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diff --git a/38075.txt b/38075.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15dfda5 --- /dev/null +++ b/38075.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14021 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Ambitious Woman, by Edgar Fawcett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Ambitious Woman + A Novel + +Author: Edgar Fawcett + +Release Date: November 21, 2011 [EBook #38075] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AMBITIOUS WOMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Fulvia Hughes, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=. + The upside-down asterisms are denoted by *.* + The list of the corrected items is at the end of this e-book. + + + + +=Edgar Fawcett's Novels.= + +_Mr. Fawcett is a novelist who does a service that greatly needs to be +done,--a novelist who writes of the life with which he is closely +acquainted, and who manfully emphasizes his respect for his native land, +and his contempt for the weakness and affectation of those who are +ashamed of their country._--New York Evening Post. + + +_A GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE._ + +_Ninth Edition._ "Little Classic" style. 18mo, $1.00. + +Take it as a whole, we know no English novel of the last few years fit +to be compared with it in its own line for simplicity, truth, and +rational interest.--_London Times._ + +It is the most truly American novel that has been given to the world in +some time, for the reason that it teaches Americans--or, at all events, +should teach them--what puny and puerile beings they become when they +attempt to decry their own country and ape the idiosyncrasies of +another.--_New York Express._ + +An amazingly clever book, the story well managed in the telling, the +dialogue bright and sparkling, and the humor unforced and +genuine.--_Boston Transcript._ + +It is a most charming story of American life and character, with a rare +dash of humor in it, and a good deal of vigorous satire.--_Quebec +Chronicle._ + + +_A HOPELESS CASE._ + +_Fourth Edition._ "Little Classic" style. 18mo, $1.25. + +"A Hopeless Case" contains much that goes to make up a novel of the best +order--wit, sarcasm, pathos, and dramatic power--with its sentences +clearly wrought out and daintily finished. It is a book which ought to +have a great success.--_Cincinnati Commercial._ + +"A Hopeless Case" will, we are sure, meet with a very enthusiastic +reception from all who can appreciate fiction of a high order. The +picture of New York society, as revealed in its pages, is remarkably +graphic and true to life.... A thoroughly delightful novel--keen, witty, +and eminently American. It will give the author a high rank as a writer +of fiction.--_Boston Traveller._ + +As a sprightly and interesting comedy this book will find hosts of +interested readers. It has its lessons of value in the striking +contrasts it furnishes of the different styles of life found in our +great cities.--_New England Journal of Education._ + +Its brilliant and faithful pictures of New York society and its charming +heroine can hardly fail to make it very popular.--_Salem Gazette._ + + +_AN AMBITIOUS WOMAN._ + +12mo, cloth, $1.50. + +*.* _For sale by Booksellers. Sent, by mail, post-paid, on receipt of +price by the Publishers_, + +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., BOSTON, MASS. + + + + + AN AMBITIOUS WOMAN + + _A Novel_ + + BY + + EDGAR FAWCETT + + AUTHOR OF "A GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE," "A HOPELESS + CASE," ETC. + + [Illustration] + + BOSTON + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street + =The Riverside Press, Cambridge= + 1884 + + + + + Copyright, 1888, + BY EDGAR FAWCETT. + + _All rights reserved._ + + + + + _The Riverside Press, Cambridge:_ + Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. + + + + +AN AMBITIOUS WOMAN. + +I. + + +If any spot on the globe can be found where even Spring has lost the +sweet trick of making herself charming, a cynic in search of an +opportunity for some such morose discovery might thank his baleful stars +were chance to drift him upon Greenpoint. Whoever named the place in +past days must have done so with a double satire; for Greenpoint is not +a point, nor is it ever green. Years ago it began by being the sluggish +suburb of a thriftier and smarter suburb, Brooklyn. By degrees the +latter broadened into a huge city, and soon its neighbor village +stretched out to it arms of straggling huts and swampy river-line, in +doleful welcome. To-day the affiliation is complete. Man has said let it +all be Brooklyn, and it is all Brooklyn. But the sovereign dreariness of +Greenpoint, like an unpropitiated god, still remains. Its melancholy, +its ugliness, its torpor, its neglect, all preserve an unimpaired +novelty. It is very near New York, and yet in atmosphere, suggestion, +vitality, it is leagues away. Our noble city, with its magnificent +maritime approaches, its mast-thronged docks, its lordly encircling +rivers, its majesty of traffic, its gallant avenues of edifices, its +loud assertion of life, and its fine promise of riper culture, fades +into a dim memory when you have touched, after only a brief voyage, upon +this forlorn opposite shore. + +No Charon rows you across, though your short trip has too often the most +funereal associations. You take passage in a squat little steamboat at +either of two eastern ferries, and are lucky if a hearse with its +satellite coaches should fail to embark in your company; for, curiously, +the one enlivening fact associable with Greenpoint is its close nearness +to a famed Roman Catholic cemetery. It is doubtful if the unkempt child +wading in the muddy gutter ever turns his frowzy head when these dismal +retinues stream past him. They are always streaming past him; they are +as much a part of this lazy environ as the big, ghostly geese that +saunter across its ill-tended cobblestones, the dirty goats that nibble +at the placards on its many dingy fences, or the dull-faced Germans that +plod its semi-paven streets. Death, that is always so bitter a +commonplace, has here become a glaring triteness. Watched, along the +main thoroughfare, from porches of liquor-shops and windows of +tenement-houses, death has perhaps gained a sombre popularity with not a +few shabby gazers. It rides in state, at a dignified pace; it has +followers, too, riding deferentially behind it. Sometimes it has martial +music, and the pomp of military escort. Life seldom has any of this, in +Greenpoint. It cannot ride, or rarely. It must walk, and strain to keep +its strength even for that. One part of it drudges with the needle, +fumes over the smoky stove, sighs at the unappeasable baby; another part +takes by dawn the little dwarfish ferry-boat, and hies to the great +metropolis across the river, returning jaded from labor by nightfall. +No wonder, here, if death should seem to possess not merely a mournful +importance but a gloomy advantage as well, or if for these toilful +townsfolk philosophy had reversed itself, and instead of the paths of +glory leading to the grave, it should look as if the grave were forever +leading to some sort of peculiar and comfortable glory. + +But Greenpoint, like a hardened conscience, still has her repentant +surprises. She is not quite a thing of sloth and penury. True, the broad +street that leads from steamboat to cemetery is lined with squalid +homes, and the mourners who are so incessantly borne along to Calvary +must see little else than beer-sellers standing slippered and coatless +beside their doorways, or thin, pinched women haggling with the venders +of sickly groceries. But elsewhere one may find by-streets lined with +low wooden dwellings that hint of neatness and suggest a better grade of +living. A yellowish drab prevails as the hue of these houses; they seem +all to partake of one period, like certain homogeneous fossils. But they +do not breathe of antiquity; they are fanciful with trellised piazzas +and other modern embellishments of carpentry; sometimes they possess +miniature Corinthian pillars, faded by the trickle of rain between their +tawny flutings, as if stirred with the dumb desire to be white and +classic. Scant gardens front them, edged with a few yards of ornamental +fence. Their high basement windows stare at you from a foundation of +brick. They are very prosaic, chiefly from their lame effort to be +picturesque; and when you look down toward the river, expecting to feel +refreshed by its gleam, you are disheartened at the way in which +lumber-yards and sloop-wharves have quite shut any glimpse of it from +your eyes. + +In one of these two-storied wooden houses, not many years ago, dwelt a +family of three people,--a Mr. Francis Twining, his wife, and their only +child, a girl, named Claire. Mr. Twining was an Englishman by birth; +many years had passed since he first landed on these shores. He had come +here nearly penniless, but with proud hopes. He was then only +three-and-twenty. He had sprung from a good country family, had been +fitted at Eton for Oxford, and had seen one year at the famed +University. Then sharp financial disaster had overtaken his father, +whose death soon followed. Francis was a younger son, but even to the +heir had fallen a shattered patrimony, and to himself merely a slender +legacy. With this, confident and undaunted as though it were the purse +of Fortunio, Francis had taken voyage for New York. At first he had +shown a really splendid energy. Slim of figure, with a pale, womanish +face lit by large, soft blue eyes, he gave slight physical sign of force +or even will. But though possessed of both, he proved one of those +ill-fated beings whom failure never tires of rebuffing. His mental +ability was unquestioned; he shrank with sensitive disgust from all +vice; he had plenty of ambition, and the instinct of solid industry. +Yet, as years passed on, both secured him but meagre recompense for +struggle. He had begun his career with a clerkship; now, at fifty-three, +he was a clerk still. All his hope had fled; he had undergone bitter +heart-burnings; he had striven to solve the problem of his own defeat. +Meanwhile its explanation was not difficult. He had a boyish trust in +his fellow-creatures that no amount of stern experience seemed to +weaken. Chicanery had made him its sport. Five separate times he had +been swindled mercilessly by men in whom he had reposed implicit faith. +There had lain his rock of ruin: he was always reposing implicit faith +in everybody. His life had been one long pathos of over-credulity. He +could think, reason, reflect, analyze, but he was incapable of doubting. +A fool could have deceived him, and naturally, on repeated occasions, +knaves had not found it difficult. At fifty-three his last hard-earned +savings had been wormed from him by the last plausible scamp. And now he +had accepted himself as the favorite of misfortune; over the glow of his +spirit disappointment had cast its dulling spell, like the deep film of +ash that sheathes a spent ember. He had now one aim--to keep his wife +and child from indigence while he lived, and one despair--that he could +not keep them from indigence after he was dead. But his really lovely +optimism still remained. He had been essentially amiable and complaisant +in all intercourse with his kind, and this quality had not lost a ray of +its fine former lustre. With ample excuse for the worst cynic feeling, +he continued a gentle yet unconscious philanthropist. There was +something piteously sweet in the obstinacy with which he still saw only +the bright side of humanity. His delicate person had grown more slim; +his rusty clothes hung about him with a mournful looseness; his oval +face, worn by worriment, had taken keener lines; but his large blue eyes +still kept their liquid sparkle, and kindled in prompt unison with his +alert smile. The flaxen growth that had always fringed his lips and chin +with cloudy lightness, had now become of a frosty gray. Seen passingly, +no one would have called him, as the current phrase goes, a gentleman. +His wearied mien forbade the suggestion of leisure, while his broadcloth +spoke of long wear and speedy purchase. But a close gaze might have +caught the unperished refinement that still clung to him with sad +persistence, and was evident in such minor effects of personal detail as +a glimpse of cleanly linen about throat and wrist, a cheap yet careful +lustre of the often jaded boot, a culture and purity of the hand, or +even a choice nicety of the finger-nail. + +He had married after reaching these shores, and his marriage had proved +another instance of misplaced confidence. His wife had been handsome +when a young woman, and she had become Mrs. Twining at about the age of +five-and-twenty. She was personally quite the opposite of her +bridegroom; she was an inch taller than he, and had an aquiline face, +splendid with a pair of very black eyes that she had rolled and flashed +at the other sex since early girlhood. She had rolled and flashed them +at her present husband, and so conquered him. She was a good inch taller +than he, and lapse of time had not diminished the difference since their +union. She had been extremely vulgar as Miss Jane Wray, when Twining had +married her, and she was extremely vulgar still. She had first met him +in a boarding-house in East Broadway, where Twining had secured a room +on his arrival from England. At this period East Broadway wore only a +waning grace of gentility; some few conservative nabobs still lingered +there, obstinately defying plebeian inroads. Its roomy brick mansions, +with their arched, antique doorways devoid of any vestibule; their +prim-railed stoops that guessed not of ornate balusters; and their +many-paned, thin-sashed windows where plate-glass had never glittered, +were already invaded by inmates whose Teuton names and convex noses +prophesied the social decline that must soon grasp this once select +purlieu. Jane Wray was neither German nor