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author: Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> 2025-10-14 20:07:58 -0700
committer: Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> 2025-10-14 20:07:58 -0700
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Empty Sack, by Basil King
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: The Empty Sack
+
+Author: Basil King
+
+Release Date: Sept 12, 2011 [EBook #37412]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Darleen Dove, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMPTY SACK ***
+</pre>
+
+<div class="document" id="the-empty-sack">
+<h1 class="document-title level-1 pfirst title">THE EMPTY SACK</h1>
+
+<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="margin-left: 29%; width: 42%" id="figure-5">
+<img style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="images/cover.jpg" src="images/cover.jpg" width="100%"/>
+</div>
+<div class="center line-block noindent outermost x-large">
+<div class="line">THE EMPTY SACK</div>
+<div class="line">BY BASIL KING</div>
+</div>
+<div class="center large line-block noindent outermost">
+<div class="line">AUTHOR OF THE INNER SHRINE, THE WILD OLIVE, <span class="small-caps">Etc.</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="center large line-block noindent outermost">
+<div class="line">ILLUSTRATED</div>
+</div>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="margin-left: 42%; width: 15%">
+<img style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="images/tpdeco.jpg" src="images/tpdeco.jpg" width="100%"/>
+</div>
+<div class="center large line-block noindent outermost">
+<div class="line">NEW YORK</div>
+<div class="line">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</div>
+<div class="line">PUBLISHERS</div>
+</div>
+<div class="center large line-block noindent outermost">
+<div class="line">Made in the United States of America</div>
+</div>
+<div class="center large line-block noindent outermost">
+<div class="line"><span class="small-caps">The Empty Sack</span></div>
+</div>
+<div class="center large line-block noindent outermost">
+<div class="line">Copyright, 1921, by Harper &amp; Brothers</div>
+<div class="line">Printed in the United States of America</div>
+</div>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="margin-left: 24%; width: 51%" id="figure-6">
+<img style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="DEAR OLD MA! STOP *CRYING*, MA!" src="images/illus1.jpg" width="100%"/>
+<div class="caption italics">
+DEAR OLD MA! STOP <em class="italics">CRYING</em>, MA!</div>
+</div>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<div class="contents level-2 section" id="id1">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title">CONTENTS</h2>
+<ul class="compact simple toc-list">
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-i" id="id2">CHAPTER I</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-ii" id="id3">CHAPTER II</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-iii" id="id4">CHAPTER III</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-iv" id="id5">CHAPTER IV</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-v" id="id6">CHAPTER V</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-vi" id="id7">CHAPTER VI</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-vii" id="id8">CHAPTER VII</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-viii" id="id9">CHAPTER VIII</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-ix" id="id10">CHAPTER IX</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-x" id="id11">CHAPTER X</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xi" id="id12">CHAPTER XI</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xii" id="id13">CHAPTER XII</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xiii" id="id14">CHAPTER XIII</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xiv" id="id15">CHAPTER XIV</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xv" id="id16">CHAPTER XV</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xvi" id="id17">CHAPTER XVI</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xvii" id="id18">CHAPTER XVII</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xviii" id="id19">CHAPTER XVIII</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xix" id="id20">CHAPTER XIX</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xx" id="id21">CHAPTER XX</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxi" id="id22">CHAPTER XXI</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxii" id="id23">CHAPTER XXII</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxiii" id="id24">CHAPTER XXIII</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxiv" id="id25">CHAPTER XXIV</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxv" id="id26">CHAPTER XXV</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxvi" id="id27">CHAPTER XXVI</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxvii" id="id28">CHAPTER XXVII</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxviii" id="id29">CHAPTER XXVIII</a></span></li>
+<li class="level-2 toc-entry"><span class="first"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxix" id="id30">CHAPTER XXIX</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<div class="center line-block noindent outermost x-large">
+<div class="line">THE EMPTY SACK</div>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-i">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id2">CHAPTER I</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">"Mr. Collingham will see you in his
+office before you go."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having thus become the Voice of Fate, Miss
+Ruddick, shirt-waisted and daintily shod, slipped
+away between the pens where clerks were preening
+themselves before leaving their desks for the
+day.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The old man to whom she had spoken raised
+his head in the mild surprise of an ox disturbed
+while grazing. He, too, was leaving his desk for
+the day, arranging his work with the tidy care
+of one for whom pens, ink, and ledgers were the
+vital things of life. Finishing his task, his hands
+trembled. His smile trembled, too, when a
+young man in a neighboring pen called out in
+tones which mingled sarcasm with encouragement:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Good luck, old top! Goin' to get your raise
+at last!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was what he repeated to himself as he
+shuffled after Miss Ruddick. He was obliged to
+repeat it in order to steady his step. He was
+obliged to steady his step because some fifteen
+or twenty pairs of eyes from all the pens in the
+office were following him as he went along. It
+was the last bit of pride in the man marching
+up to face a firing squad.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He had reached the glass door on which the
+word "Exit" could be traced in reversed letters,
+when a breezy young fellow of twenty startled
+him by a sudden clap on the shoulder. The boy
+had not come from a pen, but from the more
+distant portion of the bank where a line of
+tellers' cages faced the public.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, dad! Tell ma I'll be home for supper.
+Off now for a plunge at the gym."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The boy passed on, leaving behind a vision of
+gleaming teeth and the echo of gay tones.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Opening a glass door and entering a passageway,
+the old man stumbled along it till another
+door, standing open, showed Miss Ruddick,
+beside her typewriter, assorting her papers before
+going home. Miss Ruddick was a competent
+woman of thirty-five. She was in her present
+position of stenographer-secretary to the head
+of the banking house because Mr. Bickley, the
+efficiency expert, for whose opinion Mr. Collingham
+had a kind of reverence, had selected
+her for the job. Miss Ruddick cultivated her
+efficiency as another woman cultivates her voice
+or another her gift for dancing. Throwing off
+the weaknesses that spring from affection and
+softness of heart, she had steeled and oiled herself
+into a swiftly working, surely judging, and
+wholly impersonal business automaton. Ten
+years ago she would have felt sorry for a man in
+Josiah Follett's predicament. She would have
+felt sorry for him now had she not learned to her
+cost that sympathy diminished the accuracy of
+her work. Now she could turn him off as easily
+as an executioner the man condemned to death.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As a matter of fact, she knew that ten minutes
+previously the efficiency expert had been closeted
+with Mr. Collingham, dealing with this very case.
+With her own ears she had heard Mr. Bickley
+say:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You will do as you think best, Mr. Collingham.
+Only, I can't help reminding you that
+once you admit any principle but that of supply
+and demand, business methods are at an end."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Miss Ruddick knew Mr. Collingham's inner
+struggle because she had been through it herself;
+but she knew, too, that to Mr. Collingham the
+efficiency expert was much what his physician
+is to a king. His advice may be distasteful, but
+it is a command. The most merciful thing now
+was rapidity of action, as with the application
+of the guillotine. It was mercy, therefore, to
+throw open instantly the door of Mr. Collingham's
+office, so that Josiah was forced to enter.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He stood meekly, feeling, doubtless, as the
+psalmist felt when all the ends of the world had
+come upon him. Confusedly he was saying to
+himself that all the threads of his laborious life,
+from the time when, as a boy in Canada, he had
+begun to earn his living at sixteen, till now, when
+he was sixty-three, had been drawn together
+at just this point, where he was either to get his
+raise or else——</p>
+<p class="pnext">The suspense was terrible. As the August
+Presence into which he had been ushered was
+engaged in examining the contents of a lower
+drawer of the flat-topped desk at which It was
+seated, It was only partly visible. All Josiah
+could see was the shoulder of a portly form, the
+edge of a pear-shaped pearl in a plum-colored
+tie, and a temple of grizzled hair. The clerk
+moved forward, coming to a halt midway between
+the door and the desk till the Presence
+should recognize his approach by raising Its head.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The Presence didn't quite raise Its head. It
+merely glanced upward in a casual, sidelong way,
+continuing the inspection of the drawer.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, Follett, I suppose you know what I've
+got to say?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Follett betrayed the fact that he did know.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is it the same as you said two years ago,
+sir?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Thus challenged, the Presence lifted itself,
+becoming to the full Bradley Collingham, the
+distinguished banker, philanthropist, and American
+citizen, so widely and favorably known for
+his sympathetic personality. The essence of
+these traits rang in the appealing quality of his
+tone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What do you think, Follett? I told you
+then that you were not earning your salary.
+You haven't been earning it since. What can
+I do?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I could work harder, sir. I could stay overtime,
+when none of the young fellows want to."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That wouldn't do any good, Follett. It isn't
+the way we do business."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've been five years with you, sir, and all
+my life between one banking house and another,
+in this country and Canada. In my humble
+way I've helped to build the banking business
+up."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you've been paid, haven't you? I really
+don't see that you've anything to complain of."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was no severity in this response. It
+was made only because the necessities of the case
+required it, as Follett had the justice to perceive.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not complaining, sir. I only don't see
+how I'm going to live."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The voice already distressed became more so.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But that isn't my affair, is it, now? I'm
+running a business, not a charitable institution.
+It isn't as if you'd been with us twenty or thirty
+years. You've shifted about a good deal in
+your time——"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've had to better myself, sir—with a family."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Quite so. And once you admit any principle
+but that of supply and demand business methods
+are at an end. Don't think that this isn't as
+hard for me as it is for you, Follett, but——"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If it was as hard for you as it is for me, sir,
+you'd——"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But, the possibilities here being dangerous, the
+banker was forced to cut in:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Besides, you'll get another job. Stairs will
+write you any kind of recommendation you ask
+for."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Recommendations won't do me any good, sir,
+once I'm fired for old age. That's a worse brand
+on you than coming out of jail."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The discussion growing painful, the banker
+rose to put an end to it. Even so, he had something
+still to say to justify himself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It isn't as if I hadn't warned you of this,
+Follett. You've had two years in which"—it
+was hard to find the right phrase—"in which to
+provide for your future."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The clerk was unable to repress a dim, faraway
+smile.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Two years in which to provide for my future—on
+forty-five a week! And me with five
+mouths to feed, to say nothing of Teddy, who
+pays his board!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The banker found an opening.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I made a place for him—didn't I, now?—as
+soon as he was released from the navy. He
+ought to be able to help you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He does help, sir, as far as a young fellow
+can on eighteen a week with his own expenses to
+take care of. But I've two little girls still at
+school, and another, my eldest—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">A hint of embarrassment emphasized the
+banker's words as he began moving forward to
+show his visitor to the door.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I understand that she's engaged as an artist's
+model. That, too, ought to bring you in something."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I suppose Mr. Robert told you that, sir."</p>
+<p class="pnext">This was inadvertent on Follett's part, and a
+mistake. Any other distinguished man would
+have stiffened at the use of the name of a member
+of his family in a connection like the present one.
+Bradley Collingham was admirably temperate
+in saying:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't talk of such matters with my son. I
+merely understood that your eldest girl was
+earning something—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She poses six hours a week for Mr. Hubert
+Wray, at a dollar an hour."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She could probably get more engagements.
+I hear—I forget who told me—that she's the
+type these artist people like to put into their
+pictures."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Finding himself obliged to keep step with his
+employer, Follett felt as if he was walking to his
+soul's dead-march. Only the force of the conventions
+in which everybody lives enabled him to
+go on making conversation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We don't much like the occupation for a
+daughter of ours, sir; and, besides, there's lots
+who think that being an artist's model isn't
+respectable."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Still, if she can earn good money at it—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Collingham's relief, they were at the door,
+which he opened significantly and without more
+words. Follett looked into the outer world as
+represented by Miss Ruddick's office as into an
+abyss. For the minute it seemed too awful a
+void to step into. When his watery blue eyes
+again sought Collingham's face, it was with the
+dumb question, "Must I?" which the banker
+himself could only meet with Mr. Bickley's
+manfulness.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He, too, spoke only with his eyes: "You must,
+my poor Follett. There's no help for it. You
+and I are both caught up into a vast machine.
+I can't act otherwise than as I'm doing, and I
+know you don't expect it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Thus Follett stepped over the threshold and
+the door closed behind him. So short a time had
+passed since he had gone the other way that Miss
+Ruddick was still beside her desk, putting away
+her papers. Follett didn't look at her, but she
+looked at him, finding herself compelled to hark
+back to Mr. Bickley's axioms to check the tears
+she couldn't allow to rise.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-ii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id3">CHAPTER II</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">Meanwhile there was that going on
+which would have disturbed both these
+elderly men had they known anything about it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie Follett, in a Greek peplum of white-cotton
+cloth, her amber-colored hair drawn into
+a loose Greek knot, was on her knees before a
+plaster cast of Aphrodite, to which she was
+holding up a garland of tissue-paper flowers.</p>
+<p class="pnext">While there was nothing alarming in this
+pagan act, the freedom with which two young
+men laid hands on her little person threw out
+hints of impropriety.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The pretexts were obvious, and, in the case of
+one of the young men, were backed by what
+might have been called professional necessity.
+One bare arm needed to be raised, the other to
+be lowered. One sandaled foot was too visible
+beneath the edge of the peplum, the other not
+visible enough. Adjustments called for readjustments,
+and readjustments for revisions of
+the scheme. What one young man approved of
+the other disallowed, to a running accompaniment
+of Miss Follett's laughter.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do go away," she implored, when Mr. Bob
+Collingham, with one hand beneath her elbow
+and the other at her finger-tips, tilted her arm
+at what seemed to him its loveliest angle.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Clear out, Bob," the artist seconded, in half-vexed
+good humor. "We'll never get the pose
+with you here."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You'd never get anything if I went away,
+because Miss Follett wouldn't work. Would
+you, Miss Follett?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The artist having gone in search of something
+at the far end of the studio, Miss Follett replied
+to Mr. Collingham alone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't know what I'd do if you went away;
+but if you stay I shall go frantic. If you touch
+me again I shall get up."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not touching you again," he said, going
+on to bend her left arm ever so slightly, "because
+this is the same old time all along. The picture
+is all I care about."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But it's Mr. Wray's picture. It isn't yours."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It will be if I buy it. I said I would if I
+liked it, and I sha'n't like it unless I get it the
+way I want it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You know you don't mean to buy it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't mean to let anybody else buy it; you
+can lay down your life on that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was so much earnestness in this declaration
+that Miss Follett laughed again. It was an
+easy, silvery laugh, pleasant to the ear, and not
+out of keeping with the medley of beautiful
+things round her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Jennie's value in a studio is more than that
+of a model," Wray had recently confided to his
+friend, Bob Collingham. "It's as if she extracted
+the beauty from every bit of tapestry or bronze
+and turned it into animate life."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"By doing nothing or standing still," Collingham
+had added, "she can pin your eyes on
+her as other girls can't by frisking about. And
+when she moves—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">An exclamation from Wray conveyed the fact
+that Jennie's motion was beyond what either of
+these young experts in womanhood could possibly
+put into words.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But that Jennie knew where to draw a certain
+kind of line became evident when, either by
+inadvertence or design, the back of Bob Collingham's
+hand rubbed along her cheek. With a
+smile at once kindly and cold she put away his
+arm and rose. In the few yards she placed between
+them before she turned again, still with her
+kind, cold smile, there was rebuke without
+offense.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Being fair, the young man colored easily.
+When he colored, the three inches of scar across
+his temple which he had brought home from the
+war became a streak of red. It was one of the
+reasons why Jennie, who was sensitive to the
+physical, didn't like to look at him. Not to
+look at him, she pretended to arrange the folds
+of her peplum, which kept her gaze downward.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But had she looked, she would have seen that
+he was hurt. His face was of the honest, sympathetic
+cast that quickly reflects the wounding
+of the feelings. If men had prototypes in dogs,
+Bob Collingham's would have been the mastiff
+or the St. Bernard—big, strong, devoted, slow
+to wrath, and with an almost comic humiliation
+at sound of a harsh word. Though there was no
+harsh word in Jennie's case, Bob was sure he
+detected a harsh thought. It hurt him the more
+for the reason that she was a model, while he
+had advantages of social consideration. Little
+as he would have been discourteous to a girl of
+his own station, he would have thought it unworthy
+of a cad to profit by Jennie's helplessness
+in a place like a studio.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I hope you didn't think I was trying to be
+fresh."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now that she felt herself secured by distance,
+she laughed again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I didn't think anything at all. I just—just
+don't like people touching me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not any people?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not any I need speak about to you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why me?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because I hardly know you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You could know me better if you wanted to."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I could know lots of people better if I
+wanted to."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you don't want to—for what reason?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It isn't always a reason. Sometimes it's just
+an instinct."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And which is it in my case?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"In your case, it doesn't have to be discussed.
+I shouldn't know you, anyhow. We're like
+creatures in different—what do they call it?—not spheres—elements, isn't it?—We're like
+creatures in different elements—a bird and a
+fish—that don't get a point of contact."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You mayn't <em class="italics">see</em> the points of contact—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And if I don't see them they're not there."
+She turned toward Wray, who was coming
+back in their direction, addressing him in the
+idiom she heard among young native-born
+Americans, and which accorded best with her
+position in the studio. "Oh, Mr. Wray, could
+you let me off posing any more to-day? This
+friend guy of yours has got me all on springs."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Clear out, friend guy. Can't you see you're
+in the way?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She continued to take the tone she was trying
+to make second nature, since it was not first.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's something he wouldn't notice if a
+car was running over him. But please let me
+go. There's a quarter of an hour left on to-day,
+but I'll make it up some other time."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She moved down the studio with as much
+seeming unconcern as if she didn't know that
+two pairs of eyes were following her. Picking
+her way between old English chairs with canvases
+stacked against their legs, past dusty
+brocade hangings, and beneath an occasional
+plaster cast lifted on a pedestal, she went out
+at the model's exit without a glance behind her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob spoke only when she had disappeared.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Listen, Hubert. I'm going to marry that
+girl."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Wray stepped back to the front of the easel,
+flicking in a touch or two on the rough sketch of
+the Greek girl kneeling before Aphrodite.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I was afraid you were getting some such bug
+in your head."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob limped to a table on which he had thrown
+his hat and the stick that helped his lameness.</p>
+<p class="pnext">People at Marillo Park, where the Collinghams
+lived for most of the year, said that, with the
+wounds he had got while in the French army in
+the early days of the war, he had brought back
+with him a real enhancement of manhood.
+Having come through Groton and Harvard little
+better than an uncouth boy, his experience in
+France had shaped his outlook on life into something
+like a purpose. It was not very clear as
+yet, or sharply defined; but he knew that certain
+preliminary conditions must be met before
+he could settle down. One of these had to do
+with Miss Jennie Follett; and what Hubert
+called "a bug in his head" was, in his own mind,
+at least, as vital to his development as his braving
+his family in going to the war.</p>
+<p class="pnext">That had been in the famous year when the
+American nation was trying to be "neutral in
+thought." "I'm not neutral in thought," Bob,
+who had only that summer left Harvard, had
+declared to his father. "I'm not neutral in any
+way. Give me my ticket over, dad, and I'll do
+the rest myself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He got his ticket over, and fifteen months
+later, bandaged and crippled, a ticket back.
+On the return voyage he had as his companion
+a young American stretcher-man who had helped
+to carry him off the battlefield, and who, a few
+weeks later, nervously shattered, had joined him
+in the hospital. Wray, who, on the outbreak of
+war, had been painting in Latoul's atelier, had
+now got what he called "a sickener of Europe,"
+and was glad to hang out his shingle in New York.
+A New England man of Gallicized ways of
+thinking, he had means enough to wait for
+recognition, so long as he kept his expenses within
+relatively narrow bounds.</p>
+<p class="pnext">With his soft hat plastered provisionally on the
+back of his head, Bob leaned heavily on his stick.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've got to marry some one," he said, as if
+in self-defense. "I'm that kind. I can't begin
+fitting my jig saw together till I do it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Wray kept on painting.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why don't you pick out a girl in your own
+class? Lots of nice ones at Marillo."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You don't marry girls just because they're
+nice, old thing. You take the one who's the
+other half of yourself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't see that you're the other half of Miss
+Follett."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, I am."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Miss Follett herself doesn't think so."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She'll think so, all right, when I show her
+that she can't do without me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Some job!" Wray grunted, laconically.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Sure it's some job; but the bigger the job
+the more you're on your mettle. That's the
+way we're made."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The artist continued to add small touches to
+the shadows of the Aphrodite cast as he changed
+his tactics.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If you married Miss Follett, wouldn't your
+family raise hell?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"They'd raise hell at first, and put a can on it
+afterward. Families always do."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And what would Miss Follett feel—before
+they'd put on the can?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob limped uneasily toward the door.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Life wouldn't be all slip-and-go-down for
+her, of course; but that's what I should have to
+make up to her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, you'd make it up to her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">With his hand on the knob, Collingham turned
+in mild indignation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Say, Hubert, what do you think I'm made of?
+A girl I'm crazy about—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I only wondered how you were going to
+do it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, wonder away." A steely glint came
+into the deep-set, small gray eyes as he added,
+"That's something I don't have to explain to you
+beforehand, now do I?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Left alone, the painter went on painting. As
+it always does, the house of Art opened its door
+to the troubles of the artist. Wray neither
+turned his head as his friend went out nor muttered
+a farewell. He merely laid on his strokes
+with an emotional vigor which hardened the
+surface of the plaster cast into marble. Neither
+did he turn his head nor utter a greeting when he
+became aware that Jennie, in her sport suit of
+tobacco color set off with collar and cuffs of ruby
+red, was moving toward him among the studio
+properties. It was easier to work his desire to
+look at her into this swift, sure wielding of the
+brush.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the spirit rather than with the eyes he
+knew that she had paused within ten or twelve
+feet of him, that her kind, soft, bantering glance
+was resting on him as he worked, and that a
+kind, soft, bantering smile was flickering about
+her lips. With a deft force, he found the colors
+and gave this expression to the mouth and eyes
+of the kneeling girl. It was the work of a second—the
+merest twist of the fingers.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I just wanted to say," Jennie explained,
+after waiting for him to see her, "that I'm sorry
+to have been so horrid just now, and I'd like to
+know when I'm to come again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You could marry Bob Collingham—if you
+wanted to."</p>
+<p class="pnext">His efforts had become so passionately living
+that he couldn't afford to look up at her now,
+even had he wished to do so. He did not so wish,
+because he knew, still in the spirit, how she
+would take this announcement—without the
+change of a muscle, without a change of any
+kind beyond a flame in the amber depths of the
+irises. It would be a tawny flame, with an indescribable
+red in it, and he managed, on the
+instant, to translate it into paint. The girl on
+her knees was getting a soul as the lumpish white
+of the plaster cast was taking on the gleam of
+ancient, long-worshiped stone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And would you advise me to do that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The voice had the charm of the well-placed
+mezzo, the enunciation a melodious precision.
+Born in Halifax, where she had spent her first
+twelve years, the English tradition of musical
+speech, which in that old fortified town makes
+its last tottering stand on the American continent,
+had been part of her inheritance.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Still working at his highest pitch of tensity,
+Wray considered his answer.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I shouldn't advise you to do that—if I
+thought about myself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then why say anything about it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because I thought I ought to put you wise."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What's the good of that, when I don't like
+him?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Girls often marry men they don't like when
+they have as much money as he'll have."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Money's an object, of course; but when a
+fellow—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He's not so bad. I like him. Most men
+do."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Most men wouldn't have to stand his pawing
+them about. I like him, too—except for the
+physical."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then you wouldn't marry him?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not unless it was the only way not to starve
+to death."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But you'll marry some one."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Probably; and, probably—so will you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her voice was as cool and unflurried as if the
+words were tossed off without intention.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Both knew that an electric change had come
+into the mental atmosphere. Of the two, the
+girl was the less perturbed. Though beneath her
+feet the floor seemed to heave like the deck of a
+ship in a storm, she could stand in a jaunty
+attitude, her hands in her ruby-red pockets, and
+throw up at its sauciest angle her daintily
+modeled chin.</p>
+<p class="pnext">With him it was different. He had two main
+points to consider. In the first place, Bob Collingham
+had just made an announcement to
+which he, Wray, was obliged to give some
+thought. He didn't need to give much to it,
+because the conclusions were so obvious. Jennie
+had hit the poor fellow in the eye, and, instead
+of viewing the case in a common-sense, Gallicized
+way, he was taking it with crazy American
+solemnity. There was nothing to it. The
+Collinghams would never stand for it. It would
+be a favor to them, as well as to Bob himself, to
+put the whole thing out of the question.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So that settles that," he said to himself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Because as he continued to reflect he worked
+furiously, Jennie saw in him the being whom the
+lingo of the hour had taught her to call a caveman.
+In the motion-picture theaters she generally
+frequented, cavemen struggled with vampires
+in duels of passion and strength. Jennie
+longed to be loved by one of this race; and a
+caveman who came to her with violet eyes and
+a sweeping brown mustache possessed an appeal
+beyond the prehistoric. In spite of the challenge
+in her smile and the daring angle at which she
+held her chin, she waited in violent emotion for
+what he would say next.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I sha'n't marry for years to come," he
+jerked out, still going on with his work. "Sha'n't
+be able to afford it. If I didn't have a few, a
+very few, hundred dollars a year, I couldn't pay
+you your miserable six a week."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She took this manfully. The head, with its
+ruby-red toque, to which a tobacco-colored
+wing gave the dash which was part of Jennie's
+personality, was perhaps poised a little more
+audaciously; but there was no other sign outside
+the wildness of her heart.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, well; you're only beginning your career as
+yet. One of these days you'll do a big portrait—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But, Jennie, marriage isn't everything."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the caveman's plea, the caveman's tone;
+and though Jennie knew she couldn't respond to
+it in practice, the depths of her being thrilled.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No it isn't everything; but for a girl like me
+it's so much that—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why specially for a girl like you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because her ring and her marriage lines are
+about all she's got to show. No woman can hold
+a man for more than—well, just so long; and
+when his heart's gone where is she, poor thing,
+except for the ring and the parson's name?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"A woman's heart is as free as a man's; and
+when he goes his way—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She's left standing in the same old place.
+We'd all be better off if we felt as free to wander
+as the men; but most of us are made so that we
+don't want to. God! what a life!" she moaned,
+with a comic grimace to take the pain from the
+exclamation. "But, tell me, Mr. Wray, what
+day do you want me to come again?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He asked, as if casually:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why do you say, 'God! what a life'?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I don't know. I suppose because it's
+the only thing <em class="italics">to</em> say. Wouldn't you say it if—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If what?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, nothing."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is it anything to do with me?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No—not specially. It's everything—beginning
+with being born."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I shouldn't think you had any kick against
+being born—with a face and a figure like yours."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What good are they to me? My mother
+used to be—Well, I'm only pretty, and she
+was a great beauty—but look at her now."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But you don't have to go the same way."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All women of our class go the same way.
+It's awful to spend your whole life toiling and
+aching and worrying and scraping and paring
+just on the hither side of starving to death; and
+yet, if it was only yourself, you could stand it.
+But when you see that your father and mother
+did it before you, and that your children will
+have to do it after you—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not in this country, Jennie," he put in, sententiously.
+"This country gives everyone a chance."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She gave another of her comic little moans.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"This country is like every other country.
+It's a football field. If you're big enough and
+tough enough, with skin padded and conscience
+wadded, and legs to kick hard enough—you get
+a chance—yes—and one man in a hundred
+thousand is able to make use of it. But if you're
+just a decent, honest sort, willing to do a decent,
+honest day's work, your only chance will be to
+keep at it till you drop."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Aren't you rather pessimistic?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She ignored this question to pace up and
+down with little tossings of the hands which
+Wray found infinitely graceful.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Look at my father. He's worked like a convict
+all his life, just to reach the magnificent
+top-notch of forty-five a week. We've been
+praying to God to give him a raise—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And perhaps God will."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She snapped her fingers. "Like that he will!
+God has no use for the prayers of the decent,
+honest sort. He's on the side of the football
+tough with the biggest kick in the scrimmage—Ah,
+what's the use? I'm born, and I've got to
+make the best of it. Tell me when to come
+again, and let me go."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Laying aside his brushes and palette, he went
+close to her. All the poetry in the world seemed
+to Jennie to vibrate in his tones.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Making the best of it because you're born is
+loving and letting yourself be loved, Jennie."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So it is." She laughed, with a ring of the
+desperate in her mirth. "You don't have to tell
+me that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">His voice sank to a whisper.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then why not do it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I would like a shot if I had only myself to
+think about."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"In love, there are only two to think about,
+Jennie."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She laughed—a hard little laugh, in spite of
+its silvery tinkle.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"When I love I've got two sisters and a
+brother, all younger than myself, to bring into
+the little affair, to say nothing of a nice old dad
+and a mother that I'm very fond of. I've got to
+love for them as well as for myself—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then why don't you love Bob Collingham?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She threw him a reproachful look.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't! Please don't! That's brutal of you!
+But then, you are brutal, aren't you? I suppose,
+if you weren't, I shouldn't—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">A little nondescript gesture expressed her
+thought better than she could have put it into
+words; and with this tribute to the caveman she
+slipped away again amid the brocades, pedestals,
+and old furniture.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-iii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id4">CHAPTER III</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">Marillo Park, N. Y., is more than a
+park; it is a life. When a social correspondent
+registers the fact that Mr. and Mrs.
+Robert Bradley Collingham, Miss Edith Collingham,
+and Mr. Robert Bradley Collingham,
+Junior, have arrived at Collingham Lodge,
+Marillo Park, from their camp in the Adirondacks,
+their farm in Dutchess County, or their
+apartment in Fifth Avenue, the implications are
+beyond any that can be set forth in cold print.
+Cold print will tell you that a man has died,
+but it can convey no adequate notion of the
+haven of peace into which presumably he has
+entered.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Cold print might describe Marillo Park as it
+might describe Warwick Castle or the Château
+of Chenonceau, with a catalogue of landscapes
+and architectural minutiæ. It could tell you of
+charming houses set in artfully laid-out grounds,
+of gardens, shrubberies, and tennis courts, of
+the club, the swimming pool, the riding school,
+the golf links; but only experience could give
+you that sense of being beyond contact with
+outside vulgarity which is Marillo's specialty.
+Against its high stone wall outside vulgarity
+breaks as the sea against a cliff; before its beautiful grille gate it swirls like a river at the foot
+of a lawn with no possibility of overflow. As
+nearly as may be on earth, the resident of
+Marillo Park can be barricaded against the sordid,
+and withdrawn from all things inharmonious
+with his own high thought.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But every Eden has its serpent, and at Collingham
+Lodge on that October afternoon this
+Satan had taken the form of a not very good-looking
+young man who was pacing the flagged
+terrace side by side with Miss Edith Collingham.
+I emphasize the fact that he was not good-looking
+for the reason that, in his role of Satan,
+it was an added touch of the diabolic. Tall,
+thin, and stormy eyed, his knifelike features
+were streaked with dark shadows which seemed
+to fall in the wrong places in his face. When it
+is further said that he was a young professor of
+political economy in a near-by university, without
+a penny or much prospect in the world, it
+will easily be seen how devilish a creature he
+was to have crept into such a paradise.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He had crept in by means of being occasionally
+invited by young Sidebottom, whose family
+had the next estate to Collingham Lodge. Walls
+and hedges being unknown at Marillo, the lawns
+melted into one another with no other hint of
+demarcation than could be sketched by clumps
+of shrubs or skillfully scattered trees. You
+could be off the Collingham grounds and on to
+those of the Sidebottoms without knowing you
+had crossed a boundary. Between trees and
+shrubs you could slip from the one place to the
+other and not be seen from either.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She might meet him a thousand times and
+you or I wouldn't know it," Mrs. Collingham
+had pointed out to her husband when her
+suspicions were first roused. "All she's got to
+do is to go round that lilac bush and she might
+do anything."</p>
+<p class="pnext">True; besides which, the mere chances of
+that hospitality without which Marillo could
+not be Marillo would throw together any two
+young people minded so to come. In such
+spacious freedom, an ineligible young professor
+could touch the hem of the garment of a banker's
+daughter without forcing the issue in any way.</p>
+<p class="pnext">With the conversation between Miss Edith
+Collingham and Professor Ernest Ayling we have
+almost nothing to do. It is enough to say that,
+from the rapidity of the young pair's movements
+and the animation of their gestures, Mrs. Collingham
+judged that they were very much in
+earnest. Looking out from what was known as
+the terrace drawing-room, she was convinced
+that no two young people could talk like that
+without an understanding between them.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She had been led to the terrace drawing-room
+by the sound of voices and the fact that it was
+the end of the house toward the Sidebottoms'
+premises. Against a background of cannas,
+dahlias, and gladioli, with maples flinging their
+flame and crimson up into a golden sky, the two
+figures passing and repassing the long French
+windows were little more than silhouettes. Such
+scraps of their phrases as drifted her way told
+her that they were up to nothing more criminal
+than settling the affairs of a distracted universe,
+but she had no intention that they should settle
+anything. At the appropriate moment she
+decided to make her presence felt.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In doing this she was supported by the
+knowledge that her presence was a presence to
+be felt impressively. Of her profile, it was mere
+economy of effort to say that it was like a cameo,
+aristocratically regular and clear-cut. Her hair,
+prematurely white, lent itself to the simplest
+dressing, too classic to be a mode. A figure, of
+which it would have been vulgar to use the word
+"plump," carried the most sumptuous costumes
+with regal suitability. Studied, polished, and
+perfected, she wore her finish as a mask that concealed
+the lioness mother which she was.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the lioness mother who confronted the
+young couple as they turned in their promenade.
+Edith alone came forward. Her professor being
+given a bow so cold that it was tantamount to a
+dismissal, as a dismissal was obliged to take it.
+Within a minute, he was down both the flowered
+terraces and out of sight behind the lilac bush.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mrs. Collingham's enunciation had the exquisite
+precision of the rest of her personality.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I thought I asked you, dear, not to encourage
+that impossible young man to come here."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I can't stop his coming without encouragement,
+can I, mother darling?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mother darling moved to the edge of the
+flagged pavement, looking down on the blaze of
+summer's final fireworks. On each of the two
+lower terraces fountains played, their back drops
+falling on the water lillies in the basins. It being
+the moment for a strong appeal, she sounded the
+first note without turning round.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Edith, I wonder if you have the faintest idea
+of a mother's ambitions for her children?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Instinct had taken her to the root of the whole
+difference between the two generations in the
+family. Instinct took Edith to the same spot in
+her reply.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I think I have. But, on the other hand, I
+wonder if a mother has the faintest idea of her
+children's ambitions for themselves."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Following an outflanking movement, Mrs.
+Collingham threw her line a little farther.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's curious how, as your father and I approach
+middle age, we feel that you and Bob
+are going to disappoint us."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm sure I speak for Bob as well as for myself
+when I say that we wouldn't disappoint you
+willingly. It's only that the things we want are
+so different."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ours—your father's and mine—are simple
+and natural."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's the way Bob's and mine seem to us."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was in a tennis costume carelessly worn
+and not very fresh. A weatherbeaten Panama
+pulled down to shade her eyes gave a touch of
+cowboy picturesqueness to an <em class="italics">ensemble</em> already
+picturesque rather than pretty or beautiful.
+Leaning nonchalantly against the high, carved
+back of a teakwood chair, the figure had a
+leopard grace to which the owner seemed indifferent.
+Indifference, boredom, dissatisfaction
+focused the expression of the delicate, irregular
+features to a wistful longing as far as possible
+from the mother's brisk self-approval. All this
+was emphasized by a pair of restless, intelligent
+eyes, of which one was blue and the other brown.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The mother turned round with an air of
+expostulation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm sure I can't see what you want to make
+of your life. You seem to have no ideals, not
+any more than Bob. You're not pretty, but
+you're not ugly; and you've a kind of witchiness
+most pretty girls have to do without. If you'd
+only dress with some decency and make the best
+of yourself, you could take as well as any other
+girl."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; if the game was worth the candle."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But surely <em class="italics">some</em> game is worth the candle."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, certainly; only, not this one, of taking—in
+the way you seem to think girls want to take."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Some girls do."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, some girls, of course—only, not—not
+my kind."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But what <em class="italics">is</em> your kind? That's what I
+can't understand."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The girl smiled—a dim, distant, rather wistful
+smile that merely fluttered on the lips and died
+like a feeble light.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And that's what I can't explain to you,
+mother darling."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Are we so far apart as that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We're not far apart at all. It's only that I'm
+myself, while you want me to be a continuation
+of you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't want anything but what will make
+for your happiness."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"My happiness as you see it for me—not as I
+see it for myself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But you're my child, Edith. I can't be without
+hopes for you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Another dim, quickly dying smile was the
+only answer to this as Edith picked up her
+racket from the teakwood chair and moved
+toward the house. On a note that would have
+been plaintive had it not been so restrained, Mrs.
+Collingham continued:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Edith darling, I don't think there's been a
+moment since you were born when I haven't
+dreamed of a brilliant future for you, and
+now—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But, oh, mother dear, what's the use of a
+brilliant future, as you call it, when your whole
+soul is set on something else?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The lioness mother was roused.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But it shouldn't be set on something else.
+That's what I resent. Don't think for a minute
+that your father and I mean to stand by and see
+you throw yourself away."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I didn't know there was any question of my
+doing that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That boy will never be anything better than
+a university professor—never in this world; and
+if it comes to our forbidding it, forbid it we shall
+without hesitation."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The girl's head was flung up. Boredom and
+indifference passed out of the strange eyes. For
+an instant the conflict of wills seemed about to
+break out into mutual challenge. It was Edith
+who first regained enough mastery of self to say,
+quietly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You surely wouldn't take that responsibility—whatever
+I did."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The soft answer having warned the mother of
+the danger of collision, she subsided to an easier,
+if a more fretful, tone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And Bob's such a worry, too. If your father
+knew about this Follett girl, I think he would
+go wild."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But we don't know anything ourselves—beyond
+the few hints dropped by Hubert Wray
+which I'm sure he didn't mean."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, I'm worried. It's the war, I suppose.
+If he'd only settle down to work—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He won't settle down till he marries; and
+if he marries, it will have to be some girl he's in
+love with."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If he were to marry a girl of that class—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Girl of what class? What's the good word?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mrs. Collingham turned on her son, who
+stood on the threshold of one of the French
+windows.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We're talking about men and women marrying outside of their own class, Bob, and I was
+trying to say how fatal it was."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Good Lord! mother, do people still think
+things like that? I thought they'd rung the
+bells on them even at Marillo. Wasn't it one of
+the things we fought for in the war—to wipe out
+the lines of caste?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But not to wipe out ideals, Bob. What
+fathers and mothers have worked to build up
+their sons fought to maintain."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Max, the police-dog puppy, who had been
+poking his nose between Bob's legs, now squeezed
+his vigorous person through the opening and
+came out on the terrace joyously. Wagging his
+powerful tail and sniffing about each of the
+ladies in turn, he seemed to be saying: "Don't
+you see that I'm here? Now cheer up, everybody,
+and let's have a good time."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob made a feint at seconding this invitation.
+Going up to his mother, he slipped an arm round
+her waist and kissed her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Old lady, you're years behind the times.
+What fathers and mothers built turned out to
+be a rotten old world which they've handed to us
+to bolster up. We're tackling the job as well as
+we can, but you must give us a free hand."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Releasing herself from his embrace, she stood
+with an air of authority.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If giving you a free hand means looking on at
+the frustration of our hopes, you'll have to learn,
+Bob, that your father and mother still have some
+of the energy that placed you where you are."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Of course you've placed us where we are,
+mother dear," Edith agreed, pacifically, "but
+that's just the point. Because we are where
+you've placed us, we're crazy to go on to something
+else. Isn't that the way of life—the perpetual
+struggle for what we haven't got? Because
+you and father didn't have a big house
+and a big position to begin with, you worked
+till you got them. Bob and I were born to them,
+and so—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's this way, old lady," Bob broke in.
+"All your generation had bigness on the brain.
+It was a kind of disease like the water that
+swells a baby's head. They used to think it was
+a specially American disease till they found out
+it was English, French, German, and every other
+old thing. The whole lot of you puffed up till
+the earth hadn't room for you, and you made the
+war to push one another off."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I didn't make the war, Bob. I've never
+been anything but a poor mother, striving and
+praying for her children."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, you did push one another off—to the
+tune of ten or twelve millions, mostly the young.
+Since then, the universal disease of swelled head
+is being got under control, as they say of epidemics.
+Only the left-overs catch it still, and
+Edith and I aren't that. Hardly anyone of our
+age is. We just don't take the germ. Not that
+we blame you and your lot, old lady—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Thanks, Bob."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, don't thank me. I'm just telling you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And the point of your homily is—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That our generation all over the world has
+got out of Marillo Park. Marillo Park is a back
+number. It's as out of date as the hat you wore
+five years ago. You couldn't give it away to the
+poor, because the poor don't wear that kind of
+thing, and the rich have gone on to a new fashion.
+Listen, old lady. The thing I'd hate worst of
+all for dad and you is to see you left behind,
+trying to put over the footlights a lot of old gags
+that the audience swallowed in its time, but
+which don't get a laugh any more. The actor
+who tries to do that is pass-ay forever—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If you'd keep to English, Bob, I should
+understand you a little better."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob grew excited, laying down the law on the
+palm of his left hand with the forefinger of the
+right, while Max, all aquiver, scored the points
+with his terrific tail.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'll not only keep to English, but I'll tell you
+the line to take if you want to remain the up-to-date,
+bright-as-a-button old lady you are."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I should be grateful."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then here goes. Take a long breath. Keep
+your wig on. Put your feet in plaster casts so as
+not to kick." He summoned his forces to speak
+strongly. "If Edith was to pick out a man she
+wanted to marry—and I was to pick out a girl—no
+matter who—it would be the chic new stuff
+for father and you—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But the chic new stuff for father and her was
+not laid down on the palm of the hand for the
+reason that a portly shadow was seen to move
+within the dimness of the drawing-room. At the
+same time, Max's joy was stifled by the appearance
+on the terrace of Dauphin, the Irish setter,
+who was consciously the dog <em class="italics">en tître</em> of the
+master of the house. Mrs. Collingham composed
+herself. Edith picked up a tennis ball from the
+flags and jumped it on her racket. Bob put a
+cigarette in his mouth and struck a match. It
+was the unwritten law of the family not to risk
+intimate discussion before a tribunal too august.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Once he had reached the terrace, it was plain
+that Collingham was tired. His shoulders were
+hunched; his walk had no spring in it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm all in," he sighed, sinking into the
+teakwood chair.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Poor father!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith dropped a hand on his shoulder. He
+drew it down to his lips and kissed it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You'd like your tea, wouldn't you?" The
+solicitude was his wife's. "We were just going
+to have it. Bob, do find Gossip and tell him to
+bring it here."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob limped into the house and out again. By
+the time he had returned, his father was saying:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; it's been a trying day. Among other
+things I've had to dismiss old Follett."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The devil you have!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The exclamation was so heartfelt as to turn all
+eyes on the young man.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why, Bob dear," his mother asked, craftily,
+"what difference does it make to you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob did his best to recapture a position he
+was not yet ready to abandon.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It may not make any difference to me, but—but
+how is he going to live?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is that your responsibility?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith came to her brother's rescue.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's some one's responsibility, mother."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then let some one shoulder it. Bob doesn't
+have to saddle himself with it, unless—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Convinced that, in the presence of his father,
+his mother wouldn't speak too openly, Bob felt
+safe in a challenge.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, mother? Unless—what?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mother and son exchanged a long look.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Unless you go—very far out of your way."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, suppose I did go—very far out of my
+way?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I should have to leave it with your father to
+deal with that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, it wouldn't be the first time dad's
+been philanthropic."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Collingham looked up wearily. He was sitting
+with one leg thrown across the other, his left
+hand stroking Dauphin's silky head.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You can be as philanthropic as you like outside
+business, Bob," he said, with schooled,
+hopeless conviction. "Inside, it's no go. Once
+you admit the principle of treating your employees
+philanthropically, business methods are
+at an end."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't think modern economics would agree
+with you, daddy," Edith objected. "Aren't we
+beginning to realize that the well-being of employees,
+even when they're no longer of much
+use—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Collingham looked up with a kind of longing
+in his eyes.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I wish I could believe that, Edie, but an
+efficiency expert wouldn't bear you out."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"An efficiency expert doesn't know everything.
+He studies nothing but the individual private,
+whereas a political economist knows what's
+going on all up and down the line."</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Collingham this was like the doctrine of
+universal salvation to a Calvinist theologian.
+He would have seized it had he dared, but for
+daring it was too late. He had trained himself
+otherwise. On a basis of expert advice and individual
+efficiency Collingham &amp; Law's had been
+built up. All he could do was to grasp at the
+personal.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Where did you hear that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You can read all about it in Mr. Ayling's
+last book, <em class="italics">The Economic Value of Good Will</em>."</p>
+<p class="pnext">As she passed through the French window into
+the house, her mother turned with a gesture of
+both outspread hands.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"There! You see! What did I tell you? She
+has the effrontery to read his books and name
+him openly."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But too dispirited to take up the gauntlet,
+Collingham looked, with welcome, toward Gossip,
+who appeared in the doorway with the tea.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-iv">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id5">CHAPTER IV</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">The Folletts came together every evening
+about six, chiefly by the process known to
+American cities as commuting. Commuting
+brought them to Number Eleven Indiana Avenue,
+Pemberton Heights. Seen from the New
+York river-front, Pemberton Heights, on top
+of a great cliff on the New Jersey side of the
+Hudson, suggests a battlemented parapet. By
+day, its outline is a fringe against the sky; by
+night, its clustering lights are like a constellation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Indiana Avenue is one of those rare spots in
+the neighborhood of New York where a measure
+of beauty is still reserved for the relatively poor.
+The heights are too high for the railways to scale,
+too inconvenient for factories. The not-very-well-to-do
+can find shelter there, as the mediæval
+peoples of the Mediterranean coast found it in
+the rock towns where the pirates couldn't follow
+them. It is hardly conceivable that industry will
+ever climb to this uncomfortable perch, or that
+much competition will put up rents. Too inaccessible
+for the social rich, and too isolated for
+the still more social poor, Pemberton Heights is
+the refuge of those who don't mind the trouble
+of getting there for the sake of the compensation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The compensation is largely in the way of air
+and panorama. Both have a tendency to take
+away your breath. You would hardly believe
+that so much of New York could be visible all
+at once. The gigantic profile of Manhattan is
+sketched in here with a single stroke, while the
+river is thronged like a busy street seen from the
+top of a tower. City smoke rolls up and ocean
+mist rolls in while you are looking on. Sunrise,
+moonrise; moonset, sunset; stars in the heaven
+and lights along the darkened waterway, afford
+to the not-very-well-to-do, cooped up all day in
+kitchens, offices, and factories, a morning and
+evening glimpse into the ecstatic.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Number Eleven was somewhat withdrawn
+from all this toward the middle of the plateau.
+Built at a period when an architect's ambition
+was chiefly to do something singular, it had a
+great deal of sloping roof, with windows where
+you would not expect them. Pemberton Heights
+being held up bravely to rain and snow, the color
+of the house was a weatherbeaten brown. Two
+hydrangea trees, shaped like open umbrellas,
+and covered now with white blossoms fading to
+rose, stood one on each side of the front door in
+the center of two tiny grassplots. There was a
+piazza, of course, where most of the family leisure
+was passed, and in the yard behind the house
+there stood a cherry tree. All up and down the
+street for the length of about half a mile were
+similar little houses, each with its piazza and its
+architectural oddity, homes of the not-very-well-to-do,
+content with their relative poverty.
+Among themselves they formed a society as distinct
+and as active as that of Marillo Park, and
+out of it they got as much pleasure as the Sidebottoms
+and Collinghams from their more
+exclusive forgatherings.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In this soil, the Folletts had taken root with the
+ease of transplantation of the Anglo-Saxon race.
+Drawn to Pemberton Heights by the presence
+there of other Canadians, Josiah had bought the
+little house for seven thousand dollars. On this
+he had paid four, raising the other three on a
+mortgage which it was his ruling desire to pay
+off. The mild, tenacious optimism of his nature
+convinced him he should be able to do this, in
+spite of the danger of being "fired" hanging over
+him for two years. The fact that, though the
+months kept passing, that sword didn't fall inspired
+the belief that it never would. He had
+grown so sure of this that with regard to the
+warning issued by Collingham he had never
+taken his wife into his confidence. For one thing,
+it was useless to alarm her when it might be
+without cause, and for another....</p>
+<p class="pnext">But that was the secret tragedy of Josiah's
+life. He had not made good the promise he gave
+when Lizzie Scarborough married him, and the
+falling of the sword would be the final proof of
+it. It would mean that his whole patient, painstaking
+life had fitted him for nothing better
+than the scrap heap. That he should come to
+such an end he couldn't believe possible. That
+after nearly fifty years of uncomplaining drudgery he should be flung aside as useless to man in
+general and worse than useless to his family
+was not, he argued, in keeping with the will of
+God. It was to the will of God he trusted more
+than to the mercy of Bradley Collingham,
+though he trusted to them both.</p>
+<p class="pnext">When he married Lizzie in the little town of
+Lisgar, Nova Scotia, he had been a bank clerk.
+A bank clerk in Canada is a kind of young nobleman
+at the beginning of what may be a striking
+career, after the manner of a fledgling in diplomacy.
+The banking institutions being few and
+large, the employees are moved from post to
+post, much like <em class="italics">attachés</em> or army officers. As
+moves bring promotion, the clerk becomes a
+teller and the teller a cashier and the cashier a
+branch manager and the branch manager a
+wealthy man in touch with world-wide issues.
+It was the kind of progress Josiah expected when
+he married Lizzie Scarborough, the kind of future
+they dreamed of and talked about, and which
+never came.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Josiah lacked something. You couldn't put
+your finger on the flaw in his energy, but you
+knew it was there. He was moved about, of
+course, but with little or no promotion. Other
+men got that, but he was ignored. Harum-scarum
+young fellows whose ignorance of bookkeeping
+was a scandal were lifted over his head,
+while he and Lizzie stared at each other in
+perplexity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Hardest of all for him was that, as years went
+by, Lizzie herself lost belief in him. More
+tender with him for his failure, she nevertheless
+saw that he was not the man she had supposed
+in the gay young days at Lisgar, and he saw
+that she saw. She gave up the hope of promotion
+before he did. The best to which they came
+to aspire was a "raise."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was bitter for Lizzie because, as she was
+fond of saying to herself, and now and then to
+the children, she had been born a lady. This
+was no more than the truth. Whatever the
+meaning given to the word, Lizzie fulfilled it,
+though her claims were more than moral ones.
+The Scarboroughs had been great people in
+Massachusetts before the Revolution. The old
+Scarborough mansion, still standing in Cambridge,
+bears witness to the generous scale on
+which they lived. But they left it as it stood,
+with its pictures, its silver, its furniture, its
+stores, rather than break their tie with England.
+Scorned by the country from which they fled,
+and ignored by that to which they remained
+true, their history on Nova-Scotian soil was
+chiefly one of descent. A few of them prospered;
+a few reached high positions in the adopted land,
+but most of them lacked opportunity as well as
+the will to create it. True, Lizzie's father was a
+clergyman; but her sisters married poorly, her
+brothers dropped into any chance jobs that came
+their way, while she herself got only such fulfillment
+of her dreams as she found at Pemberton
+Heights. Even the move to New York which
+Josiah had made when convinced that the Bank
+of the Maritime Provinces held no further hope
+for him had not greatly prospered them. Five
+years of drifting between one bank and another
+were followed by five steady years with Collingham
+&amp; Law; but even that peaceful time was
+now at an end.</p>
+<p class="pnext">While the Collinghams were drinking tea on
+the flagged terrace, and Jennie was on the ferryboat,
+and Teddy dressing and skylarking after
+his plunge at the gym, and Follett nearing home,
+Lizzie was on her knees pinning up the draperies
+she was "making over" for Gussie. Pansy, the
+daughter of a bulldog and a Boston terrier,
+whose pansy-face had in it a more than human
+yearning, stood looking on, with forelegs wide
+apart.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gussie was fifteen, pretty, pert, and impatient.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Everyone'll see that it's the old thing you've
+been wearing since I dunno when."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Accustomed to this plaint, Lizzie thought it
+useless to reply.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'd rather not have a rag to wear than a thing
+everyone's sick of the sight of. Momma, why
+can't I have a new dress, right out and out?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"My darling, you'll have a new dress when
+your father gets his raise. It must come before
+long; but I can't possibly give it you till
+then."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I wish you'd stop talking," came from
+Gladys, who was busy with her lessons in a
+corner. "How can I study with all this row
+going on? Momma, what's the meaning of
+'coagulation'?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Coagulation explained, the fitting finished, and
+a dispute adjusted between the two children,
+Lizzie began to spread the table for supper,
+Gussie helping her. Most of the downstairs portion
+of the house being thrown into one large
+living room, the dining table stood at the end
+nearest the kitchen and pantry. It was a pleasure
+to watch the supple movements of Gussie's
+figure, and the flittings of her slim-wristed hands
+as she took the plates and laid them in their
+places. Most people said she would one day be
+prettier than Jennie, but as yet that was only
+promise.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Quite apparent was the fact that the mother
+had been more beautiful than any of her daughters
+was ever likely to become. At fifty-odd, it
+was a beauty that still had youth in it. Worn
+with the duties of providing for a husband and
+four children, it retained a quality proud and
+aloof. In her scouring and cooking and endless
+domestic round, Lizzie was like an actress
+dressed and made up for a humble part rather
+than really living it. The Scarborough tradition,
+which had first refused to bend to king against
+people and again to yield to people against king,
+had survived in this woman fighting for her inner
+life against failure, poverty, and sordidness.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was singing at her work when the front
+door opened and Josiah came in. He stood for a
+minute in the little entry, surveying the living-room absently, while Pansy pranced about his
+feet. Gladys was still at her lessons, Gussie
+laying out the knives and forks.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Where's your mother?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gladys jumped up and ran to him. She was
+his youngest, his darling, just over twelve. He
+had always hoped to do better by her than by the
+older ones.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, daddy!" With her arms round his
+neck, she was pulling his face down to hers.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Where's your mother?" he asked of Gussie,
+having advanced into the room.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gussie looked up from her task to inform him
+that her mother was in the kitchen, but, seeing
+his gray face and shambling gait, she paused
+with a fork in her hand.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You're all right, daddy, aren't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The sound of voices having called Lizzie from
+her work, she stood on the threshold of the pantry,
+drying her hands on the corner of her apron.
+Before he said a word she knew that the calamity
+which forever threatens those dependent on a
+weekly wage had fallen on the family.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Lizzie, I'm fired."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She had never had to take a blow like this, not
+even when the three who came before Jennie
+had died in babyhood. This was the worst and
+hardest thing her imagination could conjure up,
+because it meant not only the sweeping away of
+their meager income, but her husband's defeat as
+a man.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Going to him, she laid her hands on his shoulders and tried to look into the eyes that avoided
+hers in shame.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We'll meet it, Jo," she said, quietly. "We've
+been through other things. I've saved a little
+money ahead—nearly a hundred dollars. Don't
+feel badly. I'm glad you're out of Collingham
+&amp; Law's, where you've said yourself that your
+desk was in a draught. You'll get another job,
+with bigger pay, and perhaps"—she sprang to the
+great glorious hope she was always cherishing—"and
+perhaps Teddy will earn more money and
+be a great success."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"<em class="italics">Hel</em>-lo, ma!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy himself was swinging down the room,
+Pansy capering round him with her silvery bark.
+Having tossed his cap on the sofa, he caught his
+mother in a bearish hug. Fresh from his bath,
+gleaming, ruddy, clear-eyed, stocky rather than
+short, he was a Herculean cub, the makings of
+a man, but as yet with no soul beyond play. No
+one had ever seen him serious. It was a drawback
+to him at Collingham &amp; Law's, where he
+skylarked his way through everything. "You
+must knock the song-and-dance out of that
+young blood," was Mr. Bickley's report on him,
+"or he'll never earn his pay."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Before his mother could say anything he was
+tickling her under the chin with little "clks!"
+of the tongue, Pansy assisting by springing halfway
+to his shoulder. The sport ended, he held
+her out at his strong arm's length, laughing down
+into her eyes.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Good old ma!—the best ever! What have
+you got for supper?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She told him, as nearly as possible as if nothing
+else was on her mind. Then she added:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You've got to know, Teddy darling. They've
+discharged your father from Collingham &amp;
+Law's."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Confusedly, Teddy Follett knew he had received
+a summons, the call to be a man. Hitherto
+he had been a boy; he had thought himself a
+boy; he had called himself a boy. Even in the
+navy he had been with boys who were treated
+as boys. The pang of agony he felt now was
+that he was a boy still—with a man's part to
+play.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He did his best to play it on the instant.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, is he? Then that's all right. I'll be
+making more money soon and be able to swing
+the whole thing."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gussie was here the discordant element.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You've got to make it pretty quick, then,
+and be smarter than you've ever been before."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He turned away from the group in which his
+mother watched him with adoring eyes while
+his father stood with gaze cast down like a
+criminal.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm sorry to put the burden on you at your
+age, my boy," he said, brokenly, "but perhaps I
+may get another job, after all, and one that'll
+pay better."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy didn't hear this, not that he was so far
+away, but because he was listening to that call
+which seemed so impossible to respond to. He
+would <em class="italics">have</em> to be a man; he would <em class="italics">have</em> to earn
+big money, and at present he didn't see how.
+Fifty bucks a week, he was saying to himself, was
+hardly enough to run the family, and he had
+only eighteen!</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was standing with his back to them all,
+his hands in his pockets, when the front door
+opened again. Jennie came in all aglow and
+abloom after her walk from the street cars.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, what's the pose?" she asked, briskly, of
+Teddy, beginning to take off her jacket. "You
+ought to be model to a sculptor."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Jen," he whispered, hoarsely, before she
+could join the others, "pa's fired."</p>
+<p class="pnext">To take this information in, Jennie paused
+with her arms still outstretched in the act of
+taking off her jacket.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do you mean they don't want him any more
+at Collingham &amp; Law's?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's the right number."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But—but what are we going to do?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's for you and me to say. It's up to us,
+Jen. Pa'll never get another job, not on your
+life, unless it's running a lift. We've got to
+shoulder it—you and me between us."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie passed on into the room and down to
+the group round the table. The glow had gone
+out of her cheeks, but she was free from her
+brother's dismay. To begin with, she was a
+woman, and he was only a man. All his adventures
+would have to be dull ones in the line of
+work whereas hers.... She could hear Wray
+saying, as he had said only two hours ago,
+"You could marry Bob Collingham if you
+wanted to."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She didn't want to—as far as that went; but
+if the worst were to come to the worst and they
+should be in need of bread....</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, mother! Hello, daddy!" Jennie was
+quite self-possessed. "Teddy's been telling me.
+Too bad, isn't 't? But something will turn up.
+What is there for supper, Gus?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gussie minced round the table, putting on the
+salt cellars.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"There's pickled humming birds for princesses,"
+she said, witheringly. "After that
+there'll be honey-dew jam."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then I'll go up and take my hat off."</p>
+<p class="pnext">This coolness had the inspiriting effect of an
+officer's calm on a sinking ship. It was an indication
+that life could go on as usual; and if
+life could go on as usual, all wasn't lost.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And for mercy's sake," Jennie added, turning
+to leave them, "don't everybody look so glum.
+Why, if you knew what I could tell you you'd
+all be ordering champagne."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So they were tided over the dreadful minute,
+which meant that they found power to go on
+with the preparations for supper and to sit down
+to supper itself. There the old man cheered up
+sufficiently to be able to tell what had passed
+between him and the head of the firm. He was
+still doing this when Teddy sprang to his feet,
+striking the table with a blow that made the
+dishes jump.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"God damn Bradley Collingham!" he cried,
+with his mouth full. "I'll do something to get
+even with him yet—if I have to go to the chair
+for it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Sit down, you great gump—talking like
+that!" Gussie pulled her brother by the coat
+till he sank back into his seat. "Momma, you
+should send him away from the table."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's a very wicked thing to say, my boy—"
+Josiah was beginning.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Let him talk as he likes," the mother broke
+in, calmly. "Going to the chair can't be so
+terrible—if you have a reason."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She went on carving as if she had said nothing
+strange.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, ma, I call that the limit," Jennie
+commented.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh no, it isn't," the mother returned, with
+the new strength which seemed to have come to
+her within half an hour. "I'm ready to say a
+good deal more."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She looked adoringly toward Teddy, who after
+his outburst had returned sheepishly to his
+plate, while Pansy stood apart from them all,
+wise, yearning, and yet implacable, a little
+doggy Fate.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-v">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id6">CHAPTER V</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">No difference of standard in the Collingham
+household was so obvious as that between
+Dauphin, the Irish setter, and Max, the police
+dog. The situation was specially hard on
+Dauphin. To have owned Collingham Lodge
+and its occupants during all his conscious life,
+and then one day to find himself obliged to share
+this dominion with a stranger had given him in
+his declining years a pessimistic point of view.
+It had made him proud, cold, withdrawn, like a
+crusty old aristocrat forced in among base company.
+To the best of his ability he ignored the
+police dog, though it was difficult not to be
+aware of the presence of a being too exuberant to
+appreciate disdain.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For Dauphin, the most beastly experience of
+the day began about four each afternoon, at the
+minute when the dog-clock told him that his
+master might be expected home. That was the
+hour at which from time immemorial he had
+taken possession of the great front portico where
+the distant burr of the motor-car first reached
+him. When the burr became a throb he knew it
+was passing the oak that marked the Collingham
+boundary; and, since it had arrived on his own
+ground, he could run down the driveway to meet
+it. This had been his exclusive right. To be
+joined daily now by a frisky, irrepressible pup
+made him feel like an old man tied to an insupportable
+young wife from whom his own death
+will be the sole deliverance. Life to Dauphin
+had thus become a mingling of impatience and
+anguish, poorly masked beneath an air of dignity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And as far as he could judge, his master's wife,
+of whom he had no great opinion, had begun to
+share these emotions. Anguish and impatience
+had become of late the chief elements in the
+aura she threw out, and by which dogs take their
+sense of men. It was not that her words or
+expressions betrayed her. It was only that when
+she came within his sphere of perception he was
+aware that she felt the kind of passion the police
+dog roused in himself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was aware of it on this May afternoon,
+more than six months after she had first learned
+of Bob's infatuation for the Follett girl, when
+she came out on the portico to listen for the
+expected car. She would come out, listen, and
+go in. Each time she came out, each time she
+listened, each time she retired, he felt the sweeping
+to and fro of an imperious will worried or
+frustrated, though he sat on his haunches and
+gave no sign. He couldn't give a sign, because
+Max would misunderstand it. There he was,
+down on the lawn before the portico, grinning,
+prancing, joking, calling names—names quite
+audible in dog intercourse, though a human being
+couldn't catch them—and the least little movement Dauphin made would be taken as concession.
+The old setter was sorry. He would have
+liked showing his master's wife—he didn't consider
+her his mistress—that he understood her
+distress; but he was nailed to the doorstep by
+<em class="italics">force majeure</em>.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And the woman envied him. He was perfectly
+aware of that. She assumed that dogs had no
+social problems. All he had to do, she thought,
+was to sit and blink at the magnolias, hawthorns,
+and lilacs pursuing one another into bloom. All
+he had to think of was the up hill and down dale
+of the view before him, a haze of blue and green
+and rose melting to the mauve of hills.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As a matter of fact, this was something like
+what was passing through her mind. A masterful
+woman, she was nevertheless reaching that
+point of self-pity where she envied the untroubled
+dogs. While she carried the cares of so many
+others, no one else carried hers. All through the
+winter she had had Edith and Bob on her mind,
+and now she had Bradley. On leaving for the
+bank that morning, he had been so terribly upset
+that she couldn't rest till knowing how he
+had got through his day. She was the more
+worried because of being entirely alone and thus
+thrown in on herself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith had gone to stay with people in the
+Berkshires. Of that her mother was glad. She
+meant for the present to keep her there. With
+her queer ideas, she would only make her brother
+the more difficult to deal with, though she had
+not been difficult herself. Nearly seven months
+had passed, and yet her affair with Ayling was
+exactly where it had been in the previous October.
