coming frost and were drilling for their long march + across the world to their winter home. The chestnut burrs were bursting in + the woods. The silent sun-wrapped Indian Summer had begun. Not a cloud + flecked the skies. + </p> + <p> + A quiet joy filled the soul of the woman who smiled and heard her summons. + </p> + <p> + “You are not afraid?” the Doctor asked. + </p> + <p> + She turned her grateful eyes to his. + </p> + <p> + “The peace of God fills the world—and I owe it all to you.” + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense. Your sturdy will and cultivated mind did the work. I merely + made the suggestion.” + </p> + <p> + “You are not going to give me an anesthetic, are you?” she said evenly. + </p> + <p> + “Why did you ask that?” + </p> + <p> + “Because I wish to feel and know the pain and glory of it all.” + </p> + <p> + “You don't wish to take it?” + </p> + <p> + “Not unless you say I should.” + </p> + <p> + “What a wonderful patient you are, child! What a beautiful spirit!” He + looked at her intently. “Well, I'm older and wiser in experience than you. + I'm glad you added that clause `unless you say I should.' I'm going to say + it. After all my talks to you on our return to the truths and simplicity + of Nature you are perhaps surprised. You needn't be. I'm going to put you + into a gentle sleep. Nature will then do her physical work automatically. + I do this because our daughters are the inheritors of the sins of their + mothers for centuries. The over-refinement of nerves, the hothouse methods + of living, and the maiming of their bodies with the inventions of fashion + have made the pains of this supreme hour beyond endurance. This should not + be. It will not be so when our race has come into its own. But it will + take many generations and perhaps many centuries before we reach the + ideal. No physician who has a soul could permit a woman of your physique, + your culture and refinement to walk barefoot and blindfolded into such a + hell of physical torture. I will not permit it.” + </p> + <p> + He walked quietly into his laboratory, prepared the sleeping powders and + gave them to her. + </p> + <p> + Six hours later she opened her eyes with eager wonder. Aunt Abbie was busy + over a bundle of fluffy clothes. The Doctor was standing with his arms + folded behind his back, his fine, clean-shaven face in profile looking + thoughtfully over the sun-lit valley. There was just one moment of + agonized fear. If they had failed! If her child were hideous—or + deformed! Her lips moved in silent prayer. + </p> + <p> + “Doctor?” she whispered. + </p> + <p> + In a moment he was bending over her, a look of exaltation in his brown + eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Tell me quick!” + </p> + <p> + “A wonderful boy, little mother! The most beautiful babe I have ever seen. + He didn't even cry—just opened his big, wide eyes and grunted + contentedly.” + </p> + <p> + “Give him to me.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Abbie laid the warm bundle in her arms and she pressed it gently + until the sweet, red flesh touched her own. She lay still for a moment, a + smile on her lips. + </p> + <p> + “Lift him and let me look!” + </p> + <p> + “What a funny little pug nose,” she laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Yes—exactly like his mother's!” the Doctor replied. + </p> + <p> + She gazed with breathless reverence. + </p> + <p> + “He is beautiful, isn't he?” she sighed. + </p> + <p> + “And you have observed the chin and mouth?” + </p> + <p> + “Exactly like yours. It's wonderful!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXVIII. WHAT IS LOVE? + </h2> + <p> + Eighteen months swiftly passed with the little mother and her boy still in + Dr. Mulford's sanitarium. She had allowed herself to be persuaded that he + had the right to be her guide and helper in the first year's training of + the child. + </p> + <p> + The boy had steadily grown in strength and beauty of body and mind. The + Doctor persuaded her to spend one more winter basking in his sun-parlor + and finishing the final chapters of his book. Her mind was singularly + clever and helpful in the interpretation of the experiences and emotions + of motherhood. + </p> + <p> + She had stubbornly resisted every suggestion to see her husband or allow + him to see the child. The Doctor had managed twice to give Jim an hour + with the baby while she had gone to Asheville on shopping trips. He was + rewarded for his trouble in the devotion with which the young father + worshiped his son. The Doctor watched the slumbering fires kindle in the + man's deep blue eyes with increasing wonder at the strength and tenderness + of his newfound soul. + </p> + <p> + Jim had completed the furnishing of the bungalow with the advice and + guidance of his friend, and every room stood ready and waiting for its + mistress. He had insisted on making every piece of furniture for Mary's + room and the nursery adjoining. The Doctor was amazed at the mechanical + genius he displayed in its construction. He had taken a month's + instruction at a cabinet maker's in Asheville and the bed, bureau, tables + and chairs which he had turned out were astonishingly beautiful. Their + lines were copied from old models and each piece was a work of art. The + iron work was even more tastefully and beautifully wrought. He had toiled + day and night with an enthusiasm and patience that gave the physician a + new revelation in the possibility of the development of human character. + </p> + <p> + His friend came at last with a cheering message. He began smilingly: + </p> + <p> + “I'm going to make the big fight today, boy, to get her to see you.” + </p> + <p> + “You think she will?” + </p> + <p> + “There's a good chance. Her savings have all been used up from her bank + account in New York. She is determined to go to her father in Kentucky. + I'll have a talk with her, bring her over to the bungalow, show her + through it on the pretext of its model construction and then you can tell + her that you built it with your own hands for her and the baby. You might + be loafing around the place about that time.” + </p> + <p> + Jim's hand was suddenly lifted. + </p> + <p> + “I got ye, Doc, I got ye! I'll be there—all day.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't let her see you until I give the signal.” + </p> + <p> + “Caution's my name.” + </p> + <p> + “We'll see what happens.” + </p> + <p> + Jim pressed close. + </p> + <p> + “Say, Doc, if you know how to pray, I wish you'd send up a little word for + me while you're talkin' to her. Could ye now?” + </p> + <p> + “I'll do my best for you, boy—and I think you've got a chance. She's + been watching the blue eyes of that baby lately with a rather curious look + of unrest.” + </p> + <p> + “They're just like mine, ain't they?” Jim broke in with pride. + </p> + <p> + “Time has softened the old hurt,” the Doctor went on. “The boy may win for + you——” + </p> + <p> + The square jaw came together with a smash. + </p> + <p> + “Gee—I hope so. I'll wait there all day for you and I'm goin' to try + my own hand at a little prayer or two on the side while I'm waiting. Maybe + God'll think He's hit me hard enough by this time to give me another + trial.” + </p> + <p> + With a friendly wave of his hand the Doctor hurried home. + </p> + <p> + He found Mary seated under the rose trellis beside the drive, watching for + his coming. The day was still and warm for the end of April. Birds were + singing and chattering in every branch and tree. A quail on the top + fence-rail of the wheat field called loudly to his mate. + </p> + <p> + The boy was screaming his joy over a new wagon to which Aunt Abbie had + hitched his goat. He drove by in style, lifted his chubby hand to his + mother and shouted: + </p> + <p> + “Dood-by, Doc-ter!” + </p> + <p> + The Doctor waved a smiling answer, and lapsed into a long silence. + </p> + <p> + He waked at last from his absorption to notice that Mary was day-dreaming. + The fair brow was drawn into deep lines of brooding. + </p> + <p> + “Why shadows in your eyes a day like this, little mother?” he asked + softly. + </p> + <p> + “Just thinking——” + </p> + <p> + “About a past that you should forget?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes and no,” she answered thoughtfully. “I was just thinking in this + flood of spring sunlight of the mystery of my love for such a man as the + one I married. How could it have been possible to really love him?” + </p> + <p> + “You are sure that you loved him?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure.” + </p> + <p> + “How did you know?” + </p> + <p> + “By all the signs. I trembled at his footstep. The touch of his hand, the + sound of his voice thrilled me. I was drawn by a power that was + resistless. I was mad with happiness those wonderful days that preceded + our marriage. I was madder still during our honeymoon—until the + shadows began to fall that fatal Christmas Eve.” She paused and her lips + trembled. “Oh, Doctor, what is love?” + </p> + <p> + The drooping shoulders of the man bent lower. He picked up a pebble from + the ground and flicked it carelessly across the drive, lifted his head at + last and asked earnestly: + </p> + <p> + “Shall I tell you the truth?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—your own particular brand, please—the truth, the whole + truth and nothing but the truth.” + </p> + <p> + “I'll try,” he began soberly. “If I were a poet, naturally I would use + different language. As I'm only a prosaic doctor and physiologist I may + shock your ideals a little.” + </p> + <p> + “No matter,” she interrupted. “They couldn't well get a harder jolt than + they have had already.” + </p> + <p> + He nodded and went on: + </p> + <p> + “There are two elemental human forces that maintain life—hunger and + love. They are both utterly simple, otherwise they could not be universal. + Hunger compels the race to live. Love compels it to reproduce itself. + There has never been anything mysterious about either of these forces and + there never will be—except in the imagination of sentimentalists. + </p> + <p> + “Nature begins with hunger. For about thirteen years she first applies + this force to the development of the body before she begins to lay the + foundation of the second. Until this second development is complete the + passion known as love cannot be experienced. + </p> + <p> + “What is this second development? Very simple again. At the base of the + brain of every child there is a vacant space during the first twelve or + fifteen years. During the age of twelve to fourteen in girls, thirteen to + fifteen in boys, this vacant space is slowly filled by a new lobe of the + brain and with its growth comes the consciousness of sex and the + development of sex powers. + </p> + <p> + “This new nerve center becomes on maturity a powerful physical magnet. The + moment this magnet comes into contact with an organization which answers + its needs, as certain kinds of food answer the needs of hunger, violent + desire is excited. If both these magnets should be equally powerful, the + disturbance to both will be great. The longer the personal association is + continued the more violent becomes this disturbance, until in highly + sensitive natures it develops into an obsession which obscures reason and + crushes the will. + </p> + <p> + “The meaning of this impulse is again very simple—the unconscious + desire of the male to be a father, of the female to become a mother.” + </p> + <p> + “And there is but one man on earth who could thus affect me?” Mary asked + excitedly. + </p> + <p> + “Rubbish! There are thousands.” + </p> + <p> + “Thousands?” + </p> + <p> + “Literally thousands. The reason you never happen to meet them is purely + an accident of our poor social organization. Every woman has thousands of + true physical mates if she could only meet them. Every man has thousands + of true physical mates if he could only meet them. And in every such + meeting, if mind and body are in normal condition, the same violent + disturbance would result—whether married or single, free or bound. + </p> + <p> + “Marriage therefore is not based merely on the passion of love. It is a + crime for any man or woman to marry without love. It is the sheerest + insanity to believe that this passion within itself is sufficient to + justify marriage. All who marry should love. Many love who should not + marry. + </p> + <p> + “The institution of marriage is the great SOCIAL ordinance of the race. + Its sanctity and perpetuity are not based on the violence of the passion + of love, but something else.” + </p> + <p> + He paused and listened to the call of the quail again from the field. + </p> + <p> + “You hear that bob white calling his mate?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—and she's answering him now very softly. I can hear them both.” + </p> + <p> + “They have mated this spring to build a home and rear a brood of young. + Within six months their babies will all be full grown and next spring a + new alignment of lovers will be made. Their marriage lasts during the + period of infancy of their offspring. This is Nature's law. + </p> + <p> + “It happens in the case of man that the period of infancy of a human being + is about twenty-four years. This is the most wonderful fact in nature. It + means that the capacity of man for the improvement of his breed is + practically limitless. A quail has a few months in which to rear her + young. God gives to woman a quarter of a century in which to mold her + immortal offspring. Because the period of infancy of one child covers the + entire period of motherhood capacity, marriage binds for life, and the + sanctity of marriage rests squarely on this law of Nature.” + </p> + <p> + He paused again and looked over the sunlit valley. + </p> + <p> + “I wish our boys and girls could all know these simple truths of their + being. It would save much unhappiness and many tragic blunders. + </p> + <p> + “You were swept completely off your feet by the rush of the first emotion + caused by meeting a man who was your physical mate. You imagined this + emotion to be a mysterious revelation which can come but once. Your + imagination in its excited condition, of course, gave to your first-found + mate all sorts of divine attributes which he did not possess. You were `in + love' with a puppet of your own creation, and hypnotized yourself into the + delusion that James Anthony was your one and only mate, your knight, your + hero. + </p> + <p> + “In a very important sense this was true. Your intuitions could not make a + mistake on so vital an issue. But you immediately rushed into marriage and + your union has been perfected by the birth of a child. Whether you are + happy or unhappy in marriage does not depend on the reality of love. + Happiness in marriage is based on something else.” + </p> + <p> + “On what?” + </p> + <p> + “The joy and peace that comes from oneness of spirit, tastes, culture and + character. I know this from the deepest experiences of life and the widest + observation.” + </p> + <p> + “You have loved?” she asked softly. + </p> + <p> + “Twice——” + </p> + <p> + A silence fell between them. + </p> + <p> + “Shall I tell you, little mother?” he finally asked quietly. + </p> + <p> + “Please.” + </p> + <p> + He seated himself and looked into the skies beyond the peaks across the + valley. + </p> + <p> + “Ten years ago I met my first mate. The meeting was fortunate for both. + She was a woman of gentle birth, of beautiful spirit. Our courtship was + ideal. We thought alike, we felt alike, she loved my profession even—an + unusual trait in a woman. She thought it so noble in its aims that the + petty jealousy that sometimes wrecks a doctor's life was to her an + unthinkable crime. The first year was the nearest to heaven that I had + ever gotten down here. + </p> + <p> + “And then, little mother, by one of those inexplicable mysteries of nature + she died when our baby was born. For a while the light of the world went + out. I quit New York, gave up my profession and came here just to lie in + the sun on this mountainside and try to pull myself together. I didn't + think life could ever be worth living again. But it was. I found about me + so much of human need—so much ignorance and helplessness—so + much to pity and love, I forgot the ache in my own heart in bringing joy + to others. + </p> + <p> + “I had money enough. I gave up the ambitions of greed and strife and set + my soul to higher tasks. For nine years I've devoted my leisure hours to + the study of Motherhood as the hope of a nobler humanity. But for the + great personal sorrow that came to me in the death of my wife and baby I + should never have realized the truths I now see so clearly. + </p> + <p> + “And then the other woman suddenly came into my life. I never expected to + love again—not because I thought it impossible, but because I + thought it improbable in my little world here that I could ever again meet + a woman I would ask to be my wife. But she dropped one day out of the + sky.” + </p> + <p> + He paused and took a deep breath. + </p> + <p> + “I recognized her instantly as my mate, gentle and pure and capable of + infinite joy or infinite pain. She did not realize the secret of my + interest in her. I didn't expect it. I knew that under the conditions she + could not. But I waited.” + </p> + <p> + He paused and searched for Mary's eyes. + </p> + <p> + “And you married her?” she asked in even tones. + </p> + <p> + “I have never allowed her to know that I love her.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “She was married.” + </p> + <p> + Mary threw him a startled look and he went on evenly: + </p> + <p> + “I could have used my power over mind and body to separate her from her + husband. I confess that I was tempted. But there was a child. Their union + had been sealed with the strongest tie that can bind two human beings. I + have never allowed her to realize that she might love me. Had I chosen to + break the silence between us I could have revealed this to her, taken her + and torn her from the man to whom she had borne a babe. I had no right to + commit that crime, no matter how deep the love that cried for its own. + Marriage is based on the period of infancy of the child which spans the + maternal life of woman. God had joined these two people together and no + man had the right to put them asunder!” + </p> + <p> + “And you gave her up?” + </p> + <p> + “I had to, little mother. On the recognition of this eternal law the whole + structure of our civilization rests.” + </p> + <p> + Mary bent her gaze steadily on his face for a moment in silence. + </p> + <p> + “And you are telling me that I should be reconciled to the man who choked + me into insensibility?” + </p> + <p> + “I am telling you that he is the father of your son—that he has + rights which you cannot deny; that when you gave yourself to him in the + first impulse of love a deed was done which Almighty God can never undo. + Your tragic blunder was the rush into marriage with a man about whose + character you knew so little. It's the timid, shrinking, home-loving girl + that makes this mistake. You must face it now. You are responsible as + deeply and truly as the man who married you. That he happened at that + moment to be a brute and a criminal is no more his fault than yours. It + was YOUR business to KNOW before you made him the father of your child.” + </p> + <p> + “I tried to appeal to his better nature that awful night,” Mary + interrupted, “but he only laughed at me!” + </p> + <p> + “You owe him another trial, little mother—you owe it to his boy, + too.” + </p> + <p> + Mary shook her head bitterly. + </p> + <p> + “I can't—I just can't!” + </p> + <p> + “You won't see him once?” + </p> + <p> + She sprang to her feet trembling. + </p> + <p> + “No—no!” + </p> + <p> + “I don't think it's fair.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm afraid of him! You can't understand his power over my will.” + </p> + <p> + “Come, come, this is sheer cowardice—give the devil his dues. Face + him and fight it out. Tell him you're done forever with him and his life, + if you will—but don't hedge and trim and run away like this. I'm + ashamed of you.” + </p> + <p> + “I won't see him—I've made up my mind.” + </p> + <p> + The Doctor threw up both hands. + </p> + <p> + “All right. If you won't, you won't. We'll let it go at that.” + </p> + <p> + He paused and changed his tones to friendly personal interest. + </p> + <p> + “And you're determined to leave me and take my kid away tomorrow?” + </p> + <p> + “We must go. I've no money to pay my board. I can't impose on you——” + </p> + <p> + “It's going to be awfully lonely.” + </p> + <p> + He looked at her with a strange, deep gaze, lifted his stooping shoulders + with sudden resolution and changed his manner to light banter. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose I couldn't persuade you to give me that boy?” + </p> + <p> + She smiled tenderly. + </p> + <p> + “You know his father did leave his mark on him after all! The eyes are all + his. Of course, I will admit that those drooping lids have often been the + mark of genius—perhaps a genius for evil in this case. If you don't + want to take the risk—now's your chance. I will——” + </p> + <p> + Mary shook her head in reproachful protest. + </p> + <p> + “Don't tease me, dear doctor man. I've just this one day more with you. + I'm counting each precious hour.” + </p> + <p> + “Forgive me!” he cried gayly. “I won't tease you any more. Come, we'll run + over now and see our neighbor's new bungalow before you go. You admire + this one and threaten to duplicate it. He has built a better one.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't believe it.” + </p> + <p> + “You'll go?” + </p> + <p> + “If you wish it——” + </p> + <p> + “Good. We'll take the boy, too. He can drive his new wagon the whole way. + It's only half a mile.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIX. THE NEW MAN + </h2> + <p> + The door of the bungalow stood wide open. Mary paused in rapture over the + rich beds of wood violets that carpeted the spaces between the drive and + the log walls. + </p> + <p> + “Aren't they beautiful!” she cried. “A perfect carpet of dazzling green + and purple!” + </p> + <p> + “Come right in,” the Doctor urged from the steps. “My neighbor's a patient + of mine. He hasn't moved in yet but he told me always to make myself at + home.” + </p> + <p> + Mary lifted the boy from his wagon, tied the goat and led the child into + the house. The Doctor showed her through without comment. None was needed. + The woman's keen eye saw at a glance the perfection of care with which the + master builder had wrought the slightest detail of every room. The floors + were immaculate native hard-wood—its grain brought out through + shining mirrors of clean varnish. There was not one shoddy piece of work + from the kitchen sink to the big open fireplace in the spacious hall and + living-room. + </p> + <p> + “It's exquisite!” she exclaimed at last. “It seems all hand-made—doesn't + it?” + </p> + <p> + “It is, too. The owner literally built it with his own hands—a work + of love.” + </p> + <p> + “For himself?” Mary asked with a smile. + </p> + <p> + “For the woman he loves, of course! My neighbor's a sort of crank and + insisted on expressing himself in this way. Come, I want you to see two + rooms upstairs.” + </p> + <p> + He led her into the room Jim had built for his wife. + </p> + <p> + “Observe this furniture, if you please.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't tell me that he built that too?” she laughed. + </p> + <p> + “That's exactly what I'm going to tell you.” + </p> + <p> + “Impossible!” she protested. “Why, the line and finish would do credit to + the finest artisan in America.” + </p> + <p> + “So I say. Look at the perfect polish of that table! It's like the finish + of a rosewood piano.” He touched the smooth surface. + </p> + <p> + “Of course you're joking?” Mary answered. “No amateur could have done such + work.” + </p> + <p> + “So I'd have said if I had not seen him do it.” + </p> + <p> + “What on earth possessed him to undertake such a task?” + </p> + <p> + “The love of a beautiful woman—what else?” + </p> + <p> + “He learned a trade—just to furnish this room with his own hand?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “His love must be the real thing,” she mused. + </p> + <p> + “That's what I've said. Look at this iron work, too—the stately + andirons in that big fireplace, the shovel, the tongs, and the massive + strop-hinges on the doors.” + </p> + <p> + “He did that, too?” she asked in amazement. + </p> + <p> + “Every piece of iron on the place he beat out with his own hand at his + forge.” + </p> + <p> + “And all for the love of a woman? The age of romance hasn't passed after + all, has it?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + Mary paused before the window looking south. + </p> + <p> + “What a glorious view!” she cried. “It's even grander than yours, Doctor.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. I claim some of the credit, though, for that. I helped him lay out + the grounds.” + </p> + <p> + “Who is this remarkable man?” she asked at last. + </p> + <p> + “A friend of mine. I'll introduce him directly. He should be here at any + moment now.” + </p> + <p> + “We're intruding,” Mary whispered. “We must go. I mustn't look any more. + I'll be coveting my neighbor's house.” + </p> + <p> + The doctor turned to the window and signaled to someone on the lawn, as + Mary hurried down the stairs. + </p> + <p> + She fairly ran into Jim, who was being pulled into the house by the boy. + </p> + <p> + “'Ook, Mamma! 'Ook! I found a Daddy! He says he be my Daddy if you let + him. Please let him. I want a Daddy, an' I like him. Please!” + </p> + <p> + Jim blushed and trembled and lifted his eyes appealingly, while Mary stood + white and still watching him in a sort of helpless terror. + </p> + <p> + The child moved on to his wagon. + </p> + <p> + “Say, little girl,” Jim began in low tones, “it's been a thousand years + since I saw you. Don't drive me away—just give me one chance for + God's sake and this baby's that He sent us! I've gone straight. I've sent + back every dishonest dollar. I'm earning a clean living down here and a + good one. I've practiced for two years cutting out the slang, too.” + </p> + <p> + He paused for breath and she turned her head away. + </p> + <p> + “Just listen a minute! I know I was a beast that night. I'm not the same + now. I've been through the fires of hell and I've come out a cleaner man. + Let me show you how much I love you! Life's too short, but just give me a + chance. If I could undo that awful hour when I hurt you so, I'd crawl + 'round the world on my hands and knees—and I'll show you that I mean + it! I built this house for you and the baby.” + </p> + <p> + Mary turned suddenly with wide dilated eyes. + </p> + <p> + “You—YOU built this house?” she gasped. + </p> + <p> + “I've worked on it every hour, day and night, the past two years when I + wasn't earning a living in the mine. I made every stick of that furniture + in the rooms up there—for you and my boy. The house is yours—whether + you let me stay or not.” + </p> + <p> + “I—I can't take it, Jim,” she faltered. + </p> + <p> + “You've got to, girlie. You can't throw a gift like this back in a + fellow's face—it cost too much! Your money's all gone. You've got to + bring up that kid. He's mine, too. I'm man enough to support my wife and + baby and I'm going to do it. I don't care what you say. You've got to let + me. I'm going to work for you, live for you and die for you—whether + you stay with me or not. I've got the right to do that, you know.” + </p> + <p> + She lifted her head and faced him squarely for the first time, amazed at + the new dignity and strength of his quiet bearing. + </p> + <p> + “You HAVE changed, Jim——” + </p> + <p> + Her eyes sought the depths of his soul in a moment's silence, and she + slowly extended her hand: + </p> + <p> + “We'll try again!” + </p> + <p> + He bent and kissed the tips of her fingers reverently. + </p> + <p> + They stood for a moment hand in hand and looked over the sunlit valley of + the Swannanoa shimmering in peace and beauty between its sheltering walls + of blue mountains. The bees were humming spring music among the flowers at + their feet and the faint odor of fruit trees in blossom came from the + orchard Jim had planted two years before. + </p> + <p> + “I'll show you, little girl—I'll show you!” he whispered tensely. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Foolish Virgin, by Thomas Dixon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOOLISH VIRGIN *** + +***** This file should be named 1634-h.htm or 1634-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/1634/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger + +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. 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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: The Foolish Virgin + +Author: Thomas Dixon + +Posting Date: October 5, 2008 [EBook #1634] +Release Date: February, 1999 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOOLISH VIRGIN *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +THE FOOLISH VIRGIN + +By Thomas Dixon + + + + +TO GERTRUDE ATHERTON WITH GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. A FRIENDLY WARNING + II. TEMPTATION + III. FATE + IV. DOUBTS AND FEARS + V. WINGS OF STEEL + VI. BESIDE THE SEA + VII. A VAIN APPEAL + VIII. JIM'S TRIAL + IX. ELLA'S SECRET + X. THE WEDDING + XI. "UNTIL DEATH" + XII. THE LOTOS-EATERS + XIII. THE REAL MAN + XIV. UNWELCOME GUESTS + XV. A LITTLE BLACK BAG + XVI. THE AWAKENING + XVII. THE SURRENDER + XVIII. TO THE NEW GOD + XIX. NANCE'S STOREHOUSE + XX. TRAPPED + XXI. THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE + XXII. DELIVERANCE + XXIII. THE DOCTOR + XXIV. THE CALL DIVINE + XXV. THE MOTHER + XXVI. A SOUL IS BORN + XXVII. THE BABY + XXVIII. WHAT IS LOVE? + XXIX. THE NEW MAN + + + + +LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY + + MARY ADAMS, An Old-Fashioned Girl. + JIM ANTHONY, A Modern Youth. + JANE ANDERSON, An Artist. + ELLA, A Scrubwoman. + NANCE OWENS, Jim Anthony's Mother. + A DOCTOR, Whose Call was Divine. + THE BABY, A Mascot. + + + + +THE FOOLISH VIRGIN + + + + +CHAPTER I. A FRIENDLY WARNING + +"Mary Adams, you're a fool!" + +The single dimple in a smooth red cheek smiled in answer. + +"You're repeating yourself, Jane----" + +"You won't give him one hour's time for just three sittings?" + +"Not a second for one sitting----" + +"Hopeless!" + +Mary smiled provokingly, her white teeth gleaming in obstinate good +humor. + +"He's the most distinguished artist in America----" + +"I've heard so." + +"It would be a liberal education for a girl of your training to know +such a man----" + +"I'll omit that course of instruction." + +The younger woman was silent a moment, and a flush of anger slowly +mounted her temples. The blue eyes were fixed reproachfully on her +friend. + +"You really thought that I would pose?" + +"I hoped so." + +"Alone with a man in his studio for hours?" + +Jane Anderson lifted her dark brows. + +"Why, no, I hardly expected that! I'm sure he would take his easel and +palette out into the square in front of the Plaza Hotel and let you sit +on the base of the Sherman monument. The crowds would cheer and inspire +him--bah! Can't you have a little common-sense? There are a few +brutes among artists, as there are in all professions--even among the +superintendents of your schools. Gordon's a great creative genius. If +you'd try to flirt with him, he'd stop his work and send you home. You'd +be as safe in his studio as in your mother's nursery. I've known him +for ten years. He's the gentlest, truest man I've ever met. He's doing a +canvas on which he has set his whole heart." + +"He can get professional models." + +"For his usual work, yes--but this is the head of the Madonna. He saw +you walking with me in the Park last week and has been to my studio a +half-dozen times begging me to take you to see him. Please, Mary dear, +do this for my sake. I owe Gordon a debt I can never pay. He gave me +the cue to the work that set me on my feet. He was big and generous +and helpful when I needed a friend. He asked nothing in return but the +privilege of helping me again if I ever needed it. You can do me an +enormous favor--please." + +Mary Adams rose with a gesture of impatience, walked to her window and +gazed on the torrent of humanity pouring through Twenty-third Street +from the beehives of industry that have changed this quarter of New York +so rapidly in the last five years. She turned suddenly and confronted +her friend. + +"How could you think that I would stoop to such a thing?" + +"Stoop!" + +"Yes," she snapped, "--pose for an artist! I'd as soon think of rushing +stark naked through Twenty-third Street at noon!" + +The older woman looked at her flushed face, suppressed a sharp answer, +broke into a fit of laughter and threw her arms around Mary's neck. + +"Honey, you're such a hopeless little fool, you're delicious! You know +that I love you--don't you?" + +The pretty lips quivered. + +"Yes." + +"Could I possibly ask you to do a thing that would harm a single brown +hair of your head?" + +The firm hand of the older girl touched a rebellious lock with +tenderness. + +"Of course not, from your point of view, Jane dear," the stubborn lips +persisted. "But you see it's not my point of view. You're older than +I----" + +Jane smiled. + +"Hoity toity, Miss! I'm just twenty-eight and you're twenty-four. Age is +not measured by calendars these days." + +"I didn't mean that," the girl apologized. "But you're an artist. You're +established and distinguished. You belong to a different world." + +Jane Anderson laid her hand softly on her friend's. + +"That's just it, dear. I do belong to a different world--a big new world +of whose existence you are not quite conscious. You are living in the +old, old world in which women have groped for thousands of years. I +don't mind confessing that I undertook this job of getting you to pose +for Gordon for a double purpose. I wished to do something to repay +the debt I owe him--but I wished far more to be of help to you. You're +living in the Dark Ages, and it's a dangerous thing for a pretty girl to +live in the Dark Ages and date her letters from New York to-day----" + +"I don't understand you in the least." + +"And I'm afraid you never will." + +She paused suddenly and changed her tone. + +"Tell me now, are you happy in your work?" + +"I'm earning sixty dollars a month--my position is secure----" + +"But are you happy in it?" + +"I don't expect to teach school all my life," was the vague answer. + +"Exactly. You loathe the sight of a school-room. You do the task they +set you because your father's a clergyman and can't support his +big family. You're waiting and longing for the day of your +deliverance--isn't it so?" + +"Perhaps." + +"And that day of deliverance?" + +"Will come when I meet my Fate!" + +"You'll meet him, too!" + +"I will----" + +Jane Anderson shook her fine head. + +"And may the Lord have mercy on your poor little soul when you do!" + +"And why, pray?" + +"Because you're the most helpless and defenseless of all the things He +created." + +Mary smiled. + +"I've managed to take pretty good care of myself so far." + +"And you will--until the thunderbolt falls." + +"The thunderbolt?" + +"Until you meet your Fate." + +"I'll have someone to look after me then." + +"We'll hope so anyhow," was the quick retort. + +"But can't you see, Jane dear, that we look at life from such utterly +different angles. You glory in your work. It's your inspiration--the +breath you breathe. I don't believe in women working for money. I don't +believe God ever meant us to work when He made us women. He made +us women for something more wonderful. I don't see anything good or +glorious in the fact that half the torrent of humanity you see down +there pouring through the street from those factories and offices is +made up of women. They are wage-earners--so much the worse. They are +forcing the scale of wages for men lower and lower. They are paying for +it in weakened bodies and sickly, hopeless children. We should not shout +for joy; we should cry. God never meant for woman to be a wage-earner!" + +A sob caught her voice and she paused. + +The artist watched her emotion with keen interest. + +"Neither do I believe that God means to force woman at last to do the +tasks of man. But she's doing them, dear--and it must be so until a +brighter day dawns for humanity. The new world that opens before us +will never abolish marriage, but it has opened our eyes to know what it +means. You refuse to open yours. You refuse to see this new world about +you. I've begged you to join one of my clubs. You refuse. I beg you to +meet and know such men of genius as Gordon----" + +"As an artist's model!" + +"It's the only way on earth you can meet him. You stick to your narrow, +hide-bound conventional life and dream of the Knight who will suddenly +appear some day out of the mists and clouds. You dream of the Fate God +has prepared for you in His mysterious Providence. It's funny how that +idea persists even today in novels. As a matter of fact we know that the +old-fashioned girl met her Fate because her shrewd mother planned the +meeting--planned it with cunning and stratagem. You're alone in a great +modern city, with all the conditions of the life of the old regime +reversed or blotted out. Your mother is not here. And if she were, her +schemes to bring about the mysterious meeting of the Fates would be +impossible. You outgrew the limits of your village life. Your highly +trained mind landed you in New York. You've fought your way to a +competent living in five years and kept yourself clean and unspotted +from the world. Granted. But how many men have you met who are your +equals in culture and character?" + +Jane paused and held Mary's gaze with steady persistence. + +"How many--honest?" + +"None as yet," she confessed. + +"But you live in the one fond, imperishable hope! It's the only +thing that keeps you alive and going--this idea of your Fate. It's an +obsession--this mysterious Knight somewhere in the future riding to meet +you----" + +"I'll find him, never fear," the girl laughed. + +"Of course you will. You'll make him out of whole cloth if it's +necessary. Our ideals are really the same when you come to analyze my +wider outlook." + +The artist paused and laughed softly. + +"The same?" the girl asked incredulously. + +"Certainly. Mine is based on intelligence, however--yours on blind +instinct perverted and twisted by the idiotic fiction you read morning, +noon and night." + +"I don't see it," Mary answered emphatically. "Your ideal is fame, +achievement, the applause of the world--mine just a home and a baby----" + +Jane laughed softly. + +"And that's all you know about me?" + +"Isn't it true?" + +"You've been in this room five years, haven't you?" the older girl asked +musingly. + +"Yes----" + +"And though you've kept your lamp trimmed and burning, you haven't yet +seen a man whom you could recognize as your equal." + +"I'm only twenty-four." + +"In these five years I've met a hundred men my equal." + +"And smashed the conventions of Society whenever you saw fit." + +"Without breaking a single law of reason or common-sense. In the +meantime I've met two men who have really made love to me. I thought I +loved one of them--until I met the other. The second proved himself to +be an unprincipled scoundrel. If I had held your views of life and hated +my work, I would have married this man and lived to awake in a prison +whose only door was Death. But I loved my work. Life meant more than +one man who was not worth an hour's tears. I turned to my studio and he +slipped back into the gutter where he belonged. I'll meet MY Fate +some day, too, dear. I'm waiting and watching--but with clear eyes +and unafraid. I'll know mine when he comes, I shall not be blinded by +passion or the fear of drudgery. Can't you see this bigger world of +realities?" + +The dimple flashed again in the smooth red cheek. + +"It's not for me, Jane. I'm just a modest little home body. I'll bide my +time----" + +"And eat your foolish heart out here between the narrow walls of this +cell you've built for yourself. I should think you'd die living here +alone." + +The girl flushed. + +"I'm not lonely----" + +"Don't fib! I know better. Your birds and kitten occupy daily about +thirty minutes of the time that's your own. What do you do with the rest +of it?" + +"Sit by my window, watch the crowds stream through the streets below, +read and dream and think----" + +"Yes--read love stories and dream about your Knight." + +"Well?" + +"It's morbid and unhealthy. You've hedged yourself about with the old +conventions and imagine you're safe--and you are--until you meet HIM!" + +"I'll know how to behave--never fear." + +"You mean you'll know how instantly to blindfold, halter and lead him to +the Little Church Around the Corner?" + +Mary moved uneasily. + +"And what else should I do with him?" + +"Compare him with other men. Weigh him in the balances of a remorseless +common-sense. Study him under a microscope and keep your reason clear. +The girl who rushes into marriage in a great city under the conditions +in which you and I live is a fool. More girls are ruined in New York +by marriage than by any other process. The thunderbolt out of the blue +hasn't struck you yet, but when it does----" + +"I'll tell you, Jane." + +"Will you, honestly?" + +The question was asked with wistful tenderness. + +"I promise. And you mustn't think I don't appreciate this visit and the +chance you've given again to enter the `big world' you're always telling +me about. I just can't do it, dear. It's not my world." + +"All right, my little foolish virgin, have it your own way. When you're +lonely, run up to my studio to see me. I won't ask you to pose or meet +any of the dangerous men of my circle. We'll lock the doors and have a +snug time all by ourselves." + +"I'll remember." + +The clock in the Metropolitan Tower chimed the hour of five, and Jane +Anderson rose with a quick, business-like movement. + +"Don't hurry," Mary protested. "I know I've been stubborn, but I've +been so happy in your coming. I do get lonely--frightfully lonely, +sometimes--don't think I'm ungrateful----" + +"You're dangerously beautiful, child," the artist said, with enthusiasm. +"And remember that I love you--no matter how silly you are--good-by." + +"You won't stay for a cup of tea? I meant to ask you an hour ago." + +"No, I've an engagement with a dreadful man whom I've no idea of ever +marrying. I'm going to dinner with him--just to study the animal at dose +range." + +With a jolly laugh and quick, firm step she was gone. + +Mary snatched the kitten from his snug bed between the pillows of the +window-seat and pressed his fuzzy head under her chin. + +"She tempted us terribly, Kitty darling, but we didn't let her find +out--did we? You know deep down in your cat's soul that I was just dying +to meet the distinguished Gordon--but such high honors are not for home +bodies like you and me----" + +She dropped on the seat and closed her eyes for a long time. The kitten +watched her wonderingly sure of a sudden outbreak with each passing +moment. Two soft paws at last touched her cheeks and two bright eyes +sought in vain for hers. The little nose pressed closer and kissed the +drooping eyelids until they opened. He curled himself on her bosom and +began to sing a gentle lullaby. For a long while she lay and listened to +the music of love with which her pet sought to soothe the ache within. + +The clock in the tower chimed six. + +She lifted her body and placed her head on a pillow beside the window. +The human torrent below was now at its flood. Two streams of humanity +flowed eastward along each broad sidewalk. Hundreds were pouring in +endless procession across Madison Square. The cars in Broadway north and +South were jammed. Every day she watched this crowd hurrying, hurrying +away into the twilight--and among all its hundreds of thousands not +an eye was ever lifted to hers--not one man or woman among them cared +whether she lived or died. + +It was horrible, this loneliness of the desert in an ocean of humanity! +For the past year it had become an increasing horror to look into the +silent faces of this crowd of men and women and never feel the touch of +a friendly hand or hear the sound of a human voice in greeting. + +And yet this endless procession held for her a supreme fascination. +Somewhere among its myriads of tramping feet, walked the one man created +for her. She no more doubted this than she doubted God Himself. It was +His law. He had ordained it so. She had grown so used to the throngs +below her window and so loved the little park with its splashing +fountain that she had refused to follow her landlady uptown when the +brownstone boarding-house facing the Square had been turned into a +studio building. + +Instead of moving she had wheedled the landlord into allowing her to +cut off a small space from her room for a private bath and kitchenette, +built a box couch across the window large enough for a three-quarter +mattress and covered it with velour. For five dollars a week she +had thus secured a little home in which was combined a sitting-room, +bed-room, bath and kitchenette. + +It had its drawbacks, of course. The Professor downstairs who taught +music sometimes gave a special lesson at night, and the Italian sculptor +who worked on the top floor used a hammer at the most impossible hours. +But on the whole she liked it better than the tiresome routine of +boarding. She was not afraid at night. The stamp-and-coin man who +occupied the first floor, lived with his wife and baby in the rear. The +janitress had a room on the floor above hers. Two elderly women workers +of ability in the mechanical arts occupied the rear of her floor, and +a dear little fat woman of fifty who drew designs for the New England +weavers of cotton goods lived in the room adjoining hers. + +She had never spoken to any of these people, but Ella, the janitress, +who cleaned up her place every morning, had told her their history. +Ella was a sociable soul, her face an eternal study and an inscrutable +mystery. She spoke both German and English and yet never a word of her +own life's history passed her lips. She had loved Mary from the moment +she cocked her queer drawn face to one side and looked at her with the +one good eye she possessed. She was always doing little things for her +comfort--and never asked tips for it. If Mary offered to pay she smiled +quietly and spoke in the softest drawl: "Oh, that's nothing, child--Ach, +Gott im Himmel--nein!" + +This one-eyed, homely woman who cleaned up her room for three dollars +a month, and Jane Anderson, were the only friends she had among the six +million people whose lives centered on Manhattan Island. + +Man had yet to darken her door. The little room had been carefully +fitted, however, to receive her Knight when the great event of his +coming should be at hand. + +The box couch was built of hard wood paneling and was covered with +pillows of soft leather and silk. The bed-clothes were carefully stored +in the locker beneath the mattress cushion. No one would ever suspect +its use as a bed. The bathroom was fitted with a bureau and no signs of +a sleeping apartment disfigured the effect of her one library, parlor, +and reception-room. A desk and bookcase stood at either end of the box +couch. The bookcase was filled with fiction--love stories exclusively. + +A large birdcage swung from a staple in the window and two canaries +peered cautiously from their perches at the kitten in her lap. She had +trained him to ignore this cage. + +The crowds below were thinning down. A light snow was falling. The girl +lifted her pet and kissed his cold nose. + +"We must get our own dinner tonight, Mr. Thomascat--it's snowing +outside. And did you hear what she said, Kitty dear--`More girls are +ruined by marriage in New York than by any other process!' A good joke, +Kitty!--You and I know better than that if we do live in our own tiny +world! We'll risk it some day, anyhow, won't we?" + +The kitten purred his assent and Mary bustled over the little gas stove +humming an old love song her mother had taught her in a far-off village +in Kentucky. + + + + +CHAPTER II. TEMPTATION + + +Her kitchenette was a model of order and cleanliness. The carpenter +who built its neat cupboard and fitted the drawers beneath the tiny +gas range, had outdone himself in its construction. He had given the +wood-work four coats of immaculate white paint without extra charge. +Mary had insisted on paying for it, but he waved the proffered money +aside with a gesture that spoke louder than words: + +"Pooh! That's nothing to what I'd like to do for you." + +She was not surprised when he called the following Saturday and stood +at her door awkwardly fumbling his hat, trying to ask her to spend the +afternoon and evening at Coney Island with him. There was no mistaking +the manner in which he made this request. + +She had refused him as gently as possible--a big, awkward, good-natured, +ignorant boy he was, with the eyes of a St. Bernard dog. He apologized +for his presumption and never repeated the offense. + +Somehow her conquests had all been in this class. + +The tall, blushing German youth from the butcher's around the corner +had been slipping extra cuts into her bundle and making awkward advances +until she caught him red-handed with a pound of lamb chops which he +failed to explain. She read him a lecture on honesty that discouraged +him. It was not so much what she said, as the way she said it, that +wounded his sensitive nature. + +The ice man she had not yet entirely subdued. Tony Bonelli had the +advantage of pretending not to understand her orders of dismissal. He +merely smiled in his sad Italian way and continued to pack her ice-box +so full the lid would never close. + +She was reminded at every turn tonight of these futile conquests of the +impossible. They all smelled of the back stairs and the kitchen. Her +people had been slaveholders in the old regime of southern Kentucky. A +kindly tolerant contempt for the pretensions of a servant class was bred +in the bone of her being. + +And yet their tribute to her beauty had its compensations. It was the +promise of triumph when he for whom she waited should step from the +throng and lift his hat. Just how he was going to do this without a +breach of the proprieties of life, she couldn't see. It would come. It +must come. It was Fate. + +In twenty minutes her coffee-pot was boiling, the lamb chops broiled to +perfection and she was seated before the dainty, snow-white table, the +kitten softly begging at her feet. Half an hour later, every dish and +pot and pan was back in its place in perfect order. She prided herself +on her mastery of the details of cooking and the most economical +administration of every dollar devoted to housekeeping. She studied +cooking in the best schools the city afforded. She meant to show her +Knight a thing or two in this line when the time came. His wife would +not be an ignorant slattern, the victim of incompetent servants. No +servant could fool her. She would know the business of the house down to +its minutest detail. + +Not that she loved dish-washing and pot-polishing and scrubbing. It was +simply a part of the Game of Life she must play in the ideal home she +would build. There was no drudgery in it for this reason. She was a +soldier on the drill grounds preparing for the battle on the successful +issue of which hung her happiness and the happiness of the one of +whom she dreamed. She might miss some of the dangerous fun which Jane +Anderson could enjoy without a scratch, but she would make sure of the +fundamental things which Jane would never stop to consider. + +She threw herself on the couch in her favorite position against the +pillows, drew the kitten into her arms and hugged him violently. + +"It's all right, Mr. Thomascat; we'll show them," she purred softly. +"We'll see who wins at last, the eagle who soars or the little wren in +the hedge close beside the garden wall--we'll see, Kitty--we'll see!" + +The room was still, the noise of the street-cars below muffled with the +first soft blanket of snow. The street lamps flickered in the wind with +a pale subdued light that scarcely brought out the furnishings of her +nest. She was in the habit of dreaming in this window for hours with +only the light from the lamps on the street. + +The Square, deserted by its tramp lovers, lay white and still and cold. +The old battle with the Blue Devils was on again within. The fight with +Jane had been easy. She had always found it easy to face temptation in +the concrete. The moment Satan appeared in human shape she was up in +arms and ready for the fray. It was this silent hour she dreaded when +the defenses of the soul were down. + +There was no use to lie to herself. She was utterly lonely and +heartsick. + +She had guarded the portals of life with religious care--with a care +altogether unnecessary as events had proved. There had been no crush of +rude men to assault her. Only an awkward carpenter, a butcher's boy +and the ice man! It was incredible. Of all the men whose restless +feet pressed the pavements of New York, not one, save these three, had +apparently cared whether she lived or died. + +The men whom she met in her duties in the schoolroom she had found +utterly devoid of imagination and beneath contempt. They had each +been obviously on guard against the machinations of the female of the +species. They had, each of them, shown plainly their fear and hatred of +women teachers. The feeling was mutual. God knows she had no desire to +encroach on their domain any longer than absolutely necessary. + +Perhaps she was making a mistake. The thought was strangling. Only the +girl who waived conventions in the rushing tide of the modern city's +life seemed to live at all. The others merely existed. Jane Anderson +lived! There could be no mistake about that. She had mastered the ugly +mob. Its cruel loneliness was to her a thing unknown. But Jane was an +exception--the one woman in a thousand who could defy conventions and +yet keep her soul and body clean. + +The offer she had made had proved a terrible temptation. The artist who +had asked with such eagerness to use her head for his portrait of the +Madonna on the canvas he was executing for the new cathedral, had long +appealed to her vivid imagination. Two prints of his famous work hung on +her walls. She had always wished to know him. He had married a Southern +girl. + +That was just the point--he WAS married! + +No girl could afford to be shut up alone in a studio with a fascinating +married man for three hours--or half an hour. What if she should fall +in love with him at first sight! Such things had happened. They could +happen again. Only tragedy could be the end of such an event. It was too +dangerous to consider for a moment. + +She would have consented had it been possible for Jane to chaperon +her. That would have been obviously ridiculous. No artist with any +self-respect would tolerate such a reflection on his honesty. No girl +could afford to confess her fears in this brazen fashion. + +The necessity for her refusal had depressed her beyond any experience +she had passed through in the dreary desert of the past five years. + +She lifted the sleeping kitten and whispered passionately: + +"Am I a silly fool, Kitty? Am I?" + +The tears came at last. She lay back on the pillows and let them pour +down her cheeks without protest or effort at self-control. Every nerve +of her strong, healthy body ached for the love and companionship of men +which she had denied herself with an iron will. At nineteen it had been +easy. The sheer animal joy in life had been enough. With the growth of +each year the ache within had become more and more insistent. With each +ripening season of body and mind, the hunger of love had grown more +and more maddening. How long could she keep up this battle with every +instinct of her being? + +She rose at last, determined to go to Jane, confess that she had been +a fool, and step out into the new world, New York's world, and begin to +live. + +She seized her hat and furs and put them on with feverish haste. + +"God knows it's time I began--I'll be an old maid in another year and +dry up--ugh!" + +She looked in the quaint oval mirror that hung beside her door and +lifted her head with a touch of pride. + +She had reached the street and started for the Broadway car before she +suddenly remembered that Jane was "dining with a dangerous man." + +She couldn't turn back to that little room tonight without new courage. +Her decision was instantaneous. She couldn't surrender to the flesh and +the devil by yielding to Jane. + +She would go to prayer-meeting! + +Religion had always been a very real thing in her life. Her father was a +Methodist presiding elder. She would have gone to the meeting tonight +in the first place but for the snow. Dr. Craddock, the new sensational +pastor of the Temple, was giving a series of Wednesday-night talks that +had aroused wide interest and drawn immense crowds. + +His theme tonight was one that promised all sorts of sensations--"The +Woman of the Future." The only trouble with the Doctor was that the +substance of his discourses sometimes failed to make good the startling +suggestions of his titles. No matter--she would go. She felt a sense of +righteous pride infighting her way to the church through the first storm +of the winter. + +In spite of the snow the church was crowded. The subject announced had +evidently touched a vital spot in modern life. More people were thinking +about "The Woman of the Future" than she had suspected. The crowd sat +with eager, upturned faces. + +The first half-hour's prayer and song service had just begun. +Mary joined in the singing of the stirring evangelistic hymns with +enthusiasm. Something in their battle-cry melody caught her spirit +instantly tonight and her whole being responded. In ten minutes she was +a good shouting Methodist and supremely happy without knowing why. She +never paused to ask. Her nature was profoundly religious and she had +been born and bred in the atmosphere of revivals. Her father was an +aggressive evangelist both in his character and methods of work, and she +was his own daughter--a child of emotion. + +The individuals in the eager crowd which packed the popular church meant +nothing to her personally. They had passed before her unseeing eyes +Sunday after Sunday the past five years as mere shadows of an unknown +world which swallowed them up the moment they reached the street. She +had never seen the inside of one of their homes. Not one of them had +drawn close enough to her to venture an invitation. + +Two of the stewards she knew personally--one a bricklayer, the other a +baker on Eighth Avenue. The preacher she had met in a purely formal way +as the bishop of the flock. She liked Dr. Craddock. He was known in the +ministry as a live wire. He was a man of vigorous physique--just turning +fifty, magnetic, eloquent and popular with the masses. + +Mary was curious tonight as to what the preacher would say on "The Woman +of the Future." The Methodist Church had been a pioneer in the modern +Feminist movement, having long ago admitted women to the full ordination +of the ministry. Craddock, however, had been known for his conservatism +in the woman movement. He abhorred the idea of woman's suffrage as a +dangerous revolution and the fact that he consented to treat the topic +at all was a reluctant confession of its menacing importance. + +With keen interest, the girl saw him rise at last. A breathless hush +fell on the crowd. He walked deliberately to the edge of the platform +and gazed into the faces of the people. + +"I have often been asked," he slowly began, "where I get my sermons." He +paused and laughed. "I'll be perfectly honest with you. Sometimes I get +them from the Bible--sometimes from the book of life. The genesis of +this talk tonight is very definite. I found it in the liquid depths of +a little girl's eyes. She asked a simple question that set me +thinking--not only about the subject of her query but on the vaster +issues that grew out of it. She looked up into my face the other night +after my call for volunteers for the new mission we are beginning in the +slums of the East Side, and asked me if the girls were not going to be +given the chance to do something worth while in this church's work. + +"I couldn't honestly answer her off-hand and in my groping I forgot the +child and her question. I saw a vision--a vision of that broader, nobler +future toward which human civilization is now swiftly moving. + +"I say deliberately that it is swiftly moving, because the progress of +the world during the last fifty years has been greater than in any five +hundred years of the past. + +"The older I grow the stronger becomes my conviction that the problems +of the age in which we now live cannot be solved by masculine brain +and brawn alone. The problems of the city and the nation and the great +fundamental social questions that involve the foundations of modern life +will find no solution until the heart and brain of woman are poured into +the crucible of our test. + +"They talk about a woman's sphere As though it had a limit: There's not +a place in earth or heaven, There's not a task to mankind given, There's +not a blessing or a woe, There's not a whisper yes or no, There's not a +life, or death, or birth That has a feather's weight of worth Without a +woman in it! + +"The difference between a man and a woman is one that makes them +the complementary parts of a perfect unit. God made man in His own +image--male and female. The person of God therefore combines these two +elements unseparated. The mind of God is both male and female. In man we +have the strength which lifts and tugs and fights the elements. This is +the aspect turned primarily toward matter. In woman we have the finer +qualities of the Spirit turned toward the source of all spirit in God. +The idea of a masculine deity is a false assumption of the Dark Ages. +God is both male and female. + +"I used to wonder why Jesus Christ was a man, until I realized that +the Incarnation expressed the depth of human need. God stooped lower +in assuming the form of man. The form of the divine revelation through +Jesus Christ was determined solely by this depth of human need----" + +For half an hour in impetuous eloquence, in telling incidents wet with +tears and winged with hope, he held his listeners in a spell. It was not +until the burst of applause which greeted his closing sentence had died +away that Mary Adams realized that another landmark had toppled before +the onrushing flood of modern Feminism. The conservatism of Doctor +Craddock had yielded at last to the inevitable. He, too, had joined the +ranks of the prophets who preach of a Woman's Day of Emancipation. + +And yet it never occurred to her that this fact had the slightest +bearing on her personal outlook on life. On the contrary she felt in the +spiritual elation of the triumphant eloquence of her favorite preacher +a renewal of her simple religious faith. At the bottom of that religion +lay the foundation of life itself--her conception of marriage as the +supreme and only expression of woman's power in the world. + +She walked back to her home on the Square, in a glow of ecstatic +emotion. + +Surely God had miraculously saved her this night from the wiles of the +Devil! No matter what this eloquent discourse had meant to others, it +had renewed her faith in the old-fashioned woman and the old-fashioned +ways of the old-fashioned home. Her vision was once more clear. She was +glad Jane Anderson had come to put her to the test. She had been tried +in the fires of hell and came forth unscorched. + +She stood beside her window dreaming again of the home she would build +when her Knight should stand before her revealed in beauty no words +could describe. The moon was shining now in solemn glory on the +white-shrouded Square. Temptation had only strengthened the fiber of her +soul. She knelt in the moonlight beside her couch and prayed that God +should ever keep her faith serene. She rose with a sense of peace and +joy. God would hear and answer the cry of her heart. The City might be +the Desert--it was still God's world and not a sparrow that twittered in +those bare trees or chattered on her window-ledge in the morning could +fall to the ground without His knowledge. God had put this deathless +passion in her heart; He could not deny it expression. She could bide +His time. If the day of her deliverance were near, it was good. If God +should choose to try her faith in loneliness and tears, it was His way +to make the revelation of glory the more dazzling when it came. + +She drew the covering about her warm young body with the firm faith that +her hour was close at hand, and fell asleep to dream of her Knight. + + + + +CHAPTER III. FATE + +Mary waked next morning with the delicious sense of impending happiness. +A wonderful dream had come to thrill her half-conscious moments, +repeating itself in increasing vividness and beauty with each awakening. +The vision had been interrupted by the unusual noise of the snow +machines on the car tracks, and yet she had fallen asleep after each +break and picked up the rapturous scene at the exact moment of its +interruption. + +She was married and madly in love with her husband. His face she could +never see quite clearly. His business kept him away from home on long +trips. But his baby was always there--a laughing, wonderful boy whose +chubby hands persisted in pulling her hair down into her face each time +she bent over his cradle to kiss him. + +Ella was chattering in German to someone on the stairs. She wondered +again for the hundredth time how this poor, slovenly, one-eyed, +ill-kempt creature, scrub-woman and janitress, could speak two languages +with such ease. Her English, except in excitement, seemed equally fluent +with her German. How did such a woman fall so low? She was industrious +and untiring in her work. She never touched liquor or drugs. She was +kind and thoughtful and watched over her tenants with a motherly care +for which no landlord could pay in dollars and cents. She was on her +knees on the stairs now, scrubbing down the steps to be crowded again +with muddy feet from the street below. + +Mary lay for half an hour snuggling under the warm blankets, weaving a +romance about Ella's life. A great love for some heroic man who died and +left her in poverty could alone explain the mystery that hung about her. +She never spoke of her life or people. Mary had ventured once to ask +her. A wan smile flitted across the haggard face for a moment, and she +answered in low tones that closed the subject. + +"I haven't any people, dear," she said slowly. "They are dead long ago." + +The girl wondered if it were really true. In her joy this morning she +felt her heart go out to the pathetic, drooping figure on the stairs. +She wished that every living creature might share the secret joy that +filled her soul. + +She drew the kitten from his nest beside her pillow and rubbed her cheek +against his little cold nose. He always waked her with a kiss on her +eyelids and then coiled himself back for a tiny cat-nap until she could +make up her mind to rise. + +She sprang from the couch with sudden energy and stretched her dainty +figure with a prodigious yawn. + +"Gracious, Kitty, we must hurry!" she cried, thrusting her bare feet +into a pair of embroidered slippers and throwing her blue flannel kimono +on over her night-dress. + +The coffee-pot was boiling busily when she had bathed and dressed. Each +detail of her domestic schedule was given an extra care this morning. +The stove was carefully polished, each pot and pan placed in its rack +with a precision that spoke an unusual joy within the heart of the +housewife. + +And through it all she hummed a lullaby that haunted her from the +memories of a happy childhood. + +Breakfast over, the kitten fed, the birds given their bath, their sand +and seed, she couldn't stop until the whole place had been thoroughly +cleaned and dusted. Exactly why she had done this on Thursday morning it +was impossible to say. Some hidden force within had impelled her. + +Then back into the dream world her mind flew on joyous wings. It was a +sign from God in answer to prayer. Why not? The Bible was full of such +revelations in ancient times. God was not dead because the world was +modern and we had steam and electricity. The routine of school was no +longer dull. Around each commonplace child hung a halo of romance. They +were love-children today. She wove a dream of tenderness, of chivalry, +and heroic deeds about them all. She searched each face for some line +of beauty caught in the vision of her own baby who had looked into her +heart from the mists of eternity. + +Three days passed in a sort of trance. Never had she felt surer of life +and the full fruition of every hope and faith. Just how this marvelous +blossoming would come, she could not guess. Her chances of meeting +her Fate were no better than at any moment of the past years of drab +disillusionment, and yet, for some reason, her foolish heart kept +singing. + +Why? + +There could be but one answer. The event was impending. Such things +could be felt--not reasoned out. + +She applied herself to her teaching with a new energy and thoroughness. +She must do this work well and carry into the real life that must soon +begin the consciousness of every duty faithfully performed. + +A boy asked her a question about a little flower which grew in a warm +crevice of the stone wall on which the iron fence of the school yard +rested. She blushed at her failure to enlighten him and promised to tell +him on Monday. + +Botany was not one of her tasks but she felt the tribute to her +personality in his question, and she would take pains to make her answer +full and interesting. + +Saturday afternoon she hurried to the Public Library, on Fifth Avenue +and Forty-second Street, to look up every reference to this flower. + +The boulevard of the Metropolis was thronged with eager thousands. +Handsome men and beautifully dressed women passed each other in endless +procession on its crowded pavements. The cabs and automobiles, two +abreast on either side, moved at a snail's pace, so dense were the +throngs at each crossing. Her fancy was busy weaving about each +throbbing tonneau and limousine a story of love. Not a wheel was turning +in all that long line of shining vehicles that didn't carry a woman or +was hurrying to do a woman's bidding. + +Her hero was coming, too, somewhere in the crowd with his gloved hand on +one of those wheels. She could feel his breath on her cheek as he handed +her into the seat by his side and then the sudden leap of the car into +space and away on the wings of lightning into the future! + +She ascended the broad steps of the majestic building with quick, +springing strength. She loved this glorious library, with its lofty, +arched ceilings. The sense of eternity that brooded over it and filled +the stately rooms rested and inspired her. + +Besides, she forgot her poverty in this temple of all time. Within its +walls she belonged to the great aristocracy of brains and culture of +which this palace was the supreme expression. And it was hers. Andrew +Carnegie had given the millions to build it and the city of New York +granted the site on land that was worth many millions more. But it was +all built for her convenience, her comfort and inspiration. Every volume +of its vast and priceless collection was hers--hers to hold in her +hands, read and ponder and enjoy. Every officer and manager in its +inclosure was her servant--to come at her beck and call and do her +bidding. The little room on Twenty-third Street was the symbol of the +future. This magnificent building was the realization of the present. + +She smiled pleasantly to the polite assistant who received her order +slip, and took her seat on the waiting line until her books were +delivered. + +This magnificent room with its lofty ceilings of golden panels and +drifting clouds had always brought to her a peculiar sense of restful +power. The consciousness of its ownership had from the first been most +intimate. No man can own what he cannot appreciate. He may possess it by +legal documents, but he cannot own it unless he has eyes to see, ears +to hear, and a heart to feel its charm. This appreciation Mary Adams +possessed by inheritance from her student father who devoured books with +an insatiate hunger. Nowhere in all New York's labyrinth did she feel +as perfectly at home as in this reading-room. The quiet which reigned +without apparent sign or warning seemed to belong to the atmosphere of +the place. It was unthinkable that any man or woman should be rude or +thoughtless enough to break it by a loud word. + +This room was hers day or night, winter or summer, always heated and +lighted, and a hundred swift, silent servants at hand to do her bidding. +Around the room on serried shelves, dressed in leather aprons, stood +twenty-five thousand more servants of the centuries of the past ready +to answer any question her heart or brain might ask of the world's life +since the dawn of Time. + +In the stack-room below, on sixty-three miles of shelves, stood a +million others ready to come at her slightest nod. She loved to dream +here of the future, in the moments she must wait for these messengers +she had summoned. In this magic room the past ceased to be. These +myriads of volumes made the past a myth. It was all the living, +throbbing present--with only the golden future to be explored. + +Her number flashed in red letters on the electric blackboard. + +She rose and carried her books to the seat number assigned her near the +center of the southern division of the room on the extreme left beside +the bookcases containing the dictionaries of all languages. + +Her seat was on the aisle which skirted the shelves. She found the full +description of the flower in which she was interested, made her notes +and closed the volume with a lazy movement of her slender, graceful +hand. + +She lifted her eyes and they rested on a remarkable-looking young man +about her own age who stood gazing in an embarrassed, helpless sort of +way at the row of ponderous volumes marked "The Century Dictionary." + +He was evidently a newcomer. By his embarrassment she could easily tell +that it was the first time he had ever ventured into this room. + +He looked at the books, apparently puzzled by their number. He raised +his hand and ran his fingers nervously through the short, thick, red +hair which covered his well-shaped head. + +The girl's attention was first fixed by the strange contrast between his +massive jaw and short neck which spoke the physical strength of an ox, +and the slender gracefully tapering fingers of his small hand. The wrist +was small, the fingers almost feminine in their lines. + +He caught her look of curious interest and to her horror, smiled and +walked straight to her seat. + +There was no mistaking his determination to speak. It was useless to +drop her eyes or turn aside. He would certainly follow. + +She blushed and gazed at him in a timid, helpless fashion while he bent +over her seat and whispered awkwardly: + +"You look kind and obliging, miss--could you help me a little?" + +His tone was so genuine in its appeal, so distressed and hesitating, it +was impossible to resent his question. + +"If I can--yes," was the prompt answer. + +"You won't mind?" he asked, fumbling his hat. + +"No--what is it?" + +Mary had recovered her composure as his distress had increased and +looked steadily into his steel blue eyes inquiringly. + +"You see," he went on, in low hurried tones, "I'm all worked up about +the mountains of North Carolina--thinkin' o' goin' down there to +Asheville in a car, an' I want to look the bloomin' place up and kind o' +get my bearin's before I start. A lawyer friend o' mine told me to come +here and I'd find all the maps in the Century Dictionary. The man at the +desk out there told me to come in this room and look in the shelves +on the left and take it right out. Gee, the place is so big, I get all +rattled. I found the Century Dictionary on that shelf----" + +He paused and smiled helplessly. + +"I thought a dictionary was one book--there's a dozen of 'em marked +alike. I'm afraid to pull 'em all down an' I don't know where to +begin--COULD you help me--please?" + +"Certainly, with pleasure," she answered, quickly rising and leading the +way back to the shelf at which he had been gazing. + +"You want the atlas volume," she explained, drawing the book from the +shelf and returning to the seat. + +He followed promptly and bent over her shoulder while she pointed out +the map of North Carolina, the position of Asheville and the probable +route he must follow to get there. + +"Thanks!" he exclaimed gratefully. + +"Not at all," she replied simply. "I'm only too glad to be of service to +you." + +Her answer emboldened him to ask another question. + +"You don't happen to know anything about that country down there, do +you?" + +"Why, yes. I know a great deal about it----" + +"Sure enough?" + +"I've been through Asheville many times and spent a summer there once." + +"Did you?" + +His tones implied that he plainly regarded her as a prodigy of +knowledge. His whole attitude suggested at once the mind of an alert, +interested boy asking his teacher for information on a subject near to +his heart. It was impossible to resist his appeal. + +"Why, yes," Mary went on in low, rapid tones. "My people live in the +Kentucky mountains." + +He bent low and gently touched her arm. + +"Say, we can't talk in here--I'm afraid. Would it be asking too much of +you to come out in the park, sit down on a bench and tell me about it? +I'll never know how to thank you, if you will?" + +It was absurd, of course, such a request, and yet his interest was so +keen, his deference to her superior knowledge so humble and appealing, +to refuse seemed ungracious. She hesitated and rose abruptly. + +"Just a moment--I'll return my books and then we'll go. You can replace +this volume on the shelf where we got it." + +"Thank yoo, miss," he responded gratefully. "You're awfully kind." + +"Don't mention it," she laughed. + +In a moment she was walking by his side down the smooth marble stairs +and out through the grand entrance into Fifth Avenue. The strange +part about it was, she was not in the least excited over a very +unconventional situation. She had allowed a handsomely groomed, young, +red-haired adventurer to pick her up without the formality of an +introduction, in the Public Library. She hadn't the remotest idea of his +name--nor had he of hers--yet there was something about him that seemed +oddly familiar. They must have known one another somewhere in childhood +and forgotten each other's faces. + +The sun was shining in clear, steady brilliancy in a cloudless sky. The +snow had quickly melted and it was unusually warm for early December. +They turned into the throng of Fifth Avenue and at the corner of +Forty-second Street he paused and hesitated and looked at her timidly: + +"Say," he began haltingly, "there's an awful crowd of bums on those +seats in the Square behind the building--you know Central Park, don't +you?" + +Mary smiled. + +"Quite well--I've spent many happy hours in its quiet walks." + +"You know that place the other side of the Mall--that ragged hill +covered with rocks and trees and mountain laurel?" + +"I've been there often." + +"Would you mind going there where it's quiet--I've such a lot o' things +I want to ask you--you won't mind the walk, will you?" + +"Certainly not--we'll go there," Mary responded in even, business-like +tones. + +"Because, if you don't want to walk I'll call a cab, if you'll let +me----" + +"Not at all," was the quick answer. "I love to walk." + +It was impossible for the girl to repress a smile at her ridiculous +situation! If any human being had told her yesterday that she, Mary +Adams, an old-fashioned girl with old-fashioned ideas of the proprieties +of life, would have allowed herself to be picked up by an utter stranger +in this unceremonious way, she would have resented the assertion as a +personal insult--yet the preposterous and impossible thing had happened +and she was growing each moment more and more deeply interested in the +study of the remarkable youth by her side. + +He was not handsome in the conventional sense. His features were too +strong for that. An enemy might have called them coarse. Their first +impression was of enormous strength and exhaustless vitality. He walked +with a quick, military precision and planted his small feet on the +pavement with a soft, sure tread that suggested the strength of a young +tiger. + +The one feature that puzzled her was the size of his hands and feet. +They were remarkably small and remarkable for their slender, graceful +lines. + +His eyes were another interesting feature. The lids drooped with a +careless Oriental languor, as though he would shut out the glare of the +full daylight, and yet the pupils flashed with a cold steel-blue fire. +One look into his eyes and there could be no doubt that the man behind +them was an interesting personality. + +She wondered what his business could be. Not a lawyer or doctor or +teacher certainly. His timidity in handling books was clear proof on +that point. He was well groomed. His clothes were made by a first-class +tailor. + +Her heart thumped with a sudden fear. Perhaps he was some sort of +criminal. His questions may have been a trick to lure her away.... + +They had just crossed the broad plaza at Fifty-ninth Street and entered +the walkway that leads to the Mall. + +She stopped suddenly. + +"It's too far to the hill beyond the Mall," she began hesitatingly. +"We'll find a seat in one of the little rustic houses along the +Fifty-ninth Street side----" + +"Sure, if you say so," he agreed. + +He accepted the suggestion so simply, she regretted her suspicions, +instantly changed her mind and said, smiling: + +"No, we'll go on where we started. The long walk will do me good." + +"All right," he laughed; "whatever you say's the law. I'm the little boy +that does just what his teacher says." + +She blushed and shot him a surprised look. + +"Who told you that I was a teacher?" she asked, with a smile. + +"Lord, nobody! I had no idea of such a thing. It never popped into my +head that you do anything at all. You know, I was awful scared when I +spoke to you?" + +"Were you?" she laughed. + +"Surest thing you know! I'd 'a' never screwed up my courage to do it +if you hadn't 'a' looked so kind and gentle and sweet. I just knew you +couldn't turn me down----" + +There was no mistaking the genuineness of the apology for his +presumption. She smiled a gracious answer, and threw the last ugly +suspicion to the winds. + +He broke into a laugh and lifted his hand in the sudden gesture of a +traffic policeman commanding a halt. + +"What is it?" she asked. + +"You know I was so excited I clean forgot to introduce myself! What do +you think o' that? You'll excuse me, won't you? My name's Jim Anthony. +I'm sorry I can't give you any references to my folks. I haven't +any--I'm a lost sheep in New York--no father or mother. That's why I'm +so excited about this trip I'm plannin' down South. I hear I've got some +people down there." + +He stopped suddenly as if absorbed in the thought. Her heart went out to +him in sympathy for this confession of his orphaned life. + +"I'm Mary Adams," she smiled in answer. "I'm a teacher in the public +schools." + +"Gee--that accounts for it! I thought you looked like you knew +everything in those books. And you've been to Asheville, too?" + +"Yes." + +"Suppose it's not as big a burg as New York?" + +"Hardly--it's just a hustling mountain town of about twenty-five +thousand people." + +"Lot o' swells from around New York live down there, they tell me." + +"Yes, the Vanderbilts have a beautiful castle just outside." + +"Some mountains near Asheville?" + +"Hundreds of square miles." + +"Mountains in every direction?" + +"As far as the eye can reach, one blue range piled above another until +they're lost in the dim skies on the horizon." + +"Gee, it may be pretty hard to find your folks if they just live in the +mountains near Asheville?" + +"Unless your directions are more explicit--I should think so." + +"You know, I thought the mountains near Asheville was a bunch o' hills +off one side like the Palisades, that you couldn't miss if you tried. +I've never been outside of New York--since I can remember. I'd love to +see real mountains." + +The last sentence was spoken in a wistful pathos that touched Mary with +its irresistible appeal. Her mother instincts responded to it in quick +sympathy. + +"You've missed a lot," she answered gravely. + +"I'll bet I have. It's a rotten old town, this New York----" + +He paused, and a queer light flashed from his steel eyes. + +"Until you get your hand on its throat," he added, bringing his square +jaws together. + +Mary lifted her face with keen interest. + +"And you've got it by the throat?" + +"That's just what--little girl!" he cried, with a ring of pride. "You +see, I'm an inventor and I won a little pile on my first trick. I've got +a machine-shop in a room eight-by-ten over on the East Side." + +"A machine-shop all your own?" + +"Yep." + +"I'd like to see it some day." + +He shook his head emphatically. + +"It's too dirty. I couldn't let a pretty girl like you in such a place." +He paused and resumed the tone of his narrative where she interrupted +him. "You see, I've just put a new crimp in a carburetor for the +automobile folks. They're tickled to death over it and I've got +automobiles to burn. Will you go to ride with me tomorrow?" + +The teacher broke into a joyous laugh. + +"Why do you laugh?" he asked awkwardly. + +"Well, in the language of New York, that would be going some, wouldn't +it?" + +"And why not, I'd like to know?" he cried with scorn. "Who's to tell us +we can't? You've no kids to bother you tomorrow. I'm my own boss. You've +seen Asheville, but you've never seen New York until you sit down beside +me in a big six-cylinder racing car I'm handlin' next week. Let me +show it to you. I'll swing her around to your door at eight o'clock. In +twenty-five minutes we'll clear the Bronx and shoot into New Rochelle. +There'll be no cops out to bother us, and not a wheel in sight. It'll do +you good. Let me take you! I owe you that much for bein' so nice to me +today. Will you go with me?" + +Mary hesitated. + +"I'll think it over and let you know." + +"Got a telephone?" + +"No." + +"Then you'll have to tell me before I go--won't you?" + +"I suppose so," she answered demurely. + +They passed the big fountain beyond the Mall and skirted the lake to +the bridge, crossed, walked along the water's edge to the laurel-covered +crags and found a seat alone in the summer house that hides among the +trees on its highest point. + +The roar of the city was dim and far away. The only sounds to break +the stillness were the laughter of lovers along the walks below and the +distant cry of steamers in the harbor and rivers. + +"You'd almost think you're in the mountains up here, now wouldn't you?" +he asked, after a moment's silence. + +"Yes. I call this park my country estate. It costs me nothing to keep it +in perfect order. The city pays for it all. But I own it. Every tree and +shrub and flower and blade of grass, every statue and bird and animal in +it is mine. I couldn't get more joy out of them if I had them inclosed +behind an iron fence, and the deed to the land in my pocket--not half as +much, for I'd be lonely and miserable without someone to see and enjoy +it all with me." + +"Gee, that's so, ain't it? I never looked at it like that before." + +He gazed at her a long time in silent admiration, and then spoke +briskly. + +"Now tell me about this North Carolina and all those miles and square +miles of mountains." + +"You've a piece of paper and pencil?" + +He lifted his hand school-boy fashion: + +"Johnny on the spot, teacher!" + +A blank-book and pencil he threw in her lap and leaned close. + +"Tear the leaves out, if you like." + +"No, I'll just draw the maps on the pages and leave them for you to +study." + +With deft touch she outlined in rough on the first page, the states of +New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina, tracing +his possible route by Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Dover, Norfolk +and Raleigh, or by Washington, Richmond, and Danville to Greensboro. + +"Either route you see," she said softly, "leads to Salisbury, where you +strike the foothills of the mountains. It's about two hundred miles from +there to Asheville and `The Land of the Sky.'" + +For two hours she answered his eager, boyish questions about the country +and its people, his eyes wide with admiration at her knowledge. + +The sun was sinking in a sea of scarlet and purple clouds behind the +tall buildings beside the Park before she realized that they had been +talking for more than two hours. + +She sprang to her feet, blushing and confused. + +"Mercy, I had no idea it was so late." + +"Why--is it late?" he asked incredulously. + +"We must hurry----" + +She brushed the stray ringlets of hair from her forehead, laughed and +hurried down the pathway. + +They crossed the Park and took the Madison Avenue line to Twenty-third +Street. They were silent in the car. The roar of the traffic was +deafening after the quiet of the summer house among the trees. + +"I can see you home?" he inquired appealingly. + +"We get off at Twenty-third Street." + +They stood on the steps at her door beside the Square and there was a +moment's awkward silence. + +He lifted his hat with a little chivalrous bow. + +"Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock in my car?" + +She smiled and hesitated. + +"You'll have a bully time!" + +"It's Sunday," she stammered. + +"Sure, that's why I asked you." + +"I don't like to miss my church." + +"You go to church every Sunday?" he asked in amazement. + +"Yes." + +"Well, just this once then. It'll do you good. And I'll drive as careful +as a farmer." + +"All right," she said in low tones, and extended her hand: + +"Good night----" + +"Good night, teacher!" he responded with a boyish wave of his slender +hand and quickly disappeared in the crowd. + +She rushed up the stairs, her cheeks aflame, her heart beating a tattoo +of foolish joy. + +She snatched the kitten from sleep and whispered in his tiny ear: + +"Oh, Kitty dear, I've had such an adventure! I've spent the happiest, +silliest afternoon of my life! I'm going to have a more wonderful day +tomorrow. I just feel it. In a big racing automobile if you please, Mr. +Thomascat! Sorry I can't take you but the dust would blind you, Kitty +dear. I'm sorry to tell you that you'll have to stay at home all day +alone and keep house. It's too bad. But I'll fix your milk and bread +before I go and you must promise me on your sacred Persian cat's honor +not to look at my birds!" + +She hugged him violently and he purred his soft answer in song. + +"Oh, Kitty, I'm so happy--so foolishly happy!