diff options
Diffstat (limited to '22285.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 22285.txt | 5440 |
1 files changed, 5440 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/22285.txt b/22285.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d72b73 --- /dev/null +++ b/22285.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5440 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An American Suffragette, by Isaac N. Stevens + +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: An American Suffragette + +Author: Isaac N. Stevens + +Release Date: August 9, 2007 [EBook #22285] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AMERICAN SUFFRAGETTE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +AN AMERICAN SUFFRAGETTE + +A NOVEL +By +ISAAC N. STEVENS + +Author of "The Liberators," "Popular Government +Essays," etc. + +New York +William Rickey & Company +1911 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Copyright, 1911, by +William Rickey & Company + +Registered at Stationers' Hall, London +(All Rights Reserved) + +Printed in the United States of America + +PRESS OF WILLIAM G. HEWITT, 61-67 NAVY ST., BROOKLYN, N. Y. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +DEDICATION + +To those noble and courageous women of England and America who are +trying to demonstrate to the world that Civilization cannot reach the +supreme heights of progress without giving freedom to the mental, +spiritual and physical energies of women, and that government will +always lack a vital element in its functions, so long as women are +deprived of equal participation in its operations--THIS BOOK IS +RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + "But life shall on and upward go; + Th' eternal step of Progress beats + To that great anthem, calm and slow, + Which God repeats." + + --Whittier. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. A DOCTOR RETURNS FROM INDIA 1 + II. A MYSTICAL PARADE 15 + III. THE MYSTERIOUS YOUNG WOMAN 22 + IV. A SUFFRAGE BAZAAR AND BALL 33 + V. HYPNOTISM USED FOR AN ANAESTHETIC 46 + VI. SOME STRENUOUS ANTI-SUFFRAGISTS 56 + VII. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SURGERY 61 + VIII. THE OMNIPRESENT EYES OF FIFTH AVENUE 74 + IX. LOVE, JEALOUSY AND MUSIC 82 + X. A DISCUSSION OF PROGRESSIVE WOMEN 91 + XI. THE ADVANCING COLUMN OF DEMOCRACY 99 + XII. A TUBERCULAR KNEE AND A WORRIED SURGEON 117 + XIII. AN ANTI-SUFFRAGE MEETING 125 + XIV. FAITH IS THE BASIS OF ALL PROGRESS 140 + XV. AN EVIL PROPHECY BEGINS TO BEAR FRUIT 154 + XVI. THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER OF EMMA BELL 164 + XVII. THE ARREST OF DR. JOHN EARL 180 +XVIII. DR. EARL IS INDICTED FOR MURDER 194 + XIX. A GREAT MURDER TRIAL BEGINS 199 + XX. A WOMAN AND SPOOKS FIND A LETTER 211 + XXI. SILVIA HOLLAND'S GREAT PLEA TO THE JURY 225 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +AN AMERICAN SUFFRAGETTE + +CHAPTER I + +A DOCTOR RETURNS FROM INDIA + + +Among the hundreds of people who were awaiting the arrival of the big +Cunarder there were two groups, the second of which seemed determined +that the first should not get far away. The young men of which this +second group was composed represented the various newspapers of New York +City, and while a "beat" was evidently impossible, each of them was +determined to get a line for his own journal from the returning hero, +Dr. John Earl, which he would not share with the others of the +fraternity, and several of them held anxious consultations with their +photographers who, by special permit, had been allowed upon the pier. + +The other group had moved a number of times to escape the cameras, and a +red-haired youth was expatiating upon the glories of American scientific +achievement, concluding with a peroration that called forth an +exclamation from one of the older men: + +"Oh, shut up, Bedford; you sound like a Fourth of July oration. Who are +the people you are trying to snapshot for your lurid sheet?" he said +wearily, as becomes a Chicago newspaper man when in New York. + +The red-headed one looked at him with cheerful surprise. "Don't you know +anybody?" he asked. "The tall, handsome blonde is Mrs. Ramsey, wife of +George Ramsey, at whose frown the great gods sit tight and the little +ones scuttle to cover. Luckily, he is a kindly disposed arbiter and the +Street basks under his smile." + +The Chicagoan turned and looked at the lady curiously, and the reporter +went on: "The fair-haired lady with the wild-rose face is old Gordon +Kimball's daughter; born with a diamond teething ring in her mouth, but +has never succeeded in getting anything else of value inside her pretty +head." + +"Well, she doesn't have to," said the Westerner. + +Young Bedford grinned. "That's what Dr. Earl thinks; he can furnish +brains for the family. Their engagement was reported two months ago. The +man with them is Earl's brother, Frank Earl, corporation lawyer, amateur +actor, one of those guys that does everything well, and never gives away +his own hand. Go after him for a story about some combination his road +has gone into and you come away with a great spiel about bumper crops; +always gives you the glad hand, but nothing in it. You'd never take him +for Mrs. Ramsey's brother, would you? She's a looker, all right. So is +Dr. Earl, one of these big, handsome, powerful-looking men that makes +folks ask who he is." + +"What's all the hullabaloo about, anyhow?" asked the Chicago man. + +"Where have you been that you don't know about Earl?" answered Bedford. +"Why, I thought everybody in the country had heard of him. He's the chap +that raises the dead, you know; just takes 'em by the hand, makes a few +passes, and says, 'Say, it's time to wake up, old fellow,' and the dead +one sits up and asks for beefsteak. He's the man that saved Hall, the +copper mines king, over in Paris. Hall was finished, all done but +putting him in a box, when in comes Dr. Earl. 'Let him alone,' he says. +'He's tired out. When he finishes this nap he'll be just as good as +new.' But you know how impetuous the French are, and they were going to +have poor old Hall done for, sure enough, when this Earl man stands them +off, and promises to bring Hall 'round in six hours. And he does it +after the whole bunch of them have parleyed over him and waved +looking-glasses across his mouth, and found him as dead as Rameses." + +There was a general buzz among the newspaper men, and one of them, older +and more dignified in manner than the others, said quietly, "Bedford, +you ought not to hand out that kind of fiction, even in your unreliable +journal." + +Bedford winked slyly at the Chicagoan. "It was my only hope," he said in +a rapid aside. "That's Tourney. He was over there at the time, and he'll +tell us all about it trying to put me right." + +"If you don't like my story you can give us the straight steer yourself, +Tourney," he said, and, nothing loath, the older man told how Hall had +been suddenly stricken with appendicitis in such severe form that an +operation was necessary at once. Upon this the French surgeons agreed, +but his heart action was so bad that they dared not administer an +anaesthetic, and one of them, who was a noted hypnotist, expressed a +doubt whether he would be able to rouse the patient from a hypnosis +sufficiently profound to enable them to perform the operation. + +"This Frenchman," Tourney went on, warming to his subject, "had seen +Earl do some wonderful things and he knew he was in Paris and where he +was stopping. He put the case to Hall, and seeing that it was all day +with him unless something was done, he told them to send for Earl and +they got him there on the double-quick. I was waiting in the hall when +he went into the operating room and I stayed there until he came out, +and as I had done him one or two good turns he told me about it before +he realized that I was a newspaper man. When he saw me last I was +coaching Harvard students with more money than brains. That has nothing +to do with it, except to show that he isn't one of these 'for +publication only' wonder workers." + +"Hurry up," said the Chicagoan, "he'll be here in a few minutes, and if +he's one of these human clams you are the hope of the press. What did he +tell you?" + +"He agreed with the others in the main points, but he said if Hall was +willing to take the chance, he believed he could pull him through by a +system he had seen used in India. Then he cleared them all out, and when +they came back Hall was comatose. The appendix was removed in record +time, and the wound cleansed. Just before Earl finished, one of the +Frenchmen noticed that the patient was not breathing, apparently, and +exclaimed that he was dead. Dr. Earl pointed out the fact that the blood +showed no signs of other than a normal condition, such as would be found +in a patient under hypnosis. His idea, as I got it, was that the patient +must be kept unconscious long enough for the body to regain its +functions and get over the strain of the operation. He told them if he +were more familiar with Hall's constitution, he would be inclined to +prolong his condition of suspended animation, but under the +circumstances he would restore him to consciousness in three hours. + +"One or two of them got excited and swore the man was dead, and +according to a lot of tests he was, but the rest, knowing he would have +died anyhow, were willing to wait, and at the end of the time Earl +brought him back to consciousness in such good condition that the other +doctors were wild over it. In their enthusiastic French way they +heralded the story everywhere. I thought he'd never be allowed to leave +Paris. They wanted to keep him right there and string medals around his +neck and pin ribbons all over his coat, but he wouldn't stand for it. +He's an awfully modest fellow, and he went over to London with Hall, who +swears by him; says he believes he put a new heart in him, and all that +sort of thing. There comes the boat now. Better have your photographers +ready, for all you'll get will be a picture of him keeping his mouth +shut." + +As the big English boat swung slowly into its dock, with the help of +half a dozen tugs that puffed and pounded at its side, the newspaper men +and Dr. Earl's family caught sight of him simultaneously, as he waved +his hand and called across the intervening space with all the abandon +of a returning traveler. + +He could make them hear now. "Leonora, dear, how are you!" as a +remarkably sweet-faced girl threw a shower of kisses in his direction, +which passed on their way an equal number of his own. "And Hilda! And +for the life of me, there's Frank! Love to all of you!" A few minutes +more and he was with them. He caught the girl in his arms and gave her a +long and tender embrace. Then he turned to the others and greeted them +with all the fraternal warmth natural after eighteen months' separation. + +"How splendid it is to see you all again! What brought you to New York, +Frank?" + +"Oh, just to see if I could cross Broadway without being bumped into by +a trolley car or a taxi-cab or an airship. Incidentally, to keep you +from losing your breath and hearing in the new tunnels through which you +will be shot under these New York rivers." + +"Tubes, you mean, brother dear, tubes. I've been doing nothing else but +shoot the London tubes for the last fortnight." + +"Where I live, in the wild and woolly Rockies, we call them tunnels," +answered his brother. "Wouldn't the railroad builder howl at the idea +of 'tubing the mountains,' and the miner would have a war-dance of +delight at the suggestion that he must 'tube his claim.' These English +airs are all right, Dr. John Earl, but you may as well learn to talk +real American if you expect to chop bones and exploit microbes in this +country," and the young man glowed his admiration while plying him with +badinage. + +The first greetings were scarcely over when the newspaper men made known +their mission, Tourney acting as spokesman for them all. Earl shook his +hand warmly. + +"I'm awfully glad to see you," he said, "but you know I never give +interviews. I don't know how, to begin with, and I couldn't say anything +that would interest your readers. I have come back to practice my +profession in New York City; that is all I can tell you." + +"But that Paris case," pleaded Bedford. "Do tell us about that." + +"Did you use the Hindoo method of respiration that the Swami +Bramachunenda gave an exposition of here two or three years ago?" asked +another of the fraternity, and the others followed with different +interrogatives, but Earl laughed and waved them all away. + +"I don't know what the Swami did," he said, "but if he is like some of +his brothers I'm ready to believe anything. All that I did, and a great +deal that I never thought of doing myself, or heard of anybody else +doing on this planet, was told in your papers at the time. Really, if I +had anything worth your while as a news story I would be glad to give it +to you--one of these days I may have, but you must excuse me now." + +His manner was courteous but unmistakable, and turning away from them he +was soon absorbed in conversation with the pretty girl and his brother +and sister. He hardly took his eyes off the former as he recounted his +adventures abroad. + +Three months previously he and Leonora Kimball had been betrothed in +Vienna, and it was agreed that they were to be married soon after his +arrival home. In a social way, the match met the approval of New York's +select set, for they belonged to equally wealthy and prominent families. +The Earls had come to New York from New England, two generations ago, +and the foundation of the family fortune had been laid in a small block +of New York, New Haven and Hartford stock, which had grown into a huge +block of both stocks and bonds from the various expansions of stock and +consolidations of property that had meanwhile taken place. The Kimballs +had come from the Pacific coast, where the same alchemist's result had +been wrought with a block of Southern Pacific Railway stock. The family +tree of the Earls had rooted itself into the subsoil of real culture, +while that of the Kimballs was mostly displayed above ground with only +here and there a stray fibre that had sunk to any depth. + +Leonora Kimball, who at this time was slightly over twenty-three years +of age, possessed a most winning and gracious manner--a face that might +have served as a better model for a madonna than many of those +apparently used by the old masters; a lithe and graceful figure and an +abundance of vivacity when doing the things that pleased her. She had so +captivated John Earl from their first meeting that he had never tried +nor cared to analyze her. Indeed, had he so wished, he would have found +it a difficult undertaking, for he was too content with the pleasure he +felt in her presence to care to question it. + +Dr. Earl had taken infinite pains to search the world for the sources of +disease and its prevention and cure. He had delved deeply into the +mysteries of mental and spiritual therapeutics, and had closely studied +the influences surrounding the origin of individual human beings. But +while he had harnessed many more or less occult forces into scientific +service in treating invalids, strangely enough, it never occurred to him +that similar elements might have an important mission in determining the +natural affinity of those attracted by the tenderest passion in the +world, and might do much, if properly regarded, to render stable that +one-time sacred bond of the sexes known as the marriage relation, which +at this time, everywhere, was resting upon such shifting quicksands of +mismating as to menace its existence. + +"Love is of man's life a thing apart," applied with full force to Dr. +Earl, and he accepted his relations with Leonora Kimball with the same +confidence and light heart that might characterize the least thoughtful +man on Manhattan Island. While he had traveled many thousands of miles +and burned many a midnight lamp to ascertain if improvement could not be +made in the prevailing orthodox method of treating disease, he blindly +accepted, as millions of strong men before him had done, the prevailing +orthodox method of selecting a wife. + +In any event, after the brother and sister had been left at the Ramsey +mansion on upper Fifth Avenue, he and Leonora proceeded to spend the +time from eleven to three o'clock very much as other lovers similarly +situated would have consumed those four hours. They motored until one +o'clock, when they went to her house, not far from his sister's +residence, where he had luncheon with her and her widowed mother, and at +three o'clock he arrived at the Hotel Gotham, where he had engaged +apartments. + +When he stepped into his new sitting-room a large photograph of Leonora +confronted him on the dressing-case, his valet being a man of rare sense +and tact. + +As he looked into the counterfeit impression of the large blue eyes and +reflected back her smile he declared to himself for the twentieth time +that day that she was the most fascinating creature in the world. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A MYSTICAL PARADE + + +When Dr. Earl arrived at his hotel he noticed crowds of people gathering +on the sidewalk, and lining up along the curbstone further down the +avenue, evidently expecting a parade of some sort. He had dismissed the +matter from his mind and was startled about an hour later to hear the +tap of a drum on the street, then a martial air by a band, followed by +the clatter of horses' hoofs and the shouts of policemen clearing the +way. Throwing open a window, he witnessed a sight that dazed him for a +moment, and he wondered whether or not he really was in an American +city. + +As if by magic, the street was now filled with women, arranging +themselves in marching order, with the shout of command ringing clear +upon the air, and down Fifth Avenue as far as he could see, other +columns of women were forming to the strains of military music and to +the stirring echoes of fife and drum. + +He grabbed his hat and stick, and joined the throng that packed the +sidewalk. His six feet of height and his athletic training rendered him +good service in ascertaining where to go and making it possible to get +there. He hurried along several blocks until he reached what he thought +must be the leading column of the march. Then he elbowed his way to the +curbstone and took up a position to witness this, as yet, mysterious +demonstration. + +The air was sharp for a day late in April, but the sky was clear and the +sun shed occasional rays of splendor over some of the lower buildings +upon the waiting multitude. + +The crowd was remarkably quiet. There seemed to be a spell over the +whole performance that savored of some of the wonders he had so recently +witnessed in India. There was something electric in the air that brought +with it an echo from some distant past or a promise for the future which +he tried in vain to catch and recognize. + +Finally the order, "Forward, march!" was given, and to the air of +"Marching Through Georgia" the first column swung down the Avenue with +easy grace and in perfect step. + +Long before the first standard came near he knew it was a Woman +Suffrage parade, and before he could get a view of the women carrying +it, he read the inscription on the banner: + + Forward out of Error, + Leave behind the night; + Forward through the darkness, + Forward into Light. + +Then the standard bearers were opposite him. The one nearest to him was +an exceedingly pretty young woman, as was also the second one, but as +his eyes rested upon the one farthest away he gave a startled +exclamation that attracted the attention of those around him. + +"My mystery! Again she has dropped from the clouds!" The object of his +interest was a tall young woman, scarcely more than twenty-five years of +age, gowned in white cloth with black trimmings, with a white hat turned +straight up on the left side and lined in black. She showed grace and +energy in every movement and intellect and force in every glance. + +Her large, sapphire-blue eyes gleamed with the intensity of her +feelings, and the touches of bronze hair that could be seen beneath her +hat gave evidence of the vivacious character of her life. + +As she marched with queenly grace at the head of this mighty host of six +thousand American women, Dr. Earl had visions of the reality of the myth +or history, whichever it may be, of Semiramis invading Assyria and the +Amazons conquering Asia. + +The entire line of march was no doubt interesting, but the head of the +column was absorbing to our hero, so block after block he marched as +nearly abreast of the banner on the sidewalk as a dense crowd would +permit him, and when the column broke ranks at Union Square he was there +to witness it. + +No sooner did the mysterious banner bearer quit the march than she +rushed to the custodian of the posters, and, gathering an armful, she +coaxed, or with mock heroics terrorized, every person she approached +into buying one for "the good of the Cause!" + +Earl was certain his heart would never beat again when she asked him in +deep, musical tones to "Please buy one for the Cause." He did so, and +loitered around watching her a few moments longer, then started up +Broadway. + +When he swung into Fifth Avenue he was impressed again, as he had been +when he came from the boat, with the changed atmosphere of the street. +He had always read the mood of New York in its silent reflection in this +expressive part of the city's physiognomy. Long ago, he had discovered +that Fifth Avenue smiles or weeps, applauds or hisses, effervesces with +enthusiasm or gazes somberly like the image of despair, revels in +fervent expressions of patriotism or looks with gloomy distrust upon +public affairs--all according to the mood of the dominant portion of New +York's population--those who control the destinies of the huge private +enterprises that are the marvel of the age, and the management of which +means so much in the way of industrial slavery or economic freedom to +the American people. + +This evening there was a note of more seriousness in the air than he had +ever before witnessed on this gay thoroughfare. The rush of automobiles +and taxicabs and carriages with beautifully gowned women and +fine-looking men as occupants was as great as ever; the perfectly +groomed New York woman on the sidewalk, with figure and carriage such as +outclasses the women of every other large city in the world, was there +in numbers quite as great as formerly; the Western woman, who had come +on to take New York by storm, or who imagined the acme of human +existence was in New York cafe life, with all of its vulgar display and +raucous manners, was abundantly in evidence. + +But over the entire concourse there appeared to drift an atmosphere of +the spiritual, which lifted them from the plane of the Fifth Avenue +crowd of a year and a half before, and impressed him in the same manner +that he had been impressed in the far East by adepts when they gave +public demonstrations of their powers, or conversed with their Chelae +without the medium of written or spoken language. + +When he left America the woman suffrage movement in New York was a +subject of more or less ridicule; a few wealthy women had begun to +identify themselves with it, but they were called "faddists" and their +efforts were not taken seriously. It was apparent now that the suffrage +cause had been given the impetus of the world-wide movement that was +reaching the women of all countries, and had changed from a gospel of +tracts to a militant crusade for their share of the duties and +responsibilities of life and the power properly to discharge them. Never +had he seen so many of the real leaders of New York society engaged in +any work, charitable or otherwise, as had taken part in this parade, +marching on foot the full two miles, and often side by side with the +working-women of the city. + +He had once seen a painting of the Maid of Orleans in a foreign gallery +that carried so much of spiritual earnestness that he felt that he could +appreciate how easy it was for the French army instinctively to follow +her lead, and how much easier it was for the poor dupes of ignorance and +superstition to believe that this overmastering spiritual nature was the +product of witchcraft. + +Absorbing though these thoughts were, they did not exclude another train +which had to do with the mysterious banner bearer, and as he entered his +hotel he clenched his right hand suddenly and muttered to himself, "I +must dismiss her from my thoughts." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MYSTERIOUS YOUNG WOMAN + + +Dr. Earl took a late dinner at his sister's house, after having spent an +hour with his fiancee on the way. There were just the four of them at +table, his sister and her husband, his brother and himself. + +His sister was the oldest member of his family, which comprised but the +three of them, his father and mother having died some years before. + +During the college days of both himself and his brother, who was two +years his junior, his sister had assumed the role of a mother to them, +and right devotedly had she filled the part. She had been more of a +"pal" to them than anything else, and some years' residence in England +during her schooldays had broadened her vision of the true meaning and +value of this relation between those of opposite sex and particularly +between brother and sister. + +She possessed now, as always, the unbounded respect and confidence of +these two young men of thoroughly dissimilar character and temperament, +and she was the repository of the sacred secrets of each of them, which +she was warned she must never betray to the other. And she never did. + +Eight years previous to these occurrences, she had married George +Ramsey, President of the Gotham Trust Company, which institution had +recently absorbed half a dozen weaker concerns doing a similar business, +and more recently had taken over from the New York bankers, who were +stockholders in the trust company, the handling of most of the public +utility securities that were floated in this country. But George Ramsey +was not the pretentious pawnbroker in spirit and manner that so often +presides over the destinies of American banks, but he was a +philosophical financier who understood perfectly the strength and +weakness of the system under which he worked, and who, while he wondered +at the supine idiocy of the people that would permit of the prevailing +Dick Turpin methods of high finance, never took his eye from the horizon +of public action, where daily he expected to see "the cloud no bigger +than a man's hand" that was to expand into the storm that would engulf +these and other long permitted public ills. + +Many times recently he had sounded the alarm of the dangers attending +recapitalization of properties that already bore a heavy weight of +watered securities, but his colleagues had laughed at what they termed +his fears, and had attempted to reassure him of their complete +possession of the departments of government that controlled such +matters. Bred to the banking business, he had no thought of transferring +his abilities and energies to the realm of statesmanship, but in the +sanctum of his own home he would often pour forth his disgust with, and +his fear of, such methods, to the tall, clear-eyed, clear-brained and +beautiful woman from whom John and Frank Earl were wont to seek advice +in their perplexities. And from her he always received valuable +suggestions, a keener insight into the motives of men, a broader, more +humane view-point, and withal a firmness to set himself, in part, where +the law of the land should have been set wholly, as a barrier against +the worst of these public depredations. + +Mr. and Mrs. George Ramsey were the same lovers now that they were +during their honeymoon. In the crowded ballroom, at the opera, in the +automobile after the harassing cares of the day, on land or sea, he was +always the admiring and devoted attendant, and gave expression to his +feelings in a variety of new and interesting ways. It was evident that +they had not run counter to the influence of the stars in waiting for a +natural affinity. In their home they entered into the spirit of whatever +was borne to them by their guests. With scholars and philosophers they +held their own in abstruse and abstract discussions. With musicians and +music lovers they were at ease, for both played and sang with more than +amateur skill. With young people bent on a frolic, they could be the +gayest of the party. Their outlook upon life was always across green +meadows or perfectly kept beds of beautiful flowers. + +Every guest found ready sympathy for whatever was nearest and dearest to +him, and went away convinced that he had never rightly understood his +own hobby before. + +In this atmosphere, and at table with this couple, John and Frank Earl +seated themselves at eight o'clock for dinner. + +It would be difficult to imagine two brothers more widely separated in +physical and mental characteristics. John was tall, athletic, with dark +hair, large, dreamy brown eyes, perfect poise, a silent and dignified +bearing that easily commanded attention when he spoke, a low, musical +voice and an exceedingly strong and graceful hand. + +Frank was of medium height, spare of figure, with light hair, +penetrating blue eyes, resilient voice, quick and nervous of speech, +with large hands and feet, and not a shadow of dignity in his bearing. + +The one personified reflection; the other action. In the eyes of one +appeared the dreams of centuries; beaming from the eyes of the other was +the fun of the ages. + +"Did any of you people, aside from Jack, see the suffragette parade +to-day?" asked Frank, with laughing eyes fixed upon his brother. + +"I--how do you know I saw it?" asked John, and his confused manner +brought "Eh, Jack?" from the other two. + +"It's all right, Jack; I won't tell Leonora, but how jealous she would +be if she could have seen you following the banner carried by those +three pretty girls," answered Frank. "Why, I followed you a dozen blocks +myself, almost touching you the whole time, just to see which one of the +three girls was making you join the parade. The next time get right out +into the street, old man, and don't block the view of us spectators, for +you know you were a part of that parade to-day, in mind at least." + +The absurdity of the scene as depicted by Frank made even John throw +back his head and join in the unrestrained laughter of the others. + +"I was in the Waldorf-Astoria at a tea-table near the window when the +head of the column came in view. I, too, liked the looks of those pretty +girls carrying the banner, but before I could decide which one I liked +best, my dearly beloved brother hove in sight, with eyes glued on the +third one, wandering down the Avenue like either a slow-hatching lunatic +or a good subject for a hypnotist. I knew Jack would need me in New York +to steer him right until all that Indian mysticism gets out of his +system, and that is the reason I left the delights of the wilds for the +barbarism of the city. Well, I excused myself and hurried out to take +possession of Jack, but when I got close to him and was just about to +slap him on the shoulder, I followed his eyes--and for the life of me, I +couldn't touch him!" + +Here Frank's tone became half serious and his changed manner hushed the +laughter of the others. "I have always ridiculed the idea of hypnotism +and in every experiment where I have been present I have set myself to +disprove its effects. But candidly, folks, I was hypnotized. +Unconsciously I followed that parade a whole dozen blocks myself, and +when I finally came out of the trance, or whatever it was, and started +back to the hotel, the entire atmosphere seemed filled with some kind of +uncanny dope. I never witnessed such contagious energy and earnestness, +and every step emanated spiritual sparks that blinded my eyes and took +possession of my faculties. Who is she, Jack?" + +"That is what I want to know. I call her my 'Mystery.' One day while I +was in London and near Trafalgar Square I saw a demonstration of women +down toward the parliament buildings. I went that way to see what was up +and soon discovered that it was a body of English suffragettes making an +attempt to exercise their claimed right to petition parliament. As +usual, the demonstration was more or less strenuous and the police +interfered. When I got close enough to identify them, I saw my 'Mystery' +in the front ranks, exhorting the women, protesting and pleading with +the policemen, and gradually getting nearer and nearer the parliament +buildings until they had almost reached one of the entrances. It looked +very much as if they might get entirely in and vindicate their claim, +but just at that moment a fresh squad of police arrived under an officer +superior to any present, and ordered the arrest of the leaders. My +'Mystery' was the first arrested. It was then that I discovered that she +was an American girl. The speech she delivered to those police officers +on human rights and human liberties and women's rights and women's +liberties is worthy a place among the world's great orations. They took +her and the rest of them away, but I noticed that they treated her with +marked respect. I don't think any of them were jailed on that occasion, +but she defied them to jail her. The next time I saw her was at the +Grand Opera House in Paris, two months later. She was with some friends +in an adjoining stall. It was a gala performance for the benefit of the +flood sufferers and the most noted singers in the world had volunteered +their services, and single acts from a number of operas were given. It +was difficult to believe that this beautiful, stylish, richly-gowned +girl was the one I saw arrested in a suffrage disturbance on the streets +of London. Throughout the performance I watched her closely, and her +expressive face reflected the emotion of every leading role. She partook +of the abandon of the gayer airs in 'Carmen,' and her cheeks were +flooded with tears at the misfortunes of Marguerite in 'Faust.' I was +dying to know who she was, but I was with foreign surgeons, and saw no +Americans that I knew. To-day is the first time I have seen her since. +Who is she, Hilda?" eagerly he asked of his sister. + +"You and Frank give me a lot of exclamation points, with a vivid +description of how the atmosphere affected you, and then want me to name +a vision for you. Please describe the physical girl, leaving out all +adjectives, mystical pieces of air, _et cetera_, and perhaps I can tell +who she is." + +Jack described the girl in the parade, somewhat repressing his +enthusiasm under Frank's amused scrutiny. + +"I don't wonder at your captivation. That is Silvia Holland, one rich +American girl who is determined to justify her existence, live a life +that is worth while, and demonstrate the ability of women to be +economically independent, for although her father has a half-dozen city, +country and resort residences, she insists in maintaining at her own +expense a modest apartment in the Whittier Studios, and keeps up her own +country home on the Hudson at Nutwood. Just now her parents are on a +trip around the world. You know she is a graduate of the law school at +Columbia and was admitted to practice a few months ago. You should thank +your stars, Jack, that it is not the medical profession she is seeking +to enter, or the dry bones there would be worse shaken up than they will +be by your new theories, and you would have a formidable rival." + +"She is not the daughter of John J. Holland, the steel magnate?" he +inquired. + +"Yes, his daughter and only child." + +"Whew! There is hope of the American woman after all. There certainly is +a big social revolution on in America," and Jack arose with the others +to go into the library for coffee. + +"It might interest you young men to know that these suffragists are to +finish their day's work with a ball and a bazaar to-night, and I have +tickets for a box," suggested Hilda. + +"Of course Jack can't go, but I shall be delighted to bask in the smiles +of this modern Semiramis a while," answered Frank. "Then, too," he +added, "she may convert me to suffrage, which living in Colorado among +suffragists for two years has failed to do." + +"Oh, that is because you are looking at the matter through a railroad +attorney's eyes; long ago it was truly written that 'no man can serve +two masters,' and your railroad employment is your master just now," +answered his sister. + +"I have heard reports that indicate that woman's suffrage in Colorado is +apt quite soon to cause not only you railroad lawyers but our holders of +railroad securities some concern about the quantity of water we inject +into any one issue of stocks and bonds," laughingly suggested Mr. +Ramsey. + +"Come, gentlemen, your charming Amazon will not stay up all night, and +it is ten-thirty now," called Hilda, who had already garbed herself for +the automobile. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SUFFRAGE BAZAAR AND BALL + + +A suffrage bazaar does not differ essentially from the same iniquity +under other auspices. There are the same useless articles for sale and +the same aggressive methods of disposing of them; the same varieties of +fancy work, knit, embroidered, drawn, quartered and crocheted; the same +display of canned goods and home-made jellies and feminine apparel; the +same raffles and "drawings" and "chances" by which churches have long +conducted their clerical lotteries; the same side-shows and the same +appeal to the social world to come and mingle with the "high-brows" and +be fashionably robbed. + +Only in this instance far more ingenuity had been displayed in the +number and nature of the side attractions. There were guessing machines +where the cocksure were reduced to humbleness of mind by their failures +to state accurately the number of women voting in the world or some +section thereof; the number of countries that have recently swung into +line in the woman movement; the number of subjects reigned over by +women, and similar questions, all of which proved "extra hazardous" to +most of the guessers. Many of them did not even know what the five stars +on the suffrage flag indicated. + +They had a row of Chinese examination booths, in which persons wishing a +certificate of "Efficient Citizenship" were given blanks to fill out, in +which they revealed their knowledge, or their crass ignorance, of +conditions in various parts of their own country. Mrs. Jarley conducted +a wax-works performance, and there was a moving-picture show in which +Mrs. Cornelia Gracchus, the favorite example of the "Antis," was shown +lecturing in the Forum on medicine to grave and reverend seigneurs, Joan +of Arc leading her troops, and Florence Nightingale bending over the +sick and wounded. + +An educated pig told the uneducated person in how many States women have +full suffrage, and which they are; where suffrage campaigns are pending, +and the names of the distinguished Americans who have gone on record in +favor of this reform. A Street of All Nations showed the onward march, +all the way from the women of Washington casting their "recall" ballots +to the women of China unbinding their feet, and Turkish ladies tearing +their veils into tatters. + +Dancing was going on in an adjoining room, but the crowd was so great +that it was impossible to even locate Jack's "Mystery," so Frank turned +his attention to a row of booths, draped in black, with silver +astrological symbols, palmist signs and two flaming aces of hearts and +diamonds, where past, present and future were revealed at very +reasonable prices--considering. "Me for the astrologist," he said. +"Jack, go in at the sign of the glowing heart and find out whether Venus +is going to be good to you, and then we can swap experiences." + +"I think I'll try the palmist," Jack replied. "If it's even moderately +well done it is interesting," and the two brothers disappeared into the +cavelike apertures before them. Frank's experience seemed to be highly +satisfactory, for he reappeared grinning cheerfully. Perhaps he had +cause, but he did not reveal it, and when his brother came forth from +the clutches of the sorceress, he insisted that he should have his +horoscope cast. + +As there seemed no hope of finding the lady they sought until the crowd +should have thinned a little, Jack laughed and entered the +silver-spangled tent. The seeress was gowned in white, with silver +chains and bracelets and girdle, and a long white veil completely +enveloped her except the face, and this was concealed by her yashmak up +to her mocking gray eyes, with their dark, level brows. There was +something in her eyes that attracted Jack, and made him believe in her +uncanny powers quite against his will, and even while he told himself +that this was but the foolishness of the hour. He gave her the necessary +data, and she consulted her charts, and gave him a rapid and wonderfully +correct delineation of his character, "a nature which combines the +characteristics of Scorpio with some of those of Sagitarrius, as is the +case," she explained gravely, "with persons born near the cusp," a term +which produced no impression upon his mind, though he said, "Oh, +indeed," politely. She made some cabalistic marks on a square of paper +and turned to him with a somewhat startled expression, which faded at +once, and the mocking eyes looked full into his as she went on. + +"You do not believe in anything I am telling you, and therefore I shall +speak quite frankly, certain that you will be neither cast down nor +elated by anything I can say. I think you are a physician; if not you +ought to be; you seem to have come from afar, and to be about to begin a +new phase in your life. It is well that you have two of the greatest of +the planets, Mars and Jupiter, as controlling influences, for you will +need them, and that very soon. You are at this moment in greater danger +than ever before has been your lot." + +Jack could not repress a laugh. With youth, health, ability and love he +felt that it would take more than a stray comet to turn the currents of +his life awry. But the woman did not smile; he could see that much +through the gauzy yashmak, and her eyes grew grave and her forehead +contracted. + +"I am glad you don't believe it," she said, "because I should not like +to tell you what I see if you did; before morning you will know whether +it is all the foolishness you think it." + +He apologized. "I'm immensely interested," he said, "but I didn't know +any one regarded this sort of thing seriously. So far as you've gone +you've hit me off very well, and I don't mind telling you that I am a +physician, and I'm just back from the far East." + +"Thank you," she said gravely. "Have you ever heard that if a man has +made love to a girl under the constellation of Cassiopeia he should not +marry until he has also made love under the Southern Cross? There is a +conjunction of malign planets at this time; they threaten your happiness +through love, through hate, through accident. If you have become +interested in any person born under Saturn, that is between the +twenty-first of December and the twentieth of January, particularly +about the seventh of January, you should certainly take time to consider +carefully, for there is nothing but wretchedness and misunderstanding in +such an alliance; there may be much that is attractive on the surface, +but you will find a complete lack of harmony, of similarity of tastes +and ambition that would leave you forever alone, and there is much +selfishness and stubborness of will. Saturn and Scorpio are not good +marital allies." He gave her a searching glance, for the seventh of +January was Leonora's birthday, but her face was quite inscrutable. + +"There is something here I do not understand; this accident does not +happen to you, nor to any one near you, yet it has a lasting and a +terrible effect upon your life----" she shuddered and pushed the charts +away from her. "I will not tell you any more," she said, "but I wonder +whether you would do me the favor of giving me your name and address. I +want to cast your horoscope carefully, and I will send you the chart." + +He thanked her and wrote down his name as requested, somewhat impressed +in spite of himself. As he rose to go she stood also and lifted her hand +as if she would have drawn him back, then let it drop heavily. If it was +a piece of acting, he told himself it was perfectly done. "Do be careful +for the next twenty-four hours," she said, "and beware of the evil that +may come out of good." + +That last Delphic utterance stamped the whole affair as a clever piece +of mind-reading, guesswork and acting, and, somewhat annoyed that he +should have been hoaxed even for a moment, Jack withdrew. + +The hour was growing late and the crowd dispersing when they turned +from the fortune-telling booths and entered the ballroom, and presently +Jack said to his sister, "There she is; the one in the green gown." + +"Yes, that is Silvia Holland. What a superb dancer, and how democratic! +The man she is dancing with is at the head of one of the labor +organizations that is championing woman's suffrage. Come, Jack, let us +have a whirl, as of old, and I will then bring your 'Mystery' over to +the box." + +In a moment they were in the midst of the waltz, and at its close Hilda +had so managed that they were near Miss Holland. Stepping up to her on +Jack's arm she presented her brother, and, accepting Hilda's invitation, +Miss Holland joined their party. + +"Did I not see you a year ago on the streets in London, the time I was +arrested?" she naively asked Jack. + +"Yes, but you were very busy. How in the world could you remember me?" + +"Don't be flattered by the apparent compliment. While I was delivering +my little speech to the police I noted how closely you followed me and +that you were the only American around, and I had determined to appeal +to you for assistance if they undertook to jail the feeble old woman +who was with us. They didn't disturb her, and so you were not called +upon, but you see how near you came to being a militant English +suffragette and perhaps a prisoner for thirty days," she said, half +seriously and half smilingly. + +"The word of command would have made me both," he answered, with so much +emphasis that Frank broke into the conversation with, "I wonder if the +open door of an English jail would convert me?" + +"That would depend upon who was directing your footsteps toward the +jail," suggested his brother-in-law. + +"Not at all; I think I am hopeless after having heard so much of the +theoretical benefits of suffrage and seen the utter lack of effect in +Colorado, where I live." + +Silvia Holland turned her great, intense eyes upon him. They were +glowing, and he felt the same fascination he had experienced in the +afternoon. + +"You from Colorado and talk this way!" she said in amazement. "Surely +you are jesting. Take the effect on the polling places alone. Compare +those of New York with those of Denver, and I have seen them in full +operation in both places. In the first is the atmosphere of barrooms; in +the second the manners and air of drawing-rooms. If I were a Colorado +man I should be proud of the result upon Colorado women of their +responsibility in citizenship. I know women of all nationalities, but I +know none where the average of intelligence or womanly grace and real +accomplishments are greater than with your Colorado women." + +"I am a railroad attorney, sent out by the owners of some of the lines +traversing Colorado to look after their interests," he answered. "It is +possible that my conclusions have been influenced by my occupation. I am +prepared to admit that. But I have rather old-fashioned notions in +relation to the proper place for women being in the home and not in +politics." + +"Oh, you American professional men, particularly you corporation +lawyers"--she was smiling now. "You might as well be living in the +middle ages, for you take no note of the tremendous revolution that is +going on all around you. What we call politics is in reality government, +and home is the basis of all good government, and government to serve +its legitimate aim in a democracy must reflect the sentiments of all +the members of the society that created it, women as well as men, and +the higher the aspirations of society the higher the purposes of +government." + +The others were enjoying this little scene. "Bravo, bravo, Silvia!" +exclaimed Hilda. "Do make a convert of him!" + +"You know," said Miss Holland, and she put as much sarcasm in her tone +as possible without leaving a sting, "that this thing called government +only needs a good house-cleaning and the application of a few vermin +extinguishers, such as every good housekeeper knows how to administer, +to make this country a congenial habitation for the gods of the +Twentieth Century--the enlightened, progressive, responsible citizens of +a democracy. Come to the Industrial League meeting next Thursday night +and you will learn more about this than I can possibly tell you. I will +send you a card," and she gaily floated away with Dr. Orrin Morris, her +escort of the evening, who had been impatiently waiting for her for +several minutes. + +Dr. Orrin Morris and Dr. John Earl were graduated from the same class in +the Harvard medical school, but Dr. Morris had immediately after +graduation settled down to the exclusive practice of surgery according +to orthodox methods, and was already regarded as one of the rising young +surgeons of New York City. + +His father had met with financial reverses in 1907 that had not only +wrecked the family fortune but had carried him to an untimely grave. His +mother had been dead for some years and he had no brother or sister. He +maintained a house on East 57th Street and had much practice in two of +the prominent hospitals. + +Dr. Morris presented a rather angular appearance as he strode away with +Miss Holland. He was excessively lean, of swarthy complexion, dark eyes, +black hair and a domineering air. His mother had possessed a strain of +that Spanish blood that was freely mixed with the Moors during their +occupancy of Spain, and added to the natural tendencies of the Latin +were visible some of the ear-marks of Moorish intensity. For some months +he had been paying marked attention to Miss Holland, whom he had known +in a general way for a long time, and, while she did not encourage him, +she had not thought it necessary to dismiss him, for she found him most +entertaining, as he was regarded as one of the best non-professional +violinists in New York. They had spent many agreeable evenings together +over their music, she playing the accompaniments on the piano. + +His views on public questions were as set and conservative as were his +views on medicine, and she never attempted to discuss those matters with +him; the fact that she could not do so was somewhat a relief to her when +she desired to get away from her public activities. + +Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey, Dr. Morris and Miss Holland, and the two young men +with other ladies of their acquaintance, joined in the last dance and +then started for the cloakrooms together. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HYPNOTISM USED FOR AN ANAESTHETIC + + +Mrs. Ramsey and Miss Holland emerged from the dressing-rooms after a +trifling delay, and found Hilda's party and Dr. Morris waiting in the +foyer. Just as they were about making their way to their respective +motors they heard a sudden commotion and wild cries from the street, and +a crowd of people surged in, crying that a child had been killed by an +automobile. Both Dr. Earl and Dr. Morris rushed toward the street as a +man came in carrying a little girl of perhaps ten years of age, bleeding +profusely from the mouth and the scalp, with one leg evidently broken. +The mother of the child, a comely woman of thirty, followed, wringing +her hands. Her excitement verged on hysteria, but at the sight of Dr. +Morris she controlled herself by a mighty effort. + +"To the hospital, to the hospital, Dr. Earl," peremptorily exclaimed Dr. +Morris, as Dr. Earl threw aside his coat and, rolling back his sleeves +and directing the man to place the child on a table in one of the +ante-rooms, began to examine the character of the injuries. + +"Oh, don't take my poor child to the hospital. I know she will die if +she goes there; bring her home; it is only a few blocks," the mother +pleaded with Dr. Morris, whom she seemed to know. + +"Don't waste time here. Where is the telephone? I will call an ambulance +immediately." + +"I don't want her taken to the hospital," said the woman sullenly. + +"This is no place to operate on a hysterical child," Morris answered. +"She need not be kept in the hospital, but she should certainly be taken +there. I know Dr. Earl will agree with me." + +In the meantime, Earl had completed his examination. Silvia Holland was +watching him anxiously. As Morris spoke he looked up and caught her eye. + +"It is only a simple fracture, and the scalp wounds are slight. I +suppose we could get along, if we can get hot water and the necessary +appliances," he said dubiously, and then added, turning to the woman, +"Dr. Morris is quite right, madame, in advising the hospital, and I +assure you there is no danger." + +The woman turned pleading eyes to Silvia. "She's all I have, and I can't +let her be taken away from me. Couldn't we go home? It is only a few +blocks away, and I know I can make her comfortable. Oh, please, please +don't let them take her away!" + +Miss Holland looked at Dr. Earl and put her arm around the woman +protectingly. "If it isn't any worse than that," she said hesitatingly, +"don't you think you could do as she asks? Setting a simple fracture +isn't a very complicated operation, is it?" + +Earl smiled. "Oh, no," he said, "it can be done in a comparatively few +minutes." + +"Then why not do it," she said, "and spare the mother all this +protracted agony, and get the child home?" + +"Because there are no appliances here to administer an anaesthetic or do +anything else properly," answered Morris impatiently, "and no one can +tell from a cursory examination whether or not there are other injuries, +to say nothing of the danger from septicaemia if the work is done in a +clumsy, slipshod manner." + +Earl colored, and Miss Holland replied with some spirit that even the +absence of the usual accessories need not imply clumsiness of method, +and again asked Earl if he could not manage where they were. He turned +to the mother. + +"If you insist upon it, I have no doubt that I can do all that is +necessary without bad results. As to the anaesthetic, we can dispense +with that." + +"I will have nothing to do with the case under these circumstances," +Morris said angrily. + +The woman hesitated, and then said firmly, "I should prefer the other +gentleman to take charge. I won't have her taken to the hospital." + +"Very well," said Earl, and taking a notebook from his pocket he wrote +out a list of necessary appliances, bandages, alcohol, antiseptic +solutions, surgeon's scissors, needles, silk and thread, and giving it +to Frank bade him hurry to the drug-store around the corner which +carried surgical supplies and procure them, and also to bring a box that +would do for splints. + +"I must have an assistant," he said, and without a word, Miss Holland +improvised an apron from some of the bunting that was in evidence +everywhere, and put herself at his disposal. He sent all the others out +of the room, and bent over the child for a few minutes. What did he do? +Miss Holland watched, but could not tell. The moaning ceased, the little +limbs relaxed, and the child fell into a quiet sleep. + +The mother stood just outside the door, listening with strained +attention, and after two or three impatient turns about the foyer, +Morris joined her. + +"You can do as you please so far as I am concerned," he said in a low +tone, "but I warn you that you are taking big risks. Allie is nervous +and excitable at any time, and to-night she is close to hysterics, and +she won't get over the shock of even a simple operation in a hurry, +especially if he is fool enough to attempt it without an anaesthetic." + +The woman wavered for a moment, and then turned away without a word, and +shrugging his shoulders Morris strode down toward the entrance. A moment +later Silvia Holland came out of the ante-room. + +"You can go in now," she said, "only don't disturb your child; she is +sleeping and you must be very quiet. Did you see Dr. Morris? Oh, there +he is." + +Mindful of the amenities of life, she hurried to his side. His face was +dark with something more than anger, and did not lighten as she laid the +tips of her fingers on his arm. + +"I know you will excuse me, Orrin," she said gently. "You mustn't be +angry with me, but I really feel as if I ought to see this through; the +poor woman needs me. You will forgive me?" + +He looked at her with sudden passion. "Oh, yes, I forgive _you_," he +said, with unmistakable emphasis on the pronoun, and was gone. Silvia +Holland looked after him for a moment, conscious that, accustomed as she +was to his moods, this was quite a new one, and then joined Dr. Earl, +who had come into the foyer to say goodnight to the Ramseys and Frank +Earl, who had returned with the surgical appliances and found nothing +more that he could do. "By the way, old man," Dr. Earl called to his +brother-in-law, "send the machine back if you don't mind," and with a +word of thanks he re-entered the ante-room, followed by Miss Holland, +and closed the door against further interruption. + +There was a sink in the room, with hot and cold water, and he directed +Miss Holland to cleanse the basin and implements in the boiling water, +and follow this up by dipping them in an antiseptic solution; in the +meantime he ripped the box to pieces, and selected two strips, which he +whittled into splints, shaping them to the child's leg, and working with +great rapidity. The bandages, cotton and other things were laid out upon +the table, and then he took the basin and a cloth and washed the wounds +on the head, putting back the tousled locks as carefully and tenderly as +a woman. + +"Ordinarily," he said to his assistant, "I should have done this first, +but my examination showed that this injury is very slight. Of course she +has bled profusely, but it has come from the nose, and it looks pretty +bad, but there is nothing serious. Half a dozen stitches will be ample +for the scalp. Thread that needle with the silk, please. Now let me have +it." He took it from her, and in a moment the cuts on the head were +sewed, and he was pulling the leg into place, applying the cotton, the +splints and bandages, working deftly and silently. "The other needle +with the thread, please," he said, not looking up, and Miss Holland +handed it to him. Presently he raised his head and threw back his +shoulders. + +"It is all done," he said simply, and called the mother. "I shall return +in a quarter of an hour," he said, "and bring her out of this sleep. Do +not try to rouse her, for you cannot. Do you not think, Miss Holland, +that it would be well for me to get a nurse to assist in taking the +little one home? I can 'phone when I return these instruments." + +"Your machine is coming back, isn't it?" Miss Holland answered. "It +seems to me that with what help her mother and I can render that we +shall manage." + +"Excellently," he said. "Then you will be on guard until my return; see +that the child is not disturbed. I shall be gone but a few minutes." + +He readjusted his attire, and taking up his hat strode out of the +building, unconscious until he reached the door that half a dozen +energetic reporters were eagerly asking particulars. Finding him +unwilling to tell them anything more than the vaguest generalities, the +more resourceful returned to the improvised operating-room, and before +Silvia Holland knew it they had the story from her enthusiastic lips, +supplemented by a few facts gathered from the woman. For thus are +first-page sensations secured and created. + +Silvia noticed that the woman spoke with visible reluctance, and she +herself passed over the controversy between Dr. Morris and Dr. Earl, +anxious to spare her friend any unnecessary annoyance. + +"I am sorry, Mrs. Bell," she said contritely. "I didn't realize at first +that we were being interviewed." + +"Oh, there is no harm done," the woman said quietly. "I hope the doctor +will not mind; won't he be back pretty soon?" + +Almost as she spoke, his tall form was seen making its way through the +besieging ranks of the Fourth Estate. He waved them aside good +humoredly, but refusing to be interviewed, he took the child in his +strong arms and, followed by her mother and Miss Holland, made his way +to the auto. While she was in a profound sleep when he returned, she +wakened instantly when he commanded her to do so, and the cool night air +evidently refreshed her greatly as they drove to Mrs. Bell's home. Dr. +Earl carried the little one upstairs, gave her mother explicit +directions, and promising to call early the following day to adjust a +cast, left the apartment with Miss Holland. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SOME STRENUOUS ANTI-SUFFRAGISTS + + +Several of the New York papers carried lurid headlines and more or less +sensational accounts of the accident to the child and the treatment +administered by Dr. Earl, as well as a tribute to the heroism of the +volunteer nurse. All of them contained a report of some character of +these occurrences. + +When Dr. Earl called at the home of his fiancee, according to +appointment, to take her and her mother to luncheon the next day, he +found Leonora in a sullen mood, and it did not take him long to discover +that he was not in high favor at this particular hour. + +He greeted her with a kiss, but hers in return was perfunctory. He was +not compelled to wait long for an explanation, for she poured out her +feelings without any questioning. + +"Oh, Jack, dear, how could you mix up with that suffrage crowd! Don't +you know that mamma is vice-president of the Anti-Woman Suffrage +League? She is so annoyed! And that horrid Silvia Holland--why, Jack, +she is a downright socialist. Don't you know she was arrested in England +for trying to break into parliament with a lot of other suffragettes, +and she was arrested here only last month for defying the police and +taking sides with a lot of girls who refused to work in the factories +where they were employed! Even when in school she was horrid. When they +wouldn't let her make a suffrage speech on the school grounds one night +she took the girls to a neighboring graveyard and spoke from a flat +monument! And to think the papers have you mixed up with her, and our +wedding soon to be announced! Oh, it's terrible!" and she buried her +face in the sofa pillows. + +Had this scene occurred with any one else, Jack felt certain he could +not have restrained his laughter, for he could see Miss Holland +delivering an exhortation to the schoolgirls from a tombstone in a +cemetery by night. But he understood the prejudices of a certain element +of New York society, and while the past twenty-four hours had led him, +somewhat, to believe that this progressive democratic wave sweeping +over the world had engulfed all New Yorkers, he now realized how sadly +mistaken he had been. + +With infinite tact he told her that his sister had taken their party to +the ball--pointed out his own duty when the injured child had been +brought in from the street, and how he had not even suggested that Miss +Holland should assist him. He saw that the present was no time for a +discussion of the merits of the case or a pronouncement of his own +views, but he distinctly realized, with something of a jolt, it is true, +that a wide gulf separated the Bourbon element of America's supposed +democracy from the advancing column of her real and inspired democracy, +and he wondered whether it were at all possible to tunnel under or +bridge over this gulf. He lightly changed the subject. + +"I have just discovered that I can get my old offices on East 53rd +Street, as the year's lease expires the first of next month, and the +agents heeded my letter asking them to wait for me. So I shall feel +quite at home in the old quarters," he said. + +She smiled at this, but was not quite ready to drop the former subject. +"Jack, dear, did you take Miss Holland home at one o'clock in the +morning?" + +He laughed at her this time, as he bent to kiss her. "I really believe +you are jealous, you little nymph. Of course I took her home. She could +not stay there all night, and there was no one else to take her." + +She looked very serious. "No, I don't know what jealousy is," she slowly +and emphatically said, "but I don't want to know people who do the +things that Miss Holland does, and I don't want you to know them." + +"My dear child," he said, taking her hands in his and catching her eyes +with his own steady glance. "I must know whoever is thrown into my path +either in a professional or a social way. All people are intensely +interesting to me, for we are, after all, but one great family of human +beings, trying to carve out lives that are worth while, and this we can +do better by getting the best there is from each other." He hesitated a +moment, still looking steadily at her. She quivered slightly, but he was +dimly conscious of the colossal character of the will she was summoning +to her aid. Then very slowly, but with all the earnestness of his +nature, he added, "You must get away from these views, for they are +dwarfing and not becoming to you, and if you do not we shall be very +unhappy. Miss Holland is a remarkable young woman. She is destined to +fill a great place in our American social and political life. She is +well worthy of your friendship." + +She withdrew her hands, but still kept her eyes fixed on his. Her brow +contracted and with emphasis she said: "Miss Holland has forfeited her +place in our set by her conduct; why, Jack, you don't know how she is +criticized by our friends or you would not suggest such a thing." + +He arose with a shrug of his shoulders. Fortunately, Mrs. Kimball +appeared at this moment and they motored to the Plaza for luncheon, +which was a somewhat formal and unsatisfactory affair, in spite of all +his efforts to make it otherwise. The young man could not but feel that +Mrs. Kimball shared her daughter's views--was, in fact, their +author--and that in the eyes of his future mother-in-law he had been +guilty of a breach of etiquette far more serious than an infraction of +the moral law. He left them with the understanding that he would +accompany them to the theatre in the evening. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SURGERY + + +The days of a militant suffragette are full to overflowing, and Silvia +Holland was not able to see Mrs. Bell and her little daughter early the +following morning as she had planned. It must have been well toward the +middle of the afternoon when she entered the modest apartment, and going +to the bed, visible in the alcove, kissed the child and put a great, +dewy bunch of violets in her hand. She took them, and hugged them tight +in her thin little arms, while her eyes looked into Silvia's +wonderingly, and her mother turned away to hide the sudden tears. + +The apartment was well though not expensively furnished, and both mother +and child had the unmistakable air of good birth and refinement. As +Silvia glanced at Mrs. Bell she was conscious of something in her face +at once baffling and appealing. She had the indefinable look of one who +dwells with a sorrow for which there is no cure. + +"Are you quite sure there is nothing I can do for either of you to-day?" +Silvia asked, a trifle diffidently, for she did not want to offend by +overzeal. + +"You and Dr. Earl have placed us under so many obligations that we can +never hope to repay them," Mrs. Bell said quietly. "If I do not speak +more freely of what I feel, it is because I have no words for its +expression." + +"Don't speak or think of obligations," Silvia said lightly, "and here is +my card, so that if at any time I might be of service to you I hope you +will not hesitate to call on me. I live at the Whittier Studios." The +card which she gave Mrs. Bell read: + + SILVIA HOLLAND, + Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law, + City Investment Building, + New York City. + +Mrs. Bell looked at it curiously. "Oh, it isn't possible that you are +_that_ Miss Holland, _the_ Miss Holland!" she said incredulously. + +Silvia laughed. "Don't I look as if I could say 'Gentlemen of the jury' +with sufficient gravity?" she said. "Probably I shall do better when we +say 'Ladies of the jury,' too." + +"You look like what you are, a beautiful and fashionable lady," Mrs. +Bell answered. "Surely no one would ever take you for a professional +woman." + +"Must a fashionable lady be a listless parasite? Even if she wishes +merely to be a queen of society, would she not be more queenly if she +knew the trials and afflictions of others, and, better still, knew how +to help them? Would she be less a queen if she were not dependent upon +some man for her daily bread----" + +A sudden flash of something, she could not tell whether it was pain or +rebellion or despair, crossed Mrs. Bell's face, and Silvia hesitated and +then went on rather hurriedly, as if, knowing she had struck a false +note, she sought to distract the other woman's thought from it. "I am +trying to demonstrate the glorious mission that belongs to woman when +she fills her predestined sphere of economic independence and political +freedom." + +"Political freedom will come first and easiest," said the woman slowly. +She raised her eyes, filled with trouble, and looked full into Silvia's. +"The other is the greater boon, and will be harder to win. Some day I +may need to consult a lawyer; there is no one I would so gladly trust; +it is a personal matter and may adjust itself, if not----" + +"If not, telephone to make sure that I am in, and I shall be glad to see +you at any time," answered Silvia. + +There was the sound of a quick, firm step in the hall, and the bell +rang. Mrs. Bell opened the door and admitted Dr. Earl. After a few +questions and the exchange of greetings, he went over to the bedside of +his small patient. He found the child doing admirably, and glanced +hastily about the room, trying to make up his mind whether he might +offer any other assistance than that of a professional character. He +decided that he could not, and realized with a sense of pleasure and +relief that Miss Holland would be able to attend to such details with +more tact and skill than he could. Nor could he help the glow of +gratification that they should be associated in so vital a matter, one +that he felt swept away the petty conventionalities of society, and +placed them on a footing of understanding and common sympathy not to +have been acquired by months, or even years, of the ordinary social +amenities. After a few directions for the care of the small patient, +and a promise to look in the following day, he told Mrs. Bell how to +find him in case of any sudden need and took up his hat and stick. + +"Were you going, Dr. Earl? Can I set you down anywhere? My car is at the +door." + +He bowed, and followed her out. "We have an embarrassment of riches," he +said, "for my car is also here." Then, rather boyishly, moved by an +impulse he would have found it hard to explain, he said, "Suppose we +dismiss them both, and walk up through the Park?" + +She acquiesced, and a few moments later they were strolling up the +Avenue, rather silently, considering that each had many things to say. +As usual, it was the woman who broke the silence. + +"Tell me about all this. I never was more interested in anything in my +life," she said, looking up at him with a glance that carried the +subtlest flattery, and, while her query was vague, he understood and +made no attempt to evade it. + +"It is a long story," he said; "have you time for it to-day? And it is +really no more remarkable than the effect you produced in your parade +yesterday, and I think the causes are the same. The world is full of +mystery, but before honest, earnest purpose of any kind the storehouses +of mystery will eventually open. The fact is, that the present +tremendous progressive movement in the world is spiritual and every +phase of it is interdependent upon every other element. The thoughtless +call these things 'fads.' In reality, each one of them marks a +crystallization of centuries of thought and hope and dream for the +advancement and elevation of the human race. The world, as usually +happens in spiritual matters, awakened to the importance of all of them +at the same time." He paused, as if realizing for the first time how +personal was the story for which she had asked. "You will think me an +egregious egotist, Miss Holland, I fear." + +"No, whatever you may be, or I may think you, you need have no fears on +that score." She answered simply, directly. "Please tell me--if you +think I deserve so great a confidence." + +He bowed gravely; there was no hint of coquetry in her manner. + +"Directly after my graduation at Harvard, three years ago, I opened +offices in New York, intending to specialize in surgery, for I had +prepared for that, though I desired to obtain a general practice for a +while to put into effect and improve my theoretical knowledge. In a +misty way I soon realized that neither my own efforts nor those of my +colleagues were crowned with the success that should attend a profession +founded upon strictly scientific principles, as modern surgery is. The +chief cause of disturbance with me was that so many operations were +performed which subsequent developments showed might have been avoided, +but which at the time seemed imperative. I redoubled my studies of +_materia medica_, hoping to find a way by which this difficulty might be +obviated or overcome, and while my constant researches helped, I still +found much difficulty in arriving at accurate conclusions before +attempting an operation. I found nothing that satisfied me. I was also +greatly bothered and baffled by the large number of cases which the +surgeon encounters, controlled or dependent upon nervous conditions and +the futility of the drugs ordinarily given. + +"While in this mood a friend of mine called at my office one Wednesday +evening by appointment. He was the general manager of a large utility +company that has to do with the people of every section of the +civilized world, and a man of rare judgment, knowledge of the world, and +poise. We were on most intimate terms, and I had already told him +something of these perplexities. This evening, I had supposed that he +was coming to see me professionally, and I had made other engagements. +As soon as he stepped into my private office, he said: 'Doctor, cancel +every engagement you have for this evening. I need you very badly in +affairs of my own. You are to ask no questions, but do as I request and +send me your bill to-morrow.' + +"Of course I could not refuse him, so I arranged to go with him, and +then asked whether I should require surgical instruments or only a +medicine case. He replied that I would need neither, and I could gain +nothing from his manner, for he was very grave. At his suggestion we +walked, going up Fifth Avenue to the Park, and then across the Park to +the corner of 96th Street and Central Park West, where there stands a +great church. The rolling notes of the organ filled the quiet with an +impressiveness I had never felt before, and the congregation was singing +an old hymn with an earnestness and depth of feeling quite different +from most congregational singing. We entered and were shown to seats in +the balcony, in the front row, where we had an excellent view of most of +those below. 'You will find many of your acquaintances here,' he said, +and on looking around I was surprised at the great number of prominent +New York men and women in the audience. + +"After the preliminary proceedings those that desired to do so were +invited to tell their experiences in combating disease, or other adverse +conditions. What I heard was a revelation. This experience, +corroborating, as it did, my own observations, emphasized how little of +the field of suggestive and mental therapeutics the ordinary medical +practitioner really filled, and I determined to explore that field +before going any further with my practice. I thanked my friend for +taking me to this place, and within a month I decided to go abroad. I +visited the institutions of note in Europe, where suggestive +therapeutics are practiced, and then went to India, where I spent many +months. There I found the original source of suggestive, mental and +spiritual treatment. + +"If the Yogi of India could supplement his method of training the +subconscious mind with the knowledge which our regular physicians +possess, and could apply both with discriminating skill, we would have +the greatest human healing power ever known. The best I could hope for +was to apply as much of the wisdom of the Yogi and other cults in India +and Europe as I could master in the brief time at my disposal, and that +I am attempting to do. With all the perfection of system in training the +subconscious mind that characterizes a comparatively few of the +inhabitants of India, the millions are left without any appreciable +benefits therefrom, just as the millions here are left without the full +benefits of the special training of the few. + +"We are but touching the borderland of this mysterious realm of the +occult, the subconscious and the spiritual forces that have such an +important bearing upon all phases of human life, and which, when +intelligently applied to the child in school and the direction of the +individual in his career, promise so much for the elevation, longevity +and achievements of the human race. + +"The world is just waking up to the vast significance of the spiritual +teachings of Jesus Christ, and their bearing upon all phases and +activities of human life. When Christ told the Pharisees that 'the +kingdom of God is within you,' he carried the lesson, though little +understood then, and so fully comprehended now, that Christianity, +citizenship, government, health, happiness and progress are all +dependent upon the character of the ideals and purposes and daily life +of the individual. + +"When Christ told the lawyer that to 'love thy neighbor as thyself' was +one of the essentials of salvation, he laid the corner-stone for a pure +and honest democracy, without which underlying principle there can be no +lasting democratic government. We now know, in medicine, that much of +longevity and good health and power of recuperation depend upon the +ideals of the individual, and their inspiring influence. + +"It is too bad that with all our tremendous progress we allow bigotry +and prejudice to hamper us in getting the most out of the wisdom around +us as well as that of the ages, all of which is correlated. Yet very +often the orthodox Christian, who believes that Christ not only healed +the sick but also raised the dead, decries the Christian Scientist who +only professes to restore the sick on the theory that disease cannot +exist in an individual properly imbued with Christ's teachings. Too +often the orthodox doctor of medicine denounces the healer who overcomes +apparent disease through mental suggestion or arrests a nervous +breakdown in a patient by teaching that patient how to relax, when the +doctor himself does not hesitate to give bread pills in the first +instance and to recommend a sanitarium where relaxation is the only +thing attempted in the second. And I presume this quotation from the +Dhamma-pada, which is many centuries older than the Christian religion, +would be denounced as heresy by some of the Christian Scientists, +although it embodies the spirit and almost the words of their own +teachings: 'All that we are is the result of what we have thought. It is +founded on our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speak +or act with an evil thought, pain follows him as the wheel follows the +foot of the ox that draws the carriage.'" + +Presently Dr. Earl hailed a passing taxi-cab, and gave the order to be +taken to the Whittier Studios. The drive home was silent. Once or twice +Silvia looked at her tall companion. She was frankly curious about the +Paris case, but something in the quiet, self-contained face of the man +beside her did not invite questions. On his part, John Earl was asking +himself why he should have given his confidence to this comparative +stranger, and the longer he thought about it the less able was he to +answer his question. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE OMNIPRESENT EYES OF FIFTH AVENUE + + +The source of gossip in a village is the corner grocery store; in a +small city, what goes on about the public square; in the medium-sized +city, what transpires in the leading cafe; in New York, Fifth Avenue and +Central Park are the all-abounding sources of gossip. The Avenue has a +thousand curious eyes; those on the sidewalk peering into automobiles +and carriages for sensations; those being whirled along in vehicles, +straining their power in the quest of salacious information among the +throng beyond the curbstone. All New York passes along Fifth Avenue at +some time or another. All of one's friends are always passing along that +way when one does not particularly wish to be seen by them. If one is +walking, the friends are invariably driving; if one is driving, of +course the ubiquitous acquaintances are out for a stroll. Sometimes +people have been known to escape two-thirds of the omnipresent eyes that +line the sidewalks, pack the Avenue and infest the highways of Central +Park, but no person has ever been heard of who escaped all of them. + +So the lot of our strollers was but the common lot of all, visitors as +well as resident New Yorkers. + +While mutually absorbed, the one in reciting the tale, the other in +listening to it; while diverted and interested by the thousand sparks +that radiate from the batteries of youthful energy and enthusiasm and +tingle the sensibilities of a congenial comrade; while speculating on +the unknown vista from peep-holes that show only fragments, but +realizing all the vastness and richness of the world force and universal +sympathy possessed by each of them--it is not strange that in four +blocks on the Avenue they were passed by two ladies in an automobile, +who took more than an ordinary interest in their movements, and by a +dark-eyed, dark-haired man in another car, whose eyes gleamed and whose +cheeks blanched at the sight of their absorption in each other. + +But the things garnered on the Avenue are never placed in cold storage, +and soon enough both of them were to hear about this stroll. + +When Dr. Earl called that evening to take Mrs. and Miss Kimball to the +theatre he discovered that his reception in the morning had been +tropical compared to this one. He was compelled to wait fully fifteen +minutes before Miss Kimball appeared in house gown and slippers, +indicating her purpose to remain at home, and the bearer of a message +that her mother begged to be excused, as she had retired with a sick +headache. + +In vain he sought for a reason for his frigid reception, and feeling +that his presence was an affliction he arose to go. + +"I hope you had a pleasant stroll this afternoon," came in icicle tones. + +This shed all the light necessary upon the character of his greeting. + +The eyes of Fifth Avenue had not grown dim. + +"Yes," he replied, looking at her steadily, "it was a most delightful +stroll." + +She could stand the strain no longer; she came close to him and he +stooped and tenderly kissed her. + +"Oh, Jack, why do you persist in having anything to do with her when +you know how unhappy it makes me!" she said in her gentlest tone. + +They sat down and he related the entire story of the occurrences of the +afternoon to her. It pacified her to a degree. + +"But Jack, dear, you will promise me never to see her again, will you +not?" and her tone was pleading now. + +"I promised to go with my brother to a suffrage meeting she is holding +Thursday night. Of course _you_ would not wish to go, and I am certain +you do not want me to break my promise." + +"I am certain," she said, emphasizing each word, "that I do not want you +to see her again." + +"Let me understand you, Leonora, dear. There are many prominent New York +women in this suffrage movement. Some of my very best old-time friends, +I am informed, are participating in it. Is it your desire that I shall +cut their acquaintance also, or is it just Miss Holland you want me +never to see again?" + +"Now, don't think I am jealous of her, for I am not. She is the most +conspicuous one in this suffrage movement on account of the awful +things she does, but I don't care to associate with any person who is +identified with this crusade. Neither does my mother, nor any of our +social set, and of course I would like you to feel the same way." + +"But suppose I do not feel that way. Suppose my sympathies are with them +and my profession as well as my political predilections should carry me +among them?" he asked earnestly. + +"Oh, Jack, what has come over you that you are so plebeian! Can't you +see how these women are cheapening New York society, associating with +workingmen and shop girls!" + +"But that is what they should do in a democracy, and I am sure I never +saw better-looking women in my life than these same busy suffragists. +They have something to do, and are not dying of _ennui_ or +listlessness," he answered. + +"Their stock argument," she answered, "but whoever heard of an +aristocracy based on such things as these women engage in. Promise me, +Jack, that you will have nothing to do with any of them." + +"You are unduly wrought up to-night," he answered, "but I will promise +you that I shall do nothing to cause you unnecessary annoyance. You +must not be too captious, dear, and remember that I go Thursday night." + +She started to protest, but he drowned the effort in a shower of +caresses and bade her goodnight. Each of them, in the silence of their +own apartments, thought long and earnestly of this interview. Leonora +Kimball had been taught to believe that the chief badges of an +aristocracy were complete idleness of the women, and the possession of +enough wealth to support such idleness. It mattered not how mentally +insipid or morally opaque or physically inane such women might be, the +true test of being fitted for the purple was whether or not they had +ever done any useful work, and whether or not they had money enough so +that the other members of their set might feel assured that they never +would do any useful work. An aristocracy of trained brains or unselfish +culture were meaningless terms to her. + +But this night she was greatly disturbed over the attitude of the man +she was to marry. She had been quite honest with him when she asserted +that jealousy was foreign to her nature; affection did not run deep +enough with her to strike its eternal renewing fountain--jealousy. The +practical character with which she had been endowed easily enough +conducted affairs of the heart along paths directed by the head, and +while her professions of love were quite sincere and her loyalty beyond +question, yet she had not the remotest idea of the grand passion. She +knew that she was very fond of John Earl; that he was worthy of her; +that he could sustain her manner of life and that his social standing +was all that either she or her mother could desire. She also knew that +she did not wish to lose him, and much as she abhorred the suffragists, +she determined to be lenient with his present mood, certain she could +change it ere long, else of what avail was the all-powerful "silent +influence" upon which the Anti-Suffragists laid so much stress? + +Earl was more than disturbed by her attitude, for he discovered traits +of character and a shallowness of sympathy that shocked him. His dream +of married bliss was the absolute _camaraderie_ he expected it to bring. +He feared now that she would not enter into his life or ambitions, and, +like too many of his married acquaintances, they would be seeking +happiness along diverse paths. + +"However, it's all very new to her," he said to himself after an hour's +reverie, "and she is quite young. A few weeks will properly adjust our +relations." + +The dominant characteristic of this young man was a deep sense of +justice, and while other feelings were all too manifest in his +subconscious being, he permitted himself only to try to solve the +problem of what was the right thing along the lines where he had cast +his future. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LOVE, JEALOUSY AND MUSIC + + +The telephone bell in her apartment was ringing as Miss Holland entered +from her stroll, radiantly happy and at peace with all the world. She +took the receiver from the maid. + +"Dr. Morris? Yes, I shall be home this evening, and glad to see you, of +course. Bring your violin and come by eight-thirty. Yes--yes. I meant to +have called you and apologized for my somewhat cavalier desertion of you +last night. I am sorry I was rude, I didn't mean to be, but come and let +me ask you to forgive me." Her tone was adorable and melted the sullen +mood of the man at the other end of the wire. + +Having sworn that he would not see her again, having 'phoned to make an +appointment at which he meant to utter as bitter reproaches as he dared, +he appeared promptly at the hour set, ready to implore her grace and +accept with gratitude any smallest favor, any ray of hope she might see +fit to bestow upon him. + +Like many another professional man in New York, in order to cater to the +class in society in which he hoped to establish his reputation and +clientele, Morris had found it necessary to live in a style which far +exceeded his income, although that was a good one for a man still young +in his profession. He was not popular with men, who regarded him as +rather theatrical and a _poseur_, but his music, a certain deference of +manner, a more romantic quality than is to be generally found among +American business men, gave him a great vogue with women, and he +cultivated them, especially the older ones, and they made life very +pleasant for him, introduced him to the right people, and gave him much +good advice now and then. + +One of the smartest of these social leaders said practically one day: +"My dear boy, why do you let all these rich girls marry those silly +foreigners, without an idea to bless themselves with--dukes, debts and +diseases seem synonymous; you are not only clever, but you have the one +gift, saving the title, that commends these creatures to our girls." + +He smiled his inscrutable smile and bowed. "And that is?" + +"You seem to have found the lost art of making pretty speeches, and +paying a woman the small attentions that we all like so well. If I were +a man," went on this dreadful dame, "I should never forget to kiss my +wife and send her flowers and remember all the family anniversaries. It +is by attention to such small details as this that a man may purchase +immunity in larger and more important matters. I know this is most +immoral, but it makes the wife happy, the husband comfortable, and would +go far to decimate the divorce rate, so what more could you ask?" + +"Perhaps I owe this to the fact that my father was a Hungarian +nobleman--oh, just a trumpery little title, with nothing to pay for the +necessary gold lace, so when he came to America he decided, like so many +of the revolutionists of that period, to be ultra-American, and dropped +even the foreign spelling of the name, changing the 'itz' to plain +'r-i-s,'" he answered. "I'm sure my music belongs to the other side of +the Atlantic." + +"That accounts for it all," she said. "There is absolutely no reason why +you shouldn't marry almost any woman you want to. Why not find one who +can give you millions in money and the social position you need without +taking a generation to create one? I hope you haven't any foolish +entanglements," she added. + +He flushed, but did not answer, and when a few weeks later he and Silvia +Holland had played together for some charitable entertainment, his +venerable mentor had sought him out, ready to bestow her blessing at the +earliest possible moment, approving his practical judgment and his good +taste. That was a long time ago. + +He had resented the implication at the time; to do him justice, had +Silvia been penniless she would still have attracted him as no other +woman ever had. It was partly her personal charm, partly her music. It +may be true that the world of art is still the world, but it is a very +different world from that in which most of us live and move and have our +being, and Morris was conscious when her fingers touched the keys, and +he took up his bow and drew it across the strings of his violin, that +they entered upon a new and boundless universe in which sound superseded +all other mediums of communication, and seemed to take the place of +mere mundane sensation. Whether his passion for Silvia grew out of their +music, or the wonder of the music was a result of the perfect accord of +their natures, he could not tell. They had become one in his mind. + +He fervently hated her various public activities. Here again the +ancestral traits dominated. He thought of her as a great lady, and being +that, she should have been content without anything more. Rushing madly +about doing things for other people implied a certain loss of caste. But +until the previous evening his discontent had been free from the bitter +draught of jealousy. There had been safety in the number of Miss +Holland's admirers, and when he was surest that she did not in any way +return his feeling for her, there had been balm in the thought that she +was too busy elevating the condition of her own sex to have much time to +waste upon any member of his. Instinctively he knew, when he intercepted +the first look between the lady of his dreams and his erstwhile college +associate, that the hour had come that he had dreaded. Silvia Holland +had at last met a man whom, consciously or unconsciously, she +acknowledged king. His rival was there, upon the threshold of her life, +and he was a rival to be feared. That he might also be a rival in his +profession, that he was so rich that he was far above the straits in +which Morris found himself more and more frequently involved, only added +to the flame that consumed him; life without Silvia herself would be +dull, colorless, objectless; life without her music would be but "wind +along the waste." + +He had no patience with the theories of the newer medical practitioners +who refuse to be frightened by the cry of "professional ethics" or by +the demand that practice shall be "regular" whether the patient survives +or not; and yet while he denounced all forms of mental therapeutics, he +was conscious of a strain of superstition which he could in no wise +overcome. Weird folk-lore and uncanny rites kept up by some of the +primitive people of Hungary had had a strange fascination for him when +he was abroad. In himself, he found a singular mixture of the primeval +savage, and the ultra refined that approaches decadence. Of one thing +alone he was certain. To lose Silvia was to lose his soul; without her +there was neither here nor hereafter. Ruthlessly as he had brushed aside +the one woman in his life who came between them, he was prepared to +thrust out of his way any man who sought to become a part of her life. + +It was in this mood that he entered her presence, and in this mood he +accepted her _amende honorable_, which she made with charming humility, +but when she would have led him to the music-room, for once he +hesitated. + +"In a few minutes," he said, "but just now there is something I must say +to you. It is true that I was deeply hurt last night, but your regret, +so graciously expressed, emboldens me to think that you would not +willingly hurt me." He stopped, and she looked at him with a rather +puzzled air. "We have been friends for a great while," he said +irrelevantly. + +"Yes," she said cordially, and somewhat relieved. "Haven't we? And what +a friendship it has been! A triangular affair, like a loving cup--you +and I and some one of the great masters of melody. Shall it be Chopin +to-night, or shall we begin with something lighter and finish with the +Twelfth Nocturne, as usual?" + +She led the way, and stood by the piano, rippling her fingers over the +keys, and he stood before her, his face white and intense with feeling. +He laid his strong, brown fingers over the white ones, and raised them +to his lips, and Silvia laughed a trifle nervously. It was one of his +old-world ways that she liked, but disapproved with all proper +democratic fervor. + +"Has it indeed been a loving cup from which we have drunk?" he said, +with passionate sadness. "I dare not think so, I dare not even hope so +much grace! And yet how is it possible that a man should feel what I +feel for you unless there is a response, little as he may deserve +it----" + +He paused, and she took away her hand, and laid it lightly on his +shoulder as he sank down on the seat before the piano. + +"Please don't," she said gently. "Don't you see that you are quite +right? If it were really, truly love that had come to you, I should feel +it also, there could be no question of doubting or daring; no thought of +hopelessness. Some time you will know that this is true, when some other +heart speaks to yours in the unmistakable tone of the one only love of +your heart. Each of us has his place in life, and in the lives of those +with whom we come in contact. No one can ever have your place; I can't +tell you how much rest and happiness you have brought me when I have +been a-weary of this world. Come, Orrin, don't rob me of my friend that +I may lose a lover." + +By a herculean effort he restrained his feelings, and answered lightly, +"You shall keep your friend, my sorceress of song," but he added under +his breath, "Look to it, when the lover comes, for you may still lose +_him_." Then he took up his violin, and the night became a splendid +harmony, despite the discord that raged in his soul. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A DISCUSSION OF PROGRESSIVE WOMEN + + +The group that had foregathered about Mrs. Ramsey's tea-table that +Thursday afternoon had scattered and gone its several ways. The last of +them was bidding her adieu as her husband entered and joined her +brothers, who were lingering for a farewell word with her, each occupied +in characteristic fashion, John gazing into the fire that smouldered on +the grate, for it was a raw and chilly afternoon, and Frank endeavoring +to coax a last cup of tea from the silver tea-ball and the still +steaming kettle. + +"If you really want another cup, Frank, let me have the tea-ball +refilled," Mrs. Ramsey said, and then laying her hand on her elder +brother's shoulder, "A new Lincoln penny for your thoughts, Jack. You +look as if they might be romantic, but I suppose you are really off on +the quest of the blooming bacillus or the meandering microbe, or hanging +over--what is it you call your garden beds of disease--a culture?" + +He looked up and patted her hand. "It is too bad not to be able to be a +hero to one's own sister, but the truth is, I wasn't thinking at all, +just wool-gathering. By the way, Frank, are you going to motor down to +that meeting of Miss Holland's to-night?" + +"Wool-gathering, he calls it!" said the younger man, letting his lump of +sugar clatter on his saucer. "I'd say it was all cry and no wool; at +least you are pulling none over my eyes. Am I going to motor down to +hear the protests of the proletariat to-night? No, dear brother, I am +not. When I go out to mingle with the down-trodden and oppressed I take +the 'L'; a surface car would be even more appropriate, but they take +forever, and I compromise on the 'L,' but you never did have any sense +of dramatic fitness." + +"Might I ask why this sudden interest in the militant laboring ladies?" +said Ramsey, drawing up his chair before the fire, and lighting a +cigarette. "Are you going to obtrude your somewhat massive personality +upon the scene?" + +"Yes, that's what I'd like to know," added Frank. + +The doctor laughed rather diffidently. "Why not?" he said. "Why +shouldn't I go, if I wish to?" + +Frank flung out his hands with a gesture of mock despair. "Now, wouldn't +that come and get you!" he said. "I appeal to you, Hilda. You were +present; you heard Miss Holland invite me to this Manifesto Makers' +meeting. You know she never said a word to Jack; she didn't even look at +him. He was foolish enough to let her see that he was already a convert +to her little gospel, and therefore no longer in need of her +ministrations. But as for me, 'I was a wandering sheep; I did not love +the fold,' and hence, as a good missionary, she feels a deep interest in +me. Off and on, I should say at least fifty Colorado women have tried to +make a suffragist of me. Some of them were very pretty," he added +reminiscently, "and I've noticed that the prettier they are the longer +it takes 'em to make me see the error of my ways. Now with Miss Holland, +I wouldn't mind letting her tinker with my political views so long as we +both shall live." + +"Frank, you are incorrigible," said his sister. "If Miss Holland knew +what a flighty, inconsequent infant you are, she wouldn't waste a +thought on you, let alone a whole evening. What makes you want to go, +anyhow?" + +"What's the use of her wasting thoughts on a solemn dub like our +brother?" he demanded aggrievedly. "What business has he trailing the +soap-boxing suffragers around when he is about to take upon himself vows +to cleave only to the daughter of a militant 'Anti' leader, some time +when he can jar himself loose from his professional cares long enough +for a honeymoon?" + +"I'm afraid, Jack, you will find your prospective mother-in-law quite as +strenuous as the most ardent of the suffragists," said his sister. "I +haven't gone into this thing at all, I haven't time, but it is certainly +amusing to watch the 'Antis' outdo even the most ardent suffragettes by +way of proving their contention that woman's sphere is home. If they +were consistent, they would never appear in public----" + +"Except by 'Now comes the counsel for the defendant,'" interrupted +Frank, "but they never are. There is a little bunch of them in Colorado +who have failed to command the same attention in politics that their +money imposes upon the social world, so they rush into type and get +themselves interviewed and asked to speak when they come East, all by +way of proving their sensitive and shrinking nature. I don't agree with +the suffragists, not a little bit, but I can fraternize with them; they +are sincere, but none of the 'Antis' for me; never saw one yet who +wasn't either a snob or so narrow-minded that a toothpick would look +like the Brooklyn Bridge by comparison." + +"Hear, hear!" cried Jack. "Miss Holland has certainly made an impression +upon you; not that I see what difference it makes, since women already +vote where you hail from." + +"That just goes to show how foolish a smart man can be," replied his +brother cheerfully. "You think because you may have a vote on the +enfranchisement of women that it is very important what you think, but +is it? Not at all. But with me it is different. I've paid office rent in +Denver for two years, and spent a third of the time here or in +Washington. I've looked in on two State conventions, and forgot to +register at the last election, but because I come from Colorado I am +considered an authority on woman suffrage, and when I say it's no good, +and swell out my chest and look gloomy, it has great weight, great +weight!" He leaned back in his chair and gave way to unseemly mirth as +he recalled some occasion on which he had evidently hoaxed some trusting +reporter. + +"Nonsense, Frank," his brother-in-law answered. "I don't believe you +know the first thing about politics or suffrage, or what the women have +done or haven't done." + +"There you wrong me," the young man answered gravely. "The first thing +to know in politics is when to come into the game and when to keep out. +Personally, I can't make my firm believe that it is cheaper to buy the +other fellows' men after they are elected than it is to try to elect our +own, and have them raise the ante on us, but they'll come to it after a +while. As to the women, bless you, voting doesn't change their nature, +and so long as women are willing to believe what men tell them, it's +mighty unsafe to trust them with the ballot. Before you know it, they'll +find us out, and then you'll see the first result of the suffragist +dream of heaven on earth--there'll be no more marrying or giving in +marriage. Oh, I'm dead against it!" + +They all joined in the laughter that followed this sally, and Hilda +said thoughtfully, "If you boys are intent on this meeting, I'll hurry +dinner, for they probably begin early." As she rose to go, Frank caught +her hand with the piteous entreaty, "Oh, please make my big brother take +his marbles and go home. He wasn't asked to this party. Miss Holland +didn't say a thing to him. I don't see why he has to have first show +with all the pretty girls in New York!" + +"When Miss Holland knows you, and all your native charm, she will never +smile again upon your older brother," laughed his sister, "but in the +meantime I suppose it's an open meeting, and we can't prevent his going. +But don't worry; his fatal beauty will but serve as a foil to your more +sparkling type. Besides, with your vivid imagination, unhampered by a +slavish subserviency to facts, you should be able to furnish canards +that will occupy all Miss Holland's time for a month." + +As she left the room her husband opened the door, and her brothers rose +and remained standing until it was closed after her. + +"If all women were like her----" Frank said impulsively, but Ramsey +stopped him. + +"If half of them were like her," he said reverently, "I would be in +favor of turning the government over to them, certain that the hand that +rocks the cradle would never give this storm-tossed old world more +shaking up than is good for it." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE ADVANCING COLUMN OF DEMOCRACY + + +As the two brothers turned into the cross street that led to the hall +where the Industrial League had its headquarters and held its weekly +meetings, Dr. Earl laid his hand on Frank's shoulder. + +"Dear old fellow," he said affectionately, "would you mind telling me +what on earth possesses you to come down here to-night? I'm not asking +out of mere curiosity, nor do I believe that is the motive that brings +you." + +"Then if I say the pursuit of the good, the true and the beautiful, you +will not believe me?" his brother answered lightly. + +"I shall know you do not wish to tell me the real reason, and will drop +it, but I shall not be deceived. I haven't studied my kind for this long +without knowing at least the a-b-c of human nature. You use your cap and +bells and an air of frivolity to conceal your true character from the +world, as other men cloak themselves in an atmosphere of austerity and +reserve." + +"Discovered!" cried Frank, with a laugh, "after all these years in which +I flattered myself I had made such a good job of it, too. Truth to tell, +no mask and domino ever afforded such perfect protection as the jingle +of my jester's bells. I am apparently so given up to pomps and vanities +that nobody gives me credit for a serious thought, and so takes no pains +to conceal his own from me. It has long been one of the wonders of my +world how I hold my job." + +"Well, since you put it that way, I have asked myself at times how you +have achieved the standing you have in your profession, a standing of +which we are all immensely proud, by the way. But if you are a profound +student, it is something recent; I used to think you learned too easily +ever to know how to study, and law is a vocation." + +"Law is one thing and success in the legal profession is another," said +the young man oracularly. "Between our omnipresent legislatures which +spend our time and money repealing what we lawyers already know, and +enacting laws for the courts to set aside, these are what might be +called parlous times for the profession, but my long suit is not in +understanding statutes, but people." + +Insensibly he had dropped his flippant tone, and was speaking, +seriously, with conviction. There was a moment's pause and then Jack +said, "And you go to this meeting because----?" + +"Because, little as I like it, I am not such a fool that I do not know +that the enfranchisement of women is certain, and it may help me to +understand the new and troublesome element which is to be injected into +public life if I watch the workings from the beginning. Anyhow, it is +part of my business to understand these things, and hence my acceptance +of Miss Holland's invitation. This is the place, isn't it?" + +The house differed in no wise from the rest of the block, save in its +air of thrift and cleanliness, and the brass plate on the door bore the +name, "Industrial League House." It was evidently a settlement with +resident workers, for a troop of boys was straggling down into the +basement, where a gymnasium had been established, and several young +women were standing in the hall discussing some matter connected with +sterilized milk. At the right of the wide hall there was a large, +old-fashioned double parlor, with plenty of chairs for a meeting of +sixty or seventy people, and perhaps half that many were already in the +room. They were singing as the two men entered, and Dr. Earl and Frank +stood in the hallway listening to the words sung to the soul-stirring +old tune of "John Brown's Body." + + "These are they who build thy houses, weave thy raiment, win thy wheat, + Smooth the rugged, fill the barren, turn the bitter into sweet; + All for thee this day--and ever. What reward for them is meet? + Till the host comes marching on." + +As they struck into the chorus, the boys downstairs took up the swelling +chords, and it was echoed from the street beyond. + + "Hark, the rolling of the thunder; + Lo, the sun! and lo! thereunder + Riseth wrath, and hope, and wonder, + And the host comes marching on." + +"I wonder whether they sing the sixth stanza," said Frank curiously. +Jack looked at him in amazement. "What is the song?" he asked, +conscious that he was getting new sidelights upon his younger brother's +character this evening. + +"It's William Morris' 'March of the Workers,' and the verse I'm talking +about begins, 'O, ye rich men, hear and tremble.' Come on in, Jack," and +a moment later John Earl heard his brother's beautiful voice take up the +words: + + "Many a hundred years, passed over, have they labored deaf and blind; + Never tidings reached their sorrow, never hope their toil might find. + Now at last they've heard and hear it, and the cry comes down the wind + And their feet are marching on. + + "On we march, then, we, the workers, and the rumor that ye hear + Is the blended sound of battle and deliv'rance drawing near; + For the hope of every creature is the banner that we bear, + And the world is marching on." + +Silvia Holland turned quickly when she heard the strong, unknown voice +join in the ringing words, and fairly gasped when she saw that it was +Frank Earl who was singing, while his brother looked at her with an air +as bewildered as her own. The moment that the song was concluded she +greeted them, and found them comfortable seats where they could see and +hear without being too conspicuous. + +"We like to have men come to our meetings, and a few generally drop in. +I expect several to-night, for we have a speaker from Colorado, but we +don't often have the luxury of a baritone note for our music, so we owe +you a special vote of thanks, Mr. Earl," she said to Frank. + +He bowed. "Oh, no; it's the other way about," he said lightly. "You +don't know how grateful I am to you for not singing the 'Day of Wrath' +verse, in which all of us who haven't succeeded in swearing off our +taxes hear what is coming to us. How well that girl presides," he added, +as a businesslike young woman dispatched the reading and adoption of +minutes and the reports of committees without a hitch or a moment's +useless delay. + +"That is Florence Dresser," explained Miss Holland. "She is one of the +leaders in the Laundry Girls' Association. The secretary," indicating a +young woman who might have been a twelve-year-old child, save for her +sad, careworn face, "has nearly killed herself sewing for sweaters to +take care of her family; we've found homes for the children and she +lives here now; we are trying to make up to her for the lost years, but +it is hard work," and she sighed. + +"We have one meeting a month when we have a program," Miss Holland +explained. "At the other three we consider various phases of industrial +life as it affects our own membership or women in general. I am rather +sorry that this happens to be a program night, for you would have had a +better idea of the scope we try to cover at the other kind, but perhaps +this will be more entertaining." She turned more directly to Frank. "A +business meeting here always makes me think of the 'Antis,' and their +twaddle about woman's sphere, which they would like to reduce to a +demi-hemisphere." + +Frank nodded. "Of course there's nothing to that with intelligent people +now; woman's sphere is wherever she can make good, but I think it is a +pity that she has to take so large a place in the industrial world, and +I don't believe that voting will help her." + +"But it has helped men," Miss Holland replied quickly. + +"Not half so much as their unions," he answered. "The thing that helps +is getting together and standing together." + +"Now you've lost your whole case," laughed Dr. Earl. "There has never +been anything that brought all sorts and conditions of women together +like the suffrage cause. You see that in England. In fact, you see it +everywhere. Women are waking up, and getting to their feet and +stretching out their hands--to us? Not at all, to each other." + +"Oh, I wish you'd say that to my comrades here," said Miss Holland. "We +should all be so glad to hear you. Will you not let me present you for a +few minutes during the informal discussion?" + +For an instant he wavered, then the face of Leonora flashed before him, +and he shook his head decisively. "I'm too new at this sort of thing," +he answered. "Get my brother here to talk to you about Colorado, and let +the audience heckle him." + +"We'd be delighted," laughed Miss Holland. "The lady who is to conduct +the question box, which is the main thing to-night, comes from Denver. +Her name is Carroll Renner; do you happen to know her? Will she be able +to hold her own? Sometimes they ask pretty sharp questions." + +"Don't give yourself a moment's uneasiness," Frank answered. "There'll +be no twelve baskets needed to remove the fragments of the contumacious +when she gets through. A small blotter will answer." + +"You know her very well, then?" Miss Holland said, openly surprised. + +"Rather," he answered laconically. "She is the most persistent lobbyist +in the State, and she infallibly discovers the one deadly section in a +bill that you thought so well hidden that no one would ever notice it. +She's the most troublesome woman I know and the best fellow." + +Miss Holland and Dr. Earl both turned and looked at the little woman, +who had come in a few minutes before with a party of people, with added +interest. She was very simply gowned in black, and but for a certain +twinkle of the dark gray eyes, and a rather mocking smile, there was +nothing particularly distinctive about her. + +"Tell me some more," said Miss Holland curiously. "Sometimes the voting +woman helps and sometimes she hurts; if they're freaky, and of course +some of them are, they hurt dreadfully." + +"I've seen her a good deal while I've been watching the Senate," he +said. "I'd been out there for several sessions of the General Assembly +before I located there. She came in one day with a letter from some +national woman's organization--wanted the Beveridge Child Labor Law +endorsed, I think. Anyhow, time was of the essence of the contract, so +we drew up a concurrent resolution, and she got a Republican and a +Democrat to introduce it together, and it slid along on its way to +Washington within forty-eight hours; she and a Mrs. Platt worked it +together. All they said was that the women wanted it." + +Miss Holland gasped. "Go on," she said. + +He lowered his voice, for the president was introducing a handsome girl +who was to give a reading. + +"Another time there was a bill--I don't recollect it, but something +about committing girl prisoners, or something of the sort; I saw her get +pretty white, and shut her lips hard, and then she got up and started to +walk out, and one of the Senators saw her, too. 'Say, you don't like +that bill?' he said, and she answered, as if she could hardly control +her anger, 'It's infamous!' 'Oh, it is, is it?' he said. 'Well, then, +we'll make them adjourn over until we can get a conference and amend the +thing.' No fuss, no talk; just straight goods. That's Carroll Renner." + +"And that's what it means to be an enfranchised woman!" said Miss +Holland, with a long breath. "None of us could do that here!" + +"Well, that's part of it," acquiesced Frank, and then they listened +silently. The girl who was reading was not particularly well-trained, +but there were passion and pathos in her voice as she told the story of +the eaglet, chained to a log for fear it might fall if permitted to +attempt to fly. + +"We also have our dream of a Garden," the strong young voice went on. +"But it lies in a distant future. We dream that woman shall eat of the +tree of knowledge together with man, and that side by side and hand +close to hand, through ages of much toil and labor, they shall together +raise about them an Eden nobler than any the Chaldean dreamed of; an +Eden created by their own labor and made beautiful by their own +fellowship. + +"In his Apocalypse there was one who saw a new heaven and a new earth; +we see a new earth; but therein dwells love--the love of comrades and +co-workers. + +"It is because so wide and gracious to us are the possibilities of the +future, so impossible is a return to the past, so deadly is a passive +acquiescence in the present, that to-day we are found everywhere raising +our strange new cry, 'Labor, and the training that fits us for labor!'" + +"You recognize it, of course?" Silvia said to Dr. Earl, but he shook his +head, and Frank answered, "It's Olive Schreiner, isn't it? She does good +work, but I've never read anything that compared with that book on +'Woman and Economics,' and when an American writer has the whole world +sitting up and taking notice, I don't see why we don't boost her game." + +There was a little buzz and stir while slips of paper and pencils were +distributed to the audience, and the questions collected for the next +speaker. + +The presiding officer made the usual preliminary remarks, and introduced +Miss Renner, who gathered up the goodly sheaf of white slips in her +hands and ran over them as if looking for some query that would make a +specially apt beginning. Her face lit up as she came across one with +which she was evidently familiar. + +"This is a favorite question of mine," she said cheerfully. "I should +miss it dreadfully if it failed to turn up, but it is such a troublesome +and comprehensive question to answer that I have set the reply to music, +and will have it sung for you, in order that you may all remember it. +The question is, 'What have Colorado women done with the ballot?' I +don't, myself, consider that a fair question, since none of us come down +to Philadelphia or New York or Pittsburg or any of the other cities of +sweetness and light and ask what you men have done with your +all-powerful vote, but this seems to be the main one, especially to the +masculine mind." + +Dr. Earl laughed, for he had written the question, and seating herself +at the piano, Miss Renner looked up at a merry-faced girl, who began +singing to her rippling accompaniment a song of miraculous changes which +should have ensued upon woman's enfranchisement, and concluded with a +long chant, recounting some of the more notable achievements of the +voting woman, ranging all the way from joint ownership of children and +property, minimum salary laws, juvenile courts, medical inspection of +school children, State institutions built and endowed, equality in +inheritance and a host of other things, up to the adoption by her State +of the initiative and referendum. + +After that, Miss Renner had her audience with her until she dropped the +last twist of paper on the table beside her. "You ask me why it took us +so many years to pass a good law regulating child labor, and why we have +failed in limiting the hours of woman's labor. As to the first, it is +true that our law was by no means equal to yours, but we had the means +to enforce it, and as a consequence we have little or no child labor. +You have a good statute, one of the best in the Union"--there was a +ripple of applause--"but in addition to this excellent law prohibiting +child labor," she went on evenly, "you have in this city alone over +twenty thousand child wage-earners. + +"When we have gone to our legislatures asking for laws for the +protection of the weak, we have generally obtained them easily, when +they did not interfere with 'big business.' It took Illinois women nine +years to get a State Home for children. We passed such a law without +any effort whatever. In two-thirds of the States of the Union women are +trying to make mothers co-equal guardians of their children, and trying +in vain. That was the first law our enfranchised women wrote upon our +statute books. One only learns to understand these things by experience. +You may find it hard to see why railroads should go into a deal to +defeat an eight-hour law for women, but that statute was flagged by a +Pullman palace car towel and fell asleep at the switch, because that +company complained that it couldn't get a change of sheets unless +laundry girls could be compelled to work overtime. You don't dream when +you talk of 'big business' to what little business it will descend." + +There was a sudden hush, and she flung out her hands with an impulsive +gesture, and there was a passionate earnestness in her voice that +gripped her hearers. "Let me tell you something you do not know when you +hold the women in the suffrage States responsible for conditions they +are the first to deplore. A handful of men in this city have more to do +with Western industries and their regulation than have both the men and +women. We have steel works; their policy is dictated from lower +Broadway. We have smelters; they are closed at the order of a syndicate +in this city. We have railroads, all of them controlled by your fellow +citizens, and it was the deals entered into between the representatives +of these interests and our local corporations that defeated the +eight-hour law for women, and every bit of reform legislation pledged to +the people. It was this condition, this failure of alleged democracy, +that made us go on record for real democracy, for the initiative that +makes it possible for us to enact the laws our representatives are +cajoled into pigeon-holing, for the referendum that enables us to scotch +the snake so that the people may have a chance to kill it. This was the +first great fundamental reform which the women demanded, and it was +owing to the work of education they began twenty years ago, and kept up +untiringly, that Colorado has won this great victory. Woman suffrage is +not alone for women, or to enable us to secure certain readjustments of +law. It is for our country, which cannot exist half enfranchised and +half irresponsible, half democracy and half a feudalism; half of it +privileged to shirk or exercise its civic rights, and half denied aught +but the burden of those rights. Women need the franchise if only to make +their influence, of which we hear so much, effective, but more than they +need the ballot, this nation needs the active devotion of its women to +transmute to golden fulfillment its leaden life; it needs, it must have +all that we can give it, your life and mine; if it is to go forward, its +sons and daughters must go forward--together!" + +There was generous applause, and the two young men followed Miss +Holland, and she presented Dr. Earl and was about to introduce his +brother, when Miss Renner held out both hands to him. + +"Hast thou found me, O mine enemy," she cried. "I'm awfully glad to see +you, Frank. I was much minded to tell how you helped me get my dove bill +through, but I feared they might hold you responsible for the defeat of +the eight-hour law and turn and rend you." + +"You promised never to reveal any of my good deeds," he answered. "Keep +it out of the papers, Miss Holland. I can't afford to lose prestige as +the exponent of the Mammon of Unrighteousness." + +"Unfortunately, he is a great god with legislatures, East as well as +West," answered Miss Holland, and then they all went out together. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A TUBERCULAR KNEE AND A WORRIED SURGEON + + +Dr. Earl found his hands uncommonly full for the next few weeks. What +with the endless detail attendant upon the arrangements for his new +offices, and the perfection of his equipment, it seemed as if there were +not enough hours in the day to meet all the calls upon him. Leonora +looked aggrieved, and Hilda complained loudly that he had deserted them. + +The spectacular manner in which the yellower part of the New York press +had handled his first case after his return, brought him telephone calls +and personal visits from many old patients, and a goodly number from new +ones, not to mention freaky interviews with persons representing all +sorts of cults. He was asked to address half a dozen different branches +of the New Thought movement. The Society for the Propagation of Esoteric +Buddhism asked him to tell them of his experiences in Hindoostan; +"Purple Mother" and "Besant" Theosophists sent committees to wait on +him, and various believers in Spiritist exploitations, astrologists, +psychometrists and all sorts and conditions of dabblers in occultism +pestered him with letters, circulars and requests of every conceivable +nature. + +It had been no part of his plan to return to his native land and set up +a practice by which he should exploit to the world the results of his +study. A real student, he knew very well that a lifetime would be all +too short to devote to the as yet but little known field of mental +therapeutics, and nothing could have been more foreign to his character, +individually or professionally, than the fanfare of trumpets with which +his return had been heralded. The principles which he wished to prove +must be brought home to his profession if they were to be of great and +lasting benefit, and the publicity and advertising which a man of a +different calibre might have enjoyed, were annoying in the extreme to +Earl. He was still a young man, and modest withal, and he felt that +nothing could be more detrimental with the men whose regard he wished to +secure and hold, so he declined all invitations to speak, all requests +for articles or interviews, and gave himself up to getting back into +the harness. His patients, both old and new, took up more time than he +could have hoped for, and before the middle of summer he found himself +not only well launched in his profession, but with all that he could +possibly find time to do, and work piling up ahead of him, so that he +could only promise indefinitely when the Ramseys urged him to come down +to their Newport place, and Leonora had to put up with fractions of +Sundays until she and her mother left for Bar Harbor. + +There were times when that young lady was by no means certain that she +wished to marry a successful physician. "You wouldn't like me any better +if I were unsuccessful?" he asked teasingly, but she came back to her +point, and he had to explain gravely that the theories of the laboratory +must be worked out in actual practice before they can be transmuted into +accepted facts. + +"But you don't need the money," she argued, trying dimly to apply some +of the principles which he was fond of expounding. It seemed rather +hopeless, but with infinite patience he sought to make clear to her that +any human being whose life is not to be useless and profitless must +have some object to attain, some work to do which will develop his +character. When she replied that he had character enough, and her only +object in life was to be his wife, what more was there to say? Flattery +at once so charming and so complete left him defenseless, and he kissed +her and went away, trying not to ask himself whether a legal ceremony +could ever make wedded souls of two mortals of such diverse views of +life. And yet, she was so sweet, so sweet! + +In spite of the many other demands upon his time, Dr. Earl saw his first +patient very frequently. Mrs. Bell did not appear cramped for means, and +provided everything that could add to her little daughter's comfort, +including not a few luxuries, which Dr. Earl felt convinced were the +gift of Miss Holland. If he had vaguely hoped that he might meet her at +his patient's he was destined to disappointment. Once her car arrived +just as he was leaving, and another time they passed on the stairs. He +told himself that it was better so, and yet when he took her hand, and +felt the firm, strong fingers, well-knit and efficient, for no soft, +yielding little five-and-a-half glove-wearer ever compassed Beethoven, +he knew that hers was a nature that could answer to his own, and his +hand tightened involuntarily. There was something in his look as he met +the blue eyes on the step above that brought the warm blood to her face, +and she swayed toward him almost imperceptibly, and then with a word of +courteous greeting went on her way, for she knew that according to +common report he was to marry Miss Kimball that fall. Her lip curled a +little, for she remembered Leonora of old; she knew her pink-and-white +prettiness and the few and simple enfoldments of her elementary little +brain, just large enough to hold a few attractive near-ideas, a thorough +comprehension of all the social conventionalities, and a fixed and +stubborn conviction as to what was or was not "smart." "If she has a +soul," Silvia said to herself with rather unusual heat, "no one could +tell whether it is in a condition of arrested development, hopeless +atrophy or complete ossification. As well seek diamonds in a common +sandbank as inspiration or aspiration in its sawdusty recesses." Then +she laughed, and said, "Cat!" softly, which was really most irrelevant. + +The day that the cast was to be removed, Silvia appeared laden with good +things that they might celebrate the occasion with due ceremony. + +With infinite care and gentleness, Dr. Earl cut down through the cast, +and took it off. The fracture was perfectly knit, but there was a slight +swelling about the knee, and as Earl examined it Silvia saw him compress +his lips in a hard, straight line. Without looking up, or changing his +tone, he asked the child if she had had a fall since the cast had been +changed. She answered readily that about a week before her crutch had +slipped as she was coming indoors, and she had fallen, striking the +injured leg against the stone step, and she winced as he touched the +thin knee. + +"It's too bad," he said, "but there will have to be another cast about +this knee, and you must be more careful, little girl." + +The tears came to her eyes, and her mother turned to him with an +expression of anxiety. His cheerful face reassured her. "We'll hope it +won't be for long," he said, "but there's no use taking chances. Has her +health generally been good?" he asked Mrs. Bell. + +"The diseases common to childhood went rather hard with her and she had +considerable trouble with her neck and throat a few years ago," Mrs. +Bell replied. + +He made an examination of the glands of her neck, but said no more. + +In spite of many insistent calls elsewhere, Dr. Earl remained long +enough to help lend an air of festivity to the small party, which Silvia +presided over with infinite tact, and with a last admonition to Mrs. +Bell to keep the little girl in bed until he came again, and as quiet as +possible, he took his departure, and Silvia went with him. + +"Tell me what is the matter?" she said, with her usual directness, when +they were out on the street. + +"What makes you think anything is?" he parried. + +"I beg your pardon," she said, a trifle coldly. "I should not have +asked." + +He turned to her and stopped, mute reproach in his eyes. "There isn't a +shadow of doubt that tuberculosis has developed in that knee, and while +I hope to arrest it, and perfect a cure in time, I am very anxious, +nevertheless." + +"But the break has united?" she asked. + +"Oh, yes, and that goes to show that this condition is very recent, and +mild, but with her antecedent history no one can tell what may happen," +he said. + +"Antecedent history?" Silvia said, rather puzzled. "I thought you did +not know the family?" + +"I didn't," he answered, "but you may remember that I looked very +carefully at the bruises about the knee when I set the leg, and I asked +Mrs. Bell some general questions but received no very definite replies +until to-day, and what you heard indicates that the child has already +had a slight attack of tuberculosis. I had counted on my treatment to +overcome the weakening influences of confinement to bed and crutch for +so long a time." + +Silvia was silent, as if thinking out some plan, and said suddenly, +"Then it will all resolve itself into a contest between health and +disease, with a considerable handicap against the patient?" + +"Yes," he said. "With plenty of good food and good air and the right +kind of care, there is no reason why she should not win. And I intend +that she shall," he concluded energetically. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AN ANTI-SUFFRAGE MEETING + + +Dr. Earl redoubled his attentions to Leonora, determined to give her no +just cause for complaint. The doubts that had beset him disappeared, for +no one could be more charming than Leonora, when she was permitted to +follow her own bent. Her mother also showed her gratification at his +devotion, and tried, with consummate tact, to wean him away from his +evident partiality for the suffrage cause. She gave him the best of the +tracts issued by the Anti-Suffrage Society; while he was waiting for his +offices to be fitted up, she took him to lectures and teas and +receptions where anti-suffrage sentiment abounded, and tried in various +ways to convince him of the superior social status of the "Anti" women. + +The culmination was reached, however, when he escorted her and Leonora +to a meeting in a large theatre one afternoon. They were prominent +figures in one of the boxes nearest the stage, and Silvia Holland and +Carroll Renner, who were sitting well toward the rear of the parquet, +had ample opportunity to watch the effect of the meeting upon him. + +Frank Earl, who had come in directly afterward and taken a seat just +back of them, leaned forward and talked while the crowd gathered. "Oh, +don't mind him," he said, when Miss Renner asked if that were not his +brother with the anti-suffrage leaders. "He can't help himself, but if +he doesn't go away from here ready to enlist under Miss Holland's banner +I miss my count. Even I should, were it not that I have seen the folly +of it all on its native heath. Don't make faces at me, Carroll, or +people will know you are a suffragette." + +The theatre had been profusely decorated with flags, flowers and +bunting, and mottoes were festooned along the walls, one of which was +"God Bless Our Homes," and another, "Imbecile Children Will Be the +Product of Imbecile Voting Women." + +Dr. Earl was much impressed with the audience, which, nevertheless, +seemed rather chilly and unresponsive. A dignity prevailed which either +could not or dared not give way to any decided demonstration, in marked +contradistinction to the enthusiasm which characterized the suffrage +meetings he had witnessed. + +In addition to the bunting and the mottoes, there were a number of large +pictures, done in the style of the cartoonist. One of these showed a +colonial dame at her spinning-wheel, with the words "An American Lady of +Four Generations Ago" beneath it; beside it was the picture of a +masculine-looking woman, in a harem skirt, standing on a box at a street +corner, addressing other women similarly attired; this was called "The +American Suffragette." Another picture showed a nurse caring for the +sick and dying soldiers on one side, and on the other a suffragette +charging the police; this picture was labeled "Before and After Taking." + +The meeting opened with a spirited address by the president of the +association, Mrs. Briglow-Jorliss, who was welcomed with a brief rustle +of well-bred applause, led by Frank Earl. + +"Got to do it," he said, in answer to Carroll's reproachful look. +"You'll see; even Jack will catch on before the end of the meeting. +Always applaud these folks when they begin; maybe you can't when they +quit." + +Mrs. Briglow-Jorliss told of the enormous gains recently made by the +"Antis" among the select people of the city, and passed off the suffrage +parade as merely a tatterdemalion host of the riff-raff of the city led +by a few notoriety seekers. + +"You see, Miss Holland," Frank whispered, "what a good thing it is that +I came here; I never should have known that that parade wasn't one of +the finest assemblages of women in the world if I hadn't." + +Silvia laughed in spite of herself, and the stout lady on the platform +went on piling up the indictment against her sex, and showing how +demoralizing the vote had proved to women; how the suffrage sentiment +was dying out in the West; how the "Antis" were organizing even in the +suffrage States to lift the curse from their kind; how much purer and +nobler politics would be without the influence of woman, and wound up +with a glowing peroration on behalf of the women who were fighting to +maintain the sanctity of the home and the elevation of the children. + +Silvia gave an impatient ejaculation. "How can you take it so quietly, +Miss Renner?" she asked. "I confess it always stirs me up." + +"It wouldn't if you had the ballot," said the smaller woman. "It's just +amusing, or tiresome, according to how well it is done. You women are +the worried and worrying Marthas; we are the Marys, who have chosen the +better part that shall not be taken away; we know it can't be, and this +is something like hearing people laboriously argue that the world is +flat with the sun revolving around it." + +After the opening speech there were brief addresses by Dr. David Dearson +on the disastrous results to motherhood should women participate in the +active life of the nation; by the Reverend Jayson Yerkes on the Pauline +doctrine of the subserviency of the truly feminine woman; by Mrs. +Workman Werther on the decadence of feminine charm among women aping +men's interests in life, and Crawford Dorer, a labor leader, opposed the +movement because the natural timidity of woman would, he predicted, set +back all hope of militant progress for the workers of the world. The +"Antis" listened with a somewhat strained and puzzled attention, and a +group of working-women, out on strike, and sitting in the balcony, gave +an angry hiss, which was instantly suppressed. The last speaker, Mr. +Reuben Rice, was one of those wandering scribes who travel through the +West and write up suffrage from a Pullman-car window, and as he exposed +the weaknesses, the failures and the pitiful spectacle that voting women +make of themselves, he galvanized the audience into a semblance of real +life and interest. + +Dr. Earl found the speeches entertaining if not enlightening, and after +the second, gave himself up to the silent enjoyment of collating the +arguments presented in juxtaposition. No sooner had one speaker +convinced his hearers that women would precipitate anarchy by their +radicalism than the next proved equally conclusively that an era of +dilettantism and millinery shop legislation would be the inevitable +result of woman suffrage; no sooner were they filled with the horror of +the degradation of politics by the class of women certain to participate +in it, than another speaker assured them that politics was already so +vile that any woman would be hopelessly contaminated who had anything to +do with the gangrenous growth, and yet another showed that women +wouldn't vote anyhow. It was all he could do to control the muscles of +his face when the Reverend Mr. Yerkes told them in one sentence of the +dissension that would rend families and in the next that married women +simply voted as their husbands dictated, and he could not repress a +smile when the doctor and the professor made it clear that if woman is +to reproduce the race she must not be expected to do anything else, only +to have Mrs. Werther show how woman must be free to take part in the +ennobling activities of the world, philanthropy, charity, etc., if she +is to "bring to motherhood that crown which is the glory of the race," +and much more of the same sort. He heard the ancient argument about +bullets and ballots, and in the same breath his attention was called to +Semiramis conquering Assyria, the Amazons invading Asia, the triumph of +Sappho in song, Aspasia in the salon, Deborah among the Judges of +Israel, George Eliot in literature, and a host of others who had won +distinction. + +The audience was told that it was entirely proper to agitate, cajole, +coax, beseech, threaten, bully and browbeat men into voting for +candidates and measures desired by the women; anything that stopped +short of blackmail and personal intimidation bore the hallmark of +refined femininity, but to take two minutes to accomplish results for +themselves by depositing a ballot on election day meant everlasting +damnation to all feminine traits! And Leonora patted her pretty little +hands, and looked up to Earl for approval, feeling that at last he must +see that Silvia and her cohorts were routed horse and foot. + +When the attack upon Western women was well under way, and Mr. Rice, a +dapper little chap, looking like a freshman from high school, was +rolling out his arraignment of Denver women in particular as typical of +the nethermost depths to which the voting female may descend, Carroll +Renner wrote a few lines on a bit of paper, and gave it to one of the +ushers, and a few minutes later she had the satisfaction of watching the +portly Mrs. Briglow-Jorliss read it. When Mr. Rice had concluded his +diatribe, the lady stated in dulcet tones that Mr. Frank Earl was said +to be in the audience, and as he lived in Denver, and was known to have +strong views on this question, there was an urgent request that he +should come to the platform, that they might know from one who had long +witnessed with regret the deteriorating effects of woman suffrage that +nothing that they had heard was in any way exaggerated. She vouched for +Earl as one whom she had known since his boyhood, a member of one of the +most highly respected families in New York, and who had never failed to +reply when she had needed statistics from the field of woman's +dethronement. + +There was a bustle and stir over the audience, and John Earl looked a +good deal startled, while Leonora was openly delighted. An excellent +speaker, and a trained debater, the occasion had no terrors for Frank +Earl. In fact, he confessed to himself as he made his way to the +platform, he had not had so much fun as he expected to enjoy in the next +fifteen minutes for many a long day. He was introduced with many rather +florid expressions, and began by stating his position calmly, +unmistakably, as opposed to the extension of the franchise to women. He +then made a few complimentary references to those ladies who nobly put +aside their own devotion to the home, the sphere they adorned so +admirably, in order to save their misguided suffrage sisters from the +evil effects of their mistaken zeal. + +There were a good many suffragists and some suffragettes in that +anti-suffrage meeting, and Frank saw that the chilly audience had at +last thawed, melted, warmed up and was rapidly approaching the point +where it might reasonably be expected to boil over. + +"I am unalterably against the extension of the franchise to women," he +repeated, and went on, "but my reasons for this opposition are concrete +and practical rather than abstract and theoretical, and are based upon +the experience I have gained from my residence in Colorado. I am also +opposed to it because it is all too evident that the suffrage should be +restricted rather than extended. The ballot should be the reward of +intelligence, education, and a comprehension of the great political +problems of the nation." + +"Give us the truth," some one at the left of the parquet cried. + +"I shall," he said, "and that necessitates correcting a few impressions +which seem to me at variance with the facts. If it were true that women +would not vote, or would vote as directed by the male members of their +families, I should not so much deprecate giving them the ballot; but +neither contention is true. Women do vote, and what is worse, they vote +in steadily increasing numbers. Out of seventy thousand votes cast at +the last election in my city a little less than half of them were cast +by women, and judging from the results, I must say that the men of their +families had very little influence with them. The possession of the +franchise has developed the secretive instinct among women; they no +longer confide their intentions to their doting husbands; they listen to +their words of wisdom and then--they vote the secret ballot as they +please." + +There was a wave of laughter that swelled into a gleeful sort of shout +of mirth, but with an air of the most grieved surprise the speaker +turned wonderingly to Mrs. Briglow-Jorliss, who still beamed upon him, +though she was looking worried. + +"But surely, Mr. Earl," she said, "when the disagreeable duty is thrust +upon them, the conservative women do what they can to protect the +interests of the State?" + +He shook his head sadly. + +"This is one of the most frightful discoveries we have made since women +began to vote. When Mr. Dorer speaks of the innate conservatism of women +he shows that he is not conversant with the woman movement. It is true +that there are a few intensely partisan women, who can be held by party +ties, but the rank and file observe no such allegiance. They read and +study, but in addition they go to the legislative halls, and there they +see that both parties make and break promises with equal facility, and +what is the result?" + +"Well, what is it?" cried an impatient feminine voice. + +"I hardly know how to break it to you," he said, "but the result is +revolt, revolt all along the line. Yes, ladies; women, lovely, refined, +gentle, educated women utterly refuse to be dictated to by political +leaders, and openly sneer at ward bosses. They can't be kept in line. +They no longer sing the sweet strains of 'The land of the free and the +home of the brave.' On the contrary, they raise the battle cry, 'Let +independence be our boast,' and in spite of the passionate pleas of +their natural leaders, they go on record for the most radical +legislation. Why, I'm told that nearly every so-called progressive law +enacted in my State has been passed by their continued efforts. + +"They have no conception of the ideal of government laid down by +Hamilton; they will submit to neither checks nor balances, and would +subvert the whole scheme of representative government and replace it +with an out-and-out democracy. In accord with this mistaken view they +have adopted the initiative and referendum, carried it overwhelmingly, +three to one, in every county in the State, and I need not tell an +audience of intelligence that this is the most insidious form of attack +now being made upon the fundamental principles of our government." + +By this time Silvia and all the suffragists in the audience were +applauding wildly, while Carroll Renner laughed till the tears ran down +her cheeks, and once more Frank turned a patient and puzzled countenance +to the presiding officer. + +"I do not understand the applause, ladies," he said mildly, with a gleam +in his eyes that none but Carroll understood. "The thing I am telling +you is frightful. The enfranchisement of women means the end of the +Republic as it now is; it means the rejection of all theories that are +found wanting, and the putting out on the vast uncharted sea of +experiment; it means interference with those great business enterprises +that have built up, I had nearly said that 'make and preserve us a +nation'! It means a reckless disregard for property rights in the +sentimental desire to protect the individual, as if a nation could +become great and strong by individual effort alone, and without the +guiding and sustaining hands of statecraft and financial genius gripping +the rudder of the ship of state. They will not listen to the voice of +experience; they cannot be intimidated; they cannot be deceived for an +indefinite number of years; if the established order seems to them +unfair, unjust or illiberal, they have little respect for tradition when +it's results they're after." + +"But if the anti-suffrage movement is growing as we have been told, +can't the anti-suffragists overcome those tendencies?" asked an old lady +on the platform. + +Frank restated the question for the benefit of the audience, and then +answered with indescribable pathos, "I cannot conceal the truth from +you; improbable as it seems, when once this poison becomes virulent in +the body politic it spares none, and the very women who have battled +most nobly against this corroding innovation are apt to succumb to its +insidious influence; even the anti-suffragist, home-loving, God-fearing, +modest and retiring as is her nature, has developed a talent for +political intrigue that has led to the downfall of more than one of the +best laid plans of mice and men." + +He tried to go on, but the audience was convulsed, not so much by what +he said as by his manner, and by the sudden turning of the tables after +the long tension had reached the snapping point. Still uncertain whether +to regard his as friend or foe, Mrs. Briglow-Jorliss, after rapping +vainly for order, was obliged to dismiss the meeting, and by some irony +of fate the orchestra played "Hail Columbia," and the suffragettes took +up the words and sung them with much unction, especially the lines-- + + "Let independence be our boast, + Ever mindful what it cost." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FAITH IS THE BASIS OF ALL PROGRESS + + +Early in June, Dr. Earl received a letter which puzzled him not a +little. It was complimentary in the extreme, and yet something back of +it made him say, "'For it is not an open enemy that hath done this.'" +The letter asked him to speak on "Mental Therapeutics" before a meeting +of one of the great medical societies of the city of New York; stated +that there would be no other speaker, but there would be an open +discussion after his address, and hoped he would find time to comply +with the request. Once he started to write his acceptance; twice he +actually wrote, declining, and then tore up both letters. It was true +that he was crowded for time, but he could make time, and in his heart +he knew perfectly well that he would have done so without a thought, but +for the unexpected complications which had occurred with Alice Bell. +Already he had heard one or two thinly veiled sneers at the result of +this much-lauded case. He had met Towers and Hershell, both of them +eminent in the profession, but the day before, and their greetings had +been singularly cool; once or twice at the club they both frequented +Morris had been little short of insulting, but his well-known +infatuation for Silvia Holland would account for that. A reporter from +one of the less reputable dailies had asked for an interview, and had +written an article which barely escaped being libelous. There were not +wanting those in the profession who openly denounced him as a "fakir." + +The longer he thought about it, the more unwilling he was to act upon +his own judgment alone, and so he turned to the one unfailing counsellor +of his life, his sister Hilda. With him, to will was to do, so within an +hour he was in his sister's drawing-room, and not five minutes later +Silvia Holland entered and was warmly greeted by Mrs. Ramsey. The day +was dismal and the rain was descending in a steady downpour that gave no +promise of ever ceasing; it was late afternoon, and Mrs. Ramsey said +cordially, "Let us have tea in my sitting-room; nobody else will come +such a day as this, and it will be so much more cosy. I distrust from +his air of supernatural gravity that my brother has something on his +mind----" + +"Then I will be _de trop_" said Miss Holland. "I will amuse myself in +the library until you are at liberty. I was awfully glad to get your +'phone message to come over, for it's a wretched day, and I was +wondering where I should go for tea as I came up town from my office. +Have your conference and never mind about me." + +"Indeed," said Jack eagerly, "if you would be so kind as to give me your +opinion also on the matter I have called to consult my sister about, you +would confer a great favor," and even as he spoke he knew it was for her +quick comprehension he had been unconsciously wishing all the time. + +She laughed and assented graciously, and they followed Mrs. Ramsey to +her own charming little room, as dainty and distinctive as its owner. +Upon the tea-tray there were cigarettes, and Dr. Earl rather wondered +whether Silvia would accept, but she shook her head. "No," she said +lightly, "I emulate men's virtues, not their vices; maybe my nerves may +need alternate sedatives and stimulants some day, but as yet I hardly +know that I have any." + +Hilda lit one rather languidly. "My doctor says it isn't so much nerves +as lack of nerve with me; I don't know what you call it, but I confess I +find the smoke-wreaths pleasant; you won't join me either, Jack? Well, +let us have the story in all its native simplicity and be sure you +nothing extenuate nor set down aught in malice." + +"I am told," he said, "that no well-bred New Yorker makes literary +allusions, and that to quote Shakespeare is to relegate oneself to his +century; however, this is the problem," and then he read them the +letter. + +Hilda was openly pleased. "Why not?" she said. "It seems to me a very +courteous and appreciative note, and I should think you would enjoy +speaking before that kind of an audience, all of them picked men, +trained and scientific and able to take in shades of meaning and +distinctions that are wasted on the laity. Unless you are keeping +something back, I should say, accept by all means. But are you?" + +He paused. "In just a moment, Hilda. How does it strike you, Miss +Holland?" + +She held out her hand for the note, and read and then reread it, and her +forehead contracted. "I wonder," she said to herself, "whether this is +what Orrin meant when he said the profession would furnish Dr. Earl +enough rope--I meant to ask him what he did mean, but I forgot it." +Aloud she said, "Isn't Dr. Morris one of the directors of this society? +He's a fellow alumnus of yours; it doesn't seem as if he would be likely +to show you an affront, does it?" + +"That's just the point," answered Dr. Earl. "Is it a case of 'mine own +familiar friend'?" + +His sister looked at him quizzically. "When it comes to literary +allusion, Jack," she said, "New York might permit Shakespeare, but I +assure you it wouldn't stand for the psalmist. Do you really think it is +a plan to get you into some false position or to embarrass you with +criticisms or queries not made in good faith?" + +"That is exactly what I want to know," he said. + +"And what if it is?" asked Silvia. + +He colored. "You mean I ought to be willing to bear testimony to my +beliefs whether they meet with acceptance or not?" + +Hilda blew a ring of smoke ceilingwards. "That's the trouble with these +suffragettes," she said reminiscently. "They never question the +advisability of 'casting pearls before swine.'" + +Jack laughed and Silvia turned on her reproachfully. "Hilda! That isn't +fair; haven't you just said yourself that this would be a picked +audience? Suppose a little clique of them have arranged the meeting with +the intention of heckling the speaker? The bulk of them will be there in +good faith, anxious to learn, willing to listen to your brother's +account of his experiences, and profit by them. If he can't gain a +respectful hearing there, where will he gain it?" + +"Forgive me for being biblical to-night," Hilda answered. "I can't seem +to get away from the suggestion; you know it was the high priests and +the rulers of the synagogue that stirred up their followers to cry, +'Crucify Him, crucify Him!' And times have changed more than people. The +poor will hear gladly enough of healing that is to be had without money +and without price, and operations that may be avoided by simply keeping +well, but my experience is that the fetish of the professional man is a +jealous god, given to heresy hunting, and bowing down and worshiping at +the shrine of 'regularity.' They want to preserve the _status quo_ at +any cost." + +"Yes," said Silvia bluntly, "even after it has long been lost. They are +like people who might discover an ostrich egg-shell after the bird was +half grown, and go chasing after it, trying to put it back inside the +shell. I think it is Emerson who says that there are quantities of +people who are always trying to become settled, whereas our only +salvation consists in being constantly unsettled. I think the English +women are infinitely braver and finer in their attitude on the suffrage +question than we are. What I feel, Dr. Earl, is this: we have come to a +time when nothing is really worth while unless it is worth fighting for. +There are other worth while things, of course, for the laboratory man or +woman, but for those of us who are in the thick of the fight, who want +to do things _now_, it is necessary that we should be willing to do +battle for our beliefs." + +"But is that the way to win?" asked the doctor. "We've all heard about +catching flies with molasses, to use a homely simile." + +"Yes," responded Silvia; "the more molasses the more flies. No, the old +methods are gone or are going. Do you suppose anything would do the +suffrage cause as much good in this country as clubbing a few old women +who want respectfully to present a petition to the other old women in +Congress? A few years ago a petition was presented, signed by a million +women, and a jocose member rolled it down the aisle with his foot, +saying it might as well be signed by mice! But just let them try the +English methods and every State in the Union would enfranchise its women +just as soon as they could get a popular vote on it." She stopped short. +"Oh, I beg your pardon, doctor, I didn't mean to give you a suffrage +lecture." + +"You are not," he said. "At least, what I understand is that you are +trying to make me see that, the spirit of the age is the militant +spirit, that does not wait to have its own presented to it, but takes it +wherever it finds it." She nodded and he went on: "I think that is true, +but with this difference between the illustration you cite and the case +in point. You women must be passionate enthusiasts to win, because the +thing you want is concrete and imminent and personal. I have no +intention of setting up as a _vade mecum_, founding a new cult, +proselyting or even preaching my own doctrines; in the first place I +shall change them as I discover better ones, or when they fail to bring +results, and in the second I shall be too busy practicing my theories to +find time to exploit them." + +"There you are wrong," said his sister. "When a man like Jenner comes +along that is the time for practicing, but when smallpox has been rooted +out and tuberculosis forgotten, men will still read what Socrates had to +say of immortality and the sermon on the mount. When you hear people +belittle the written and the spoken Word, it becomes us to remember that +'In the beginning the Word was God,' and all that we know of past +civilizations is the word they have left behind, painted on their stony +walls or burned in a brick to say, 'After me cometh a builder. Tell him +I too have known.'" + +"But, my dear sister," Jack answered, "don't you think assuming the role +of the teacher may be just a trifle, only a trifle, presumptuous on my +part?" + +"I don't quite know what your new views are," she answered. + +"They are not new," he said. "In fact they are most of them of such +hoary antiquity that they are lost in the mists that brooded over the +face of the deep. It is only the application that is new. Even that has +always been understood by certain great souls. Pythagoras is said to +have taught the Greeks to believe in metempsychosis for the purpose of +making them kinder to lesser forms of life; like many beauty worshipers +they were frankly inhuman, and it took heroic measures to create even a +glimmering perception of the unity of life which is the basis of all the +great world religions, whether it be Buddha's 'Who hurteth another +hurteth himself,' or Christ's commandment, 'Love one another'; the Yogi +looking first at the prince and then at the pauper and saying, 'I am +that,' or Father Damien going into voluntary exile for the sake of the +souls of the wretched lepers. The Prince of Peace preached the doctrine +of spiritual inspiration, and the King of Conquerors said 'Imagination +rules the world.' Jesus or Napoleon--both knew that back of the visible +man himself is the thought of the man, which controls him, and other men +through him, if it possesses power and vitality and truth." + +"Then it is a kind of new thought?" asked Hilda. + +"Rather a renaissance of old thought. The modern quest of the Grail is +not for the crystal cup that held the holy elements, but for the divine +life itself, the principle that inspires men to action. The philosopher +of our day is not a hermit, theorizing about vague abstractions, but +vitally alive to the problems that confront this day and generation, and +modern psychology is changing all the methods of the great processes of +existence. Education, medicine, law, are all in process of +transformation. Grandsons of the men who denounced Mesmer as a charlatan +thronged the clinics of Charcot." + +"Yes," said Silvia, "and within the next decade Muensterberg will have +compelled a complete remodeling of our forms of legal procedure. No +attorney worth his salt would undertake to ignore the apparatus devised +by the psychologist, and the time is nearly gone by when, as he says, +courts will prefer to listen to the 'science' of the handwriting +experts, rather than permit the examination of a witness by methods in +accord with the exact work of the psychologist." + +"That is true," assented Jack, "and not the least gratifying part of the +whole matter is that it isn't the unimportant who are the ones to speak +respectfully of the changing ideal; in fact, the smaller a man's +calibre the more sure you can be that he will cling to the established +order. It is only very great men who have the courage of their +intuitions long enough to prove them. Muensterberg can afford to say what +he thinks. Now if I go to this meeting and tell these men that 'there +are cases where a fact cannot come at all unless a preliminary faith +exists in its coming,' what do you think they will say?" + +Hilda smiled. "Most of them will suspect you of quoting 'Science and +Health.' If they accuse you of it, read them the rest of the paragraph." + +"What is it?" asked Silvia eagerly. + +"I can find it in a moment," said Hilda, going to the bookshelves, and +taking down a modest olive-colored volume. "Here it is. 'And where faith +in a fact can help create the fact, that would be an insane logic which +should say that faith running ahead of scientific evidence is the lowest +kind of immorality into which a thinking being can fall. Yet such is the +logic by which our scientific absolutists pretend to regulate our +lives.' That is from the late Professor James, who is said to have been +the profoundest thinker this country has ever produced, and he has said +much more equally startling to those little minds that, like full +bottles, have no room for more." + +Dr. Earl threw back his head and laughed; his quandary was over, his +course settled. He turned to Silvia with a genial smile. "Score one more +victory for the Feminists," he said. "I wonder if there ever has been a +time, anywhere on earth, where women were actually and aggressively +noncombatants. The Spartan woman handing over her husband's shield is +typical. Whenever and wherever there has been a cause worth fighting +for, worth dying for--always and forever we can see the figure of the +woman, shield on arm and javelin in hand, standing at the door of the +slothful warrior's tent, calling him to action. Sometimes the eternal +feminine leads on, but very frequently, I regret to say, it has to get +back and drive, and sometimes if it did not kneel and push I fear the +wheels of progress would not revolve at all; that we do go on, slowly +and uncertainly, it is true, but that we go on at all, is due to the +woman soul that will not let us waste our years in the wilderness when +the land of promise is so near at hand. Ladies, I go!" + +He rose as if to make good his words, but Hilda entered a peremptory +negative, and it ended by his staying to dinner and spending a long and +utterly delightful evening, which became in a sense the beginning of +what he felt was a new epoch in his life. This was the understanding, +the fellowship, the _bon camaraderie_ that gives existence its zest and +permits one to dream of life eternal without a horror of impending +weariness and boredom. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AN EVIL PROPHECY BEGINS TO BEAR FRUIT + + +Leonora and Mrs. Kimball accompanied Dr. Earl to the meeting of the +medical society, and if he had some doubts whether or not she would be +able to follow his discourse perfectly, he had none whatever as to his +own pride and pleasure in her dainty loveliness. She was gowned in +white, and the season's styles were particularly becoming to her +graceful and well-rounded figure. Her radiant face with its sensitive +coloring resembled the delicate glow of one of those rare Sevres vases +of the Empire Period. + +She appreciated the compliment of the invitation, as people always +appreciate the compliment of being invited to distinguished gatherings +where the subjects of discussion are likely to be much beyond their +range of knowledge or understanding. + +There was a large attendance, for while many members of the profession +had come from idle curiosity, most of those present were interested in +the views of any man of standing who might throw new light upon the +successful application of either medical or surgical remedies. + +Whatever criticisms may be passed upon individual practitioners, or +however many Bourbons may exist in the fraternity, yet it must be +apparent to the student of such matters that nowhere in the world does +as large a percentage of the medical or surgical profession adopt new +and improved methods of treatment of the maimed and the ill as in the +United States. And nowhere in the world are such new and improved +methods applied with anything like the aptness or skill as by American +doctors of medicine or surgery. + +The old school, the newer school, the newest school of legally +recognized practitioners were there in force, as well as numbers of +those who were effecting remarkable cures without any special sanction +of law for their methods. + +Modestly and earnestly, Dr. Earl discussed the subject that had been +assigned him, amplifying as much as his time would permit, and +occasionally citing authorities bound to command respectful attention +from scientific minds. + +He was aware that he had the sympathy of most of his audience, and he +was just as fully conscious of the hostility of Drs. Morris, Tower, +Hershell, Bainbridge and two or three more of those who believed with +something approaching fanaticism that all physicians and surgeons must +adhere strictly to what they denominated "standard methods." + +While Leonora could not comprehend the larger significance of his +discourse, it gratified her pride and pleased her vanity that her +fiancee was a man who could obtain such a hearing from the medical +profession. The discussion that followed the address was animated and +intelligent, and if the malcontents had intended any discourtesy to Dr. +Earl their plans went awry. + +Dr. Earl found himself plunged deeper and deeper every day in the +seemingly innumerable duties that crowded upon him. Summer came with +tropical heat, but feeling that he had already enjoyed a long vacation, +he made no plans, save to take his week-ends out of town, and prepared +to keep office hours all summer. + +Early in July, Leonora and her mother went to Bar Harbor and the +Ramseys to Newport. Frank had gone West in May. He would have missed +them had he possessed a free moment, but the first of August found him +as busy as ever, in spite of the fact that the city was deserted by the +fashionable world. Sickness has fashions of its own, and the fame he had +achieved as "the surgeon who cures without operating," brought him not a +few calls from those who had nothing to commend them save their +suffering and their faith. Every doctor worthy the name has a set of +books kept only by his recording angel, and Earl's invisible guardian +made many entries that summer, and there were times when even the +insistence of Leonora could not make him feel willing to leave those who +seemed so wholly dependent upon his presence for their physical welfare. + +Now and then, in spite of his all-absorbing work, there came to his +sensitive consciousness a feeling of foreboding and dread that he could +not explain, save by some subtle law of suggestion, as he recalled half +in mirth and half in seriousness the dark prophecies of the astrologist +at the suffrage ball. He had suspected his brother Frank, and when he +learned that the seeress was Miss Renner, that suspicion had been +confirmed; Frank might have given her the date of Leonora's birthday, +but he had nothing to do with the warning she had given him that +something would happen within the next twenty-four hours which would +have a bearing on his whole career. Within two hours he had treated +little Alice Bell, and out of that event had grown his more intimate +acquaintance with Silvia, and the marked hostility of Dr. Morris. The +child was doing as well as could be expected, but he was greatly +disturbed over her condition, and was building up her general health in +the hope of overcoming the disease. + +He had asked Miss Renner one or two questions, but she had evaded him, +and while he had thought of calling on her and asking for the promised +horoscope, which she did not send, the idea seemed absurd, and he had no +time to carry it out. + +On the fourth of August he received a summons to come to Magnolia, +Massachusetts, to attend a former patient who was spending the summer +there, and he left New York, intending to remain a week. + +His movements had become a matter of interest to the ubiquitous +newspaper reporter, and as the dog-days in New York were not prolific +in startling items, the fact of his being sent for to attend a prominent +New York man at Magnolia was seized upon and made into a fairly readable +first page news story. + +He arranged for the care of his patients, saw the Bells and told them of +his intended absence, and spent some time talking with the frail little +child who had become greatly attached to him. As he rose to go, he +turned to the couch once more. "What shall I send you from Boston, +little Miss Alice?" he said kindly, and the girl replied in true child +fashion, "Candy." He shook his head. "You know I don't approve of much +candy for small girls; but you shall have something better," he said, +"you may be sure I won't forget," and with another good-by he was gone. +He took the midnight train for Boston, and his patient's motor car was +waiting for him when he arrived there. + +Perhaps it was the excitement of thinking what the "something better" +could be that kept Alice Bell awake that night; whatever it was, when +Silvia Holland saw her the next morning her heart sank. She had a +feeling that she was in some way responsible for the child also, and +that she was still Dr. Earl's assistant. She watched her while she +talked to Mrs. Bell, and suggested, in a tentative way, that Mrs. Bell +should go to some quiet country place for a month, but the woman shook +her head. + +"I cannot leave the city, now," she said. "I have a great quantity of +sewing that must be done for Miss Lanier's wedding in September." + +"Couldn't you take it along?" asked Silvia. + +"No," she said quietly, but decidedly. "Some of the things she wants +fitted, and I have said I would be here any time she wanted to run into +town. Besides, there are other reasons why I cannot go away now." She +controlled herself with an effort. "I can never tell you, Miss Holland, +how thankful I am for the work you have brought my way. You can't +understand, no woman who has never been anxious to know how she was +going to get the rent can understand what a blessing it is to be +independent! You are doing great things for all women, Miss Holland, and +not forgetting individual women as some people would, but _do_ try to +make girls understand that they can never be free so long as they are +dependent on somebody else for their bread and butter." + +Silvia flushed. "You're not fretting because of the paltry little sum I +advanced for your rent, are you?" she said. "I thought we were friends, +and such things should not be spoken of between friends." + +The woman turned to her with a face in which gratitude and some great +sorrow were contending emotions, and caught her hands and held them +tight. + +"No," she said, "I don't mind being under obligations to you; I'm almost +glad to be, for the sake of knowing such a woman. You can do a kindness +without making it a burden; there are people who pay a debt as if they +were doing you a favor. The only thing I mind is that I am not more +worthy of all you have done for me." + +Silvia put her hands on the other woman's shoulders. "Don't talk to me +of unworthiness," she said. "You are a brave woman and a devoted mother; +it is one of the crimes of civilization that you should lack for any +creature comforts, and you shall not any more. You shall earn what you +need yourself, and this fall I intend to start a class of girls in +domestic economy, and you shall teach them how to make these pretty +things you fashion so exquisitely." + +An indescribable look of pain and rebellion passed over Mrs. Bell's +face, and she turned away from Silvia, with a quick gesture of +renunciation. + +"In the meantime," Silvia went on, feeling that the time had not come to +seek any further confidence, "I am going to borrow Alice. I want to take +her up to Nutwood for a week or two, and as I'm going this noon, suppose +you gather her things together, and I'll take her right along." + +The little girl gave a cry of joy, and then her face dropped. "But, +mamma," she said, "will I miss my present from Dr. Earl?" + +Her mother smiled and explained that the doctor had promised to send +Allie "something better than candy" from Boston, where he had gone the +night before. "I will forward it," she said; "you can trust mother for +that." + +"He has been very good to you, hasn't he?" said Silvia absently, +thinking of him once more as she had seen him first, as he bent over the +child, the sleeves rolled back from his powerful white arms while he +bathed the matted locks and set the broken leg. + +"He has that," said the woman laconically. "I'm glad to have Allie go +with you, for she would miss him; he said he wouldn't be back for a +week. Now be a good girl, Allie, and do just as Miss Holland tells you, +and you will write mother a little letter every day, and mother will +write to you." She flung her arms about the child in a sudden passion of +emotion, but the eyes that looked into Silvia's as she took her hand +were dry and wretched. + +"I wish you could tell me all about it," Silvia said impulsively. + +"I shall, soon," she answered; "unless Fate turns kind for once, I shall +tell you all, soon, very soon." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER OF EMMA BELL + + +The crowd going home from the resorts and roof gardens August 9th was +startled by the wild cries of the newsboys: "Extra! Extra! All about the +mysterious murder!" + +Murders are not so rare in New York as to cause any genuine sensation +among its people when one is announced in the public press, but mystery +has ever been attractive to the human race, and the details of the +present case as contained in the columns of the papers were so involved +in conjecture as to arouse the interest of every reader. The only facts +that were clear were that Mrs. Emma Bell had been found dead in the +sitting-room of her apartment on East 56th Street with a box of candied +fruit on the table near her, which had just been opened, and which, +according to the postmark stamped on the paper enclosing the box, had +been mailed to her from Boston. Written on thin paper that was so +pasted as to cover the entire top of the box was the inscription, "With +best wishes to you and Alice. J. E." + +A weird description of the lifelike appearance of the woman when found, +seated in her chair, with eyes staring and pupils dilated, was given in +the best reportorial style. The coroner had taken possession of +everything and had ordered the apartment sealed until an inquest could +be held. Whether or not the candied fruit had anything to do with the +death, and if so who could have sent it, were all matters of speculation +which the various writers had covered in from one to four columns, +according to their respective imaginative qualities and newspaper +instinct, but none of them gave the slightest intimation as to the +suspected person, if murder really had been committed. + +More or less accurate likenesses of Mrs. Bell were given with all the +events of her life that seemed spectacular, the most prominent of which +was that her neighbors had long speculated as to her source of +livelihood, since her husband's death some four years previously, and +with characteristic charity such speculation led to hints along +salacious trails and the dark recesses of public suspicion. The events +of the injury to her little girl, and her treatment by Dr. Earl, and +the devotion of the volunteer nurse, lacked nothing in their interesting +narration in connection with the supposed murder mystery, and assisted +very materially in enhancing that mystery through the glamour of +prominent personages who were so well in the foreground of the story. + +The coroner's jury sat upon the case as coroners' juries have been +sitting upon similar cases ever since English jurisprudence advanced to +the stage of not executing people on suspicion. There was the same dank, +solemn atmosphere of the morgue, the same density of intellect and +understanding, the same owl-like gaze of stupidity that passed muster +for wisdom, the same perfervid desire to get a certificate on the public +treasury without undue mental or physical effort, the same ambition to +give a duly impressive but harmless verdict, that must have +characterized the first empaneled jury of this nature. Never by any +possibility could these original qualities have deteriorated, and it +would require a wild stretch of the imagination to note any traces of +improvement. + +The reading of the verdict of a coroner's jury has never been known to +disqualify any person from serving on a trial jury in a murder case by +unduly influencing the opinion, or arousing the passions of such +involuntary candidate for the jury box. No jails have been stormed or +revolutions started by the verdict of an American coroner's jury, and +New York was not destined to have its sensibilities too harshly jarred +by a sensational verdict in this case. + +After solemnly sitting for hours, the jury found that "Said Emma Bell +came to her death from the effects of hydrocyanic acid administered by +some person to the said jurors unknown, and whether said hydrocyanic +acid was administered with felonious intent the said jurors cannot at +this time ascertain." + +The facts established by the jury were, that the woman was dead; that +hydrocyanic acid had killed her; that the cause of death was so evident +that it was only necessary to examine the contents of the stomach; that +apparently none of the candied fruit had been disturbed, as the box was +even full and the top layer as smooth as when first packed; that a +chemical analysis proved that no poison of any kind was in any of the +candied fruit in the box; that no vial could be found on or near the +woman after death, and that a thorough search of the apartment failed +to disclose any of this or any other kind of poison; that the woman was +quite alone in the apartment when death took place and was only +discovered by the janitress at ten o'clock at night, at which time she +entered the apartment, having been invited to sleep there during the +absence of the child in the country, whither she had gone a few days +previous to this for a week's stay; that Mrs. Bell had been doing her +own work for several months and taking in fine sewing. + +But ambitious newspaper reporters bent themselves to this new task, as +is their custom in all matters of public concern, _i. e._, to outrival +the most noted expert in the line of that particular phase of public +endeavor uppermost at the time. Theories were advanced in the daily +papers that made Sherlock Holmes seem like a novice in detective work +and Lucretia Borgia a mere infant in the skillful administration of +poisons. The regular detectives, both public and private, were aroused +by the mystery that shrouded the case. It remained, however, for the +ubiquitous reporter, to whom society really owes a debt along every line +of worthy public endeavor impossible either to estimate or discharge, +to discover that the handwriting on the box was that of Dr. John Earl, +and that he had been in the habit, for months, of paying almost daily +visits to the Bell home; that he was at Magnolia Beach, but a short ride +from Boston, at the time the package was mailed there; that ostensibly +he had visited the Bell home to attend the little girl who was injured +by the automobile, but that the mother was undoubtedly much interested +in him; that there were many rumors among surgeons that his operation on +the leg of the child had produced tuberculosis; that the district +attorney had received anonymous letters to the effect that Earl had +deliberately attempted to poison both mother and daughter, to be rid of +an unpleasant _liaison_ on the one hand and the evidence of his lack of +skill on the other; that the child had gone to the country after he left +the city and he still supposed her with her mother, hence the saving of +the child's life; that the box of candied fruit was only a blind, and +that some other package must have arrived containing the poison in +another form, possibly in the same wrapping paper with the fruit; that +no possible motive could be discovered for the poisoning by any other +person and no clue could be found leading to a suspicion of any one +else. + +With five hundred thousand visitors constantly within the gates of their +city; with a shifting population of nearly a million more; with +permanent residents absorbed in the most strenuous existence known on +the American Continent; with sensation in high life of such frequent +occurrence as to benumb any effort to form a discriminating opinion--the +people of New York (visitors, temporary denizens, those of fixed +habitation) welcomed these ready-made conclusions of the daily press and +blindly adopted them as their own. + +Individual character counts for less in the metropolis of the United +States than it does anywhere else in the nation. There are several +reasons for this, but the principal ones are a lack of time on the part +of the permanent residents to inform themselves on such matters and a +lack of interest in the subject on the part of the remainder of the +population. The result is, that when charges are made, with any degree +of sanction from the constituted authorities, against ordinary citizens +of hitherto blameless lives, the great majority of the people accept +such charges as well founded until they are effectively disproved. + +So it was in this case. Just as soon as the incriminating facts +seriously involved Dr. John Earl it was taken for granted that he was +guilty, and such presumption was certain to grip the public mind until +his innocence could be duly established, if such result were at all +possible. + +This was also the golden opportunity for the Bourbon members of his own +profession to assail his theories and, secretly and openly, certain of +them charged that the result in Dr. Earl's case was but the natural one +where "standard methods" of practice were set aside for the, as yet, +"unscientific paths of suggestive therapeutics," as these reactionary +medical men denominated Earl's system, for he had cured through +suggestive methods a score of patients who had been condemned to the +operating table by other surgeons, and as a result he had aroused the +resentment of such surgeons in particular and the condemnation in +general of all those who believed in the supreme curative power of the +knife. + +Those in other walks of life, who, from conviction or selfishness, were +opposed to disturbing present conditions, and who appreciated and +feared the interdependence of the whole progressive movement, were also +easily convinced that, properly enough, he was in the toils of the law. + +It was not long until his friends and defenders began to realize that a +secret sentiment was being created against him which had for its purpose +the discrediting of his mental stability, as well as his medical +methods, and that they would be compelled to combat not only menacing +facts and conditions, but also the still more powerful influences of +centuries of prejudice against men of his type, who had dared to get too +far ahead of the general parade. + +Psychologically, some interesting impressions were made upon observant +minds. Many of our national hypocrisies were emphasized, and these +occurrences revealed certain inconsistencies of public pretension and +action in other fields closely correlated to this one, and it became +evident that improvement in theory and practice, in matters of this +sort, was impossible so long as more fundamental abuses were not only +permitted but sanctioned in a most aggressively affirmative manner. + +These observing people were reminded that in this Christian nation a +cross of considerable dimensions is generally ready for instant use in +immolating the person who is rash enough to interfere too strenuously or +persistently with the operations of our morally depraved and generally +rum-soaked political bosses, who have boldly usurped the functions of +government and whose aims and purposes are widely at variance with all +of the teachings of the lowly Nazarene; that, much as we pride ourselves +upon our philosophical advancement, there is usually a cup of hemlock in +reserve for a master spirit that attempts too far to outdistance the +crowd; that, fond as we are of orating and writing about the dark days +of barbarism, we continually applaud the barbarian methods of those who +appropriate the property and liberties of their fellow men to increase +their own wealth and power; that, while there is no longer much of a +disposition to consider the earth flat, there is a marked tendency to +regard most every other mysterious thing as of that character. + +Dr. John Earl had friends who understood the complex and extensive +nature of these sentiments, and, whatever might be their opinion +concerning his guilt or innocence of the specific charge under +discussion, they greatly feared the graver charge which emanated from +the chaotic darkness of superstition, ignorance, prejudice and jealousy +and the location of which could be determined only by occasional and +angry flashes of venom. + +While these things were occurring, Dr. Earl had come to New York and had +gone directly to the district attorney and notified him that, if needed, +he could be found at his house on East 53rd Street, but he assured that +official that he knew nothing of the affair whatever. + +This was treated as bravado by those who believed in his guilt and as +vindication by those who asserted his innocence. + +His brother Frank hastened from a summer resort in the fastnesses of the +Rockies and his sister and brother-in-law returned to town from Newport. + +One day, Silvia Holland appeared at the coroner's office and asked to +see the box in which the candied fruit had arrived. She examined it +critically for several minutes, and then asked for the wrapper +containing the address and postage stamps. There were three ten-cent and +two fifteen-cent stamps on the paper, although it was apparent that half +that amount in postage would have carried the package. She compared the +handwriting with samples of Dr. Earl's, and it was only too evident that +both address and message were written by him. + +When she returned to her office she found Miss Renner waiting for her in +response to a telephone message. The two women had seen much of each +other after their meeting at the League House and a deep regard had +sprung up between them. For the time being, Miss Renner was doing +special work on one of the New York papers, and lending her voice to the +suffrage cause between assignments. They exchanged greetings, and then +the little Westerner said quietly, "You wanted me?" + +Miss Holland looked at her long and searchingly. "Yes, I both want and +need you, my dear. Your paper has been rather vindictive in its pursuit +of evidence against Dr. Earl. I want you to go to the district attorney +and ask him personally to examine the inside of the lid of the box which +contained the fruit, also the scalloped paper that covered the fruit. If +he does so, he will find that a green gage, an apricot or a plum, which +was seedless, of course, rested on top of the paper, and was crushed +against the lid of the box. The stain is quite distinct on both paper +and cover, and shows that there was only one such piece of fruit placed +there. Of course, it contained the poison, and was placed on top, +because it would naturally be eaten first." + +Carroll Renner looked at her in amazement. + +"If I do that he will order the immediate arrest of Dr. Earl; it will +put him in jail and possibly lead to his conviction. Is that what you +desire?" She looked up at the taller woman searchingly. + +"Surely I do--if he is guilty," Miss Holland replied, without changing +her expression. "There is no doubt that it will cause his immediate +arrest," she added, "but even that is preferable to this suspense with +everybody suspecting him and no opportunity to defend himself." + +She turned away, and Carroll slipped her arm about her waist. "Dear +Silvia, I'll go--on one condition." + +"And that is?" came in a rather muffled voice. + +"That you will defend him yourself!" said Miss Renner. Miss Holland +turned and caught her in her arms. "I can't do that," she said. "I +couldn't, anyhow, without being asked, and besides, he will need the +most skillful criminal lawyer in New York to defend him. I should make a +sorry mess of it." + +Carroll drew her down on a settee and held her hands firmly. "You might +just as well be a man, if you are going to talk like that--always ready +to let women go ahead until something really worth while comes along, +and then saying 'only a man can do big, difficult things.' After all +you've said, are you going to hesitate when it comes to crossing +professional swords with a man? Come now, promise me; if I go to the +district attorney, you will defend him." + +"But I have not been employed, or even asked to defend him," she +insisted. "You must see how unprofessional it would be, Carroll." + +"Professional! that's what the doctors say when they refuse to save your +life because they don't want to be discourteous to a fellow +practitioner," answered Carroll. "Well, if the life of the man I loved +was at stake I wouldn't wait for somebody to come and hire me to defend +him!" + +"Carroll!" cried Silvia. + +"Silvia!" she retorted. "Will your highness deign to accept employment +if it is offered you by his family?" + +"Oh, Carroll, I can't let you drum up business----" + +"You should be shaken, Silvia," her friend answered. "Of course +everybody in the country knows that you live in daily fear of the +poorhouse, and keep an advertising bureau busy trying to find you +employment! However, I suspected you would make these silly objections, +so I told Frank Earl yesterday that he ought to move heaven and earth to +get you to defend his brother. He nearly fell on my neck, and he is now +giving me absent treatment or holding a thought that I may succeed in +making you see that you could do more for the doctor than any other New +York lawyer." + +"That isn't true, Carroll," she said. "I wish it were, but it isn't, and +I haven't been able to think of any one that I want to see take up his +defense." + +"Naturally, because you know you ought to do it yourself. Now listen to +me." Miss Renner put her hands on Silvia's shoulders. "We haven't known +each other long, but it doesn't follow that we don't know each other +well. If John Earl were my brother I should give you no peace until you +promised to defend him, not alone because you have the requisite skill +as an attorney, but because you would give this case the devotion, the +insight, that are not to be bought with money. Now you know my terms; +shall I go to the district attorney?" + +Silvia kissed her impulsively. "Yes, dear; go--go at once!" Her eyes +filled and her exquisite voice quivered with the strain of the emotion +she could no longer conceal. "Oh, Carroll, I'm glad to have you now; +come back to me afterward and tell me all about it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE ARREST OF DR. JOHN EARL + + +Early the next morning Dr. John Earl was arrested for the murder of Emma +Bell and was remanded by the magistrate to The Tombs without bail to +await the action of the grand jury, which was soon to convene. Both he +and his family had foreseen the event, and he had made the necessary +arrangements for the conduct of his business. Humiliating as his arrest +was, they all bore it with Spartan courage, and prepared to ransack the +earth, if need be, to establish his innocence. + +Leonora Kimball and her mother returned from Bar Harbor to find their +city friends almost unanimously arrayed against Dr. Earl, and they were +not themselves in the best humor with the tide of ill fortune that had +swept them into these muddy currents. They went immediately to The +Tombs, and in the interview that followed Dr. Earl insisted that Leonora +should consider herself released from her engagement so long as the +least taint was attached to his name in connection with this charge. She +protested that this was the hour of his need, and she could not think of +such a thing, but he caught the tone of doubt in her voice, and the lack +of genuine sympathy in her manner. There passed rapidly through his mind +the thought that the electric chair might be just ahead of him; a long +imprisonment might be his fate; he might lose the affection of friends +and the respect of strangers, but if in this hour of bitter ordeal, +guilty or innocent, whichever she might believe, his affianced wife did +not show supreme faith and devotion, he was indeed a beggar in the realm +of love. Carroll's ominous words about the malign stars that governed +her fate recurred to his mind, and he thought of his contest with +himself, and his decision when, defying the possibility of separation, +inharmony or divorce, he elected to keep his plighted troth whatever his +post-nuptial fate might be. + +But in the recesses of his prison he had yearned for love, for the +divine, illuminating rays that had lighted the path of many a martyr to +the stake; of many a hero to the cannon's mouth; of not a few convicts +to the gallows; of many a sublime philosopher to the dungeon or the +ax--and all his misfortunes seemed but fleecy down compared to the +weight which this sense of isolation and aloofness from the tenderness +of the world brought to him. He looked at her fair young face, clouded +and troubled now with doubts and annoyance, and with a sinking heart he +realized that her personal vexation loomed as large upon the horizon of +her mind as the shame and danger that had overtaken him. + +"For the present, dear, you are absolved from any obligation to me," he +said very gravely. "When I am released I shall, of course, give you the +opportunity to reconsider if you choose to do so, but in the meantime +you are entirely free; it must be so, dearest." + +She made no reply, but lifted her face to his for their farewell kiss, +and her mother was not able to stifle her sigh of relief until they had +passed beyond the prison walls. As they left, Frank entered the room, +and the glance he cast after the departing form of the elder lady was +not exactly amiable, but he kept his peace. + +"It is time, Jack, that you were thinking of somebody to take charge of +your case. You know I'm not familiar with criminal law, or the New York +practice; I'll do my best, but you must have a skilled lawyer in +command." + +"I have already given the matter deep thought, but I have not made up my +mind. There's Littlefield, but hiring him or any other noted criminal +lawyer is equivalent to pleading guilty," answered Jack. "What do you +suggest?" + +"I'm not in a position to make suggestions myself that are really +valuable," Frank replied, "and of the hundreds that have been made there +has been but one that really appealed to me. That came from my Colorado +friend--Miss Renner; but this is a matter where you must be the sole +judge, and I want you to make your own selection, regardless of any +other person's ideas." + +"Miss Renner is a very keen woman," Jack said, a gleam of curiosity in +his manner. "I should like to hear her proposition; it is sure to be +original, anyhow." + +Frank answered rather hesitatingly. "At first, I was enthusiastic about +it, but I fear you will not approve of trusting your life to a woman, +and I don't urge it in any way; Miss Renner wants us to employ Silvia +Holland." + +"Miss Holland defend me? Will she--would she be willing to do it?" Jack +asked, in startled tones. + +"Carroll Renner says she will," Frank answered, "and she is curiously +correct in her judgments of people, and they have been pretty close this +last summer." + +Earl gave a sigh of relief. "Then by all means employ her at once," he +said. "I not trust my life to a woman? Dear Frank, when is there ever a +time when man does not trust his fate to woman? The infant owes his +existence to a woman; the boy would make sad progress in the world were +it not for the woman. The young man would drop back to barbarism but for +her, and where would you and I be but for that dear, sweet sister of +ours? Simply because the Twentieth Century woman is breaking away from +the old, destructive life of the parasite and endeavoring to fulfill her +destiny on earth, is no reason for believing that she does not still +possess all the noble qualities that have characterized her since the +world began. Not only have I no prejudices against, but a decided +partiality for a woman defender," and so the matter was settled. + +Silvia went to consult with Earl every day that she was in the city, +and strongly advised against any attempt to secure bail, as sure to open +anew the charges and innuendoes which were already but dimly remembered +by the New York public. She took personal charge of every phase of the +case, and although Frank was associated with her he asked few questions +and she volunteered but little information. A week later she spent +several days in Boston and stopped at Providence on her way back, but +aside from telling his family where she had been she gave no intimation +either of her purposes or the results of her trip, and cautioned every +one to give nothing to the press. + +"What did you do with the box of candied fruit you bought at Thompson's +candy store when you were in Boston?" she demanded of Dr. Earl at her +first interview after her return. + +For a moment he looked dazed. "Box of candied fruit--I didn't buy +any--oh, yes; wait a minute. While at Magnolia, I wished to pay a visit +to some old friends who live in East Boston; they have a youngster in +the family, and I bought the candied fruit for her at the same time I +bought the pecans which I sent to Alice; but do you know, a curious +thing happened to that package of candied fruit. I put it on the seat +beside me while crossing the ferry, and then took up a magazine article +I was much interested in, and when I rose to leave the boat the package +was gone. I hadn't been conscious that any one was near enough to take +it, but there was a crowd on the boat, and my package disappeared; +naturally, I didn't mention it to my friends." + +The look she bent upon him was full of perplexity. "Of course it can't +be traced," she said to herself. "Did the box have the name of the +store, or any name of a manufacturer or dealer upon it? Try and +remember," she said. + +"Really, I cannot say; I didn't notice, except that the clerk wrapped it +in plain white paper," he replied. + +"Were you in Providence on this trip, or have you been there recently?" +she continued. + +"Not in four years," he answered and she gave an involuntary sigh of +relief. + +"Have you expressed any annoyance to your medical friends over the +development of tuberculosis in the knee of little Alice Bell, or have +you stated that the case baffled you?" she asked with considerable +concern. + +"Yes, I have said to at least two surgeons that I was annoyed at what I +believe to be the recurrence of an old condition, but never that I was +baffled. It is perfectly simple." + +"How I wish I could find that letter," she said, more to herself than to +him. "The post-office department has ransacked the country for it, but it +seems to have disappeared as completely as did your package on the boat. +I do wish I could clear up two or three things to my own satisfaction, +but you can't help me, and there is no need of annoying you with them." +She looked about the small room set aside for the consultation of +prisoners with their counsel, but gained no inspiration from the bare +walls, and rose to go, extending her hand as she did so. + +"You do believe in my innocence?" he asked. + +She gave no direct answer in words, but as her eyes met his he knew that +he was no longer alone in his struggles, and whatever her belief in the +merits of his case, her faith in him was supreme. + +"It is not a question of what I believe," she said at last, "but of what +the State can prove on the one hand, and what we shall be able to show +on the other." + +"You are worried," he said quickly. + +"Yes," she said, "I am; your life may be at stake, and if I fail to +clear you every one in the country will say that I should never have +taken this case, and they will be right. Even now, Dr. Earl, are you +certain it would not be better to