+That was the advantage of a girl; you could
+always tell where she stood. Edith was tenacious,
+but not defiant. Though capable of
+engaging herself to this young man, she would
+hardly marry him in face of her father's opposition.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob, on the other hand, was not only head-strong,
+but unreasonable. He would marry the
+Follett girl if she would marry him, whatever
+might be the consequences. She, his mother,
+had it "out" with him, and he had said so. It
+was a terrible thing to have their whole domestic
+happiness hang on the whim of a creature like
+the Follett girl; but apparently it did.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She had not spoken to Bob till Hubert Wray
+had surrendered all he had to tell. He had done
+this through a process of "pumping" of which
+he himself had hardly been aware. Having
+ascertained that his New England connections
+were unexceptional, Junia had been attentive
+to him through the winter, making him feel
+that Collingham Lodge was a second home.
+What he didn't tell to her he told to Edith, and
+what Edith knew the mother had no great difficulty
+in finding out. Thus when, on the previous
+Saturday, Bob was about to leave for a party on
+Long Island, they had had the plain talk which
+could no longer be deferred.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They had had it after lunch, seated on a bench
+overlooking the tennis court. They had come out
+ostensibly to talk over the sacrifice of the pink-and-white
+hawthorn in the shade of which they
+sat in favor of extending the court so that Bob
+and Edith could both have parties simultaneously.
+While the new court would be an improvement,
+they would regret the celestial
+flowering of the hawthorn whenever, as at
+present, it was May.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not that it would make so very much difference
+to your father and me," Junia began, in a
+quavering tone, "if things we're afraid of were
+to happen."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So the subject was opened up. Bob could
+only ask, "What things?" and his mother could
+only tell him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's quite true, old lady," he confessed.
+"You might as well know it first as last."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia had not brought up her children without
+having learned that, while Edith could be controlled,
+Bob could only be managed. With Edith,
+she could say, "I forbid," with Bob, it had to
+be, "I suffer."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Of course, dear," she said now, "I'm your
+mother, and whatever you do I shall try to
+accept. It will be hard, naturally—it's hard
+already—but you can count on me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He took her hand and squeezed it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Thanks, old lady."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Of course I can't answer for your father.
+You know for yourself how stern and unyielding
+he is."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I'm not so sure about that. It's always
+seemed to me that he'd give in to a lot of things,
+if you'd only let him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">This perspicacity being dangerous, she glided
+to another aspect of her theme.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What I don't understand is why, if you've
+been in love with her for seven or eight months,
+and you mean to marry her, you haven't done it
+already."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He took two or three puffs at his cigarette
+before tossing off:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'd do it like a shot, if she would."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And she won't?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not yet."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you think she will?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm sure she will."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What makes you so certain?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Nothing. I just know."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having had her fears verified, Junia had no
+object in pushing the inquiry further. Her duty
+in life was to take events as they touched her
+family and mold them for the best. When she
+called it "the best" she meant it as the best.
+She was not a worldly woman with mere fashionable
+ends in view. Eager for the good of her
+children, she was conscientious in pursuit of the
+things she truly believed to be worthiest.</p>
+<p class="pnext">All through Sunday she took counsel with
+herself, going to communion at the restful little
+Marillo church, and putting new intensity into
+her devotion. She had guests at lunch and
+went out to dinner, and, though equal to all the
+social demands, her mind did not relinquish the
+purpose she had in view. Could she have accomplished
+it without her husband's aid, she would
+probably not have taken him into her confidence.
+It being her special task to deal with the children,
+the less he knew of their mistakes and
+escapades the simpler it was for them all.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It may be an illuminating digression here to
+say that there had been a time, some fifteen
+years earlier, when Junia had had an experience
+as difficult as the one she was facing now. Nothing
+but a trained subconsciousness had carried
+her through that, and she looked for the same
+mainstay of the self to come to her aid again.
+One of the lessons she had learned at that time
+was the value of quietude, of reserve in "giving
+herself away." She was not one to whom this
+restraint came natural; but for the very reason
+that it was acquired, it had the intenser force.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was at a time when they had lived in the
+Marillo house only a little while, and the Bradley
+of that day was not the portly, domesticated
+bigwig of the present. He was a tempestuous
+sea of passions right at the dangerous flood-tide,
+the middle forties. The first ardor of married
+life was at an end for both of them; but while,
+for her, existence was running more and more
+into one quiet purposeful stream, for him it was
+raging off in new directions.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Whatever Junia suspected she was too wise to
+know it as a certainty. Knowing, she argued,
+would probably weaken her and do nothing to
+strengthen him. Already she was more intensely
+a mother than she was a wife, living in the amazing
+careers she was planning for her children.
+Edith would marry an English peer, while Bob
+would take a brilliant place in his own country.
+Their victories would be her victories, till, in
+some far-distant, beatified old age, she would be
+translated to the stars.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And then one afternoon, when the flagged
+pavement had only recently been laid and they
+were drinking tea on it, Bradley had said, right
+out of a clear sky:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Junia I don't know whether you've suspected
+it or not, but for some time past I've had a
+mistress."</p>
+<p class="pnext">That was the instant when she first learned
+the value of a schooled subconsciousness. It
+seemed to her that she had been slain; and yet,
+with a nerve little less than miraculous, she went
+on with her tasks among the tea things.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If you've done it so far without telling me,
+Bradley," she said, at last, with only the slightest
+tremor in her tone, "why shouldn't you let me
+remain ignorant?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Does that mean that you don't care if I go
+on?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I think you can answer that as well as I.
+What I don't care for is to be drawn into an
+affair from which your own good taste—merely
+to put it on that ground—should be anxious to
+leave me out."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He looked at her savagely.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't you resent it any more than that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is that why you're giving me the information—to
+see how much I resent it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Partly."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then I'm afraid you will have your labor for
+your pains. You'll never see more than you're
+seeing at this instant."</p>
+<p class="pnext">That stand was a master stroke. It gave her
+the advantage of being enigmatic. It enabled
+her to take blows without seeming to have felt
+them, and to deliver them without betraying the
+quarter from which the next would come.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Right there and then Bradley had been
+monstrous enough to suggest that, since she
+liked Collingham Lodge, she should remain there
+and let him go away. He would make generous
+provision for her and the children, and in return
+expect his divorce.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But she had taken her stand—the enigmatic.
+She didn't argue; she didn't plead; she didn't
+reproach him; she didn't treat him to the scene
+through which weaker women would have put
+him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Bradley, I shall expect you to remain with
+me," were the only words she used.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And he had remained. Less than two years
+later, it was she who fixed the sum the other
+woman was to be paid in order to get rid of her.
+She was sufficiently in sympathy with her sex
+to insist on the terms being liberal. "I think she
+should have fifty thousand dollars," she declared,
+and fifty thousand dollars the woman received.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So that, if Bradley had lost the first passion
+of his love for her, he had gained vastly in respect.
+Hot-tempered, high-handed, impetuous,
+imperious, as he knew her to be, he saw her
+curb and compress these qualities till they became
+a prodigious motor force. If she had not
+mastered herself, she had mastered the expression
+of herself till she was an instrument at her
+own command.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was as an instrument at her own command
+that, on the Wednesday morning, before he went
+to town, she gave her husband as much information
+as she thought he ought to possess about
+his son.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Would you mind sitting down for a minute,
+Bradley? I've something important to say."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He had come up to her room, as she took her
+breakfast in bed, after he had had his own downstairs.
+Wearing a lace dressing jacket and a
+boudoir cap, she was propped up with pillows,
+a wicker tray with legs on the coverlet before her.
+In the canopied Louis Quinze bed of old rich-grained
+walnut, raised six inches above the floor,
+she suggested an eighteenth-century French
+princess, Madame Sophie or Madame Victoire,
+receiving a courtier at her <em class="italics">levée</em>.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Luxurious with a note of chastity was the rest
+of the chintzy room. The pictures on the walls
+were sacred ones, copies of old Italian masters.
+A <em class="italics">prie-dieu</em> in a corner supported a bible and a
+prayer-book in tooled bindings with a coat of
+arms. The white-paneled wardrobe room seen
+through a door ajar was as austere as a well-kept
+sacristy. Perfumed air came in through the
+open windows, and thrushes were fluting in the
+trees.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Reminding her that Tims, the chauffeur, would
+soon be at the door to take him to the bank, Collingham
+sank into the armchair nearest to the
+bed. His thoughts were on the amount in the
+proposed issue of Paraguayan bonds the house
+would be able to carry.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's about Bob," she began, in a tone little
+more than casual. "Did you know he was in a
+scrape?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He started, firing off his brief questions rapidly:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Who? Bob? What kind of scrape? With a
+girl?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Exactly. With a girl who may give us a
+good deal of trouble unless the thing is stopped."</p>
+<p class="pnext">If Collingham's heart sank it was not wholly
+because of the scrape with the girl, but because
+he was afraid of chickens coming home to roost.
+Though he had never broached the subject with
+the boy, he had often wondered as to how he
+met sexual temptation; and now he was to learn.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is it anything very wrong?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Only in intention." She sipped her coffee
+before letting him have the full force of it. "He
+wants to marry her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He felt some slight relief.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, then it's not—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; not as far as he's concerned. As to her—well
+I presume that she's the usual type."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Did he tell you himself?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He told me himself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"His job at the bank pays him only two thousand
+dollars a year. Did he say what else he
+expected to marry on?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We didn't discuss that; but I suppose it
+would be what he expects you to give him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And if I don't give him anything?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's what I wanted to know. If you
+didn't—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He'd call it off?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; perhaps not. But she would."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Have you any special reason for thinking
+so?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"None but my knowledge of—of that kind of
+woman in general." She went on as quietly as
+if the incident of fifteen years previously had
+never occurred. "Men are so guileless about
+women who have—who have love to sell. They're
+such simpletons. They so easily think these
+women like them for themselves when all the
+while they're only gauging the measure of the
+pocketbook."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Collingham endeavored not to hang his head,
+but it seemed to go down in spite of him as the
+placid voice sketched his program for the day.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia had heard her husband say that Mr.
+Huntley, his second in command, was to go to
+South America in connection with the issue
+of Paraguayan bonds. Why shouldn't Bob be
+sent with him? It would add to his experience
+and make him feel important. After he had
+left Asuncion, reasons could be found for keeping
+him at Lima, Rio, or Buenos Aires till the whole
+thing blew over. Having accepted the suggestion
+gratefully, Collingham came to the question
+he had up to now repressed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Who's the girl? I suppose you know."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She's been posing for Hubert Wray. Bob
+met her at the studio. Her name is—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Grasping the arms of the chair, he strained
+forward.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not—not Follett's girl?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; that <em class="italics">is</em> the name. You dismissed her
+father from the bank last year." Her eyes followed
+him as he stumbled to his feet. "But
+what difference does it make whether it's she or
+some one else?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He couldn't tell her. The fear of the vague
+nemesis he called "chickens coming home to
+roost" was too obscure. Listening in a daze to
+the rest of his instructions, he seized them
+chiefly because they would ease the line he was
+to take with Bob.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was to give him no hint that he, the father,
+had heard anything of the Follett girl. The
+South American mission could stand on its own
+merits as extremely flattering. Whatever reluctance
+Bob might feel, he would see the opportunity
+as too important to forego. All Junia
+begged of her husband was to know nothing of
+Bob's love affairs. If Bob himself brought the
+subject up, it would be enough to remain firm
+on the question of money. Of the rest, Junia
+was willing to take charge, as she would explain
+to him when he came home in the afternoon.</p>
+<p class="pnext">These instructions Collingham did his best to
+carry out. At lunch, in the house's private room
+at the Bowling Green Club, he approached Mr.
+Huntley on the subject of being responsible for
+Bob on the errand to Asuncion, and Mr. Huntley
+expressed himself as delighted. On returning to
+the bank, Collingham asked Miss Ruddick to
+bring the young man to the private office.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, Bob! How are things going?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So, so, dad," Bob admitted, guardedly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Sit down. I want to talk to you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob sat down gingerly, warily, scenting something
+in the wind, much like Max or Dauphin
+from a person's atmosphere. Whatever his
+mother had been told on Saturday, his father
+might have learned by Wednesday. Bob would
+have been sure of this were it not that his mother
+often had curious reserves.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For Collingham there was nothing to do but
+to plunge on the subject of South America, and
+he plunged. But, in his dread of the roosting
+chicken, he plunged nervously, with a tendency
+to redden, to stammer, and otherwise to betray
+himself. Before he had finished Bob was saying
+inwardly: "Mother's put him wise to Jennie
+and I'm to be packed off. Well, we'll see."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's thumping good of you and Mr. Huntley,
+dad," he said, aloud; "and I suppose it would
+do if I gave you my answer in a day or two."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's the girl," the father thought; but he
+obeyed Junia's injunction as to not being explicit
+when it came to words.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You see, it's this way, Bob: It's not exactly
+an invitation that I'm giving you; it's—it's a
+decision of the bank of which you're an employee.
+We take it for granted that you'll go if
+we want to send you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And I take it for granted that you won't
+send me if I don't want to go."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Not to force the issue, Collingham left the
+matter there, preferring to consult Junia as to
+what he should do next. To this end, he drove
+home earlier than usual.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It added to Dauphin's irritation that Max
+should hear the motor first. With ears cocked
+like a donkey's, how could he help it? There
+was nothing in the world that Dauphin despised
+as he despised the police dog's ears. They were
+forever pointed, alert, inquisitive, ignoble. But
+there it was! Max was bounding down the
+driveway, covering yards at a spring, before the
+setter could drag himself from his haunches.
+It was Max, too, who, when the motor passed
+the oak, gave the first yelp of delight.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But it was Dauphin who, as his master descended
+from the car, entered into his depression.
+It was he, too, who perceived the conflict of
+auras when wife and husband met. Waves of
+unreasoned dread on the one side encountered a
+force of clear-eyed determination on the other as
+the weltering sea comes up against the steadfast
+rocks.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They began talking as they turned to enter
+the house, continuing the conversation within
+the great hall, where only the strip of red carpet
+running its length and up the fine stairway, two
+or three bits of old carved English oak, and the
+brass touches on the wrought-iron baluster,
+relieved the admirable nudity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Now come in here," she said, briskly, having
+heard all that had passed between him and Bob.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He followed her into the library, where she led
+the way to the desk.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Read that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He ran his eye over the lines written in her
+legible, decorative hand.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span class="small-caps">Collingham Lodge,</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span class="small-caps">Marillo Park.</span></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span class="small-caps">Dear Miss Follett</span>:</div>
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst">My husband and I would be greatly obliged if you could
+give us a half hour of your time to talk over matters which
+may prove as important to you as to us. If you could
+make it convenient to come here to-morrow, Thursday,
+afternoon, you would find a very good train at three-twenty-five,
+and one by which to return at five-forty-seven.
+I inclose a time-table, and you would be met at
+Marillo Station.</p>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line">Yours sincerely,</div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span class="small-caps">Junia Collingham</span>.</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">He looked at her wonderingly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What's the big idea?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"A very big idea. Don't you see? We can
+cut the ground right from under his feet without
+his ever thinking we had anything to do with it.
+You personally needn't be supposed to know
+that this nonsense has ever been in the air. It's
+too late for me, of course, because he and I have
+already talked of it. But for you—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He tapped the paper in his hand.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But this move I don't understand."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, sit down and I'll tell you."</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-vi">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id7">CHAPTER VI</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">At the minute when Junia Collingham was
+laying before her husband a plan which
+would bring comparative wealth to the Follett
+family, a number of things were happening in
+and about New York.</p>
+<p class="pnext">First, Lizzie Follett had dropped into a chair
+to think, an action rare with her. She generally
+thought as she whisked about her work, but this
+problem called for concentration. Briefly, it was
+as to how to cook the supper without heat. The
+gas-man had just gone away, and the gas for
+the range had been cut off because she couldn't
+pay a bill of twenty-nine dollars and sixty-seven
+cents, or anything on account. This was
+Wednesday, and she would have no more money
+till the children got their various pay-envelopes
+on Saturday.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Though in the back of her mind she blamed
+herself for an unwise distribution of the week's
+funds, it was one of those situations in which you
+blame yourself without seeing how you could
+have done otherwise. With six to feed, and all
+the subsidiary expenses of a family to meet, she
+had twenty-two dollars a week. Of his eighteen,
+Teddy gave her fifteen, three being needed for
+car fares and other small necessities. From the
+six she earned at the studio, Jennie contributed
+three. Gladys, who was now a cash girl on seven
+a week, was able to turn in four. Gussie brought
+nothing to the common fund as yet, for the reason
+that the three-fifty which Madame Corinne conceded
+for the privilege of "teaching her the
+millinery" allowed no margin over what she had
+to spend.</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Lizzie, during the past six months, life had
+become an exciting game. How to pay the
+minimum on every account and yet keep alive
+her credit had been the calculation with which
+she rose in the morning and lay down at night.
+It was a game that could be played successfully
+for two months, or three months, or four. When
+it came to six, the heaping-up of unpaid balances
+made it harder to go on.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was making it impossible to go on. During
+the past fortnight she had found her credit
+stopped at three places in The Square where
+Pemberton Heights did its shopping. In vain
+she had tried to transfer her account elsewhere,
+but Pemberton Heights is no more than a huge
+village where the status of most families is known.
+More and more her small amount of cash was
+needed for cash purposes in order that the
+family might live.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Lizzie sat down to cast up her assets. She had
+the small remnants of a ham which could be
+eaten cold. She had bread and butter. If she
+could only make tea.... She might have done
+that in a neighbor's house, but she shrank from
+exposing a situation which a lucky stroke might
+change.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">At the same moment Josiah was turning away
+from a wooden bar which shut off an office from
+the public. He had entered and stood there,
+meek, unobtrusive, trembling, while none of the
+young men or young women busy at desks or
+with one another paid him any attention. When
+a girl with hair combed over her ears, very bright
+eyes, and very short skirts, tripped by him accidentally,
+he managed to stammer out something
+in which she caught the word "job." The word
+being significant, and Josiah's appearance more
+so, she whispered to a gentleman, who left his
+desk and came forward.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; I'm very sorry. We can't do anything
+for you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He hadn't waited for the word "job"; he
+hadn't waited for Josiah to speak at all. He
+knew the situation so well that his method was
+to end it there and then. Josiah turned away
+meekly as he had entered, and with no sinking
+of the heart. His heart used to sink; but that
+was four and five months previously, before he
+had exhausted his emotions. Now the bitterness
+of death was past. It had passed day by day and
+inch by inch, by stages of slow agony, leaving him
+with a dried soul that couldn't suffer any more.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">And also at this minute Teddy was standing
+in his cage at the bank in a very peculiar situation. At least it struck him as peculiar, because
+for the first time he perceived its opportunities.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For Teddy, too, six months had been a period
+of development, just as it is for a green fruit
+when you pick it and lay it in the sun. It
+ripens, but it ripens green. When you eat it, it
+has a green flavor, or a flat flavor, or none at all.
+Teddy was a fruit to be left on the tree to take
+its time. He was now twenty-one, with the
+promptings of sixteen. At his own rate of
+progress, he would probably have reached twenty
+by the time he was twenty-two, but thirty at
+twenty-five.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As it was, he had been called on to be thirty
+when his growth was just beginning. Not merely
+the circumstances had made this demand on
+him, but the dependence, more or less unconscious,
+of the members of the family. They
+looked to him to do something big because he
+was a young man. Having heard of other young
+men who had been financially heroic, they expected
+him to be the same. The possibilities,
+open to a bank clerk of twenty-one had no relation
+to their hopes. Even his mother, chiefly
+because of her adoration, seemed to feel that he
+should spring from eighteen to a hundred dollars
+a week by the force of inner flame.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She didn't say so, of course. She only revealed
+her sentiments as Pansy revealed hers, by an
+inextinguishable look. The father did no more
+than throw emphasis on the boy's responsibility.
+Jennie and Gladys never said anything at all,
+but Gussie was quite frank.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"A great big fellow like you and only making
+eighteen per! Look at poor momma, working
+her fingers to the bone. I'd be ashamed if I were
+you. Why, Fred Inglis orders his clothes at
+Love's and keeps his own Ford."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was all there in a nut shell—his inability
+to rise to the occasion in a land where everyone
+else who was worth his salt had only to shake
+the money tree and pick up coin. How Fred
+Inglis did it Teddy couldn't think, when your
+value by the week was so definitely fixed and a
+raise lay so far ahead. If he had developed
+during the past six months, it was mainly through
+a carking sense of inefficiency.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Meanwhile, he had to do what Gussie told
+him—watch his mother work her fingers to the
+bone. In spite of a tendency to squabble, the
+Folletts were an affectionate family, and the
+mother was the center of their love. Teddy
+didn't stop to analyze what she was to them;
+he only knew that there was nothing he
+wouldn't be to her. If he could only have
+compassed it, she would have had a bar-pin like
+their neighbor, Mrs. Weatherby; she would
+have worn the skunk neckpiece for which he
+had once heard her utter a desire; she would
+have gone out in his Ford oftener than Fred
+Inglis's mother in his. These things he would
+have done for her and more, had he but been the
+financial Titan all American example called on
+him to become. Between Gussie's taunts and
+his own What lack I yet? he was reaching a
+condition of despair.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And now, on this particular afternoon, when
+nearly everyone had left the bank and Mr.
+Brunt, to whom he was specially attached, was
+working later than usual, there was the fruit of
+the money tree piled up on the ground. Mr.
+Brunt had gone to the other end of the main
+office, and would return presently to stow these
+piles of bills in the safe. These bills were money.
+Teddy had never consciously dwelt on that fact
+before. He had been in this same situation a
+thousand times, when he had nothing to do but
+put out his hands and stuff his pockets with food
+and fuel and gas and the interest on the mortgage,
+and all the other things of which there was
+such a lack at home, and had never considered
+that the needed things were here.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He remembered that as a child in Nova
+Scotia he would occasionally swipe an apple from
+a cart-load, knowing that the owner couldn't
+miss it, and had the same sensation now. Here
+were the piles of bills, all arranged in rows according
+to their values—a pile of hundreds, a
+pile of fifties, a pile of twenties, and so on down.
+Mr. Brunt would come back, as he had done at
+other times, and put them away without counting
+them. Having counted them already, he would
+accept this reckoning for the day. He, Teddy,
+was left there to see that nothing happened to
+this treasure.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was never able to tell how it came about,
+but without seemingly being able to control the
+action of his hand he had slipped a twenty-dollar
+bill from the top of the pile into his own
+pocket. It was an instant's weakness, followed
+the next instant by repentance. Teddy knew
+what theft was. He had not, through his father,
+had so much to do with banks without being
+fully aware of the sure and pitiless punishment
+meted out to it. He didn't mean to steal. He
+was horror-stricken at the act. Quick as a flash
+his hand went into his pocket again—but Mr.
+Brunt was back. The thing that could have been
+done at once had to be deferred.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Looking for a chance to drop the bill to the
+floor and make restitution by picking it up, it
+was annoying that Mr. Brunt should give him
+none. Mr. Brunt seemed possessed by a demon
+of speed, so quickly had he locked all the piles in
+the safe, and then locked the cage behind him.
+Teddy found himself outside with the bill still
+burning in his pocket.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Even so there were other possibilities. Going
+to the washroom, he hung on there till Mr. Brunt
+had gone home. The cage was made of open
+wire-work. It was a simple thing to slip a bill
+through one of the interstices. It would be found
+next morning on the floor and a fresh running-over
+of accounts would show where it belonged.
+Mr. Brunt would wonder how he came to be so
+careless, but with his balance straight he would
+be satisfied.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But as Teddy reached the cage, there was
+Doolan, the night watchman. Doolan was an
+ex-policeman, too old for public office, but equal
+to sounding an alarm in case the bank was being
+robbed. He was a friendly soul, and in strolling
+up to Teddy had no motive beyond asking after
+the "ould man" and whether or not he had yet
+found a job. But Teddy suspected that he was
+being watched. He didn't know but that Doolan
+might have seen the movement of the hand
+which snatched the bill from the pile. When he
+stirred to go homeward, Doolan might clutch
+him by the neck. It was a strange, new sensation
+to feel that within a minute, within a few seconds,
+the law might have its grip on him. Having
+said good-by to Doolan and turned away, he
+took the first steps in expectation of a stern
+command to come back.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was another strange new sensation to be
+walking the familiar ways of Broad Street and
+Wall Street with this strange new consciousness.
+There were thousands of bright young men and
+women streaming to electrics, subways, and
+ferries in the first stages of commuting, and
+among them he bore a secret mark. Tramping
+along in the crowd, he felt like a soldier marching
+with his comrades to the trenches, but knowing
+himself picked for death. Luckily, his folly was
+not even now beyond reparation. He would
+get to the bank early in the morning, discover
+the cursed bill lying in some artfully chosen
+corner of the floor, and restore it to Mr. Brunt.
+All the same, it was a relief to get away from the
+fear of detection which he felt to be haunting
+the streets by plunging into the maw of the
+subway, where his identity was swallowed up.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">At this minute, too, in the studio, Hubert
+Wray was leaning over Jennie Follett's shoulder
+and placing before her a rough pencil sketch.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Take it away!" Jennie cried, tearfully. "I
+don't want to look at it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But, Jennie, I only wish you to see how little
+it involves."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was a drawing of a nude woman, her hair
+coiled on the top of her head, sitting very upright
+in a marble Byzantine chair, her knees pressed
+together in the manner of the Egyptian cat-goddess.
+On a level with her face and poised on
+the tips of her fingers, she held a human skull
+which she inspected with slanting, mysterious eyes.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Wray continued to keep the sketch before
+Jennie, hanging over her shoulder. He was so
+close that she felt his breath on her neck. He
+could easily have pressed his lips against her
+amber-colored hair, and Jennie wished he would.
+But having long ago made up his mind that she
+could best be won by a system of starving out,
+he refrained from doing it. As, however, she
+persisted in brushing the sketch aside, he straightened
+himself up.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then, Jennie, I'm afraid I can't use you any
+more—that is, for the present. Since you won't
+do it, I must get some one who will."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You could paint another kind of picture,"
+she argued indignantly, "with me with clothes
+on."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You don't understand. I'm an artist. An
+artist doesn't paint the picture he chooses, but
+the one that's given him to paint."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No one gave you this to paint. It isn't a
+commission. It's just your own bad mind."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not ready to explain what it is. You
+wouldn't understand. Something comes to you.
+You've got to obey it. This is the picture I've
+seen and which I'm obliged to do next. And,
+besides, it isn't a bad mind, Jennie. The human
+form is the most—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, you don't have to hand me out any
+hokum about the human form. It's all very
+well in its place. But you fellows are crazy—the
+way you stick it up where it doesn't belong.
+Look at that picture of Sims's you were all so
+wild about—three women walking in a field,
+and not a stitch between them. Who'd go out
+like that? There's no sense in it—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It isn't a question of sense, Jennie; it's one
+of business. If you want to be a model, you
+must <em class="italics">be</em> a model and meet the demands of the
+market."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She wore the cheap linen suit that had been
+her best last summer, and the corresponding
+hat; but her beauty being of the type which
+subordinates externals to itself, she was more
+than adorable; she was elegant. With tears
+still rolling down her cheeks, she pointed at the
+sketch Wray held in his hand as he stood before
+her at a distance.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do you know what my father would do if
+he thought I was going to be painted like that?
+He'd turn me out of doors."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Wray tossed the sketch on the table.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then, Jennie, there's no use talking of it any
+more. You're not that kind of a model, and it's
+that kind of a model I'm looking for."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm the kind of model you were looking for
+when you put that advertisement in the paper
+nearly a year ago. I answered it because you
+said a pretty girl, not a professional—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; that was a year ago. That's what I
+wanted then. But now it's something else. It
+doesn't follow that because you're satisfied with
+an egg for breakfast, that an egg will be enough
+for every meal all the rest of your life."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She looked up reproachfully.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; all the rest of your life! That's the
+way you talk. Nothing will ever be enough for
+you all the rest of your life."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, Jennie; nothing—not as far as I see
+now."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And yet you expect me to stake everything—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You must choose your words there, Jennie.
+I don't <em class="italics">expect</em> you to do anything. There may
+have been a time when I hoped—but that's all
+over. We won't talk of it. You've made up your
+mind; I must make up mine. There's nothing
+between us now but a question of business.
+I'm looking for a model who does this kind of
+thing, and it doesn't suit you to serve my turn.
+Well, that settles it, doesn't it? Our little account
+is paid up to date, and so—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She stumbled to her feet. The only form her
+resentment took was a trembling of the lip and
+the streaming of more tears.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But what can I <em class="italics">do</em>?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do you mean for a living?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">As she nodded speechlessly, he smiled, with a
+faint shrug of the shoulders.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's not for me to decide, is it, Jennie?
+Once you've left me—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not leaving you. You're driving me
+away."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Suppose we said that life was separating us?
+Wouldn't that express it better? We've—we've
+liked each other. I've never made any secret
+of it on my side—have I, Jennie?—though
+you're so terribly discreet on yours. And yet
+life—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've only been discreet about one thing."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But that one thing is the whole business."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And I wouldn't be discreet about that if
+there was any other way."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"There's the way I've told you about."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; and be left high and dry after two or
+three years, neither one thing nor the other."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Isn't that looking pretty far ahead?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's not looking farther ahead than a girl
+has to. It's easy enough to talk. There <em class="italics">you'd</em>
+be, able to walk off without a sign on you;
+whereas I'd have to lie down and die or—or find
+some one else."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, there'd be that possibility, wouldn't
+there? They're not so difficult for a pretty girl
+to find when—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She stamped her foot.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I hate you!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh no, you don't, Jennie. You love me—only,
+you won't let yourself—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And I never will—never—never—never! Not
+if I was starving in the streets—so help me God!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was running toward the model's exit
+when he called after her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then you leave me to work with another
+woman, Jennie—another woman sitting in your
+place—another woman—" When she threw
+him a despairing glance he snatched the sketch
+from the table and held it up to her. "Another
+woman—dressed like that!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But out on the stairs she paused. Anger was
+giving place to fear. It was, first of all, a fear
+of the other woman <em class="italics">dressed like that</em>, and then it
+was a fear not less agonizing of the loss of her
+six a week.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her six a week was all that stood between
+Jennie and the not very carefully veiled contempt
+of the family. In the testing to which the past
+half year had subjected them all, Jennie had not
+made very good. Six a week had been her
+measure. For obscure reasons which none of
+them could fathom, she had proved incapable of
+really lucrative work. She had tried to get employment with other artists who would leave her
+free for her hours with Wray, but she had failed.
+She had failed, too, in stores, factories, offices,
+and dressmaking establishments. Perhaps they
+saw she was only half hearted in her attempts;
+perhaps her air of helplessness told against her.
+"She was too much like a lady," had been one
+employer's verdict, and possibly that was true.
+Whatever the reason, she seemed a creature not
+primarily meant to work, but to be utilized in
+some other way. The question was as to that
+way. "You're splendid to love," little Gladys
+had whispered one day, when Jennie was crying
+to herself, and much in her recent experience
+confirmed this opinion. In her applications for
+something to do, it had more than once been
+made plain to her that money could be made by
+other means than by punching a time clock at
+seven.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But she couldn't retrace her steps and go back
+to Wray. She thought of it. She had chosen to
+descend by the stairs instead of by the lift which
+served the huge studio building, in order to give
+herself the chance of changing her mind. She
+went down a few steps and stood still, then a
+few more steps and stood still. If it had been
+only a question of the money she might have
+swallowed her pride and returned to throw herself
+at his feet.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But there was the other woman—<em class="italics">dressed like
+that</em>! He had dared to invoke her. Well, let him
+invoke her. Let him paint her; let him do anything he liked. She, Jennie, would break her
+heart over it; but it would be easier to break
+her heart than go back.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And yet not to go back made her feet like lead
+as she dragged herself down the interminable
+steps.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-vii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id8">CHAPTER VII</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">"Shall I ever go in or out of this door
+again?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie lingered on the threshold to ask herself
+this question, and, as she did so, saw Bob Collingham
+lift his hat.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For the time being she had forgotten him.
+That is, she had a way of putting him out of her
+mind except when, as he expressed it to herself,
+he came bothering her. Bothering her meant
+asking her to marry him, which he had done perhaps
+twenty times. Each time she refused him
+she considered that it was for good. There was
+a quality in him that raised her ire—a certainty
+that, pressed by need, she would one day come
+to him. That, Jennie said to herself, would be
+the last thing! She wouldn't do it as long as
+there was any other possibility on earth. In
+view, however, of the state of things at home
+and Wray's cold-bloodedness at the studio it had
+sometimes seemed to her of late as if earth would
+not afford her any other possibility.</p>
+<p class="pnext">If she welcomed him now, it was chiefly as a
+distraction from thoughts which, were she to
+keep dwelling on them, would drive her mad.
+Her temperament being naturally happy, anguish
+was the more anguishing for being so unnatural.
+The mere necessity of having to strive with Bob
+called forth in her that spirit of sex-wrestling
+which was not so much second nature in her as
+it was first.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She greeted him, therefore, with a sick little
+smile, and allowed him to limp along beside her.
+The studio building was in a street in the Thirties
+and east of Lexington Avenue. To take the way
+by which she usually went, they sauntered
+toward the sunset.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You're in trouble, Jennie, aren't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The kindly tone touched her. He was always
+kind. He was always looking for little things
+he could do. It was part of the trouble with
+him from her point of view that he was so
+watchful and overshadowing. He poured out so
+much more than her cup was able to receive
+that he frightened her. All the same, his sympathy,
+coming at this minute, started her tears
+afresh.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is it things at home?" he persisted, when
+she didn't respond.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Thinking this enough for him to know, she
+admitted that it was.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've got something in my pocket that would—that
+would help all that—in the long run."</p>
+<p class="pnext">From anyone else this would have alarmed her.
+She would have taken it to mean money, money
+which she would in her own way be expected to
+repay. As it was she merely turned her swimming
+eyes toward him in mild curiosity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Look!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Seeing a little white box which could contain
+nothing but a ring held between his thumb and
+forefinger on the edge of his waistcoat pocket,
+she flushed with annoyance.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I think you'd better go away," she said,
+coldly, pausing to give him the chance to take
+his leave.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And chuck you back upon your trouble?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The argument was more effective than he
+knew. Jennie became aware that even this little
+bit of drama had put home conditions and Wray's
+cruelty a perceptible distance behind her. It
+was sheer terror at being thrown on them again
+that induced her to walk on, tacitly permitting
+him to stay with her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You can't be saved from one kind of trouble
+by getting into another," she argued, ungraciously.
+"The fire's not much of a relief from the
+frying pan."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It is if it doesn't burn you—if it only warms
+and comforts you and makes it easier to live."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"This fire would burn me—to death."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh no, it wouldn't; because I'd be there.
+I'd be the stoker, to see that it was kept in the
+furnace. The furnace in the house, Jennie, is
+like the heart in the body—something out of
+sight, but hot and glowing, and cheering everybody
+up." If she could have listened to such
+words from Hubert Wray, she thought, how
+enraptured she would have been. "Did you
+ever hear the story of the guy who gave us fire
+in the first place?" Bob continued, as she walked
+on and said nothing. "You know we didn't have
+any fire on earth—at least, that's the tune to
+which the rig is sung. The gods had fire in
+heaven, but men had to shiver."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why didn't they freeze to death?''</p>
+<p class="pnext">"They did—in a parable way. It wasn't life
+they lived; it was a great big creeping horror
+on the edge of nothing. Then this old bird—I
+forget his name—went up to heaven—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"How did he do that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The story doesn't tell; but up he went,
+stole the fire, and brought it down. After that,
+they were able to open the ball we call 'civilization,'
+which gives every one a good time."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, does it? Much you know!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I know this much, Jennie—that I could
+give you a good time if you'd let me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You couldn't give me the good time I want."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I could make you want the good time
+I'd give you, which would come to the same
+thing. I imagine the folks on earth didn't think
+much of the fire from heaven—beforehand; but
+once they'd got it, they knew what it meant to
+them. That's the way you'd feel, Jennie, if you
+married me. You can't begin to fancy now—"
+On coming in sight of a line of taxicabs drawn
+up before a hotel, he broke off to say, "Do you
+see those taxis, Jennie?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She replied that she did.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, one of them may mean a great deal to
+you and me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Which one of them?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Whichever one we get into."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why should we get into it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because"—he tapped the white box in his
+waistcoat pocket—"this little thing I've got in
+here wouldn't do us any good without something
+else. We should have to go after it together."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her mystified expression told him that she
+was in the dark.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's something we should have to ask for, and
+to sign—Robert Bradley Collingham, bachelor,
+and Jane Scarborough Follett, spinster—I believe
+that's the way it runs."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh!" The low ejaculation was just enough
+to show that she understood.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why shouldn't we, Jennie? It wouldn't
+take half an hour to get there and back."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"'Back?'" She was so dazed that she echoed
+the word more or less unconsciously.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They came in sight of a low brown tower at
+which he pointed with his stick. "Do you see
+that church? Well, that church has got a parson—quite
+a decent sort for a parson—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"How do you know?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because I talked to him—about half an hour
+ago. I said that if he was going to be at home,
+we might look in on him toward the end of the
+afternoon."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You had no right to say anything of the
+kind."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I know I hadn't, but I took a chance. Won't
+you take a chance, too, Jennie? It would mean
+the beginning of the end of all your troubles.
+In the long run, if not in the short run, I could
+take them off your hands."</p>
+<p class="pnext">That she should be dead to this argument was
+not in human nature. Her basic conception of
+a man was of one who would relieve her of her
+burdens. Helplessness was a large part of her
+appeal. That marriage meant being taken care
+of imparted, according to her thinking, its chief
+common sense to the institution. She shrank
+from marrying <em class="italics">just</em> to be taken care of; but if
+there was no other way, and if in this way she
+could bring to the family the stupendous Collingham
+connection in lieu of her six a week....
+She made up her mind to temporize.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What makes you in such an awful hurry?
+We could do it any other day—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Did you ever see a sick man who wasn't in
+an awful hurry to get well?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You're not as bad as all that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Listen, Jennie," he said, with an ardor enhanced
+by her hints at relenting; "listen, and
+I'll tell you what I am. I'm like a chap that's
+been cut in two, who only lives because he knows
+the other half will be joined to him again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's all very well; but where's the other
+half?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Here." He touched her lightly on the arm.
+"You're the other half of me, Jennie; I'm the
+other half of you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She laughed ruefully.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's news to me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I thought it might be. That's why I'm
+telling you. You don't suppose any other fellow
+could be to you what I'd be, do you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't know what you'd be to me because
+I've so many other things to think of first."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What sort of things?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What your folks would say, for one."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He replied, with a shade of embarrassment:
+"They'd say some pretty mean things, to
+begin with."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And to end with?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"They'd give in. They'd have to. Families
+always do when you only leave them Hobson's
+choice."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She dropped into the studio idiom.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That wouldn't be all pie for me, would it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is anything ever all pie? You've got to
+work for your living in this old world if you want
+to eat. I'm ready to work for this, Jennie. I'm
+ready to move mountains for it, and, by God!
+I'm going to move them! But do you know
+why?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She said, shyly, "I suppose because you like
+me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't know whether I do or not. That's
+not what I think about first." Though they had
+not yet reached the line of taxicabs, he paused
+to make an explanation. "Suppose you were
+inventing a machine and had got it pretty well
+fitted together, only that you couldn't make it
+work. And suppose, one day, you found the
+very part that was missing—the thing that
+would make it run. You'd know you'd have to
+have that one thing, wouldn't you? You'd have
+to have it—or your life wouldn't be worth
+while."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I never heard any other man talk like
+that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Listen, Jennie. There are men and men.
+They'll go into two big bunches. To one kind
+women are like whisky—some better than others,
+but all good. If they can't have Mary, Susan'll
+do, and when they're tired of Susan they'll run
+after Ann. That's one kind of fellow, and he's
+in the great majority. They're polygamous by
+nature, those chaps. I suppose the Lord made
+them so. Anyhow, as far as I can see—and I've
+seen pretty far—they can't help themselves."
+He drew a long breath. "Then there's another
+kind."</p>
+<p class="pnext">If Jennie listened with attention, it was not
+because she was interested in him, but in Hubert
+Wray. Hubert had more than once said things
+of the same kind. He had declared male constancy
+to be outside the possibilities of flesh and
+blood, and, with her preference for cave men,
+Jennie had agreed with him. That is, she had
+agreed with him as to everyone but himself.
+Others could take their pleasure where and as
+they found it; but she could not conceive of any
+man loving her, or of herself loving any man,
+unless it was for life. On the subject of constancy
+or inconstancy, this was her sole reservation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You'll think me an awful chump, Jennie, but
+I'm that other kind."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She threw him a sidelong glance of some
+perplexity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You mean the kind that—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not polygamous," he declared, as one
+who confessed a criminal tendency. "There it
+is, laid out flat. I'm—" He hesitated before
+using the term lest she might not understand it.
+"There's a word for my kind," he went on,
+tenderly. "It's monogamous."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She made a little sound of dismay at the
+strangeness, it almost seemed the indecency, of
+the syllables.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; I thought you might never have heard
+it," he pursued, in the same tender strain, "but
+it means the opposite of polygamous. A polygamous
+guy wants to marry all the wives he can
+make love to. A one-wife chap like me asks for
+nothing so much as to be true to the girl he loves.
+I'm that kind, Jennie."</p>
+<p class="pnext">To his amazement, and somewhat to his joy,
+he saw a tear trickle down her cheek. It was a
+tear of regret that Hubert couldn't have expressed
+himself like this, but Bob thought her
+touched by his appeal. It encouraged him to
+continue with accentuated warmth.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You've heard of what they call the battle of
+the sexes, haven't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She thought she had.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, that's what it comes from chiefly—the
+crowds of polygamous men and the small number
+of polygamous women; or else it's the crowds of
+monogamous women and the small number of
+monogamous men. Out of every hundred men,
+about ninety are polygamous, and ten want only
+one woman for a lifetime. Out of every hundred
+women, ninety are satisfied to love one man, and
+the other ten are rovers. Don't you see what a
+bad fit it makes?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; but how do you know I'm not one of the
+rovers?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You couldn't be, Jennie. Even if I thought
+you might be, I'd be willing to take a chance.
+And the reason I've spun this rigmarole to you
+is because, if you don't take me, it'll be ten to
+one that you'll fall into the hands of one of the
+gay ninety who'll make your life a hell. I'd hate
+that. God! how I should hate it! Even if I
+didn't care anything about you, I should want
+to marry you, just to save you from some fancy
+man who'd think no more of breaking your heart
+than he would of smashing an egg-shell."</p>
+<p class="pnext">As they walked on toward the row of public
+conveyances, he explained himself further. On
+Monday next he might sail for South America.
+But he couldn't do this leaving everything at
+loose ends between them. If she married him,
+he could go off with an easy mind, and they could
+keep their secret till his return. In the meanwhile
+he would be able to supply her with a
+little cash, not much, he was afraid, as dad kept
+so tight a rubber band round the pocketbook.
+It would, however, be something, and he would
+know that she could give up her work at the
+studio without danger of starving to death.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you might as well do it first as last,
+Jennie," he summed up, "because I mean that
+you shall do it sometime."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And suppose," she objected, "that you came
+back from South America in six months' time—and
+were sorry. Where should I be then?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He argued that this was impossible. A monogamous
+man always knew his mate as a monogamous
+bird knew his. It was instinct that told
+them both, and instinct never went wrong.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They reached the row of taxis, and, in spite of
+the queer looks of the passers-by, he took her
+by the hand.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Come, Jennie, come!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But she hung back.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Bob, how can I? All of a sudden like
+this!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It might as well be all of a sudden as any
+other way, since you're my woman and I'm your
+man."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I don't believe it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then I'll prove to you that it's so."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Though he could not do this, she went with him
+in the end. She was not won; she was not more
+moved by his suit than she had been at other
+times; she still shrank from the scar on his brow
+and the touch of his tremendous hands. But she
+was afraid of letting him go, of dropping back
+into the horror of no lover in the studio and no
+money to bring home. To do this thing would
+save her from that emptiness, even if it led to
+something worse. Worse would be easier to
+bear than returning to nothing but a void; and
+so slowly, reluctantly, with anguish in her heart,
+she let herself be helped into the shabby vehicle.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">An hour or so later, Teddy reached home.
+He arrived breathless, because he had run nearly
+all the way from the street-car. In the empty
+spaces of Indiana Avenue he felt himself conspicuous.
+He knew it was fancy, that no hint
+of his folly could have come to this quiet suburb,
+and that his theft could not possibly be discovered
+as yet, even by those most concerned. But
+he was not used to a guilty conscience. Already
+in imagination he saw himself tried, sentenced,
+and serving a long sentence at Bitterwell, of
+which he had once seen the grim gray walls.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"God! I'd shoot myself first!" was his comment
+to himself, as he hurried past the trim
+grassplots where care-free men in shirt sleeves
+were watering their bits of lawn.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was Pansy who first knew that something
+was amiss. At sound of his hand on the door
+knob she had come scampering, with little
+silvery yelps, and had suddenly been checked by
+the atmosphere he threw out. Pansy knew what
+wrongdoing was; she knew the pangs of remorse.
+She had once run away from being shut up in the
+coalbin, her fate when the family went to the
+movies, and had been lost for half a day. The
+agony of being adrift and the joy of seeing
+Gussie come whistling and calling down the
+Palisade Walk formed the great central escapade
+in Pansy's memory. For days afterward, whenever
+the family spoke of it, she would stand
+with forepaws planted apart, and head hanging
+dejectedly, aware that no terms could be scathing
+enough fully to cover her guilt.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And here was Teddy in the same state of mind.
+Pansy had learned that the great race could
+suffer; but she hadn't supposed that it could
+get into scrapes like herself. All she could do on
+second thoughts was to creep forward timidly,
+raise herself on her hind legs, with her paws
+against his shin, and tell him that whatever the
+trouble was she had been through it all.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He paid her no attention because, as he looked
+into the living room, Gladys was seated at a
+table, crying, her hands covering her face. At
+the same time Gussie was peacocking up and
+down the room, saying things to her little sister
+that were apparently not comforting. Now that
+Gussie, at Madame Corinne's request, had "put
+up" her hair, her great beauty was apparent.
+Her face had not the guileless purity of Jennie's,
+but it had more intellectual vigor and much
+more fire.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gladys was Teddy's pet, as she was her
+father's. Of the three girls, she was the plain
+one, a little red-haired, snub-nosed thing, with
+some resemblance to Pansy, and a heart of gold.
+Teddy went over and laid his hand on her fiery
+crown.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Say, poor little kiddie, what's the matter?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's my feet," Gladys moaned.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And she thinks that learning the millinery
+at three-fifty per is all jazz and cat-step,"
+Gussie declared, grandly. "Well, let her try it
+and see. She's welcome. My soul and body!
+Corinne would blow her across the river when
+she got into a temper. I say that if you're a
+cash girl you've got to take the drawbacks of a
+cash girl, and what's the use of kicking? If
+you're on your feet, you're on your feet. Rub
+'em with oil and buck up. That's what I say."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's all very well for you to talk, spit-cat,"
+Gladys retorted. "All you've got to do is to
+play with ribbons as if you were dressing a doll.
+If you had to run like Pansy every time some
+stuck-up thing calls, '<em class="italics">Ca-ash!</em>'—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gussie undulated her person and her outstretched
+arms in sheer joy of the dancing step
+as she strutted up and down.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's right, old girl. Blame it on me.
+I'm always the one that's in the wrong in this
+house. If Master Teddy lets a glass fall and
+breaks it, as he did last night, I pushed it out of
+his hand on purpose, though I'm in the next
+room. All the same, I say, 'Buck up,' and I
+don't care who says different. Sniffing won't
+cure your feet or give you a brother like Fred
+Inglis who can pay for a woman to do all the
+heavy work, and his mother hardly lifting a
+hand."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy passed on to the kitchen to see if his
+mother was there.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was seated at a table with a ham bone
+before her, and from it was paring the last rags
+of the meat. He tried to take his old-time tone
+of gayety.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, ma! At it again? What are you giving
+us for supper? Something good, I'll bet."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Lizzie went on working without lifting her
+eyes. She didn't even smile. Teddy sensed
+something new in the way of care, as Pansy
+had sensed it in him. He stood at a little
+distance, waiting for the look that had never
+failed to welcome him, but which this time
+didn't come.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What's the matter, ma? Has anything gone
+wrong?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Putting down the ham, Lizzie raised her eyes,
+though with no light in them.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's nothing so very wrong, dear, but I
+haven't told your sisters because it's no use to
+worry them if—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What is it, ma? Out with it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She told him. If it was necessary to go without
+a hot meal between Wednesday and Saturday,
+of course it could be done; but even on
+Saturday the gas people would demand fifteen
+dollars on account before the gas would be
+turned on again. There were just two possibilities:
+The father might come home with the news
+that he had found a job, or Teddy might have—she
+didn't believe it, but he had talked of saving
+for a new suit of clothes—Teddy might have
+fifteen dollars laid away.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He turned his back and walked out of the
+kitchen. He did it so significantly that it seemed
+to the mother there could be only one meaning
+to the act. He had saved the money and resented
+being robbed of it. She knew he was
+something of a coxcomb, and had always been
+proud that he could look so neat. He had only
+two suits, a common one and a best one, but
+even the common one was as brushed and pressed
+and stylish as if he had a valet. Nevertheless,
+his great activity and his love of rough-and-tumble
+skylarking made him hard on clothes in
+the sense of wear, and the common one was
+growing shiny at the seams and thin where there
+was most attrition. A new suit was an urgent
+necessity; so that if he had a few dollars put
+away toward getting it, it would be no wonder if
+it hurt him to be asked to give them up.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Teddy had no few dollars put away.
+When the fund for the new suit could be counted
+otherwise than in pennies, some special need had
+always swept it into the family treasury. Teddy
+had let it go without a sigh. He would have let
+it go without a sigh to-day, only that he had
+nothing saved. Being naturally of a loving, care-taking
+disposition, it meant more to him that
+Gussie or Gladys should have a new pair of shoes
+than that he should be able to emulate Fred
+Inglis in ordering a suit at Love's.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having left the kitchen, he did not go farther
+than the living room, where, Gussie having
+taken herself upstairs, Gladys was drying her
+eyes. He merely walked to the end of the room,
+his hands in his pockets, as he stared above one
+of the hydrangea trees into Indiana Avenue.
+The windows being open, the voices of playing
+children mingled with the even-song of birds.
+To Teddy, there was mockery in these cheerful
+sounds. There was mockery in the westering
+May sunshine, mockery in the groups of girls,
+bareheaded and arm in arm, as they strolled
+toward Palisade Walk; mockery in the ruddy-faced
+men who watered their shrubs and grass;
+mockery in the aproned women who came to
+windows or doors in the intervals of preparing
+supper. It all spoke of a homey comfort and
+content, with no bluff behind it. In the Follett
+house all was bluff—and misery.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Somehow, for reasons he couldn't fathom, the
+cutting off of the gas from the range seemed the
+last humiliation. In the matter of food, if one
+thing was too dear, you could eat another. So
+it was in the whole round of essentials in living.
+You could get a substitute or you could go without.
+But for heat there was no substitute, and
+you couldn't go without it. It ranked with
+clothes and shelter as a necessity even among
+savages. And yet here they were, a civilized
+family, living in a civilized house, in a suburb
+of New York, deprived of what even Micmacs
+could have at will. It was one of the happenings
+that could never have been foreseen as
+possibilities.</p>
+<p class="pnext">His hands being in his pockets, Teddy fingered
+the twenty-dollar bill. He did this unconsciously, merely because it was there. It did
+occur to him to wish it was his own; but his
+wishes went no farther.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They had gone no farther when he swung on
+his heel to go back to the kitchen. He must tell
+his mother that he didn't have fifteen dollars put
+away. He hadn't done so at once merely because
+his emotions had been too strong for him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He pulled his burly figure down the length of
+the room as one who has to drag himself along.
+If he had only been Fred Inglis, he would have
+handed his mother a sheaf of bills with instructions
+to buy all she wanted. Why couldn't he,
+Teddy Follett, do the same? He was, as Gussie
+phrased it, a great big fellow of twenty-one—and
+his value was only eighteen per. He had
+proved that to his own satisfaction, for in secretly
+trying to unearth a better place he had
+been offered less than he got at Collingham &amp;
+Law's.</p>
+<p class="pnext">What were the shackles that bound him?
+Were they of his own creation, or were they
+forced on him by the world outside? He was as
+industrious as his father had been, and, except
+for a tendency to do his work with a broad grin,
+just as wholehearted. If good intentions had
+commercial value, both father and son should
+have been rated high; but here was his father
+a bit of old junk, while he himself, having
+reached man's estate, having served his country,
+having tacitly offered himself to the limit of his
+strength, was rewarded with a wage on which he
+could hardly live, to say nothing of helping
+others live.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Madly, wildly, these thoughts churned in his
+mind as he lurched down the room toward the
+kitchen, while Pansy watched him with a look
+into which she was putting all her soul.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He knew what he would say. He would say:
+"Ma, it's no go. I haven't a red cent. We've
+got to eat cold and wash cold till Saturday, anyhow.
+We'll not look farther ahead than that.
+When Saturday comes, we'll see."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But, on the threshold of the kitchen, he saw
+something which brought a new sensation. In
+free fights while in the navy he had thought he
+had seen red; but he had never seen red like this.
+He had never supposed it possible that this torrent
+of wrath, tenderness, and pity should rise
+within himself, a fountain spouting at the same
+time both sweet water and bitter.</p>
+<p class="pnext">His mother was seated at the table, crying.
+The ham bone was before her, the rags of meat
+on the plate, and the knife on top of them. But
+she, like Gladys a few minutes previously, had
+covered her face with her hands, while her
+shoulders rocked.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In all his twenty-one years Teddy had never
+seen his mother cry. He had cried; the girls
+had cried; his father had very nearly cried; but
+his mother never. The strong spirit had grieved
+in strong ways, but not in this way. Now it
+seemed as if all the griefs she had laid up since
+the days when she was Lizzie Scarborough had
+heaped themselves to the point at which these
+strange, harsh, unnatural tears were their only
+assuagement.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy was down on his knees beside her, his
+arm flung round her neck.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ma! Good old ma! Dear old ma! Don't
+cry! For God's sake don't cry! Stop <em class="italics">crying</em>,
+ma!" he shouted, in an imploring passion as
+strange, harsh, and unnatural as her own.
+"Here's the money I had saved for my new
+clothes. Take it and go and pay something on
+the gas bill. There! There! Stop! For God's
+sake! For your little boy's sake! I love you,
+ma. Only stop! There! That's better! Calm
+down, ma! Everything will be all right, and I'll—I'll
+get the new clothes by and by."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But in his heart he was saying, "To hell with
+Collingham &amp; Law's!" as he laid the bill before
+her.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-viii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id9">CHAPTER VIII</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">Jennie cried herself to sleep that Wednesday
+night, and, in the morning, cried herself
+awake. She was in no doubt as to the motive of
+her tears; she was sorry for having put a gulf
+between her and the man she loved by marrying
+one she didn't care for.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Why she didn't care for him was beyond her
+power of analysis. He was good and kind and
+tender; he was rocklike and steady and strong.
+In a forceful way he was almost handsome, and
+some day he would be rich. But there was the
+fact that, her heart being given to the one man,
+her nerves shuddered at the other. The explanation
+she used to give, that the lividness of the
+scar on his forehead frightened her, was no longer
+tenable, since the mark tended to fade out. The
+other infirmity, his limp, was also less conspicuous,
+for, though he would never walk as if his
+foot had not been crushed, he walked as well as
+many other men. It wasn't these peculiarities;
+it wasn't any one thing in itself; it was simply
+that she didn't love him and never would.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Whereas, she did love another man. She loved
+his violet eyes, his brown mustache, his flashing
+teeth, his selfishness, his cruelty. She loved his
+system of starving her out, his habit of keeping
+her in anguish. Too much reasonableness was
+hard for her to assimilate, like too much water
+to a portulaca.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And Bob had been so reasonable. He had
+tried to explain himself. He had used words
+that scared, that shocked her. Polygamous!
+Monogamous! The very sounds suggested anatomy
+or impropriety.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Nevertheless, she could have pardoned this
+language as an eccentricity if, in the dimness of
+the parson's hall, he hadn't taken her in his arms
+and kissed her. This possibility was something
+she forgot when she followed him up the rectory's
+brownstone steps. For the inadvertence she
+blamed herself the more, since, throughout the
+winter, she had never once lost sight of it.
+Whenever he had proposed to her, the advantages
+of marrying so much money had been offset by
+her terror at his "pawing her about." With no
+high-flown ideas as to virtue, Jennie would have
+fought like a wildcat for her virginity of mind
+and body till ready of her own free will to give
+them up. And here she had sold herself to Bob
+Collingham, a man whose touch made her
+shrink.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I can't live with you!" she had cried, as she
+tore herself from his embrace.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And poor Bob had been reasonable again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Of course not, Jennie darling—not yet.
+When I come back—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She hadn't let him finish. She had dashed
+through the door and down the steps, so that he
+had some ado to keep up with her.... Even then,
+if he had only dragged her away and been a
+cave man....</p>
+<p class="pnext">And the evening at home had been one of the
+oddest she had ever spent under her father's roof.
+Everyone was so queer—or else she was queer
+herself. Gussie and Gladys, reconciled after their
+squabble, had both been in high spirits, and
+Teddy almost hysterical. He gave imitations of
+the men with whom he worked most closely at the
+bank, of Fred Inglis, of Mrs. Inglis, of Dolly,
+Addie, and Sadie Inglis, which made everyone
+feel that a great actor was being lost to the
+stage; but on top of these exhibitions he would
+fall into spells of profound reverie. The father
+had been apathetic, but he was always apathetic now;
+the mother, on the other hand, more
+serene than usual. More than usual, too, her
+eyes applauded Teddy's high spirits with a
+quiet, adoring smile. Altogether, the supper
+had been a merry one, and yet, to Jennie's thinking,
+merry with a mysterious note in the merriment—a
+note which perhaps only Pansy's intuitions
+could have really understood.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But sitting on the edge of her bed in the
+morning, she saw a ray of hope. There was
+divorce. Marriage wasn't the irreparable thing
+which their family traditions assumed it to be.
+As a tolerably diligent reader of the personal
+items in the papers, Jennie had more than once
+read of divorces granted to young couples who
+had parted at the church door. Naturally, she
+shrank from the fuss it would involve, but better
+the fuss than....</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having got up, for the reason that she couldn't
+stay in bed, she dressed slowly, because none of
+the family was as yet astir. She would surprise
+her mother by lighting the gas range and making
+the coffee before anyone came down. Thus it
+happened that she saw the postman crossing the
+street with a letter in his hand. Though letters
+were not rare in the family, they were rare enough
+to make the arrival of one an incident. She went
+to the door to take it from the postman's hand.
+Seeing it addressed to Miss Follett and bearing
+the postmark "Marillo," her knees trembled
+under her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having read what Mrs. Collingham had
+written, Jennie's first thought was that her early
+rising enabled her to keep this missive secret.
+What it could portend was beyond her surmise.
+It was not unfriendly, but neither was it cordial.
+It took the guarded tone, she thought, of a
+woman who meant to see her face to face before
+being willing to commit herself. As success on
+meeting people face to face had mostly been
+Jennie's portion, she was not so much afraid of
+the test as of what it might bring afterward.</p>
+<p class="pnext">What it might bring afterward was the recognition
+of her marriage and her translation into
+a rich family. This would mean the end of her
+father's and mother's material cares, Teddy's
+advancement at the bank, and brilliant careers
+for Gussie and Gladys in New York social life.
+Jennie could think of at least half a dozen
+picture plays in which the sacrifice of some
+lovely, virtuous girl had done as much as this
+for her relatives.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So, all that day, sacrifice was much in her
+mind. Against a vague background of grandeur,
+it had the same emotional effect as of passion
+sung to the accompaniment of a great orchestra.
+To see herself with a limousine at her command,
+and the family established in a modest villa
+somewhere near Marillo Park, if not quite within
+it, enabled her mentally to face another embrace
+from Bob in the spirit of an early—Christian
+maiden thinking of the lions awaiting her in the
+arena. It would be terrible—but it could be met.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The vision of the limousine at her command
+seemed to have come partly true as a trim
+chauffeur stepped up to her in the station at
+Marillo, touching his cap and asking if he spoke
+to Miss Follett. He touched his cap again when
+he closed the door on her, and the car tooled
+away along a road which bore the same relation
+to the roads with which Jennie was familiar as a
+glorified spirit to a living man.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The park was not so much a park as it was a
+country. It had hills, valleys, landscapes, lakes,
+and what seemed to Jennie immense estates for
+which there was plenty of room. There were
+houses as big as hotels and much more beautiful.
+Trees, flowers, lawns, terraces, fountains, tennis
+courts, dogs, horses, and motor cars were as
+silver in the building of the Temple of Jerusalem—nothing accounted of. Jennie had seen high
+life as lived by the motion-picture heroine, but
+she had not believed that even wealth could buy
+such a Garden of Eden as this. Expecting to
+reach Collingham Lodge a few minutes after
+passing the grille, she had gone on and on, over
+roads that branched, and then branched, and
+then branched again, like the veinings of a leaf.</p>
+<p class="pnext">After descending at the white-columned portico,
+she went up the steps in a state bordering
+on trance. She knew what to do much as Elijah,
+having come by the chariot of fire to another
+plane of life, must have known what to do when
+required to get out and go onward. Since a man
+in livery opened a door of wrought-iron tracery
+over glass, she had no choice but to pass through.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It is possible that Max, by his supersenses,
+knew that she belonged to his master, for, springing
+toward her, he nosed her hand. It was, as
+she put it to herself, the only human touch in
+the first stages of her welcome. Thenceforward,
+during all the forty or fifty minutes of her stay,
+he kept close to her, either on foot or crouched
+beside her chair, till a curious thing happened
+when she regained the car.</p>
+<p class="pnext">I have said in the first stages of her welcome,
+for as soon as she entered the hall she heard a
+cheery voice.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, so it's you, Miss Follett! So glad you've
+come. It's really too bad to bring you so far—only,
+it seemed to me we might be cozier here
+than if I went up to town."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Adown the golden space which seemed to
+Jennie much too majestic for anyone's private
+dwelling, a brisk figure moved, with hand outstretched.
+A few seconds later Jennie was
+looking into eyes such as she didn't suppose
+existed in human faces. Beauty, dignity, poise,
+white hair dressed to perfection, and clothes
+such as Jennie had never seen off the stage—and
+rarely on it—were all subordinated to a
+hearty, kindly, womanly greeting before which
+they sank out of sight. Overpowered as she was
+by the material costliness of all she saw, the girl
+was well-nigh crushed by this unaffected affability.
+Like the Queen of Sheba at the court of
+Solomon, to be Scriptural again, there was no
+more spirit left in her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mrs. Collingham went on talking as, side by
+side, they walked slowly up the strip of red
+carpet into the cool recesses of the house.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I hope you didn't find the train too stuffy.
+It's too bad they won't give us a parlor car on
+the locals. For the last three or four years we
+only have a parlor car on what they call the
+'husbands' trains'—one in the morning and one
+in the afternoon, and, my dear, they make us pay
+for it as if—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">A toss of the hands proved to Jennie that Mrs.
+Collingham knew the difference between cheap
+and dear, which again took her by surprise.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They passed through the terrace drawing-room,
+which Jennie couldn't notice because she
+trod on air, and came out to the flagged pavement. Even here, Mrs. Collingham didn't
+pause, but, leading the way to the end of it, she
+went round a corner to the northern and more
+private side of the house, which looked into a
+little wood.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Mr. Collingham's at home—just driven
+down—but I'm not going to have him here.
+Men are such a nuisance when women talk
+about intimate things, don't you think? They
+make such mountains of molehills. It's just as
+when you have a cry. They think your heart
+must be breaking, and never seem to understand
+that it gives you some relief."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie was still more astounded. That the
+mistress of Collingham Lodge, a great figure in
+Marillo Park, and therefore high up in the peerage
+of the United States, could have the same
+feelings as herself seemed the touch of nature
+that makes the whole world kin to a degree she
+had put beyond the limits of the human heart.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They came to a construction like a giant birdcage—a
+room out of doors, yet sheltered from
+noisome insects like their own screened piazza,
+furnished with an outdoor-indoor luxury.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We don't have many mosquitoes at Marillo,"
+Mrs. Collingham explained, as she led the way
+in, "but in spring they can be troublesome.
+So we'll have our tea here. Gossip will bring it
+presently. Where will you sit? I think you'll
+like that chair. There! What about a cushion?
+Oh, I'm sure you don't need it at your age, but,
+still, one likes to be comfortable. No, Max;
+stay out. Well, if you must come in, come in.