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. DOUBTS AND FEARS + +Mary attempted no analysis of her emotions. It was all too sudden, +too stunning. She was content to feel and enjoy the first overwhelming +experience of life. Hour after hour she lay among the pillows of her +couch in the dim light of the street lamps and lazily watched the +passing Saturday evening crowds. The world was beautiful. + +She undressed at last and went to bed, only to toss wide-eyed for hours. + +A hundred times she reenacted the scene in the Library and recalled +her first impression of Jim's personality. What could such an utterly +unforeseen and extraordinary meeting mean except that it was her Fate? +Certainly he could not have planned it. Certainly she had not foreseen +such an event. It had never occurred to her in the wildest flights of +fancy that she could meet and speak to a man under such conditions, +to say nothing of the walk in the Park and the hours she spent in the +little summer house. + +And the strangest part of it all was that she could see nothing wrong +in it from beginning to end. It had happened in the simplest and most +natural way imaginable. By the standards of conventional propriety her +act was the maddest folly; and yet she was still happy over it. + +There was one disquieting trait about him that made her a little uneasy. +He used the catch-words of the street gamins of New York without any +consciousness of incongruity. She thought at first that he did this as +the Southern boy of culture and refinement unconsciously drops into the +tones and dialect of the negro, by daily association. His constant use +of the expressive and characteristic "Gee" was startling, to say the +least. And yet it came from his lips in such a boyish way she felt sure +that it was due to his embarrassment in the unusual position in which he +had found himself with her. + +His helplessness with the dictionary was proof, of course, that he was +no scholar. And yet a boy might have a fair education in the schools of +today and be unfamiliar with this ponderous and dignified encyclopedia +of words. It was impossible to believe that he was illiterate. His +clothes, his carriage, even his manners made such an idea preposterous. + +Besides, no inventor could be really illiterate. He may have been forced +to work and only attended night schools. But if he were a mechanic, +capable of making a successful improvement on one of the most delicate +and important parts of an automobile, he must have studied the +principles involved in his inventions. + +His choice of a profession appealed to her imagination, too. It showed +independence and initiative. It opened boundless possibilities. He might +be an obscure and poorly educated boy today. In five years he could be +a millionaire and the head of some huge business whose interests circled +the world. + +The tired brain wore itself out at last in eager speculations, and she +fell into a fitful stupor. The roar of the street-cars waked her at +daylight, and further sleep was out of the question. She rose, dressed +quickly and got her breakfast in a quiver of nervous excitement over the +adventure of the coming automobile. + +As the hour of eight drew nearer, her doubts of the propriety of going +became more acute. + +"What on earth has come over me in the past twenty-four hours?" she +asked of herself. "I've known this man but a day. I don't KNOW him +at all, and yet I'm going to put my life in his hands in that racing +machine. Have I gone crazy?" + +She was not in the least afraid of him. His face and voice and +personality all seemed familiar. Her brain and common-sense told her +that such a trip with an utter stranger was dangerous and foolish beyond +words. In his automobile, unaccompanied by a human soul and unacquainted +with the roads over which they would travel, she would be absolutely in +his power. + +She set her teeth firmly at last, her mind made up. + +"It's too mad a risk. I was crazy to promise. I won't go!" + +She had scarcely spoken her resolution when the soft call of the +auto-horn echoed below. She stood irresolute for a moment, and the call +was repeated in plaintive, appealing notes. + +She tried to hold fast to her resolutions, but the impulse to open the +window and look out was resistless. She turned the old-fashioned brass +knob, swung her windows wide on their hinges and leaned out. + +His keen eyes were watching. He lifted his cap and waved. She answered +with the flutter of her handkerchief--and all resolutions were off. + +"Of course, I'll go," she cried, with a laugh. "It's a glorious day--I +may never have such a chance again." + + + +CHAPTER V. WINGS OF STEEL + +She threw on her furs and hurried downstairs. Her surrender was too +sudden to realize that she was being driven by a power that obscured +reason and crushed her will. + +Reason made one more vain cry as she paused at the door below to draw on +her gloves. + +"You have refused every invitation to see or know the unconventional +world into which thousands of women in New York, clear-eyed and +unafraid, enter daily. You'd sooner die than pose an hour in Gordon's +studio, and on a Sabbath morning you cut your church and go on a day's +wild ride with a man you have known but fifteen hours!" + +And the voice inside quickly answered: + +"But that's different! Gordon's a married man. My chevalier is not! I +have the right to go, and he has the right." + +It was settled anyhow before this little controversy arose at the street +door, but the ready answer she gave eased her conscience and cleared the +way for a happy, exciting trip. + +He leaped from the big, ugly racer to help her in, stopped and looked at +her light clothing. + +"That's your heaviest coat?" + +"Yes. It isn't cold." + +"I've one for you." + +He drew an enormous fur coat from the car and held it up for her arms. + +"You think I'll need that?" she asked. + +His white teeth gleamed in a friendly smile. + +"Take it from me, Kiddo, you certainly will!" + +She winced just a little at the common expression, but he said it with +such a quick, boyish enthusiasm, she wondered whether he were quoting +the expression from the Bowery boy's vocabulary or using it in a +facetious personal way. + +"I knew you'd need it. So I brought it for you," he added genially. + +"Thanks," she murmured, lifting her arms and drawing the coat about her +trim figure. + +He helped her into the car and drew from his pocket a light pair of +goggles. + +"Now these, and you're all hunky-dory!" + +"Will I need these, too?" she asked incredulously. + +"Will you!" he cried. "You wouldn't ask that question if you knew +the horse we've got hitched to this benzine buggy today. He's got +wings--believe me! It's all I can do to hold him on the ground +sometimes." + +"You'll drive carefully?" she faltered. + +He lifted his hand. + +"With you settin' beside me, my first name's `Caution.'" + +She fumbled the goggles in a vain effort to lift her arms over her head +to fasten them on. He sprang into the seat by her side and promptly +seized them. + +"Let me fix 'em." + +His slender, skillful fingers adjusted the band and brushed a stray +ringlet of hair back under the furs. The thrill of his touch swept her +with a sudden dizzy sense of excitement. She blushed and drew her head +down into the collar of the shaggy coat. + +He touched the wheel, and the gray monster leaped from the curb and shot +down the street. The single impulse carried them to the crossing. He had +shut off the power as the machine gracefully swung into Fourth Avenue. +The turn made, another leap and the car swept up the Avenue and swung +through Twenty-sixth Street into Fifth Avenue. Again the power was off +as he made the turn into Fifth Avenue at a snail's pace. + +"Can't let her out yet," he whispered apologetically. "Had to make these +turns. There's no room for her inside of town." + +Mary had no time to answer. He touched the wheel, and the car shot up +the deserted Avenue. She gasped for breath and braced her feet, her +whole being tingling with the first exhilarating consciousness that she +too was possessed of the devil of speed madness. It was glorious! For +the first time in her life, space and distance lost their meaning. She +was free as the birds in the heavens. She was flying on the wings +of this gray, steel monster through space. The palaces on the Avenue +whirled by in dim ghost-like flashes. They flew through Central Park +into Seventy-second Street and out into the Drive. The waters of the +river, broad and cool, flashing in the morning sun, rested her eyes a +moment and then faded in a twinkling. They had leaped the chasm beyond +Grant's Tomb, plunged into Broadway and before she could get her +bearings, swept up the hill at One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, +slipped gracefully across the iron bridge and in a jiffy were lost in a +gray cloud of dust on the Boston Turnpike. + +When the first intoxicating joy of speed had spent itself, she found +herself shuddering at the daring turns he made, missing a curb by a +hair's breadth--grazing a trolley by half an inch. Her fears were soon +forgotten. + +The hand on the wheel was made of steel, too. + +The throbbing demon encased within the hood obeyed his slightest whim. +She glanced at the square, massive jaw with furtive admiration. + +Without turning his head he laughed. + +"You like it, teacher?" + +"I'm in Heaven!" + +"You won't worry about church then, will you?" + +"Not today." + +They stopped at a road-house, and he put in more gasoline, lifted the +casing from the engine, touched each vital part, examined his tires, and +made sure that his machine was at its best. + +She watched him with a growing sense of his strength of character, his +poise and executive ability. He was an awkward, stammering boy in the +Library yesterday. Today with this machine in his hand he was the master +of Time and Space. + +She yielded herself completely to the delicious sense of his protection. +The extraordinary care he was giving the machine was a plain avowal of +his deep regard for her comfort and happiness. She had been in one or +two moderately moving cars driven by careful chauffeurs through Central +Park. She had always felt on those trips with Jane Anderson like a poor +relation from the country imposing on a rich friend. + +This trip was all her own. The car and its master were there solely for +her happiness. Her slightest whim was law for both. It was sweet, this +sense of power. She began to lift her body with a touch of pride. + +She laughed now at fears. What nonsense! No Knight of the Age of +Chivalry could treat her with more deference. He had tried already to +get her to stop for a bite of lunch. + +"Don't you want a thing to eat?" he persisted. + +"Not a thing. I've just had my breakfast. It's only nine o'clock----" + +"I know, but we've come thirty miles and the air makes you hungry. We +ought to eat about six good meals a day." + +She shook her head. + +"No--not yet. I'm too happy with these new wings. I want to fly some +more--come on----" + +He lifted his hand in his favorite gesture of obedience. + +"'Nuff said--we'll streak it back now by another road, hump it through +town and jump over the Brooklyn Bridge. I'll show you Coney Island and +then I know you'll want a hot dog anyhow." + +He crossed the country and darted into Broadway. Before she could +realize it, the last tree and field were lost behind in a cloud of dust, +and they were again in the crowded streets of the city. The deep growl +of his horn rang its warnings for each crossing and Mary watched the +timid women scramble to the sidewalks five and six blocks ahead. + +It was delicious. She had always been the one to scramble before. Her +heart went out in a wave of tenderness to the man by her side, strong, +daring, masterful, her chevalier, her protector and admirer. + +Yes, her admirer! There was no doubt on that point. The moment he +relaxed the tension of his hand on the wheel, his deep, mysterious +eyes beneath the drooping lids were fixed on hers in open, shameless +admiration. Their cold fire burned into her heart and thrilled to her +finger-tips. + +In spite of his deference and his obedience to her whim, she felt the +iron grip of his personality on her imagination. Whatever his education, +his origin or his environment, he was a power to be reckoned with. + +No other type of man had ever appealed to her. Her conception of a real +man had always been one who did his own thinking and commanded rather +than asked the respect of others. + +She had thrown the spell of her beauty over this headstrong, masterful +man. He was wax in her hands. A delicious sense of power filled her. She +had never known what happiness meant before. She floated through space. +The spinning lines of towering buildings on Broadway passed as mists in +a dream. + +As the velvet feet of the car touched the great bridge she lazily opened +her eyes for a moment and gazed through the lace-work of steel at the +broad sweep of the magnificent harbor. The dark blue hills of Staten +Island framed the picture. + +He was right. She had never seen New York before. Never before had +its immense panorama been swept within two hours. Never before had she +realized its dimensions. She had always felt stunned and crushed in the +effort to conceive it. Today she had wings. The city lay at her feet, +conquered. She was mistress of Time and Space. + +Again her sidelong glance swept the lines of Jim Anthony's massive jaw. +She laughed softly. + +"What's the matter?" he asked. + +"Nothing. I'm just happy." + +She blushed and wondered if he had read her thoughts by some subtle +power of clairvoyance. She was speculating on the effects of love at +first sight on such a man. Would he hesitate, back and fill and hang +on for months trying in vain to gain the courage to speak? Or would he +spring with the leap of a young tiger the moment he realized what he +wanted? + +Her own attitude was purely one of joyous expectancy. It would, of +course, be a long time before her feelings could take any definite +attitude toward a man. For the moment she was supremely happy. It was +enough. She made no effort to probe her feelings. She might return to +earth tomorrow. Today she was in Heaven. She would make the most of it. + +They skimmed the wooded cliffs of Bay Ridge, her heart beating in +ecstasy at the revelation of beauty of whose existence she had not +dreamed. + +"I bet you never saw this drive before, now did you?" he asked with +boyish enthusiasm. + +"No--it's wonderful." + +"Some view--eh?" + +"Entrancing!" + +"You know when I make my pile, I'd like a palace of white marble perched +on this cliff with the windows on the south looking out over Sandy Hook, +and the windows on the west looking over that fort on the top of Staten +Island with its black eyes gazing over the sea. How would you like +that?" + +She turned away to mask the smile she couldn't repress. + +"That would be splendid, wouldn't it?" + +"I like the water, don't you?" + +"I love it." + +"Water and hills both right together! I reckon my father must 'a' been a +sea-captain and my mother from the mountains----" + +He said this with a pathos that found the girl's heart. What a pitiful, +lonely life, a boy's without even the memory of a mother or father! +The mother instinct rose in a resistless flood of pity. Her eyes grew +suddenly dim. + +"Well," he said briskly, "now for the dainty job! I've got to jump my +way through that Coney Island bunch. You see my low speed's a racing +pace for an everyday car. All I can do in a crowd is to jump from one +crossing to the next and cut her power off every time. You can bet I'll +make a guy or two jump with me----" + +"You won't hurt anyone?" she pleaded. + +"Lord, no! I wouldn't dare to put her through that mob in the afternoon. +I'd kill a regiment of 'em. But it's early--just the shank of the +morning. There's nobody down here yet." + +The car suddenly leaped into the Avenue that runs through the heart of +Coney Island, the deep-throated horn screaming its warning. The crowd +scattered like sheep before a lion. + +The girl laughed in spite of her effort at self-control. + +"Watch 'em hump!" Jim grunted. + +"It's funny, isn't it?" + +"When you're in the car--yes. It don't seem so funny when you're on +foot. Well, some people were made to walk and some to ride. I had to +hoof it at first. I like riding better--don't you?" + +"To be perfectly honest--yes!" + +The car leaped forward again, the horn screaming. The wheel passed +within a foot of a fat woman's skirt. With a cry of terror she fled to +the sidewalk and shook her fist at Jim, her face purple with anger. + +He waved his hand back at her: + +"Never touched you, dearie! Never touched you!" + +Mary lost all fear of accident and watched him handle the machine with +the skill of a master. She could understand now the spirit of deviltry +in a chauffeur who knows his business. It seemed a wicked, cruel thing +from the ground--this swift plunge of a car as if bent on murder. But +now that she felt the sure, velvet grip of the brake in a master's hand, +she saw that the danger was largely a myth. + +It was fun to see people jump at the approach of an avalanche of steel +that always stopped just short of harm. Of course, it took a steady +nerve and muscle to do the trick. The man by her side had both. He was +always smiling. Nothing rattled him. + +Her trust was now implicit. She relaxed the tension of the first two +hours of doubt and fear, and yielded to the spell of his strength. It +seemed inseparable from the throbbing will of the giant machine. He was +its incarnate spirit. She was being swept through space now on the wings +of omnipotent power--but power always obedient to her whim. + +With steady, even pulse they glided down the long, broad Avenue to +Prospect Park, swung through its winding lanes, on through the streets +of Brooklyn and once more into the open road. + +"Now for Long Beach and a good lunch!" he cried. "I'll show you +something--but you'll have to shut your eyes to see it." + +With a sudden bound, the car leaped into the air, and shot through the +sky with the hiss and shriek of a demon. + +The girl caught her breath and instinctively gripped his arm. + +"Look out, Kiddo!" he shouted. "Don't touch me--or we'll both land in +Kingdom Come. I ain't ready for a harp just yet. I'd rather fool with +this toy for a while down here." + +She braced her feet and gripped the sides of the car, gasping for +breath, steadied herself at last and crouched low among the furs to +guard her throat from the icy daggers of the wind. + +The landscape whirled in a circle of trees and sky, while above the dark +line of hills hung the boiling cauldron of cloud-banked heavens. + +"Are you game?" he called above the roar. + +"Yes," she gasped. "Don't stop----" + +Her soul had risen at last to the ecstasy of the mania for speed that +fired the man's spirit and nerved his hand. It was inconceivable +until experienced--this awful joy! Her spirit sank with childish +disappointment as he slowly lowered the power. + +"Got to take a sharp curve down there," he explained. "We turn to the +right for the meadows and the Beach--how was that?" + +"Wonderful," she cried, with dancing eyes. "Let her go again if you want +to--I'm game--now." + +Jim laughed. + +"A little rattled at first?" + +"Yes----" + +"Well, we can't let her out on this road. It's too narrow--have to take +a ditch sometimes to pass. That wouldn't do for an eighty-mile clip, you +know--now would it?" + +"Hardly." + +"I might risk it alone--but my first name's `Old Man Caution' today--you +get me?" + +Mary nodded and turned her head away again. + +"I got you the first time, sir," she answered playfully taking his tone. + +He ran the car into the garage at the Beach, sprang out and lifted Mary +to the ground with quick, firm hand. They threw off their heavy coats +and left them. + +"Look out for this junk now, sonny," he cried to the attendant, tossing +him a half dollar. + +"Sure, Mike!" + +"Fill her up to the chin by the time we get back." + +"Righto!" + +Quickly they walked to the hotel and in five minutes were seated beside +a window in the dining-room, watching the lazy roll of the sea sweep in +on the sands at low tide. + +"I'm hungry as a wolf!" he whispered. + +"So am I----" + +"We'll eat everything in sight--start at the top and come down." + +He handed her the menu card and watched her from the depths beneath the +drooping eyelids. + +Conscious of his gaze and rejoicing in its frank admiration, she ordered +the dinner with instinctive good taste. No effort at conversation was +made by either. They were both too hungry. As Jim lighted his cigarette +when the coffee was served, he leaned back in his chair and watched the +breakers in silence. + +"That's the best dinner I ever had in my life," he said slowly. + +"It was good. We were hungry." + +"I've been hungry before, many a time. It was something else, too." He +paused and rose abruptly. "Let's walk up the Beach." + +"I'd love to," she answered, slowly rising. + + + +CHAPTER VI. BESIDE THE SEA + +They strolled leisurely along the board-walk, found the sand, walked in +the firm, dry line of the high-water mark for a mile to the east, and +sat down on a clump of sea-grass on the top of a sand dune. + +"I like this!" she cried joyously. + +"So do I," he answered soberly, and lapsed into silence. + +The sun was warm and genial. The wind had died, and the waves of the +rising tide were creeping up the long, sloping stretches of the sand +with a lazy, soothing rush. A winter gull poised above their heads and +soared seaward. The smoke of an ocean liner streaked the horizon as she +swept toward the channel off Sandy Hook. + +Jim looked at the girl by his side and tried to speak. She caught the +strained expression in his strong face and lowered her eyes. + +He began to trace letters in the sand. + +She knew with unerring instinct that he had made his first desperate +effort to speak his love and failed. Would he give it up and wait for +weeks and possibly months--or would he storm the citadel in one mad rush +at the beginning? + +He found his voice at last. He had recovered from the panic of his first +impulse. + +"Well, how do you like my idea of a good day as far as you've gone?" he +asked lightly. + +She met his gaze with perfect frankness. "The happiest day I ever spent +in my life," she confessed. + +"Honest?" + +"Honest." + +"Oh, shucks--what's the use!" he cried, with sudden fierce resolution. +"You've got me, Kiddo, you've got me! I've been eatin' out of your hand +since the minute I laid my eyes on you in that big room. I'm all yours. +You can do anything you want with me. For God's sake, tell me that you +like me a little." + +The blood slowly mounted to her cheeks in red waves of tremulous +emotion. + +"I like you very much," she said in low tones. + +He seized her hand and held it in a desperate grip. + +"I love you, Kiddo," he went on passionately. "You don't mind me calling +you Kiddo? You're so dainty and pretty and sweet, and that dimple keeps +coming in your cheek, it just seems like that's the word--you don't +mind?" + +"No----" + +"You don't know how I've been starvin' all my life for the love of a +pure girl like you. You're the first one I ever spoke to. I was scared +to death yesterday when I saw you. But I'd 'a' spoke to you if it killed +me in my tracks. I couldn't help it. It just looked like an angel had +dropped right down out of the gold clouds from that ceilin'. I was +afraid I'd lose you in the crowd and never see you again. It didn't seem +you were a stranger anyhow--I didn't seem strange to you, did I?" + +Her lips quivered, and she was silent. + +"Didn't you feel like you'd known me somewhere before?" he pleaded. + +"Yes." + +"I just felt you did, and that's what give me courage. Oh, Kiddo, you've +got to love me a little--I've never been loved by a human soul in all my +life. The first thing I remember was hidin' under a stoop from a brute +who beat me every night. I ran away and slept in barrels and crawled +into coal shutes till I was big enough to earn a livin' sellin' papers. +For years I never knew what it meant to have enough to eat. I just +scratched and fought my way through the streets like a little hungry +wolf till I got in a blacksmith's shop down on South Street and learned +to handle tools. I was quick and smart, and the old man liked me and let +me sleep in the shop. I had enough to eat then and got strong as an ox. +I went to the night schools and learned to read and write. I don't know +anything, but I'm quick and you can teach me--you will, won't you?" + +"I'll try," was the low answer. + +"You do like me, Kiddo? Say it again!" + +She rose to her feet and looked out over the sea, her face scarlet. + +"Yes, I do," she said at last. + +With a sudden resistless sweep he clasped her in his arms and kissed her +lips. + +Her heart leaped in mad response to the first kiss a lover had ever +given. Her body quivered and relaxed in his embrace. It was sweet--it +was wonderful beyond words. + +He kissed her again, and she clung to him, lifting her eyes to his at +last in a long, wondering gaze and then pressed her own lips to his. + +"Oh, my God, Kiddo, you love me! It beats the world, don't it? Love at +first sight for both of us! I've heard about it, but I didn't think it +would ever happen to me like this--did you?" + +She shook her head and bit her lips as the tears slowly dimmed her eyes. + +"It takes my breath," she murmured. "I can't realize what it all means. +It seems too wonderful to be true." + +"And you won't turn me down because I don't know who my father and +mother was?" + +"No--my heart goes out to you in a great pity for your lonely, wretched +boyhood." + +"I couldn't help that--now could I?" + +"Of course not. It's wonderful that you've made your way alone and won +the fight of life." + +He gripped her hands and held her at arms' length, devouring her with +his deep, slumbering eyes. + +"Gee, but you're a brick, little girl! I thought you were an angel when +I first saw you. Now I know it. Just watch me work for you! I'll show +you a thing or two. You'll marry me right away, won't you?" + +He bent close, his breath on her lips. + +Her eyes drooped under his passionate gaze, and the tears slowly stole +down her cheeks. Her hour of life had struck! So suddenly, so utterly +unexpectedly, it rang a thunderbolt from the clear sky. + +"You will, won't you?" he pleaded. + +She smiled at him through her tears and slowly said: + +"I can't say yes today." + +"Why--why?" + +"You've swept me off my feet--I--I can't think." + +"I don't want you to think--I want you to marry me right now." + +"I must have a little time." + +His face fell in despair. + +"Say, little girl, don't turn me down--you'll kill me." + +"I'm not turning you down," she protested tenderly. "I only want time to +see that I'm not crazy. I have to pinch myself to see if I'm awake. It +all seems a dream"--she paused and lifted her radiant face to his--"a +beautiful dream--the most wonderful my soul has ever seen. I must be +sure it's real!" + +He drew her into his arms, and her body again relaxed in surrender as +his lips touched hers. + +"Isn't that the real thing?" he laughed. + +She lay very still, her eyes closed, her face a scarlet flame. She was +frightened at the swift realization of its overwhelming reality. The +touch of his hand thrilled to the last fiber and nerve of her body. Her +own trembling fingers clung to him with desperate longing tenderness. +She roused herself with an effort and drew away. + +"That's enough now. I must have a little common-sense. Let's go----" + +He clung to her hand. + +"You'll let me come to see you, tomorrow night?" + +"Yes----" + +"And the next night--and every night this week--what's the difference? +There's nobody to say no, is there?" + +"No one." + +"You'll let me?" + +"Tomorrow sure. Maybe you won't want to come the next night." + +"Maybe I won't! Just wait and see!" + +He seized both hands again and held her at arms' length. + +"Don't go yet--just let me look at you a minute more! The only girl I +ever had in my life--and she's the prettiest thing God ever made on this +earth. Ain't I the lucky boy?" + +"We must go now," she cried, blushing again under his burning eyes. + +He dropped her hands suddenly and saluted military fashion. + +"All right, teacher! I'm the little boy that does exactly what he's +told." + +They strolled leisurely along the shining sands in silence. Now and then +his slender hand caught hers and crushed it. The moment he touched her +a living flame flashed through her body--and through every moment of +contact her nerves throbbed and quivered as if a musician were sweeping +the strings of a harp. If this were not love, what could it be? + +Her whole being, body and soul, responded to his. Her body moved +instinctively toward his, drawn by some hidden, resistless power. Her +hands went out to meet his; her lips leaped to his. + +She must test it with time, of course. And yet she knew by a deep inner +sense that time could only fan the flame that had been kindled into +consuming fire that must melt every barrier between them. + +She had asked him nothing of himself, his business or his future, and +knew nothing except what he had told her in the first impetuous rush of +his confession of love. No matter. The big thing today was the fact +of love and the new radiance with which it was beginning to light the +world. The effect was stunning. Their conversation had been the simplest +of commonplace questions and answers--and yet the day was the one +miracle of her life--her happiness something unthinkable until realized. + +She had not asked time in order to know him better. She had only asked +time to see herself more clearly in the new experience. Not for a moment +did she raise the question of the worthiness of the man she loved. It +was inconceivable that she should love a man not worthy of her. The only +questions asked were soul-searching ones put to herself. + +Through the sweet, cool drive homeward, a hundred times she asked +within: + +"Is this love?" + +And each time the answer came from the depths: + +"Yes--yes--a thousand times yes. It's the voice of God. I feel it and I +know it." + +He throttled the racer down to the lowest speed and took the longest +road home. + +Again and again he slipped his left hand from the wheel and pressed +hers. + +"You won't let anybody knock me behind my back, now will you, little +girl?" + +She pressed his hand in answer. + +"I ain't got a single friend in all God's world to stand up for me but +just you." + +"You don't need anyone," she whispered. + +"You'll give me a chance to get back at 'em if any of your friends knock +me, won't you?" + +"Why should they dislike you?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"Well, I ain't exactly one o' the high-flyers now am I?" + +"I'm glad you're not." + +"Sure enough?" + +"Yes." + +"Then it's me for you, Kiddo, for this world and the next." + +The car swung suddenly to the curb and Mary lifted her eyes with a start +to find herself in front of her home. + +Jim sprang to the ground and lifted her out. + +"Keep this coat," he whispered. "We'll need it tomorrow. What time is +your school out?" + +"At three o'clock." + +"I can come at four?" + +"You don't have to work tomorrow?" + +He hesitated a moment. + +"No, I'm on a vacation till after Christmas. They're putting through my +new patent." + +He followed her inside the door and held her hand in the shadows of the +hall. + +"All right, at four," she said. + +"I'll be here." + +He stooped and kissed her, turned and passed quickly out. + +She stood for a moment in the shadows and listened to the throb of the +car until it melted into the roar of the city's life, her heart beating +with a joy so new it was pain. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. A VAIN APPEAL + +A week passed on the wings of magic. + +Every day at four o'clock the car was waiting at her door. The drab +interior of the school-room had lost its terror. No annoyance could +break the spell that reigned within. Her patience was inexhaustible, her +temper serene. + +Walking with swift step down the Avenue to her home she wondered vaguely +how she could have been lonely in all the music and the wonder of New +York's marvelous life. The windows of the stores were already crowded +with Christmas cheer, and busy thousands passed through their doors. +Each man or woman was a swift messenger of love. Somewhere in the +shadows of the city's labyrinth a human heart would beat with quickened +joy for every step that pressed about these crowded counters. Love had +given new eyes to see, new ears to hear and a new heart to feel the joys +and sorrows of life. + +She hadn't given her consent yet. She was still asking her silly heart +to be sure of herself. Of her lover, the depth and tenderness, the +strength and madness of his love, there could be no doubt. Each day he +had given new tokens. + +For Saturday afternoon she had told him not to bring the car. + +When they reached Fifth Avenue, across the Square, he stopped abruptly +and faced her with a curious, uneasy look: + +"Say, tell me why you wanted to walk?" + +"I had a good reason," she said evasively. + +"Yes, but why? It's a sin to lay that car up a day like this. Look +here----" + +He stopped and tried to gulp down his fears. + +"Look here--you're not going to throw me down after leading me to the +very top of the roof, are you?" + +She looked up with tender assurance. + +"Not today----" + +"Then why hoof it? Let me run round to the garage and shoot her out. You +can wait for me at the Waldorf. I've always wanted to push my buzz-wagon +up to that big joint and wait for my girl to trip down the steps." + +"No. I've a plan of my own today. Let me have my way." + +"All righto--just so you're happy." + +"I am happy," she answered soberly. + +At the foot of the broad stairs of the Library she paused and looked up +smilingly at its majestic front. + +"Come in a moment," she said softly. + +He followed her wonderingly into the vaulted hall and climbed the grand +staircase to the reading-room. She walked slowly to the shelf on which +the Century Dictionary rested and looked laughingly at the seat in which +she sat Saturday afternoon a week ago at exactly this hour. + +Jim smiled, leaned close and whispered: + +"I got you, Kiddo--I got you! Get out of here quick or I'll grab you and +kiss you!" + +She started and blushed. + +"Don't you dare!" + +"Beat it then--beat it--or I can't help it!" + +She turned quickly and they passed through the catalogue room and +lightly down the stairs. + +He held her soft, round arm with a grip that sent the blood tingling to +the roots of her brown hair. + +"You understand now?" she whispered. + +"You bet! We walk the same way up the Avenue, through the Park to the +little house on the laurel hill. And you're goin' to be sweet to me +today, my Kiddo--I just feel it. I----" + +"Don't be too sure, sir!" she interrupted, solemnly. + +He laughed aloud. + +"You can't fool me now--and I'm crazy as a June bug! You know I like to +walk--if I can be with you!" + +At the Park entrance she stopped again and smiled roguishly. + +"We'll find a seat in one of the summer houses along the Fifty-ninth +Street side." + +"All right," he responded. + +"No--we'll go on where we started!" + +With a laugh, she slipped her hand through his arm. + +"You were a little scared of me last Saturday about this time, weren't +you?" + +"Just a little----" + +"It hurt me, too, but I didn't let you know." + +"I'm sorry." + +"It's all right now--it's all right. Gee I but we've traveled some in a +week, haven't we?" + +"I've known you more than a week," she protested gayly. + +"Sure--I've known you since I was born." + +They walked through the stately rows of elms on the Mall in joyous +silence. Crowds of children and nurses, lovers and loungers, filled the +seats and thronged the broad promenade. + +Scarcely a word was spoken until they reached the rustic house nestling +among the trees on the hill. + +"Just a week by the calendar," she murmured. "And I've lived a +lifetime." + +"It's all right then--little girl? You'll marry me right away? +When--tonight?" + +"Hardly!" + +"Tomorrow, then?" + +She drew the glove from her hand and held the slender fingers up before +him. + +"You can get the ring----" + +"Gee! I do have to get a ring, don't I?" + +"Yes----" + +"Why didn't you tell me? You know I never got married before." + +"I should hope not!" + +He seized her hand and kissed it, drew her into his arms, held her +crushed and breathless and released her with a quick, impulsive +movement. + +"You'll help me get it?" he asked eagerly. + +"If you like." + +"A big white sparkler?" + +"No--no----" + +"No?" + +"A plain little gold band." + +"Let me get you a big diamond!" + +"No--a plain gold band." + +"It's all settled then?" + +"We're engaged. You're my fiance." + +"But for God's sake, Kiddo--how long do I have to be a fiance?" + +A ripple of laughter rang through the trees. + +"Don't you think we've done pretty well for seven days?" + +"I could have settled it in seven minutes after we met," he answered +complainingly. "You won't tell me the day yet?" + +"Not yet----" + +"All right, we'll just have to take blessings as they come, then." + +Through the beautiful afternoon they sat side by side with close-pressed +hands and planned the future which love had given. A modest flat far up +among the trees on the cliffs overlooking the Hudson, they decided on. + +"We'll begin with that," he cried enthusiastically, "but we won't stay +there long. I've got big plans. I'm going to make a million. The white +house down by the sea for me, a yacht out in the front yard and a +half-dozen thundering autos in the garage. If this deal I'm on now goes +through, I'll make my pile in a year----" + +They rose as the shadows lengthened. + +"I must go home and feed my pets," she sighed. + +"All right," he responded heartily. "I'll get the car and be there in a +jiffy. We'll take a spin out to a road-house for dinner." + +She lifted her eyes tenderly. + +"You can come right up to my room--now that we're engaged." + +He swept her into his arms again, and held her in unresisting happiness. + +It was dark when he swung the gray car against the curb and sprang out. +He didn't blow his horn for her to come down. The privilege she had +granted was too sweet and wonderful. He wouldn't miss it for the world. + +The stairs were dark. Ella was late this afternoon getting back to her +work. His light footstep scarcely made a sound. He found each step with +quick, instinctive touch. The building seemed deserted. The tenants were +all on trips to the country and the seashore. The day was one of rare +beauty and warmth. Someone was fumbling in the dark on the third floor +back. + +He made his way quickly to her room, and softly knocked, waited a moment +and knocked again. There was no response. He couldn't be mistaken. He +had seen her lean out of that window every day the past week. + +Perhaps she was busy in the kitchenette and the noise from the street +made it impossible to hear. + +He placed his hand on the doorknob. + +From the darkness of the hall, in a quick, tiger leap, Ella threw +herself on him and grappled for his throat. + +"What are you doing at that door, you dirty thief?" she growled. + +"Here! Here! What'ell--what's the matter with you?" he gasped, gripping +her hands and tearing them from his neck. "I'm no thief!" + +"You are! You are, too!" she shrieked. "I heard you sneak in the door +downstairs--heard you slippin' like a cat upstairs! Get out of here +before I call a cop!" + +She was savagely pushing him back to the landing of the stairs. With a +sudden lurch, Jim freed himself and gripped her hands. + +"Cut it! Cut it! Or I'll knock your block off! I've come to take my girl +to ride----" + +He drew a match and quickly lighted the gas as Mary's footstep echoed on +the stairs below. + +"Well, she's coming now--we'll see," was the sullen answer. + +Ella surveyed him from head to foot, her one eye gleaming in angry +suspicion. + +Mary sprang up the last step and saw the two confronting each other. She +had heard the angry voices from below. + +"Why, Ella, what's the matter?" she gasped. + +"He was trying to break into your room----" + +Jim threw up his hands in a gesture of rage, and Mary broke into a +laugh. + +"Why, nonsense, Ella, I asked him to come! This is Mr. Anthony,"--her +voice dropped,--"my fiance." + +Ella's figure relaxed with a look of surprise. + +"Oh, ja?" she murmured, as if dazed. + +"Yes--come in," she said to Jim. "Sorry I was out. I had to run to the +grocer's for the Kitty." + +Ella glared at Jim, turned and began to light the other hall lamps +without any attempt at apology. + +Jim entered the room with a look of awe, took in its impression of +sweet, homelike order and recovered quickly his composure. + +"Gee, you're the dandy little housekeeper! I could stay here forever." + +"You like it?" + +"It's a bird's nest." He glanced in the mirror and saw the print of +Ella's fingers on his collar. "Will you look at that?" he growled. + +"It's too bad," she said, sympathetically. + +"You know I thought a she-tiger had got loose from the Bronx and jumped +on me." + +"I'm awfully sorry," she apologized. "Ella's very fond of me. She was +trying to protect me. She couldn't see who it was in the dark." + +"No; I reckon not," Jim laughed. + +"I've changed our plans for the evening," she announced. "We won't go +to ride tonight. I want you to bring my best friend to dinner with us at +Mouquin's. Go after her in the car. I want to impress her----" + +"I got you, Kiddo! She's goin' to look me over--eh? All right, I'll +stop at the store and get a clean collar. I wouldn't like her to see the +print of that tiger's claw on my neck." + +"There's her address the Gainsborough Studios. Drop me at Mouquin's and +I'll have the table set in one of the small rooms upstairs. I'll meet +you at the door." + +Jim glanced at the address, put it in his pocket and helped her draw on +her heavy coat. + +"You'll be nice to Jane? I want her to like you. She's the only real +friend I've ever had in New York." + +"I'll do my best for you, little girl," he promised. + +He dropped her at the wooden cottage-front on Sixth Avenue near +Twenty-eighth Street, and returned in twenty minutes with Jane. + +As the tall artist led the way upstairs, Jim whispered: + +"Say, for God's sake, let me out of this!" + +"Why?" + +"She's a frost. If I have to sit beside her an hour I'll catch cold and +die. I swear it; save me! Save my life!" + +"Sh! It's all right. She's fine and generous when you know her." + +They had reached the door and Mary pushed him in. There was no help for +it. He'd have to make the most of it. + +The dinner was a dismal failure. + +Jane Anderson was polite and genial, but there was a straight look of +wonder in her clear gray eyes that froze the blood in Jim's veins. + +Mary tried desperately for the first half-hour to put him at his +ease. It was useless. The attack of Ella had upset his nerves, and the +unexpressed hostility of Jane had completely crushed his spirits. He +tried to talk once, stammered and lapsed into a sullen silence from +which nothing could stir him. + +The two girls at last began to discuss their own affairs and the dinner +ended in a sickening failure that depressed and angered Mary. + +The agony over at last, she rose and turned to Jim: + +"You can go now, sir--I'll take Jane home with me for a friendly chat." + +"Thank God!" he whispered, grinning in spite of his effort to keep a +straight face. + +"Tomorrow?" he asked in low tones. + +"At eight o'clock." + +Jim bowed awkwardly to Jane, muttered something inarticulate and rushed +to his car. + +The two girls walked in silence through Twenty-eighth Street to Broadway +and thence across the Square. + +Seated in her room, Mary could contain her pent-up rage no longer. + +"Jane Anderson, I'm furious with you! How could you be so rude--so +positively insulting!" + +"Insulting?" + +"Yes. You stared at him in cold disdain as if he were a toad under your +feet!" + +"I assure you, dear----" + +"Why did you do it?" + +The artist rose, walked to the window, looked out on the Square for a +moment, extended her hand and laid it gently on Mary's shoulder. + +"You've made up your mind to marry this man, honey?" + +"I certainly have," was the emphatic answer. + +Jane paused. + +"And all in seven days?" + +"Seven days or seven years--what does it matter? He's my mate--we +love--it's Fate." + +"It's incredible!" + +"What's incredible?" + +"Such madness." + +"Perhaps love is madness--the madness that makes life worth the candle. +I've never lived before the past week." + +"And you, the dainty, cultured, pious little saint, will marry +this--this----" + +"Say it! I want you to be frank----" + +"Perfectly frank?" + +"Absolutely." + +"This coarse, ugly, illiterate brute----" + +"Jane Anderson, how dare you!" Mary sprang to her feet, livid with rage. + +"I asked if I might be frank. Shall I lie to you? Or shall I tell you +what I think?" + +"Say what you please; it doesn't matter," Mary interrupted angrily. + +"I only speak at all because I love you. Your common-sense should tell +you that I speak with reluctance. But now that I have spoken, let me +beg of you for your father's sake, for your dead mother's sake, for my +sake--I'm your one disinterested friend and you know that my love is +real--for the sake of your own soul's salvation in this world and the +next--don't marry that brute! Commit suicide if you will--jump off the +bridge--take poison, cut your throat, blow your brains out--but, oh dear +God, not this!" + +"And why, may I ask?" was the cold question. + +"He's in no way your equal in culture, in character, in any of the +essentials on which the companionship of marriage must be based----" + +"He's a diamond in the rough," Mary staunchly asserted. + +"He's in the rough, all right! The only diamond about him is the one in +his red scarf--`Take it from me, Kiddo! Take it from me!'" + +Her last sentence was a quotation from Jim, her imitation of his slang +so perfect Mary's cheeks flamed anew with anger. + +"I'll teach him to use good English--never fear. In a month he'll forget +his slang and his red scarf." + +"You mean that in a month you'll forget to use good English and his +style of dress will be yours. Oh, honey, can't you see that such a man +will only drag you down, down to his level? Can it be possible that +you--that you really love him?" + +"I adore him and I'm proud of his love!" + +"Now listen! You believe in an indissoluble marriage, don't you?" + +"Yes----" + +"It's the first article of your creed--that marriage is a holy +sacrament, that no power on earth or in hell can ever dissolve its +bonds? Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, my dear! They always +have--they always will, I suppose. This is peculiarly true of your type +of woman--the dainty, clinging girl of religious enthusiasm. You're +peculiarly susceptible to the physical power of a brutal lover. Your +soul glories in submission to this force. The more coarse and brutal its +attraction the more abject and joyful the surrender. Your religion can't +save you because your religion is purely emotional--it is only another +manifestation of your sex emotions." + +"How can you be so sacrilegious!" the girl interrupted with a look of +horror. + +"It may shock you, dear, but I'm telling you one of the simplest truths +of Nature. You'd as well know it now as later. The moment you wake to +realize that your emotions have been deceived and bankrupted, your faith +will collapse. At least keep, your grip on common-sense. Down in the +cowardly soul of every weak woman--perhaps of every woman--is the insane +desire to be dominated by a superior brute force. The woman of the lower +classes--the peasant of Russia, for example, whose sex impulses are of +all races the most violent--refuses with scorn the advances of the man +who will not strike her. The man who can't beat his wife is beneath +contempt--he is no man at all----" + +Mary broke into a laugh. + +"Really, Jane, you cease to be serious you're a joke. For Heaven's sake +use a little common-sense yourself. You can't be warning me that my +lover is marrying me in order to use his fists on me?" + +"Perhaps not, dear,"--the artist smiled; "there might be greater depths +for one of your training and character. I'm just telling you the plain +truth about the haste with which you're rushing into this marriage. +There's nothing divine in it. There's no true romance of lofty +sentiment. It's the simplest and most elemental of all the brutal facts +of animal life. That it is resistless in a woman of your culture and +refinement makes it all the more pathetic----" + +The girl rose with a gesture of impatience. + +"It's no use, Jane dear; we speak a different language. I don't in the +least know what you're talking about, and what's more, I'm glad I don't. +I've a vague idea that your drift is indecent. But we're different. I +realize that. I don't sit in judgment on you. You're wasting your breath +on me. I'm going into this marriage with my eyes wide open. It's the +fulfillment of my brightest hopes and aspirations. That I shall be happy +with this man and make him supremely happy I know by an intuition +deeper and truer than reason. I'm going to trust that intuition without +reservation." + +"All right, honey," the artist agreed with a smile. "I won't say +anything more, except that you're fooling yourself about the depth of +this intuitive knowledge. Your infatuation is not based on the verdict +of your deepest and truest instincts." + +"On what, then?" + +"The crazy ideals of the novels you've been reading--that's all." + +"Ridiculous!" + +"You're absolutely sure, for instance, that God made just one man the +mate of one woman, aren't you?" + +"As sure as that I live." + +"Where did you learn it?" + +"So long ago I can't remember." + +"Not in your Bible?" + +"No." + +"The Sunday school?" + +"No." + +"Craddock didn't tell you that, did he?" + +"Hardly----" + +"I thought not. He has too much horse-sense in spite of his emotional +gymnastics. You learned it in the first dime-novel you read." + +"I never read a dime-novel in my life," she interrupted, indignantly. + +"I know--you paid a dollar and a quarter for it--but it was a +dime-novel. The philosophy of this school of trash you have built into +a creed of life. How can you be so blind? How can you make so tragic a +blunder?" + +"That's just it, Jane: I couldn't if your impressions of his character +were true. I couldn't make a mistake about so vital a question. I +couldn't love him if he really were a coarse, illiterate brute. What you +see is only on the surface. He hasn't had his chance yet----" + +"Who is he? What does he do? Who are his people?" + +"He has no people----" + +"I thought not." + +"I love him all the more deeply," she went on firmly, "because of his +miserable childhood. I'll do my best to make up for the years of cruelty +and hunger and suffering through which he passed. What right have you +to sit in judgment on him without a hearing? You've known him two +hours----" + +Jane shrugged her shoulders. + +"Two minutes was quite enough." + +"And you judge by what standard?" + +"My five senses, and my sixth sense above all. One look at his square +bulldog jaw, his massive neck and the deformity of his delicate hands +and feet! I hear the ignorant patois of the East Side underworld. +I smell the brimstone in his suppressed rage at my dislike. There's +something uncanny in the sensuous droop of his heavy eyelids and the +glitter of his steel-blue eyes. There's something incongruous in his +whole personality. I was afraid of him the moment I saw him." + +Mary broke into hysterical laughter. + +"And if my five senses and my intuitions contradict yours? Who is to +decide? If I loved him on sight----If I looked into his eyes and saw +the soul of my mate? If their cold fires thrill me with inexpressible +passion? If I see in his massive neck and jaw the strength of an +irresistible manhood, the power to win success and to command the +world? If I see in his slender hands and small feet lines of exquisite +beauty--am I to crush my senses and strangle my love to please your +idiotic prejudice?" + +Jane threw up her hands in despair. + +"Certainly not! If you're blind and deaf I can't keep you from +committing suicide. I'd lock you up in an asylum for the insane if I had +the power to save you from the clutches of the brute." + +Mary drew herself erect and faced her friend. + +"Please don't repeat that word in my hearing--there's a limit to +friendship. I think you'd better go----" + +Jane rose and walked quickly to the door, her lips pressed firmly. + +"As you like--our lives will be far apart from tonight. It's just as +well." + +She closed the door with a bang and reached the head of the stairs +before Mary threw her arms around her neck. + +"Please, dear, forgive me--don't go in anger." + +The older woman kissed her tenderly, glad of the dim light to hide her +own tears. + +"There, it's all right, honey--I won't remember it. Forgive me for my +ugly words." + +"I love him, Jane--I love him! It's Fate. Can't you understand?" + +"Yes, dear, I understand, and I'll love you always--good-by." + +"You'll come to my wedding?" + +"Perhaps----" + +"I'll let you know----" + +Another kiss, and Jane Anderson strode down the stairs and out into the +night with a sickening, helpless fear in her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. JIM'S TRIAL + +The quarrel had left Mary in a quiver of exalted rage. How dare a friend +trample her most sacred feelings! She pitied Jane Anderson and her +tribe--these modern feminine leaders of a senseless revolution against +man--they were crazy. They had all been disappointed in some individual +and for that reason set themselves up as the judges of mankind. + +"Thank God my soul has not been poisoned!" she exclaimed aloud with +fervor. "How strange that these women who claim such clear vision can be +so stupidly blind!" + +She busied herself with her little household, and made up her mind once +and for all time to be done with such friendships. The friendship of +such women was a vain thing. They were vicious cats at heart--not like +her gentle Persian kitten whose soul was full of sleepy sunlight. These +modern insurgents were wild, half-starved stray cats that had been +hounded and beaten until they had lapsed into their elemental brute +instincts. They were so aggravating, too, they deserved no sympathy. + +Again she thanked God that she was not one of them--that her heart was +still capable of romantic love--a love so sudden and so overwhelming +that it could sweep life before it in one mad rush to its glorious end. + +She woke next morning with a dull sense of depression. The room was damp +and chilly. It was storming. The splash of rain against the window and +the muffled roar from the street below meant that the wind was high and +the day would be a wretched one outside. + +They couldn't take their ride. + +It was a double disappointment. She had meant to have him dash down to +Long Beach and place the ring on her finger seated on that same bright +sand-dune overlooking the sea. Instead, they must stay indoors. Jim was +not at his best indoors. She loved him behind the wheel with his hand +on the pulse of that racer. The machine seemed a part of his being. He +breathed his spirit into its steel heart, and together they swept her on +and on over billowy clouds through the gates of Heaven. + +There was no help for it. They would spend the time together in her room +planning the future. It would be sweet--these intimate hours in her home +with the man she loved. + +Should she spend a whole day alone there with him? Was it just proper? +Was it really safe? Nonsense! The vile thoughts which Jane had uttered +had poisoned her, after all. She hated her self that she could remember +them. And yet they filled her heart with dread in spite of every effort +to laugh them off. + +"How could Jane Anderson dare say such things?" she muttered angrily. +"`A coarse, illiterate brute!' It's a lie! a lie! a lie!" She stamped +her foot in rage. "He's strong and brave and masterful--a man among +men--he's my mate and I love him!" + +And yet the frankness with which her friend had spoken had in reality +disturbed her beyond measure. Through every hour of the day her +uneasiness increased. After all she was utterly alone and her life +had been pitifully narrow. Her knowledge of men she had drawn almost +exclusively from romantic fiction. + +It was just a little strange that Jim persisted in living so completely +in the present and the future. He had told her of his pitiful childhood. +He had told her of his business. It had been definite--the simple +statement he made--and she accepted it without question until Jane +Anderson had dropped these ugly suspicions. She hated the meddler for +it. + +In the light of such suspicions the simplest, bravest man might seem a +criminal. How could her friend be blind to the magnetism of this man's +powerful personality? Bah! She was jealous of their perfect happiness. +Why are women so contemptible? + +She began a careful study of every trait of her lover's character, +determined to weigh him by the truest standards of manhood. Certainly +he was no weakling. The one abomination of her soul was the type of the +city degenerate she saw simpering along Broadway and Fifth Avenue at +times. Jim was brave to the point of rashness. No man with an ounce of +cowardice in his being could handle a car in every crisis with such cool +daring and perfect control. He was strong. He could lift her body as if +it were a feather. His arms crushed her with terrible force. He could +earn a living for them both. There could be no doubt about that. His +faultless clothes, the ease with which he commanded unlimited credit +among the automobile manufacturers and dealers--every supply store on +Broadway seemed to know him--left no doubt on that score. + +There was just a bit of mystery and reserve about his career as an +inventor. His first success that had given him a start he had not +explained. The big deal about the new carburetor she could, of course, +understand. He had a workshop all his own. He had told her this the +first day they met. She would ask him to take her to see it this +afternoon. The storm would prevent the trip to the Beach. She would ask +this, not because she doubted his honesty, but because she really wished +to see the place in which he worked. It was her workshop now, as well as +his. + +For a moment her suspicions were sickening. Suppose he had romanced +about his workshop and his room? Supposed he lived somewhere in the +squalid slums of the lower East Side and his people, after all, were +alive? Perhaps a drunken father and a coarse, brutal mother--and +sisters---- + +She stopped with a frown and clenched her fists. + +She would ask Jim to show her his workshop. That would be enough. If +he had told her the truth about that she would make up to him in tender +abandonment of utter trust for every suspicion she harbored. + +The car was standing in front of her door. He waved for her to come +down. + +"Jump right in!" he called gayly. "I've got an extra rubber blanket for +you." + +"In the storm, Jim?" she faltered. + +"Surest thing you know. It's great to fly through a storm. You can just +ride on its wings. Throw on your raincoat and come on quick! I'm going +to run down to the Beach. Who's afraid of an old storm with this thing +under us?" + +Her heart gave a bound. Her longing had reached her lover and brought +him through the storm to do her bidding. It was wonderful--this oneness +of soul and body. + +She was happy again--supremely, divinely happy. The man by her side knew +and understood. She knew and understood. She loved this daring spirit +that rose to the wind--this iron will that brooked no interference with +his plans, even from Nature, when it crossed his love. + +The sting of the raindrops against her cheek was exhilarating. The car +glided over the swimming roadway like a great gray gull skimming the +beach at low tide. Her soul rose. The sun of a perfect faith and love +was shining now behind the clouds. + +She nestled close to his side and watched him tenderly from the corners +of her half-closed eyes, her whole being content in his strength. The +idea of dashing through a blinding rain to the Beach on such a day would +have been to her mind an unthinkable piece of madness. She was proud +of his daring. It would be hers to shield from the storms of life. She +loved the rugged lines of his massive jaw in profile. How could Jane be +such a fool as to call him ugly! + +The weather, of course, prevented them from walking up the Beach to +their sand-dune. The walk would have been all right--but it was out +of the question to sit down there and give her the ring in the pouring +rain. She knew this as well as he. She knew, too, that he had the ring +in his pocket, though he had carefully refrained from referring to it in +any way. + +He led her to a secluded nook behind a pillar in the little parlor. The +hotel was deserted. They had the building almost to themselves. A log +fire crackled in the open fireplace, and he drew a settee close. The +wind had moderated and the rain was pouring down in straight streams, +rolling in soft music on the roof. + +He drew the ring from his pocket. "Well, Kiddo, I got it. The fellow +said this was all right." + +He held the tiny gold band before her shining eyes. + +"Slip it on!" she whispered. + +"Which one?" + +"This one, silly!" + +She extended her third finger, as he pressed the ring slowly on. + +"Seems to me a mighty little one and a mighty cheap one, but he said it +was the thing." + +"It's all right, dear," she whispered. "Kiss me!" + +He pressed his lips to hers and held them until she sank back and lifted +her hand in warning. + +"Be careful!" + +"Whose afraid?" Jim muttered, glancing over his shoulder toward the +door. "Now tell me what day--tomorrow?" + +"Nonsense, man!" she cried. "Give me time to breathe----" + +"What for?" + +"Just to realize that I'm engaged--to plan and think and dream of the +wonderful day." + +"We're losing time----" + +"We'll never live these wonderful hours over again, dear." + +Jim's face fell and his voice was pitiful in its funereal notes: "Lord, +I thought the ring settled it." + +"And so it does, dear--it does-----" + +"Not if that long-legged spider that took dinner with us the other night +gets in her fine work. I'll bet that she handed me a few when you got +home?" + +Mary was silent. + +"Now didn't she?" + +"To the best of her ability--yes--but I didn't mind her silly talk." + +"Gee, but I'd love to give her a bouquet of poison ivy!" + +"We had an awful quarrel----" + +"And you stood up for me?" + +"You know I did!" + +"All right, I don't give a tinker's damn what anybody says if you stand +by me! In all this world there's just you--for me. There's never been +anybody else--and there never will be. I'm that kind." + +"And I love you for it!" she cried, with rapture pressing his hand in +both of hers. + +"What did she say about me, anyhow?" + +"Nothing worth repeating. I've forgotten it." + +Jim held her gaze. + +"It's funny how you love anybody the minute you lay eyes on 'em--or hate +'em the same way. I wanted to choke her the minute she opened her yap to +me." + +"Forget it, dear," she broke in briskly. "I want you to take me to see +your workshop tomorrow--will you?" + +A flash of suspicion shot from the depths of his eyes. + +"Did she tell you to ask me that?" + +"Of course not! I'm just interested in everything you do. I want to see +where you work." + +"It's no place for a sweet girl to go--that part of town." + +"But I'll be with you." + +"I don't want you to go down there," he sullenly maintained. + +"But why, dear?" + +"It's a low, dirty place. I had to locate the shop there to get the room +I needed for the rent I could pay. It's not fit for you. I'm going to +move uptown in a little while." + +"Please let me go," she pleaded. + +He shook his head emphatically. + +"No." + +She turned away to hide the tears. The first real, hideous fear she had +ever had about him caught her heart in spite of every effort to fight it +down. His workshop might be a myth after all. He had failed in the first +test to which she had put him. It was horrible. All the vile suggestions +of Jane Anderson rushed now into her memory. + +She struggled bravely to keep her head and not break down. It was beyond +her strength. A sob strangled her, and she buried her face in her hands. + +Jim looked at her in helpless anguish for a moment, started to gather +her in his arms and looked around the room in terror. + +He leaned over her and whispered tensely: + +"For God's sake, Kiddo--don't--don't do that! I didn't mean to hurt +you--honest, I didn't. Don't cry any more and I'll take you right down +to the black hole, and let you sleep on the floor if you want to. Gee! +I'll give you the whole place, tools, junk and all----" + +She lifted her head. + +"Will you, Jim?" + +"Sure I will! We start this minute if you want to go." + +She glanced over his shoulder to see that no one was looking, threw her +arms around his neck and kissed him again and again. + +"It was the first time you ever said no, dear, and it hurt. I'm happy +again now. If you'll just let me see you in the shop for five minutes +I'll never ask you again." + +"All right--tomorrow when you get out of school. I'll take you down. +Holy Mike, that was a dandy kiss! Let's quarrel again--start something +else." + +She rose laughing and brushed the last trace of tears from her eyes. + +"Let's eat dinner now--I'm hungry." + +"By George, I'd forgot all about the feed!" + +By eight o'clock the storm had abated; the rain suddenly stopped, and +the moon peeped through the clouds. + +He drove the big racer back at a steady, even stride on her lowest notch +of speed--half the time with only his right hand on the wheel and his +left gripping hers. + +As the lights of Manhattan flashed from the hills beyond the +Queensborough Bridge, he leaned close and whispered: + +"Happy?" + +"Perfectly." + +The car was waiting the next day at half-past three. + +"It's not far," he said, nodding carelessly. "You needn't put on the +coat. Be there in a jiffy." + +Down Twenty-third Street to Avenue A, down the avenue to Eighteenth +Street, and then he suddenly swung the machine through Eighteenth into +Avenue B and stopped below a low, red brick building on the corner. + +He set his brakes with a crash, leaped out and extended his hands. + +"I didn't like to take you up these stairs at the back of that saloon, +little girl, but you would come. Now don't blame me----" + +She pressed his arm tenderly. + +"Of course I won't blame you. I'm proud and happy to share your life and +help you. I'm surprised to see everything so quiet down here. I thought +all the East Side was packed with crowded tenements." + +"No," he answered, in a matter-of-fact way. "About the only excitement +we have in this quarter is an occasional gas explosion in the plant over +there, and the noise of the second-hand material men unloading iron. The +tenements haven't been built here yet." + +He led her quickly past the back door of the saloon and up two narrow +flights of stairs to the top of the building, drew from his pocket the +key to a heavy padlock and slipped the crooked bolt from the double +staples. He unlocked the door with a second key and pushed his way in. + +"All righto," he cried. + +The straight, narrow hall inside was dark. He fumbled in his pocket and +lit the gas. + +"The workshop first, or my sleeping den?" + +"The workshop first!" she whispered excitedly. + +She had made the reality of this shop the supreme test of Jim's word +and character. She was in a fever of expectant uncertainty as to its +equipment and practical use. + +He unlocked the door leading to the front. + +"That's my den--we'll come back here." + +He passed quickly to the further end of the hall and again used two keys +to open the door, and held it back for her to enter. + +"I'm sorry it's so dirty--if you get your pretty dress all ruined--it's +not my fault, you know." + +Mary surveyed the room with an exclamation of delight. + +"Oh, what a wonderful place! Why, Jim, you're a magician!" + +There could be no doubt about the practical use to which the shop was +being put. Its one small window opened on a fire escape in the narrow +court in the rear. A skylight in the middle opened with a hinge on the +roof and flooded the space with perfect light. An iron ladder swung from +the skylight and was hooked up against the ceiling by a hasp fastened +to a staple over a work-bench. On one side of the room was a tiny +blacksmith's forge, an anvil, hammers and a complete set of tools for +working in rough iron. A small gasoline engine supplied the power which +turned his lathe and worked the drills, saw and plane. On the other +side of the room was arranged a fairly complete chemical laboratory with +several retorts, and an oxyhydrogen blow-pipe capable of developing the +powerful heat used in the melting and brazing of metals. Beneath the +benches were piled automobile supplies of every kind. + +"You know how to use all these machines, Jim?" she asked in wonder. + +"Sure, and then some!" he answered with a wave of his slender hand. + +"You're a wizard----" + +"Now the den?" he said briskly. + +She followed him through the hall and into the large front corner room +overlooking Avenue B and Eighteenth Street. The morning sun flooded the +front and the afternoon sun poured into the side windows. The furniture +was solid mahogany--a bed, bureau, chiffonier, couch and three chairs. +The windows were fitted with wood-paneled shutters, shades and heavy +draperies. A thick, soft carpet of faded red covered the floor. + +"It's a nice room, Jim, but I'd like to dust it for you," she said with +a smile. + +"Sure. I'm for giving you the right to dust it every morning, Kiddo, +beginning now. Let's find a preacher tonight!" + +She blushed and moved a step toward the door. + +"Just a little while. You know it's been only ten days since we met----" + +"But we've lived some in that time, haven't we?" + +"An eternity, I think," she said reverently. + +"I want to marry right now, girlie!" he pleaded desperately. "If that +spider gets you in her den again, I just feel like it's good night for +me." + +"Nonsense. You can't believe me such a silly child. I'm a woman. I love +you. Do you think the foolish prejudice of a friend could destroy my +love for the man whom I have chosen for my mate?" + +"No, but I want it fixed and then it's fixed--and they can say what +they please. Marry me tonight! You've got the ring. You're going to in a +little while, anyhow. What's the use to wait and lose these days out of +our life? What's the sense of it? Don't you know me by this time? Don't +you trust me by this time?" + +She slipped her hand gently into his. + +"I trust you utterly. And I feel that I've known you since the day I was +born----" + +"Then why--why wait a minute?" + +"You can't understand a girl's feelings, dear--only a little while and +it's all right." + +He sat down on the couch in silence, rose and walked to the window. She +watched him struggling with deep emotion. + +He turned suddenly. + +"Look here, Kiddo, I've got to leave on that trip to the mountains of +North Carolina. I've got to get down there before Christmas. I must be +back here by the first of the year. Gee--I can't go without you! You +don't want to stay here without me, do you?" + +A sudden pallor overspread her face. For the first time she realized how +their lives had become one in the sweet intimacy of the past ten days. + +"You must go now?" she gasped. + +"Yes. I've made my arrangements. I've business back here the first +of the year that can't wait. Marry me and go with me. We'll take our +honeymoon down there. By George, we'll go together in the car! Every day +by each other's side over hundreds and hundreds of miles! Say, ain't you +game? Come on! It's a crime to send me away without you. How can you do +it?" + +"I can't--I'm afraid," she faltered. + +"You'll marry me, then?" + +"Yes!" she whispered. "What is the latest day you can start?" + +"Next Saturday, if we go in the car----" + +"All right,"--she was looking straight into the depths of his soul +now--"next Saturday." + +He clasped her in his arms and held her with desperate tenderness. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. ELLA'S SECRET + +The consummation of her life's dream was too near, too sweet and +wonderful for Jane's croakings to distress Mary Adams beyond the moment. +She had, of course, wished her friend to be present at the wedding--yet +the curt refusal had only aroused anew her pity at stupid prejudices. +It was out of the question to ask her father to leave his work in the +Kentucky mountains and come all the way to New York. She would surprise +him with the announcement. After all, she was the one human being +vitally concerned in this affair, and the only one save the man whose +life would be joined to hers. + +In five minutes after the painful scene with Jane she had completely +regained her composure, and her face was radiant with happiness when +she waved to Jim. He was standing before the door in the car, waiting to +take her to the City Hall to get the marriage license. + +"Gee!" he cried, "you're the prettiest, sweetest thing that ever walked +this earth, with those cheeks all flaming like a rose! Are you happy?" + +"Gloriously." + +She motioned him to keep his seat and sprang lightly to his side. + +"Aren't you happy, sir?" she added gayly. + +"I am, yes--but to tell you the truth, I'm beginning to get scared. You +know what to do, don't you, when we get before that preacher?" + +"Of course, silly----" + +"I never saw a wedding in my life." + +She pressed his hand tenderly. + +"Honestly, Jim?" + +"I swear it. You'll have to tell me how to behave." + +"We'll rehearse it all tonight. I'll show you. I've seen hundreds of +people married. My father's a preacher, you know." + +"Yes, I know that," he went on solemnly; "that's what gives me courage. +I knew you'd understand everything. I'm counting on you, Kiddo--if you +fall down, we're gone. I'll run like a turkey." + +"It's easy," she laughed. + +"And this license business--how do we go about that? What'll they do to +us?" + +"Nothing, goose! We just march up to the clerk and demand the license. +He asks us a lot of questions----" + +"Questions! What sort of questions?" + +"The names of your father and mother--whether you've been married before +and where you live and how old you are----" + +"Ask you about your business?" he interrupted, sharply. + +"No. They think if you can pay the license fee you can support your +wife, I suppose." + +"How much is it?" + +"I don't know, here. It used to be two dollars in Kentucky." + +"That's cheap--must come higher in this burg. I brought along a +hundred." + +"Nonsense." + +"There's a lot of graft in this town. I'll be ready. I've got to get +'em--don't care how high they come." + +"There'll be no graft in this, Jim," she protested gayly. + +"Well, it'll be the first time I ever got by without it--believe me!" + +The ease with which the license was obtained was more than Jim could +understand. All the way back from the City Hall he expected to be held +up at every corner. He kept looking over his shoulder to see if they +were being followed. + +Arrived in her room, they discussed their plans for the day of days. + +"I'll come round soon in the morning, and we'll spend the whole day at +the Beach," he suggested. + +She lifted her hands in protest. + +"No--no!" + +"No?" + +"Not on our wedding-day, Jim!" + +"Why?" + +"It's not good form. The groom should not see the bride that day until +they meet at the altar." + +"Let's change it!" + +"No, sir, the old way's the best. I'll spend the day in saying good-by +to the past. You'll call for me at six o'clock. We'll go to Dr. +Craddock's house and be married in time for our wedding dinner." + +The lover smiled, and his drooping eyelids fell still lower as he +watched her intently. + +"I want that dinner here in this little place, Kiddo----" + +She blushed and protested. + +"I thought we'd go to the Beach and spend the night there." + +"Here, girlie, here! I love this little place--it's so like you. Get +the old wild-cat who cleans up for you to fix us a dinner here all by +ourselves--wouldn't she?" + +"She'd do anything for me--yes." + +"Then fix it here--I want to be just with you--don't you understand?" + +"Yes," she whispered. "But I'd rather spend that first day of our new +life in a strange place--and the Beach we both love--hadn't you just as +leave go there, Jim?" + +"No. The waiters will stare at us, and hear us talk----" + +"We can have our meals served in our room. + +"This is better," he insisted. "I want to spend one day here alone with +you, before we go--just to feel that you're all mine. You see, if I walk +in here and own the place, I'll know that better than any other way. +I've just set my heart on it, Kiddo--what's the difference?" + +She lifted her lips to his. + +"All right, dear. It shall be as you wish. Tomorrow I will be all +yours--in life, in death, in eternity. Your happiness will be the one +thing for which I shall plan and work." + +Ella was very happy in the honor conferred on her. She was given entire +charge of the place, and spent the day in feverish preparation for the +dinner. She insisted on borrowing a larger table from the little fat +woman next door, to hold the extra dishes. She dressed herself in her +best. Her raven black hair was pressed smooth and shining down the sides +of her pale temples. + +The work was completed by three o'clock in the afternoon, and Mary lay +in her window lazily watching the crowds scurrying home. The offices +closed early on Saturday afternoons. + +Ella was puttering about the room, adding little touches here and there +in a pretense of still being busy. As a matter of fact, she was watching +the girl from her one eye with a wistful tenderness she had not dared +as yet to express in words. Twice Mary had turned suddenly and seen her +thus. Each time Ella had started as if caught in some act of mischief +and asked an irrelevant question to relieve her embarrassment. + +Mary could feel her single eye fixed on her now in a deep, brooding +look. It made her uncomfortable. + +She turned slowly and spoke in gentle tones. + +"You've been so sweet to me today, Ella--father and mother and best +friend. I'll never forget your kindness. You'd better rest awhile now +until we go to Dr. Craddock's. I want you to be there, too----" + +"To see the marriage--ja?" she asked softly. + +"Yes." + +"Oh, no, my dear, no--I stay here and wait for you to come. I keep the +lights burning bright. I welcome the bride and groom to their little +home--ja." + +A quick glance of suspicion shot from Mary's blue eyes. Could it be +possible that this forlorn scrubwoman would carry her hostility to her +lover to the same point of ungracious refusal to witness the ceremony? +It was nonsense, of course. Ella would feel out of place in the +minister's parlor, that was all. She wouldn't insist. + +"All right, Ella; you can receive us here with ceremony. You'll be our +maid, butler, my father, my mother and my friends!" + +There was a moment's silence and still no move on Ella's part to go. The +girl felt her single eye again fixed on her in mysterious, wistful +gaze. She would send her away if it were possible without hurting her +feelings. + +Mary lifted her eyes suddenly, and Ella stirred awkwardly and smiled. + +"I hope you are very happy, meine liebe--ja?" + +"I couldn't be happier if I were in Heaven," was the quick answer. + +"I'm so glad----" + +Again an awkward pause. + +"I was once young and pretty like you, meine liebe," she began dreamily, +"--slim and straight and jolly--always laughing." + +Mary held her breath in eager expectancy. Ella was going to lift the +veil from the mystery of her life, stirred by memories which the coming +wedding had evoked. + +"And you had a thrilling romance--Ella? I always felt it." + +Again silence, and then in low tones the woman told her story. + +"Ja--a romance, too. I was so young and foolish--just a baby myself--not +sixteen. But I was full of life and fun, and I had a way of doing what I +pleased. + +"The man was older than me--Oh, a lot older--with gray hairs on the side +of his head. I was wild about him. I never took to kids. They didn't +seem to like me----" + +She paused as if hesitating to give her full confidence, and quickly +went on: + +"My folks were German. They couldn't speak English. I learned when I was +five years old. They didn't like my lover. We quarrel day and night. I +say they didn't like him because they could not speak his language. They +say he was bad. I fight for him, and run away and marry him----" + +Again she paused and drew a deep breath. + +"Ah, I was one happy little fool that year! He make good wages on the +docks--a stevedore. They had a strike, and he got to drinking. The baby +came----" + +She stopped suddenly. + +"You had a little baby, Ella?" the girl asked in a tender whisper. + +"Ja--ja," she sobbed--"so sweet, so good--so quiet--so beautiful she was. +I was very happy--like a little girl with a doll--only she laugh and +cry and coo and pull my hair! He stop the drink a little while when she +come, and he got work. And then he begin worse and worse. It seem like +he never loved me any more after the baby. He curse me, he quarrel. He +begin to strike me sometimes. I laugh and cry at first and make up and +try again----" + +Again she paused as if for courage to go on, and choked into silence. + +"Yes--and then?" the girl asked. + +"And then he come home one night wild drunk. He stumble and fall +across the cradle and hurt my baby so she never cry--just lie still and +tremble--her eyes wide open at first and then they droop and close and +she die! + +"He laugh and curse and strike me, and I fight him like a tiger. He was +strong--he throw me down on the floor and gouge my eye out with his big +claw----" + +"Oh, my God," Mary sobbed. + +Ella sprang to her feet and bent over the girl with trembling eagerness. + +"You keep my secret, meine liebe?" + +"Yes--yes----" + +"I never tell a soul on earth what I tell you now--I just eat my heart +out and keep still all the years, I can tell you--ja?" + +"Yes, I'll keep it sacred--go on----" + +"When I know he gouge my eye out, I go wild. I get my hand on his throat +and choke him still. I drag him to the stairs and throw him head first +all the way down to the bottom. He fall in a heap and lie still. I run +down and drag him to the door. I kick his face and he never move. He was +dead. I kick him again--and again. And then I laugh--I laugh--I laugh in +his dead face--I was so glad I kill him!" + +She sank in a paroxysm of sobs on the floor, and the girl touched her +smooth black hair tenderly, strangled with her own emotions. + +Ella rose at last and brushed the tears from her hollow cheeks. + +"Now, you know, meine liebe! Why I tell you this today, I don't +know--maybe I must! I dream once like you dream today----" + +The girl slipped her arms around the drooping, pathetic figure and +stroked it tenderly. + +"The sunshine is for some, maybe," Ella went on pathetically; "for some +the clouds and the storms. I hope you are very, very happy today and all +the days----" + +"I will be, Ella, I'm sure. I'll always love you after this." + +"Maybe I make you sad because I tell you----" + +"No--no! I'm glad you told me. The knowledge of your sorrow will make my +life the sweeter. I shall be more humble in my joy." + +It never occurred to the girl for a moment that this lonely, broken +woman had torn her soul's deepest secret open in a last pathetic effort +to warn her of the danger of her marriage. The wistful, helpless look +in her eye meant to Mary only the anguish of memories. Each human heart +persists in learning the big lessons of life at first hand. We refuse to +learn any other way. The tragedies of others interest us as fiction. We +make the application to others--never to ourselves. + +Jim's familiar footstep echoed through the hall, and Mary sprang to the +door with a cry of joy. + + + + +CHAPTER X. THE WEDDING + +Ella hurried into the kitchenette and busied herself with dinner. Jim's +unexpectedly early arrival broke the spell of the tragedy to which Mary +had listened with breathless sympathy. Her own future she faced without +a shadow of doubt or fear. + +Her reproaches to Jim were entirely perfunctory, on the sin of his early +call on their wedding-day. + +"Naughty boy!" she cried with mock severity. "At this unseemly hour!" + +He glanced about the room nervously. + +"Anybody in there?" + +He nodded toward the kitchenette. + +"Only Ella----" + +"Send her away." + +"What's the matter?" + +"Quick, Kiddo--quick!" + +Mary let Ella out from the little private hall without her seeing Jim, +and returned. + +"For heaven's sake, man, what ails you?" she asked excitedly. + +"Say--I forgot that thing already. We got to go over it again. What if I +miss it?" + +"The ceremony?" + +"Yep----" + +He mopped his brow and looked at his watch. + +"By the time we get to that preacher's house, I won't know my first name +if you don't help me." + +Mary laughed softly and kissed him. + +"You can't miss it. All you've got to do is say, `I will' when he asks +you the question, put the ring on my finger when he tells you, and +repeat the words after him--he and I will do the rest." + +"Say my question over again." + +"`Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after +God's ordinance, in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love +her, comfort her, honor, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, +forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall +live?'" + +She looked at him and laughed. + +"Why don't you answer?" + +"Now?" + +"Yes--that's the end of the question. Say, `I will.'" + +"Oh, I will all right! What scares me is that I'll jump in on him and +say `I will' before he gets halfway through. Seems to me when he says, +`Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife?' I'll just have to +choke myself there to keep from saying, `You bet your life I will, +Parson!'" + +"It won't hurt anything if you say, `I will' several times," she assured +him. + +"It wouldn't queer the job?" + +"Not in the least. I've often heard them say, `I will' two or three +times. Wait until you hear the words, `so long as ye both shall +live----'" + +"`So long as ye both shall live,'" he repeated solemnly. + +"The other speech you say after the minister." + +"He won't bite off more than I can chew at one time, will he?" + +"No, silly--just a few words----" + +"Because if he does, I'll choke." + +Jim drew his watch again, mopped his brow, and gazed at Mary's serene +face with wonder. + +"Say, Kiddo, you're immense--you're as cool as a cucumber!" + +"Of course. Why not? It's my day of joy and perfect peace--the day I've +dreamed of since the dawn of maidenhood. I'm marrying the man of +my choice--the one man God made for me of all men on earth. I know +this--I'm content." + +"Let me hang around here till time--won't you?" he asked helplessly. + +"We must have Ella come back to fix the table." + +"Sure. I just didn't want her to hear me tell you that I had cold feet. +I'm better now." + +Ella moved about the room with soft tread, watching Jim with sullen, +concentrated gaze when he was not looking. + +The lovers sat on the couch beside the window, holding each other's +hands and watching in silence the hurrying crowds pass below. Now that +his panic was over, Jim began to breathe more freely, and the time +swiftly passed. + +As the shadows slowly fell, they rang the bell at the parson's house +beside the church, and his good wife ushered them into the parlor. The +little Craddocks crowded in--six of them, two girls and four boys, their +ages ranging from five to nineteen. + +Sweet memories crowded the girl's heart from her happy childhood. She +had never missed one of these affairs at home. Her father was a very +popular minister and his home the Mecca of lovers for miles around. + +Craddock, like her father, was inclined to be conservative in his forms. +Marriage he held with the old theologians to be a holy sacrament. He +never used the new-fangled marriage vows. He stuck to the formula of the +Book of Common Prayer. + +When she stood before the preacher in this beautiful familiar scene +which she had witnessed so many times at home, Mary's heart beat with a +joy that was positively silly. She tried to be serious, and the dimple +would come in her cheek in spite of every effort. + +As Craddock's musical voice began the opening address, the memory of a +foolish incident in her father's life flashed through her mind, and +she wondered if Jim in his excitement had forgotten his pocket-book and +couldn't pay the preacher. + +"Dearly beloved," he began, "we are gathered together here in the sight +of God----" + +Mary tried to remember that she was in the sight of God, but she was so +foolishly happy she could only remember that funny scene. A long-legged +Kentucky mountain bridegroom at the close of the ceremony had turned to +her father and drawled: + +"Well, parson, I ain't got no money with me--but I want to give ye five +dollars. I've got a fine dawg. He's worth ten. I'll send him to ye fur +five--if it's all right?" + +The children had giggled and her father blushed. + +"Oh, that's all right," he had answered. "Money's no matter. Forget the +five. I hope you'll be very happy." + +Two weeks later a crate containing the dog had come by express. On the +tag was scrawled: + + +Dear Parson:--I like Nancy so well, I send ye the hole dawg, anyhow. + + +She hadn't a doubt that Jim would feel the same way--but she hoped he +hadn't forgotten his pocketbook. + +The scene had flashed through her mind in a single moment. She had +bitten her lips and kept from laughing by a supreme effort. Not a word +of the solemn ceremonial, however, had escaped her consciousness. + +"And in the face of this company," the preacher's rich voice was saying, +"to join together this Man and this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is +commended of St. Paul to be honorable among all men: and therefore is +not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, +discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God. Into this holy +estate these two persons present come now to be joined. If any man can +show just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him +now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace." + +Craddock paused, and his piercing eyes searched the man and woman before +him. + +"I require to charge you both, as ye will answer at the dreadful day +of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that +if either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined +together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it----" + +Again he paused. The perspiration stood in beads on Jim's forehead, and +he glanced uneasily at Mary from the corners of his drooping eyes. A +smile was playing about her mouth, and Jim was cheered. + +"For be ye well assured," the preacher continued, "that if any persons +are joined together otherwise than as God's Word doth allow, their +marriage is not lawful." + +He turned with deliberation to Jim and transfixed him with the first +question of the ceremony. The groom was hypnotized into a state of +abject terror. His ears heard the words; the mind recorded but the +vaguest idea of what they meant. + +"Wilt thou have this Woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after +God's ordinance in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love her, +comfort her, honor, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, +forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall +live?" + +Jim's mouth was open; his lower jaw had dropped in dazed awe, and he +continued to stare straight into the preacher's face until Mary pressed +his arm and whispered: + +"Jim!" + +"I will--yes, I will--you bet I will!" he hastened to answer. + +The children giggled, and the preacher's lips twitched. + +He turned quickly to Mary. + +"Wilt thou have this Man to thy wedded husband, to live together after +God's ordinance, in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, +and serve him, love, honor, and keep him in sickness and in health; and, +forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall +live?" + +With quick, clear voice, Mary answered: + +"I will." + +"Please join your right hands and repeat after me:" + +He fixed Jim with his gaze and spoke with deliberation, clause by +clause: + +"I, James, take thee, Mary, to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from +this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in +sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, +according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth." + +Jim's throat at first was husky with fear, but he caught each clause +with quick precision and repeated them without a hitch. + +He smiled and congratulated himself: "I got ye that time, old cull!" + +The preacher's eyes sought Mary's: + +"I, Mary, take thee, James, to my wedded husband, to have and to hold +from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in +sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death do +us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my +troth." + +In the sweetest musical voice, quivering with happiness, the girl +repeated the words. + +Again the preacher's eyes sought Jim's: + +AND THE MAN SHALL GIVE UNTO THE WOMAN A RING---- + +The groom fumbled in his pocket and found at last the ring, which he +handed to Mary. The minister at once took it from her hand and handed it +back to Jim. + +The bride lifted her left hand, deftly extending the fourth finger, and +the groom slipped the ring on, and held it firmly gripped as he had been +instructed. + +"With this ring I thee wed----" + +"With this ring I thee wed----" Jim repeated firmly. + +"----and with all my worldly goods I thee endow----" + +"----and with all my worldly goods I thee endow----" + +"In the Name of the Father----" + +"In the Name of the Father----" + +"----and of the Son----" + +"----and of the Son----" + +"----and of the Holy Ghost----" + +"----and of the Holy Ghost----" + +"Amen!" + +"Amen!" + +The voice of the preacher's prayer that followed rang far-away and +unreal to the heart of the girl. Her vivid imagination had leaped the +years. Her spirit did not return to earth and time and place until the +minister seized her right hand and joined it to Jim's. + +"Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder! + +"Forasmuch as James Anthony and Mary Adams have consented together in +holy wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, +and thereto have given and pledged their troth, each to the other, and +have declared the same by giving and receiving a Ring, and by joining +hands; I pronounce that they are Man and Wife, In the Name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." + +The preacher lifted his hands solemnly above their heads. + +"God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and +keep you; the Lord mercifully with His favor look upon you, and fill you +with all spiritual benediction and grace; that ye may so live together +in this life, that in the world to come ye may have life everlasting. +AMEN." + +The preacher took Mary's hand. + +"Your father is my friend, child. This is for him----" + +He bent quickly and kissed her lips, while Jim gasped in astonishment. + +The minister's wife congratulated them both. The two older children +smilingly advanced and added their voices in good wishes. + +Mary whispered to Jim: + +"Don't forget the preacher's fee!" + +"Lord, how much? Will fifty be enough? It's all I've got." + +"Give him twenty. We'll need the rest." + +It was not until they were seated in the waiting cab and sank back among +the shadows, that Jim crushed her in his arms and kissed her until she +cried for mercy. + +"The gall of that preacher, kissing you!" he muttered savagely. "You +know, I come within an ace of pasting him one on the nose!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. "UNTIL DEATH" + +The lights burned in the hall with unusual brightness. Ella stood in the +open door of the room, through which the light was streaming. With its +radiance came the perfume of roses--the scrub-woman's gift of love. The +room was a bower of gorgeous flowers. She had spent her last cent in +this extravagance. Mary swept the place with a look of amazement. + +"Oh, Ella," she cried, "how could you be so silly!" + +"You like them, ja?" Ella asked softly. + +"They're glorious--but you should not have made such a sacrifice for +me." + +"For myself, maybe, I do it--all for myself to make me happy, too, +tonight." + +She dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand and placed the chairs +beside the beautifully set table. + +"Dinner is all ready," she announced cheerfully. "And shall I go now and +leave you? Or will you let me serve your dinner first?" + +A sudden panic seized the bride. + +"Stay and serve the dinner, Ella, if you will," she quickly answered. + +Jim frowned, but seated himself in business-like fashion. + +"All right; I'm ready for it, old girl!" + +With soft tread and swift, deft touch, Ella served the dinner, standing +prim and stiff and ghost-like behind Jim's chair between the courses. + +The bride watched her, fascinated by the pallor of her haggard face and +the queer suggestion of Death which her appearance made in spite of the +background of flowers. She had dressed herself in a simple skirt and +shirtwaist of spotless white. The material seemed to be draped on her +tall figure, thin to emaciation. The chalk-like pallor of her face +brought out with startling sharpness the deep, hollow caverns beneath +her straight eyebrows. Her single eye shone unusually bright. + +Gradually the grim impression grew that Death was hovering over her +bridal feast--a foolish fancy which persisted in her highly-wrought +nervous state. Yet the idea, once fixed, could not be crushed. In +vain she used her will to bring her wandering mind back to the joyous +present. Each time she lifted her eyes they rested upon the silent, +white figure with its single eye piercing the depths of her soul. + +She could endure it no longer. She nodded and smiled wanly at Ella. + +"You may go now!" + +The woman gazed at the bride in surprise. + +"I shall come again--yes?" + +"Tomorrow morning, Ella, you may help me." + +The white figure paused uncertainly at the door, and her drawling voice +breathed her parting word tenderly: + +"Good night!" + +The bride closed her eyes and answered. + +"Good night, Ella!" + +The door closed. Jim rose quickly and bolted it. + +"Thank God!" he exclaimed fervently. He fixed his slumbering eyes on his +wife for a moment, saw the frightened look, walked quickly back to the +table and took his seat. + +"Now, Kiddo, we can eat in peace." + +"Yes, I'd rather be alone," she sighed. + +"I must say," Jim went on briskly, "that parson of yours did give us a +run for our money." + +"I like the old, long ceremony best." + +"Well, you see, I ain't never had much choice--but do you know what I +thought was the best thing in it?" + +"No--what?" + +"UNTIL DEATH DO US PART! Gee how he did ring out on that! His voice +sounded to me like a big bell somewhere away up in the clouds. Did you +hear me sing it back at him?" + +Mary smiled nervously. + +"You had found your voice then." + +"You bet I had! I muffed that first one, though, didn't I?" + +"A little. It didn't matter." She answered mechanically. + +He fixed his eyes on her again. + +"Hungry, Kiddo?" + +"No," she gasped. + +"What's the use!" he cried in low, vibrant tones, springing to his feet. +"I don't want to eat this stuff--I just want to eat you!" + +Mary rose tremblingly and moved instinctively to meet him. + +He clasped her form in his arms and crushed with cruel strength. + +"Until death do us part!" he whispered passionately. + +She answered with a kiss. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. THE LOTOS-EATERS + +It was eleven o'clock next morning before Ella ventured to rap softly +on the door. They had just finished breakfast. The bride was clearing up +the table, humming a song of her childhood. + +Jim caught her in his arms. + +"Once more before she comes!" + +"Don't kill me!" she laughed. + +Jim lounged in the window and smoked his cigarette while Ella and Mary +chattered in the kitchenette. + +In half an hour the scrub-woman had made her last trip with the extra +dishes, and the little home was spick and span. + +Mary sprang on the couch and snuggled into Jim's arms. + +"I've changed our plans----" he began thoughtfully. + +"We won't give up our honeymoon trip?" she cried in alarm. "That's one +dream we MUST live, Jim, dear. I've set my heart on it." + +"Sure we will--sure," he answered quickly. "But not in that car." + +"Why?" + +Jim grinned. + +"Because I like you better--you get me, Kiddo?" + +She pressed close and whispered: + +"I think so." + +"You see, that fool car might throw a tire or two. Believe me, it'll +be a job to have her on my hands for a thousand miles. Of course, if I +didn't know you, little girl, it would be all sorts of fun. But, honest +to God, this game beats the world." + +He bent low and kissed her again. + +"Where'll we go, then?" she murmured. + +"That's what I'm tryin' to dope out. I like the sea. It lulls me just +like whisky puts a drunkard to sleep. I wish we could get where it's +bright and warm and the sun shines all the time. We could stay two +weeks and then jump on the train and be in Asheville the day before +Christmas." + +Mary sprang up excitedly. + +"I have it! We'll go to Florida--away down to the Keys. It's the dream +of my life to go there!" + +"The Keys what's that?" he asked, puzzled. + +"The Keys are little sand islands and reefs that jut out into the warm +waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The railroad takes us right there." + +"It's warm and sunny there now?" + +"Just like summer up here. We can go in bathing in the surf every day." + +Jim sprang to his feet. + +"Got a bathing suit?" + +"Yes--a beauty. I've never worn it here." + +"Why?" + +"It seemed so bold." + +"All right. Maybe we can get a Key all by ourselves for two weeks." + +"Wouldn't it be glorious!" + +"We'll try it, anyhow. I'll buy the doggoned thing if they don't ask too +much. Pack your traps. I'll go down to the shop and get my things. We'll +be ready to start in an hour." + +By four o'clock they were seated in the drawing-room of a Pullman car +on the Florida Limited, gazing entranced at the drab landscape of the +Jersey meadows. + +Three days later, Jim had landed his boat on a tiny sand reef a +half-mile off the coast of Florida with a tent and complete outfit for +camping. Like two romping children, they tied the boat to a stake and +rushed over the sand-dunes to the beach. They explored their domain from +end to end within an hour. Not a tree obscured the endless panorama of +sea and bay and waving grass on the great solemn marshes. Piles of soft, +warm seaweed lay in long, dark rows along the high-tide mark. + +Mary selected a sand-dune almost exactly the height and shape of the one +on which they sat at Long Beach the day he told her of his love. + +"Here's the spot for our home!" she cried. "Don't you recognize it?" + +"Can't say I've ever been here before. Oh, I got you--I got you! Long +Beach--sure! What do you think of that?" + +He hurried to the boat and brought the tent. Mary carried the spade, the +pole and pegs. + +In half an hour the little white home was shining on the level sand at +the foot of their favorite dune. The door was set toward the open sea, +and the stove securely placed beneath an awning which shaded it from the +sun's rays. + +"Now, Kiddo, a plunge in that shining water the first thing. I'll give +you the tent. I'll chuck my things out here." + +In a fever of joyous haste she threw off her clothes and donned the +dainty, one-piece bathing suit. She flew over the sand and plunged into +the water before Jim had finished changing to his suit. + +She was swimming and diving like a duck in the lazy, beautiful waters of +the Gulf when he reached the beach. + +"Come on! Come on!" she shouted. + +He waved his hand and finished his cigarette. + +"It's glorious! It's mid-summer!" she called. + +With a quick plunge he dived into the water, disappeared and stayed +until she began to scan the surface uneasily. With a splash he rose by +her side, lifting her screaming in his arms. Her bathing-cap was brushed +off, and he seized her long hair in his mouth, turned and with swift, +strong beat carried her unresisting body to the beach. + +He drew her erect and looked into her smiling face. + +"That's the way I'd save you if you had called for help. How'd you like +it?" + +"It was sweet to give up and feel myself in your power, dear!" + +His drooping eyes were devouring her exquisite figure outlined so +perfectly in the clinging suit. + +"I was afraid to wear this in New York," she said demurely. + +"I can't blame you. If you'd ever have gone on the beach at Coney Island +in that, there'd have been a riot." + +He lifted her in his arms and kissed her. + +"And you're all mine, Kiddo! It's too good to be true! I'm afraid to +wake up mornings now for fear I'll find I've just been dreaming." + +They plunged again in the water, and side by side swam far out from the +shore, circled gracefully and returned. + +Hours they spent snuggling in the warm sand. Not a sound of the world +beyond the bay broke the stillness. The music of the water's soft +sighing came on their ears in sweet, endless cadence. The wind was +gentle and brushed their cheeks with the softest caress. Far out at sea, +white-winged sails were spread--so far away they seemed to stand in one +spot forever. The deep cry of an ocean steamer broke the stillness at +last. + +"We must dress for dinner, Jim!" she sighed. + +"Why, Kiddo?" + +"We must eat, you know." + +"But why dress? I like that style on you. It's too much trouble to +dress." + +"All right!" she cried gayly. "We'll have a little informal dinner this +evening. I love to feel the sand under my feet." + +He gathered the wood from the dry drifts above the waterline and kindled +a fire. The salt-soaked sticks burned fiercely, and the dinner was +cooked in a jiffy--a fresh chicken he had bought, sweet potatoes, and +delicious buttered toast. + +They sat in their bathing suits on camp-stools beside the folding table +and ate by moonlight. + +The dinner finished, Mary cleared the wooden dishes while Jim brought +heaps of the dry, spongy sea grass and made a bed in the tent. He piled +it two feet high, packed it down to a foot, and then spread the sheets +and blankets. + +"All ready for a stroll down the avenue, Kiddo?" he called from the +door. + +"Fifth Avenue or Broadway?" she laughed. + +"Oh, the Great White Way--you couldn't miss it! Just look at the shimmer +of the moon on the sands! Ain't it great?" + +Hand in hand, they strolled on the beach and bathed in the silent flood +of the moonlit night--no prying eyes near save the stars of the friendly +southern skies. + +"The moon seems different down here, Jim!" she whispered. + +"It is different," he answered with boyish enthusiasm. "It's all so +still and white!" + +"Could we stay here forever?" + +He shook his head emphatically. + +"Not on your life. This little boy has to work, you know. Old man John +D. Rockefeller might, but it's early for a young financier to retire." + +"A whole week, then?" + +"Sure! For a week we'll forget New York." + +They sat down on the sand-dune behind the tent and watched the waters +flash in the silvery light, the world and its fevered life forgotten. + +"You're the only thing real tonight, Jim!" she sighed. + +"And you're the world for me, Kiddo!" + +She waked at dawn, with a queer feeling of awe at the weird, gray light +which filtered through the cotton walls. A sense of oneness with Nature +and the beat of Her eternal heart filled her soul. The soft wash of the +water on the sands seemed to be keeping time to the throb of her own +pulse. + +She peered curiously into the face of her sleeping lover. She had never +seen him asleep before. She started at the transformation wrought by +the closing of his heavy eyelids and the complete relaxation of his +features. The strange, steel-blue coloring of his eyes had always given +his face an air of mystery and charm. The complete closing of the +heavy lids and the slight droop of the lower jaw had worked a frightful +change. The romance and charm had gone, and instead she saw only the +coarse, brutal strength. + +She frowned like a spoiled child, put her dainty hand under his chin and +pressed his mouth together. + +"Wake up, sir!" she whispered. "I don't like your expression!" + +He refused to stir, and she drew the tips of her fingers across his ears +and eyelids. + +He rubbed his eyes and muttered: + +"What t'ell?" + +"Let's take a bath in the sea before sunrise--come on!" + +The sleeper groaned heavily, turned over, and in a moment was again dead +to the world. + +Mary's eyes were wide now with excitement. The hours were too marvelous +to be lost in sleep. She could sleep when they must return to the +tiresome world with its endless crowds of people. + +She rose softly, ran barefoot to the beach, threw her night-dress on +the sand and plunged, her white, young body trembling with joy, into the +water. + +It was marvelous--this wonderful hush of the dawn over the infinite sea. +The air and water melted into a pearl gray. Far out toward the east, +the waters began to blush at the kiss of the coming sun. The pearl +gray slowly turned into purple. So startling was the vision, she swam +in-shore and stood knee-deep in the shallows to watch the magic changes. +In breathless wonder she saw the sea and sky and shore turn into a +trembling cloud of dazzling purple. A moment before, she had caught the +water up in her hand and poured it out in a stream of pearls. She lifted +a handful and poured it out now, each drop a dazzling amethyst. And even +while she looked, the purple was changing to scarlet--the amethyst into +rubies! + +A great awe filled her in the solemn hush. She stood in Nature's vast +cathedral, close to God's heart--her life in harmony with His eternal +laws. + +How foolish and artificial were the ways of the far-away, drab, prosaic +world of clothes and houses and furnishings! If she could only live +forever in this dream-world! + +Even while the thought surged through her heart, she lifted her head and +saw the red rim of the sun suddenly break through the sea, and started +lest the white light of day had revealed her to some passing boatman +hurrying to his nets. + +Her keen eye quickly swept the circle of the wide, silent world of +sand-dunes, marsh and waters. No prying eye was near. Only the morning +star still gleaming above saw. And they were twin sisters. + +Four days flew on velvet wings before the first cloud threw its shadow +across her life. Jim always slept until nine o'clock, and refused with +dogged good-natured indifference to stir when she had asked him to get +the wood for breakfast. It was nothing, of course, to walk a hundred +yards to the beach and pick up the wood, and she did it. The hurt that +stung was the feeling that he was growing indifferent. + +She felt for the first time an impulse to box his lazy jaws as he yawned +and turned over for the dozenth time without rising. He looked for all +the world like a bulldog curled up on his bed of grass. + +She shook him at last. + +"Jim, dear, you must get up now! Breakfast is almost ready and it won't +be fit to eat if you don't come on." + +He opened his heavy eyelids and gazed at her sleepily. + +"All righto----! Just as you say--just as you say." + +"Hurry! Breakfast will be ready before you can dress." + +"Gee! Breakfast all ready! You're one smart little wifie, Kiddo." + +The compliment failed to please. She was sure that he had been fully +awake twice before and pretended to be asleep from sheer laziness and +indifference. + +The thought hurt. + +When they sat down at last to breakfast, she looked into his half-closed +eyes with a sudden start. + +"Why, Jim, your eyes are red!" + +"Yes?" + +"What's the matter?" + +"Nothing." + +"You're ill--what is it?" + +He grinned sheepishly. + +"You couldn't guess now, could you?" + +"You haven't been drinking!" she gasped. + +"No," he drawled lazily, "I wouldn't say drinking--I just took one +big swallow last night--makes you sleep good when you're tired. Good +medicine! I always carry a little with me." + +A sickening wave went over her. Not that she felt that he was going +to be a drunkard. But the utter indifference with which he made the +announcement was a painful revelation of the fact that her opinion on +such a question was not of the slightest importance. That he was now +master of the situation he evidently meant that she should see and +understand at once. + +She refused to accept the humiliating position without a struggle and +made up her mind to try at once to mold his character. She would begin +by getting him to cut the slang from his conversation. + +"You remember the promise you made me one day before we were married, +Jim?" she asked brightly. + +"Which one? You know a fellow's not responsible for what he promises to +get his girl. All's fair in love and war, they say----" + +"I'm going to hold you to this one, sir," she firmly declared. + +"All right, little bright eyes," he responded cheerfully as he lit a +cigarette and sent the smoke curling above his red head. + +She sat for a while in silence, studying the man before her. The task +was delicate and difficult. And she had thought it a mere pastime of +love! As her fiance, he had been wax in her hands. As her husband, he +was a lazy, headstrong, obstinate young animal grinning good-naturedly +at her futile protests. How long would he grin and bear her suggestions +with patience? The transition from this lazy grin to the growl of an +angry bulldog might be instantaneous. + +She would move with the utmost caution--but she would move and at once. +It would be a test of character between them. She edged her chair close +to his, drew his head down in her lap and ran her fingers through his +thick, red hair. + +"Still love me, Jim?" she smiled. + +"Crazier over you every day--and you know it, too, you sly little puss," +he answered dreamily. + +"You WILL make good your promises?" + +"Sure, I will--surest thing you know!" + +"You see, Jim dear," she went on tenderly, "I want to be proud of +you----" + +"Well, ain't you?" + +"Of course I am, silly. I know you and understand you. But I want all +the world to respect you as I do." She paused and breathed deeply. +"They've got to do it, too, they've got to----" + +"Sure, I'll knock their block off--if they don't!" he broke in. + +She raised her finger reprovingly and shook her head. + +"That's just the trouble: you can't do it with your fists. You can't +compel the respect of cultured men and women by physical force. We've +got to win with other weapons." + +"All right, Kiddo--dope it out for me," he responded lazily. "Dope it +out----" + +Her lips quivered with the painful recognition of the task before her. +Yet when she spoke, her voice was low and sweet and its tones even. She +gave no sign to the man whose heavy form rested in her arms. + +"Then from today we must begin to cut out every word of slang--it's a +bargain?" + +"Sure, Mike--I promised!" + +"Cut `Sure Mike!'" + +She raised her finger severely. + +"All right, teacher," he drawled. "What'll we put in Sure Mike's place? +I've found him a handy man!" + +"Say `certainly.'" + +Jim grinned good-naturedly. + +"Aw hell, Kiddo--that sounds punk!" + +"And HELL, Jim, isn't a nice word----" + +"Gee, Kid, now look here--can't get along with out HELL--leave me that +one just a little while." + +She shook her head. + +"No." + +"No?" + +"And PUNK is expressive, but not suited to parlor use." + +"All right--t'ell with PUNK!" He turned and looked. "What's the matter +now?" he asked. + +"Don't you realize what you've just said?" + +"What did I say?" + +She turned away to hide a tear. + +He threw his arms around her neck and drew her lips down to his. + +"Ah, don't worry, Kiddo--I'll do better next time. Honest to God, I +will. That's enough for today. Just let's love now. T'ell with the +rest." + +She smiled in answer. + +"You promise to try honestly?" + +He raised his hand in solemn vow. + +"S'help me!" + +Each day's trial ended in a laugh and a kiss until at last Jim refused +to promise any more. He grinned in obstinate, good-natured silence and +let her do the worrying. + +She watched him with growing wonder and alarm. He gradually lapsed into +little coarse, ugly habits at the table. She tried playfully to +correct them. He took it good-naturedly at first and then ignored her +suggestions as if she were a kitten complaining at his feet. + +She studied him with baffling rage at the mystery of his personality. +The long silences between them grew from hour to hour. She could see +that he was restless now at the isolation of their sand-island home. The +queer lights and shadows that played in his cold blue eyes told only +too plainly that his mind was back again in the world of battle. He was +fighting something, too. + +She was glad of it. She could manage him better there. She would +throw him into the company of educated people and rouse his pride and +ambition. She heard his announcement of their departure on the eighth +day with positive joy. + +"Well, Kiddo," he began briskly, "we've got to be moving. Time to get +back to work now. The old town and the little shop down in Avenue B have +been calling me." + +"Today, Jim?" she asked quickly. + +"Right away. We'll catch the first train north, stop two days, Christmas +Eve and Christmas, in Asheville, and then for old New York!" + +The journey along the new railroad built on concrete bridges over miles +of beautiful waters was one of unalloyed joy. They had passed over this +stretch of marvelous engineering at night on their trip down and had not +realized its wonders. For hours the train seemed to be flying on velvet +wings through the ocean. + +She sat beside her lover and held his hand. In spite of her enthusiasm, +he would doze. At every turn of entrancing view she would pinch his arm: + +"Look, Jim! Look!" + +He would lift his heavy eyelids, grunt good-naturedly and doze again. + +In the dining-car she was in mortal terror at first lest he should lapse +into the coarse table manners into which he had fallen in camp. She laid +his napkin conspicuously on his plate and saw that he had opened and put +it in place across his lap before ordering the meals. + +The moment he found himself in a crowd, the lights began to flash in his +eyes, his broad shoulders lifted and his whole being was at once alert +and on guard. He followed his wife's lead with unerring certainty. + +She renewed her faith in his early reformation, though his character +was a puzzle. He seemed to be forever watching out of the corners of his +slumbering eyes. She wondered what it meant. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. THE REAL MAN + +They arrived in Asheville the night before Christmas Eve. Jim listened +to his wife's prattle about the wonderful views with quiet indifference. + +They stopped at the Battery Park Hotel, and she hoped the waning moon +would give them at least a glimpse of the beautiful valley of the French +Broad and Swannanoa rivers and the dark, towering ranges of mountains +among the stars. She made Jim wait on the balcony of the room for half +an hour, but the clouds grew denser and he persisted in nodding. + +His head dipped lower than usual, and she laughed. + +"Poor old sleepy-head!" + +"For the love o' Mike, Kiddo--me for the hay. Won't them mountains wait +till morning?" + +"All right!" she answered cheerily. "I'll pull you out at sunrise. The +sunrise from our window will be glorious." + +He rose and stretched his body like a young, well fed tiger. + +"I think it's prettier from the bed. But have it your own way--have it +your own way. I'll agree to anything if you lemme go to sleep now." + +She rose as the first gray fires of dawn began to warm the cloud-banks +on the eastern horizon, stood beside her window and watched in silent +ecstasy. Jim was sleeping heavily. She would not wake him until the +glory of the sunrise was at its height. She loved to watch the changing +lights and shadows in sky and valley and on distant mountain peaks as +the light slowly filtered over the eastern hills. + +She had recovered from the depression of the last days of their camp. +The journey back into the world had improved Jim's manners. There could +be no doubt about his ambitions. His determination to be a millionaire +was the lever she now meant to work in raising his social aspirations. + +Why should she feel depressed? + +Their married life had just begun. The two weeks they had passed on +their honeymoon had been happy beyond her dreams of happiness. Somehow +her imagination had failed to give any conception of the wonder and +glory of this revelation of life. His little lapses of selfishness on +their sand island no doubt came from ignorance of what was expected of +him. + +For one thing she felt especially thankful. There had been no ugly +confessions of a shady past to cloud the joy of their love. Her lover +might be ignorant of the ways of polite society. He was equally free of +its sinister vices. She thanked God for that. The soul of the man she +had married was clean of all memories of women. The love he gave was +fierce in its unrestrained passion--but it was all hers. She gloried in +its strength. + +She made up her mind, standing there in the soft light of the dawn, that +she would bend his iron will to her own in the growing, sweet intimacy +of their married life and threw her fears to the winds. + +The thin, fleecy clouds that hung over the low range of the eastern +foreground were all aglow now, with every tint of the rainbow, while the +sun's bed beyond the hills was flaming in scarlet and gold. + +She clapped her hands in ecstasy. + +"Jim! Jim, dear!" + +He made no response, and she rushed to his side and whispered: + +"You must see this sunrise--get up quick, quick, dear. It's wonderful." + +"What's the matter?" he muttered. + +"The sunrise over the mountains--quick--it's glorious." + +His heavy eyelids drooped and closed. He dropped on the pillow and +buried his face out of sight. + +"Ah, Jim dear, do come--just to please me." + +"I'm dead, Kiddo--dead to the world," he sighed. "Don't like to see the +sun rise. I never did. Come on back and let's sleep----" + +His last words were barely audible. He was breathing heavily as his lips +ceased to move. + +She gave it up, returned to the window and watched the changing colors +until the white light from the sun's face had touched with life the +last shadows of the valleys and flashed its signals from the farthest +towering peaks. + +Her whole being quivered in response to the beauty of this glorious +mountain world. The air was wine. She loved the sapphire skies and the +warm, lazy, caressing touch of the sun of the South. + +A sense of bitterness came, just for a moment, that the man she had +chosen for her mate had no eye to see these wonders and no ear to hear +their music. During the madness of his whirlwind courtship she had +gotten the impression that his spirit was sensitive to beauty--to the +waters of the bay, the sea and the wooded hills. She must face the +facts. Their stay on the island had convinced her that he had eyes only +for her. She must make the most of it. + +It was ten o'clock before Jim could be persuaded to rise and get +breakfast. She literally pulled him up the stairs to the observatory on +the tower of the hotel. + +"What's the game, Kiddo? What's the game?" he grumbled. + +"Ask me no questions. But do just as I tell you; come on!" + +Her face was radiant, her hair in a tangle of riotous beauty about her +forehead and temples, her eyes sparkling. + +"Don't look till I tell you!" she cried, as they emerged on the little +minaret which crowns the tower. + +"Now open and see the glory of the Lord!" she cried with joyous awe. + +The day was one of matchless beauty. The clouds that swung low in +the early morning had floated higher and higher till they hung now in +shining billows above the highest balsam-crowned peaks in the distance. + +In every direction, as far as the eye could reach, north, south, east, +west, the dark ranges mounted in the azure skies until the farthest dim +lines melted into the heavens. + +"Oh, Jim dear, isn't it wonderful! We're lucky to get this view on our +first day. It's such a good omen." + +Jim opened his eyes lazily and puffed his cigarette in a calm, +patronizing way. + +"Tough sledding we'd have had with an automobile over those hills," he +said. "We'll try it after lunch, though." + +"We'll go for a ride?" she cried joyfully. + +"Yep. Got to hunt up the folks. The mountains near Asheville!" he said +with disgust. "I should say they are near--and far, too. Holy smoke, +I'll bet we get lost!" + +"Nonsense----" + +"Where's the Black Mountains, I wonder?" he asked suddenly. + +"Over there!" She pointed to the giant peaks projecting here and there +in dim, blue waves beyond the Great Craggy Range in the foreground. + +"Holy Moses! Do we have to climb those crags before we start?" + +"To go to Black Mountain?" + +"Yes. That's where the lawyer said they lived, under Cat-tail Peak in +the Black Mountain Range--wherever t'ell that is." + +"No, no! You don't climb the Great Craggy; you go around this end of it +and follow the Swannanoa River right up to the foot of Mount Mitchell, +the highest peak this side of the Rockies. The Cat-tail is just beyond +Mount Mitchell." + +"You've been there?" he asked in surprise. + +"Once, with a party from Asheville. We spent three days and slept in +caves." + +"Suppose you'd know the way now?" + +"We couldn't miss it. We follow the bed of the Swannanoa to its +source-----" + +"Then that settles it. We'll go by ourselves. I don't want any mutt +along to show us the way. We couldn't get lost nohow, could we?" + +"Of course not--all the roads lead to Asheville. We can ask the way to +the house you want, when we reach the little stopping place at the foot +of Mount Mitchell." + +"Gee, Kid, you're a wonder!" he exclaimed admiringly. "Couldn't get +along without you, now could I?" + +"I hope not, sir!" + +"You bet I couldn't! We'll start right away. The roads will give us a +jolt----" + +He turned suddenly to go. + +"Wait--wait a minute, dear," she pleaded. "You haven't seen this +gorgeous view to the southwest, with Mount Pisgah looming in the center +like some vast cathedral spire--look, isn't it glorious?" + +"Fine! Fine!" he responded in quick, businesslike tones. + +"You can look for days and weeks and not begin to realize the changing +beauty of these mountains, clothed in eternal green! Just think, dear, +Mount Pisgah, there, is forty miles away, and it looks as if you +could stroll over to it in an hour's walk. And there are twenty-three +magnificent peaks like that, all of them more than six thousand feet +high----" + +She paused with a frown. He was neither looking nor listening. He had +fallen into a brown study; his mind was miles away. + +"You're not listening, Jim--nor seeing anything," she said +reproachfully. + +"No--Kiddo, we must get ready for that trip. I've got a letter for a +lawyer downtown. I'll find him and hire a car. I'll be back here for you +in an hour. You'll be ready?" + +"Right away, in half an hour----" + +"Just pack a suit-case for us both. We'll stay one night. I'll take a +bag, too, that I have in my trunk." + +It was noon before he returned with a staunch touring car ready for the +trip. He opened the little steamer trunk which he had always kept locked +and took from it a small leather bag. He placed it on the floor, and, in +spite of careful handling, the ring of metal inside could be distinctly +heard. + +"What on earth have you got in that queer black bag?" she asked in +surprise. + +"Oh, just a lot o' junk from the shop. I thought I might tinker with +it at odd times. I don't want to leave it here. It's got one of my new +models in it." + +He carried the bag in his hand, refusing to allow the porter who came +for the suit-case to touch it. + +He threw the suit-case in the bottom of the tonneau. The bag he stowed +carefully under the cushions of the rear seat. The moment he placed his +hand on the wheel of the machine, he was at his best. Every trace of the +street gamin fell from him. Again he was the eagle-eyed master of +time and space. The machine answered his touch with more than human +obedience. He knew how to humor its mood. He conserved its power for a +hill with unerring accuracy and threw it over the grades with rarely +a pause to change his speeds. He could turn the sharp curves with such +swift, easy grace that he scarcely caused Mary's body to swerve an inch. +He could sense a rough place in the road and glide over it with velvet +touch. + +A tire blew out, five miles up the stream from Asheville, and the easy, +business-like deliberation with which he removed the old and adjusted +the new, was a revelation to Mary of a new phase of his character. + +He never once grunted, or swore, or lost his poise, or manifested +the slightest impatience. He set about his task coolly, carefully, +skillfully, and finished it quickly and silently. + +His long silences at last began to worry her. An invisible barrier had +reared itself between them. The impression was purely mental--but it was +none the less real and distressing. + +There was a look of aloof absorption about him she had never seen +before. At first she attributed it to the dread of meeting his kinsfolk +for the first time, his fear of what they might be like or what they +might think of him. + +He answered her questions cheerfully but mechanically. Sometimes he +stared at her in a cold, impersonal way and gave no answer, as if her +questions were an impertinence and she were not of sufficient importance +to waste his breath on. + +Unable at last to endure the strain, she burst out impatiently: + +"What on earth's the matter with you, Jim?" + +"Why?" he asked softly. + +"You haven't spoken to me in half an hour, and I've asked you two +questions." + +"Just studying about something, Kiddo, something big. I'll tell you +sometime, maybe--not now." + +Slowly a great fear began to shape itself in her heart. The real man +behind those slumbering eyes she had never known. Who was he? + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. UNWELCOME GUESTS + +While she was yet puzzling over the strange mood of absorbed brooding +into which Jim had fallen, his face suddenly lighted, and he changed +with such rapidity that her uneasiness was doubled. + +They had reached the stretches of deep forest at the foot of the Black +Mountain ranges. The Swannanoa had become a silver thread of laughing, +foaming spray and deep, still pools beneath the rocks. The fields were +few and small. The little clearings made scarcely an impression in the +towering virgin forests. + +"Great guns, Kiddo!" he exclaimed, "this is some country! By George, I +had no idea there was such a place so close to New York!" + +She looked at him with uneasy surprise. What could be in his mind? The +solemn gorge through which they were passing gave no entrancing views +of clouds or sky or towering peaks. Its wooded cliffs hung ominously +overhead in threatening shadows. The scene had depressed her after the +vast sunlit spaces of sky, of shining valleys and cloud-capped, sapphire +peaks on which they had turned their backs. + +"You like this, Jim?" she asked. + +"It's great--great!" + +"I thought that waterfall we just passed was very beautiful." + +"I didn't see it. But this is something like it. You're clean out of the +world here--and there ain't a railroad in twenty miles!" + +The deeper the shadows of tree and threatening crag, the higher Jim's +strange spirit seemed to rise. + +She watched him with increasing fear. How little she knew the real man! +Could it be possible that this lonely, unlettered boy of the streets +of lower New York, starved and stunted in childhood, had within him the +soul of a great poet? How else could she explain the sudden rapture over +the threatening silences and shadows of these mountain gorges which +had depressed her? And yet his utter indifference to the glories of +beautiful waters, his blindness at noon before the most wonderful +panorama of mountains and skies on which she had ever gazed, +contradicted the theory of the poetic soul. A poet must see beauty where +she had seen it--and a thousand wonders her eyes had not found. + +His elation was uncanny. What could it mean? + +He was driving now with a skill that was remarkable, a curious +smile playing about his drooping, Oriental eyelids. A wave of fierce +resentment swept her heart. She was a mere plaything in this man's life. +The real man she had never seen. What was he thinking about? What grim +secret lay behind the mysterious smile that flickered about the corners +of those eyes? He was not thinking of her. The mood was new and cold and +cynical, for all the laughter he might put in it. + +She asked herself the question of his past, his people, his real +life-history. The only answer was his baffling, mysterious smile. + +A frown suddenly clouded his face. + +"Hello! Ye're running right into a man's yard!" + +Mary lifted her head with quick surprise. + +"Why yes, it's the stopping place for the parties that climb Mount +Mitchell. I remember it. We stayed all night here, left our rig, and +started next morning at sunrise on horseback to climb the trail." + +"Pretty near the jumping-off place, then," he remarked. "We'll ask the +way to Cat-tail Peak." + +He stopped the car in front of the low-pitched, weather-stained frame +house and blew the horn. + +A mountain woman with three open-eyed, silent children came slowly to +meet them. + +She smiled pleasantly, and without embarrassment spoke in a pleasant +drawl: + +"Won't you 'light and look at your saddle?" + +The expression caught Jim's fancy, and he broke into a roar of laughter. +The woman blushed and laughed with him. She couldn't understand what was +the matter with the man. Why should he explode over the simple greeting +in which she had expressed her pleasure at their arrival? + +Anyhow, she was an innkeeper's wife, and her business was to make folks +feel at home--so she laughed again with Jim. + +"You know that's the funniest invitation I ever got in a car," he cried +at last. "We fly in these things sometimes. And when you said, `Won't +you 'light,'"--he paused and turned to his wife--"I could just feel +myself up in the air on that big old racer's back." + +"Won't you-all stay all night with us?" the soft voice drawled again. + +"Thank you, not tonight," Mary answered. + +She waited for Jim to ask the way. + +"No--not tonight," he repeated. "You happen to know an old woman by the +name of Owens who lives up here?" + +"Nance Owens?" + +"That's her name." + +"Lord, everybody knows old Nance!" was the smiling answer. + +"She ain't got good sense!" the tow-headed boy spoke up. + +"Sh!" the mother warned, boxing his ears. + +"She's a little queer, that's all. Everybody knows her in Buncombe and +Yancey counties. Her house is built across the county line. She eats in +Yancey and sleeps in Buncombe----" + +"Yes," broke in the boy joyously, "an' when the Sheriff o' Yancey comes, +she moves back into Buncombe. She's some punkin's on a green gourd vine, +she is--if she ain't got good sense." + +His mother struck at him again, but he dodged the blow and finished his +speech without losing a word. + +"Could you tell us the way to her house?" + +"Keep right on this road, and you can't miss it." + +"How far is it?" + +"Oh, not far." + +"No; right at the bottom o' the Cat's-tail," the boy joyfully explained. + +"He means the foot o' Cat-tail Peak!" the mother apologized. + +"How many miles?" + +"Just a little ways--ye can't miss it; the third house you come to on +this road." + +"You'll be there in three shakes of a sheep's tail--in that thing!" the +boy declared. + +Jim waved his thanks, threw in his gear, and the car shot forward on +the level stretch of road beyond the house. He slowed down when out of +sight. + +"Gee! I'd love to have that kid in a wood-shed with a nice shingle all +by ourselves for just ten minutes." + +"The people spoil him," Mary laughed. "The people who stop there for the +Mount Mitchell climb. He was a baby when I was there six years ago"--she +paused and a rapt look crept into her eyes--"a beautiful little baby, +her first-born, and she was the happiest thing I ever saw in my life." + +Her voice sank to a whisper. + +A vision suddenly illumined her own soul, and she forgot her anxiety +over Jim's queer moods. + +Deeper and deeper grew the shadows of crag, gorge, and primeval forest. +The speedometer on the foot-board registered five miles from the Mount +Mitchell house. They had passed two cabins by the way, and still no sign +of the third. + +"Why couldn't she tell us how many miles, I'd like to know?" Jim +grumbled. + +"It's the way of the mountain folk. They're noncommittal on distances." + +He stopped the car and lighted the lamps. + +"Going to be dark in a minute," he said. "But I like this place," he +added. + +He picked his way with care over the narrow road. They crossed the +little stream they were trailing, and the car crawled over the rocks +along the banks at a snail's pace. + +An owl called from a dead tree-top silhouetted against an open space of +sky ahead. + +"Must be a clearing there," Jim muttered. + +He stopped the car and listened for the sounds of life about a house. + +A vast, brooding silence filled the world. A wolf howled from the edge +of a distant crag somewhere overhead. + +"For God's sake!" Jim shivered. "What was that?" + +"Only a mountain wolf crying for company." + +"Wolves up here?" he asked in surprise. + +"A few--harmless, timid, lonesome fellows. It makes me sorry for them +when I hear one." + +"Great country! I like it!" Jim responded. + +Again she wondered why. What a queer mixture of strength and +mystery--this man she had married! + +He started the car, turned a bend in the road, and squarely in +front, not more than a hundred yards away, gleamed a light in a cabin +window--four tiny panes of glass. + +"By Geeminy, we come near stopping in the front yard without knowing +it!" he exclaimed. "Didn't we?" + +"I'm glad she's at home!" Mary exclaimed. "The light shines with a +friendly glow in these deep shadows." + +"Afraid, Kiddo?" he asked lightly. + +"I don't like these dark places." + +"All right when you get used to 'em--safer than daylight." + +Again her heart beat at his queer speech. She shivered at the thought of +this uncanny trait of character so suddenly developed today. She made +an effort to throw off her depression. It would vanish with the sun +tomorrow morning. + +He picked his way carefully among the trees and stopped in front of the +cabin door. The little house sat back from the road a hundred feet or +more. + +He blew his horn twice and waited. + +A sudden crash inside, and the light went out. He waited a moment for it +to come back. + +Only darkness and dead silence. + +"Suppose she dropped dead and kicked over the lamp?" Jim laughed. + +"She probably took the lamp into another room." + +"No; it went out too quick--and it went out with a crash." + +He blew his horn again. + +Still no answer. + +"Hello! Hello!" he called loudly. + +Someone stirred at the door. Jim's keen ear was turned toward the house. + +"I heard her bar the door, I'll swear it." + +"How foolish, Jim!" Mary whispered. "You couldn't have heard it." + +"All the same I did. Here's a pretty kettle of fish! The old hellion's +not even going to let us in." + +He seized the lever of his horn and blew one terrific blast after +another, in weird, uncanny sobs and wails, ending in a shriek like the +last cry of a lost soul. + +"Don't, Jim!" Mary cried, shivering. "You'll frighten her to death." + +"I hope so." + +"Go up and speak to her--and knock on the door." + +He waited again in silence, scrambled out of the car, and fumbled his +way through the shadows to the dark outlines of the cabin. He found the +porch on which the front door opened. + +His light foot touched the log with sure step, and he walked softly to +the cabin wall. The door was not yet visible in the pitch darkness. His +auto lights were turned the other way and threw their concentrated rays +far down into the deep woods. + +He listened intently for a moment and caught the cat-like tread of the +old woman inside. + +"I say--hello, in there!" he called. + +Again the sound of her quick, furtive step told him that she was on the +alert and determined to defend her castle against all comers. What if +she should slip an old rifle through a crack and blow his head off? + +She might do it, too! + +He must make her open the door. + +"Say, what's the matter in there?" he asked persuasively. + +A moment's silence, and then a gruff voice slowly answered: + +"They ain't nobody at home!" + +"The hell they ain't!" Jim laughed. + +"No!" + +"Who are you?" + +She hesitated and then growled back: + +"None o' your business. Who are you?" + +"We're strangers up here--lost our way. It's cold--we got to stop for +the night." + +"Ye can't--they's nobody home, I tell ye!" she repeated with sullen +emphasis. + +Jim broke into a genial laugh. + +"Ah! Come on, old girl! Open up and be sociable. We're not revenue +officers or sheriffs. If you've got any good mountain whiskey, I'll help +you drink it." + +"Who are ye?" she repeated savagely. + +"Ah, just a couple o' gentle, cooing turtle-doves--a bride and groom. +Loosen up, old girl; it's Christmas Eve--and we're just a couple o' +gentle cooin' doves----" + +Jim kept up his persuasive eloquence until the light of the candle +flashed through the window, and he heard her slip the heavy bar from the +door. + +He lost no time in pushing his way inside. + +Nance threw a startled look at his enormous, shaggy fur coat--at the +shining aluminum goggles almost completely masking his face. She gave +a low, breathless scream, hurled the door-bar crashing to the floor +and stared at him like a wild, hunted animal at bay, her thin hands +trembling, the iron-gray hair tumbling over her forehead. + +"Oh, my God!" she wailed, crouching back. + +Jim gazed at her in amazement. He had forgotten his goggles and fur +coat. + +"What's the matter?" he asked in high-keyed tones of surprise. + +Nance made no answer but crouched lower and attempted to put the table +between them. + +"What t'ell Bill ails you--will you tell me?" he asked with rising +wrath. + +"I THOUGHT you wuz the devil," the old woman panted. "Now I KNOW it!" + +Jim suddenly remembered his goggles and coat, and broke into a laugh. + +"Oh!" + +He removed his goggles and cap, threw back his big coat and squared his +shoulders with a smile. + +"How's that?" + +Nance glowered at him with ill-concealed rage, looked him over from head +to foot, and answered with a snarl: + +"'Tain't much better--ef ye ax ME!" + +"Gee! But you're a sociable old wild-cat!" he exclaimed, starting back +as if she had struck him a blow. + +His eye caught the dried skin of a young wildcat hanging on the log +wall. + +"No wonder you skinned your neighbor and hung her up to dry," he added +moodily. + +He took in the room with deliberate insolence while the old woman stood +awkwardly watching him, shifting her position uneasily from one foot to +the other. + +In all his miserable life in New York he could not recall a room more +bare of comforts. The rough logs were chinked with pieces of wood and +daubed with red clay. The door was made of rough boards, the ceiling +of hewn logs with split slabs laid across them. An old-fashioned, tall +spinning wheel, dirty and unused, sat in the corner. A rough pine table +was in the middle of the floor and a smaller one against the wall. +On this side table sat two rusty flat-irons, and against it leaned an +ironing board. A dirty piece of turkey-red calico hung on a string for +a portiere at the opening which evidently led into a sort of kitchen +somewhere in the darkness beyond. + +The walls were decorated at intervals. A huge bunch of onions hung on +a wooden peg beside the wild-cat skin. Over the window was slung an +old-fashioned muzzle-loading musket. The sling which held it was made of +a pair of ancient home-made suspenders fastened to the logs with nails. +Beneath the gun hung a cow's horn, cut and finished for powder, and with +it a dirty game-bag. Strings of red peppers were strung along each of +the walls, with here and there bunches of popcorn in the ears. A pile of +black walnuts lay in one corner of the cabin and a pile of hickory nuts +in another. + +A three-legged wooden stool and a split-bottom chair stood beside the +table, and a haircloth couch, which looked as if it had been saved from +the Ark, was pushed near the wall beside the door. + +Across this couch was thrown a ragged patchwork quilt, and a pillow +covered with calico rested on one end, with the mark of a head dented +deep in the center. + +Jim shrugged his shoulders with a look of disgust, stepped quickly to +the door and called: + +"Come on in, Kid!" + +Nance fumbled her thin hands nervously and spoke with the faintest +suggestion of a sob in her voice. + +"I ain't got nothin' for ye to eat----" + +"We've had dinner," he answered carelessly. + +He stepped to the door and called: + +"Bring that little bag from under the seat, Kiddo." + +He held the door open, and the light streamed across the yard to the +car. He watched her steadily while she raised the cushion of the rear +seat, lifted the bag and sprang from the car. His keen eye never left +her for an instant until she placed it in his hands. + +"Mercy, but it's heavy!" she panted, as she gave it to him. + +He took it without a word and placed it on the table in the center of +the room. + +Nance glared at him sullenly. + +"There's no place for ye, I tell ye----" + +Jim faced her with mock politeness. + +"For them kind words--thanks!" + +He bowed low and swept the room with a mocking gesture. + +"There ain't no room for ye," the old woman persisted. + +Jim raised his voice to a squeaking falsetto with deliberate purpose to +torment her. + +"I got ye the first time, darlin'!" he exclaimed, lifting his hands +above her as if to hold her down. "We must linger awhile for your +name--anyhow, we mustn't forget that. This is Mrs. Nance Owens?" + +The old woman started and watched him from beneath her heavy eyebrows, +answering with sullen emphasis: + +"Yes." + +Again Jim lifted his hands above his head and waved her to earth. + +"Well! Don't blame me! I can't help it, you know----" + +He turned to his wife and spoke with jolly good humor. + +"It's the place, all right. Set down, Kiddo--take off your hat and +things. Make yourself at home." + +Nance flew at him in a sudden frenzy at his assumption of insolent +ownership of her cabin. + +"There's no place for ye to sleep!" she fairly shrieked in his face. + +Again Jim's arms were over her head, waving her down. + +"All right, sweetheart! We're from New York. We don't sleep. We've come +all the way down here to the mountains of North Carolina just to see +you. And we're goin' to sit up all night and look at ye----" + +He sat down deliberately, and Nance fumbled her hands with a nervous +movement. + +Mary's heart went out in sympathy to the forlorn old creature in her +embarrassment. Her dress was dirty and ragged, an ill-fitting gingham, +the elbows out and her bare, bony arms showing through. The waist was +too short and always slipping from the belt of wrinkled cloth beneath +which she kept trying to stuff it. + +Mary caught her restless eye at last and held it in a friendly look. + +"Please let us stay!" she pleaded. "We can sleep on the +floor--anywhere." + +"You bet!" Jim joined in. "Married two weeks--and I don't care whether +it rains or whether it pours or how long I have to stand outdoors--if I +can be with you, Kid." + +The old woman hesitated until Mary's smile melted its way into her +heart. + +Her lips trembled, and her watery blue eyes blinked. + +"Well," she began grumblingly, "thar's a little single bed in that +shed-room thar for you--ef he'll sleep in here on the sofy." + +Jim leaped to his feet. + +"What do ye think of that? Bully for the old gal! Kinder slow at first. +As the poet sings of the little bed-bug, she ain't got no wings--but she +gets there just the same!" + +He drew the electric torch from his pocket and advanced on Nance. + +"By Golly--I'll have another look at you." + +Nance backed in terror at the sight of the revolver-like instrument. + +"What's that?" she gasped. + +"Just a little Gatlin' gun!" he cried jokingly. He pressed the button, +and the light flashed squarely in the old woman's eyes. + +"God 'lmighty--don't shoot!" she screamed. + +Jim doubled with laughter. + +"For the love o' Mike!" + +Nance leaned against the side table and wiped the perspiration from her +brow. + +"Lord! I thought you'd kilt me!" she panted, still trembling. + +"Ah, don't be foolish!" Jim said persuasively. "It can't hurt you. Here, +take it in your hand--I'll show you how to work it. It's to nose round +dark places under the buzz-wagon." + +He held it out to Nance. + +"Here, take it and press the button." + +The old woman drew back. + +"No--no--I'm skeered! No----" + +Jim thrust the torch into her hand and forced her to hold it. + +"Oh, come on, it's easy. Push your finger right down on the button." + +Nance tried it gingerly at first, and then laughed at the ease with +which it could be done. She flashed it on the floor again and again. + +"Why, it's like a big lightnin' bug, ain't it?" + +She turned the end of it up to examine more closely, pushed the button +unconsciously, and the light flashed in her eyes. She jumped and handed +it quickly to Jim. + +"Or a jack o' lantern--here, take it," she cried, still trembling. + +Jim threw his hands up with a laugh. + +"Can you beat it!" + +Backing quickly to the door, Nance called nervously to Mary: + +"I'll get your room ready in a minute, ma'am." She paused and glanced at +Jim. + +"And thar's a shed out thar you can put your devil wagon in----" + +She slipped through the dirty calico curtains, and Mary saw her go with +wondering pity in her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. A LITTLE BLACK BAG + +Mary watched Nance, with a quick glance at Jim. Again he had forgotten +that he had a wife. She had studied this strange absorption with +increasing uneasiness. During the long, beautiful drive of the afternoon +beside laughing waters, through scenes of unparalleled splendor, through +valleys of entrancing peace, the still, sapphire skies bending above +with clear, Southern Christmas benediction, he had not once pressed her +hand, he had not once bent to kiss her. + +Each time the thought had come, she fought back the tears. She had +made excuses for him. He was absorbed in the memories of his miserable +childhood in New York, perhaps. The approaching meeting with his +relatives had awakened the old hunger for a mother's love that had +been denied him. The scenes through which they were passing had perhaps +stirred the currents of his subconscious being. + +And yet why should such memories estrange his spirit from hers? The +effect should be the opposite. In the remembrance of his loneliness and +suffering, he should instinctively turn to her. The love with which she +had unfolded his life should redeem the past. + +He was standing now with his heavy chin silhouetted against the +flickering light of the candle on the table. His hand closed suddenly +on the handle of the bag with the swift clutch of an eagle's claw. She +started at the ugly picture it made in the dim rays of the candle. + +What were the thoughts seething behind the mask of his face? She watched +him, spellbound by his complete surrender to the mood that had dominated +him from the moment he had touched the deep forests of the Black +Mountain range. A grim elation ruled even his silences. The man standing +there rigid, his face a smiling, twitching mask, was a stranger. This +man she had never known, or loved. And yet they were bound for life in +the tenderest and strongest ties that can hold the human soul and body. + +She tossed her head and threw off the ugly thought. It was morbid +nonsense! She was just hungry for a kiss, and in his new environment he +had forgotten himself as many thoughtless men had forgotten before and +would forget again. + +"Jim!" she whispered tenderly. + +He made no answer. His thick lips were drawn in deep, twisted lines +on one side, as if he had suddenly reached a decision from which there +could be no appeal. + +She raised her voice slightly. + +"Jim?" + +Not a muscle of his body moved. The drawn lines of the mouth merely +relaxed. His answer was scarcely audible. + +"Yep----" + +"She's gone!" + +"Yep----" + +She moved toward him wistfully. + +"Aren't you forgetting something?" + +His square jaw still held its rigid position silhouetted in sharp +profile against the candle's light. He answered slowly and mechanically. + +"What?" + +His indifference was more than the sore heart could bear. The pent-up +tears of the afternoon dashed in flood against the barriers of her will. + +"You--haven't--kissed--me--today," she stammered, struggling with each +word to save a break. + +Still he stood immovable. This time his answer was tinged with the +slightest suggestion of amusement. + +"No?" + +She staggered against the table beside the door and gripped its edge +desperately. + +"Oh--" she gasped. "Don't you love me any more?" + +With his sullen head still holding its position of indifference, his +absorption in the idea which dominated his mind still unbroken, he threw +out one hand in a gesture of irritation. + +"Cut it, Kid! Cut it!" + +His tones were not only indifferent; they were contemptuously +indifferent. + +With a sob, she sank into the chair and buried her face in her arms. + +"You're tired! I see it now; you've tired of me. Oh--it's not +possible--it's not possible!" + +The torrent came at last in a flood of utter abandonment. + +Jim turned, looked at her and threw up his hands in temporary surrender. + +"Oh, for God's sake!" he muttered, crossing deliberately to her side. He +stood and let her sob. + +With a quick change of mood, he drew her to her feet, swept her swaying +form into his arms, crushed her and covered her lips with kisses. + +"How's that?" + +She smiled through her tears. + +"I feel better----" + +Jim laughed. + +"For better or worse--`until Death do us part'--that's what you said, +Kid, and you meant it, too, didn't you?" + +He seized both of her arms, held them firmly and gazed into her eyes +with steady, stern inquiry. + +She looked up with uneasy surprise. + +"Of course--I meant it," she answered slowly. + +He held her arms gripped close and said: + +"Well--we'll see!" + +His hands relaxed, and he turned away, rubbing his square chin +thoughtfully. + +She watched him in growing amazement. What could be the mystery back of +this new twist of his elusive mind? + +He laid his hand on the black bag again, smiled, and turned and faced +her with expanding good humor. + +"Great scheme, this marryin', Kid! And you believe in it exactly as I +do, don't you?" + +"How do you mean?" she faltered. + +"That it binds and holds both our lives as only Almighty God can bind +and hold?" + +"Yes--nothing else IS marriage." + +"That's what I say, too!" + +He placed his hands on her shoulders. + +"Great scheme!" he repeated. "I get a pretty girl to work for me for +nothing for the balance of my life." He paused and lifted the slender +forefinger of his right hand. "And you pledged your pious soul--I +memorized the words, every one of them: `I, Mary, take thee, James, +to my wedded husband--TO HAVE AND TO HOLD from this day forward, FOR +BETTER, FOR WORSE, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, +to love, cherish AND OBEY, TIL DEATH DO US PART, ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY +ORDINANCE; AND THEREUNTO I GIVE THEE MY TROTH----'" + +He paused, lifted his head and smiled grimly: "That's some promise, +believe me, Kiddo! `AND OBEY'--you meant it all, didn't you?" + +She would have hedged lightly over that ugly old word which still +survived in the ceremony Craddock had used, but for the sinister +suggestion in his voice back of the playful banter. He had asked it half +in jest, half in earnest. She had caught by the subtle sixth sense the +tragic idea in that one word that he was going to hold her to it. The +thought was too absurd! + +"OBEY--you meant it, didn't you?" he repeated grimly. + +A smile played about the corners of her mouth as she answered dreamily: + +"Yes--I--I--PROMISED!" + +"That's why I set my head on you from the first--you're good and +sweet--you're the real thing." + +Again she caught the sinister suggestion in his tone and threw him a +startled look. + +"What has come over you today, Jim?" she asked. + +He hesitated and answered carelessly. + +"Oh, nothing, Kiddo--just been thinking a little about business. Got +to go to work, you know." He returned to the table and touched the bag +lightly. + +"Watch out now for this bag while I put up the car--and don't forget +that curiosity killed the cat." + +Quick as a flash, she asked: + +"What's in it?" + +Jim threw up his hands and laughed. + +"Didn't I tell you that curiosity killed a cat?" He pointed to the skin +on the wall. "That's what stretched that wild-cat's hide up there! She +got too near the old musket!" + +"Anyhow, I'm not afraid of her end--what's in it?" + +Jim scratched his red head and looked at her thoughtfully. + +"You asked me that once before today, didn't you?" + +"Yes----" + +"Well, it's a little secret of mine. Take my advice--put your hand on +it, but not in it." + +Again the sinister look and tone chilled her. + +"I don't like secrets between us, Jim," she said. + +She looked at the bag reproachfully, and he watched her keenly--then +laughed. + +"I'd as well tell you and be done with it; you'll go in it anyhow." + +She tossed her head with a touch of angry pride. He took her hand, led +her across the room and placed it on the valise. + +"I've got five thousand dollars in gold in that bag." + +She drew back, surprised beyond the power of speech. + +"And I'm going to give it to this old woman----" + +"To her--why?" she gasped. + +"She's my mother." + +"Your MOTHER?" + +"Yes." + +"I--I--thought--you told me she was dead." + +"No. I said that I didn't know who she was." + +He paused, and a queer brooding look crept into his face. + +"I haven't seen her since I was a little duffer three years old. This +room and these wild crags and trees come back to me now--just a glimpse +of them here and there. I've always remembered them. I thought I'd +dreamed it----" + +"You remember--how wonderful!" she breathed reverently. She understood +now, and the clouds lifted. + +"The skunk I called my daddy," Jim went on thoughtfully, "took me to New +York. He said that my mother deserted me when I was a kid. I believed +him at first. But when he beat me and kicked me into the streets, I knew +he was a liar. When I got grown I began to think and wonder about her. I +hired a lawyer that knew my daddy, and he found her here----" + +With a cry of joy, she seized his arms: + +"Tell her quick! Oh, you're big and fine and generous, Jim--and I knew +it! They said that you were a brute. I knew they lied. Tell her quick!" + +He lifted his hand in protest. + +"Nope--I'm going to put up a little job on the old girl--show her the +money tonight, get her wild at the sight of it--and give it to her +Christmas morning. We've only a few hours to wait----" + +"Oh, give it to her now--Jim! Give it to her now!" + +He shook his head and walked to the door. + +"I want to say something to her first and give her time to think it +over. Look out for the bag, and I'll bring in the things." + +He swung the rough board door wide, slammed it and disappeared in the +darkness. + +The young wife watched the bag a moment with consuming curiosity. She +had fiercely resented his insulting insinuations at her curiosity, and +yet she was wild to look at that glowing pile of gold inside and picture +the old woman's joyous surprise. + +Her hand touched the lock carelessly and drew back as if her finger had +been burned. She put her hands behind her and crossed the room. + +"I won't be so weak and silly!" she cried fiercely. + +She heard Jim cranking the car. It would take him five minutes more to +start it, get it under the shed and bring in the suit-case and robes. + +"Why shouldn't I see it!" she exclaimed. "He has told me about it." She +hesitated and struggled for a moment, quickly walked back to the bag and +touched the spring. It yielded instantly. + +"Why, it's not even locked!" she cried in tones of surprise at her silly +scruples. + +Her hand had just touched the gold when Nance entered. + +She snapped the bag and smiled at the old woman carelessly. What a sweet +surprise she would have tomorrow morning! + +Nance crossed slowly, glancing once at the girl wistfully as if she +wanted to say something friendly, and then, alarmed at her presumption, +hurried on into the little shed-room. + +Mary waited until she returned. + +"Room's all ready in thar, ma'am," she drawled, passing into the kitchen +without a pause. + +"All right--thank you," Mary answered. + +She quickly opened the bag, thrust her hand into the gold and +withdrew it, holding a costly green-leather jewelry-case of exquisite +workmanship. There could be no mistake about its value. + +With a cry of joy, she started back, staring at the little box. + +"Another surprise! And for me! Oh, Jim, man, you're glorious! My +Christmas present, of course! I mustn't look at it--I won't!" + +She pushed the case from her toward the bag and drew it back again. + +"What's the difference? I'll take one little, tiny peep." + +She touched the spring and caught her breath. A string of pearls fit for +the neck of a princess lay shining in its soft depths. She lifted them +with a sigh of delight. Her eye suddenly rested on a stanza of poetry +scrawled on the satin lining in the trembling hand of an old man she had +known. + +She dropped the pearls with a cry of terror. Her face went white, and +she gasped for breath. The jewel-case in her hand she had seen before. +It had belonged to the old gentleman who lived in the front room on the +first floor of her building in the days when it was a boarding house. +The wife he had idolized was long ago dead. This string of pearls from +her neck the old man had worshiped for years. The stanza from "The +Rosary" he had scrawled in the lining one day in Mary's presence. He had +moved uptown with the landlady. Two months ago a burglar had entered his +room, robbed and shot him. + +"It's impossible--impossible!" she gasped. "Oh, dear God--it's +impossible! Of course the burglar pawned them, and Jim bought them +without knowing. Of course! My nerves are on edge today--how silly of +me----" + +Jim's footsteps suddenly sounded on the porch, and she thrust the +jewel-case back into the bag with desperate effort to pull herself +together. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. THE AWAKENING + +For a moment she felt the foundations of the moral and physical world +sinking beneath her feet. Dizziness swept her senses. She gripped +the table, leaning heavily against it, her eye watching the door with +feverish terror for Jim's appearance. + +She had never fainted in her life. It was absurd, but the room was +swimming now in a dim blur. Again she gripped the table and set her +teeth. She simply would not give up. Why should she leap to the worst +possible explanation of the jewels? The hatred of old Ella for Jim and +the furious antagonism of Jane Anderson had poisoned her mind, after +all. It was infamous that she could suspect her husband of crime merely +because two silly women didn't like him. + +He could explain the jewels. He, of course, asked no questions of the +pawn-broker. They were probably sold at auction and he bought them. + +It seemed an eternity from the time Jim's foot step echoed on the little +porch until he pushed the door open and hastily entered, his arms piled +with lap-robes, coats and the dress-suit case in his hand. + +He walked with quick, firm step, threw the coats and robes on the couch +and placed the suit-case at its head. He hadn't turned toward her and +his face was still in profile while he removed the gloves from his +pockets, threw them on the robes, and drew the scarlet woolen neckpiece +from his throat. + +She was studying him now with new terror-stricken eyes. Never had she +seen his jaw look so big and brutal. Never had the droop of his eyelids +suggested such menace. Never had the contrast of his slender hands and +feet suggested such hideous possibilities. + +"Merciful God! No! No!" she kept repeating in her soul while her dilated +eyes stared at him in sheer horror of the suggestion which the jewels +had roused. + +She drew a deep breath and strangled the idea by her will. + +"I'll at least be as fair as a jury," she thought grimly. "I'll not +condemn him without a hearing." + +Jim suddenly became aware of the menace of her silence. She had not +moved a muscle, spoken or made the slightest sound since he had entered. +He had merely taken in the room at a glance and had seen her standing in +precisely the same place beside the table. + +He saw now that she was leaning heavily against it. + +He raised his head and faced her with a sudden, bold stare, and his +voice rang in tones of sharp command. + +"Well?" + +She tried to speak and failed. She had not yet sufficiently mastered her +emotions. + +"What's the matter?" he growled. + +"Jim----" she gasped. + +He took a step toward her with set teeth. + +"You've been in that bag--Well?" + +Her face was white, her voice husky. + +"Those jewels, Jim----" + +A cunning smile played about his mouth and he shook his head. + +"I tried to keep my little secret from you till Christmas morning; but +you're on to my curves now, Kiddo, and I'll have to 'fess up----" + +"You bought them for me?" she asked with trembling eagerness. + +"Who else do you reckon I'd buy 'em for? I was going to surprise you, +too, tomorrow morning. You've spoiled the fun." + +She had slipped close to his side and he could hear her quick intake of +breath. + +"That's--so--sweet of you, Jim. I'm sorry--I--spoiled the +surprise--you'd--planned----" + +"Oh, what's the difference!" he broke in carelessly. "It's all the same +five minutes after, anyhow. Well, don't you like 'em? Why don't you say +something?" + +"They're wonderful, Jim. Where--where--did you buy them?" + +He held her gaze in silence for an instant and fenced. + +"Isn't that a funny question, Kiddo?" he said in low tones. "I once +heard the old man I worked with in the shop say that you shouldn't look +a gift horse in the mouth." + +"I just want to know," she insisted. + +"I'm not going to tell you!" he said with a dry laugh. + +"Why not?" + +"Because you keep asking." + +"You wish to tease me?" + +"Maybe." + +"Please!" + +"Why do you want to know? Are you afraid they're fakes?" + +"No, they're beautiful--they're wonderful." + +"Well, if you don't want them," he broke in angrily, "I'll keep them. +I'll sell them." + +"Don't tease me, Jim!" she begged. "I don't mind if you bought them at +a pawn-shop--if that's why you won't tell me. That is the reason, isn't +it? Honestly, isn't it?" + +She asked the question with eager intensity. She had persuaded herself +that it was so and the horror had been lifted. She pressed close with +smiling, trembling lips: + +"I don't mind that, Jim! You got them from a pawn-broker, of course, +didn't you?" + +He looked at her with a puzzled expression and hesitated. + +"Didn't you?" she repeated. + +"No--I didn't!" was the curt answer. + +"You didn't?" she echoed feebly. + +"No!" + +With a quick breath she unconsciously drew back and he glared at her +angrily. + +"Say, what'ell's the matter with you, anyhow? Have you gone crazy?" + +"You--won't--tell me--where you bought them?" she asked slowly. + +He faced her squarely and spoke with deliberate contempt: + +"It's--none--of your business!" + +She held his gaze with steady determination. + +"That string of pearls belongs to the man who once lived in the front +room of my old building in New York. He moved uptown with my landlady. A +few months ago a burglar robbed and shot him----" + +She stopped, seized his arm and cried with strangling horror: + +"Jim! Jim! Where did you get them?" + +"Now I know you've gone crazy! You don't suppose that's the only string +of pearls in the world, do you? Did you count 'em? Did you weigh 'em?" + +"Where did you get them?" she demanded. + +"What put it into your head that that string of pearls belonged to your +old boarder?" + +"I saw him write the stanza of poetry on the satin lining of that case. +I've heard him recite it over and over again in his piping voice: `Each +bead a pearl--my rosary!' I KNOW that they belonged to him!" + +His mouth twitched angrily and he faced her, speaking with cold, brutal +frankness. + +"I might keep on lying to you, Kiddo, and get away with it. But +what's the use? You've got to know. It's just as well now--I did that +job----Yes!" + +Her face blanched. + +"You--a--burglar--a murderer!" + +Jim followed her with quick, angry gestures. + +"All I wanted was his money! He fought--it was his life or mine----" + +"A murderer!" + +"I just went after his money--I tell you--besides, he didn't die; he +got well. If he'd kept still he wouldn't have lost his pearls and he +wouldn't have been hurt----" + +"And I stood up for you against them all!" she answered in a dazed +whisper. "They told me--Jane Anderson with brutal frankness, Ella with +the heart-rending, timid confession of her own tragic life--they told me +that you were bad. I said they were liars. I said that they envied our +happiness. I believed that you were big and brave and fine. I stood by +you and married you!" + +She paused and looked at him steadily. In a rush of suppressed passion +she seized his arm with a violence that caused his heavy eyelids to lift +in amused surprise. + +"Oh, Jim--it's not true! It's not true--it's not true! For God's sake, +tell me that you're joking!--that you're teasing me! You can't mean it! +I won't believe it--I won't believe it!" + +Her head sank until it rested piteously against his breast. He stood +with his face turned awkwardly away and then moved his body until she +was forced to stand erect. + +He touched her shoulder gently and spoke soothingly: + +"Come, now, Kid, don't take on so. I'll quit the business when I make my +pile." + +She drew back instinctively and he followed: + +"I'll never touch another penny of yours. There's blood on it!" + +"Rot!" he went on soothingly. "It's good Wall Street cash--got it +exactly like they got theirs--got it because I was quicker and smarter +than the fellow that had it. I use a jimmy, they use a ticker--that's +all the difference." + +She drew her figure to its full height. + +"I'm going--Jim----" + +"Where?" + +His voice rasped like a file against steel. + +"Home!" + +"Your home's with me." + +"I won't live with a thief!" + +He stepped squarely before her and spoke with deliberate menace. + +"You're--not--going!" + +"Get out of my way!" she cried defiantly. + +His big jaw closed with a snap and his figure became rigid. The candle's +yellow light threw a strange glare on his face, convulsed. The blue +flames of hell were in the glitter of his steel eyes. + +Her heart sank in a dull wave of terror. She tried to gauge the depth of +his brutal rage. There was no standard by which to measure it. She had +never seen that look in his face before. His whole being was transformed +by some sinister power. + +She was afraid to move, but her mind was alert in this moment of supreme +trial. She hadn't used her last weapon yet. The fact that he held her +with such terrible determination was proof of the spell she had cast +over him. She might save him. He couldn't have been a criminal long. She +formed her new battle-line with quick decision. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. THE SURRENDER + +How long she gazed into the convulsed face of the man who had squared +himself before her, mattered little measured by the tick of the watch +in her belt. Into the mental anguish endured a life's agony had been +pressed. It could not have been more than twenty seconds, and yet it +marked the birth of a new being within the soul of a woman. She had been +searching only for her own happiness. The search had entangled another +in the meshes of her life. Too much had been lived in the past two +weeks to be undone by a word and forgotten in a day. She had attempted, +coward-like, to run. + +She saw now in the consuming flame of a great sorrow that the man before +her had some rights which the purest woman must reckon with. He might be +a burglar. At least it was her duty to try to save him from himself. Her +surrender of the past weeks was a tie that would bind them through all +eternity. There was no chemistry of earth or heaven or hell that could +erase its memories. Her life was no longer her own--this man's was bound +with hers. She must face the facts. She would make one honest, +brave effort to save him. To do this she would give all without +reservation--pride must be cast to the winds. + +Her voice suddenly changed to tears. + +"Oh, Jim, you do love me, don't you?" + +His body slowly relaxed, his eyes shifted, and he shrugged his square +shoulders. + +"What'ell did I marry you for?" + +"Tell me--do you?" she demanded. + +"You know that I love you. What do you ask me such a fool question for? +I love you with a love that can kill. Do you hear me? That's why you're +not going anywhere without me." + +There was no mistaking the depth of his passion. She trembled to realize +its power and yet it was the lever by which she must move him. + +"Then you've got to give this life up. You're young and brave and +strong. You can earn an honest living. You haven't been in this long--I +feel it, I know it. Have you?" + +"No!" + +"How long?" + +"Eight months." + +"Oh, Jim, dear, you must give it up now for my sake. I'll work with you +and work for you. I'll teach, I'll sew, I'll scrub, I'll slave for you +day and night--if you're only clean and honest." + +He turned on her fiercely. + +"Cut it, Kid--cut it! I'm out for the stuff now. I'm going to get rich +and I'm going to get rich QUICK--that's all that's the matter with me!" + +"But, Jim," she broke in tenderly--"you did earn an honest living. Your +workshop proves that." + +"I've used that to improve my tools and melt the swag the past year. The +shop's all right." + +"But you did make a successful invention?" + +"You bet I did," he answered savagely, "and that's why I quit the +business. Three years ago I took down a big automobile and worked out an +improvement in the transmission that settled the question of heavy draft +machines. I took it to a lawyer in Wall Street and he took it to a man +that had money. Between the two of 'em, they didn't do a thing to +me! They were going to put my patent on the market and make me a +millionaire. God, I was crazy----" + +He paused and squared his shoulders with a deep breath. + +"They put it on the market all right and they made some +millionaires--but I wasn't one of 'em, Kiddo! They got me to sign a +paper that skinned me out of every dollar as slick as you can pull an +eel through your fingers. I hired another lawyer and gave him half he +could get to beat 'em. He fought like a tiger and two days before I +met you he got his verdict and they paid it--just ten thousand dollars. +Think of it--ten thousand dollars! And each of them got a million cash. +They sold it outright for two millions and a half. My lawyer got five +thousand dollars, and I got five thousand dollars. That's mine, anyhow. +It's in that bag there. I'm working on a new set of tools now in my +shop. I'm going to get that money back from the two thieves who stole +it from me by law. I'll take it by force, the way they took it. If I can +croak them both in the fight--well, there'll be two thieves less to rob +honest men and women, that's all." + +"Oh, Jim!" Mary gasped, lifting a trembling hand to her throat as if +to tear open her collar. "You're mad. You don't know what you're +saying----" + +"Don't fool yourself, Kiddo," he interrupted fiercely. "My eyes are open +now, and I've got a level head back of 'em, too. I've doped it all out. +You ought to 'a' heard that lawyer give me a few lessons in business +when he'd skinned me and salted my hide. He was good-natured and +confidential. He seemed to love me. `Business is war, sonny,' he piped, +between the puffs of the big Havana cigar he was smoking--`war! war to +the knife! We got you off your guard and put the knife into you at the +right minute--that's all. Don't take it so hard! Invent something +else and keep your eyes peeled. You ought to love us for giving you an +education in business early in life. You're young. You won't have to +learn your lesson again. Go to work, sonny, in your shop, and turn out +another new tool for the advancement of trade!'" + +He paused and smiled grimly. + +"I've done it, too! I've just finished a little invention that'll crack +any safe in New York in twenty minutes after I touch it." + +He broke into a dry laugh, sat down and deliberately lighted a fresh +cigarette. + +She studied his face with beating heart. Was he lost beyond all hope +of reformation? Or was this the boyish bravado of an amateur criminal +poisoned by the consciousness of wrong? She tried to think. She felt the +red blood pounding through her heart and beating against her brain in +suffocating waves of despair. + +In vivid flashes the scene of her marriage but two weeks ago, came back +in tormenting memories. The solemn words she had spoken kept ringing +like the throb of a funeral bell far up in the star-lit heavens---- + + +"I, MARY ADAMS, TAKE THEE, JAMES ANTHONY, TO MY WEDDED HUSBAND, TO HAVE +AND TO HOLD... FOR BETTER FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS +AND IN HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH, AND TO OBEY, TILL DEATH DO US PART, +ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE; AND THERETO I GIVE THEE MY TROTH." + + +The last solemn prayer kept ringing its deep-toned message over all---- + + +"GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, GOD THE HOLY GHOST, BLESS, PRESERVE, AND +KEEP YOU; THE LORD MERCIFULLY WITH HIS FAVOR LOOK UPON YOU, AND FILL YOU +WITH ALL SPIRITUAL BENEDICTION AND GRACE; THAT YE MAY SO LIVE TOGETHER +IN THIS LIFE, THAT IN THE WORLD TO COME YE MAY HAVE LIFE EVERLASTING. +AMEN." + + +In a sudden rush of desperate pity for herself and the man to whom she +was bound, she dropped on her knees by his side, slipped her arms about +his neck and clung to him, sobbing. + +"Oh, Jim, Jim, man," she whispered hoarsely. "I can't see you sink into +hell like this! Have you no real love in your heart for the woman who +has given all? Have mercy on me! Have mercy! You can't mean the hideous +things you've just said! You've been crazed by your losses. You're just +a boy yet. Life is all before you. You're only twenty-four. I'm just +twenty-four. We can both begin anew. I've never lived until these +past weeks--neither have you. You couldn't drag me down into a life of +crime----" + +Her head sank and her voice choked into silence. He made no movement of +his hand to soothe her. His voice was not persuasive. It was hard and +cold. + +"I'm not asking you to help me on any of my jobs," he said. "I'm the +financier of the family. You can say the prayers and keep house." + +"Knowing that you are a criminal? That your hands are stained with human +blood?" + +"Why not?" he snapped, the blue blaze flashing again in his eyes. +"Suppose you were the wife of the gentlemanly lawyer-thief who robbed +me, using the law instead of a jimmy--would you bother your little head +about my business? Does his wife ask him where he got it? Does anybody +know or care? He lives on Fifth Avenue now. He bought a palace up there +the day after he got my money. We passed it on the way to the Park the +day I met you. A line of carriages was standing in front and finely +dressed women were running up the red carpet that led down the stoop and +under the canopy to the curb. Did any of the gay dames who smiled and +smirked at that thief's wife ask how he got the money to buy the house? +Not much. Would they have cared if they had known? They'd have called +him a shrewd lawyer--that's all! Do you reckon his wife worries about +such tricks of trade? Why should mine worry?" + +She gripped his hand with desperate pleading. + +"Oh, Jim, dear, you can't be a criminal at heart! I wouldn't have loved +you if it had been true. I can't believe it! I won't believe it. You're +posing. You don't mean this. You can't mean it. You're going to return +every dishonest dollar that you've taken." + +"You don't know what you're talking about!" + +He closed his jaw with a snap and leaned close in eager, tense +excitement. + +"Do you know how much junk I've piled into a little box in my shop the +past three months?" + +"I don't care--I don't want to know!" + +"You've got to care--you've got to know now! It's worth a hundred +thousand dollars, do you hear? A hundred thousand dollars! It would take +me a life-time to earn that on a salary. In two weeks after we get back +to New York with my new invention that lawyer advised me to make, I'll +go through his house--I'll open his safe, I'll take every diamond, every +pearl and every scrap of stolen jewelry his wife's wearing. And I won't +leave a fingerprint on the window sill. I've got two of his servants +working for me. + +"In six months I'll be worth half a million. In a year I'll pull off +the big haul I'm planning and I'll be a millionaire. We'll retire from +business then--just like they did. We'll build our marble palace down at +Bay Ridge and our yacht will nod in the harbor. We'll spend our summers +in Europe when we like and every snob and fool in New York will fall +over himself to meet me. And every woman will envy my wife. I'm young, +Kiddo, but I've cut my eye teeth. You've just been born. I'm running the +business end of this thing. You think you can reform me. You can--AFTER +I'VE MADE OUR PILE. I'll join the church then and sing louder than that +lawyer. But if you think you're going to stop my business career at this +stage of the game--forget it, forget it!" + +He sprang up with a quick movement of his tense body and threw her off. +She rose and watched his restless steps as he paced the floor. Her mind +was numb as if from a mortal blow. She brushed the tangled ringlets of +brown hair back from her forehead, drew the handkerchief from her belt +and wiped the perspiration from her brow. + +Before she could gather the strength to speak, he wheeled suddenly and +confronted her: + +"I've known from the first, Kiddo, that you're not the kind to help in +this business. I don't expect it. I don't ask it. I need a ranch +like this down here for storage. I'm going to take the old woman into +partnership with me." + +She started back in an instinctive recoil of horror. + +"Your MOTHER?" + +He nodded. + +"Yep!" + +She drew a step nearer and peered into his set face. + +"YOU WILL MAKE YOUR OWN MOTHER A CRIMINAL?" + +"Sure!" he growled. "That's what I came down here for." + +"She won't do it!" + +"She won't, eh?" he sneered. "Look at this hog pen!" + +He swept the bare, wretched cabin with a gesture of contempt and +shrugged his shoulders. + +"Look at the rags she's wearing," he went on savagely. "When we talk +it over tonight with that five thousand dollars in gold shining in +her eyes--I'm going to show her a lot o' things she never saw before, +Kiddo--take it from me!" + +She answered in slow, even tones: + +"I can't live with you, Jim." + +The blue flames beneath the drooping eyelids were leaping now in the +yellow glare of the candle's rays. The muscles of his body were knotted. +His voice came from his throat a low growl. + +"Do you know who you're fooling with?" + +The blood of a clean life flamed in her cheeks and nerved her with +reckless daring. Her figure stiffened and her voice rang with defiant +scorn: + +"Yes. I know at last--a thief who would drag his own mother down to hell +with him!" + +Not a muscle of his powerful body moved; his face was a stolid mask. He +threw his words slowly through his teeth: + +"Now you listen to me. You're my wife. I didn't invent this marriage +game. I played it as I found it. And that's the way you're going to play +it. You're good and sweet and clean--I like that kind, and I won't +have no other. You're mine. MINE, do you hear! Mine for life--body and +soul--`FOR BETTER FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS AND IN +HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH'----" + +He paused and thrust his massive jaw squarely into her face: + +"`----AND OBEY!'" he hissed, "`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART, ACCORDING TO +GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE'--you said it, didn't you?" + +"Yes----" + +"Well?" + +She turned from him with sudden aversion: + +"I didn't know what you were----" + +"Nobody ever knows BEFORE they're married!" he broke in savagely. "You +took your chances. I took mine--`FOR BETTER FOR WORSE.' We'll just say +now it's for worse and let it go at that!" + +The little body stiffened. + +"I'll die first!" + +He held her gaze without words, searching the depths of her being with +the cold, blue flame in his drooping eyes. If she were bluffing, it was +easy. She could talk her head off for all he cared. If she meant it, he +might have his hands full unless he mastered the situation at once and +for all time. + +There was no sign of yielding to his iron will. An indomitable soul had +risen in her frail body and defied him. His decision was instantaneous. + +"Oh, you'll die sooner than live with me--eh?" + +There was something hideous in the cold venom with which he drawled +the words. Her heart fairly stopped its beating. With the last ounce of +courage left, she held her place and answered: + +"Yes!" + +With the sudden crouch of a tiger he drew his clenched fist to strike. + +"Forget it!" + +She sprang back with terror, her body trembling in pitiful weakness. + +"You snivelling little coward!" he growled. + +"Oh, Jim, Jim," she faltered,--"you--you--couldn't strike me!" + +A step nearer and he stood over her, his big, flat head thrust forward, +his eyes gleaming, his muscles knotted in blind rage. + +"No--I won't STRIKE you," he whispered. "I'll just KILL you--that's +all!" + +With the leap of an infuriated beast he sprang on her and his sharp +fingers gripped her throat. + + +The world went black and she felt herself sinking into a bottomless +abyss. With maniac energy she tore his hands from her throat and the +warm blood streamed from the gash his nails had torn. + +"Jim! Jim! For God's sake!" she moaned in abject terror. + +With a sullen growl, his fingers, sharp as a leopard's claw, found her +neck again and closed with a grip that sent the blood surging to her +brain and her eyes starting from their sockets. + +The one hideous thought that flashed through her mind was that he was +going to plunge his claws into her eyes and blind her for life. He +could hold her his prisoner then. She made a last desperate struggle +for breath, her hands relaxed, she drooped and sank to the couch toward +which he had hurled her in the first rush of his assault. + +He lifted her and choked the slender neck again to make sure, loosed his +hands and the limp body dropped on the couch and was still. + +He stood watching her in silence, his arms at his side. + +"Damned little fool!" he muttered. "I had to give you that lesson. The +sooner the better!" + +He waited with contemptuous indifference until she slowly recovered +consciousness. She lay motionless for a long time and then slowly opened +her eyes. + +Thank God! They had not been gouged out as poor Ella's. She didn't mind +the warm blood that soaked her collar and ran down her neck. If he would +only spare her eyes. Blindness had been her one unspeakable terror. She +closed her eyes again and silently prayed for strength. Her strength was +gone. Wave after wave of sickening, cowardly terror swept her prostrate +soul. She could feel his sullen presence--his body with its merciless +strength towering above her. She dared not look. She knew that he was +watching her with cruel indifference. A single cry, a single word and he +might thrust his claw into her eyes and the light of the world would go +out forever. + +Her terror was too hideous; she could endure it no longer. She must +move. She must try to save herself. She lifted her head and caught his +steady, venomous gaze. + +A quick, sliding movement of abject fear and she was erect, facing him +and backing away silently. + +He followed with even step, his gaze holding her as the eyes of a snake +its victim. She would not let him know her terror of blindness. She +preferred death a thousand times. If he would only kill her outright it +was all the mercy she would ask. + +"You--won't--kill--me--Jim!" she sobbed. "Please--please, don't kill +me!" + +He lifted his sharp finger and followed her toward the shed-room door, +his voice the triumphant cry of an eagle above his prey. + +"`FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE--UNTIL DEATH DO US PART!'" + +Her heart gave a bound of cowardly joy. He had relented. He would not +blind her. She could live. She was young and life was sweet. + +She tried to smile her surrender through her tears as she backed slowly +away from his ominous finger. + +"Yes, I'll try--Jim. I'll try--`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART--UNTIL +DEATH--UNTIL DEATH----'" + +Her voice broke into a flood of tears as she blindly felt her way +through the door and into the darkened room. + +He paused on the threshold, held the creaking board shutter in his hand +and broke into a laugh. + +"The world ain't big enough for you to get away from me, Kiddo. Good +night--a good little wife now and it's all right!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. TO THE NEW GOD + +Jim closed the door of the little shed-room with a bang, and stood +listening a moment to the sobs inside. + +"`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART,' Kiddo!" he laughed grimly. + +He turned back into the room and saw Nance standing at the opposite +entrance between the calico curtains, an old, battered, flickering +lantern in her hand. A white wool shawl was thrown over the gray head +and fell in long, filmy waves about her thin figure. Her deep-sunken +eyes were exaggerated in the dim light of lantern and candle. She smiled +wanly. + +He stopped short at the apparition; a queer shiver of superstitious fear +shook him. The white form of Death suddenly and noiselessly appearing +from the darkness could not have been more uncanny. He had wondered +vaguely while the quarrel with his wife was progressing, what had become +of his mother. As the fight had reached its height, he had forgotten +her. + +She looked at him, blinking her eyes and trying to smile. + +"Where the devil have you been, old gal?" he asked nervously. + +"Nowhere," she answered evasively. + +"You've been mighty quiet on the trip anyhow. I see you've brought +something back from nowhere." + +Nance glanced down at the jug she carried in her left hand and laughed. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +"Nothin'----" + +"Nothin' from nowhere sounds pretty good to me when I see it in a brown +jug on Christmas Eve. You're all right, old gal! I was just going to +ask if you had a little mountain dew. You're a mind reader. I'll bet the +warehouse you keep that stored in is some snug harbor--eh?" + +"They ain't never found it yit!" she giggled. + +"And I'll bet they won't--bully for you!" + +She took down a tin cup from a shelf and placed it beside the jug. + +"Another glass, sweetheart----" + +The old woman stared at him in surprise, walked to the shelf and brought +another tin cup. + +"What do ye want with two?" she asked in surprise. + +Jim moved toward the stool beside the table. + +"Sit down." + +"Me?" + +"Sure. Let's be sociable. It's Christmas Eve, isn't it?" + +"Yeah!" Nance answered cheerfully, taking her seat and glancing timidly +at her guest. + +Jim seized the jug, poured out two drinks of corn whiskey, handed her +one and raised his: + +"Well, here's lookin' at you, old girl." + +He paused, lowered his cup and smiled. + +"But say, give me a toast." He nodded toward the shed-room. "I'm on my +honeymoon, you know." + +His hostess laughed timidly and glanced at him from the corners of her +eyes. She wished to be sociable and make up as best she could for her +rudeness on their arrival. + +"I ain't never heard but one fur honeymooners," she said softly. + +"Let's have it. I've never heard a toast for honeymooners in my life. +It'll be new to me--fire away!" + +Nance fumbled her faded dress with her left hand and laughed again. + +"'May ye live long and prosper an' all yer troubles be LITTLE ONES!'" + +She laughed aloud at the old, worm-eaten joke and Jim joined. + +"Bully! Bully, old girl--bully!" + +He lifted his cup and drained it at one draught and Nance did the same. + +He seized the jug and poured another drink for each. + +"Once more----" + +He leaned across the table. + +"And here's one for you." He squared his body and lifted his cup: + +"To all your little ones--no matter how big they are!" + +Jim drained his liquor without apparently noticing her agitation, though +he was watching her keenly from the corner of his eye. + +The cup she held was lowered slowly until the whiskey poured over her +dress and on the floor. Her thin figure drooped pathetically and her +voice was the faintest sob: + +"I--I--ain't got--none!" + +"I heard you had a boy," Jim said carelessly. + +The drooping figure shot upright as if a bolt of lightning had swept +her. She stared at him in tense silence, trying to gather her wits +before she answered. + +"Who told you anything about me?" she demanded sternly. + +"A fellow in New York," Jim continued with studied carelessness--"said +he used to live down here." + +"He LIVED down here?" she repeated blankly. + +"Yep--come now, loosen up and tell us about the kid." + +"There ain't nuthin' ter tell--he's dead," she cried pathetically. + +"He said you deserted the child and left him to starve." + +"He said that?" she growled. + +"Yep." + +He was silent again and watched her keenly. + +She fumbled her dress and glanced nervously across the table as if +afraid to ask more. Unable to wait for him to speak, she cried nervously +at last: + +"Well--well--what else did he say?" + +"That he took the little duffer to New York and raised him." + +"RAISED him?" + +She fairly screamed the words, springing to her feet trembling from head +to foot. + +"Till he was big enough to kick into the streets to shuffle for +himself." + +"The scoundrel said he was dead." + +Her voice was far away and sank into dreamy silence. She was living the +hideous, lonely years again with a heart starved for love. + +Jim's voice broke the spell: + +"Then you didn't desert him?" The man's eyes held hers steadily. + +She stared at him blankly and spoke with rushing indignation: + +"Desert him--my baby--my own flesh and blood? There's never been a +minute since I looked into his eyes that I wouldn't 'a' died fur him." + +She paused and sobbed. + +"He had such pretty eyes, stranger. They looked like your'n--only they +wuz puttier and bluer." + +She lifted her faded dress, brushed the tears from her cheeks and went +on rapidly: + +"When I found his drunken brute of a daddy was a liar and had another +wife, I wouldn't live with him. He tried to make me but I kicked him +out of the house--and he stole the boy to get even with me." Her voice +broke, she dropped her head and choked back the tears. "He did get even +with me, too--he did," she sobbed. + +Jim watched her in silence until the paroxysm had spent itself. + +"You think you'd know this boy now if you found him?" + +She bent close, her breath coming in quick gasps. + +"My God, mister, do you think I COULD find him?" + +"He lives in New York; his name is Jim Anthony." + +"Yes--yes?" she said in a dazed way. "He called hisself Walter +Anthony--he wuz a stranger from the North and my boy's name was Jim." +She paused and bent eagerly across the table. "New York's an awful big +place, ain't it?" + +"Some town, old gal, take it from me." + +"COULD I find him?" + +"If you've got money enough. You said you'd know him. How?" + +"I'd know him!" she answered eagerly. "The last quarrel we had was about +a mark on his neck. He wuz a spunky little one. You couldn't make him +cry. His devil of a daddy used to stick pins in him and laugh because +he wouldn't cry. The last dirty trick he tried was what ended it all. He +pushed a live cigar agin his little neck until I smelled it burnin' in +the next room. I knocked him down with a chair, drove him from the house +and told him I'd kill him if he ever put his foot inside the door agin. +He stole my boy the next night--but he'll carry that scar to his grave." + +"You'd love this boy now if you found him in New York as bad as his +father ever was?" Jim asked with a curious smile. + +"Yes--he's mine!" was the quick, firm answer. + +Jim watched her intently. + +"I looked Death in the face for him," she went on fiercely. "I'd dive +to the bottom o' hell to find him if I knowed he wuz thar---- But what's +the use to talk; that devil killed him! I've waked up many a night +stranglin' with a dream when I seed the drunken brute burnin' an' +beatin' an' torturin' him to death. The feller you've heard about ain't +him. 