employ counsel eminent in this branch +of the profession? I shall be very glad to serve in second place." + +"This is no time for flattery or false sentiment, and I shall attempt +neither," he said, "as you know, I prefer thorough methods in all +professions, and those methods require rather more of the psychological +than the usual practitioner employs. I think we are quite agreed in +that. For that and other ample reasons I prefer to leave my case just +where it is." + +The look that the blue eyes flashed up to the brown ones was pleased and +proud, and something that she saw there sent a quick flush to her cheek, +and though her heart was heavy her step was light as she left the gloomy +building. + +Her car was waiting at the door, and calmly seated therein was Carroll +Renner. Silvia greeted her eagerly. "Of all persons on earth you are the +one I was most wishing to see," she said. "How did you happen to come +here?" + +"I got your telepathy, Silvia, dear," she answered, with a squeeze of +the hand, "when on mischief bent about three blocks from here, and +decided to come by this cheerful edifice on the chance that you might be +here. I saw the car, introduced myself to your chauffeur and climbed in. +I must say," she added, "that you were an unconscionable time. Now, what +can I do for you?" + +"Let's go and have luncheon somewhere," answered Silvia, "and I'll tell +you all about it." + +"No," said the newspaper woman, "I have to interview a Mrs. Somebody or +other who has just come to town to teach us how to connect our trolleys +with psychic wires, or our subliminal minds with ethereal vibrations. +She's stopping at the Buckingham, and if you want to take me out there +I'll be glad of the lift, for I'm short on time, and we can talk on the +way." + +"Surely, I'll take you gladly," Silvia answered, giving the directions +to the chauffeur, "and since I've wasted so much of your afternoon, I'll +send back for you, and have you taken to the office if you're going +there, or to your own hotel, unless you'll come and dine with me; I'm +alone to-night." + +"Thank you," Miss Renner answered; "I would be glad to get back home, +for I've a wretched headache; not that I'm particularly comfortable +there, for it's been abominably warm the last few days." + +Silvia gave a sigh of relief. "Has it? Well, that makes it easier for me +to ask a favor of you. But first tell me, Carroll, are you +timid--nervous?" + +"Do you mean am I given to 'seein' things at night'?" Carroll asked. "I +don't know how it will be after I have my seance with Mrs. Whoever-it-is +I'm going to see, but when I'm reasonably abstemious I'm not given to +ingrowing nerves. What do you want me to do?" + +"I want you to go and live in what was Mrs. Bell's home. I had paid the +rent for her up to the end of October, and after her death I took charge +of the place. Of course, I couldn't send Alice back there, but I went +and got her clothes and toys and I've been there a number of times. I +had a new lock put on, and have taken a maid there and kept it in order, +so all you'll have to do will be to send up your trunk." + +"Certainly I'll go," Carroll answered soberly, "but what do you expect +to gain by it? Of course you have a motive." + +"Yes," answered the other woman, "I have, but it isn't the sort of thing +one can speak of, except in the closest confidence. I haven't mentioned +it even to Frank Earl, whose interest in this case is at least as great +as mine, and you mustn't. I haven't been practicing law so very long, +but I've heard that all lawyers, who are really worth while, are +superstitious about talking over a case before it goes to trial. They +don't tell their clients more than a bare outline, and I believe it is +true, for surely I've found myself more fanciful than I ever was before. +The day before Mrs. Bell was found dead in her room she wrote to Alice; +it was a very short letter, and she excused herself by saying that she +was very tired, having written me a long letter. Naturally, Alice showed +me the letter, and I remarked at the time that it was strange mine +hadn't come by the same mail. Then after the tragedy it slipped my mind +for a day or so, and when I made inquiries it had not been received, or +if it had, the servants said it was forwarded to me here. I made more +inquiries, but nothing could be found in my office, though there was a +bunch of mail from Nutwood. The longer I thought of it the more anxious +I became to find that letter, and when I was employed in this case it +seemed to me absolutely imperative that I should do so. I have seen all +the postal authorities here who could have any knowledge of the letter, +or its possible disposition, and have written to Washington, but all in +vain. I am sure it would clear up several matters that are troubling me +greatly." + +"Couldn't the letter have been returned to Mrs. Bell's apartment, +through some error in the address? She would not have mailed an +important letter without the return address," said Carroll practically. + +"That was my idea exactly, so when it didn't come I looked for it there; +several letters addressed to her had been delivered, but there was no +sign of this one. Now, I can't tell why, but I feel as if I want +somebody in that house. Was there ever anything more utterly +unreasonable than that? I wouldn't dare tell any one but you; I can't +explain it, but neither can I rid myself of the feeling, and I was going +to seek you, to ask if you will undertake this for me. All I want is +that you shall put in whatever time you spend in your own apartment +there. Nothing may come of it, but you have no idea what a relief it +will be to me if you will not be too much inconvenienced, and you have +no dread of the rather morbid associations." + +"I'll do it," Carroll answered. "There are too many other people in the +building for me to be afraid of anything alive, and as for the +dead--well, I shouldn't be afraid of her either. I can't tell you why, +but I believe this is a good move." She gave a little shiver. "I hope +the new lock is a strong one, Silvia; I should hate to have the murderer +come back to the scene of his crime." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +DR. EARL IS INDICTED FOR MURDER + + +The grand jury returned an indictment against Dr. John Earl for the +murder of Mrs. Emma Bell. There could be but one grade of homicide in +this kind of a case, and he was accordingly charged with murder in the +first degree and his trial was set for Tuesday of the following week. + +Frank came to see him early Saturday morning. "The neighbors of Mrs. +Bell will be at the trial in full force to tell of your daily visits +there at all sorts of ungodly hours. Their gossip indicates that they +believe you had a very serious affair on with her, and this, together +with the claim of the surgeons that you botched the operation on the +child's leg, furnishes a fairly powerful motive for the crime, at least +in the public mind. Jack," he asked, with a mixture of doubt and +anxiety, "did you really have an affair with her?" + +"Nonsense, Frank, nonsense," answered his brother. "It is true that I +went there at rather unusual hours; I was pretty busy, and when I found +she was in the habit of sitting up until after midnight I used to drop +in there when I was through for the day. I don't think I ever went there +later than nine-thirty or ten, and I seldom stayed more than fifteen or +twenty minutes. Later on I was, and I still am, greatly worried about +the child. Of course my operation didn't produce tuberculosis; that is +silly, but it serves the purposes of jealous rivals. When I found this +tubercular condition developing I asked her mother a great many +questions; it seemed to me so improbable that it should have occurred +when the child was really having better care than usual, judging from +their surroundings, that I sought to learn whether it was not a +recurrence of some trouble she had apparently outgrown, and from her +mother's answers I think there is absolutely no doubt that this is true. +You will readily see, under the circumstances, that I did not time my +visits watch in hand, but the charge of a _liaison_ there would be +ridiculous were it not so vulgar and malicious. There was some sort of +a tragedy in the woman's life, but I have no idea whatever as to its +nature." + +"With your handwriting on both the outside and inside of the package, +your intimate relations with the family, the complications of this +surgical case, the fact that you were practically in Boston at the time +the package was mailed, and the total lack of suspicion of any one +else," said Frank, checking the indictments off on his fingers, "they +have a fairly convincing case against you, old man, and if you know +anything that can break these theories down now is the time to divulge +it." + +"Naturally, if there were anything of the kind you imply, it would be +easier for me to discuss it with you than with my leading counsel," his +brother replied, "but equally, of course, in such a case, I should not +have employed a woman to defend me; certainly not such a rabid feminist +as Miss Holland. I have told her all I know, all I can conjecture, but +candidly, Frank, I fear she is greatly worried over the outcome. I know +the difficulty in overcoming gossip and prejudice and jealousy, and if +that cannot be done I fear I must pay the penalty of being the target of +their shafts. Crushing as that is, there is one haunting thought that +is even more intolerable," he concluded. + +"And that is?" + +"That the last thought of that unhappy woman was that I sent the candied +fruit. She may have realized in that brief second of time that it caused +her death. I hope to prove my innocence to the world, but she has passed +beyond the reach of proof." + +"She has also passed beyond the need of it," answered his brother +quickly. "Why don't you comfort yourself with the thought that, no +matter who else may be deceived, wherever she is, she knows the truth?" + +There had been something akin to despair in his voice, and Frank noticed +how trouble had deepened the lines in his face. "Brace up, old fellow," +he said huskily. "We'll get a line on something before we go to trial." + +Dr. Earl did not see Leonora or hear from her directly again after their +interview, but the Sunday following the announcement that Miss Holland +had been employed to defend him, an item appeared in the society columns +of the New York papers stating that their engagement had been +terminated. He sighed when he read it, whether from sorrow or relief he +could scarcely have told himself. But he fully realized at this time +that the vital heart-beats of genuine love are not always inspired by +plighted troth, neither is the latter always a product of the former, +and he marveled at his own lack of understanding in so readily accepting +a superficial substitute for the real article. The Ramseys gave every +evidence of their devotion, seeing him daily, and there were not wanting +a few staunch friends, and numerous former patients showed their +loyalty, but as the day of his trial approached he found himself +thinking more and more of the four devoted souls who had done and would +do all for him that was humanly possible. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A GREAT MURDER TRIAL BEGINS + + +Although the court officials had taken the precaution to admit +spectators only by cards issued from the sheriff's office, the famous +old room in the Criminal Courts Building was jammed to its very doors at +the opening of the trial of Dr. John Earl for the murder of Mrs. Emma +Bell, for it must be remembered sheriffs are elected by popular vote and +have friends in all walks of life. So there were business men and street +urchins, ladies of fashion and washerwomen, members of the learned +professions and hoboes, scholars and draymen, students of psychology and +the merely curious, advocates in frock-coats and counsellors in jackets, +attracted by the ever-living fascination of seeing a human being +fighting for his life, with the added interest in this case of the +novelty of seeing that fight made by a woman attorney. + +Many tragic memories cling to this old room. Here other doctors had +been convicted and sentenced to the electric chair for sending poison +through the mails. Here more ordinary individuals had been acquitted by +displaying more skill in the transaction than had been shown by the +doctors. Here had been tried all sorts of murder cases, with all sorts +of defenses, from self-preservation with an ax to the irresponsibility +of a brain-storm. From that old-fashioned witness chair, on its high +platform, enough tales of tragedy had been told, if bound in books, to +fill a good-sized library; enough tears had been shed to atone for a +thousand crimes; enough pathos shown to have broken a million hearts; +enough perjury committed to substantiate David's somewhat sweeping +assertion. + +From that high perch against the wall had emanated the technical +rulings, or the broad principles of justice that had made society +tremble for its safety, or caused it to repose in security. + +From that old counsel's table some of the greatest lawyers of the world +had measured steel in weird combats over sending human souls into the +mysterious Beyond. + +On this day, the district attorney sat at one side of the table, with +his assistants, grave, severe, determined-looking officers of the law. +On the other side sat a beautiful young woman, with luminous eyes, a +spirituelle countenance, but a firm and earnest manner and perfect +poise. Behind her sat the younger brother of the prisoner. At her side +was the prisoner himself, grave in mien, courageous in bearing, +collected in deportment. Back of them were Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey. Among +the witnesses for the defense was Dr. Morris, saturnine, mocking, +indifferent. + +Thus organized society arrayed itself against a portion of its own +elements. Thus organized society spoke through the cold impassiveness of +its own laws, while its elements spoke through personal emotions and +human passions. Thus organized society appealed to itself to protect +itself, while its elements appealed for human kindness and universal +charity. + +Such is the situation in every criminal trial. + +It took three days to obtain a jury of proper qualification and +sufficient disinterestedness to satisfy both sides. All the other +lawyers watched with interest the methods employed by the "woman lawyer" +in asking her _voir dire_ questions and in exercising her right to +challenge, and most of them agreed that she asked no useless questions +and showed rare judgment in her peremptory challenges. + +The next day on the convening of court the district attorney outlined +his case with circumstantial detail. He related in spectacular fashion +the first meeting of Dr. Earl and the Bells at the suffrage ball, and +dwelt insinuatingly upon the interest manifested by Dr. Earl in the +child at the time of the accident. Either inadvertently, or by design, +he referred in slighting tones to the part played at this meeting by the +"volunteer nurse," but his sentence was never completed, for Silvia +addressed the Court. + +"May it please the Court," she said--and her manner was unmistakable--"I +have no right, and neither do I intend, to complain of any respectful +reference made to me during the course of this trial, either as an +individual, or as an attorney for this defendant, but I shall insist now +and hereafter that I must be referred to with the respect and +consideration due my, as yet, unsullied membership in the legal +profession and my reputation as a private citizen." + +There was no opportunity for a ruling by the Court, for the district +attorney promptly disclaimed any intention of disrespect, and begged +her pardon for any words susceptible of such construction. It was +evident that her interruption produced a most favorable impression upon +Court, jury and spectators, and if any came to scoff at the weakness of +the "woman attorney" they remained to admire the strength of the female +advocate. The district attorney continued, warmed into greater +determination to make a lasting impression upon the jury as to the guilt +of the defendant. + +He followed Dr. Earl on his numerous visits to the Bell home; dwelt upon +the unusual hour of many of them; agreed to prove more than ordinary +intimacy between Mrs. Bell and the defendant; showed the defects in his +surgery and the terrible results, which promised permanently to cripple +the child; exhibited the handwriting upon the box and placed beside it +the handwriting of Dr. Earl to undisputed legal documents; stated that +the defense would scarcely claim that the handwriting was not his; +asserted that they had positive proof that Dr. Earl had purchased a box +of candied fruit of the exact size and character of this box just prior +to the time it was mailed, and that Dr. Earl was in Boston at the time +of the mailing of the package. + +From his recital it was clear that much thorough detective work had been +done in the case for the State. + +"Now, gentlemen of the jury, as to the motive," he went on. "A powerful +incentive existed for the commission of this crime. Dr. Earl had been +engaged for some time to marry into one of the most prominent and +wealthy families in this city and the wedding was to have taken place +this month. The advertisement that followed his spectacular professional +performance at the suffrage ball brought him an enormous practice. To +have the public learn that this piece of surgery upon which his +reputation was based was in reality a case of malpractice meant ruin. To +have his married life disturbed by the appearance of a wronged woman +meant destruction to his domestic happiness, so he planned that the +poison should be sent to wipe out this family on the eve of his wedding +and before any damage had been done him in either of these directions. +You must confess it was a skillful job. Only one piece of poisoned fruit +in the box, and that so arranged as not to disturb its contents. Whether +mother or daughter got this piece of candied fruit first, the other was +doomed, for a kiss from those dying lips would have conveyed a like +fate, so powerful was this solution. The only thing that thwarted his +nefarious purpose to kill them both was the absence of the child, who +was in the country, a fact entirely unknown to Dr. Earl." + +This and much more of like import furnished the closing portion of his +statement to the jury, and when he finished it was apparent that his +recital had made a deep impression upon every person in the courtroom. +The atmosphere was charged with serious import to Dr. Earl. + +His sister had moved closer to him and was holding his hand. Her husband +came nearer, and Frank turned and gave him a reassuring glance. His +expressive face showed deep concern rather than worry. + +As soon as the district attorney resumed his seat Silvia arose and +deathlike stillness fell upon the courtroom. "With your permission, your +honor, I will reserve my statement of defense until the State has closed +its case." + +"Certainly, that is your privilege," replied the Judge. + +Then there was a buzz of excited whispering. "What does it mean?" "Is +she afraid to state her defense after that terrific arraignment of the +defendant?" "Oh, there comes in the timidity of woman!" said an old and +skilled criminal lawyer. "Does she not realize that it is a fatal +evidence of weakness not to state a defense at the opening of the +trial?" + +But the district attorney had called his first witness and the bailiff +rapped loudly for order. For three days the State put witness after +witness on the stand and by expert medical testimony, by toxicologists, +by direct and inferential testimony, the district attorney more than +proved the case which he had outlined to the jury. + +That the child was probably permanently crippled from tuberculosis of +the knee and that the tuberculosis resulted from faulty surgery was the +opinion of the three surgical experts called upon that point, but upon +cross-examination Silvia forced each of them to admit that it was +possible that a former tubercular condition had recurred. She also +forced the unwilling admission that so far as the fracture of the leg +was concerned the bones had knit perfectly. The most damaging testimony +was that of a neighbor woman, who had overheard Mrs. Bell exclaim to +herself on the very day of the poisoning, "I will force him to marry me +or I will kill him!" + +Pressed on cross-examination as to what she saw as well as heard, she +related how she had passed Mrs. Bell's door, which was open, and had +seen Mrs. Bell with a document of some kind in one hand and a pen in the +other, and had heard her utter this exclamation. When asked why she +assumed that the statement must refer to Dr. Earl, she replied with some +feeling that no other man had been seen around the apartment since Mrs. +Bell moved in, the first of April. + +A young woman, a clerk in Thompson's candy store in Boston, identified +Dr. Earl as the purchaser of a box of candied fruit a few days before +the poisoning. On cross-examination she said it was a box of identical +proportions with the one marked "Exhibit A." Silvia asked her if the +boxes from their store did not always bear the firm name on the lid and +she admitted that they did, and swore that the one purchased by Dr. Earl +had the firm name on the outside of the lid in gilt letters. Then Silvia +showed her the box which had contained the poisoned fruit and asked her +to state on oath whether or not that was the box in which she had sold +Dr. Earl the fruit and she declared that it was not. Then she asked her +if Dr. Earl had purchased any loose pieces of fruit, and she testified +that he had not. + +Silvia produced a box and asked the witness if it were not from the +Thompson store. She answered that it was. + +"Did not Dr. Earl also purchase a box of pecans at the time that he +bought the fruit and is not this the box in which the pecans were +packed?" Silvia continued. + +The girl seemed to study for a few moments. "Yes, I do remember," she +said, "he did buy a box of pecans the same day he bought the candied +fruit and this box may have contained them, for it is from our store. I +want to add, though, that I had forgotten about the nuts when the +district attorney asked his questions here and when I was examined in +Boston." + +"How did you happen to forget about the nuts and remember about the +candied fruit?" asked Silvia. + +"There was nothing to recall the pecans to my mind until you mentioned +them just now, but I remember that Dr. Earl bought them first and +returned afterward and bought the fruit." + +On redirect examination the district attorney got an admission from the +clerk that at several places in Boston, which she mentioned, boxes could +be obtained without any name on the lid, but that the Thompson store +never carried them. + +The testimony of this clerk that the box presented by the district +attorney had not come from their store, was the only rift in the +otherwise dense cloud of incriminating evidence for the State, and the +prosecution closed its case with perceptible gloom hanging over every +person connected with the defense, and the jury was grave of face, as +men well may be who have the life of a fellow being in their hands. + +The prosecution closed at four-thirty and Silvia asked for an +adjournment until morning to open her case. The request was granted, and +New York spent the night wondering what the "woman lawyer" would do the +next day. In the cafes, clubs, hotels, between acts in the theatres, +little else was discussed, and the consensus of opinion was that she was +doomed to defeat in this her first big trial. + +Progressive women grieved over the outlook, for it spelled much of +disaster to the woman movement if she should be humiliatingly +vanquished. Her friends championed her cause as best they could, +vigorously, but not with the genuine enthusiasm they would like to have +felt. + +New York had never before been so interested in a criminal trial. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A WOMAN AND SPOOKS FIND A LETTER + + +The trial had been in progress some six days when the State rested its +case. None of the family or friends of the defendant underestimated the +impression created by the array of facts marshalled by the district +attorney. The evidence, though wholly circumstantial, was nevertheless +sinister and deadly. + +Hilda Ramsey, white and worn, kissed her brother with quivering lips and +went out of the court leaning on her husband's arm, and making no +pretense of concealing her suffering. Neither her belief in her +brother's innocence, nor her confidence in Silvia's ability to prove it, +could counteract the pain and humiliation of the past weeks. Ramsey +wrung his brother-in-law's hand, and gave him a look more eloquent than +words, and Frank bade him brace up. "'Thrice is he armed that hath his +quarrel just,' you know, old fellow," he said, with a slap on the +shoulder. + +There was a grayish pallor on Silvia's face as she gave her client her +hand, but he was as composed and almost as cheerful as if he were but "a +looker-on in Vienna" as he once more assured her and Frank of his entire +confidence in a verdict of acquittal. + +"If you will pardon me," he said, looking at Silvia kindly, "I will +change places with you and be the counsellor for a moment, and advise +you to eat a good dinner of very simple things, then disconnect your +telephone and go to bed and read Omar till you fall asleep; there are +times when it is an immense comfort to remember that-- + + "'He that tossed you down into the Field, + _He_ knows about it all--He knows! He knows!'" + +His quiet voice acted like a tonic, and her face was full of gratitude +as she bade him goodnight, and turned to confer with Frank. Carroll +stood by the reporters' tables, irresolutely, until presently Silvia +beckoned her. The two women exchanged looks which were enigmatical to +Frank, but evidently perfectly intelligible to them, for Carroll turned +away with a sound like a strangled sob, and the pall of weariness and +depression which had lifted for a moment again settled over Silvia, now +that there were no longer any prying or unfriendly eyes upon them. +Without another word she turned and went down to her car. Frank waited +until Carroll gathered up her "copy," and then they went out into the +street together. + +"Why didn't you go home with Miss Holland?" he asked. "She looked as if +she wanted you; I supposed she was going to ask you when she called you +over." + +"Not she," answered the girl. "She knows better than to prepare for the +great day of her life by gabbling half the night. Besides, I'm too blue +to be of any use to her." + +"Anything happened?" he asked, too absorbed in his own affairs to give +other matters more than perfunctory attention. + +"Yes," she said, vexation in her voice. "I've fallen down on an +assignment, the biggest I've had since I came to New York, and I'm all +broken up over it." + +He turned and looked at her, conscious of a sense of disappointment all +out of proportion to the occasion. It was the first time he had ever +known her to fail in comprehension or sympathy; that she could even +remember, let alone obtrude, a small personal grievance of her own in +the face of the tragedy that surrounded them, was so utterly out of +keeping with her character that he looked at her in amazement, and it +took him several minutes to control his voice so as to make the proper +politely concerned query as to the demands of the city editor which had +proved too much for her well-known ability. + +"It wasn't the city editor," she said, too unhappy to notice the icy +timbre of his voice. "It's a good thing to disappoint them once in a +while; keeps 'em from expecting you to outdo the labors of Hercules in +time to beat the morning papers. No, it was something I was to do for +Silvia, and I can't make good; at least I haven't, and I'm at the end of +my resources." + +In spite of the fact that it was still broad daylight, and a crowded +thoroughfare, Frank Earl stopped and gave her hand a cordial grip that +made her wince. "You're all right," he said. "You're all right. Now +let's go and have dinner." + +"Are you not going to the Ramseys'?" she asked, evidently taking it for +granted that the family would wish to be together at such a time. + +"Oh, no," he answered. "Hilda will go straight to bed, poor girl; and +Ramsey will sit beside her and dab cologne on her forehead, and after a +while he'll coax her to eat a cracker and drink some tea, and he'll have +his dinner right there beside her. You don't know the turtle-doves. I +don't hanker for my own society to-night, but I shall have to put up +with it unless you take pity on me." + +"I can't, Frank," she answered. "I simply can't eat when my mind is so +upset; I'm going straight home." + +"And make _your_ supper on crackers and tea, I suppose," he said +disgustedly. "Well, in that case, I'll go for a tramp and try to get rid +of the cobwebs in my brain, and the stuffy air of that courtroom. I +always feel as if twenty centuries of alleged justice, injustice and +malpractice looked down upon me when I get into court; that's one reason +why I'm no good as a trial lawyer. Here, isn't this your street?" + +"Yes, no--I don't live where I did any more just now," she answered +lucidly. He stopped and looked at her and smiled in spite of every +everything. "I've sent in my copy, and you can walk up with me, if you +want to." + +They walked on in silence; Frank was evidently thinking deeply, and +Carroll was following some weary round of conjecture for the thousandth +time when she stopped at her number. Frank looked at it and then at her, +startled out of his usual debonair manner for once. + +"Why--it is----" + +"Yes," she answered. "I've been living here for some time, but that +wasn't for publication, so I kept my other room, and had my mail go +there as usual. Silvia desired it." + +"She hasn't left any stone unturned," he said musingly. "I wonder what +was in that letter!" + +"Oh, she has told you, then?" Carroll asked. + +"About Mrs. Bell's letter to her? Oh, yes, she told me to-night, just +before you joined us; I thought you knew about it. Anyhow, it seems to +be gone beyond recall. Don't you intend to invite me in? Well, of all +the inhospitable persons! I'll see you in the morning," and lifting his +hat he went on up the Avenue. + +Carroll climbed the two flights slowly and unlocked her door. The suite +across the hall had been vacated by a superstitious tenant the week +after the murder, and the family immediately below had moved away that +morning. As Carroll closed the door behind her she was conscious of a +sense of oppression. It was not fear, which is a simple, concrete +emotion, easily understood; it was not even so subtle as dread of any +abstract thing, ghost or goblin damned. She gave her shoulders a little +shake, as if the sensation were some tangible thing to be thrown off, +and laying aside her hat and gloves she went through to the buffet +kitchen and put the kettle on. She returned to the sitting-room and +looked about her uneasily, and then put on a house gown and slippers, +and arranged her tea-tray. There were but four rooms in the apartment, +in addition to the kitchenette, and but one of them offered much in the +way of light or ventilation, so Carroll lived in the front room, as Emma +Bell had lived there; she worked there, as Emma Bell had worked; she +looked upon the same nondescript blue wall paper, and the few pictures +that relieved its monotony. With some misty idea, similar to that of the +French "_confrontation_," she had brought none of her own books or +belongings to disturb the suggestion of the room as it had been. There +were three large windows, through which the city lights were beginning +to shine; under one of these and across that end of the room was a +divan, covered with a bright rug; opposite and against the other wall +was a desk, with a chair before it, and bookshelves, and a corner +cupboard which held a plentiful supply of tea-things. Between the two +windows nearest it was a tea-table, which evidently served a double +purpose, for underneath was a basketful of neatly folded sewing. By the +table was the high-armed mission rocking-chair in which the dead woman +had been found. Opposite was the little sewing-chair, usually occupied +by Alice when she and her mother had supper together at the table, which +had been a gift of Silvia's. Evidently it had been a fancy of Mrs. +Bell's to set the chair for the child before she opened the fatal box, +and Carroll had kept both chairs in their relative positions. The +doorway into the alcove bedroom was concealed by a portiere. + +There was nothing in the desk now but some of Carroll's writing +materials; everything in the room had been ransacked at the time of its +mistress' death, and Silvia had herself searched carefully for anything +that might afford a possible clue. Sometimes she even thought that some +one, possessing a key, had entered the place and removed all evidence +while that ghastly witness still sat in the chair, for there were no +letters, no papers, nothing. Immediately after going there to stay, +Carroll had gone over the tiny place with systematic care. There was no +upholstered furniture in which anything could have been concealed; even +the divan was a rattan affair; there were only rugs upon the floors. The +mattress revealed nothing, and though she laboriously examined every +picture, there was nothing concealed back of them or within the frames. + +"Don't you think the letter was mailed?" Silvia asked her, and she had +replied that while it probably had been, the chances were that a rough +draft of it had been written, and preserved somewhere, and it was for +this that she searched until it became evident that the slight resources +of the flat were exhausted. + +It was rather a poor little place, woefully lacking in the closets and +cubby-holes so dear to women, and yet, as Carroll