+He seems to like you," she chatted on. "He's
+Bob's dog, and I suppose he takes to Bob's
+friends."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Rendered speechless by this frank reference
+to the man who was the bond between them,
+there was, fortunately, no immediate need for
+Jennie to speak, since Gossip appeared in the
+doorway pushing the tea equipage. It was a
+little table on wheels, and on it Jennie noticed,
+in a general way, every magnificent detail—the
+silver tray, the silver kettle, the silver teapot,
+the silver tongs, the silver spoons. "And all of
+them solid," she said to herself, awesomely.
+She regretted that she wouldn't be at liberty to
+recount these marvels at home. At home, they
+thought her merely at the studio, while she had
+been borne away through the air as by a witch
+on a broomstick.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie would have said that Mrs. Collingham
+had hardly looked at her, but then, she reflected,
+every woman knew how little <em class="italics">looking</em> you had
+to do to grasp the details of another woman's
+personality. You took them all in at a glance,
+as if you brought seven or eight senses into play.
+Each time her hostess, now settled behind the
+tea table, lifted her fine eyes, Jennie was sure
+they "got" her, like a camera.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You pose, don't you?" The words came out
+in a casual, friendly tone, as she busied herself
+with the spirit lamp. "That must be so interesting.
+I often wonder, when I'm in the big
+galleries, what the immortal women would have
+said had they known how their features would
+go down through the ages. Take Dorotea
+Nachtigal, for instance, the original of Holbein's
+'Meyer Madonna' in Darmstadt—the most
+wonderful of all the Madonnas, I always say—and
+how queer I suppose she would have felt if
+she'd known that we should be adoring her when
+she's no more than a handful of dust. Or the
+model who posed for the Madonna di San Sisto!
+Or the young things who sat to Greuze! Did you
+ever think of them?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie saw how Bob could have come by words
+like "polygamous" and "monogamous." People
+at Marillo Park spoke a language of their own—"English
+with frills on it," was the way she put
+it to herself. From the intonation, she was able
+to frame her answer in the negative, while, once
+more, the superb eyes, which were oddly like Bob's
+little steely ones, were lifted on her with a smile.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You know, I should think people would be
+crazy to paint you. How do you like your tea?
+Sugar? Cream? One lump? Two lumps?"
+Having flung out answers at random, Jennie
+leaned forward to take her cup, while the kindly
+voice ran on: "Just as you sit there you're a
+picture. Funny I should have given you a tan-colored
+cushion, because it tones in exactly."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie explained that the various shades of
+brown and some of the deeper ones of red were
+among her favorites.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because they go so well with your hair," her
+hostess said, comprehendingly, and studying her
+now more frankly. "My dear, you've got the
+most lovely hair! It isn't auburn; it isn't coppery;
+it isn't red. It's—what is it? Oh, I see!
+It's amber—it's the extraordinary shade Romney
+gets into some of his portraits of Lady Hamilton.
+You see it in the one in the Frick gallery,
+if I remember rightly. You must look the next
+time you're there."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie tried to stammer that she would, only
+that her syllables ran into one another and became
+incoherent.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But Romney couldn't paint <em class="italics">you</em>," Mrs.
+Collingham declared, enthusiastically, putting
+her cup to her lips. "He's too Georgian. You're
+the twentieth century. You're the perfect spirit
+of the age—restless, rebellious, wistful, and delicate
+all at once. Girls nowadays remind me of
+exquisite fragile things like the spire of the
+Sainte Chapelle, only built of steel. You've got
+the steel look—all slender and unbendable.
+It's curious that—the way women look like the
+ages in which they're born. You've only to go
+through a portrait collection to see that it's so.
+Take the Stuart women, for instance—the Vandyke
+and Lely women—great saucer-eyed things,
+with sensual lips and breasts. And then the Holbein
+women, so terribly got up in their stiff
+Sunday clothes, which they must have hurried
+to put into their cedar chests the minute they
+got home from mass. But they belong to their
+time, don't you think?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie could only say she did think, vowing in
+her heart that the next day would see her going
+round the Metropolitan Museum with a catalogue.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But you! Hubert Wray says he's done a
+wonderful study of you, and I'm crazy to see it.
+The only thing I don't like from his description
+is that he's got you in a Greek dress and attitude,
+and <em class="italics">I</em> think, now that I've seen you, that
+the day after to-morrow is your style. What do
+you say yourself?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't know about the day after to-morrow;
+I'm so busy with to-day."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mrs. Collingham took this with a pleasant
+little laugh.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You clever thing! You won't give yourself
+away." She mused a few seconds, a smile on her
+lips, and then said, with a sudden lifting of the
+eyes, "What do you think of Bob?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The girl could only stammer:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Think of him—in what way?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do you think he looks like me?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">In this rapid, unexpected shifting of the
+ground, Jennie was like a giddy person trying to
+keep her head.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, yes—in a way; only—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mrs. Collingham laughed again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I see that, too. He does. I can't deny it.
+Often when I look at him, I see myself, only—you'll
+laugh, I know—only myself as I'd be
+reflected in the back of a silver spoon. That's
+the trouble with Bob—he's so unformed. You
+must have noticed it. I suppose it's the war;
+and yet I don't know. He's always been like
+that—a dear fellow, but no more than half
+grown. I dare say that by the time he's fifty
+he'll be something like a man."</p>
+<p class="pnext">As there seemed to be no absolute need for a
+response to this, Jennie waited for more. It
+came, after another little spell of musing.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He's talked to me so much about you all
+through the winter. That's why I asked you to
+come down. Mr. Collingham and I feel so tremendously
+indebted to you for the way you've
+acted."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie could only repeat feebly, "The way
+I've acted?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I mean the way you've understood him.
+Almost any other girl—yes, girls right here in
+Marillo Park—would have taken him at his
+word." Jennie's lips were parted, but unable to
+frame a question. Mrs. Collingham eyed the
+spirit lamp. "All the same, that doesn't excuse
+<em class="italics">him</em>. Even a fellow who isn't half grown should
+have more sense than to make love to every girl
+he spends an hour with. One of these days, some
+girl will catch him, and then he'll be sorry.
+That's why we've been so thankful for the kind
+of influence you've had over him, and why my
+husband and I thought we'd like to do something—well,
+something a little audacious."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie was twisting her fingers and untwisting
+them, but luckily her hostess, by keeping her
+eyes on the spirit lamp, didn't notice this sign
+of nervousness. Once more she spoke, with a
+musing half smile.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We—we see a good deal of some one else
+who keeps talking about you; and—you won't
+mind, will you?—of course we've drawn our
+conclusions. We couldn't help that—could we?—when
+they were staring us in the face."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do you mean Mr. Wray?" Jennie asked,
+with the point-blank helplessness of one who
+doesn't know how to hedge.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I didn't use the name, now did I? And,
+as I've said, what we've seen we've seen, and we
+couldn't help it. But, of course, if it hadn't been
+for Bob, we shouldn't have seen so quickly."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But he doesn't know?" Jennie cried, more as
+query than as affirmation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; I suppose he doesn't. I only mean that
+as you refused Bob so many times—he told me
+that—we naturally thought there must be some
+one else, and when everything pointed that way
+and Hubert talked of you so much—" She
+kept this line of reasoning suspended while once
+more she shifted her ground suddenly. "I
+wonder if you've ever realized how hard it is to
+show your gratitude toward people to whom you
+truly and deeply feel grateful?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie mumbled something to the effect that
+she had never been in that situation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, it <em class="italics">is</em> a situation. People are so queer
+and proud and <em class="italics">difficile</em>. I suppose it's we older
+people who run up oftenest against that; but if
+Mr. Collingham and I could only do for people
+the things we <em class="italics">might</em> do, and which they won't
+let us do—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Once more the idea was suspended to give
+Jennie time to take in the fact that a good thing
+was coming her way; but all she could manage
+was to stare with frightened, fascinated eyes and
+no power of thought.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do you know, my dear," the artless voice
+ran on, "now that I'm face to face with you, I'm
+really afraid? I told my husband that, if he'd
+leave us alone together, I shouldn't be—and,
+after all, I am." She leaned forward confidentially.
+"How frank would you let me be? How
+much would you be willing for me to say?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But before the girl could invent a reply the
+voice kept up its even, caressing measure.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"<em class="italics">I</em> know how things are with you—at least, I
+think I do. I've been young, my dear. I know
+what it is to be in love. You're coloring, but you
+needn't do it—not with me. You're very <em class="italics">much</em>
+in love, aren't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie bowed her head to hide her tears. She
+hadn't meant to admit how much in love she
+was, but this sympathy unnerved her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You do love Hubert, don't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, but—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And that's why you told Bob you couldn't
+marry him?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's one of the reasons, but—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"One of the reasons will do, my dear. You
+don't know how much I feel with you and for
+you. I could tell you a little story about myself
+when I was your age—but, then, old love tales
+are like dried flowers, they've lost their scent
+and color. Mr. Collingham and I are very fond
+of Hubert, and, of course, he doesn't make enough
+to marry on as things are now. He has a little
+something, I suppose, and, with the work he's
+doing, the future is secure. You'll find, one day,
+that he'll be painting you as Andrea del Sarto
+painted Lucrezia, and Rembrandt Saskia—their
+wives, you know—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but, Mrs. Collingham—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"There, there, my dear! I'm not going to say
+anything more about that. I know Hubert and
+what he wants, and so my husband and I thought
+that if we could show our gratitude to you and
+make things easier for him—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but you couldn't!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We couldn't unless you helped us. That goes
+without saying, of course. But we hoped you
+would. You see, when people have so much—not
+that we're so tremendously rich, but when
+they have enough—and when they know as we
+do what struggle is—and there's been anyone
+whom they admire as we admire you, after all
+you've done for Bob—we thought that if we
+could give you a little present—a wedding present
+it would be—only just a little in anticipation—we
+thought five thousand dollars—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She ceased suddenly because Jennie appeared
+as one transfixed. She sat erect; but the life
+seemed to have gone out of her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mrs. Collingham was prepared for this; she
+had discounted it in advance. "She's playing
+for more," she said to herself. Luckily, she had
+named her minimum only, and had arranged
+with her husband for a maximum. The maximum
+was all the same to her so long as she
+saved Bob. Having given Jennie credit for seeing
+through the game all along—such girls were
+quick and astute—she had expected that the
+first figure of the "present" would meet with
+just this reception.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Jennie was saying to herself, "Oh, if this
+kind offer had only come yesterday!" Five
+thousand dollars was a sum of which she could
+not see the spending limitations. It meant all
+of which the family had need and that she herself
+had ever coveted. With five thousand dollars,
+she could not only have put her father on
+his feet, but have come before Hubert as an
+heiress.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If you don't think it enough," Mrs. Collingham
+said, at last, with a shade of coldness in her
+tone, "I should be willing to make it seven—or
+ten. Perhaps we'd better say ten at once, and
+end the discussion. My husband's willing to
+make it ten, but I don't think he'd give more.
+Our son is very dear to us"—the realities seeped
+through in spite of her attempts at comedy—"and,
+oh, Miss Follett, if you'll only help us to
+keep him for ourselves as you've helped us
+already—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie staggered to her feet. Her arms hung
+lax at her sides. Ten thousand dollars! The sum
+was fabulous! It would have meant all cares
+lifted from the home—and Hubert! She was
+hardly aware of speaking as she said:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Mrs. Collingham, I can't take your
+money. I wish I could. My God! how I wish I
+could! But—but—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But, for goodness' sake, child, why can't
+you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because—oh, because—I'm married to Bob
+already."</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-ix">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id10">CHAPTER IX</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">It was one of those occasions when the auditory
+nerve seems to connect imperfectly with the
+brain. Mrs. Collingham placed her cup on the
+table and leaned forward, puzzled, tense.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What did you say? Sit down. Tell me that
+again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie collapsed against the tan cushion of
+the chair, and repeated her confession. Her
+hostess's brows knitted painfully.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I don't understand. When did you
+marry him?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The girl explained that it had been on the
+previous afternoon.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But—but—you said just now that you were
+in love with some one else."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So I am—only—only, Bob made me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Made you what?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Made me go and get a license and marry
+him. He said"—her lips and tongue were so
+parched that it was hard to form the words—"he
+said he was going away in a few days to
+South America, and that he couldn't go unless
+he knew I was his wife. I begged him to let me
+off, but he—he wouldn't. Oh, Mrs. Collingham,
+what am I to do?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The appeal helped Junia to rally her stricken
+powers. It enabled her to say inwardly: "I
+must act through this girl herself. If I estrange
+her, I may lose my son." A flash of the lioness
+wrath with which she trembled might lead to an
+irretrievably false step. So she made her tone
+kindly, sympathetic, almost affectionate.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And Bob—does he know that—that you care
+for some one else?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He never asked me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But don't you think you should have told
+him?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's not so very easy when—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But there was some sort of understanding
+between you and Hubert, wasn't there?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie's only answer to this was to clasp her
+hands and say,</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Mrs. Collingham, how do people get
+divorces?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">This being more than Junia had hoped for, she
+tried to use the opening to the best of her ability.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"They—they do something that—that makes
+the other person want to be free." Trying to
+explain this further, she ran the risk of citing a
+case perhaps too close to the point. "For instance,
+if my husband wanted to be free, he'd do
+something that would make me willing to divorce
+him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And would you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You see, I'm taking the case of <em class="italics">his</em> wanting
+to be free. In that situation, <em class="italics">he's</em> the one who
+would do the thing. If I wanted to be free, I
+suppose—I suppose I should do it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So that if I wanted to be free, it would be
+up to me to do the thing rather than up to
+Bob."</p>
+<p class="pnext">A moral issue being here at stake, Junia was
+obliged, in the expressive American phrase, "to
+sidestep," though she supposed that the suggestion
+in the air was of no more than Jennie
+had done already. As an artist's model, it would
+be part of her professional occupation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not giving you advice, my dear; I'm
+only trying to answer your question. I'm so
+sorry for you that I'd do anything I could to
+help you unravel the tangle."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then you think there are ways of unraveling
+it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, certainly, if you were willing to—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"To what, Mrs. Collingham. There's almost
+nothing I wouldn't do—to get us all out—when
+you've been so kind to me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having a conscience of her own, Junia continued
+to "sidestep."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"My dear, I can't tell you what to do. I'm
+not sure that I know—very well. You see, it's
+your trouble, and you must get out of it. I'll
+help you. I <em class="italics">will</em> do that. In every way I can
+I'll make it easy for you. But I couldn't advise—or—or
+put anything in your way that might
+be considered as—as temptation."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But conscientious scruples were not in Jennie's
+line. When eager to reach a point, she went to
+it straight.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If Bob came back from South America and
+found I was living with Hubert, wouldn't he have
+to divorce me then?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia rose in the agitation of one unused to
+plain talk, and shocked by it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Jennie—your name <em class="italics">is</em> Jennie, isn't it?—I
+must go and speak to Mr. Collingham. You'll
+stay here—won't you?—till I come back. I may
+have something then rather important to say."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The girl sat still, looking up adoringly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Are you going to tell him?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; I think not. But there's something I
+want to ask him. I don't think that either you
+or I had better say anything to anyone. What do
+you think?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie shook her head.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't want to. I wish nobody would ever
+have to know."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I wish Hubert didn't have to know. Perhaps
+he won't; and yet—Let us think." She
+dropped into a chair nearer to Jennie than the
+one behind the tea table. "One thing I <em class="italics">must</em>
+ask you. What happened after you and Bob
+went through that ceremony yesterday afternoon?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Nothing happened. He motored back to his
+friends on Long Island and I took the ferry and
+went home. He said he'd see me on Saturday to
+say good-by."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Where?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I don't know. In Central Park, I expect.
+He's asked me to meet him there once or twice
+already."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I wouldn't go anywhere else with him
+if I were you—not into a house, or anything."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I won't if he doesn't make me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'd be firm about that. You see, if you did—well,
+I'm sure you understand—it might—it
+might make it harder for you to find your way
+out to where you'd be happy again. Are you
+sure you see what I mean?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've had that out with him. He'd said that
+nothing would happen till he got back from
+South America."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Relieved by this simple statement, Junia
+went on.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And if I were you, I wouldn't say a word to
+anybody—not even to your own father and
+mother. Your mother is living, isn't she? Don't
+even tell Bob that you've seen me. Don't tell
+anyone anything. Let it be your secret and
+mine. I want you to feel that I'm your friend
+and anxious to help you out of the muddle in
+which you've tied up your happiness. At first,
+when you told me, I thought more of Hubert;
+but now that we've talked I'm thinking of you,
+too, and how much I should like to see you—"
+A dim smile conveyed the rest of the thought
+while she rose again. "Now I'll go. Don't be
+alarmed if I'm a little long. Max will take care
+of you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Left to herself, Jennie's emotions came in
+waves of conflicting calculation. Had she only
+been in love with Bob, and not with Hubert, all
+this graciousness would have lapped her round
+in silk and softness. Nothing would have been
+denied her from a limousine to pearls. There
+would have been the villa for the family, with
+Gussie and Gladys turned into "buds."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But, as an offset to it, there would be the renunciation.
+Somehow, since cutting herself
+away from Hubert by the ceremony with Bob,
+he seemed nearer to her than before. Things
+she had supposed to be out of the question now
+presented themselves as more in the line of those
+that could be done. Within twenty-four hours
+she had lived much; she had ripened much.
+Now that she had had this talk with Mrs. Collingham,
+Hubert became more definitely an
+alternative. She could choose him and let this
+wealth and beauty go, or she could choose the
+wealth and beauty and let him....</p>
+<p class="pnext">But at the thought of turning her back on
+him something seemed to choke her. To choose
+what money could buy instead of this great love
+was treachery to all she knew as sublime. She
+clutched herself over the heart. It was as if she
+were going to die. Max was so startled that he
+sprang upon her with his mighty paws in the
+roughness of young consternation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">On the other hand, home conditions were well-nigh
+imperative. Love and Hubert were all very
+well, but they were part of the world of romance.
+The family, with their concrete needs, were
+actuality. Jennie thought of each one of them
+in turn, but of Teddy most of all. Among those
+of her own generation, he was her favorite. If
+she became openly Mrs. Robert Bradley Collingham,
+Junior, of Marillo Park, Teddy would go
+far. He might have a place like Mr. Brunt's.
+Only the other day her father had said of Mr.
+Brunt, "There's one who don't have any trouble
+in pickling down his ten a week." To see Teddy
+pickling down his ten a week, which would be
+more than five hundred dollars in a year, Jennie
+was ready to submit to almost anything—even
+Bob's hands on her person. She might get used
+to them, and, if she didn't, why, the daily sacrifice
+would be not without its reward.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She had reached something like this decision
+when Mrs. Collingham came back. Watching
+her from the minute when she rounded the corner
+of the flagged pavement, Jennie noted a rapid
+change in her expression. At first it was terrible—that
+of a queen in wrath. As she approached
+the bird cage, however, it cleared so quickly that
+by the time she reached the threshold it was
+almost tender.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's because she likes me," Jennie said to
+herself. She was accustomed to being liked,
+though especially by men. "I think it will cheer
+her up if I say right off that I've come to stay
+with her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">To make this announcement she had risen to
+her feet, with lips already parted; but Mrs.
+Collingham forestalled her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Sit down again, my dear. I want to talk to
+you some more. I must tell you about Mr. Collingham."
+She herself sank into the chair near
+Jennie which she had already occupied. She
+panted as after a difficult experience. "Oh dear!
+It's been so trying! You don't know him, do
+you? Well, he's a good man—kind and just in
+his way—but oh, so stern and relentless! If he
+knew what Bob had done in going through that
+mad thing with you, he'd turn the boy adrift."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having reseated herself already, Jennie now
+closed her lips. She had forgotten Mr. Collingham.
+Coming to stay was meeting a new
+obstacle.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's only fair to you to make you understand
+what kind of man my husband is. Of course,
+he's a strong man, otherwise he wouldn't have
+accomplished all he has. My son, my daughter,
+I myself—we're but puppets on his string. His
+word has to be law to us. And with Bob the way
+he is—wanting to marry every girl he meets—and
+forgetting her next day—his father has no
+patience. You don't know how hard it is for me,
+my dear, always to have to stand between them."</p>
+<p class="pnext">As she paused to dab her eyes, Jennie saw the
+limousine, the villa, with Teddy's chance of
+pickling down ten a week, fading out like a
+picture in the movies.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I wouldn't dare to tell him of the great wrong
+Bob has done to you. He'd disinherit him on the
+spot. If Bob were to insist on having this escapade—you
+wouldn't really call it a marriage,
+would you?—but if he were to insist on its being
+made public, why, there'd be an end of his relations
+with his father. My husband would neither
+give him a cent nor leave him a cent. I must say
+that Bob would deserve it; but, Jennie, I'm
+thinking of you. You'd have forsaken the man
+you loved, married a man you didn't care for,
+and got nothing in the world to show for it.
+That's where you'd have to suffer, and I can see
+well enough that you're suffering already."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was every reason now that Jennie's
+tears should begin to flow. Flow they did while
+her companion watched.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And yet, as you'll see, Mr. Collingham is not
+an unkind man. When I explained to him that
+we might be more indebted to you than I had
+thought at first, he said—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">With a look of anticipation, Jennie stopped
+crying suddenly, though the tears already shed
+were glistening on her cheek.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The point was now to find phraseology at
+once clear enough and delicate enough to suggest
+a course and yet not shock the sensibilities.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You see, my dear, it's this way. One has to
+keep one's ideals, hasn't one? That goes without
+saying. Once we let our ideals go"—she flung
+her hands outward—"well, what's the use of
+living? My own life hasn't been as happy as
+you might think; and if it hadn't been for my
+ideals—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie broke in because she couldn't help it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Mr. Wray is ideal for a man, don't you think,
+Mrs. Collingham?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the lead Junia needed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He's perfect, Jennie, in his way; and, oh,
+how I wish you were as free as forty-eight hours
+ago! You could be, of course, if—But I mustn't
+advise you, must I? I don't know how to. I'm
+just as lost as you are. Only, if you could find a
+way to cast the burden of the whole thing on
+Bob—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do you mean to make him get the divorce?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"In that case, we should want to feel that you
+had something to fall back upon. And so my
+husband thought that perhaps twenty-five thousand
+dollars—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie gave a great gasp. Her head began to
+swim. Not villas and limousines rose before
+her, but cloud-capped towers and gorgeous
+palaces.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Poor daddy," she thought, "wouldn't have
+to hunt for a job any more, and momma'd have
+nothing to do for the rest of her life but sit in a
+chair and rock."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Yet that was only part of the vision. The rest
+did not go so easily into words. She had only to
+hurry to the studio, fling herself into the arms
+she was longing to feel clasped round her—and
+become fabulously rich.</p>
+<p class="pnext">That would be if Bob took the opening she
+offered him. If he didn't—</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But suppose Bob won't?" she asked, in terror
+lest he should not.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've thought of that, too," came the prompt
+answer. "He will, of course. But suppose he
+didn't. Well, we're not hagglers, my dear.
+We're only simple people trying to do right, just
+as you're trying to do right yourself. If Bob is
+only in a position in which he <em class="italics">can</em> undo his
+wrong, whether he undoes it or not, you shall
+have your twenty-five thousand just the same."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Could I have it as early as—as next week?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If the conditions are fulfilled, certainly."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie was anxious to free herself from the
+charge of cupidity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The reason I say next week is that my father
+is worried about the interest on the mortgage
+and the taxes. He didn't pay the interest last
+time, and the taxes are two months overdue. If
+he can't find the money by next week—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You yourself can be in a position to take all
+the worry off his hands—once the conditions are
+fulfilled."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Little more was said after this. There was
+little more to say. The necessities of the case
+being once understood, Junia steered her guest
+back to the car which waited at the door.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But into the leave-taking Max threw an odd
+note of hostility. As if he resented some baseness
+toward his master, he pressed his flank
+against Jennie with such force as almost to
+knock her down, and when she sprang away
+from him into the car he growled after her.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-x">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id11">CHAPTER X</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">"So you can do it and get away with it."
+This was Teddy's reflection as he left the
+bank on that Thursday afternoon. He had
+spent an infernal day, but it was over, and over
+safely. Of the missing twenty dollars he had
+neither heard a word nor caught a sign of anxiety.
+Mr. Brunt had been methodical and taciturn as
+usual. Always keeping a gulf between Teddy
+and himself, it was neither more nor less a gulf
+to-day than it was on other days. As to whether
+he missed twenty dollars or whether he did not,
+Teddy could form no idea.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the middle of the morning there had been
+a terrifying incident.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"See that guy over there?" Lobley, one of his
+colleagues, had asked him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He saw the guy over there—a crafty, clean-shaven
+Celt—and said so.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's Flynn, the detective who copped
+Nicholson, the teller at the Wyndham National."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"O my God! I'm pinched!" Teddy exclaimed
+to himself. "If I had a gun or a dose of poison,
+he'd never get me alive."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Flynn only chatted with Jackman, one
+of the house detectives, laughed, cashed a check
+at a wicket, and left the bank.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy breathed again, wondering if he had
+given anything away to Lobley. Was it possible
+that Lobley could have heard of the twenty
+dollars and been set to try him out? No; he
+didn't believe so. Lobley had merely pointed
+out Flynn as a notable character, and gone about
+his business.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I shall never forget that mug," Teddy
+thought, as he summoned his <em class="italics">sang-froid</em> to go on
+with his work. "The mug of a guy without
+guts," he added, further to define the pitiless set
+of Flynn's features. "I sure would kill myself
+before I let him touch me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was no other alarm that day; there was
+only the incessant fear, the incessant watchfulness
+that made him shrink from every eye that
+glanced his way, and which, when office hours
+were over, sent him scuttling to the subway like
+a rabbit to its hole.</p>
+<p class="pnext">At supper, his father brought up again the
+subject of the taxes and the interest on the
+mortgage. The latter would be due at the end
+of the following week, and the former was long
+overdue. With the added interest on both, he
+owed two hundred and sixty-odd dollars, of which
+he had borrowed from old friends a hundred and
+fifteen. Between the sum due and that in hand,
+there was a gap which he didn't see how to fill.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We'll get it somehow, daddy," Jennie said,
+encouragingly. "Don't begin worrying."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; Ted'll rob the bank," Gussie laughed,
+flippantly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy was on his feet, shaking his fist across
+the table.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"See here, Miss Gus; that's just about—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gussie laughed up at him, still more flippantly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You haven't robbed it already, have you?
+Momma, do make him behave."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Children, don't squabble, please! Teddy
+darling, Gussie was only poking a little fun. Sit
+down and have some more hash. It's made with
+beets in it, just the way you like it. I was
+reading," she continued, to divert the minds of
+the company, "of that teller at the Wyndham
+National—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Nicholson," Josiah put in. "I used to know
+him when I was at the Hudson River Trust.
+Sharp-eyed little ferret face, he was. Twenty-three
+thousand, extending over a period of five
+years. Often had lunch with him at the same
+counter. Blueberry pie was a favorite of his."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Twenty-three thousand, extending over a
+period of five years!" Teddy repeated that to
+himself. He wondered that it hadn't struck him
+when he heard the fellows at the bank discussing
+the arrest. One of them had claimed "inside
+dope" as to how Nicholson had covered up his
+tracks, and explained the process. Teddy hadn't
+listened to that, because the magnitude of the
+theft had excluded its bearing on his own.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But there it was forcing itself on his attention,
+like Pansy's cold nose pressed at that minute
+against his hand. You could have five years'
+leeway, and never be suspected. He pumped his
+father for further details as to Nicholson's life,
+learning that he had owned his home at Leffingwell
+Manor, where he had been a member of the
+golf club and a church goer.</p>
+<p class="pnext">At his own fears Teddy smiled inwardly.
+Twenty dollars, which would certainly be paid
+back in the course of a few weeks! Already he had
+saved seventy cents toward the restoration, just by
+going without his lunch, with a few economies
+in car fares. If he could pawn his best suit of
+clothes, he would have the whole sum within a
+fortnight. The suit had been bought for twenty-six
+dollars, and would certainly bring in ten. It
+would be a matter of dodging his mother and
+getting it out of the closet in her room, where
+she kept it in order to regulate his use of it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As supper went on, it was little Gladys who
+brought up the question which some one older
+might have asked.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What would happen, daddy, if you couldn't
+pay the interest and the taxes?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"They could sell us out of house and home."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But this possibility being more than a week off,
+the statement brought no fears with it. Like
+all people who at the best of times are dependent
+on a weekly wage, the Folletts had the mental
+attitude best described as "from hand to mouth."
+That is, once the dinner was secure, there was no
+will to worry as to where the supper was to come
+from. It was fundamentally a question of outlook.
+People used to being provided for naturally
+looked ahead; but where your most extended
+view could take you no more than from one meal
+to another your powers of forecast grew limited.
+Doubtless the provision was merciful, for, in the
+case of the Folletts, even the parents felt the
+futility of dreading a calamity more than a week
+away.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Of all the six, Jennie was the only one with a
+power of making comparisons and drawing contrasts.
+She had had, that day, a glimpse of a
+world as different from her own as paradise from
+earth. It was no use saying that it was different
+only in degree; it was different also in kind. It
+was different in values, in textures, in amplitudes.
+It was another thing, not another aspect
+of the same thing. Junia Collingham might be a
+human being like herself; but in all that was of
+practical account, she was as widely separated
+from Jennie Follett as a New Yorker from a
+Central African.</p>
+<p class="pnext">That was as far as Jennie got. Her mind was
+not given to deduction or her spirit to asking
+questions. Not having a God in particular, she
+had nothing to act as a great touchstone, to praise
+or to blame. Some human beings had everything;
+others had next to nothing. The Folletts
+were among "the others." Jennie didn't know
+how or why. She didn't ask to know. Knowing
+would perhaps be worse than not knowing, since
+it might stir rebellion where there was now only
+lassitude and resignation. But there was the
+fact. The Collinghams could throw her twenty-five
+thousand dollars as she threw a titbit to
+Pansy, while her father might be sold out of house
+and home for lack of a hundred and fifty.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie mused, but she did no more. Life was
+too big a mystery to grapple with. If she tried
+it, it made her unhappy. It made her unhappy
+that Max should have been friendly at first, and
+then growled at her so resentfully. She wondered
+if dogs had a scent for moral and emotional
+atmospheres. She couldn't express this last in
+words, but she did it very well by thought. She
+often had thoughts for which she had no words,
+so that her inner life was broader than that
+which she showed outside. It was one of the
+things she had noticed about Mrs. Collingham—that
+she had words for everything. It was like
+her possession of the house, the gardens, the
+beautiful things. They gave her spaciousness.
+Her spirit moved with a larger swing. She could
+think, feel, express herself strongly, vividly,
+commandingly, while they, the Folletts, had to
+creep and sneak timidly along the back lanes of
+life.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's why I'm doing it," she reasoned with
+herself, "because I'm in the back lanes of life.
+I can creep and sneak along, and I can't do anything
+else. It was all very well for him to jostle
+me with his lean, iron flank and to growl; but
+he didn't know what twenty-five thousand would
+mean to me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Along the line of these musings, Teddy said,
+suddenly:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Saw young Coll to-day. Came up and spoke
+to me. Not half a bad sort when you get to
+know him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie felt a little faint, but no one noticed it,
+because Gussie threw back the ball.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Tell him to come up and speak to me. Any
+afternoon at half past five, when I leave Corinne's."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Say, Gus," Gladys giggled; "wouldn't you
+like a guy with all that wad waitin' for you every
+day when Corinne shuts down the lid? My!
+The ice-cream sodas he could blow you to!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Lizzie was pained. It seemed to her that the
+process of Americanization which her children
+were undergoing lay chiefly in the degradation
+of their speech.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Gladys darling, can't you find proper words
+to—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, momma dear," Gladys complained,
+"do put a can on all that. If you're a cash girl,
+you've got to talk English, or the other girls'll
+whizzy you round the lot."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Young Coll is going to South America,"
+Teddy informed the party. "Sails with Huntley
+on Monday. Gosh! Wouldn't I like to be going,
+too! Say, dad, why do some fellows come into
+the world with the way all smoothed for them
+and their bread buttered in advance?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because," Gussie declared, loftily, "they're
+clever and can get ahead, like Fred Inglis. I'll
+bet that if <em class="italics">his</em> father wanted his taxes and the
+interest on a mortgage, he wouldn't have to
+raise the wind among his old friends. Fred'd be
+Johnny-on-the-spot with the greenbacks."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy could only gulp, hang his head over his
+plate, and choke himself with hash, as he muttered
+to his soul; "God! I'll shoot that Fred
+Inglis if I ever get a gun."</p>
+<p class="pnext">And just as if she knew that Teddy needed
+comforting, Pansy sprang upon his knees, pushing
+her face up along his breast till she could lick his
+chin.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">Twenty-four hours later Max was vexing his
+soul with the difficulty of transcending planes.
+There was so much of which he could have
+warned his master, now that he had got him
+back from Long Island; but there was neither
+speech nor language, neither symbol nor sign, to
+make human beings understand anything but
+the most primitive needs and concepts. Obedience!
+Disobedience! Hunger! Thirst! Sorrow!
+Joy! These sentiments could be put over
+from the dog plane to the human plane, but
+without shadings, subtleties, or any of the marvels
+of untuitive knowledge by which dogs could
+enlighten men if men had open faculties. To
+another dog, he could have flashed his information
+in an instant; whereas human beings could
+only seize ideas when they were beaten into
+them with verbal clubs.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith and Bob voted Max a nuisance because,
+in his agony of impotence, he pranced restlessly
+about the bedroom, lashing his tail in one tempo
+and pointing his ears in another. Edith had
+come down from the Berkshires on hearing by
+wire that Bob was to leave next Monday for
+South America. She was seated now on the bed,
+her back against the footboard.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What I don't quite see," she was saying, "is
+how you can be so sure."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob looked at her as he stood taking the studs
+from the soft-bosomed evening shirt in his hand
+to transfer them to the clean one lying on the
+bed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"How can you be so sure about Ayling?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, that's a little different. Ernest speaks
+our language; he has our ways. Dad and
+mother make a fuss because he hasn't a lot of
+money; but that means no more than if he didn't
+wear a certain kind of hat. He's our sort, just
+the same."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And I'm her sort. I can't explain it to you,
+Edie, but she needs me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"How do you know she needs you? Has she
+ever admitted it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I haven't asked her to admit it. I can see."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, that's all very fine, but—did it ever
+strike you, when Hubert's been talking about
+her, that—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob made an inarticulate sound of scorn as he
+inserted the cuff links into a cuff.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Hubert's a top-hole chap, all right; but
+my Lord!—Jennie wouldn't look across the street
+at him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But he might look across the street at Jennie;
+and with you so far away—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He smiled, with something like a wink.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't you fret about that. She's the kind of
+little woman to be true. You can't mistake 'em."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We've known a good many men who have
+mistaken them."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You haven't known my kind to make that
+sort of tumble. Love can be blind; but instinct
+can't be. Edie, I believe so much in that girl
+that, if she was to play me false—But there—good
+Lord!—she couldn't; so why talk about it
+any more? See here," he added. "If you're
+going to change your dress, you'll have to
+scuttle—and I must get into my waiter's togs."</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">Meanwhile Dauphin's struggles were of another
+order. It was the hour of the day which
+he was accustomed to spend with Collingham,
+and to spend it undisturbed. In this lovely
+spring weather they strolled about the gardens,
+peeped into the hotbeds, dropped in aimlessly
+at the stable or the garage, exchanged odds and
+ends of observation with the men working around
+the place. After this, they returned to the
+house, where, upstairs, in a comfortably, masculine
+bedroom, the man made changes in his
+outer fur, while the setter, less concerned about
+trifles, stretched himself out on the floor and
+blinked. It was a restful time, suited to a mind
+which after the stormier years was growing more
+and more content with material prosperity, and
+to a heart that was always content with its master's
+contentment.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But, of late, poor Dauphin had been painfully buffeted by waves of agitation. They
+emanated from his master, like circlets round a
+stone thrown into a pool. When his master's
+wife came into the scene the conflict of forces
+was terrible. She was not straight with her lord.
+She was using him, hoodwinking him. Dauphin
+would have sprung at her throat had it not been
+for the knowledge that, were he to do so, he
+would be beaten and kicked by the object of his
+defense. No; you couldn't deal with human
+beings sensibly. The wise thing to do was to
+stretch on the floor and pretend to snooze while
+they fought their own fight.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They didn't precisely fight their own fight
+just now. Collingham merely accepted terms.
+He was picking up his evening jacket from the
+bed on which his valet had laid it out. Junia,
+dressed exactly to the mean between too little
+and too much suited for a family dinner, had
+crossed the threshold of his room, where she stood
+adjusting a fall of lace.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"As I told you yesterday after she went away,
+she's just what you'd expect from such a girl,
+certainly no better and possibly a little worse.
+She's a mousey little thing, with a veneer of
+modesty; but 'mercenary' isn't the word. It's
+just a question of money, Bradley; and if you'll
+leave it to me to deal with—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Leave it to you to deal with—to the tune of
+twenty-five thousand dollars," he said, morosely,
+pulling his coat into shape round his shoulders
+as he looked into the long glass.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, that's only half what it might have
+been. I thought at one time that we might have
+to make it fifty thousand—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was not sure, but he thought she finished
+with the word "again." If so it was uttered too
+softly for him to be obliged to take note of it,
+so that he merely picked up a hairbrush and put
+another touch to his hair.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was now at work on the great string of
+pearls which, to keep them alive, she wore even
+in domestic privacy. Her object was to get the
+famous Roehampton pearl, from the late Lady
+Roehampton's collection, which had been the
+seal of her reconciliation with Bradley fifteen
+years earlier—to get this jewel right in the center
+of her person, to make the string symmetric.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"My point in bringing it up now," she said,
+speaking into her chin as her eyes inspected the
+long oval of the necklet, "is to remind you that
+you don't know anything. You haven't seen
+Bob for nearly a week, and after Monday you
+won't see him for two or three months at least.
+Don't let him suspect that you've anything on
+your mind. As a matter of fact, you haven't,
+except what I tell you—and I may not tell you
+everything."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And that may be what I complain of."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You can't complain of it when I give you the
+results—now can you? You don't complain of
+Mr. Bickley, or ask him for all the reasons he has
+for saying this or that. You leave him a free
+hand, and are ruled by him—you've often said
+it—even when your own preference would be to
+do something else, as it was in the case of this
+man Follett. Now I only claim to be the Mr.
+Bickley of the family."</p>
+<p class="pnext">That he had rights as father Collingham was
+aware, though he was shy of putting them forward.
+Having left them so much in abeyance,
+it would have been as ridiculous to emphasize
+them now as to dispute Bickley as efficiency
+expert at the bank. Moreover, the uneasiness
+which seizes on a man when his chickens come
+home to roost inclined him still further to passivity.
+If Bob was "knocking about town," as
+he seemed to be, he might know about his father
+what Junia did not—or presumably did not—that
+the woman who received the fifty thousand
+dollars had had her successors, and that even
+now the line was not extinct. While he knew of
+amusing incidents of fathers and sons meeting
+on this ground, any such <em class="italics">contretemps</em> in his own
+case would have shocked him profoundly. Junia
+might go beyond her powers in prescribing his
+course, and yet, for a multitude of reasons too
+subtle for him to phrase, it seemed wise to
+follow what Junia prescribed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So the family dined and spent the evening
+together as tourists walk across the Solfatara
+crater. The ground was hot beneath their
+tread, and here and there a whiff of sulphuric
+vapor poured through a fissure in the crust;
+but only Max and Dauphin sensed the volcanic
+fire.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Later in the evening, Junia knelt at her <em class="italics">prie-dieu</em>
+with the armorial books of devotion.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And, O heavenly Father," she added, to her
+usual prayer, "have mercy upon that poor
+erring girl and help her to repent. Grant that
+my son may extricate himself from the toils in
+which he is entangled. Enable my daughter to
+see that her duty lies in the station of life to
+which thou hast been pleased to call her. Give
+my husband the wisdom to seek advice and to
+follow it. Lead me with thy counsel so that I
+may do what is best for all my dear ones, through
+Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Amen."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having thus poured out her heart, she rose
+feeling stronger and more comforted.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xi">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id12">CHAPTER XI</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">It should be said for Jennie Follett that, in the
+matter of her course toward Bob Collingham,
+she had few of those convictions of sin and
+righteousness which restrain a proportion of
+mankind. As with the other members of her
+family, her conduct followed certain lines "because
+she couldn't help it." That is as far as
+her analysis would have carried her, though
+analysis didn't give her much concern. Having
+so much to do to get food and clothes, the higher
+laws were outside her sphere of interest. Her
+chief law was Necessity, and it covered so much
+ground that there was little place for any other law.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It may be well to state here that the Folletts
+belonged to that vast American contingent who
+have practically no religion. They had had a
+religion in Canada, where they had attended the
+church of a local god who seemed to hold no
+sway over the United States. They never found
+that church in the suburbs of New York, or, if
+they found it nominally, it didn't, in their
+opinion, "seem the same." There were no local
+suasions and compulsions to bring them to its
+doors, and so, after a few spasmodic efforts to
+re-establish the connection, they gave up the
+attempt.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Perhaps this failure was due to the fact that,
+in the depths of her strong, proud heart, Lizzie
+didn't believe in God. Josiah did—or, at least,
+he had believed in him up to the time of being
+thrown upon the scrap heap. But Lizzie's faith
+in God had died with the dying of her faith in
+man. She had never said so, because she kept her
+deeper thoughts to herself; but along these lines
+her influence on her children had been negative.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So Jennie had missed those counsels to do
+right which sometimes form a part of domestic
+education. With so little latitude for doing anything,
+there was not—apart from the grosser
+vices—much latitude in the Follett family even
+for doing wrong. They did what they "couldn't
+help" doing, and there was an end of it. A
+kind of inborn rectitude kept them from offenses
+of which the public would have taken note, but
+behind it there was little in the way of principle.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie went to her farewell meeting with Bob
+untroubled by qualms of conscience. Even if
+scruples had worried her, they would have been
+allayed by the knowledge, imparted by Bob's own
+mother, that he had done her a great injury.
+He made the same kind of love to every girl he
+had known for an hour, and forgot her the next
+day. "One of these days," the mother had said,
+"some girl would catch him, and then he would
+be sorry." A girl hadn't caught him in this case,
+but he had caught a girl, and didn't know what to
+do with her. Having compelled her to go through
+a form of marriage—it was no more than a form—he was sailing off to the ends of the world,
+leaving her not so much as the protection of his
+name. She owed him nothing; and only the
+goodness of his angel mother was making up for
+what he owed to her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And, on his side, Bob was so carried away by
+his romance as to have no conception of Jennie's
+attitude toward him. Seeing himself as a knight
+riding to the relief of a damsel in distress, it did
+not occur to him that the damsel could have a
+preference as to her deliverer. It was a matter
+of course that, from the window of the tower in
+which she was a prisoner, she would drop into his
+arms.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In other words, Bob had his own view of the
+advantages of being a Collingham. They were
+great advantages, since they gave him the opportunity
+of being generous. He was in love
+with Jennie largely because she was an exquisite
+object on which to spend himself. She was a
+gem, not in the rough, and yet in need of polishing,
+and though his own refinement was not so
+very great, he could throw refinement in her way.</p>
+<p class="pnext">That is to say, love for Bob was very much
+a matter of giving himself out. Girls who could
+have brought him everything—and they were
+not scarce at Marillo Park—didn't interest him.
+They left no place for the selflessness which was
+the basis of his character. He couldn't precisely
+be called kind, since kindness implies some deliberation
+of the will. As the impulse of a fountain
+is to pour itself out, so Bob's impulse was
+to give, while Jennie was a crystal chalice wide
+open to receive.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I want you to have everything in the world,
+Jennie darling," he declared, bending above her
+as lovingly as a bench in the park would permit.
+"I can't give it to you right off the bat, worse
+luck, but sooner or later I'll be able to dope you
+out every little wish. Good Lord! How I'll
+enjoy it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What do you mean by sooner or later?"
+Jennie asked, with eyes downcast.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"When I get the family broken to the bit.
+I can't tell you in dates or time. They'll be hard
+in the mouth at first; and mother pulls like the
+devil."</p>
+<p class="pnext">At this false witness, Jennie was revolted.
+No one knew better than herself the bigness of
+that maternal heart which, as early as next week,
+would give liberal proof of its sincerity, when
+Bob's promises would still be in the air.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob had the afternoon at his disposal. The
+park offered itself as a delicious trysting place,
+because it was the month of May. In a nook
+where lilac and syringa overshadowed them and
+water glinted between lawns and glades, they
+sat discreetly side by side, and she permitted him
+to hold her hand.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He went on to sketch his plans for the immediate
+future. His most trying lack was that of
+ready cash. The parental system had always
+been generous as to things, but penurious in
+money. In the matter of things, he would be as
+extravagant as he reasonably liked, so long as
+the bills were sent to dad. Before he went to
+work at the bank, his allowance in money
+wouldn't have kept him in cigarettes. Even now,
+he was only on the weekly pay roll for thirty-eight
+dollars and sixty-six cents per, handed him
+in a pay envelope. Food, lodging, clothes,
+saddle horses, motor cars—all these were thrown
+in extra; but in actual coin he didn't handle
+more than his two thousand dollars a year,
+like any other clerk.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie could see, therefore, that, to begin with,
+their position would be difficult, though only to
+begin with. He could send her a little money
+while he was away, but it wouldn't be very
+much.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't want you to send me any," she said,
+hastily.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You forget that I'm your husband, dear.
+If I didn't, you could bring an action for divorce
+on the ground of nonsupport."</p>
+<p class="pnext">This idea being new to Jennie, she had it
+explained to her, rejecting it as a resource because
+it was unromantic.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And so, to be on the safe side against that,"
+he laughed, "I've got this for you now."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Slipping an envelope from his pocket, he forced
+it into the hand he was holding.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's only a hundred dollars—" he was beginning
+to explain.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She snatched her hand away as if she had been
+stung.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Bob, I can't!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">That situation amused him. It was one more
+proof of the naïve honesty of the little girl. He
+knew how hard up she was, how hard up all the
+family must be, and yet money didn't tempt her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You're a funny little kid," he laughed,
+drawing her as near to him as the park laws
+would permit. "You'd think I didn't have a
+right to take care of you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Jennie was feeling that if she took this
+money she would be bound to him by principles
+more acute than the promises she had made
+before the parson.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, Bob, I can't. Please don't make me—<em class="italics">please</em>!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But in the end he forced it on her, and she
+stowed it away in her little bag. By that time,
+too, she had reviewed the family situation. With
+a hundred dollars in her possession they could
+less easily be sold out of house and home at the
+end of the following week. That calamity, at
+least, could be dodged, whatever other misfortune
+might overtake herself. She might decide
+that to be sold out of house and home would be
+easier than to bind herself further to Bob by
+using his money; but, still, she would have the
+choice. As to the twenty-five thousand, there
+was always the possibility that it might not come
+in time. She had not yet seen Hubert; she
+couldn't see him till Bob had sailed. When she
+did, the other woman might be in her place and
+her heart would have to break in spite of everything. Better it should break with a hundred
+dollars in her pocket than that she should be
+helpless to stay the family disaster.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But when Bob sailed on the Monday she was
+free to make the great test. Notwithstanding
+his definite farewells on the Saturday, he had
+tried to see her again on the Sunday, but the
+necessity for secrecy made it possible for her to
+put him off. For one thing, she couldn't go
+through a second time such a good-by as that of
+Saturday. Bob had been too much overcome.
+As unexpectedly to himself as to her, he had
+broken down. Braving all publicity, he had suddenly
+seized her hand, pressed it to his lips, and
+as he bent over it she could feel his tears against
+her fingers. He hadn't exactly cried; he had
+only breathed hard, with two great sobs.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"My God! how I love you, Jennie!" she had
+heard him muttering. "How I love you! How I
+love you! How can I do without you all the time
+till I come back?" When he raised his head he
+laughed sheepishly, though the tears were still
+on his cheeks. "Forget it, little girl," he begged,
+unsteadily, wiping his cheeks and blowing his
+nose. "I just worship you, and that's all there
+is about it. It breaks me all up to go away and
+leave you; but the time will pass, and, if I can
+help it, I shall never go away from you again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Defying the park laws once more, he had
+kissed her and kissed her. She had let him do
+it because she was so unnerved. Besides, she
+was sorry for him, and would have been sorrier
+still if she hadn't known that by to-morrow he
+would have forgotten her. That was always the
+way with fellows who took things so hard. The
+true love was too stern and strong to show
+emotion.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Nevertheless, she had had an unhappy Sunday
+thinking of those two sobs. It was not until
+after ten o'clock on Monday morning that she
+was able to turn again to the compulsion of the
+man she loved. At ten, Bob sailed, and that
+episode in Jennie's life was probably behind her.
+By the time he came back, he would be in love
+with a girl of his own class and eager to seize
+the freedom she, Jennie, would be in a position
+to deliver him. At last the way was clear. She
+had only to go to her lover and tell him she was
+there.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She went that afternoon. Her plan was
+simple. She would say that if he had not yet
+found a model for the girl in the Byzantine
+chair, she was ready to do the work. The rest
+would come as a matter of course.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now that she was face to face with the task,
+her heart was oddly apathetic. "I might be out
+to buy postage stamps," she said to herself,
+while crossing the ferry.</p>
+<p class="pnext">None the less, she wished she didn't have to
+look at this water down which Bob had sailed
+only four or five hours previously. Off toward
+the south, in the haze of the warm May afternoon,
+there was a giant steamer lying as if becalmed.
+It might be his. There was one still
+farther out to sea. That, too, might be his. Far
+down on the horizon, just passing out of sight,
+there was a little black spot with a pennon of
+black smoke. That could very easily be his.
+She watched it. It might be carrying him away
+to where he would forget her. Perhaps he had
+forgotten her already. His mother had said—and
+his mother must know him—that he made
+love to girls one day and forgot them on the
+next, and it was already two days since Saturday.
+Very well! Let him forget! Only, it didn't seem
+as if those kisses and those tears were quite in
+keeping with a heart which treated love so easily.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was glad when the ferryboat bumped
+softly against its pier and she could get away
+from the great stream of which the very smells
+and sounds would now begin to make her think
+of him. She wished there was another means of
+returning home. She wished he had gone by
+train. She wished....</p>
+<p class="pnext">At the door of the studio building she was
+seized with a great terror. She began to understand
+what it was she had come to do. She had
+come to give herself up. She was to say, in fact,
+"Here I am—take me." And he would take
+her—if he hadn't already taken some one else.
+The betrayal of a husband who was hardly a
+husband was no longer in her mind. She was
+appalled at this yielding of herself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Yet she did everything as she had been accustomed
+to do it and entered the studio by the
+door she generally used.</p>
+<p class="pnext">At first she thought there was no one there.
+Certainly the other woman was not there, and
+that was so far a relief. Slowly, cautiously, she
+made her way between the brocades, old furniture,
+and pedestals. Then she saw Hubert and
+Hubert saw her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She stood very much as a deer stands when
+surprised in the bracken—head erect, eyes curious.
+Till he gave her a sign she made no movement
+to go farther. And for a minute he gave
+her no sign. He only remained seated and looked.
+He looked, with a sketch and pencil in his hand.
+He had been occupied in touching something up.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But she couldn't mistake it. It was the girl
+in the Byzantine chair. Her heart, which seemed
+to swell to thrice its size, thumped painfully.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Then, at last, a smile broke over his face,
+lifting his mustache and mounting to his violet
+eyes. He didn't speak; he didn't move. He
+only looked, hushed, enraptured, as the hunter
+at the startled deer.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id13">CHAPTER XII</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">Feeling that an explanation of her presence
+in the studio should come from herself,
+Jennie faltered:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I—I only looked in to say that if you hadn't
+found a model for—for the picture you wanted
+to paint, I might—I might be able to pose."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Though she hadn't advanced and he hadn't
+moved, the extraordinary light in his eyes made
+her heart thump more wildly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You'd do it"—he held up the sketch—"dressed
+like that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She remembered his own phrase, "If I'm to
+be that kind of a model I must <em class="italics">be</em> that kind of
+a model—and do what's expected."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The process of starving out being so far successful,
+Wray felt it well to push it a little more.
+He rose with an air of distress.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I wish you could have told me this last week,
+Jennie. As it is—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You've got some one else?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not definitely. I've tried out three—two of
+them no good, though the third might—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Might do as well as me?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Perhaps better in some ways. I mean," he
+added hastily, as she seemed about to go, "that
+she's a real professional model, and for this kind
+of job, of course, a professional would be—let us
+say, more at her ease."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So many good things had, during the past few
+days, swum into Jennie's vision, only to swim
+out again, that she had grown almost used to
+this fading of her hopes. Nevertheless, the bliss
+of loving Hubert and getting twenty-five thousand
+dollars for it had seemed tolerably sure.
+To lose it now would be hard; but harder still,
+for the moment, at least, was this tone of detachment,
+of indifference. That another woman
+should, in some ways, do better than herself
+was worse than the last indignity. Her lip
+trembled. She was about to turn away with that
+collapse of the figure which marks the woman
+who has lost all hope.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He hurried up to her, laying his hand on her
+arm in a way that made a thrill run through her
+frame.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Wait a minute, Jennie! I'd like to talk it
+over. If you want me to try you out—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What does that mean—try me out?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, simply that you'd take the pose, so that
+I could see how nearly you'd come up to what I
+want."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And then if I didn't—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He smiled. "Oh, but you will—at least I
+think so."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"When would you do it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, right now. As soon as you like. I've
+got the time."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She looked at him inquiringly, but there was
+nothing in his eyes to answer the question she
+was asking.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, very well," she said, dully, and once
+more turned toward the little door.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She had taken a step or two when he said,
+suddenly,</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Jennie, what made you come back?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She paused, turned again, and pulled herself
+together. It was necessary to take the old
+bantering tone. After all, she could fence in her
+way as well as anybody else.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I don't know," she threw off carelessly.
+"I thought I might as well."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Might as well what?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, go in for the whole thing. As you
+say yourself, if you're to be that kind of a
+model—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And was that all?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"'All?' It was a good deal, I should say."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It was a good deal, yes—but I asked if it
+was all."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, ask away, my boy. I don't have to
+answer you or go to jail, now do I?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Extraordinary the relief of falling back on
+studio badinage! It took her off the Collingham
+stilts, away from the high-wrought Collingham
+emotions. She began to see what the trouble
+was with Bob. His touch wasn't light enough.
+He was too purposeful. He seemed to think you
+must mean something all the time. Mrs. Collingham,
+too, seemed to think so. It was not in
+Bob's language so much as in his cast of mind;
+but it was in his mother's cast of mind, and in
+her language, too.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie thought of this as she stood before the
+pier-glass in the little dressing-room, first taking
+off her jacket, and then unpinning her hat. She
+would have to do her hair on the top of her head
+like the girl in Hubert's sketch. "And that's all
+the clothes I shall need to put on," she tried to
+say flippantly. She tried to say it flippantly,
+because that, too, would be along the line that
+people took who weren't Collinghams.</p>
+<p class="pnext">People who weren't Collinghams! That meant
+all the people in Indiana Avenue, all the people
+in Pemberton Heights, the vast majority of the
+people in the United States, not to speak of any
+other country. Jennie had a good many acquaintances,
+and the family, taken as a whole,
+had more; but she couldn't think of anyone in
+their class who took life as more than a skimming
+on the surface. Outside the bounden
+duties which they couldn't avoid they chiefly
+liked being silly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She thought of that, too, loosening her hair
+and letting it fall in amber wavelets over her
+shoulders and down her back. Mrs. Collingham
+had said that it was lovely hair, but she hadn't
+really seen it. There was so much of it that,
+when she piled it up like the girl in the sketch,
+it almost overweighted her delicate little face.</p>
+<p class="pnext">No; whatever you could say about people
+like the Collinghams, you couldn't say they
+were silly. They had motives, opinions, points
+of view. They had minds, and they used them.
+They might not use them well, but to use them
+at all was better than to let them grow atrophied.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie, as has been said, had no words to express
+these thoughts, but, like Pansy, she could
+do without a vocabulary. She felt; she vibrated.
+She, too, had a mind, though she was
+afraid of putting it to work. Lingering over the
+piling of her hair, she wondered if the use or
+nonuse of the mind marked the real line between
+people like the Collinghams and people like the
+Folletts. Was that why the country was divided
+into highbrows and lowbrows—those who
+made the best of what they had, and those who
+disqualified themselves for all the stronger purposes?
+Since her peep at Marillo Park, she saw
+that something admitted one to such a haven,
+and something kept one out. There was money,
+of course, and position; but back of both position
+and money wasn't it the case that there was
+mind?</p>
+<p class="pnext">She threw off her blouse and lingered again
+to examine her arms and bust. She lingered on
+purpose, putting off the extraordinary thing she
+had to do to the latest possible minute.</p>
+<p class="pnext">At Collingham Lodge, she had caught glimpses
+of books, papers, and magazines. Even in the
+bird cage they were lying on the table and chairs.
+The Folletts hardly ever read a book. The only
+work of the kind she could remember the family
+ever to have bought was one called <em class="italics">Ancient
+Rome Restored</em>, which her mother had subscribed for in monthly parts when an agent
+brought a sample to the house. It was at a
+time when Lizzie was afraid that her children—they
+were children still—would grow up without
+cultivation. <em class="italics">Ancient Rome Restored</em>, being
+abundantly illustrated, called out in the young
+Folletts the almost extinct Scarborough tradition.
+Having no other important picture book
+to look at, they pored over the glories of the
+Forum, of Hadrian's Villa, of the Baths of
+Caracalla, till an odd, incipient love of classic
+beauty began to stir in them. But there their
+cultivation ended. In the papers they studied
+only the murders, burglaries, and comic cuts.
+In the way of general entertainment, the movies
+formed their sole relaxation, but unless the play
+was silly they complained. Anything that asked
+for thought they kicked against, and Pemberton
+Heights kicked with them. Was that why there
+was a Pemberton Heights and a Marillo Park?
+Did the power of thought control the difference
+between them? Was it that where there was
+little or no power of thought, there was little or
+nothing of anything else?</p>
+<p class="pnext">She unhooked her skirt and let it slip down to
+a circular heap about her feet. She wondered
+if the girl who would, in some ways, do better
+than herself were as lithely built as she. Mrs.
+Collingham had likened her to—oh, what was
+it? It was a spire. It sounded like a chapel.
+She had tossed it off as something that everybody
+knew about. So she had tossed off other
+names, taking it for granted that Jennie would
+have them at her fingers' ends.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The more she pondered the more sure of it
+she became—that she and her kind were poor
+and helpless chiefly because they wouldn't take
+the trouble to be otherwise. Not to stray from
+the childish, the sentimental, and the obvious
+gave them the relief she found in returning to the
+lingo she had always used with Wray.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She had used it with Bob, too—only, with
+Bob she had used it differently. Perhaps it was
+he who had used it differently. Between her and
+Wray, it had never been more than the medium
+of chaff, except on those occasions when it had
+become the vehicle of a half-acknowledged passion.
+Bob had tried to say something with it,
+even when slangy or colloquial. He had treated
+her as if she was worth talking to. He had
+tried to make her feel that she could talk on
+better themes than any they ever broached.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Poor Bob—sailing away to the south, thinking
+that where he left her there he would find her!
+Little he knew! If he could only see her now!
+If he could only dream of what she would be
+doing in ten minutes' time! If he only....</p>
+<p class="pnext">Something made her shudder. She felt cold.
+Perhaps the wind had changed outside, as it
+often did in May. She stooped, picked up her
+skirt, and mechanically hooked it round her.
+Still feeling chilled, she crossed her arms and
+hugged herself. A minute or two later she had
+put on her blouse and her jacket. She meant
+to take them off again as soon as she stopped
+shivering. Already Hubert would be cursing her
+delay.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She thought of the light in his eyes when she
+told him that, after all, she had come to pose.
+The memory of it made her heart jump again,
+with a great, single throb. It was the cave man's
+light. She never saw it in Bob's, and never would.
+Bob's eyes were twinkling and kind. She didn't
+suppose she would ever see such kind eyes in anyone
+else. If kindness were what she wanted....</p>
+<p class="pnext">Beginning to feel warmer, she noticed how
+grotesque her hair was with her spring sport
+suit. She had stuck through it a great skewer,
+with a handle of artificial jade, which she had
+used with some other costume. But the high
+crown of hair was so little in keeping with the
+rest of her that she pulled out the skewer and
+the other pins, again letting the glinting cataract
+tumble down.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Why had Bob never asked her if she loved him?
+Hubert had done it a hundred, perhaps a thousand
+times. Bob had seemed to think that his
+loving her covered all possible conditions. What
+he had to give her was always the theme of his
+enthusiasm, as if she were a beggar who could
+give nothing in return. With Hubert, it was
+what he was to get from her. She was the richly
+dowered one who could offer or withhold. He
+would take all—and give nothing.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Well, let him! It was what she wanted—to
+be drained dry. If she was to give herself up,
+she would give herself up. When Hubert had
+done with her, he would chuck her on the scrap
+heap like her father. That was the way she
+loved him. That was the way to be loved.
+Cave men didn't watch lest you should get damp
+feet, or have their lives insured for you. Their
+love was passion, a fire that burned you up and
+left you a white bit of ash.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And yet to be burned up and left a white bit of
+ash was something for which she was not yet
+prepared. She didn't say this to herself. All of
+a sudden she was terrified. Whatever instinct
+governed her went into the nimbleness of her
+fingers as she began flattening her hair so as to
+put on her hat. She didn't know why she was
+doing this. She didn't even know that she
+wanted to get away. It was just a wild impulse
+to be back as the everyday Jennie Follett. The
+girl in the Byzantine chair was out of the question—for
+to-day. To-morrow, perhaps!—probably—quite
+surely! But for to-day she must still
+belong for a few more hours to herself. Hubert
+might come thumping any minute on the door,
+and if he found her dressed for the street....</p>
+<p class="pnext">And just then he did come thumping on the
+door.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Jennie, for God's sake, what's the matter?
+Are you dead?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She gasped. It would have been a relief if
+she could have fainted. All she could do was to
+thrust the last pin into her hat and go to the
+door and open it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Hubert stood aghast.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, by all the holy cats—!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not well, Mr. Wray," she pleaded, with
+sudden inspiration.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, go on, Jennie! You were well enough
+twenty minutes ago."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; but since then I've been feeling chilled."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He strode into the dressing-room, which he
+was not supposed to do.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Chilled—hell! Why, this hole's as hot as
+blazes."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It isn't that. I think it's a germ-cold I'm
+taking."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"See here, Jennie," he said, sternly. "You're
+going to funk it. All right! It doesn't make
+much difference to me. The other girl—it's
+Emma Brasshead—you know!—she was the
+middle one in Sims's three nudes—perfectly
+stunning hips—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'll be here to-morrow—right on the dot."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He wheeled away as far as the space of the
+dressing-room would permit.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, well, Jennie, I don't know that it would
+be of much use, after all. Emma's the type, you
+see. You'd be too—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You can't tell that till—till you've tried me
+out."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I can try you out right through your clothes.
+What's a man a painter for?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If you can do that, why did you want me
+to—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He turned sharply.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Jennie, you're not straight with me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but I am! I'm as straight with you as—as
+you are with me. But I can't help being
+sick."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You can't help being Jennie," he muttered,
+brokenly, "the girl I worship and who worships
+me. Jennie! Jennie! Jennie!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, don't, Hubert; don't!" she begged.
+"To-morrow! I'll come to-morrow, and then—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But he smothered these protests.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You wildcat! You adorable tigress!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, Hubert—but to-morrow—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, no!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">His kisses, his brutalities, were agony to her,
+and yet they were bliss. She didn't know why
+she fought them off, or what instinct led her to
+defend herself, or how she found herself out on
+the stairs.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She went down slowly. She was not angry;
+she was only excited and a little amused. Sex
+fury was less romantic than she had supposed;
+but as an exhibition of the human being at his
+most animal, it was "some curtain raiser." If
+she had to go through it again....</p>
+<p class="pnext">But as she jogged toward the ferry in the
+street car, this mood passed off. She grew sick
+with a sense of failure. Love and twenty-five
+thousand dollars were at stake, and she had
+funked the game. She was not a sport; she
+wondered if she were a woman. If she couldn't
+play up better than this, she would have Bob
+back on her hands again and be shamed forever
+before Mrs. Collingham, who had been so good
+to her. Moreover, if she continued to play fast
+and loose with Wray he would certainly return
+to Miss Brasshead.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She dreaded reaching the ferry and having to
+go on the boat. The river was now haunted by
+Bob, like the sea by a phantom ship. While
+crossing, she sat with her eyes closed so as to
+shut out this memory by not looking at the
+water.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Arrived on the New Jersey side, she was so
+much earlier than she usually returned, and so
+dispirited, that she decided to walk home,
+threading the way through sordid streets till she
+climbed the more cleanly ascent to the Heights.