Hebrew; she was American in +the least pleasant sense of that word, both as regarded parentage and +breeding. She was an orphan, and the recipient of surly charity from +unprosperous relatives. She wanted very greatly to marry, and Twining +had seemed to her a golden chance. There was much about her from which +he shrank; but she contrived to rouse his pity, and then to lure from +him a promise which he would have despised himself not to keep. + +The succeeding years had brought bitter mutual disappointments. Mrs. +Twining had believed firmly in her husband's powers to sound the horn of +luck and slay the giant of adversity. But he had done neither, and it +now looked as if his bones were one day to bleach along the roadway to +success. She became an austere grumbler, forever pricking her +sweet-tempered lord with a tireless little bodkin of reproach. Her +vulgarities had sharpened; her wit, always cruel and acute, had tipped +itself with a harsher venom and fledged itself with a swifter feather; +her bright, coarse beauty had dimmed and soured; she was at present a +gaunt, elderly female, with square shoulders and hard, dark eyes, who +flung sarcasms broadcast with a baleful liberality, and seemed forever +standing toward her own destiny in the attitude of a person who has some +large unsettled claim against a nefarious government. + +Claire Twining, the one child who had been born of this ill-assorted +marriage, was now nineteen years old. She bore a striking likeness to +her father; she possessed his blue eyes, a trifle darker in shade, his +broad white forehead, his sloping delicacy of visage, and his erect +though slender frame. From him, too, had come the sunny quality of her +smile, the gold tints in her chestnut hair, the fine symmetry of hands +and feet. Rather from association than heredity she had caught his +kindly warmth of manner; but in Claire the cordial impulse was far less +spontaneous; she had her black list of dislikes, and she took people on +trust with wary prudence. Here spoke her mother's share in the girl's +being, as it spoke also in a certain distinct chiseling of every +feature, that suggested a softened memento of Miss Jane Wray's girlish +countenance, though Claire's coloring no more resembled her mother's of +past time than wild-rose is like peony, or pastel like chromo. But there +was one more maternal imprint set deep within this girl's nature, not to +be thinned or marred by any stress of events, and productive of a trait +whose development for good or ill is the chief cause that her life has +here been chronicled. The birthright was a perilous one; it was a +heritage of discontent; its tendency was perpetual longings for better +environment, for ampler share in the world's good gifts, for higher +place in its esteem and stronger claim to its heed. But what in her +mother had been ambition almost as crudely eager as a boorish +elbow-thrust, was in Claire more decorous and interesting, like the push +of a fragile yet determined hand through a sullen crowd. In both cases +the dissatisfaction was something that is peculiar to the woman of our +land and time--a desire not to try and adorn the sphere in which she is +born, but to try and reach a new sphere held as more suited for her own +adornment. Yet Claire's restless yearning lacked the homely grossness of +her mother's; it reflected a finer flash; it was not all cut from one +piece; it had its subtlety, its enthusiasm, even its justification. It +was not a mere stubborn hunger for advancement; it was a wish to gain +advancement by the passport of proper worthiness. She did not want the +air to lift her away from hated surroundings, but she wanted wings that +would turn the air her willing ally. It was what her father had made her +that touched what her mother had made her with a truly poetic +tenderness. By only a little prouder curve of the neck and a little +happier fullness of the plume, we part the statuesque swan from +considerably more commonplace kindred. Something like this delightful +benison of difference had fallen upon Claire. + + + + +II. + + +Circumstance, too, had fed the potency of this difference. Claire had +not been reared like her mother. When she was nine years old her parents +were living in a tiny brick house near the East River, among New York +suburbs. But Claire had been sent to a small school near by, kept by a +dim, worn lady, with an opulent past and a most precarious present. She +had studied for three years under this lady's capable care, and had lost +nothing by the opportunity. Her swift, apt mind had delighted her +instructress, whose name was Mrs. Carmichael. Claire was remarkably +receptive; she had acquired without seeming effort. Mrs. Carmichael was +one of the many ladies who attempt the education of youth without either +system or equipment for so serious a task. Her slight body, doubtless +attenuated by recurring memories of a cherished past, would sometimes +invisibly quake before Claire's precocious questionings. She knew all +that she knew superficially, and she soon became fearful lest Claire +should pierce, by a sort of adroit ignorance, her veneer of academic +sham. She had a narrow little peaked face, of a prevailing pink hue, as +though it were being always bathed in some kind of sunset light, like +the rosy afterglow of her own perished respectability. Her nervous, +alert head was set on a pair of sloping shoulders, and she wore its +sparse tresses shaped into roulades and bandeaus which had an amateurish +look, and seemed to imitate the deft handiwork of some long-departed +tirewoman. She carried her small frame with erect importance. She was +always referring to vanished friendships with this or that notability, +but time and place were so ignored in these volunteered reminiscences as +to make her allusions acquire a tender mythic grandeur. Claire had +watched well her teacher's real and native elegance, and she had set +this down as a solid fact. Perhaps the child had probed her many +harmless falsities with equal skill. As for Mrs. Carmichael, she would +sometimes pat her pupil on the cheek and praise her in no weak terms. "I +wish that I had only known you a long time ago, my little lady," she +would say, in her serene treble voice. "I would have brought you up as +my own dear child, for I never had a child of my own. I would have given +you a place in the world to be proud of, and have watched with interest +the growth of your fine mental abilities, surrounded by those poor lost +friends of mine who would have delighted in so clever a girl as you +are." + +"When you speak of your friends as lost, Mrs. Carmichael," Claire had +once replied, "do you mean that they are all dead now?" + +At this question the lady slowly shook her head, with just enough +emphasis not to imperil the modish architecture of her locks. + +"Some of them are dead, my dear," she murmured, with the least droop of +each pink eyelid, "but the rest are much too grand for me at present. +They have quite forgotten me." Here Mrs. Carmichael gave a quick, +fluttered cough, and then put the tips of her close-pressed fingers to +the edges of her close-pressed lips. + +Claire privately thought them very churlish friends to have forgotten +anybody so high-bred and winsome as Mrs. Carmichael. And she publicly +expressed this thought at supper the same evening, while she sat with +her parents in a small lower room opening directly off the kitchen. A +weary maid, whose face flamed from the meal she had just cooked, was +patiently serving it. Mrs. Twining, who had lent no light hand toward +the Monday's washing, was in the act of distributing a somewhat meagre +beefsteak, which fate and an incompetent range had conspired to cover on +both sides with a layer of thick, sooty black. Mr. Twining was waiting +to get a piece of the beefsteak; he did not yet know of its disastrous +condition, for a large set of pewter casters reared its uncouth pyramid +between himself and the maltreated viand; but although such calamities +of cookery were not rare to his board, he was putting confidence, as +usual, in the favors of fortune, and preparing himself blandly for a +fresh little stroke of chagrin. + +Outside it was midwinter dusk, and a bleak wind was blowing from +the ice-choked river, pale and dull under the sharp stars. +One-Hundred-and-Twelfth Street was in those years a much wilder spot +than now; its buildings, like its flag-stones, were capricious +incidents; its boon of the elevated railroad was yet undreamed of by +capitalists; you rode to it in languid horse-cars from the remote +centres of commerce, upward past parapets of virgin rock where perched +the hut of the squatter, or wastes of houseless highway where even the +aspiring tavern had not dared to pioneer. Mr. Twining had just ridden +hither by this laggard means, and he was tired and hungry; he wanted his +supper, a little valued chat with his beloved Claire, and a caress or +two from the child as well. After these he wanted a few hours of rest +before to-morrow re-dawned, with its humdrum austerities. One other +thing he desired, and this was a blessing more often desired than +attained. He had the wish for a peaceful domestic interval, as regarded +his wife's deportment, between home-coming and departure. + +But to-night it had been otherwise decreed. Mrs. Twining's faint spark +of innate warmth was never roused by the contact of suds. Monday was her +day of wrath; you might almost have fancied that she had used a bit of +her superfluous soap in vainly trying to rub the rust from her already +tarnished hopes. + +The small room where the trio sat was void of any real cheer. A pygmy +stove, at one side of it, stood fuel-choked and nearly florid in hue. +From this a strong volume of heat engulfed Mrs. Twining in its +oppressive spell, but lost vigor before it reached her husband or +Claire, and left the corners of the apartment so frigid that a gaunt +sofa, off where the light of the big oil-lamp could only vaguely touch +it, took upon its slippery hair-cloth surface the easy semblance of ice. +Two windows, not fashioned to thwart the unwonted bitterness of the +weather, were draped with nothing more resistant than a pair of canvas +shades, gorgeously pictorial in the full light of day, when seen by the +passer who seldom passed. These shades were of similar designs; in +justice to Mrs. Twining it must be told that they had been rented with +the house. On each a plumed gentleman in a gondola held fond converse +with a disheveled lady in a balcony. The conception was no less +Venetian in meaning than vicious in execution; but to-night, for any +observant wayfarer, such presentments of sunny Italy, while viewed +between blotches of wan frost that crusted the intervening panes, must +have appeared doubly counterfeit. Still, the chief discomfort of the +chamber, just at present, was a layer of brooding cold that lay along +its floor, doggedly inexterminable, and the sole approach to regularity +of temperature that its four walls contained. + +It had made Claire gather up her feet toward the top rung of her chair, +and shiver once or twice, but it had not chilled the pretty gayety of +her childish talk, all of which had thus far been addressed to her +father. + +"And so you like Mrs. Carmichael, my dear?" Twining had said, in his +smooth, cheerful voice. "Well, I am glad of that." + +"Oh yes, I like her," replied Claire, with a slight, wise nod of her +head, where the clear gold of youth had not yet given way to the +brown-gold of maidenhood. "But I think it strange that all her fine +friends have dropped off from her. That's what she told me to-day, +Father; truly, she did! Why don't they care for her any more? Is it +because she's poor and has to teach little dunces like me?" + +Twining's feminine blue eyes scanned the rather dingy tablecloth for a +moment. "I am afraid it is," he said, in a low voice, pressing between +his fingers a bit of ill-baked bread that grew doughy at a touch. + +Mrs. Twining ceased to carve the obdurate beefsteak, though still +retaining her hold on the horn-handled knife and fork. She lifted her +head so that it quite towered above the formidable group of casters, and +looked straight at her husband. + +"Don't put false notions into the child, Francis," she said, each word +seeming to strike the next with a steely click. "You're always doing it. +_You_ know nothing of where that woman came from, or who she is." + +Twining looked at his wife. His gaze was very mild. "I only know what +she has told me, Jane," he said. + +Mrs. Twining laughed and resumed the carving. Her laugh never went with +a smile; it never had the least concern with mirth; it was nearly always +a presage of irony, as an east wind will blow news of storm. + +"Oh, certainly; what she's told you! That's you, all over! Suppose she'd +told you she'd been Lady of the White House once. You wouldn't have +believed her, not you! Of course not!" + +"What is a Lady of the White House?" asked Claire, appealing to her +father. She was perfectly accustomed to these satiric outbursts on her +mother's part; they belonged to the home-circle; she would have missed +them if they had ceased; it would have been like a removal of the +hair-cloth sofa, or an accident to one of the lovers on the +window-shades. + +Twining disregarded this simple question, which was a rare act with him; +he usually heard and heeded whatever Claire had to say. + +"Please don't speak hard things of Mrs. Carmichael," he answered his +wife. "She's really a person who has seen better days." + +"Better days!" echoed Mrs. Twining. "Well, then, we ought to shake +hands. _I_ think she's just _the_ plainest humbug I ever saw, with her +continual brag about altered circumstances. But I'll take your word for +it, Francis. The next time I see her I'll tell her we're +fellow-unfortunates. We'll compare our 'better days' together, and +calc'late who's seen the most." + +Twining gave a faint sigh, and looked down. Then he raised his eyes +again, and a new spark lit their mildness. Something to-night had