'Tain't no use to make me hope an' then kill me----" + +"He's not dead, I tell you. I know." + +Jim's voice rang with conviction so positive the old woman's breath came +in quick gasps and she smiled through her eager tears. + +"And I MIGHT find him?" + +"IF you've got money enough! Money can do anything in this world." + +He opened the black bag, thrust both hands into it and threw out a +handful of yellow coin which he allowed to pour through his fingers and +rattle into a tin plate which had been left on the table. + +Her eyes sparkled with avarice. + +"It's your'n--all your'n?" she breathed hungrily. + +"I'm taking it down South to invest for a fool who thinks"--he stopped +and laughed--"who thinks it's bad luck to keep money that's stained with +blood----" + +Nance started back. + +"Got blood on it?" + +Jim spoke in confidential appeal. + +"That wouldn't make any difference to you, would it?" + +She shook her gray locks and glanced at the pile of yellow metal, +hungrily. + +"I--I wouldn't like it with blood marks!" + +He lifted a handful of coin, clinked it musically in his hands and held +it in his open palms before her. + +"Look! Look at it close! You don't see any blood marks on it, do you?" + +Her eyes devoured it. + +"No." + +He seized her hand, thrust a half-dozen pieces into it and closed her +thin fingers over it. + +"Feel of it--look at it!" + +Her hands gripped the gold. She breathed quickly, broke into a laugh, +caught herself in the middle of it, and lapsed suddenly into silence. + +"Feels good, don't it?" he laughed. + +Nance grinned, her uneven, discolored gleaming ominously in the flicker +of the candle. + +"Don't it?" he repeated. + +"Yeah!" + +He lifted another handful and threw it in the air, catching it again. + +"That's the stuff that makes the world go 'round. There's your only +friend, old girl! Others promise well--but in the scratch they fail." + +"Yeah--when the scratch comes they fail!" Nance echoed. + +"Money never fails!" Jim continued eagerly. "It's the god that knows no +right or wrong----" + +He touched the pile in the plate and drew the bag close for her to see. + +"How much do you guess is there?" + +Nance gazed greedily into the open bag and looked again at the shining +heap in the plate. + +"I dunno--a million, I reckon." + +The man laughed. + +"Not quite that much! But enough to make you rich for life--IF you had +it." + +The old woman turned away pathetically and shook her gray head. + +"I wouldn't have to work no more, would I?" + +Her thin hands touched the faded, dirty dress. + +"And I could buy me a decent dress," her voice sank to a whisper, "and I +could find my boy." + +"You bet you could!" Jim exclaimed. "There's just one god in this world +now, old girl--the Almighty Dollar!" + +He paused and leaned close, persuasively: + +"Suppose now, the man that got that money had to kill a fool to take +it--what of it? You don't get big money any other way. A burglar watches +his chance, takes his life in his hands and drills his way into a house. +He finds a fool there who fights. It's not his fault that the man was +born a fool, now is it?" + +"Mebbe not----" + +"Of course not. A burglar kills but one to get his pile, and then only +because he must, in self-defence. A big gambling capitalist corners +wheat, raises the price of bread and starves a hundred thousand children +to death to make his. It's not stained with blood. Every dollar is +soaked in it! Who cares?" + +"Yeah--who cares?" Nance growled fiercely. + +Jim smiled at his easy triumph. + +"It's dog eat dog and the devil take the hindmost now!" + +"That's so--ain't it?" she agreed. + +"You bet! Business is business and the best man's the man that gets +there. Steal a hundred dollars, you go to the penitentiary--foolish! +Don't do it. Steal a million and go to the Senate!" + +"Yeah!" Nance laughed. + +"Money--money for its own sake," he rushed on savagely--"right or wrong. +That's all there is in it today, old girl--take it from me!" + +He paused and his smile ended in a sneer. + +"Man shall eat bread in the sweat of his brow? Only fools SWEAT!" + +Nance turned her face away, sighed softly, glancing back at Jim +furtively. + +"I reckon that's so, too. Have another drink, stranger?" + +She poured another cup of whiskey and one for herself. She raised hers +as if to drink and deftly threw the contents over her shoulder. + +Jim seized the jug and poured again. + +"Once more. Come, I've another toast for you. You'll drink this one I +know." + +He lifted his cup and rose a little unsteadily. Nance stood with +uplifted cup watching him. + +"As the poet sings," he began with a bow to the old woman: + + "France has her lily, England the rose, + Everybody knows where the shamrock grows-- + Scotland has her thistle flowerin' on the hill, + But the American Emblem--is a One Dollar Bill!" + +He broke into a boisterous laugh. + +"How's that, old girl?" + +"That's bully, stranger!" + +He lifted high his cup. + +"We drink to the Almighty Dollar!" + +"To the Almighty Dollar!" Nance echoed, clinking her cup against his. + +He drained it while she again emptied hers over her shoulder. + +"By golly, you're all right, old girl. You're a good fellow!" he cried +jovially. + +"Yeah--have another?" she urged. + +She filled his cup and placed it on his side of the table. His eye had +rested on the gold. He ignored the invitation, lifted a handful of gold +and dropped it with musical clinking into the plate. + +"Blood marks--tommyrot!" he sneered. + +"Yeah--tommyrot!" she echoed. "That's what I say, too!" + +Jim wagged his head sagely: + +"Now you're talking sense, old girl!" + +He leaned across the table and pointed his finger straight into her +face. + +"And don't you forget what I'm tellin' ye tonight--get money, get +money!" + +He stopped suddenly and a sneer curled his lips. + +"Oh I Get it `fairly'--get it `squarely'--but whatever you do--by +God!--GET IT!" + +His uplifted hand crashed downward and gripped the gold. His fingers +slowly relaxed and the coin clinked into the plate. + +Nance watched him eagerly. + +"Yeah, that's it--get it," she breathed slowly. + +Jim lifted his drooping eyes to hers. + +"If you've GOT it, you're a god--you can do no wrong. Nobody's goin' to +ask you HOW you got it; all they want to know is HAVE you got it!" + +"Yeah, nobody's goin' to ask you HOW you got it," Nance repeated, "they +just want to know HAVE you got it! Yeah--yeah!" + +"You bet!" + +Jim's head sank in the first stupor of liquor and he dropped into the +chair. + +The old woman leaned eagerly over the plate of gold and clutched the +coin with growing avarice. Her fingers opened and closed like a bird +of prey. She touched it lovingly and held it in her hands a long time +watching Jim's nodding head with furtive glances. She dropped a handful +of coin into the plate and watched its effect on the drooping head. + +He looked up and his eyes fell again. + +"Bed-time, I reckon," Nance said. + +"Yep--pretty tired. I'll turn in." + +The old woman glided sidewise to the table near the kitchen door, picked +up the lantern and started to feel her way backwards through the calico +curtains. + +"See you in the mornin', old gal," Jim drawled--"Christmas mornin'--an' +I got somethin' else to tell ye in the mornin'----" + +Again his head sank to the table. + +"All right, mister--good night!" Nance answered, slowly feeling her way +through the opening, watching him intently. + +Jim lifted his head and nodded heavily for a moment. His hand slipped +from the table and he drew himself up sharply and rose, holding to the +table for support. + +He picked up the plate of coin, poured it back in the bag, snapped the +lock and walked with the bag unsteadily to the couch. He placed the bag +under the pillow and pressed the soft feathers down over it, turned back +to the table and extinguished the candle by a quick, square blow of his +open palm on the flame. + +He staggered to the couch, pushed the coats to the floor, dropped +heavily, drew the lap-robe over him and in five minutes was sound +asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. NANCE'S STOREHOUSE + + +The cabin was still. Only the broken sobbing of the woman in the little +shed-room came faint and low on old Nance's ears. + +She slipped from the kitchen into the shadows of a tree near the house +and listened until the sobbing ceased. + +She crept close to the shed and stood silent and ghost-like beside its +daubed walls. Immovable as a cat crouching in the hedge to spring on her +prey, she waited until the waning moon had sunk behind the crags. She +laid her ear close to a crack in the logs from which she had once pushed +the red mud to let in the light. All was still at last. The sobbing had +stopped. The young wife was sound asleep. + +She had wondered vaguely at first about the crying, but quickly made +up her mind that it was only a lover's quarrel. She was glad of it. The +girl would bar her door and sulk all night. So much the better. There +would be no danger of her entering the living-room where Jim slept. + +She would wait a little longer to make sure she was asleep. A half hour +passed. The white-shrouded figure stood immovable, her keen ears tuned +for the slightest sounds from within. + +The stars were shining in unusual brilliance. She could see her way +through the shadows even better than in full moon. A wolf was crying +again for his mate from a distant crag. She had grown used to his howls. +He had come close to her cabin once in the day-time. She had tried to +creep on him and show her friendliness. But he had fled in terror at the +first glimpse of her dress through the parting underbrush. + +An owl was calling from his dead tree-top down the valley. She smiled at +his familiar, tremulous call. Her own eyes were wide as his tonight. +No sight or sound of Nature among the crags about her cabin had for her +spirit any terror. The night was her mantle. + +She added to the meager living which she had wrung from her mountain +farm by trading with the illicit distillers of the backwoods of Yancey +County. Too ignorant to run a distillery of her own, she had stored +their goods with such skill that the hiding-place had never been +discovered. She loved good whiskey herself. She had tried to find in its +fiery depths the dreams of happiness life had so cruelly denied her. + +The hiding-place of this whiskey had puzzled the revenue officers of +every administration for years. They had watched her house day and +night. Not one of them had ever struck the trail to her storehouse. + +The game had excited her imagination. She loved its daring and +danger. That there was the slightest element of wrong or crime in her +association with the moonshiners of her native heath had never for a +moment entered her mind. It was no crime to make whiskey. This was the +first article of the creed of the true North Carolina mountaineer. +They had from the first declared that the tax levied by the Federal +Government on the product of their industry was an infamous act of +tyranny. They had fought this tyranny for two generations. They would +fight it as long as there was breath in their bodies and a single load +of powder and buckshot for their rifles. + +Nance considered herself a heroine in the pride of her soul for the +shrewd and successful defiance she had given the revenue officers for so +many years. + +She had been too cunning to even allow one of her own people to know the +secret of her store house. For that reason it had never been discovered. +She always stored the whiskey temporarily in the potato shed or under +the cabin floor until night and then alone carried it to the place she +had discovered. + +She laughed softly at the thought of this deep hiding-place tonight. +Its temperature never varied winter or summer. Not a track had ever been +left at its door. She might live a hundred years and, unless some spying +eye should see her enter, its existence could never be suspected. + +She tipped softly into the kitchen, walked to the door of the +living-room and listened to the even, heavy breathing of the man on the +couch. + +Once more the faint echo of a sob in the shed beyond came to her keen +ears. She stood for five minutes. It was not repeated. She had only +imagined it. The girl was still asleep. + +She turned noiselessly back into the kitchen, put a box of matches in +her pocket, felt her way to the low shelf on which she had placed the +battered lantern, picked it up and shook it to make sure the oil was +sufficient. + +She stepped lightly into the yard, pushed open the gate of the +split-board garden fence, walked along the edge to the corner and +selected a spade from the tools that leaned against the boards. + +Carrying the spade and unlighted lantern in her left hand, she glided +from the yard into the woods. Her right hand before her to feel for +underbrush or overhanging bough, she made her way rapidly to the +swift-flowing mountain brook. + +Arrived at the water whose musical ripple had guided her steps, she +removed her shoes and placed them beside a tree. She wore no stockings. +The faded skirt she raised and tucked into her belt. She could wade knee +deep now without hindrance. + +Seizing the spade and lantern, she made her way slowly and carefully +downstream for three hundred yards and paused beside a shelving ledge +which projected half-way across the brook. + +She paused and listened again for full ten minutes, immovable as the +rock on which her thin, bony hand rested. The stars were looking, but +they could only peep through the network of overhanging trees. + +Feeling her way along the rock until the ledge rose beyond her reach, +she bent low and waded through a still pool of eddying water straight +under the mountain-side for more than a hundred feet. Her extended right +hand had felt for the stone ceiling above her head until it ran abruptly +out of reach. + +She straightened her body and took a deep breath. Ten steps she counted +carefully and placed her bare feet on the dry rock beyond the water. + +Carefully picking her way up the sloping bank until she reached a +stretch of soft earth, she sank to her hands and knees and crawled +through an opening less than three feet in height. + +"Thar now!" she laughed. "Let 'em find me if they can!" + +She lighted her lantern and seated herself on a boulder to rest--one +hundred and fifty feet in the depths of a mountain. The cavern was ten +feet in height and fifty feet in length. The projecting ledges of rock +made innumerable shelves on which a merchant might have displayed his +wares. + +The old woman was too shrewd for that. Her jugs were carefully planted +in the ground behind two fallen boulders, and their hiding-place +concealed by a layer of drift which she had gathered from the edge +of the water. She had taken this precaution against the day when some +curious explorer might stumble on her secret as she had found it hunting +ginsing roots in the woods overhead. Her foot had slipped suddenly +through a hole in the soft mould. She peered cautiously below and could +see no bottom. She dropped a stone and heard it strike in the depths. +She made her way down the side of the crag and found the opening through +the still eddying waters. The hole through the roof she had long ago +plugged and covered with earth and dry leaves. + +She carried her lantern and spade to the further end of her storehouse +and dug a hole in the earth about two feet in depth. The earth she +carefully placed in a heap. + +"That's the place!" she giggled excitedly. + +She left her lantern burning, dropped again on the soft, mould-covered +earth and quickly emerged on the stone banks of the wide, still pool. +Her hand high extended above her head, she waded through the water until +she touched the heavy ceiling, lowered her body again to a stooping +position and rapidly made her way out into the bed of the brook. + +She passed eagerly along the babbling path and stopped with sure +instinct at the tree beside whose trunk she had placed her shoes. + +In five minutes she had made her way through the woods and reached +the house. She tipped into the kitchen and stood in the doorway or the +living-room watching her sleeping guest. The even breathing assured her +that all was well. Her plan couldn't fail. She listened again for the +sobs in the shed-room. + +She was sure once that she heard them. Five minutes passed and still she +was uncertain. To avoid any possible accident she tipped back through +the kitchen, circled the house and placed her ear against the crack in +the logs. + +The girl was sobbing--or was she praying? She crouched beside the wall, +waited and listened. The night wind stirred the dead leaves at her feet. +She lifted her head with a sudden start, laughed softly and bent again +to listen. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. TRAPPED + +The sobbing in the little room was the only sound that came from one of +the grimmest battle-fields from which the soul of a woman ever emerged +alive. + +To the first rush of cowardly tears Mary had yielded utterly. She had +fallen across the high-puffed feather mattress of the bed, shivering in +humble gratitude at her escape from the horror of blindness. The grip +of his claw-like fingers on her throat came back to her now in sickening +waves. The blood was still trickling from the wound which his nails had +made when she tore them loose in her first mad fight for breath. + +She lifted her body and breathed deeply to make sure her throat was +free. God in heaven! Could she ever forget the hideous sinking of body +and soul down into the depths of the black abyss! She had seen the face +of Death and it was horrible. Life, warm and throbbing, was sweet. She +loved it. She hated Death. + +Yes--she was a coward. She knew it now, and didn't care. + +She sprang to her feet with sudden fear. He might attack her again to +make sure that her soul had been completely crushed. + +She crept to the door and felt its edges. + +"Yes, thank God, there's a place for the bar!" She shivered. + +She ran her trembling fingers carefully along the rough logs and found +it in the corner. She slipped it cautiously into the iron sockets, +staggered to the bed and dropped in grateful assurance of safety for the +moment. She buried her face in the pillow to fight back the sobs. How +great her fall! She could crawl on her hands and knees to Jane Anderson +now and beg for protection. The last shred of pretense was gone. The +bankrupt soul stood naked and shivering, the last rag torn from pride. + +What a miserable fight she had made, too, when put to the test! Ella had +at least proved herself worthy to live. The scrub-woman had risen in the +strength of desperation and killed the beast who had maimed her. She had +only sunk a limp mass of shivering, helpless cowardice and fled from the +room whining and pleading for mercy. + +She could never respect herself again. The scene came back in vivid +flashes. His eyes, glowing like two balls of blue fire, froze the blood +in her veins--his voice the rasping cold steel of a file. And this +coarse, ugly beast had held her in the spell of love. She had clung to +him, kissed him in rapture and yielded herself to him soul and body. And +he had gripped her delicate throat and choked her into insensibility, +dropping her limp form from his hands like a strangled rat. She could +remember the half-conscious moment that preceded the total darkness as +she felt his grip relax. + +He would choke and beat her again, too. He had said it in the sneering +laughter at the door. + +"A good little wife now and it's all right!" + +And if you're not obedient to my whims I'll choke you until you are! +That was precisely what he meant. That he was capable of any depth of +degradation, and that he meant to drag her with him, there could be no +longer the shadow of a doubt. + +She could not endure another scene like that. She sprang to her feet +again, shivering with terror. She could hear the hum of the conversation +in the next room. He was persuading his mother to join in his criminal +career. He was busy with his oily tongue transforming the simple, +ignorant, lonely old woman into an avaricious fiend who would receive +his blood-stained booty and rejoice in it. + +He was laughing again. She put her trembling hands over her ears to shut +out the sound. He had laughed at her shame and cowardice. It made her +flesh creep to hear it. + +She would escape. The mountain road was dark and narrow and crooked. She +would lose her way in the night, perhaps. No matter. She could keep +warm by walking. At dawn she would find her way to a cabin and ask +protection. If she could reach Asheville, a telegram would bring +her father. She wouldn't lose a minute. Her hat and coat were in the +living-room. She would go bareheaded and without a coat. In the morning +she could borrow one from the woman at the Mount Mitchell house. + +She crept cautiously along the walls of the room searching for a door or +window. There must be a way out. She made the round without discovering +an opening of any kind. There must be a window of some kind high up for +ventilation. There was no glass in it, of course. It was closed by a +board shutter--if she could reach it. + +She began at the door, found the corner of the room and stretched her +arms upward until they touched the low, rough joist. Over every foot of +its surface she ran her fingers, carefully feeling for a window. There +was none! + +She found an open crack and peered through. The stars were shining cold +and clear in the December sky. The twinkling heavens reminded her that +it was Christmas Eve. The dawn she hoped to see in the woods, if she +could escape, would be Christmas morning. There was no time for idle +tears of self-pity. + +The one thought that beat in every throb of her heart now was to escape +from her cell and put a thousand miles between her body and the beast +who had strangled her. She might break through the roof! As a rule the +shed-rooms of these rude mountain cabins were covered with split boards +lightly nailed to narrow strips eighteen inches apart. If there were +no ceiling, or if the ceiling were not nailed down and she should +move carefully, she might break through near the eaves and drop to the +ground. The cabin was not more than nine feet in height. + +She raised herself on the footrail of the bed and felt the ceiling. +There could be no mistake. It was there. She pressed gently at first and +then with all her might against each board. They were nailed hard and +fast. + +She sank to the bed again in despair. She had barred herself in a prison +cell. There was no escape except by the door through which the beast had +driven her. And he would probably draw the couch against it and sleep +there. + +And then came the crushing conviction that such flight would be of no +avail in a struggle with a man of Jim's character. His laughing words of +triumph rang through her soul now in all their full, sinister meaning. + +"The world ain't big enough for you to get away from me, Kiddo!" + +It wasn't big enough. She knew it with tragic and terrible certainty. In +his blind, brutal way he loved her with a savage passion that would halt +at nothing. He would follow her to the ends of the earth and kill any +living thing that stood in his way. And when he found her at last he +would kill her. + +How could she have been so blind! There was no longer any mystery about +his personality. The slender hands and feet, which she had thought +beautiful in her infatuation, were merely the hands and feet of a thief. +The strength of jaw and neck and shoulders had made him the most daring +of all thieves--a burglar. + +His strange moods were no longer strange. He laughed for joy at the wild +mountain gorges and crags because he saw safety for the hiding-place of +priceless jewels he meant to steal. + +There could be no escape in divorce from such a brute. He was happy in +her cowardly submission. He would laugh at the idea of divorce. Should +she dare to betray the secrets of his life of crime, he would kill her +as he would grind a snake under his heel. + +A single clause from the marriage ceremony kept ringing its +knell--"until DEATH DO US PART!" + +She knelt at last and prayed for Death. + +"Oh, dear God, let me die, let me die!" + +Suicide was a crime unthinkable to her pious mind. Only God now could +save her in his infinite mercy. + +She lay for a long time on the floor where she had fallen in utter +despair. The tears that brought relief at first had ceased to flow. +She had beaten her bleeding wings against every barrier, and they were +beyond her strength. + +Out of the first stupor of complete surrender, her senses slowly +emerged. She felt the bare boards of the floor and wondered vaguely why +she was there. + +The hum of voices again came to her ears. She lay still and listened. +A single terrible sentence she caught. He spoke it with such malignant +power she could see through the darkness the flames of hell leaping in +his eyes. + +"Nobody's going to ask you HOW you got it--all they want to know is HAVE +you got it!" + +She laughed hysterically at the idea of reformation that had stirred her +to such desperate appeal in the first shock of discovery. As well dream +of reforming the Devil as the man who expressed his philosophy of +life in that sentence! Blood dripped from every word, the blood of the +innocent and the helpless who might consciously or unconsciously stand +in his way. The man who had made up his mind to get rich quick, no +matter what the cost to others, would commit murder without the quiver +of an eyelid. If she had ever had a doubt of this fact, she could have +none after her experience of tonight. + +She wondered vaguely of the effects he was producing on his ignorant +old mother. Her words were too low and indistinct to be heard. But she +feared the worst. The temptation of the gold he was showing her would be +more than she could resist. + +She staggered to her feet and fell limp across the bed. The iron walls +of a life prison closed about her crushed soul. The one door that could +open was Death and only God's hand could lift its bars. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE + + +Hour after hour Nance stood beside the wall of the shed-room and with +the patience of a cat waited for the sobs to cease and the girl to be +quiet. + +Mary had risen from the bed once and paced the floor in the dark for +more than an hour, like a frightened, wild animal, trapped and caged for +the first time in life. With growing wonder, Nance counted the beat +of her foot-fall, five steps one way and five back--round after round, +round after round, in ceaseless repetition. + +"Goddlemighty, is she gone clean crazy!" she exclaimed. + +The footsteps stopped at last and the low sobs came once more from the +bed. The old woman crouched down on a stone beside the log wall and drew +the shawl about her shoulders. + +A rooster crowed for midnight. Still the restless thing inside was +stirring. Nance rose uneasily. Her lantern was still burning in her +storehouse under the cliff. The wick might eat so low it would explode. +She had heard that such things happened to lamps. It was foolish to have +left it burning, anyhow. + +She glided noiselessly from the house into the woods, entered her hidden +door exactly as she had done before, extinguished the lantern, placed it +on a shelving rock and put a dozen matches beside it. + +In ten minutes she had returned to the house and crouched once more +against the wall of the shed. + +The low, pleading voice was praying. She pressed her ear to the crack +and heard distinctly. She must be patient. Her plan was sure to succeed +if she were only patient. No woman could sob and pray and walk all +night. She must fall down unconscious from sheer exhaustion before day. + +The old woman slipped into the kitchen, took up the quilt which she had +spread on the floor for her bed, wrapped it about her thin shoulders and +returned to her watch. + +Again and again she rose, believing her patience had won, and placed +her ear to the crack only to hear a sound within which told her only too +plainly that the girl was yet awake. Sometimes it was a sigh, sometimes +she cleared her throat, sometimes she tossed restlessly. One spoken +sentence she heard again and again: + +"Oh, dear God, have mercy on my lost soul!" + +"What can be the matter with the fool critter!" Nance muttered. "Is she +moanin' for sin? To be shore, they don't have no revival meetings this +time o' year!" + +She had known sinners to mourn through a whole summer sometimes, but +never in all her experience in religious revivals had a mourner carried +it over into winter. The dancing had always eased the tension and +brought a relapse to sinful thoughts. + +The hours dragged until the roosters began to crow for day. It would +soon be light. + +She must act now. There was no time to lose. She pressed her ear to the +crack once more and held it five minutes. + +Not a sound came from within. The broken spirit had yielded to the +stupor of exhaustion at last. + +With swift, cat's tread Nance circled the cabin and entered the kitchen. +The quilt she carefully spread on the floor leading to the entrance to +the living-room, crossed it softly and stood in the doorway with her +long hands on the calico hangings. + +For five minutes she remained immovable and listened to the deep, +regular breathing of the sleeping man. Her wits were keen, her eyes +wide. She could see the dim outlines of the furniture by the starlight +through the window. Small objects in the room were, of course, +invisible. To light a candle was not to be thought of. It might wake the +sleeper. + +She knew how to make the light without a noise or its rays reaching +his face. He had startled her with the electric torch because of its +novelty. She was no longer afraid. She would know how to press the +button. He had left the thing lying on the table beside the black bag. +He might have hidden the gold. He would not remember in his drunken +stupor to move the electric torch. + +She glided ghost-like into the room. Her bare feet were velvet. She knew +every board in the floor. There was one near the table that creaked. She +counted her steps and cleared the spot without a sound. + +Her thin fingers found the edge of the table and slipped with uncanny +touch along its surface until her hand closed on the rounded form of the +torch. + +Without moving in her tracks she turned the light on the table and in +every nook and corner of the room beyond. She slowly swung her body on a +pivot, flashing the light into each shadow and over every inch of floor, +turning always in a circle toward the couch. + +Satisfied that the object she sought was nowhere in the circle she had +covered, she moved a step from the table and winked the light beneath +it. She squatted on the floor and flashed it carefully over every inch +of its boards from one corner of the room to the other and under the +couch. + +She rose softly, glided behind the head of the sleeping man and stood +back some six feet, lest the flash of the torch might disturb him. +She threw its rays behind the couch and slowly raised them until they +covered the dirty pillow on which Jim was sleeping. There beneath the +pillow lay the bag with its precious treasure. He was sleeping on it. +She had feared this, but felt sure that the whiskey he had drunk would +hold him in its stupor until late next morning. + +She crouched low and fixed the light's ray slowly on the bag that her +hand might not err the slightest in its touch. She laid her bony fingers +on it with a slow, imperceptible movement, held them there a moment and +moved the bag the slightest bit to test the sleeper's wakefulness. To +her surprise he stirred instantly. + +"What'ell!" he growled sleepily. + +She stood motionless until he was breathing again with deep, even, heavy +throb. Gliding back to the table, she flashed the light again on the +bag and studied its position. His big neck rested squarely across it. To +move it without waking him was a physical impossibility. + +Here was a dilemma she had not fully faced. She had not believed it +possible for him to place the bag where she could not get it. Her +only purpose up to this moment had been to take it and store it safely +beneath the soft earth in the inner recess of the cave. He would miss +it in the morning, of course. She would express her amazement. The bar +would be down from the front door. Someone had robbed him. The money +could never be found. + +She had made up her mind to take it the moment he had convinced her that +his philosophy of life was true. His eloquence had transformed her +from an ignorant old woman, content with her poverty and dirt, into a +dangerous and daring criminal. + +There was no such thing as failure to be thought of now for a moment. +The spade in the inner room of her store-house could be put to larger +use if necessary. With the strength of the madness now on her she could +carry his body on her back through the woods. The world would be none +the wiser. He had quarreled with his wife, and left her in a rage that +night. That was all she knew. The sheriff of neither county could +afford to bother his head long over an insolvable mystery. Besides, both +sheriffs were her friends. + +Her decision was instantaneous when once she saw that it was safe. + +She smiled over the grim irony of the thing--his words kept humming in +her ears, his voice, low and persuasive: + +"Suppose now the man that got that money had to kill a fool to take +it--what of it? You don't get big money any other way!" + +On the shelf beside the door was a butcher knife which she also used for +carving. She had sharpened its point that night to carve her Christmas +turkey next day. + +She raised the torch and flashed its rays on the shelf to guide her +hand, crept to the wall, took down the knife and laid the electric torch +in its place. + +Steadying her body against the wall, her arms outspread, she edged +her way behind the couch and bent over the sleeping man until by his +breathing she had located his heart. + +She raised her tall figure and brought the knife down with a crash into +his breast. With a sudden wrench she drew it from the wound and crouched +among the shadows watching him with wide-dilated eyes. + +The stricken sleeper gasped for breath, his writhing body fairly +leaped into the air, bounded on the couch and stood erect. He staggered +backward and lurched toward her. The crouching figure bent low, gripping +the knife and waiting for her chance to strike the last blow. + +Strangling with blood, Jim opened his eyes and saw the old woman +creeping nearer through the gray light of the dawn. + +He threw his hands above his head and tried to shout his warning. She +was on him, her trembling hand feeling for his throat, before he could +speak. + +Struggling, in his weakened condition, to tear her fingers away, he +gasped: + +"Here! Here! Great God! Do you know what you're doing?" + +"I just want yer money," she whispered. "That's all, and I'm a-goin' ter +have it!" + +Her fingers closed and the knife sank into his neck. + +She sprang back and watched him lurch and fall across the couch. His +body writhed a moment in agony and was still. + +Holding the knife in her hand, she tore open the bag and thrust her +itching fingers into the gold, gripping it fiercely. + +"Nobody's goin' to ask ye how ye got it--they just want to know HAVE ye +got it--yeah! Yeah----" + +The last word died on her lips. The door of the shed-room suddenly +opened and Mary stood before her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. DELIVERANCE + +The first dim noises of the tragedy in the living-room Mary's stupefied +senses had confused with a nightmare which she had been painfully +fighting. + +The torch in Nance's hand had flashed through a crack into her face +once. It was the flame of a revolver in the hands of a thief in Jim's +den in New York. She merely felt it. Her eyes had been gouged out and +she was blind. A gang of his coarse companions were holding a council, +cursing, drinking, fighting. Jim had sprung between two snarling brutes +and knocked the revolver into the air. The flame had scorched her face. + +With an oath he had slapped her. + +"Get out, you damned little fool!" he growled. "You're always in the way +when you're not wanted. Nobody can ever find you when there's work to be +done----" + +"But I can't see, Jim dear," she pleaded. "I do not know when things are +out of place----" + +"You're a liar!" he roared. "You know where every piece of junk stands +in this room better than I do. I can't bring a friend into that door +that you don't know it. You can hear the swish of a woman's skirt on the +stairs four stories below----" + +"I only asked you who the woman was who came in with you, Jim----" + +His fingers gripped her throat and stopped her breath. Through the roar +of surging blood she could barely hear the vile words he was dinning +into her ears. + +"I know you just asked me, you nosing little devil, and it's none of +your business! She's a pal of mine, if you want to know, the slickest +thief that ever robbed a flat. She's got more sense in a minute than +you'll ever have in a lifetime. She's going to live here with me now. +You can sleep on the cot in the kitchen. And you come when she calls, +if you know what's good for your lazy hide. I've told her to thrash the +life out of you if you dare to give her any impudence." + +She had cowered at his feet and begged him not to beat her again. The +fumes of whiskey and stale beer filled the place. + +Jim turned from her to quell a new fight at the other end of the room. +Another woman was there, coarse, dirty, beastly. She drew a knife and +demanded her share of the night's robberies. She was trying to break +from the men who held her to stab Jim. They were all fighting and +smashing the furniture---- + +She sprang from the bed with a cry of horror. The noise was real! It was +not a dream. The beast inside was stumbling in the dark. His passions +fired by liquor, he was fumbling to find his way into her room. + +She rushed to the door and put her shoulder against the bar, panting in +terror. + +She heard his strangling cry: + +"Here! Here! Great God! Do you know what you're doing?" + +And then his mother's voice, mad with greed, cruel, merciless: + +"I just want yer money--that's all, an' I'm goin' to have it!" + +She heard the clinch in the struggle and the dull blow of the knife. +In a sudden flash she saw it all. He had succeeded in rousing Nance's +avarice and transforming her into a fiend. Without knowing it she was +stabbing her own son to death in the room in which he had been born! + +She tried to scream and her lips refused to move. She tried to hurry to +the rescue and her knees turned to water. + +Gasping for breath, she drew the bar from her prison door and walked +slowly into the room. + +Nance's tall, bony figure was still crouched over the open bag, her +left hand buried in the gold, her right gripping the knife, her face +convulsed with greed--avarice and murder blended into perfect hell-lit +unity at last. + +Jim lay on his back, limp and still, obliquely across the couch, his +breast bared in the struggle, the blood oozing a widening scarlet blot +on his white shirt. His head had fallen backward over the edge and could +not be seen. + +Without moving a muscle, her body crouching, Nance spoke: + +"You wuz awake--you heered?" + +"Yes!" + +The gleaming eyes burned through the gray dawn, two points of +scintillating, hellish light fixed in purpose on the intruder. + +She had only meant to take the money. The fool had fought. She killed +him because she had to. And now the sobbing, sniveling little idiot who +had kept her waiting all night had stuck her nose into some thing that +didn't concern her. If she opened her mouth, the gallows would be the +end. + +She would open it too. Of course she would. She was his wife. They had +quarreled, but the simpleton would blab. Nance knew this with unerring +instinct. It was no use to offer her half the money. She didn't have +sense enough to take it. She knew those pious, baby faces--well, there +was room for two in the cave under the cliff. It was daylight now. No +matter; it was Christmas morning. No man or woman ever darkened her door +on Christmas day. She could hide their bodies until dark, and then it +was easy. She would be in New York herself before anyone could suspect +the meaning of that automobile in the shed or the owners would trouble +themselves to come after it. + +Again her decision was quick and fierce. Her hand was on the bag. She +would hold it against the world, all hell and heaven. + +With the leap of a tigress she was on the girl, the bag gripped in her +left hand, the knife in her right. + +To her amazement the trembling figure stood stock still gazing at her +with a strange look of pity. + +"Well!" Nance growled. "I ain't goin' ter be took now I've got this +money--I'm goin' to New York ter find my boy!" + +She lifted the knife and stopped in sheer stupor of surprise at the +girl's immovable body and staring eyes. Had she gone crazy? What on +earth could it mean? No girl of her youth and beauty could look death +in the face without a tremor. No woman in her right senses could see +the body of her dead husband lying there red and yet quivering without a +sign. It was more than even Nance's nerves could endure. + +She lowered the knife and peered into the girl's set face and glanced +quickly about the room. Could she have called help? Was the house +surrounded? It was impossible. She couldn't have escaped. What did it +mean? + +The old woman drew back with a terror she couldn't understand. + +"What are you looking at me like that for?" she panted. + +Mary held her gaze in lingering pity. Her heart went out now to the +miserable creature trembling in the presence of her victim. The blow +must fall that would crush the soul out of her body at one stroke. The +gray hair had tumbled over her distorted features, the ragged dress had +been torn from her throat in the struggle and her flat, bony breast was +exposed. + +"You don't--have--to--go--to--New York--to--find--your--boy!" the +strained voice said at last. + +Nance frowned in surprise and flew back at her in rage. + +"Yes I do, too--he lives thar!" + +The little figure straightened above the crouching form. + +"He's here!" + +Nance sank slowly against the table and rested the bag on the edge of +the chair. Its weight was more than she could bear. She tried to glance +over her shoulder at the body on the couch and her courage failed. The +first suspicion of the hideous truth flashed through her stunned mind. +She couldn't grasp it at once. + +"Whar?" she whispered hoarsely. + +Mary lifted her arm slowly and pointed to the couch. + +"There!" + +Nance glared at her a moment and broke into a hysterical laugh. + +"It's a lie--a lie--a lie!" + +"It's true----" + +"Yer're just a lyin' ter me ter get away an give me up--but ye won't do +it--little Miss--old Nance is too smart for ye this time. Who told you +that?" + +"He told me tonight!" + +"He told you?" she repeated blankly. + +"Yes." + +"You're a liar!" she growled. "And I'll prove it--you move out o' your +tracks an' I'll cut your throat. My boy's got a scar on his neck--I know +right whar to look for it. Don't you move now till I see--I know you're +a liar----" + +She turned and with the quick trembling fingers of her right hand tore +the shirt back from the neck and saw the scar. She still held the bag +in her left hand. The muscles slowly relaxed and the bag fell endwise to +the floor, the gold crashing and rolling over the boards. She stared in +stupor and threw both hands above her streaming gray hair. + +"Lord God Almighty!" she shrieked. "Why didn't I think that he wuz +somebody else's boy if he weren't mine!" + +The thin body trembled and crumpled beside the couch. + +The girl lifted her head in a look of awe as if in prayer. + +"And God has set me free! free! free!" + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. THE DOCTOR + +Mary stood overwhelmed by the tragedy she had witnessed. For the time +her brain refused to record sensations. She had seen too much, felt too +much in the past eight hours. Soul and body were numb. + +The first impressions of returning consciousness were fixed on Nance. +She had risen suddenly from the floor and smoothed the hair back from +Jim's forehead with tender touch as if afraid to wake him. She drew the +quilt from the kitchen floor, spread it over the body, and lifted her +eyes to Mary's. It was only too plain. + +Reason had gone. + +She tipped close and put her fingers on her lips. + +"Sh! We mustn't wake him. He's tired. Let him sleep. It's my boy. He's +come home. We'll fix him a fine Christmas dinner. I've got a turkey. +I'll bake a cake----" she paused and laughed softly. "I've got eggs too, +fresh laid yesterday. We'll make egg-nog all day and all night. I ain't +had no Christmas since that devil stole him. We'll have one this time, +won't we?" + +The girl's wits were again alert. She must run for help. A minute to +humor the old woman's delusion and she might return before any harm +came to her. Jim had not moved a muscle. It was plain that he was beyond +help. + +"Yes," Mary answered cheerfully. "You fix the cake--and I'll get the +wood to make a fire." + +Nance laughed again. + +"We'll have the dinner all ready for him when he wakes, won't we?" + +"Yes. I'll be back in a few minutes." + +Nance hurried into the kitchen humming an old song in a faltering voice +that sent the cold chills down the girl's spine. + +Mary slipped quietly through the door and ran with swift, sure foot down +the narrow road along which the machine had picked its way the afternoon +before. The cabin they had passed last could not be more than a mile. + +She made no effort to find the logs for pedestrians when the road +crossed the brook. She plunged straight through the babbling waters with +her shoes, regardless of skirts. + +Panting for breath, she saw the smoke curling from the cabin chimney a +quarter of a mile away. + +"Thank God!" she cried. "They're awake!" + +She was so glad to have reached her goal, her strength suddenly gave way +and she dropped to a boulder by the wayside to rest. In two minutes she +was up and running with all her might. + +She rushed to the door and knocked. + +A mountaineer in shirt-sleeves and stockings answered with a look of +mild wonder. + +"For God's sake come and help me. I must have a doctor quick. We spent +the night at Mrs. Owens'. She's lost her mind completely--a terrible +thing has happened--you'll help me?" + +"Cose I will, honey," the mountaineer drawled. "Jest ez quick ez I get +on my shoes." + +"Is there a doctor near?" she asked breathlessly. + +He answered without looking up: + +"The best one that God ever sent to a sick bed. He don't charge nobody +a cent in these parts. He just heals the sick because hit's his callin'. +Come from somewhar up North and built hisself a fine log house up on +the side of the mountains. Hit's full of all the medicines in the world, +too----" + +"Will you ask him to come for me?" Mary broke in. + +"I'll jump on my hoss an' have him thar in half a' hour. You can run +right back, honey, and look out for the po' ole critter till we get +thar." + +"Thank you! Thank you!" she answered grate fully. + +"Not at all, not at all!" he protested as he swung through the door +and hurried to the low-pitched sheds in which his horse and cow were +stabled. "Be thar in no time!" + +When Mary returned, Nance was still busy in the kitchen. She had built a +fire and put the turkey in the oven. + +Mary was counting the minutes now until the doctor should come. The old +woman's prattle about the return of her lost boy, so big and strong and +handsome, had become unendurable. She felt that she should scream and +collapse unless help came at once. She looked at her watch. It was just +thirty-five minutes from the time she had left the cabin in the valley +below. + +She sprang to her feet with a smothered cry of joy. The beat of a +horse's hoof at full gallop was ringing down the road. + +In two minutes the Doctor's firm footstep was heard at the kitchen door. + +Nance turned with a look of glad surprise. + +"Well, fur the land sake, ef hit ain't Doctor Mulford! Come right in!" +she cried. + +The Doctor seized her hand. + +"And how is my good friend, Mrs. Owens, this morning?" he asked +cheerfully. + +Mary was studying him with deep interest. She had asked herself the +question a hundred times how much she could tell him--what to say and +what to leave unsaid. One glance at his calm, intellectual face was +enough. He was a man of striking appearance, six feet tall, forty-five +years of age, hair prematurely gray and a slight stoop to his broad +shoulders. His brown eyes seemed to enfold the old woman in their +sympathy. + +Nance was chattering her answer to his greeting. + +"Oh, I'm feelin' fine, Doctor--" she dropped her voice +confidentially--"and you're just in time for a good dinner. My boy that +was lost has come home. He's a great big fellow, wears fine clothes and +come up the mountain all the way in a devil wagon." She put her hand +to her mouth. "Sh! He's asleep! We won't wake him till dinner! He's all +tired out." + +The Doctor nodded understandingly and turned toward Mary. + +"And this young lady?" + +"Oh, that's his wife from New York--ain't she purty?" + +The Doctor saw the delicate hands trembling and extended his. + +No word was spoken. None was needed. There was healing in his touch, +healing in his whole being. No man or woman could resist the appeal of +his personality. Their secrets were yielded with perfect faith. + +"Come with me quickly," Mary whispered. + +"I understand," he answered carelessly. + +Turning again to Nance, he said with easy confidence: + +"I'll not disturb you with your cooking, Mrs. Owens. Go right on with +it. I'll have a little chat with your son's wife. If she's from New York +I want to ask her about some of my people up there----" + +"All right," Nance answered, "but don't you wake HIM! Go with her inter +the shed-room." + +"We'll go on tip-toe!" the Doctor whispered. + +Nance nodded, smiled and bent again over the oven. + +Mary led him quickly through the living-room, head averted from the +couch, and into the prison cell in which she had passed the night. The +physician glanced with a startled look at the gold still scattered on +the floor. + +She seized his hand and swayed. + +He touched the brown hair of her bared head gently and pressed her hand. + +"Steady, now, child, tell me quickly." + +"Yes, yes," she gasped, "I'll tell you the truth----" + +He held her gaze. + +"And the whole truth--it's best." + +Mary nodded, tried to speak and failed. She drew her breath and steadied +herself, still gripping his hand. + +"I will," she began faintly. "He's dead----" + +She paused and nodded toward the living-room. + +"The man--her son?" + +"Yes. We came last night from Asheville. We were on our honeymoon. We +haven't been married but three weeks. I never knew the truth about his +life and character until last night when he told me that this old woman +was his mother. I found a case of jewels in the bag he carried--jewels +that belonged to a man in New York who was robbed and shot. I recognized +the case. He confessed to me at last in cold, brutal words that he was +a thief. I couldn't believe it at first. I tried to make him give up his +criminal career. He laughed at me. He gloried in it. I tried to leave +him. He choked me into insensibility and drove me into this cell, where +I spent the night. He brought the gold that you saw on the floor which +he had honestly made to give to his old mother--but for a devilish +purpose. He showed it to her last night to rouse her avarice and make +her first agree to hide his stolen goods. He succeeded too well. Before +he had revealed himself she slipped into the room at daylight while he +slept in a drunken stupor, murdered him and took the money. The struggle +waked me and I rushed in. She gripped her knife to kill me. I told her +that she had murdered her own son and she went mad----" + +She paused for breath and her lips trembled piteously. + +"You know what to do, Doctor?" + +"Yes!" + +"And you'll help me?" + +He smiled tenderly and nodded his head. + +"God knows you need it, child!" + +The nerves snapped at last, and she sank a limp heap at his feet. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. THE CALL DIVINE + +The Doctor threw off his coat and took charge of the stricken house. He +sent his waiting messenger for a faithful nurse, a mountain woman whom +he had trained, and began the fight for Mary's life. The collapse into +which she had fallen would require weeks of patient care. There was no +immediate danger of death, and while he awaited the arrival of help, he +turned into the living-room to examine the body of the slain husband. + +The head had fallen backward over the side of the lounge and a pool of +blood, still warm and red, lay on the floor in a widening circle beneath +it. His quick eye took in its significance at a glance. He sprang +forward, ripped the shirt wide open and applied his ear to the breast. + +"He's still alive!" he cried excitedly. + +He examined the ugly wound in the left side and found that the knife +had penetrated the lung. The heart had not been touched. The blow on the +neck had not been fatal. The shock of the final stroke had merely choked +the wounded man into collapse from the hemorrhage of the left lung. The +position into which the body had fallen across the couch had gradually +cleared the accumulated blood. There was a chance to save his life. + +In ten minutes he had applied stimulants and restored respiration, +but the deep wheeze from the stricken lung told only too plainly the +dangerous character of the wound. It would be a bitter fight. His +enormous vitality might win. The chances were against him. + +Jim's lips moved and he tried to speak. + +The Doctor placed his hand on his mouth and shook his head. The drooping +eyelids closed in grateful obedience. + +The beat of horses' hoofs echoed down the mountain road. His nurse and +messenger were coming. He decided at once to move Mary to his own house. +She must regain consciousness in new surroundings or her chance of +survival would be slender. To awake in this miserable cabin, the scene +of the tragedy she had witnessed, might be instantly fatal. Besides she +must not yet know that the brute who had choked her was alive and might +still hold the power of life and death over her frail body. She believed +him dead. It was best so. He might be dead and buried before she +recovered consciousness. The fever that burned her brain would +completely cloud reason for days. + +He hastily improvised a stretcher with a blanket and two strong +quilting-poles which stood in the corner of the room. Nance helped him +without question. She obeyed his slightest suggestion with childlike +submission. + +He placed Mary on the stretcher, wrapped her body in another warm +blanket and turned to his nurse and messenger: + +"Carry her to my house. Walk slowly and rest whenever you wish. +Don't wake her. Tell Aunt Abbie to put her to bed in the south room +overlooking the valley. Don't leave her a minute, Betty. She's in the +first collapse of brain fever. You know what to do. I'll be there in an +hour. You come back here, John. I want you." + +The mountaineer nodded and seized one end of the stretcher. The nurse +took up the other and the Doctor held wide the cabin door as they passed +out. + +For three weeks he fought the grim battle with Death for the two young +lives the Christmas tragedy had thrust into his hands. He gave his +entire time day and night to the desperate struggle. + +When pneumonia had developed and Jim's life hung by a hair, he slept on +the couch in the living-room of the cabin and had Nance make for herself +a bed on the floor of the kitchen. + +The old woman remained an obedient child. She cooked the Doctor's meals +and did the work about the house and yard as if nothing had disturbed +her habits of lonely plodding. She believed implicitly all that was told +her. Her son had pneumonia from cold he had taken in the long drive from +Asheville. The house must be kept quiet. John Sanders was helping her +nurse him. She was sure the Doctor would save him. + +Even the knife with which she had stabbed him made no impression on +her numbed senses. The Doctor had scoured every trace of blood from the +blade and put it back in its place on the shelf, lest she should miss it +and ask questions. She used it daily without the slightest memory of the +frightful story it might tell. + +Each morning before going to the cabin the Doctor watched with patience +for the first signs of returning consciousness in Mary's fever-wracked +body. The day she lifted her grateful eyes to his and her lips moved in +a tremulous question he raised his hand gently. + +"Sh! Child--don't talk! It's all right. You're getting better. I've +been with you every day. You're in my house now. You'll soon be yourself +again." + +She smiled wanly, put her delicate hand on his and pressed it +gratefully. + +"I understand. You thank me--you say that I am good to you. But I'm +not. This is my life. I heal the sick because I must. I love this battle +royal with Death. He beats me sometimes--but I never quit. I'm always +tramping on his trail, and I've won this fight!" + +The calm brown eyes held her in a spell and she smiled again. + +"Sleep now," he said soothingly. "Sleep day and night. Just wake to take +a little food--that's all and Nature will do the rest." + +He stroked her hand gently until her eyelids closed. + +Two days later Jim clung to the Doctor's hand and insisted on talking. + +"Better wait a little longer, boy," the physician answered kindly. +"You're not out of the woods yet----" + +"I can't wait--Doc----" Jim pleaded. "I've just got to ask you +something." + +"All right. You can talk five minutes." + +"My wife, Doc, how is she? You took her to your house, John told me. +She'll get well?" + +"Yes. She's rapidly recovering now." + +"What does she say about me?" + +"She thinks you're dead." + +"You haven't told her?" + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"She had all she could stand----" + +Jim stared in silence. + +"You think she'd be sorry to know I am alive?" he asked slowly. + +"It would be a great shock." + +The steel blue eyes slowly filled with tears. + +"God! I am rotten, ain't I?" + +"There's no doubt about that, my son," was the firm answer. + +"Why did you fight so hard to save me--I wonder?" + +"An old feud between Death and me." + +Jim suddenly seized the Doctor's hand. + +"Say, you can't fool me--you're a good one, Doc. You've been a friend to +me and you've got to help now--you've just got to. You're the only one +on earth who can. You've a great big heart and you can't go back on a +fellow that's down and out. Give me a chance! You will--won't you?" + +The hot fingers gripped the Doctor's hand with pleading tenderness. + +The brown eyes searched Jim's soul. + +"If you can show me it's worth while----" + +The fingers tightened their grip in silence. + +"Just give me a chance, Doc," he said at last, "and I'll show you! I +ain't never had a chance to really know what was right and what was +wrong. If I'd a lived here with my old mother she'd have told me. You +know what it is to be a stray dog on the streets of New York? Even then, +I'd have kept straight if I hadn't been robbed by a lawyer and his +pal. I didn't know what I was doin' till that night here in this +cabin--honest to God, I didn't----" + +He paused for breath and a tear stole down his cheek. He fought for +control of his emotions and went on in low tones. + +"I didn't know--till I saw my old mother creepin' on me in the shadows +with that big knife gleamin' in her hand! I tried to stop her and I +couldn't. I tried to yell and strangled with blood. I saw the flames of +hell in her eyes and I had kindled them there--God! I never knew until +that minute! I'm broken and bruised lyin' on the rocks now in the +lowest pit---- Give me your hand, Doc! You're my only friend--I'm goin' +straight from now on--so help me God!" + +He paused again for breath and sought the actor's eyes. + +"You'll stand by me, won't you?" + +A friendly grip closed on the trembling fingers. + +"Yes--I'll help you--if I can." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. THE MOTHER + +Mary was resting in the chair beneath the southern windows of the +sun-parlor of the Doctor's bungalow. He had built his home of logs +cut from the mountainside. Its rooms were supplied with every modern +convenience and comfort. Clear spring water from the cliff above poured +into the cypress tank constructed beneath the roof. An overflow pipe +sent a sparkling, bubbling and laughing through the lawn, refreshing the +wild flowers planted along its edges. + +The view from the window looking south was one of ravishing beauty and +endless charm. Perched on a rising spur of the Black Mountain the house +commanded a view of the long valley of the Swannanoa opening at +the lower end into the wide, sunlit sweep of the lower hills around +Asheville. Upward the balsam-crowned peaks towered among the clouds and +stars. + +No two hours of the day were just alike. Sometimes the sun was raining +showers of diamonds on the trembling tree-tops of the valleys while the +blackest storm clouds hung in ominous menace around Mount Mitchell and +the Cat-tail. Sometimes it was raining in the valley--the rain cloud a +level sheet of gray cloth stretching from the foot of the lawn across to +the crags beyond, while the sun wrapped the little bungalow in a warm, +white mantle. + +Mary had never tired of this enchanted world during the days of her +convalescence. The Doctor, with firm will, had lifted every care from +her mind. She had gratefully submitted to his orders, and asked no +questions. + +She began to wonder vaguely about his life and people and why he had +left the world in which a man of his culture and power must have moved, +to bury himself in these mountain wilds. She wondered if he had married, +separated from his wife and chosen the life of a recluse. He volunteered +no information about himself. + +When not attending his patients he spent his hours in the greenhouse +among his flowers or in the long library extension of the bungalow. +More than five thousand volumes filled the solid shelves. A massive oak +table, ten feet in length and four feet wide, stood in the center of the +room, always generously piled with books, magazines and papers. At the +end of this table he kept the row of books which bore immediately on the +theme he was studying. + +Beside the window opening on the view of the valley stood his +old-fashioned desk--six feet long, its top a labyrinth of pigeon-holes +and tiny drawers. + +He pursued his studies with boyish enthusiasm and chattered of them to +Mary by the hour--with never a word passing his lips about himself. + +Aunt Abbie, the cook, brought her a cup of tea, and Mary volunteered a +question. + +"Do you know the Doctor's people, Auntie?" she asked hesitatingly. + +"Lord, child, he's a mystery to everybody! All we know is that he's +the best man that ever walked the earth. He won't talk and the mountain +folks are too polite to nose into his business. He saved my boy's life +one summer, and when he was strong and well and went back to Asheville +to his work, I had nothin' to do but to hold my hands, and I come here +to cook for him. He tries to pay me wages but I laugh at him. I told him +if he could save my boy's life for nothin' I reckon I could cook him a +few good meals without pay----" + +Her eyes filled with tears. She brushed them off, laughed and added: + +"He lets me alone now and don't pester me no more about money." + +Her tea and toast finished, Mary placed the tray on the table, rose with +a sudden look of pain, and made her way slowly to the library. + +A warm fire of hardwood logs sparkled in the big stone fireplace. The +Doctor was out on a visit to a patient. He had given her the freedom of +the place and had especially insisted that she use his books and make +his library her resting place whenever her mind was fagged. She had +spent many quiet hours in its inspiring atmosphere. + +She seated herself at his desk and studied the calendar which hung above +it. A sudden terror overwhelmed her; she buried her face in her arms and +burst into tears. + +She was still lying across the desk, sobbing, when the Doctor walked +into the room. + +He touched her hair reproachfully with his firm hand. + +"Why, what's this? My little soldier has disobeyed orders?" + +"I don't want to live now," she sobbed. + +"And why not?" + +"I--I--am going to be a mother," she whispered. + +"So?" + +"The mother of a criminal! Oh, Doctor, it's horrible! Why did you let me +live? The hell I passed through that night was enough--God knows! This +will be unendurable. I've made up my mind--I'll die first----" + +"Rubbish, child! Rubbish!" he answered with a laugh. "Where did you get +all this misinformation?" + +"You know what my husband was. How can you ask?" + +"Because I happen to know also his wife--the mother-to-be of this +supposed criminal who has just set sail for the shores of our +planet--and I know that she is one of the purest and sweetest souls who +ever lost her way in the jungles of the world. If you were the criminal, +dear heart, the case might be hopeless. But you're not. You are only +the innocent victim of your own folly. That doesn't count in the game of +Nature----" + +"What do you mean?" she asked breathlessly. + +"Simply this: The part which the male plays in the reproduction of the +race is small in comparison with the role of the female. He is merely +a supernumerary who steps on the stage for a moment and speaks one word +announcing the arrival of the queen. The queen is the mother. She plays +the star role in the drama of Heredity. She is never off the stage for a +single moment. We inherit the most obvious physical traits from our male +ancestors but even these may be modified by the will of the mother." + +"Modified by the will of the mother?" she repeated blankly. + +"Certainly. There are yet long days and weeks and months before your +babe will be born--at least seven months. There's not a sight or sound +of earth or heaven that can reach or influence this coming human being +save through your eyes and ears and touch and soul. Almighty God can +speak His message only through you. You are his ambassador on earth in +this solemn hour. What your husband was, is of little importance. There +is not a moment, waking or sleeping, day or night, that does not bring +to you its divine opportunity. This human life is yours--absolutely to +mold and fashion in body and mind as you will." + +"You're just saying this to keep me from suicide," Mary interrupted. + +"I am telling you the simplest truth of physical life. You can even +change the contour of your baby's head if you like. You think in your +silly fears that the bull neck and jaw of the father will reappear +in the child. It might be so unless you see fit to change it. All any +father can do is to transmit general physical traits unless modified by +the will of the mother." + +"You mean that I can choose even the personal appearance of my child?" +she asked in blank amazement. + +"Exactly that. Choose the type of man you wish your babe to be and it +shall be so. Who in all the world would you prefer that he resemble?" + +"You," she answered promptly. + +He smiled gently. + +"That pays me for all my trouble, child! No doctor ever got a bigger +fee than that. Banks may fail, but I'll never lose it. Your choice +simplifies that matter very much. You won't need a picture in your +room----" + +"A picture could determine the features of an unborn babe?" she asked +incredulously. + +"Beyond a doubt, and it will determine character sometimes. I knew a +mother in the mountains of Vermont who hung the picture of a ship under +full sail in her living-room. She bore seven sons. Not one of them ever +saw the ocean until he was grown and yet all of them became sailors. +This was not an accident. In her age and loneliness she blamed God for +taking her children from her. Yet she had made sailors of them all by +the selection of a single piece of furniture in her room. Nature has a +way of starting her children on their journey through this world very +nearly equal--each a bundle of possibilities in the hands of a mother. +A father may transmit physical disease, if his body is unsound. Such +marriages should be prohibited by law. But nine-tenths of the spiritual +traits out of which character is formed are the work of the mother. A +criminal mother will bring into the world only criminals. A criminal +male may be the father of a saint. The responsibility of shaping the +destiny of the race rests with the mother----" + +The Doctor sprang to his feet and paced the floor, his arms gripped +behind his back in deep thought. He paused before the enraptured +listener and hesitated to speak the thought in his mind. + +He lifted his hand suddenly, his decision apparently made. + +"It is of the utmost importance to the race that our mothers shall +be pure. Better certainly if both father and mother are so. It is +indispensable that the mother shall be! On this elemental fact rests the +dual standard of sex morals. On this fact rests the hope of a glorified +humanity through the development of an intelligent motherhood. Stay here +with me until your child is born and I'll prove the truth of every word +I've spoken----" + +"Oh, if I only could!" + +"Why not?" + +"I couldn't impose such a burden on you!" she faltered. + +"You would confer on me the highest honor, if you will allow me to +direct you in this experiment." + +There was no mistaking his honesty and earnestness. There was no +refusing the appeal. + +"You really wish me to stay?" she asked. + +"I beg of you to stay! You will bring to me a new inspiration--new +faith--new courage to fight. Will you?" + +She extended her hand. + +"Yes." + +"And you will agree to follow my instructions?" + +"Absolutely." + +"Good. We begin from this moment. I give you my first orders. Forget +that James Anthony ever lived. Forget the tragedy of Christmas Eve. +You are going to be a mother. All other events in life pale before this +fact. God has conferred on you the highest honor He can give to +mortal. Keep your soul serene, your body strong. You are to worry about +nothing----" + +"I must pay you for this extra expense I impose, Doctor. I have a +thousand dollars in bank in New York," she interrupted. + +"Certainly, if you will be happier. My home is now your sanitarium. You +are my patient. Your board will cost me about eight dollars a week. All +right. You can pay that if you wish. + +"Take no thought now except on the business of being a mother. I will +make myself your father, your brother, your guardian, your physician, +your friend and companion. I will give you at once a course of reading. +You are to think only beautiful thoughts, see beautiful things, dream +beautiful dreams, hear beautiful music. I'm going to make you climb +these mountain peaks with me for the next three months and live among +the clouds. I'm going to refit your room with new furniture and pictures +and place in it a phonograph with the best music. When you are strong +enough you can work for me three hours a day as my secretary. You use +the typewriter?" + +"I'm an expert----" + +"Good! I'm writing a book which I'm going to call `The Rulers of the +World.' It is a study of Motherhood. I am one who believes that the +redemption of humanity awaits the realization by woman of her divine +call. When woman knows that she is really a co-creator with God in the +reproduction of the race, a new era will dawn for mankind. You promise +me faithfully to obey my instructions?" + +"Faithfully." + +"You're a wonderful subject on which to make an experiment. You are +young--in the first dawn of the glory of womanhood. Your body is +beautiful, your mind singularly pure and sweet. You must give me at once +the full power of your will in its concentration on Truth and Beauty. +The success or failure of this experiment will depend almost entirely on +your mentality and the use you make of it during these months in which +your babe is being formed. Whatever the shape of the body there is one +eternal certainty--only YOUR mind can reach the soul of this child. +If the father were the veriest fiend who ever existed and should +concentrate his mind to the task, not one thought from his darkened soul +could reach your babe! YOUR mind will be the ever-brooding, enfolding +spirit forming and fashioning character." + +He paused and his deep brown eyes flashed with enthusiasm. + +"Think of it! You are now creating an immortal being whose word may bend +a million wills to his. And you are doing this mighty work solely by +your mind. The physical processes are simple and automatic. + +"The first lesson you must learn and hold with deathless grip is that +thoughts are things. A thought can kill the body. A thought can heal the +body. If I am successful as a physician it is because I use this power +with my patients. With some I use drugs, with others none. With all +I use every ounce of mental power which God has given me. You will +remember this?" + +"Yes." + +He walked to the shelves and drew down a volume of poetry. + +"Read these poems until you are tired today--then sleep. I'll give you +a good novel tomorrow and when you've read it, a volume of philosophy. +When we climb the peaks, I'll give you a study of these rocks that will +tell you the story of their birth, their life, and their coming death. +We'll learn something of the birds and flowers next spring. We'll dream +great dreams and think great thoughts--you and I--in these wonderful +days and weeks and months which God shall give us together." + +She looked up at him through her tears: + +"Oh, Doctor, you have not only saved a miserable life: you have saved my +soul!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. A SOUL IS BORN + +It was more than a month after the experiment began before the Doctor +ventured to hint of Jim's survival. He had waited patiently until +Mary's strength had been fully restored and her mind filled with the new +enthusiasm for motherhood. He could tell her now with little risk. And +yet he ventured on the task with reluctance. He found her seated at her +favorite window overlooking the deep blue valley of the Swannanoa, a +volume of poetry in her lap. + +He touched her shoulder and she smiled in cheerful response. + +"You are content?" he asked. + +"A strange peace is slowly stealing into my heart," she responded +reverently. "I shall learn to love life again when my baby comes to help +me." + +"You remember your solemn promise?" + +"Have I not kept it?" she murmured. + +"Faithfully--and I remind you of it that you may not forget today for a +moment that your work is too high and holy to allow a shadow to darken +your spirit even for an hour. I have something to tell you that may +shock a little unless I warn you----" + +She lifted her eyes with a quick look of uneasiness, and studied his +immovable face. + +"You couldn't guess?" he laughed. + +She shook her head in puzzled silence. + +"Suppose I were to tell you," he went on evenly, "that I found a spark +of life in your husband's body that morning and drew him back from the +grave?" + +Her eyes closed and she stretched her hand toward the Doctor. + +He clasped the fingers firmly between both his palms, held and stroked +them gently. + +"You did save him?" she breathed. + +"Yes." + +"Thank God his poor old mother is not a murderer! But he is dead to me. +I shall never see him again--never!" + +"I thought you would feel that way," the Doctor quietly replied. + +"You won't let him come here?" she asked suddenly. + +"He won't try unless you consent----" + +Mary shuddered. + +"You don't know him----" + +The Doctor smiled. + +"I'm afraid you don't know him now, my child." + +"He has changed?" + +"The old, old miracle over again. He has been literally born again--this +time of the spirit." + +"It's incredible!" + +"It's true. He's a new man. I think his reformation is the real thing. +He's young. He's strong. He has brains. He has personality----" + +Mary lifted her hand. + +"All I ask of him is to keep out of my sight. The world is big enough +for us both. The past is now a nightmare. If I live to be a hundred +years old, with my dying breath I shall feel the grip of his fingers on +my throat----" + +She paused and closed her eyes. + +"Forget it! Forget it!" the Doctor laughed. "We have more important +things to think of now." + +"He wishes to see me?" + +"Begs every day that I ask you." + +"And you have hesitated these long weeks?" + +"Your strength and peace of mind were of greater importance than his +happiness, my dear. Let him wait until you please to see him." + +"He'll wait forever," was the firm answer. + +Jim smiled grimly when his friend bore back the message. + +"I'll never give up as long as there's breath in my body," he cried, +bringing his square jaws together with a snap. + +"That's the way to talk, my boy," the Doctor responded. + +"Anyhow you believe in me, Doc, don't you?" + +"Yes." + +"And you'll help me a little on the way if it gets dark--won't you?" + +"If I can--you may always depend on me." + +Jim clasped his outstretched hand gratefully. + +"Well, I'm going to make good." + +There was something so genuine and manly in the tones of his voice, he +compelled the Doctor's respect. A smaller man might have sneered. The +healer of souls and bodies had come to recognize with unerring instinct +the true and false note in the human voice. + +His heart went out in a wave of sympathy for the lonely, miserable young +animal who stood before him now, trembling with the first sharp pains +of the immortal thing that had awaked within. He slipped his arm about +Jim's shoulders and whispered: + +"I'll tell you something that may help you when the way gets dark--the +wife is going to bear you a child." + +"No!" + +"Yes." + +"God!---- That's great, ain't it?" + +Jim choked into silence and looked up at the Doctor with dimmed eyes. + +"Say, Doc, you hit me hard when you brought what she said--but that's +good news! Watch me work my hands to the bone--you know it's my kid and +she can't keep me from workin' for it if she tries now can she?" + +"No." + +"There's just one thing that'll hang over me like a black cloud," he +mused sorrowfully. + +"I know, boy--your mother's darkened mind." + +Jim nodded. + +"When I see that queer glitter in her eyes it goes through me like a +knife. Will she ever get over it?" + +"We can't tell yet. It takes time. I believe she will." + +"You'll do the best you can for her, Doc?" he pleaded pathetically. "You +won't forget her a single day? If you can't cure her, nobody can." + +"I'll do my level best, boy." + +Jim pressed his hand again. + +"Gee, but you've been a friend to me! I didn't know that there were such +men in the world as you!" + +For six months the Doctor watched the transplanted child of the slums +grow into a sturdy manhood in his new environment. He snapped at every +suggestion his friend gave and with quick wit improved on it. He not +only discovered and developed a mica mine on his mother's farm, he +invented new machinery for its working that doubled the market output. +Within six weeks from the time he began his shipments the mine was +paying a steady profit of more than five hundred dollars a month. He had +made just one trip to New York and secretly returned to the police every +stolen jewel and piece of plunder taken, with a full confession of the +time and place of the crime. He had shipped his tools and machinery from +the workshop on the east side before his sensational act and made good +his departure for the South. + +The tools and machinery he installed in a new workshop which he built +in the yard of Nance's cabin. Here he worked day and night at his +blacksmith forge making the iron hinges, and irons, shovels, tongs, fire +sets and iron work complete for a log bungalow of seven rooms which +he was building on the sunny slope of the mountain which overlooks the +valley toward Asheville. + +The Doctor had lent Jim the blue-prints of his own home and he was +quietly duplicating it with loving care. His wife might refuse to see +him but he could build a home for their boy. For his sake she couldn't +refuse it. + +With childlike obedience Nance followed him every day and watched the +workmen rear the beautiful structure under Jim's keen eyes and skillful +hands. The man's devotion to his mother was pathetic. Only the Doctor +knew the secret of his pitiful care, and he kept his own counsel. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. THE BABY + +The last roses of summer were bursting their topmost buds into full +bloom on the lawn of the Doctor's bungalow. The martins that built each +year in the little boxes he had set on poles around his garden were +circling and chattering far up in the sapphire skies of a late September +day. Their leaders had sensed the coming frost and were drilling for +their long march across the world to their winter home. The chestnut +burrs were bursting in the woods. The silent sun-wrapped Indian Summer +had begun. Not a cloud flecked the skies. + +A quiet joy filled the soul of the woman who smiled and heard her +summons. + +"You are not afraid?" the Doctor asked. + +She turned her grateful eyes to his. + +"The peace of God fills the world--and I owe it all to you." + +"Nonsense. Your sturdy will and cultivated mind did the work. I merely +made the suggestion." + +"You are not going to give me an anesthetic, are you?" she said evenly. + +"Why did you ask that?" + +"Because I wish to feel and know the pain and glory of it all." + +"You don't wish to take it?" + +"Not unless you say I should." + +"What a wonderful patient you are, child! What a beautiful spirit!" He +looked at her intently. "Well, I'm older and wiser in experience than +you. I'm glad you added that clause `unless you say I should.' I'm going +to say it. After all my talks to you on our return to the truths and +simplicity of Nature you are perhaps surprised. You needn't be. I'm +going to put you into a gentle sleep. Nature will then do her physical +work automatically. I do this because our daughters are the inheritors +of the sins of their mothers for centuries. The over-refinement of +nerves, the hothouse methods of living, and the maiming of their bodies +with the inventions of fashion have made the pains of this supreme hour +beyond endurance. This should not be. It will not be so when our race +has come into its own. But it will take many generations and perhaps +many centuries before we reach the ideal. No physician who has a soul +could permit a woman of your physique, your culture and refinement to +walk barefoot and blindfolded into such a hell of physical torture. I +will not permit it." + +He walked quietly into his laboratory, prepared the sleeping powders and +gave them to her. + +Six hours later she opened her eyes with eager wonder. Aunt Abbie was +busy over a bundle of fluffy clothes. The Doctor was standing with his +arms folded behind his back, his fine, clean-shaven face in profile +looking thoughtfully over the sun-lit valley. There was just one moment +of agonized fear. If they had failed! If her child were hideous--or +deformed! Her lips moved in silent prayer. + +"Doctor?" she whispered. + +In a moment he was bending over her, a look of exaltation in his brown +eyes. + +"Tell me quick!" + +"A wonderful boy, little mother! The most beautiful babe I have ever +seen. He didn't even cry--just opened his big, wide eyes and grunted +contentedly." + +"Give him to me." + +Aunt Abbie laid the warm bundle in her arms and she pressed it gently +until the sweet, red flesh touched her own. She lay still for a moment, +a smile on her lips. + +"Lift him and let me look!" + +"What a funny little pug nose," she laughed. + +"Yes--exactly like his mother's!" the Doctor replied. + +She gazed with breathless reverence. + +"He is beautiful, isn't he?" she sighed. + +"And you have observed the chin and mouth?" + +"Exactly like yours. It's wonderful!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. WHAT IS LOVE? + +Eighteen months swiftly passed with the little mother and her boy still +in Dr. Mulford's sanitarium. She had allowed herself to be persuaded +that he had the right to be her guide and helper in the first year's +training of the child. + +The boy had steadily grown in strength and beauty of body and mind. The +Doctor persuaded her to spend one more winter basking in his sun-parlor +and finishing the final chapters of his book. Her mind was singularly +clever and helpful in the interpretation of the experiences and emotions +of motherhood. + +She had stubbornly resisted every suggestion to see her husband or allow +him to see the child. The Doctor had managed twice to give Jim an hour +with the baby while she had gone to Asheville on shopping trips. He was +rewarded for his trouble in the devotion with which the young father +worshiped his son. The Doctor watched the slumbering fires kindle in +the man's deep blue eyes with increasing wonder at the strength and +tenderness of his newfound soul. + +Jim had completed the furnishing of the bungalow with the advice and +guidance of his friend, and every room stood ready and waiting for its +mistress. He had insisted on making every piece of furniture for Mary's +room and the nursery adjoining. The Doctor was amazed at the mechanical +genius he displayed in its construction. He had taken a month's +instruction at a cabinet maker's in Asheville and the bed, bureau, +tables and chairs which he had turned out were astonishingly beautiful. +Their lines were copied from old models and each piece was a work of +art. The iron work was even more tastefully and beautifully wrought. He +had toiled day and night with an enthusiasm and patience that gave the +physician a new revelation in the possibility of the development of +human character. + +His friend came at last with a cheering message. He began smilingly: + +"I'm going to make the big fight today, boy, to get her to see you." + +"You think she will?" + +"There's a good chance. Her savings have all been used up from her bank +account in New York. She is determined to go to her father in Kentucky. +I'll have a talk with her, bring her over to the bungalow, show her +through it on the pretext of its model construction and then you can +tell her that you built it with your own hands for her and the baby. You +might be loafing around the place about that time." + +Jim's hand was suddenly lifted. + +"I got ye, Doc, I got ye! I'll be there--all day." + +"Don't let her see you until I give the signal." + +"Caution's my name." + +"We'll see what happens." + +Jim pressed close. + +"Say, Doc, if you know how to pray, I wish you'd send up a little word +for me while you're talkin' to her. Could ye now?" + +"I'll do my best for you, boy--and I think you've got a chance. She's +been watching the blue eyes of that baby lately with a rather curious +look of unrest." + +"They're just like mine, ain't they?" Jim broke in with pride. + +"Time has softened the old hurt," the Doctor went on. "The boy may win +for you----" + +The square jaw came together with a smash. + +"Gee--I hope so. I'll wait there all day for you and I'm goin' to try my +own hand at a little prayer or two on the side while I'm waiting. Maybe +God'll think He's hit me hard enough by this time to give me another +trial." + +With a friendly wave of his hand the Doctor hurried home. + +He found Mary seated under the rose trellis beside the drive, watching +for his coming. The day was still and warm for the end of April. Birds +were singing and chattering in every branch and tree. A quail on the top +fence-rail of the wheat field called loudly to his mate. + +The boy was screaming his joy over a new wagon to which Aunt Abbie had +hitched his goat. He drove by in style, lifted his chubby hand to his +mother and shouted: + +"Dood-by, Doc-ter!" + +The Doctor waved a smiling answer, and lapsed into a long silence. + +He waked at last from his absorption to notice that Mary was +day-dreaming. The fair brow was drawn into deep lines of brooding. + +"Why shadows in your eyes a day like this, little mother?" he asked +softly. + +"Just thinking----" + +"About a past that you should forget?" + +"Yes and no," she answered thoughtfully. "I was just thinking in this +flood of spring sunlight of the mystery of my love for such a man as the +one I married. How could it have been possible to really love him?" + +"You are sure that you loved him?" + +"Sure." + +"How did you know?" + +"By all the signs. I trembled at his footstep. The touch of his hand, +the sound of his voice thrilled me. I was drawn by a power that was +resistless. I was mad with happiness those wonderful days that preceded +our marriage. I was madder still during our honeymoon--until the +shadows began to fall that fatal Christmas Eve." She paused and her lips +trembled. "Oh, Doctor, what is love?" + +The drooping shoulders of the man bent lower. He picked up a pebble from +the ground and flicked it carelessly across the drive, lifted his head +at last and asked earnestly: + +"Shall I tell you the truth?" + +"Yes--your own particular brand, please--the truth, the whole truth and +nothing but the truth." + +"I'll try," he began soberly. "If I were a poet, naturally I would use +different language. As I'm only a prosaic doctor and physiologist I may +shock your ideals a little." + +"No matter," she interrupted. "They couldn't well get a harder jolt than +they have had already." + +He nodded and went on: + +"There are two elemental human forces that maintain life--hunger +and love. They are both utterly simple, otherwise they could not be +universal. Hunger compels the race to live. Love compels it to reproduce +itself. There has never been anything mysterious about either of +these forces and there never will be--except in the imagination of +sentimentalists. + +"Nature begins with hunger. For about thirteen years she first applies +this force to the development of the body before she begins to lay the +foundation of the second. Until this second development is complete the +passion known as love cannot be experienced. + +"What is this second development? Very simple again. At the base of the +brain of every child there is a vacant space during the first twelve or +fifteen years. During the age of twelve to fourteen in girls, thirteen +to fifteen in boys, this vacant space is slowly filled by a new lobe +of the brain and with its growth comes the consciousness of sex and the +development of sex powers. + +"This new nerve center becomes on maturity a powerful physical magnet. +The moment this magnet comes into contact with an organization which +answers its needs, as certain kinds of food answer the needs of hunger, +violent desire is excited. If both these magnets should be equally +powerful, the disturbance to both will be great. The longer the personal +association is continued the more violent becomes this disturbance, +until in highly sensitive natures it develops into an obsession which +obscures reason and crushes the will. + +"The meaning of this impulse is again very simple--the unconscious +desire of the male to be a father, of the female to become a mother." + +"And there is but one man on earth who could thus affect me?" Mary asked +excitedly. + +"Rubbish! There are thousands." + +"Thousands?" + +"Literally thousands. The reason you never happen to meet them is purely +an accident of our poor social organization. Every woman has thousands +of true physical mates if she could only meet them. Every man has +thousands of true physical mates if he could only meet them. And in +every such meeting, if mind and body are in normal condition, the same +violent disturbance would result--whether married or single, free or +bound. + +"Marriage therefore is not based merely on the passion of love. It is +a crime for any man or woman to marry without love. It is the sheerest +insanity to believe that this passion within itself is sufficient to +justify marriage. All who marry should love. Many love who should not +marry. + +"The institution of marriage is the great SOCIAL ordinance of the race. +Its sanctity and perpetuity are not based on the violence of the passion +of love, but something else." + +He paused and listened to the call of the quail again from the field. + +"You hear that bob white calling his mate?" + +"Yes--and she's answering him now very softly. I can hear them both." + +"They have mated this spring to build a home and rear a brood of young. +Within six months their babies will all be full grown and next spring +a new alignment of lovers will be made. Their marriage lasts during the +period of infancy of their offspring. This is Nature's law. + +"It happens in the case of man that the period of infancy of a human +being is about twenty-four years. This is the most wonderful fact in +nature. It means that the capacity of man for the improvement of his +breed is practically limitless. A quail has a few months in which to +rear her young. God gives to woman a quarter of a century in which to +mold her immortal offspring. Because the period of infancy of one child +covers the entire period of motherhood capacity, marriage binds for +life, and the sanctity of marriage rests squarely on this law of +Nature." + +He paused again and looked over the sunlit valley. + +"I wish our boys and girls could all know these simple truths of their +being. It would save much unhappiness and many tragic blunders. + +"You were swept completely off your feet by the rush of the first +emotion caused by meeting a man who was your physical mate. You imagined +this emotion to be a mysterious revelation which can come but once. +Your imagination in its excited condition, of course, gave to your +first-found mate all sorts of divine attributes which he did not +possess. You were `in love' with a puppet of your own creation, and +hypnotized yourself into the delusion that James Anthony was your one +and only mate, your knight, your hero. + +"In a very important sense this was true. Your intuitions could not make +a mistake on so vital an issue. But you immediately rushed into marriage +and your union has been perfected by the birth of a child. Whether you +are happy or unhappy in marriage does not depend on the reality of love. +Happiness in marriage is based on something else." + +"On what?" + +"The joy and peace that comes from oneness of spirit, tastes, culture +and character. I know this from the deepest experiences of life and the +widest observation." + +"You have loved?" she asked softly. + +"Twice----" + +A silence fell between them. + +"Shall I tell you, little mother?" he finally asked quietly. + +"Please." + +He seated himself and looked into the skies beyond the peaks across the +valley. + +"Ten years ago I met my first mate. The meeting was fortunate for both. +She was a woman of gentle birth, of beautiful spirit. Our courtship was +ideal. We thought alike, we felt alike, she loved my profession even--an +unusual trait in a woman. She thought it so noble in its aims that +the petty jealousy that sometimes wrecks a doctor's life was to her an +unthinkable crime. The first year was the nearest to heaven that I had +ever gotten down here. + +"And then, little mother, by one of those inexplicable mysteries of +nature she died when our baby was born. For a while the light of the +world went out. I quit New York, gave up my profession and came here +just to lie in the sun on this mountainside and try to pull myself +together. I didn't think life could ever be worth living again. But +it was. I found about me so much of human need--so much ignorance and +helplessness--so much to pity and love, I forgot the ache in my own +heart in bringing joy to others. + +"I had money enough. I gave up the ambitions of greed and strife and set +my soul to higher tasks. For nine years I've devoted my leisure hours +to the study of Motherhood as the hope of a nobler humanity. But for the +great personal sorrow that came to me in the death of my wife and baby I +should never have realized the truths I now see so clearly. + +"And then the other woman suddenly came into my life. I never expected +to love again--not because I thought it impossible, but because I +thought it improbable in my little world here that I could ever again +meet a woman I would ask to be my wife. But she dropped one day out of +the sky." + +He paused and took a deep breath. + +"I recognized her instantly as my mate, gentle and pure and capable +of infinite joy or infinite pain. She did not realize the secret of my +interest in her. I didn't expect it. I knew that under the conditions +she could not. But I waited." + +He paused and searched for Mary's eyes. + +"And you married her?" she asked in even tones. + +"I have never allowed her to know that I love her." + +"Why?" + +"She was married." + +Mary threw him a startled look and he went on evenly: + +"I could have used my power over mind and body to separate her from +her husband. I confess that I was tempted. But there was a child. Their +union had been sealed with the strongest tie that can bind two human +beings. I have never allowed her to realize that she might love me. Had +I chosen to break the silence between us I could have revealed this to +her, taken her and torn her from the man to whom she had borne a babe. +I had no right to commit that crime, no matter how deep the love that +cried for its own. Marriage is based on the period of infancy of the +child which spans the maternal life of woman. God had joined these two +people together and no man had the right to put them asunder!" + +"And you gave her up?" + +"I had to, little mother. On the recognition of this eternal law the +whole structure of our civilization rests." + +Mary bent her gaze steadily on his face for a moment in silence. + +"And you are telling me that I should be reconciled to the man who +choked me into insensibility?" + +"I am telling you that he is the father of your son--that he has rights +which you cannot deny; that when you gave yourself to him in the first +impulse of love a deed was done which Almighty God can never undo. +Your tragic blunder was the rush into marriage with a man about whose +character you knew so little. It's the timid, shrinking, home-loving +girl that makes this mistake. You must face it now. You are responsible +as deeply and truly as the man who married you. That he happened at that +moment to be a brute and a criminal is no more his fault than yours. It +was YOUR business to KNOW before you made him the father of your child." + +"I tried to appeal to his better nature that awful night," Mary +interrupted, "but he only laughed at me!" + +"You owe him another trial, little mother--you owe it to his boy, too." + +Mary shook her head bitterly. + +"I can't--I just can't!" + +"You won't see him once?" + +She sprang to her feet trembling. + +"No--no!" + +"I don't think it's fair." + +"I'm afraid of him! You can't understand his power over my will." + +"Come, come, this is sheer cowardice--give the devil his dues. Face him +and fight it out. Tell him you're done forever with him and his life, if +you will--but don't hedge and trim and run away like this. I'm ashamed +of you." + +"I won't see him--I've made up my mind." + +The Doctor threw up both hands. + +"All right. If you won't, you won't. We'll let it go at that." + +He paused and changed his tones to friendly personal interest. + +"And you're determined to leave me and take my kid away tomorrow?" + +"We must go. I've no money to pay my board. I can't impose on you----" + +"It's going to be awfully lonely." + +He looked at her with a strange, deep gaze, lifted his stooping +shoulders with sudden resolution and changed his manner to light banter. + +"I suppose I couldn't persuade you to give me that boy?" + +She smiled tenderly. + +"You know his father did leave his mark on him after all! The eyes are +all his. Of course, I will admit that those drooping lids have often +been the mark of genius--perhaps a genius for evil in this case. If you +don't want to take the risk--now's your chance. I will----" + +Mary shook her head in reproachful protest. + +"Don't tease me, dear doctor man. I've just this one day more with you. +I'm counting each precious hour." + +"Forgive me!" he cried gayly. "I won't tease you any more. Come, we'll +run over now and see our neighbor's new bungalow before you go. You +admire this one and threaten to duplicate it. He has built a better +one." + +"I don't believe it." + +"You'll go?" + +"If you wish it----" + +"Good. We'll take the boy, too. He can drive his new wagon the whole +way. It's only half a mile." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. THE NEW MAN + +The door of the bungalow stood wide open. Mary paused in rapture over +the rich beds of wood violets that carpeted the spaces between the drive +and the log walls. + +"Aren't they beautiful!" she cried. "A perfect carpet of dazzling green +and purple!" + +"Come right in," the Doctor urged from the steps. "My neighbor's a +patient of mine. He hasn't moved in yet but he told me always to make +myself at home." + +Mary lifted the boy from his wagon, tied the goat and led the child +into the house. The Doctor showed her through without comment. None was +needed. The woman's keen eye saw at a glance the perfection of care with +which the master builder had wrought the slightest detail of every +room. The floors were immaculate native hard-wood--its grain brought out +through shining mirrors of clean varnish. There was not one shoddy piece +of work from the kitchen sink to the big open fireplace in the spacious +hall and living-room. + +"It's exquisite!" she exclaimed at last. "It seems all +hand-made--doesn't it?" + +"It is, too. The owner literally built it with his own hands--a work of +love." + +"For himself?" Mary asked with a smile. + +"For the woman he loves, of course! My neighbor's a sort of crank and +insisted on expressing himself in this way. Come, I want you to see two +rooms upstairs." + +He led her into the room Jim had built for his wife. + +"Observe this furniture, if you please." + +"Don't tell me that he built that too?" she laughed. + +"That's exactly what I'm going to tell you." + +"Impossible!" she protested. "Why, the line and finish would do credit +to the finest artisan in America." + +"So I say. Look at the perfect polish of that table! It's like the +finish of a rosewood piano." He touched the smooth surface. + +"Of course you're joking?" Mary answered. "No amateur could have done +such work." + +"So I'd have said if I had not seen him do it." + +"What on earth possessed him to undertake such a task?" + +"The love of a beautiful woman--what else?" + +"He learned a trade--just to furnish this room with his own hand?" + +"Yes." + +"His love must be the real thing," she mused. + +"That's what I've said. Look at this iron work, too--the stately +andirons in that big fireplace, the shovel, the tongs, and the massive +strop-hinges on the doors." + +"He did that, too?" she asked in amazement. + +"Every piece of iron on the place he beat out with his own hand at his +forge." + +"And all for the love of a woman? The age of romance hasn't passed after +all, has it?" + +"No." + +Mary paused before the window looking south. + +"What a glorious view!" she cried. "It's even grander than yours, +Doctor." + +"Yes. I claim some of the credit, though, for that. I helped him lay out +the grounds." + +"Who is this remarkable man?" she asked at last. + +"A friend of mine. I'll introduce him directly. He should be here at any +moment now." + +"We're intruding," Mary whispered. "We must go. I mustn't look any more. +I'll be coveting my neighbor's house." + +The doctor turned to the window and signaled to someone on the lawn, as +Mary hurried down the stairs. + +She fairly ran into Jim, who was being pulled into the house by the boy. + +"'Ook, Mamma! 'Ook! I found a Daddy! He says he be my Daddy if you let +him. Please let him. I want a Daddy, an' I like him. Please!" + +Jim blushed and trembled and lifted his eyes appealingly, while Mary +stood white and still watching him in a sort of helpless terror. + +The child moved on to his wagon. + +"Say, little girl," Jim began in low tones, "it's been a thousand years +since I saw you. Don't drive me away--just give me one chance for God's +sake and this baby's that He sent us! I've gone straight. I've sent back +every dishonest dollar. I'm earning a clean living down here and a good +one. I've practiced for two years cutting out the slang, too." + +He paused for breath and she turned her head away. + +"Just listen a minute! I know I was a beast that night. I'm not the same +now. I've been through the fires of hell and I've come out a cleaner +man. Let me show you how much I love you! Life's too short, but just +give me a chance. If I could undo that awful hour when I hurt you so, +I'd crawl 'round the world on my hands and knees--and I'll show you that +I mean it! I built this house for you and the baby." + +Mary turned suddenly with wide dilated eyes. + +"You--YOU built this house?" she gasped. + +"I've worked on it every hour, day and night, the past two years when +I wasn't earning a living in the mine. I made every stick of that +furniture in the rooms up there--for you and my boy. The house is +yours--whether you let me stay or not." + +"I--I can't take it, Jim," she faltered. + +"You've got to, girlie. You can't throw a gift like this back in a +fellow's face--it cost too much! Your money's all gone. You've got to +bring up that kid. He's mine, too. I'm man enough to support my wife and +baby and I'm going to do it. I don't care what you say. You've got to +let me. I'm going to work for you, live for you and die for you--whether +you stay with me or not. I've got the right to do that, you know." + +She lifted her head and faced him squarely for the first time, amazed at +the new dignity and strength of his quiet bearing. + +"You HAVE changed, Jim----" + +Her eyes sought the depths of his soul in a moment's silence, and she +slowly extended her hand: + +"We'll try again!" + +He bent and kissed the tips of her fingers reverently. + +They stood for a moment hand in hand and looked over the sunlit valley +of the Swannanoa shimmering in peace and beauty between its sheltering +walls of blue mountains. The bees were humming spring music among the +flowers at their feet and the faint odor of fruit trees in blossom came +from the orchard Jim had planted two years before. + +"I'll show you, little girl--I'll show you!" he whispered tensely. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Foolish Virgin, by Thomas Dixon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOOLISH VIRGIN *** + +***** This file should be named 1634.txt or 1634.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/1634/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +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. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Scanned with OmniPage Professional OCR software +donated by Caere Corporation. + + + + + +THE FOOLISH VIRGIN + +by THOMAS DIXON + + + + +TO +GERTRUDE ATHERTON +WITH GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER +I. A FRIENDLY WARNING +II. TEMPTATION +III. FATE +IV. DOUBTS AND FEARS +V. WINGS OF STEEL +VI. BESIDE THE SEA +VII. A VAIN APPEAL +VIII. JIM'S TRIAL +IX. ELLA'S SECRET +X. THE WEDDING +XI. "UNTIL DEATH" +XII. THE LOTOS-EATERS +XIII. THE REAL MAN +XIV. UNWELCOME GUESTS +XV. A LITTLE BLACK BAG +XVI. THE AWAKENING +XVII. THE SURRENDER +XVIII. TO THE NEW GOD +XIX. NANCE'S STOREHOUSE +XX. TRAPPED +XXI. THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE +XXII. DELIVERANCE +XXIII. THE DOCTOR +XXIV. THE CALL DIVINE +XXV. THE MOTHER +XXVI. A SOUL IS BORN +XXVII. THE BABY +XXVIII. WHAT IS LOVE? +XXIX. THE NEW MAN + + + + +LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY + +MARY ADAMS, An Old-Fashioned Girl. +JIM ANTHONY, A Modern Youth. +JANE ANDERSON, An Artist. +ELLA, A Scrubwoman. +NANCE OWENS, Jim Anthony's Mother. +A DOCTOR, Whose Call was Divine. +THE BABY, A Mascot. + + + + +THE FOOLISH VIRGIN + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +A FRIENDLY WARNING + +Mary Adams, you're a fool!" + +The single dimple in a smooth red cheek smiled in +answer. + +"You're repeating yourself, Jane----" + +"You won't give him one hour's time for just three +sittings?" + +"Not a second for one sitting----" + +"Hopeless!" + +Mary smiled provokingly, her white teeth gleaming +in obstinate good humor. + +"He's the most distinguished artist in America----" + +"I've heard so." + +"It would be a liberal education for a girl of your +training to know such a man----" + +"I'll omit that course of instruction." + +The younger woman was silent a moment, and a flush +of anger slowly mounted her temples. The blue eyes +were fixed reproachfully on her friend. + +"You really thought that I would pose?" + +"I hoped so." + +"Alone with a man in his studio for hours?" + +Jane Anderson lifted her dark brows. + +"Why, no, I hardly expected that! I'm sure he +would take his easel and palette out into the square in +front of the Plaza Hotel and let you sit on the base of +the Sherman monument. The crowds would cheer and +inspire him--bah! Can't you have a little common- +sense? There are a few brutes among artists, as there +are in all professions--even among the superintendents +of your schools. Gordon's a great creative genius. If +you'd try to flirt with him, he'd stop his work and +send you home. You'd be as safe in his studio as in +your mother's nursery. I've known him for ten years. +He's the gentlest, truest man I've ever met. He's +doing a canvas on which he has set his whole heart." + +"He can get professional models." + +"For his usual work, yes--but this is the head of +the Madonna. He saw you walking with me in the Park +last week and has been to my studio a half-dozen times +begging me to take you to see him. Please, Mary dear, +do this for my sake. I owe Gordon a debt I can never +pay. He gave me the cue to the work that set me on +my feet. He was big and generous and helpful when I +needed a friend. He asked nothing in return but the +privilege of helping me again if I ever needed it. You +can do me an enormous favor--please." + +Mary Adams rose with a gesture of impatience, +walked to her window and gazed on the torrent of +humanity pouring through Twenty-third Street from the +beehives of industry that have changed this quarter of +New York so rapidly in the last five years. She turned +suddenly and confronted her friend. + +"How could you think that I would stoop to such a +thing?" + +"Stoop!" + +"Yes," she snapped, "--pose for an artist! I'd as +soon think of rushing stark naked through Twenty-third +Street at noon!" + +The older woman looked at her flushed face, +suppressed a sharp answer, broke into a fit of laughter +and threw her arms around Mary's neck. + +"Honey, you're such a hopeless little fool, you're +delicious! You know that I love you--don't you?" + +The pretty lips quivered. + +"Yes." + +"Could I possibly ask you to do a thing that would +harm a single brown hair of your head?" + +The firm hand of the older girl touched a +rebellious lock with tenderness. + +"Of course not, from your point of view, Jane +dear," the stubborn lips persisted. "But you see it's +not my point of view. You're older than I----" + +Jane smiled. + +"Hoity toity, Miss! I'm just twenty-eight and +you're twenty-four. Age is not measured by calendars +these days." + +"I didn't mean that," the girl apologized. "But +you're an artist. You're established and +distinguished. You belong to a different world." + +Jane Anderson laid her hand softly on her friend's. + +"That's just it, dear. I do belong to a different +world--a big new world of whose existence you are not +quite conscious. You are living in the old, old world +in which women have groped for thousands of years. I +don't mind confessing that I undertook this job of +getting you to pose for Gordon for a double purpose. I +wished to do something to repay the debt I owe him--but +I wished far more to be of help to you. You're living +in the Dark Ages, and it's a dangerous thing for a +pretty girl to live in the Dark Ages and date her +letters from New York to-day----" + +"I don't understand you in the least." + +"And I'm afraid you never will." + +She paused suddenly and changed her tone. + +"Tell me now, are you happy in your work?" + +"I'm earning sixty dollars a month--my position is +secure----" + +"But are you happy in it?" + +"I don't expect to teach school all my life," was +the vague answer. + +"Exactly. You loathe the sight of a school-room. +You do the task they set you because your father's a +clergyman and can't support his big family. You're +waiting and longing for the day of your deliverance-- +isn't it so?" + +"Perhaps." + +"And that day of deliverance?" + +"Will come when I meet my Fate!" + +"You'll meet him, too!" + +"I will----" + +Jane Anderson shook her fine head. + +"And may the Lord have mercy on your poor little +soul when you do!" + +"And why, pray?" + +"Because you're the most helpless and defenseless +of all the things He created." + +Mary smiled. + +"I've managed to take pretty good care of myself +so far." + +"And you will--until the thunderbolt falls." + +"The thunderbolt?" + +"Until you meet your Fate." + +"I'll have someone to look after me then." + +"We'll hope so anyhow," was the quick retort. + +"But can't you see, Jane dear, that we look at life +from such utterly different angles. You glory in your +work. It's your inspiration--the breath you breathe. +I don't believe in women working for money. I don't +believe God ever meant us to work when He made us +women. He made us women for something more wonderful. +I don't see anything good or glorious in the fact that +half the torrent of humanity you see down there pouring +through the street from those factories and offices is +made up of women. They are wage-earners--so much the +worse. They are forcing the scale of wages for men +lower and lower. They are paying for it in weakened +bodies and sickly, hopeless children. We should not +shout for joy; we should cry. God never meant for +woman to be a wage-earner!" + +A sob caught her voice and she paused. + +The artist watched her emotion with keen +interest. + +"Neither do I believe that God means to force woman +at last to do the tasks of man. But she's doing them, +dear--and it must be so until a brighter day dawns for +humanity. The new world that opens before us will +never abolish marriage, but it has opened our eyes to +know what it means. You refuse to open yours. You +refuse to see this new world about you. I've begged +you to join one of my clubs. You refuse. I beg you to +meet and know such men of genius as Gordon----" + +"As an artist's model!" + +"It's the only way on earth you can meet him. You +stick to your narrow, hide-bound conventional life and +dream of the Knight who will suddenly appear some day +out of the mists and clouds. You dream of the Fate God +has prepared for you in His mysterious Providence. +It's funny how that idea persists even today in novels. +As a matter of fact we know that the old-fashioned girl +met her Fate because her shrewd mother planned the +meeting--planned it with cunning and stratagem. You're +alone in a great modern city, with all the conditions +of the life of the old regime reversed or blotted out. +Your mother is not here. And if she were, her schemes +to bring about the mysterious meeting of the Fates +would be impossible. You outgrew the limits of your +village life. Your highly trained mind landed you in +New York. You've fought your way to a competent living +in five years and kept yourself clean and unspotted +from the world. Granted. But how many men have you +met who are your equals in culture and character?" + +Jane paused and held Mary's gaze with steady +persistence. + +"How many--honest?" + +"None as yet," she confessed. + +"But you live in the one fond, imperishable hope! +It's the only thing that keeps you alive and going-- +this idea of your Fate. It's an obsession--this +mysterious Knight somewhere in the future riding to +meet you----" + +"I'll find him, never fear," the girl laughed. + +"Of course you will. You'll make him out of whole +cloth if it's necessary. Our ideals are really the +same when you come to analyze my wider outlook." + +The artist paused and laughed softly. + +"The same?" the girl asked incredulously. + +"Certainly. Mine is based on intelligence, +however--yours on blind instinct perverted and twisted +by the idiotic fiction you read morning, noon and +night." + +"I don't see it," Mary answered emphatically. +"Your ideal is fame, achievement, the applause of the +world--mine just a home and a baby----" + +Jane laughed softly. + +"And that's all you know about me?" + +"Isn't it true?" + +"You've been in this room five years, haven't you?" +the older girl asked musingly. + +"Yes----" + +"And though you've kept your lamp trimmed and +burning, you haven't yet seen a man whom you could +recognize as your equal." + +"I'm only twenty-four." + +"In these five years I've met a hundred men my +equal." + +"And smashed the conventions of Society whenever +you saw fit." + +"Without breaking a single law of reason or common- +sense. In the meantime I've met two men who have +really made love to me. I thought I loved one of +them--until I met the other. The second proved himself +to be an unprincipled scoundrel. If I had held your +views of life and hated my work, I would have married +this man and lived to awake in a prison whose only door +was Death. But I loved my work. Life meant more than +one man who was not worth an hour's tears. I turned +to my studio and he slipped back into the gutter where +he belonged. I'll meet MY Fate some day, too, +dear. I'm waiting and watching--but with clear eyes +and unafraid. I'll know mine when he comes, I shall +not be blinded by passion or the fear of drudgery. +Can't you see this bigger world of realities?" + +The dimple flashed again in the smooth red cheek. + +"It's not for me, Jane. I'm just a modest little +home body. I'll bide my time----" + +"And eat your foolish heart out here between the +narrow walls of this cell you've built for yourself. I +should think you'd die living here alone." + +The girl flushed. + +"I'm not lonely----" + +"Don't fib! I know better. Your birds and kitten +occupy daily about thirty minutes of the time that's +your own. What do you do with the rest of it?" + +"Sit by my window, watch the crowds stream through +the streets below, read and dream and think----" + +"Yes--read love stories and dream about your +Knight." + +"Well?" + +"It's morbid and unhealthy. You've hedged +yourself about with the old conventions and imagine +you're safe--and you are--until you meet HIM!" + +"I'll know how to behave--never fear." + +"You mean you'll know how instantly to blindfold, +halter and lead him to the Little Church Around the +Corner?" + +Mary moved uneasily. + +"And what else should I do with him?" + +"Compare him with other men. Weigh him in the +balances of a remorseless common-sense. Study him +under a microscope and keep your reason clear. The +girl who rushes into marriage in a great city under the +conditions in which you and I live is a fool. More +girls are ruined in New York by marriage than by any +other process. The thunderbolt out of the blue hasn't +struck you yet, but when it does----" + +"I'll tell you, Jane." + +"Will you, honestly?" + +The question was asked with wistful tenderness. + +"I promise. And you mustn't think I don't +appreciate this visit and the chance you've given again +to enter the `big world' you're always telling me +about. I just can't do it, dear. It's not my world." + +"All right, my little foolish virgin, have it your +own way. When you're lonely, run up to my studio +to see me. I won't ask you to pose or meet any of the +dangerous men of my circle. We'll lock the doors and +have a snug time all by ourselves." + +"I'll remember." + +The clock in the Metropolitan Tower chimed the hour +of five, and Jane Anderson rose with a quick, business- +like movement. + +"Don't hurry," Mary protested. "I know I've been +stubborn, but I've been so happy in your coming. I do +get lonely--frightfully lonely, sometimes--don't think +I'm ungrateful----" + +"You're dangerously beautiful, child," the artist +said, with enthusiasm. "And remember that I love you-- +no matter how silly you are--good-by." + +"You won't stay for a cup of tea? I meant to ask +you an hour ago." + +"No, I've an engagement with a dreadful man whom +I've no idea of ever marrying. I'm going to dinner +with him--just to study the animal at dose range." + +With a jolly laugh and quick, firm step she was +gone. + +Mary snatched the kitten from his snug bed between +the pillows of the window-seat and pressed his fuzzy +head under her chin. + +"She tempted us terribly, Kitty darling, but we +didn't let her find out--did we? You know deep down in +your cat's soul that I was just dying to meet the +distinguished Gordon--but such high honors are not for +home bodies like you and me----" + +She dropped on the seat and closed her eyes for a +long time. The kitten watched her wonderingly sure of +a sudden outbreak with each passing moment. Two soft +paws at last touched her cheeks and two bright eyes +sought in vain for hers. The little nose pressed +closer and kissed the drooping eyelids until they +opened. He curled himself on her bosom and began to +sing a gentle lullaby. For a long while she lay and +listened to the music of love with which her pet sought +to soothe the ache within. + +The clock in the tower chimed six. + +She lifted her body and placed her head on a pillow +beside the window. The human torrent below was now at +its flood. Two streams of humanity flowed eastward +along each broad sidewalk. Hundreds were pouring in +endless procession across Madison Square. The cars in +Broadway north and South were jammed. Every day she +watched this crowd hurrying, hurrying away into the +twilight--and among all its hundreds of thousands not +an eye was ever lifted to hers--not one man or +woman among them cared whether she lived or died. + +It was horrible, this loneliness of the desert in +an ocean of humanity! For the past year it had become +an increasing horror to look into the silent faces of +this crowd of men and women and never feel the touch of +a friendly hand or hear the sound of a human voice in +greeting. + +And yet this endless procession held for her a +supreme fascination. Somewhere among its myriads of +tramping feet, walked the one man created for her. She +no more doubted this than she doubted God Himself. It +was His law. He had ordained it so. She had grown so +used to the throngs below her window and so loved the +little park with its splashing fountain that she had +refused to follow her landlady uptown when the +brownstone boarding-house facing the Square had been +turned into a studio building. + +Instead of moving she had wheedled the landlord +into allowing her to cut off a small space from her +room for a private bath and kitchenette, built a box +couch across the window large enough for a three- +quarter mattress and covered it with velour. For five +dollars a week she had thus secured a little home in +which was combined a sitting-room, bed-room, bath and +kitchenette. + +It had its drawbacks, of course. The Professor +downstairs who taught music sometimes gave a special +lesson at night, and the Italian sculptor who worked on +the top floor used a hammer at the most impossible +hours. But on the whole she liked it better than the +tiresome routine of boarding. She was not afraid at +night. The stamp-and-coin man who occupied the first +floor, lived with his wife and baby in the rear. The +janitress had a room on the floor above hers. Two +elderly women workers of ability in the mechanical arts +occupied the rear of her floor, and a dear little fat +woman of fifty who drew designs for the New England +weavers of cotton goods lived in the room adjoining +hers. + +She had never spoken to any of these people, but +Ella, the janitress, who cleaned up her place every +morning, had told her their history. Ella was a +sociable soul, her face an eternal study and an +inscrutable mystery. She spoke both German and English +and yet never a word of her own life's history passed +her lips. She had loved Mary from the moment she +cocked her queer drawn face to one side and looked at +her with the one good eye she possessed. She was +always doing little things for her comfort--and never +asked tips for it. If Mary offered to pay she smiled +quietly and spoke in the softest drawl: "Oh, +that's nothing, child-- Ach, Gott im Himmel--nein!" + +This one-eyed, homely woman who cleaned up her room +for three dollars a month, and Jane Anderson, were the +only friends she had among the six million people whose +lives centered on Manhattan Island. + +Man had yet to darken her door. The little room +had been carefully fitted, however, to receive her +Knight when the great event of his coming should be at +hand. + +The box couch was built of hard wood paneling and +was covered with pillows of soft leather and silk. The +bed-clothes were carefully stored in the locker beneath +the mattress cushion. No one would ever suspect its +use as a bed. The bathroom was fitted with a bureau +and no signs of a sleeping apartment disfigured the +effect of her one library, parlor, and reception-room. +A desk and bookcase stood at either end of the box +couch. The bookcase was filled with fiction--love +stories exclusively. + +A large birdcage swung from a staple in the window +and two canaries peered cautiously from their perches +at the kitten in her lap. She had trained him to +ignore this cage. + +The crowds below were thinning down. A light +snow was falling. The girl lifted her pet and kissed +his cold nose. + +"We must get our own dinner tonight, Mr. +Thomascat--it's snowing outside. And did you hear what +she said, Kitty dear--`More girls are ruined by +marriage in New York than by any other process!' A +good joke, Kitty!--You and I know better than that if +we do live in our own tiny world! We'll risk it some +day, anyhow, won't we?" + +The kitten purred his assent and Mary bustled over +the little gas stove humming an old love song her +mother had taught her in a far-off village in Kentucky. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +TEMPTATION + + +Her kitchenette was a model of order and cleanliness. +The carpenter who built its neat cupboard and fitted +the drawers beneath the tiny gas range, had outdone +himself in its construction. He had given the wood- +work four coats of immaculate white paint without extra +charge. Mary had insisted on paying for it, but he +waved the proffered money aside with a gesture that +spoke louder than words: + +"Pooh! That's nothing to what I'd like to do for +you." + +She was not surprised when he called the following +Saturday and stood at her door awkwardly fumbling his +hat, trying to ask her to spend the afternoon and +evening at Coney Island with him. There was no +mistaking the manner in which he made this request. + +She had refused him as gently as possible--a big, +awkward, good-natured, ignorant boy he was, with +the eyes of a St. Bernard dog. He apologized for his +presumption and never repeated the offense. + +Somehow her conquests had all been in this class. + +The tall, blushing German youth from the butcher's +around the corner had been slipping extra cuts into her +bundle and making awkward advances until she caught him +red-handed with a pound of lamb chops which he failed +to explain. She read him a lecture on honesty that +discouraged him. It was not so much what she said, as +the way she said it, that wounded his sensitive nature. + +The ice man she had not yet entirely subdued. Tony +Bonelli had the advantage of pretending not to +understand her orders of dismissal. He merely smiled +in his sad Italian way and continued to pack her ice- +box so full the lid would never close. + +She was reminded at every turn tonight of these +futile conquests of the impossible. They all smelled +of the back stairs and the kitchen. Her people had +been slaveholders in the old regime of southern +Kentucky. A kindly tolerant contempt for the +pretensions of a servant class was bred in the bone of +her being. + +And yet their tribute to her beauty had its +compensations. It was the promise of triumph when he +for whom she waited should step from the throng and +lift his hat. Just how he was going to do this without +a breach of the proprieties of life, she couldn't see. +It would come. It must come. It was Fate. + +In twenty minutes her coffee-pot was boiling, the +lamb chops broiled to perfection and she was seated +before the dainty, snow-white table, the kitten softly +begging at her feet. Half an hour later, every dish +and pot and pan was back in its place in perfect order. +She prided herself on her mastery of the details of +cooking and the most economical administration of every +dollar devoted to housekeeping. She studied cooking in +the best schools the city afforded. She meant to show +her Knight a thing or two in this line when the time +came. His wife would not be an ignorant slattern, the +victim of incompetent servants. No servant could fool +her. She would know the business of the house down to +its minutest detail. + +Not that she loved dish-washing and pot-polishing +and scrubbing. It was simply a part of the Game of +Life she must play in the ideal home she would build. +There was no drudgery in it for this reason. She was a +soldier on the drill grounds preparing for the battle +on the successful issue of which hung her happiness and +the happiness of the one of whom she dreamed. She +might miss some of the dangerous fun which Jane +Anderson could enjoy without a scratch, but she would +make sure of the fundamental things which Jane would +never stop to consider. + +She threw herself on the couch in her favorite +position against the pillows, drew the kitten into her +arms and hugged him violently. + +"It's all right, Mr. Thomascat; we'll show them," +she purred softly. "We'll see who wins at last, the +eagle who soars or the little wren in the hedge close +beside the garden wall--we'll see, Kitty--we'll see!" + +The room was still, the noise of the street-cars +below muffled with the first soft blanket of snow. The +street lamps flickered in the wind with a pale subdued +light that scarcely brought out the furnishings of her +nest. She was in the habit of dreaming in this window +for hours with only the light from the lamps on the +street. + +The Square, deserted by its tramp lovers, lay white +and still and cold. The old battle with the Blue +Devils was on again within. The fight with Jane had +been easy. She had always found it easy to face +temptation in the concrete. The moment Satan appeared +in human shape she was up in arms and ready for the +fray. It was this silent hour she dreaded when the +defenses of the soul were down. + +There was no use to lie to herself. She was +utterly lonely and heartsick. + +She had guarded the portals of life with religious +care--with a care altogether unnecessary as events had +proved. There had been no crush of rude men to assault +her. Only an awkward carpenter, a butcher's boy and +the ice man! It was incredible. Of all the men whose +restless feet pressed the pavements of New York, not +one, save these three, had apparently cared whether she +lived or died. + +The men whom she met in her duties in the +schoolroom she had found utterly devoid of imagination +and beneath contempt. They had each been obviously on +guard against the machinations of the female of the +species. They had, each of them, shown plainly their +fear and hatred of women teachers. The feeling was +mutual. God knows she had no desire to encroach on +their domain any longer than absolutely necessary. + +Perhaps she was making a mistake. The thought was +strangling. Only the girl who waived conventions in +the rushing tide of the modern city's life seemed to +live at all. The others merely existed. Jane +Anderson lived! There could be no mistake about that. +She had mastered the ugly mob. Its cruel loneliness +was to her a thing unknown. But Jane was an +exception--the one woman in a thousand who could defy +conventions and yet keep her soul and body clean. + +The offer she had made had proved a terrible +temptation. The artist who had asked with such +eagerness to use her head for his portrait of the +Madonna on the canvas he was executing for the new +cathedral, had long appealed to her vivid imagination. +Two prints of his famous work hung on her walls. She +had always wished to know him. He had married a +Southern girl. + +That was just the point--he WAS married! + +No girl could afford to be shut up alone in a +studio with a fascinating married man for three hours-- +or half an hour. What if she should fall in love with +him at first sight! Such things had happened. They +could happen again. Only tragedy could be the end of +such an event. It was too dangerous to consider for a +moment. + +She would have consented had it been possible for +Jane to chaperon her. That would have been obviously +ridiculous. No artist with any self-respect would +tolerate such a reflection on his honesty. No girl +could afford to confess her fears in this brazen +fashion. + +The necessity for her refusal had depressed her +beyond any experience she had passed through in the +dreary desert of the past five years. + +She lifted the sleeping kitten and whispered +passionately: + +"Am I a silly fool, Kitty? Am I?" + +The tears came at last. She lay back on the +pillows and let them pour down her cheeks without +protest or effort at self-control. Every nerve of her +strong, healthy body ached for the love and +companionship of men which she had denied herself with +an iron will. At nineteen it had been easy. The sheer +animal joy in life had been enough. With the growth of +each year the ache within had become more and more +insistent. With each ripening season of body and mind, +the hunger of love had grown more and more maddening. +How long could she keep up this battle with every +instinct of her being? + +She rose at last, determined to go to Jane, confess +that she had been a fool, and step out into the new +world, New York's world, and begin to live. + +She seized her hat and furs and put them on with +feverish haste. + +"God knows it's time I began--I'll be an old maid +in another year and dry up--ugh!" + +She looked in the quaint oval mirror that hung +beside her door and lifted her head with a touch of +pride. + +She had reached the street and started for the +Broadway car before she suddenly remembered that Jane +was "dining with a dangerous man." + +She couldn't turn back to that little room tonight +without new courage. Her decision was instantaneous. +She couldn't surrender to the flesh and the devil by +yielding to Jane. + +She would go to prayer-meeting! + +Religion had always been a very real thing in her +life. Her father was a Methodist presiding elder. She +would have gone to the meeting tonight in the first +place but for the snow. Dr. Craddock, the new +sensational pastor of the Temple, was giving a series +of Wednesday-night talks that had aroused wide interest +and drawn immense crowds. + +His theme tonight was one that promised all sorts +of sensations--"The Woman of the Future." The only +trouble with the Doctor was that the substance of his +discourses sometimes failed to make good the startling +suggestions of his titles. No matter--she would go. +She felt a sense of righteous pride infighting her +way to the church through the first storm of the +winter. + +In spite of the snow the church was crowded. The +subject announced had evidently touched a vital spot in +modern life. More people were thinking about "The +Woman of the Future" than she had suspected. The crowd +sat with eager, upturned faces. + +The first half-hour's prayer and song service had +just begun. Mary joined in the singing of the stirring +evangelistic hymns with enthusiasm. Something in their +battle-cry melody caught her spirit instantly tonight +and her whole being responded. In ten minutes she was +a good shouting Methodist and supremely happy without +knowing why. She never paused to ask. Her nature was +profoundly religious and she had been born and bred in +the atmosphere of revivals. Her father was an +aggressive evangelist both in his character and methods +of work, and she was his own daughter--a child of +emotion. + +The individuals in the eager crowd which packed the +popular church meant nothing to her personally. They +had passed before her unseeing eyes Sunday after Sunday +the past five years as mere shadows of an unknown world +which swallowed them up the moment they reached the +street. She had never seen the inside of one of their +homes. Not one of them had drawn close enough to her +to venture an invitation. + +Two of the stewards she knew personally--one a +bricklayer, the other a baker on Eighth Avenue. The +preacher she had met in a purely formal way as the +bishop of the flock. She liked Dr. Craddock. He was +known in the ministry as a live wire. He was a man of +vigorous physique--just turning fifty, magnetic, +eloquent and popular with the masses. + +Mary was curious tonight as to what the preacher +would say on "The Woman of the Future." The Methodist +Church had been a pioneer in the modern Feminist +movement, having long ago admitted women to the full +ordination of the ministry. Craddock, however, had +been known for his conservatism in the woman movement. +He abhorred the idea of woman's suffrage as a dangerous +revolution and the fact that he consented to treat the +topic at all was a reluctant confession of its menacing +importance. + +With keen interest, the girl saw him rise at last. +A breathless hush fell on the crowd. He walked +deliberately to the edge of the platform and gazed into +the faces of the people. + +"I have often been asked," he slowly began, "where +I get my sermons." He paused and laughed. "I'll be +perfectly honest with you. Sometimes I get them from +the Bible--sometimes from the book of life. The +genesis of this talk tonight is very definite. I found +it in the liquid depths of a little girl's eyes. She +asked a simple question that set me thinking--not only +about the subject of her query but on the vaster issues +that grew out of it. She looked up into my face the +other night after my call for volunteers for the new +mission we are beginning in the slums of the East Side, +and asked me if the girls were not going to be given +the chance to do something worth while in this church's +work. + +"I couldn't honestly answer her off-hand and in my +groping I forgot the child and her question. I saw a +vision--a vision of that broader, nobler future toward +which human civilization is now swiftly moving. + +"I say deliberately that it is swiftly moving, +because the progress of the world during the last fifty +years has been greater than in any five hundred years +of the past. + +"The older I grow the stronger becomes my +conviction that the problems of the age in which we now +live cannot be solved by masculine brain and brawn +alone. The problems of the city and the nation and the +great fundamental social questions that involve the +foundations of modern life will find no solution until +the heart and brain of woman are poured into the +crucible of our test. + + +"They talk about a woman's sphere +As though it had a limit: +There's not a place in earth or heaven, +There's not a task to mankind given, +There's not a blessing or a woe, +There's not a whisper yes or no, +There's not a life, or death, or birth +That has a feather's weight of worth +Without a woman in it! + + + +"The difference between a man and a woman is one +that makes them the complementary parts of a perfect +unit. God made man in His own image--male and female. +The person of God therefore combines these two elements +unseparated. The mind of God is both male and female. +In man we have the strength which lifts and tugs and +fights the elements. This is the aspect turned +primarily toward matter. In woman we have the finer +qualities of the Spirit turned toward the source of all +spirit in God. The idea of a masculine deity is a +false assumption of the Dark Ages. God is both male +and female. + +"I used to wonder why Jesus Christ was a man, until +I realized that the Incarnation expressed the depth of +human need. God stooped lower in assuming the form of +man. The form of the divine revelation through Jesus +Christ was determined solely by this depth of human +need----" + +For half an hour in impetuous eloquence, in telling +incidents wet with tears and winged with hope, he held +his listeners in a spell. It was not until the burst +of applause which greeted his closing sentence had died +away that Mary Adams realized that another landmark had +toppled before the onrushing flood of modern Feminism. +The conservatism of Doctor Craddock had yielded at last +to the inevitable. He, too, had joined the ranks of +the prophets who preach of a Woman's Day of +Emancipation. + +And yet it never occurred to her that this fact had +the slightest bearing on her personal outlook on life. +On the contrary she felt in the spiritual elation of +the triumphant eloquence of her favorite preacher a +renewal of her simple religious faith. At the bottom +of that religion lay the foundation of life itself--her +conception of marriage as the supreme and only +expression of woman's power in the world. + +She walked back to her home on the Square, in a +glow of ecstatic emotion. + +Surely God had miraculously saved her this night +from the wiles of the Devil! No matter what this +eloquent discourse had meant to others, it had renewed +her faith in the old-fashioned woman and the old- +fashioned ways of the old-fashioned home. Her vision +was once more clear. She was glad Jane Anderson had +come to put her to the test. She had been tried in the +fires of hell and came forth unscorched. + +She stood beside her window dreaming again of the +home she would build when her Knight should stand +before her revealed in beauty no words could describe. +The moon was shining now in solemn glory on the white- +shrouded Square. Temptation had only strengthened the +fiber of her soul. She knelt in the moonlight beside +her couch and prayed that God should ever keep her +faith serene. She rose with a sense of peace and joy. +God would hear and answer the cry of her heart. The +City might be the Desert--it was still God's world and +not a sparrow that twittered in those bare trees or +chattered on her window-ledge in the morning could fall +to the ground without His knowledge. God had put this +deathless passion in her heart; He could not deny +it expression. She could bide His time. If the day of +her deliverance were near, it was good. If God should +choose to try her faith in loneliness and tears, it was +His way to make the revelation of glory the more +dazzling when it came. + +She drew the covering about her warm young body +with the firm faith that her hour was close at hand, +and fell asleep to dream of her Knight. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +FATE + +Mary waked next morning with the delicious sense of +impending happiness. A wonderful dream had come to +thrill her half-conscious moments, repeating itself in +increasing vividness and beauty with each awakening. +The vision had been interrupted by the unusual noise of +the snow machines on the car tracks, and yet she had +fallen asleep after each break and picked up the +rapturous scene at the exact moment of its +interruption. + +She was married and madly in love with her husband. +His face she could never see quite clearly. His +business kept him away from home on long trips. But +his baby was always there--a laughing, wonderful boy +whose chubby hands persisted in pulling her hair down +into her face each time she bent over his cradle to +kiss him. + +Ella was chattering in German to someone on the +stairs. She wondered again for the hundredth time +how this poor, slovenly, one-eyed, ill-kempt creature, +scrub-woman and janitress, could speak two languages +with such ease. Her English, except in excitement, +seemed equally fluent with her German. How did such a +woman fall so low? She was industrious and untiring in +her work. She never touched liquor or drugs. She was +kind and thoughtful and watched over her tenants with a +motherly care for which no landlord could pay in +dollars and cents. She was on her knees on the stairs +now, scrubbing down the steps to be crowded again with +muddy feet from the street below. + +Mary lay for half an hour snuggling under the warm +blankets, weaving a romance about Ella's life. A great +love for some heroic man who died and left her in +poverty could alone explain the mystery that hung about +her. She never spoke of her life or people. Mary had +ventured once to ask her. A wan smile flitted across +the haggard face for a moment, and she answered in low +tones that closed the subject. + +"I haven't any people, dear," she said slowly. +"They are dead long ago." + +The girl wondered if it were really true. In her +joy this morning she felt her heart go out to the +pathetic, drooping figure on the stairs. She +wished that every living creature might share the +secret joy that filled her soul. + +She drew the kitten from his nest beside her pillow +and rubbed her cheek against his little cold nose. He +always waked her with a kiss on her eyelids and then +coiled himself back for a tiny cat-nap until she could +make up her mind to rise. + +She sprang from the couch with sudden energy and +stretched her dainty figure with a prodigious yawn. + +"Gracious, Kitty, we must hurry!" she cried, +thrusting her bare feet into a pair of embroidered +slippers and throwing her blue flannel kimono on over +her night-dress. + +The coffee-pot was boiling busily when she had +bathed and dressed. Each detail of her domestic +schedule was given an extra care this morning. The +stove was carefully polished, each pot and pan placed +in its rack with a precision that spoke an unusual joy +within the heart of the housewife. + +And through it all she hummed a lullaby that +haunted her from the memories of a happy childhood. + +Breakfast over, the kitten fed, the birds given +their bath, their sand and seed, she couldn't stop +until the whole place had been thoroughly cleaned +and dusted. Exactly why she had done this on Thursday +morning it was impossible to say. Some hidden force +within had impelled her. + +Then back into the dream world her mind flew on +joyous wings. It was a sign from God in answer to +prayer. Why not? The Bible was full of such +revelations in ancient times. God was not dead because +the world was modern and we had steam and electricity. +The routine of school was no longer dull. Around each +commonplace child hung a halo of romance. They were +love-children today. She wove a dream of tenderness, +of chivalry, and heroic deeds about them all. She +searched each face for some line of beauty caught in +the vision of her own baby who had looked into her +heart from the mists of eternity. + +Three days passed in a sort of trance. Never had +she felt surer of life and the full fruition of every +hope and faith. Just how this marvelous blossoming +would come, she could not guess. Her chances of +meeting her Fate were no better than at any moment of +the past years of drab disillusionment, and yet, for +some reason, her foolish heart kept singing. + +Why? + +There could be but one answer. The event was +impending. Such things could be felt--not reasoned +out. + +She applied herself to her teaching with a new +energy and thoroughness. She must do this work well +and carry into the real life that must soon begin the +consciousness of every duty faithfully performed. + +A boy asked her a question about a little flower +which grew in a warm crevice of the stone wall on which +the iron fence of the school yard rested. She blushed +at her failure to enlighten him and promised to tell +him on Monday. + +Botany was not one of her tasks but she felt the +tribute to her personality in his question, and she +would take pains to make her answer full and +interesting. + +Saturday afternoon she hurried to the Public +Library, on Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street, to +look up every reference to this flower. + +The boulevard of the Metropolis was thronged with +eager thousands. Handsome men and beautifully dressed +women passed each other in endless procession on its +crowded pavements. The cabs and automobiles, two +abreast on either side, moved at a snail's pace, so +dense were the throngs at each crossing. Her fancy was +busy weaving about each throbbing tonneau and +limousine a story of love. Not a wheel was turning in +all that long line of shining vehicles that didn't +carry a woman or was hurrying to do a woman's bidding. + +Her hero was coming, too, somewhere in the crowd +with his gloved hand on one of those wheels. She could +feel his breath on her cheek as he handed her into the +seat by his side and then the sudden leap of the car +into space and away on the wings of lightning into the +future! + +She ascended the broad steps of the majestic +building with quick, springing strength. She loved +this glorious library, with its lofty, arched ceilings. +The sense of eternity that brooded over it and filled +the stately rooms rested and inspired her. + +Besides, she forgot her poverty in this temple of +all time. Within its walls she belonged to the great +aristocracy of brains and culture of which this palace +was the supreme expression. And it was hers. Andrew +Carnegie had given the millions to build it and the +city of New York granted the site on land that was +worth many millions more. But it was all built for her +convenience, her comfort and inspiration. Every volume +of its vast and priceless collection was hers--hers to +hold in her hands, read and ponder and enjoy. Every +officer and manager in its inclosure was her +servant--to come at her beck and call and do her +bidding. The little room on Twenty-third Street was +the symbol of the future. This magnificent building +was the realization of the present. + +She smiled pleasantly to the polite assistant who +received her order slip, and took her seat on the +waiting line until her books were delivered. + +This magnificent room with its lofty ceilings of +golden panels and drifting clouds had always brought to +her a peculiar sense of restful power. The +consciousness of its ownership had from the first been +most intimate. No man can own what he cannot +appreciate. He may possess it by legal documents, but +he cannot own it unless he has eyes to see, ears to +hear, and a heart to feel its charm. This appreciation +Mary Adams possessed by inheritance from her student +father who devoured books with an insatiate hunger. +Nowhere in all New York's labyrinth did she feel as +perfectly at home as in this reading-room. The quiet +which reigned without apparent sign or warning seemed +to belong to the atmosphere of the place. It was +unthinkable that any man or woman should be rude or +thoughtless enough to break it by a loud word. + +This room was hers day or night, winter or +summer, always heated and lighted, and a hundred +swift, silent servants at hand to do her bidding. +Around the room on serried shelves, dressed in leather +aprons, stood twenty-five thousand more servants of the +centuries of the past ready to answer any question her +heart or brain might ask of the world's life since the +dawn of Time. + +In the stack-room below, on sixty-three miles of +shelves, stood a million others ready to come at her +slightest nod. She loved to dream here of the future, +in the moments she must wait for these messengers she +had summoned. In this magic room the past ceased to +be. These myriads of volumes made the past a myth. It +was all the living, throbbing present--with only the +golden future to be explored. + +Her number flashed in red letters on the electric +blackboard. + +She rose and carried her books to the seat number +assigned her near the center of the southern division +of the room on the extreme left beside the bookcases +containing the dictionaries of all languages. + +Her seat was on the aisle which skirted the +shelves. She found the full description of the flower +in which she was interested, made her notes and +closed the volume with a lazy movement of her slender, +graceful hand. + +She lifted her eyes and they rested on a +remarkable-looking young man about her own age who +stood gazing in an embarrassed, helpless sort of way at +the row of ponderous volumes marked "The Century +Dictionary." + +He was evidently a newcomer. By his embarrassment +she could easily tell that it was the first time he had +ever ventured into this room. + +He looked at the books, apparently puzzled by their +number. He raised his hand and ran his fingers +nervously through the short, thick, red hair which +covered his well-shaped head. + +The girl's attention was first fixed by the strange +contrast between his massive jaw and short neck which +spoke the physical strength of an ox, and the slender +gracefully tapering fingers of his small hand. The +wrist was small, the fingers almost feminine in their +lines. + +He caught her look of curious interest and to her +horror, smiled and walked straight to her seat. + +There was no mistaking his determination to speak. +It was useless to drop her eyes or turn aside. He +would certainly follow. + +She blushed and gazed at him in a timid, +helpless fashion while he bent over her seat and +whispered awkwardly: + +"You look kind and obliging, miss--could you help +me a little?" + +His tone was so genuine in its appeal, so +distressed and hesitating, it was impossible to resent +his question. + +"If I can--yes," was the prompt answer. + +"You won't mind?" he asked, fumbling his hat. + +"No--what is it?" + +Mary had recovered her composure as his distress +had increased and looked steadily into his steel blue +eyes inquiringly. + +"You see," he went on, in low hurried tones, "I'm +all worked up about the mountains of North Carolina-- +thinkin' o' goin' down there to Asheville in a car, an' +I want to look the bloomin' place up and kind o' get my +bearin's before I start. A lawyer friend o' mine told +me to come here and I'd find all the maps in the +Century Dictionary. The man at the desk out there told +me to come in this room and look in the shelves on the +left and take it right out. Gee, the place is so big, +I get all rattled. I found the Century Dictionary on +that shelf----" + +He paused and smiled helplessly. + +"I thought a dictionary was one book--there's a +dozen of 'em marked alike. I'm afraid to pull 'em all +down an' I don't know where to begin-- COULD you +help me--please?" + +"Certainly, with pleasure," she answered, quickly +rising and leading the way back to the shelf at which +he had been gazing. + +"You want the atlas volume," she explained, drawing +the book from the shelf and returning to the seat. + +He followed promptly and bent over her shoulder +while she pointed out the map of North Carolina, the +position of Asheville and the probable route he must +follow to get there. + +"Thanks!" he exclaimed gratefully. + +"Not at all," she replied simply. "I'm only too +glad to be of service to you." + +Her answer emboldened him to ask another question. + +"You don't happen to know anything about that +country down there, do you?" + +"Why, yes. I know a great deal about it----" + +"Sure enough?" + +"I've been through Asheville many times and spent a +summer there once." + +"Did you?" + +His tones implied that he plainly regarded her +as a prodigy of knowledge. His whole attitude +suggested at once the mind of an alert, interested boy +asking his teacher for information on a subject near to +his heart. It was impossible to resist his appeal. + +"Why, yes," Mary went on in low, rapid tones. "My +people live in the Kentucky mountains." + +He bent low and gently touched her arm. + +"Say, we can't talk in here--I'm afraid. Would it +be asking too much of you to come out in the park, sit +down on a bench and tell me about it? I'll never know +how to thank you, if you will?" + +It was absurd, of course, such a request, and yet +his interest was so keen, his deference to her superior +knowledge so humble and appealing, to refuse seemed +ungracious. She hesitated and rose abruptly. + +"Just a moment--I'll return my books and then we'll +go. You can replace this volume on the shelf where we +got it." + +"Thank yoo, miss," he responded gratefully. +"You're awfully kind." + +"Don't mention it," she laughed. + +In a moment she was walking by his side down the +smooth marble stairs and out through the grand entrance +into Fifth Avenue. The strange part about it was, she +was not in the least excited over a very unconventional +situation. She had allowed a handsomely groomed, +young, red-haired adventurer to pick her up without the +formality of an introduction, in the Public Library. +She hadn't the remotest idea of his name--nor had he of +hers--yet there was something about him that seemed +oddly familiar. They must have known one another +somewhere in childhood and forgotten each other's +faces. + +The sun was shining in clear, steady brilliancy in +a cloudless sky. The snow had quickly melted and it +was unusually warm for early December. They turned +into the throng of Fifth Avenue and at the corner of +Forty-second Street he paused and hesitated and looked +at her timidly: + +"Say," he began haltingly, "there's an awful crowd +of bums on those seats in the Square behind the +building--you know Central Park, don't you?" + +Mary smiled. + +"Quite well--I've spent many happy hours in its +quiet walks." + +"You know that place the other side of the Mall-- +that ragged hill covered with rocks and trees and +mountain laurel?" + +"I've been there often." + +"Would you mind going there where it's quiet--I've +such a lot o' things I want to ask you--you won't mind +the walk, will you?" + +"Certainly not--we'll go there," Mary responded in +even, business-like tones. + +"Because, if you don't want to walk I'll call a +cab, if you'll let me----" + +"Not at all," was the quick answer. "I love to +walk." + +It was impossible for the girl to repress a smile +at her ridiculous situation! If any human being had +told her yesterday that she, Mary Adams, an old- +fashioned girl with old-fashioned ideas of the +proprieties of life, would have allowed herself to be +picked up by an utter stranger in this unceremonious +way, she would have resented the assertion as a +personal insult--yet the preposterous and impossible +thing had happened and she was growing each moment more +and more deeply interested in the study of the +remarkable youth by her side. + +He was not handsome in the conventional sense. His +features were too strong for that. An enemy might have +called them coarse. Their first impression was of +enormous strength and exhaustless vitality. He walked +with a quick, military precision and planted his small +feet on the pavement with a soft, sure tread that +suggested the strength of a young tiger. + +The one feature that puzzled her was the size of +his hands and feet. They were remarkably small and +remarkable for their slender, graceful lines. + +His eyes were another interesting feature. The +lids drooped with a careless Oriental languor, as +though he would shut out the glare of the full +daylight, and yet the pupils flashed with a cold steel- +blue fire. One look into his eyes and there could be +no doubt that the man behind them was an interesting +personality. + +She wondered what his business could be. Not a +lawyer or doctor or teacher certainly. His timidity in +handling books was clear proof on that point. He was +well groomed. His clothes were made by a first-class +tailor. + +Her heart thumped with a sudden fear. Perhaps he +was some sort of criminal. His questions may have been +a trick to lure her away. . . . + +They had just crossed the broad plaza at Fifty- +ninth Street and entered the walkway that leads to the +Mall. + +She stopped suddenly. + +"It's too far to the hill beyond the Mall," she +began hesitatingly. "We'll find a seat in one of the +little rustic houses along the Fifty-ninth Street +side----" + +"Sure, if you say so," he agreed. + +He accepted the suggestion so simply, she regretted +her suspicions, instantly changed her mind and said, +smiling: + +"No, we'll go on where we started. The long walk +will do me good." + +"All right," he laughed; "whatever you say's the +law. I'm the little boy that does just what his +teacher says." + +She blushed and shot him a surprised look. + +"Who told you that I was a teacher?" she asked, +with a smile. + +"Lord, nobody! I had no idea of such a thing. It +never popped into my head that you do anything at all. +You know, I was awful scared when I spoke to you?" + +"Were you?" she laughed. + +"Surest thing you know! I'd 'a' never screwed up +my courage to do it if you hadn't 'a' looked so kind +and gentle and sweet. I just knew you couldn't turn me +down----" + +There was no mistaking the genuineness of the +apology for his presumption. She smiled a gracious +answer, and threw the last ugly suspicion to the winds. + +He broke into a laugh and lifted his hand in the +sudden gesture of a traffic policeman commanding a +halt. + +"What is it?" she asked. + +"You know I was so excited I clean forgot to +introduce myself! What do you think o' that? You'll +excuse me, won't you? My name's Jim Anthony. I'm +sorry I can't give you any references to my folks. I +haven't any--I'm a lost sheep in New York--no father or +mother. That's why I'm so excited about this trip I'm +plannin' down South. I hear I've got some people down +there." + +He stopped suddenly as if absorbed in the thought. +Her heart went out to him in sympathy for this +confession of his orphaned life. + +"I'm Mary Adams," she smiled in answer. "I'm a +teacher in the public schools." + +"Gee--that accounts for it! I thought you looked +like you knew everything in those books. And you've +been to Asheville, too?" + +"Yes." + +"Suppose it's not as big a burg as New York?" + +"Hardly--it's just a hustling mountain town of +about twenty-five thousand people." + +"Lot o' swells from around New York live down +there, they tell me." + +"Yes, the Vanderbilts have a beautiful castle just +outside." + +"Some mountains near Asheville?" + +"Hundreds of square miles." + +"Mountains in every direction?" + +"As far as the eye can reach, one blue range piled +above another until they're lost in the dim skies on +the horizon." + +"Gee, it may be pretty hard to find your folks if +they just live in the mountains near Asheville?" + +"Unless your directions are more explicit--I should +think so." + +"You know, I thought the mountains near Asheville +was a bunch o' hills off one side like the Palisades, +that you couldn't miss if you tried. I've never been +outside of New York--since I can remember. I'd love to +see real mountains." + +The last sentence was spoken in a wistful pathos +that touched Mary with its irresistible appeal. Her +mother instincts responded to it in quick sympathy. + +"You've missed a lot," she answered gravely. + +"I'll bet I have. It's a rotten old town, this New +York----" + +He paused, and a queer light flashed from his steel +eyes. + +"Until you get your hand on its throat," he added, +bringing his square jaws together. + +Mary lifted her face with keen interest. + +"And you've got it by the throat?" + +"That's just what--little girl!" he cried, with a +ring of pride. "You see, I'm an inventor and I won a +little pile on my first trick. I've got a machine-shop +in a room eight-by-ten over on the East Side." + +"A machine-shop all your own?" + +"Yep." + +"I'd like to see it some day." + +He shook his head emphatically. + +"It's too dirty. I couldn't let a pretty girl like +you in such a place." He paused and resumed the tone +of his narrative where she interrupted him. "You see, +I've just put a new crimp in a carburetor for the +automobile folks. They're tickled to death over it and +I've got automobiles to burn. Will you go to ride with +me tomorrow?" + +The teacher broke into a joyous laugh. + +"Why do you laugh?" he asked awkwardly. + +"Well, in the language of New York, that would be +going some, wouldn't it?" + +"And why not, I'd like to know?" he cried with +scorn. "Who's to tell us we can't? You've no kids to +bother you tomorrow. I'm my own boss. You've seen +Asheville, but you've never seen New York until you sit +down beside me in a big six-cylinder racing car I'm +handlin' next week. Let me show it to you. I'll swing +her around to your door at eight o'clock. In twenty- +five minutes we'll clear the Bronx and shoot into New +Rochelle. There'll be no cops out to bother us, and +not a wheel in sight. It'll do you good. Let me take +you! I owe you that much for bein' so nice to me +today. Will you go with me?" + +Mary hesitated. + +"I'll think it over and let you know." + +"Got a telephone?" + +"No." + +"Then you'll have to tell me before I go--won't +you?" + +"I suppose so," she answered demurely. + +They passed the big fountain beyond the Mall and +skirted the lake to the bridge, crossed, walked along +the water's edge to the laurel-covered crags and found +a seat alone in the summer house that hides among the +trees on its highest point. + +The roar of the city was dim and far away. The +only sounds to break the stillness were the laughter of +lovers along the walks below and the distant cry of +steamers in the harbor and rivers. + +"You'd almost think you're in the mountains up +here, now wouldn't you?" he asked, after a moment's +silence. + +"Yes. I call this park my country estate. It +costs me nothing to keep it in perfect order. The city +pays for it all. But I own it. Every tree and shrub +and flower and blade of grass, every statue and bird +and animal in it is mine. I couldn't get more joy out +of them if I had them inclosed behind an iron fence, +and the deed to the land in my pocket--not half as +much, for I'd be lonely and miserable without someone +to see and enjoy it all with me." + +"Gee, that's so, ain't it? I never looked at it +like that before." + +He gazed at her a long time in silent admiration, +and then spoke briskly. + +"Now tell me about this North Carolina and all +those miles and square miles of mountains." + +"You've a piece of paper and pencil?" + +He lifted his hand school-boy fashion: + +"Johnny on the spot, teacher!" + +A blank-book and pencil he threw in her lap and +leaned close. + +"Tear the leaves out, if you like." + +"No, I'll just draw the maps on the pages and leave +them for you to study." + +With deft touch she outlined in rough on the first +page, the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, +Virginia and North Carolina, tracing his possible route +by Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Dover, Norfolk +and Raleigh, or by Washington, Richmond, and Danville +to Greensboro. + +"Either route you see," she said softly, "leads to +Salisbury, where you strike the foothills of the +mountains. It's about two hundred miles from there to +Asheville and `The Land of the Sky.'" + +For two hours she answered his eager, boyish +questions about the country and its people, his eyes +wide with admiration at her knowledge. + +The sun was sinking in a sea of scarlet and purple +clouds behind the tall buildings beside the Park before +she realized that they had been talking for more than +two hours. + +She sprang to her feet, blushing and confused. + +"Mercy, I had no idea it was so late." + +"Why--is it late?" he asked incredulously. + +"We must hurry----" + +She brushed the stray ringlets of hair from her +forehead, laughed and hurried down the pathway. + +They crossed the Park and took the Madison Avenue +line to Twenty-third Street. They were silent in the +car. The roar of the traffic was deafening after the +quiet of the summer house among the trees. + +"I can see you home?" he inquired appealingly. + +"We get off at Twenty-third Street." + +They stood on the steps at her door beside the +Square and there was a moment's awkward silence. + +He lifted his hat with a little chivalrous bow. + +"Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock in my car?" + +She smiled and hesitated. + +"You'll have a bully time!" + +"It's Sunday," she stammered. + +"Sure, that's why I asked you." + +"I don't like to miss my church." + +"You go to church every Sunday?" he asked in +amazement. + +"Yes." + +"Well, just this once then. It'll do you good. +And I'll drive as careful as a farmer." + +"All right," she said in low tones, and extended +her hand: + +"Good night----" + +"Good night, teacher!" he responded with a +boyish wave of his slender hand and quickly +disappeared in the crowd. + +She rushed up the stairs, her cheeks aflame, her +heart beating a tattoo of foolish joy. + +She snatched the kitten from sleep and whispered in +his tiny ear: + +"Oh, Kitty dear, I've had such an adventure! I've +spent the happiest, silliest afternoon of my life! I'm +going to have a more wonderful day tomorrow. I just +feel it. In a big racing automobile if you please, Mr. +Thomascat! Sorry I can't take you but the dust would +blind you, Kitty dear. I'm sorry to tell you that +you'll have to stay at home all day alone and keep +house. It's too bad. But I'll fix your milk and bread +before I go and you must promise me on your sacred +Persian cat's honor not to look at my birds!" + +She hugged him violently and he purred his soft +answer in song. + +"Oh, Kitty, I'm so happy--so foolishly happy!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +DOUBTS AND FEARS + +Mary attempted no analysis of her emotions. It was all +too sudden, too stunning. She was content to feel and +enjoy the first overwhelming experience of life. Hour +after hour she lay among the pillows of her couch in +the dim light of the street lamps and lazily watched +the passing Saturday evening crowds. +The world was beautiful. + +She undressed at last and went to bed, only to toss +wide-eyed for hours. + +A hundred times she reenacted the scene in the +Library and recalled her first impression of Jim's +personality. What could such an utterly unforeseen and +extraordinary meeting mean except that it was her Fate? +Certainly he could not have planned it. Certainly she +had not foreseen such an event. It had never occurred +to her in the wildest flights of fancy that she could +meet and speak to a man under such conditions, to say +nothing of the walk in the Park and the hours she +spent in the little summer house. + +And the strangest part of it all was that she could +see nothing wrong in it from beginning to end. It had +happened in the simplest and most natural way +imaginable. By the standards of conventional propriety +her act was the maddest folly; and yet she was still +happy over it. + +There was one disquieting trait about him that made +her a little uneasy. He used the catch-words of the +street gamins of New York without any consciousness of +incongruity. She thought at first that he did this as +the Southern boy of culture and refinement +unconsciously drops into the tones and dialect of the +negro, by daily association. His constant use of the +expressive and characteristic "Gee" was startling, to +say the least. And yet it came from his lips in such a +boyish way she felt sure that it was due to his +embarrassment in the unusual position in which he had +found himself with her. + +His helplessness with the dictionary was proof, of +course, that he was no scholar. And yet a boy might +have a fair education in the schools of today and be +unfamiliar with this ponderous and dignified +encyclopedia of words. It was impossible to believe +that he was illiterate. His clothes, his carriage, +even his manners made such an idea preposterous. + +Besides, no inventor could be really illiterate. +He may have been forced to work and only attended night +schools. But if he were a mechanic, capable of making +a successful improvement on one of the most delicate +and important parts of an automobile, he must have +studied the principles involved in his inventions. + +His choice of a profession appealed to her +imagination, too. It showed independence and +initiative. It opened boundless possibilities. He +might be an obscure and poorly educated boy today. In +five years he could be a millionaire and the head of +some huge business whose interests circled the world. + +The tired brain wore itself out at last in eager +speculations, and she fell into a fitful stupor. The +roar of the street-cars waked her at daylight, and +further sleep was out of the question. She rose, +dressed quickly and got her breakfast in a quiver of +nervous excitement over the adventure of the coming +automobile. + +As the hour of eight drew nearer, her doubts of the +propriety of going became more acute. + +"What on earth has come over me in the past twenty- +four hours?" she asked of herself. "I've known +this man but a day. I don't KNOW him at all, and +yet I'm going to put my life in his hands in that +racing machine. Have I gone crazy?" + +She was not in the least afraid of him. His face +and voice and personality all seemed familiar. Her +brain and common-sense told her that such a trip with +an utter stranger was dangerous and foolish beyond +words. In his automobile, unaccompanied by a human +soul and unacquainted with the roads over which they +would travel, she would be absolutely in his power. + +She set her teeth firmly at last, her mind made up. + +"It's too mad a risk. I was crazy to promise. I +won't go!" + +She had scarcely spoken her resolution when the +soft call of the auto-horn echoed below. She stood +irresolute for a moment, and the call was repeated in +plaintive, appealing notes. + +She tried to hold fast to her resolutions, but the +impulse to open the window and look out was resistless. +She turned the old-fashioned brass knob, swung her +windows wide on their hinges and leaned out. + +His keen eyes were watching. He lifted his cap and +waved. She answered with the flutter of her +handkerchief--and all resolutions were off. + +"Of course, I'll go," she cried, with a laugh. +"It's a glorious day--I may never have such a chance +again." + + + +CHAPTER V + + +WINGS OF STEEL + +She threw on her furs and hurried downstairs. Her +surrender was too sudden to realize that she was being +driven by a power that obscured reason and crushed her +will. + +Reason made one more vain cry as she paused at the +door below to draw on her gloves. + +"You have refused every invitation to see or know +the unconventional world into which thousands of women +in New York, clear-eyed and unafraid, enter daily. +You'd sooner die than pose an hour in Gordon's studio, +and on a Sabbath morning you cut your church and go on +a day's wild ride with a man you have known but fifteen +hours!" + +And the voice inside quickly answered: + +"But that's different! Gordon's a married man. My +chevalier is not! I have the right to go, and he has +the right." + +It was settled anyhow before this little +controversy arose at the street door, but the ready +answer she gave eased her conscience and cleared +the way for a happy, exciting trip. + +He leaped from the big, ugly racer to help her in, +stopped and looked at her light clothing. + +"That's your heaviest coat?" + +"Yes. It isn't cold." + +"I've one for you." + +He drew an enormous fur coat from the car and held +it up for her arms. + +"You think I'll need that?" she asked. + +His white teeth gleamed in a friendly smile. + +"Take it from me, Kiddo, you certainly will!" + +She winced just a little at the common expression, +but he said it with such a quick, boyish enthusiasm, +she wondered whether he were quoting the expression +from the Bowery boy's vocabulary or using it in a +facetious personal way. + +"I knew you'd need it. So I brought it for you," +he added genially. + +"Thanks," she murmured, lifting her arms and +drawing the coat about her trim figure. + +He helped her into the car and drew from his pocket +a light pair of goggles. + +"Now these, and you're all hunky-dory!" + +"Will I need these, too?" she asked incredulously. + +"Will you!" he cried. "You wouldn't ask +that question if you knew the horse we've got +hitched to this benzine buggy today. He's got wings-- +believe me! It's all I can do to hold him on the +ground sometimes." + +"You'll drive carefully?" she faltered. + +He lifted his hand. + +"With you settin' beside me, my first name's +`Caution.'" + +She fumbled the goggles in a vain effort to lift +her arms over her head to fasten them on. He sprang +into the seat by her side and promptly seized them. + +"Let me fix 'em." + +His slender, skillful fingers adjusted the band and +brushed a stray ringlet of hair back under the furs. +The thrill of his touch swept her with a sudden dizzy +sense of excitement. She blushed and drew her head +down into the collar of the shaggy coat. + +He touched the wheel, and the gray monster leaped +from the curb and shot down the street. The single +impulse carried them to the crossing. He had shut off +the power as the machine gracefully swung into Fourth +Avenue. The turn made, another leap and the car swept +up the Avenue and swung through Twenty-sixth Street +into Fifth Avenue. Again the power was off as he made +the turn into Fifth Avenue at a snail's pace. + +"Can't let her out yet," he whispered +apologetically. "Had to make these turns. There's no +room for her inside of town." + +Mary had no time to answer. He touched the wheel, +and the car shot up the deserted Avenue. She gasped +for breath and braced her feet, her whole being +tingling with the first exhilarating consciousness that +she too was possessed of the devil of speed madness. +It was glorious! For the first time in her life, space +and distance lost their meaning. She was free as the +birds in the heavens. She was flying on the wings of +this gray, steel monster through space. The palaces on +the Avenue whirled by in dim ghost-like flashes. They +flew through Central Park into Seventy-second Street +and out into the Drive. The waters of the river, broad +and cool, flashing in the morning sun, rested her eyes +a moment and then faded in a twinkling. They had +leaped the chasm beyond Grant's Tomb, plunged into +Broadway and before she could get her bearings, swept +up the hill at One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, +slipped gracefully across the iron bridge and in a +jiffy were lost in a gray cloud of dust on the Boston +Turnpike. + +When the first intoxicating joy of speed had spent +itself, she found herself shuddering at the daring +turns he made, missing a curb by a hair's breadth-- +grazing a trolley by half an inch. Her fears were soon +forgotten. + +The hand on the wheel was made of steel, too. + +The throbbing demon encased within the hood obeyed +his slightest whim. She glanced at the square, massive +jaw with furtive admiration. + +Without turning his head he laughed. + +"You like it, teacher?" + +"I'm in Heaven!" + +"You won't worry about church then, will you?" + +"Not today." + +They stopped at a road-house, and he put in more +gasoline, lifted the casing from the engine, touched +each vital part, examined his tires, and made sure that +his machine was at its best. + +She watched him with a growing sense of his +strength of character, his poise and executive ability. +He was an awkward, stammering boy in the Library +yesterday. Today with this machine in his hand he was +the master of Time and Space. + +She yielded herself completely to the delicious +sense of his protection. The extraordinary care he was +giving the machine was a plain avowal of his deep +regard for her comfort and happiness. She had been in +one or two moderately moving cars driven by careful +chauffeurs through Central Park. She had always felt +on those trips with Jane Anderson like a poor relation +from the country imposing on a rich friend. + +This trip was all her own. The car and its master +were there solely for her happiness. Her slightest +whim was law for both. It was sweet, this sense of +power. She began to lift her body with a touch of +pride. + +She laughed now at fears. What nonsense! No +Knight of the Age of Chivalry could treat her with more +deference. He had tried already to get her to stop for +a bite of lunch. + +"Don't you want a thing to eat?" he persisted. + +"Not a thing. I've just had my breakfast. It's +only nine o'clock----" + +"I know, but we've come thirty miles and the air +makes you hungry. We ought to eat about six good meals +a day." + +She shook her head. + +"No--not yet. I'm too happy with these new wings. +I want to fly some more--come on----" + +He lifted his hand in his favorite gesture of +obedience. + +"'Nuff said--we'll streak it back now by another +road, hump it through town and jump over the +Brooklyn Bridge. I'll show you Coney Island and then I +know you'll want a hot dog anyhow." + +He crossed the country and darted into Broadway. +Before she could realize it, the last tree and field +were lost behind in a cloud of dust, and they were +again in the crowded streets of the city. The deep +growl of his horn rang its warnings for each crossing +and Mary watched the timid women scramble to the +sidewalks five and six blocks ahead. + +It was delicious. She had always been the one to +scramble before. Her heart went out in a wave of +tenderness to the man by her side, strong, daring, +masterful, her chevalier, her protector and admirer. + +Yes, her admirer! There was no doubt on that +point. The moment he relaxed the tension of his hand +on the wheel, his deep, mysterious eyes beneath the +drooping lids were fixed on hers in open, shameless +admiration. Their cold fire burned into her heart and +thrilled to her finger-tips. + +In spite of his deference and his obedience to her +whim, she felt the iron grip of his personality on her +imagination. Whatever his education, his origin or his +environment, he was a power to be reckoned with. + +No other type of man had ever appealed to her. +Her conception of a real man had always been one who +did his own thinking and commanded rather than asked +the respect of others. + +She had thrown the spell of her beauty over this +headstrong, masterful man. He was wax in her hands. A +delicious sense of power filled her. She had never +known what happiness meant before. She floated through +space. The spinning lines of towering buildings on +Broadway passed as mists in a dream. + +As the velvet feet of the car touched the great +bridge she lazily opened her eyes for a moment and +gazed through the lace-work of steel at the broad sweep +of the magnificent harbor. The dark blue hills of +Staten Island framed the picture. + +He was right. She had never seen New York before. +Never before had its immense panorama been swept within +two hours. Never before had she realized its +dimensions. She had always felt stunned and crushed in +the effort to conceive it. Today she had wings. The +city lay at her feet, conquered. She was mistress of +Time and Space. + +Again her sidelong glance swept the lines of Jim +Anthony's massive jaw. She laughed softly. + +"What's the matter?" he asked. + +"Nothing. I'm just happy." + +She blushed and wondered if he had read her +thoughts by some subtle power of clairvoyance. She was +speculating on the effects of love at first sight on +such a man. Would he hesitate, back and fill and hang +on for months trying in vain to gain the courage to +speak? Or would he spring with the leap of a young +tiger the moment he realized what he wanted? + +Her own attitude was purely one of joyous +expectancy. It would, of course, be a long time before +her feelings could take any definite attitude toward a +man. For the moment she was supremely happy. It was +enough. She made no effort to probe her feelings. She +might return to earth tomorrow. Today she was in +Heaven. She would make the most of it. + +They skimmed the wooded cliffs of Bay Ridge, her +heart beating in ecstasy at the revelation of beauty of +whose existence she had not dreamed. + +"I bet you never saw this drive before, now did +you?" he asked with boyish enthusiasm. + +"No--it's wonderful." + +"Some view--eh?" + +"Entrancing!" + +"You know when I make my pile, I'd like a palace of +white marble perched on this cliff with the windows +on the south looking out over Sandy Hook, and the +windows on the west looking over that fort on the top +of Staten Island with its black eyes gazing over the +sea. How would you like that?" + +She turned away to mask the smile she couldn't +repress. + +"That would be splendid, wouldn't it?" + +"I like the water, don't you?" + +"I love it." + +"Water and hills both right together! I reckon my +father must 'a' been a sea-captain and my mother from +the mountains----" + +He said this with a pathos that found the girl's +heart. What a pitiful, lonely life, a boy's without +even the memory of a mother or father! The mother +instinct rose in a resistless flood of pity. Her eyes +grew suddenly dim. + +"Well," he said briskly, "now for the dainty job! +I've got to jump my way through that Coney Island +bunch. You see my low speed's a racing pace for an +everyday car. All I can do in a crowd is to jump from +one crossing to the next and cut her power off every +time. You can bet I'll make a guy or two jump with +me----" + +"You won't hurt anyone?" she pleaded. + +"Lord, no! I wouldn't dare to put her +through that mob in the afternoon. I'd kill a +regiment of 'em. But it's early--just the shank of the +morning. There's nobody down here yet." + +The car suddenly leaped into the Avenue that runs +through the heart of Coney Island, the deep-throated +horn screaming its warning. The crowd scattered like +sheep before a lion. + +The girl laughed in spite of her effort at self- +control. + +"Watch 'em hump!" Jim grunted. + +"It's funny, isn't it?" + +"When you're in the car--yes. It don't seem so +funny when you're on foot. Well, some people were made +to walk and some to ride. I had to hoof it at first. +I like riding better--don't you?" + +"To be perfectly honest--yes!" + +The car leaped forward again, the horn screaming. +The wheel passed within a foot of a fat woman's skirt. +With a cry of terror she fled to the sidewalk and shook +her fist at Jim, her face purple with anger. + +He waved his hand back at her: + +"Never touched you, dearie! Never touched you!" + +Mary lost all fear of accident and watched him +handle the machine with the skill of a master. She +could understand now the spirit of deviltry in a +chauffeur who knows his business. It seemed a wicked, +cruel thing from the ground--this swift plunge of a car +as if bent on murder. But now that she felt the sure, +velvet grip of the brake in a master's hand, she saw +that the danger was largely a myth. + +It was fun to see people jump at the approach of an +avalanche of steel that always stopped just short of +harm. Of course, it took a steady nerve and muscle to +do the trick. The man by her side had both. He was +always smiling. Nothing rattled him. + +Her trust was now implicit. She relaxed the +tension of the first two hours of doubt and fear, and +yielded to the spell of his strength. It seemed +inseparable from the throbbing will of the giant +machine. He was its incarnate spirit. She was being +swept through space now on the wings of omnipotent +power--but power always obedient to her whim. + +With steady, even pulse they glided down the long, +broad Avenue to Prospect Park, swung through its +winding lanes, on through the streets of Brooklyn and +once more into the open road. + +"Now for Long Beach and a good lunch!" he cried. +"I'll show you something--but you'll have to shut your +eyes to see it." + +With a sudden bound, the car leaped into the air, +and shot through the sky with the hiss and shriek of a +demon. + +The girl caught her breath and instinctively +gripped his arm. + +"Look out, Kiddo!" he shouted. "Don't touch me--or +we'll both land in Kingdom Come. I ain't ready for a +harp just yet. I'd rather fool with this toy for a +while down here." + +She braced her feet and gripped the sides of the +car, gasping for breath, steadied herself at last and +crouched low among the furs to guard her throat from +the icy daggers of the wind. + +The landscape whirled in a circle of trees and sky, +while above the dark line of hills hung the boiling +cauldron of cloud-banked heavens. + +"Are you game?" he called above the roar. + +"Yes," she gasped. "Don't stop----" + +Her soul had risen at last to the ecstasy of the +mania for speed that fired the man's spirit and nerved +his hand. It was inconceivable until experienced--this +awful joy! Her spirit sank with childish +disappointment as he slowly lowered the power. + +"Got to take a sharp curve down there," he +explained. "We turn to the right for the meadows and +the Beach--how was that?" + +"Wonderful," she cried, with dancing eyes. "Let +her go again if you want to--I'm game--now." + +Jim laughed. + +"A little rattled at first?" + +"Yes----" + +"Well, we can't let her out on this road. It's too +narrow--have to take a ditch sometimes to pass. That +wouldn't do for an eighty-mile clip, you know--now +would it?" + +"Hardly." + +"I might risk it alone--but my first name's `Old +Man Caution' today--you get me?" + +Mary nodded and turned her head away again. + +"I got you the first time, sir," she answered +playfully taking his tone. + +He ran the car into the garage at the Beach, sprang +out and lifted Mary to the ground with quick, firm +hand. They threw off their heavy coats and left them. + +"Look out for this junk now, sonny," he cried to +the attendant, tossing him a half dollar. + +"Sure, Mike!" + +"Fill her up to the chin by the time we get +back." + +"Righto!" + +Quickly they walked to the hotel and in five +minutes were seated beside a window in the dining-room, +watching the lazy roll of the sea sweep in on the sands +at low tide. + +"I'm hungry as a wolf!" he whispered. + +"So am I----" + +"We'll eat everything in sight--start at the top +and come down." + +He handed her the menu card and watched her from +the depths beneath the drooping eyelids. + +Conscious of his gaze and rejoicing in its frank +admiration, she ordered the dinner with instinctive +good taste. No effort at conversation was made by +either. They were both too hungry. As Jim lighted his +cigarette when the coffee was served, he leaned back in +his chair and watched the breakers in silence. + +"That's the best dinner I ever had in my life," he +said slowly. + +"It was good. We were hungry." + +"I've been hungry before, many a time. It was +something else, too." He paused and rose abruptly. +"Let's walk up the Beach." + +"I'd love to," she answered, slowly rising. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +BESIDE THE SEA + +They strolled leisurely along the board-walk, found the +sand, walked in the firm, dry line of the high-water +mark for a mile to the east, and sat down on a clump of +sea-grass on the top of a sand dune. + +"I like this!" she cried joyously. + +"So do I," he answered soberly, and lapsed into +silence. + +The sun was warm and genial. The wind had died, +and the waves of the rising tide were creeping up the +long, sloping stretches of the sand with a lazy, +soothing rush. A winter gull poised above their heads +and soared seaward. The smoke of an ocean liner +streaked the horizon as she swept toward the channel +off Sandy Hook. + +Jim looked at the girl by his side and tried to +speak. She caught the strained expression in his +strong face and lowered her eyes. + +He began to trace letters in the sand. + +She knew with unerring instinct that he had made +his first desperate effort to speak his love and +failed. Would he give it up and wait for weeks and +possibly months--or would he storm the citadel in one +mad rush at the beginning? + +He found his voice at last. He had recovered from +the panic of his first impulse. + +"Well, how do you like my idea of a good day as far +as you've gone?" he asked lightly. + +She met his gaze with perfect frankness. "The +happiest day I ever spent in my life," she confessed. + +"Honest?" + +"Honest." + +"Oh, shucks--what's the use!" he cried, with sudden +fierce resolution. "You've got me, Kiddo, you've got +me! I've been eatin' out of your hand since the minute +I laid my eyes on you in that big room. I'm all yours. +You can do anything you want with me. For God's sake, +tell me that you like me a little." + +The blood slowly mounted to her cheeks in red waves +of tremulous emotion. + +"I like you very much," she said in low tones. + +He seized her hand and held it in a desperate grip. + +"I love you, Kiddo," he went on passionately. "You +don't mind me calling you Kiddo? You're so dainty +and pretty and sweet, and that dimple keeps coming in +your cheek, it just seems like that's the word--you +don't mind?" + +"No----" + +"You don't know how I've been starvin' all my life +for the love of a pure girl like you. You're the first +one I ever spoke to. I was scared to death yesterday +when I saw you. But I'd 'a' spoke to you if it killed +me in my tracks. I couldn't help it. It just looked +like an angel had dropped right down out of the gold +clouds from that ceilin'. I was afraid I'd lose you in +the crowd and never see you again. It didn't seem you +were a stranger anyhow--I didn't seem strange to you, +did I?" + +Her lips quivered, and she was silent. + +"Didn't you feel like you'd known me somewhere +before?" he pleaded. + +"Yes." + +"I just felt you did, and that's what give me +courage. Oh, Kiddo, you've got to love me a little-- +I've never been loved by a human soul in all my life. +The first thing I remember was hidin' under a stoop +from a brute who beat me every night. I ran away and +slept in barrels and crawled into coal shutes till I +was big enough to earn a livin' sellin' papers. For +years I never knew what it meant to have enough to +eat. I just scratched and fought my way through the +streets like a little hungry wolf till I got in a +blacksmith's shop down on South Street and learned to +handle tools. I was quick and smart, and the old man +liked me and let me sleep in the shop. I had enough to +eat then and got strong as an ox. I went to the night +schools and learned to read and write. I don't know +anything, but I'm quick and you can teach me--you will, +won't you?" + +"I'll try," was the low answer. + +"You do like me, Kiddo? Say it again!" + +She rose to her feet and looked out over the sea, +her face scarlet. + +"Yes, I do," she said at last. + +With a sudden resistless sweep he clasped her in +his arms and kissed her lips. + +Her heart leaped in mad response to the first kiss +a lover had ever given. Her body quivered and relaxed +in his embrace. It was sweet--it was wonderful beyond +words. + +He kissed her again, and she clung to him, lifting +her eyes to his at last in a long, wondering gaze and +then pressed her own lips to his. + +"Oh, my God, Kiddo, you love me! It beats the +world, don't it? Love at first sight for both of +us! + +I've heard about it, but I didn't think it would +ever happen to me like this--did you?" + +She shook her head and bit her lips as the tears +slowly dimmed her eyes. + +"It takes my breath," she murmured. "I can't +realize what it all means. It seems too wonderful to +be true." + +"And you won't turn me down because I don't know +who my father and mother was?" + +"No--my heart goes out to you in a great pity for +your lonely, wretched boyhood." + +"I couldn't help that--now could I?" + +"Of course not. It's wonderful that you've made +your way alone and won the fight of life." + +He gripped her hands and held her at arms' length, +devouring her with his deep, slumbering eyes. + +"Gee, but you're a brick, little girl! I thought +you were an angel when I first saw you. Now I know it. +Just watch me work for you! I'll show you a thing or +two. You'll marry me right away, won't you?" + +He bent close, his breath on her lips. + +Her eyes drooped under his passionate gaze, and the +tears slowly stole down her cheeks. Her hour of life +had struck! So suddenly, so utterly unexpectedly, it +rang a thunderbolt from the clear sky. + +"You will, won't you?" he pleaded. + +She smiled at him through her tears and slowly +said: + +"I can't say yes today." + +"Why--why?" + +"You've swept me off my feet--I--I can't think." + +"I don't want you to think--I want you to marry me +right now." + +"I must have a little time." + +His face fell in despair. + +"Say, little girl, don't turn me down--you'll kill +me." + +"I'm not turning you down," she protested tenderly. +"I only want time to see that I'm not crazy. I have to +pinch myself to see if I'm awake. It all seems a +dream"--she paused and lifted her radiant face to his-- +"a beautiful dream--the most wonderful my soul has ever +seen. I must be sure it's real!" + +He drew her into his arms, and her body again +relaxed in surrender as his lips touched hers. + +"Isn't that the real thing?" he laughed. + +She lay very still, her eyes closed, her face a +scarlet flame. She was frightened at the swift +realization of its overwhelming reality. The touch of +his hand thrilled to the last fiber and nerve of her +body. Her own trembling fingers clung to him with +desperate longing tenderness. She roused herself with +an effort and drew away. + +"That's enough now. I must have a little common- +sense. Let's go----" + +He clung to her hand. + +"You'll let me come to see you, tomorrow night?" + +"Yes----" + +"And the next night--and every night this week-- +what's the difference? There's nobody to say no, is +there?" + +"No one." + +"You'll let me?" + +"Tomorrow sure. Maybe you won't want to come the +next night." + +"Maybe I won't! Just wait and see!" + +He seized both hands again and held her at arms' +length. + +"Don't go yet--just let me look at you a minute +more! The only girl I ever had in my life--and she's +the prettiest thing God ever made on this earth. Ain't +I the lucky boy?" + +"We must go now," she cried, blushing again under +his burning eyes. + +He dropped her hands suddenly and saluted military +fashion. + +"All right, teacher! I'm the little boy that does +exactly what he's told." + +They strolled leisurely along the shining sands in +silence. Now and then his slender hand caught hers and +crushed it. The moment he touched her a living flame +flashed through her body--and through every moment of +contact her nerves throbbed and quivered as if a +musician were sweeping the strings of a harp. If this +were not love, what could it be? + +Her whole being, body and soul, responded to his. +Her body moved instinctively toward his, drawn by some +hidden, resistless power. Her hands went out to meet +his; her lips leaped to his. + +She must test it with time, of course. And yet she +knew by a deep inner sense that time could only fan the +flame that had been kindled into consuming fire that +must melt every barrier between them. + +She had asked him nothing of himself, his business +or his future, and knew nothing except what he had told +her in the first impetuous rush of his confession of +love. No matter. The big thing today was the fact of +love and the new radiance with which it was beginning +to light the world. The effect was stunning. Their +conversation had been the simplest of commonplace +questions and answers--and yet the day was the one +miracle of her life--her happiness something +unthinkable until realized. + +She had not asked time in order to know him better. +She had only asked time to see herself more clearly in +the new experience. Not for a moment did she raise the +question of the worthiness of the man she loved. It +was inconceivable that she should love a man not worthy +of her. The only questions asked were soul-searching +ones put to herself. + +Through the sweet, cool drive homeward, a hundred +times she asked within: + +"Is this love?" + +And each time the answer came from the depths: + +"Yes--yes--a thousand times yes. It's the voice of +God. I feel it and I know it." + +He throttled the racer down to the lowest speed and +took the longest road home. + +Again and again he slipped his left hand from the +wheel and pressed hers. + +"You won't let anybody knock me behind my back, now +will you, little girl?" + +She pressed his hand in answer. + +"I ain't got a single friend in all God's world to +stand up for me but just you." + +"You don't need anyone," she whispered. + +"You'll give me a chance to get back at 'em if any +of your friends knock me, won't you?" + +"Why should they dislike you?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"Well, I ain't exactly one o' the high-flyers now +am I?" + +"I'm glad you're not." + +"Sure enough?" + +"Yes." + +"Then it's me for you, Kiddo, for this world and +the next." + +The car swung suddenly to the curb and Mary lifted +her eyes with a start to find herself in front of her +home. + +Jim sprang to the ground and lifted her out. + +"Keep this coat," he whispered. "We'll need it +tomorrow. What time is your school out?" + +"At three o'clock." + +"I can come at four?" + +"You don't have to work tomorrow?" + +He hesitated a moment. + +"No, I'm on a vacation till after Christmas. +They're putting through my new patent." + +He followed her inside the door and held her hand +in the shadows of the hall. + +"All right, at four," she said. + +"I'll be here." + +He stooped and kissed her, turned and passed +quickly out. + +She stood for a moment in the shadows and listened +to the throb of the car until it melted into the roar +of the city's life, her heart beating with a joy so new +it was pain. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +A VAIN APPEAL + +A week passed on the wings of magic. + +Every day at four o'clock the car was waiting at +her door. The drab interior of the school-room had +lost its terror. No annoyance could break the spell +that reigned within. Her patience was inexhaustible, +her temper serene. + +Walking with swift step down the Avenue to her home +she wondered vaguely how she could have been lonely in +all the music and the wonder of New York's marvelous +life. The windows of the stores were already crowded +with Christmas cheer, and busy thousands passed through +their doors. Each man or woman was a swift messenger +of love. Somewhere in the shadows of the city's +labyrinth a human heart would beat with quickened joy +for every step that pressed about these crowded +counters. Love had given new eyes to see, new ears to +hear and a new heart to feel the joys and sorrows of +life. + +She hadn't given her consent yet. She was +still asking her silly heart to be sure of herself. +Of her lover, the depth and tenderness, the strength +and madness of his love, there could be no doubt. Each +day he had given new tokens. + +For Saturday afternoon she had told him not to +bring the car. + +When they reached Fifth Avenue, across the Square, +he stopped abruptly and faced her with a curious, +uneasy look: + +"Say, tell me why you wanted to walk?" + +"I had a good reason," she said evasively. + +"Yes, but why? It's a sin to lay that car up a day +like this. Look here----" + +He stopped and tried to gulp down his fears. + +"Look here--you're not going to throw me down after +leading me to the very top of the roof, are you?" + +She looked up with tender assurance. + +"Not today----" + +"Then why hoof it? Let me run round to the garage +and shoot her out. You can wait for me at the Waldorf. +I've always wanted to push my buzz-wagon up to that big +joint and wait for my girl to trip down the steps." + +"No. I've a plan of my own today. Let me have my +way." + +"All righto--just so you're happy." + +"I am happy," she answered soberly. + +At the foot of the broad stairs of the Library she +paused and looked up smilingly at its majestic front. + +"Come in a moment," she said softly. + +He followed her wonderingly into the vaulted hall +and climbed the grand staircase to the reading-room. +She walked slowly to the shelf on which the Century +Dictionary rested and looked laughingly at the seat in +which she sat Saturday afternoon a week ago at exactly +this hour. + +Jim smiled, leaned close and whispered: + +"I got you, Kiddo--I got you! Get out of here +quick or I'll grab you and kiss you!" + +She started and blushed. + +"Don't you dare!" + +"Beat it then--beat it--or I can't help it!" + +She turned quickly and they passed through the +catalogue room and lightly down the stairs. + +He held her soft, round arm with a grip that sent +the blood tingling to the roots of her brown hair. + +"You understand now?" she whispered. + +"You bet! We walk the same way up the Avenue, +through the Park to the little house on the laurel +hill. And you're goin' to be sweet to me today, my +Kiddo--I just feel it. I----" + +"Don't be too sure, sir!" she interrupted, +solemnly. + +He laughed aloud. + +"You can't fool me now--and I'm crazy as a June +bug! You know I like to walk--if I can be with you!" + +At the Park entrance she stopped again and smiled +roguishly. + +"We'll find a seat in one of the summer houses +along the Fifty-ninth Street side." + +"All right," he responded. + +"No--we'll go on where we started!" + +With a laugh, she slipped her hand through his arm. + +"You were a little scared of me last Saturday about +this time, weren't you?" + +"Just a little----" + +"It hurt me, too, but I didn't let you know." + +"I'm sorry." + +"It's all right now--it's all right. Gee I but +we've traveled some in a week, haven't we?" + +"I've known you more than a week," she protested +gayly. + +"Sure--I've known you since I was born." + +They walked through the stately rows of elms on the +Mall in joyous silence. Crowds of children and +nurses, lovers and loungers, filled the seats and +thronged the broad promenade. + +Scarcely a word was spoken until they reached the +rustic house nestling among the trees on the hill. + +"Just a week by the calendar," she murmured. "And +I've lived a lifetime." + +"It's all right then--little girl? You'll marry me +right away? When--tonight?" + +"Hardly!" + +"Tomorrow, then?" + +She drew the glove from her hand and held the +slender fingers up before him. + +"You can get the ring----" + +"Gee! I do have to get a ring, don't I?" + +"Yes----" + +"Why didn't you tell me? You know I never got +married before." + +"I should hope not!" + +He seized her hand and kissed it, drew her into his +arms, held her crushed and breathless and released her +with a quick, impulsive movement. + +"You'll help me get it?" he asked eagerly. + +"If you like." + +"A big white sparkler?" + +"No--no----" + +"No?" + +"A plain little gold band." + +"Let me get you a big diamond!" + +"No--a plain gold band." + +"It's all settled then?" + +"We're engaged. You're my fiance." + +"But for God's sake, Kiddo--how long do I have to +be a fiance?" + +A ripple of laughter rang through the trees. + +"Don't you think we've done pretty well for seven +days?" + +"I could have settled it in seven minutes after we +met," he answered complainingly. "You won't tell me +the day yet?" + +"Not yet----" + +"All right, we'll just have to take blessings as +they come, then." + +Through the beautiful afternoon they sat side by +side with close-pressed hands and planned the future +which love had given. A modest flat far up among the +trees on the cliffs overlooking the Hudson, they +decided on. + +"We'll begin with that," he cried enthusiastically, +"but we won't stay there long. I've got big plans. +I'm going to make a million. The white house down by +the sea for me, a yacht out in the front yard and a +half-dozen thundering autos in the garage. If this +deal I'm on now goes through, I'll make my pile in a +year----" + +They rose as the shadows lengthened. + +"I must go home and feed my pets," she sighed. + +"All right," he responded heartily. "I'll get the +car and be there in a jiffy. We'll take a spin out to +a road-house for dinner." + +She lifted her eyes tenderly. + +"You can come right up to my room--now that we're +engaged." + +He swept her into his arms again, and held her in +unresisting happiness. + +It was dark when he swung the gray car against the +curb and sprang out. He didn't blow his horn for her +to come down. The privilege she had granted was too +sweet and wonderful. He wouldn't miss it for the +world. + +The stairs were dark. Ella was late this afternoon +getting back to her work. His light footstep scarcely +made a sound. He found each step with quick, +instinctive touch. The building seemed deserted. The +tenants were all on trips to the country and the +seashore. The day was one of rare beauty and warmth. +Someone was fumbling in the dark on the third floor +back. + +He made his way quickly to her room, and softly +knocked, waited a moment and knocked again. There was +no response. He couldn't be mistaken. He had seen her +lean out of that window every day the past week. + +Perhaps she was busy in the kitchenette and the +noise from the street made it impossible to hear. + +He placed his hand on the doorknob. + +From the darkness of the hall, in a quick, tiger +leap, Ella threw herself on him and grappled for his +throat. + +"What are you doing at that door, you dirty thief?" +she growled. + +"Here! Here! What'ell--what's the matter with +you?" he gasped, gripping her hands and tearing them +from his neck. "I'm no thief!" + +"You are! You are, too!" she shrieked. "I heard +you sneak in the door downstairs--heard you slippin' +like a cat upstairs! Get out of here before I call a +cop!" + +She was savagely pushing him back to the landing of +the stairs. With a sudden lurch, Jim freed himself and +gripped her hands. + +"Cut it! Cut it! Or I'll knock your block off! +I've come to take my girl to ride----" + +He drew a match and quickly lighted the gas as +Mary's footstep echoed on the stairs below. + +"Well, she's coming now--we'll see," was the sullen +answer. + +Ella surveyed him from head to foot, her one eye +gleaming in angry suspicion. + +Mary sprang up the last step and saw the two +confronting each other. She had heard the angry voices +from below. + +"Why, Ella, what's the matter?" she gasped. + +"He was trying to break into your room----" + +Jim threw up his hands in a gesture of rage, and +Mary broke into a laugh. + +"Why, nonsense, Ella, I asked him to come! This is +Mr. Anthony,"--her voice dropped,--"my fiance." + +Ella's figure relaxed with a look of surprise. + +"Oh, ja?" she murmured, as if dazed. + +"Yes--come in," she said to Jim. "Sorry I was out. +I had to run to the grocer's for the Kitty." + +Ella glared at Jim, turned and began to light the +other hall lamps without any attempt at apology. + +Jim entered the room with a look of awe, took in +its impression of sweet, homelike order and recovered +quickly his composure. + +"Gee, you're the dandy little housekeeper! I could +stay here forever." + +"You like it?" + +"It's a bird's nest " He glanced in the mirror and +saw the print of Ella's fingers on his collar. "Will +you look at that?" he growled. + +"It's too bad," she said, sympathetically. + +"You know I thought a she-tiger had got loose from +the Bronx and jumped on me." + +"I'm awfully sorry," she apologized. "Ella's very +fond of me. She was trying to protect me. She +couldn't see who it was in the dark." + +"No; I reckon not," Jim laughed. + +"I've changed our plans for the evening," she +announced. "We won't go to ride tonight. I want you +to bring my best friend to dinner with us at Mouquin's. +Go after her in the car. I want to impress her----" + +"I got you, Kiddo! She's goin' to look me over-- +eh? All right, I'll stop at the store and get a clean +collar. I wouldn't like her to see the print of that +tiger's claw on my neck." + +"There's her address the Gainsborough Studios. +Drop me at Mouquin's and I'll have the table set in one +of the small rooms upstairs. I'll meet you at the +door." + +Jim glanced at the address, put it in his pocket +and helped her draw on her heavy coat. + +"You'll be nice to Jane? I want her to like you. +She's the only real friend I've ever had in New York." + +"I'll do my best for you, little girl," he +promised. + +He dropped her at the wooden cottage-front on Sixth +Avenue near Twenty-eighth Street, and returned in +twenty minutes with Jane. + +As the tall artist led the way upstairs, Jim +whispered: + +"Say, for God's sake, let me out of this!" + +"Why?" + +"She's a frost. If I have to sit beside her an +hour I'll catch cold and die. I swear it; save me! +Save my life!" + +"Sh! It's all right. She's fine and generous when +you know her." + +They had reached the door and Mary pushed him in. +There was no help for it. He'd have to make the most +of it. + +The dinner was a dismal failure. + +Jane Anderson was polite and genial, but there was +a straight look of wonder in her clear gray eyes that +froze the blood in Jim's veins. + +Mary tried desperately for the first half-hour to +put him at his ease. It was useless. The attack of +Ella had upset his nerves, and the unexpressed +hostility of Jane had completely crushed his spirits. +He tried to talk once, stammered and lapsed into a +sullen silence from which nothing could stir him. + +The two girls at last began to discuss their own +affairs and the dinner ended in a sickening failure +that depressed and angered Mary. + +The agony over at last, she rose and turned to Jim: + +"You can go now, sir--I'll take Jane home with me +for a friendly chat." + +"Thank God!" he whispered, grinning in spite of his +effort to keep a straight face. + +"Tomorrow?" he asked in low tones. + +"At eight o'clock." + +Jim bowed awkwardly to Jane, muttered something +inarticulate and rushed to his car. + +The two girls walked in silence through Twenty- +eighth Street to Broadway and thence across the Square. + +Seated in her room, Mary could contain her pent-up +rage no longer. + +"Jane Anderson, I'm furious with you! How could +you be so rude--so positively insulting!" + +"Insulting?" + +"Yes. You stared at him in cold disdain as if he +were a toad under your feet!" + +"I assure you, dear----" + +"Why did you do it?" + +The artist rose, walked to the window, looked out +on the Square for a moment, extended her hand and laid +it gently on Mary's shoulder. + +"You've made up your mind to marry this man, +honey?" + +"I certainly have," was the emphatic answer. + +Jane paused. + +"And all in seven days?" + +"Seven days or seven years--what does it matter? +He's my mate--we love--it's Fate." + +"It's incredible!" + +"What's incredible?" + +"Such madness." + +"Perhaps love is madness--the madness that makes +life worth the candle. I've never lived before the +past week." + +"And you, the dainty, cultured, pious little saint, +will marry this--this----" + +"Say it! I want you to be frank----" + +"Perfectly frank?" + +"Absolutely." + +"This coarse, ugly, illiterate brute----" + +"Jane Anderson, how dare you!" Mary sprang to her +feet, livid with rage. + +"I asked if I might be frank. Shall I lie to you? +Or shall I tell you what I think?" + +"Say what you please; it doesn't matter," Mary +interrupted angrily. + +"I only speak at all because I love you. Your +common-sense should tell you that I speak with +reluctance. But now that I have spoken, let me beg of +you for your father's sake, for your dead mother's +sake, for my sake--I'm your one disinterested friend +and you know that my love is real--for the sake of your +own soul's salvation in this world and the next--don't +marry that brute! Commit suicide if you will--jump off +the bridge--take poison, cut your throat, blow your +brains out--but, oh dear God, not this!" + +"And why, may I ask?" was the cold question. + +"He's in no way your equal in culture, in +character, in any of the essentials on which the +companionship of marriage must be based----" + +"He's a diamond in the rough," Mary staunchly +asserted. + +"He's in the rough, all right! The only diamond +about him is the one in his red scarf--`Take it from +me, Kiddo! Take it from me!'" + +Her last sentence was a quotation from Jim, her +imitation of his slang so perfect Mary's cheeks flamed +anew with anger. + +"I'll teach him to use good English--never fear. +In a month he'll forget his slang and his red scarf." + +"You mean that in a month you'll forget to use good +English and his style of dress will be yours. Oh, +honey, can't you see that such a man will only drag you +down, down to his level? Can it be possible that you-- +that you really love him?" + +"I adore him and I'm proud of his love!" + +"Now listen! You believe in an indissoluble +marriage, don't you?" + +"Yes----" + +"It's the first article of your creed--that +marriage is a holy sacrament, that no power on earth or +in hell can ever dissolve its bonds? Fools rush in +where angels fear to tread, my dear! They always +have--they always will, I suppose. This is peculiarly +true of your type of woman--the dainty, clinging girl +of religious enthusiasm. You're peculiarly susceptible +to the physical power of a brutal lover. Your soul +glories in submission to this force. The more coarse +and brutal its attraction the more abject and joyful +the surrender. Your religion can't save you because +your religion is purely emotional--it is only +another manifestation of your sex emotions." + +"How can you be so sacrilegious!" the girl +interrupted with a look of horror. + +"It may shock you, dear, but I'm telling you one of +the simplest truths of Nature. You'd as well know it +now as later. The moment you wake to realize that your +emotions have been deceived and bankrupted, your faith +will collapse. At least keep, your grip on common- +sense. Down in the cowardly soul of every weak woman-- +perhaps of every woman--is the insane desire to be +dominated by a superior brute force. The woman of the +lower classes--the peasant of Russia, for example, +whose sex impulses are of all races the most violent-- +refuses with scorn the advances of the man who will not +strike her. The man who can't beat his wife is beneath +contempt--he is no man at all----" + +Mary broke into a laugh. + +"Really, Jane, you cease to be serious you're a +joke. For Heaven's sake use a little common-sense +yourself. You can't be warning me that my lover is +marrying me in order to use his fists on me?" + +"Perhaps not, dear,"--the artist smiled; "there +might be greater depths for one of your training and +character. I'm just telling you the plain truth +about the haste with which you're rushing into +this marriage. There's nothing divine in it. There's +no true romance of lofty sentiment. It's the simplest +and most elemental of all the brutal facts of animal +life. That it is resistless in a woman of your culture +and refinement makes it all the more pathetic----" + +The girl rose with a gesture of impatience. + +"It's no use, Jane dear; we speak a different +language. I don't in the least know what you're +talking about, and what's more, I'm glad I don't. I've +a vague idea that your drift is indecent. But we're +different. I realize that. I don't sit in judgment on +you. You're wasting your breath on me. I'm going into +this marriage with my eyes wide open. It's the +fulfillment of my brightest hopes and aspirations. +That I shall be happy with this man and make him +supremely happy I know by an intuition deeper and truer +than reason. I'm going to trust that intuition without +reservation." + +"All right, honey," the artist agreed with a smile. +"I won't say anything more, except that you're fooling +yourself about the depth of this intuitive knowledge. +Your infatuation is not based on the verdict of your +deepest and truest instincts." + +"On what, then?" + +"The crazy ideals of the novels you've been +reading--that's all." + +"Ridiculous!" + +"You're absolutely sure, for instance, that God +made just one man the mate of one woman, aren't you?" + +"As sure as that I live." + +"Where did you learn it?" + +"So long ago I can't remember." + +"Not in your Bible?" + +"No." + +"The Sunday school?" + +"No." + +"Craddock didn't tell you that, did he?" + +"Hardly----" + +"I thought not. He has too much horse-sense in +spite of his emotional gymnastics. You learned it in +the first dime-novel you read." + +"I never read a dime-novel in my life," she +interrupted, indignantly. + +"I know--you paid a dollar and a quarter for it-- +but it was a dime-novel. The philosophy of this school +of trash you have built into a creed of life. How can +you be so blind? How can you make so tragic a +blunder?" + +"That's just it, Jane: I couldn't if your +impressions of his character were true. I +couldn't make a mistake about so vital a question. I +couldn't love him if he really were a coarse, +illiterate brute. What you see is only on the surface. +He hasn't had his chance yet----" + +"Who is he? What does he do? Who are his people?" + +"He has no people----" + +"I thought not." + +"I love him all the more deeply," she went on +firmly, "because of his miserable childhood. I'll do +my best to make up for the years of cruelty and hunger +and suffering through which he passed. What right have +you to sit in judgment on him without a hearing? +You've known him two hours----" + +Jane shrugged her shoulders. + +"Two minutes was quite enough." + +"And you judge by what standard?" + +"My five senses, and my sixth sense above all. One +look at his square bulldog jaw, his massive neck and +the deformity of his delicate hands and feet! I hear +the ignorant patois of the East Side underworld. I +smell the brimstone in his suppressed rage at my +dislike. There's something uncanny in the sensuous +droop of his heavy eyelids and the glitter of his +steel-blue eyes. There's something incongruous in +his whole personality. I was afraid of him the moment +I saw him." + +Mary broke into hysterical laughter. + +"And if my five senses and my intuitions contradict +yours? Who is to decide? If I loved him on sight---- +If I looked into his eyes and saw the soul of my mate? +If their cold fires thrill me with inexpressible +passion? If I see in his massive neck and jaw the +strength of an irresistible manhood, the power to win +success and to command the world? If I see in his +slender hands and small feet lines of exquisite +beauty--am I to crush my senses and strangle my love to +please your idiotic prejudice?" + +Jane threw up her hands in despair. + +"Certainly not! If you're blind and deaf I can't +keep you from committing suicide. I'd lock you up in +an asylum for the insane if I had the power to save you +from the clutches of the brute." + +Mary drew herself erect and faced her friend. + +"Please don't repeat that word in my hearing-- +there's a limit to friendship. I think you'd better +go----" + +Jane rose and walked quickly to the door, her lips +pressed firmly. + +"As you like--our lives will be far apart from +tonight. It's just as well." + +She closed the door with a bang and reached the +head of the stairs before Mary threw her arms around +her neck. + +"Please, dear, forgive me--don't go in anger." + +The older woman kissed her tenderly, glad of the +dim light to hide her own tears. + +"There, it's all right, honey--I won't remember it. +Forgive me for my ugly words." + +"I love him, Jane--I love him! It's Fate. Can't +you understand?" + +"Yes, dear, I understand, and I'll love you +always--good-by." + +"You'll come to my wedding?" + +"Perhaps----" + +"I'll let you know----" + +Another kiss, and Jane Anderson strode down the +stairs and out into the night with a sickening, +helpless fear in her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +JIM'S TRIAL + +The quarrel had left Mary in a quiver of exalted rage. +How dare a friend trample her most sacred feelings! +She pitied Jane Anderson and her tribe--these modern +feminine leaders of a senseless revolution against +man--they were crazy. They had all been disappointed +in some individual and for that reason set themselves +up as the judges of mankind. + +"Thank God my soul has not been poisoned!" she +exclaimed aloud with fervor. "How strange that these +women who claim such clear vision can be so stupidly +blind!" + +She busied herself with her little household, and +made up her mind once and for all time to be done with +such friendships. The friendship of such women was a +vain thing. They were vicious cats at heart--not like +her gentle Persian kitten whose soul was full of sleepy +sunlight. These modern insurgents were wild, half- +starved stray cats that had been hounded and +beaten until they had lapsed into their elemental brute +instincts. They were so aggravating, too, they +deserved no sympathy. + +Again she thanked God that she was not one of +them--that her heart was still capable of romantic +love--a love so sudden and so overwhelming that it +could sweep life before it in one mad rush to its +glorious end. + +She woke next morning with a dull sense of +depression. The room was damp and chilly. It was +storming. The splash of rain against the window and +the muffled roar from the street below meant that the +wind was high and the day would be a wretched one +outside. + +They couldn't take their ride. + +It was a double disappointment. She had meant to +have him dash down to Long Beach and place the ring on +her finger seated on that same bright sand-dune +overlooking the sea. Instead, they must stay indoors. +Jim was not at his best indoors. She loved him behind +the wheel with his hand on the pulse of that racer. +The machine seemed a part of his being. He breathed +his spirit into its steel heart, and together they +swept her on and on over billowy clouds through the +gates of Heaven. + +There was no help for it. They would spend +the time together in her room planning the future. +It would be sweet--these intimate hours in her home +with the man she loved. + +Should she spend a whole day alone there with him? +Was it just proper? Was it really safe? Nonsense! +The vile thoughts which Jane had uttered had poisoned +her, after all. She hated her self that she could +remember them. And yet they filled her heart with +dread in spite of every effort to laugh them off. + +"How could Jane Anderson dare say such things?" she +muttered angrily. "`A coarse, illiterate brute!' It's +a lie! a lie! a lie!" She stamped her foot in rage. +"He's strong and brave and masterful--a man among men-- +he's my mate and I love him!" + +And yet the frankness with which her friend had +spoken had in reality disturbed her beyond measure. +Through every hour of the day her uneasiness increased. +After all she was utterly alone and her life had been +pitifully narrow. Her knowledge of men she had drawn +almost exclusively from romantic fiction. + +It was just a little strange that Jim persisted in +living so completely in the present and the future. He +had told her of his pitiful childhood. He had +told her of his business. It had been definite--the +simple statement he made--and she accepted it without +question until Jane Anderson had dropped these ugly +suspicions. She hated the meddler for it. + +In the light of such suspicions the simplest, +bravest man might seem a criminal. How could her +friend be blind to the magnetism of this man's powerful +personality? Bah! She was jealous of their perfect +happiness. Why are women so contemptible? + +She began a careful study of every trait of her +lover's character, determined to weigh him by the +truest standards of manhood. Certainly he was no +weakling. The one abomination of her soul was the type +of the city degenerate she saw simpering along Broadway +and Fifth Avenue at times. Jim was brave to the point +of rashness. No man with an ounce of cowardice in his +being could handle a car in every crisis with such cool +daring and perfect control. He was strong. He could +lift her body as if it were a feather. His arms +crushed her with terrible force. He could earn a +living for them both. There could be no doubt about +that. His faultless clothes, the ease with which he +commanded unlimited credit among the automobile +manufacturers and dealers--every supply store on +Broadway seemed to know him--left no doubt on that +score. + +There was just a bit of mystery and reserve about +his career as an inventor. His first success that had +given him a start he had not explained. The big deal +about the new carburetor she could, of course, +understand. He had a workshop all his own. He had +told her this the first day they met. She would ask +him to take her to see it this afternoon. The storm +would prevent the trip to the Beach. She would ask +this, not because she doubted his honesty, but because +she really wished to see the place in which he worked. +It was her workshop now, as well as his. + +For a moment her suspicions were sickening. +Suppose he had romanced about his workshop and his +room? Supposed he lived somewhere in the squalid slums +of the lower East Side and his people, after all, were +alive? Perhaps a drunken father and a coarse, brutal +mother--and sisters---- + +She stopped with a frown and clenched her fists. + +She would ask Jim to show her his workshop. That +would be enough. If he had told her the truth about +that she would make up to him in tender abandonment of +utter trust for every suspicion she harbored. + +The car was standing in front of her door. He +waved for her to come down. + +"Jump right in!" he called gayly. "I've got an +extra rubber blanket for you." + +"In the storm, Jim?" she faltered. + +"Surest thing you know. It's great to fly through +a storm. You can just ride on its wings. Throw on +your raincoat and come on quick! I'm going to run down +to the Beach. Who's afraid of an old storm with this +thing under us?" + +Her heart gave a bound. Her longing had reached +her lover and brought him through the storm to do her +bidding. It was wonderful--this oneness of soul and +body. + +She was happy again--supremely, divinely happy. +The man by her side knew and understood. She knew and +understood. She loved this daring spirit that rose to +the wind--this iron will that brooked no interference +with his plans, even from Nature, when it crossed his +love. + +The sting of the raindrops against her cheek was +exhilarating. The car glided over the swimming roadway +like a great gray gull skimming the beach at low tide. +Her soul rose. The sun of a perfect faith and love was +shining now behind the clouds. + +She nestled close to his side and watched him +tenderly from the corners of her half-closed eyes, her +whole being content in his strength. The idea of +dashing through a blinding rain to the Beach on such a +day would have been to her mind an unthinkable piece of +madness. She was proud of his daring. It would be +hers to shield from the storms of life. She loved the +rugged lines of his massive jaw in profile. How could +Jane be such a fool as to call him ugly! + +The weather, of course, prevented them from walking +up the Beach to their sand-dune. The walk would have +been all right--but it was out of the question to sit +down there and give her the ring in the pouring rain. +She knew this as well as he. She knew, too, that he +had the ring in his pocket, though he had carefully +refrained from referring to it in any way. + +He led her to a secluded nook behind a pillar in +the little parlor. The hotel was deserted. They had +the building almost to themselves. A log fire crackled +in the open fireplace, and he drew a settee close. The +wind had moderated and the rain was pouring down in +straight streams, rolling in soft music on the roof. + +He drew the ring from his pocket. +"Well, Kiddo, I got it. The fellow said this was all +right." + +He held the tiny gold band before her shining +eyes. + +"Slip it on!" she whispered. + +"Which one?" + +"This one, silly!" + +She extended her third finger, as he pressed the +ring slowly on. + +"Seems to me a mighty little one and a mighty cheap +one, but he said it was the thing." + +"It's all right, dear," she whispered. "Kiss me!" + +He pressed his lips to hers and held them until she +sank back and lifted her hand in warning. + +"Be careful!" + +"Whose afraid?" Jim muttered, glancing over his +shoulder toward the door. "Now tell me what day-- +tomorrow?" + +"Nonsense, man!" she cried. "Give me time to +breathe----" + +"What for?" + +"Just to realize that I'm engaged--to plan and +think and dream of the wonderful day." + +"We're losing time----" + +"We'll never live these wonderful hours over again, +dear." + +Jim's face fell and his voice was pitiful in its +funereal notes: "Lord, I thought the ring settled it." + +"And so it does, dear--it does-----" + +"Not if that long-legged spider that took dinner +with us the other night gets in her fine work. I'll +bet that she handed me a few when you got home?" + +Mary was silent. + +"Now didn't she?" + +"To the best of her ability--yes--but I didn't mind +her silly talk." + +"Gee, but I'd love to give her a bouquet of poison +ivy!" + +"We had an awful quarrel----" + +"And you stood up for me?" + +"You know I did!" + +"All right, I don't give a tinker's damn what +anybody says if you stand by me! In all this world +there's just you--for me. There's never been anybody +else--and there never will be. I'm that kind." + +"And I love you for it!" she cried, with rapture +pressing his hand in both of hers. + +"What did she say about me, anyhow?" + +"Nothing worth repeating. I've forgotten it." + +Jim held her gaze. + +"It's funny how you love anybody the minute you lay +eyes on 'em--or hate 'em the same way. I wanted to +choke her the minute she opened her yap to me." + +"Forget it, dear," she broke in briskly. "I want +you to take me to see your workshop tomorrow--will +you?" + +A flash of suspicion shot from the depths of his +eyes. + +"Did she tell you to ask me that?" + +"Of course not! I'm just interested in everything +you do. I want to see where you work." + +"It's no place for a sweet girl to go--that part of +town." + +"But I'll be with you." + +"I don't want you to go down there," he sullenly +maintained. + +"But why, dear?" + +"It's a low, dirty place. I had to locate the shop +there to get the room I needed for the rent I could +pay. It's not fit for you. I'm going to move uptown +in a little while." + +"Please let me go," she pleaded. + +He shook his head emphatically. + +"No." + +She turned away to hide the tears. The first real, +hideous fear she had ever had about him caught her +heart in spite of every effort to fight it down. His +workshop might be a myth after all. He had failed in +the first test to which she had put him. It was +horrible. All the vile suggestions of Jane Anderson +rushed now into her memory. + +She struggled bravely to keep her head and not +break down. It was beyond her strength. A sob +strangled her, and she buried her face in her hands. + +Jim looked at her in helpless anguish for a moment, +started to gather her in his arms and looked around the +room in terror. + +He leaned over her and whispered tensely: + +"For God's sake, Kiddo--don't--don't do that! I +didn't mean to hurt you--honest, I didn't. Don't cry +any more and I'll take you right down to the black +hole, and let you sleep on the floor if you want to. +Gee! I'll give you the whole place, tools, junk and +all----" + +She lifted her head. + +"Will you, Jim?" + +"Sure I will! We start this minute if you want to +go." + +She glanced over his shoulder to see that no one +was looking, threw her arms around his neck and kissed +him again and again. + +"It was the first time you ever said no, dear, and +it hurt. I'm happy again now. If you'll just let me +see you in the shop for five minutes I'll never ask you +again." + +"All right--tomorrow when you get out of school. +I'll take you down. Holy Mike, that was a dandy kiss! +Let's quarrel again--start something else." + +She rose laughing and brushed the last trace of +tears from her eyes. + +"Let's eat dinner now--I'm hungry." + +"By George, I'd forgot all about the feed!" + +By eight o'clock the storm had abated; the rain +suddenly stopped, and the moon peeped through the +clouds. + +He drove the big racer back at a steady, even +stride on her lowest notch of speed--half the time with +only his right hand on the wheel and his left gripping +hers. + +As the lights of Manhattan flashed from the hills +beyond the Queensborough Bridge, he leaned close and +whispered: + +"Happy?" + +"Perfectly." + +The car was waiting the next day at half-past +three. + +"It's not far," he said, nodding carelessly. "You +needn't put on the coat. Be there in a jiffy." + +Down Twenty-third Street to Avenue A, down the +avenue to Eighteenth Street, and then he suddenly swung +the machine through Eighteenth into Avenue B and +stopped below a low, red brick building on the corner. + +He set his brakes with a crash, leaped out and +extended his hands. + +"I didn't like to take you up these stairs at the +back of that saloon, little girl, but you would come. +Now don't blame me----" + +She pressed his arm tenderly. + +"Of course I won't blame you. I'm proud and happy +to share your life and help you. I'm surprised to see +everything so quiet down here. I thought all the East +Side was packed with crowded tenements." + +"No," he answered, in a matter-of-fact way. "About +the only excitement we have in this quarter is an +occasional gas explosion in the plant over there, and +the noise of the second-hand material men unloading +iron. The tenements haven't been built here yet." + +He led her quickly past the back door of the saloon +and up two narrow flights of stairs to the top of the +building, drew from his pocket the key to a heavy +padlock and slipped the crooked bolt from the double +staples. He unlocked the door with a second key and +pushed his way in. + +"All righto," he cried. + +The straight, narrow hall inside was dark. He +fumbled in his pocket and lit the gas. + +"The workshop first, or my sleeping den?" + +"The workshop first!" she whispered excitedly. + +She had made the reality of this shop the supreme +test of Jim's word and character. She was in a fever +of expectant uncertainty as to its equipment and +practical use. + +He unlocked the door leading to the front. + +"That's my den--we'll come back here." + +He passed quickly to the further end of the hall +and again used two keys to open the door, and held it +back for her to enter. + +"I'm sorry it's so dirty--if you get your pretty +dress all ruined--it's not my fault, you know." + +Mary surveyed the room with an exclamation of +delight. + +"Oh, what a wonderful place! Why, Jim, you're a +magician!" + +There could be no doubt about the practical use to +which the shop was being put. Its one small window +opened on a fire escape in the narrow court in the +rear. A skylight in the middle opened with a hinge on +the roof and flooded the space with perfect light. An +iron ladder swung from the skylight and was hooked up +against the ceiling by a hasp fastened to a staple +over a work-bench. On one side of the room was a tiny +blacksmith's forge, an anvil, hammers and a complete +set of tools for working in rough iron. A small +gasoline engine supplied the power which turned his +lathe and worked the drills, saw and plane. On the +other side of the room was arranged a fairly complete +chemical laboratory with several retorts, and an +oxyhydrogen blow-pipe capable of developing the +powerful heat used in the melting and brazing of +metals. Beneath the benches were piled automobile +supplies of every kind. + +"You know how to use all these machines, Jim?" she +asked in wonder. + +"Sure, and then some!" he answered with a wave of +his slender hand. + +"You're a wizard----" + +"Now the den?" he said briskly. + +She followed him through the hall and into the +large front corner room overlooking Avenue B and +Eighteenth Street. The morning sun flooded the front +and the afternoon sun poured into the side windows. +The furniture was solid mahogany--a bed, bureau, +chiffonier, couch and three chairs. The windows were +fitted with wood-paneled shutters, shades and heavy +draperies. A thick, soft carpet of faded red covered +the floor. + +"It's a nice room, Jim, but I'd like to dust it for +you," she said with a smile. + +"Sure. I'm for giving you the right to dust it +every morning, Kiddo, beginning now. Let's find a +preacher tonight!" + +She blushed and moved a step toward the door. + +"Just a little while. You know it's been only ten +days since we met----" + +"But we've lived some in that time, haven't we?" + +"An eternity, I think," she said reverently. + +"I want to marry right now, girlie!" he pleaded +desperately. "If that spider gets you in her den +again, I just feel like it's good night for me." + +"Nonsense. You can't believe me such a silly +child. I'm a woman. I love you. Do you think the +foolish prejudice of a friend could destroy my love for +the man whom I have chosen for my mate?" + +"No, but I want it fixed and then it's fixed--and +they can say what they please. Marry me tonight! +You've got the ring. You're going to in a little +while, anyhow. What's the use to wait and lose these +days out of our life? What's the sense of it? Don't +you know me by this time? Don't you trust me by this +time?" + +She slipped her hand gently into his. + +"I trust you utterly. And I feel that I've known +you since the day I was born----" + +"Then why--why wait a minute?" + +"You can't understand a girl's feelings, dear--only +a little while and it's all right." + +He sat down on the couch in silence, rose and +walked to the window. She watched him struggling with +deep emotion. + +He turned suddenly. + +"Look here, Kiddo, I've got to leave on that trip +to the mountains of North Carolina. I've got to get +down there before Christmas. I must be back here by +the first of the year. Gee--I can't go without you! +You don't want to stay here without me, do you?" + +A sudden pallor overspread her face. For the first +time she realized how their lives had become one in the +sweet intimacy of the past ten days. + +"You must go now?" she gasped. + +"Yes. I've made my arrangements. I've business +back here the first of the year that can't wait. Marry +me and go with me. We'll take our honeymoon down +there. By George, we'll go together in the car! Every +day by each other's side over hundreds and hundreds of +miles! Say, ain't you game? Come on! It's a +crime to send me away without you. How can you do it?" + +"I can't--I'm afraid," she faltered. + +"You'll marry me, then?" + +"Yes!" she whispered. "What is the latest day you +can start?" + +"Next Saturday, if we go in the car----" + +"All right,"--she was looking straight into the +depths of his soul now--"next Saturday." + +He clasped her in his arms and held her with +desperate tenderness. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +ELLA'S SECRET + +The consummation of her life's dream was too near, too +sweet and wonderful for Jane's croakings to distress +Mary Adams beyond the moment. She had, of course, +wished her friend to be present at the wedding--yet the +curt refusal had only aroused anew her pity at stupid +prejudices. It was out of the question to ask her +father to leave his work in the Kentucky mountains and +come all the way to New York. She would surprise him +with the announcement. After all, she was the one +human being vitally concerned in this affair, and the +only one save the man whose life would be joined to +hers. + +In five minutes after the painful scene with Jane +she had completely regained her composure, and her face +was radiant with happiness when she waved to Jim. He +was standing before the door in the car, waiting to +take her to the City Hall to get the marriage +license. + +"Gee!" he cried, "you're the prettiest, sweetest +thing that ever walked this earth, with those cheeks +all flaming like a rose! Are you happy?" + +"Gloriously." + +She motioned him to keep his seat and sprang +lightly to his side. + +"Aren't you happy, sir?" she added gayly. + +"I am, yes--but to tell you the truth, I'm +beginning to get scared. You know what to do, don't +you, when we get before that preacher?" + +"Of course, silly----" + +"I never saw a wedding in my life." + +She pressed his hand tenderly. + +"Honestly, Jim?" + +"I swear it. You'll have to tell me how to +behave." + +"We'll rehearse it all tonight. I'll show you. +I've seen hundreds of people married. My father's a +preacher, you know." + +"Yes, I know that," he went on solemnly; "that's +what gives me courage. I knew you'd understand +everything. I'm counting on you, Kiddo--if you fall +down, we're gone. I'll run like a turkey." + +"It's easy," she laughed. + +"And this license business--how do we go about +that? What'll they do to us?" + +"Nothing, goose! We just march up to the clerk and +demand the license. He asks us a lot of questions----" + +"Questions! What sort of questions?" + +"The names of your father and mother--whether +you've been married before and where you live and how +old you are----" + +"Ask you about your business?" he interrupted, +sharply. + +"No. They think if you can pay the license fee you +can support your wife, I suppose." + +"How much is it?" + +"I don't know, here. It used to be two dollars in +Kentucky." + +"That's cheap--must come higher in this burg. I +brought along a hundred." + +"Nonsense." + +"There's a lot of graft in this town. I'll be +ready. I've got to get 'em--don't care how high they +come." + +"There'll be no graft in this, Jim," she protested +gayly. + +"Well, it'll be the first time I ever got by +without it--believe me!" + +The ease with which the license was obtained was +more than Jim could understand. All the way back from +the City Hall he expected to be held up at every +corner. He kept looking over his shoulder to see if +they were being followed. + +Arrived in her room, they discussed their plans for +the day of days. + +"I'll come round soon in the morning, and we'll +spend the whole day at the Beach," he suggested. + +She lifted her hands in protest. + +"No--no!" + +"No?" + +"Not on our wedding-day, Jim!" + +"Why?" + +"It's not good form. The groom should not see the +bride that day until they meet at the altar." + +"Let's change it!" + +"No, sir, the old way's the best. I'll spend the +day in saying good-by to the past. You'll call for me +at six o'clock. We'll go to Dr. Craddock's house and +be married in time for our wedding dinner." + +The lover smiled, and his drooping eyelids fell +still lower as he watched her intently. + +"I want that dinner here in this little place, +Kiddo----" + +She blushed and protested. + +"I thought we'd go to the Beach and spend the night +there." + +"Here, girlie, here! I love this little place-- +it's so like you. Get the old wild-cat who cleans up +for you to fix us a dinner here all by ourselves-- +wouldn't she?" + +"She'd do anything for me--yes." + +"Then fix it here--I want to be just with you-- +don't you understand?" + +"Yes," she whispered. "But I'd rather spend that +first day of our new life in a strange place--and the +Beach we both love--hadn't you just as leave go there, +Jim?" + +"No. The waiters will stare at us, and hear us +talk----" + +"We can have our meals served in our room. + +"This is better," he insisted. "I want to spend +one day here alone with you, before we go--just to feel +that you're all mine. You see, if I walk in here and +own the place, I'll know that better than any other +way. I've just set my heart on it, Kiddo--what's the +difference?" + +She lifted her lips to his. + +"All right, dear. It shall be as you wish. +Tomorrow I will be all yours--in life, in death, in +eternity. Your happiness will be the one thing for +which I shall plan and work." + +Ella was very happy in the honor conferred +on her. She was given entire charge of the place, +and spent the day in feverish preparation for the +dinner. She insisted on borrowing a larger table from +the little fat woman next door, to hold the extra +dishes. She dressed herself in her best. Her raven +black hair was pressed smooth and shining down the +sides of her pale temples. + +The work was completed by three o'clock in the +afternoon, and Mary lay in her window lazily watching +the crowds scurrying home. The offices closed early on +Saturday afternoons. + +Ella was puttering about the room, adding little +touches here and there in a pretense of still being +busy. As a matter of fact, she was watching the girl +from her one eye with a wistful tenderness she had not +dared as yet to express in words. Twice Mary had +turned suddenly and seen her thus. Each time Ella had +started as if caught in some act of mischief and asked +an irrelevant question to relieve her embarrassment. + +Mary could feel her single eye fixed on her now in +a deep, brooding look. It made her uncomfortable. + +She turned slowly and spoke in gentle tones. + +"You've been so sweet to me today, Ella--father and +mother and best friend. I'll never forget your +kindness. You'd better rest awhile now until we go to +Dr. Craddock's. I want you to be there, too----" + +"To see the marriage--ja?" she asked softly. + +"Yes." + +"Oh, no, my dear, no--I stay here and wait for you +to come. I keep the lights burning bright. I welcome +the bride and groom to their little home--ja." + +A quick glance of suspicion shot from Mary's blue +eyes. Could it be possible that this forlorn +scrubwoman would carry her hostility to her lover to +the same point of ungracious refusal to witness the +ceremony? It was nonsense, of course. Ella would feel +out of place in the minister's parlor, that was all. +She wouldn't insist. + +"All right, Ella; you can receive us here with +ceremony. You'll be our maid, butler, my father, my +mother and my friends!" + +There was a moment's silence and still no move on +Ella's part to go. The girl felt her single eye again +fixed on her in mysterious, wistful gaze. She would +send her away if it were possible without hurting her +feelings. + +Mary lifted her eyes suddenly, and Ella stirred +awkwardly and smiled. + +"I hope you are very happy, meine liebe--ja?" + +"I couldn't be happier if I were in Heaven," was +the quick answer. + +"I'm so glad----" + +Again an awkward pause. + +"I was once young and pretty like you, meine +liebe," she began dreamily, "--slim and straight and +jolly--always laughing." + +Mary held her breath in eager expectancy. Ella was +going to lift the veil from the mystery of her life, +stirred by memories which the coming wedding had +evoked. + +"And you had a thrilling romance--Ella? I always +felt it." + +Again silence, and then in low tones the woman told +her story. + +"Ja--a romance, too. I was so young and +foolish--just a baby myself--not sixteen. But I was +full of life and fun, and I had a way of doing what I +pleased. + +"The man was older than me--Oh, a lot older--with +gray hairs on the side of his head. I was wild about +him. I never took to kids. They didn't seem to like +me----" + +She paused as if hesitating to give her full +confidence, and quickly went on: + +"My folks were German. They couldn't speak +English. I learned when I was five years old. They +didn't like my lover. We quarrel day and night. I say +they didn't like him because they could not speak his +language. They say he was bad. I fight for him, and +run away and marry him----" + +Again she paused and drew a deep breath. + +"Ah, I was one happy little fool that year! He +make good wages on the docks--a stevedore. They had a +strike, and he got to drinking. The baby came----" + +She stopped suddenly. + +"You had a little baby, Ella?" the girl asked in a +tender whisper. + +"Ja--ja" she sobbed--"so sweet, so good--so +quiet--so beautiful she was. I was very happy--like a +little girl with a doll--only she laugh and cry and coo +and pull my hair! He stop the drink a little while +when she come, and he got work. And then he begin +worse and worse. It seem like he never loved me any +more after the baby. He curse me, he quarrel. He +begin to strike me sometimes. I laugh and cry at first +and make up and try again----" + +Again she paused as if for courage to go on, and +choked into silence. + +"Yes--and then?" the girl asked. + +"And then he come home one night wild drunk. He +stumble and fall across the cradle and hurt my baby so +she never cry--just lie still and tremble--her eyes +wide open at first and then they droop and close and +she die! + +"He laugh and curse and strike me, and I fight him +like a tiger. He was strong--he throw me down on the +floor and gouge my eye out with his big claw----" + +"Oh, my God," Mary sobbed. + +Ella sprang to her feet and bent over the girl with +trembling eagerness. + +"You keep my secret, meine liebe?" + +"Yes--yes----" + +"I never tell a soul on earth what I tell you now-- +I just eat my heart out and keep still all the years, I +can tell you--ja?" + +"Yes, I'll keep it sacred--go on----" + +"When I know he gouge my eye out, I go wild. I get +my hand on his throat and choke him still. I drag him +to the stairs and throw him head first all the way down +to the bottom. He fall in a heap and lie still. I run +down and drag him to the door. I kick his face and he +never move. He was dead. I kick him again--and again. +And then I laugh--I laugh--I laugh in his dead +face--I was so glad I kill him!" + +She sank in a paroxysm of sobs on the floor, and +the girl touched her smooth black hair tenderly, +strangled with her own emotions. + +Ella rose at last and brushed the tears from her +hollow cheeks. + +"Now, you know, meine liebe! Why I tell you +this today, I don't know--maybe I must! I dream once +like you dream today----" + +The girl slipped her arms around the drooping, +pathetic figure and stroked it tenderly. + +"The sunshine is for some, maybe," Ella went on +pathetically; "for some the clouds and the storms. I +hope you are very, very happy today and all the +days----" + +"I will be, Ella, I'm sure. I'll always love you +after this." + +"Maybe I make you sad because I tell you----" + +"No--no! I'm glad you told me. The knowledge of +your sorrow will make my life the sweeter. I shall be +more humble in my joy." + +It never occurred to the girl for a moment that +this lonely, broken woman had torn her soul's deepest +secret open in a last pathetic effort to warn her of +the danger of her marriage. The wistful, helpless +look in her eye meant to Mary only the anguish of +memories. Each human heart persists in learning the +big lessons of life at first hand. We refuse to learn +any other way. The tragedies of others interest us as +fiction. We make the application to others--never to +ourselves. + +Jim's familiar footstep echoed through the hall, +and Mary sprang to the door with a cry of joy. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +THE WEDDING + +Ella hurried into the kitchenette and busied herself +with dinner. Jim's unexpectedly early arrival broke +the spell of the tragedy to which Mary had listened +with breathless sympathy. Her own future she faced +without a shadow of doubt or fear. + +Her reproaches to Jim were entirely perfunctory, on +the sin of his early call on their wedding-day. + +"Naughty boy!" she cried with mock severity. "At +this unseemly hour!" + +He glanced about the room nervously. + +"Anybody in there?" + +He nodded toward the kitchenette. + +"Only Ella----" + +"Send her away." + +"What's the matter?" + +"Quick, Kiddo--quick!" + +Mary let Ella out from the little private hall +without her seeing Jim, and returned. + +"For heaven's sake, man, what ails you?" she asked +excitedly. + +"Say--I forgot that thing already. We got to go +over it again. What if I miss it?" + +"The ceremony?" + +"Yep----" + +He mopped his brow and looked at his watch. + +"By the time we get to that preacher's house, I +won't know my first name if you don't help me." + +Mary laughed softly and kissed him. + +"You can't miss it. All you've got to do is say, +`I will' when he asks you the question, put the ring on +my finger when he tells you, and repeat the words after +him--he and I will do the rest." + +"Say my question over again." + +"`Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to +live together after God's ordinance, in the holy estate +of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor, +and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking +all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both +shall live?'" + +She looked at him and laughed. + +"Why don't you answer?" + +"Now?" + +"Yes--that's the end of the question. Say, `I +will.'" + +"Oh, I will all right! What scares me is that I'll +jump in on him and say `I will' before he gets halfway +through. Seems to me when he says, `Wilt thou have +this woman to be thy wedded wife?' I'll just have to +choke myself there to keep from saying, `You bet your +life I will, Parson!'" + +"It won't hurt anything if you say, `I will' +several times," she assured him. + +"It wouldn't queer the job?" + +"Not in the least. I've often heard them say, `I +will' two or three times. Wait until you hear the +words, `so long as ye both shall live----'" + +"`So long as ye both shall live,'" he repeated +solemnly. + +"The other speech you say after the minister." + +"He won't bite off more than I can chew at one +time, will he?" + +"No, silly--just a few words----" + +"Because if he does, I'll choke." + +Jim drew his watch again, mopped his brow, and +gazed at Mary's serene face with wonder. + +"Say, Kiddo, you're immense--you're as cool as a +cucumber!" + +"Of course. Why not? It's my day of joy and +perfect peace--the day I've dreamed of since the dawn +of maidenhood. I'm marrying the man of my +choice--the one man God made for me of all men on +earth. I know this--I'm content." + +"Let me hang around here till time--won't you?" he +asked helplessly. + +"We must have Ella come back to fix the table." + +"Sure. I just didn't want her to hear me tell you +that I had cold feet. I'm better now." + +Ella moved about the room with soft tread, watching +Jim with sullen, concentrated gaze when he was not +looking. + +The lovers sat on the couch beside the window, +holding each other's hands and watching in silence the +hurrying crowds pass below. Now that his panic was +over, Jim began to breathe more freely, and the time +swiftly passed. + +As the shadows slowly fell, they rang the bell at +the parson's house beside the church, and his good wife +ushered them into the parlor. The little Craddocks +crowded in--six of them, two girls and four boys, their +ages ranging from five to nineteen. + +Sweet memories crowded the girl's heart from her +happy childhood. She had never missed one of these +affairs at home. Her father was a very popular +minister and his home the Mecca of lovers for miles +around. + +Craddock, like her father, was inclined to be +conservative in his forms. Marriage he held with +the old theologians to be a holy sacrament. He never +used the new-fangled marriage vows. He stuck to the +formula of the Book of Common Prayer. + +When she stood before the preacher in this +beautiful familiar scene which she had witnessed so +many times at home, Mary's heart beat with a joy that +was positively silly. She tried to be serious, and the +dimple would come in her cheek in spite of every +effort. + +As Craddock's musical voice began the opening +address, the memory of a foolish incident in her +father's life flashed through her mind, and she +wondered if Jim in his excitement had forgotten his +pocket-book and couldn't pay the preacher. + +"Dearly beloved," he began, "we are gathered +together here in the sight of God----" + +Mary tried to remember that she was in the sight of +God, but she was so foolishly happy she could only +remember that funny scene. A long-legged Kentucky +mountain bridegroom at the close of the ceremony had +turned to her father and drawled: + +"Well, parson, I ain't got no money with me--but I +want to give ye five dollars. I've got a fine dawg. +He's worth ten. I'll send him to ye fur five--if it's +all right?" + +The children had giggled and her father blushed. + +"Oh, that's all right," he had answered. "Money's +no matter. Forget the five. I hope you'll be very +happy." + +Two weeks later a crate containing the dog had come +by express. On the tag was scrawled: + + +Dear Parson:--I like Nancy so well, I send ye the +hole dawg, anyhow. + + +She hadn't a doubt that Jim would feel the same +way--but she hoped he hadn't forgotten his pocketbook. + +The scene had flashed through her mind in a single +moment. She had bitten her lips and kept from laughing +by a supreme effort. Not a word of the solemn +ceremonial, however, had escaped her consciousness. + +"And in the face of this company," the preacher's +rich voice was saying, "to join together this Man and +this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is commended of St. +Paul to be honorable among all men: and therefore is +not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; +but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in +the fear of God. Into this holy estate these two +persons present come now to be joined. If any man +can show just cause, why they may not lawfully be +joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter +for ever hold his peace." + +Craddock paused, and his piercing eyes searched the +man and woman before him. + +"I require to charge you both, as ye will answer at +the dreadful day of judgment, when the secrets of all +hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know +any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined +together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it----" + +Again he paused. The perspiration stood in beads +on Jim's forehead, and he glanced uneasily at Mary from +the corners of his drooping eyes. A smile was playing +about her mouth, and Jim was cheered. + +"For be ye well assured," the preacher continued, +"that if any persons are joined together otherwise than +as God's Word doth allow, their marriage is not +lawful." + +He turned with deliberation to Jim and transfixed +him with the first question of the ceremony. The groom +was hypnotized into a state of abject terror. His ears +heard the words; the mind recorded but the vaguest idea +of what they meant. + +"Wilt thou have this Woman to thy wedded wife, +to live together after God's ordinance in the holy +estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, +honor, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, +forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long +as ye both shall live?" + +Jim's mouth was open; his lower jaw had dropped in +dazed awe, and he continued to stare straight into the +preacher's face until Mary pressed his arm and +whispered: + +"Jim!" + +"I will--yes, I will--you bet I will!" he hastened +to answer. + +The children giggled, and the preacher's lips +twitched. + +He turned quickly to Mary. + +"Wilt thou have this Man to thy wedded husband, to +live together after God's ordinance, in the holy estate +of Matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, +honor, and keep him in sickness and in health; and, +forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long +as ye both shall live?" + +With quick, clear voice, Mary answered: + +"I will." + +"Please join your right hands and repeat after +me:" + +He fixed Jim with his gaze and spoke with +deliberation, clause by clause: + +"I, James, take thee, Mary, to my wedded wife, to +have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for +worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in +health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, +according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight +thee my troth." + +Jim's throat at first was husky with fear, but he +caught each clause with quick precision and repeated +them without a hitch. + +He smiled and congratulated himself: "I got ye +that time, old cull!" + +The preacher's eyes sought Mary's: + +"I, Mary, take thee, James, to my wedded husband, +to have and to hold from this day forward, for better +for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in +health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death do us +part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I +give thee my troth." + +In the sweetest musical voice, quivering with +happiness, the girl repeated the words. + +Again the preacher's eyes sought Jim's: + +AND THE MAN SHALL GIVE UNTO THE WOMAN A RING---- + +The groom fumbled in his pocket and found at +last the ring, which he handed to Mary. The minister +at once took it from her hand and handed it back to +Jim. + +The bride lifted her left hand, deftly extending +the fourth finger, and the groom slipped the ring on, +and held it firmly gripped as he had been instructed. + +"With this ring I thee wed----" + +"With this ring I thee wed----" Jim repeated +firmly. + +"----and with all my worldly goods I thee +endow----" + +"----and with all my worldly goods I thee +endow----" + +"In the Name of the Father----" + +"In the Name of the Father----" + +"----and of the Son----" + +"----and of the Son----" + +"----and of the Holy Ghost----" + +"----and of the Holy Ghost----" + +"Amen!" + +"Amen!" + +The voice of the preacher's prayer that followed +rang far-away and unreal to the heart of the girl. Her +vivid imagination had leaped the years. Her spirit did +not return to earth and time and place until the +minister seized her right hand and joined it to Jim's. + +"Those whom God hath joined together let no man put +asunder! + +"Forasmuch as James Anthony and Mary Adams have +consented together in holy wedlock, and have witnessed +the same before God and this company, and thereto have +given and pledged their troth, each to the other, and +have declared the same by giving and receiving a Ring, +and by joining hands; I pronounce that they are Man and +Wife, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of +the Holy Ghost. Amen." + +The preacher lifted his hands solemnly above their +heads. + +"God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, +bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with +His favor look upon you, and fill you with all +spiritual benediction and grace; that ye may so live +together in this life, that in the world to come ye may +have life everlasting. AMEN." + +The preacher took Mary's hand. + +"Your father is my friend, child. This is for +him----" + +He bent quickly and kissed her lips, while Jim +gasped in astonishment. + +The minister's wife congratulated them both. The +two older children smilingly advanced and added their +voices in good wishes. + +Mary whispered to Jim: + +"Don't forget the preacher's fee!" + +"Lord, how much? Will fifty be enough? It's all +I've got." + +"Give him twenty. We'll need the rest." + +It was not until they were seated in the waiting +cab and sank back among the shadows, that Jim crushed +her in his arms and kissed her until she cried for +mercy. + +"The gall of that preacher, kissing you!" he +muttered savagely. "You know, I come within an ace of +pasting him one on the nose!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"UNTIL DEATH" + +The lights burned in the hall with unusual brightness. +Ella stood in the open door of the room, through which +the light was streaming. With its radiance came the +perfume of roses--the scrub-woman's gift of love. The +room was a bower of gorgeous flowers. She had spent +her last cent in this extravagance. +Mary swept the place with a look of amazement. + +"Oh, Ella," she cried, "how could you be so silly!" + +"You like them, ja?" Ella asked softly. + +"They're glorious--but you should not have made +such a sacrifice for me." + +"For myself, maybe, I do it--all for myself to make +me happy, too, tonight." + +She dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand +and placed the chairs beside the beautifully set table. + +"Dinner is all ready," she announced +cheerfully. "And shall I go now and leave you? +Or will you let me serve your dinner first?" + +A sudden panic seized the bride. + +"Stay and serve the dinner, Ella, if you will," she +quickly answered. + +Jim frowned, but seated himself in business-like +fashion. + +"All right; I'm ready for it, old girl!" + +With soft tread and swift, deft touch, Ella served +the dinner, standing prim and stiff and ghost-like +behind Jim's chair between the courses. + +The bride watched her, fascinated by the pallor of +her haggard face and the queer suggestion of Death +which her appearance made in spite of the background of +flowers. She had dressed herself in a simple skirt and +shirtwaist of spotless white. The material seemed to +be draped on her tall figure, thin to emaciation. The +chalk-like pallor of her face brought out with +startling sharpness the deep, hollow caverns beneath +her straight eyebrows. Her single eye shone unusually +bright. + +Gradually the grim impression grew that Death was +hovering over her bridal feast--a foolish fancy which +persisted in her highly-wrought nervous state. Yet the +idea, once fixed, could not be crushed. In vain she +used her will to bring her wandering mind back to +the joyous present. Each time she lifted her eyes they +rested upon the silent, white figure with its single +eye piercing the depths of her soul. + +She could endure it no longer. She nodded and +smiled wanly at Ella. + +"You may go now!" + +The woman gazed at the bride in surprise. + +"I shall come again--yes?" + +"Tomorrow morning, Ella, you may help me." + +The white figure paused uncertainly at the door, +and her drawling voice breathed her parting word +tenderly: + +"Good night!" + +The bride closed her eyes and answered. + +"Good night, Ella!" + +The door closed. Jim rose quickly and bolted it. + +"Thank God!" he exclaimed fervently. He fixed his +slumbering eyes on his wife for a moment, saw the +frightened look, walked quickly back to the table and +took his seat. + +"Now, Kiddo, we can eat in peace." + +"Yes, I'd rather be alone," she sighed. + +"I must say," Jim went on briskly, "that parson of +yours did give us a run for our money." + +"I like the old, long ceremony best." + +"Well, you see, I ain't never had much choice-- +but do you know what I thought was the best thing +in it?" + +"No--what?" + +"UNTIL DEATH DO US PART! Gee how he did ring +out on that! His voice sounded to me like a big bell +somewhere away up in the clouds. Did you hear me sing +it back at him?" + +Mary smiled nervously. + +"You had found your voice then." + +"You bet I had! I muffed that first one, though, +didn't I?" + +"A little. It didn't matter." She answered +mechanically. + +He fixed his eyes on her again. + +"Hungry, Kiddo?" + +"No," she gasped. + +"What's the use!" he cried in low, vibrant tones, +springing to his feet. "I don't want to eat this +stuff--I just want to eat you!" + +Mary rose tremblingly and moved instinctively to +meet him. + +He clasped her form in his arms and crushed with +cruel strength. + +"Until death do us part!" he whispered +passionately. + +She answered with a kiss. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +THE LOTOS-EATERS + +It was eleven o'clock next morning before Ella ventured +to rap softly on the door. They had just finished +breakfast. The bride was clearing up the table, +humming a song of her childhood. + +Jim caught her in his arms. + +"Once more before she comes!" + +"Don't kill me!" she laughed. + +Jim lounged in the window and smoked his cigarette +while Ella and Mary chattered in the kitchenette. + +In half an hour the scrub-woman had made her last +trip with the extra dishes, and the little home was +spick and span. + +Mary sprang on the couch and snuggled into Jim's +arms. + +"I've changed our plans----" he began thoughtfully. + +"We won't give up our honeymoon trip?" +she cried in alarm. "That's one dream we MUST +live, Jim, dear. I've set my heart on it." + +"Sure we will--sure," he answered quickly. "But +not in that car." + +"Why?" + +Jim grinned. + +"Because I like you better--you get me, Kiddo?" + +She pressed close and whispered: + +"I think so." + +"You see, that fool car might throw a tire or two. +Believe me, it'll be a job to have her on my hands for +a thousand miles. Of course, if I didn't know you, +little girl, it would be all sorts of fun. But, honest +to God, this game beats the world." + +He bent low and kissed her again. + +"Where'll we go, then?" she murmured. + +"That's what I'm tryin' to dope out. I like the +sea. It lulls me just like whisky puts a drunkard to +sleep. I wish we could get where it's bright and warm +and the sun shines all the time. We could stay two +weeks and then jump on the train and be in Asheville +the day before Christmas." + +Mary sprang up excitedly. + +"I have it! We'll go to Florida--away down to the +Keys. It's the dream of my life to go there!" + +"The Keys what's that?" he asked, puzzled. + +"The Keys are little sand islands and reefs that +jut out into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. +The railroad takes us right there." + +"It's warm and sunny there now?" + +"Just like summer up here. We can go in bathing in +the surf every day." + +Jim sprang to his feet. + +"Got a bathing suit?" + +Yes--a beauty. I've never worn it here." + +"Why?" + +"It seemed so bold." + +"All right. Maybe we can get a Key all by +ourselves for two weeks." + +"Wouldn't it be glorious!" + +"We'll try it, anyhow. I'll buy the doggoned thing +if they don't ask too much. Pack your traps. I'll go +down to the shop and get my things. We'll be ready to +start in an hour." + +By four o'clock they were seated in the drawing- +room of a Pullman car on the Florida Limited, gazing +entranced at the drab landscape of the Jersey meadows. + +Three days later, Jim had landed his boat on a tiny +sand reef a half-mile off the coast of Florida with a +tent and complete outfit for camping. Like two romping +children, they tied the boat to a stake and rushed +over the sand-dunes to the beach. They explored their +domain from end to end within an hour. Not a tree +obscured the endless panorama of sea and bay and waving +grass on the great solemn marshes. Piles of soft, warm +seaweed lay in long, dark rows along the high-tide +mark. + +Mary selected a sand-dune almost exactly the height +and shape of the one on which they sat at Long Beach +the day he told her of his love. + +"Here's the spot for our home!" she cried. "Don't +you recognize it?" + +"Can't say I've ever been here before. Oh, I got +you--I got you! Long Beach--sure! What do you think +of that?" + +He hurried to the boat and brought the tent. Mary +carried the spade, the pole and pegs. + +In half an hour the little white home was shining +on the level sand at the foot of their favorite dune. +The door was set toward the open sea, and the stove +securely placed beneath an awning which shaded it from +the sun's rays. + +"Now, Kiddo, a plunge in that shining water the +first thing. I'll give you the tent. I'll chuck my +things out here." + +In a fever of joyous haste she threw off her +clothes and donned the dainty, one-piece bathing suit. +She flew over the sand and plunged into the water +before Jim had finished changing to his suit. + +She was swimming and diving like a duck in the +lazy, beautiful waters of the Gulf when he reached the +beach. + +"Come on! Come on!" she shouted. + +He waved his hand and finished his cigarette. + +"It's glorious! It's mid-summer!" she called. + +With a quick plunge he dived into the water, +disappeared and stayed until she began to scan the +surface uneasily. With a splash he rose by her side, +lifting her screaming in his arms. Her bathing-cap was +brushed off, and he seized her long hair in his mouth, +turned and with swift, strong beat carried her +unresisting body to the beach. + +He drew her erect and looked into her smiling face. + +"That's the way I'd save you if you had called for +help. How'd you like it?" + +"It was sweet to give up and feel myself in your +power, dear!" + +His drooping eyes were devouring her exquisite +figure outlined so perfectly in the clinging suit. + +"I was afraid to wear this in New York," she said +demurely. + +"I can't blame you. If you'd ever have gone +on the beach at Coney Island in that, there'd have +been a riot." + +He lifted her in his arms and kissed her. + +"And you're all mine, Kiddo! It's too good to be +true! I'm afraid to wake up mornings now for fear I'll +find I've just been dreaming." + +They plunged again in the water, and side by side +swam far out from the shore, circled gracefully and +returned. + +Hours they spent snuggling in the warm sand. Not a +sound of the world beyond the bay broke the stillness. +The music of the water's soft sighing came on their +ears in sweet, endless cadence. The wind was gentle +and brushed their cheeks with the softest caress. Far +out at sea, white-winged sails were spread--so far away +they seemed to stand in one spot forever. The deep cry +of an ocean steamer broke the stillness at last. + +"We must dress for dinner, Jim!" she sighed. + +"Why, Kiddo?" + +"We must eat, you know." + +"But why dress? I like that style on you. It's +too much trouble to dress." + +"All right!" she cried gayly. "We'll have a little +informal dinner this evening. I love to feel the sand +under my feet." + +He gathered the wood from the dry drifts above the +waterline and kindled a fire. The salt-soaked sticks +burned fiercely, and the dinner was cooked in a jiffy-- +a fresh chicken he had bought, sweet potatoes, and +delicious buttered toast. + +They sat in their bathing suits on camp-stools +beside the folding table and ate by moonlight. + +The dinner finished, Mary cleared the wooden dishes +while Jim brought heaps of the dry, spongy sea grass +and made a bed in the tent. He piled it two feet high, +packed it down to a foot, and then spread the sheets +and blankets. + +"All ready for a stroll down the avenue, Kiddo?" he +called from the door. + +"Fifth Avenue or Broadway?" she laughed. + +"Oh, the Great White Way--you couldn't miss it! +Just look at the shimmer of the moon on the sands! +Ain't it great?" + +Hand in hand, they strolled on the beach and bathed +in the silent flood of the moonlit night--no prying +eyes near save the stars of the friendly southern +skies. + +"The moon seems different down here, Jim!" she +whispered. + +"It is different," he answered with boyish +enthusiasm. "It's all so still and white!" + +"Could we stay here forever?" + +He shook his head emphatically. + +"Not on your life. This little boy has to work, +you know. Old man John D. Rockefeller might, but it's +early for a young financier to retire." + +"A whole week, then?" + +"Sure! For a week we'll forget New York." + +They sat down on the sand-dune behind the tent and +watched the waters flash in the silvery light, the +world and its fevered life forgotten. + +"You're the only thing real tonight, Jim!" she +sighed. + +"And you're the world for me, Kiddo!" + +She waked at dawn, with a queer feeling of awe at +the weird, gray light which filtered through the cotton +walls. A sense of oneness with Nature and the beat of +Her eternal heart filled her soul. The soft wash of +the water on the sands seemed to be keeping time to the +throb of her own pulse. + +She peered curiously into the face of her sleeping +lover. She had never seen him asleep before. She +started at the transformation wrought by the closing of +his heavy eyelids and the complete relaxation of his +features. The strange, steel-blue coloring of his eyes +had always given his face an air of mystery and charm. +The complete closing of the heavy lids and the +slight droop of the lower jaw had worked a frightful +change. The romance and charm had gone, and instead +she saw only the coarse, brutal strength. + +She frowned like a spoiled child, put her dainty +hand under his chin and pressed his mouth together. + +"Wake up, sir!" she whispered. "I don't like your +expression!" + +He refused to stir, and she drew the tips of her +fingers across his ears and eyelids. + +He rubbed his eyes and muttered: + +"What t'ell?" + +"Let's take a bath in the sea before sunrise--come +on!" + +The sleeper groaned heavily, turned over, and in a +moment was again dead to the world. + +Mary's eyes were wide now with excitement. The +hours were too marvelous to be lost in sleep. She +could sleep when they must return to the tiresome world +with its endless crowds of people. + +She rose softly, ran barefoot to the beach, threw +her night-dress on the sand and plunged, her white, +young body trembling with joy, into the water. + +It was marvelous--this wonderful hush of the dawn +over the infinite sea. The air and water melted into a +pearl gray. Far out toward the east, the waters +began to blush at the kiss of the coming sun. The +pearl gray slowly turned into purple. So startling was +the vision, she swam in-shore and stood knee-deep in +the shallows to watch the magic changes. In breathless +wonder she saw the sea and sky and shore turn into a +trembling cloud of dazzling purple. A moment before, +she had caught the water up in her hand and poured it +out in a stream of pearls. She lifted a handful and +poured it out now, each drop a dazzling amethyst. And +even while she looked, the purple was changing to +scarlet--the amethyst into rubies! + +A great awe filled her in the solemn hush. She +stood in Nature's vast cathedral, close to God's +heart--her life in harmony with His eternal laws. + +How foolish and artificial were the ways of the +far-away, drab, prosaic world of clothes and houses and +furnishings! If she could only live forever in this +dream-world! + +Even while the thought surged through her heart, +she lifted her head and saw the red rim of the sun +suddenly break through the sea, and started lest the +white light of day had revealed her to some passing +boatman hurrying to his nets. + +Her keen eye quickly swept the circle of the wide, +silent world of sand-dunes, marsh and waters. No +prying eye was near. Only the morning star still +gleaming above saw. And they were twin sisters. + +Four days flew on velvet wings before the first +cloud threw its shadow across her life. Jim always +slept until nine o'clock, and refused with dogged good- +natured indifference to stir when she had asked him to +get the wood for breakfast. It was nothing, of course, +to walk a hundred yards to the beach and pick up the +wood, and she did it. The hurt that stung was the +feeling that he was growing indifferent. + +She felt for the first time an impulse to box his +lazy jaws as he yawned and turned over for the dozenth +time without rising. He looked for all the world like +a bulldog curled up on his bed of grass. + +She shook him at last. + +"Jim, dear, you must get up now! Breakfast is +almost ready and it won't be fit to eat if you don't +come on." + +He opened his heavy eyelids and gazed at her +sleepily. + +"All righto----! Just as you say--just as you +say." + +"Hurry! Breakfast will be ready before you can +dress." + +"Gee! Breakfast all ready! You're one smart +little wifie, Kiddo." + +The compliment failed to please. She was sure that +he had been fully awake twice before and pretended to +be asleep from sheer laziness and indifference. + +The thought hurt. + +When they sat down at last to breakfast, she looked +into his half-closed eyes with a sudden start. + +"Why, Jim, your eyes are red!" + +"Yes?" + +"What's the matter?" + +"Nothing." + +"You're ill--what is it?" + +He grinned sheepishly. + +"You couldn't guess now, could you?" + +"You haven't been drinking!" she gasped. + +"No," he drawled lazily, "I wouldn't say drinking-- +I just took one big swallow last night--makes you sleep +good when you're tired. Good medicine! I always carry +a little with me." + +A sickening wave went over her. Not that she felt +that he was going to be a drunkard. But the utter +indifference with which he made the announcement was a +painful revelation of the fact that her opinion on such +a question was not of the slightest importance. +That he was now master of the situation he evidently +meant that she should see and understand at once. + +She refused to accept the humiliating position +without a struggle and made up her mind to try at once +to mold his character. She would begin by getting him +to cut the slang from his conversation. + +"You remember the promise you made me one day +before we were married, Jim?" she asked brightly. + +"Which one? You know a fellow's not responsible +for what he promises to get his girl. All's fair in +love and war, they say----" + +"I'm going to hold you to this one, sir," she +firmly declared. + +"All right, little bright eyes," he responded +cheerfully as he lit a cigarette and sent the smoke +curling above his red head. + +She sat for a while in silence, studying the man +before her. The task was delicate and difficult. And +she had thought it a mere pastime of love! As her +fiance, he had been wax in her hands. As her husband, +he was a lazy, headstrong, obstinate young animal +grinning good-naturedly at her futile protests. How +long would he grin and bear her suggestions with +patience? The transition from this lazy grin to the +growl of an angry bulldog might be instantaneous. + +She would move with the utmost caution--but she +would move and at once. It would be a test of +character between them. She edged her chair close to +his, drew his head down in her lap and ran her fingers +through his thick, red hair. + +"Still love me, Jim?" she smiled. + +"Crazier over you every day--and you know it, too, +you sly little puss," he answered dreamily. + +"You WILL make good your promises?" + +"Sure, I will--surest thing you know!" + +"You see, Jim dear," she went on tenderly, "I want +to be proud of you----" + +"Well, ain't you?" + +"Of course I am, silly. I know you and understand +you. But I want all the world to respect you as I do." +She paused and breathed deeply. "They've got to do it, +too, they've got to----" + +"Sure, I'll knock their block off--if they don't!" +he broke in. + +She raised her finger reprovingly and shook her +head. + +"That's just the trouble: you can't do it with your +fists. You can't compel the respect of cultured +men and women by physical force. We've got to win with +other weapons." + +"All right, Kiddo--dope it out for me," he +responded lazily. "Dope it out----" + +Her lips quivered with the painful recognition of +the task before her. Yet when she spoke, her voice was +low and sweet and its tones even. She gave no sign to +the man whose heavy form rested in her arms. + +"Then from today we must begin to cut out every +word of slang--it's a bargain?" + +"Sure, Mike--I promised!" + +"Cut `Sure Mike!'" + +She raised her finger severely. + +"All right, teacher," he drawled. "What'll we put +in Sure Mike's place? I've found him a handy man!" + +"Say `certainly.'" + +Jim grinned good-naturedly. + +"Aw hell, Kiddo--that sounds punk!" + +"And HELL, Jim, isn't a nice word----" + +"Gee, Kid, now look here--can't get along with out +HELL--leave me that one just a little while." + +She shook her head. + +"No." + +"No?" + +"And PUNK is expressive, but not suited to +parlor use." + +"All right--t'ell with PUNK!" He turned and +looked. "What's the matter now?" he asked. + +"Don't you realize what you've just said?" + +"What did I say?" + +She turned away to hide a tear. + +He threw his arms around her neck and drew her lips +down to his. + +"Ah, don't worry, Kiddo--I'll do better next time. +Honest to God, I will. That's enough for today. Just +let's love now. T'ell with the rest." + +She smiled in answer. + +"You promise to try honestly?" + +He raised his hand in solemn vow. + +"S'help me!" + +Each day's trial ended in a laugh and a kiss until +at last Jim refused to promise any more. He grinned in +obstinate, good-natured silence and let her do the +worrying. + +She watched him with growing wonder and alarm. He +gradually lapsed into little coarse, ugly habits at the +table. She tried playfully to correct them. He took +it good-naturedly at first and then ignored her +suggestions as if she were a kitten complaining at his +feet. + +She studied him with baffling rage at the mystery +of his personality. The long silences between them +grew from hour to hour. She could see that he was +restless now at the isolation of their sand-island +home. The queer lights and shadows that played in his +cold blue eyes told only too plainly that his mind was +back again in the world of battle. He was fighting +something, too. + +She was glad of it. She could manage him better +there. She would throw him into the company of +educated people and rouse his pride and ambition. She +heard his announcement of their departure on the eighth +day with positive joy. + +"Well, Kiddo," he began briskly, "we've got to be +moving. Time to get back to work now. The old town +and the little shop down in Avenue B have been calling +me." + +"Today, Jim?" she asked quickly. + +"Right away. We'll catch the first train north, +stop two days, Christmas Eve and Christmas, in +Asheville, and then for old New York!" + +The journey along the new railroad built on +concrete bridges over miles of beautiful waters was one +of unalloyed joy. They had passed over this stretch of +marvelous engineering at night on their trip down and +had not realized its wonders. For hours the train +seemed to be flying on velvet wings through the ocean. + +She sat beside her lover and held his hand. In +spite of her enthusiasm, he would doze. At every turn +of entrancing view she would pinch his arm: + +"Look, Jim! Look!" + +He would lift his heavy eyelids, grunt good- +naturedly and doze again. + +In the dining-car she was in mortal terror at first +lest he should lapse into the coarse table manners into +which he had fallen in camp. She laid his napkin +conspicuously on his plate and saw that he had opened +and put it in place across his lap before ordering the +meals. + +The moment he found himself in a crowd, the lights +began to flash in his eyes, his broad shoulders lifted +and his whole being was at once alert and on guard. He +followed his wife's lead with unerring certainty. + +She renewed her faith in his early reformation, +though his character was a puzzle. He seemed to be +forever watching out of the corners of his slumbering +eyes. She wondered what it meant. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +THE REAL MAN + +They arrived in Asheville the night before Christmas +Eve. Jim listened to his wife's prattle about the +wonderful views with quiet indifference. + +They stopped at the Battery Park Hotel, and she +hoped the waning moon would give them at least a +glimpse of the beautiful valley of the French Broad and +Swannanoa rivers and the dark, towering ranges of +mountains among the stars. She made Jim wait on the +balcony of the room for half an hour, but the clouds +grew denser and he persisted in nodding. + +His head dipped lower than usual, and she laughed. + +"Poor old sleepy-head!" + +"For the love o' Mike, Kiddo--me for the hay. +Won't them mountains wait till morning?" + +"All right!" she answered cheerily. "I'll pull you +out at sunrise. The sunrise from our window will be +glorious." + +He rose and stretched his body like a young, well +fed tiger. + +"I think it's prettier from the bed. But have it +your own way--have it your own way. I'll agree to +anything if you lemme go to sleep now." + +She rose as the first gray fires of dawn began to +warm the cloud-banks on the eastern horizon, stood +beside her window and watched in silent ecstasy. Jim +was sleeping heavily. She would not wake him until the +glory of the sunrise was at its height. She loved to +watch the changing lights and shadows in sky and valley +and on distant mountain peaks as the light slowly +filtered over the eastern hills. + +She had recovered from the depression of the last +days of their camp. The journey back into the world +had improved Jim's manners. There could be no doubt +about his ambitions. His determination to be a +millionaire was the lever she now meant to work in +raising his social aspirations. + +Why should she feel depressed? + +Their married life had just begun. The two weeks +they had passed on their honeymoon had been happy +beyond her dreams of happiness. Somehow her +imagination had failed to give any conception of the +wonder and glory of this revelation of life. His +little lapses of selfishness on their sand island +no doubt came from ignorance of what was expected of +him. + +For one thing she felt especially thankful. There +had been no ugly confessions of a shady past to cloud +the joy of their love. Her lover might be ignorant of +the ways of polite society. He was equally free of its +sinister vices. She thanked God for that. The soul of +the man she had married was clean of all memories of +women. The love he gave was fierce in its unrestrained +passion--but it was all hers. She gloried in its +strength. + +She made up her mind, standing there in the soft +light of the dawn, that she would bend his iron will to +her own in the growing, sweet intimacy of their married +life and threw her fears to the winds. + +The thin, fleecy clouds that hung over the low +range of the eastern foreground were all aglow now, +with every tint of the rainbow, while the sun's bed +beyond the hills was flaming in scarlet and gold. + +She clapped her hands in ecstasy. + +"Jim! Jim, dear!" + +He made no response, and she rushed to his side and +whispered: + +"You must see this sunrise--get up quick, quick, +dear. It's wonderful." + +"What's the matter?" he muttered. + +"The sunrise over the mountains--quick--it's +glorious." + +His heavy eyelids drooped and closed. He dropped +on the pillow and buried his face out of sight. + +"Ah, Jim dear, do come--just to please me." + +"I'm dead, Kiddo--dead to the world," he sighed. +"Don't like to see the sun rise. I never did. Come on +back and let's sleep----" + +His last words were barely audible. He was +breathing heavily as his lips ceased to move. + +She gave it up, returned to the window and watched +the changing colors until the white light from the +sun's face had touched with life the last shadows of +the valleys and flashed its signals from the farthest +towering peaks. + +Her whole being quivered in response to the beauty +of this glorious mountain world. The air was wine. +She loved the sapphire skies and the warm, lazy, +caressing touch of the sun of the South. + +A sense of bitterness came, just for a moment, that +the man she had chosen for her mate had no eye to see +these wonders and no ear to hear their music. During +the madness of his whirlwind courtship she had gotten +the impression that his spirit was sensitive to +beauty--to the waters of the bay, the sea and the +wooded hills. She must face the facts. Their stay on +the island had convinced her that he had eyes only for +her. She must make the most of it. + +It was ten o'clock before Jim could be persuaded to +rise and get breakfast. She literally pulled him up +the stairs to the observatory on the tower of the +hotel. + +"What's the game, Kiddo? What's the game?" he +grumbled. + +"Ask me no questions. But do just as I tell you; +come on!" + +Her face was radiant, her hair in a tangle of +riotous beauty about her forehead and temples, her eyes +sparkling. + +"Don't look till I tell you!" she cried, as they +emerged on the little minaret which crowns the tower. + +"Now open and see the glory of the Lord!" she cried +with joyous awe. + +The day was one of matchless beauty. The clouds +that swung low in the early morning had floated higher +and higher till they hung now in shining billows above +the highest balsam-crowned peaks in the distance. + +In every direction, as far as the eye could +reach, north, south, east, west, the dark ranges +mounted in the azure skies until the farthest dim lines +melted into the heavens. + +"Oh, Jim dear, isn't it wonderful! We're lucky to +get this view on our first day. It's such a good +omen." + +Jim opened his eyes lazily and puffed his cigarette +in a calm, patronizing way. + +"Tough sledding we'd have had with an automobile +over those hills," he said. "We'll try it after lunch, +though." + +"We'll go for a ride?" she cried joyfully. + +"Yep. Got to hunt up the folks. The mountains +near Asheville!" he said with disgust. "I should say +they are near--and far, too. Holy smoke, I'll bet we +get lost!" + +"Nonsense----" + +"Where's the Black Mountains, I wonder?" he asked +suddenly. + +"Over there!" She pointed to the giant peaks +projecting here and there in dim, blue waves beyond the +Great Craggy Range in the foreground. + +"Holy Moses! Do we have to climb those crags +before we start?" + +"To go to Black Mountain?" + +"Yes. That's where the lawyer said they +lived, under Cat-tail Peak in the Black Mountain +Range--wherever t'ell that is." + +"No, no! You don't climb the Great Craggy; you go +around this end of it and follow the Swannanoa River +right up to the foot of Mount Mitchell, the highest +peak this side of the Rockies. The Cat-tail is just +beyond Mount Mitchell." + +"You've been there?" he asked in surprise. + +"Once, with a party from Asheville. We spent three +days and slept in caves." + +"Suppose you'd know the way now?" + +"We couldn't miss it. We follow the bed of the +Swannanoa to its source-----" + +"Then that settles it. We'll go by ourselves. I +don't want any mutt along to show us the way. We +couldn't get lost nohow, could we?" + +"Of course not--all the roads lead to Asheville. +We can ask the way to the house you want, when we reach +the little stopping place at the foot of Mount +Mitchell." + +"Gee, Kid, you're a wonder!" he exclaimed +admiringly. "Couldn't get along without you, now could +I?" + +"I hope not, sir!" + +"You bet I couldn't! We'll start right away. The +roads will give us a jolt----" + +He turned suddenly to go. + +"Wait--wait a minute, dear," she pleaded. "You +haven't seen this gorgeous view to the southwest, with +Mount Pisgah looming in the center like some vast +cathedral spire--look, isn't it glorious?" + +"Fine! Fine!" he responded in quick, businesslike +tones. + +"You can look for days and weeks and not begin to +realize the changing beauty of these mountains, clothed +in eternal green! Just think, dear, Mount Pisgah, +there, is forty miles away, and it looks as if you +could stroll over to it in an hour's walk. And there +are twenty-three magnificent peaks like that, all of +them more than six thousand feet high----" + +She paused with a frown. He was neither looking +nor listening. He had fallen into a brown study; his +mind was miles away. + +"You're not listening, Jim--nor seeing anything," +she said reproachfully. + +"No--Kiddo, we must get ready for that trip. I've +got a letter for a lawyer downtown. I'll find him and +hire a car. I'll be back here for you in an hour. +You'll be ready?" + +"Right away, in half an hour----" + +"Just pack a suit-case for us both. We'll +stay one night. I'll take a bag, too, that I have +in my trunk." + +It was noon before he returned with a staunch +touring car ready for the trip. He opened the little +steamer trunk which he had always kept locked and took +from it a small leather bag. He placed it on the +floor, and, in spite of careful handling, the ring of +metal inside could be distinctly heard. + +"What on earth have you got in that queer black +bag?" she asked in surprise. + +"Oh, just a lot o' junk from the shop. I thought I +might tinker with it at odd times. I don't want to +leave it here. It's got one of my new models in it." + +He carried the bag in his hand, refusing to allow +the porter who came for the suit-case to touch it. + +He threw the suit-case in the bottom of the +tonneau. The bag he stowed carefully under the +cushions of the rear seat. The moment he placed his +hand on the wheel of the machine, he was at his best. +Every trace of the street gamin fell from him. Again +he was the eagle-eyed master of time and space. The +machine answered his touch with more than human +obedience. He knew how to humor its mood. He +conserved its power for a hill with unerring accuracy +and threw it over the grades with rarely a pause +to change his speeds. He could turn the sharp curves +with such swift, easy grace that he scarcely caused +Mary's body to swerve an inch. He could sense a rough +place in the road and glide over it with velvet touch. + +A tire blew out, five miles up the stream from +Asheville, and the easy, business-like deliberation +with which he removed the old and adjusted the new, was +a revelation to Mary of a new phase of his character. + +He never once grunted, or swore, or lost his poise, +or manifested the slightest impatience. He set about +his task coolly, carefully, skillfully, and finished it +quickly and silently. + +His long silences at last began to worry her. An +invisible barrier had reared itself between them. The +impression was purely mental--but it was none the less +real and distressing. + +There was a look of aloof absorption about him she +had never seen before. At first she attributed it to +the dread of meeting his kinsfolk for the first time, +his fear of what they might be like or what they might +think of him. + +He answered her questions cheerfully but +mechanically. Sometimes he stared at her in a cold, +impersonal way and gave no answer, as if her +questions were an impertinence and she were not of +sufficient importance to waste his breath on. + +Unable at last to endure the strain, she burst out +impatiently: + +"What on earth's the matter with you, Jim?" + +"Why?" he asked softly. + +"You haven't spoken to me in half an hour, and I've +asked you two questions." + +"Just studying about something, Kiddo, something +big. I'll tell you sometime, maybe--not now." + +Slowly a great fear began to shape itself in her +heart. The real man behind those slumbering eyes she +had never known. Who was he? + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +UNWELCOME GUESTS + +While she was yet puzzling over the strange mood of +absorbed brooding into which Jim had fallen, his face +suddenly lighted, and he changed with such rapidity +that her uneasiness was doubled. + +They had reached the stretches of deep forest at +the foot of the Black Mountain ranges. The Swannanoa +had become a silver thread of laughing, foaming spray +and deep, still pools beneath the rocks. The fields +were few and small. The little clearings made scarcely +an impression in the towering virgin forests. + +"Great guns, Kiddo!" he exclaimed, "this is some +country! By George, I had no idea there was such a +place so close to New York!" + +She looked at him with uneasy surprise. What could +be in his mind? The solemn gorge through which they +were passing gave no entrancing views of clouds or sky +or towering peaks. Its wooded cliffs hung +ominously overhead in threatening shadows. The scene +had depressed her after the vast sunlit spaces of sky, +of shining valleys and cloud-capped, sapphire peaks on +which they had turned their backs. + +"You like this, Jim?" she asked. + +"It's great--great!" + +"I thought that waterfall we just passed was very +beautiful." + +"I didn't see it. But this is something like it. +You're clean out of the world here--and there ain't a +railroad in twenty miles!" + +The deeper the shadows of tree and threatening +crag, the higher Jim's strange spirit seemed to rise. + +She watched him with increasing fear. How little +she knew the real man! Could it be possible that this +lonely, unlettered boy of the streets of lower New +York, starved and stunted in childhood, had within him +the soul of a great poet? How else could she explain +the sudden rapture over the threatening silences and +shadows of these mountain gorges which had depressed +her? And yet his utter indifference to the glories of +beautiful waters, his blindness at noon before the most +wonderful panorama of mountains and skies on which she +had ever gazed, contradicted the theory of the poetic +soul. A poet must see beauty where she had seen +it--and a thousand wonders her eyes had not found. + +His elation was uncanny. What could it mean? + +He was driving now with a skill that was +remarkable, a curious smile playing about his drooping, +Oriental eyelids. A wave of fierce resentment swept +her heart. She was a mere plaything in this man's +life. The real man she had never seen. What was he +thinking about? What grim secret lay behind the +mysterious smile that flickered about the corners of +those eyes? He was not thinking of her. The mood was +new and cold and cynical, for all the laughter he might +put in it. + +She asked herself the question of his past, his +people, his real life-history. The only answer was his +baffling, mysterious smile. + +A frown suddenly clouded his face. + +"Hello! Ye're running right into a man's yard!" + +Mary lifted her head with quick surprise. + +"Why yes, it's the stopping place for the parties +that climb Mount Mitchell. I remember it. We stayed +all night here, left our rig, and started next morning +at sunrise on horseback to climb the trail." + +"Pretty near the jumping-off place, then," he +remarked. "We'll ask the way to Cat-tail Peak." + +He stopped the car in front of the low-pitched, +weather-stained frame house and blew the horn. + +A mountain woman with three open-eyed, silent +children came slowly to meet them. + +She smiled pleasantly, and without embarrassment +spoke in a pleasant drawl: + +"Won't you 'light and look at your saddle?" + +The expression caught Jim's fancy, and he broke +into a roar of laughter. The woman blushed and laughed +with him. She couldn't understand what was the matter +with the man. Why should he explode over the simple +greeting in which she had expressed her pleasure at +their arrival? + +Anyhow, she was an innkeeper's wife, and her +business was to make folks feel at home--so she laughed +again with Jim. + +"You know that's the funniest invitation I ever got +in a car," he cried at last. "We fly in these things +sometimes. And when you said, `Won't you 'light,'"--he +paused and turned to his wife--"I could just feel +myself up in the air on that big old racer's back." + +"Won't you-all stay all night with us?" the soft +voice drawled again. + +"Thank you, not tonight," Mary answered. + +She waited for Jim to ask the way. + +"No--not tonight," he repeated. "You happen to +know an old woman by the name of Owens who lives up +here?" + +"Nance Owens?" + +"That's her name." + +"Lord, everybody knows old Nance!" was the smiling +answer. + +"She ain't got good sense!" the tow-headed boy +spoke up. + +"Sh!" the mother warned, boxing his ears. + +"She's a little queer, that's all. Everybody knows +her in Buncombe and Yancey counties. Her house is +built across the county line. She eats in Yancey and +sleeps in Buncombe----" + +"Yes," broke in the boy joyously, "an' when the +Sheriff o' Yancey comes, she moves back into Buncombe. +She's some punkin's on a green gourd vine, she is--if +she ain't got good sense." + +His mother struck at him again, but he dodged the +blow and finished his speech without losing a word. + +"Could you tell us the way to her house?" + +"Keep right on this road, and you can't miss it." + +"How far is it?" + +"Oh, not far." + +"No; right at the bottom o' the Cat's-tail," the +boy joyfully explained. + +"He means the foot o' Cat-tail Peak!" the mother +apologized. + +"How many miles?" + +"Just a little ways--ye can't miss it; the third +house you come to on this road." + +"You'll be there in three shakes of a sheep's +tail--in that thing!" the boy declared. + +Jim waved his thanks, threw in his gear, and the +car shot forward on the level stretch of road beyond +the house. He slowed down when out of sight. + +"Gee! I'd love to have that kid in a wood-shed +with a nice shingle all by ourselves for just ten +minutes." + +"The people spoil him," Mary laughed. "The people +who stop there for the Mount Mitchell climb. He was a +baby when I was there six years ago"--she paused and a +rapt look crept into her eyes--"a beautiful little +baby, her first-born, and she was the happiest thing I +ever saw in my life." + +Her voice sank to a whisper. + +A vision suddenly illumined her own soul, and she +forgot her anxiety over Jim's queer moods. + +Deeper and deeper grew the shadows of crag, +gorge, and primeval forest. The speedometer on the +foot-board registered five miles from the Mount +Mitchell house. They had passed two cabins by the way, +and still no sign of the third. + +"Why couldn't she tell us how many miles, I'd like +to know?" Jim grumbled. + +"It's the way of the mountain folk. They're +noncommittal on distances." + +He stopped the car and lighted the lamps. + +"Going to be dark in a minute," he said. "But I +like this place," he added. + +He picked his way with care over the narrow road. +They crossed the little stream they were trailing, and +the car crawled over the rocks along the banks at a +snail's pace. + +An owl called from a dead tree-top silhouetted +against an open space of sky ahead. + +"Must be a clearing there," Jim muttered. + +He stopped the car and listened for the sounds of +life about a house. + +A vast, brooding silence filled the world. A wolf +howled from the edge of a distant crag somewhere +overhead. + +"For God's sake!" Jim shivered. "What was that?" + +"Only a mountain wolf crying for company." + +"Wolves up here?" he asked in surprise. + +"A few--harmless, timid, lonesome fellows. It +makes me sorry for them when I hear one." + +"Great country! I like it!" Jim responded. + +Again she wondered why. What a queer mixture of +strength and mystery--this man she had married! + +He started the car, turned a bend in the road, and +squarely in front, not more than a hundred yards away, +gleamed a light in a cabin window--four tiny panes of +glass. + +"By Geeminy, we come near stopping in the front +yard without knowing it!" he exclaimed. "Didn't we?" + +"I'm glad she's at home!" Mary exclaimed. "The +light shines with a friendly glow in these deep +shadows." + +"Afraid, Kiddo?" he asked lightly. + +"I don't like these dark places." + +"All right when you get used to 'em--safer than +daylight." + +Again her heart beat at his queer speech. She +shivered at the thought of this uncanny trait of +character so suddenly developed today. She made an +effort to throw off her depression. It would vanish +with the sun tomorrow morning. + +He picked his way carefully among the trees and +stopped in front of the cabin door. The little house +sat back from the road a hundred feet or more. + +He blew his horn twice and waited. + +A sudden crash inside, and the light went out. He +waited a moment for it to come back. + +Only darkness and dead silence. + +"Suppose she dropped dead and kicked over the +lamp?" Jim laughed. + +"She probably took the lamp into another room." + +"No; it went out too quick--and it went out with a +crash." + +He blew his horn again. + +Still no answer. + +"Hello! Hello!" he called loudly. + +Someone stirred at the door. Jim's keen ear was +turned toward the house. + +"I heard her bar the door, I'll swear it." + +"How foolish, Jim!" Mary whispered. "You couldn't +have heard it." + +"All the same I did. Here's a pretty kettle of +fish! The old hellion's not even going to let us in." + +He seized the lever of his horn and blew one +terrific blast after another, in weird, uncanny +sobs and wails, ending in a shriek like the last +cry of a lost soul. + +"Don't, Jim!" Mary cried, shivering. "You'll +frighten her to death." + +"I hope so." + +"Go up and speak to her--and knock on the door." + +He waited again in silence, scrambled out of the +car, and fumbled his way through the shadows to the +dark outlines of the cabin. He found the porch on +which the front door opened. + +His light foot touched the log with sure step, and +he walked softly to the cabin wall. The door was not +yet visible in the pitch darkness. His auto lights +were turned the other way and threw their concentrated +rays far down into the deep woods. + +He listened intently for a moment and caught the +cat-like tread of the old woman inside. + +"I say--hello, in there!" he called. + +Again the sound of her quick, furtive step told him +that she was on the alert and determined to defend her +castle against all comers. What if she should slip an +old rifle through a crack and blow his head off? + +She might do it, too! + +He must make her open the door. + +"Say, what's the matter in there?" he asked +persuasively. + +A moment's silence, and then a gruff voice slowly +answered: + +"They ain't nobody at home!" + +"The hell they ain't!" Jim laughed. + +"No!" + +"Who are you?" + +She hesitated and then growled back: + +"None o' your business. Who are you?" + +"We're strangers up here--lost our way. It's +cold--we got to stop for the night." + +"Ye can't--they's nobody home, I tell ye!" she +repeated with sullen emphasis. + +Jim broke into a genial laugh. + +"Ah! Come on, old girl! Open up and be sociable. +We're not revenue officers or sheriffs. If you've got +any good mountain whiskey, I'll help you drink it." + +"Who are ye?" she repeated savagely. + +"Ah, just a couple o' gentle, cooing turtle-doves-- +a bride and groom. Loosen up, old girl; it's Christmas +Eve--and we're just a couple o' gentle cooin' +doves----" + +Jim kept up his persuasive eloquence until the +light of the candle flashed through the window, +and he heard her slip the heavy bar from the door. + +He lost no time in pushing his way inside. + +Nance threw a startled look at his enormous, shaggy +fur coat--at the shining aluminum goggles almost +completely masking his face. She gave a low, +breathless scream, hurled the door-bar crashing to the +floor and stared at him like a wild, hunted animal at +bay, her thin hands trembling, the iron-gray hair +tumbling over her forehead. + +"Oh, my God!" she wailed, crouching back. + +Jim gazed at her in amazement. He had forgotten +his goggles and fur coat. + +"What's the matter?" he asked in high-keyed tones +of surprise. + +Nance made no answer but crouched lower and +attempted to put the table between them. + +"What t'ell Bill ails you--will you tell me?" he +asked with rising wrath. + +"I THOUGHT you wuz the devil," the old woman +panted. "Now I KNOW it!" + +Jim suddenly remembered his goggles and coat, and +broke into a laugh. + +"Oh!" + +He removed his goggles and cap, threw back his big +coat and squared his shoulders with a smile. + +"How's that?" + +Nance glowered at him with ill-concealed rage, +looked him over from head to foot, and answered with a +snarl: + +"'Tain't much better--ef ye ax ME!" + +"Gee! But you're a sociable old wild-cat!" he +exclaimed, starting back as if she had struck him a +blow. + +His eye caught the dried skin of a young wildcat +hanging on the log wall. + +"No wonder you skinned your neighbor and hung her +up to dry," he added moodily. + +He took in the room with deliberate insolence while +the old woman stood awkwardly watching him, shifting +her position uneasily from one foot to the other. + +In all his miserable life in New York he could not +recall a room more bare of comforts. The rough logs +were chinked with pieces of wood and daubed with red +clay. The door was made of rough boards, the ceiling +of hewn logs with split slabs laid across them. An +old-fashioned, tall spinning wheel, dirty and unused, +sat in the corner. A rough pine table was in the +middle of the floor and a smaller one against the wall. +On this side table sat two rusty flat-irons, and +against it leaned an ironing board. A dirty piece +of turkey-red calico hung on a string for a portiere at +the opening which evidently led into a sort of kitchen +somewhere in the darkness beyond. + +The walls were decorated at intervals. A huge +bunch of onions hung on a wooden peg beside the wild- +cat skin. Over the window was slung an old-fashioned +muzzle-loading musket. The sling which held it was +made of a pair of ancient home-made suspenders fastened +to the logs with nails. Beneath the gun hung a cow's +horn, cut and finished for powder, and with it a dirty +game-bag. Strings of red peppers were strung along +each of the walls, with here and there bunches of +popcorn in the ears. A pile of black walnuts lay in +one corner of the cabin and a pile of hickory nuts in +another. + +A three-legged wooden stool and a split-bottom +chair stood beside the table, and a haircloth couch, +which looked as if it had been saved from the Ark, was +pushed near the wall beside the door. + +Across this couch was thrown a ragged patchwork +quilt, and a pillow covered with calico rested on one +end, with the mark of a head dented deep in the center. + +Jim shrugged his shoulders with a look of disgust, +stepped quickly to the door and called: + +"Come on in, Kid!" + +Nance fumbled her thin hands nervously and spoke +with the faintest suggestion of a sob in her voice. + +"I ain't got nothin' for ye to eat----" + +"We've had dinner," he answered carelessly. + +He stepped to the door and called: + +"Bring that little bag from under the seat, Kiddo." + +He held the door open, and the light streamed +across the yard to the car. He watched her steadily +while she raised the cushion of the rear seat, lifted +the bag and sprang from the car. His keen eye never +left her for an instant until she placed it in his +hands. + +"Mercy, but it's heavy!" she panted, as she gave it +to him. + +He took it without a word and placed it on the +table in the center of the room. + +Nance glared at him sullenly. + +"There's no place for ye, I tell ye----" + +Jim faced her with mock politeness. + +"For them kind words--thanks!" + +He bowed low and swept the room with a mocking +gesture. + +"There ain't no room for ye," the old woman +persisted. + +Jim raised his voice to a squeaking falsetto with +deliberate purpose to torment her. + +"I got ye the first time, darlin'!" he exclaimed, +lifting his hands above her as if to hold her down. +"We must linger awhile for your name--anyhow, we +mustn't forget that. This is Mrs. Nance Owens?" + +The old woman started and watched him from beneath +her heavy eyebrows, answering with sullen emphasis: + +"Yes." + +Again Jim lifted his hands above his head and waved +her to earth. + +"Well! Don't blame me! I can't help it, you +know----" + +He turned to his wife and spoke with jolly good +humor. + +"It's the place, all right. Set down, Kiddo--take +off your hat and things. Make yourself at home." + +Nance flew at him in a sudden frenzy at his +assumption of insolent ownership of her cabin. + +"There's no place for ye to sleep!" she fairly +shrieked in his face. + +Again Jim's arms were over her head, waving her +down. + +"All right, sweetheart! We're from New York. We +don't sleep. We've come all the way down here to the +mountains of North Carolina just to see you. And we're +goin' to sit up all night and look at ye----" + +He sat down deliberately, and Nance fumbled her +hands with a nervous movement. + +Mary's heart went out in sympathy to the forlorn +old creature in her embarrassment. Her dress was dirty +and ragged, an ill-fitting gingham, the elbows out and +her bare, bony arms showing through. The waist was too +short and always slipping from the belt of wrinkled +cloth beneath which she kept trying to stuff it. + +Mary caught her restless eye at last and held it in +a friendly look. + +"Please let us stay!" she pleaded. "We can sleep +on the floor--anywhere." + +"You bet!" Jim joined in. "Married two weeks--and +I don't care whether it rains or whether it pours or +how long I have to stand outdoors--if I can be with +you, Kid." + +The old woman hesitated until Mary's smile melted +its way into her heart. + +Her lips trembled, and her watery blue eyes +blinked. + +"Well," she began grumblingly, "thar's a little +single bed in that shed-room thar for you--ef he'll +sleep in here on the sofy." + +Jim leaped to his feet. + +"What do ye think of that? Bully for the old gal! +Kinder slow at first. As the poet sings of the little +bed-bug, she ain't got no wings--but she gets there +just the same!" + +He drew the electric torch from his pocket and +advanced on Nance. + +"By Golly--I'll have another look at you." + +Nance backed in terror at the sight of the +revolver-like instrument. + +"What's that?" she gasped. + +"Just a little Gatlin' gun!" he cried jokingly. He +pressed the button, and the light flashed squarely in +the old woman's eyes. + +"God 'lmighty--don't shoot!" she screamed. + +Jim doubled with laughter. + +"For the love o' Mike!" + +Nance leaned against the side table and wiped the +perspiration from her brow. + +"Lord! I thought you'd kilt me!" she panted, still +trembling. + +"Ah, don't be foolish!" Jim said persuasively. "It +can't hurt you. Here, take it in your hand--I'll +show you how to work it. It's to nose round dark +places under the buzz-wagon." + +He held it out to Nance. + +"Here, take it and press the button." + +The old woman drew back. + +"No--no--I'm skeered! No----" + +Jim thrust the torch into her hand and forced her +to hold it. + +"Oh, come on, it's easy. Push your finger right +down on the button." + +Nance tried it gingerly at first, and then laughed +at the ease with which it could be done. She flashed +it on the floor again and again. + +"Why, it's like a big lightnin' bug, ain't it?" + +She turned the end of it up to examine more +closely, pushed the button unconsciously, and the light +flashed in her eyes. She jumped and handed it quickly +to Jim. + +"Or a jack o' lantern--here, take it," she cried, +still trembling. + +Jim threw his hands up with a laugh. + +"Can you beat it!" + +Backing quickly to the door, Nance called nervously +to Mary: + +"I'll get your room ready in a minute, ma'am." She +paused and glanced at Jim. + +"And thar's a shed out thar you can put your devil +wagon in----" + +She slipped through the dirty calico curtains, and +Mary saw her go with wondering pity in her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +A LITTLE BLACK BAG + +Mary watched Nance, with a quick glance at Jim. Again +he had forgotten that he had a wife. She had studied +this strange absorption with increasing uneasiness. +During the long, beautiful drive of the afternoon +beside laughing waters, through scenes of unparalleled +splendor, through valleys of entrancing peace, the +still, sapphire skies bending above with clear, +Southern Christmas benediction, he had not once pressed +her hand, he had not once bent to kiss her. + +Each time the thought had come, she fought back the +tears. She had made excuses for him. He was absorbed +in the memories of his miserable childhood in New York, +perhaps. The approaching meeting with his relatives +had awakened the old hunger for a mother's love that +had been denied him. The scenes through which they +were passing had perhaps stirred the currents of his +subconscious being. + +And yet why should such memories estrange his +spirit from hers? The effect should be the opposite. +In the remembrance of his loneliness and suffering, he +should instinctively turn to her. The love with which +she had unfolded his life should redeem the past. + +He was standing now with his heavy chin silhouetted +against the flickering light of the candle on the +table. His hand closed suddenly on the handle of the +bag with the swift clutch of an eagle's claw. She +started at the ugly picture it made in the dim rays of +the candle. + +What were the thoughts seething behind the mask of +his face? She watched him, spellbound by his complete +surrender to the mood that had dominated him from the +moment he had touched the deep forests of the Black +Mountain range. A grim elation ruled even his +silences. The man standing there rigid, his face a +smiling, twitching mask, was a stranger. This man she +had never known, or loved. And yet they were bound for +life in the tenderest and strongest ties that can hold +the human soul and body. + +She tossed her head and threw off the ugly thought. +It was morbid nonsense! She was just hungry for a +kiss, and in his new environment he had forgotten +himself as many thoughtless men had forgotten before +and would forget again. + +"Jim!" she whispered tenderly. + +He made no answer. His thick lips were drawn in +deep, twisted lines on one side, as if he had suddenly +reached a decision from which there could be no appeal. + +She raised her voice slightly. + +"Jim?" + +Not a muscle of his body moved. The drawn lines of +the mouth merely relaxed. His answer was scarcely +audible. + +"Yep----" + +"She's gone!" + +"Yep----" + +She moved toward him wistfully. + +"Aren't you forgetting something?" + +His square jaw still held its rigid position +silhouetted in sharp profile against the candle's +light. He answered slowly and mechanically. + +"What?" + +His indifference was more than the sore heart could +bear. The pent-up tears of the afternoon dashed in +flood against the barriers of her will. + +"You--haven't--kissed--me--today," she stammered, +struggling with each word to save a break. + +Still he stood immovable. This time his answer was +tinged with the slightest suggestion of amusement. + +"No?" + +She staggered against the table beside the door and +gripped its edge desperately. + +"Oh--" she gasped. "Don't you love me any more?" + +With his sullen head still holding its position of +indifference, his absorption in the idea which +dominated his mind still unbroken, he threw out one +hand in a gesture of irritation. + +"Cut it, Kid! Cut it!" + +His tones were not only indifferent; they were +contemptuously indifferent. + +With a sob, she sank into the chair and buried her +face in her arms. + +"You're tired! I see it now; you've tired of me. +Oh--it's not possible--it's not possible!" + +The torrent came at last in a flood of utter +abandonment. + +Jim turned, looked at her and threw up his hands in +temporary surrender. + +"Oh, for God's sake!" he muttered, crossing +deliberately to her side. He stood and let her +sob. + +With a quick change of mood, he drew her to her +feet, swept her swaying form into his arms, crushed her +and covered her lips with kisses. + +"How's that?" + +She smiled through her tears. + +"I feel better----" + +Jim laughed. + +"For better or worse--`until Death do us part'-- +that's what you said, Kid, and you meant it, too, +didn't you?" + +He seized both of her arms, held them firmly and +gazed into her eyes with steady, stern inquiry. + +She looked up with uneasy surprise. + +"Of course--I meant it," she answered slowly. + +He held her arms gripped close and said: + +"Well--we'll see!" + +His hands relaxed, and he turned away, rubbing his +square chin thoughtfully. + +She watched him in growing amazement. What could +be the mystery back of this new twist of his elusive +mind? + +He laid his hand on the black bag again, smiled, +and turned and faced her with expanding good humor. + +"Great scheme, this marryin', Kid! And you believe +in it exactly as I do, don't you?" + +"How do you mean?" she faltered. + +"That it binds and holds both our lives as only +Almighty God can bind and hold?" + +"Yes--nothing else IS marriage." + +"That's what I say, too!" + +He placed his hands on her shoulders. + +"Great scheme!" he repeated. "I get a pretty girl +to work for me for nothing for the balance of my life." +He paused and lifted the slender forefinger of his +right hand. "And you pledged your pious soul--I +memorized the words, every one of them: `I, Mary, take +thee, James, to my wedded husband--TO HAVE AND TO HOLD +from this day forward, FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE, +for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to +love, cherish AND OBEY, TIL DEATH DO US PART, ACCORDING +TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE; AND THEREUNTO I GIVE THEE MY +TROTH ----'" + +He paused, lifted his head and smiled grimly: +"That's some promise, believe me, Kiddo! `AND OBEY'--you +meant it all, didn't you?" + +She would have hedged lightly over that ugly old +word which still survived in the ceremony Craddock had +used, but for the sinister suggestion in his voice back +of the playful banter. He had asked it half in jest, +half in earnest. She had caught by the subtle sixth +sense the tragic idea in that one word that he was +going to hold her to it. The thought was too absurd! + +"OBEY--you meant it, didn't you?" he repeated +grimly. + +A smile played about the corners of her mouth as +she answered dreamily: + +"Yes--I--I--PROMISED!" + +"That's why I set my head on you from the first-- +you're good and sweet--you're the real thing." + +Again she caught the sinister suggestion in his +tone and threw him a startled look. + +"What has come over you today, Jim?" she asked. + +He hesitated and answered carelessly. + +"Oh, nothing, Kiddo--just been thinking a little +about business. Got to go to work, you know." He +returned to the table and touched the bag lightly. + +"Watch out now for this bag while I put up the +car--and don't forget that curiosity killed the +cat." + +Quick as a flash, she asked: + +"What's in it?" + +Jim threw up his hands and laughed. + +"Didn't I tell you that curiosity killed a cat?" +He pointed to the skin on the wall. "That's what +stretched that wild-cat's hide up there! She got too +near the old musket!" + +"Anyhow, I'm not afraid of her end--what's in it?" + +Jim scratched his red head and looked at her +thoughtfully. + +"You asked me that once before today, didn't you?" + +"Yes----" + +"Well, it's a little secret of mine. Take my +advice--put your hand on it, but not in it." + +Again the sinister look and tone chilled her. + +"I don't like secrets between us, Jim," she said. + +She looked at the bag reproachfully, and he watched +her keenly--then laughed. + +"I'd as well tell you and be done with it; you'll +go in it anyhow." + +She tossed her head with a touch of angry pride. +He took her hand, led her across the room and placed it +on the valise. + +"I've got five thousand dollars in gold in that +bag." + +She drew back, surprised beyond the power of +speech. + +"And I'm going to give it to this old woman----" + +To her--why?" she gasped. + +"She's my mother." + +"Your MOTHER?" + +"Yes." + +"I--I--thought--you told me she was dead." + +"No. I said that I didn't know who she was." + +He paused, and a queer brooding look crept into his +face. + +"I haven't seen her since I was a little duffer +three years old. This room and these wild crags and +trees come back to me now--just a glimpse of them here +and there. I've always remembered them. I thought I'd +dreamed it----" + +"You remember--how wonderful!" she breathed +reverently. She understood now, and the clouds lifted. + +"The skunk I called my daddy," Jim went on +thoughtfully, "took me to New York. He said that my +mother deserted me when I was a kid. I believed him at +first. But when he beat me and kicked me into the +streets, I knew he was a liar. When I got grown I +began to think and wonder about her. I hired a lawyer +that knew my daddy, and he found her here----" + +With a cry of joy, she seized his arms: + +"Tell her quick! Oh, you're big and fine and +generous, Jim--and I knew it! They said that you were +a brute. I knew they lied. Tell her quick!" + +He lifted his hand in protest. + +"Nope--I'm going to put up a little job on the old +girl--show her the money tonight, get her wild at the +sight of it--and give it to her Christmas morning. +We've only a few hours to wait----" + +"Oh, give it to her now--Jim! Give it to her now!" + +He shook his head and walked to the door. + +"I want to say something to her first and give her +time to think it over. Look out for the bag, and I'll +bring in the things." + +He swung the rough board door wide, slammed it and +disappeared in the darkness. + +The young wife watched the bag a moment with +consuming curiosity. She had fiercely resented his +insulting insinuations at her curiosity, and yet she +was wild to look at that glowing pile of gold inside +and picture the old woman's joyous surprise. + +Her hand touched the lock carelessly and drew back +as if her finger had been burned. She put her hands +behind her and crossed the room. + +"I won't be so weak and silly!" she cried fiercely. + +She heard Jim cranking the car. It would take him +five minutes more to start it, get it under the shed +and bring in the suit-case and robes. + +"Why shouldn't I see it!" she exclaimed. "He +has told me about it." She hesitated and struggled for +a moment, quickly walked back to the bag and touched +the spring. It yielded instantly. + +"Why, it's not even locked!" she cried in tones of +surprise at her silly scruples. + +Her hand had just touched the gold when Nance +entered. + +She snapped the bag and smiled at the old woman +carelessly. What a sweet surprise she would have +tomorrow morning! + +Nance crossed slowly, glancing once at the girl +wistfully as if she wanted to say something friendly, +and then, alarmed at her presumption, hurried on into +the little shed-room. + +Mary waited until she returned. + +"Room's all ready in thar, ma'am," she drawled, +passing into the kitchen without a pause. + +"All right--thank you," Mary answered. + +She quickly opened the bag, thrust her hand into +the gold and withdrew it, holding a costly green- +leather jewelry-case of exquisite workmanship. There +could be no mistake about its value. + +With a cry of joy, she started back, staring at the +little box. + +"Another surprise! And for me! Oh, Jim, man, +you're glorious! My Christmas present, of course! I +mustn't look at it--I won't!" + +She pushed the case from her toward the bag and +drew it back again. + +"What's the difference? I'll take one little, tiny +peep." + +She touched the spring and caught her breath. A +string of pearls fit for the neck of a princess lay +shining in its soft depths. She lifted them with a +sigh of delight. Her eye suddenly rested on a stanza +of poetry scrawled on the satin lining in the trembling +hand of an old man she had known. + +She dropped the pearls with a cry of terror. Her +face went white, and she gasped for breath. The jewel- +case in her hand she had seen before. It had belonged +to the old gentleman who lived in the front room on the +first floor of her building in the days when it was a +boarding house. The wife he had idolized was long ago +dead. This string of pearls from her neck the old man +had worshiped for years. The stanza from "The Rosary" +he had scrawled in the lining one day in Mary's +presence. He had moved uptown with the landlady. Two +months ago a burglar had entered his room, robbed and +shot him. + +"It's impossible--impossible!" she gasped. +"Oh, dear God--it's impossible! Of course the +burglar pawned them, and Jim bought them without +knowing. Of course! My nerves are on edge today--how +silly of me----" + +Jim's footsteps suddenly sounded on the porch, and +she thrust the jewel-case back into the bag with +desperate effort to pull herself together. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +THE AWAKENING + +For a moment she felt the foundations of the moral and +physical world sinking beneath her feet. Dizziness +swept her senses. She gripped the table, leaning +heavily against it, her eye watching the door with +feverish terror for Jim's appearance. + +She had never fainted in her life. It was absurd, +but the room was swimming now in a dim blur. Again she +gripped the table and set her teeth. She simply would +not give up. Why should she leap to the worst possible +explanation of the jewels? The hatred of old Ella for +Jim and the furious antagonism of Jane Anderson had +poisoned her mind, after all. It was infamous that she +could suspect her husband of crime merely because two +silly women didn't like him. + +He could explain the jewels. He, of course, asked +no questions of the pawn-broker. They were probably +sold at auction and he bought them. + +It seemed an eternity from the time Jim's foot step +echoed on the little porch until he pushed the door +open and hastily entered, his arms piled with lap- +robes, coats and the dress-suit case in his hand. + +He walked with quick, firm step, threw the coats +and robes on the couch and placed the suit-case at its +head. He hadn't turned toward her and his face was +still in profile while he removed the gloves from his +pockets, threw them on the robes, and drew the scarlet +woolen neckpiece from his throat. + +She was studying him now with new terror-stricken +eyes. Never had she seen his jaw look so big and +brutal. Never had the droop of his eyelids suggested +such menace. Never had the contrast of his slender +hands and feet suggested such hideous possibilities. + +"Merciful God! No! No!" she kept repeating in her +soul while her dilated eyes stared at him in sheer +horror of the suggestion which the jewels had roused. + +She drew a deep breath and strangled the idea by +her will. + +"I'll at least be as fair as a jury," she thought +grimly. "I'll not condemn him without a hearing." + +Jim suddenly became aware of the menace of her +silence. She had not moved a muscle, spoken or made +the slightest sound since he had entered. He had +merely taken in the room at a glance and had seen her +standing in precisely the same place beside the table. + +He saw now that she was leaning heavily against it. + +He raised his head and faced her with a sudden, +bold stare, and his voice rang in tones of sharp +command. + +"Well?" + +She tried to speak and failed. She had not yet +sufficiently mastered her emotions. + +"What's the matter?" he growled. + +"Jim----" she gasped. + +He took a step toward her with set teeth. + +"You've been in that bag--Well?" + +Her face was white, her voice husky. + +"Those jewels, Jim----" + +A cunning smile played about his mouth and he shook +his head. + +"I tried to keep my little secret from you till +Christmas morning; but you're on to my curves now, +Kiddo, and I'll have to 'fess up----" + +"You bought them for me?" she asked with trembling +eagerness. + +"Who else do you reckon I'd buy 'em for? I was +going to surprise you, too, tomorrow morning. You've +spoiled the fun." + +She had slipped close to his side and he could hear +her quick intake of breath. + +"That's--so--sweet of you, Jim. I'm sorry--I-- +spoiled the surprise--you'd--planned----" + +"Oh, what's the difference!" he broke in +carelessly. "It's all the same five minutes after, +anyhow. Well, don't you like 'em? Why don't you say +something?" + +"They're wonderful, Jim. Where--where--did you buy +them?" + +He held her gaze in silence for an instant and +fenced. + +"Isn't that a funny question, Kiddo?" he said in +low tones. "I once heard the old man I worked with in +the shop say that you shouldn't look a gift horse in +the mouth." + +"I just want to know," she insisted. + +"I'm not going to tell you!" he said with a dry +laugh. + +"Why not?" + +"Because you keep asking." + +"You wish to tease me?" + +"Maybe." + +"Please!" + +"Why do you want to know? Are you afraid they're +fakes?" + +"No, they're beautiful--they're wonderful." + +"Well, if you don't want them," he broke in +angrily, "I'll keep them. I'll sell them." + +"Don't tease me, Jim!" she begged. "I don't mind +if you bought them at a pawn-shop--if that's why you +won't tell me. That is the reason, isn't it? +Honestly, isn't it?" + +She asked the question with eager intensity. She +had persuaded herself that it was so and the horror had +been lifted. She pressed close with smiling, trembling +lips: + +"I don't mind that, Jim! You got them from a pawn- +broker, of course, didn't you?" + +He looked at her with a puzzled expression and +hesitated. + +"Didn't you?" she repeated. + +"No--I didn't!" was the curt answer. + +"You didn't?" she echoed feebly. + +"No!" + +With a quick breath she unconsciously drew back and +he glared at her angrily. + +"Say, what'ell's the matter with you, anyhow? Have +you gone crazy?" + +"You--won't--tell me--where you bought them?" she +asked slowly. + +He faced her squarely and spoke with deliberate +contempt: + +"It's--none--of your business!" + +She held his gaze with steady determination. + +"That string of pearls belongs to the man who once +lived in the front room of my old building in New York. +He moved uptown with my landlady. A few months ago a +burglar robbed and shot him----" + +She stopped, seized his arm and cried with +strangling horror: + +"Jim! Jim! Where did you get them?" + +"Now I know you've gone crazy! You don't suppose +that's the only string of pearls in the world, do you? +Did you count 'em? Did you weigh 'em?" + +"Where did you get them?" she demanded. + +"What put it into your head that that string of +pearls belonged to your old boarder?" + +"I saw him write the stanza of poetry on the satin +lining of that case. I've heard him recite it over and +over again in his piping voice: `Each bead a pearl--my +rosary!' I KNOW that they belonged to him!" + +His mouth twitched angrily and he faced her, +speaking with cold, brutal frankness. + +"I might keep on lying to you, Kiddo, and get away +with it. But what's the use? You've got to know. +It's just as well now--I did that job----Yes!" + +Her face blanched. + +"You--a--burglar--a murderer!" + +Jim followed her with quick, angry gestures. + +"All I wanted was his money! He fought--it was his +life or mine----" + +"A murderer!" + +"I just went after his money--I tell you--besides, +he didn't die; he got well. If he'd kept still he +wouldn't have lost his pearls and he wouldn't have been +hurt----" + +"And I stood up for you against them all!" she +answered in a dazed whisper. "They told me--Jane +Anderson with brutal frankness, Ella with the heart- +rending, timid confession of her own tragic life--they +told me that you were bad. I said they were liars. I +said that they envied our happiness. I believed that +you were big and brave and fine. I stood by you and +married you!" + +She paused and looked at him steadily. In a rush +of suppressed passion she seized his arm with a +violence that caused his heavy eyelids to lift in +amused surprise. + +"Oh, Jim--it's not true! It's not true--it's not +true! For God's sake, tell me that you're joking!-- +that you're teasing me! You can't mean it! I won't +believe it--I won't believe it!" + +Her head sank until it rested piteously against his +breast. He stood with his face turned awkwardly away +and then moved his body until she was forced to stand +erect. + +He touched her shoulder gently and spoke +soothingly: + +"Come, now, Kid, don't take on so. I'll quit the +business when I make my pile." + +She drew back instinctively and he followed: + +"I'll never touch another penny of yours. There's +blood on it!" + +"Rot!" he went on soothingly. "It's good Wall +Street cash--got it exactly like they got theirs--got +it because I was quicker and smarter than the fellow +that had it. I use a jimmy, they use a ticker--that's +all the difference." + +She drew her figure to its full height. + +"I'm going--Jim----" + +"Where?" + +His voice rasped like a file against steel. + +"Home!" + +"Your home's with me." + +"I won't live with a thief!" + +He stepped squarely before her and spoke with +deliberate menace. + +"You're--not--going!" + +"Get out of my way!" she cried defiantly. + +His big jaw closed with a snap and his figure +became rigid. The candle's yellow light threw a +strange glare on his face, convulsed. The blue flames +of hell were in the glitter of his steel eyes. + +Her heart sank in a dull wave of terror. She tried +to gauge the depth of his brutal rage. There was no +standard by which to measure it. She had never seen +that look in his face before. His whole being was +transformed by some sinister power. + +She was afraid to move, but her mind was alert in +this moment of supreme trial. She hadn't used her last +weapon yet. The fact that he held her with such +terrible determination was proof of the spell she had +cast over him. She might save him. He couldn't have +been a criminal long. She formed her new battle-line +with quick decision. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE SURRENDER + +How long she gazed into the convulsed face of the man +who had squared himself before her, mattered little +measured by the tick of the watch in her belt. Into +the mental anguish endured a life's agony had been +pressed. It could not have been more than twenty +seconds, and yet it marked the birth of a new being +within the soul of a woman. She had been searching +only for her own happiness. The search had entangled +another in the meshes of her life. Too much had been +lived in the past two weeks to be undone by a word and +forgotten in a day. She had attempted, coward-like, to +run. + +She saw now in the consuming flame of a great +sorrow that the man before her had some rights which +the purest woman must reckon with. He might be a +burglar. At least it was her duty to try to save him +from himself. Her surrender of the past weeks was a +tie that would bind them through all eternity. +There was no chemistry of earth or heaven or hell that +could erase its memories. Her life was no longer her +own--this man's was bound with hers. She must face the +facts. She would make one honest, brave effort to save +him. To do this she would give all without +reservation--pride must be cast to the winds. + +Her voice suddenly changed to tears. + +"Oh, Jim, you do love me, don't you?" + +His body slowly relaxed, his eyes shifted, and he +shrugged his square shoulders. + +"What'ell did I marry you for?" + +"Tell me--do you?" she demanded. + +"You know that I love you. What do you ask me such +a fool question for? I love you with a love that can +kill. Do you hear me? That's why you're not going +anywhere without me." + +There was no mistaking the depth of his passion. +She trembled to realize its power and yet it was the +lever by which she must move him. + +"Then you've got to give this life up. You're +young and brave and strong. You can earn an honest +living. You haven't been in this long--I feel it, I +know it. Have you?" + +"No!" + +"How long?" + +"Eight months." + +"Oh, Jim, dear, you must give it up now for my +sake. I'll work with you and work for you. I'll +teach, I'll sew, I'll scrub, I'll slave for you day and +night--if you're only clean and honest." + +He turned on her fiercely. + +"Cut it, Kid--cut it! I'm out for the stuff now. +I'm going to get rich and I'm going to get rich +QUICK--that's all that's the matter with me!" + +"But, Jim," she broke in tenderly--"you did earn an +honest living. Your workshop proves that." + +"I've used that to improve my tools and melt the +swag the past year. The shop's all right." + +"But you did make a successful invention?" + +"You bet I did," he answered savagely, "and that's +why I quit the business. Three years ago I took down a +big automobile and worked out an improvement in the +transmission that settled the question of heavy draft +machines. I took it to a lawyer in Wall Street and he +took it to a man that had money. Between the two of +'em, they didn't do a thing to me! They were going to +put my patent on the market and make me a millionaire. +God, I was crazy----" + +He paused and squared his shoulders with a deep +breath. + +"They put it on the market all right and they made +some millionaires--but I wasn't one of 'em, Kiddo! +They got me to sign a paper that skinned me out of +every dollar as slick as you can pull an eel through +your fingers. I hired another lawyer +and gave him half he could get to beat 'em. He fought +like a tiger and two days before I met you he got his +verdict and they paid it--just ten thousand dollars. +Think of it--ten thousand dollars! And each of them +got a million cash. They sold it outright for two +millions and a half. My lawyer got five thousand +dollars, and I got five thousand dollars. That's mine, +anyhow. It's in that bag there. I'm working on a new +set of tools now in my shop. I'm going to get that +money back from the two thieves who stole it from me by +law. I'll take it by force, the way they took it. If +I can croak them both in the fight--well, there'll be +two thieves less to rob honest men and women, that's +all." + +"Oh, Jim!" Mary gasped, lifting a trembling hand to +her throat as if to tear open her collar. "You're mad. +You don't know what you're saying----" + +"Don't fool yourself, Kiddo," he interrupted +fiercely. "My eyes are open now, and I've got a +level head back of 'em, too. I've doped it all out. +You ought to 'a' heard that lawyer give me a few +lessons in business when he'd skinned me and salted +my hide. He was good-natured and confidential. He +seemed to love me. `Business is war, sonny,' he piped, +between the puffs of the big Havana cigar he was +smoking--`war! war to the knife! We got you off your +guard and put the knife into you at the right minute-- +that's all. Don't take it so hard! Invent something +else and keep your eyes peeled. You ought to love us +for giving you an education in business early in life. +You're young. You won't have to learn your lesson +again. Go to work, sonny, in your shop, and turn out +another new tool for the advancement of trade!'" + +He paused and smiled grimly. + +"I've done it, too! I've just finished a little +invention that'll crack any safe in New York in twenty +minutes after I touch it." + +He broke into a dry laugh, sat down and +deliberately lighted a fresh cigarette. + +She studied his face with beating heart. Was he +lost beyond all hope of reformation? Or was this the +boyish bravado of an amateur criminal poisoned by the +consciousness of wrong? She tried to think. She felt +the red blood pounding through her heart and +beating against her brain in suffocating waves +of despair. + +In vivid flashes the scene of her marriage but two +weeks ago, came back in tormenting memories. The +solemn words she had spoken kept ringing like the throb +of a funeral bell far up in the star-lit heavens---- + + +"I, MARY ADAMS, TAKE THEE, JAMES ANTHONY, TO MY +WEDDED HUSBAND, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD . . . FOR BETTER +FOR WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS AND IN +HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH, AND TO OBEY, TILL DEATH DO US +PART, ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE; AND THERETO +I GIVE THEE MY TROTH." + + +The last solemn prayer kept ringing its deep-toned +message over all---- + + +"GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, GOD THE HOLY GHOST, +BLESS, PRESERVE, AND KEEP YOU; THE LORD MERCIFULLY +WITH HIS FAVOR LOOK UPON YOU, AND FILL YOU WITH ALL +SPIRITUAL BENEDICTION AND GRACE; THAT YE MAY SO LIVE +TOGETHER IN THIS LIFE, THAT IN THE WORLD TO COME +YE MAY HAVE LIFE EVERLASTING. AMEN." + + +In a sudden rush of desperate pity for herself and +the man to whom she was bound, she dropped on her +knees by his side, slipped her arms about his neck and +clung to him, sobbing. + +"Oh, Jim, Jim, man," she whispered hoarsely. "I +can't see you sink into hell like this! Have you no +real love in your heart for the woman who has given +all? Have mercy on me! Have mercy! You can't mean +the hideous things you've just said! You've been +crazed by your losses. You're just a boy yet. Life is +all before you. You're only twenty-four. I'm just +twenty-four. We can both begin anew. I've never lived +until these past weeks--neither have you. You couldn't +drag me down into a life of crime----" + +Her head sank and her voice choked into silence. +He made no movement of his hand to soothe her. His +voice was not persuasive. It was hard and cold. + +"I'm not asking you to help me on any of my jobs," +he said. "I'm the financier of the family. You can +say the prayers and keep house." + +"Knowing that you are a criminal? That your hands +are stained with human blood?" + +"Why not?" he snapped, the blue blaze flashing +again in his eyes. "Suppose you were the wife of the +gentlemanly lawyer-thief who robbed me, using the law +instead of a jimmy--would you bother your little head +about my business? Does his wife ask him where he +got it? Does anybody know or care? He lives on Fifth +Avenue now. He bought a palace up there the day after +he got my money. We passed it on the way to the Park +the day I met you. A line of carriages was standing in +front and finely dressed women were running up the red +carpet that led down the stoop and under the canopy to +the curb. Did any of the gay dames who smiled and +smirked at that thief's wife ask how he got the money +to buy the house? Not much. Would they have cared if +they had known? They'd have called him a shrewd +lawyer--that's all! Do you reckon his wife worries +about such tricks of trade? Why should mine worry?" + +She gripped his hand with desperate pleading. + +"Oh, Jim, dear, you can't be a criminal at heart! +I wouldn't have loved you if it had been true. I can't +believe it! I won't believe it. You're posing. You +don't mean this. You can't mean it. You're going to +return every dishonest dollar that you've taken." + +"You don't know what you're talking about!" + +He closed his jaw with a snap and leaned close in +eager, tense excitement. + +"Do you know how much junk I've piled into a little +box in my shop the past three months?" + +"I don't care--I don't want to know!" + +"You've got to care--you've got to know now! It's +worth a hundred thousand dollars, do you hear? A +hundred thousand dollars! It would take me a life-time +to earn that on a salary. In two weeks after we get +back to New York with my new invention that lawyer +advised me to make, I'll go through his house--I'll +open his safe, I'll take every diamond, every pearl and +every scrap of stolen jewelry his wife's wearing. And +I won't leave a fingerprint on the window sill. I've +got two of his servants working for me. + +"In six months I'll be worth half a million. In a +year I'll pull off the big haul I'm planning and I'll +be a millionaire. We'll retire from business then-- +just like they did. We'll build our marble palace down +at Bay Ridge and our yacht will nod in the harbor. +We'll spend our summers in Europe when we like and +every snob and fool in New York will fall over himself +to meet me. And every woman will envy my wife. I'm +young, Kiddo, but I've cut my eye teeth. You've just +been born. I'm running the business end of this thing. +You think you can reform me. You can--AFTER I'VE MADE +OUR PILE. I'll join the church then and sing +louder than that lawyer. But if you think you're going +to stop my business career at this stage of the +game--forget it, forget it!" + +He sprang up with a quick movement of his tense +body and threw her off. She rose and watched his +restless steps as he paced the floor. Her mind was +numb as if from a mortal blow. She brushed the tangled +ringlets of brown hair back from her forehead, drew the +handkerchief from her belt and wiped the perspiration +from her brow. + +Before she could gather the strength to speak, he +wheeled suddenly and confronted her: + +"I've known from the first, Kiddo, that you're not +the kind to help in this business. I don't expect it. +I don't ask it. I need a ranch like this down here for +storage. I'm going to take the old woman into +partnership with me." + +She started back in an instinctive recoil of +horror. + +"Your MOTHER?" + +He nodded. + +"Yep!" + +She drew a step nearer and peered into his set +face. + +"YOU WILL MAKE YOUR OWN MOTHER A CRIMINAL?" + +"Sure!" he growled. "That's what I came down here +for." + +"She won't do it!" + +"She won't, eh?" he sneered. "Look at this hog +pen!" + +He swept the bare, wretched cabin with a gesture of +contempt and shrugged his shoulders. + +"Look at the rags she's wearing," he went on +savagely. "When we talk it over tonight with that five +thousand dollars in gold shining in her eyes--I'm going +to show her a lot o' things she never saw before, +Kiddo--take it from me!" + +She answered in slow, even tones: + +"I can't live with you, Jim." + +The blue flames beneath the drooping eyelids were +leaping now in the yellow glare of the candle's rays. +The muscles of his body were knotted. His voice came +from his throat a low growl. + +"Do you know who you're fooling with?" + +The blood of a clean life flamed in her cheeks and +nerved her with reckless daring. Her figure stiffened +and her voice rang with defiant scorn: + +"Yes. I know at last--a thief who would drag his +own mother down to hell with him!" + +Not a muscle of his powerful body moved; his face +was a stolid mask. He threw his words slowly through +his teeth: + +"Now you listen to me. You're my wife. I didn't +invent this marriage game. I played it as I found +it. And that's the way you're going to play it. +You're good and sweet and clean--I like that kind, and +I won't have no other. You're mine. MINE, do you +hear! Mine for life--body and soul--`FOR BETTER FOR +WORSE, FOR RICHER FOR POORER, IN SICKNESS AND IN +HEALTH, TO LOVE, CHERISH'----" + +He paused and thrust his massive jaw squarely into +her face: + +"`----AND OBEY!'" he hissed, "`UNTIL DEATH DO US +PART, ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCE'--you +said it, didn't you?" + +"Yes----" + +"Well?" + +She turned from him with sudden aversion: + +"I didn't know what you were----" + +"Nobody ever knows BEFORE they're married!" he +broke in savagely. "You took your chances. I took +mine--`FOR BETTER FOR WORSE.' We'll just say now +it's for worse and let it go at that!" + +The little body stiffened. + +"I'll die first!" + +He held her gaze without words, searching the +depths of her being with the cold, blue flame in his +drooping eyes. If she were bluffing, it was easy. She +could talk her head off for all he cared. If she meant +it, he might have his hands full unless he +mastered the situation at once and for all time. + +There was no sign of yielding to his iron will. An +indomitable soul had risen in her frail body and defied +him. His decision was instantaneous. + +"Oh, you'll die sooner than live with me--eh?" + +There was something hideous in the cold venom with +which he drawled the words. Her heart fairly stopped +its beating. With the last ounce of courage left, she +held her place and answered: + +"Yes!" + +With the sudden crouch of a tiger he drew his +clenched fist to strike. + +"Forget it!" + +She sprang back with terror, her body trembling in +pitiful weakness. + +"You snivelling little coward!" he growled. + +"Oh, Jim, Jim," she faltered,--"you--you--couldn't +strike me!" + +A step nearer and he stood over her, his big, flat +head thrust forward, his eyes gleaming, his muscles +knotted in blind rage. + +"No--I won't STRIKE you," he whispered. "I'll +just KILL you--that's all!" + +With the leap of an infuriated beast he sprang on +her and his sharp fingers gripped her throat. + + +The world went black and she felt herself sinking +into a bottomless abyss. With maniac energy she tore +his hands from her throat and the warm blood streamed +from the gash his nails had torn. + +Jim! Jim! For God's sake!" she moaned in abject +terror. + +With a sullen growl, his fingers, sharp as a +leopard's claw, found her neck again and closed with a +grip that sent the blood surging to her brain and her +eyes starting from their sockets. + +The one hideous thought that flashed through her +mind was that he was going to plunge his claws into her +eyes and blind her for life. He could hold her his +prisoner then. She made a last desperate struggle for +breath, her hands relaxed, she drooped and sank to the +couch toward which he had hurled her in the first rush +of his assault. + +He lifted her and choked the slender neck again to +make sure, loosed his hands and the limp body dropped +on the couch and was still. + +He stood watching her in silence, his arms at his +side. + +"Damned little fool!" he muttered. "I had to give +you that lesson. The sooner the better!" + +He waited with contemptuous indifference until +she slowly recovered consciousness. She lay motionless +for a long time and then slowly opened her eyes. + +Thank God! They had not been gouged out as poor +Ella's. She didn't mind the warm blood that soaked her +collar and ran down her neck. If he would only spare +her eyes. Blindness had been her one unspeakable +terror. She closed her eyes again and silently prayed +for strength. Her strength was gone. Wave after wave +of sickening, cowardly terror swept her prostrate soul. +She could feel his sullen presence--his body with its +merciless strength towering above her. She dared not +look. She knew that he was watching her with cruel +indifference. A single cry, a single word and he might +thrust his claw into her eyes and the light of the +world would go out forever. + +Her terror was too hideous; she could endure it no +longer. She must move. She must try to save herself. +She lifted her head and caught his steady, venomous +gaze. + +A quick, sliding movement of abject fear and she +was erect, facing him and backing away silently. + +He followed with even step, his gaze holding her as +the eyes of a snake its victim. She would not let him +know her terror of blindness. She preferred death +a thousand times. If he would only kill her outright +it was all the mercy she would ask. + +"You--won't--kill--me--Jim!" she sobbed. "Please-- +please, don't kill me!" + +He lifted his sharp finger and followed her toward +the shed-room door, his voice the triumphant cry of an +eagle above his prey. + +"`FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE--UNTIL DEATH DO US PART!'" + +Her heart gave a bound of cowardly joy. He had +relented. He would not blind her. She could live. +She was young and life was sweet. + +She tried to smile her surrender through her tears +as she backed slowly away from his ominous finger. + +"Yes, I'll try--Jim. I'll try--`UNTIL DEATH DO +US PART--UNTIL DEATH--UNTIL DEATH----'" + +Her voice broke into a flood of tears as she +blindly felt her way through the door and into the +darkened room. + +He paused on the threshold, held the creaking board +shutter in his hand and broke into a laugh. + +"The world ain't big enough for you to get away +from me, Kiddo. Good night--a good little wife now and +it's all right!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +TO THE NEW GOD + +Jim closed the door of the little shed-room with a +bang, and stood listening a moment to the sobs inside. + +"`UNTIL DEATH DO US PART,' Kiddo!" he laughed grimly. + +He turned back into the room and saw Nance standing +at the opposite entrance between the calico curtains, +an old, battered, flickering lantern in her hand. A +white wool shawl was thrown over the gray head and fell +in long, filmy waves about her thin figure. Her deep- +sunken eyes were exaggerated in the dim light of +lantern and candle. She smiled wanly. + +He stopped short at the apparition; a queer shiver +of superstitious fear shook him. The white form of +Death suddenly and noiselessly appearing from the +darkness could not have been more uncanny. He had +wondered vaguely while the quarrel with his wife was +progressing, what had become of his mother. As +the fight had reached its height, he had forgotten her. + +She looked at him, blinking her eyes and trying to +smile. + +"Where the devil have you been, old gal?" he asked nervously. + +"Nowhere," she answered evasively. + +"You've been mighty quiet on the trip anyhow. I +see you've brought something back from nowhere." + +Nance glanced down at the jug she carried in her +left hand and laughed. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +"Nothin'----" + +"Nothin' from nowhere sounds pretty good to me when +I see it in a brown jug on Christmas Eve. You're all +right, old gal! I was just going to ask if you had a +little mountain dew. You're a mind reader. I'll bet +the warehouse you keep that stored in is some snug +harbor--eh?" + +"They ain't never found it yit!" she giggled. + +"And I'll bet they won't--bully for you!" + +She took down a tin cup from a shelf and placed it +beside the jug. + +"Another glass, sweetheart----" + +The old woman stared at him in surprise, walked to +the shelf and brought another tin cup. + +"What do ye want with two?" she asked in surprise. + +Jim moved toward the stool beside the table. + +"Sit down." + +"Me?" + +"Sure. Let's be sociable. It's Christmas Eve, +isn't it?" + +"Yeah!" Nance answered cheerfully, taking her seat +and glancing timidly at her guest. + +Jim seized the jug, poured out two drinks of corn +whiskey, handed her one and raised his: + +"Well, here's lookin' at you, old girl." + +He paused, lowered his cup and smiled. + +"But say, give me a toast." He nodded toward the +shed-room. "I'm on my honeymoon, you know." + +His hostess laughed timidly and glanced at him from +the corners of her eyes. She wished to be sociable and +make up as best she could for her rudeness on their +arrival. + +"I ain't never heard but one fur honeymooners," she +said softly. + +"Let's have it. I've never heard a toast for +honeymooners in my life. It'll be new to me--fire +away!" + +Nance fumbled her faded dress with her left hand +and laughed again. + +"'May ye live long and prosper an' all yer troubles +be LITTLE ONES!'" + +She laughed aloud at the old, worm-eaten joke and +Jim joined. + +"Bully! Bully, old girl--bully!" + +He lifted his cup and drained it at one draught and +Nance did the same. + +He seized the jug and poured another drink for each. + +"Once more----" + +He leaned across the table. + +"And here's one for you." He squared his body and +lifted his cup: + +"To all your little ones--no matter how big they +are!" + +Jim drained his liquor without apparently noticing +her agitation, though he was watching her keenly from +the corner of his eye. + +The cup she held was lowered slowly until the +whiskey poured over her dress and on the floor. Her +thin figure drooped pathetically and her voice was the +faintest sob: + +"I--I--ain't got--none!" + +"I heard you had a boy," Jim said carelessly. + +The drooping figure shot upright as if a bolt of +lightning had swept her. She stared at him in +tense silence, trying to gather her wits before +she answered. + +"Who told you anything about me?" she demanded +sternly. + +"A fellow in New York," Jim continued with studied +carelessness--"said he used to live down here." + +"He LIVED down here?" she repeated blankly. + +"Yep--come now, loosen up and tell us about the +kid." + +"There ain't nuthin' ter tell--he's dead," she +cried pathetically. + +"He said you deserted the child and left him to +starve." + +"He said that?" she growled. + +"Yep." + +He was silent again and watched her keenly. + +She fumbled her dress and glanced nervously across +the table as if afraid to ask more. Unable to wait for +him to speak, she cried nervously at last: + +"Well--well--what else did he say?" + +"That he took the little duffer to New York and +raised him." + +"RAISED him?" + +She fairly screamed the words, springing to her +feet trembling from head to foot. + +"Till he was big enough to kick into the streets to +shuffle for himself." + +"The scoundrel said he was dead." + +Her voice was far away and sank into dreamy +silence. She was living the hideous, lonely years +again with a heart starved for love. + +Jim's voice broke the spell: + +"Then you didn't desert him?" The man's eyes held +hers steadily. + +She stared at him blankly and spoke with rushing +indignation: + +"Desert him--my baby--my own flesh and blood? +There's never been a minute since I looked into his +eyes that I wouldn't 'a' died fur him." + +She paused and sobbed. + +"He had such pretty eyes, stranger. They looked +like your'n--only they wuz puttier and bluer." + +She lifted her faded dress, brushed the tears from +her cheeks and went on rapidly: + +"When I found his drunken brute of a daddy was a +liar and had another wife, I wouldn't live with him. +He tried to make me but I kicked him out of the house-- +and he stole the boy to get even with me." Her voice +broke, she dropped her head and choked back the tears. +"He did get even with me, too--he did," she +sobbed. + +Jim watched her in silence until the paroxysm had +spent itself. + +"You think you'd know this boy now if you found +him?" + +She bent close, her breath coming in quick gasps. + +"My God, mister, do you think I COULD find +him?" + +"He lives in New York; his name is Jim Anthony." + +"Yes--yes?" she said in a dazed way. "He called +hisself Walter Anthony--he wuz a stranger from the +North and my boy's name was Jim." She paused and bent +eagerly across the table. "New York's an awful big +place, ain't it?" + +"Some town, old gal, take it from me." + +"COULD I find him?" + +"If you've got money enough. You said you'd know +him. How?" + +"I'd know him!" she answered eagerly. "The last +quarrel we had was about a mark on his neck. He wuz a +spunky little one. You couldn't make him cry. His +devil of a daddy used to stick pins in him and laugh +because he wouldn't cry. The last dirty trick he tried +was what ended it all. He pushed a live cigar agin his +little neck until I smelled it burnin' in the next +room. I knocked him down with a chair, drove him from +the house and told him I'd kill him if he ever put +his foot inside the door agin. + +He stole my boy the next night--but he'll carry +that scar to his grave." + +"You'd love this boy now if you found him in New +York as bad as his father ever was?" Jim asked with a +curious smile. + +"Yes--he's mine!" was the quick, firm answer. + +Jim watched her intently. + +"I looked Death in the face for him," she went on +fiercely. "I'd dive to the bottom o' hell to find him +if I knowed he wuz thar---- But what's the use to +talk; that devil killed him! I've waked up many a +night stranglin' with a dream when I seed the drunken +brute burnin' an' beatin' an' torturin' him to death. +The feller you've heard about ain't him. 'Tain't no +use to make me hope an' then kill me----" + +"He's not dead, I tell you. I know." + +Jim's voice rang with conviction so positive the +old woman's breath came in quick gasps and she smiled +through her eager tears. + +"And I MIGHT find him?" + +"IF you've got money enough! Money can do +anything in this world." + +He opened the black bag, thrust both hands into it +and threw out a handful of yellow coin which +he allowed to pour through his fingers and rattle +into a tin plate which had been left on the table. + +Her eyes sparkled with avarice. + +"It's your'n--all your'n?" she breathed hungrily. + +"I'm taking it down South to invest for a fool who +thinks"--he stopped and laughed--"who thinks it's bad +luck to keep money that's stained with blood----" + +Nance started back. + +"Got blood on it?" + +Jim spoke in confidential appeal. + +"That wouldn't make any difference to you, would +it?" + +She shook her gray locks and glanced at the pile of +yellow metal, hungrily. + +"I--I wouldn't like it with blood marks!" + +He lifted a handful of coin, clinked it musically +in his hands and held it in his open palms before her. + +"Look! Look at it close! You don't see any blood +marks on it, do you?" + +Her eyes devoured it. + +"No." + +He seized her hand, thrust a half-dozen pieces into +it and closed her thin fingers over it. + +"Feel of it--look at it!" + +Her hands gripped the gold. She breathed quickly, +broke into a laugh, caught herself in the middle of it, +and lapsed suddenly into silence. + +"Feels good, don't it?" he laughed. + +Nance grinned, her uneven, discolored gleaming +ominously in the flicker of the candle. + +"Don't it?" he repeated. + +"Yeah!" + +He lifted another handful and threw it in the air, +catching it again. + +"That's the stuff that makes the world go 'round. +There's your only friend, old girl! Others promise +well--but in the scratch they fail." + +"Yeah--when the scratch comes they fail!" Nance +echoed. + +"Money never fails!" Jim continued eagerly. "It's +the god that knows no right or wrong----" + +He touched the pile in the plate and drew the bag +close for her to see. + +"How much do you guess is there?" + +Nance gazed greedily into the open bag and looked +again at the shining heap in the plate. + +"I dunno--a million, I reckon." + +The man laughed. + +"Not quite that much! But enough to make you rich +for life--IF you had it." + +The old woman turned away pathetically and shook +her gray head. + +"I wouldn't have to work no more, would I?" + +Her thin hands touched the faded, dirty dress. + +"And I could buy me a decent dress," her voice sank +to a whisper, "and I could find my boy." + +"You bet you could!" Jim exclaimed. "There's just +one god in this world now, old girl--the Almighty +Dollar!" + +He paused and leaned close, persuasively: + +"Suppose now, the man that got that money had to +kill a fool to take it--what of it? You don't get big +money any other way. A burglar watches his chance, +takes his life in his hands and drills his way into a +house. He finds a fool there who fights. It's not his +fault that the man was born a fool, now is it?" + +"Mebbe not----" + +"Of course not. A burglar kills but one to get his +pile, and then only because he must, in self-defence. +A big gambling capitalist corners wheat, raises the +price of bread and starves a hundred thousand children +to death to make his. It's not stained with blood. +Every dollar is soaked in it! Who cares?" + +"Yeah--who cares?" Nance growled fiercely. + +Jim smiled at his easy triumph. + +"It's dog eat dog and the devil take the hindmost +now!" + +"That's so--ain't it?" she agreed. + +"You bet! Business is business and the best man's +the man that gets there. Steal a hundred dollars, you +go to the penitentiary--foolish! Don't do it. Steal a +million and go to the Senate!" + +"Yeah!" Nance laughed. + +"Money--money for its own sake," he rushed on +savagely--"right or wrong. That's all there is in it +today, old girl--take it from me!" + +He paused and his smile ended in a sneer. + +"Man shall eat bread in the sweat of his brow? +Only fools SWEAT!" + +Nance turned her face away, sighed softly, glancing +back at Jim furtively. + +"I reckon that's so, too. Have another drink, +stranger?" + +She poured another cup of whiskey and one for +herself. She raised hers as if to drink and deftly +threw the contents over her shoulder. + +Jim seized the jug and poured again. + +"Once more. Come, I've another toast for you. +You'll drink this one I know." + +He lifted his cup and rose a little unsteadily. +Nance stood with uplifted cup watching him. + +"As the poet sings," he began with a bow to the old +woman: + + +"France has her lily, England the rose, + +Everybody knows where the shamrock grows-- + +Scotland has her thistle flowerin' on the hill, + +But the American Emblem--is a One Dollar Bill!" + + + +He broke into a boisterous laugh. + +"How's that, old girl?" + +"That's bully, stranger!" + +He lifted high his cup. + +"We drink to the Almighty Dollar!" + +"To the Almighty Dollar!" Nance echoed, clinking +her cup against his." + +He drained it while she again emptied hers over her +shoulder. + +"By golly, you're all right, old girl. You're a +good fellow!" he cried jovially. + +"Yeah--have another?" she urged. + +She filled his cup and placed it on his side of the +table. His eye had rested on the gold. He ignored the +invitation, lifted a handful of gold and dropped it +with musical clinking into the plate. + +"Blood marks--tommyrot!" he sneered. + +"Yeah--tommyrot!" she echoed. "That's what I say, +too!" + +Jim wagged his head sagely: + +"Now you're talking sense, old girl!" + +He leaned across the table and pointed his finger +straight into her face. + +"And don't you forget what I'm tellin' ye tonight-- +get money, get money!" + +He stopped suddenly and a sneer curled his lips. + +"Oh I Get it `fairly'--get it `squarely'--but +whatever you do--by God!--GET IT!" + +His uplifted hand crashed downward and gripped the +gold. His fingers slowly relaxed and the coin clinked +into the plate. + +Nance watched him eagerly. + +"Yeah, that's it--get it," she breathed slowly. + +Jim lifted his drooping eyes to hers. + +"If you've GOT it, you're a god--you can do no +wrong. Nobody's goin' to ask you HOW you got it; +all they want to know is HAVE you got it!" + +"Yeah, nobody's goin' to ask you HOW you got +it, Nance repeated, "they just want to know HAVE +you got it! Yeah--yeah!" + +"You bet!" + +Jim's head sank in the first stupor of liquor and +he dropped into the chair. + +The old woman leaned eagerly over the plate of gold +and clutched the coin with growing avarice. Her +fingers opened and closed like a bird of prey. She +touched it lovingly and held it in her hands a long +time watching Jim's nodding head with furtive glances. +She dropped a handful of coin into the plate and +watched its effect on the drooping head. + +He looked up and his eyes fell again. + +"Bed-time, I reckon," Nance said. + +"Yep--pretty tired. I'll turn in." + +The old woman glided sidewise to the table near the +kitchen door, picked up the lantern and started to feel +her way backwards through the calico curtains. + +"See you in the mornin', old gal," Jim drawled-- +"Christmas mornin'--an' I got somethin' else to tell ye +in the mornin'----" + +Again his head sank to the table. + +"All right, mister--good night!" Nance answered, +slowly feeling her way through the opening, watching +him intently. + +Jim lifted his head and nodded heavily for a +moment. His hand slipped from the table and he drew +himself up sharply and rose, holding to the table for +support. + +He picked up the plate of coin, poured it back in +the bag, snapped the lock and walked with the bag +unsteadily to the couch. He placed the bag under +the pillow and pressed the soft feathers down over it, +turned back to the table and extinguished the candle by +a quick, square blow of his open palm on the flame. + +He staggered to the couch, pushed the coats to the +floor, dropped heavily, drew the lap-robe over him and +in five minutes was sound asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +NANCE'S STOREHOUSE + + +The cabin was still. Only the broken sobbing of the +woman in the little shed-room came faint and low on old +Nance's ears. + +She slipped from the kitchen into the shadows of a +tree near the house and listened until the sobbing +ceased. + +She crept close to the shed and stood silent and +ghost-like beside its daubed walls. Immovable as a cat +crouching in the hedge to spring on her prey, she +waited until the waning moon had sunk behind the crags. +She laid her ear close to a crack in the logs from +which she had once pushed the red mud to let in the +light. All was still at last. The sobbing had +stopped. The young wife was sound asleep. + +She had wondered vaguely at first about the crying, +but quickly made up her mind that it was only a lover's +quarrel. She was glad of it. The girl would bar her +door and sulk all night. So much the better. +There would be no danger of her entering the living- +room where Jim slept. + +She would wait a little longer to make sure she was +asleep. A half hour passed. The white-shrouded figure +stood immovable, her keen ears tuned for the slightest +sounds from within. + +The stars were shining in unusual brilliance. She +could see her way through the shadows even better than +in full moon. A wolf was crying again for his mate +from a distant crag. She had grown used to his howls. +He had come close to her cabin once in the day-time. +She had tried to creep on him and show her +friendliness. But he had fled in terror at the first +glimpse of her dress through the parting underbrush. + +An owl was calling from his dead tree-top down the +valley. She smiled at his familiar, tremulous call. +Her own eyes were wide as his tonight. No sight or +sound of Nature among the crags about her cabin had for +her spirit any terror. The night was her mantle. + +She added to the meager living which she had wrung +from her mountain farm by trading with the illicit +distillers of the backwoods of Yancey County. Too +ignorant to run a distillery of her own, she had stored +their goods with such skill that the hiding-place +had never been discovered. She loved good +whiskey herself. She had tried to find in its fiery +depths the dreams of happiness life had so cruelly +denied her. + +The hiding-place of this whiskey had puzzled the +revenue officers of every administration for years. +They had watched her house day and night. Not one of +them had ever struck the trail to her storehouse. + +The game had excited her imagination. She loved +its daring and danger. That there was the slightest +element of wrong or crime in her association with the +moonshiners of her native heath had never for a moment +entered her mind. It was no crime to make whiskey. +This was the first article of the creed of the true +North Carolina mountaineer. They had from the first +declared that the tax levied by the Federal Government +on the product of their industry was an infamous act of +tyranny. They had fought this tyranny for two +generations. They would fight it as long as there was +breath in their bodies and a single load of powder and +buckshot for their rifles. + +Nance considered herself a heroine in the pride of +her soul for the shrewd and successful defiance she had +given the revenue officers for so many years. + +She had been too cunning to even allow one of +her own people to know the secret of her store house. +For that reason it had never been discovered. She +always stored the whiskey temporarily in the potato +shed or under the cabin floor until night and then +alone carried it to the place she had discovered. + +She laughed softly at the thought of this deep +hiding-place tonight. Its temperature never varied +winter or summer. Not a track had ever been left at +its door. She might live a hundred years and, unless +some spying eye should see her enter, its existence +could never be suspected. + +She tipped softly into the kitchen, walked to the +door of the living-room and listened to the even, heavy +breathing of the man on the couch. + +Once more the faint echo of a sob in the shed +beyond came to her keen ears. She stood for five +minutes. It was not repeated. She had only imagined +it. The girl was still asleep. + +She turned noiselessly back into the kitchen, put a +box of matches in her pocket, felt her way to the low +shelf on which she had placed the battered lantern, +picked it up and shook it to make sure the oil was +sufficient. + +She stepped lightly into the yard, pushed open the +gate of the split-board garden fence, walked +along the edge to the corner and selected a spade +from the tools that leaned against the boards. + +Carrying the spade and unlighted lantern in her +left hand, she glided from the yard into the woods. +Her right hand before her to feel for underbrush or +overhanging bough, she made her way rapidly to the +swift-flowing mountain brook. + +Arrived at the water whose musical ripple had +guided her steps, she removed her shoes and placed them +beside a tree. She wore no stockings. The faded skirt +she raised and tucked into her belt. She could wade +knee deep now without hindrance. + +Seizing the spade and lantern, she made her way +slowly and carefully downstream for three hundred yards +and paused beside a shelving ledge which projected +half-way across the brook. + +She paused and listened again for full ten minutes, +immovable as the rock on which her thin, bony hand +rested. The stars were looking, but they could only +peep through the network of overhanging trees. + +Feeling her way along the rock until the ledge rose +beyond her reach, she bent low and waded through a +still pool of eddying water straight under the +mountain-side for more than a hundred feet. Her +extended right hand had felt for the stone ceiling +above her head until it ran abruptly out of reach. + +She straightened her body and took a deep breath. +Ten steps she counted carefully and placed her bare +feet on the dry rock beyond the water. + +Carefully picking her way up the sloping bank until +she reached a stretch of soft earth, she sank to her +hands and knees and crawled through an opening less +than three feet in height. + +"Thar now!" she laughed. "Let 'em find me if they +can!" + +She lighted her lantern and seated herself on a +boulder to rest--one hundred and fifty feet in the +depths of a mountain. The cavern was ten feet in +height and fifty feet in length. The projecting ledges +of rock made innumerable shelves on which a merchant +might have displayed his wares. + +The old woman was too shrewd for that. Her jugs +were carefully planted in the ground behind two fallen +boulders, and their hiding-place concealed by a layer +of drift which she had gathered from the edge of the +water. She had taken this precaution against the day +when some curious explorer might stumble on her secret +as she had found it hunting ginsing roots in the woods +overhead. Her foot had slipped suddenly through a hole +in the soft mould. She peered cautiously below and +could see no bottom. She dropped a stone and heard it +strike in the depths. She made her way down the +side of the crag and found the opening through the +still eddying waters. The hole through the roof she +had long ago plugged and covered with earth and dry +leaves. + +She carried her lantern and spade to the further +end of her storehouse and dug a hole in the earth about +two feet in depth. The earth she carefully placed in a +heap. + +"That's the place!" she giggled excitedly. + +She left her lantern burning, dropped again on the +soft, mould-covered earth and quickly emerged on the +stone banks of the wide, still pool. Her hand high +extended above her head, she waded through the water +until she touched the heavy ceiling, lowered her body +again to a stooping position and rapidly made her way +out into the bed of the brook. + +She passed eagerly along the babbling path and +stopped with sure instinct at the tree beside whose +trunk she had placed her shoes. + +In five minutes she had made her way through the +woods and reached the house. She tipped into the +kitchen and stood in the doorway or the living-room +watching her sleeping guest. The even breathing +assured her that all was well. Her plan couldn't +fail. She listened again for the sobs in the shed- +room. + +She was sure once that she heard them. Five +minutes passed and still she was uncertain. To avoid +any possible accident she tipped back through the +kitchen, circled the house and placed her ear against +the crack in the logs. + +The girl was sobbing--or was she praying? She +crouched beside the wall, waited and listened. The +night wind stirred the dead leaves at her feet. She +lifted her head with a sudden start, laughed softly and +bent again to listen. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +TRAPPED + +The sobbing in the little room was the only sound that +came from one of the grimmest battle-fields from which +the soul of a woman ever emerged alive. + +To the first rush of cowardly tears Mary had +yielded utterly. She had fallen across the high-puffed +feather mattress of the bed, shivering in humble +gratitude at her escape from the horror of blindness. +The grip of his claw-like fingers on her throat came +back to her now in sickening waves. The blood was +still trickling from the wound which his nails had made +when she tore them loose in her first mad fight for +breath. + +She lifted her body and breathed deeply to make +sure her throat was free. God in heaven! Could she +ever forget the hideous sinking of body and soul down +into the depths of the black abyss! She had seen the +face of Death and it was horrible. Life, warm and +throbbing, was sweet. She loved it. She hated +Death. + +Yes--she was a coward. She knew it now, and didn't +care. + +She sprang to her feet with sudden fear. He might +attack her again to make sure that her soul had been +completely crushed. + +She crept to the door and felt its edges. + +"Yes, thank God, there's a place for the bar!" She +shivered. + +She ran her trembling fingers carefully along the +rough logs and found it in the corner. She slipped it +cautiously into the iron sockets, staggered to the bed +and dropped in grateful assurance of safety for the +moment. She buried her face in the pillow to fight +back the sobs. How great her fall! She could crawl on +her hands and knees to Jane Anderson now and beg for +protection. The last shred of pretense was gone. The +bankrupt soul stood naked and shivering, the last rag +torn from pride. + +What a miserable fight she had made, too, when put +to the test! Ella had at least proved herself worthy +to live. The scrub-woman had risen in the strength of +desperation and killed the beast who had maimed her. +She had only sunk a limp mass of shivering, helpless +cowardice and fled from the room whining and pleading +for mercy. + +She could never respect herself again. The +scene came back in vivid flashes. His eyes, +glowing like two balls of blue fire, froze the blood in +her veins--his voice the rasping cold steel of a file. +And this coarse, ugly beast had held her in the spell +of love. She had clung to him, kissed him in rapture +and yielded herself to him soul and body. And he had +gripped her delicate throat and choked her into +insensibility, dropping her limp form from his hands +like a strangled rat. She could remember the half- +conscious moment that preceded the total darkness as +she felt his grip relax. + +He would choke and beat her again, too. He had +said it in the sneering laughter at the door. + +"A good little wife now and it's all right!" + +And if you're not obedient to my whims I'll choke +you until you are! That was precisely what he meant. +That he was capable of any depth of degradation, and +that he meant to drag her with him, there could be no +longer the shadow of a doubt. + +She could not endure another scene like that. She +sprang to her feet again, shivering with terror. She +could hear the hum of the conversation in the next +room. He was persuading his mother to join in his +criminal career. He was busy with his oily tongue +transforming the simple, ignorant, lonely old +woman into an avaricious fiend who would receive his +blood-stained booty and rejoice in it. + +He was laughing again. She put her trembling hands +over her ears to shut out the sound. He had laughed at +her shame and cowardice. It made her flesh creep to +hear it. + +She would escape. The mountain road was dark and +narrow and crooked. She would lose her way in the +night, perhaps. No matter. She could keep warm by +walking. At dawn she would find her way to a cabin and +ask protection. If she could reach Asheville, a +telegram would bring her father. She wouldn't lose a +minute. Her hat and coat were in the living-room. She +would go bareheaded and without a coat. In the morning +she could borrow one from the woman at the Mount +Mitchell house. + +She crept cautiously along the walls of the room +searching for a door or window. There must be a way +out. She made the round without discovering an opening +of any kind. There must be a window of some kind high +up for ventilation. There was no glass in it, of +course. It was closed by a board shutter--if she could +reach it. + +She began at the door, found the corner of the room +and stretched her arms upward until they touched the +low, rough joist. Over every foot of its surface +she ran her fingers, carefully feeling for a window. +There was none! + +She found an open crack and peered through. The +stars were shining cold and clear in the December sky. +The twinkling heavens reminded her that it was +Christmas Eve. The dawn she hoped to see in the woods, +if she could escape, would be Christmas morning. There +was no time for idle tears of self-pity. + +The one thought that beat in every throb of her +heart now was to escape from her cell and put a +thousand miles between her body and the beast who had +strangled her. She might break through the roof! As a +rule the shed-rooms of these rude mountain cabins were +covered with split boards lightly nailed to narrow +strips eighteen inches apart. If there were no +ceiling, or if the ceiling were not nailed down and she +should move carefully, she might break through near the +eaves and drop to the ground. The cabin was not more +than nine feet in height. + +She raised herself on the footrail of the bed and +felt the ceiling. There could be no mistake. It was +there. She pressed gently at first and then with all +her might against each board. They were nailed hard +and fast. + +She sank to the bed again in despair. She had +barred herself in a prison cell. There was no escape +except by the door through which the beast had driven +her. And he would probably draw the couch against it +and sleep there. + +And then came the crushing conviction that such +flight would be of no avail in a struggle with a man of +Jim's character. His laughing words of triumph rang +through her soul now in all their full, sinister +meaning. + +"The world ain't big enough for you to get away +from me, Kiddo!" + +It wasn't big enough. She knew it with tragic and +terrible certainty. In his blind, brutal way he loved +her with a savage passion that would halt at nothing. +He would follow her to the ends of the earth and kill +any living thing that stood in his way. And when he +found her at last he would kill her. + +How could she have been so blind! There was no +longer any mystery about his personality. The slender +hands and feet, which she had thought beautiful in her +infatuation, were merely the hands and feet of a thief. +The strength of jaw and neck and shoulders had made him +the most daring of all thieves--a burglar. + +His strange moods were no longer strange. He +laughed for joy at the wild mountain gorges and crags +because he saw safety for the hiding-place of priceless +jewels he meant to steal. + +There could be no escape in divorce from such a +brute. He was happy in her cowardly submission. He +would laugh at the idea of divorce. Should she dare to +betray the secrets of his life of crime, he would kill +her as he would grind a snake under his heel. + +A single clause from the marriage ceremony kept +ringing its knell--"until DEATH DO US PART!" + +She knelt at last and prayed for Death. + +"Oh, dear God, let me die, let me die!" + +Suicide was a crime unthinkable to her pious mind. +Only God now could save her in his infinite mercy. + +She lay for a long time on the floor where she had +fallen in utter despair. The tears that brought relief +at first had ceased to flow. She had beaten her +bleeding wings against every barrier, and they were +beyond her strength. + +Out of the first stupor of complete surrender, her +senses slowly emerged. She felt the bare boards of the +floor and wondered vaguely why she was there. + +The hum of voices again came to her ears. She +lay still and listened. A single terrible sentence she +caught. He spoke it with such malignant power she +could see through the darkness the flames of hell +leaping in his eyes. + +"Nobody's going to ask you HOW you got it--all +they want to know is HAVE you got it!" + +She laughed hysterically at the idea of reformation +that had stirred her to such desperate appeal in the +first shock of discovery. As well dream of reforming +the Devil as the man who expressed his philosophy of +life in that sentence! Blood dripped from every word, +the blood of the innocent and the helpless who might +consciously or unconsciously stand in his way. The man +who had made up his mind to get rich quick, no matter +what the cost to others, would commit murder without +the quiver of an eyelid. If she had ever had a doubt +of this fact, she could have none after her experience +of tonight. + +She wondered vaguely of the effects he was +producing on his ignorant old mother. Her words were +too low and indistinct to be heard. But she feared the +worst. The temptation of the gold he was showing her +would be more than she could resist. + +She staggered to her feet and fell limp across +the bed. The iron walls of a life prison closed about +her crushed soul. The one door that could open was +Death and only God's hand could lift its bars. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE + + +Hour after hour Nance stood beside the wall of the +shed-room and with the patience of a cat waited for the +sobs to cease and the girl to be quiet. + +Mary had risen from the bed once and paced the +floor in the dark for more than an hour, like a +frightened, wild animal, trapped and caged for the +first time in life. With growing wonder, Nance counted +the beat of her foot-fall, five steps one way and five +back--round after round, round after round, in +ceaseless repetition. + +"Goddlemighty, is she gone clean crazy!" she +exclaimed. + +The footsteps stopped at last and the low sobs came +once more from the bed. The old woman crouched down on +a stone beside the log wall and drew the shawl about +her shoulders. + +A rooster crowed for midnight. Still the restless +thing inside was stirring. Nance rose uneasily. +Her lantern was still burning in her storehouse under +the cliff. The wick might eat so low it would explode. +She had heard that such things happened to lamps. It +was foolish to have left it burning, anyhow. + +She glided noiselessly from the house into the +woods, entered her hidden door exactly as she had done +before, extinguished the lantern, placed it on a +shelving rock and put a dozen matches beside it. + +In ten minutes she had returned to the house and +crouched once more against the wall of the shed. + +The low, pleading voice was praying. She pressed +her ear to the crack and heard distinctly. She must be +patient. Her plan was sure to succeed if she were only +patient. No woman could sob and pray and walk all +night. She must fall down unconscious from sheer +exhaustion before day. + +The old woman slipped into the kitchen, took up the +quilt which she had spread on the floor for her bed, +wrapped it about her thin shoulders and returned to her +watch. + +Again and again she rose, believing her patience +had won, and placed her ear to the crack only to hear a +sound within which told her only too plainly that the +girl was yet awake. Sometimes it was a sigh, sometimes +she cleared her throat, sometimes she tossed +restlessly. One spoken sentence she heard again and +again: + +"Oh, dear God, have mercy on my lost soul!" + +"What can be the matter with the fool critter!" +Nance muttered. "Is she moanin' for sin? To be shore, +they don't have no revival meetings this time o' year!" + +She had known sinners to mourn through a whole +summer sometimes, but never in all her experience in +religious revivals had a mourner carried it over into +winter. The dancing had always eased the tension and +brought a relapse to sinful thoughts. + +The hours dragged until the roosters began to crow +for day. It would soon be light. + +She must act now. There was no time to lose. She +pressed her ear to the crack once more and held it five +minutes. + +Not a sound came from within. The broken spirit +had yielded to the stupor of exhaustion at last. + +With swift, cat's tread Nance circled the cabin and +entered the kitchen. The quilt she carefully spread on +the floor leading to the entrance to the living-room, +crossed it softly and stood in the doorway with her +long hands on the calico hangings. + +For five minutes she remained immovable and +listened to the deep, regular breathing of the +sleeping man. Her wits were keen, her eyes wide. +She could see the dim outlines of the furniture by the +starlight through the window. Small objects in the +room were, of course, invisible. To light a candle was +not to be thought of. It might wake the sleeper. + +She knew how to make the light without a noise or +its rays reaching his face. He had startled her with +the electric torch because of its novelty. She was no +longer afraid. She would know how to press the button. +He had left the thing lying on the table beside the +black bag. He might have hidden the gold. He would +not remember in his drunken stupor to move the electric +torch. + +She glided ghost-like into the room. Her bare feet +were velvet. She knew every board in the floor. There +was one near the table that creaked. She counted her +steps and cleared the spot without a sound. + +Her thin fingers found the edge of the table and +slipped with uncanny touch along its surface until her +hand closed on the rounded form of the torch. + +Without moving in her tracks she turned the light +on the table and in every nook and corner of the room +beyond. She slowly swung her body on a pivot, flashing +the light into each shadow and over every inch of +floor, turning always in a circle toward the couch. + +Satisfied that the object she sought was nowhere in +the circle she had covered, she moved a step from the +table and winked the light beneath it. She squatted on +the floor and flashed it carefully over every inch of +its boards from one corner of the room to the other and +under the couch. + +She rose softly, glided behind the head of the +sleeping man and stood back some six feet, lest the +flash of the torch might disturb him. She threw its +rays behind the couch and slowly raised them until they +covered the dirty pillow on which Jim was sleeping. +There beneath the pillow lay the bag with its precious +treasure. He was sleeping on it. She had feared this, +but felt sure that the whiskey he had drunk would hold +him in its stupor until late next morning. + +She crouched low and fixed the light's ray slowly +on the bag that her hand might not err the slightest in +its touch. She laid her bony fingers on it with a +slow, imperceptible movement, held them there a moment +and moved the bag the slightest bit to test the +sleeper's wakefulness. To her surprise he stirred +instantly. + +"What'ell!" he growled sleepily. + +She stood motionless until he was breathing again +with deep, even, heavy throb. Gliding back to the +table, she flashed the light again on the bag and +studied its position. His big neck rested squarely +across it. To move it without waking him was a +physical impossibility. + +Here was a dilemma she had not fully faced. She +had not believed it possible for him to place the bag +where she could not get it. Her only purpose up to +this moment had been to take it and store it safely +beneath the soft earth in the inner recess of the cave. +He would miss it in the morning, of course. She would +express her amazement. The bar would be down from the +front door. Someone had robbed him. The money could +never be found. + +She had made up her mind to take it the moment he +had convinced her that his philosophy of life was true. +His eloquence had transformed her from an ignorant old +woman, content with her poverty and dirt, into a +dangerous and daring criminal. + +There was no such thing as failure to be thought of +now for a moment. The spade in the inner room of her +store-house could be put to larger use if necessary. +With the strength of the madness now on her she could +carry his body on her back through the woods. The +world would be none the wiser. He had quarreled +with his wife, and left her in a rage that night. That +was all she knew. The sheriff of neither county could +afford to bother his head long over an insolvable +mystery. Besides, both sheriffs were her friends. + +Her decision was instantaneous when once she saw +that it was safe. + +She smiled over the grim irony of the thing--his +words kept humming in her ears, his voice, low and +persuasive: + +"Suppose now the man that got that money had to +kill a fool to take it--what of it? You don't get big +money any other way!" + +On the shelf beside the door was a butcher knife +which she also used for carving. She had sharpened its +point that night to carve her Christmas turkey next +day. + +She raised the torch and flashed its rays on the +shelf to guide her hand, crept to the wall, took down +the knife and laid the electric torch in its place. + +Steadying her body against the wall, her arms +outspread, she edged her way behind the couch and bent +over the sleeping man until by his breathing she had +located his heart. + +She raised her tall figure and brought the +knife down with a crash into his breast. With a +sudden wrench she drew it from the wound and crouched +among the shadows watching him with wide-dilated eyes. + +The stricken sleeper gasped for breath, his +writhing body fairly leaped into the air, bounded on +the couch and stood erect. He staggered backward and +lurched toward her. The crouching figure bent low, +gripping the knife and waiting for her chance to strike +the last blow. + +Strangling with blood, Jim opened his eyes and saw +the old woman creeping nearer through the gray light of +the dawn. + +He threw his hands above his head and tried to +shout his warning. She was on him, her trembling hand +feeling for his throat, before he could speak. + +Struggling, in his weakened condition, to tear her +fingers away, he gasped: + +"Here! Here! Great God! Do you know what you're +doing?" + +"I just want yer money," she whispered. "That's +all, and I'm a-goin' ter have it!" + +Her fingers closed and the knife sank into his +neck. + +She sprang back and watched him lurch and fall +across the couch. His body writhed a moment in agony +and was still. + +Holding the knife in her hand, she tore open the +bag and thrust her itching fingers into the gold, +gripping it fiercely. + +"Nobody's goin' to ask ye how ye got it--they just +want to know HAVE ye got it--yeah! Yeah----" + +The last word died on her lips. The door of the +shed-room suddenly opened and Mary stood before her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +DELIVERANCE + +The first dim noises of the tragedy in the living-room +Mary's stupefied senses had confused with a nightmare +which she had +been painfully fighting. + +The torch in Nance's hand had flashed through a +crack into her face once. It was the flame of a +revolver in the hands of a thief in Jim's den in New +York. She merely felt it. Her eyes had been gouged +out and she was blind. A gang of his coarse companions +were holding a council, cursing, drinking, fighting. +Jim had sprung between two snarling brutes and knocked +the revolver into the air. The flame had scorched her +face. + +With an oath he had slapped her. + +"Get out, you damned little fool!" he growled. +"You're always in the way when you're not wanted. +Nobody can ever find you when there's work to be +done----" + +"But I can't see, Jim dear," she pleaded. "I +do not know when things are out of place----" + +"You're a liar!" he roared. "You know where every +piece of junk stands in this room better than I do. I +can't bring a friend into that door that you don't know +it. You can hear the swish of a woman's skirt on the +stairs four stories below----" + +"I only asked you who the woman was who came in +with you, Jim----" + +His fingers gripped her throat and stopped her +breath. Through the roar of surging blood she could +barely hear the vile words he was dinning into her +ears. + +"I know you just asked me, you nosing little devil, +and it's none of your business! She's a pal of mine, +if you want to know, the slickest thief that ever +robbed a flat. She's got more sense in a minute than +you'll ever have in a lifetime. She's going to live +here with me now. You can sleep on the cot in the +kitchen. And you come when she calls, if you know +what's good for your lazy hide. I've told her to +thrash the life out of you if you dare to give her any +impudence." + +She had cowered at his feet and begged him not to +beat her again. The fumes of whiskey and stale beer +filled the place. + +Jim turned from her to quell a new fight at +the other end of the room. Another woman was +there, coarse, dirty, beastly. She drew a knife and +demanded her share of the night's robberies. She was +trying to break from the men who held her to stab Jim. +They were all fighting and smashing the furniture---- + +She sprang from the bed with a cry of horror. The +noise was real! It was not a dream. The beast inside +was stumbling in the dark. His passions fired by +liquor, he was fumbling to find his way into her room. + +She rushed to the door and put her shoulder against +the bar, panting in terror. + +She heard his strangling cry: + +"Here! Here! Great God! Do you know what you're +doing?" + +And then his mother's voice, mad with greed, cruel, +merciless: + +"I just want yer money--that's all, an' I'm goin' +to have it!" + +She heard the clinch in the struggle and the dull +blow of the knife. In a sudden flash she saw it all. +He had succeeded in rousing Nance's avarice and +transforming her into a fiend. Without knowing it she +was stabbing her own son to death in the room in which +he had been born! + +She tried to scream and her lips refused to move. +She tried to hurry to the rescue and her knees turned +to water. + +Gasping for breath, she drew the bar from her +prison door and walked slowly into the room. + +Nance's tall, bony figure was still crouched over +the open bag, her left hand buried in the gold, her +right gripping the knife, her face convulsed with +greed--avarice and murder blended into perfect hell-lit +unity at last. + +Jim lay on his back, limp and still, obliquely +across the couch, his breast bared in the struggle, the +blood oozing a widening scarlet blot on his white +shirt. His head had fallen backward over the edge and +could not be seen. + +Without moving a muscle, her body crouching, Nance +spoke: + +"You wuz awake--you heered?" + +"Yes!" + +The gleaming eyes burned through the gray dawn, two +points of scintillating, hellish light fixed in purpose +on the intruder. + +She had only meant to take the money. The fool had +fought. She killed him because she had to. And now +the sobbing, sniveling little idiot who had kept her +waiting all night had stuck her nose into some +thing that didn't concern her. If she opened her +mouth, the gallows would be the end. + +She would open it too. Of course she would. She +was his wife. They had quarreled, but the simpleton +would blab. Nance knew this with unerring instinct. +It was no use to offer her half the money. She didn't +have sense enough to take it. She knew those pious, +baby faces--well, there was room for two in the cave +under the cliff. It was daylight now. No matter; it +was Christmas morning. No man or woman ever darkened +her door on Christmas day. She could hide their bodies +until dark, and then it was easy. She would be in New +York herself before anyone could suspect the meaning of +that automobile in the shed or the owners would trouble +themselves to come after it. + +Again her decision was quick and fierce. Her hand +was on the bag. She would hold it against the world, +all hell and heaven. + +With the leap of a tigress she was on the girl, the +bag gripped in her left hand, the knife in her right. + +To her amazement the trembling figure stood stock +still gazing at her with a strange look of pity. + +"Well!" Nance growled. "I ain't goin' ter be +took now I've got this money--I'm goin' to New York ter +find my boy!" + +She lifted the knife and stopped in sheer stupor of +surprise at the girl's immovable body and staring eyes. +Had she gone crazy? What on earth could it mean? No +girl of her youth and beauty could look death in the +face without a tremor. No woman in her right senses +could see the body of her dead husband lying there red +and yet quivering without a sign. It was more than +even Nance's nerves could endure. + +She lowered the knife and peered into the girl's +set face and glanced quickly about the room. Could she +have called help? Was the house surrounded? It was +impossible. She couldn't have escaped. What did it +mean? + +The old woman drew back with a terror she couldn't +understand. + +"What are you looking at me like that for?" she +panted. + +Mary held her gaze in lingering pity. Her heart +went out now to the miserable creature trembling in the +presence of her victim. The blow must fall that would +crush the soul out of her body at one stroke. The gray +hair had tumbled over her distorted features, the +ragged dress had been torn from her throat in the +struggle and her flat, bony breast was exposed. + +"You don't--have--to--go--to--New York--to--find-- +your--boy!" the strained voice said at last. + +Nance frowned in surprise and flew back at her in +rage. + +"Yes I do, too--he lives thar!" + +The little figure straightened above the crouching +form. + +"He's here!" + +Nance sank slowly against the table and rested the +bag on the edge of the chair. Its weight was more than +she could bear. She tried to glance over her shoulder +at the body on the couch and her courage failed. The +first suspicion of the hideous truth flashed through +her stunned mind. She couldn't grasp it at once. + +"Whar?" she whispered hoarsely. + +Mary lifted her arm slowly and pointed to the +couch. + +"There!" + +Nance glared at her a moment and broke into a +hysterical laugh. + +"It's a lie--a lie--a lie!" + +"It's true----" + +"Yer're just a lyin' ter me ter get away an give me +up--but ye won't do it--little Miss--old Nance is too +smart for ye this time. Who told you that?" + +"He told me tonight!" + +"He told you?" she repeated blankly. + +"Yes." + +"You're a liar!" she growled. "And I'll prove it-- +you move out o' your tracks an' I'll cut your throat. +My boy's got a scar on his neck--I know right whar to +look for it. Don't you move now till I see--I know +you're a liar----" + +She turned and with the quick trembling fingers of +her right hand tore the shirt back from the neck and +saw the scar. She still held the bag in her left hand. +The muscles slowly relaxed and the bag fell endwise to +the floor, the gold crashing and rolling over the +boards. She stared in stupor and threw both hands +above her streaming gray hair. + +"Lord God Almighty!" she shrieked. "Why didn't I +think that he wuz somebody else's boy if he weren't +mine!" + +The thin body trembled and crumpled beside the +couch. + +The girl lifted her head in a look of awe as if in +prayer. + +"And God has set me free! free! free!" + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +THE DOCTOR + +Mary stood overwhelmed by the tragedy she had +witnessed. For the time her brain refused to record +sensations. She had seen too much, felt too much in +the past eight hours. Soul and body were numb. + +The first impressions of returning consciousness +were fixed on Nance. She had risen suddenly from the +floor and smoothed the hair back from Jim's forehead +with tender touch as if afraid to wake him. She drew +the quilt from the kitchen floor, spread it over the +body, and lifted her eyes to Mary's. It was only too +plain. + +Reason had gone. + +She tipped close and put her fingers on her lips. + +"Sh! We mustn't wake him. He's tired. Let him +sleep. It's my boy. He's come home. We'll fix him a +fine Christmas dinner. I've got a turkey. I'll bake a +cake----" she paused and laughed softly. "I've got +eggs too, fresh laid yesterday. We'll make egg- +nog all day and all night. I ain't had no Christmas +since that devil stole him. We'll have one this time, +won't we?" + +The girl's wits were again alert. She must run for +help. A minute to humor the old woman's delusion and +she might return before any harm came to her. Jim had +not moved a muscle. It was plain that he was beyond +help. + +"Yes," Mary answered cheerfully. "You fix the +cake--and I'll get the wood to make a fire." + +Nance laughed again. + +"We'll have the dinner all ready for him when he +wakes, won't we?" + +"Yes. I'll be back in a few minutes." + +Nance hurried into the kitchen humming an old song +in a faltering voice that sent the cold chills down the +girl's spine. + +Mary slipped quietly through the door and ran with +swift, sure foot down the narrow road along which the +machine had picked its way the afternoon before. The +cabin they had passed last could not be more than a +mile. + +She made no effort to find the logs for pedestrians +when the road crossed the brook. She plunged straight +through the babbling waters with her shoes, regardless +of skirts. + +Panting for breath, she saw the smoke curling from +the cabin chimney a quarter of a mile away. + +"Thank God!" she cried. "They're awake!" + +She was so glad to have reached her goal, her +strength suddenly gave way and she dropped to a boulder +by the wayside to rest. In two minutes she was up and +running with all her might. + +She rushed to the door and knocked. + +A mountaineer in shirt-sleeves and stockings +answered with a look of mild wonder. + +"For God's sake come and help me. I must have a +doctor quick. We spent the night at Mrs. Owens'. +She's lost her mind completely--a terrible thing has +happened--you'll help me?" + +"Cose I will, honey," the mountaineer drawled. +"Jest ez quick ez I get on my shoes." + +"Is there a doctor near?" she asked breathlessly. + +He answered without looking up: + +"The best one that God ever sent to a sick bed. He +don't charge nobody a cent in these parts. He just +heals the sick because hit's his callin'. Come from +somewhar up North and built hisself a fine log house up +on the side of the mountains. Hit's full of all the +medicines in the world, too----" + +"Will you ask him to come for me?" Mary broke +in. + +"I'll jump on my hoss an' have him thar in half a' +hour. You can run right back, honey, and look out for +the po' ole critter till we get thar." + +"Thank you! Thank you!" she answered grate fully. + +"Not at all, not at all!" he protested as he swung +through the door and hurried to the low-pitched sheds +in which his horse and cow were stabled. "Be thar in +no time!" + +When Mary returned, Nance was still busy in the +kitchen. She had built a fire and put the turkey in +the oven. + +Mary was counting the minutes now until the doctor +should come. The old woman's prattle about the return +of her lost boy, so big and strong and handsome, had +become unendurable. She felt that she should scream +and collapse unless help came at once. She looked at +her watch. It was just thirty-five minutes from the +time she had left the cabin in the valley below. + +She sprang to her feet with a smothered cry of joy. +The beat of a horse's hoof at full gallop was ringing +down the road. + +In two minutes the Doctor's firm footstep was heard +at the kitchen door. + +Nance turned with a look of glad surprise. + +"Well, fur the land sake, ef hit ain't Doctor +Mulford! Come right in!" she cried. + +The Doctor seized her hand. + +"And how is my good friend, Mrs. Owens, this +morning?" he asked cheerfully. + +Mary was studying him with deep interest. She had +asked herself the question a hundred times how much she +could tell him--what to say and what to leave unsaid. +One glance at his calm, intellectual face was enough. +He was a man of striking appearance, six feet tall, +forty-five years of age, hair prematurely gray and a +slight stoop to his broad shoulders. His brown eyes +seemed to enfold the old woman in their sympathy. + +Nance was chattering her answer to his greeting. + +"Oh, I'm feelin' fine, Doctor--" she dropped her +voice confidentially--"and you're just in time for a +good dinner. My boy that was lost has come home. He's +a great big fellow, wears fine clothes and come up the +mountain all the way in a devil wagon." She put her +hand to her mouth. "Sh! He's asleep! We won't wake +him till dinner! He's all tired out." + +The Doctor nodded understandingly and turned toward +Mary. + +"And this young lady?" + +"Oh, that's his wife from New York--ain't she +purty?" + +The Doctor saw the delicate hands trembling and +extended his. + +No word was spoken. None was needed. There was +healing in his touch, healing in his whole being. No +man or woman could resist the appeal of his +personality. Their secrets were yielded with perfect +faith. + +"Come with me quickly," Mary whispered. + +"I understand," he answered carelessly. + +Turning again to Nance, he said with easy +confidence: + +"I'll not disturb you with your cooking, Mrs. +Owens. Go right on with it. I'll have a little chat +with your son's wife. If she's from New York I want to +ask her about some of my people up there----" + +"All right," Nance answered, "but don't you wake +HIM! Go with her inter the shed-room." + +"We'll go on tip-toe!" the Doctor whispered. + +Nance nodded, smiled and bent again over the oven. + +Mary led him quickly through the living-room, head +averted from the couch, and into the prison cell in +which she had passed the night. The physician +glanced with a startled look at the gold still +scattered on the floor. + +She seized his hand and swayed. + +He touched the brown hair of her bared head gently +and pressed her hand. + +"Steady, now, child, tell me quickly." + +"Yes, yes," she gasped, "I'll tell you the +truth----" + +He held her gaze. + +"And the whole truth--it's best." + +Mary nodded, tried to speak and failed. She drew +her breath and steadied herself, still gripping his +hand. + +"I will," she began faintly. "He's dead----" + +She paused and nodded toward the living-room. + +"The man--her son?" + +"Yes. We came last night from Asheville. We were +on our honeymoon. We haven't been married but three +weeks. I never knew the truth about his life and +character until last night when he told me that this +old woman was his mother. I found a case of jewels in +the bag he carried--jewels that belonged to a man in +New York who was robbed and shot. I recognized the +case. He confessed to me at last in cold, brutal words +that he was a thief. I couldn't believe it at first. +I tried to make him give up his criminal career. +He laughed at me. He gloried in it. I tried to leave +him. He choked me into insensibility and drove me into +this cell, where I spent the night. He brought the +gold that you saw on the floor which he had honestly +made to give to his old mother--but for a devilish +purpose. He showed it to her last night to rouse her +avarice and make her first agree to hide his stolen +goods. He succeeded too well. Before he had revealed +himself she slipped into the room at daylight while he +slept in a drunken stupor, murdered him and took the +money. The struggle waked me and I rushed in. She +gripped her knife to kill me. I told her that she had +murdered her own son and she went mad----" + +She paused for breath and her lips trembled +piteously. + +"You know what to do, Doctor?" + +"Yes!" + +"And you'll help me?" + +He smiled tenderly and nodded his head. + +"God knows you need it, child!" + +The nerves snapped at last, and she sank a limp +heap at his feet. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +THE CALL DIVINE + +The Doctor threw off his coat and took charge of the +stricken house. He sent his waiting messenger for a +faithful nurse, a mountain woman whom he had trained, +and began the fight for Mary's life. The collapse into +which she had fallen would require weeks of patient +care. There was no immediate danger of death, and +while he awaited the arrival of help, he turned into +the living-room to examine the body of the slain +husband. + +The head had fallen backward over the side of the +lounge and a pool of blood, still warm and red, lay on +the floor in a widening circle beneath it. His quick +eye took in its significance at a glance. He sprang +forward, ripped the shirt wide open and applied his ear +to the breast. + +"He's still alive!" he cried excitedly. + +He examined the ugly wound in the left side and +found that the knife had penetrated the lung. The +heart had not been touched. The blow on the neck had +not been fatal. The shock of the final stroke had +merely choked the wounded man into collapse from the +hemorrhage of the left lung. The position into which +the body had fallen across the couch had gradually +cleared the accumulated blood. There was a chance to +save his life. + +In ten minutes he had applied stimulants and +restored respiration, but the deep wheeze from the +stricken lung told only too plainly the dangerous +character of the wound. It would be a bitter fight. +His enormous vitality might win. The chances were +against him. + +Jim's lips moved and he tried to speak. + +The Doctor placed his hand on his mouth and shook +his head. The drooping eyelids closed in grateful +obedience. + +The beat of horses' hoofs echoed down the mountain +road. His nurse and messenger were coming. He decided +at once to move Mary to his own house. She must regain +consciousness in new surroundings or her chance of +survival would be slender. To awake in this miserable +cabin, the scene of the tragedy she had witnessed, +might be instantly fatal. Besides she must not yet +know that the brute who had choked her was alive and +might still hold the power of life and death over +her frail body. She believed him dead. It was best +so. He might be dead and buried before she recovered +consciousness. The fever that burned her brain would +completely cloud reason for days. + +He hastily improvised a stretcher with a blanket +and two strong quilting-poles which stood in the corner +of the room. Nance helped him without question. She +obeyed his slightest suggestion with childlike +submission. + +He placed Mary on the stretcher, wrapped her body +in another warm blanket and turned to his nurse and +messenger: + +"Carry her to my house. Walk slowly and rest +whenever you wish. Don't wake her. Tell Aunt Abbie to +put her to bed in the south room overlooking the +valley. Don't leave her a minute, Betty. She's in the +first collapse of brain fever. You know what to do. +I'll be there in an hour. You come back here, John. I +want you." + +The mountaineer nodded and seized one end of the +stretcher. The nurse took up the other and the Doctor +held wide the cabin door as they passed out. + +For three weeks he fought the grim battle with +Death for the two young lives the Christmas +tragedy had thrust into his hands. He gave his +entire time day and night to the desperate struggle. + +When pneumonia had developed and Jim's life hung by +a hair, he slept on the couch in the living-room of the +cabin and had Nance make for herself a bed on the floor +of the kitchen. + +The old woman remained an obedient child. She +cooked the Doctor's meals and did the work about the +house and yard as if nothing had disturbed her habits +of lonely plodding. She believed implicitly all that +was told her. Her son had pneumonia from cold he had +taken in the long drive from Asheville. The house must +be kept quiet. John Sanders was helping her nurse him. +She was sure the Doctor would save him. + +Even the knife with which she had stabbed him made +no impression on her numbed senses. The Doctor had +scoured every trace of blood from the blade and put it +back in its place on the shelf, lest she should miss it +and ask questions. She used it daily without the +slightest memory of the frightful story it might tell. + +Each morning before going to the cabin the Doctor +watched with patience for the first signs of returning +consciousness in Mary's fever-wracked body. The day +she lifted her grateful eyes to his and her lips +moved in a tremulous question he raised his hand +gently. + +"Sh! Child--don't talk! It's all right. You're +getting better. I've been with you every day. You're +in my house now. You'll soon be yourself again." + +She smiled wanly, put her delicate hand on his and +pressed it gratefully. + +"I understand. You thank me--you say that I am +good to you. But I'm not. This is my life. I heal +the sick because I must. I love this battle royal with +Death. He beats me sometimes--but I never quit. I'm +always tramping on his trail, and I've won this fight!" + +The calm brown eyes held her in a spell and she +smiled again. + +"Sleep now," he said soothingly. "Sleep day and +night. Just wake to take a little food--that's all and +Nature will do the rest." + +He stroked her hand gently until her eyelids +closed. + +Two days later Jim clung to the Doctor's hand and +insisted on talking. + +"Better wait a little longer, boy," the physician +answered kindly. "You're not out of the woods +yet----" + +"I can't wait--Doc----" Jim pleaded. "I've just +got to ask you something." + +"All right. You can talk five minutes." + +"My wife, Doc, how is she? You took her to your +house, John told me. She'll get well?" + +"Yes. She's rapidly recovering now." + +"What does she say about me?" + +"She thinks you're dead." + +"You haven't told her?" + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"She had all she could stand----" + +Jim stared in silence. + +"You think she'd be sorry to know I am alive?" he +asked slowly. + +"It would be a great shock." + +The steel blue eyes slowly filled with tears. + +"God! I am rotten, ain't I?" + +"There's no doubt about that, my son," was the firm +answer. + +"Why did you fight so hard to save me--I wonder?" + +"An old feud between Death and me." + +Jim suddenly seized the Doctor's hand. + +"Say, you can't fool me--you're a good one, Doc. +You've been a friend to me and you've got to +help now--you've just got to. You're the only one +on earth who can. You've a great big heart and you +can't go back on a fellow that's down and out. Give me +a chance! You will--won't you?" + +The hot fingers gripped the Doctor's hand with +pleading tenderness. + +The brown eyes searched Jim's soul. + +"If you can show me it's worth while----" + +The fingers tightened their grip in silence. + +"Just give me a chance, Doc," he said at last, "and +I'll show you! I ain't never had a chance to really +know what was right and what was wrong. If I'd a lived +here with my old mother she'd have told me. You know +what it is to be a stray dog on the streets of New +York? Even then, I'd have kept straight if I hadn't +been robbed by a lawyer and his pal. I didn't know +what I was doin' till that night here in this cabin-- +honest to God, I didn't----" + +He paused for breath and a tear stole down his +cheek. He fought for control of his emotions and went +on in low tones. + +"I didn't know--till I saw my old mother creepin' +on me in the shadows with that big knife gleamin' in +her hand! I tried to stop her and I couldn't. I tried +to yell and strangled with blood. I saw the flames of +hell in her eyes and I had kindled them there-- +God! I never knew until that minute! I'm broken and +bruised lyin' on the rocks now in the lowest pit---- +Give me your hand, Doc! You're my only friend--I'm +goin' straight from now on--so help me God!" + +He paused again for breath and sought the actor's +eyes. + +"You'll stand by me, won't you?" + +A friendly grip closed on the trembling fingers. + +"Yes--I'll help you--if I can." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + +THE MOTHER + +Mary was resting in the chair beneath the southern +windows of the sun-parlor of the Doctor's bungalow. He +had built his home of logs cut from the mountainside. +Its rooms were supplied with every modern convenience +and comfort. Clear spring water from the cliff above +poured into the cypress tank constructed beneath the +roof. An overflow pipe sent a sparkling, bubbling and +laughing through the lawn, refreshing the wild flowers +planted along its edges. + +The view from the window looking south was one of +ravishing beauty and endless charm. Perched on a +rising spur of the Black Mountain the house commanded a +view of the long valley of the Swannanoa opening at the +lower end into the wide, sunlit sweep of the lower +hills around Asheville. Upward the balsam-crowned +peaks towered among the clouds and stars. + +No two hours of the day were just alike. +Sometimes the sun was raining showers of diamonds +on the trembling tree-tops of the valleys while the +blackest storm clouds hung in ominous menace around +Mount Mitchell and the Cat-tail. Sometimes it was +raining in the valley--the rain cloud a level sheet of +gray cloth stretching from the foot of the lawn across +to the crags beyond, while the sun wrapped the little +bungalow in a warm, white mantle. + +Mary had never tired of this enchanted world during +the days of her convalescence. The Doctor, with firm +will, had lifted every care from her mind. She had +gratefully submitted to his orders, and asked no +questions. + +She began to wonder vaguely about his life and +people and why he had left the world in which a man of +his culture and power must have moved, to bury himself +in these mountain wilds. She wondered if he had +married, separated from his wife and chosen the life of +a recluse. He volunteered no information about +himself. + +When not attending his patients he spent his hours +in the greenhouse among his flowers or in the long +library extension of the bungalow. More than five +thousand volumes filled the solid shelves. A massive +oak table, ten feet in length and four feet wide, +stood in the center of the room, always generously +piled with books, magazines and papers. At the end of +this table he kept the row of books which bore +immediately on the theme he was studying. + +Beside the window opening on the view of the valley +stood his old-fashioned desk--six feet long, its top a +labyrinth of pigeon-holes and tiny drawers. + +He pursued his studies with boyish enthusiasm and +chattered of them to Mary by the hour--with never a +word passing his lips about himself. + +Aunt Abbie, the cook, brought her a cup of tea, and +Mary volunteered a question. + +"Do you know the Doctor's people, Auntie?" she +asked hesitatingly. + +"Lord, child, he's a mystery to everybody! All we +know is that he's the best man that ever walked the +earth. He won't talk and the mountain folks are too +polite to nose into his business. He saved my boy's +life one summer, and when he was strong and well and +went back to Asheville to his work, I had nothin' to do +but to hold my hands, and I come here to cook for him. +He tries to pay me wages but I laugh at him. I told +him if he could save my boy's life for nothin' I reckon +I could cook him a few good meals without pay----" + +Her eyes filled with tears. She brushed them off, +laughed and added: + +"He lets me alone now and don't pester me no more +about money." + +Her tea and toast finished, Mary placed the tray on +the table, rose with a sudden look of pain, and made +her way slowly to the library. + +A warm fire of hardwood logs sparkled in the big +stone fireplace. The Doctor was out on a visit to a +patient. He had given her the freedom of the place and +had especially insisted that she use his books and make +his library her resting place whenever her mind was +fagged. She had spent many quiet hours in its +inspiring atmosphere. + +She seated herself at his desk and studied the +calendar which hung above it. A sudden terror +overwhelmed her; she buried her face in her arms and +burst into tears. + +She was still lying across the desk, sobbing, when +the Doctor walked into the room. + +He touched her hair reproachfully with his firm +hand. + +"Why, what's this? My little soldier has disobeyed +orders?" + +"I don't want to live now," she sobbed. + +"And why not?" + +"I--I--am going to be a mother," she whispered. + +"So?" + +"The mother of a criminal! Oh, Doctor, it's +horrible! Why did you let me live? The hell I passed +through that night was enough--God knows! This will be +unendurable. I've made up my mind--I'll die first----" + +"Rubbish, child! Rubbish!" he answered with a +laugh. "Where did you get all this misinformation?" + +"You know what my husband was. How can you ask?" + +"Because I happen to know also his wife--the +mother-to-be of this supposed criminal who has just set +sail for the shores of our planet--and I know that she +is one of the purest and sweetest souls who ever lost +her way in the jungles of the world. If you were the +criminal, dear heart, the case might be hopeless. But +you're not. You are only the innocent victim of your +own folly. That doesn't count in the game of +Nature----" + +"What do you mean?" she asked breathlessly. + +"Simply this: The part which the male plays in the +reproduction of the race is small in comparison with +the role of the female. He is merely a supernumerary +who steps on the stage for a moment +and speaks one word announcing the arrival of the +queen. The queen is the mother. She plays the star +role in the drama of Heredity. She is never off the +stage for a single moment. We inherit the most obvious +physical traits from our male ancestors but even these +may be modified by the will of the mother." + +"Modified by the will of the mother?" she repeated +blankly. + +"Certainly. There are yet long days and weeks and +months before your babe will be born--at least seven +months. There's not a sight or sound of earth or +heaven that can reach or influence this coming human +being save through your eyes and ears and touch and +soul. Almighty God can speak His message only through +you. You are his ambassador on earth in this solemn +hour. What your husband was, is of little importance. +There is not a moment, waking or sleeping, day or +night, that does not bring to you its divine +opportunity. This human life is yours--absolutely to +mold and fashion in body and mind as you will." + +"You're just saying this to keep me from suicide," +Mary interrupted. + +"I am telling you the simplest truth of physical +life. You can even change the contour of your +baby's head if you like. You think in your silly fears +that the bull neck and jaw of the father will reappear +in the child. It might be so unless you see fit to +change it. All any father can do is to transmit +general physical traits unless modified by the will of +the mother." + +"You mean that I can choose even the personal +appearance of my child?" she asked in blank amazement. + +"Exactly that. Choose the type of man you wish +your babe to be and it shall be so. Who in all the +world would you prefer that he resemble?" + +"You," she answered promptly. + +He smiled gently. + +"That pays me for all my trouble, child! No doctor +ever got a bigger fee than that. Banks may fail, but +I'll never lose it. Your choice simplifies that matter +very much. You won't need a picture in your room----" + +"A picture could determine the features of an +unborn babe?" she asked incredulously. + +"Beyond a doubt, and it will determine character +sometimes. I knew a mother in the mountains of Vermont +who hung the picture of a ship under full sail in her +living-room. She bore seven sons. Not one of them +ever saw the ocean until he was grown and yet all +of them became sailors. This was not an accident. In +her age and loneliness she blamed God for taking her +children from her. Yet she had made sailors of them +all by the selection of a single piece of furniture in +her room. Nature has a way of starting her children on +their journey through this world very nearly equal-- +each a bundle of possibilities in the hands of a +mother. A father may transmit physical disease, if his +body is unsound. Such marriages should be prohibited +by law. But nine-tenths of the spiritual traits out of +which character is formed are the work of the mother. +A criminal mother will bring into the world only +criminals. A criminal male may be the father of a +saint. The responsibility of shaping the destiny of +the race rests with the mother----" + +The Doctor sprang to his feet and paced the floor, +his arms gripped behind his back in deep thought. He +paused before the enraptured listener and hesitated to +speak the thought in his mind. + +He lifted his hand suddenly, his decision +apparently made. + +"It is of the utmost importance to the race that +our mothers shall be pure. Better certainly if both +father and mother are so. It is indispensable that the +mother shall be! On this elemental fact rests the +dual standard of sex morals. On this fact rests the +hope of a glorified humanity through the development of +an intelligent motherhood. Stay here with me until +your child is born and I'll prove the truth of every +word I've spoken----" + +"Oh, if I only could!" + +"Why not?" + +"I couldn't impose such a burden on you!" she +faltered. + +"You would confer on me the highest honor, if you +will allow me to direct you in this experiment." + +There was no mistaking his honesty and earnestness. +There was no refusing the appeal. + +"You really wish me to stay?" she asked. + +"I beg of you to stay! You will bring to me a new +inspiration--new faith--new courage to fight. Will +you?" + +She extended her hand. + +"Yes." + +"And you will agree to follow my instructions?" + +"Absolutely." + +"Good. We begin from this moment. I give you my +first orders. Forget that James Anthony ever lived. +Forget the tragedy of Christmas Eve. You are going to +be a mother. All other events in life pale before this +fact. God has conferred on you the highest honor +He can give to mortal. Keep your soul serene, your +body strong. You are to worry about nothing----" + +"I must pay you for this extra expense I impose, +Doctor. I have a thousand dollars in bank in New +York," she interrupted. + +"Certainly, if you will be happier. My home is now +your sanitarium. You are my patient. Your board will +cost me about eight dollars a week. All right. You +can pay that if you wish. + +"Take no thought now except on the business of +being a mother. I will make myself your father, your +brother, your guardian, your physician, your friend and +companion. I will give you at once a course of +reading. You are to think only beautiful thoughts, see +beautiful things, dream beautiful dreams, hear +beautiful music. I'm going to make you climb these +mountain peaks with me for the next three months and +live among the clouds. I'm going to refit your room +with new furniture and pictures and place in it a +phonograph with the best music. When you are strong +enough you can work for me three hours a day as my +secretary. You use the typewriter?" + +"I'm an expert----" + +"Good! I'm writing a book which I'm going to +call `The Rulers of the World.' It is a study of +Motherhood. I am one who believes that the redemption +of humanity awaits the realization by woman of her +divine call. When woman knows that she is really a co- +creator with God in the reproduction of the race, a new +era will dawn for mankind. You promise me faithfully +to obey my instructions?" + +"Faithfully." + +"You're a wonderful subject on which to make an +experiment. You are young--in the first dawn of the +glory of womanhood. Your body is beautiful, your mind +singularly pure and sweet. You must give me at once +the full power of your will in its concentration on +Truth and Beauty. The success or failure of this +experiment will depend almost entirely on your +mentality and the use you make of it during these +months in which your babe is being formed. Whatever +the shape of the body there is one eternal certainty-- +only YOUR mind can reach the soul of this child. +If the father were the veriest fiend who ever existed +and should concentrate his mind to the task, not one +thought from his darkened soul could reach your babe! +YOUR mind will be the ever-brooding, enfolding +spirit forming and fashioning character." + +He paused and his deep brown eyes flashed with +enthusiasm. + +"Think of it! You are now creating an immortal +being whose word may bend a million wills to his. And +you are doing this mighty work solely by your mind. +The physical processes are simple and automatic. + +"The first lesson you must learn and hold with +deathless grip is that thoughts are things. A thought +can kill the body. A thought can heal the body. If I +am successful as a physician it is because I use this +power with my patients. With some I use drugs, with +others none. With all I use every ounce of mental +power which God has given me. You will remember this?" + +"Yes." + +He walked to the shelves and drew down a volume of +poetry. + +"Read these poems until you are tired today--then +sleep. I'll give you a good novel tomorrow and when +you've read it, a volume of philosophy. When we climb +the peaks, I'll give you a study of these rocks that +will tell you the story of their birth, their life, and +their coming death. We'll learn something of the birds +and flowers next spring. We'll dream great dreams and +think great thoughts--you and I--in these +wonderful days and weeks and months which God shall +give us together." + +She looked up at him through her tears: + +"Oh, Doctor, you have not only saved a miserable +life: you have saved my soul!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + +A SOUL IS BORN + +It was more than a month after the experiment began +before the Doctor ventured to hint of Jim's survival. +He had waited patiently until Mary's strength had been +fully restored and her +mind filled with the new enthusiasm for motherhood. He +could tell her now with little risk. And yet he +ventured on the task with reluctance. He found her +seated at her favorite window overlooking the deep blue +valley of the Swannanoa, a volume of poetry in her lap. + +He touched her shoulder and she smiled in cheerful +response. + +"You are content?" he asked. + +"A strange peace is slowly stealing into my heart," +she responded reverently. "I shall learn to love life +again when my baby comes to help me." + +"You remember your solemn promise?" + +"Have I not kept it?" she murmured. + +"Faithfully--and I remind you of it that you +may not forget today for a moment that your work +is too high and holy to allow a shadow to darken your +spirit even for an hour. I have something to tell you +that may shock a little unless I warn you----" + +She lifted her eyes with a quick look of +uneasiness, and studied his immovable face. + +"You couldn't guess?" he laughed. + +She shook her head in puzzled silence. + +"Suppose I were to tell you," he went on evenly, +"that I found a spark of life in your husband's body +that morning and drew him back from the grave?" + +Her eyes closed and she stretched her hand toward +the Doctor. + +He clasped the fingers firmly between both his +palms, held and stroked them gently. + +"You did save him?" she breathed. + +"Yes." + +"Thank God his poor old mother is not a murderer! +But he is dead to me. I shall never see him again-- +never!" + +"I thought you would feel that way," the Doctor +quietly replied. + +"You won't let him come here?" she asked suddenly. + +"He won't try unless you consent----" + +Mary shuddered. + +"You don't know him----" + +The Doctor smiled. + +"I'm afraid you don't know him now, my child." + +"He has changed?" + +"The old, old miracle over again. He has been +literally born again--this time of the spirit." + +"It's incredible!" + +"It's true. He's a new man. I think his +reformation is the real thing. He's young. He's +strong. He has brains. He has personality----" + +Mary lifted her hand. + +"All I ask of him is to keep out of my sight. The +world is big enough for us both. The past is now a +nightmare. If I live to be a hundred years old, with +my dying breath I shall feel the grip of his fingers on +my throat----" + +She paused and closed her eyes. + +"Forget it! Forget it!" the Doctor laughed. "We +have more important things to think of now." + +"He wishes to see me?" + +"Begs every day that I ask you." + +"And you have hesitated these long weeks?" + +"Your strength and peace of mind were of greater +importance than his happiness, my dear. Let him wait +until you please to see him." + +"He'll wait forever," was the firm answer. + +Jim smiled grimly when his friend bore back the +message. + +"I'll never give up as long as there's breath in my +body," he cried, bringing his square jaws together with +a snap. + +"That's the way to talk, my boy," the Doctor +responded. + +"Anyhow you believe in me, Doc, don't you?" + +"Yes." + +"And you'll help me a little on the way if it gets +dark--won't you?" + +"If I can--you may always depend on me." + +Jim clasped his outstretched hand gratefully. + +"Well, I'm going to make good." + +There was something so genuine and manly in the +tones of his voice, he compelled the Doctor's respect. +A smaller man might have sneered. The healer of souls +and bodies had come to recognize with unerring instinct +the true and false note in the human voice. + +His heart went out in a wave of sympathy for the +lonely, miserable young animal who stood before him +now, trembling with the first sharp pains of the +immortal thing that had awaked within. He slipped his +arm about Jim's shoulders and whispered: + +"I'll tell you something that may help you +when the way gets dark--the wife is going to bear +you a child." + +"No!" + +"Yes." + +"God!---- That's great, ain't it?" + +Jim choked into silence and looked up at the Doctor +with dimmed eyes. + +"Say, Doc, you hit me hard when you brought what +she said--but that's good news! Watch me work my hands +to the bone--you know it's my kid and she can't keep me +from workin' for it if she tries now can she?" + +"No." + +"There's just one thing that'll hang over me like a +black cloud," he mused sorrowfully. + +"I know, boy--your mother's darkened mind." + +Jim nodded. + +"When I see that queer glitter in her eyes it goes +through me like a knife. Will she ever get over it?" + +"We can't tell yet. It takes time. I believe she +will." + +"You'll do the best you can for her, Doc?" he +pleaded pathetically. "You won't forget her a single +day? If you can't cure her, nobody can." + +"I'll do my level best, boy." + +Jim pressed his hand again. + +"Gee, but you've been a friend to me! I didn't +know that there were such men in the world as you!" + +For six months the Doctor watched the transplanted +child of the slums grow into a sturdy manhood in his +new environment. He snapped at every suggestion his +friend gave and with quick wit improved on it. He not +only discovered and developed a mica mine on his +mother's farm, he invented new machinery for its +working that doubled the market output. Within six +weeks from the time he began his shipments the mine was +paying a steady profit of more than five hundred +dollars a month. He had made just one trip to New York +and secretly returned to the police every stolen jewel +and piece of plunder taken, with a full confession of +the time and place of the crime. He had shipped his +tools and machinery from the workshop on the east side +before his sensational act and made good his departure +for the South. + +The tools and machinery he installed in a new +workshop which he built in the yard of Nance's cabin. +Here he worked day and night at his blacksmith forge +making the iron hinges, and irons, shovels, tongs, fire +sets and iron work complete for a log bungalow of seven +rooms which he was building on the sunny slope of +the mountain which overlooks the valley toward +Asheville. + +The Doctor had lent Jim the blue-prints of his own +home and he was quietly duplicating it with loving +care. His wife might refuse to see him but he could +build a home for their boy. For his sake she couldn't +refuse it. + +With childlike obedience Nance followed him every +day and watched the workmen rear the beautiful +structure under Jim's keen eyes and skillful hands. +The man's devotion to his mother was pathetic. Only +the Doctor knew the secret of his pitiful care, and he +kept his own counsel. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + +THE BABY + +The last roses of summer were bursting their topmost +buds into full bloom on the lawn of the Doctor's +bungalow. The martins that built each year in the +little boxes he had set on poles around his garden were +circling and chattering far up in the sapphire skies of +a late September day. Their leaders had sensed the +coming frost and were drilling for their long march +across the world to their winter home. The chestnut +burrs were bursting in the woods. The silent sun- +wrapped Indian Summer had begun. Not a cloud flecked +the skies. + +A quiet joy filled the soul of the woman who smiled +and heard her summons. + +"You are not afraid?" the Doctor asked. + +She turned her grateful eyes to his. + +"The peace of God fills the world--and I owe it all +to you." + +"Nonsense. Your sturdy will and cultivated mind +did the work. I merely made the suggestion." + +"You are not going to give me an anesthetic, are +you?" she said evenly. + +"Why did you ask that?" + +"Because I wish to feel and know the pain and glory +of it all." + +"You don't wish to take it?" + +"Not unless you say I should." + +"What a wonderful patient you are, child! What a +beautiful spirit!" He looked at her intently. "Well, +I'm older and wiser in experience than you. I'm glad +you added that clause `unless you say I should.' I'm +going to say it. After all my talks to you on our +return to the truths and simplicity of Nature you are +perhaps surprised. You needn't be. I'm going to put +you into a gentle sleep. Nature will then do her +physical work automatically. I do this because our +daughters are the inheritors of the sins of their +mothers for centuries. The over-refinement of nerves, +the hothouse methods of living, and the maiming of +their bodies with the inventions of fashion have made +the pains of this supreme hour beyond endurance. This +should not be. It will not be so when our race has +come into its own. But it will take many generations +and perhaps many centuries before we reach the ideal. +No physician who has a soul could permit a woman of +your physique, your culture and refinement to walk +barefoot and blindfolded into such a hell of physical +torture. I will not permit it." + +He walked quietly into his laboratory, prepared the +sleeping powders and gave them to her. + +Six hours later she opened her eyes with eager +wonder. Aunt Abbie was busy over a bundle of fluffy +clothes. The Doctor was standing with his arms folded +behind his back, his fine, clean-shaven face in profile +looking thoughtfully over the sun-lit valley. There +was just one moment of agonized fear. If they had +failed! If her child were hideous--or deformed! Her +lips moved in silent prayer. + +"Doctor?" she whispered. + +In a moment he was bending over her, a look of +exaltation in his brown eyes. + +"Tell me quick!" + +"A wonderful boy, little mother! The most +beautiful babe I have ever seen. He didn't even cry-- +just opened his big, wide eyes and grunted +contentedly." + +"Give him to me." + +Aunt Abbie laid the warm bundle in her arms and she +pressed it gently until the sweet, red flesh touched +her own. She lay still for a moment, a smile on her +lips. + +"Lift him and let me look!" + +"What a funny little pug nose," she laughed. + +"Yes--exactly like his mother's!" the Doctor +replied. + +She gazed with breathless reverence. + +"He is beautiful, isn't he?" she sighed. + +"And you have observed the chin and mouth?" + +"Exactly like yours. It's wonderful!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + +WHAT IS LOVE? + +Eighteen months swiftly passed with the little mother +and her boy still in Dr. Mulford's sanitarium. She had +allowed herself to be persuaded that he had the right +to be her guide and helper in the first year's training +of the child. + +The boy had steadily grown in strength and beauty +of body and mind. The Doctor persuaded her to spend +one more winter basking in his sun-parlor and finishing +the final chapters of his book. Her mind was +singularly clever and helpful in the interpretation of +the experiences and emotions of motherhood. + +She had stubbornly resisted every suggestion to see +her husband or allow him to see the child. The Doctor +had managed twice to give Jim an hour with the baby +while she had gone to Asheville on shopping trips. He +was rewarded for his trouble in the devotion with which +the young father worshiped his son. The Doctor +watched the slumbering fires kindle in the man's deep +blue eyes with increasing wonder at the strength and +tenderness of his newfound soul. + +Jim had completed the furnishing of the bungalow +with the advice and guidance of his friend, and every +room stood ready and waiting for its mistress. He had +insisted on making every piece of furniture for Mary's +room and the nursery adjoining. The Doctor was amazed +at the mechanical genius he displayed in its +construction. He had taken a month's instruction at a +cabinet maker's in Asheville and the bed, bureau, +tables and chairs which he had turned out were +astonishingly beautiful. Their lines were copied from +old models and each piece was a work of art. The iron +work was even more tastefully and beautifully wrought. +He had toiled day and night with an enthusiasm and +patience that gave the physician a new revelation in +the possibility of the development of human character. + +His friend came at last with a cheering message. +He began smilingly: + +"I'm going to make the big fight today, boy, to get +her to see you." + +"You think she will?" + +"There's a good chance. Her savings have all +been used up from her bank account in New York. She is +determined to go to her father in Kentucky. I'll have +a talk with her, bring her over to the bungalow, show +her through it on the pretext of its model construction +and then you can tell her that you built it with your +own hands for her and the baby. You might be loafing +around the place about that time." + +Jim's hand was suddenly lifted. + +"I got ye, Doc, I got ye! I'll be there--all day." + +"Don't let her see you until I give the signal." + +"Caution's my name." + +"We'll see what happens." + +Jim pressed close. + +"Say, Doc, if you know how to pray, I wish you'd +send up a little word for me while you're talkin' to +her. Could ye now?" + +"I'll do my best for you, boy--and I think you've +got a chance. She's been watching the blue eyes of +that baby lately with a rather curious look of unrest." + +"They're just like mine, ain't they?" Jim broke in +with pride. + +"Time has softened the old hurt," the Doctor went +on. "The boy may win for you----" + +The square jaw came together with a smash. + +"Gee--I hope so. I'll wait there all day for you +and I'm goin' to try my own hand at a little prayer or +two on the side while I'm waiting. Maybe God'll think +He's hit me hard enough by this time to give me another +trial." + +With a friendly wave of his hand the Doctor hurried +home. + +He found Mary seated under the rose trellis beside +the drive, watching for his coming. The day was still +and warm for the end of April. Birds were singing and +chattering in every branch and tree. A quail on the +top fence-rail of the wheat field called loudly to his +mate. + +The boy was screaming his joy over a new wagon to +which Aunt Abbie had hitched his goat. He drove by in +style, lifted his chubby hand to his mother and +shouted: + +"Dood-by, Doc-ter!" + +The Doctor waved a smiling answer, and lapsed into +a long silence. + +He waked at last from his absorption to notice that +Mary was day-dreaming. The fair brow was drawn into +deep lines of brooding. + +"Why shadows in your eyes a day like this, little +mother?" he asked softly. + +"Just thinking----" + +"About a past that you should forget?" + +"Yes and no," she answered thoughtfully. "I was +just thinking in this flood of spring sunlight of the +mystery of my love for such a man as the one I married. +How could it have been possible to really love him?" + +"You are sure that you loved him?" + +"Sure." + +"How did you know?" + +"By all the signs. I trembled at his footstep. +The touch of his hand, the sound of his voice thrilled +me. I was drawn by a power that was resistless. I was +mad with happiness those wonderful days that preceded +our marriage. I was madder still during our +honeymoon--until the shadows began to fall that fatal +Christmas Eve." She paused and her lips trembled. +"Oh, Doctor, what is love?" + +The drooping shoulders of the man bent lower. He +picked up a pebble from the ground and flicked it +carelessly across the drive, lifted his head at last +and asked earnestly: + +"Shall I tell you the truth?" + +"Yes--your own particular brand, please--the truth, +the whole truth and nothing but the truth." + +"I'll try," he began soberly. "If I were a poet, +naturally I would use different language. As I'm +only a prosaic doctor and physiologist I may shock your +ideals a little." + +"No matter," she interrupted. "They couldn't well +get a harder jolt than they have had already." + +He nodded and went on: + +"There are two elemental human forces that maintain +life--hunger and love. They are both utterly simple, +otherwise they could not be universal. Hunger compels +the race to live. Love compels it to reproduce itself. +There has never been anything mysterious about either +of these forces and there never will be--except in the +imagination of sentimentalists. + +"Nature begins with hunger. For about thirteen +years she first applies this force to the development +of the body before she begins to lay the foundation of +the second. Until this second development is complete +the passion known as love cannot be experienced. + +"What is this second development? Very simple +again. At the base of the brain of every child there +is a vacant space during the first twelve or fifteen +years. During the age of twelve to fourteen in girls, +thirteen to fifteen in boys, this vacant space is +slowly filled by a new lobe of the brain and with its +growth comes the consciousness of sex and the +development +of sex powers. + +"This new nerve center becomes on maturity a +powerful physical magnet. The moment this magnet comes +into contact with an organization which answers its +needs, as certain kinds of food answer the needs of +hunger, violent desire is excited. If both these +magnets should be equally powerful, the disturbance to +both will be great. The longer the personal +association is continued the more violent becomes this +disturbance, until in highly sensitive natures it +develops into an obsession which obscures reason and +crushes the will. + +"The meaning of this impulse is again very simple-- +the unconscious desire of the male to be a father, of +the female to become a mother." + +"And there is but one man on earth who could thus +affect me?" Mary asked excitedly. + +"Rubbish! There are thousands." + +"Thousands?" + +"Literally thousands. The reason you never happen +to meet them is purely an accident of our poor social +organization. Every woman has thousands of true +physical mates if she could only meet them. Every man +has thousands of true physical mates if he could only +meet them. And in every such meeting, if mind and +body are in normal condition, the same violent +disturbance would result--whether married or single, +free or bound. + +"Marriage therefore is not based merely on the +passion of love. It is a crime for any man or woman to +marry without love. It is the sheerest insanity to +believe that this passion within itself is sufficient +to justify marriage. All who marry should love. Many +love who should not marry. + +"The institution of marriage is the great +SOCIAL ordinance of the race. Its sanctity and +perpetuity are not based on the violence of the passion +of love, but something else." + +He paused and listened to the call of the quail +again from the field. + +"You hear that bob white calling his mate?" + +"Yes--and she's answering him now very softly. I +can hear them both." + +"They have mated this spring to build a home and +rear a brood of young. Within six months their babies +will all be full grown and next spring a new alignment +of lovers will be made. Their marriage lasts during +the period of infancy of their offspring. This is +Nature's law. + +"It happens in the case of man that the period of +infancy of a human being is about twenty-four +years. This is the most wonderful fact in nature. +It means that the capacity of man for the improvement +of his breed is practically limitless. A quail has a +few months in which to rear her young. God gives to +woman a quarter of a century in which to mold her +immortal offspring. Because the period of infancy of +one child covers the entire period of motherhood +capacity, marriage binds for life, and the sanctity of +marriage rests squarely on this law of Nature." + +He paused again and looked over the sunlit valley. + +"I wish our boys and girls could all know these +simple truths of their being. It would save much +unhappiness and many tragic blunders. + +"You were swept completely off your feet by the +rush of the first emotion caused by meeting a man who +was your physical mate. You imagined this emotion to +be a mysterious revelation which can come but once. +Your imagination in its excited condition, of course, +gave to your first-found mate all sorts of divine +attributes which he did not possess. You were `in +love' with a puppet of your own creation, and +hypnotized yourself into the delusion that James +Anthony was your one and only mate, your knight, your +hero. + +"In a very important sense this was true. +Your intuitions could not make a mistake on so +vital an issue. But you immediately rushed into +marriage and your union has been perfected by the birth +of a child. Whether you are happy or unhappy in +marriage does not depend on the reality of love. +Happiness in marriage is based on something else." + +"On what?" + +"The joy and peace that comes from oneness of +spirit, tastes, culture and character. I know this +from the deepest experiences of life and the widest +observation." + +"You have loved?" she asked softly. + +"Twice----" + +A silence fell between them. + +"Shall I tell you, little mother?" he finally asked +quietly. + +"Please." + +He seated himself and looked into the skies beyond +the peaks across the valley. + +"Ten years ago I met my first mate. The meeting +was fortunate for both. She was a woman of gentle +birth, of beautiful spirit. Our courtship was ideal. +We thought alike, we felt alike, she loved my +profession even--an unusual trait in a woman. She +thought it so noble in its aims that the petty jealousy +that sometimes wrecks a doctor's life was to her an +unthinkable crime. The first year was the nearest to +heaven that I had ever gotten down here. + +"And then, little mother, by one of those +inexplicable mysteries of nature she died when our baby +was born. For a while the light of the world went out. +I quit New York, gave up my profession and came here +just to lie in the sun on this mountainside and try to +pull myself together. I didn't think life could ever +be worth living again. But it was. I found about me +so much of human need--so much ignorance and +helplessness--so much to pity and love, I forgot the +ache in my own heart in bringing joy to others. + +"I had money enough. I gave up the ambitions of +greed and strife and set my soul to higher tasks. For +nine years I've devoted my leisure hours to the study +of Motherhood as the hope of a nobler humanity. But +for the great personal sorrow that came to me in the +death of my wife and baby I should never have realized +the truths I now see so clearly. + +"And then the other woman suddenly came into my +life. I never expected to love again--not because I +thought it impossible, but because I thought it +improbable in my little world here that I could +ever again meet a woman I would ask to be my wife. But +she dropped one day out of the sky." + +He paused and took a deep breath. + +"I recognized her instantly as my mate, gentle and +pure and capable of infinite joy or infinite pain. She +did not realize the secret of my interest in her. I +didn't expect it. I knew that under the conditions she +could not. But I waited." + +He paused and searched for Mary's eyes. + +"And you married her?" she asked in even tones. + +"I have never allowed her to know that I love her." + +"Why?" + +"She was married." + +Mary threw him a startled look and he went on +evenly: + +"I could have used my power over mind and body to +separate her from her husband. I confess that I was +tempted. But there was a child. Their union had been +sealed with the strongest tie that can bind two human +beings. I have never allowed her to realize that she +might love me. Had I chosen to break the silence +between us I could have revealed this to her, taken her +and torn her from the man to whom she had borne a babe. +I had no right to commit that crime, no matter how deep +the love that cried for its own. Marriage is +based on the period of infancy of the child which spans +the maternal life of woman. God had joined these two +people together and no man had the right to put them +asunder!" + +"And you gave her up?" + +"I had to, little mother. On the recognition of +this eternal law the whole structure of our +civilization rests." + +Mary bent her gaze steadily on his face for a +moment in silence. + +"And you are telling me that I should be reconciled +to the man who choked me into insensibility?" + +"I am telling you that he is the father of your +son--that he has rights which you cannot deny; that +when you gave yourself to him in the first impulse of +love a deed was done which Almighty God can never undo. +Your tragic blunder was the rush into marriage with a +man about whose character you knew so little. It's the +timid, shrinking, home-loving girl that makes this +mistake. You must face it now. You are responsible as +deeply and truly as the man who married you. That he +happened at that moment to be a brute and a criminal is +no more his fault than yours. It was YOUR business +to KNOW before you made him the father of your +child." + +"I tried to appeal to his better nature that awful +night," Mary interrupted, "but he only laughed at me!" + +"You owe him another trial, little mother--you owe +it to his boy, too." + +Mary shook her head bitterly. + +"I can't--I just can't!" + +"You won't see him once?" + +She sprang to her feet trembling. + +"No--no!" + +"I don't think it's fair." + +"I'm afraid of him! You can't understand his power +over my will." + +"Come, come, this is sheer cowardice--give the +devil his dues. Face him and fight it out. Tell him +you're done forever with him and his life, if you +will--but don't hedge and trim and run away like this. +I'm ashamed of you." + +"I won't see him--I've made up my mind." + +The Doctor threw up both hands. + +"All right. If you won't, you won't. We'll let it +go at that." + +He paused and changed his tones to friendly +personal interest. + +"And you're determined to leave me and take my kid +away tomorrow?" + +"We must go. I've no money to pay my board. I +can't impose on you----" + +"It's going to be awfully lonely." + +He looked at her with a strange, deep gaze, lifted +his stooping shoulders with sudden resolution and +changed his manner to light banter. + +"I suppose I couldn't persuade you to give me that +boy?" + +She smiled tenderly. + +"You know his father did leave his mark on him +after all! The eyes are all his. Of course, I will +admit that those drooping lids have often been the mark +of genius--perhaps a genius for evil in this case. If +you don't want to take the risk--now's your chance. I +will----" + +Mary shook her head in reproachful protest. + +"Don't tease me, dear doctor man. I've just this +one day more with you. I'm counting each precious +hour." + +"Forgive me!" he cried gayly. "I won't tease you +any more. Come, we'll run over now and see our +neighbor's new bungalow before you go. You admire this +one and threaten to duplicate it. He has built a +better one." + +"I don't believe it." + +"You'll go?" + +"If you wish it----" + +"Good. We'll take the boy, too. He can drive his +new wagon the whole way. It's only half a mile. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + +THE NEW MAN + +The door of the bungalow stood wide open. Mary paused +in rapture over the rich beds of wood violets that +carpeted the spaces between the drive and the log +walls. + +"Aren't they beautiful!" she cried. "A perfect +carpet of dazzling green and purple!" + +"Come right in," the Doctor urged from the steps. +"My neighbor's a patient of mine. He hasn't moved in +yet but he told me always to make myself at home." + +Mary lifted the boy from his wagon, tied the goat +and led the child into the house. The Doctor showed +her through without comment. None was needed. The +woman's keen eye saw at a glance the perfection of care +with which the master builder had wrought the slightest +detail of every room. The floors were immaculate +native hard-wood--its grain brought out through shining +mirrors of clean varnish. There was not one shoddy +piece of work from the kitchen sink to the big +open fireplace in the spacious hall and living-room. + +"It's exquisite!" she exclaimed at last. "It seems +all hand-made--doesn't it?" + +"It is, too. The owner literally built it with his +own hands--a work of love." + +"For himself?" Mary asked with a smile. + +"For the woman he loves, of course! My neighbor's +a sort of crank and insisted on expressing himself in +this way. Come, I want you to see two rooms upstairs." + +He led her into the room Jim had built for his +wife. + +"Observe this furniture, if you please." + +"Don't tell me that he built that too?" she +laughed. + +"That's exactly what I'm going to tell you." + +"Impossible!" she protested. "Why, the line and +finish would do credit to the finest artisan in +America." + +"So I say. Look at the perfect polish of that +table! It's like the finish of a rosewood piano." He +touched the smooth surface. + +"Of course you're joking?" Mary answered. "No +amateur could have done such work." + +"So I'd have said if I had not seen him do +it." + +"What on earth possessed him to undertake such a +task?" + +"The love of a beautiful woman--what else?" + +"He learned a trade--just to furnish this room with +his own hand?" + +"Yes." + +"His love must be the real thing," she mused. + +"That's what I've said. Look at this iron work, +too--the stately andirons in that big fireplace, the +shovel, the tongs, and the massive strop-hinges on the +doors." + +"He did that, too?" she asked in amazement. + +"Every piece of iron on the place he beat out with +his own hand at his forge." + +"And all for the love of a woman? The age of +romance hasn't passed after all, has it?" + +"No." + +Mary paused before the window looking south. + +"What a glorious view!" she cried. "It's even +grander than yours, Doctor." + +"Yes. I claim some of the credit, though, for +that. I helped him lay out the grounds." + +"Who is this remarkable man?" she asked at last. + +"A friend of mine. I'll introduce him directly. +He should be here at any moment now." + +"We're intruding," Mary whispered. "We must +go. I mustn't look any more. I'll be coveting my +neighbor's house." + +The doctor turned to the window and signaled to +someone on the lawn, as Mary hurried down the stairs. + +She fairly ran into Jim, who was being pulled into +the house by the boy. + +"'Ook, Mamma! 'Ook! I found a Daddy! He says he +be my Daddy if you let him. Please let him. I want a +Daddy, an' I like him. Please!" + +Jim blushed and trembled and lifted his eyes +appealingly, while Mary stood white and still watching +him in a sort of helpless terror. + +The child moved on to his wagon. + +"Say, little girl," Jim began in low tones, "it's +been a thousand years since I saw you. Don't drive me +away--just give me one chance for God's sake and this +baby's that He sent us! I've gone straight. I've sent +back every dishonest dollar. I'm earning a clean +living down here and a good one. I've practiced for +two years cutting out the slang, too." + +He paused for breath and she turned her head away. + +"Just listen a minute! I know I was a beast that +night. I'm not the same now. I've been through the +fires of hell and I've come out a cleaner man. +Let me show you how much I love you! Life's too +short, but just give me a chance. If I could undo that +awful hour when I hurt you so, I'd crawl 'round the +world on my hands and knees--and I'll show you that I +mean it! I built this house for you and the baby." + +Mary turned suddenly with wide dilated eyes. + +"You--YOU built this house?" she gasped. + +"I've worked on it every hour, day and night, the +past two years when I wasn't earning a living in the +mine. I made every stick of that furniture in the +rooms up there--for you and my boy. The house is +yours--whether you let me stay or not." + +"I--I can't take it, Jim," she faltered. + +"You've got to, girlie. You can't throw a gift +like this back in a fellow's face--it cost too much! +Your money's all gone. You've got to bring up that +kid. He's mine, too. I'm man enough to support my +wife and baby and I'm going to do it. I don't care +what you say. You've got to let me. I'm going to work +for you, live for you and die for you--whether you stay +with me or not. I've got the right to do that, you know." + +She lifted her head and faced him squarely for the +first time, amazed at the new dignity and strength of +his quiet bearing. + +"You HAVE changed, Jim----" + +Her eyes sought the depths of his soul in a +moment's silence, and she slowly extended her hand: + +"We'll try again!" + +He bent and kissed the tips of her fingers reverently. + +They stood for a moment hand in hand and looked +over the sunlit valley of the Swannanoa shimmering in +peace and beauty between its sheltering walls of blue +mountains. The bees were humming spring music among +the flowers at their feet and the faint odor of fruit +trees in blossom came from the orchard Jim had planted +two years before. + +"I'll show you, little girl--I'll show you!" he whispered tensely. + + + + + +The Project Gutenberg Etext The Foolish Virgin, by Thomas Dixon + diff --git a/old/fvrgn10.zip b/old/fvrgn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b2443f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fvrgn10.zip |