+The Heights has a common as well as a square,
+and Jennie's way took her through the great
+shady grassplot, where men were lounging on
+benches, nurses wheeling their babies, and boys
+playing baseball. Round the common are the
+civic monuments of Pemberton Heights, the
+bank, the post-office, the hospital, the engine
+house, and the public library. Jennie looked at
+this last as if she had never seen it before.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As a matter of fact, she never had seen it
+before. She had looked at it more times than
+she could count, but with the eyes only. She
+knew what it was. She had actually watched the
+coquettish red-brick building, with its glass dome
+and white Grecian portico rising at the command
+of the great philanthropist whose name the
+building bore; but she had never been conscious
+of its purpose as related to herself. Now, for
+the first time, it occurred to her that here was a
+place where a reader could find books.</p>
+<p class="pnext">With no very clear idea in mind, she stepped
+within. The interior was hushed, rather awesome,
+yet sunny and sweetly solemn like the
+temple of some cheerful god. Finding herself
+confronted by a kindly, bookish little lady
+seated at a table behind a wooden barrier, it
+was obviously Jennie's duty to address her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I wonder if—if I could borrow a book."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was informed that she could borrow three
+books at a time, as soon as certain inquiries as
+to her identity and residence were carried out,
+and this would take a few days. But in a few
+days, Jennie knew that her desire to read might
+be dead, and said so. The object of the library
+being to encourage young people to read rather
+than to be too particular about their addresses,
+the kindly little lady, after some consultation
+with a kindly little gentleman, filled out Jennie's
+card.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What sort of book were you thinking of? A
+novel?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie said, "Yes," if it was a good one.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"This is one of the best," the little lady went
+on, pushing forward a volume that happened to
+be lying at her hand, "if you'd care to take it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was <em class="italics">The Egoist</em>, by George Meredith, and
+Jennie accepted it as something foreordained.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You could have two more books if you wanted
+them—now that you're here."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie made a plunge.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Have you anything about—about spires?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The lady smiled gently.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"About church spires?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The girl thought it was—chapel spires—especially
+French ones.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The kindly little gentleman, being accustomed
+to this kind of search, was called into counsel.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the end she selected a work on the old
+churches of Paris, which she thought might give
+her the information she desired.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And now a third book?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Here she was on safer ground. The English
+name had caught her ear with more precision
+than the foreign ones.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Have you got anything about a Lady
+Hamilton?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You mean Romney's Lady Hamilton?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Again there was an echo from Jennie's memory.
+Romney was the man who couldn't paint <em class="italics">her</em>
+because he was too Georgian. She began to see
+how Mrs. Collingham could play with names as
+she might with tennis balls. Since there was
+everything else at Marillo Park, there must also
+be a public library.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Arrived at home, she secreted her volumes
+under her bed. She could read at night, and by
+scraps in the daytime. If Ted or Gussie were to
+learn that she was trying to inform her mind,
+they would guy her with as little mercy as if
+they caught her in that still more offensive
+crime, the improvement of her speech.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xiii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id14">CHAPTER XIII</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">That Bob Collingham was at ease in his conscience
+as to sailing to South America and
+leaving behind him an unacknowledged wife
+will hardly be supposed; but the true situation
+did not present itself to him till after he and
+Jennie had said their good-bys. He had tried
+to see her again on the following day to take
+counsel as to the immediate publication of their
+marriage, and only her refusal to meet him had
+frustrated that intention. But the more he
+pondered the more the thing he had done seemed
+little to his credit. On the morning of the day
+on which he sailed, he rose with the resolve to
+tell the whole truth to his father.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Had he known the facts, that Jennie had
+actually been to Collingham Lodge, that his
+mother knew of the marriage, that his father,
+without knowing of the marriage, was aware of
+his infatuation, he would have made a clean
+breast of it. But the habit of domestic life being
+strong, it seemed impossible to spring the confession
+in the middle of a peaceful breakfast.
+His mother had come down to the table for this
+parting meal and was already half in tears;
+his father concealed a genuine emotion behind
+the morning paper; Edith said she wondered
+what would happen to them all before they met
+again. The possibilities evoked were so significant
+that the mother said, sharply:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I hope it may be God's will that we shall
+meet exactly as we are—a united family."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We could still be a united family," Edith
+ventured, "and not meet exactly as we are."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Edith—please!" her mother had begged, and
+Bob felt it out of the question to add to her distress.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith having driven to the dock with his
+father and himself, there was only the slightest
+opportunity for a private word between the
+father and the son. That came at a minute
+when Edith was talking to Mr. and Mrs. Huntley
+on the deck of the <em class="italics">Demerara</em>.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Dad," Bob asked, awkwardly and abruptly,
+"do you feel quite at ease in your mind as to
+old man Follett?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Passengers and their friends were pushing
+and jostling. Collingham was obliged to brace
+himself against the rod running along the line of
+cabins before he could reply.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why do you ask?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because I don't."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You don't with regard to my stand—or with
+regard to your own?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The boy looked his father in the eyes.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"With regard to yours, dad."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's very kind of you, Bob; but may I
+suggest that you'll have all you can do in repenting
+of your own sins without trying, in addition,
+to repent of mine?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Nevertheless, when the minute came the parting
+was affectionate. Neither father nor son
+was satisfied with a handshake. Throwing
+their arms about each other, they kissed as in
+the days when Bob was a little boy.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Perhaps it was the warmth of this farewell
+that induced the father, on arriving at the bank,
+to ask Miss Ruddick to invite Mr. Bickley to the
+private office in case he should look round that
+afternoon. Mr. Bickley did look round that
+afternoon and was accordingly ushered in.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was a delicately built man whose appearance
+produced that effect of accuracy you get
+from a steel trap. Constructed to do a certain
+kind of work, it can do that work and no other.
+Two minutes after Bickley had looked at a man,
+he knew both his weak points and his aptitudes,
+and could tell to a nicety the job it was best to
+put him to. Forehead, nose, jaw, lips, eyes, and
+ears were to him as the letters of the alphabet.
+More than once he had transferred a teller to
+the accounting department, or made an accountant
+a detective by his reading of facial
+lines.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having put his man in an armchair and given
+him one of the Havanas he kept for social intercourse,
+Collingham waited for the mellow moment
+when the cigar was smoked to half its
+length.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do you know, Bickley," he said then, "I've
+never been quite at ease in my mind about the
+way we shelved that old fellow, Follett. It
+seems to me we showed—well, let us call it a
+want of consideration."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bickley's eyes measured what was left of his
+cigar as he held it out before him horizontally.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Consideration for whom, Mr. Collingham?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"For the old man himself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I didn't know but what you were going
+to say for your stockholders." Before the banker
+could parry this thrust, the expert went on:
+"I looked in yesterday at the court room where
+they were trotting out that fellow Nicholson of
+the Wyndham National. If they'd ever asked
+me, I could have told them long ago that they'd
+lose money by him in the end."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but Follett isn't in that box."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He is, if you drop money by him. I'm speaking
+not of the ways you drop money by a man,
+but only of the fact that you drop it. Your
+business, I suppose, Mr. Collingham, is to make
+money for your shareholders and yourself. It's
+to help out that, I take it, that you send for me
+and go by my advice."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then you'd class Follett and Nicholson
+together?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't class them at all. Whether a man
+steals the bank's money or you give it to him as
+a gift isn't to the point. My job is over when I
+tell you that he gets what he doesn't earn. The
+rest, Mr. Collingham, is up to you—or the district
+attorney, as the case may be."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm afraid I don't see it that way."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's your affair, Mr. Collingham, not mine.
+I only venture to remind you that we've had this
+little tussle over almost every man we've ever
+bounced. It does great credit to your kindness
+of heart, and if you want to go on supporting
+Follett and his family for the rest of your life—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Collingham winced at this hint that his kindness
+of heart was greater than his business capacity.
+It was a point at which he always felt
+himself vulnerable.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Speaking of Follett's family," he said, gliding
+away from the main topic, "we've got that boy
+of his here. How is he getting on?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, there you have a horse of another color.
+My first report on him was not so favorable;
+but now that we've knocked the high jinks out
+of him—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, we've done that, have we?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He's on the way to become a valuable boy.
+Good worker, cheery, likable. If he can get over
+his one defect, he'll be worth hanging on to."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And his one defect is—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Liable to get excited and lose his head.
+Type to see red in a fight, and do something
+dangerous."</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">Unaware of the effort which his former employer's
+good will was vainly putting forth on
+his behalf, Josiah arrived in front of his pair of
+grassplots in Indiana Avenue. It was a trim
+little place, meeting all the wishes for a roof
+above his head which his soul had ever formed.
+He stood and looked at it, thinking of the days
+when little Gladys used to play "house" beneath
+one of the umbrella-shaped hydrangea
+bushes.</p>
+<p class="pnext">That was not so long ago—only six or eight
+years. It was nine since he had bought Number
+Eleven, paying out three thousand dollars that
+had come to him from a matured twenty years'
+endowment policy, together with another thousand
+Lizzie had inherited from an aunt. They
+had thought it a good investment because, if
+the worst ever came to the worst—and they
+didn't know what they meant by that—they
+would always have a home. Now the home was
+in danger because he couldn't raise a hundred
+and forty-seven dollars and sixty-three cents.
+He had been everywhere trying to borrow more,
+and he had failed. He had got to the point
+where his acquaintances in the different offices
+were putting him down as an "old bum." To
+Josiah, knowing all the shades of meaning in
+the term, it was a dreadful name as applied to
+himself; and he had heard it that very afternoon.
+An old friend, who had promised to lend
+him five of the hundred and fifteen already
+raised, had said on seeing him approach:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Here comes that old bum again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Josiah had turned about there and then.
+Giving up trying any more to raise the hundred
+and forty-seven, he had wandered home. He,
+Josiah Follett, an old bum!</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having hidden her three volumes under the
+bed, Jennie looked out and saw him. He didn't
+look specially dejected, yet she knew he was.
+She knew it by the way he stared at the hydrangea
+bush, or by the fact that he had renounced
+his search for another job so early in
+the afternoon. Like herself, he seemed thrown
+on his own resources for company, finding little
+or nothing there. She ran down to meet him.
+She would do that rare thing in the Follett
+family, take him for a walk.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He turned with her obediently. It was a relief
+to him not to be obliged to go in at once and tell
+Lizzie he had no good news. Lizzie was still his
+great referee, as he was hers. The children were
+still the children, not to be taken into confidence
+till there was nothing else to be done.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But this afternoon life, for the first time,
+looked different. It was as if, unaided, he
+couldn't carry the burden any more. There
+were younger shoulders than his, and perhaps
+it was time now to call on them to share the
+task.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm an old man, Jennie," he said, as they
+began to move slowly toward Palisade Walk.
+"I haven't felt old till lately; but now—now
+I'm all in. I don't suppose I'll ever get a chance
+to do a day's work again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">When she rallied him on this, he told her the
+story of his day, omitting the "old bum" incident.
+He must spare his children that, even if he
+couldn't have been spared himself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">This tale, delivered without emphasis, was
+more terrible to Jennie than all the pangs of
+conscience. Had she but been true to the
+promises made to Mrs. Collingham, she could
+have said, "Father dear, you'll never have to
+worry any more." Two hours earlier, twenty-five
+thousand dollars had been within her grasp,
+and she had let it go. "All that money," she
+sighed to herself, "<em class="italics">and love</em>!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But since it would be within her grasp to-morrow,
+a new thought came to her. The hundred
+dollars she would ultimately return to Bob
+need not be in exactly the same bills. There was
+no reason why she should not use this amount
+and restore it from the wealth to come. Bob
+couldn't possibly tell the difference between the
+paper that made up one sum of a hundred dollars
+and the paper that made up another. She
+would have preferred to hand it back without
+touching it, but, in view of the family need,
+fastidiousness was out of place.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As they emerged into Palisade Walk and the
+vast panorama lay below them, she slipped her
+arm through his.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Daddy," she said, caressingly, "what should
+you say if you saw me with a hundred dollars?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Josiah, it was the kind of question children
+ask when their imaginations go off on flights.
+It would have been the same thing had she said
+a thousand or a million. Nevertheless, he replied,
+more gravely than she had expected:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What should I say, my dear? I should say
+you couldn't have come by it honestly."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but if I could?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's no use talking about that, my dear,
+because I know you couldn't. If you had a
+hundred dollars, some man would have given it
+to you, and no man would give it to you
+unless—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He didn't finish the sentence, because she
+hurried on ahead. He reached her only when
+she stood still, looking down on the river, to
+spring the question prepared on second thoughts.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But, daddy, if I had a hundred dollars, you'd
+use it for the taxes—wouldn't you?—even if I
+hadn't got it honestly."</p>
+<p class="pnext">A spasm crossed his face. He laid his hand
+on her shoulder roughly. She could think of
+nothing but the stern father of a wayward girl
+as she had seen him pictured in the movies.
+She hadn't supposed that such dramatic parents
+existed off the screen.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Jennie, you haven't got a hundred dollars!
+Tell me you haven't! Don't let me think that
+the worst thing of all has overtaken us."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Amazed as she was, her feminine quick-wittedness
+came to her aid.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, you funny daddy!" she laughed, drawing
+his hand from her shoulder and again slipping
+it through her arm. "You're not a bit good at
+making pretend."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Excuse me, my dear," he said, humbly, as
+they strolled on once more. "I'm a little nervous.
+I don't suppose I'll ever get a chance to
+do a day's work again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie, too, was a little nervous, though she
+did her best to hide the fact. She had not expected
+him to take this tragically moral point
+of view. It made so many new complications
+as to her twenty-five thousand that she didn't
+know where she stood. Her mother might agree
+with him. Teddy and the girls might agree
+with her. To act in opposition to them all was
+outside her sphere of contemplation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Indiana Avenue was indeed not so primitive
+but that the subject of ladies who chose their
+own way was frequently under discussion, and
+Jennie had never heard much condemnation of
+this liberty except where the associations were
+considered "low." Where, on the contrary, the
+situation was on a large financial scale and
+carried with a lordly hand, opinion, while not
+approving, was in a measure deferential. It was
+no secret that Mrs. Inglis had a sister, mysteriously
+known as "Mrs. Deramore," whose career
+had been of the most romantic; and whenever
+her limousine drove up to the Inglis door, as it did
+perhaps twice a year, all the women crowded
+to the windows to see the fair occupant get in and
+out. On one occasion Jennie had heard her
+mother say to their next-door neighbor, Mrs.
+Weatherby, "After all, with the kind of world
+we've got to-day, why shouldn't she?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie had not thought of herself as a
+second Mrs. Deramore. She had hardly
+thought of herself at all. The combination of
+Hubert, love, and the family deliverance from
+penury had precluded speculation as to what
+she might become. She made no attempt to call
+up this vision even now. The irony of a situation
+in which she had a small fortune tucked away
+in the glove-and-handkerchief box in her top
+bureau drawer, and yet was helpless to make
+use of it, was enough for her to deal with.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Palisade Walk is protected by a row of small,
+irregular, upright boulders like the dragon's
+teeth. At a spot where a low flat stone forms a
+seat between two granite cones Jennie sat down
+sidewise to the river, to think her situation out.
+Josiah, too, came to a standstill, leaning on the
+stick which lifelong British habit put into his
+hands whenever he went out-of-doors, and
+gazing at a scene whose very mightiness smote
+him through and through with a sense of his
+futility.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was a view of New York which few New
+Yorkers know to exist, and which those who
+know it to exist mainly ignore. Rio from the
+Pão d'Assucar, Montreal from Mount Royal,
+Quebec from the St. Lawrence, San Francisco
+from the Golden Gate, are all of the earth, earthy.
+Manhattan as viewed from the Hudson's western
+bank is like the city which rose when Apollo
+sang, or that beheld in the Apocalypse of John.</p>
+<p class="pnext">From the dragon's teeth, the precipice broke
+in terraces and shelves hung with ash, sumach,
+and stunted oak. Wherever there was a hand's
+breadth of soil, a dandelion or a violet, a buttercup
+or a lady-fern, nestled in the keeping of the
+cliff as a bird's nest on a branch. Creepers and
+vines threw their tangles of tassels down to
+where the chimneys clustering along the river's
+brink blackened them with smoke. Small
+water-worn docks, sheltering nameless craft,
+battered, ancient, and grotesque, crept in and
+out among factories and coal yards, linking up
+with one another in a line of some twenty miles.
+Straight as the cut of a knife, the river clove its
+tremendous gash from Adirondacks to Atlantic—a
+leaden, shimmering, storied streak, too deep
+within its bed to catch the westering sunlight.
+The westering sunlight itself was silvered in the
+perpetual misty haze hanging over the island
+like an aureole, through which the city glimmered
+in mile after mile of gable and spire, of dome
+and cube, silent, suspended, heavenly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There is nothing in the world like this cloud-built
+vision garlanded along the sky. No sound
+breaks from it, no sign of our earth-born life.
+The steel-blue-gray of a gull's wing swooping
+above the water is gross as compared with its
+texture. The violet and the lady-fern are not so
+delicate as the substance of its palaces. It
+might be dream; it might be mirage; it might
+be the city which came down from God as a
+bride adorned for her husband. Beginning too
+far away for the eye to reach, and ending where
+the gaze can no longer follow, it is immense
+and yet aërial, a towered, battlemented, mighty
+thing, yet spun of the ether between the worlds.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Though Jennie and her father had looked at
+this mystic wraith of a city so often that they
+hardly noticed it any more, they were never
+free from its ecstatic influence. That is, it moved
+them to aspirations without suggesting the
+objective to which they should aspire. Caught
+in the web of daily circumstance, entangled,
+enmeshed, helplessly captive amid hand-to-mouth
+necessities, their thoughts were rarely
+at liberty to wander from the definite calculation
+as to how to live. They didn't so wander even
+now. Even now, lifted up as they were among
+spiritual splendors, food, clothes, gas, taxes, and
+the mortgage were the things most heavily on
+their minds; but something else stirred in them
+with a sluggish will to live.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Jennie, do you believe in God?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">For a minute Jennie gazed sidewise at the
+celestial city in the air and made no answer.
+Josiah himself hardly knew why he had asked
+the question unless it was because of vague new
+fears as to Jennie's associations. Of these he
+knew almost as little as the parent bird of its
+offspring's doings when the young have taken
+flight. This was the custom of the family, the
+custom of the country. But he had never been
+free from misgivings that Jennie's calling of
+artist's model was "not respectable," and now
+this mention of a hundred dollars, even though
+it were but in jest, roused some little-used sense
+of paternal responsibility.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't know that I do," Jennie said, at last.
+She added, after another minute's thought,
+"What's the good of God, anyhow?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"People say he can take you to heaven when
+you die, or send you to the other place."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not worrying about what will happen
+when I die; I've got all I can attend to here.
+Can God help me about that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the test question of Josiah's inner life.
+His faith stood or fell by it. He would have
+been glad to tell his child that she could be aided
+in her earthly problems, but, unlike Job, hadn't
+he himself served God for naught?</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He don't seem able to do that, my dear,"
+he sighed, as if the confession of unbelief forced
+its way out in spite of himself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, then"—Jennie rose, wearily—"what's
+the use? If God can put me off till I die, I suppose
+I can put him off in the same way, can't I?
+Do you believe in him, yourself, daddy?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I used to."</p>
+<p class="pnext">And that was all he could say.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As the sun sank farther into the west, the
+celestial city which had hitherto been of a
+luminous white was shot with rose and saffron.
+Within its heart lay Broadway, Fifth Avenue,
+Wall Street, and the Bowery, shops, churches,
+brothels, and banks, all passions, hungers, yearnings,
+and ambitions, all national tendencies
+worthy and detestable, all human instincts holy
+and unclean, all loveliness, all lust, all charity,
+all cupidity, all secret and suppressed desire,
+all shameless exposure on the housetops, all sorrow,
+all sin, all that the soul of man conceives of
+evil and good—and yet, with no more than these
+few miles of perspective and this easy play of
+light translated into beauty, uplifting, unearthly,
+and ineffable.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For a minute longer Jennie and her father
+looking on the vision as it melted from glory to
+glory in this pageantry of sky. Then, with arms
+linked as before, they turned their backs on it.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xiv">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id15">CHAPTER XIV</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">For the next twenty-four hours Jennie did
+her best to suspend the operation of thought.
+Thought got her nowhere. It led her into so
+many blind alleys that it made her head ache.
+She had once heard a returned traveler describe
+his efforts to get out of the labyrinth at Hampton
+Court, and felt herself now in the same situation.
+Each way seemed easy till she followed it and
+found herself balked by a hedge.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But the fact that her head ached gave her an
+excuse for going to her room and locking herself
+in. She could thus pull her books from beneath
+the bed without fear of detection. The points
+as to which she needed enlightenment being
+spires and Lady Hamilton, she went at her task
+with the avidity of a starving person at sight of
+food.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As to spires, she was quickly appeased, for her
+volume on the old churches of Paris had the
+Sainte-Chapelle as its frontispiece. Now that
+she had seen the name in print, she was sure of
+it. Because of being so little taxed, her memory
+was the more retentive. Every sound that had
+fallen from Mrs. Collingham's lips was stamped
+on her mind like a footprint hardened into rock
+on a bit of untracked soil. Within half an hour,
+she had learned the outlines of the history of
+the Sainte-Chapelle, and, with some fluttering
+of timid vanity, had grasped the comparison of
+its strong and exquisite grace with her own
+personality.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But, after all, the Sainte-Chapelle was a thing
+of stone, whereas Lady Hamilton—she loved,
+the name—must have been of flesh and blood.
+Here, too, there was a frontispiece, the very
+Dian of the Frick Gallery to which Mrs. Collingham
+had referred. Unfortunately, the illustrations
+were in black and white, so that she
+could get no adequate idea as to the complexion
+or the color of the hair. The face, however, with
+its bewitching softness, its heavenly archnesses,
+bore some resemblance to her own.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was a shock to learn that the possessor of
+so much beauty, the bearer of so melodious a
+title, had begun life as Emma Lyon, a servant
+girl, but, after all, she reflected, the circumstance
+only created analogies with herself. There were
+more analogies still. Emma Lyon had been an
+artist's model. In an artist's studio she had
+made the acquaintance of men of lofty station,
+just as she herself had met Bob. She had loved
+and been loved. Romney was perhaps her
+Hubert Wray. Her career had been exciting
+and dramatic—the friend of a queen, the
+more-than-wife of one of the great men of the
+age. The tragic, miserable death didn't frighten
+Jennie, since misery and tragedy always stalked
+on the edge of her experience. She fell asleep
+amid vast, vague concepts of queens and heroes
+beset with loves and problems not unlike Jennie
+Follett's.</p>
+<p class="pnext">All through the next day she stilled the working
+of thought by application to <em class="italics">The Egoist</em>. She
+took to it as to a drug. In the intervals of her
+household duties, or whenever her mind became
+active over her affairs, she ran to her room to
+begin again, "Comedy is a game played to throw
+reflections upon social life, and it deals with human
+nature in the drawing-room of civilized
+men and women, where we have no dust of the
+struggling outer world, no mire, no violent
+clashes, to make the correctness of the representation
+convincing." She got little farther, since,
+for her purpose, this was far enough. She was
+drugged already, as by dentist's gas. The more
+she read the more she felt herself wandering sleepily
+through realms of dream, where words, as she
+understood them, had ceased to have significance.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So, by sheer force of will, she brought herself
+to that moment in the afternoon when she stood
+at the studio door. She hadn't thought; she
+hadn't, in her own phrase, <em class="italics">imagined</em>. She had
+allowed herself no instant in which to count the
+cost or to shrink from paying it. Hubert, love,
+and the family deliverance from poverty would
+be hers before nightfall, and she meant not to
+look beyond. She opened the door softly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Before showing herself, she stopped and
+listened. There was not a sound. It was often
+so if Hubert was painting, and the silence only
+assured her that if he was there, as he probably
+was, he was waiting for her alone. He was
+waiting for her alone with that look in his eyes,
+that maddened animal look which she had seen
+yesterday, so bestial and yet so compelling!
+Still more softly she moved forward among the
+studio odds and ends.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Then she saw—and stopped.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the Byzantine chair, a nude woman, seated
+in the manner of the Egyptian cat-goddess, was
+holding up a skull. Though the woman looked
+the other way, Jennie could see her as a lovely
+creature, straight, strong, triumphant, and unashamed.
+Hubert was painting, busily, eagerly.
+He raised his eyes, saw Jennie as she cowered,
+took no notice of her at all, and went on with
+his work. It passed all that she had ever imagined
+of cruelty that, as she turned to make her
+way out again, he should glance up once more—and
+let her go.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Hubert—and the woman <em class="italics">dressed like that</em>!
+The woman <em class="italics">dressed like that</em>—in this intimacy
+with Hubert! She herself shut out—cast out—sent
+to the devil! Some one else in her place,
+when she might so easily have kept it!</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie's suffering was in the dry and stony
+stage at which it hardly seemed suffering at all.
+Yes, it did; she knew it was suffering—only, she
+couldn't feel. She could think lucidly and yet
+put the whole situation away from her for the
+reason that it would keep. Anguish would keep;
+tears would keep. She could postpone everything, since she had all the rest of her life to give
+to its contemplation. Just for the present, the
+memory of the woman in the chair with <em class="italics">Hubert
+looking at her</em> was so scorching to the mind that
+she could do nothing but snatch her faculties
+away from it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Coming to Fifth Avenue and seeing an electric
+bus stop near the curb, she climbed into it.
+It was the old story of not knowing where to go
+or what to do once her simple round of habits
+had been upset. Snuggled close to a window,
+she could at least be jolted along without effort
+of her own while she still fought off the consciousness
+of the frightful thing that had happened.
+It was not merely Hubert and the
+woman; it was everything. So much was
+included that she couldn't bear to think of this
+ruin to her beautiful house of cards.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Such wealth and beauty in the shop windows!
+Such streams of people in their new spring
+clothes! She had heard it said that every heart
+had its bitterness, but she didn't think that
+that could be possible. If everyone had a heartache
+like hers, or even the memory of such a
+heartache, it would make too monstrous a world,
+too deplorable a human race. After all, there
+must be <em class="italics">some</em> sense in the presence of mankind
+on earth, and if all were kicked about and bruised,
+there would be none. She preferred to think that
+the people on the pavements and in the limousines
+were as happy as they looked, and that she alone
+was selected for bewilderment and pain.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She wondered where she was going. There
+was a ferry far up on the Riverside Drive which
+would take her across to New Jersey, and thence,
+by a combination of trolley-cars, she could work
+her way southward to Pemberton Heights.
+This would consume an hour and more, and so
+eat up part of the afternoon. What she would
+do when she arrived home with her dreams all
+shattered God alone knew. If she could only
+have seen her friend, Mrs. Collingham, clinging
+to that kind hand as she poured out her heart....</p>
+<p class="pnext">Just then a huge building came into sight on
+the left, and with it a new impulse. She had
+often meant to visit it, though the day never
+seemed to come. Gussie had once gone to the
+Metropolitan Museum in company with Sadie
+Inglis, since when she had been in the habit of
+saying that she had as good as taken a trip
+abroad. Jennie didn't want a trip abroad; she
+wanted soothing, comforting, affection. She
+wanted another drop of that experienced, womanly
+sympathy, instinct with kindliness and
+knowledge of the world which she had tasted
+for the first and only time on that blissful afternoon
+at Collingham Lodge.</p>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="margin-left: 22%; width: 55%" id="figure-7">
+<img style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="JENNIE, YOU HAVEN'T GOT A HUNDRED DOLLARS! TELL ME YOU HAVEN'T!" src="images/illus2.jpg" width="100%"/>
+<div class="caption italics">
+JENNIE, YOU HAVEN'T GOT A HUNDRED DOLLARS! TELL ME YOU HAVEN'T!</div>
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst">It was to get nearer to Collingham Lodge that
+she left the bus to drag herself up the long flight
+of steps and into the vast, cool hall. There were
+others going in, chiefly the Slavs and Italians for
+whom she felt a legitimate Anglo-Saxon contempt,
+so that she had nothing to do but to
+follow them. Thus she found herself at the top
+of another long flight of steps, gazing about her
+in an awe that soon became an intoxicating sense
+of beauty.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was Jennie's first approach to beauty on
+this scale of immensity and variety. It was her
+first draught of Art. Her childhood's poring
+over <em class="italics">Ancient Rome Restored</em> had given her a
+feeling for line and economy, but she had never
+dreamed that color, substance, and texture could
+be used with this daring, profuse creativeness.
+Having no ability to seize details, she drifted
+helplessly up and down aisles of splendor and
+gleam. Here there were gold and silver, here was
+tapestry, here crystal, here enamel. The pictures
+were endless, endless. She could no more
+deal with them than with a sunset. Life came to
+the Scarborough tradition in her as it does to a
+frozen limb, with distress and yet with an element
+of ecstasy. A soul that had passed to a
+higher plane of existence, whom there was no
+one to welcome and guide, might have ventured
+timidly into the celestial land as Jennie among
+these lovely things outside her comprehension.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She came to herself, as it were, on hearing a
+man's voice say, in a kind of tone and idiom with
+which she was familiar:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Have you looked at this Cellini now? That's
+the only authentic bit of Cellini in the United
+States. There's six or seven other pieces in
+different museums that people says is Cellini,
+but there's always a hitch in the proof."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Turning, she saw a stocky man in custodian's
+uniform who was addressing a group of Italians,
+two bareheaded women, three children between
+ten and fifteen, and a man. All were interested.
+All studied the gold shell with its dragon-shaped
+handle in purplish enamel. They commented,
+criticized, appraised, even the children pointing
+out excellencies to one another. When they had
+drifted away, Jennie turned to the kindly Irishman,
+who, by dint of living with beauty, had
+grasped its spirit, and put a hesitating question.
+She asked him to repeat the name of the gold-smith,
+pronouncing it after him till she registered
+it on her mind as she had that of Lady Hamilton.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Sure, there was an artist for you," the custodian
+went on. "The breed is dead and gone.
+Hot-timpered fellow, though. Had more mistresses
+and killed more men than you could
+count. Should read about him in a book he
+wrote himself." He looked at Jennie from the
+corner of an eye, accustomed to "size up" an
+individual here and there among the thousands
+who floated daily through his little domain,
+apparently finding in her something that merited
+further favors. "Are you wise to this Memling?"
+he asked, leading the way to a corner of the wall
+where hung a small portrait. "There's only two
+other men in the wor-rld that could have painted
+that head, and that's Holbein and Rembrandt.
+Memling himself never did it but just that
+wance."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie looked, registering Memling's name.
+It was the head of an elderly man; so living,
+kindly, and humorous that she loved him.
+When she turned to her guide he stood with a
+smile of curiosity, like that of a mother showing
+her baby to a friend.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What d'ye say to that now?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie said what she could—that it was marvelous,
+but that she didn't know anything about
+art. Since he was so kind, she ventured, however,
+on another question. Did the museum
+contain a portrait of Lady Hamilton?</p>
+<p class="pnext">He pursed up his nose. Not a good one. Not
+a Romney. There was one in gallery twenty-four,
+but it was by John Opie, of whom he had
+no high opinion. In comparison with Romney,
+he thought Opie big and coarse, but, since there
+was nothing better to be seen, Jennie might
+choose to glance at this second-rate specimen.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And I'll tell you another thing," he went on,
+confidentially. "You're not used to looking at
+pictures and such like, are you, now?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie said she was not.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, then, go to gallery twenty-four. Find
+your Opie, which you'll see hanging over one of
+the doors—and don't look at anything else.
+You'll have seen all you can absor-rb in wan
+day. Come back to-morrer, or anny other toime,
+and come straight to me. You'll find me here,
+and I'll tell you what to look at next. But don't
+take more to-day than you can enjoy."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He walked with her till she reached the
+boundary of his realm.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You look like a gur-rl that'd have an eye and
+a taste for beauty. You don't find them often
+among Americans, and when you do it's a god-send.
+Poles, Jews, Russians, yes. When the
+French and Italian officers was in New York,
+their eyes 'd fairly eat the museum up. But
+Americans—they don't know and they don't
+want to know—not wan in a hundred thousand.
+Well, good-day to you and good luck. I'm always
+here, and I'm just the wan to tell you which is
+the things to pick out."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But by the time she discovered her Lady
+Hamilton she had only the courage to note
+listlessly that the hair <em class="italics">was</em> somewhat the color
+of her own—not chestnut, not russet, not copper,
+not red-gold, but perhaps a combination of them
+all. She had reached her limitations unexpectedly.
+The tide she had dammed had burst
+its barriers and rushed in on her. She sank to
+a chair in the middle of the almost empty room,
+her eyes blinded by sudden tears.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Hubert was still with that woman! The
+woman was perhaps resting now and they were
+talking! She would be so much at her ease that
+she would talk without taking the trouble to
+throw her wrap round her. Hubert, too, would
+be at ease, preferring her without her wrap rather
+than with it. In vain she reminded herself that
+the situation was one to which an artist was
+accustomed. She hadn't been in a studio for a
+year without learning that much, though she
+got no comfort from it now. No comfort was
+possible with the vision of this naked magnificence seared on her memory. Hubert had
+let her come without a welcome, and go without
+a protest. He was probably glad when she went
+so that he might be alone with this wanton who
+didn't know shame.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the end, she saw but one course before her.
+She would make the best of Bob. To do so
+would mean that Bob would be disinherited by
+his ogre of a father, but with Mrs. Collingham's
+aid a counteracting influence might be found.
+Moreover, she could thus return home, confess
+herself Bob's wife, and offer the hundred dollars
+to her father as cash lawfully her own. Life
+would be simplified in this way, even though
+happiness were dead.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was the last of the commuting family to
+reach the house that evening, and on crossing
+the threshold was greeted with a sense of cheer.
+It did not mean much to her at first, for, with
+the optimism of a hand-to-mouth existence, a
+sense of cheer was the last thing the family ever
+abandoned. She herself cast all outward air of
+trouble away from her on opening the door, because
+it was in the tradition.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her father was seated quietly smoking his
+pipe, which he had not done for the past week
+or more. Gussie held the middle of the floor,
+her arms extended in a serpentine wave, humming
+a dance tune and practicing the step. To
+mark the rhythm, Gladys was clapping her
+hands with a slow, tom-tom beat. Pansy alone
+stood apart, blinking and unresponsive, as if
+for reasons of her own she considered this mirth
+ill-timed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Look, Jen!" Gladys giggled, as her eldest
+sister passed down the room. "This is the new
+thing at the Washington. Gus has got it so you
+wouldn't know her from Samarine herself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie went on to the kitchen, where, as she
+expected, her mother was getting the supper, and
+did her best to be nonchalant.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, momma! What's the good word?
+What makes everyone so gay?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Lizzie looked up, a cover in one hand and a
+spoon in the other. Her face was so radiant
+that Jennie was still more mystified.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Jennie darling, your father has the
+money! He can make the payment to-morrow,
+and everything will come right."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So Jennie's plans recoiled upon herself. She
+had meant to tell her mother here and now that
+for four days past she had been Bob Collingham's
+wife, and had a hundred dollars in her top
+bureau drawer. Her mother was to tell her
+father, and her father Teddy and the girls. But
+now—well, what would be the use? By keeping
+her secret she might put off inevitable fate a
+little longer.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Who lent it?" Jennie asked, after she had
+chosen her line of action.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Nobody; that's the wonderful part of it.
+It's a hundred and fifty dollars Teddy has
+earned."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"'Earned!' How?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Selling bonds for a man he knows. He
+doesn't want anything said about it, because
+it's what he calls 'on the side.' If the house
+knew of it—that he was working in off times for
+some one else—he might lose his job. But, oh,
+Jennie, isn't it wonderful?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie thought it wonderful for other reasons
+than Teddy's glory and the peace of the family
+mind. It was less easy to renounce Hubert
+than it had been an hour or two earlier. If he
+snapped his fingers she had said to herself, while
+crossing the ferry, she would run to him like a
+dog, in spite of everything; and if she did it,
+she would want to be free from the complications
+that must ensue if she were to proclaim
+herself Bob's wife.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having assented to her mother's praise of
+Teddy, she went back through the living room
+and on upstairs to take off her hat and coat.
+Near the top of the stairs, the door of the
+bathroom opened suddenly and Teddy appeared
+in his shirt sleeves. There being nothing
+unusual in that, she was about to say,
+"Hello, Ted!" and ascend the few remaining
+steps to her room.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But seeing her moving upward in the dim hall
+light, Teddy started back within the bathroom,
+and, with a movement he couldn't control,
+slammed the door noisily. The action was so
+odd that she called out to him:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's only me, goose! What's the matter
+with you? Have you got the jumps?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The door opened and Teddy reappeared,
+grinning sheepishly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I—I didn't have my coat on," was the only
+explanation he could find.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Dear, dear!" Jennie threw over her shoulder,
+as she passed into her own room. "We've got
+terribly modest all of a sudden, haven't we?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But weeks later she recalled this lame excuse.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xv">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id16">CHAPTER XV</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">During the next few days, Wray snapped
+his fingers twice, and on each occasion
+Jennie ran to him like a dog, as she had foreseen
+she would.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The first time was in response to a telegram.
+The telegram said, simply:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Studio Thursday, 3 P.M.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">There was no signature, but Jennie knew what
+it meant. By one o'clock she was dressing feverishly;
+by two, she had said good-by to her
+mother and was on her way. She was not
+thinking of her twenty-five thousand dollars
+now, or of any offering up of herself. Her one
+objective was to drive that woman from the
+Byzantine chair so that Hubert shouldn't look
+at her again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But she had not got out of Indiana Avenue on
+her way to the trolley car when something happened
+which had never happened in her life
+before. She received another telegram, the
+second in one day. The messenger boy, who was
+a neighbor's son, had hailed her from across the
+street.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, Jennie! Are you Miss Jane Scarborough Follett? That's a name and a half,
+ain't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her first thought was that Hubert was wiring
+to put her off because he wanted the other
+woman, after all. Her second, that he had
+already addressed her as "Miss Jennie Follett,"
+and she doubted if he knew her full baptismal
+name. Only in one connection had it been used
+of late, and that recollection made her tremble.</p>
+<p class="pnext">This message, too, was unsigned, and, being so,
+it puzzled her:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Always close to you in spirit and loving you.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">That wasn't like Hubert—and Bob was on the
+sea.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She walked slowly, reading it again and again,
+till her eyes caught the address in a corner—Havana.
+She remembered then that the <em class="italics">Demerara</em>
+was to touch at that port, and understood.
+Crushing the telegraphic slip into the bottom of
+her handbag, she made her way to the square
+and took her place in the car.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As she jolted down the face of the cliff she
+wished that this message hadn't come till after
+her return from the studio. Then it wouldn't
+have mattered. It would have been too late to
+matter. Not that it mattered now—only, that
+the way in which Bob expressed himself made her
+feel uneasy. "Always close to you in spirit."
+She didn't want him to be close to her in any
+way, but in spirit least of all. Latterly, she had
+heard Mrs. Weatherby, a convert to some school
+of New Thought, discourse on the unreality of
+separations and the bridging power of spirit, and
+while these ideas made no appeal to her, they
+endued Bob's telegram with a ghostly creepiness.
+If he was close to her in spirit on an errand like
+the present one....</p>
+<p class="pnext">So she turned back from the very studio door.
+She couldn't go in. She couldn't so much as put
+her hand on the knob. Knowing that Hubert
+was within a few yards of her, eager to be hers
+as she was to be his, she crept guiltily down the
+stairs.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She cried all night from humiliation and repentance.
+It was as if Bob had laid a spell on
+her. Unless she could break it, her life would be
+ruined.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But the opportunity to break it came no later
+than the very next day. Chancing to look out
+into Indiana Avenue, she saw Hubert scanning
+Number Eleven from the other side of the street.
+He must indeed want to see her, since he had
+taken this journey into the unknown.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Picking up a sunshade, she went out and
+spoke to him. He refused to come in, but
+begged her to take a little walk.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Jennie, what's your game?" he asked,
+roughly, as they sauntered down the avenue
+toward the edge of the cliff. "Why don't you
+come to the studio when I ask you? What are
+you afraid of?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I did come—the other day—but—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why didn't you stay? I thought you would.
+Brasshead wouldn't have minded it, and you
+could have seen how the thing is done."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What's the good of seeing how it's done when—when
+you've got some one else?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But, good Lord! Jennie, this is not the only
+picture of the kind I shall ever paint! Even if I
+go on using Emma for this, I shall want you for
+another one—and I'm not sure that I shall go
+on using Emma. Do you see?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was so perturbed that she launched on a
+question without knowing what she meant to
+ask.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Isn't she—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, she's all right as far as the figure goes.
+Features coarse. Not a bit what I'm trying to
+get. Have to keep toning down and modifying
+to give her the spiritual look that you've got,
+Jennie, to throw away. I keep thinking of you
+all the time I'm doing it. Look here, if you'll
+come to-morrow, I'll pay Brasshead off and you
+shall have the job."</p>
+<p class="pnext">By the time they reached Palisade Walk the
+business was settled on a business basis. Not
+once did he depart from the professional side of
+the affair, and not once did she allude to the
+scene in her dressing-room. But what was understood
+was understood, not less certainly for
+its being by passionate mental vibration, without
+a word, or a glance, or a pressure of the
+hand.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But the next day, as Jennie was leaving the
+house to keep her appointment, Josiah, who had
+gone out as usual to look for work, had dragged
+himself home and fainted at the door.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm all in," he mumbled, on his return to
+consciousness. "I don't suppose I shall ever
+get a chance to do a day's work again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie was so much alarmed that she forgot
+to telephone her inability to go to the studio till
+after her father had been put to bed and the
+doctor had come and gone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, it's all right," Hubert had said, listlessly.
+"I didn't expect you. I knew that if it wasn't
+one excuse, it would be another—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I <em class="italics">will</em> come," Jennie had interrupted,
+tearfully.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do just as you like about that. Emma's
+here, and, as you're so uncertain, I've decided to
+go on and finish the picture without making a
+change."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He put up the receiver on saying this, so that
+Jennie was left all in the air with her love and
+her distress.</p>
+<p class="pnext">When Teddy appeared that evening, it was
+she who told him of their father's breakdown.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The doctor says it's worry," she explained,
+"and lack of nutrition. He says he must stay in
+bed a week, and we've got to feed him up and not
+let him worry again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy's face grew longer and longer.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then we'll have to have more money."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You poor Ted, yes; but then you're making
+money on the side, aren't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Reminding himself, as he did a hundred times
+a day, that Nicholson had had five years in
+which to get away with it, Teddy passed on upstairs
+to his father's bedside.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's all right, dad," he tried to smile. "Don't
+you worry. I'm here. I'll take care of ma and
+the girls. You just make your mind easy and
+give yourself up to getting well."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie's attendance at the studio was thus
+put out of the question for many days, and in
+the meantime she had a letter posted at Havana.
+Fearing that it would come and attract attention
+in the family, she watched the postman, getting
+it one morning before breakfast. Bob wrote:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">There is a love so big and strong and sure that separations
+mean nothing to it, because it fills the world. That's
+my kind of love, Jennie darling. You can't get out of it—I
+can't get out of it—even if we would. At this very minute
+I'm sailing and sailing; but I'm not being carried
+farther away from you. The love in which you and I are
+now leading our lives is wider than the great big circle
+made by the horizon. Don't forget that, dear. I'm always
+with you. Love doesn't recognize distance. Love isn't
+physical or geographical. It's force, power, influence. I
+love you so much that I know I can keep you safe even
+though I'm on the other side of the world. I can't fend
+troubles away from you, worse luck, but I can carry you
+through them. I know that till I come back you'll be
+having a hard time; but my love will hang round you like
+an enchanted cloak, and nothing will really get at you.
+You're always wearing that cloak, Jennie; you always
+walk with it about you.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">While Jennie was reading this, Edith Collingham,
+at breakfast at Marillo Park, was springing
+a question on her father. She sprang it at breakfast
+because it was the only time she was sure
+of seeing him alone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Father, how far are children obliged to marry
+or not to marry in deference to their parents'
+wishes, and how far have fathers and mothers
+the right to interfere?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Dauphin, who was on his haunches near his
+master's knee, removed himself to a midway
+position between the two ends of the table, as if
+he felt that in the struggle he perceived to be
+coming he couldn't throw his influence with
+either side. Through the open window Max
+could be seen in perpetual motion on the lawn,
+yet pausing every two minutes to look wistfully
+down the avenue in the hope of some loved
+approach.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Without answering at once, Collingham tapped
+an egg with a spoon. The broaching of so personal
+a question between one of his children and
+himself was something new. It had been an
+established rule in the household that, however
+free the intercourse between the boy and the
+girl and their mother, the approach to their
+father was always indirect. Junia had made it
+her lifelong part to explain the children to their
+father and the father to his children, but rarely
+to give them a chance of explaining themselves
+to each other. Collingham had acquiesced in
+this for the reason that the duties of a parent
+were not those for which he felt himself, in his
+own phrase, specially "cut out."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The duties for which he did feel himself cut
+out were those that had to do with the investment
+of money. On this ground, he spoke with
+authority; he was original, intuitive, inspired.
+When it came to a flair for the stock which was
+selling to-day at fifty and which to-morrow would
+be worth five hundred, he belonged to the <em class="italics">illuminati</em>.
+This being the highest use of intelligence
+known to man, he felt it his duty to
+specialize in it to the exclusion of everything
+else.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As already hinted, there were two Collinghams.
+There was the natural man, a kindly, generous
+fellow who would never have made a big position
+in the world; and there was the other Collingham,
+standardized to the accepted, forceful,
+American-business-man pattern, and who, now
+that he was sixty-odd, was the Collingham who
+mainly had the upper hand.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mainly, but not completely. The natural
+Collingham often made timid attempts to speak
+and had to be stifled. He was being stifled while
+the standardized Collingham tapped his egg.
+It was the pupil of Junia, Bickley, and the
+business world who finally sought to gain time
+by asking a counter-question.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What do you want to know for?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith was prepared for this.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because I may make a marriage that you
+and mother wouldn't like; and I think it possible
+that Bob may do the same."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Whatever the natural Collingham might have
+said to this, the man who had been evolved from
+him could have but one response.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"People who act on their own responsibility
+should be prepared to go the whole hog."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith sipped her coffee while she worked out
+the significance of this.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Does that mean that you wouldn't give us
+any money?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Rather that, being so extremely independent,
+you wouldn't ask for it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, ask for it—no; and yet—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And yet you think I ought to hand it out."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I was thinking rather of a kind of <em class="italics">noblesse
+oblige</em>—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"In which all the <em class="italics">noblesse</em> must be mine."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not exactly that. In which perhaps the
+<em class="italics">noblesse</em> should be <em class="italics">ours</em>. Even if I should marry
+a poor man, I can't help being a Collingham, a
+member of a family with large ideas and a large
+way of living."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; but, you see, you'd be giving them up."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You can't give up what's been bred into you.
+And in my case I should be bringing the man—you
+must let me say it, dad—I should be bringing
+the man I—I <em class="italics">love</em>—so little—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He's probably counting on a great deal.
+Poor men who marry rich men's daughters
+generally do."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I was going to say that while he'd be giving
+me so much, all I could offer him would be
+money; and if I didn't bring that—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well? Go on."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If I didn't bring that, I should feel so humiliated
+before him—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He affected an ignorance which was not a
+fact.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Who <em class="italics">is</em> this paragon, anyhow?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I thought mother might have told you. It's
+Mr. Ayling."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, that teacher fellow!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He's more than that, dad. He's a professor
+in one of our greatest universities. He's a
+writer beginning to be recognized as having
+ideas. He has a position of his own—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; but only an intellectual one."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She raised her eyebrows.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"'Only'?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He straightened himself and prepared for
+business.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Look here, Edith, don't kid yourself. An
+intellectual position in this country is no position
+at all. The American people have no use for the
+intellectual, and they've made that plain."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She could hardly express her amazement.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why, dad! There's no country in the world
+where people go in more for education, where
+there are more men who go to colleges—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes—to fit them for making money, not to
+turn them into highbrows. You must have a
+spade to dig a garden, but it's the garden you're
+proud of, not the spade."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And the very President of the country—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is what you call an intellectual man; but
+that's a bit of chance. He's not President because he was a college professor, but because he
+was a politician. If he hadn't been a politician—something
+that the country values—he'd still
+be rotting in some two-by-three university.
+Listen, Edith!" He emphasized his point by
+the movement of his forefinger. "We've a rule
+in business which is the test of everything. So
+long as you stick to it you can't go wrong in your
+estimates. <em class="italics">The value of a thing is as much money
+as it will bring.</em> You know the value of the intellectual
+in American eyes the minute you think
+of what the American people is willing to pay
+for it. You say your intellectual man has a position
+of his own. Well, you can see how big the
+position is by what he earns. He doesn't earn
+enough decently to support a wife, and so long
+as the American people have anything to say to
+it, he never will. You can box the whole compass
+of fellows who live by their wits—teachers,
+writers, journalists, artists, musicians, clergymen,
+and the whole tribe of them. We don't
+want them in this country, except as you want a
+spade and a hoe in your tool-house. When they
+try to get in, we starve them out; and, Collingham
+as you are, once you've married this fellow
+you'll go with your gang." He pushed back his
+chair and rose. "That's all I've got to say.
+Think it over." As he passed out through the
+French window to the terrace beyond he snapped
+his fingers. "Dauphin, come along!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But, perhaps for the first time in his life,
+Dauphin didn't immediately follow him. Instead, he went first to Edith, laying his long
+nozzle in her lap.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For five or ten minutes, as Collingham smoked
+his morning cigar while visiting the stables, the
+garage, and the kitchen garden, the natural man
+tried to raise his voice.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why didn't you say, 'Marry your man,
+Edith, my child, and I'll give you ten thousand
+a year?' Poor little girl," this first Collingham
+went on, "she's so frank and true and high
+spirited! You've made her unhappy when you
+could so easily have made her glad."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You said what any other American father
+in your position would have said," the pupil of
+Bickley and Junia argued, on the other side.
+"True, you've made her unhappy, but young
+people often have to be made unhappy in order
+that the foolish dictates of the heart may be
+repressed. There are millions of people all over
+the world whose lives would have been spoiled
+if such early emotional impulses hadn't been
+thwarted."</p>
+<p class="pnext">And, after all, it was true that the intellectual
+was not respected. The public pretended that it
+was, but when it came to the test of social and
+financial reward—the only rewards there were—the
+pretense was apparent. There were no intellectual
+people at Marillo Park; there were none
+whom he, Collingham, knew in business. There
+were men with brains; but to distinguish
+them from the intellectual they were described
+as brainy. Edith as the wife of an intellectual
+man would be self-destroyed; and it was his
+duty as her father to stop, if he could, that
+self-destruction.</p>
+<p class="pnext">By the time he had reached the point in his
+morning ritual which brought him to Junia's
+bedside, he was standardized again, even though
+it was with a bleeding heart. He could more
+easily suffer a bleeding heart than he could the
+fear of not being an efficient man of business.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What use have you had for the twenty-five
+thousand I've paid in your account?" he asked,
+before he kissed her good-by.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She concealed her anxiety that so many days
+had passed without a sign from Jennie under an
+air of nonchalance.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No use as yet, but I expect to have. I shall
+let you know when the time comes."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But no sign could come from Jennie, for the
+reason that her father died in mid-July, and
+during the intervening weeks she was tied to his
+bedroom. As the eldest daughter and the only
+one at home, all her other functions were absorbed
+in those of nurse. Luckily, there was
+money in the house, for Teddy had been successful
+in his efforts "on the side," and Bob continued
+to transmit small sums to herself, which
+she added to the hundred dollars in the top
+bureau drawer. Bob, Hubert, Collingham Lodge,
+her ambition, and her love became unreal and
+remote as she watched the setting of the sun to
+which her being had been turned. In the eyes of
+others, Josiah might be feeble and a failure, but
+to Teddy and his sisters he was their father, the
+pivot of their lives, the nearest thing to a supreme
+being they had known.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Lizzie's grief was different. Her heart didn't
+ache because he was dying. Life having become
+what it was, he was better dead. If she could
+have died herself, she would have gone to her
+rest gladly, had it not been for the children.
+For their sake, she remained sweet, calm, active,
+brewing and baking, sweeping and cleaning,
+sitting up at night with Josiah while they were
+asleep, and hiding the fact that instead of a
+heart she felt nothing within her but a stone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her grief was not for Josiah; it was for the
+futility of the best things human beings could
+bring to life. Honesty, industry, thrift, devotion,
+ambition, and romance had been the
+qualifications with which Josiah Follett and
+Lizzie Scarborough had faced the world; and
+this was the best the world could do with them.
+"It isn't as if we ever faltered or refused or
+turned aside," she mused to herself, as she hurried
+from one task to another. "We've been
+absolutely faithful. We've had pluck in the face
+of every discouragement and eaten ashes as if
+it were bread, and, in the end, we come to this.
+It makes no difference that we didn't deserve it;
+we get it just the same."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Josiah's wanderings as his mind grew feebler
+turned forever round one central theme: A job!
+a job! To be allowed to work! To have a chance
+to earn a living! It was his kingdom of heaven,
+his forgiveness of sins, his paradise of God. In the
+middle of night he would open his eyes and say:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've got a job, Lizzie. Fifty a week!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, yes," Lizzie would say, drawing the
+sheet about his shoulders. "Yes, yes; you'll go
+to town in the morning. Now turn over, dear,
+and go to sleep again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">These excitements were generally in the small
+hours of the morning. By day, he was less
+cheerful.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm all in, Jennie darling," he would say
+then. "I don't suppose I'll ever get a chance to
+do a day's work again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But one hot afternoon in the middle of July
+he woke from a long sleep with a look that
+startled her. Jennie had never seen the approach
+of death, but, now that she did, she knew it could
+be nothing else. He had simply rolled over on
+his back, staring upward with eyes that had become
+curiously glassy and sightless. Jennie ran
+to the head of the stairs.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Momma! Momma! Come quick!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He said nothing till Lizzie had reached the
+bedside. Though he didn't move his head or
+look toward her, he seemed to know that she was
+there.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Here's mother, Lizzie." He raised his hands,
+while a look of glad surprise stole over his face.
+"There's a country," he stammered on, brokenly,
+"no, it isn't a country—it's like a town—they're
+working—they've got work for me—and—and
+they're never—they're never—fired."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The hands fell, but the look of glad surprise
+was only shut out of sight by the coffin lid.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy paid for the lot in the cemetery, as well
+as the other expenses of the funeral, within a week
+of his father's death. "Now I'm through," he
+said to himself, with a long sigh of relief.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You darling Ted," was Jennie's commendation.
+"You must have given momma five hundred
+dollars at least. Now I hope you'll be able
+to save a little for yourself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">At the bank, Teddy's younger colleagues
+were sympathetic, Lobley especially doing him
+kindly little turns. He asked him to supper one
+evening at a restaurant, where they talked of
+marksmanship, at which Teddy had been proficient
+in the navy. He was out of practice now,
+he said, to which Lobley had replied that it was
+a pity. He, Lobley, had an automatic pistol
+illegally at home, and if Teddy would like to
+borrow it he could soon bring himself back to
+his old form. Teddy did so like, and went back
+to Pemberton Heights with the thing secreted on
+his person. It went with him to the bank next
+day—and every day.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For Teddy had begun to notice symptoms to
+which one less keenly suspicious would be blind.
+Nothing was ever said of money missing, and no
+hint thrown out that he himself was not trusted
+as before. He had nothing to go on except that
+Mr. Brunt became more taciturn than ever, and
+once or twice he thought he was being watched.
+The eyes of Jackman, the principal house detective, wandered often toward him, and twice
+he, Teddy, had seen Jackman in conference with
+Flynn.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"They'll never get me alive," was his inner
+consolation, though immediate suicide suggested
+itself as an alternative, and flight, disappearance,
+an absolute blotting out was a third
+expedient.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Yet nothing was sure; nothing was even remotely
+sure. By becoming too jumpy he might
+easily give himself away. Nicholson had had
+five years. In two years, in one, Teddy meant to
+be square with the bank again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But one afternoon, as he emerged into Broad
+Street on his way home, Jackman and Flynn
+were talking together on the opposite pavement.
+The boy jumped back, though not before he saw
+Jackman make a sign to Flynn which said as
+plainly as words, "There he is now."</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Teddy, it was the end of the world. All the
+past, all the future, merged into this single
+second of terror. He looked across at them; they
+looked across at him. There was a degree of confession
+in the very way in which his blanched
+face stared at them through the intervening
+crowds.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jackman's lips formed half a dozen syllables,
+emphasized by a nod and a lifting of the brows.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's the guy all righty," were the words
+Teddy practically heard.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Like a startled wild thing, he had but one impulse—to
+run. Actual running in Broad Street
+at that hour of the day being out of the question,
+he dived into the procession mounting toward
+Wall Street, ducking, dodging, pushing, almost
+knocking people down, and mad with fear.
+"They'll never get me alive," he was saying to
+himself; but how in that crowd to find space in
+which to turn the pistol to his heart already
+puzzled him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">At the corner of Wall Street he summoned
+courage to look over his shoulder. They might
+not be after him. If not, it would prove a false
+alarm, such as he had had before. But there
+they were—Jackman scrambling laboriously up
+the other side of Broad Street, and Flynn crossing
+it, picking his way among the vans and motor
+cars.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Like a frightened rabbit, Teddy scurried on
+again, meaning to gain Nassau Street and somehow
+double on his tracks.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xvi">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id17">CHAPTER XVI</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">But Teddy did not double on his tracks in
+Nassau Street, for the reason that, in again
+looking over his shoulder, he saw that Flynn had
+taken one side of that thoroughfare and Jackman
+the other. They were burly men, who moved
+heavily, while he, in spite of his stocky build,
+glided in and out among the pedestrians with the
+agility of a squirrel. He was putting distance
+between himself and them, and five minutes'
+leeway would be enough for him. All he needed
+was the space and privacy in which to shoot
+himself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">At the corner of John Street he turned to the
+left and made toward Broadway. They would
+expect him to do this, his chief hope being that
+among the homing swarms they would already
+have lost sight of him. His mind was not working.
+He was not looking ahead, even over the
+few minutes he had still to live. All his instincts
+were fused into the fear of the hand of the law
+on his person. It was like Jennie's terror of the
+hand of a man she didn't love—a frenzy for
+physical sanctity stronger than the fear of
+death.</p>
+<p class="pnext">At the same time, he couldn't run the risk of
+being more noticeable than the majority of people
+going his way. As he pushed and dodged, a
+young man whom he had jostled called out, in
+ironic good humor, "Say, is the cop after you?"
+at which Teddy almost lost his head. He expected
+a crowd to gather, and three or four men
+to hold him by the arms till Jackman and Flynn
+came up. But nothing happened. The protesting
+young man was lost in the scramble, and
+he, Teddy, found himself in Broadway.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Paying no heed to the jam of street cars, lorries,
+private cars, and motor trucks, he dashed
+into the interlaced streams of traffic. He dashed—and
+was held up. He dashed again—and was
+held up a second time. He was held up a third
+time, a fourth, and a fifth. With every spurt of
+two or three feet, cries warned him and curses
+startled him. "Say, sonny, your ma must have
+lost you," came from a jocose chauffeur beside
+whose machine Teddy had been brought to a
+halt. "I'd damn well like to run over you,"
+shouted the driver of a van who had narrowly
+escaped doing it. Teddy wished he had. If he
+could only be sure of being killed, it might have
+been the easiest way out.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Reaching the opposite pavement, he had time
+to see that Jackman had crossed lower down and
+more easily than he, and was lumbering toward
+him from the downtown direction. Jackman
+could have shouted to the passers-by to lay hold
+of Teddy, only that, from a distance and among
+such numbers, he couldn't indicate his victim.
+Being younger than Flynn and of lighter build,
+he could move in his own way almost with
+Teddy's rapidity. The boy didn't dare to run,
+because the action would have marked him out,
+but he started again on his snakelike gliding
+between pedestrians. He must gain some doorway,
+some cellar, some hole of any sort, in which
+to draw his pistol. He would have drawn it
+there and then, only that a hundred hands
+would have seized him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">All at once he saw the open portal of a great
+mercantile building, leading to a vast interior
+with which he was familiar. There were several
+exits and many floors. Once he had turned in
+here, he could cross the scent. In he went, with
+scores who were doing likewise, passing scores
+who were coming out. His first intention was to
+avoid the conspicuous exit toward Dey Street
+and make for the less obvious one into Fulton
+Street; but in doing that, he passed a line of
+some twenty lifts, of which one was about to
+close its door. He slipped into it like a hare into
+its warren. The door clanged; the lift moved
+upward with an oily speed. Among his companions
+he was hot, flurried, breathless, and yet
+not more so than any other young clerk who had
+been doing an errand against time.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There were nearly thirty floors, and he got off
+at the twenty-third. He chose the twenty-third
+so as not to get off too soon, and yet not call
+attention to himself by remaining in the lift
+when most of its occupants had left it. The floor
+was spacious and almost empty. A few people
+were waiting for a lift to take them down; a
+few were going in and out of offices, but otherwise
+he had the place to himself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mechanically he walked to a window and
+looked out. He seemed to be up in the sky, with
+only the tops of a few giant cubes on a level with
+himself. "Skyscrapers" they were called, and
+skyscrapers they seemed up here even more than
+down below. The tip of the great city, the
+stretches of the bay, the green slopes of Staten
+Island, and the far-off colossal woman with a
+torch were all within his vision, with the oblique
+strip that was Broadway, a tiny, ugly gash in
+which bacteria were squirming, deep down and
+cutting across the foreground.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Except for the dull roar that came up and the
+clang of an occasional footstep along the hallways,
+it was so still and pleasant that the need
+to shoot himself seemed for the minute less insistent.
+It would have to be done sooner or
+later, but when it comes to suicide, even a few
+minutes' respite is something. He could have
+done the thing right there and then by the
+window, where the few people within hearing
+would have run to him at sound of the shot. If
+the shot didn't kill him, they would keep him
+from firing another. Publicity, distasteful in
+itself, might lead to ineffectuality.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He must find a lavatory, and so began walking
+up and down the corridors, looking at doors
+discreetly placed in corners. When he came to
+his objective, it was locked. Again it was reprieve. The same door would be on other
+floors, but he was not ready for the moment to
+forsake his shelter. It was true that at any
+minute Flynn and Jackman might emerge from
+the lift, but there were nearly thirty chances
+that if they had followed him so closely they
+would not select this landing. Even more were
+the chances that they had not seen him slip into
+the building at all.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Fevered and thirsty, he stooped to drink at
+the fountain crowning the head of a little bronze
+woman with a pair of dolphins on her shoulders.
+She seemed to be of Maya type, and a uniformed
+guardian had once told him that a great modern
+sculptor had molded her. With a difference in
+dolphins, she was repeated on every floor, forever
+diademed in water.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy's mind had so far suspended operation
+as to his immediate plight that he went back to
+the morning, seven or eight months previously,
+when an errand from Mr. Brunt had brought
+him into the great ground-floor atrium, revealing
+the Basilica Julia or the Basilica Emilia of
+<em class="italics">Ancient Rome Restored</em> right there in lower
+Broadway. Simplicity, immensity, the awesome
+beauty of mere form! The wide spaces,
+the mighty columns, the tempered white light of
+majestic Roman windows! The absence of
+striving for effect! The peace, the restfulness,
+the cheerfulness, when striving for effect are
+abandoned, dwarfing the magnitude of crowds
+and reducing their ebbings and flowing to mere
+vanity! Like Jennie with her emotions, like
+Pansy with her intuitions, Teddy had no words
+for these impressions; but the Scarborough
+tradition, nursed on <em class="italics">Ancient Rome Restored</em>,
+vibrated to their music.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And here I am, trapped like a rat in a hole!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">So he came back to it. He wondered if he
+were awake. Was it possible that ten or fifteen
+minutes could have transformed him from a
+hard-working, home-loving boy into a fugitive
+who had no choice left but to shoot himself?