made +him lack his old patient tolerance. + +"I'm afraid Mrs. Carmichael would have much the longer list," he said. + +"Oh, you think so!" + +"I know so." + +Mrs. Twining tossed her head. The gloss was still on her dark hair, +whose gray threads had yet to come, later, in the Greenpoint days. She +was still, as the phrase goes, a fine figure of a woman. Her black eyes +had not lost their fire, nor her form its imposing fullness. She raised +herself a little from her chair, as she now spoke, and in her voice +there was the harshness that well fitted her bristling, aggressive mien. + +"Oh! you _know_ so, do you?" she said, in hostile undertone. Then her +next words were considerably louder. "But _I_ happen to know, Francis +Twining, _Es_quire, who and what _I_ was when you took me from a +comfortable home to land me up here at the end of the world, where I'm +lucky if I can get hold of yesterday's newspaper to-morrow, and cross +over to the cars without leaving a shoe behind me in the mud!" + +The least flush had tinged Twining's pale cheeks. He had looked very +steadily at his wife all through this speech. And when he now spoke, his +voice made Claire start. It did not seem his. + +"You were a poor girl in a third-rate boarding-house, when I married +you," he said. "And the boarding-house was kept by relatives who +disliked and wanted to be rid of you. I don't see how you have fallen +one degree lower since you became my wife. But if you think that you +have so fallen, I beg that you will not forever taunt me with idle +sneers, of which I am sick to the soul!" + +Mrs. Twining rose from her chair. Her dress was of some dark-red stuff, +and as the stronger light struck its woof the wrath of her knit brows +seemed to gain a lurid augment. She had grown pale, and a little mole, +just an inch or so to the left of her assertive nose, had got a new +clearness from this cause. She did not speak, at first, to her husband. +She addressed the fatigued and heated maid, who waited to hand Twining +his share of the doleful beefsteak--in this case a true burnt-offering. + +"You can go into the kitchen, Mary Ann," she said, with tones that had a +kind of rumble, like the beginning of a large thunder-peal, before its +threat has become fury. "See to the range, you know. Dump all the coal +out, and then sift it." + +Mary Ann went uneasily toward the door. She understood that this order +thinly masked a bluff command for her absence. Mrs. Twining slowly +turned her head, and followed the poor factotum with her kindled black +eyes till she had quitted the room. Then she looked with stern +directness at her husband. + +"I've stood a good deal from you," she said, pitching her voice in a +much shriller key, "but I ain't going to stand _this_, Francis Twining, +and it's time I told you so." + +Twining rose. He did not look at all angry. There was a weary distress +on his face, mixed with an unhabitual firmness. + +"What have you stood?" he asked. + +"Being browbeat by you, sir, because I see fit to talk out my mind, and +ain't the weak-spirited goose you'd like to have me!" retorted Mrs. +Twining, all rage and outcry. + +"I don't want a quarrel," said Twining, calm as marble. "God knows I +don't, Jane! But the time has come for me to speak plainly. I have never +browbeaten you. It has been quite the opposite. I have already borne too +much from you for the sake of peace. But no peace springs from that +course. So now I mean to try another. You and I must live apart, since +we can't agree." He turned to Claire, at this point, and reached out one +hand, resting it on the girl's head. "Let our child choose which of us +she will go with," he added. + +Claire started up, sprang to her father's side, and nestled herself +against him, catching one of his hands in both her own and drawing his +arm about her neck. She was trembling with what seemed sudden fear as +she looked up into his face. + +"Father," she cried, "I'll go with _you_! I couldn't live alone with +Mother. If _you_ go, take me with you! Promise--please promise! Mother +isn't good to me a bit. I couldn't live alone with her! She is cross +nearly all the time, when you're not here, and she struck me yesterday, +and she often does it, and I didn't ever tell you before, because I knew +it would trouble you so to know!" + +These words were spoken in a high, pleading, plaintive voice. The +child's sad little secret had been wrung from her by sheer terror of +desertion. There was no accusative resentment in her tones; she might +have gone on for a long time hiding the truth; it had leapt to her lips +now only in the shape of an impetuous argument against the dreaded +chance of being left behind, should her father's menace of departure +become fact. Mrs. Twining moved from her own side of the table to where +her husband and daughter stood. She looked persistently at Claire, +during this action, and had soon drawn very close to her. + +"You sly young vixen!" she exclaimed. Her cry had a husky note, and she +raised one hand. It was plain that she meant wicked work to Claire. +Twining pushed Claire behind him, quick as thought, and seized his +wife's hand while it fell. He had grown white to the lips. His clasp was +not weak about the wrist which he still retained. He did not appear at +all like a man in a passion, but rather like one filled with the resolve +which gets new sinew from excitement. + +"You shall never strike that child again." Then he released his wife's +wrist, and half turned, putting his arms round Claire, while she again +nestled at his side. "I will do all I can for you," he went on, "but +neither she nor I shall live with you after to-morrow. It was bad enough +to have you make things hard for me, but you shan't spoil her with your +own coarseness." The next moment he turned to Claire, wrapped her still +more fervently in both arms, and kissed her twice or thrice on the +uplifted forehead. + +Mrs. Twining stood quite still, for a short while. She was watching her +husband intently. Something new in him had revealed itself to her; it +blunted the edge of her anger; she was unprepared for it. Personal +defiance in Twining might merely have quickened her own long-petted +sense of grievance, which had grown morbidly dear, as we know. But a +fresh experience fronted her; she found herself repelled, so to speak, +by the revolt of an insulted fatherhood. + +It was a very serious rebellion, and she felt its force. Past +concessions from her husband gave the measure of his present mutiny. He +had never been humble to her, but he had yielded, and she had grown more +used than she realized to his pliant complaisance. This abrupt change +shocked her with an actual fright. Her ready little body-guard of taunts +and innuendoes fled her usual summons. The despot stood deserted; not a +janizary was left. She saw, in quick, startled perspective, her own +future, uncompanioned by the man whose supporting nearness her bitter +gibes had so often slighted. But apart from merely selfish causes, a +thrill of human regard for her child and the father of her child lent +fresh accent to alarm. It was like the tremor wrought in a slack +harp-string, or one rusty with disuse, but it was still a definite +vibration. + +She succumbed awkwardly, like most overthrown tyrants. Tears would have +looked incongruous had they left the chill black of her eyes, just as +there are climes of so fixed a rigor that thaws rank in them as +phenomena. But her brows met in a perplexed frown that had no trace of +ire, and she made a flurried upward gesture with both hands, receding +several steps. When she spoke, which she promptly did, her native idiom +forgot the slight garb of change that marriage and nicer association had +lent it, and stood forth, stripped by agitation, in graceless nudity. + +"Mercy me, Francis!" she exclaimed, "you ain't talking as if you was a +sane man at all! You'll quit your lawful wife, sir, 'cause she's boxed +her own young one's ears? Why, that child can put on the airs of any +six, when she's a mind to. I ain't punished her half enough. Do set down +and eat your supper and stop bein' a fool!" + +These chronicled words have the effect of rather bald commonplace it is +true; but to the man and the child who heard them an apprehensive +whimper, a timorous dilation of the eyeball and a flurried quiver about +the severe mouth were accompaniments that held piercing significance. +Such tokens from their domestic autocrat meant surrender, and surrender +was hard for both Twining and Claire to join with past impressions of +rule and sway, of command and observance, from the very source which now +gave forth their direct opposites. + +Both father and daughter still remained silent. Claire's head was still +nestling against his breast; Twining's arms still clasped her slight +frame, as before. Neither spoke. But Mrs. Twining soon spoke again, and +she moved toward the door as she did so. + +"Oh, you won't set down, eh?" she inquired; and there was now a sullen +fright both in her manner and tone. "Very well. P'raps you'll eat your +supper when I'm gone. I've always heard crazy people must be humored. +Besides 'tisn't safe, with so many knives and forks round." + +After that she left the room, going up stairs into the little hall above +the basement, where she could have seen her breath freeze if economic +reasons had not kept the lank, pendant gas-burner still unlighted. + +She had beaten a positive retreat. Her exit had been a distinct +concession. Twining turned his gaze toward the vacant threshold after +she had passed it, as if he could not just realize the unwonted humility +of her leave-taking. + +"Claire," he said, again kissing the child, while she yet clung to him, +"you should have told me before that your mother struck you. You should +have told me the first time she did it." He embraced her still more +closely. Since she was a baby he had always treasured her, and now that +defeat and disappointment dealt him such persistent strokes, his love +grew deeper with each disastrous year. Claire's presence in his life had +gained a precious worth from trouble; it was the star that brightened +with sweeter force against a deepening gloom. + +He leaned down and slowly passed his lips along her silky hair, just +where its folds flowed off from one pale temple. "Oh, my little girl," +he said, in a voice whose volume and feeling had both plainly +strengthened, "I hope that happy days are in store for you! I shall do +my best, darling, but if I fail don't blame me. Don't blame me!" + +He appeared no longer to be addressing Claire. He had lifted his head. +Both his arms engirt her as previously, but his eyes, looking straight +before him, were sombre with meditation. + +Claire gazed up into his face. "Father," she cried, "I shall be happy if +I am always with you! Don't look like that. Please don't. What does it +mean? I have never seen you so sad before. It frightens me. Father, you +are so strange and different." He smiled down at the child as her high, +pained appeal ended; but the smile soon fled again; a gloomy agitation +replaced it. She felt his clasping arms tremble. + +"You cannot always have me," he answered. "I love you very much, my +little one, but some day I must leave you; my time will have come, and +it may come while your life is yet in its first flower. Then I want you +to be wiser than I. Listen to what I say. I am in a dark humor now, but +it will soon pass, for I can't help being cheerful, as you know; there's +a good deal more sun than shadow in me. But just now I am all shadow. I +feel as if I should never be successful, Claire. That is a queer word to +your young ears. Do you recollect, when I took you for that one day to +the country, last summer, how we set out to climb the large hill, and +were sure, at starting, that we should reach its top? But half way up we +grew tired and hot; there was no breeze, and the way was rough; so we +sat down, didn't we, and rested, and then went home? You have not +forgotten? Well, success means to do what you set out for, darling. It +means to climb the hill--not to get tired and go home. That is what +everybody is trying to do. But only a few of us ever reach the top. And +to reach the top means to have many good things--to be like the grand +people who were once Mrs. Carmichael's friends. Do you understand, +Claire?" + +"Yes," said the child. Her lips were parted. A gloom had clouded the +blue of her eyes; they seemed almost black, and two unwonted gleams +pierced them. She was alarmed yet fascinated by the real sorrow in her +father's look, and by his unfamiliar speech, with its fervent speed and +bitter ring. + +"I shall never gain the top of the hill, Claire!" Twining went on. +"Something tells me so now--to-night. To-morrow I shall be changed. I +shall turn hopeful again. I shall go climbing along, and pick myself up +stoutly if I stumble. But remember what I tell you to-night. In my +heart, little girl, there is a great fear. I am afraid I must leave you, +when I do die, poor and helpless. We are always helpless when we are +poor. But you must not lose courage. There is one thing a girl can +always do if she has beauty and wit, and you will have both. She can +marry. In the years of life left to me, I shall strain hard to make you +a lady. I am a gentleman. My father, and his father, and his father, +too, were all gentlemen. It is in your blood to be a lady, and a lady +you shall be. But your mother"--Here he paused. Even his raw sense of +wrong, and the precipitate reasoning native to all passion, forbade his +completing the last sentence. + +"I know what you mean, Father," said Claire, who had not lost the +significance of a word, and whose mind would have grasped subtler +discourse than the present. She spoke falteringly, and turned her eyes +toward the deserted table; and then, with her shaken, tragic little +voice, she lapsed into the prose of things, slipping over that edge +between the emotional and the ordinary whose unwilling junction makes +the clash that we like to call comedy. + +"Father," she