sat there in the +child's place, with her second cup of strong tea getting cold beside +her, she found herself looking at the other chair expectantly, and the +empty desk seemed watching her; she was resentfully conscious that +everything in that room knew the truth, everything save its human +occupant with her keen mind, her active brain. The hours passed and +still she sat there, waiting, waiting. There were the usual noises, +commonplace and mysterious, to be found in vacant houses, but about nine +o'clock she became conscious that there were sounds in the recently +vacated flat below. Evidently the family had come back for some last +articles which they had left behind. They were a quiet old couple with +whom Carroll had exchanged greetings now and then on the stairs; the old +lady had told her they were going to live with their daughter. Carroll +roused herself and lit the gas, and a little while later there came a +tap at the door. She was frightened for a second, the sound was so +unexpected, and then with a laugh at her foolishness she went to the +door and opened it, revealing an old man, her neighbor from the floor +below. He held a rather heavy package in his arms, and explained, rather +shamefacedly, that they had no high-chair, and when their little +grandchild was brought to visit them Mrs. Bell had been accustomed to +lend them her big dictionary. "Not bein' literary she didn't need it, +and the very afternoon of the day she died I came up to borrow it, same +as usual; she had stepped out, but the door was ajar, and the +dictionary lying right on the end of the divan, so I took it, and when I +brought it back after supper I couldn't get in, and after the trouble my +wife wrapped it up and put it away for safe-keeping, Miss, and forgot it +till we come to move," he finished breathlessly. + +He put the package on the divan, and Carroll talked with him a few +moments longer, and then locked the door upon his retreating form and +went to the window, and stood there, looking out, yet seeing nothing. It +was beginning to rain, and the cool, damp air was pleasant, but she +shivered and turned back to the room that still kept its silent +mistress' secret, as she had kept it, even in death. The little clock on +the mantel struck ten, and there was a quick, light step on the stair, +and a brisk knock at her door. As she opened it, Frank stood there, +shaking the drops of water from his hat. + +"I've had my walk," he said, "I've got over my gloom; I've lost my +grouch, but I still have my appetite with me. Now come on, like a good +fellow, and let's have supper." + +"Oh, go away, Frank," she said, almost crying with vexation. "I was +almost on the verge of something when you came." + +"That's what I thought," he said cheerfully. "I said, 'She'll drink a +pint of strong tea and sit there in the dark until the rugs begin to +wiggle and the wall paper glowers at her.' You're on the verge of +nervous prostration; that's what you're on the verge of, and nothing +else. Now come along, or have I got to come over there and make you?" He +noticed her negligee. "Put on your frock, and I'll wait, but hurry." + +"It's raining," she demurred, "and I haven't my raincoat here." + +"I brushed by one in the hall," he said, and stepping back he lifted +down a somewhat shabby gray raincoat and flung it toward her. She picked +it up, and slipped it on. It was large, but still she could wear it, and +while she stood in the middle of the room hesitating, she slipped her +hands into the capacious pockets. + +"Well?" demanded Frank impatiently. + +The girl did not answer, but stood staring ahead of her. Slowly she +raised her left hand, pressing the thumb between her eyebrows, and +taking the right hand from the raincoat pocket, she stretched it out, +the fingers groping uncertainly. She turned so white that the young man +in the doorway stared, frightened, yet under a spell that forbade his +moving. Suddenly the trembling, questioning hand grew rigid, and +without an instant's hesitation she turned and walked to the divan, and +laid her hand upon the bundle. + +"It is here, Frank," she said quietly. "Turn up the light, and cut this +cord." + +He did so, and as the paper fell away from the dictionary, she opened +the heavy volume and their eyes fell upon a large manila envelope +plainly addressed to "Miss Silvia Holland, City Investment Building, New +York." The girl laid her hand upon it. + +"Wait a minute; let me tell you what happened," she said. "When the +postman came she gave him the letter for Alice, and he gave her the box. +She didn't give him this letter because she hadn't stamps enough--see, +it has but one--or perhaps she meant to use it as a threat; there was +somebody who had a motive for killing her. The woman across the hall +called her and she slipped this envelope into the dictionary and went +out, leaving her door open; old Mr. Dillon came up and got the book; +he's just been telling me about it. They never opened it, and after her +body was found--Mrs. Bell's, I mean--his wife was so upset that she went +to her daughter, and they forgot it entirely until to-night. When Mrs. +Bell came back, she opened the package the postman had given her, and +she never had a chance to miss anything after that." + +She lifted her hand, and Frank picked up the envelope and looked at it +and then at her. + +"I believe you have solved the mystery," he said, "and that all you have +not learned will be revealed when Silvia opens this envelope. Oh, this +is wonderful, Carroll! I'll get a taxi, and we'll go to her at once." + +"I wouldn't," said the girl. "It'll be nearly midnight by the time we +can get there, and if it is bad news--which it isn't--there's nothing +she can do to-night, and if it is good--and I am sure it is, for us at +least--it can wait until morning. Whichever it is, she needs a night's +sleep before she faces any new complication." + +She took the envelope and looked at it again, and then at Frank Earl. +With a little laugh she clutched it to her bosom, and holding out the +other hand to him, she said, "Now, I'm ready to go to the kitchen and +cook anything there is to be found in this section of New York!" + +"Carroll," he said, humbly, "would you mind if I proposed to you once +more? We seem to need you in our family." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +SILVIA HOLLAND'S GREAT PLEA TO THE JURY + + +Hours before court time the next morning an immense crowd packed the +streets around the building, and when the doors were opened it was +useless to attempt the enforcement of the ticket rule. When the court +convened the space outside the rail was jammed with a crowd that +threatened to overflow the space inside which was reserved for members +of the legal profession, witnesses, and the family of the defendant. It +was an orderly crowd, however, and the tension of silence was so +complete that it held them in a kind of paralysis of attention when the +gavel fell and the stentorian voice of the bailiff called his "Hear ye." +As soon as he sat down the Court recognized Silvia. She took her place +at the end of the counsel table with a few papers within reach. The +district attorney noticed with satisfaction that they were very few. She +was gowned in pure white, and her hair rippled back from her broad +forehead, and with head proudly erect and with easy, natural pose, she +faced the jury, which gave her instant and absorbed attention. She spoke +slowly, deliberately, and her soft, musical voice was heard distinctly +in every corner of the courtroom. + +"Gentlemen of the Jury: Human life is the greatest mystery in a universe +of mystery. It springs into existence with the knowledge of the ages +coursing through its sensibilities and inherently possessing all of the +passion and prejudice of countless centuries. Where it started none of +us knows. Where the aeons ahead of us destine it to end none of us can +tell. Deliberately to blot from this earth and its service that which +comes into the world so divinely equipped with knowledge and inspiration +requires both sublime courage and indescribable depravity; sublime +courage to invite the hostility of the vast, complicated, mysterious +forces that are embodied in a human life, however humble it may be; +indescribable depravity to destroy the most useful and the most +beautiful product of this earth. + +"Yet the statute in this and other American States for the punishment of +those who take human life is made to apply but to a fraction of those +guilty of such offense. The individual who shoots or otherwise takes the +life of another is always prosecuted and generally punished. The +association, whose culpable neglect of the ordinary dictates of humanity +in making its employees safe, is not even prosecuted for factory girls +destroyed in a fire, for miners entombed in the earth, for passengers +and trainmen hurled to their death that dividends may be wrung from soft +roadbeds and rotten rails, for excursion boats so built as to prevent +the saving of passengers in case of accident; and what must be said of +those economic and social conditions that drive thousands to +self-destruction every year and that destroy all Christian and political +ideals, the proper development of which would preclude the possibility +of crime! + +"You, gentlemen, represent the collected society of which I am a part, +and the fact is worth your consideration at least, that under the system +of woman parasitism, dependence, and, in a way, slavery, the rugged +qualities of strength of purpose, of womanly self-reliance, of +constantly expanding mental and moral natures that so distinguished our +foremothers, and which mean so much to the character of children, which +in turn mean so much to the character of the citizen and the nation, +have largely disappeared. + +"In every consideration of crime, its cause should be of interest to +those who represent the State. I am not seeking to minimize or palliate +or excuse whatever crime may have been committed in this case, but +_that_ society which is seeking its own safety and perpetuity cannot too +strongly be urged to beware of the universal menace to its existence, as +well as to guard against those individuals that war only against +individuals. So I appeal to you in this case, if crime there be, to deal +with the perpetrator of such crime with all due justice, but with that +mercy and consideration which these thoughts may suggest, and which we +owe to the weaker members of society. + +"Whatever crime was committed in this case sprang from the old order of +our existence, which is rapidly passing away; it was nurtured in that +soil which most of us cultivate too much, and which produces envy, +malice, hatred, uncharitableness and other destructive and despoiling +human traits. I have no quarrel with the character of the testimony with +which it is sought to convict the defendant, for circumstantial +evidence is the most reliable, the most convincing, the least subject to +perjury of any evidence recognized by the law, and, as I shall undertake +to demonstrate to you, it is absolutely unassailable when each link of +the chain fits perfectly in every other one. I am not unmindful of the +very strong case which the district attorney has made against the +defendant, and it may be that his contention is the correct one. That is +a matter for you to determine." + +There was a little stir in the courtroom at this extraordinary +statement, and Hilda looked at her husband and then at her brother and +the hot flush of resentment dyed her white face to the hair. + +"The motive of malpractice on the child," Silvia went on evenly, "and a +troublesome _liaison_ with the mother do, indeed, seem to be powerful, +but what can be said for those motives when I prove to your entire +satisfaction that the setting of this fracture and the subsequent +treatment and final results are among some of the best ever attending +such cases in this large city; that the tuberculosis of the knee is the +recurrence of a disease which had attacked the child five years before +in the glands of the neck and which broke forth afresh in the knee +because of her low physical condition and the immediate injury to the +knee; that what I shall present will so conclusively prove the +impossibility of a _liaison_ between Dr. Earl and Mrs. Bell that there +cannot even remain the suspicion of such a thing? + +"The mystery of her support since last April I alone can clear up with +checks and other evidence so convincing in character as to leave no +doubt. It is embarrassing but necessary to bring myself as a witness +into this trial. I found this poor woman with a great and secret sorrow, +not knowing how to earn a living and by industrial independence develop +the best qualities of her nature, and I undertook to teach her +self-reliance and to lead her into the new life of social and economic +freedom. Had she been thus trained from girlhood this tragedy would have +been impossible, and her life would have been full of beauty, for I have +never known a sweeter character. In the meantime I loaned--not gave, but +loaned her the money to live upon. She would have resented a gift. She +was making splendid progress with her fine sewing, and would soon have +been independent of any financial aid. But the sorrow which hung over +her, and which all this time was and still is a mystery to me, seemed +to dominate her life, as I will presently show you. + +"It was the ghost of the old environment, of the old parasitical age, +when women were so easily enslaved with the promise of idle luxury and +transient caresses, stalking into the midst of a nobler effort and +beckoning her backward while yet the understanding and courage were not +sufficiently seasoned. Later I shall go into these things more fully. + +"I will prove to you by the proper Federal officials that, owing to a +change of design by the government, the ten-cent stamps on this package, +bearing this particular vignette, could only be purchased in three or +four post-offices in the United States for several months before and at +the time the package was mailed, and the only place east of the +post-office at St. Louis was in Providence, Rhode Island, and I shall +also prove that the defendant has not been in Providence in four years. +You will notice that stamps to the value of sixty cents were placed on +the parcel, when half that amount would have been sufficient, showing +that whoever mailed it did not care to have it officially weighed. + +"Another circumstance worthy your attention is that poisoning by +hydrocyanic acid is so easily recognized that it has seldom been used +for purposes of murder, except in cases where the person committing the +crime felt safe as to his own identity, and desired to make it appear +that some one else had done the deed." + +She paused in her recital and cast a glance at a large, muscular man, +seated among a group of witnesses for the defense. He gave her an almost +imperceptible nod in the affirmative, and she went on slowly and +impressively: + +"What is more, gentlemen of the jury, this candied fruit was not +purchased in Boston, but in Providence, and the person buying it +insisted on a perfectly plain box, without any name upon it; he also +bought several separate pieces of similar fruit." + +There was a buzz of excitement in the human hive, which the bailiff +suppressed by a sharp rap of his gavel. Those who had caught the signal +turned their eyes from Silvia to the large man, but there was nothing in +his impassive demeanor to attract attention. + +The defendant and his family were evidently as much at sea as were the +others in the courtroom as to the significance of these assertions, but +the look of worry had entirely disappeared from the face of Dr. Earl. + +"It is true," she went on, "that I had taken the little girl to the +country for a week when this awful crime was committed, but Dr. Earl +knew nothing of this, and the evidence is already so clear as to need no +further illumination that the person who sent the poisoned candy was +aware of the fact that the child was not at home, and would not be for +several days at least. So clear is it that Dr. Earl did not know the +child was in the country that I will prove to you that he sent to her +city address a box of pecans which were forwarded by her mother to the +country, and I will offer in evidence the box in which they were sent. +The person who mailed this box had designs on one victim only, and had +the child been at home she would undoubtedly have been the one killed, +for she would have been certain to receive the first piece. With all due +deference to the learned district attorney, and while his theory is +possible that a kiss given and received might have caused the death of +the other, the probability is so remote that a person skilled in the +knowledge of poisons and their effects, as Dr. Earl is, would scarcely +have undertaken to poison two people in this clumsy and uncertain +fashion, when the placing of two pieces of candied fruit instead of one +on the top of the box was all that was necessary to insure the end +desired." + +She paused again, and gave the large man another look, and then +exhibited a card to the jury, which she had been holding in her hand +from the beginning of her address. + +"No, gentlemen, the poison was intended for but one person, and that +person partook of it," she said sadly and earnestly. She held a picture +postal so the jury could see it. "This postcard, as you see, was sent to +Mrs. Bell from Magnolia a few days before the crime occurred. It is +dated August 5th; her death took place August 9th. Look at the address +on this card, and at the message on the other side. Now let me show you +a strange thing, which cannot be merely a coincidence." + +She took the outer layer of thin white paper that had wrapped the box, +on which were the stamps and the address, and laid it over the same +address on the card, and the length and formation of each letter were +identical, the punctuation marks and the lines of shading were the same, +on paper and card. + +"You see how this has been done," she said. "The address on the paper is +written with an indelible pencil. Ink would have spread and blotted. We +shall prove to you that the address on the box was copied by tracing +from this identical card, as also were the closing words on the card +with the initials which were traced on the paper that is pasted on the +top of the box--'With best wishes to you and Alice. J. E.'" + +The district attorney protested to the Court against so much detail and +proof going into an opening statement, and the Judge looked inquiringly +at Silvia. + +"I know I am pursuing an unusual course," she replied, "but I promise +your honor, and also the honorable district attorney, that I will not +abuse my privilege, and if you gentlemen will bear with me I am certain +that I shall be able to render a distinct service to the State." + +The Judge had followed her carefully, and being one of those wearers of +the ermine who believe that substantial justice rather than technical +results should be the aim of courts in criminal trials, said to the +district attorney, "I am certain that Miss Holland fully understands the +rules of procedure in this court and will adhere to them as strictly as +the nature of her defense will permit. If I think she is overstepping +them, I will stop her." + +Silvia gave another glance at the large man. His eyes were on the little +group by his side at the time, but the silence caused him to turn to her +again, and after another affirmative nod she resumed. + +"It is difficult for me to cause pain to anything that lives. I feel +that the ant, with its wonderful little organism, is as much entitled to +the uses and joys of this dear old world as I am. When I enlisted in +this case it was to defend a man whom I felt certain was innocent, not +to bring any other person to the bar of justice, and even now, if I +could clear the fair name of my client from the remotest suspicion of +ever having thought of this crime, without injury to another, I should +much prefer to do so. Not that I am unmindful of my duty as a citizen, +but I am more conscious of the tenderer feelings that are of necessity +appealed to in such a case. + +"When in the discharge of my duty I found suspicious footprints leading +elsewhere I spent hours determining what course I should pursue in this +complicated situation. The sequel will give all of you, in the jury box +and in this courtroom, an opportunity to decide whether my course has +been the right one. God knows I have prayed to be shown another way, but +I could discover none." + +She paused, and the tears were glistening in her eyes and her voice +trembled, but she regained her self-control at once. + +"Before I did aught else, I had two skilled detectives watch the +suspected person; their observations were all too convincing. It was +Eugene Aram again telling his dream to the child, but this time the +guilt was acted. + + "Then down I cast me on my face, + And first began to weep, + For I knew my secret then was one + That earth refused to keep: + Or land or sea, though he should be + Ten thousand fathoms deep. + + "So wills the fierce, avenging sprite, + Till blood for blood atones! + Ay, though he's buried in a cave, + And trodden down with stones, + And years have rotted off his flesh-- + The world shall see his bones!" + +Once more the tears shone in her eyes, tears that were the only +consolation one wretched soul in that courtroom was ever to know, but +she dashed them away impatiently. + +"To prevent injustice, and possible injury, the suspected man has been +kept under surveillance ever since." + +Again there was a murmur of voices over the courtroom, and Frank, who +had entered hastily, just after she began her address, called her +attention to a large envelope which he laid on the table before her. She +looked at him, and then at the envelope, and gave an involuntary start +of surprise and a hastily stifled exclamation. "The missing letter!" she +said, under her breath, and hastily tore it open, and glanced at the +first and last pages, while the bailiff restored order. + +"I must beg your honor's indulgence," she said, "for a few moments. This +letter contains information of vital importance, and as your honor sees, +it has just come into my hands." + +The Judge granted her request, and while she hastily read the document, +the excited murmur swelled again in spite of the glaring bailiff. In a +few minutes she turned to the Judge. + +"Your honor," she said, "this is a letter to me written by Mrs. Bell +only a few hours before her death; I can easily prove her handwriting, +and in any event, it is sworn to before a notary. The matter contained +therein will end this trial. That I can use it as part of the _res +gesta_, I have no doubt. I will submit it to the district attorney and +ask him to examine it, and then give it to your honor. In the interest +of justice and my client I would like to read it to the jury at this +time." + +She handed the letter to the district attorney, and while he read it she +seated herself and conferred with Frank. "Where in the world did you get +it?" she asked. + +"Carroll and spooks," he began, and then went on more seriously, "but +where on earth did you hide yourself? We have been madly tearing around +New York, and telephoning all over the adjacent territory in a wild +endeavor to find you and get this into your hands. I'm not going to tell +you about the letter itself; that's Carroll's story. We've been to the +Studios, and everywhere else we thought there was a possibility of +finding you, and waited at your office until the last minute in the hope +that you'd come there." + +"I spent the night at Nutwood, making a last search for the letter," she +said. "It was only a chance, but I felt that I couldn't give it up. +This morning I motored down, and we had some delay, so that I had to +come directly here. But it's all right." + +The Judge finished reading the letter, and called Silvia to the bench, +where they held a whispered conversation with the district attorney, +glancing once or twice toward the little group of witnesses where the +large man sat. Then Silvia returned to her seat, and the district +attorney gave some hurried directions to a deputy, who immediately left +the room, while the Judge gave whispered instructions to a bailiff, who +stationed himself at the general entrance. + +"You may read the letter, Miss Holland," said the Judge, and the tension +in the courtroom grew almost intolerable as she rose, holding the letter +in shaking hands, and began reading: + +"'NEW YORK, August 9. + +"'MY DEAR MISS HOLLAND: + +"'The secret I have longed and yet hesitated to tell you must now be +disclosed. Of course my trouble has been caused by a man, a man whom I +have known a long time and loved too well. He was here day before +yesterday and we had a stormy interview--which he says shall be the +last. For a long time his manner has been changed toward me, and for the +last few months he has neglected me. He didn't seem to like it when I +got acquainted with you, or when you paid so much attention to Allie; he +said he didn't see what you wanted of her, and asked me how you came to +take her to the country and when she would be back, and wanted to know +if I had told you or Dr. Earl of my relations with him. I said certainly +not, and when I reproached him for not coming to see me he said he +couldn't come here. Since Allie was hurt, I have only met him a few +times. Sometimes I have been happy when I was with him, for I loved, and +I love him, better than my life, but I have not wanted to deceive you, +and every day the old life has grown harder to bear. I think I have +always believed that he would marry me, as he promised in the beginning, +until this summer. Now I see that, more than he has deceived me, I have +deceived myself, as every woman deceives herself when she forgets the +honor of the present for promises that are to be redeemed in the future. + +"'I had made up my mind to break away from this life and try to begin +over again; you had shown me the way, and I saw the means by which I +could support myself and Allie, and not be beholden to him. God knows I +never wanted to take his money, and when it was grudgingly given it was +worse than gall and wormwood to have to ask him for it. I did not mean +to see him any more, for when I look into his face I forget everything +except the days when he did love me. I meant to tear him out of my +heart, and devote my life to Allie. + +"'And then, Miss Holland, I made the discovery that has made me +desperate, the one discovery that tells a woman she is helpless, and +that not only her whole future, but that of another, depend upon the +whim of a man. I demanded that he should keep his promise; I will not +permit a child of mine to go through the world bearing the brand of +illegitimacy, and I told him so plainly. Perhaps I was wrong to lose my +temper and threaten him, but I am half mad. I told him I might bear the +blame, and the pain, but that if he allowed me to go through this +dreadful time alone that he should share the shame, if I dragged him +through the courts to fasten it on him. + +"'I don't wonder much that he was infuriated with me, or that he +threatened to kill me if I didn't let him alone. He said he hadn't the +money to give me all I needed, but if I would be sensible and not make a +fuss and a scandal, when he married the rich woman he expected to win +that he would give me a fortune ample for myself and my children for the +balance of my life. I think it was the thought of his marrying another +woman when my child was coming into the world fatherless that made me +beside myself, but I could not bear it and I said some dreadful things. + +"'Now, I want to know what I can do, or if there is any law to defend a +woman who makes a mistake; if there is, I know you will find it. I am +going to swear to this, so you will know that I am in earnest, and will +not back out like so many women do. + +"'One other thing I think I ought to tell you. While we were talking he +picked up the postal Dr. Earl sent me, from Magnolia, and then he began +all over again and talked awfully about him. I don't know why, but he +hates him and will injure him if he can. + +"'You will find this at your office when you get back from the country; +even now I can't bear to tell the whole truth, and yet I suppose you +must know it if you are to help me. What fools women are, Miss Holland; +I ought to hate him, and yet if it were to be the last word I should +ever write--now, as I always have, I love Orrin Morris. + + "'Your unhappy friend, + 'EMMA BELL.'" + +Silvia had scarcely finished the letter, pausing instinctively before +she read the name of the guilty man, when the large man, who had been +furtively keeping guard of the little group of witnesses where Dr. +Morris was seated, sprang toward Morris in a vain attempt to knock from +his hand a vial which he but that instant had touched to his lips. At +the same moment a smaller man on the other side of the group made a +similar effort, but they were both too late. Almost instantly the doomed +man became rigid, a slight froth appeared on his lips, the pupils of his +eyes dilated and the lids opened in a wide and horrible stare. There was +a general rush in his direction on the part of the medical men gathered +for the trial, but the first of the physicians to gain his side saw the +hopelessness of any effort to save him and waved the crowd back. In less +than five minutes he was dead, and in the sudden appalled silence the +bailiffs cleared a way and removed the body, a considerable portion of +the curious crowd following. + +Every day during the trial Dr. Morris had occupied practically the same +seat in the courtroom. His naturally colorless face gave no indication +of the emotions within, and when Silvia's address told him all too +plainly that his deeds were to be publicly uncovered, he turned a trifle +more livid, but otherwise gave no evidence of his feelings. He had known +for several days that he was under surveillance and he understood, at +last, that the reason for his subpoena as an expert for the defense was +to keep him constantly in attendance on the court, but he faced his +ordeal with resolute will, if not with supreme courage. As often before +during his career he had carefully scanned the path he was to tread and +was prepared for every emergency. When the fatal exposure came, which he +had hoped until the last might be withheld, he was determined that none +should know aught from his lips concerning its truth or falsity. They +might speculate as to the significance of his death by his own hand, +but he would neither say nor do anything that would throw additional +light upon the subject. + +Poor Morris! Other learned professional men before him had sought to +mystify the world as to their misdeeds by blotting out their own lives, +not realizing that every accusing finger of the seen and the unseen +world would be instinctively and unerringly pointed toward their mortal +remains with the final and irrevocable verdict--"Suicide is confession." + +When quiet was restored the Court ordered the defendant to come forward, +and Silvia, trembling with emotion, stepped to the front of the Judge's +bench with him. + +"It is quite evident, sir," began the Judge, clearing his throat, "that +a mistake has been made in your case. Not an intentional one, or one +that could have been avoided, apparently. The manner in which you have +been defended leaves not a vestige of suspicion attaching to you either +in connection with this matter, your professional qualifications or your +standing as a citizen. Let me assure you that such a result, under the +circumstances, is most gratifying to all of the officers of the law, for +our purpose is to guard society by punishing the guilty and protecting +the innocent. Sir, you are discharged as a defendant in this case." + +Great applause greeted this speech from the Court, and the district +attorney added his own tribute, while Silvia was given an impromptu +reception by jurors, court officers and spectators. When this was over, +and the throng that had surrounded her and her client went their way on +the quest of new sensations, she found herself standing alone with him +before the bench, in almost the identical spot where he had entered his +plea of "Not guilty" a few weeks before. The Ramseys and Frank and +Carroll were eagerly waiting their turn to shower congratulations upon +them, but as John Earl took both her hands in his, Silvia was +unconscious of all else. The eyes she lifted to his were swimming in +happy tears that could not drown the love they revealed. He dared not +trust his voice for more. Besides, what more was there to say? For all +the world lay in the single word--"Silvia!" + + * * * * * + +In a short time, Jack and Silvia were absorbed in their respective +professions, but never failing in their duty to the great world +movement that was making real the prophecy of England's poetic seer: + + "We two will serve them both in aiding her-- + Will clear away the parasitic forms + That seem to keep her up but drag her down-- + Will leave her space to burgeon out of all + Within her--let her make herself her own + To give or keep, to live and learn and be + All that not harms distinctive womanhood." + +There was no "task" to their duties, for the all-powerful though subtle +inspiration of genuine love made each day only a part of a splendid +dream which they felt could never end. + +And the love that leads to high endeavor and unlocks the storehouses of +human progress crowned their efforts with success, and humanity was +better and nobler for their deeds and example. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's An American Suffragette, by Isaac N. Stevens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AMERICAN SUFFRAGETTE *** + +***** This file should be named 22285.txt or 22285.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/2/8/22285/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + 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. |