+As for facing the disgrace, he did not consider
+it. To stand before his mother charged with
+theft, even if it was on her behalf, was not to be
+thought of. He couldn't do it, and there was an
+end to it. Still less could he go through the other
+incidentals, handcuffs, a cell, the court, the
+sentence, Bitterwell, and the lifetime that would
+come after his release. He could put the pistol
+to his heart and, if necessary, he could burn in
+hell—if there was a hell; but he couldn't do the
+other thing.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And yet to put the pistol to his heart and burn
+in hell formed a lamentable choice on their side.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not a thief," he protested, inwardly. "I
+took the money—how could I help it, with dad
+sick and ma at the end of everything?—but <em class="italics">I'm
+not a thief</em>."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was sure of that. It became a formula,
+not perhaps of comfort, but of justification.
+Had he been a thief, he told himself, he could
+have faced the music; but it was precisely because he had taken money while preserving his
+inner probity that he refused to be judged by the
+standards of men. Once more he couldn't express
+it in this way to himself; but it was the
+conclusion to which his instincts leaped. Only
+one tribunal could discern between the good and
+evil in his case; so he was resolved to go before it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In a quiet corner he began to cry. He was
+only a boy, with a boy's facility of emotion,
+especially of distress. He cried at the thought
+of his mother and the girls, with no one to fend
+for them, and no Teddy coming home in the
+evenings. It was true that, apart from his
+filchings, he had been able to fend for them only
+to the extent of eighteen per, but there was
+always a chance of better days ahead. Even at
+the worst of times, they had a good deal of fun
+among themselves, and now....</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now his mother would be in the kitchen, beginning
+to get supper, and each of the girls would
+be making her way back to Indiana Avenue.
+Pansy's dog clock would tell her when to watch
+for them, and the loving little creature would be
+eying the door, ready to welcome each of them
+in turn. If she had a preference, it was for
+himself, and the feeling of her gentle paws
+against his shin was connected with the tenderest
+things he knew.</p>
+<p class="pnext">No; it wasn't possible. He couldn't be skyed
+on that twenty-third floor, unable to come down,
+unable to go home. It <em class="italics">must</em> be a nightmare.
+Such things didn't happen. He was Teddy
+Follett, a good boy at heart, with an honorable
+record in the navy. He had never meant to
+steal, but what could he do? The money was
+there, to be stacked in the vaults of Collingham
+&amp; Law's, not to be touched for months, very
+likely, and the home needs imperative. He
+couldn't see his father and mother turned out of
+house and home because they couldn't pay their
+taxes. It was not in common sense. Nothing
+was in common sense. That he should be
+dragged into court, that his mother should break
+her heart, that shame should be showered on his
+sisters was ridiculous. Somewhere in the universe
+there was a great big principle that was on
+his side, though he didn't know what it was.</p>
+<p class="pnext">What he did know was that crying was unmanly.
+Sopping up his tears and trying not to
+think, he jumped into the first lift that stopped
+and got out at floor eleven. There he went
+straight to the lavatory, which he now knew how
+to place, and once more found the door locked.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Though again it was reprieve, it was reprieve
+almost unwelcome. The first passing lift was
+going upward, and so he ascended to floor seventeen.
+Here again the lavatory was locked, as
+it was on floors nineteen and twenty-five, both
+of which he tried. He began to understand that
+they were locked according to a principle, and
+that for those seeking privacy in which to shoot
+themselves they offered no resource.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Moreover, offices were closing and the great
+building emptying itself rapidly. The rush was
+all to the lifts going downward. He, too, must
+go downward. To be found skulking in corridors
+where he had no business would expose him
+to suspicion. After nearly an hour spent above
+he descended to the atrium, where Flynn and
+Jackman might be watching the cages disgorge,
+knowing that in time he must appear from one
+of them.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But he walked out without interference. A
+far hint of twilight was deepening the atmosphere
+round the heads of the great columns, and the
+waning sunshine spoke of workers seeking rest.
+Streams of men and women, mostly young, were
+setting toward each of the exits, to Broadway,
+to Fulton Street, to Dey Street; and he had only
+to drop into one of them. He chose that toward
+Dey Street, finding himself in the open air, in
+full exercise of his liberty.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Once more it was hard to believe that there
+was a difference between this day and other
+days. It would have been so natural to go to
+the gym for a plunge or a turn with the foils,
+and then home to supper. He discussed with
+himself the possibility of a last night with the
+family, recoiling only from the fact that it was
+precisely there that they would look for him.
+Much reading of criminal annals had printed
+that detail on his brain—the poor wretch torn
+from the warm shelter of his home, with his
+wife's arms round him and the baby sleeping in
+the cradle. There was no wife or baby in this
+case; but to have the thing happen to himself,
+with his mother and the girls vainly trying to
+stay the course of the law, would be worse than
+going to the chair.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was in the uptown subway, with no outward
+difference between himself and the scores
+of other young men scanning the evening papers.
+Because he didn't know what else to do, he got
+out at Chambers Street. He got out at Chambers
+Street because there was a ferry there which
+would take him over to New Jersey. He went
+over to New Jersey because it was his habit at
+this hour of the day, and to follow his habit
+somehow preserved his sanity. To be on the
+same side of the river as his home was a faint,
+futile consolation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And while on the ferryboat a new idea came
+to him. In the Erie station he should find a
+telephone booth from which he could ring up his
+mother and inform her that he was not to be
+home that night. Though it would do no good
+in the end, it would at least save her from immediate
+alarm. Flynn and Jackman were
+unknown by face to the family, and if they rang
+at the door in search of him they would probably
+not tell their tale. Before he reached the
+other side he had concocted a story of which his
+only fear was as to his ability to tell it on the
+wire without breaking down.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was a bit of good luck to be answered by
+Gladys, whom he could "bluff" more easily
+than the rest of them.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, Gladys! This is Ted. Tell ma I'm
+in Paterson and shall not get home to-night or
+to-morrow night."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He could hear Gladys calling into the interior
+of the house:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, <em class="italics">what</em> do you know about that? Ted's
+at Paterson and not coming home to-night or
+to-morrow night." Into the receiver she said,
+"But, Ted, what'll they say at the bank?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I may not go back to the bank. This is a
+new job. You remember the fellow I was working
+for on the side? Well, he's put me into this,
+and perhaps I'm going to make money."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Ted," Gladys called, delightedly, "how
+many plunks?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It—it isn't a salary," he stammered. "I—I
+may be in the firm. To-morrow I may have to
+go to Philadelphia. Tell ma not to worry—and
+not to miss me. I'll try to call up from
+Philadelphia, but if I can't—Well, anyhow,
+give my love to ma and everybody, and if I'm
+not home the day after to-morrow, don't think
+anything about it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He put up the receiver before Gladys could
+ask any more questions, and felt ready to cry
+again. In order not to do that, he walked out
+of the station into the street, where the presence
+of the crowds compelled him to self-control.
+Having nothing to do and nowhere to go, he
+walked on and on, getting some relief from his
+desolation by the mere fact of movement.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So he walked and walked and walked, headed
+vaguely toward the outskirts of the town.
+There were vast marshes there into which he
+could stray and be lost. The rank grasses in this
+early August season were almost as high as his
+shoulders, so that he could lie down and be
+beyond all human ken. His body might not be
+found for weeks, might never be found at all.
+Teddy Follett would simply disappear, his fate
+remaining a mystery.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Toward seven o'clock, the shabby suburbs
+began to show their primrose-colored lights—a
+twinkle here, a twinkle there, stringing out in
+longer streets to scattered bits of garland. Teddy
+felt hungry. Counting his money and finding
+that he had two dollars and thirty-one cents, he
+was sorry not to be able to transmit the two
+dollars to his mother.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Growing more and more hungry, and knowing
+he must keep up his nerve, he spied a little
+bread-and-pastry shop just where the houses
+were thinning out and the marshes invading the
+town, as the ocean invaded the marshes. On
+entering, he asked for two tongue sandwiches
+and half a dozen doughnuts. The woman who
+wrapped up the sandwiches and dropped the
+doughnuts into a paper bag was an English-speaking
+foreigner of the Scandinavian type,
+blond, dumpy, with a row of bad teeth and
+piercing blue eyes. As she performed her task,
+she seemed not to take her eyes from off him,
+though her smile was kind, and she called his
+attention to the fact that she was giving him
+seven doughnuts for his six.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You don't lif rount here?" she asked, in
+counting out the change for his dollar.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; just going up the road."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, call again," she said, politely, as he
+took his parcels and went out.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having eaten his two sandwiches, he felt
+better, in the sense of being stronger and more
+able to face the thing that had to be done. He
+was not quite out on the marshes, the long, flat
+road cutting straight across them to the nearest
+little town. The lights were rarer, but still
+there were lights, their saffron growing more
+and more luminous as the colors of the sunset
+paled out. An occasional motor passed him,
+but never a man on foot.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He could have turned in anywhere, and perhaps
+for that reason he put off doing so. It
+would be easier, he argued, to shoot himself
+after dark. It was not dark as yet—only the
+long August gloaming. Moreover, the tramping
+was a relief, soothing his nerves and working off
+some of his horror. He wished he could go on
+with it, on and on, into the unknown, where he
+would be beyond recognition. But that was
+just where the trouble was. For the fugitive
+from justice recognition always lay in wait.
+He had often heard his father say that in the
+banking business you could get away with a
+thing for years and years, and yet recognition
+would spring on you when least expected. As
+for himself, recognition could meet him in any
+little town in New Jersey. They would have his
+picture in the paper by to-morrow—and, besides,
+what was the use?</p>
+<p class="pnext">The dark was undeniably falling when he
+noticed on the right a lonely shack with nothing
+but the marsh all round it. Coming nearly
+abreast of it, he detected a rough path toward
+it through the grass. He had no need of a path,
+no need of a shack, but, the path and the shack
+being there, they offered something to make for.
+Since he was obliged to turn aside, he might as
+well do it now.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So aside he turned. The path was hardly a
+path, and had apparently not been used that
+year. Wading through the dank grasses which
+caught him about the feet, he could hear small
+living things hopping away from his tread, or a
+marsh bird rise with a frightened whir of wings.
+Water gushed into his shoes, but that, he declared,
+wouldn't matter, as he would so soon be
+out of the reach of catching cold.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The building proved to be all that fire had left
+of a shanty knocked together long ago, probably
+for laborers working on the road. The walls were
+standing, and it was not quite roofless. There was
+no door, and the window was no more than a hole,
+but as he ventured within he found the flooring
+sound. At least, it bore his weight, and, what was
+more amazing still, he tripped over a rough bench
+which the fire had spared and the former occupants
+had not thought worth the carting away.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the very thing. Shooting oneself was
+something to be performed with ritual. You
+lay down, stretched yourself out, and did it with
+a hint of decency.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy groped his way. First he drew the
+pistol from his hip pocket, laying it carefully on
+the floor and within reach of his hand. Next he
+sat down for a minute, but, fearing he would
+begin to think, lifted his feet to the bench,
+lowered his back, and straightened himself to his
+full, flat length. Putting down his hand, he
+found he could touch the pistol easily, and therefore
+let it lie. He let it lie only because he had
+not yet decided where to fire—at his heart or
+into his temple.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Outside the hut there was a hoarse, sleepy
+croak, then another, and another, and another.
+The dangers of light being past, the frogs were
+waking to their evening chant. Teddy had always
+loved this dreamy, monotonous lullaby,
+reminiscent of spring twilights and approaching
+holidays. He was glad now that it would be the
+last sound to greet his ears on earth. Since he
+had to go, it would croon to him softly, cradle
+him gently, letting the night of the soul come
+down on him consolingly. He was not frightened;
+he was only tired—oddly tired, considering
+where he was. It would be easier to fall asleep
+than do anything else, listening to the co-ax, co-ax,
+co-ax, with which the darkness round was filled.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">And right at that minute, Flynn, with low
+chuckles of laughter, was telling Mrs. Flynn of
+the extraordinary adventure of the afternoon.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We didn't have nothin' on the young guy at
+all till we seen him look over at us scared-like,
+and he tuck to his heels."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was a cozy scene—Flynn, in his shirt sleeves
+and slippers, smoking his pipe in the dining-room
+of a Harlem apartment, while his wife, a plump,
+pretty woman, was putting away the spoons and
+forks in the drawer of the yellow-oak sideboard.
+The noisy Flynn children being packed off to
+bed, the father could unbend and become
+confidential.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's about three weeks now since Jackman
+put me wise to money leakin' from Collingham &amp;
+Law's, and we couldn't tell where the hole was.
+First we'd size up one fella, and then another;
+but we'd say it couldn't be him or him. We
+looked over this young Follett with the rest, but
+only with the rest, and found but wan thing
+ag'in' him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Didn't he lose his father a short while back?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; and that was what made us think of
+him. Old Follett was fired from the bank eight
+or nine months ago, and yet the family had gone
+on livin' very much as they always done."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That'd be to their credit, wouldn't it?" Mrs. Flynn
+suggested, kindly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It'd be to some one's credit; and the thing
+we wanted to know was if it was to Collingham
+&amp; Law's. But we hadn't a thing on him. We
+found out he'd paid for the old man's funeral,
+and the grave, and all that; but whether old
+Follett had left a little wad or whether the
+young guy'd found it lyin' around loose, we
+couldn't make out at all. And then this afternoon,
+as Jackman and me was talkin' it over on
+the other side o' Broad Street, who should come
+out but me little lord! Well, wan look give the
+whole show away. The third degree couldn't ha'
+been neater. The very eyes of him when he seen
+us on the other side o' the street says, 'My God!
+they've got me!' So off he goes—and off we
+goes—up Broad Street—into Wall Street—across
+to Nassau Street—up Nassau Street—round the
+corner into John Street—up to Broadway—over
+Broadway—and then we lost him. But we've
+done the trick. To-morrow, when he comes to
+the bank, we'll have him on the grill. Sooner or
+later he'd ha' been on the grill, anyhow."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But suppose he doesn't come?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That'll be a worse give-away than ever."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She turned from the drawer, asking of the
+Follett family and learning whatever he had to tell.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you say he's a fine boy of about twenty-one."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That'd about be his age. Yes, a fine, upstanding
+lad—and very pop'lar with Jackman
+he's always been."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She waited a minute before saying, "Oh, Peter,
+I wish you'd let him off."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, now, Tessie," he expostulated, "there
+you go again! If you had your way, there'd be
+no law at all."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, I wish there wasn't."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He laughed with a jolly guffaw.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If there was no law, and no one to break it,
+where'd your trip to the beach be this summer, and
+the new Ford car I'm goin' to get for the boys?
+Anyhow, even if we do get him with the goods
+on him, which we're pretty sure o' doin' now,
+he'll be recommended to mercy on account of
+his youth, and p'raps be let off with two years."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes—and what'll he be when he comes out?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Getting up, he pulled her to him, with his
+arm across her shoulder.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, now, Tessie, don't be lookin' so far
+ahead. That's you all over."</p>
+<p class="pnext">And he kissed her.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">Gladys, that evening, kissed her mother, in
+the hope of kissing away her foreboding. Lizzie
+had not been satisfied with Teddy's story on the
+telephone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't understand why he didn't ask to
+speak to me," she kept repeating.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, momma," Gussie explained to her,
+"don't you see? It was a long-distance call.
+Three minutes is all he was allowed, and of
+course he didn't want to pay double. Here's his
+chance to make money that we've all been
+praying for since the year one; and you pull a
+long face over it. Cheer up, momma, <em class="italics">do</em>! Smile!
+Smile more! There! That's better. Ted said
+himself that you were not to miss him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So Lizzie did her best to smile, only saying in
+her heart, "I don't understand his not speaking
+to <em class="italics">me</em>."</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xvii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id18">CHAPTER XVII</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">Teddy woke to a brilliant August sunshine,
+and that calling of marsh birds which is
+not song. He woke with a start and with terror.
+He was still on the bench, though turned over on
+his side, and with the pistol in view. He needed
+a minute to get his wits together, to piece out
+the meaning of the blackened walls, the sagging
+floor, and the sunlight streaming through the rent
+in the roof. A hole that had once been a door
+and another that had once been a window let the
+summer wind play over his hot face, bringing a
+soft refreshment.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Dragging himself to a sitting posture, his first
+sensation was one of relief. "I'm alive!" He
+hadn't done the thing he had planned last night!
+Merciful sleep had nailed him to the bench,
+keeping him motionless, unconscious. The pistol
+had lain within reach of his hand, and was there
+still; it could do duty still, but for the moment
+he was alive. Had he ever asked God for help
+or thanked Him when it came, he would have
+gone down on his knees and done it now; but
+the habit was foreign to the Follett family. He
+could only thank the purposeless Chance, which
+is the god most of us know best.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But he was glad. Twelve hours previously he
+had not supposed it possible ever to be glad
+again. It <em class="italics">had</em> been a nightmare, he reasoned now,
+or, if not a nightmare, it had been thought out
+of focus. He hadn't seen straight and normally.
+It was as if he had been drunk or mildly insane.
+He recalled experiences during naval nights
+ashore, at Brest or Bordeaux or Hampton Roads,
+when, after a glass or two of something, his
+mind had taken on this fevered twist in which
+all life had gone red.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bickley had read this from the lines of his
+profile. "Forehead slightly concave; mouth
+and chin distinctly convex; tends to act before
+he thinks." The other traits had been satisfactory,
+indicating pluck, patience, fidelity, and
+cheerfulness of outlook.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The cheerfulness of outlook asserted itself
+now. Since he was alive on a glorious summer
+morning, the two great assets of a man, himself
+and the outside world, were still at his command.
+Nevertheless, he didn't blink the facts.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not a thief—but I took the money.
+They're after me, and they mustn't get me. I'll
+shoot myself first; but I don't have to shoot
+myself—yet."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He would not have to shoot himself so long
+as he was safe, and safety might take many turns.
+The abandoned, half-burnt sty in which he had
+found refuge was a fortress in its very loneliness.
+Close to the road, close to Jersey City, not very
+far from Pemberton Heights, it had probably no
+visitor but a toad or a bird or a truant boy from
+twelvemonth to twelvemonth.</p>
+<p class="pnext">His chief danger was that of being seen. The
+door and the window were both on the side
+toward the road. By avoiding the one and
+ducking under the other, he could move, but he
+could move very little. That little, however,
+would stretch his muscles and relieve the intolerable
+idleness.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The idleness, he knew, would be irksome. By
+looking at his watch, which had not run down,
+he found it was six o'clock. The six o'clock stir
+was also in the air. Motors had begun to dash
+along the road, and market garden teams were
+lumbering toward the big town. He was hungry
+again, but with his seven doughnuts still in the
+bag he couldn't starve to death.</p>
+<p class="pnext">By getting on the floor he found a peephole
+just above the level of the grass through which
+he could see without detection. This must be
+his spying place. Unlikely as it was that anyone
+would track him to this lair, he must be carefully
+on the lookout. What he should do if threatened
+with a visitor was not very clear to him. There
+being no exit except by the door, and the door
+being toward the road from which a visitor would
+naturally approach, there was no escape on that
+side. Escape being out of the question, there
+would only remain—the other thing. The other
+thing was always the great possibility. He hadn't
+abandoned the thought of it; he had only postponed
+the necessity. He would live as long as he
+could; and yet the necessity of the other thing
+would probably arise. If it arose, he hoped he
+should get through it by that tendency which he
+recognized in himself as clearly as Mr. Bickley
+had read it from his profile—to act before he
+thought.</p>
+<p class="pnext">With this as a possibility, he got down to his
+peephole, put the pistol near him on the floor,
+and began on his doughnuts. For breakfast, he
+allowed himself three, keeping the rest for his
+midday needs. When darkness fell he would
+steal out and buy more. He could do this as
+long as his money held out, and before it was
+spent something would probably have happened.
+What that something would be he did not forecast.
+He was in a fix where forecasting wasn't
+possible. The minute was the only thing, and a
+thing that had grown precious.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Even the family had somehow become subordinate
+to that. In the strangeness of his night,
+he seemed to have traveled away from them. A
+man clinging to a spar on the ocean might have
+had this sense of remoteness from his dear ones
+safe on shore. Since they were safe on shore,
+that would be the main thing. Since his mother
+and sisters could come and go in Indiana Avenue,
+he could wish them nothing more. That was
+the all-essential, and they had it. Want, anxiety,
+grief, "and no Teddy coming home in the evenings,"
+were trifles as compared with this priceless
+blessing of security.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So he settled down amid filth and slime and the
+debris of charred wood to watch and wait and
+cling to his life till he could cling to it no longer.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Later that morning, Mrs. Collingham motored
+from Marillo to see Hubert Wray's much-discussed
+picture, "Life and Death," in a famous
+dealer's gallery in Fifth Avenue. It had hung
+there a week, and though the season was dead, it
+was being talked about. Among the few in New
+York who care for the art of painting, the picture
+had "caught on." The important critics had
+honored it with articles, in which one wrote
+black and another white with an equal authority.
+The important middlemen had come in to look
+at it, saying to one another, "Here's a fellow
+who'll go far—<em class="italics">en voilà un qui va faire son chemin</em>."
+The important connoisseurs had made a point of
+viewing it, with their customary fear of expressing
+admiration for the work of a native son. From
+the few who knew, the interest was spreading to
+the many who didn't know but were anxious to
+appear as if they did.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia's introduction to the picture had caused
+her some chagrin. She had not ranked Hubert
+among the important family acquaintances, and
+when he came down to Collingham Lodge, for a
+night or two, as occasionally he did, she presented
+him to only the more negligible neighbors.
+"A young man Bob met in France," was all the
+explanation he required.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But in dining out recently she had been led
+in to dinner by a man of unusual enlightenment,
+with whose flair and discernment she liked to
+keep abreast. To do this she was accustomed
+to fall back on such scraps of reviews or art notes
+as drifted to her through the papers, bringing
+them out with that knack of "putting her best
+goods in the window" which was part of her
+social equipment. Books and the theater being
+too light for her attention, she was fond of
+displaying in music and painting the <em class="italics">expertise</em> of
+a patroness. She could not only talk of Boldini
+and Cezanne, of Paul Dukas and Vincent d'Indy,
+but could throw off the names of younger men
+just coming into view as if eagerly following
+their development.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her neighbor's comments on the new picture,
+"Life and Death," at the Kahler Gallery were of
+value to her chiefly because they were up to
+date and told her what to say. "A reaction
+against the cubists and post-impressionists in
+favor of an art rich in color, suggestion, and significance,"
+was a useful phrase and one easy to
+remember. But not having caught the painter's
+name, she felt it something of a shock when,
+with the impressiveness of one whose notice
+confers recognition, her escort went on to remark:
+"I'm going to look up this young
+Hubert Wray and ask him down to Marillo.
+You and Bradley will be interested in meeting
+him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia's chagrin was inward, of course, and
+arose from the fact of having had a budding
+celebrity like a tame cat about the house, not
+merely without suspecting it, but without keeping
+in touch with the thing he was creating. At the
+same time, she couldn't have been the woman
+she was had it not been for the faculty of tuning
+herself up to any necessary key.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her smile was of the kind that grants no
+superiority even to a man of unusual enlightenment.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You can't imagine how interested I am in
+hearing your opinion of the dear boy's work, and
+so I've been letting you run on. He happens to
+be a very intimate friend of ours—he comes
+down to stay with us every few weeks—and I've
+been watching his development so keenly. I
+really do think that with this picture he'll arrive;
+and to have a man like you agree with me delights
+me beyond words."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was also the excuse she needed for calling
+Hubert up. More than two months had passed
+since her meeting with Jennie, and the twenty-five
+thousand dollars was still lying to her credit
+at the bank. She was not unaware of a reason
+for this, in that Bradley had told her of old
+Follett's death, and even a "bad girl" like
+Jennie must be allowed some leeway for grief.
+But Follett had been nearly two weeks in his
+grave, and still the application for the twenty-five
+thousand didn't come. Unless a pretext
+could be found for keeping Bob in South America,
+he would soon be on his way homeward, and
+she, Junia, was growing anxious. To be face to
+face with Hubert would give her the opportunity
+she was looking for.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He met her at the street entrance to the Kahler
+Gallery, conducting her through the main exposition of canvases to a little shrine in the rear.
+It was truly a shrine, hung in black velvet,
+and with no lighting but that which fell indirectly
+on the vivid, vital thing just sprung
+into consciousness of life, like Aphrodite risen
+from the sea foam. But, just sprung into consciousness
+of life, she had been called on at once
+to contemplate death, eying it with a mysterious
+spiritual courage. The living gleam of flesh, the
+marble of the throne, and the skull's charnel
+ugliness stood out against a blue-green atmosphere,
+like that of some other plane.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia was startled, not by the power and
+beauty of this apparition, but by something
+else.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You've—you've changed her," she said, with
+awed breathlessness, after gazing for three or
+four minutes in silence.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You mean the model?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She nodded a "Yes," without taking her eyes
+from the extraordinary vision.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You've seen her?" he asked, in mild surprise.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Just once."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The figure is exact," he explained, "but I
+did have to make changes in the features. It
+wouldn't have done, otherwise."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, of course not."</p>
+<p class="pnext">More minutes passed in silent contemplation,
+when she said:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I thought there was more of the gleam of the
+red in amber in the hair. This hair is a brown
+with a little red in it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I got it as nearly as I could," he felt it
+enough to say. "The shade and sheen and silkiness
+of hair are always difficult."</p>
+<p class="pnext">After more minutes of hushed gazing, Junia
+made a venture. She spoke in that insinuating,
+sympathetic tone which in moments of tensity
+a woman can sometimes take toward a man.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You're in love with her—aren't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He jerked his head in the direction of the nude
+woman.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"With her? That model? Why, no! What
+made you think so?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia was disconcerted.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, only—only the hints that have seeped
+through when you didn't think you were giving
+anything away."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He said, with some firmness:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I never meant to give that away—or to hint
+that it was—that it was love—a <em class="italics">rouleuse</em> of the
+studios, whom any fellow can pick up."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia felt like a person roaming aimlessly
+through sand who suddenly stumbles on gold.
+There was more here than, for the moment, she
+could estimate. All she could see were possibilities;
+but there was one other point as to
+which she needed to be sure. It was conceivable
+that the thing might have been painted long ago,
+before Bob's departure for South America, in
+which case it would lose at least some of its value
+for her purpose.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"When did you do this, Hubert?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, just within the last few weeks."</p>
+<p class="pnext">This was enough. With her usual swiftness of
+decision, she had her plans in mind.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What are you asking?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He named his price. It was a large one, but
+her balance at the bank was large. It could be
+put to this use as well as to another.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'll take it," she said, after a minute's consideration,
+"if you could let me have it within a
+few days."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Not to betray the eagerness he felt, he said
+that it would give him publicity to keep it on
+view as long as possible.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It will be almost as much publicity to have it
+on view at Marillo."</p>
+<p class="pnext">And in the end he agreed that this was so.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He walked back to the studio as if wings on his
+feet were lifting him above the pavement. It
+was the seal on his success. "Sold to a private
+collector" would be a bomb to throw among the
+dealers, who had been taking their time and
+dickering. It was more than the seal on this one
+success; it was a harbinger of the next success.
+And with this thing behind him, the next success
+was calling to him to begin.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He already knew what he should begin on.
+It was to be called, "Eve Tempting the Serpent."
+He was not yet sure how he should treat the idea,
+but a lethargic semihuman reptile was to be
+roused to the concept of evil by a woman's
+beauty and abandonment. The thing would be
+daring; but it couldn't be too daring, or it would
+bring down on him the recrudescent blue-law
+spirit already so vigorous through the country.
+He couldn't afford a tussle with that until he was
+better established.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But he had made some sketches, and had
+written to Jennie that he should like to talk the
+matter over on that very afternoon. She had
+written in reply that, at last, she would be free
+to come. For the first few days after the funeral
+she had been either too grief stricken or too busy;
+but now the claims of life were asserting themselves
+again and she was trying to respond to
+them. He must not expect her to be gay; but
+she would grow more cheerful in time.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So he went back to the studio to lunch and
+to wait for her coming. Till she had ceased
+coming he hadn't known how much the daily
+expectation of seeing her had meant to him. The
+very occasions on which she had, as he expressed
+it, played him false had brought an excitement
+which he would have been emotionally poorer
+for having missed. He could not go through the
+experience often; he could, perhaps, not go
+through it again. But for that test he was apparently
+not to be called upon. She was coming.
+She knew what she was coming for. The very
+fact that she had written meant surrender.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And that, indeed, was what Jennie had been
+saying to herself all through the morning. Now
+that there had been this interval, she knew that
+her latitude for saying "Yes" and acting "No"
+was at an end. If she went at all, she must go all
+the way. To go once more and draw back once
+more would not be playing the game. She was
+clear in her mind that the day would be decisive.
+As to her decision, she was not so sure.</p>
+<p class="pnext">That is, she was not sure of its wisdom, though
+sure what she would do. She would do what she
+had meant to do more than two months earlier.
+There was no reason why she shouldn't, and the
+same set of reasons why she should. Not only
+were the money and release imperative, but
+Hubert meant more to her than ever. His sympathy
+through her sorrow had touched her by
+its very novelty. He had written, sent flowers,
+and kept himself in the background. Bob would
+have done more and moved her less, for the reason
+that doing all and giving all were in his nature.
+The rare thing being the most precious thing,
+she treasured the perfunctory phrases in Hubert's
+scrawl of condolence above all the outpourings of
+Bob's heart.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Nevertheless, she treasured them with misgivings.
+The consciousness of being married had
+acquired some strength from watching the effect
+of her father's death on her mother. She had
+known, ever since growing up, that her father
+and mother had been unequally mated. It was
+not wholly a question of practical failure or
+success—it was rather that the balance of moral
+support had been so shifted between them that
+the mother had nothing to sustain her. "Poor
+momma," had been Jennie's way of putting it,
+"has to take the burden of everything. She's
+got us on her shoulders, and poppa, too." And
+yet, with Josiah's death, some prop of Lizzie's
+inner life seemed to have been snatched away.
+She was not weaker, perhaps, but she was more
+detached, and stranger. To her children, to her
+neighbors, she had always been strange, always
+detached, but now the aloofness had become
+more significant. With Josiah alone she had
+lived in that communion of things shared which
+leads to understanding. Now that he was gone,
+something had gone with him, leaving Lizzie
+like an empty house.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie was thrown back on what Bob had
+repeated so often: "You're the other half of me;
+I'm the other half of you." Whether it came
+through some impulse of affinity, or whether it
+was the chance of conscientiously living together,
+Jennie wasn't sure; but it began to seem
+as if in the mere fact of marriage there was a
+naturally unifying principle. To go against it
+was, in a measure, to go against the forces of the
+universe; and though she had only been nominally
+married to Bob, she was preparing to go
+against it. Had she been a rebel at heart, it
+would have been easier; but she was docile,
+loving, eager to be loved, with nothing more
+daring in her soul than the wish to live at peace
+with the world she saw round her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob's letters were disturbing, too. In the way
+of a happy future, he took everything for granted.
+He reasoned as if, now that they had gone
+through a certain form together and signed it
+with a parson's name, she had no more liberty
+of will than a woman in a harem. Little as she
+was rebellious, she rebelled against that, preferring
+an element of chance in her love to a love
+in which there was no choice. Bob wrote as if
+her love was of no importance, as if he could
+love enough for two—did, in fact, love enough
+for two—so that the whole need of loving was
+taken off her hands.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">I feel, as if my love was the air and you were a plant to
+grow in it. It's the sunshine to which your leaves and
+blossoms will only have to turn.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">"That's all very well for him," she said, falling
+back with a grimace on the language Gussie
+brought home with her from vaudeville shows,
+"but I ain't no blooming plant."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Hubert's love, she thought at other times,
+was like a rare and precious cordial, of which a
+few drops carefully doled out ran like fire through
+the veins. Bob's was a rushing torrent which,
+without saying with your leave or by your leave,
+carried you away. She preferred the cordial, of
+which you could take up the glass and put it
+down according as you wanted less or more; but,
+on the other hand, when there was a flood which,
+without asking your permission, poured all over
+you, what were you to do? She knew what she
+meant to do; but it was the difficulty of doing it
+and facing that terrific tide which made her
+stand aghast. If Bob would only let her alone....</p>
+<p class="pnext">But, then, Bob couldn't let her alone. He
+himself would have argued that you might as
+well ask a man to let a hand or a foot alone while
+it is aching. At the minute when Jennie was
+thinking these thoughts as she flitted about the
+house, he was seated at an open hotel window on
+the Santa Thereza hill above Rio de Janeiro, looking
+down on an iridescent city creeping round
+the foam-fringed edges of a turquoise sea, and
+saying to himself: "I'm watching over you,
+Jennie. I'm here, but my love is there and fills
+all the space between us. I came away and left
+you exposed to all sorts of trouble. I shouldn't
+have done that; I'm sorry now I did. I thought
+that if we were married the rest would take
+care of itself; but I see now it couldn't. You're
+having a harder time than I ever supposed
+you'd have, and you're having it all alone; but
+my love is with you, Jennie, and the worst can't
+happen while it protects you. Dangers will
+threaten you, but you'll go to meet them with
+my love closing you in, and something will ward
+them off."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I wish he'd stop thinking about me like
+that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie's reference, while she stood at the
+mirror putting the last touches to her costume,
+was to this same thought as expressed in the
+letters she received from South America. Its
+appeal to her imagination was such as to create
+an atmosphere wrapping her about as a halo
+wraps a saint. She couldn't get away from it.
+In going to meet Hubert, as she would do in a
+few minutes, it would go with her, an embarrassing
+witness of the sin against itself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For the minute, the action of her mind was
+twofold. She was making this protest as to Bob
+and was also giving minute attention to her
+dress. Not only was it her first appearance in
+public since her father's funeral but it was a
+moment at which the victim must be neatly
+decked for the altar. Having no money to spend
+on "mourning," she had put deft touches of black
+on a last year's white summer suit, to which a
+black hat thrown together by Gussie, with the
+black shoes and stockings already in her possession,
+added their mute witness that she was
+grieving for a relative. Having, moreover, the
+native <em class="italics">chic</em> which counts for most in the art of
+dressing, she was one more instance of the girl
+of the humbler walks in life who, by some secret
+of her own, confounds the product of the Rue de
+la Paix.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was to leave for the studio as soon as her
+mother got up from her early-afternoon rest.
+The early-afternoon rest had become a necessity
+for Lizzie ever since the day when Josiah had
+been laid away.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You'll call me if Teddy rings," she had stipulated,
+before lying down, and Jennie had promised
+faithfully.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As to Teddy's message, nominally sent from
+Paterson, Lizzie had betrayed a skepticism which
+the three girls found disconcerting. She said
+nothing, but it was precisely the saying nothing
+that puzzled them. When they themselves grew
+expansive over the things they would buy with
+the money Teddy was going to make, the mother's
+faint smile was alarming. It was alarming
+chiefly because it combined with other things to
+produce that effect of strangeness they had all
+noticed in her since their father died. Though
+they couldn't define it for themselves, it was as
+if she had renounced any further effort to make
+life fulfill itself. She was like a man on a sinking
+ship, who, after casting about as to how he may
+save himself, knows there is no choice left but to
+go down, and so becomes resigned. Having
+thrown up her hands, Lizzie was waiting for the
+waters to close over her. Jennie was thus uneasy
+about her mother, as she was uneasy about Bob,
+uneasy about Hubert, and, most of all, uneasy
+about herself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">By the time she was ready she heard Lizzie
+stirring in her bedroom. It was the signal agreed
+upon. She was free to go, which meant that she
+was free to turn her back on all her more or less
+sheltered past and strike out toward a terrifying
+future. She felt as she had always supposed she
+would feel on leaving her home on her wedding
+day; and she would do as she had decided she
+would do in that event. She would go without
+making a fuss, without anything to record that
+the going was different from other goings, or
+that the return would be different from other
+returns. She would make her departure casual,
+without consciousness, without admitted intentions. She merely called to her mother, therefore,
+through the closed door, that she was on
+her way, and her mother had called out in
+response, "Very well." This leave-taking making
+things easier—all Jennie had to do was to
+gulp back a sob.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xviii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id19">CHAPTER XVIII</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">But as Jennie opened the door to let herself
+out, two men were standing on the cement
+sidewalk in front of the grassplots, examining the
+house. They were big, heavily built men, who,
+although in plain clothes, suggested the guardianship
+of law. It came to Jennie instantly that
+their examination of the house was peculiar; and
+of that peculiarity she divined with equal
+promptness the significance. The men declared
+afterward that in her manner of standing
+on the step and waiting till they spoke to her
+there was the same kind of "give-away" as when
+her brother had eyed them across Broad Street.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The older and heavier of the two advanced
+up the walk between the grassplots.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"This is the Follett house, ain't it, miss?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie replied that it was.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you're Miss Follett?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She assented again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is your brother in?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"N-no; he's not in town."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The big man turned toward his taller and
+slighter colleague, whatever he had to say being
+communicated by a look. Having expressed this
+thought, he veered round again toward Jennie,
+speaking politely.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Maybe we could have a word with you,
+private-like."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Won't you step in?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Presently they were all three seated in the
+living room, the big man continuing as spokesman.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, now, about your brother, Miss Follett;
+you're sure he isn't anywheres around?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The inference from the tone was that somehow
+Jennie was secreting him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He isn't to my knowledge. He called up
+last evening to say that he wouldn't be home
+to-day, and perhaps not to-morrow."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The two men being seated within range of
+each other's eyes, some new understanding was
+flashed silently.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Did he, then? And where would he have
+called up from?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"From Paterson."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"From Paterson, was it? And what made you
+think it was from Paterson?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He said so."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And that was all you had to go by?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That was all."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, well, now! He said so, did he? And
+he didn't come home last night?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie shook her head.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For a third time Flynn's eyes telegraphed
+something to Jackman's, and Jackman's responded.
+What they said to each other Jennie
+didn't try to surmise, for the reason that she was
+listening to a call. It was the call that Teddy
+had heard on the night when his father had
+brought home the news that he was "fired"—the
+call to assume responsibilities. Her father
+had gone; her mother was collapsing; Teddy had
+broken beneath the strain. "And now it's up to
+me." Mentally, she spoke the words almost
+before she was conscious of the thought. "And
+that settles it." These words, too, she spoke
+mentally, but in them the reference was different.
+The vision of love and twenty-five thousand
+dollars, of bliss for herself and relief for the
+family, which had waxed and waned so often,
+now faded out forever behind a mass of storm-clouds.
+But of all this she gave no sign as she
+waited for the burly man to speak again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And when your brother called up from
+Paterson—let us say it was Paterson—didn't
+you ask him no questions at all?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He didn't speak to me. I wasn't at home.
+It was to my little sister. I understood that he
+rang off before she could ask him anything."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, he did, did he?" The telegraphy between
+the two men was renewed. "And didn't
+he say nothin' about what had tuck him to a
+place like Paterson?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I think he said it was business."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"'Business,' was it? Ah, well, now! And
+what sort of business would that be?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't know."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And would you tell me now if you did
+know?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie looked at him with clear, limpid eyes.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not sure that I would. I don't know
+what right you have to ask me questions as it is."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"This right." Turning back the lapel of his
+coat, he displayed a badge. "We don't want to
+frighten you, Miss Follett, my friend and me,
+we don't; but if you know anything about the
+boy, it'll be easier in the long run both for him
+and for you—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What do you want him for?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Lizzie's voice was so deep that it startled. On
+the threshold of the little entry she stood, tall,
+black robed, almost unearthly. At the same
+time Pansy, who had also come downstairs, crept
+toward Flynn with a low, vicious growl. Both
+men stumbled to their feet, awed by something
+in Lizzie which was more than the majesty of
+grief.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, now, we're sorry to disturb you, ma'am,
+my friend and me. We know you've had trouble,
+and we wouldn't be for wantin' to bring more
+into a house where there's enough of it already.
+But when things is duty, they can't be put by
+just because they're unpleasant—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Has my son been taking money from Collingham
+&amp; Law's?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The spectral voice gave force to the directness
+of the question. Abandoning the hint of professional
+bullying he had taken toward Jennie,
+Flynn, with Pansy's teeth not six inches from his
+calf, went a pace or two toward the figure in the
+entry.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Has he been takin' money, that boy of yours?
+Well now, and have you any reason to think so,
+ma'am?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"None—apart from what I hoped."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Momma!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie sprang to her mother, grasping her by
+the arm. While Jackman stood like an iron
+figure in the background, Flynn, always with
+Pansy's teeth keeping some six inches from his
+calf, advanced still another pace or two.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, now, that's a quare thing, ma'am, for
+the mother of a lad to say—that she hoped he
+was takin' money."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, don't mind her," Jennie pleaded. "She
+hasn't been just—just <em class="italics">right</em>—ever since my
+father died."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I didn't think of it at first," Lizzie stated,
+in a lifeless voice. "I believed what he told us,
+that he was making money on the side. It was
+only latterly that I began to suspect that he
+wasn't; and now I hope he took it from the
+bank."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But, good God! ma'am, why? Don't you
+know he'll be caught—and what he'll get for it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, he'd get that just the same, if you mean
+suffering and punishment and a life of misery.
+All I want is that he should be the first to
+strike. Since he's got to go down before brute
+power—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Brute power of law and order, ma'am, if
+you'll allow me to remind you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She uttered a little joyless laugh.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Law and order! You'll excuse me for
+laughing, won't you? I've heard so much of
+them—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you're likely to hear a lot more, if this
+is the way o' things."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I expect to. They'll do me to death, as
+they'll do you, and as they do everyone else.
+Law and order are the golden images set up for
+us to bow down to and worship as gods; and we
+get the reward that's always dealt out to those
+who believe in falsehood."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Flynn appealed to both Jennie and Jackman.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I never heard no one talk like that, whether
+dotty or sane."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If it was real law and order," Lizzie continued,
+with the same passionless intonation,
+"that would be another thing. But it isn't.
+It's faked law and order. It's a plaster on a sore,
+meant to hide the ugly thing and not to heal it.
+It's to keep bad bad by pretending that it's
+good—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, but bad as it is, ma'am," Flynn began to
+reason, "it's better than stealin'—now, isn't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Lizzie seemed ready for him here.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I think I've read in your Bible that the commandment,
+'Thou shalt not steal,' was given to
+a people among whom it was a principle that
+everyone should be provided for. If it happened
+that anyone was not provided for, there was
+another commandment given as to him, 'Thou
+shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the
+corn.' He was to be free to take what he needed."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Flynn shook his head.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That may be in the Bible, ma'am; but it
+wouldn't stand in a court o' law."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Of course it wouldn't; only, the court of
+law is nothing to me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It can make itself something to you, ma'am,
+if you don't mind my sayin' so."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh no, it can't! It can try me and sentence
+me and lock me up; but that's no worse than
+law and order are doing to me and mine every
+hour of the day."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, momma," Jennie pleaded, clinging to her
+mother's arm, "please stop—<em class="italics">please</em>!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm only warning him, darling. Law and
+order will bring him to grief as it does everyone
+else. How many did it kill in the war? Something
+like twelve millions, wasn't it, and could
+anyone ever reckon up the number of aching
+hearts it's left alive?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, momma; but that kind of talk doesn't
+do Teddy any good."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It does if we make it plain that he was only
+acting within his rights. These people think
+that by passing a law they impose a moral duty.
+What nonsense! I want my son to be brave
+enough to strike at such a theory as that. It's
+true that they'll strike back at him, and that
+they have the power to crush him—only, in the
+long run he'll be the victor."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Flynn looked at Jennie in sympathetic apology.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All right now, Miss Follett. I guess my
+friend and me'll be goin' along—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You'll do just as you like about that," Lizzie
+interposed, with dignity; "but if you see my
+son before I do, tell him not to be sorry for
+what he's done, and above all not to think that I
+blame him. 'Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that
+treadeth out the corn.' When you do, the eighth
+commandment doesn't apply any longer."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie followed her visitors to the doorstep.
+After her mother's reckless talk, they seemed like
+friends, as, indeed, at bottom of their kindly
+hearts they could easily have been. They
+brought no ill will to their job—only a conviction
+that if Teddy Follett was a thief, they must
+"get him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Does—does Mr. Collingham know that all
+this is going on?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She asked her question in trepidation, lest
+these men, trained to ferret out whatever was
+most hidden, should be able to read her secret.
+It was Jackman who shouldered the duty of
+answering. He seemed more laconic than his
+colleague, and more literate.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We don't trouble Mr. Collingham with
+trifles. If it was a big thing—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">So Jennie was left with that consolation—that
+it was not <em class="italics">a big thing</em>. How big it was she could
+only guess at, but, whatever the magnitude, she
+had no doubt at all but that it was "up to her."
+She got some inspiration from the little word
+"up." There was a lift in it that made her
+courageous.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Nevertheless, when she returned to the living
+room, finding her mother seated, erect and
+stately, in an armchair, with Pansy gazing at
+her with eyes of quenchless, infinite devotion,
+Jennie knew a qualm of fear.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, momma, wouldn't it be awful if Teddy
+had to go to jail?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It would be awful or not, just as you took
+it. If you thought he went to jail as a thief, it
+<em class="italics">would</em> be awful, but if you saw him only as the
+martyr of a system, you'd be proud to know he
+was there."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but, momma, what's the good of saying
+things like that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What's the good of letting them throw you
+down, a quivering bundle of flesh, before a Juggernaut,
+and just being meekly thankful? That's
+what your father and I have always done, and,
+now that the wheels have passed over him, I see
+the folly of keeping silent. I may not do any good
+by speaking, but at least I speak. When they
+muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, it isn't
+much wonder if the famished beast goes mad.
+Did you ever see a mad ox, Jennie? Well, it's
+a terrible sight—the most patient and laborious
+drudge among animals, goaded to a desperation
+in which he's conscious of nothing but his
+wrongs and his strength. They generally kill
+him. It's all they can do with him—but, of
+course, they can do that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So that it doesn't do the ox much good to go
+mad, does it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh yes; because he gets out of it. That's
+the only relief for us, Jennie darling—to get out
+of it. I begin to understand how mothers can
+so often kill themselves and their children.
+They don't want to leave anyone they love to
+endure the sufferings this world inflicts."</p>
+<p class="pnext">From these ravings Jennie was summoned by
+the tinkle of the telephone bell.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Teddy!" cried the mother, starting to her
+feet.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; it's Mr. Wray. I knew he'd ring me if
+I didn't turn up."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The instrument was in the entry, and Jennie
+felt curiously calm and competent as she went
+toward it. All decisions being taken out of her
+hands, she no longer had to doubt and calculate.
+The renunciations, too, were made for her. She
+was not required to look back, only to go on.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In answer to the question, "Is this Mrs.
+Follett's house?" she replied, as if the occasion
+were an ordinary one:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, Mr. Wray. I'm sorry I can't come to
+the studio."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh! so it's you! You can't come—what?
+Then you needn't come any more."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; that's what I thought. I see now that—that
+I can't."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, of all—" He broke off in his expostulation
+to say: "Jennie, for God's sake, what's
+the matter with you? What are you afraid of?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not afraid of anything, Mr. Wray; but
+there's a good deal the matter which I can't
+explain on the telephone."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Do you want me to come over there?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; you couldn't do any good."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is it money?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No." She remembered the accumulation of
+untouched bills and checks in her glove-and-handkerchief
+box upstairs. "I've got plenty of
+money. There's nothing you could do, thank
+you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was a pause before he said:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then it's all off? Is that what you mean?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Isn't it what you meant yourself only a
+minute ago?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, well, you needn't stake your life on
+that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She began to feel faint. It cost her more to
+stand there talking than she had supposed it
+would when she took up the receiver.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm afraid I must—must stake my life on
+that. I—I can't stay now. I can't come any
+more to see you, either. I've—I've given up
+posing. G—good-by."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She heard him beginning to protest from the
+other end.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, Jennie! Wait! For God's sake!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But her putting-up of the receiver cut them
+off from each other.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So that's all over," she said to herself, turning
+again into the living room.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But she said it strongly, as Lizzie had many
+a time said similar things on witnessing the
+death of hopes, with desolation in the heart,
+perhaps, but no wish to cry.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Meanwhile, Flynn and Jackman, trudging
+toward the car station in the square, were discussing
+this strange case.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That was a funny line o' talk about the ox
+treadin' out the corn. I never heard nothin' like
+that in our church."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Jackman, being a Methodist and a student
+of the Bible before coming to New York and
+giving himself to detective work, was able to
+explain.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's in the Old Testament, to begin with;
+but Paul takes it up and says that, though it
+was meant, in the first place, to apply to the
+animals, its real application is to man. 'That he
+that ploweth may plow in hope, and that he
+that thresheth in hope should be partaker of
+his hope'—that's the way it runs. That everyone
+should get a generous living wage and not
+be cheated of it in the end is the way you might
+put it into our kind of talk."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is it now? And it do seem fair—don't it?—for
+all the old woman yonder is so daft. And
+would that Paul be the same <em class="italics">Saint</em> Paul as we've
+got in our church?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, the very same."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Would he now? And you a Protestant!
+That's one thing I've often wondered—why
+there had to be so many religions and everyone
+wasn't a Catholic. It'd be just as easy, and cost
+us less. Ah, well! It's a quare world, and that
+poor woman's had a powerful dose o' trouble.
+I don't wonder she's got wheels in her head.
+Do you? Maybe you and me'd have them if
+we'd gone through the same." Having thus
+worked up to his appeal, he plunged into it. "I
+know wan little woman 'd be glad if I was to
+come home to-night and tell her we'd called the
+thing off. That's my Tessie. It's amazin' how
+she's set her heart on my not trackin' down this
+boy."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not to track him down would be to compound
+a felony," Jackman replied, severely.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, well! So it would, now. You sure have
+got the right dope there, Jackman, and that I'll
+tell Tessie. I'll say I'd be compounding a felony,
+and them words 'll scare her good."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So Flynn, too, resigned himself, putting on
+once more the mask of craft and implacability
+that was part of his stock in trade, and which
+Jackman rarely took off.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">And all that day Teddy lay crouched in his
+lair with his eye glued more or less faithfully to
+the peephole. Except from hunger, he had
+suffered but little, and the minutes had been
+too exciting to seem long in going by. It was
+negative excitement, springing from what didn't
+happen; but because something might happen,
+and happen at any instant, it was excitement.
+From morning to midday, and from midday on
+into the afternoon, cars, carts, and pedestrians
+traveled in and out of Jersey City, each spelling
+possible danger. Now and then a man or a
+vehicle had paused in the road within calling
+distance of the shanty. For two minutes, for
+five, or for ten at a time, Teddy lay there wondering
+as to their intentions and trying to make
+up his mind as to his own course. Whether to
+shoot himself or make a bolt for it, or if he shot
+himself whether it should be through the temple
+or the heart, were points as to which he was still
+undecided. He would get inspiration, he told
+himself, when the time came. He had often
+heard that in crises of peril the brain worked
+quicker than in moments of tranquillity; and
+perhaps, after all, a crisis of peril might not lie
+before him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In a measure, he was growing used to his
+situation as an outlaw; he was growing used to
+the separation from the family. It was not that
+he loved them less, but that he had moved on
+and left them behind. He could think of them
+now without the longing to cry he had felt
+yesterday, while the desperation of his plight
+centered his thought more and more upon himself.
+If he didn't have to shoot himself, he
+planned, in as far as plans were possible, to sneak
+away into the unknown and become a tramp.
+He couldn't do it yet, because the roads were
+probably being watched for him; but by and
+by, when the hunt had become less keen....</p>
+<p class="pnext">Seven doughnuts swallowed without a drop
+of water being far from the nourishment to
+which he was accustomed, he waited with painful
+eagerness for nightfall. When the primrose-colored
+lights up and down the road and along
+the ragged fringe of the town were deepening to
+orange, he crept forth cautiously. Even while
+half hidden by the sedgy grasses, he felt horribly
+exposed, and when he emerged into the open
+highway, the eyes of all the police in New York
+seemed to spy him through the twilight. Nevertheless,
+he tramped back toward the dwellings
+of men, doing his best to hide his face when
+motor lights flashed over him too vividly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Unable to think of anything better than to
+return to the friendly woman who had given
+him seven doughnuts for his six, he found her
+behind her counter, in company with a wispy
+little girl.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, good-evening. Zo you'f come ba-ack.
+You fount my zandwiches naice."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy replied that he had, ordering six, with
+a dozen of her doughnuts. Her manner was so
+affable that he failed to notice her piercing eyes
+fixed upon him, nor did he realize how much a
+young man's aspect can betray after twenty-four
+hours without water to wash in, as well as
+without hairbrush or razor. He thought of himself
+as presenting the same neat appearance as
+on the previous evening; but the woman saw
+him otherwise.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I wonder if I could have a glass of water?"
+he asked, his throat almost too parched to let
+the words come out.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But sairtainly." She turned to the child,
+whispering in a foreign language, but using more
+words than the command to fetch a glass of water
+would require.</p>
+<p class="pnext">When the child came back, Teddy swallowed
+the water in one long gulp. The woman asked
+him if he would like another glass, to which he
+replied that he would. More instructions followed,
+and while the woman tied up the sandwiches
+the little girl came back with the second
+glass. This Teddy drank more slowly, not noticing
+as he did so that the little girl slipped
+away.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Nor did he notice as he left the shop and turned
+westward into the gloaming, that the child was
+returning from what seemed like a hasty visit to
+a neighbor's house across the street. Still less
+did he perceive, when the comforting loneliness of
+the marshes began once more to close round him,
+that a big, husky figure was stalking him. It
+had come out of one of the tenements over the
+way from the pastry shop, apparently at a summons
+from the wispy little girl. Like the men
+whom Jennie had seen eying the house in the
+afternoon, he suggested the guardianship of law,
+even though he was, so to speak, in undress
+uniform. His duties for the day being over, he
+had plainly been taking his ease in slippers,
+trousers, and shirt. Even now he was bareheaded,
+pulling on his tunic as he went along.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He didn't go very far, only to a point at which
+he could see the boy in front of him turn into the
+unused path that led to the old shack. Whereupon
+he nodded to himself and turned back to
+his evening meal.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xix">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id20">CHAPTER XIX</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">Jennie's chief hesitation was as to cashing
+the checks, not because the teller at the
+Pemberton National Bank didn't know her,
+but because he did. To present a demand
+for money made out to Jane Scarborough
+Follett, and signed, "R. B. Collingham, Jr.,"
+was embarrassing.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But she had grown since the previous afternoon,
+and embarrassment sat on her more
+lightly. Like Teddy marooned on the marshes,
+she seemed to have moved on, leaving her old
+self behind. Now she had things to do rather
+than things to think about. One fact was a
+relief to her; she was no longer under the necessity
+of betraying Bob.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So she cashed her checks, and counted her
+money, finding that she had two hundred and
+forty-five dollars. She didn't know how much
+Teddy had taken from the bank; possibly more
+than this, possibly not so much; but whatever
+the sum, this would go at least part of the way
+toward meeting it. If she could meet it altogether,
+then, she argued, the law couldn't touch
+him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">On arriving at the bank her first sensation
+was one of confusion. There seemed to be no
+one in particular to whom to state her errand.
+Men were busy in variously labeled cages, and
+more men beyond them sat at desks within pens.
+Two or three girls moved about with documents
+in their hands, and there was a distant click of
+typewriters. People passed in and out of the
+bank, occupied with their own affairs, and everyone,
+clerk and client alike, had apparently a
+definite end in view. It was like coming up
+against a blank wall of business, leaving no
+opening through which to slip in.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The weakest point seemed to be at a counter
+beneath the illuminated sign, "Statements,"
+where two ladies waited for custom, conversing
+in the interim. Jennie stood unnoticed while
+the speaker for the moment finished her narration,
+bringing it to its conclusion plaintively.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So when mother called in the doctor, it turned
+out to be a very bad case of ty-<em class="italics">phoid</em>. Statement?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The question at the end being directed toward
+Jennie, the latter asked if she could see Mr.
+Collingham. The reply was sharp; the tone
+quite different from that of the domestic anecdote
+of which she had just heard a portion.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Next floor. Take the elevator. Ask for Miss
+Ruddick." The voice resumed its plaintiveness.
+"So we had him moved into the corner bedroom,
+and sent for a trained nurse—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">On getting out of the lift, Jennie found herself
+in a sort of lobby where applicants for interviews
+sat with the hangdog look which such postulants
+generally wear. A brisk little Jewess seated at
+a desk murmured the name of each newcomer
+into a telephone, after which there was nothing
+to do but take a chair and wait upon events.
+Now and then some one came out from his conference,
+whereupon a messenger girl, generally
+of Slavic or Hebraic type, would summon his
+successor.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was nearly an hour before Jennie was called
+to the office of Miss Ruddick, who, with her practiced
+method of dealing with the importunate,
+prepared to put her rapidly through her paces
+and land her again at the lift. This Miss Ruddick
+did, not so much with the minimum of
+courtesy as with the maximum of conscientiousness.
+Her aim was to save Jennie's time as well
+as her own, in the altruistic spirit of Mr. Bickley's
+principles.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"How do you do? Are you the daughter of
+the Mr. Follett who used to be with us here?
+So sorry for your loss, though it may be a release
+for him, poor man. We never know, do we?
+Now what is it I can do for you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie said again that she hoped to see Mr.
+Collingham.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I think you'd better tell your errand to me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I couldn't. I can only tell it to him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">In saying this she supposed Miss Ruddick
+would understand the reference to be to Teddy,
+whose story must by this time be ringing through
+the bank. In spite of what Jackman had said
+on the previous afternoon, they couldn't keep so
+serious a crime secret for more than a matter of
+hours. But Miss Ruddick only seemed displeased
+by Jennie's insistence, answering coldly,</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If it's a job you're looking for, the best person
+to see would be—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">And just then the communicating door opened
+and Collingham himself came out. He was
+about to give some order to Miss Ruddick and
+pass on when Jennie rose in such a way that his
+eye fell upon her. When a man's eye fell upon
+Jennie his attention was generally arrested. In
+this case, it was the more definitely arrested, for
+the reason that Jennie, timidly and tremblingly,
+gave signs of having a request to make.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You wish to speak to me?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">At this condescension Miss Ruddick was
+amazed, but, the responsibility being taken off
+her hands, she was already capturing the minutes
+by being "back on her job," according to her
+favorite expression. Jennie could hardly speak
+for awe. She recalled what Mrs. Collingham had
+said—a hard, stern, ruthless man, who kept her,
+her son, and her daughter as puppets on his
+string. If he so treated his own flesh and blood,
+how would he treat her?</p>
+<p class="pnext">Following him into the private office, she reminded
+herself that she must keep her head.
+She had come on a specific business, and to that
+business she must confine herself. Her other
+relations with this terrible man she must leave
+to his son to deal with.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Your name is—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">His tone was courteous. They were both
+seated now—he at his desk, she in a small chair
+at a respectful distance. The question surprised
+her, for the reason that in her confusion she supposed
+that her identity was known to him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm Jennie Follett." His visible start did
+not make her situation easier. She remembered
+that Mrs. Collingham had said that if he knew
+of the tie between herself and Bob he would disinherit
+him on the spot. Just what was implied
+by that she didn't understand, but it suggested
+all that was most dramatic in the movies. To
+disarm his suspicions in this direction, she hurried
+on to add, "I came about my brother."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He relaxed slightly, leaning on the desk and
+examining her closely.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, your brother!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, sir. I don't know how much money
+he's been taking from the bank—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Collingham's brows contracted.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Wait a minute. Has your brother been
+taking money from the bank?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">At the thought that she might be making a
+false step, Jennie was appalled.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, don't you know that yet, sir?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't I know it yet? I don't know what
+you're talking about at all."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So the whole thing had to be explained. Two
+men had appeared on the previous afternoon in
+Indiana Avenue, accusing Teddy of systematic
+robbery. Teddy had so far corroborated the
+charge that he had absented himself from home
+and work. He had called up once, nominally
+from Paterson, but the two detectives didn't
+believe that it was. In any case, she had a little
+money of her own—her very own—two hundred
+and forty-five dollars it was—and as far as it
+would go she had come to make restitution. If
+it wasn't enough, they would sell the house as
+soon as they could get it on the market and pay
+up the balance, if he would only give the order
+that Teddy shouldn't be sent to jail.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Emboldened by his concentration on her story
+and herself, she took out the roll of bills from her
+bag, enlarging on her plea.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You see, sir, it was this way. After my
+father had to leave the bank last fall, Teddy had
+to be our chief support, just on his eighteen a
+week. My two little sisters left school and went
+to work; but that didn't bring in much. Then
+there were the taxes, and the mortgages, and the
+expenses of my father's funeral, besides six of
+us having to eat—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You were working, too, weren't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, sir; I was posing. But I only earned
+six a week."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Only?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Based on a memory of his own of something
+Junia had said—"a mousey little thing with a
+veneer of modesty, but mercenary isn't the word
+for her"—there was an implication in this
+"Only?" which escaped Jennie's simplicity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, sir; that was all. Somehow I couldn't
+get the work. Nobody seemed to want me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He pointed at her roll of bills.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then where did you get the money you're
+holding in your hand?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The question was unexpected and confounding.
+She must either answer it truly or not answer it
+at all. If she answered it truly, she not only
+exposed Bob, but she exposed herself to the utmost
+rigor of his wrath. She didn't care about
+herself; she didn't care much about Bob; she
+cared only about Teddy. The utmost rigor of
+this man's wrath would send him to jail as easily
+as she could brush a fly through an open window.
+She could say nothing. She could only look at
+him helplessly, with lips parted, eyes shimmering,
+and the hot color flooding her face pitiably.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the kind of situation in which no man
+with the heart of a man could be hard on any
+little girl; besides which, Collingham looked on
+this silent confession as providential. It would
+enable him to reason with Bob, if it ever came to
+that, and tell him what he, the father, knew at
+first hand and from his own experience. Otherwise
+he brought no moral judgment to bear on
+poor Jennie, and condemned her not at all.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Just wait a minute," he said, in a kindly tone,
+getting up as he spoke. "I'll go and straighten
+the thing out."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Left alone, Jennie had these concluding words
+to strengthen her. He would straighten the thing
+out. That meant probably that Teddy wouldn't
+have to go to jail, and beyond this relief she
+didn't look. It would be everything. Nothing
+else would matter. He might be dismissed from
+the bank; they might starve; but the great
+thing would be accomplished.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was a half hour or more before he returned,
+and when he did he looked worried.
+"Troubled" would perhaps be a better word,
+since even Jennie could see that his thoughts
+were farther away and deeper down than the
+incidents on the surface. He spoke almost
+absent-mindedly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I find there's been a leakage for some little
+time past, and they've had difficulty in fixing
+where the trouble was. Now I'm sorry to say
+it looks as if it was your brother. There's hardly
+any doubt about that—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You see, sir," she pleaded, "it was so hard
+for him not to be able to do anything when my
+father was so ill and my mother worried and the
+bills piling up—they stopped our credit nearly
+everywhere—and the tax people—they were the
+worst of all."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, yes; I quite understand. And I've told
+them not to press the matter further. Flynn and
+Jackman, the two men you saw yesterday, are
+out for the minute; but when they come in they
+are to report to me. I don't suppose we can take
+your brother back; but I'll see what I can do for
+him elsewhere." He rose to end the interview,
+so that Jennie rose, too. "You can keep that
+money," he added, nodding toward her roll of
+bills. "You were not responsible, and there's
+no reason at all why you should pay."</p>
+<p class="pnext">When Jennie protested, he merely escorted
+her to the door, which he held open.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, don't thank me," he insisted. "Please!
+Just make your mind easy as to your brother.
+The matter shall not go any farther. I don't
+know what I can do for him as yet—the circumstances
+make it difficult; but I shall find something."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So, blinded with tears, Jennie made her way
+toward the lift, calling down on Bob's father as
+well as on his mother all the blessings she was
+able to invoke.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">Late that afternoon, Teddy, on the floor of his
+hut, woke with a start from a doze. He hadn't
+meant to doze, but he had slept little on the preceding
+night, and was lulled, moreover, by a sense
+of his security. The day had not been as exciting
+as the day before. Nothing having happened
+during all those hours, he was growing
+convinced that nothing would. In its way,
+safety was becoming irksome. He began to
+ask himself whether the spirit of adventure
+didn't summon him to go forth as a tramp that
+night.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So he dozed—and so he waked, with a start.