said, "please sit down and eat your supper. It's getting +cold. Please do!" + +This is not at all an index of Claire's thoughts, for they were then in +a storm of dread and misgiving; but she shrank from the changed aspect +of one known and loved in moods widely different. She seized, as if by a +fond instinct, the most ready means of re-securing her father as she had +at first found him and had always afterward prized him. + +But her attempt was vain. Twining's arms only tightened about her frail +form. Like all with whom outburst is rare, his perturbation worked +toward a climax; it would brook no repression. There are craters that +keep the peace for many decades, but in spite of that their stored lava +will not be cheated of the eruptive chance. + +So it was with Twining. He trembled more than ever, and his cheeks were +now quite hueless. "I want you to do all that I shall leave undone, +Claire!" he exclaimed, with voluble swiftness. "I want you to conquer a +high place among men and women. Be cool and wary, my daughter. Don't +live to serve self only, but push your claims, enforce your rights, +refuse to be thrust back, never make false steps, put faith in the few +and doubt the many. Remember what I am saying. You will need to recall +it, for you must start (God help you, little one!) with all the world +against you! Yes, all the world against you" ... + +A sudden gasp ended Twining's words. His embrace of Claire relaxed, and +he staggered toward the sofa, which was just behind him. As he sank upon +it, his eyes closed and his head fell sideways. One hand fluttered about +his throat, and he seemed in straits for breath. Claire was greatly +terrified. She thought that to be death which was merely a transient +pause of vitality. The rough gust will bow the frailer tree, and +Twining, weary in mind and body, had made too abrupt drafts upon a +temperament far from robust. + +The child uttered a piercing cry. It summoned the proscribed Mary Ann +from exile in the neighboring kitchen; it was heard and heeded by Mrs. +Twining, aloof in some remoter chamber. Yet, before either had reached +the scene of Claire's disquietude, her father had already pressed the +warm hand which sought his cold one, and had looked at her with a gaze +that wore the glow of recognition. + +"Claire," he soon said, brokenly, and with faint utterance, "I--I was +unwell for a moment--that is all. Here, little girl, kiss me, and then +give me a glass of water." + +"Yes, Father," said Claire. Her response showed a joyous relief. She +knelt beside him, and put her lips to his. It was like the good-night +kiss she always gave him, except that she made it longer than of old. +And then she rose to get the glass of water, hearing footsteps approach. + +As she poured the liquid, with unsteady fingers, a partial echo of her +father's impetuous enjoinder swept through her mind. "I shall never +forget this night," she told herself. Her silent prophecy proved true. +She never did forget. + + + + +III. + + +Twining's menace was not carried out. There was no actual reconciliation +between husband and wife, and yet matters slowly rearranged themselves. +The domestic machinery, being again set moving, went at first in a lame, +spasmodic way, as though jarred and strained through all its wheel-work. +But by degrees the old order of things returned. And yet a marked +change, in one respect at least, was always afterward evident. Mrs. +Twining had received a clear admonition, and she was discreet enough +permanently to regard it. She still dealt in her former slurs and +innuendoes; the leopard could not change its spots; no such radical +reformation was naturally to be expected. But Twining had put forth his +protest; he had shown very plainly that his endurance had its limits, +and through all the years that followed, his wife never lost sight of +this vivid little fact. She had been seriously frightened, and the +fright left its vibration of warning as long as she and her husband +dwelt under the same roof. Her sting had by no means been extracted, but +its point was blunter and its poison less irritant. She never again +struck Claire. She was sometimes very imperious to her daughter, and +very acrimonious as well. But in her conduct there was now a sombre +acknowledgment of curtailed authority,--an under-current of concession, +occasionally rather faint, it is true, yet always operative. + +During the next year the family deserted One-Hundred-and-Twelfth Street +for a new place of abode. Twining received a few extra hundreds as +earnest of shadowy thousands promised him by a glib-tongued rogue who +was to appall the medical world with a wondrous compound that must soon +rob half the diseases known to pathology of their last terrors. The +elixir was to be "placed handsomely on the market," and toward this +elegant enterprise poor Twining gave serious aid. For the lump of +savings that went from him, however, he was paid only a tithe of his +rash investment. One day he learned that the humane chemist had fled +from the scene of his proposed benignities, and a little later came the +drear discovery that his miraculous potion was merely an unskillful +blending of two or three common specifics with as many popular nervines. + +Meanwhile the halcyon promise of bettered fortunes had induced Twining +to secure easier quarters. For several months he set his household gods +within apartments on the second floor of a shapely brownstone residence +in a central side-street. This was really a decisive move toward greater +social importance. The very tone of his upholstery bespoke a distinct +rise in life. There was not a hair-cloth sofa in his pretty suite of +chambers. The furniture was tufted and modish; one or two glowing grates +replaced the dark awkwardness of stoves; draughts were an abolished +evil; to sup on burnt beefsteak had grown a shunned memory, since the +family now dined at six o'clock each evening in a lower room, where +they had a small table all to themselves, and ate a repast served in +courses with a distinct air of fashion, if not always cooked after the +loftier methods. Here they met other groups at other small tables, and +bowed to them with the bland nod of co-sharers in worldly comfort. It +was all a most noteworthy change for the Twinings, and its effect upon +Mrs. Twining was no less obvious than acute. She seemed to clutch the +new favors of fate with a mingled greed and distrust. She was like one +who crushes thirstily between his lips a luscious fruit, won by theft, +and thought to be watched with the intent of quick seizure. + +She had already quite lost faith in anything like the permanence of her +husband's good fortune. "I'd better make hay while the sun shines," she +would exclaim, with a burst of laughter that had, as usual, no touch of +mirth in it. "Lord knows when it'll end. I'm sure I hope never. Don't +think I'm croaking. Gracious me, no! But even the Five Points won't seem +so bad, after this. They say every dog has his day, don't they, Francis? +So, all right; if mine's a short day, I'll be up and doing while it +lasts." + +She was undoubtedly up and doing. She carried her large frame with a +more assertive majesty; she aired one or two fresh gowns with a loud +ostentation; she had a little quarrel with a fellow-lodger of her own +sex about the prevailing fashion in bonnets, and said so many personal +things during the contest that her adversary, who was a person with +nerves, retired in tearful disarray. On more than one Sunday morning she +induced her husband to walk with her along Fifth Avenue and "see the +churches come out." At such times she would lean upon his arm, grandly +indifferent to the fact that her stature overtopped his own, and stare +with her severe black eyes at all the passing phases of costume. It is +probable that the pair made a very grotesque picture on these occasions, +since all that implied refinement in the man's face and demeanor must +have acquired a fatal stamp of insignificance beside the woman's +pretension of carriage and raw spruceness of apparel. But Mrs. Twining +was making her hay, as she has told us, while the sun shone, and it is +hardly strange that she should not be critical as to the exact quality +of her crop. A good deal of rough experience in the woes of dearth and +drouth had, naturally, not made her a fastidious harvester. + +Claire, meanwhile, had begun to feel as if she dwelt on quite a new sort +of planet. Her environment had lost every trace of its former dullness. +Its neutral shades had freshened into brilliant and exciting tints. +Little Mrs. Carmichael, with her hoard of memories stowed away like old +brocades in a scented chest, had herself faded off into a memory as dim +as these. Claire had of late become one of the pupils in a large, +well-reputed school, where she met girls of all ages and characters, but +seemingly of only a single social rank. The academy was superintended by +a magnificent lady in chronic black corded-silk, whose rich rustle was +heard for a half minute before she entered each of her various +class-rooms and held bits of whispered converse with the instructresses +under her serene sway. Her name was Mrs. Arcularius, and its fine +rhythmical polysyllable seemed to symbolize the dignity of its owner's +slow walk, the majesty of her arched nose and gold eye-glasses, and the +white breadth of her forehead, from which the gray tresses were rolled +backward in high solidness, with quite a regal effect of hair-dressing. +This lady was the direct contra-type of Mrs. Carmichael. It was widely +recorded of her that she had once been a gentlewoman of independent +wealth, had chanced upon adverse times, and had for this reason become +the proprietress of a school. But she had made her grand friends pay the +penalty of her misfortunes; she had acquired the skill of using them as +an advertisement of her venture at self-support. She had not gone up to +One-Hundred-and-Twelfth Street and mourned their loss; she had stayed in +Twenty-Third Street, and suffered their children, little and big, to +come unto her. She had at first graciously allowed herself to be pitied +for her reverses, but she had always possessed the art of handing back +their patronage to those who proffered it, in the wholly altered form of +a gracious condescension from herself. This is a very clever thing to +do; it is a thing which they alone know how to do who know how to fall +from high places with a self-saving rebound; and Mrs. Arcularius, who +was a decidedly ignorant woman, was also a marvelously clever one. She +knew rather less, in a strictly educational sense, than poor, +unsuccessful Mrs. Carmichael. She had been a friend of Mrs. Carmichael's +in the latter's gladsome days, but she was now not even aware that her +old associate was teaching school anywhere. Everybody was aware, on the +other hand, that Mrs. Arcularius was teaching school, and just where she +was teaching it. Poverty had crushed one; it had stimulated the other. +Mrs. Arcularius was now exceedingly particular as regarded her +visiting-book. She was a conspicuous figure at the most select +receptions. Whether the fact that she presided over a fashionable school +had made her lose caste or no, she chose secretly to believe that it +had, and for this reason let her voluminous black silk robes rustle only +in the most irreproachable assemblages. + +She greatly desired that her pupils should all bear the sacred sign of +aristocratic parentage. She did not object to the offspring of +struggling plutocrats; for she was wise in her generation, and had seen +more than one costly-laden camel squeeze itself through a needle's eye +straight into the kingdom of the blessed. But she had strong objections +to having her school lose tone. Above all things, this was her dread and +abhorrence. + +And therefore she had been covertly distressed by the application of +Twining for his daughter's admission. She had "placed" him before he had +spoken three words to her. She always "placed" with equal speed +everybody whom she met for the first time. He was a decayed foreigner, +and she abominated decayed foreigners. He was a person who wanted to +make his common little daughter profit by the prestige of her +establishment, and she had a like distaste for all persons of this +class. She looked at Claire's attire, and inwardly shivered. The girl +had on a frock cut and trimmed in a way that struck her observer as +positively satanic. The lovely natural wave of her hair had been +tortured by her mother into long ringlets, made sleek and firm under the +stiffening spell of sugar-and-water, and pendant about her shoulders +with a graceless vertical primness. But the head and front of the poor +child's offending was, in the sight of her new critic, a hat which Mrs. +Twining esteemed a triumph of taste, which she had bought as a great +bargain the day before, and which was half-smothered, from crown to +brim, in small white roses, each bearing a little movable glass bead +that was meant to imitate a dew-drop. + +Mrs. Arcularius decided, however, to receive Claire as one of her +pupils. There had been a falling-off, of late, in their list. A good +many sweet girl-graduates had gone off at her last commencement day. +Besides, it was absurd to suppose that any flock could be kept from an +incidental black sheep or so. More than this, there was a fascinating +intelligence about Claire's face, with its two dark-blue stars of eyes, +and a musical sorcery in the child's timid tones when she spoke, that no +_diablerie_ of millinery could dispel. + +It soon proved that Claire's fellow-scholars were far from sharing this +latter opinion. She was received among them with haughty coolness, +varied by incidental giggles. She suffered three days of silent torture, +and at their end told her father, in a passion of tears, that he must +take her away from Mrs. Arcularius's school. The girls there all +despised her and laughed at her; hardly one of them had yet even spoken +to her; they seemed to think her beneath them; it was horrible; she +could not stand it; it was just as if she had some disease and they were +all afraid of catching it from her. + +"There is one girl," sobbed Claire, with her arms round her father's +neck and her head on his dear, kindly breast, "that I know I shall slap +or throw something at if I stay. She has red hair and very white skin, +with little freckles all over it, and she is quite fat. She wears a +different dress every day, and it's always something handsome but queer +to look at.... I heard her tell another girl that all her clothes came +from Paris. She brings two bananas for lunch, and long cakes spread over +with chocolate, that spirt out something soft and yellow, like custard, +when she bites into them, and soil her fingers.... Well, Father, that +girl sits near me, and she is always making fun of me behind my back, +and whispering things about me to the others that make them burst out +laughing and watch me from the corners of their eyes.... Of course this +is only at recess, but at all times, Father, I can feel how they are +thinking that I have no right, no business among them.... And perhaps I +haven't. Oh, Father, I want to be a lady as much as you want me to be +one, but ... isn't there some other way of learning how? If you'll only +take me from that dreadful place, I'll ... I'll go anywhere else you +please!" + +Indignant, yet pierced with sympathy for his darling, Twining promised +her that she should go back no more to Mrs. Arcularius's. + +Claire kissed him, and then put her wet cheek against his. But an +instant later she lifted her head. She had thought of her mother, who +was paying one of their fellow-boarders a visit that evening, and at +this very moment was stating to her hostess, with a sort of saturnine +braggadocio, that Claire's new school "ought to be a regular first-class +one, and no mistake, for it was going to cost a regular first-class kind +of a price." + +"But Mother?" said Claire, in anxious query, "what will _she_ say, +Father?" + +"Never mind what your mother will say, my dear," answered Twining, in +his gentle undertone. And Claire remembered a certain night in +One-Hundred-and-Twelfth Street,--a night which she had never really +forgotten, as we know, and whose incident was fated sharply to revisit +her through many an eventful year yet unlived. + +But Claire's tears were scarcely dried before she regretted the promise +won from her father, and asked him to revoke it. Her young face looked +pale and resolute as she did so. Her brief burst of weakness had passed. +The ambition to seize and hold any near means of advancement was already +no weak impulse in her youthful being. As it afterward struck the great +key-note of her life, and became the source of every discord or harmony +which that life was to contain, so now its force had begun to stir +secret centres and to prelude the steady influence which must soon impel +and sway her. + +"Let me try a little while longer, Father," she said, standing near him +and holding his hand. Her head was slightly thrown backward; her mouth +was grave and firm. She was so slender and fragile that this solemn mood +might have made one think, as he regarded her, of a lily that had found +some art to cast aside its droop, while all its lightsome traits of stem +or petal still remained. + +"Yes, I mean it, Father," she continued, with a very deep seriousness. +"I have begun to climb the hill, and I shan't get tired so soon and sit +down to rest. You told me I must not, and I won't. I do not want to sit +down at all until I shall reach the top.... But you can help me, if you +will; you can make it easier for me." She pressed his hand. "_Will_ you +make it easier, Father?" she said. + +"Yes!" he answered. He spoke the word without knowing what she meant. He +could have spoken no other at this moment, with her eyes fixed on him +like that, and her clinging hand tense about his own. He loved her so +well that he would have faced any peril to save her from any harm. She +was his cheer, his pride, his hope, his happiness. He thought her the +most beautiful little girl in all the world. He had forgotten to tell +himself that her mother made her look a guy in seeking to make her more +pretty. To him she was always his innocent, blameless idol--his Claire, +whom he had named after his own dead mother, known only in the +idealizing years of early childhood. He never looked into her face +without feeling his heart beat a trifle quicker. He had been in love +with her from the time when he first held her, a new-born baby, and he +was in love with her still. It was a love which had the best glow and +thrill of those dramatic passions that make our tales, our tragedies, +and our epics, only that by absence of the one fevered sentiment knit +and kinned with these, it so gained in purity and unselfishness as to +strip from all hint of over-praise the holier epithet of divine. + +Naturally enough came Twining's afterthought. + +"What is it that I can do for you, Claire?" he asked. "How _can_ I make +it easier?" + +"In this way, Father. Listen. I want to dress differently at school. I +want to wear another frock--I know which one--I am afraid you wouldn't +recollect which it is if I told you. But it is not the pink merino which +I have on now. Pink merino is not nice. And my new hat with the white +roses is not nice, either. I didn't think of this till I noticed how the +other girls dressed at Mrs. Arcularius's. Then I remembered that mine +was something very like the style in which Mrs. Halloran used to dress +her little girl, Bridget, every Sunday. You do recollect Mrs. Halloran, +don't you Father? Her husband used to work on one of the Harlem boats, +and they lived down near the river in that small red house, and there +was a bee-hive in the garden, and a horrid bull-dog that used to jump +out of his kennel if he heard the least noise, and bark so, and try to +break his chain. But little Bridget used to have pink kid shoes, though, +to match her dress, and very proud they made her. And her hair was +curled in that stiff way, just as Mother curls mine. Now, Father, I want +you to let me brush all the curl out of my hair except what it has of +its own free choice, and to let me just tie it in a bunch behind with a +dark ribbon, and to let me wear my brown bonnet, which is rather shabby, +perhaps, though I don't mind that. And if Mother cares to buy me +anything new, I want you to go with us--say some Saturday evening when +the stores keep open--and to let me use my own taste in choosing quiet +and pretty things. But that will be afterward. I'd like you to think, +just now, only about to-morrow, you know. I'd like"--But there Twining +stopped her with a kiss. He was smiling, but his eyes were moist. + +"You shan't dress like little Bridget Halloran any longer, Claire, +darling," he said. "I'll see to it as soon as your mother returns." + +He kept his word. When Mrs. Twining reappeared he sent Claire out of the +room. She knew a storm was coming; she was glad to be away while it +broke and raged. She went as far away as possible, into her own bedroom, +two chambers off, closing the intermediate doors. Once, while waiting +here, she heard the smothered sound of a high, wrathful voice. It was +her mother's, no doubt. But she knew that however hot the conflict, her +father had made up his mind to be victor. + +And he was. The next day Claire went to Mrs. Arcularius's without her +white roses or her pink merino. + +"You look for all the world like a charity-child," her mother said to +her, in gruff leave-taking. "Still, I don't s'pose it matters any. You +might as well practice for a short spell beforehand." + +Claire's altered raiment produced an immense sensation among her +classmates. Even several of the teachers showed signs of surprise. The +new plainness of her attire brought out her unquestioned beauty, as +gaudier and ill-blended vestments had before marred and obscured it. The +back-drawn effect of her chestnut tresses, which were still streaked +here and there with sunny threads, could not be doubted as charming even +by the most prejudiced caviler. Her brow and temples were shown in their +full purity of moulding, and the eyes beneath them gained poetic +tenderness from this lovely exposure. She was not yet a girl clothed at +all after the dainty manner of the girls about her, but she was at least +no longer spoiled and hampered by unbecoming and vulgar garments. +Everybody felt this promptly, and Claire herself soon recognized, by an +intuition which always stood vassal to her singularly quick perceptions, +that everybody had felt it. + +This was to be a memorable day with her. It may seem trivial to employ +so august a term when dealing with one yet on the threshold of our truly +vital episodes, but, after all, there is a reality about the chagrins +and victories of childhood which is none the less potent while both +exist because both must shortly drop into shadow before harsher pangs +and warmer transports. Claire had resolved to be a kind of miniature +heroine if occasion should ask her to play that part; and she had a +conviction, based on very fair grounds of reasoning, that some such +demand might be made of her before the school-exercises for that day +should reach their end. + +Nor was she wrong. The recitations began, and were continued under +various teachers until the twelve o'clock recess. Claire had suffered +hitherto from the embarrassments of her surroundings, as regarded any +frank assertion of what she knew and just how she knew it. But to-day +she had conquered embarrassment; she was on her mettle, as the phrase +goes; it was the main aim of her meditated plan to let herself be +browbeaten in no particular, and the excitement born of this resolve had +put her best faculties into nimble readiness. + +Her understanding was of the quality beloved by instructors; it had a +prehensile trait; it seized things and clung to them. The alarm of Mrs. +Carmichael lest her pupil should unmask her elegant deficiencies had +been no unfounded one. This lady's tuition of Claire had been but a +series of suggestions, each of which the girl had rapidly tracked to its +lair of remoter truth. Mrs. Carmichael had pointed her the path--quite +often, it must be owned, with a somewhat faltering finger--and she had +glided whither it led at a pace no less swift than secure. This was +especially true of the French language, for which her aptitude was +phenomenal, and which, under new conditions of instruction, she soon +almost mastered. As a matter of mere fact, she had been placed, at +present, among her inferiors in knowledge. She was much more advanced +than the class of superb young misses who had wounded her with their +callow disdain. And to-day she made this tellingly evident. Her answers +came placid, self-assured, unhesitating. She sat, all through the +morning, with hands folded together in her lap, and with looks that paid +no seeming heed to any of her associates. Some of them were extremely +stupid. They gave stammering responses, or rattled off the wrong thing +with fatal glibness, or preserved that stolid silence which is the most +naked candor of ignorance. The freckled girl, who ate bananas, cut an +especially dull figure. Through some novel freak of parental indulgence +she had been permitted to wear, this morning, a ring of clustered +sapphires and diamonds, very beautiful and precious; and this she turned +and re-turned, while puckering her forehead, whenever a question was put +to her, as though the fair bauble might prove talismanic and show her +some royal road out of learning's tangled mazes. No one appeared to +think her replies particularly blundering or fatuous. Her ring, and her +last new Parisian gown, and the luxurious prospect of her approaching +lunch, seemed to invest even her weak wit with prestige. Claire felt it +to be somehow in the air that this maiden's mental poverty should +receive nothing except respectful sympathy from her fellows. Fortune +does not shower every known gift on one favorite; that seemed to be +tacitly understood. When she floundered in a French verb, or came to +dire grief in compound fractions, the imbecility provoked no laughter; +it bore a sort of gilded pardonableness, like the peccadillo of a +princess. + +When recess came, Claire had distinguished herself. Everybody was +convinced that her powers of mind were much above the common. Two of the +teachers, both ladies of gentle bearing and kindly disposition, came to +her side, and cheered her with a few words of complimentary +encouragement. The grand Mrs. Arcularius did not come; she was +elsewhere, in her elegant little reception-room; she had not yet heard +of her new pupil's handsome exploits. But if she had already heard of +them she would have paid Claire no congratulations. Good scholarship, +she would have argued, with splendid egotism, was in this case a form of +gratitude to which she was of course amply entitled, since she had +allowed Twining the honor of seeing her autograph on his daughter's +future receipted bills. + +During the first portion of the recess hour Claire ate her modest lunch, +choking it down with strong reluctance. But one teacher now remained in +the large class-room, and she was closely occupied in the examination of +some written exercises. The girls were gathered here and there, among +the files of desks, in whispering groups. They were all discussing +Claire; she herself knew it; an instinct told her so. She was very much +excited, but outwardly quite calm. The girls no longer stared at her; +not a single giggle now broke the air; they had been impressed, +startled, and perhaps a little awed as well; their pariah had turned out +a sort of notability; she had clad herself in a sudden armor of cool +defiance against impudence. They might have regarded her lately-revealed +endowments as a queerness collateral with the eccentric quality of her +clothing. But the pink robe, the brittle-looking curls, the beflowered +hat, had vanished and left them no chance for such associative +ridicule. There