+The start was possibly due to a consciousness
+even in his sleep that there were people in the
+road. He was frightened before he could put his
+eye again to the peephole. Luckily the pistol
+was at hand, and <em class="italics">the other thing</em> might now have
+to be done.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As a matter of fact it seemed likely. Two burly
+figures had already left the highway, Flynn
+tramping along the flicker of path, and Jackman
+picking his steps through the oozy mud a little
+to Flynn's right and a little behind him. There
+was no secrecy about their approach, and apparently
+no fear.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"They don't suspect that I've got a gun,"
+Teddy commented to himself. "Lobley can't
+have told them."</p>
+<p class="pnext">They were talking to each other, and, though
+Teddy could not make out their words, he heard
+Flynn's gurgle of a laugh. To his fevered
+imagination, it was a diabolic laugh, suggestive
+of handcuffs and torture.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The thought of handcuffs frenzied him. Of
+the sacrilegious touch on his person, the links
+set the final mark. Rather than submit to them
+he would shoot anyone, preferably himself. For
+shooting himself the minute had come, and he
+decided to do it through the temple. The aim
+through the heart might miscarry; there was no
+chance of miscarriage through the brain. All
+that remained for him now was to know the
+moment when.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't shoot till you see the whites of their
+eyes."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Some trick of memory brought the tag back
+to him. He knew that it applied to the shooting
+of an enemy, but in this case it suited himself.
+He couldn't see the whites of their eyes as yet,
+for through the grasses and over the slimy
+ground they advanced but slowly. That gave him
+the longer to live. He might live for three minutes,
+possibly for five. Even a minute was
+something.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But he was ready. He couldn't say that he
+had no fear, because he was all fear; but for the
+very reason that he was all fear, he was frozen,
+numb. Only, the hand that held the pistol shook.
+He couldn't control it. All the more, then, must
+he do it through the brain, since he found by
+experiment that he could steady the muzzle
+against his temple. He didn't dare so to hold it
+long, lest that impulse of acting before he thought
+might deprive him of these last precious seconds
+of life. So he let the thing rest on the peephole,
+pointing outward, like a gun on board ship.
+He found, too, that this steadied his eye. He
+could squint along the barrel right at the two
+big figures lumbering through the morass.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't shoot till you see the whites of their
+eyes."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Flynn looked up, a laugh on his lips at this
+absurd adventure. The boy saw the whites of
+his eyes, and, as far as he himself knew, his mind
+went blank. He always declared that he heard
+no sound. He only saw Flynn throw up his
+arms with a kind of stifled shout—stagger—try
+to regain his lost balance—and go tumbling, face
+downward, into the long grass. Jackman fell,
+too, though not so prone but that he could
+partially raise himself, half supported by his
+left arm, while, without being able to face toward
+the road, he waved his right to the motors flashing
+by.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For Teddy mind-action ceased. He was
+nothing but mad instinct. He knew he must
+have fired—must have fired twice—that the
+hand that was to shoot into his temple had
+betrayed him. He knew, too, that he couldn't
+shoot into his temple—that great as was his
+terror of the handcuffs, his terror of this thing
+was worse. Flinging the pistol across the floor,
+his one impulse was to save himself.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As he had foreseen, his mind, once it began to
+work, worked quickly. He saw that the grass
+growing up to the door of the shack was tall, and
+hardly beaten down by his footsteps. Lying
+flat like a lizard, he wriggled his way into it.
+The very yielding of the swampy bottom beneath
+his weight was in his favor. By a sense, such as
+that which had waked him up, he knew that
+motors were stopping in the road, that people
+were leaping out, that Flynn and Jackman were
+the objects of everyone's concern, and that, in
+the mystery as to what had happened to them,
+no one's attention was as yet directed to himself.
+He made for the back of the shack, writhing his
+way round the two corners, and heading out
+toward the center of the marsh. It was needful
+to do this, since the shanty and its neighborhood
+would soon be explored, and he must, if possible,
+be lost in the swampy tracklessness.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Though progress of necessity was slow, he
+was amazed at the distance he was putting
+between himself and danger. Oh, if it was only
+night! If a thundercloud would only come up
+and darken the sky! But it was the brilliant,
+pitiless sunshine of an August afternoon, with
+not a shred of atmosphere to help him. Still
+he writhed and writhed and writhed his way
+onward, making the pace of a snake when half
+of its body is dead. He was no longer Teddy
+Follett; he was no longer so much as an animal.
+He was one big agony of mind, which becomes
+an agony of body; and yet he was eager to live.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He began to think that he might live. He
+seemed as far away from the peril behind him
+as the woods thing that gives its hunter the slip
+in the green depths of the covert. Dogs might
+be able to track him, but not men alone; and
+while they were bringing up the bloodhounds
+he might....</p>
+<p class="pnext">And then he heard a shout that struck through
+him like paralysis.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"There he is! I see him!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Where? Where?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That line behind the shack—don't you see?—a
+little streak right through the grass."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; I don't see anything."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Come along and I'll show you. Come
+along, boys. We'll get him. He's only going on
+his belly."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, and be croaked, like this poor guy!
+Don't forget that the bird over there can give
+you a dose of lead."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So Flynn was dead! That was the meaning
+of that. Teddy had killed a man. Perhaps he
+had killed two men. He hadn't taken time to
+think of it before; but now that he did, he lay
+stricken in every muscle of his frame, his face
+in the mud, and his fingers dug into the queachy
+roots of the sedges.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xx">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id21">CHAPTER XX</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">The guests went early. It was a relief to
+have them go. Not that they differed
+from other guests to whom Collingham Lodge
+was accustomed to open its doors, or that the
+dinner was less fastidiously good than Junia
+was in the habit of giving. Dinner and guests
+had both been up to form; and yet it was a
+relief when the last car glided from beneath the
+portico.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why do you suppose it is?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia had asked this question so often of late
+that Collingham had ceased to try to answer
+it. Instead, he lit a cigar and strolled to the
+open French window. He, too, found it a relief
+to relax in the company of his family, though
+less puzzled than Junia at the state of mind.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, come out!" Edith called from the terrace.
+"It's heavenly."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was a soft, warm, velvety night, starlit and
+voluptuous. The air astir was just enough to
+carry the scents of roses, honeysuckle, mignonette,
+and new-mown hay. Except for the
+dartings of small living things and the occasional
+peep of a half-awake bird, there was no sound
+but that of the plash of the fountains on the
+terraces. Edith went in for a light wrap for her
+mother; Collingham, his cigar in hand, dropped
+into the teakwood chair.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It isn't our dinners only," Junia complained,
+when, with the wrap about her shoulders, she
+had settled herself in the wicker armchair she
+preferred; "it's all dinners. It's just as if people
+didn't enjoy them any more."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, they don't." Edith half loungingly
+swung herself in a Gloucester hammock. "What
+we've got to learn, mother dear, is that entertaining,
+as we called it, was a pre-war habit
+which we've outlived in spirit, though we haven't
+quite come to the point in fact."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"There's something in that," Collingham
+agreed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And yet there's got to be hospitality," Junia
+reasoned. "You can't just live and die to
+yourself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith swung lazily.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hospitality, yes; but isn't there a difference
+between that and entertaining?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If so, what is it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not sure that I can say. Isn't the one
+a permanent necessity, and the other merely a
+custom that can go out of date?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Between your custom that can go out of
+date and your permanent necessity, I don't see
+that there's much distinction."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, there is, mother dear. It's like this:
+Entertaining is giving people something they
+don't particularly want and which you expect
+them to repay; while hospitality is opening your
+house to people in need, whether they can repay
+you or not."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, if we're going to open our houses to people
+in need—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, what?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm sure I don't know what; nor you, either."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And that's just it. We're halting between
+two states of mind. Ever since the war began,
+mere entertaining bores us; and we're terrified
+at the idea of genuine hospitality; so there we
+are. We still give dinners and go to them; but
+when we do we feel it's something fatuous, which
+can't help making us dull."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Out of the silence that ensued Collingham
+said, moodily:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's all very fine to talk of opening your
+house to people in need; but it's not as easy as
+it looks."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is anything ever as easy as it looks, dad?
+Don't we shirk the social problems that are
+upsetting the world by declaring them impossible
+to solve, when a material difficulty only
+puts us on our mettle?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He turned this over. All that day he had been
+calculating his own possible responsibility in
+Teddy Follett's going wrong, and was thinking
+of it now. In the end he said:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All the same you've got to follow the regular
+trend. If you were in business you'd know.
+You can't do things differently from other people.
+You may be as sorry as you like not to be able
+to help; but if you can't, you can't—and there's
+an end of it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Mr. Ayling in his new book, <em class="italics">Social Problems
+and the Individual</em>, says there's a distinction to
+be drawn between <em class="italics">can't</em> and <em class="italics">can't</em>—there's the
+can't that comes from lack of ability, and the
+can't that springs from the accepted standard.
+He says—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't believe your father is at all interested
+in that, Edith dear."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh yes; let her go on. I'm not afraid of
+what Ayling thinks."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But before Edith could resume the attention
+of all three was called by the tinkle of the telephone
+bell in the library, which could be approached
+from the terrace through the drawing-room.
+With a muttered, "Who's ringing up
+at this time of night?" Collingham dragged
+himself in to answer it. The women remained
+silent, each listening to see if the call was for her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes?... This is Mr. Collingham.... Who?...
+Oh, it's you, Mr. Brunt?... Yes?... What
+did you say?... Killed? Who's killed?...
+Not Flynn the detective, who comes in and out
+of the bank?... Indeed! Dear me! Dear me!
+Where was it?... Who did it?... Not that boy?...
+Oh, my God!... What happened?... Tell
+me quickly.... Over beyond Jersey City! Yes?
+Yes?... And they've got him?... In the Brig?
+That's the Ellenbrook jail, isn't it?... Jackman,
+too, did you say?... Wounded, but not killed....
+Badly?... Oh, the poor fellow!... In the
+hospital?... That's right.... Has anyone communicated
+with his family?... Good! Good!...
+And Flynn's wife?... Oh, the poor woman!...
+And the boy's family?... You don't know anything?
+Then no one has informed his mother?...
+Not that you know of.... I see.... He's to
+be brought into court to-morrow morning....
+Poor little devil!... Oh, I know he doesn't deserve
+pity, but—but I can't help it, Brunt.
+His father was with us so long and—and one
+thing and another!... No; I'll appear in court
+myself and see what I can do for him.... Good
+night, then. I'll see you in the morning."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What boy can that be?" Junia whispered,
+as her husband hung the receiver in its place.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm sure I don't know—unless—unless it's
+the Follett boy."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I hope not. It would make such awful
+complications."</p>
+<p class="pnext">They waited for Collingham to come and tell
+them his plainly thrilling news, but he remained
+in the library.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It <em class="italics">would</em> make complications," Edith ventured,
+in a low voice, "if it proved to be young
+Follett—with Bob in love with his sister."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia spoke not so much from impulse as
+from inspiration.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He's more than in love with her. He's
+married to her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Mother!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; he was married to her a few days
+before he sailed. I've known it all along."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith was breathless.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Did he tell you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; she did."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She? The Follett girl? Why, mother!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia rose. She knew that if her suspicions
+were correct she would have things to do before
+she slept.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Go to bed now, dear; and I'll come to your
+room and give you the whole story. In the meantime
+I may have to tell your father."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You mean to say that he doesn't know?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; not yet. I've been rather hoping that
+before I told him Bob would—would see his way
+out of the mess."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He'll never do that, never in this world—not
+according to what he's said to me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, well, he didn't know everything then
+that he'll have to know now. But go and say
+good night to your father; and I'll come up by
+the time you're in bed."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Mother, you're amazing!" Edith spoke
+more in awe than in admiration; but she obeyed
+orders by going to her father.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She found him still sitting in the chair by the
+telephone, bowed forward, his elbows on his
+knees, and his forehead in his hands. When
+he lifted his haggard eyes toward her she stood
+still.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Daddy, what in the world has happened?
+Who is it that has killed some one? We couldn't
+help hearing that much."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He raised himself. "Come here."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Going forward, she knelt down beside him,
+taking his hand and kissing it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You poor daddy! You're bothered, aren't
+you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's—it's young Follett. He's been stealing
+money from the bank, and now he's shot one of
+the detectives who heard he was hiding in a
+cabin out on the New Jersey marshes. They'd
+sent out a description of him to the suburban
+stations. And only to-day I told his sister that
+I'd call the thing off and give him another
+chance."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She came to see you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She came to see me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then you did what you could, didn't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I did what I could—then." In spite of the
+emphasis on the final word, he slapped his knee
+with new conviction. "I've done what I could
+all through. It's no use saying I haven't, because
+I have. There's just so much you can do,
+and you can't do any more. You can't make a
+business a home for indigent old gentlemen—now,
+can you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He sprang to his feet, leaving her kneeling by
+the chair.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, I don't suppose you can," she assented,
+rising slowly. "But I do wish you'd talk to Mr.
+Ayling sometime, daddy. He seems to see all
+these things from new points of view—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was pacing about the room very much like
+Max in moments of agitation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, new points of view! There's only one
+point of view, I tell you, and that's the one on
+what we've made the country prosperous."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She smiled wistfully.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Prosperous for some."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, that's better than prosperous for
+nobody, isn't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She said good night to him then, for the reason
+that she herself was so stirred that she needed
+seclusion in which to think these strange things
+over. That Bob should have married Jennie
+Follett was a shock in itself; but that through
+his wife he should now be involved in this
+frightful tragedy was something that her mind
+found it hard to take in. It was the first time
+that she had ever come so close to the more
+terrible happenings in life.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Meanwhile, Junia, overhearing what was said,
+reconstructed her plan of campaign. In common
+with great generals, she possessed the faculty of
+rapid revision, as events took place differently
+from the way she had expected. By the time
+she heard Edith go upstairs she had foreseen
+the line of action which the new situation forced
+on them.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Collingham was still lashing about the library
+when she appeared on the threshold. Her calmness
+arrested him. In a measure it soothed him.
+It was the kind of juncture in which she always
+knew what to do, and he had confidence in her
+judgment. When she said, "Sit down, Bradley;
+I've something to say," he obeyed her quietly,
+relighting his cigar. As she, too, sat down, Max
+or Dauphin would have noted in her the aura of
+authority which a master wears when about to
+lecture a schoolboy.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've something startling to tell you, Bradley;
+but I want to say beforehand that you mustn't
+get worked up, because I see a way out."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Taking his cigar from his lips, he looked at
+her sidewise. His expression said, "What's it
+going to be now?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What I've heard you telling Edith about
+this young Follett killing a detective concerns
+us more closely than you may think, because
+Bob is married to his sister."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He laid his cigar on an ash tray, swung round
+to the table between them, clasped his fingers,
+and leaned on his outstretched elbows. His
+tone was quiet, even casual.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"When did he do that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Just before he sailed."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then I'm through with him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh no, you're not, Bradley! He's your son,
+whether he's married anyone or not."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I can't help his being my son; but I can help
+having anything more to do with him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Listen, Bradley. This whole thing is going
+to be in the papers in the course of two or three
+days; and you must come through it with honors.
+It's perfectly simple to do it, and win everyone's
+respect and sympathy. In addition to that you
+can get Bob's devoted affection; and you know
+how much that means to us all."</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Collingham it meant so much that he
+listened to her attentively, with eager eyes. In
+Bob's marriage, with its attendant circumstances,
+they had obviously received a shock.
+All Marillo Park, as well as the public in general,
+would know it to be a shock and would be
+watching to see how they took it. In that case,
+the best thing was the sporting thing. They
+must stand right up to the facts and accept them.
+Everyone knew that the younger generation was
+peculiar. It was the war, Junia supposed, and
+yet she didn't know. In any case, it was not the
+Collinghams alone who were so afflicted, but
+dotted all over Marillo were families whose young
+ones were acting strangely. There were the
+Rumseys, whose twin sons had refused an
+uncle's legacy amounting to something like
+three millions, because they held views opposed
+to the owning of private property. There were
+the Addingtons, whose son and heir had married
+a girl twice imprisoned as a Red and was believed
+to have gone Red in her company. There
+were the Bendlingers, whose daughter had eloped
+with a chauffeur, divorced him, and then gone
+back and married him again. These were
+Marillo incidents, and in no case had the parents
+found any course more original than the antiquated
+one of discarding and disinheritance.
+And yet you couldn't wash your hands of your
+flesh and blood like that. They were your flesh
+and blood whatever they did; and it was idiotic
+to act as if you could cut the tie between yourself
+and them. He could see for himself that Rumseys, Addingtons, and Bendlingers had lost
+rather than gained in general esteem by their
+melodramatic poses.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Now, the thing for the Collinghams was to
+accept the situation with a great big generous
+heart. They were to open their arms to Bob,
+and back him loyally in the combination of difficulties
+he had to swing. But he himself must
+swing them. Junia laid emphasis on that. By
+direct action they couldn't intervene. They
+could only make it possible for him to act directly
+on his own responsibility. He had married
+a wife whose family was in trouble. They, the
+Collinghams, would not share that trouble, but
+they would help him to share it, since he had
+brought on himself the necessity for doing so.</p>
+<p class="pnext">To accomplish this, Junia suggested sending
+to Bob a cablegram covering the following five
+points. The Follett boy was in jail charged
+with murdering a detective; Bob should publish
+at once his marriage to this boy's sister; he
+should return to New York by the first convenient
+steamer; his father was placing ten
+thousand dollars to his account, and when that
+was used would place more; he was also ready, if
+instructed by Bob, to engage the best counsel in
+New Jersey to defend the boy.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That will take care of everything till he gets
+here," Junia concluded, "and in the meantime,
+we can't do better, it seems to me, than go up,
+as we always do at this time of year, to our camp
+in the Adirondacks. This house can be kept
+open for Bob when he arrives, and Gull can stay
+with one of the motors to run him in and out of
+town."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And what are we to do about the girl?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Nothing. That isn't for us to take up. We
+must leave it to Bob. If he ever brings her to
+us as his wife—But, then, he never may."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What makes you think so?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her superb eyes covered him with their fine,
+audacious, womanly regard.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'd tell you, Bradley, if—if I didn't think
+there are things that had better not go into
+words, even between you and me. Whatever Bob
+discovers will be his own affair. You and I had
+best know as little as possible. We can back
+Bob up, and that's all we can do. Everything
+else he will have to work out for himself. By
+the time he's done that he'll be a grown-up
+man. It's possible he's needed something of the
+sort to develop him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So Collingham telephoned his cablegram to
+Bob, and went to bed comforted. Next morning,
+on arriving at the bank, he found Junia's counsels
+supported by the best opinion among his
+co-workers. That is, he changed his mind as to
+going to the court in Ellenbrook for the first
+hearing of the Follett boy, or otherwise expressing
+himself toward the Follett family. He had
+given Bob the means of doing whatever needed
+to be done, and Bob had the cable at his disposition.
+To go to the court, or to express sympathy
+in any way, would, according to Bickley,
+be dangerous to discipline. Feeling in the bank
+was extremely hostile to young Follett, and it
+was better that it should remain so. The bank
+employee's cast of mind, so Bickley said, was,
+not revolutionary or rebellious against acknowledged
+rights. By sheer force of habit, it was
+schooled to reverence for life and property. The
+principle of ownership being holier to it than any
+tenet of religion, the Follett boy could not be
+looked upon otherwise than as an enemy of mankind;
+and this was as it should be.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">While Collingham thus weighed the counsels
+offered him at the bank, Gussie Follett was
+blindly making her way homeward from Corinne's
+with a paper so folded in her hand as not
+to display its headlines. She had gone to her
+work with comparative cheerfulness, since, on
+the previous day, Jennie had been assured by
+no less authority than Mr. Collingham himself
+that Teddy should not be sent to jail. So long
+as he was not sent to jail, they would be free
+from public comment, and, free from public comment,
+they could "manage somehow." Managing
+somehow being an art in which they had gained
+authority, they were not afraid of that, even
+though it involved parting with the one great
+asset against calamity, the house.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gussie's first intimation of bad news came
+when, on entering the shop, she found the four
+or five other girls huddled round Corinne. Her
+appearance made them start as if she was a
+ghost. Her own heart sank at that, though she
+hailed this shudder with a laugh.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Say, girls, is this the big reel in 'The Specter
+Bride'?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Corinne, whose real name was Mamie Callaghan,
+emerged from a miniature forest of upright
+metal rods crowned with hats at various roguish
+angles. A dark, wavy-nosed woman of cajoling
+Irish witchery, she could hardly keep the prank
+from her voice even at such a time as this.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So, Gussie, you don't know! Well, some
+one's got to break it to you, and I guess it'll
+have to be me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But it was broken already, even before Corinne
+had brought forward the paper she was hiding
+behind her back.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Teddy!" Gussie cried out. "There's something
+about him in that thing. Let me see it!
+Let me see it!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Corinne let her see it, and the work was done.
+Gussie couldn't read beyond the headlines with
+their "Robbery" and "Murder" in Italic capitals,
+but she grasped enough. The snapshot of
+Teddy taken in the road, just as he had been
+dragged, a mass of slime, out of the morass, made
+her reel backward as if about to fall; but when
+Eily O'Brien sprang to her support she waved
+her away gently. She was not going to faint.
+Her physical strength wouldn't leave her, whatever
+else was gone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm—I'm going home," was all she said,
+crushing the paper against her breast.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Gus, lemme go with you!" Eily had
+begged; but this kindness, too, Gussie put away
+from her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She could go alone, and alone she went, with
+one consuming thought as she sped along.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, momma! Poor momma! This'll about
+finish her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">And yet when she entered the living-room her
+mother was sitting, calm and serene, while Mr.
+Brunt told the tale of the New Jersey marshes.
+Jennie, white, tearless, terrified, crept up to
+Gussie, and the two clung together as their
+mother said, in her steady voice.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So I understand that only one of them is
+dead—the Irish one."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Mr. Brunt assented.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, Flynn, the Irish one."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not surprised. I told him when he was
+here the other day that what he called 'law and
+order' would bring him to grief, as they bring
+most of us, though I didn't expect it to be so
+soon. And my son, you say, is in jail."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"At Ellenbrook."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"They'll try him, I suppose."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm afraid so."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And then they'll send him to the chair."
+Mr. Brunt didn't answer. "Oh, you needn't be
+afraid to speak of it. I know they will. I'm not
+sorry. Teddy will be sorry, of course—till it's
+over. But I'd rather he'd suffer a little now and
+be done with it than go through the hell of years
+his father and I have had. If there was going to
+be any chance for him, it would be different;
+but there's no chance, not the way the world is
+organized now."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The girls crept forward together.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Momma darling—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Lizzie resumed, calmly:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Where there's nothing but government by
+the strong for the strong, people like ourselves
+must go under. You'll go under, too, Mr. Brunt.
+You belong to the doomed class. The workingman
+will soon be getting share and share alike
+with the capitalist; and the white-collar
+crowd will be kicked about by both. If we had
+the pluck to fight as the workingman has fought,
+we might save something even now; but we
+haven't, and so there's no hope for us. Law and
+order have us by the throat, and we must suffer
+till they strangle us. Well, my boy will soon be
+out of it—thank God!—and all I ask is to follow
+him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">When Mr. Brunt got himself to the door,
+Jennie went with him, as she had done with
+Flynn and Jackman two days earlier. She did
+this in the dazed condition of a woman who performs
+some little act of courtesy during shipwreck,
+while waiting for the vessel to go down.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You must excuse my mother, Mr. Brunt.
+Ever since my father died her mind's been
+unsettled, and we don't know what to make of
+her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Mr. Brunt's demeanor did not encourage
+conversation. To do him justice, the mission on
+which Collingham had sent him had been repugnant
+for other reasons than the breaking of
+bad news. His mind being of the cast Bickley
+had analyzed that morning, Teddy's theft filled
+him with more horror than his killing of a man.
+To come so near to crime against the ownership
+of bank notes inspired him with a physical
+loathing which even Jennie's loveliness couldn't
+mitigate. It was as if she herself was tainted by
+some horrible infection, making it a relief to
+him to get away from her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But turning to re-enter the house, she felt
+again that access of new strength which had
+come to her repeatedly during the past few days.
+It was as if resources of her being never taxed
+before were now offering themselves for use.
+What she had to do was in the forefront of her
+thought rather than what some one else had
+done. What some one else had done was already
+in the past. That was made for her and couldn't
+be helped; whereas her own duties imperatively
+summoned her to look ahead.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Teddy will need a suitcase of clean things,"
+was the direct expression of these thoughts
+before she had recrossed the threshold.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having said this aloud to Gussie, Gussie's
+mind could also tackle the minor concrete details
+to the exclusion of the bigger considerations involved
+in Teddy's plight. That the honest,
+loving, skylarking boy whom they had grown up
+with could be a thief and a murderer was something
+the intelligence rejected as it rejected
+dreams. They could, therefore, take the new
+straw suitcase which had once been a family
+present to Gussie, and which she had never used,
+pack it with Teddy's other suit and the necessary
+linen, as if he were really at Paterson or Philadelphia.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"How shall we get it to him?" Gussie asked,
+when the work was done.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'll take it," Jennie answered, "if you'll
+stay and look after momma."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Momma won't need much looking after—the
+way she is."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, that's one comfort anyhow. With
+this to go through with I'm glad her mind's not
+what it used to be."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So, stunned and dry eyed, they caught on to
+the new conditions by doing little perfunctory
+things, consoling and helping each other.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxi">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id22">CHAPTER XXI</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">Teddy's first night in a cell was more tolerable
+than it might have been for the reason
+that his faculties seemed to have stopped working.
+As nearly as possible he had become an
+inanimate thing, to be struck, pulled, hustled,
+and chucked wherever they chose. Not only
+had he no volition, but little or no sensation. A
+dead body or a sack of flour could hardly have
+been more lost to a sense of rebellion or indignity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was not that he didn't suffer, but that
+suffering had reached the extreme beyond which
+it makes no further impression. Nothing registered
+any more—no horror, no brutalities, no
+curses or kicks. As far as he could take account
+of himself, the Teddy Follett even of the shack
+had been left behind in some vanished world,
+while the thing that had hands and feet was a
+clod unable to resent the oaths and blows and
+flingings to and fro which were all it deserved.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Once he had heard that shout, "I see him!"
+in the road, he had been like an insect paralyzed
+by terror that doesn't dare to move. He had
+lain there till they came and got him. It was
+not fear alone that pinned him to the spot; his
+bodily strength had given out. For forty-eight
+hours he had eaten but little and drunk only
+the two glasses of water in the pastry shop.
+Though he had slept the first night, the second
+had been passed in a fevered, intermittent doze.
+Furthermore, the agony of approaching suicide
+had drained his natural forces.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So he lay still while the hue and cry of the
+man hunters quickened and waxed behind him.
+Escape was out of the question, since, even if
+he had the strength to drag himself a few yards
+farther, they would run him down in the end.
+Resistance, too, would be hopeless, with, as he
+judged, some twenty or thirty in the posse.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He could feel their fury growing as they slipped
+and slithered through the grasses. Oaths, obscenities,
+and laughter accompanied every grotesque
+accident, as one man fell with the weedy
+tangle about his feet, or another went knee-deep
+into the swamp. The very fear of "a dose of
+lead" intensified their excitement till, as they
+caught sight of him, a helpless thing with face
+hidden in the mud, they gave vent to a yell of
+satisfaction.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They didn't let him rise; they didn't so much
+as pull him to his feet. They dragged him by
+his collar, by his hair, by his arms, by his legs,
+by anything they could seize, kicking, beating,
+and cursing him. He made no outcry; he didn't
+speak a word. For aught they knew, he might
+be drunk or insane or dead. Only once, when a
+man kicked him in the face, was he powerless to
+suppress a groan. Otherwise, he was just a
+sodden lump of flesh as, now head first, now feet
+first, now with face upward, now with face downward
+he was tugged and tumbled and hurtled
+and rolled over the five hundred yards of slime
+between the spot where they had caught him and
+the road.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There he had a new experience. He learned
+what it was not only to be outside the human
+race, but to be held as its foe. Already, while
+still far out on the marsh, he had heard the yells:
+"Kill him! Kill him! Kick the damn skunk to
+death!" But when actually surrounded by
+these howling, screaming, outraged citizens,
+with their teams and motor cars banked in the
+roadway, he tasted the peculiar astonishment of
+the man who has always been liked when assailed
+by a storm of hatred. While the three or four
+police who by this time had appeared did their
+best to defend him, men fought with one another
+to get at him. A well-dressed girl of not more
+than eighteen reached over the shoulder of one
+of the police and struck him on the head with
+her sunshade. An elderly woman squeezed herself
+near him and spat in his face.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, say, people," one of the police called
+out, "give the young guy a chanst. Can't you
+see he's only a kid?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"'Kid' be damned!" came the response.
+"Say, fellows, here's the telegraph pole! Let's
+lynch him!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Lynch him! Lynch him! String him up!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No! Let's make a bonfire and burn him
+alive!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Chuck the cops into the Hackensack, and
+then we can do as we like."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Lynch him! Lynch him! Lynch him!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy didn't care whether they lynched him
+or not. In as far as he could form a wish he
+wished they would; but then he was past forming
+wishes. They could string him up to the telegraph
+pole or burn him alive just as they felt
+inclined; for he had traveled beyond fear.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Just then the crowd parted, the police van
+drove up, and his protectors dragged him to its
+shelter. Even then there was a new sensation
+in store for him. The parting of the crowd
+showed Flynn lying by the roadside, also waiting
+for the van. He was on his back, his knees
+drawn up, his mouth dropped open. Waistcoat
+and shirt had been torn apart, and Teddy saw
+a red spot.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He started back. Except for the groan when
+he had been kicked in the face, it was the only
+time he opened his lips.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I didn't do that!" he cried, so loud that a
+jeer broke from the crowd.</p>
+<p class="pnext">A policeman shook him by the arm.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Say, sonny, you didn't do that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Appalled by the sight of the dead man,
+Teddy could do no more than stupidly shake
+his head.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then who in hell did? Tell us that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But the boy collapsed, his head sagging, his
+knees giving way under him. When he returned
+to consciousness he was lying in the dark, jolting, jolting, jolting, on the floor of the police van.</p>
+<p class="pnext">At the station he was pulled out again. He
+could stand now, and walk, though not very
+well. Hands supported him as he stumbled up
+the steps and into a room where a man in uniform
+sat behind a desk, while three or four police
+and half a dozen unexplained hangers-on stood
+about idly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"A live one," the policeman who led Teddy
+called out, jocosely, as they approached the
+desk.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Looks like a dead one," the man behind the
+desk replied, with the same sense of humor.
+"Looks like he'd been dead and buried and dug
+up again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The allusion to Teddy's hatless, mud-caked
+appearance raised a laugh.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The man behind the desk dipped his pen in
+the ink bottle and drew up a big ledger.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Name?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy could just articulate. "Edward Scarborough Follett."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Gee, whiz! Guess you'll have to spell it
+out."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy spelled slowly, as if the letters were
+new to him. Having done this, he was asked no
+more questions. Explanations came from the
+officer who had "run him in" and who produced
+the automatic pistol picked up on the floor of
+the shack. When it was stated in addition that
+Teddy was charged with shooting and killing
+Peter Flynn, whom all of them knew and to
+whom they were bound by ties of professional
+solidarity, the boy felt the half-friendly indifference
+with which the spectators had seen
+him come in change to sullen hostility.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The formulas fulfilled, he was seized more
+roughly than before, to be half led, half pushed,
+along a dim hall and down a dimmer flight of
+steps to a worn, stone-flagged basement pervaded
+by dankness and a smell of disinfectants. The
+corridor into which they turned was long and
+straight and narrow like a knife-cut through a
+cheese. On the left a blank stone wall was the
+blanker for its whitewash; on the right, a row
+of little doors diminished down the vista to the
+size of pigeonholes. Pressed close to the square
+foot of grating inset in each door was a human
+face eager to see who was coming next, while the
+officer was greeted with howls of rage or whining
+petitions or strings of ugly words.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They stopped at the first open door, and after
+one glance within Teddy started back.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't put me in there, for Jesus' sake!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The cry was involuntary, since he knew he
+would be put in there in any case.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, go in wid you!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">A shove sent him over the threshold with such
+force that he fell on the wooden bunk which was
+all the dog hole contained, while the door
+clanged behind him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">All that night he lay in a stupor induced by
+misery. No one came near him; no food or
+drink was offered him. Thirst made him slightly
+delirious, which was a relief. Now and then,
+when his real consciousness partially returned
+he muttered, half aloud:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I didn't do it. My hand might have done it—but
+that wasn't me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The crepuscular light of morning was not very
+different from the darkness of night, but it
+brought his senses back to him sluggishly.
+Bruised as he was in body, he was still more
+bruised in mind, and could render to himself no
+more than a vague account of what had happened
+yesterday. When a tin of water and a
+hunk of bread were mysteriously pushed into the
+cell, he consumed them like an animal, lying
+down again on the bunk. Without water for a
+wash, his face and hair were still caked with the
+mud which also stiffened his clothing.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"My God! what's that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Not having seen him before, the guard who
+summoned him to court was startled by the apparition
+that crawled to the threshold of the cell
+when the door was unlocked. The semblance to
+a boy was little more exact than that of a snow
+man to a man.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah! my God! my God! Sure you can't go
+into court like that. They wouldn't know you
+was a human bein', let alone a prisoner. Wait a
+bit, and I'll get you somethin' to wash up in."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There followed a little rough kindliness,
+scouring and brushing and combing the lad into
+something less like a monstrosity. Teddy submitted as a child does and with a child's indifference
+to cleanliness.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So, too, he submitted in court, hardly knowing
+where he was or the significance of these formalities.
+Apart from the relief he got from his own
+reiterations, "I didn't do it, I didn't do it," the
+proceedings were a blur to him. When he was
+led out again down more steps, along more corridors,
+and cast into another stale and disinfected
+cell, he took it with the same brutish insensibility.
+He didn't know that the new cell was in
+that part of the House of Detention known as
+Murderers' Row, nor did he heed the hoarse
+questions whispered through the next-door grating,
+and which he could barely catch as they
+stole along the wall.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Say, who'd ye do in? Did he croak right off?
+My guy didn't croak till three weeks after I
+give him the lead, and now they can't send me
+to the chair nohow. In luck, ain't I?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Teddy, this uncanny recitation was no
+more than the other sounds which smote the
+auditory nerve but hardly penetrated to the
+brain. They were all abnormal sounds, sprung
+of abnormal conditions, breaking in on a silence
+which was otherwise that of the sepulcher.
+Footsteps clanked—and then all was still; a
+door banged—and then all was still; a raucous
+voice shouted out a curse—and then all was still.
+The stillness was as ghostly as the sound, only
+that, as far as Teddy was concerned, so little
+reached his massacred perceptions.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The rattle of keys and the clanging of the
+door! He looked up from the bunk on the edge
+of which he was sitting listlessly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Lady to see you!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">This guard was young, smart, debonair, with
+a twinkle in his eye, and the first who didn't
+treat a comrade's murderer with instinctive animosity.
+Teddy got up and followed him in the
+stupefied bewilderment with which he had done
+everything else that day. Lady to see him!
+The words seemed to refer to something so far
+back in his history that he could hardly recall
+what it was. Once upon a time there had been
+a mother, a Jennie, a Gussie, and a Gladys;
+but they were now remote and shadowy.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Along corridors, up steps, and then along more
+corridors he tramped, till they stopped at an
+open door—and there he saw Jennie. In a room
+unspeakably bare and forbidding in spite of a
+table and half a dozen chairs she waited for him
+with a smile. He, too, did his best to smile, but
+his lower lip, swollen with the kick that had
+caught him in the mouth, made the effort nothing
+but a rictus.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For this, Jennie had been prepared by the snapshot
+in the paper. All the while she had been on
+the way to him she had been saying to herself
+that she must show no sign of horror or surprise.
+Even though she would follow the cue of her poor
+demented mother and pretend that he was in
+prison as a martyr, she would take no pitying or
+tragic note. She went forward, therefore, and
+threw her arms about him with the same offhand,
+unsentimental pleasure which she would have
+shown in meeting him after a brief absence
+at any time.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You darling Ted! We're so glad to have
+found you. I thought I'd just run down and
+bring you some clean clothes."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was better done than she thought she had
+the strength for, perhaps because his need was
+greater than she had supposed possible. Could
+she have dreamt beforehand that Teddy would
+ever look like this, she would have screamed
+from fright. But now that he did, she rose to
+the fact, seemingly taking it for granted, actually
+taking it for granted, through some hitherto
+unsuspected histrionic force. Within a minute
+of his arrival they were seated near each other,
+in a curious make-believe that the conditions
+were not terrible.</p>
+<p class="pnext">With this familiar presence beside him, Teddy's
+mind resumed functioning, possibly to his
+regret. Home was close to him again, while the
+loved faces came back to life.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"How's ma?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The question was indistinct because, now that
+it came to making conversation, he found that
+his tongue was thickened in addition to his
+swollen lip. Jennie replied that their mother's
+health was never better.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I suppose"—he balked a little but forced
+himself onward—"I suppose she feels pretty
+bad—over me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, she doesn't. She told me to tell you so."
+She was determined to speak truthfully in this
+respect, so that if their mother's dementia could
+do him any good, he shouldn't fail of it. "She
+told me to say that you were not to be sorry for
+anything you'd done, no matter how they
+punished you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Does she—does she know what I've done?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She threw it off, as if casually.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She knows all that's been in the papers; and
+I don't believe they've left anything out, not
+judging by the things they've said."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"How's Gussie? How's Gladys?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having answered these questions to the best
+of her ability, Jennie raised the subject of what
+she could bring him to eat. The guard who had
+remained in the room informed her that she
+could bring him anything, at which she promised
+to return next day. For the minute she was at
+the end of her forces. If she went on much
+longer they would snap.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'll run away now, Ted," she said, rising.
+"It's splendid to see you so bucked up. I'll be
+here again about this time to-morrow, and bring
+you something nice. Momma's busy already
+making you a fruit cake." She added, as she
+held him by the hand, "I suppose you'll have to
+have a lawyer."</p>
+<p class="pnext">A memory came to him like that of something
+heard while under an anæsthetic.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I think the judge said this morning that he'd
+appoint some one to—to defend me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, we'll do better than that," she smiled,
+cheerily. "I've got some money. We'll have a
+lawyer of our own."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The journey home was the hardest thing
+Jennie had ever had to face. Teddy! Teddy!
+Teddy brought to this! It was all she could
+say to herself. The bare fact dwarfed all its
+causes, immediate or remote.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Eager for privacy in which to sob, she was
+speeding along Indiana Avenue when, happening
+to glance in the direction of her home, she saw
+Gladys standing on the sidewalk. Gladys, having
+at the same minute perceived her, started
+with a violent bound in her direction. She, too,
+had a newspaper in her hand, leading Jennie to
+expect a repetition of Gussie's episode that
+morning.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was such a repetition, and it was not. It
+was, to the extent that Gladys had been informed
+of Teddy's drama much as her elder sister at
+Corinne's, though later in the day. At a minute
+when trade was slack and Gladys ruminantly
+chewing gum, Miss Hattie Belweather, a cash
+girl in the gloves, slipped up to her to say:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Gladys Follett, if you knew what Sunshine
+Bright's been saying about you, <em class="italics">you'd</em>
+never speak to her again!" Hattie Belweather,
+who had the blank, innocent expression of a
+sheep, having paused for the natural inquiry,
+went on breathlessly. "She says your brother
+Teddy robbed a bank and killed a man and is in
+jail over at Ellenbrook and—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Such foolish calumny Gladys could so far
+contemn as to say with quiet force:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You tell Sunshine Bright that the next time
+I go by the notions I'll stop and break her neck.
+See?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Hattie Belweather, having sped away to carry
+this challenge, Gladys found herself confronted
+by Miss Flossie Grimm, a saleslady in the stockings,
+to which department Gladys herself in a
+minor capacity was also attached. Feeling that
+the Follett child was ignorant of facts of which
+she should be in possession, Miss Grimm said,
+reprovingly:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You've got a chunk of gall! Look at that!"</p>
+<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">That</em> was one of the papers giving the story of
+Teddy's downfall, so that Gladys, too, was
+soon making her way homeward. But she was
+not a cash girl for nothing, while the instincts of
+the city <em class="italics">gamine</em> endowed her with alertness of
+mind beyond either of her sisters. She remembered
+that the paper she had seen was a morning
+one, and that by this hour those of the afternoon
+would be on the news stands. They would not
+only give further details, but might possibly
+tell her that the whole story was untrue. Somewhere
+she had heard that among the New York
+evening papers one was renowned for solemnity
+and exactitude. Veracity costing a cent more
+than she usually spent for the evening news,
+when she spent anything, which was rare, she
+felt the occasion worth the extravagance.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In these pages, Teddy's case was condensed
+into so small a paragraph that she had difficulty
+in finding it; but during the search she lighted
+on something else. It was something so extraordinary,
+so unbelievable, so impossible to assimilate,
+as to thrust even Teddy's situation well
+into the second place.</p>
+<p class="pnext">After that, all the known methods of locomotion
+were slow to Gladys in her efforts to reach
+home; but before she could enter the house she
+had seen Jennie advancing up the avenue, and
+so ran back to meet her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Jen! Look!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was all she had breath to say, so that Jennie
+naturally did as she was bidden. But she, too,
+found the paragraph thrust beneath her eyes
+extraordinary, unbelievable, and impossible to
+assimilate, though for other reasons than those
+that swayed her sister.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst"><span class="small-caps">Collingham-Follett.</span> On May 11th, at St. Titus's
+Rectory, Madison Avenue, by the Rev. Larned Goodbody,
+Robert Bradley Collingham, Jr., of Marillo Park, N. Y.,
+to Jane Scarborough Follett, of Pemberton Heights, N. J.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Of the many things Jennie didn't comprehend,
+she comprehended this paragraph least of all.
+Who had put it in the paper, and what did it
+mean? She walked on dreamily, Gladys trotting
+beside her, a living interrogation point.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Jen, what's it all about? Are you
+married to him really?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie answered as best she knew how.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not—not exactly."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But here Gladys was too quick for her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If you're married to him at all, it's got to be
+exactly, hasn't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I—I did go through—through the ceremony."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well then, you've got the law on him,"
+Gladys declared, earnestly. "He'll have to pay
+you alimony anyhow."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I—I don't want him to pay me anything."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not pay you anything, and him with a wad
+as big as a haystack? Oh, Jen, you're not going
+dippy like poor momma, are you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie wondered if she was. It seemed to her
+as if she could stand little more in the line of
+revolution without her mind giving way.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And yet within a few minutes she received
+another shock. It came through Gussie, who
+ran to meet them at the door.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"For mercy's sake, Jen, what's all this about?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She fluttered a yellow envelope, on which the
+address was typewritten.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block outermost">
+<div class="line"><span class="small-caps">Mrs. Bradley Collingham, Jr.</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line">Care <span class="small-caps">Mrs. Follett</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span class="small-caps">11 Indiana Avenue</span></div>
+<div class="inner line-block">
+<div class="line"><span class="small-caps">Pemberton Heights, N. J.</span></div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">"I told the boy it didn't belong here—" Gussie
+was beginning to explain when Gladys interrupted.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, it does. Read that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gussie read and read again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, of all—" She stopped only because
+she lacked the words with which to continue.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the meanwhile Jennie had opened her telegram
+and read:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class="pfirst">Have asked father to engage best counsel in New York
+to defend boy. Sailing to-morrow on <em class="italics">Venezuela</em>, and will
+take all responsibilities off your hands. Placed two thousand
+dollars to your account at Pemberton National Bank.
+See manager. Devoted love. Your husband, <span class="small-caps">Bob</span>.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p class="pfirst">Jennie let the yellow slip flutter to the entry
+floor while she stood gazing into the air. Gussie
+having picked it up, the two younger sisters
+read it together.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Some class!" Gladys commented, dryly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Gussie could only stare at Jennie awesomely,
+as if a miracle had transformed her.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id23">CHAPTER XXII</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">On landing from the <em class="italics">Venezuela</em>, Bob drove
+out to Collingham Lodge. He knew that
+by this time the family were in the Adirondacks,
+and that with Gull and his wife to look after him
+he should have the place to himself. Now that
+he was known to be married he had first thought
+it possible to bring Jennie there, but had decided
+that the big empty house might frighten her with
+its loneliness. A hotel in New York was what
+she would probably prefer; and with all he had
+to do for Teddy, it would doubtless be most convenient
+for himself. He went to his old home,
+therefore, only as to a base from which to make
+further arrangements. Having unpacked a few
+things and eaten a snack of lunch, he would go
+to see his wife at once.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Though he had not expected to hear from her
+on landing, and still less to see her at the dock,
+he was faintly disappointed to receive neither of
+these forms of greeting. He reminded himself
+that not her coldness, but her inexperience, would
+account for this, and so made the more of his
+anticipations for the afternoon. She had written
+to him while he was away, short, noncommittal
+letters, betraying a mind unused to correspondence
+rather than a heart opposed to it.
+Lack of habit, he told himself, would for a long
+time to come make her seem unresponsive when
+she would only be hesitating and observant.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the hot season at Marillo, and those
+houses which were not closed were somnolent.
+At Collingham Lodge, Max, with his madly joyful
+demonstrations, was the only expression of
+life. Within the house, the shades were down,
+the furniture befrocked. Nevertheless, it was
+home, and all the more home after the alien
+pageantry of the tropics and the south. Having
+bathed and changed his clothes, he found
+pleasure in roaming from one dim airless room
+to another, as if he had been absent for a year.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was a greater pleasure for the reason that,
+ever since receiving his father's amazing cablegram,
+the vague antagonism he had felt for two
+or three years toward his parents had given place
+to affection and gratitude. They had seemingly
+come round after all to acknowledging his right
+to be himself. The concession gave him a sense
+of loving them, of loving the things that belonged
+to them. He strolled into their rooms, looking
+about on the objects they used, as though in
+this way he got some contact with their personalities.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As yet, Jennie's family hardly entered the
+sphere of his conceptions. He knew she had
+a mother and sisters; he had seen and spoken to
+Teddy at the bank. But even the knowledge that
+the boy was in jail for killing a man didn't bring
+him or them near to him as realities. While
+there were things he should do for the boy, they
+would not be done for him, but for Jennie.
+What concerned her naturally concerned her
+husband; but otherwise his father and mother
+came first. For this new generosity on their
+part, for this opening of the arms, his heart
+glowed toward them, making them sensibly his
+own.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was thinking of this as he stood in his
+mother's room, gazing round on the chintzy comfort
+he had all his life regarded with some awe.
+Not since he had been a little boy had he felt so
+warmly toward her as now. A note from her at
+Quarantine had assured him, as she had assured
+him before he went to South America, that she
+was his mother and that in all trials he could
+count on her. Counting on her, he could count
+on everything, for however difficult his father
+might prove, she could manage him in the end.
+It made everything easier for him and for Jennie,
+turning an anxious outlook on life into a splendid
+hopefulness.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was leaving the room to go and see if Mrs.
+Gull had cooked a chop for him when he noticed,
+propped against the wall and near the door by
+which he had come in, what looked like a picture
+carelessly covered with a crimson cloth. His
+mother had long talked of having her portrait
+done; he wondered if it could be that. He put
+his hand on it, and felt the frame. It was a
+picture, and, if a picture, undoubtedly the
+portrait.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Let's see what the old lady looks like," were
+the words that passed through his mind.</p>
+<p class="pnext">With a twitch the cloth was off, and he sprang
+back. The start was one of surprise. Looking
+for no more than the exquisite conventionality
+he knew so well, this vital nudity caught his
+breath and made his heart leap. It was as if he
+had actually come on some living pagan loveliness
+seated in one of the empty rooms. Tannhäuser
+first beholding the goddess in the secrecy
+of the Venusberg must have felt something like
+this amazed tumult of the senses.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Turning from the great bay window in which
+he had hastily pulled up the shades, his excitement
+had consciously in it a presentiment of evil.
+She was so alive, and so much there on purpose!</p>
+<p class="pnext">Then a horror stole over him, like a chill that
+struck his bones. He crept forward, with a
+stricken, fascinated stare. <em class="italics">It couldn't be</em>, he was
+saying to himself; and yet—and yet—<em class="italics">it was</em>.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The bearings of this conviction didn't come to
+him all at once. The fact was as much as he
+could deal with. She had sat and been painted
+like this! His impressions were as poignant and
+confused as if he had seen her struck dead. He
+couldn't account for it. He couldn't explain the
+presence of the thing here in his mother's room.</p>
+<p class="pnext">On the lower bar of the frame he saw an inscription
+plate, getting down on all fours to read
+it—"Life and Death: by Hubert Wray."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So Hubert had done it; Hubert had seen her in
+this flinging-off of mystery. Of course!</p>
+<p class="pnext">His thought flashed back to the day when he
+had first made her acquaintance. Leaning a
+little forward, she was sitting in this very Byzantine
+chair, on this very dais, wearing a flowered
+dress, a flower-wreathed Leghorn hat in her lap.
+Wray, in a painting smock, was standing with
+the palette and brushes in his hand, making a
+sketch of her more or less on the lines of a Reynolds
+or a Gainsborough. He had dropped him
+a line telling him he had taken a studio and
+inviting him to look him up. He hadn't looked
+him up till a week or two had gone by; but, having
+once seen this girl, he did so soon again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Of him she had taken little or no notice.
+When, later, he forced himself on her attention,
+she made his approaches difficult. When he
+asked her to marry him she had at first laughed
+him off, and then refused him in so many words.
+But as she generally based her refusal, unconsciously,
+perhaps, on the social differences between
+them, he wouldn't take her "No" for an
+answer. If he could ignore the social differences,
+it seemed to him that she could, while the advantages
+to her in marrying a Collingham were
+evident.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And all the while this is what the trouble
+was."</p>
+<p class="pnext">What he meant by <em class="italics">this</em> was more than the
+picture, "Life and Death," though how much
+more he made no attempt to measure. The
+truth that now emerged for him out of his memory
+of the winter months was that Wray loved
+Jennie, that Jennie loved Wray, and that he had
+been a blind fool never to have seen it. He
+threw himself on his mother's couch, burying
+his face in the cushions.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As much as from anything else he suffered
+from the breakdown of his convictions. He had
+been so glib on the subject of his instinct. Love
+could make mistakes, he had said to Edith, but
+instinct couldn't. He had been the other half
+of Jennie; Jennie had been the other half of him.
+She couldn't be unfaithful to him, because he
+knew she couldn't. His love was protecting her
+like a magic cloak, while she was.... The awful
+shame of a man whose foolish stammerings of
+passion are held up to public ridicule seemed to
+kill the heart in his body.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And yet, when he staggered to his feet and
+strode toward the obsessing thing to pull the
+cloth over it again, he started back once more.
+The woman with the skull had changed. She
+was a coarse creature now, common and sensual.
+Amazement pinned him to the spot, his hands
+raised as if at sight of an apparition. Then
+slowly, insensibly, weirdly, Jennie came back
+again, though not quite the Jennie he had seen
+at first. This Jennie retained the traits of the
+second woman—a Jennie coarsened, common,
+and sensual, in spite of being exquisite, too.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He walked in and out of the other rooms on
+the floor, so as to clear his mind of the suggestion.
+When he came back, he saw the second woman,
+and the second woman only; but having moved
+into a new light, he found Jennie there as before.
+It was like sorcery. Whether the thing had a
+baleful life, or whether his perceptions were
+growing crazed, he couldn't tell.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Neither could he tell what he was to do with
+regard to the plans he had been making. A
+hotel in New York <em class="italics">now</em>....</p>
+<p class="pnext">But the immediate duties were evident.
+Nominally he had come back to befriend the
+boy, and the boy must be befriended. To do
+that he must have a knowledge of the facts.
+Farther than this he had been unable to progress
+even by the hour, in the early afternoon, when
+he was limping along Indiana Avenue.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He had telephoned his coming, and Jennie
+had answered in a dead voice which could hardly
+be interpreted as a welcome. It was like a guilty
+voice, he said to himself, though he corrected
+the thought instantly, to argue in favor of
+emotion.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He had spent the intervening two or three
+hours arguing. Jennie was a model, and he
+must not be surprised if a model's work, however
+startling to one who was not a model, should
+seem a matter of course to her. All professions
+had peculiarities strange to those who didn't
+belong to them, and the model's perhaps most of
+all. He couldn't judge; he couldn't condemn.
+He must try to understand her from her own
+point of view. Probably her posing in this way
+seemed the most natural thing in the world to
+her; and, if so, he must make it seem the same
+to himself. He couldn't expect her to have the
+hesitations and circumspections of a girl from
+Marillo Park. If she was true to her own
+standards, it was all he had a right to look for.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And yet there was Wray. He had long seen
+in Hubert a fellow whom no girl could love "and
+get away with it." These were the words he
+had used of his friend, and he had considered the
+detail none of his business. Most men were that
+way, more or less, and if he himself wasn't, it
+was not a moral excellence, but a trick of temperament.
+But that Jennie was in danger from Wray
+was a thought that never occurred to him. Her
+innocence and defenselessness, combined with
+what he had taken to be a kind of studio code
+of honor, would have been enough to protect
+her, even had his suspicions been roused, which
+they never were. He tried to smother those
+suspicions even now, saying to himself that he
+had nothing against her except that she had
+been a model—in all for which a model was ever
+called upon.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He had that—and the timbre of her voice on
+the telephone. There was dismay in that voice,
+and terror. If it wasn't a guilty voice....</p>
+<p class="pnext">But, as a matter of fact, it was a guilty voice.
+In an overwhelming consciousness of guilt, Jennie
+had spent the whole of the ten days since the
+coming of his cablegram. The man who at a
+distance of four or five thousand miles could
+know that Teddy was in jail and act so promptly
+for the good of all might be aware of anything.
+Having always seemed immense and overshadowing,
+he became godlike now from his
+sheer display of power. It was power so great
+that she could put forth no claim; she could only
+wait humbly on his will.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As, hidden behind a curtain, she watched for
+his coming along the avenue, all her thoughts
+were focused into speculation as to how he
+would approach her. Would he be sorry for
+having married her? She could only fear that
+he would be. She had never mistrusted his
+mother's reading of his character—that he made
+love to girls one day and forgot them the next—in
+addition to which she had involved him in this
+terrible disgrace. Whatever excuse those who
+loved Teddy might make for him, the fact remained
+that to the world he was a bank robber
+and a murderer. All his kin must share in the
+condemnation meted out to him, and Bob's first
+task as a married man must be that of defending
+her and hers against public disdain. He might
+be as brave as a lion in doing that, but, she
+reasoned, he couldn't like the necessity. He
+might say he did, and yet she wouldn't be able
+to believe him. Even if he still cared for her as
+he had cared when he went away, his marriage
+to her couldn't possibly be viewed otherwise
+than as a misfortune; and he might not still
+care for her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She saw him as he limped round the corner at
+the very end of the street. He wore a Panama
+hat and a white-linen suit. Luckily, Gussie and
+Gladys had gone back to work and her mother
+was lying down. She couldn't have borne the
+suspense had she not been all alone. Even
+Pansy's searching eyes, as she stood with her
+little squat legs planted wide apart, trying to
+understand this new element in the situation,
+were almost more than Jennie could endure.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob advanced slowly, examining the numbers
+of the houses, many of which were lacking.
+Seventeen, Fifteen, and Thirteen were, however,
+over their doors, so that he was duly prepared
+for Eleven.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'll know by the first look in his eyes," she
+kept saying to herself, "whether he's sorry he
+married me or not."</p>
+<p class="pnext">As he passed number Thirteen she got up from
+the arm of the big chair on which she had been
+perched, and found she could hardly stand. It
+was all she could do to creep into the entry and
+open the front door. When he turned into the
+little cement strip leading up to it, she shrank
+back into the shadow. He was abreast of the
+two hydrangea trees before he saw her. When
+he did so he stood still. It seemed to her that an
+unreckonable time went by before a smile stole
+to his lips, and when it did it was wavering,
+flickering, more poignant than no smile at all.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her inner comment was: "Yes; he's sorry.
+Now I know." Pride, another new force in her
+character, made of her a woman with a will,
+as she added, "I must help him to get out of it—somehow."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Pansy, sensing a nimbus of good will as
+imperceptible to Jennie as the pervasive scent
+of the summer, lilted down the steps, raised her
+forepaws against his shin, and gazed up into his
+face adoringly.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxiii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id24">CHAPTER XXIII</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">It was a help to Bob Collingham that his
+first glance at Jennie decided his attitude for
+the near future. Whatever his doubts and
+questionings, he could add nothing to the trials
+she had to face. Whatever she had done, whatever
+the net of circumstances in which she had
+been caught, he must act as if, as far as he himself
+was concerned, he was satisfied. Whether
+she loved him or whether she didn't, or whether
+her duties as a model had or had not made her
+indifferent to considerations to which most
+people were sensitive, were questions that must
+be postponed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">This conviction, which flashed on him as he
+saw her shrinking in the entry, was confirmed
+when he felt her crumpled in his arms, relieved
+by his presence and yet frightened by the new
+conditions which it wrought. It was the same
+dependent but rebellious little Jennie, clinging
+to him and yet trying to slip away from him.
+It was as if she begged for a love which the perversity
+of her tortured little heart wouldn't
+allow her to accept. Very well then; he must
+measure it out to her a little at a time, as you
+fed a sick person or a starving man, till she got
+used to it. When she was stronger and he more
+at peace with himself, they could tackle the
+personal problems between them.</p>
+<p class="pnext">So, when she struggled from his arms, he let
+her go, following her into the living-room.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Gussie and Gladys are back at work," she
+said at once, to explain the fact that none of
+his new connections were there to greet him,
+"and momma's lying down. She always lies
+down at this time of day, ever since daddy died."
+She dropped into one big shabby armchair,
+motioning him to another. "And there's something
+else I must tell you. Ever since—this
+thing happened to Teddy—she hasn't been—well,
+not right in her mind."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The stand he had taken became more imperative.
+A father's death, a mother's collapse, a
+brother's crime had put her at the head of her
+little troop of three, to bear everything alone.
+He had left behind him an inexperienced girl;
+he had come back to find a woman already
+accustomed to rising to emergencies. The
+change was perceptible in the clearer, slightly
+older cutting of her features, as well as in the
+greater authority with which she spoke. Where
+the contours of her profile had been soft and
+vague, there was now a delicate chiseling; where
+there had been hesitation in words, there was
+now the firmness of one obliged to know her mind.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As she sketched her mother's mental state,
+he sat on the extreme edge of his big chair,
+straining forward so as to be near her without
+touching her, his fingers clasped between his
+knees. She continued to speak nervously, with
+agitation, and yet lucidly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She isn't very bad. She's only what you'd
+call unsettled. It's not that she does anything,
+but rather that, after all the years when she's
+worked so hard, she just sits and does nothing.
+It's as if she was lost in thinking; and when she
+comes back she says such terribly strange
+things."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What sort of things?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"For one, that it's no use living any longer—that
+the world's so bad that the best thing left
+is to get out of it. She says you can't help the
+world, or hope to see it improve, because human
+beings will always reject the principles that
+would make it any better."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He smiled gently.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've heard people talk like that who weren't
+considered unsettled in their minds."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but she doesn't stop there. She tells
+Teddy he was quite within his rights in taking
+money from the bank, and when she goes to see
+him she begs him to be brave and not be sorry
+for anything he's done."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And is he sorry?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't know that you could call it sorry.
+He's dazed and bewildered. He knows he took
+the money and that he killed a man; but he
+thinks he was placed in a position where he
+couldn't help it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And does he say who could have helped it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">As she looked down at that twisting and untwisting of her fingers which was the chief sign
+of her effort at self-control, her color rose.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He says your father could have helped it;
+but I don't believe he's right."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, he isn't right—not as dad himself sees it.
+I know he's been worried ever since your
+father left the bank; but he thinks he couldn't
+help dismissing him. Life isn't very simple for
+anyone—not for my dad any more than it was
+for yours. If I could see Teddy—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Would you go to see him?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Go to see him? Why, that's what I came
+back for! I'd like to do it this very afternoon,
+if you'd tell me first how it all came about.
+You see, I don't know anything, except the two
+or three bald facts dad mentioned in his cablegram."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was not easy to tell this story, even to a
+man whom she knew to be so kind. The fact
+that he was her husband didn't help her, for the
+reason that it was because he was her husband
+that her pride was in revolt. Had he not been
+her husband, he would have been free to withdraw
+from this series of catastrophes. Now he
+could not withdraw. He was tied.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Moreover, the sordid tale of domestic want
+became the more sordid when given fact by fact.
+It was the intimate story of her life in contrast
+to the intimate story of his. The homely family
+dodges for making both ends meet which had
+been the mere jest of penury between Gussie,
+Gladys, and herself became ghastly when exposed to a man who had never known the lack
+of service and luxury, to say nothing of food
+and drink, since the minute he was born. She
+felt as if it emptied her of any little dignity she
+had ever possessed, as if it denuded her of self-respect.
+She could more easily have confessed
+sins to him than the shifts to which they had
+been put to live.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Nevertheless, she went through with it,
+brokenly, with great effort, and yet with a kind
+of dogged will to drain all the dregs of the cup.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He'll see me as I am," was part of her
+underlying thought. "He'll know then that
+I can't go on with this comedy of having married
+him. Even if I have, we've got to end it somehow."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But on his side the reaction was different.
+He had never heard this sort of tale before. He
+had never before been in contact with this phase
+of poverty. He had known poor men in college,
+and plenty of chaps who were down on their
+luck; but the daily pinching and paring of whole
+families just to have enough to eat and to wear
+was so new as to astonish him. For the minute
+it made Jennie less an individual than a type.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"My God!" he was saying inwardly, "do human
+beings have to live so close to the edge as
+all that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">When she had told him of the incident of the
+cutting off of the gas because they couldn't pay
+fifteen dollars on account, the turning point of
+Teddy's tragedy, his exclamation was embarrassing to them both: "Why, I pay twice that
+for a pair of shoes!" Though she knew he meant
+it as a protest against the straits to which they
+had been put, it seemed both to him and to her
+to make the gulf between them wider.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you were going through all that," he
+said, when she had finished her recital, "during
+the months when I was seeing you two and three
+times a week at the studio. My God! how I
+wish you could have told me!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the first time that a little smile came
+quivering to her lips.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You don't tell things like that—not to anyone
+outside your family. Besides, it isn't worth
+while. You get used to them."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You weren't used to it—when your mother
+cried—and Teddy forked out the money."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not to that very thing—but to things like
+it. If Teddy hadn't forked out the money, we
+should have worried through somehow. That's
+the awful thing about it—that if he hadn't done
+it we shouldn't have been much worse off than
+we'd been at other times. A little worse—yes—even
+a good deal, perhaps; and yet we could have
+lived through it. I couldn't have told you, because
+people of our kind don't talk about such
+things, not even with their neighbors. We just
+take them for granted."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was this taking it for granted that impressed
+him with such a sense of the terrible. It left so
+little room for living, so limited a swing to do
+anything but scrape. Scraping was the whole of
+Jennie's history. He could see it as she talked.
+She had never in her life had fifty dollars to do
+with as she chose. Perhaps she had never had
+five. It was not the lack of the money that
+overwhelmed him, but of any freedom to move,
+of any scope in which to grow.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Forgetting his reserves of the morning, he
+caught her by both hands, holding them imprisoned
+in her lap.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But that's all over now, Jennie. You're my
+wife. You're coming to me—right off—to-day—this
+very afternoon."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Bob, I couldn't!" If he was to be "got
+out of it," she felt it essential to gain time. "I
+couldn't leave them. Don't you see? There's
+no one but me to keep house or—or to decide
+anything. Momma's given up entirely, and
+Gussie and Gladys are both so young that I
+couldn't possibly leave them alone."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then we'll have to manage it some other
+way."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; not yet. Let's wait. Let's see."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Waiting and seeing won't change the fact
+that we're man and wife and that everyone
+knows it. It's been in the papers—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, but why did you put it in?" It was her
+turn to seek information. "To me it was like a
+thunderbolt."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He gave her the contents of his father's
+cablegram.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I took it for granted that you must have told
+him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I shouldn't have done that. I did—I did tell
+your mother, Bob—but then I couldn't help it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He started back, releasing her hands which he
+had continued holding.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What? You've seen the old lady?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She nodded. "Yes; she sent for me to go out
+to Marillo Park."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"For Heaven's sake! What made her do
+that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She was aware of her opportunity. If she
+wanted to "get him out of it," now was her
+chance. She could tell him part of the truth and
+keep him dangling—or the whole of it and let
+him go. "Fairer to him—and easier for me"
+was the thought on which she based her decision.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She—she wanted to thank me for—for not
+having taken you at your word and married
+you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh! So you had to tell her that you had.
+And what did she say to that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She was lovely."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He beamed with pleasure.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She can be when she takes the notion, just
+as she can be the other way. She must have
+liked you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I—I think she did."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You bet she did! She'd let you see it if she
+didn't. So <em class="italics">that's</em> what smoothed the way for us!
+I couldn't make it out. You certainly are a
+little witch, Jennie!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It isn't as smooth as all that." Springing to
+her feet, she turned her back on him, moving
+away toward the window. "Oh, Bob, I wish
+I didn't have to tell you. You're so good and
+kind, and I've been so"—it came out with a
+burst of confession, her arms outstretched, her
+hands spread palms upward—"I've been so
+awful! When you know—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Wait!" He seized her by the shoulders with
+the force which calms emotion from sheer
+fright. "Wait, Jennie! I know what you're
+going to tell me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but you can't."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's—it's something about Wray, isn't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She nodded dumbly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then we'll put it off. Do you see? That
+isn't what I came back for. I came back about
+Teddy, and we must see that through before
+we think of ourselves. All that'll keep—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It won't keep if we go and live together."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then we won't go and live together—not
+till we see how it's to be done. That's just a
+detail. In comparison with Teddy, it doesn't
+matter one way or another. We'll come to it
+by and by. All we've got to think of now is
+that there's a boy whose life is hanging by a
+thread—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; but I don't want you to be mixed up
+in it. I want to—to save you from—from the
+sacrifice—and—and the disgrace."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He stood back from her with a hard little laugh.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Good God! Jennie, I wonder if you have the
+faintest idea of what love is! You can't have.
+Do you suppose it matters to me what I'm mixed
+up in so long as it's something that touches you?
+Listen! Let me explain to you what love is like
+when it's the kind I feel for you. I"—he braced
+himself in order to bring out the words forcibly—"I
+don't care what Wray is to you or what you
+are to Wray—not yet. I put that away from me
+till I've gone with you through the things you've
+got to meet. They'll not be easy for you, but I
+want to make them as easy as I can. No one
+can do it but me, because no one cares for you as
+I do."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I know that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then, if you know it, Jennie, don't force
+anything else on me when I'm doing my best not
+to think of it. Let me just love you as well as I
+know how till we do the things that are right in
+front of us. After that, if there's a reason why
+I should hand you over to Wray, or to anybody
+else, you can tell me, and I'll—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Pansy's scrambling to attention and a sound
+on the stairs arrested his words as well as Jennie's
+rising tears.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Momma's coming down," the girl whispered,
+hurriedly. "She wants to see you. Don't forget
+that you're not to mind anything she says."</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Bob, the moment was one of awed surprise,
+for the commanding, black-robed figure differed
+from all his preconceptions, as far as he had any,
+of Jennie's mother. Advancing rapidly into the
+room, she took his right hand in hers, laying her
+left on his head as if in benediction.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So you're my Jennie's husband. I hope
+you're a good man, for you've found a good
+woman. Be loving to each other. The time is
+coming when love is all that will survive. Let me
+look at you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He stood off, smiling, while she made her
+inspection.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Love is all there is, anyhow, don't you think,
+Mrs. Follett?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; but it gets no chance in this world."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Or it is the only thing that does get a
+chance?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It may be the only thing that does get a
+chance, but that chance is small. There's no
+hope for the world. Don't think there is, because
+you'll be disappointed. Each time your disappointment
+is worse than the last, till you end in
+despair."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the strain Jennie felt obliged to interrupt.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Momma, Mr. Collingham is going to see
+Teddy. Don't you want him to take a message?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Only the message I've given him myself—that
+it's only a little way over, and that one of
+two things must happen then. It will either be
+sleep, in which nothing will matter, or it will be
+life, in which he'll be free—understood—supported—instead
+of being beaten and crushed and
+mangled, as everyone is here. Tell him that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He felt it his duty to be cheerier.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"On the other hand, we may get him off; or
+if we can't get him off altogether—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What good would that do—your getting him
+off? You'd be throwing him back again on a
+world that doesn't want him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but surely the world <em class="italics">does</em>—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; the world does—I'm wrong—it does to
+the same extent that it wanted his father—to
+give it every ounce of his strength with a pittance
+for his pay—to spend and be spent till
+he's good for nothing more—and then to be
+thrown aside to starve. It's possible that even
+now Teddy would be willing to do this if they'd
+only let him live; but tell him it's not good
+enough. I've told him, and I don't think he
+believes me; but you're a man, and perhaps you
+can make him see it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, momma dear, he'll do the best he
+can—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It won't be the best he can if he tries to keep
+him here. We've passed on, my boy and I. Only
+our bodies are still on the earth, and that for just
+a little while. A year from now and we'll both
+be safe—so safe!—and yet you'd try to keep us
+in a world where men make a curse of everything."</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">But Teddy himself was less reconciled than
+his mother to bidding the world good-by. In
+proportion as his physical strength returned,
+the fate that had overtaken him became more
+and more preposterous. To suppose that he
+had of his own criminal intention stolen money
+and killed a man was little short of insane. A
+man had been killed by a pistol he held in his
+hand; he had taken money because the need
+was such that he couldn't help himself; but he,
+Teddy Follett, was neither a thief nor a murderer
+in any sense involving the exercise of will.
+He was sure of that. He declared it to himself
+again and again and again. It was all that
+gave him fighting force, compelling him to insist,
+to assert himself, and to protest in season and
+out of season against being shut up in a cell.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The cell was seven feet long and four feet wide.
+Round the foot of the bunk and along the sides
+there was a space of some twelve inches. At the
+foot there was the iron-ribbed door with a
+grating, and along the sides a slimy and viscous
+stone wall. Besides the bunk, a bucket, and a
+shelf there was nothing whatever in the way
+of furnishings. Under the bed he was privileged
+to keep the suitcase with his wardrobe, and on
+the shelf whatever his mother and sisters brought
+him in the way of food. By day, the only light
+was through the grating to the corridor; by
+night, a feeble electric bulb was extinguished at
+half past nine. The Brig being an ancient
+prison, and Teddy but one of a long, long line of
+murderers who had lain on this hard bed, vermin
+infested everything.</p>
+<p class="pnext">While Bob Collingham was on his way to him
+Teddy was in conversation with the chaplain.
+For this purpose, the door had been unlocked.
+The visitor leaned against the door post while
+the prisoner stood in the narrow space between
+his bunk and the wall.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the Protestant chaplain, a tall, spare,
+sandy-haired man of some fifty-odd, whose
+yearning, spiritual face had, through long association
+with his flock, grown tired and disillusioned.
+Having sought this post from a genuine
+sympathy with outcast men, he suffered from
+their rejection. He was so sure of what would
+help them, and only one in a hundred ever
+wanted it. Even that one generally laughed at
+it when he got out of jail. After eighteen years
+of self-denying work, the worthy man was sadly
+pessimistic now as to prospects of reform.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For the minute he was trying to convince
+Teddy of the righteousness of punishment. He
+had been drawn to the boy partly because of
+his youth and good looks, but mainly on account
+of his callousness to his crime. He seemed to
+have no conscience, no notion of the difference
+between right and wrong. "A moral moron"
+was what he labeled him. The lack of ethical
+consciousness was the more astonishing because
+his antecedents had apparently been good.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You see," he was pointing out, "you can't
+break the laws by which society protects itself
+and yet escape the moral and physical results."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But in his long, solitary hours Teddy had
+been thinking this out.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Doesn't that depend upon the laws? If the
+law's wrong—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But who's to judge of that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Isn't the citizen to judge of that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The parson smiled—his weary, spiritual smile.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If the citizen was allowed to judge of
+that—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If he wasn't," Teddy broke in, with the
+impetuosity born of his beginning to think for
+himself, "if he wasn't, there'd be no such country
+as the United States. Most of the fireworks in
+American history are over the fine thing it is to
+beat the law to it when the law isn't just."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, but there's a distinction between individual
+action and great popular movements."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Great popular movements must be made up
+of individual actions, mustn't they? If individuals
+didn't break the laws, each guy on his
+own account, you wouldn't get any popular
+movements at all."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The chaplain shifted his ground.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All the same, there are certain laws that
+among all peoples and at all times have been
+considered fundamental. Human society can't
+permit a man to steal—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then human society shouldn't put a man
+in a position where he either has to steal or
+starve to death."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was a repetition of the thin, ghostly
+smile.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, well, no one who's ordinarily honest and
+industrious ever—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ever starves to death? That's a lie. Excuse
+me," he added, apologetically, "but that kind of
+talk just gets my goat. My father practically
+starved to death—he died from lack of proper nourishment,
+the doctor said—and there never was a
+more industrious or an honester man born. He
+gave everything he had to human society, and
+when he had no more to give, human society
+kicked him out. It has the law on its side, too,
+and because"—he gulped—"I came to his help
+in the only way I knew how they've chucked
+me into this black hole."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The chaplain found another kind of opening.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So, you see, my boy, there's that. If you
+don't keep the law—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"They can make you suffer for it," Teddy declared,
+excitedly. "Of course they can. They've
+made me suffer—God! how they've made me
+suffer—more, I believe, than anyone since Jesus
+Christ! But that's not what we were talking
+about. You started in to tell me that it's <em class="italics">right</em>
+for me to suffer the way they're making me.
+That's what I kick against, and I'll keep on
+kicking till they send me to the chair."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If you could do yourself any good by that—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But just here the dialogue was interrupted by
+the appearance of Boole, the dapper, debonair
+young guard who generally announced Teddy's
+afternoon visitors.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, old cuss! Gent to see you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The chaplain prepared to move on to the neighboring
+cell. His leave-taking was kindly and
+with a great pity in it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We'll go on with this talk again, my boy.
+When you're able to get the right point of
+view—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">What would happen then was drowned in the
+clanging of the door behind him, as Teddy
+stepped out into the corridor.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Who is it? Stenhouse?" he asked, as he
+walked along with the guard.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He had already dropped into the prisoner's
+habitual tone of hostile friendliness toward the
+officials with whom he came most in contact,
+recognizing the fact that had he met any of
+these men "on the outside" they would have
+hobnobbed together with the freemasonry of
+American young men everywhere. On their
+sides the keepers, apart from the fact that they
+considered Teddy "a tough lot," had ceased to
+show him animosity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's not the lawyer," Boole answered now.
+"It's a swell guy with a limp. Looks to me as if
+he might be the gay young banker sport that the
+papers say is married to your sister."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy felt his heart contracting in a spasm of
+dread. The one fact he knew of his brother-in-law
+was that he had sent him Stenhouse, one of
+the three or four lawyers most famous at the
+New Jersey bar for saving lives. This detail,
+too, the boy had learned from Boole.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You'll not get the cur'nt, with him to defend
+you, believe <em class="italics">me</em>. Some bird! If he can't prove
+you innocent, he'll find a flaw in the law or the
+indictment or somethin'. Why, they say he
+once got a guy off, a Pole, the fella was, just on
+the spellin' of his name."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having been warned by Stenhouse not to
+discuss his case with anyone, Teddy was discreetly silent. As a matter of fact, he had too
+much to think of to be inclined to talk. The circumstance
+that "young Coll" had become a
+relative was one of which he was just beginning
+to seize the importance. His bruised mind had
+been unable at first to apprehend it. Slowly he
+was coming to the realized knowledge that he
+was allied to that Olympian race which the
+Collinghams represented to the Folletts, and that,
+at least, some of their power was engaged on his
+behalf.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was confusing. Since the might that had
+struck him down was also coming to his aid, the
+issue was no longer clear-cut. To have all the
+right on one side and all the wrong on the other
+had simplified life. Now, a right that was
+partly wrong and a wrong that was partly right
+had been personified, as it were, in this union
+through which a Collingham had become a Follett,
+and a Follett a Collingham.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Young Coll was standing where Jennie had
+stood on the first occasion of Teddy's coming to
+the visitors' room. He too waited with a smile.
+The minute he saw the lad appear timidly on the
+threshold he limped forward with outstretched
+hand.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, Teddy!" His embarrassment, being
+a kindly embarrassment, was without awkwardness.
+"You didn't know I was going to be
+your brother the last time you saw me, did you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy said nothing. He was not sullen, but
+neither was he friendly. A Collingham, even
+though married to his sister, was probably a
+person to be feared. Teddy's counsel to himself
+was to be on his guard against "the nigger in
+the woodpile."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Perhaps it was my fault that you didn't,"
+Bob went on, with some constraint. "That's
+the reason why I'm here. I dare say there isn't
+much I can do for you, old boy, but what little
+there is I want to do."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy eyed him steadily, still without making
+a reply. Somehow they found chairs. Boole,
+having once more summed up the visitor, had
+retreated toward the guard who sat officially at
+the far end of the room.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Looks like a good cuss," was Boole's whispered
+confidence. "Kind o' soft—like most o'
+them swell sports that marries working goyls."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob was finding himself less and less at his
+ease. The boy not only came none of the way
+to meet him, but seemed to hold him as an
+enemy. By his silence and by the severity of his
+regard he conveyed the impression that young
+Coll, and not himself, had done the wrong.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was an attitude for which Bob was not prepared.
+Neither was he prepared for the defacement
+of all that had been glowing in the lad's
+countenance. Jennie had warned him against
+expecting the ruddy bright-eyed Teddy of the
+bank, but he hadn't looked for this air of youth
+blasted out of youthfulness. It was still youth,
+but youth marred, terrified, haunted, with a fear
+beyond that of gibbering old age.</p>
+<p class="pnext">With his lovingness and quickness of pity,
+Bob sought for a line by which he could catch
+on to the lad's interest.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I asked my father to send you the best
+counsel in New Jersey, and I believe he's picked
+out Stenhouse."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy regarded him grimly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, he did." It seemed as if he meant to
+say no more, when, with a sardonic grunt, he went
+on, "Something like a guy who smashes a machine
+and then gets the best mechanician in the
+world to come and patch it up."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes—possibly—it may be. Only, there's
+this to consider—that no one smashes a machine
+on purpose."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, I don't suppose he does. Only, it's all
+the same to the machine whether it's been
+smashed on purpose or by accident—so long as
+it'll never run again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob considered this.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You might say that of a machine—a dead
+thing from the start. You can't say it of a human
+being, who's alive from the beginning. See?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, I don't see."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And I don't know that I can explain. I'm
+only sure that a machine can be done for, and
+that a human being can't be. You can come to
+a time when it's no use doing anything more for
+the one; but you can never reach such a time
+with the other. With <em class="italics">him</em>, you may make mistakes
+or you may do him a great wrong, but you
+can't stop trying to put things right again."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you think you can put things right again
+for me?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't know what I can do. I haven't an
+idea. Very likely I can't do anything at all. I
+merely came back from South America to do
+what I could."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Did you feel that you had to—because you'd
+married Jennie?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That was a reason. It wasn't the only one."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What else was there?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not sure that I can tell you. A lot of the
+things we do we do not from reason, but from
+instinct. But if you don't want me to try to
+take a hand—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Under the dark streaks that blotted out what
+had once been Teddy's healthy coloring, a slow
+flush began to mantle.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't want to be—to be bamboozled."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Of course you don't. But how could I bamboozle
+you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was no explanation. Unable to base
+his distrust on any other ground than that Bob
+was the son of the man who had dismissed Josiah
+Follett from the bank, Teddy fell silent again.
+He could not afford to reject the least good will
+that came his way, and yet his spirit was too sore
+to accept it graciously.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Some of this young Collingham divined. He
+began to see that as the boy was suffering and
+he wasn't, it was not for him to take offense.
+On the contrary, he must use all his ingenuity
+to find the way to make his appeal effectively.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All I could do from down there," he said,
+when Teddy seemed indisposed to speak again,
+"was to get Stenhouse or some one to take up
+your case. I mean to see him in the morning
+and find out how far he's got along with it. But
+now that I'm here, can't you think of something
+of your own that you'd like me to do?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy raised his eyes quickly. His look was
+the dull look of anguish, and yet with sharpness
+in the glance.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What kind of thing?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Any kind. Think of the thing that's most on
+your mind—the thing that worries you more
+than anything else—and—put it up to me."
+The somberness deepened in the lad's face, not
+from resentment, but from heaviness of thought.
+"Go ahead," Bob urged. "Cough it up. If
+it's something I can't tackle, I'll tell you so."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What's most on my mind," Teddy began,
+slowly, gritting his teeth with the effort to get
+the words out, "what worries me like hell—is
+ma—and the girls. They—they must be lonesome—something
+fierce—without me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">In his agony of controlling himself he was
+rubbing his palms between his knees, but Bob
+put out his great hand and seized him by the
+wrist.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Look here, old chap! I can't comfort them
+for your not being there. You know that, of
+course. But it always helps women to have a
+man coming and going in the house—to take a
+lot of things off their hands—and keep them
+company—and I'll do that. If I can't be everything
+that you'd be—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You can be more than I could ever be."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes—from the point of view of having a
+little more money—and freedom—and a car to
+take them out in—and all that; but if you think
+I could ever make up to them for you, old sport—but
+that isn't what you want me to do, is it?
+You don't want me to be you, but to be something
+different—only, something that'll make
+your mother and Jennie and your little sisters
+buck up again—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Stumbling to his feet, Teddy drew the back
+of his hand across his eyes.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I—I guess I'd better beat it," he muttered,
+unsteadily. "They—they don't like you to stay
+out too long."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Bob forced him gently back into his chair
+again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, cheese that, Teddy! Sit down and let's
+get better acquainted. I want to tell you how
+Jennie and I made up our minds to get married."</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxiv">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id25">CHAPTER XXIV</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">"And yet it's one of the commonest types
+of the criminal mind," Stenhouse was
+explaining to Bob during the following forenoon.
+"Fellows perfectly normal in every respect but
+that of their own special brand of crime. See
+no harm in that whatever. Won't have a
+cigar?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having declined the cigar for the third time,
+Bob found a subconscious fascination in watching
+the lawyer's Havana travel from one corner to
+the other of his long, mobile, thin-lipped mouth.
+It was interesting, too, to get a view of Teddy's
+case different from Jennie's.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was nothing about Stenhouse, unless
+it was his repressed histrionic intensity, to suggest
+the saver of lives. Outwardly, he was a
+lank, clean-shaven Yankee, of ill-assorted features
+and piercing gimlet eyes. But something about
+him suggested power and an immense persuasiveness.
+He had only to wake from the quiescent
+mood in which he was talking to Bob to become
+an actor or a demagogue. With laughter, tears,
+pathos, vituperation, satire, and repartee all
+at his command, together with an amazing
+knowledge of criminal law, he was born to commend
+himself to the average juryman. Little
+of this was apparent, however, except when he
+was in action. Just now, as he lounged in his
+revolving chair, his limber legs crossed, his
+thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat, and his
+perfecto moving as if by its own volition along
+the elastic lines of his mouth, he was detached,
+impartial, judicial, with that manner of speaking
+which the French describe as "from high to low"—"<em class="italics">de
+haut en bas</em>"—the "good mixer," with a
+sense of his own superiority.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The lack of the human element was to Bob the
+most disconcerting trait in the lawyer's frame of
+mind. To him the case was a case, and neither
+more nor less. The boy's life, so precious to
+himself, was of no more account to Stenhouse
+than that of a private soldier to his commanding
+officer on the day when a position must be rushed.
+Stenhouse was interested in the professional
+advantage he himself might gain from the outcome
+of the trial. In a less degree, he was
+interested in Teddy's psychology as a new slant
+on criminal mentality in general. But the results
+as they affected his client's fate concerned
+him not at all.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm talking to you frankly," he went on,
+"because it's the only way we can handle the
+business. You're making yourself responsible
+in the case, and so I must tell you what I
+think."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, of course!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I quite understand your connection with this
+young fellow, and why you're taking the matter
+up, but I must treat you as if you were as aloof
+from it in sentiment as I am myself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's exactly what I want."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, then, the boy's in a bad fix. It's a
+worse fix because he belongs to the dangerous
+criminal type for whom you can never get a
+jury's sympathy. Roughly speaking, there are
+two classes of criminals—the criminals by accident
+and the criminals born. This boy is a
+criminal born."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, do you think so?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I know so. Yes, sir! You can't have as
+much to do with both lots as I've had without
+learning to read them at sight; and when it
+comes to drawing them out—why, he hadn't told
+me a half of his story before I could see he'd had
+murder on the brain for the best part of his life."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I shouldn't have thought that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, you wouldn't. Lot of it subconscious—suppressed
+desire, Freud, and all that. But
+start him talking, and it's 'God! I'd have shot
+that fellow if I'd had a gun!' or it's, 'If I'd had
+a dose of poison, they'd never have got me
+alive.' Mind ran on it. Yes, sir! Always thinking
+of doing somebody in—if not another fellow,
+then himself."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't think he knew it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Of course he didn't know it. Seemed
+natural to him. Our own vices always do seem
+natural to us. If you put it up to him now, he'd
+say he'd never had a thought of shooting up
+anyone, and he wouldn't be lying out of it,
+either. Way it seems to him. Way it seems to
+every criminal of the class. But to judges and
+juries it's just so much 'bull,' and tells against
+the accused in the end. Sure you won't have a
+cigar?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having again declined the cigar, Bob argued
+in favor of Teddy, but Stenhouse was fixed in
+his convictions.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'll do what I can for him, of course; only,
+I'm blocked by his refusal to plead guilty.
+Pleading guilty might—I don't say it would,
+but it might—incline the judge to mercy. It
+would get him off, too, with the second degree,
+only that, when his own story shows him as
+guilty as hell, he keeps pulling the innocent stuff
+to beat a jazz band. The rascal who plumps
+with his confession will always get the clemency,
+while the fellow with a mouthful of innocence
+will be sent to the chair."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But if he does feel that he's innocent—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Sure he feels that he's innocent! That's it!
+That's what I'm talking about—the ingrained
+criminal's lack of consciousness that his kind of
+crime is crime. The other fellow's—yes; but his—why,
+the law is a fool to be made that way and
+trip a good fellow up! To hear this young shaver
+talk, you'd think the courts should be manned
+by pickpockets."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All the same, he was in a tight place—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What's that got to do with it? If we didn't
+get into tight places, there'd be no need for laws
+of any kind."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I was only thinking of his motive—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"His motive may have been all right. I'll not
+dispute you there, because you'll find that
+legally there's a difference between motive and
+intent. His motive may have been to provide
+for his mother, just as he says. Good! No
+harm in that whatever. But his intent was to
+rob a bank and shoot the guy that came out
+after him. The court won't go into his motives.
+It'll deal only with his intent, and with what
+came of it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was more along these lines which sent
+Bob away with some questioning as to himself.
+Being of a law-respecting nature, he was anxious
+not to uphold the transgressor to anything like
+a danger point. And he ran that risk. Having
+undertaken to help Teddy on Jennie's account,
+his heart had gone out beyond what he expected
+to the boy himself. It was the first time he had
+ever been in contact with a prisoner, the first time
+he had ever come face to face with a lone individual
+against whom all the organized forces
+of the world were focused in condemnation.
+His impulse being to range himself on the
+weaker side, he had, in a measure, so ranged
+himself. He had told Teddy that he stood by
+him, and would continue to stand by him through
+thick and thin. But was he right? Had he
+shown the proper severity? Hadn't he been
+sloppy and sentimental, without sufficiently remembering
+that a man who had killed another
+man was not to be handled as a pet?</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was not common sense to treat the breaker
+of laws as if he hadn't broken them or as if his
+punishment had made him a sympathetic figure.
+Too facile a pity might easily become a sin
+against the community's best standards, and by
+putting himself on the weaker side a man might
+find himself on the worse one. Even the fact
+that the wrongdoer was a relative ought not to
+blind the eyes to his being a wrongdoer. It was
+his duty as a citizen, Bob argued, to support the
+charter of the Rights of Man as set forth in the
+Old Testament—thou shalt not kill—thou shalt
+not steal—the ideal of the New Testament,
+"Neither was there among them any that lacked,
+for they had all things common," never having
+been called to his attention.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As to Teddy's being a criminal born, he was
+not sure. Perhaps he was. Such "sports" appeared
+even from the most respectable stock.
+There was a dark tradition, never mentioned
+now except between Edith and himself, of a
+Collingham—they were not sure of the relationship—who
+had died in jail somewhere in the
+West. Of the Follett stock Bob knew nothing.
+Jennie was the other half of himself; but such
+affinities, he was sheepishly inclined to feel,
+dated from other worlds and other planes of
+existence, though finding a manifestation in
+this one.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But it was Jennie who gave him the lead he
+was in search of.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I should think there were plenty of them to
+attend to that," she said, when he had expressed,
+as delicately as he could, his misgivings as to his
+own lack of rigor. "Whatever he did, and however
+bad it was, they've got all the power in the
+world to punish him, and they're going to do it.
+When there's just one person on earth to show
+him a little pity, I shouldn't think it could be
+too much." She added, after a second or two of
+silence: "He was sorry you didn't go in to see
+him. He missed you. I—I think he's going to
+cling to you just like a drowning man, you know,
+to a hand that's stretched out to him from a
+boat. Very likely he'll have to drown; but so
+long as the hand is there, it's—it's something."</p>
+<p class="pnext">In this speech, which was long for Jennie and
+betokened her growing authority, there were
+two or three points on which Bob pondered as
+he drove them homeward from the Brig. Jennie
+sat beside him, Lizzie in the back seat. He
+took the longest and prettiest ways so as to give
+them something like an outing.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the afternoon of the day on which he
+had seen Stenhouse, and in the interval he had
+been thinking out a program. Whatever the restrictions
+he must put upon himself with regard
+to the boy, his duty to protect and distract
+Jennie and her family was clear. Teddy had
+also given him to understand that, more than
+anything done for himself, this would contribute
+to his peace of mind. Done for his mother and
+sisters, it would be done for him, and the doer
+could be sure that he wasn't loosening the foundations of society. Even where there was a born
+criminal to be judged, and perhaps put out of
+the way, something was gained when the innocent
+could be saved to any possible degree from
+suffering with the guilty.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In this, too, he was not without an eye to
+Indiana Avenue. Though he had no experience
+of suburban life, he was intuitive enough to feel
+sure that, to the neighbors, Jennie's marriage
+had a "queer look," and the more so since she
+was not living with her husband, now that he was
+back from South America. To counteract this,
+he meant to show himself in the street as much
+as possible, parading his car before the door.
+There must be no cheap gossip as to Jennie
+based on lack of his devotion, even though all
+arrangements between her and himself were no
+more than provisional.</p>
+<p class="pnext">To that point, then, his course was clear.
+He could not console the mother, whose reason
+was stricken at its base, nor the three young
+girls whose lives were overshadowed by tragedy;
+but he could divert their minds from dwelling
+too much on calamity by bringing in a new
+interest. He could make it a big interest. He
+could enlarge the interest in proportion to their
+need; and, as Jennie spoke, it dawned on him
+that they themselves began to foresee that their
+need might be great indeed. "They've got all
+the power in the world to punish him; and
+they're going to do it." "He's going to cling to
+you like a drowning man. Very likely he'll have
+to drown." Jennie had had one or two interviews
+with Stenhouse, and perhaps had inferred
+from that great man's talk the difficulties of his
+task.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But the help she gave Bob was in her response
+to his misgivings. "When there's just one person
+on earth to show him a little pity, I shouldn't
+think it could be too much." It couldn't be too
+much—not possibly. The worst enemy of mankind
+had a right to "a little pity," and even
+Judas Iscariot had received it. If Teddy didn't
+get it from him, Bob, he wouldn't get it from
+anyone—his mother and sisters apart. All
+civilized men were lined up against him, and
+doubtless could not be lined in any other way.
+In that case, punishment was assured, and, as
+Jennie said, there were plenty of people to take
+care of its infliction. He, Bob Collingham, since
+he stood alone, might well forget the heavy
+score against the boy in "bucking him up" to
+meet what lay ahead of him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He worked this out before driving Jennie and
+her mother to their door, after which he waited
+for Gussie and Gladys to come home from work
+to take them, too, for an airing. Jennie sat
+beside him, as on the earlier drive, the two
+younger girls in the seat behind.</p>
+<p class="pnext">To both, the expedition was as the first stage
+of a glorification which might carry them up to
+any heights. Taken in connection with what
+they suffered on account of Teddy, it was like
+drinking an unmingled draught of the very bitter
+and the very sweet. Hardly able to lift up their
+heads from shame, they nevertheless felt the distinction
+of going out in an expensive high-powered
+car with a gentleman of wealth and position,
+who thus publicly proclaimed himself their
+relative.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"This'll settle Addie Inglis and Samuella
+Weatherby," Gladys whispered, in reference to
+some taunt or aspersion which Gussie understood.
+"Say, Gus, he's some sport, isn't he?
+Jen sure did cop a twenty-cylinder."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Gussie had already turned over her new
+leaf. From the corner where she reclined with
+the grace of one accustomed from birth to this
+style of conveyance, she arched her lovely neck
+and turned her lovely head just enough to convey
+a hint of reprimand.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Gladys dear, momma wouldn't like you to
+use that kind of language. Remember that now
+we must carry out her wishes all the more because
+she isn't able to enforce them. Your
+companions may not always be Hattie Belweather
+and Sunshine Bright, and so—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Say, Gus, what's struck you? Has goin' out
+in a swell rig like this gone to your head?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, dear; perhaps it has. And if you'll
+take my advice you'll let it go to yours."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The only immediate response from Gladys
+was a cocking of the eye and a "clk" of the
+tongue against the cheek, something like a Zulu
+vowel; but Gussie noticed that in Palisade
+Park, where they descended from the car to
+make Bob's acquaintance, Gladys reverted to
+the intonation and idiom in which she had first
+picked up her English.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The jaunt tended to deepen the sensation
+which had been creeping over the girls within the
+past few days, that they were heroines of a
+dramatic romance. They had figured in the
+papers, their beauty, personalities, and histories
+becoming points of vital national concern. One
+legend made them the scions of an ancient English
+family fallen on evil days, but now to be
+revived through alliance with the Collinghams,
+while another came near enough to the truth to
+embody the Scarborough tradition and connect
+them with the historic house in Cambridge. In
+no case was there any waste of the picturesque,
+the detail that Jennie had been an artist's model
+and "the most beautiful woman in America"
+being especially underscored.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was only little by little that Gussie and
+Gladys came to a sense of this importance, thus
+finding themselves enabled to react to some
+small degree against their sense of disgrace.
+In the shop, Gussie had heard Corinne whisper
+to a customer:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That pretty girl over there is the sister of
+Follett, who murdered Flynn, and whose sister
+made that romantic marriage with the banker."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Though she glanced up from the feather she
+was twisting only through the tail of her eye,
+Gussie could reckon the excitement caused by
+this announcement. When it had been made a
+second time, and a third, as new customers
+came in, she saw herself an asset to the shop.
+Stared at, wondered at, discussed, and appraised,
+she began to feel as princesses and
+actresses when recognized in streets.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Similarly, Hattie Belweather had run to
+Gladys to report what Miss Flossie Grimm had
+said over the counter, in the intervals of displaying
+stockings.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"See that little red-headed, snub-nosed thing
+over there? That's the Follett child, sister to
+the guy that shot the detective and the girl
+that married the banker sport. Some hummer he
+must be. Jennie, the married one's name is.
+They say she's had an offer of a hundred plunks
+a week to go into vawdeville. Fast color? Oh,
+my, yes! We don't carry any other kind."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Thus Gladys began to find it difficult to discern
+between notoriety and eminence, moving among
+the other cash girls as a queen incognita among
+ordinary mortals.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Most of this publicity was over by the time
+Bob reached New York, though the echoes still
+rumbled through the press. His own arrival
+reawakened some of it, offering opportunities
+that were never ignored of drawing dramatic contrasts.
+He was represented as having been
+"born in the purple," and stooping to a "maiden
+of low degree." Low degree was poetically fused
+with the occupation of a model, and by one
+publication the statement was thrown in, without
+comment, and as it were accidentally, that
+the present Mrs. Robert Bradley Collingham,
+Junior, of Marillo Park, had been greatly admired
+by appreciative connoisseurs as the figure
+in Hubert Wray's already famous picture, "Life
+and Death." Hubert Wray was even credited
+with "discovering" this beauty when she was
+starving in the slums.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Except for the detail of Wray's picture, the
+publicity was something of a relief to Bob, since
+it left him nothing to explain. The truth in
+these many reports being tolerably easy to disengage,
+his friends and acquaintances knew of
+his position, and, in view of its circumstances,
+they respected it. He went to the bank; he
+went to his club; he passed the time of day with
+such neighbors as remained at Marillo Park,
+finding it the easier to come and go because
+everyone knew what had happened.</p>
+<p class="pnext">From almost the first day he fell into a routine—the
+bank, Stenhouse, Teddy, Indiana
+Avenue. Though he was not yet working at the
+bank, he felt it wise to show himself daily on the
+premises, in order to establish the fact that his
+relations with his family were unchanged.
+Stenhouse he didn't visit every day, but only
+when there were matters connected with the
+case to talk over. He saw Teddy as often as the
+Brig regulations would allow, growing more and
+more touched by the eagerness with which the
+boy welcomed him. In Indiana Avenue he was
+assiduous. Whatever the hints flung out by
+Addie Inglis and Samuella Weatherby, they
+received contradiction as far as that was possible
+from obvious devotion.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As for his personal relations with Jennie, they
+changed little from the <em class="italics">modus vivendi</em> agreed
+upon. That she was growing more and more
+grateful was evident, but gratitude wasn't what
+he wanted. What he wanted he himself didn't
+know, and, in a measure, he didn't care. Till she
+got what she wanted, he could never be wholly
+satisfied; and if she wanted Wray....</p>
+<p class="pnext">But at this point his reasoning faculties failed
+him. If she wanted Wray and if Wray wanted
+her, there would, of course, be but one thing for
+him to do. It was that one thing itself which
+remained elusive or obscure, dodging, disturbing,
+and defying him. He could find a means to give
+Jennie her freedom, or he could take her by brute
+force, or, in certain circumstances, he could
+dismiss her as not worthy of his love. The
+trouble was that he couldn't see himself doing
+any of the three; and yet if what seemed to be
+true was true, he couldn't see himself as doing
+the other thing.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The <em class="italics">modus vivendi</em>, like all other arrangements
+of its kind, was therefore safe and convenient.
+It settled nothing; but it was what the term implied,
+a way of living. It was not an ideal way
+of living, or a way that shielded anyone from
+comment; but it was a way.</p>
+<p class="pnext">As for comment, it reached Bob only indirectly,
+and not oftener than every now and then.
+Perhaps it came in as pointed a form as it ever
+assumed for him in a seemingly chance remark
+from the chauffeur's wife, Mrs. Gull. It was
+not a chance remark, for the neat, pretty, thin-lipped,
+pinched-face Englishwoman who had
+passed all her life "in service" didn't make ill-considered
+observations.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I suppose we shall see the young lady down,
+sir, some day soon?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, some day soon," Bob replied, cautiously,
+getting ready in the hall to go to town.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"To remain?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was all summed up in those three syllables—all
+the gossip on the Collingham estate, and
+on all the estates at Marillo, not to go farther
+afield.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not to remain just yet," Bob answered,
+judiciously. "Mrs. Follett isn't well, and Mrs.
+Collingham has two younger sisters whom she
+has to take care of."</p>
+<p class="pnext">That this explanation was not adequate he
+knew; and yet it was an explanation. "It
+certainly do seem queer," Mrs. Gull observed to
+the gardener and the gardener's wife, in a company
+that included Gull; and Gull, who was
+from Somersetshire, replied, "It most zure and
+zertainly do."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But on the Sunday afternoon two weeks after
+Bob's return "the young lady" paid her visit to
+Collingham Lodge, accompanied by her mother
+and two sisters.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The journey was made in what Gladys characterized
+as "style," the style being mainly supplied
+by Gull in his sedate chauffeur's uniform. But
+the fact that he drove the car left Bob free to sit
+with his guests in the tonneau. He put Jennie,
+as hostess and mistress of the car, in the right-hand
+corner, Mrs. Follett in the left one, and
+Gussie in the middle. He and Gladys occupied
+the adjustable seats behind the chauffeur. At
+sight of the light linen rug with the Collingham
+initials in crimson appliqué, Gussie and Gladys
+exchanged appreciative glances, and they both
+searched the neighboring piazzas for a glimpse of
+Addie Inglis or Samuella Weatherby.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Acquainted now with the fact that Jennie had
+viewed the celestial country whither they were
+traveling, and with her descriptions of the
+wonders she had seen almost learned by rote,
+the girls came near to forgetting that Teddy was
+in a cell. But his mother didn't forget it. Silent,
+austere, incapable of pleasure, and waiting only
+the moment of the boy's release and her own,
+her eyes roamed the parched September landscape
+and saw none of it. She did not appear unhappy—only
+removed into a world of her own, a world
+of long, long thoughts.</p>
+<p class="pnext">No one said much. There was not much to
+say and a great deal to think about. Even the
+house, the terraces, the gardens called forth no
+more than "Ohs!" and "Ahs!" of approval.
+Gladys declared that she felt herself wandering
+through the castle scenes in "The Silver Queen,"
+the latest screen masterpiece, but no one else
+descended to such comparisons.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's like heaven," Gussie murmured timidly,
+to Bob, as they strolled between hedges of
+dahlias.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh no, it isn't!" he laughed. "Three or
+four places at Marillo are much finer than this."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Subdued by sheer ecstasy, they assembled on
+the flagged terrace, where Mrs. Gull brought out
+tea. Bob was pleased at Jennie's bearing toward
+the chauffeur's wife—friendly with just the right
+touch of dignity.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Mr. Collingham tells me you're English.
+We're almost English ourselves, since we were
+born in Canada. I've never been in England, but
+I should so love to go, though they say it's quite
+different since the war."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was no more to it than that, but Mrs.
+Gull reported to her husband: "As much a
+lady as any I've ever served under—and I do
+know a lady when I see her. Miss Edith's a
+lady, too, but not a patch on this one. She may
+have been just as bad as they say she was, but
+you'd never believe it to look at her, and the
+sisters be'ave as pretty as pretty. Oh dear!
+And they with a murderer for a brother! It do
+seem queer, now don't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">To which Gull replied in his usual antiphon,
+"It most zure and zertainly do."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The jarring chord in this harmony came from
+Lizzie, while Bob was in search of Gull to bid
+him bring round the car. Lizzie stood looking
+down the two flowered terraces, where in honor
+of the visitors the fountains had been turned on.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I understand now why they couldn't afford
+to pay your father his forty-five a week. It must
+cost a great deal of money to keep this establishment
+going."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, momma," Gussie pleaded, "don't begin
+to hang crape just when we're able to enjoy ourselves
+a little."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Lizzie turned on her daughter her rare and
+almost forgotten smile.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Very well, dear; enjoy yourself. Only a
+world in which enjoyment must be bought at
+such a price is not a fit world for human beings
+to live in."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gladys crept up, snuggling against her mother's
+shoulder.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, momma darling; but you won't say
+that any more till we get home, now will you?
+It might hurt poor Bob's feelings if you did, and
+you <em class="italics">can't</em> say that he's ever done us any harm."</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxv">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id26">CHAPTER XXV</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">On the day after the visit to Collingham
+Lodge, Bob left for the camp in the
+Adirondacks. As yet he had no knowledge of
+the family's attitude toward him more exact
+than he could infer. He had written to them all
+since his return, but their replies, even Edith's,
+had been noncommittal. He guessed that they
+had decided together not to express themselves
+fully till they came face to face with him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Even then, the approach to his own affairs was
+indirect. An affectionate family reunion, based
+seemingly on the ground that nothing had happened
+when so much <em class="italics">had</em>, blocked the openings
+for bringing up the subjects he had most at
+heart. During the early part of that first evening
+at Sugar Maple Point he couldn't get anyone
+alone. Not till nearly bedtime did he himself
+offer a lead by strolling out into the moonlight
+in the hope that one of the three would follow
+him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was full moonlight, turning Sugar Maple
+Lake into a sheet of silver and gold laid at the
+base of a velvety silhouette of mountains. The
+magic of stillness, the tang of the forest, the repose
+of the spirit from the girding and striving
+of the world—these lovelinesses came to Bob
+Collingham with a peace such as they always
+brought, but which to-night couldn't find a
+resting place. It couldn't find a resting place
+because in this tranquil woodland more than
+anywhere else he found himself wishing that
+Teddy Follett wasn't in a cell.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Sugar Maple Lake is small for the Adirondacks,
+being no more than three miles long and a mile
+and a half in width. All its shores are owned by
+rich men, mostly from New York, who can keep
+themselves secluded. In seclusion they are
+able to combine rusticity with the amenities of
+life, in a wealthy, modern, American version of
+Marie Antoinette's humble village at Versailles.
+At a stranger's first glance, the "camps" are
+but lumbermen's log cabins on a larger scale;
+but when you come to the conveniences and
+luxuries of living, they differ little from Marillo
+Park.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Reaching the thin line of maples and pines
+fringing the edge of the lake, Bob turned to see
+if he was followed. At first there was no one.
+The light from the windows and doors made a
+golden splotch on the greenish silvery black of
+the sloping lawn, but no figure appeared in the
+glow. Coming to the conclusion that this, too,
+was "a put-up job," he was strolling back again
+when his mother, cloaked against the night air,
+stole out and called his name softly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">On reaching him she took his arm, and together
+they picked their way along a graveled
+path leading toward the Point.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm so glad you've come," she said, instantly.
+"I've been having such a terrible time with your
+father. You know how he is—so stern—so
+relentless—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He's been corking to me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You mean the cablegram he sent you to Rio?
+Oh, well, I made him do that. It's all over now,
+dear, and you mustn't worry; but at first—that
+night when we heard that the Follett boy had
+got into trouble and I had to tell your father of
+your marriage—well, I don't want to make things
+out worse than they are, so I sha'n't tell you what
+he said; but I did manage him. I soothed him
+and told him how he ought to take it and what
+he ought to do—with the result that you got that
+message. You mustn't think it was easy, dear—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You've been a brick, old lady!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm your mother, Bob. It's all summed up
+in that. Whatever makes for my children's
+happiness makes for mine. Your father is not a
+woman, and that's the difference between us.
+And now I've had all this trouble with him over
+Edith's engagement; but he's given in at last."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob sprang away from her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Edith engaged? Who to? Not to Ayling?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She took his arm again, continuing toward the
+Point.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, to Ernest. He was so opposed to it.
+But I've battled for my child's heart, Bob, and
+I've won out. Your father is giving her ten
+thousand a year. It isn't much, but they ought
+to be able to manage. We didn't write you,
+partly because it was only settled last week, and
+it was easier to wait and tell you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I thought you didn't like the match
+yourself, old girl."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, me! I have to turn myself every way at
+once. I've no wishes of my own. To reconcile
+my children to their father and their father to
+my children is all I live and work for."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Coming to the little rustic gazebo perched on
+the tip of the Point, they entered and sat down.
+There being nothing to obtrude itself here on
+lake and moon and mountain, it was as if they
+had left human crudities behind. In the windless
+air, the fragrance of Bob's cigarette mingled
+with the aromatic pungency of millions and
+millions of growing things.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"There was simply nothing else to be done,"
+Junia resumed. "There was Edith eating her
+heart out and stubborn as a mule—and with the
+mess you've made of things—not that you could
+<em class="italics">foresee</em>—or know the sort of people you were
+getting in among—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was the opening he had been looking for,
+and he knew that, whatever the outcome, he must
+use it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Exactly what do you mean by that, mother?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She seemed confused.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't suppose I mean anything—except
+what's obvious."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Not to press the point at once, he said, "You
+saw Jennie."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; I sent for her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What did you think of her?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, what anyone would think. She's charming—to
+look at."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Only to look at?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Her manner is charming, too. Of course!
+I—I don't quite know what you want me to
+say."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"How much did she tell you that afternoon?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She looked at him through the moonlight.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hasn't she told <em class="italics">you</em>?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She's told me nothing—except that you
+were lovely."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then, Bob dear, I'm afraid I can't add anything.
+You see, they were <em class="italics">her</em> secrets—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh! Then she told you secrets!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why, of course! What did you think?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Any other secret besides that she and I had
+been married?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Bob darling, I don't think it's fair to put me
+on the witness stand. She's your wife—and because
+she's your wife I accept her. What I
+know is buried here"—she smote her chest—"and
+if for your sake and hers I try to forget it
+I think you might let me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">For a few minutes he smoked in a silence
+broken only by the maniac cry of a loon in the
+distance.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Did it occur to you," he asked at last, "that
+she was a very simple girl who could easily become
+entangled in her talk when she tried to
+explain things to a woman of the world?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; because the things said were very simple—just statements of fact as to which there could
+be no misunderstanding."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Had the statements of fact anything"—he
+moistened his dry lips—"anything to do with—with
+Hubert?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Some of them. But there!" She caught
+herself up. "You're not going to make me tell
+you things. I'm your mother, and if I intervene
+at all, it must be in the way of helping you to
+come together and not of putting you apart."
+She rose, drawing her cloak about her. "I think
+I must go in, dear. I'm beginning to feel the
+damp."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He, too, rose, sitting down again sidewise on
+the rustic rail of the summerhouse.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Wait a minute, mother. I want to ask you
+something. When I was at Marillo I wandered
+into your room one day and saw a picture."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"A picture?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; a picture; and I—I wondered how it—it
+happened to come there."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She bent a little toward him, drawing her
+cloak more closely about her. If it was acting it
+was well done.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It—it couldn't have been—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He chucked the butt of his cigarette into the
+lake.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, I guess it was. It had an inscription on
+it—'Life and Death, by Hubert Wray.'"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, my God! Where did you say you saw it,
+Bob?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"In your bedroom, against the wall. I
+thought it might be a portrait you'd had done,
+and so lifted—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And I told them to put it out of sight. You
+see, Hubert didn't send it till after we'd left the
+house—just before he went to California. I'd
+given orders that it was to be locked up in an
+empty closet in my wardrobe room. Oh, Bob
+darling, I don't know what you're going to think
+of me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, you're all right, mother. It wasn't you.
+I—I only wondered how you'd come by the
+thing at all."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She made an obvious effort at controlling
+emotion.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why, Bob, it was this way. After—after
+what Jennie told me that day I—I naturally
+thought a good deal about Hubert—and—and
+their relations to each other—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She talked about them, did she?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, you see, in a way she had to. She was
+let in for it, poor thing. I can't tell you everything
+without giving you the whole story—and
+it's <em class="italics">her</em> story, as I've said before. I've no right
+to betray her, and least of all to you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All right. Go on."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So when I'd heard that Hubert had a new
+picture at the Kahler Gallery—and everyone was
+talking about it—and I knew from the things they
+said what—what sort of a picture it was—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, yes; I understand."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, then, I—I went and saw it; and to—to
+get it out of sight I bought it on the spot.
+I didn't want it to be still on exhibition when you
+came back; and I hoped that people would forget
+it. I should have burned it at once, only
+that Hubert delayed sending it, and—well, you
+see how it happened. But even so, Bob dear,
+you knew you were marrying a model—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh yes; it isn't that—not altogether."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She laid her hand on his shoulder.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What is it, Bob darling? Can't you tell <em class="italics">me</em>?
+I'm your mother, dear—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But he moved away from her touch, as if
+unable to bear sympathy.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I can't tell you yet, old lady. I must see my
+own way first. I've got to get through this
+business about the boy before I take any step
+whatever. She knows pretty well that I know
+that—that she and Hubert are in love with—with
+each other—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but Hubert is not in love with her. He
+told me so."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not in love with her?" he cried, sharply.
+"Why isn't he?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He said—oh, Bob, I can't talk about it.
+You'll—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You've got to talk about it, mother. I can't
+<em class="italics">half</em> know. I must <em class="italics">know</em>! If he wasn't in love
+with her, what did he mean by making her
+think—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't believe he did make her think. He
+hinted that—that there'd been something between
+them, but that—that with girls of that
+sort you—you couldn't call it love."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why couldn't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because—no, I won't, Bob! I'm your
+mother. I must make things easier for you, and
+not harder, and so—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It will make things easiest for me to know
+the truth. So go on! Out with it! Tell me just
+what he said."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She wrung her hands beneath the cloak.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"He said it—it couldn't be love—with a girl
+whom—whom anyone could—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He sprang from the rail, holding up his hand.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Wait a minute, mother! Jennie's my wife.
+I'm her husband. I believe in her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">With her speed in trimming her sails to the
+wind, Junia caught the direction.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't want you <em class="italics">not</em> to believe in her, Bob. I
+didn't want to say any of the things that—that
+you've been dragging out of me. You know
+that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, I know that, old lady, and I'm grateful.
+I had to drag them out and know the worst
+that could be said, so as to contradict it in—in
+my heart."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, in your heart!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, in my heart. It's where I'm strongest—just
+as it's where dad is strongest, too, if he'd
+only been true to himself. But that's a side
+issue. What I want to say now—and what I'd
+like you to understand—is that I <em class="italics">know</em> that
+Jennie is good and pure and true and one of the
+sweetest and loveliest spirits God ever made. I
+know it!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia couldn't be as feminine as she was
+without gazing in awe and admiration at the
+tall, upright figure, which seemed taller and more
+upright for the moonlight.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Would you know it—mind you, I'm only
+<em class="italics">putting</em> it this way—would you know it—with
+her own evidence to the contrary?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, mother; I should know it—with her own
+evidence to the contrary."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She shivered and turned away from him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I must really go in now, dear. I'm so afraid
+of catching cold. But—but good night!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having kissed him, she went down the steps,
+turning once more to look back at him. Silhouetted
+against the oblong of light between two
+rough pilasters, he was mechanically taking out
+his case and selecting a cigarette.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You're splendid, Bob," she said, with a ring
+of sincerity that startled him. "That's the way
+to love a woman. If there were only more men
+like you! And—I <em class="italics">will</em> say it, in spite of the things
+you've just made me confess—there must be
+something very, very good in a girl to—to call
+forth that kind of love."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Jennie herself made that kind of love more
+difficult. On returning to town Bob found her
+changed. During all the weeks of the <em class="italics">modus
+vivendi</em> she had been gentle, submissive, grateful,
+accepting his terms in the provisional spirit in
+which she understood them, and carrying them
+out. When Teddy's affairs were settled—and
+they never defined what they meant by that—she knew they were to have a reckoning; but
+the reckoning was to be postponed till then.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And now, all at once, she seemed disposed to
+force it on. His visit to his family had frightened
+her. It frightened her the more in that he said
+so little about it. He, too, was changed. He
+was silent, pensive. He watched her more and
+talked to her less; but when he watched her his
+eyes, so she said to herself, had a queer kind of
+sorrow in them. She didn't wonder at that.
+Anyone's eyes would have had sorrow in them—anyone
+who was seeing Teddy nearly every day
+and filling him up with fortitude. If it had not
+been for Teddy's sake she would have done her
+best to get Bob "out of it" long ago.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her fear now was of not being able to make
+this attempt of her own accord. In other words,
+she shrank from being found out before confessing
+of her own free will. Twenty words from Mrs.
+Collingham to her son would rob her, Jennie, of
+such poor shreds of good intention as she still
+possessed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The trouble was, first, the lack of opportunity,
+and then, the waiting for the right emotional moment.
+It was not a thing you could spring at
+any chance hour of the day. Something must
+lead up to it and make it natural.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But a week after his return from Sugar Maple
+Point, the occasion seemed to present itself. It
+was one of those evenings in late September when
+indoors was too stifling. In pursuance of his
+plans for distracting the family, which meant so
+much to Teddy, Bob had motored the mother
+and daughters to a small country restaurant,
+where they had had supper, and had brought
+them home again. Lizzie and the two girls having
+said good night, Jennie was about to do the
+same, but he held her by the hand.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't go in. Let's walk a bit."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So it's come," Jennie thought. "I must do
+it before we get home."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Even so she put it off. He, too, put off whatever
+in himself was burning to find words. They
+said as little as they could without being altogether
+silent, and that little was mere commonplace.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Wonderful night, isn't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; and I think we're going to have a
+breeze. It isn't so hot as an hour ago."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Anyhow, the hot weather must be nearly
+over. It will be October in a day or two."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But we often have very hot days in October.
+I remember that last year—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">So they came to Palisade Walk and turned
+into it. Though the moon was not yet up, the
+effulgence of its approach made a halo above the
+city. Manhattan was a line of constellations
+the riverway a gulf of darkness in which were
+scattered stars. Along the parapet, shadowy
+couples, mostly lovers, formed little ghostly
+groups, while here and there was the point of
+light of a cigarette or cigar.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They came to a halt, Jennie leaning against
+one of the dragon's teeth, looking over at the
+city, Bob standing a little back from her.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've never been here at night before," he
+said. "I'd no idea it was so beautiful."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We don't come very often ourselves. We live
+so near that I suppose we're used to it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We had some wonderful evenings at Sugar
+Maple Point; but that was another kind of thing."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She assembled her forces without turning to
+look at him or making any change in her tone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I suppose you talked to your mother while
+you were up there?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, of course!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"About me?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Divining what was coming, he was on his
+guard. "You were mentioned—naturally."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And she told you things?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Some things."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Some things about me that—that were new
+to you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; some things about you that were new
+to me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Did she tell you—everything?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not in a position to say that it was everything;
+but—but I rather think it was. What
+of it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh—only, that—that I'm as bad as she said
+I was. I—I wanted you to know that it was
+true."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The long stillness was broken only by a moan
+like that of a wounded monster from a ferryboat
+far away.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why do you want me to know that?" he
+asked, at length.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So that you'll see now that when—when
+everything is over about Teddy—you'll be—you'll
+be free."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But suppose I don't want to be free?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I want it for you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, it's very simple." She turned, leaning
+with her back to the rock. "It's just this, Bob—I'm
+not fit to be your wife. I never was fit. I
+never shall be fit. There it is in a nutshell. It
+isn't education and social things that I'm talking
+about. I'm—I'm too—I don't know how to put
+it—but you're so big—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We'll drop all that, Jennie, if you don't
+mind, because it isn't a case of fitness on either
+your part or mine; it's one of love."</p>
+<p class="pnext">She hung her head.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, love! I—I don't think I—I know what
+it is."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm sure you don't. It's what I've told you.
+I want to show you what it's like. Do you know
+what I said to the old lady when she got off
+those things? She didn't want to do it, mind
+you," he hastened to explain. "She wanted to
+keep your secrets and be true to you—but I
+dragged them out of her. And do you know
+what I said to her? Well, I'm going to repeat
+it to you now. I said I wouldn't believe
+anything against you—not even on your own
+evidence."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is that love, Bob—or is it just being stubborn?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I shall let you find that out for yourself—as
+we go on."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh! as we go on?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, as we go on, Jennie. We're going on.
+Don't make any mistake about that. I know
+how you feel. Everything looks so dark to you
+now that you can't believe it will ever be light
+again; but it will be, Jennie. All families and
+all individuals go through these experiences—not
+as terrible as yours, perhaps—but terrible
+all the same. Not one of us is spared. Sometimes
+it seems to you as if you just couldn't go
+through with it; but you can. You must hang
+on—and bear it—and it will pass. That's what
+I'm here for—to help you to hang on—and,
+Jennie, clinging together, as we're doing, we'll
+come out to the light—even Teddy—and your
+mother. Oh, look! There the light is now—the
+light everlasting—that always comes back, if
+we only wait for it!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">At the pointing of his finger and his sudden
+cry she turned to face the eternal wonder of the
+moonrise.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxvi">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id27">CHAPTER XXVI</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">During the next few months, the necessity
+for bracing Teddy and his sisters to meet
+fate threw Bob Collingham's personal preoccupations
+more and more into the background.
+All that was implied by the fact that Jennie was
+his wife and he was her husband went into this
+single supreme task.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Habit came to his aid by fitting them all to the
+situation as though they had never been in any
+other. They grew used to the fact that Teddy
+was in jail and might come out of it only by one
+exit. Teddy grew used to it himself. The
+family, once more at Marillo, grew used to the
+odd arrangement by which Bob and Jennie
+worked together and lived apart. The Collinghams
+grew used to the thought of the Folletts,
+and the Folletts to that of the Collinghams.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You get used to anything," Junia commented
+to her husband, as one who has made a new discovery.
+"It seems to me as if Edith's living in
+that flat on Cathedral Heights and keeping only
+one maid is all I'd ever dreamed for her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Bob, this wonting of the mind was the
+easier because Wray stayed in California, his
+absence making it possible to leave in abeyance
+the subjects that couldn't yet be touched upon.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The first chance of fortifying the three girls
+seemed to present itself on a night in that
+autumn when it was still warm enough to sit on
+the screened piazza. His car was, as usual, before
+the door, and in an hour or so he would be making
+his way to Marillo. As he had returned to his
+work at the bank, his spare time was now in the
+evenings.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If you want to do something for me, Gladys,
+there's a way."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He said this in reply to an aspiration of all
+three, in which the youngest sister had been
+spokesman.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gladys's voice was eager and affectionate.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What way, Bob? Tell us. We'll do anything."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Smoothing Pansy's back as she lay on his
+crossed knees, he considered how best to make it
+clear. Gladys sat close to him, as the one who
+most easily took him fraternally. Gussie, in
+whom he stirred an unusual self-consciousness,
+kept herself more aloof. Altogether in the
+shadow, Jennie was seemingly withdrawn, and
+yet more intensely aware of him than anyone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's this way," he tried to explain: "Living
+is like climbing a mountainside. You drag yourself
+up to a ledge where you can stand and take
+breath, and feel that you've reached somewhere.
+Then, just as you think that you can camp there
+and be comfortable for the rest of your life, you
+find yourself summoned to move to the next
+ledge higher up. At that some of us get discouraged; some fall off and go down; but most
+of us brace ourselves for another great big test.
+Do you see?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gladys answered, doubtfully, "I see—a little."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well then, the thing we need for the test is
+pluck, isn't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gussie spoke dreamily.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We need pluck for everything."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So we do; and I often think that we don't
+make enough of it. Pluck is different from courage,
+because it's—how shall I say?—it's a little
+more cheery and intimate. Courage is like a
+Sunday suit that you wear for big occasions;
+but pluck is your everyday clothes, which you
+need all the time and feel easy in. Courage is
+noble and heroic—something we'd be shy about
+claiming. Pluck is the courage of the common
+man, which anyone can feel he has a right to."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I can't," Gussie confessed. "I'm the awfulest
+coward."</p>
+<p class="pnext">With this Gladys agreed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, Gus is a regular scarecat. I'm not
+afraid of hardly anything."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We're all cowards in our way; but we could
+all be plucky when we mightn't like to call ourselves
+brave. Do you get what I mean?"
+Gladys made a sound of assent which seemed to
+answer for all three. "Well, what I'm trying to
+say is this: That the time has come when we're
+all being summoned—you three—and me—and
+Teddy—and all of us—to pull up to another
+ledge. It's going to be tough, but we can make
+up our minds that we can go through with it. I
+don't mean just knowing that we <em class="italics">must</em> go
+through with it, but knowing that we <em class="italics">can</em>."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was silence for the two or three minutes
+during which the girls thought this over.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You said," Gladys reasoned, "that it was
+something we could do for you. I don't see—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You'd do it for me, because it's easier to
+pull with strong people rather than with weak
+ones. You see, this is something which no one
+of us can meet alone; we must all meet it together,
+and the stronger each of us is the stronger
+we all are. Being strong is a matter of knowing
+that you're strong, just as being weak is the
+same. If I was sure that none of you was
+going to break down, I could be stronger myself,
+and we could all buck up Teddy."</p>
+<p class="pnext">After another brief silence, Gladys sighed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All the same, it would be terrible—if they
+did anything to him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Not more terrible than what millions of
+sisters faced in the last few years, with their
+brothers blown to bits. They were able to bear
+it by getting the idea that they could."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie spoke for the first time.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ah, but that was glory, and this is disgrace."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then it calls for more pluck—that's all.
+The test comes to one in one way and to another
+in another. Real glory is in meeting it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was still Jennie who urged the difficulties.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But when it's the hardest test that ever
+comes to anyone in the world!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why, then, it's pluck again, and still more
+pluck. It <em class="italics">is</em> the hardest test that ever comes to
+anyone in the world. It's harder than when
+women hear their boys are missing, and never
+know what becomes of them; and that's pretty
+hard. But, Jennie, hard things are the making
+of us, and if we come through the hardest test
+in the world and still keep our kindlier feelings
+and our common sense, why, then, we come out
+pretty strong, don't we?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie said no more. She liked to have him
+talk to them in this way. It took for granted
+that they were worth talking to, and to become
+worth talking to had been a secret aim since the
+day when she first learned the value of pictures
+and books. A good many times she had stolen
+in to confer with the genial custodian at the
+Metropolitan; a good many volumes she had
+hidden in her room to study after she went to
+bed. She had proved to herself that she had a
+mind; and now Bob was hinting at unknown
+resources of strength. It nerved her; it put new
+heart in her. Having always been taught to consider
+herself weak, the suggestion that she could
+come through her test victoriously—that she
+could help him and Gussie and Gladys and Teddy
+and her mother to do the same—thrilled her like
+a sudden revelation.</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Bob himself the theme was not a new one,
+though it was the first time he had ever got any
+of it into words. He had been mulling over it
+and round it ever since the war first called him
+from a state of mental lethargy. Needing then
+a clew to life, he had cast about him without
+finding one. Neither Groton nor Harvard had
+ever given him anything he could seize. His
+parents hadn't given him anything, nor had
+their religion. Mentally, he had gone to France
+much as a jellyfish puts to sea, to be tossed about
+without volition of its own, and get its support
+from the food that drifts its way. Nothing much
+had drifted his way till he found himself in the
+hospital.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There, in the long, empty days and sleepless
+nights, the "why" of things played in and out of
+his brain like a devil's tattoo. He hated to
+think that all he had witnessed was futility and
+waste, and yet no explanation that anyone gave
+him made it seem otherwise. The question of
+suffering was the one that most perplexed him.
+What was the good of it? Why had it to be?
+Even the agony of his slashed head and crushed
+foot was almost beyond bearing; and what was
+that in comparison with all the pain, physical and
+emotional, at that minute in the world? What
+was the idea? How did it get you anywhere?</p>
+<p class="pnext">In as far as he received an answer, it came one
+night when he waked from a light doze. He
+waked repeating certain words which he recognized
+as vaguely familiar:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"<em class="italics">Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier
+of Jesus Christ.</em>"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He said them over two or three times before
+getting their significance.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's it," he thought then. "That's why
+we have to go through all this rumpus. 'Thou
+therefore endure <em class="italics">hardness</em>!' <em class="italics">Endure</em> it! Accept
+it! Rub it in! That's it, by gum!" The expletive
+was the strongest in which his feeble
+state allowed him to indulge; but he continued:
+"That's what's the matter with me. I'm not
+hard. I'm soft. I'm soft inside. In my mind,
+in my heart, I'm like putty, like dough. It
+isn't that I'm tender; I'm just <em class="italics">soft</em>. If I've
+ever had to bear anything hard, I've kicked
+like the dickens; and that's why I'm such an
+ass now. 'Thou therefore endure <em class="italics">hardness</em>!'
+I'll be hanged if I won't try."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So the trying came to be a kind of religion—not
+a very vital religion, or one as to which he
+was very keen, and yet a religion. During the
+winter he was seeing Jennie, and the spring he
+married her, and the summer he spent in South
+America, he had fumbled with it without getting
+hold of it. Not till he began his strivings with
+Teddy, and his efforts to divert the minds of
+Teddy's family, did it grow sharply defined to
+his vision as a way of life.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Perhaps it was Teddy who taught him. Perhaps
+they mutually taught each other. He
+couldn't tell. He only became aware that something
+was working in the boy like the might of
+spirit in the inner man. Possibly Teddy was
+learning more quickly than himself because his
+lessons were more intensive.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He noticed this first on the day when he went,
+at the lawyer's suggestion, to back up the argument
+that to plead guilty was the only hope.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've done all I can with him," Stenhouse
+declared. "Now it's up to you. He thinks
+you're God; and so you may have some influence."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I never will," Teddy answered, coolly.