had been a transformation, abrupt and baffling. Claire +was not going to be their butt; of this there was no doubt; she must +either be accepted as an equal, or avoided as an inferior; she could no +longer hold the position of a target for their covert raillery. + +The freckled girl, of the sumptuous mid-day meal, however, preserved +opposite opinions. Her name was Ada Gerrard, and her family was one of +great wealth and distinction. Her elder sister, a mindless blonde with +creamy skin and exuberant figure, had made a notable English marriage, +having wedded no less a potentate than the young Marquis of Monogram, +heir of a renowned ducal house. Miss Ada was a leader in her way, and +she felt keenly disappointed by the unforeseen turn of affairs. She had +anticipated prodigious fun out of the new scholar. She was by nature +cruel and arrogant, and she was now affected as some feline creature +that has been cheated of the prey it has meant to maul and maim. + +Her reddish-hazel eyes, that showed so little white as to look like two +large beads of clouded amber, and were fringed with scant lashes of +lighter red, kept up a persistent scrutiny of Claire. She was sitting +not far away from the latter, who caught, now and then, a waft of the +delicate violet perfume which exhaled from her fine foreign apparel. She +was occupied with her epicurean repast, whose dainties she devoured with +a solemn gluttony; but this did not prevent her from keeping up a little +fusillade of whispers to a friend on whom she had bestowed one or two +bites of luscious cake as a mark of peculiar clemency. + +The converse was at first low-toned. Claire had finished her brief +refreshment. She had opened a book, and maintained at least the +semblance of being engaged in its contents. Suddenly she heard Ada +Gerrard speak these words, in a voice lifted above her former key, +though doubtless meant solely for her companion's ears: + +"I don't care _how_ much she knows. She's a common little thing, and _I_ +wouldn't notice her if she got on her knees and begged me to." + +Claire waited a few seconds, with head lowered above her book. She +trembled while she so waited. The tremor was half from anger, half from +intimidation. She felt, in every fibre of her being, the coarseness of +this speech, but through her sensitive soul had shot a pang of false +shame, dealt by the piercing sense of contrast between her own humble +state and the probable grandeur and comfort of life which had fed Ada +Gerrard's present superciliousness. But anger conquered. She ceased to +tremble, and closed her book. Then she rose, quietly, and faced her +classmate. It may have been that the generations of gentlewomen from +which, on her father's side, she had sprung, helped to nerve and steady +her now; since the primal source of all aristocracy is a cogent +self-assertion, and those races alone gain heights overbrowing their +kind whose first founders have had the will and vigor to push forward +resisted claims. + +Everybody saw her rise. It flashed through the little throng, in an +instant, that something had spurred her into a course of retaliation. At +least fifteen pairs of eager eyes were leveled upon her pale face. But +she regarded Ada Gerrard only; and when she spoke, with enough clearness +to be heard in all parts of the room, her first words were addressed +strictly to that special offender. + +"You say that you will not notice me," Claire began, "and yet you say it +so loudly that I can hear you, and thus you very plainly contradict +yourself; or, in other words, you try to attract my attention by +speaking a falsehood." + +Here she paused. A dead silence ensued. Many bewildered looks were +exchanged. The presiding teacher stopped her task, and sat with a gaze +of puzzled alarm fixed upon this resolute young combatant. Ada Gerrard +flushed crimson, and ceased to discuss her savory confections. + +Claire's voice quivered as she now proceeded, but she quickly controlled +this perturbed sign: "I do not think there is much chance of my begging +you on my knees to notice me," she said. "But I might be tempted to take +such a way of begging that you would try and help me to forget, as long +as I remain here, how I have had the ill-luck of being thrown near +anyone so unkind, so impudent, and so vulgar as yourself." + +Ada Gerrard sprang to her feet as the last calm word sounded from +Claire's lips. She had clenched both of her plump hands, and there was a +wrathful scowl on her face. Several titters were heard from her +companions; they seemed to sting her; it was impossible for her to fail +in perceiving that she had met an adversary of twice her own prowess. +She knew to which side the sympathy had veered; all her imposing +superiority in the way of dress, of diet, of home-splendor, of titled +kindred, were momentarily as nothing beside Claire's placid antagonism. +She was only an ugly girl in an ugly rage, who had behaved insolently +and been rebuked with justice; while Claire, pale, unflinching, wholly +in the right and wholly aware of it, her drawbacks of uncouth costume +no longer present, her beauty a fact beyond dispute, her intelligence a +recent discovery and a sharp surprise, stood clad with the dignity of +easy and complete conquest. + +Ada Gerrard suddenly burst into tears. They were very irate tears; there +was not the least tincture of remorse or shame in them. She flung +herself back into her chair, and covered her face for several minutes +while she wept. + +Claire watched her, tranquilly, for a little while. Then she sat down +again and reopened her book. An intense silence reigned, broken by the +sobs of Ada Gerrard. Claire leaned her head on her hand, feigning abrupt +absorption in the page that she regarded, and feigning it very well. But +her mind was in a secret whirl, now. She was mutely, but impetuously +asking herself: "Will they think I was right? Will they take my part? +Will they treat me any more kindly, or just as before?" + +These silent, pathetic queries were fated to receive a speedy answer. +Before the school hours of that same day had ended, the ostracism which +had so wrung poor Claire's spirit was in a measure ended likewise. Less +than a week had elapsed before she was on friendly terms with a number +of her classmates. A little adverse clique soon shaped itself against +her. Ada Gerrard, fiercely unforgiving, headed this hostile faction; its +remaining members were a few stanch personal adherents who had never +been able to resist the dazzling fascination of Miss Gerrard's toilets +and lunches. But this opposing element was not actively inimical. +Claire's party had the strength of multitude and the courage of its +opinions. Still, its members were by no means ardent devotees; they +sometimes hurt her with the sly stab of patronage, and they often gave +her furtively to understand that her claims upon their favor were of a +sort which they practically recognized without theoretically approving. + +It would be hard to define just how they conveyed this impression. And +yet Claire frequently felt its weight, like that of some vague tyranny +which offers no tangible excuse for revolt. She could neither realize +nor estimate the force with which she had been thrown into contact. Her +years were yet too few, her experience was yet too limited; nor was the +force manifest in active strength at Mrs. Arcularius's school, a narrow +enough theatre for its exercise, and one where its full-grown momentum +must of necessity dwindle into something like mere juvenile parody. +Claire was yet to learn with how much rank haste its evil growth had +sprung up in the big metropolis outside, thwarting and clogging any pure +development of what has been called the republican idea, and making us +sometimes bitterly wonder if the great dead philosophers were not +tricked, after all, by wills-o'-the-wisp no less lovely than elusive. + +But there were a few girls who met Claire on a perfectly equal footing, +and left from their intercourse, at all times, the least frosty sparkle +of condescension. Some of these may or may not consciously have +undertaken their roles. But with one, past doubt, and for excellent +reasons, the kindly impulse was in every way spontaneous. The name of +this pupil was Sophia Bergemann. She professed a deep fondness for +Claire, and it was evidently sincere. She belonged among Mrs. +Arcularius's tolerated plutocrats. Her father was a German brewer who +had made a very large fortune out of lager-beer, and who dwelt in +Hoboken, where he had built an immense house on spacious grounds. It was +said that the lawns were adorned with statues in bronze and marble, and +that the main drawing-room of the mansion was frescoed with a design +representing Germany offering a tankard of foaming beer to Columbia, in +colossal sociability. But the latter statement may have been only the +caustic invention of Sophia's foes. She was stoutly disapproved by the +conservative element, and this fact had helped to make her so warm a +supporter of Claire. Being at daggers drawn with Ada Gerrard, she +naturally hailed Claire's public rebuke with rapture, and immediately +became her stanch ally. + +"I was afraid you'd stay meek and mild right straight along, just as you +began," she afterward confessed. "Somehow you looked as if you hadn't +got any spunk. And I do like spunk. I believe in it." This article of +faith Sophia had several times frankly verified. She had once pulled the +ear of her fellow-pupil, and again narrowly escaped expulsion by +slapping another's face. She had a buxom figure, a broad-blown +countenance, nearly as round as a moon at the full, solid cheeks of +constant vivid coloring, and hair so yellow that its keen tint blent +with her brilliant complexion in producing the effect of an expensive +wax doll enlarged and animated. She was drearily stupid at all her +lessons, rivaling Ada Gerrard as the regnant ignoramus of the academy. +Her gestures were painfully awkward; her walk was a cumbrous prance; she +seemed incapable of seating herself without an elastic bounce. She grew +very fond of Claire, as weeks went on, and gave her repeated +invitations to pass a portion of the summer holidays at the grand +Hoboken abode. + +But before the summer holidays arrived, Claire had left Mrs. +Arcularius's school for good. Twining had awakened to one more dismayed +perception of having been grossly duped; the reed on which he had leaned +had snapped beneath him; prompt retrenchments became inevitable; his +poor ventured thousands were dissolved, as a last ironical sort of +ingredient, in the worthless elixir. + +For a long time his affairs stood miserably involved. His innocent share +in a matter of imposture and chicanery was misconstrued and sharply +censured by his employers. He was discharged from his clerkship, and put +face to face with the worst threats of need. Mrs. Twining, forced to +resign her briefly-worn robes of ease for the old garb of drudgery, +spared no zeal in proving herself not to have been a false prophetess of +disaster. + +"I ain't a bit surprised," she would declare, with one of her thin, acid +laughs. "Mercy, no! Don't mind me. I was prepared for it, Francis. So +here we are over in Jersey City, and a pretty shabby part of it, too! +Oh, well, it's better'n keeping a peanut-stand, anyhow. You'll bring me +there, some day; you're bound to. I ain't eaten a peanut in ever so +long. I'm saving my taste for 'em." + +Twining secretly writhed under these thrusts. His meagre stock of money +was slipping from him daily. But he was still cheerful. The tough +texture of his optimism still refused to be rent. A few more years, and +its severance must come, warp and woof, but as yet the sturdy fibres +held good against every strain. + +He secured another position at last. The salary, smaller than before, +was at least regular. But the quarters in Jersey City, though humble and +restricted, made too strong an annual drain upon his impoverished purse. +After two years of pitiful struggle, the family removed to Greenpoint. +Claire was then sixteen. But before this new change occurred, Twining's +evil genius had again tempted him, and with the usual malign result. He +trusted a fellow-man once more, and once more he was confounded. This +time it was of necessity a much smaller hazard. Only three hundred +dollars went, though millions were of course to be ultimately realized. +One day a sallow, elderly man, with eyes bleared from dissipation and +clothes that hung glazed round a bony figure, fell in with poor Twining, +and talked to him glibly about a miraculous patent. It concerned the +giving of signals on railroads by an electrical process. It was to +effect a sublime security against all future accidents of travel by +land. A few primary steps were to be taken before this marvel should +obtain the indorsements of eager capitalists. The sallow little man, in +three interviews, during which he cleverly contrived not to smell too +strongly of liquor, convinced Twining that he was a neglected genius. +The money was given him, and a receipt for it was signed with a hand +whose insecurity passed for grateful emotion. But this origin might have +been ascribed with more truth to the rheumy moisture that filled the +recipient's eyes when he placed a plump roll of bills within his +threadbare waistcoat-pocket. Twining never saw him after that eventful +conference. He died about three weeks later of delirium tremens in a +city hospital. It was his seventh attack. + +This fresh blow leveled Twining. Neither his wife nor his child ever +knew of it. But it struck into him a sort of terror at himself from +which he never recovered. He had trusted humanity for the last time. He +still remained amiable, genial, gentle. But despair had turned his heart +to lead. Both Claire and Mrs. Twining saw the change, though ignorant of +its cause. The Greenpoint epoch had now begun. + +In Jersey City Claire had been sent to a public school. Here she had met +genuine daughters of the people. Some of them were almost in rags; +others