+"I'd never have done society—as the chaplain
+calls it—any harm if society hadn't done me
+harm to begin with. I may be guilty in the
+second place, but society is guilty in the first,
+and no one will make me say anything different
+from that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's all very well, Teddy; but society
+won't accept the plea."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then it can do the other thing."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob's tone became significant.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you realize what—what the other thing
+might be?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You bet I do! You can't live in Murderers'
+Row without having <em class="italics">that</em> rubbed into you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">They talked softly, in a corner of the visitors'
+room, because other little groups were scattered
+about, each centering round some sullen, swarthy
+man, wreathed in mystery and darkness.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's all right, old chap," Bob agreed;
+"but you see, don't you, that it's only a stand
+for an idea?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's a stand for telling the truth, isn't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The truth—as you see it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The truth as it is—as I'm willing to bank
+on it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Banking on it in a way that—that may call
+for a great deal of pluck."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, I've got a great deal of pluck."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes—if you've got enough. It's one thing
+to say so now, and another to prove it when the
+time comes."</p>
+<p class="pnext">In his suppressed vehemence Teddy grasped
+Bob's wrist, as the hands of both lay on the
+small table above which their heads came
+together.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've got the pluck for anything but to go
+before their court and say what you want me
+to say. I took the money because my father
+and mother, after slaving for society all their
+lives, had a right to it; I shot a man because
+they'd got me so jumpy with all the wrongs
+they'd done me that I didn't know what my
+hand was up to. If they won't let me have
+my kind of justice, they'll just have to dope me
+out their own, and I'll swallow it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Another conversation, in the same spot, and
+with heads together in the same way, was
+gentler.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I know pretty well what they're going to
+hand me out—and it'll be all right. What
+kind of life would I have now, even if they
+acquitted me? What could I have had even if
+I'd never got into this scrape at all? I'm not
+cut out for big things. I'm just the same size
+as poor old dad, and I'd have gone the same
+way. Ma's got it straight—it's not good enough.
+Think of rotting in an office all your life just to
+reach the gorgeous sum of forty-five a week,
+and when you've got it to be chucked into the
+hell of the unemployed! Say, Bob, why can't
+everyone have enough in a world where there's
+plenty to go round?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I guess it's because we haven't the right
+kind of world."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But why haven't we? We've been at it
+long enough."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Perhaps not. That may be where the
+trouble lies. When life came on this planet, to
+begin with, it took millions of years to get it
+anywhere. Nobody knows how long it was before
+the thing that lived in the water could creep
+on the land; but it was time to be reckoned by
+ages. When you come to ages, the human race
+is young. It's made a life for itself which it
+doesn't know how to swing. In a few more
+ages it may learn; but it hasn't learned as yet."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy reflected.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So you've just got to take it as it is."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That seems to be the number. We may kick
+because it isn't perfect, but we don't know how
+to make it perfect, and that's all there is to
+say."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's easier for your kind to say than for ours."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's not as easy as it seems for any kind.
+I don't see anyone, rich or poor, who hasn't
+to spend most of his energy in bucking up.
+The poor think it's easier for the rich, because
+they have the money; and the rich think it's
+easier for the poor, because they haven't the
+responsibilities. So there you are. I begin to
+think that making yourself strong—<em class="italics">hard</em>—tough
+in your inner fiber—is about the biggest asset
+you can bring to life."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Or death," Teddy said, softly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Or death," Bob agreed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">On another occasion, Teddy was in another
+mood.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If I didn't get it now, I guess it would have
+come along later; so that it's just as well to
+have it over."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob's mind went back to Stenhouse's view
+of Teddy's character.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What do you mean by that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, just what I say. You can't see red like
+me without being a more dangerous cuss than
+you mean to be. I'd have got into trouble
+sometime, even if I hadn't done this." Before
+Bob could find a response Teddy went on: "I
+suppose you think that because I don't say
+anything about Flynn I haven't got him on my
+mind. Well, you're wrong."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I didn't think that."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But what <em class="italics">can</em> I say? I think and think and
+think, and then begin thinking again. So that,"
+he jerked out, "that's a reason, too."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"A reason for what, Teddy?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He answered obliquely.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I can't keep up that kind of thinking. I'll
+go crazy if I do. I'd rather be sent to where I
+can get another point of view. I don't care
+what kind of point of view it is, so long as it
+isn't this one. If I could come face to face with
+Flynn, I believe I could make him understand.
+Do you suppose there's any chance of that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was inevitable that, in the long run, speculative
+questions should lead them farther still.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What do you suppose God is?" Teddy said,
+unexpectedly, one day.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob smiled.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ask me something easier."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But you must have some idea."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not sure that I have."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't you believe in God? I should have
+thought that you'd be the kind of cuss who
+would."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't know that you can call it believing.
+It's more like—like having a kind of instinct—helped
+out by a little thinking."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Have I got the instinct?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Can't you tell that yourself?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If I told you you'd howl."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, I shouldn't. Go to it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy laughed sheepishly, as if he had ventured
+to peer into secrets which were none of his
+business.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'll tell you the way God seems to me—it's
+all come to me while I've been in there."
+He nodded toward the cells. "I don't seem to
+get him as a great big man, the way the chaplain
+says he is. He's all right, the chaplain, only he
+don't seem to know anything about God. He
+can gas away to beat the band about law, and
+society, and the good of the community, and
+hell to pay when you don't respect them; but
+when it comes to God—it's nix."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, what do you make out for yourself?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I haven't made it out exactly. It's as if
+some great big hand had pulled aside a curtain—but
+it's a curtain that I didn't know was there.
+See?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, I see. And what does it show you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's the funny part of it. I can't tell
+you what it shows me. I don't exactly see it;
+I only know—mind you, I'm just telling you
+how it seems to me—I only know that it's
+God."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I suppose, if you know that it's God, you
+have an idea of what it's like?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ye-es; it's like—like a country into which
+I'm traveling—not with my body—see?—but
+with my <em class="italics">self</em>. No," he corrected, "that's not it.
+It isn't a country; it's more like a life. Oh,
+shucks! I haven't got it straight yet. Now
+look! This is the way it is. Suppose that
+everything we see was alive—that these chairs
+were alive, and the walls, and the table—that
+every blamed thing we ever touch or use was
+alive, and had a voice. See?" Bob nodded
+that he saw. "Now, suppose every voice was
+trying to make you understand things. The
+table would say, 'This is the way God wants
+you to work'; and the chair, 'This is the way
+God wants you to rest'; and the walls, 'This
+is the way God stands round you and backs you
+up.' Everything would be helping you then,
+instead of putting itself dead against you the
+way we have it here."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I get the idea; but would that be God?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Over this question the boy's face brooded
+thoughtfully.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It mightn't be God in the way that you're
+you and I'm me. It would be more like a way
+of <em class="italics">knowing</em> God. It's like my case in the courts.
+It's set down as 'The People against Edward
+S. Follett.' But I don't see the People; I only
+feel what they do to me. It's something like
+that. I don't see God; but I kind of feel—" He
+broke with another apologetic laugh. "Oh, I
+guess it's all wrong. Gussie'd call me a gump.
+It just kind of gets you; that's all. It makes me
+feel as if I was moving on into something—but
+I guess I'm not."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The pensive silence that followed was broken
+by Bob's saying:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's what I mean by instinct."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy resumed as if he hadn't heard. "When
+I wake up in the night—and waking up in the
+night in that place, with snores and groans and
+guys talking in their sleep and having nightmares,
+is some stunt, believe <em class="italics">me</em>—but when I
+do, it's just as if I had great big arms round me,
+and some one was saying: 'All right, Teddy, I'm
+holding you. Keep a stiff upper lip. I'll make
+it as easy as I can for you and everyone else.
+I'm just drawing you—drawing you—drawing
+you—a wee little bit at a time—over here,
+where you'll get your big chance.' What's more,
+Bob," he went on, as if he touched on the heart
+of his interest, "it says it'll take care of
+Flynn and his wife and his poor little kiddies,
+and do the things—" Once more he broke off
+with his uneasy laugh. "Ah, what's the
+use? You think I'm a quitter, don't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why should I think that?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, I don't know. I talk like a quitter.
+But it isn't that. If I could still do anything
+for ma and the girls—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm looking after them, old boy."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So there you are. What'd be the good of
+my staying?" He added, between clenched
+teeth, "God, how I'd hate to go back!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Back into the world?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He spoke as if to himself: "You see—that
+day—the day the thing happened—and they
+came and caught me—and did all those things
+to me—and I saw Flynn lying by the road—it
+was—it was a kind of sickener. If putting
+me out of the way is the thing in the wind, it
+was done right there and then. Right there and
+then I seem to have begun—moving on." He
+drew a long breath. "And I'd rather keep
+moving, Bob—no matter to where—no matter
+to what—than turn back again to face a bunch
+of men."</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxvii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id28">CHAPTER XXVII</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">Teddy was not called on to face a bunch of
+men till going to the courtroom for his
+trial. Dressed long before the hour in a new
+dark-blue suit, fresh linen, and a dark-blue tie,
+his prison pallor, a little like that of death, put
+him out of the list of the active and free. As
+he sat on the edge of his bunk, somber with
+dread, he was nevertheless obliged to find
+suitable jocosities with which to answer the
+good-luck wishes that came slithering along the
+walls from the neighboring cells. It was half past
+nine before two guards whom he had never
+seen before, stalwart fellows well over six feet,
+came to the door and unlocked it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Ready, Follett? Time's come."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Springing to his feet, he found handcuffs
+slipped round his wrists before he was aware of
+what was being done. It was an unexpected
+indignity. He had never been handcuffed
+before.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Say, fellows," he protested, "I'll go all
+right. I don't want these on me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Come along wid ye."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The words were friendly rather than rough,
+as was also the hand of a guard on each shoulder
+as they steered him along the corridor. The
+Brig is a rambling building, or succession of
+buildings, with courthouse and house of detention
+under the same series of roofs. The pilgrimage
+was long—upstairs, downstairs, through
+passages, past offices, past courtrooms, with
+guards, police, clerks, lawyers, litigants, loungers,
+standing about everywhere. The sight of a man
+in handcuffs arrested all eyes for the moment,
+and stilled all tongues. With his glances flying
+from right to left and from left to right, Teddy
+again began to feel the sense of separation from
+the human race which had struck to his soul
+that day on the marshes.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Of his other impressions, the chief was that of
+squalor. It seemed as if all the elements had
+been brought together that would make poor
+Justice vulgar and unimpressive. Out of a
+squalid cell he had been pushed along squalid
+hallways, through groups of squalid faces, into
+a squalid courtroom, where he was ushered into
+a squalid cage, long and narrow, with a seat
+hardly wider than a knife blade. Once within
+the cage the handcuffs were taken off, the door
+was locked, and each of the stalwart guards
+took his stand at one end. The cage being
+raised some six or eight inches above the level of
+the floor, the boy was well in sight of everyone.
+It was like being on a throne—or a Calvary.</p>
+<p class="pnext">On taking his seat, he was vaguely conscious
+of a bank of faces, tier above tier, at the
+back of the courtroom. Before him some
+fifteen or twenty officials, reporters, and lawyers
+lolled at their tables, walked about, yawned,
+picked their teeth, or told anecdotes that raised
+a smothered laugh. Most of them struck him
+as untidily dressed; few looked intelligent.
+Among them a portly man, whom he afterward
+saw as the district attorney, in a cutaway coat,
+with a line of piqué at the opening of his waistcoat,
+seemed like a person in fancy costume.
+Everyone paused as he entered the cage, but, a
+glance having satisfied their curiosity, they paid
+him no further attention.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The trial lasted three days, passing before
+his eyes like a motion-picture film of which he
+was only a spectator. Try as he would, he found
+it hard to believe that the proceedings had anything
+to do with him. "All this fuss," he would
+comment to himself, grimly, "to get the right
+to kill a man." The strain of being under so
+many cruel or indifferent eyes sent him back
+with relief to his cell, where during the nights
+he slept soundly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">His one bit of surprise came from Stenhouse's
+final argument in his defense. Up to
+that point, both defense and prosecution had
+struck him as more or less silly. The state had
+tried to prove him a desperado whom it was
+dangerous to let live; the defense had done its
+best to show him a youth of arrested intelligence,
+not responsible for his acts. He grinned
+inwardly when Jennie, Gussie, and half a dozen
+of his old chums testified to foolish pranks,
+forgotten or half forgotten by himself, in the
+hope of convincing the court that he had never
+had the normal sense.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Stenhouse in his concluding speech
+transcended all that, taking Teddy's own stand
+as the only one which offered the ghost of a
+chance of acquittal. He began his final appeal
+quietly, in a tone little more than colloquial.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"There's an old saying, a variant on something
+said by Benjamin Franklin, which we
+might remember oftener than we do. It's
+terse, pithy, humorous, wise. Some one has
+called it the finest bit of free verse composed in
+the eighteenth century. Listen to it. '<em class="italics">It is
+hard to make an empty sack stand upright.</em>' So
+it is. The empty sack collapses of its own
+accord. It can't do anything but collapse. It
+was not meant to stand upright. To demand
+that it shall stand upright is to insist on the
+impossible. A full sack will stand as solid as
+a tree. A group of full sacks will support one
+another. Put the empty sack among them
+and from the very law of gravitation it will
+go down helplessly. Now, gentlemen of the
+jury, you're being asked to bring in a verdict
+against the empty sack—the sack that's been
+carefully kept empty—because it hasn't the
+strength and stability of that which all the
+coffers of the country have combined to fill."</p>
+<p class="pnext">With this as a text, Stenhouse drew a picture
+of the industrious man who is limited by the
+very nature of his industry. He is not limited
+by his own desire, but by the use society wishes
+to make of him. Serving a turn, he is schooled
+to serve that turn, and to serve no other turn.
+This schooling takes him unawares. He doesn't
+know it has begun before waking to find himself
+drilled to a system from which only a giant can
+escape. Few men being giants, the average man
+plods on because he doesn't know what else to
+do. There is rarely anything else <em class="italics">for</em> him to do.
+Having taken the first ill-paid job that comes his
+way, he hasn't meant to give himself to it all
+his life. He dreams of something bigger, more
+brilliant, more productive. The boy who runs
+errands sees himself a merchant; the lad who
+becomes a clerk looks forward to being a
+partner; the young man who enters a bank is
+sure that some day he will be bank president.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Sometimes, gentlemen, these early visions
+work out to a reality. But in the vast majority
+of cases, the youth, before he ceases to be a
+youth, finds himself where the horse is when he
+has once submitted to the bridle. He can go
+only as he is driven. Life is organized not to
+let him go in any other way. Needing him for a
+certain purpose, it keeps him to that purpose.
+Work, taken as a great corporate thing, is
+made up of hundreds of millions of tiny tasks
+each of which calls for a man. The man being
+found, he must be trimmed to the size of his
+task."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Stenhouse had no quarrel with methods universally
+followed by civilized man. To criticize
+them was not his intention, as it was not
+his intention to complain because man had not
+yet brought in the Golden Age.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But I do claim that the smaller the task to
+which a man is nailed down, and the smaller
+the pay he is able to earn, the greater the responsibility
+of collective society toward that individual."</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was a time, he declared, when much
+had been said to the discredit of slavery; but
+one thing could be urged in its favor. The man
+who had been kept throughout his life to one
+small job was not thrown out in his old age to
+provide for himself as he could. Having worked
+for society, as society was constituted then, society
+recognized at least the duty of taking care
+of him. Stenhouse disclaimed any comparison
+between free American labor and a servile condition;
+he was striving only for a principle.
+Men couldn't be screwed down during all their
+working lives to the lowest wage on which body
+and soul could be kept together, and then be
+judged by the same standards as those who had
+had opportunity to make provision for themselves
+and their families. The same interpretation
+of the law couldn't be made to cover the
+cases of the full sack and the empty one.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And yet," he went on, changing his tone
+with his theme, "the empty sack is of value
+because it can be filled. Coarse, cheap, negligible
+as it seems, it is much too good to throw away.
+It is an asset to production, to the country's
+trade, to the whole world's wealth. And, gentlemen, what shall we say when we call that empty
+sack—a man?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The value of the human asset was the next
+point to which he led his listeners.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It is only a truism to say that among all
+the precious things with which the Almighty
+has blessed his creation the most precious is a
+human life; and yet we live in a world which
+seems to believe this so little that we must
+sometimes remind ourselves that it is so. Within
+a few years we have seen millions of men reckoned
+merely as <em class="italics">stuff</em>. As productive assets to the
+race, they haven't counted. We could read of
+a day's loss on the battlefield running up
+into the thousands and never turn a hair. We
+came to regard a young man's life as primarily a
+thing to throw away. It is for this reason,
+gentlemen of the jury, that I venture to remind
+you that a young man's life is primarily a thing
+to save. It may be a truism to say that a
+human life is the most precious of all created
+things; but it is a truism of which we are only
+now, to our bitter and incalculable cost, beginning
+to realize the truth."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He went on to draw a picture of the contributions
+to the general good made by the Folletts,
+father and son. Their work had been
+humble, but it had been essential. Essential
+work faithfully performed should guarantee an
+old age protected against penury. He reminded
+his hearers that he was not opposed to the law
+of supply and demand, which was the only
+known method by which the business of the
+world could be carried on. He only pleaded for
+the same humanity to a man as was shown to
+a broken-down old horse. From his one interview
+with Lizzie, Stenhouse had got what he
+called "the good line," "<em class="italics">Thou shalt not muzzle
+the ox that treadeth out the corn.</em>" Of this
+he now made use, following it up with St.
+Paul's explanation: "Doth God take care for
+oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes?
+For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that
+he that ploweth may plow in hope; and that he
+that thresheth in hope should be partaker of
+his hope."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Gentlemen, so long as we live in a society in
+which the vast majority of us can never be partakers
+of the hope with which we started out, so
+long must justice take account of the suffering
+of the poor muzzled brute that treadeth
+out the corn. If he goes frenzied and runs
+amuck, he cannot be judged by the standards
+which apply to him who has been left unmuzzled
+and free to satisfy his wants. It is not fair;
+it is not human. It is true that to protect your
+own interests you have the power to shoot him
+down; but when he lies dead at your feet, no
+more muzzled in death than he was in life, there
+is surely somewhere in the universe an avenging
+force that is on his side, and which will make
+you—you as representatives of the society
+which has placed its action in your hands—and
+you as twelve private individuals with duties
+and consciences—there is somewhere in the
+universe this avenging force which will require
+his blood at your hands and make you pay the
+penalty. Surely you can find a better use for
+that valuable asset, a young man's life, than just
+to take it away. For the sake of the public
+whose honor is in your keeping, you must play
+the game squarely. For the sake of your own
+future peace of mind, you must not add your
+own crime to this poor boy's misfortune. Your
+duty at this minute is not merely to interpret the
+dead letter of a law; it is to be the voice of the
+People whom you represent. Remember that
+by the verdict you bring in that People will be
+committed to the most destructive of all destructive
+acts, or it will get expression for that
+deep, human common sense which transcends
+written phrases to act in the spirit of the greatest
+of us all, judging not according to the appearance—not
+according to the appearance, gentlemen,
+and you remember who counseled that—but
+judging righteous judgment."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He fell back into his seat, exhausted. He was so
+impressive and impassioned as to convince many
+of his hearers that he believed his own plea,
+while to some who had considered the verdict a
+certainty it was now in doubt.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Among Teddy's friends a hope arose that, in
+spite of all expectation to the contrary, he might
+be saved. Bob looked over and smiled. Teddy
+smiled back, but mainly because he rejoiced in
+what he felt to be his justification. He couldn't
+see how they could convict him after such a
+setting forth as that, though for the consequences
+of acquittal he had so little heart.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the excitement of the courtroom, the
+judge's voice, when he began to give the jury
+their instructions, fell like cool, quiet rain on
+thunderous sultriness. He was a small man,
+with a leathery, unemotional face, framed by an
+iron-gray wig of faultless side-parting and long,
+straight, unnaturally smooth hair. He had the
+faculty of seeming attentive without being influenced.
+Listening, reasoning, asking a question,
+or settling a disputed point, he gave the impression
+of having reduced intelligence to the soulless
+accuracy of a cash register.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He reminded the jury that the law was not on
+trial; society was not on trial; the industrial experience
+of one Josiah Follett was not a feature
+in the case. They must not allow the issue to be
+confused by the social arguments which befogged
+so many of the questions of the day. It was quite
+possible that the world was not as perfect as it
+might be; it was even possible that the law
+was not the most perfect law that could be passed.
+But these were considerations into which they
+could not enter. In merely approaching them,
+they would lose their way. The law as it stands
+is the voice of the People as it is; and the only
+questions before them were, first, whether or not
+the accused had broken that law, and second, if
+he had broken it, to what degree. In answering
+these questions, they must limit themselves to
+the bare facts of the charge. With the prisoner's
+temptations they had nothing to do, except in so
+far as they tended to create intent. The consequences
+to his person, whether in the way of
+liberty or of the last penalty, were no concern of
+others. Justice in itself, viewed as justice in the
+abstract, was no concern of theirs. They were
+not, however, to burden their consciences with
+the fear that the accused was thus deprived of
+protection. The duty of a jury was not protection,
+but discernment. The administration of the
+law was far too big and complex a thing for any
+one body of men to deal with. Justice having
+many aspects, the law had as many departments.
+Protection was in other hands than theirs. The
+application of justice pure and simple, involving
+punishment for guilt without excluding pity for
+the provocation, was duly guaranteed by the
+methods of the state. They would find their
+task simplified by dismissing all such hesitations
+from their minds and confining themselves to the
+definite question which he repeated. Had the
+prisoner at the bar broken the existing law, and
+if he had so broken it, to what degree?</p>
+<p class="pnext">Having explained the difference between manslaughter
+and murder, as well as between first-degree
+murder and second, he admitted that, in
+case the accused was found guilty, there was
+much to indicate the second degree rather than
+the first. There was, however, one damning
+fact. The hand that had shot Peter Flynn went
+on at once to shoot William Jackman. The
+killing of one man might have been an accident.
+If not an accident, it might still have mitigating
+features. But for the murderer of a first man to
+proceed at once to become the murderer of a
+second indicated a planned and deliberate
+intent....</p>
+<p class="pnext">When the court had adjourned and the jury had
+retired to consider their verdict, one of the guards
+unlocked the cage and Teddy was taken down
+by a corkscrew staircase to a room immediately
+below. It was a small room, lighted by one
+feeble bulb, and aired from an air shaft. A
+table and two chairs stood in the middle of the
+room; a shiny, well-worn bench was fixed to one
+of the walls. The guards took the chairs; Teddy
+sat down on the bench. One of the guards cut
+off a piece of tobacco and put it in his mouth; the
+other lighted a cheap cigar. Taking another
+from an upper waistcoat pocket, he held it out
+toward Teddy.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Have a smoke, young fella?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy shook his head. He was hardly aware
+of being addressed. Nothing else was said to
+him, and the guards, almost silently, began a
+game of cards. This waiting with prisoners for
+verdicts was always a tedious affair, and one to
+be got through patiently.</p>
+<p class="pnext">To Teddy, it was not so much tedious as it was
+unreal. He sat with arms folded, his head sunk,
+and the foot of the leg which was thrown across
+the other leg kicking outward mechanically.
+Except for a rare grunted remark between the
+players, there was no sound but the slap of the
+cards on the table and the scooping in of the
+tricks.</p>
+<p class="pnext">After nearly half an hour the door opened and
+Bob Collingham came in with a basket containing
+sandwiches and a thermos bottle of hot coffee.
+With a word of explanation to the guards, he
+was allowed to take his seat beside the prisoner.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Hello, old sport! Must be relieved that it's
+so soon going to be over. Brought you something
+to eat."</p>
+<p class="pnext">With this introduction, they took up commonplace
+ground as if it was a commonplace occasion.
+Teddy asked after his mother and sisters;
+Bob gave him the family news. Of the
+trial they said nothing. Of what they were
+waiting for no more was said than that Bob had
+persuaded Jennie and Gussie to go home, promising
+to come and tell them the decision. Lizzie
+and Gladys had not appeared in the courtroom
+at all. Of all this Teddy approved as he munched
+his sandwiches stolidly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The supply of food and coffee being large, they
+invited the guards to share with them. The invitation
+was accepted, the officers suspending
+their game. The talk became friendly, commenting
+on the judge's wig and the glass eye of
+the foreman of the jury, but not touching directly
+on the trial. These subjects, as well as the supply
+of sandwiches, exhausted, the guards returned
+to their game, the two young men being left to
+themselves.</p>
+<p class="pnext">For the most part they sat in silence—a
+silence as nearly cheerful as the circumstances
+permitted.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't worry about me, Bob," Teddy murmured
+once. "I'm not going to care much whichever
+way it is. Honest to God! I don't say I
+wouldn't like it if they sent me back home; but
+if they don't—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Allowing his companion to finish the sentence
+for himself, he lapsed into silence again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Another time, speaking as if subterranean
+thought came for a moment to the surface, he
+said:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I liked what you said about hardness—and
+pluck. I've been practicing away on them both—making
+myself tough inside. Funny how you
+can, isn't it? You think at first that, because
+you're soft, you've got to be soft; but you find
+out that you're just what you like to make yourself.
+That's a great line, Bob, '<em class="italics">Thou therefore
+endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.</em>'
+You watch," he added, with a tremulous smile,
+"and you'll see me doing it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All right, old boy, I'll watch, but we'll all be
+doing it with you. We're practicing, too. Jennie
+and the girls are regular bricks, and, of course,
+your mother—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He smiled again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Good old ma! She sure is the best ever. I'd
+be sorrier for her than I am if I didn't feel certain
+that if—that if I go she won't wait long after
+me." He swung away from this aspect of his
+thought to a new one. "Say, Bob, do you suppose
+it's a sign that God really is with me—gump
+as I am!—that he's sent you to take ma and the
+girls off my hands—<em class="italics">you</em> know—and make my
+mind easy?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">They discussed those happenings which might
+reasonably be held to be signs of Divine good
+intention, after which silence fell again. The
+guards grunted or yawned; the cards were
+slapped on the table; the tricks were pulled in
+with the scratching of paper against wood. An
+hour went by; another hour, and then another.
+In spite of his efforts to make himself hard,
+Teddy felt the tension. Having accidentally
+touched Bob's hand, he grasped it with a clutch
+like a vise. He was still clutching it when a
+messenger came to the door to say that the jury
+was about to render their verdict and the prisoner
+must come back into court.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob climbed the corkscrew first. A guard
+followed him, then Teddy, then the other guard.
+It was after seven in the evening. The courtroom,
+relatively empty, had a sickly look, under
+crude electric lighting. But half of the spectators
+had come back, and only those officials and
+lawyers who were obliged to be in their places.
+All the reporters were there, watching for every
+shade in Teddy's face and seeing more than he
+expressed.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob managed to pass in front of the cage.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Remember, Teddy—hardness is the big
+word."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Sure thing!" Teddy whispered back.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The jury filed in. The judge took his place.
+Teddy was ordered to stand up. He stood
+very straight, his hands in the pockets of his
+jacket. In all that met the eye he was a sturdy,
+stocky young man, pleasing to look at, and with
+no suggestion of the criminal. His face was
+grave with a gravity beyond that of death, but
+he showed no sign of nervousness.</p>
+<p class="pnext">If anyone showed nervousness it was the foreman
+of the jury, a good-natured fish dealer, with
+a drooping reddish mustache, who had never
+expected to be in this situation. When asked if
+the jury had arrived at a verdict his voice
+trembled as he answered:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We have."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What is your verdict?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We find the accused guilty of murder."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Of murder in the first or the second degree?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"In the first."</p>
+<p class="pnext">That was all. Bob wheeled round toward
+Teddy, who smiled courageously.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's all right, Bob," he whispered, as their
+hands met over the rail of the cage. "I've got
+the right line on it. It's my medicine, and I
+know how to take it. Keep ma and the girls
+from worrying, and I can go straight through
+with it."</p>
+<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure" style="margin-left: 32%; width: 35%" id="figure-8">
+<img style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="ALL RIGHT, MA! I'M READY!" src="images/illus3.jpg" width="100%"/>
+<div class="caption italics">
+"ALL RIGHT, MA! I'M READY!"</div>
+</div>
+<p class="pfirst">It was all there was time for. They had not
+noticed that Stenhouse had said something
+about appeal, and the judge something about
+sentence. Everyone was leaving. Stenhouse
+came to shake hands with his client and tell him
+that the game wasn't up yet. The boy thanked
+him. The cage was unlocked, and once more
+Teddy, with a guard in front and a guard following
+after him, went down the corkscrew stair.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxviii">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id29">CHAPTER XXVIII</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">"What I don't understand, Bob," Collingham
+said, with faint indignation in his
+tone, "is whether you're a married man or not."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm a married man, father, all right."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then why don't you live like a married
+man? I suppose you know that people are
+saying all sorts of things."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob considered the simplest way in which to
+put his case. It was the afternoon of the day
+following the end of Teddy's trial, and his father
+was giving him a lift homeward from the bank.
+It being winter, dark was already closing in, and
+though they were out of the city, great arc-lights
+were still strung along the roadways, which were
+otherwise lighted by flashes from hundreds of
+motor cars.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I've never said anything about this before,"
+the father resumed, before Bob had found the
+right words, "because we'd all agreed—your
+mother, Edith, and myself—that we wouldn't
+hamper you with questions about it while you
+were busy with something else. But now that
+that's over—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Part of it is over, but only part of it. We've
+a long road to travel yet."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If the appeal is denied, as I expect it will be,
+you'll have to let me in on the application to the
+Governor for clemency. I think I'd have some
+influence there."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Thanks, dad. That'll be a help." He
+asked, after further thinking, "Should you like
+me to live as a married man—considering who
+it is I've married?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Knowing that the question was a searching
+one, Bob found the reply much what he expected.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I want to see the best thing come out of a
+mixed-up situation. I don't deny that all these
+problems bother me; but we have them on our
+hands, and so there's no more to be said. We've
+got to find the wise thing to do, and do it. That's
+all I'm after."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's all I'm after, myself, dad."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't admit any responsibility for all this
+muss," Collingham declared, as if his son had
+accused him. "I don't care what anyone thinks;
+my conscience is clear."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Of course, dad; of course!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But since things have happened as they
+have, I'd like to make them as easy as I can for
+everyone; and whatever money can do—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Or recognition?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">They came back to the original question.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; recognition, too—as soon as we've
+anyone to recognize. What I don't understand
+is all this backing and filling—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Have you asked mother?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"In a way; and she's just as mysterious as
+you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob tried another avenue.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You saw Jennie yourself, didn't you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Once; yes."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What did you think of her?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What any man would think of her. She was
+very charming and—and appealing."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Did you think anything else?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The father turned sharply.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What makes you ask?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Because it's possible you did."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, I did. What of it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Only this—that that's the thing I want to
+nail before I bring her to you as my wife."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then why don't you go to work and nail it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He found the words he was in search of.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Partly because I've other things to do;
+partly because I feel that, by giving it its time,
+it will nail itself; and, most of all, for the reason
+that neither she nor I want to take the—the
+great happiness which we feel is coming to us in
+the end while—while all this other thing is in
+the air. I wonder if you understand me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"More or less."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's as if we'd accidentally put the cart of
+marriage before the horse of engagement. Do
+you see? Nominally we're married; but really
+we're only engaged. We can't be married—we
+don't want to be married—till other things are
+off our minds."</p>
+<p class="pnext">With this bit of explanation, the Collinghams
+began to live once more as if nothing had occurred.
+It was not easy; but by dint of skimming on the surface they were able to manage it.
+That is to say, Bob came and went, and they
+asked him no more questions, while on his part
+he continued to nerve Teddy and his sisters for
+another test.</p>
+<p class="pnext">If there was anyone noticeably different, it
+was Junia. Always quick to tack according to
+the wind, she seemed almost to have changed her
+course. In putting the best face on Edith's
+marriage and Bob's complications she had
+adopted the new ideals that kept her in the
+movement.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's the war," she explained to her intimates.
+"We're all different. Life as we used to live it
+begins to seem so empty. We weren't real; we
+people who spent our time entertaining and being
+entertained. It's all very well to say that we're
+much the same since the war as we were before,
+but it isn't so. I know I'm not. I'm quite a
+revolutionist. I may not have made much
+progress, but I'm certainly more in touch with
+reality."</p>
+<p class="pnext">With this transition, it became natural to
+speak of her son-in-law.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Such a wonderful fellow—all mind, you
+know, but the type that helps so many of us to
+find our way through the mists of materialism
+and selfishness out to the great big ends. To
+me, it's like a new life just to hear him talk, and
+I can't help feeling it providential that he's
+found a wife like Edith. She's an extraordinary
+girl to be my child—intellectual and practical
+at once. She can keep her husband company in
+all his researches and yet cook him a good
+dinner if their little maid is out. Is there anything
+so astonishing in life as our own children
+and what they turn out to be?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">This was a transition, too, leading her to speak
+of Bob's affairs in the tone of one who, though
+puzzled, takes them sympathetically.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And yet I think it's enlarging. Though
+we've kept only on the outer edge of the drama
+through which Bob has been going with the girl
+he's married, the whole thing has deepened his
+life so much that it couldn't help deepening ours.
+It's broadened us, too, I think, giving us an insight
+into lives so different from our own. That's
+what we need so much, it seems to me, that kind
+of broadening. It's going to solve a lot of our
+national problems which at present seem to be
+insoluble. Yes; Bob is still at home with us,
+and I tell you frankly that I don't know what is
+coming out of it. It's all so queer and independent
+and modern. I'm old-fashioned, and I
+don't pretend to see through these young people's
+ways. But I'm Bob's mother, and through all
+his developments—and he <em class="italics">is</em> developing—I'm
+going with him."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So Junia talked, and talked so much that she
+was in danger of talking herself round. The
+instinct to be in the front line of fashion had
+something to do with it, but self-persuasion had
+more. The thing of the hour being the throwing
+over of the old social code, Junia wouldn't have
+been Junia if she hadn't done it; but, even so,
+the creeping-in of compunction toward Bob took
+her by surprise. She had told herself hitherto
+that she loved him so much that she would
+work for his permanent happiness even at the
+cost of his temporary pain; but now she began
+to fear that what had seemed to her his temporary
+pain might prove the very life of his life.</p>
+<p class="pnext">She came to this perception through reading
+in the newspapers the accounts of the Follett
+boy's trial. By the tacit convention which the
+Collinghams had established, that they had
+nothing to do with it, she never spoke of it to
+Bradley or Edith, nor did they speak of it to
+her; but she kept herself informed, and knew the
+devotion with which Bob gave himself to Jennie
+and her family. The boy's condemnation hit
+her hard. When Bradley came home that night,
+she saw that it had also hit him.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm worth about five million dollars at a
+guess," he confided to her, "and I'd cheerfully
+have given four of them if this thing hadn't
+happened."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But, Bradley dear, you had nothing to do
+with it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I know I hadn't," he declared, savagely;
+"and yet I'd—I'd do as I say."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But it wasn't Bradley she was most sorry
+for; nor was it for the Follett boy. She was
+sorry that, because of conditions which she herself
+had fostered, Bob would never reap the fruit
+of a love in which he had been so chivalrous. She
+didn't see how he could. Just as there was a
+natural Bradley and a standardized one, so there
+was a natural and a standardized Junia. The
+natural Junia had long seemed dead; but the
+bigness of the love which she saw daily and hourly
+exemplified moved her to the painful stirrings of
+new life.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Meanwhile Bob went with Teddy up the remaining
+steps by which he mounted his Calvary.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He stood near the cage on the morning when
+the boy was brought up for sentence, witnessing
+his coolness. On being asked if he had anything
+to say before sentence was pronounced he
+replied:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Nothing, sir, except to thank you for giving
+me such a fair trial."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The words were spoken in a firmer voice than
+those which followed:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The court, in consideration of your crime of
+murder in the first degree, sentences you to the
+punishment of death by the passage of a current
+of electricity through your body, within the
+week beginning...."</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">When the appeal for a new trial was denied,
+it was Bob who informed Teddy. When all
+efforts to obtain Executive clemency had failed,
+it was Bob again who broke the news. When
+the boy requested that his mother and sisters
+should omit their next visit to Bitterwell—should
+wait till he sent them word before coming
+again—it was Bob who conveyed the request.
+Bitterwell, the great penitentiary, was twenty
+miles from Pemberton Heights, and through the
+winter they had gone to see him some thirty-odd
+times. They went in couples. Gladys and her
+mother, Jennie and Gussie, keeping each other
+company. The visits were less difficult than
+might have been expected because of Teddy's
+cheerfulness.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Of the request to wait before coming again,
+they didn't at first seize the significance. While
+frank with them about everything else, Bob had
+never given them the date of the week the judge
+had named, nor had they asked for it. If they
+did so ask, he meant to tell them; but they
+seemed to divine his intention.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Perhaps they divined the intention in this
+intimation from Teddy. At any rate, they didn't
+question it, or rebel against it. It followed on
+visits first of one pair and then of the other, both
+of which had been so normal as almost to pass as
+gay. That is, Teddy's spirits had infected theirs,
+and they had parted from him smiling. That of
+Jennie and Gussie had been the first of the two,
+and he had sent them off with a joke.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"My boy, I'm proud of you," had been
+Lizzie's farewell words to him. "Walk firmly,
+with your head erect, and never, never be sorry
+for anything you've done."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Good old ma! The best ever! I sure am
+proud of <em class="italics">you</em>! What'll you bet that we don't
+have some good times together yet?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">A psychologist would have said that by suggestion and autosuggestion they strengthened
+each other and themselves; but whatever the
+process, the result was evident. Bob had given
+them the verb "to carry on," so that "carrying
+on" became at once an objective and a driving
+force. Gussie and Gladys went regularly to
+work; Jennie took care of the house and her
+mother. The latter task had become the more
+imperative, for the reason that, after Teddy's
+request that they should suspend their visits,
+she began to fail. It was not that she was hurt
+by it, but rather that she took it as a signal.</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the efforts to be strong, they were helped
+by the fact that, not long after Teddy's removal
+to Bitterwell, Edith Ayling had come to see them,
+all of her own initiative. She had repeated the
+visit many times, and had Gussie and Gladys
+go to see her at Cathedral Heights. Jennie had
+never been able to leave home.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I didn't say anything about it to you," Edith
+explained to Bob, after the occasion of her
+breaking the ice, "because I wanted to do it on
+my own. Quite apart from you and Jennie, I
+feel that our lots have become involved and
+that we Collinghams have some responsibility.
+I don't say responsibility for what, because I
+don't know; and yet I feel—" Unable to say
+what she felt, she elided to the personal. "Jennie
+I don't get at. She's so silent—so shut away.
+The mother has never been well enough to see
+me. But the two younger girls I'm really getting
+to know very well and to be very fond of.
+They're intelligent down to the finger-tips, and
+with a little guidance I'm sure they could do big
+things."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What kind of things?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I should train Gladys along intellectual
+lines, and Gussie was born for the stage. I know
+that Ernest and I could help them, if you thought
+it all right, and we should love doing it. You
+must read what he says in his new book, <em class="italics">Salvage</em>,
+as to getting people into the tasks for which they
+are fitted and in which they can be happy. He
+thinks that a lot of our nonproductiveness
+comes from the people who'd love doing one
+thing being compelled to do another, and that if
+we could only help the individuals we come
+across to find their natural jobs...."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was Edith also who unconsciously helped
+her mother out of the trap in which she had
+found herself caught.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, by the way, whom do you think I met in
+the street the other day? No less a person than
+Hubert Wray, just back from California. And
+that reminds me. He told me you had bought
+his big picture that everyone was talking about
+last year. Where is it? Why did you never
+say anything about it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith was spending a day in May at Collingham
+Lodge, and was walking with her mother
+between rows of irises.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Come in," Junia said. "I'll show you.
+Then you'll understand."</p>
+<p class="pnext">But not till "Life and Death" had been drawn
+from its hiding place and propped against the
+wall was Edith allowed to enter her mother's
+room. She advanced slowly, her eyes on the
+canvas. Junia waited for the shock.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So that's it," Edith said, at last. "It isn't a
+thing I should want to live and die with—I never
+can understand that fancy people have for nudes—but
+I see it's very fine."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And is that all you see?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All I see? I see it has a meaning, of course,
+but—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia's throat felt dry.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Don't you—don't you recognize anybody?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Who? The Brasshead woman? I shouldn't
+know her from Eve."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Junia crept nearer.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"'The Brasshead woman'? Who's she? What
+are you talking about?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why, the model who sat for it. Hubert told
+me all about her. He said she wasn't his ideal
+for the part—rather a poor lot as a woman—but
+he couldn't get anyone better." She added, on
+examining the features, "I don't think she's
+bad, considering what he wanted."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Doesn't she—doesn't she remind you of—of
+Bob's wife?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"About as much as she does of you. Surely
+that's not the reason why you hid the thing away!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I—I did think—I was afraid—that people
+might see a resemblance—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith made an inarticulate sound intended for
+derision.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"As a matter of fact, Hubert said it was
+probably a good thing for him to be obliged to
+paint some one else than Jennie. He'd been
+painting her so much that he was in danger of
+painting her into everything, like Andrea del
+Sarto with his wife."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then you—you don't think that he's painted
+her in here?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Edith looked again.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Well, if you put it that way—and you were
+crazy to find a likeness—perhaps about the
+brows—and down here at the curve of the cheek
+and neck—but no! Not really! This is a
+carnal woman, and Jennie's a thing of the
+spirit." She dismissed the subject as of no
+further importance. "Do tell me. Is there
+anyone in New York who reglazes these English
+chintzes?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">So Junia made new plans, waiting for Bob to
+come home to dinner in order to meet him on the
+threshold, throw her arms about his neck, and
+give him the glad facts.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Bob sent a telephone message that he
+would not be home to dinner, that he would not
+be home that night. No one was to worry, and
+he would turn up at breakfast in the morning.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was all the information he gave because,
+by special permission from the warden, and under
+a solemn promise not to convey anything to the
+prisoner that would enable him to cheat the
+law, he was spending the night at Bitterwell.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was spending it in a low one-storied building some sixty feet long and not more than
+twenty in width. Its arrangements were simple.
+On entering, you came into a corridor some six
+feet wide, running the length of seven little
+rooms. The seven little rooms were each furnished
+with a cot, a fixed wash-basin, a table,
+and a chair. Each had, however, this peculiarity—that
+the end toward the corridor had no
+wall. Instead of a wall it had long, strong perpendicular
+white bars, some two or three inches
+apart, and running from ceiling to floor. The
+inmate was thus visible at all times, like an
+animal in a cage. In the corridor were half a
+dozen chairs of the kitchen variety, and at the
+end a little yellow door.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The little yellow door led into a room of which
+the chief piece of furniture was a chair vaguely
+suggestive of an armchair in a smoking room,
+though with some singular attachments. Around
+it in a semicircle were some eight or ten other
+chairs similar to those in the corridor. In one
+corner was a walled-off space that might have
+housed a dynamo; in the other a stack of brooms
+and mops. As a passageway gave access to this
+room, and the yellow door was carefully kept
+closed, Bob was not required to see within.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Of the seven little rooms four were empty,
+and three had occupants. At one end was a
+negro; at the other an Italian; Teddy was in the
+center. Outside, there was a guard for the
+Italian, another for the negro, while for Teddy
+there were two. They were big, husky fellows,
+three Irishmen and a Swede, genial, good-natured
+souls to whom their duties had become a matter
+of course.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There was something of the matter of course
+in the whole situation, even to Teddy and
+Bob. The human mind being ready to accept
+anything to which it is led by steps sufficiently
+graded, both young men were attuned to finding
+themselves as they were. As they were meant
+that Teddy clung to one of the bars from within,
+and Bob to the same bar from without. They
+talked through the open spaces, being able to do
+it quietly because they were so close.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You don't think I'm afraid, do you, Bob?
+I should have been afraid if it hadn't been for
+you. You've bucked me up something—well,
+there are no words for it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Let it go without words, Teddy. Don't try
+to say it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I like to say it," he grinned. "Or, rather,
+I'd like to say it if I could. I like trying to say
+it, even when I can't."</p>
+<p class="pnext">That was all for the time; but after some
+minutes, Teddy's hand stole over Bob's big paw
+as it held to the bar, so that they held to it
+together.</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was Bob who broke the silence next.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I didn't tell you, Teddy—I've only just found
+it out—that dad's been taking care of Mrs. Flynn
+and her kiddies and means to go on doing it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's good," the boy sighed. "It takes
+about the last thing off my mind."</p>
+<p class="pnext">So they talked spasmodically, never saying
+much, and yet saying all the things for which
+language has no words. At intervals the Italian
+showed his sympathy by groaning heavily, which
+was generally a signal for the negro to begin
+singing, in a cottony voice, the first verse of
+"Safe in the Arms of Jesus." Teddy apologized
+for them as a host for unseemly members of his
+household.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"They're good guys, all right. That's just
+their way of letting me know they feel for me.
+It's funny how kind hearted some mutt will be
+who's committed a cold-blooded murder."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He had probably been following this train of
+thought for some minutes when he said, in a
+reasoning tone:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"What can the law do with fellows of our sort?
+Look at the thing straight now. We've got good
+in us, of course; but you can't trust us to hold
+our horses. I don't blame them for what they're
+giving me—hardly any. Only, I'll be darned if
+it doesn't make me surer that all this is only an
+experiment—a way of finding out how not to do
+it—so that we can make the next go a better
+one."</p>
+<p class="pnext">They discussed this topic in a desultory way,
+not so much letting it drop as pursuing it each in
+his own thought. Teddy picked up the line again
+after an interval of time, and some distance
+farther on.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I suppose you can't believe that you come to
+a place where you know you're through and are
+in a hurry to get on. Well, you do. I guess old
+people like ma reach there, anyhow; and young
+people, too, when they're—when they're like me.
+I've had my shot—and I've miffed it. Now I'm
+all on edge to have another try. I'm so crazy
+about that that the thing that's to happen first
+doesn't seem anything—very much."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The hours wore on, but it seemed to Bob a
+night to which there was no time. Though the
+support he brought to Teddy was merely that of
+companionship, he felt that the boy was outstripping
+him. In Teddy's own phrase, he was
+"moving on," but moving on very fast. Bob
+couldn't tell how he knew this; he only felt himself
+being left behind. Teddy was quite right;
+his old experiment <em class="italics">was</em> over, and some of the
+exaltation of the new one was already breaking
+through. That was the meaning of his silences,
+his abstractions. That was why he came out of
+each such spell with a smile that grew more
+luminous.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The Italian and the negro fell asleep. The
+four guards talked less to one another. Clutching
+the bar grew tiring. Brannigan, one of Teddy's
+guards, brought up a chair, offering it to Bob.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why don't you sit down? It'll be quite a
+while yet."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob took the chair, Teddy the one inside the
+cell. Bringing it as close to the bars as possible,
+he thrust his fingers through the opening to
+touch Bob's hand. Bob closed the fingers within
+his palm, and so held them.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I'm not going to send any message to ma and
+the girls. They know I love them. You can't
+add anything to that." A sidelong smile stole
+through the bars. "I love you too, Bob. I guess
+it's a bum thing to say, but to-night—well, it's
+different—and I'm going to say it. I can't do
+anything to thank you; but it may mean something
+to you to have me loving you like the devil
+all the way from—from over there."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It means something to me now."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then that's all right."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The Italian breathed heavily. The negro
+snored. The guards were bored and somnolent.
+Teddy might have been asleep except for the look
+and the smile that every now and then crept
+through the bars toward his companion.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Suddenly he pulled his fingers from Bob's
+clasp, jumped to his feet, and held out his arms.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All right, ma! I'm ready!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The cry was so loud and joyous that Bob
+sprang up. Brannigan lumbered forward.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Been dreamin'," he explained. "Just as well
+if he has."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Teddy looked about him in bewilderment.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, I haven't been. I wasn't asleep. I
+was wide awake. I guess you'll think I'm dippy,
+Bob; but I did see ma. 'Pon my soul I did!
+She was right there." He pointed to the spot.
+"She looked lovely, too—young, like—and yet it
+was ma all right. She wanted me to come.
+That's why I jumped. Oh, well! Perhaps I <em class="italics">am</em>
+dippy. But it's funny, isn't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was so preoccupied with this happening as
+not to notice sounds in the outer passage and
+beyond the yellow door. Even when he did, it
+was with no more than a partial cognizance.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Listen!" he said once. "There they are.
+It'll be only a few minutes now. I'm not going
+to let you go in there, Bob. Funny about ma,
+isn't it?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">The sounds grew louder. The guards were
+moving about. Behind the yellow door people
+seemed to enter. There was the scraping of
+chairs as they sat down. The Italian woke and
+howled dismally. The negro shouted his hymn.
+Teddy was far away on the wings of speculation;
+but he came back to say:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"If ma had gone ahead of me, I know she'd
+like nothing better than to come and give me a
+lift over. But she hasn't gone ahead of me.
+She's over there in Indiana Avenue. That's the
+funny part of it. What do you suppose it means?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob didn't know. Neither had he time to
+offer an opinion, because the main door opened
+and the warden appeared, accompanied by the
+chaplain, the doctor, the principal keeper, and
+three other men whom Teddy didn't know.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Here they are!" Teddy whispered, as if their
+coming was a relief.</p>
+<p class="pnext">The warden advanced to the central cell.
+The door was unlocked. Teddy stood on the
+threshold.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Thank you, warden. I suppose I can say
+good-by to my friend?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Permission was given. Teddy stepped out
+into the corridor.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You'd better go now, Bob. No use in your
+staying any longer." He nodded toward the
+men standing round him. "They'll handle me
+gently. I'm not afraid."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Their hands clasped; but the boy was only a
+boy, loving and in need of love. Before Bob
+knew what was happening, Teddy's arms were
+about his neck, in a long, desperate embrace.</p>
+<p class="pnext">A gulp that was almost a sob from each—and
+it was over.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"All right, boys. I'm ready. Go to it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The words were spoken steadily. Bob limped
+toward the door. A guard unlocked it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Say, Bob!" It was Teddy's voice again.
+Bob turned. The lad had taken off his collar,
+no more conscious of the act than if he was
+going to bed. One of the strange men was
+kneeling on one knee, making a significant slit
+in a leg of Teddy's trousers. "Say, Bob! I
+wonder—if it doesn't take you too far out of your
+way-if you'd mind driving round by the house?
+You see, if anything has happened to ma, why,
+the girls'll be all up in the air, poor things!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob nodded because he couldn't trust himself
+to words—and so it was the end.</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="pfirst">Out in the air it seemed to him as if he had
+dreamed and waked up. The May night was so
+exquisite, so hallowing, that the walls of Bitterwell
+were mellow and enchanted against the dome
+of stars. Even in these grim courts the scent of
+growing things was sweet.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Driving in the deadest hours of night over the
+long flat road, he was too tired to think. His
+imagination didn't try to follow Teddy, because
+it had become an instinct to spring to the need
+to "carry on." Teddy was behind him. There
+were other things in front; and his mind was
+already with them.</p>
+<p class="pnext">And yet not actively. After he had slept he
+would be able to take them up; but just now his
+main desire was to get home to bed. Nothing
+but that would dispel this overweight of emotion.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Along the familiar road he drove mechanically.
+Even Teddy's last request, though it formed an
+intention, was hardly in his mind. At Bond's
+Corner, where the roads forked, to the right to
+Pemberton Heights, to the left to the bridge that
+would take him over toward Marillo, he was so
+nearly asleep that he might have gone straight
+on homeward had he not been startled by seeing
+a man and a woman standing in the middle of
+the road.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He jammed down the service and emergency
+brakes, swinging to the right. The fact that they
+stood facing him without getting out of his way
+both amazed him and rendered him indignant.
+Turning to look at so strange a pair of pedestrians,
+he saw—Teddy and his mother.</p>
+<p class="pnext">They were not quite on the road, but a little
+above it. Neither were they in the dark like
+other things around, but shining with a light of
+their own. Neither were they shadowy apparitions,
+but definite, vital, forcible. They were
+dressed as he had generally seen them, and yet
+they wore a kind of radiance. The mother's arm
+was over her boy's shoulder, but Teddy was
+waving his hand. Smiles were on both faces,
+on the lips, in the eyes, and somehow in the
+personality.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob was not frightened, but he was thrilled.
+It seemed to him that they stayed long enough
+to overcome all the doubts of his senses. Though
+he pressed on the brakes, the car went a number
+of yards before he could bring it to a standstill;
+and yet they never left his side. They didn't
+exactly move; they were only there—living,
+lovely, sending out love as if it had been light,
+wrapping him round and round. It was so vivid,
+so much a fact, that when the car stopped and he
+saw no one there, he was amazed once more to
+find himself alone.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He couldn't drive on at once. He lingered—staring
+at the spot where they had stood, looking
+over the wide, dim country, gazing up at the
+stars in their yearning infinitude. He tried to
+persuade himself that his own mind had projected
+something unreal in itself; but he couldn't
+throw off the extraordinary happiness the vision
+left behind it.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Before reaching Indiana Avenue he had decided
+on a course. If there were no lights in
+the house, he would drive on homeward. If
+there were he would stop. At this hour in the
+very early morning, unless something unusual
+had happened, there would of course be none.</p>
+<p class="pnext">But there were lights. At sound of his approach,
+Pansy gave a little silvery yelp. Jennie
+opened the door before he had time to ring.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Come in, Bob. I saw your car from the
+window."</p>
+<p class="pnext">In the living-room Gussie and Gladys, wearing
+their dressing-gowns, cried out their relief at
+seeing him. It was the situation Teddy had foreseen,
+in which they were all "up in the air." As
+usual, Gladys was the spokesman.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, Bob, we're so glad to have you. We
+didn't know what to do. Momma—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">A sob stopped her, but Jennie was more calm.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Momma's gone, Bob. Gussie went into her
+room about half past ten to take her the glass
+of milk we always put by her bed, and she was
+asleep."</p>
+<p class="pnext">They gathered round him as if he formed their
+rallying point. He took Jennie and Gussie each
+by the hand. Gladys held his coat by the lapel.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"You're not sorry, any of you, are you? She
+wanted to go; and she's gone in the sweetest of
+all ways."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"She won't have to hear about Teddy," Gussie
+wept. "That's a comfort, anyhow."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gladys laid her head against Bob's breast.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No; but Teddy'll have to hear about her."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Bob saw the opportunity. "No, Gladys;
+Teddy will not have to hear about her." He
+let this sink in. "Teddy—<em class="italics">knows</em>."</p>
+<p class="pnext">It was some seconds before Jennie and Gussie
+released his hands and Gladys let go his lapel.
+When they did they moved away silently.
+Gussie dropped on her knees at the arm of a big
+chair, bowing her head, and crying quietly.
+Jennie, a slim figure with hands behind her back,
+walked down the length of the room, staring at
+the curtained window toward Indiana Avenue.
+Gladys stood off, looking at Bob, nodding her
+head sagely, as she said:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I thought that's what it meant when he
+didn't want us to come. He liked it better without
+saying good-by. So we all do." She gave a
+big, sudden sob, controlling herself as suddenly.
+"We're going to carry on, Bob. We're not going
+to show the white feather"—there was another
+big sob, with another successful effort to keep
+it back—"we're not going to show the white
+feather—any of us—just to please you."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Thank you, Gladys. It will please me.
+But there's something that pleases me more.
+I'd like to tell all three of you about it."</p>
+<p class="pnext">Jennie turned round from the window, coming
+back down the room. She was pale, but she
+didn't cry. Gussie dried her eyes and was struggling
+to her feet when Bob laid his hand on her
+shoulder.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"No, Gussie; stay where you are. I'll sit
+down here." He dropped into the chair. "You
+come on this side, Jennie. Gladys—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But Gladys had already crouched at his feet,
+while Jennie, balancing Gussie, sank beside the
+other arm of the chair. Pansy sprang up to her
+place on his knee.</p>
+<p class="pnext">He told them about Teddy and his mother—about
+Teddy's vision and his own.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't say I know what to make of it. I'm
+not at all sure that we're obliged to explain that
+sort of thing unless we're scientists or psychologists.
+It seems to me that when beauty
+and comfort flash on us at a time of great need,
+we're at liberty to take them for what they
+seem to be, even if we don't understand them."</p>
+<p class="pnext">As his hand lay on the arm of the chair, Jennie
+kissed it again and again. It was the first spontaneous
+affection she had ever shown him, and,
+though it moved him with a stirring strange and
+fundamental, he felt that with the awesome
+things so fresh in their minds, the time had not
+yet come to respond to it. It was one more
+impulse to gather force by being restrained a
+little longer.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It isn't as if this thing stood alone. A great
+many people have had experiences like it. They
+may be no more than fancy, just as some people
+say; but I do know this: that by what he saw
+Teddy was helped to do what he had to do, and
+that for me—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, Bob," Gladys pleaded. "What was it
+for you?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Something real—and assuring—and beautiful—and
+comforting—and glorious." He uttered
+the words slowly, as if selecting his terms. "More
+than that," he went on, "it was something that's
+given me a happiness I can't describe but which
+I should like to share with you—which perhaps
+I shall be able to share with you—as we get to
+know one another better—and time goes on."</p>
+<p class="pnext">The little snub-nosed face, something like
+Pansy's, was lifted to him adoringly.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Are we going to be your very own, Bob?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, Gladys, my very own."</p>
+</div>
+<div class="level-2 section" id="chapter-xxix">
+<h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id30">CHAPTER XXIX</a></h2>
+<p class="pfirst">"How can we be your very own when—you
+don't know anything about <em class="italics">me</em>?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Gussie and Gladys had gone up to get some
+sleep. Jennie was crouched, not against the
+arm of the chair, as before, but against Bob's
+knee. Still pressing back the instincts of his
+passion, he did no more than let his hand rest
+lightly on her hair.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I know this much about you, Jennie—that
+after all we've gone through we're welded together.
+Nothing can separate us now—no past—nor
+anything you could tell me."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is that why you don't want to know?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't want to know <em class="italics">now</em>. That's all I'm
+saying. Things are settled for us. They're
+settled and sealed. It's what we get out of so
+much that's terrible, that we don't have to debate
+that point any more. We may have to
+adapt ourselves to conditions we don't know
+anything about as yet—but it will be a matter
+of adapting, not of cutting loose. What should
+I be if I were to cut loose from you and the girls
+now, Jennie? What should you be if you were
+to cut loose from me?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She pressed her cheek against his knee.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We'd die," she said, simply.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"So there you are! I know what you mean.
+I'd die, too. That is, we mightn't die outwardly;
+but something would be so killed in us
+that we'd never be really alive again. So why
+try to pull apart what life has soldered into one?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But you don't <em class="italics">know</em>!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, I do. I know more than you think.
+I know that the things that trouble you are
+dreams and that our life together is reality.
+You'll tell me the dreams as we go on—a little
+at a time—and I'll show you that you've waked
+from them. I know there are things to explain;
+but I know, too, that there's an explanation. But
+I don't want the explanation yet. I'm—I'm too
+tired, Jennie. I want to rest. And I can't rest
+unless we all rest together—you with me—and
+the girls with us—in a kind of quiet acceptance
+of the things that have happened—and in the—I
+hardly know how to express it—but in the
+tranquillity of love. I wonder if you understand
+me?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">She murmured:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"I don't know that I understand you, Bob—quite—but
+I do—I do love you. It's—it's different
+from love—it's—it's more. It's like—like
+melting into you—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That's love, Jennie. It isn't anything different.
+It's just—<em class="italics">love</em>."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"But you're so big—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you're so little—so wee. Don't you see?—that's
+it! That's the compensating thing in
+nature. It's because we're different that we need
+each other and complete each other. I can't
+explain it as you'd explain a sum in arithmetic.
+I only <em class="italics">know</em>. You complete me, Jennie. As
+I've said so often, you're the other half of me—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And you're all of me—and more."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Then since we know that, why not do as I
+said—just rest awhile? We've come up to our
+next ledge, as I was trying to explain to you a
+few months ago; I know we can camp here a bit;
+and if we've had some scratches in the climb we
+can talk of them by and by. We've learned the
+one big thing we needed to know—that we
+belong together, that we can't be torn apart.
+Just for now, why can't that be enough for us?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It will be enough if you will let me tell you
+that—that what I've said about Hubert wasn't—wasn't
+as bad as perhaps you think. I don't say
+it mightn't have been; it was as bad as that in—in
+intention; but the magic cloak of your love
+which you used to write about seemed to hang
+round me—that's the only way I can put it—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That'll do, Jennie. Don't try to say any
+more now. It's only what—in some way—I can't
+tell you how—I know already."</p>
+<p class="pnext">He knew she was crying, but he let her cry.
+He would have cried himself, only that, since
+the vision at Bond's Corner, he felt this extraordinary
+happiness. While his reason would have
+striven to accept the psychologist's explanation
+his inner self was convinced of Teddy's delight
+in beginning his next experiment. He himself
+was tired, but at peace—tired, but no longer
+with a need of sleep—only with the need of being
+quiet with a sense of fulfillment.</p>
+<p class="pnext">There were tears in her voice as she whispered,
+brokenly:</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Is it wrong, Bob, to feel so—so comforted—when
+momma is lying upstairs—and darling
+Teddy is—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"We can't choose the way by which comfort
+comes to us, Jennie darling. Things happen
+which we don't want to have happen, and yet
+they <em class="italics">can</em> work together for good if we only give
+them half a chance—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He was interrupted by the loud, sweet thrilling
+of a thrush. Jennie raised her head in surprise,
+looking at the pallid shimmer through the
+curtained window.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"It's day!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">They were both on their feet.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes, Jennie; it's day—again. Let's go out."</p>
+<p class="pnext">They went as they were, bareheaded like
+children, into the purity of morning. Pansy,
+disturbed by the many strange auras in the house,
+scampered ahead of them, relieved by the
+escape. The street was still asleep, empty, clean,
+with every lawn patch and garden bed drenched
+with dew. Only the birds and the flowers were
+waking to the light.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Turning toward the cliffs and the river, their
+talk became more practical. Bob suggested to
+Jennie what his father had suggested to him.
+Mr. Huntley was going to Europe in connection
+with some new European loan. The proposal
+was that Bob should go with him. The trip
+might last six months.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And if I go," he added, "we both go. We
+should have a few weeks to settle things finally
+here—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, but, Bob—how could I go and—and
+leave the two girls? They need me more than
+ever now. I'm not only their sister, but their
+mother."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Why shouldn't they come with us? I'd love
+having them. Six months over there would
+make a break with what they've been through
+here; and when we come back, Edith has things
+she's going to suggest—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"That would be heavenly, Bob; but—but the
+money?"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"The money's all right. In my new job at the
+bank I've a bigger salary—five thousand; and
+now that dad's giving Edith ten thousand a year
+as allowance, he's giving me the same. That's a
+pretty good income to begin with, besides which,
+dad—you'll have to know dad, Jennie—he
+doesn't want me to spare any money while we're—we're
+passing through this—this crisis."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"And your mother's lovely. I know <em class="italics">that</em>."</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; mother's splendid, too. So's Edith.
+You'll find that they all want—want to make up
+to you—and to the girls—for—"</p>
+<p class="pnext">But he didn't say for what because they came
+to where they saw above the cloud-wrapt city the
+glory of chrysoprase, turquoise, and topaz which
+precedes the sunrise and takes the breath away.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, look!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Oh, look!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Instinctively they clasped hands as they stood
+on the edge of the flowery precipice, watching
+the chrysoprase yellow into saffron, and the turquoise
+melt into sapphire, while the topaz became
+light.</p>
+<p class="pnext">Then silently, above the wraithlike towers and
+cubes and battlements, slipped the rim of gold.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"There it is, Bob!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">He drew her to him, holding her close.</p>
+<p class="pnext">"Yes; there it is again, Jennie—always coming
+back to us! The last time we were here we had
+only the moonrise; and now it is the sun—the
+sun!"</p>
+<p class="pnext">Her head lay against his shoulder; and as the
+rim became an orb the cloud-built vision of Manhattan
+was touched with flecks of fire. Within
+its heart lay Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Wall
+Street, and the Bowery, shops, churches, brothels,
+and banks, all passions, hungers, yearnings, and
+ambitions, all national impulses worthy and detestable,
+all human instincts holy and unclean,
+all loveliness, all lust, all charity, all cupidity,
+all secret and suppressed desire, all shameless
+exposure on the housetops, all sorrow, all sin, all
+that the soul of man conceives of as evil and good—and
+yet, with no more than these few miles of
+perspective, and this easy play of light, translated
+into beauty, uplifting, unearthly, and
+ineffable.</p>
+<div class="center large level-3 section" id="the-end">
+<h3 class="level-3 pfirst section-title title">THE END</h3>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
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+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 20:07:58 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 20:07:58 -0700
commit	b60290dc18b0e826c57c7007b9b1972df2341332 (patch)
tree	3168aaef9f27748a6d17f77658b2d23d222d61c8 /37412-h/37412-h.html