represented thrifty home-surroundings; all were very different +from the sleek children of wealth and caste whom she had known at Mrs. +Arcularius's. At first she suffered torments of disgust. But by degrees +the slow, continual pressure of habit wore away the edge of her +distaste, as a constant sea-wash will blunt the rim of a shell. She +absorbed herself in study, made rapid progress, and learned much that a +fashionable school would have left untaught. + +Her fastidiousness in a measure vanished. A good deal of the old +acquired nicety stayed, but her age was impressionable, and ceaseless +contact with rough manners and crude opinions wrought its certain +effect. She was now rubbing against taffetas, and before it had been +against silk. She was hearing the boorish laugh and the slovenly idiom +to-day, when yesterday she had heard the mirth of culture and the phrase +of decorum. Her young life had thus far been a strange discord of +opposing influences. She felt this in periods of half-bewildered +retrospect, and sometimes with moods of passionate melancholy as well. +The intense contrast of the changes through which she had passed, +disheartened while it stimulated her. She meant to try her best; she +wanted with all her energy to gain secure and permanent elevation; she +had no intent of sitting down and resting before she reached the top of +the hill, for her father's heated words of admonition and entreaty yet +swept their insistent echo through her spirit. + +But the hill seemed a sheer steep, defiant of any foothold. If she was +eager to ascend, loath to rest, full of splendid activity, what mattered +these favoring conditions when circumstances turned them to mockery? + +They were at Greenpoint, now. They had been there three years. Claire +was nineteen. Her school days had ended. They could no longer afford to +keep a servant; she had to help her mother in all menial domestic +offices. She had to bake, to sweep, to wash, to sew. She hated the +place; she hated the life. But she saw her father's hidden despair, and +so hid her own. More than this, she trembled at certain signs that his +health was failing. He would have seizures of sudden weakness at morning +or night; she feared to ask him whether they also occurred when he was +absent at his business, lest he might suspect the acute nature of her +anxiety, and so acquire new cause for worriment. + +She loved him more than ever. The dread of his loss would steal with +ghastly intrusion along her dreams at night. She thought of her grim, +acrimonious mother, and said to herself: 'If he should die! It would be +terrible! I should be worse than alone!' Every kiss that she gave him +took a more clinging fondness. + +He never spoke of his future. He never spoke of hers. She understood +why. Each always met the other with a smile. There was something +beautiful in their reciprocal deceit. They heard the dead leaves crackle +under their footsteps, but they strove to talk as if the boughs were in +bud. + +And so the weeks went on. The bitterness of their second winter in +Greenpoint had now yielded to the mildness of a second spring. But the +vernal change brought no cheer to Claire. In the little yellowish-drab +wooden house where they dwelt, with lumber-yards and sloop-wharves +blocking all view of the river, with stupid, haggling neighbors on +either side of them, with ugliness and stagnation and poverty at +arm's-reach, was a girl so weighed upon and crushed by the stern +arbitraments of want, that she often felt herself as much a captive as +if she could not have moved a limb without hearing the clank of a +chain. + + + + +IV. + + +One afternoon Claire said to her mother: "I intend to take a little +holiday. I am going out for a walk." Mrs. Twining and her daughter were +in the kitchen when this very novel announcement was made. The elder +lady had just taken her preliminary steps toward the getting of supper. +She let her big knife remain bedded in the side of a large, soggy potato +that she was peeling, and glanced up at Claire with her quick black eye. +A long spiral of skin hung from the half-pared vegetable. It seemed to +denote with peculiar aptness the paralyzing effect of Mrs. Twining's +astonishment. + +"Going to take a holiday, are you?" she exclaimed, with the favorite +jerky, joyless laugh. "And what am _I_ going to do, if you please? Stay +at home, no doubt, and slave over this stove till supper's cooked. Hey?" + +"I cooked the supper yesterday," said Claire, "and you vowed that +everything I had done was bad, and that I should never make myself so +smart again. I recollect your exact words--'make myself so smart,'" +continued Claire, with cutting fidelity of quotation. "I would readily +do the whole cooking every afternoon, on Father's account. For he likes +the food I prepare better than he likes what you prepare. There's no +doubt about that." + +"Oh, not a bit," returned Mrs. Twining, who could never cow her daughter +nowadays, and avoided all open skirmishes with Claire, preferring to +fire her volleys under cover of ambiguous sneers, being sure of rout in +any fair-fought engagement. "Not a bit, certainly. When he knows you've +pottered away at anything, he'll eat it and smack his lips over it +whether it's roasted to a cinder, or as raw as a fresh clam." + +"I'm very glad to hear you say so," returned Claire, with a weary little +smile. "It's pleasant to think Father loves me like that." + +Mrs. Twining vigorously resumed work on her potato, speaking at the same +time. "Pity about both o' you two, I _do_ declare," she retorted, +lapsing into the vernacular with which she loved to accompany her worst +gibes. "'Pears to me that if he's so fond o' _you_ he mightn't have made +you the poor mean fag at nineteen that he's made o' me at forty-four; +and if you are so fond o' _him_, why, you might try and catch a decent +husband, with a few dollars in his pocket, to raise up the family out o' +the mud and muck Francis Twining's got it in." + +Claire's eyes flashed a little; but she was not specially angered; she +was so used to this kind of verbal savagery. + +"Father never meant anything but good to either of us," she said, "and +you know it. I don't want to hear you speak against him when he is away +and can't defend himself. _I_ am able to defend him, if I choose. I +think you know that, Mother, by this time. I'm going out, as I told you. +I shall be back rather soon, I suppose." + +She left the kitchen, and presently the house as well. She might have +stayed to wrangle; but she knew that would be for no purpose. She had +stood up for her loved father so often, and always with the same +results. Her wit was quicker than her mother's; it could thrust deeper +and parry more dexterously; but she was very tired of this aimless +warfare, where she got wounds that she hid and gave wounds that it cost +her only pain to deal. She had no definite idea whither she would go, on +quitting the house. At first she took her way through the cheap and +vulgar main street of Greenpoint. It was the first real day of Spring; +the air was bland; something had called her forth to breathe it, even +here in this dreary spot. She did not quite know whence the silent +summons had come. She was by no means sure if it were her own youth that +had called her, conspiring in some subtile way with the push of leaves +and grasses out toward the strengthened sunshine. She had felt old and +tired, of late; the monotony of toil had dulled her spirits; her +mother's arrowy slurs had pierced and hurt her more than she guessed. +But the mild atmosphere, stirred by tender breezes, made it pleasant to +be abroad, even in this malodorous thoroughfare. + +Everything was dull and common. It seemed a sort of beautiful outrage +that the pure, misty blue of the afternoon sky should arch so +contentedly over these slimy gutters, shabby tenements, dirty children, +and neglected sidewalks. A German woman jostled against her as she +pressed onward; the woman carried a pail of liquid refuse, and issued +from a near doorway. She had a tawdry red bow at her throat, one or two +smaller bows to match it in her tossed blonde hair, and an immense flat +water-curl glued against either temple, with the effect of some old +hieroglyph. She was a beer-seller's wife, and she was about to empty her +vessel of stale malt upon the neighboring cobble-stones. But the random +speed of her gait caused her to collide abruptly with Claire's passing +figure, and some of the contents of her pail shot out upon the latter's +dress, making an instant stain. Claire paused, and looked at the woman +with a slight annoyed motion of the head. The offender was a +high-tempered person; it was currently whispered by members of their +special Teuton clique that her husband was a rank socialist who had been +forced to fly the police of his native town overseas, and that she +shared in secret his rebellious opinions. This may or may not have been +truth; but the woman flung her pailful fiercely into the street, and +then as fiercely confronted Claire. + +"Vell, vat you got to say?" she cried, shrilly. "You looks at me as if I +vass to blame for you running against me, ain't it? I see you before. +You ain't much, annerhow. You got a big lot uf airs; you valks shust +like a grant laty." Here the virago dropped her pail, set a hand on +either hip, and attempted, with sad lack of success, while two long, +tarnished ear-rings oscillated in her big, flushed ears, to imitate +Claire's really graceful walk. "Sho," she continued, in sarcastic +explanation of her parody. "You valks jush sho! Bud you ain't much. You +ain't no laty. You better stop ride avay treing to be one. Dot's too +thin, dot iss. Aha, you're off. I t'ought I'd freiden you!" + +Claire was indeed "off," and moving somewhat briskly, too. She had grown +rather white. This rude encounter left a harsh memory behind it. For +some time she could not dissipate the recollection of the German jade's +insolence. + +"Perhaps she was right," her set lips at length murmured. "I am _not_ a +lady. I _had_ better stop right away trying to be one." + +A little later she had quitted the main street of the town, and gained +an open expanse at whose verge the houses stood with wide gaps between +them, as though a forlorn effort had been made to conquer vacancy by +ugliness. But vacancy had won the fight; space never resisted time with +more complete conquest. An immense drab plain, shorn of the least green +feature, now stretched before Claire's gaze. On one hand, like a slow, +interminable snake, wound a black thread of slimy creek, flanked by +ragged embankments of crumbling clay. On the other hand was a dull, bare +sweep, unrelieved by even a single hut. Far to the eastward, facing +Claire, gleamed a wide assemblage of cottages; this was a settlement +that some wag or optimist, whichever he may have been, had long ago +named Blissville. + +Claire had a fanciful thought, now, as she walked along the hard +macadamized road which the incessant trains of funerals took toward +Calvary, that Blissville, seen so distantly at the end of this treeless, +herbless waste, was like the mirage glimpsed by a wanderer on a desert. +But she might more aptly have compared the lonely desolation which +encompassed her to those classic fields where the Greek and Roman dead +found their reputed bourne. The shocking creek would have made an +excellent Styx, and even the most barren imagination could have traced +ready analogy between these monotonous levels of sun-baked mud and the +flowerless lands where disconsolate shades were supposed to wander. + +The tender amethyst sky, arching over this hideous spot, alone saved it, +to-day, from the last sort of infernal suggestiveness. An enormous +funeral presently appeared in sight, just as Claire reached a certain +uncouth bridge that spanned a curve of the impure current. The slow +procession of dark carriages uncoiled itself, so to speak, from the +massed habitations of Greenpoint, and drew gradually nearer without yet +revealing its final vehicle. It was a mortuary cavalcade of phenomenal +length, even for the present place, where New York quite often sends +some of her worst reprobates to their graves under conditions of the +most imposing solemnity. The whole retinue was at last unfurled upon the +smooth roadway, along which it crawled with something of the same +serpentine stealthiness as that of the almost parallel creek. A sombre +rivalry seemed evident, now, between the two differing streams. This +blank tract of repulsive land, so strangely dedicated to death, had lost +every hint of Lethean likeness. The arrival of the funeral had wrought +striking change. Here we had the modern mode of dealing with death. It +seemed to make paganism wither and vanish. An old, half-rotten barge, +moored in a slushy cove, might have served for an emblem of the decay +and contempt now fallen upon antique legend. Was this the melancholy +boat that once ferried the ghosts to Hades? Ah! but if so, the oars were +lost, the planks leaked wofully, and the grim pilot had gone permanently +away into the great shadow-land of all the dead gods! Claire looked +toward the coming funeral, and shuddered in silence. There seemed so +unholy a contrast between her own fresh, vital maidenhood and this +ghastly, morbid domain. How had her healthful young spirit ever courted +death, that it should thus force upon her its continual grisly +fellowship? She placed both elbows on the rough balustrade of the +bridge, leaned her fair girlish chin against both hands, and stared +straight before her across the bleak heath. Not far off several +venturesome swine were waddling; they were near enough for their absurd +grunts now and then to reach her, and for her to see the pink flush of +their cumbrous bodies between coarse, soiled hairs, and the earthward +thrust of their long, gray, cylindrical noses. But a moment later a +flock of pigeons suddenly lighted just at the foot of the bridge, on a +little loamy flat. The sight gave her a thrill of pleasure. It was so +odd to get any bit of beauty here, and each bird was a true bit of +beauty, with its flexible irised neck, its rounded sleekness, and its +rosy feet. Presently the flock began their rich peculiar coo, and the +sound fascinated Claire as much as their shapes had done. She quite +forgot the advancing funeral; here were color, grace, and a sort of +music. They had fallen to her, as might be said, from the skies. In a +dumb, unformulated way she wished that more of all three charms would so +fall to her. It was such a wretched doom to dwell in this abominable +suburb. All her youth was being wasted here. She was already getting +rather old. She was already nearly twenty--four months of her twentieth +year had gone--and she had been accustomed to think people quite old +when they were twenty. Would it last years longer? Ah! to fly as those +lovely birds could! Why had they come hither, of all places in the +world? If she were a green-and-purple thing, with strong wings, like any +of them, she would soar away to the window of some rich lady's house on +Fifth Avenue, and be taken inside some handsome chamber, perhaps, and +fed and petted--yes, even put into a cage, if the lady chose. A cage +there would be better than one's full freedom here, where the dead were +always going to their graves. + +From a reverie which may or may not have resembled this if it had been +made into actual language, the sudden spontaneous flight of the whole +charming flock roused poor ruminative Claire. She now perceived that the +funeral train had drawn much nearer. A sort of metallic resonance +sounded from the many horse-hooves on the hard surface of the road. But +another sound, at this point, turned her attention elsewhere. It was a +cracked, thin, piping voice, and its utterances were delivered only a +short distance from her side. She discovered that an old man had joined +her on the bridge during her absorbed preoccupation with the pigeons. He +was a very old man; he leant on a staff, and was clad in an evident +holiday-attire of black, whose rusty broadcloth hung about his shrunken +shape with tell-tale looseness; it had too evidently been cut for a far +more portly person. He had a wrinkled face, and yet one of rubicund +plumpness; a spot of red flushed each cheek, centring in a little +crimson net-work of veins there, while the same peculiarity cropped out +a third time, as it were, on the ball-like lump at the end of his +irregular nose. Claire had a feeling, as she looked at him, that he was +a reformed toper. Everything about him told of present sobriety, but he +was like a colored lantern seen without the illuminative candle; you had +a latent certainty, as you regarded him, that only a few glasses of +sufficiently bad liquor were needed to warm up those three red spots +into their old auroral splendor. While speaking, he put forth a brown +hand that trembled a good deal. The tremor came, no doubt, from senile +feebleness, and the hand was so gnarled and knotty that it might almost +have been one of those rough excrescences which sometimes bulge from +tree-trunks, instead of the sad rheumatic member that it really was. The +new-comer spoke with an extremely strong Irish accent, and in a hollow, +husky voice that implied, on first hearing it, a kind of elfin and +subterranean origin. + +"Begorra, ma'am, here it is, ma'am! I'm alludin' to the funeral, ma'am. +Shure I made th' ould woman dresh me up in mee besht clothes thish day, +ma'am, so I did. Fur it's Mishter Bairned McCafferty that's to be buried +thish day, I sez, ma'am, sez I to th' ould woman, I sez, an' sez I, ever +since I haird he wasn't expected, I sez, it's his wake I wants to be +goin' to. An' if I wus too ould, I sez, to crossh over an' pay mee +respechts when they waked him in the city, sez I, it'll be meeself, I +sez, that'll shtand here an' watch 'em parade 'im to Calvary, ma'am, sez +I." + +Claire had a pity for the old man, at first. But before his speech ended +he had roused in her a repulsion. He appeared quietly hilarious; he had +produced several distinct chuckles, and his watery, peering eyes, which +one of his misshapen hands soon shaded, revealed an actually gay +twinkle. + +"I don't see why you wanted to come out and watch the person go to his +grave," said Claire. "What pleasure can that possibly give you?" + +"Pleasure, ma'am, is it, ma'am?" was the startled response. "Why, shure, +ma'am, it's the foinest funeral that's been seen in these parts, ma'am, +fur manny a day! An' it's mee own son, Larry, that's drivin' the hairse, +ye'll understand, ma'am, an' it's a proud day for Larry, so it is. +Excuse me, ma'am, but do ye take sight o' the hairse yet?" + +"Oh, yes; very well," said Claire. "It has a number of wooden ornaments +along its top, that are gilded and look like large black cabbages." She +gave a little burst of weary laughter as she finished the last sentence, +whose irony was quite lost on her dim-sighted companion. "And its sides +are glass," she continued, "and you can see the large coffin within +quite plainly, and there are four horses with white and black plumes." + +"An'--an'--the carriages, ma'am, if ye plaise, ma'am?" eagerly +questioned the old man. "Shure there should be forty if there's wan, +ma'am, an' a few loight wagons thrown in behoind as well. How's that, +ma'am?" + +"I think there must be forty," said Claire, turning a curious look on +the questioner, as he bent excitedly forward to hear her answer. "And +there are several light wagons, also." + +The old man rubbed his weird hands together in gleeful ecstasy, nearly +toppling over as he did so, because the act necessitated a transient +disregard of the needful prop lent by his staff. "Shure I towld th' ould +woman jusht that!" he cried, in great triumph. "Shure I sez to her, sez +I, Barney McCafferty's too daicent a man, I sez, to go to his grave, sez +I, anny less daicenter nor that, I sez. It'll be forty carriages, I sez, +if it's wan. An' there'll be a shport or so, sez I to her, ma'am (bee +thish shtick in mee hand, ma'am, I sed it, ma'am!) there'll be a shport +or so that'll bring a buggy or so, sez I, for a woind up at the end, I +sez, like the laugh that comes, ye mind, at the tail of a joke, I sez. +An' it's you I'm thankful to, ma'am, fur the loan o' your two broight +eyes, ma'am, that lets me see the soight that God's denied me, ma'am: +an' I mean, wid a blessin' to yer, the shtyle o' the hairse an' the +gineral natur o' the intertainmint altogether, ma'am, the Lord love yer +fur yer frindly assistance!" + +"Perhaps you can see the funeral better when it gets in front of the +bridge," said Claire, somewhat kindly, but with a shocked sense still +remaining. Her varied past, that had shown her so many differing human +phases, had not till now presented to her the extraordinary fact of how +positively festal are the associations with which the Irish, as our +shores find them, are wont to accompany death. At the same time, she +felt interested, and rather curious. She could always manage, on brief +notice, to feel interested and curious regarding any fellow-creature; +and this trait (one that has grown historic among the most noted +charmers of her own sex) was now tested to perhaps its last limits. + +"Does your son always drive hearses?" she continued, unconsciously +looking at the old man as if he were something in a museum, to be +marveled at for antiquity and strangeness, but not, on pain of +expulsion, to be touched. + +"Oh, no, ma'am. Larry's wan o' the hands to a livery shtable, ma'am; but +yer see, ma'am, he's timperance, an' so they gives 'im the hairse at +mosht o' the high-toned funerals, bekase they're shure, then, that +there'll be no dishrespect showed to the corpse, y' undershtand. An' +it's always the behavior o' the hairse that's mosht cruticized, fur if +that goes an' comes quiet, wid no singin' nur shkylarkin' on the part o' +him that drives it, d' y' undershtand, why there's lesh talk nur if all +the mourners an' relashuns should come home shtavin' drunk, ma'am, d' ye +mind?" + +"And who is this Bernard McCafferty?" asked Claire. + +"Is it Barney McCafferty that ye're ashkin' about?" was the old man's +amazed response, a sharp falsetto note piercing through his usual +huskiness. "Why, shure, ma'am, he run six places acrosh in the city fur +tin year all to wanst, so he did, an' that ain't countin' the wan he +kep' in Harlem, naythur." + +This explanation was delivered with an air of astonished rebuke, as +though one should enumerate the possessions of some slighted prince. + +"What sorts of places do you mean?" inquired Claire. + +The old man put his head on one side and looked at her with uneasy +suspicion, as though he feared she was making sport of him. + +"Places? Why, liquor-sthores, to be sure." + +"Oh," said Claire. "And what did he die of? Drink?" + +Her companion brightened noticeably, and seemed to gain confidence in +his questioner. He scratched one cheek, where the unshorn beard showed +in white, bristly patches along the fleshless jaw, and winked at Claire +as though she had at once put the matter upon a basis of mutual and +intimate comprehension. + +"I guess it _wus_ the drink ash laid 'im out at lasht, ma'am. Manny is +the good glass I had wid Barney afore he went into politics an' got +shut of his besht frinds, bad luck to 'im. But he shtood well up to his +liquor fur nigh forty year, though I'm thinkin' it fetched 'im in the +end, ma'am." + +This was said with the manner and tone of a person who might have +alluded to some rather genteel foible in the deceased, like a fondness +for chess or whist. Claire found herself confronting another fact in the +lower Irish nature, hitherto but half surmised: the enormous indulgence +and sympathetic tolerance with which this unique race regards every form +and feature of drunkenness. + +"If he sold liquor all his life and died of it himself," she exclaimed, +with heat and force, "he doesn't deserve to have half so large a +funeral. And I think it's dreadful," she went on, with a little angry +stamp of the foot, while she lifted one finger and shook it at the old +man in a way with which her sex had doubtless familiarized him at an +earlier stage in his long career--"yes, I think it's perfectly horrible +that you people should ever dare to get drunk at funerals as you do! I +often see the carriage-loads come back from the cemetery through +Greenpoint, laughing and smoking, and sometimes yelling and swearing as +well! Oh, I don't know how you _can_ do it! There is something so grand, +so terrible about death! You ought to be ashamed, all of you! Such +actions make this place more sad and wretched than it really is. It is a +miserable place enough, Heaven knows!" + +She moved away from the old man as she spoke the last sentence. Going +forth upon the road, she retraced her steps in the direction of the +town, and thus met each separate vehicle of the long funeral as it +stole laggingly onward. First came the black-and-gilt hearse, flaunting +its interior coffin with horrid ostentation, as though it wanted you to +see how many wreaths and crosses had been lavished upon the remains of +Mr. McCafferty by his bereaved constituents. Then followed a carriage to +whose driver had been confided a capacious wooden box which would +doubtless receive the coffin before its interment, and into which the +driver, having placed its glaring unpainted mass on a line with the +dashboard, had thrust his feet, and by the act engulfed, as it were, +nearly half his person. He was a man of sallow, cadaverous visage and +very gaunt frame; he looked as if he might possess some eerie fellowship +with the corpse itself; he seemed to alter the popular phrase about +having a foot in the grave, and to make it quite thinkable that life +could exist under still more moribund conditions. In the conveyance +which he drove was a group of four people. Two of them were stout +Irishwomen, swathed in crape, and two were middle-aged Irishmen, dressed +with a holiday smartness. In this vehicle silence appeared to reign; its +occupants, all four, sat with lowered eyes. But in the other carriages, +as one by one passed Claire, not a sign of grief was manifest. There was +a good deal of audible conversation; there was considerable leaning of +heads out of windows; there were not a few querulous children of various +ages, some of whom had been given oranges to suck or sticks of striped +candy to munch; there were buxom women and spare women, massive men and +slim men, little girls and little boys, all huddled together, quite +often three or even more on a seat. But in the whole long panorama of +human visages, as it glided past her, Claire could not discern a single +trace of solemnity. The impression of mere hollow and senseless form was +produced, by this crude _cortege_, with complete and dismal success. +Nobody--with the slight exceptions recorded--seemed to be sorry that Mr. +McCafferty had made a permanent departure from the liquor-business. + +"I wonder why they come, if they are not sorry," Claire said to herself, +as she reentered the town, leaving the great serpentine funeral behind +her. "I suppose it is because of the ride. They seize on even this grim +excuse for getting a little pastime." ... Then her thoughts took a new, +self-questioning turn. "And what reason have I to pity them and call +them 'poor'? They come here only in the way of holiday, but I never get +a glimpse of anything better or worse, month after month. I dare say +there _are_ worse places than this. I should like to see one, if there +really are, just for the change." + +Passing back through the unlovely streets again, Claire had a desire to +be near the water before she returned in-doors. She now regretted not +having gone thither at first, instead of taking her dolorous inland +walk. It was nearly sunset; the twilight had not yet learned to loiter, +as it does in maturer Spring, and a gloom had already crept, with +purplish effect, into the sweet pale azure of the heavens. Claire made +as short a cut toward one special place at the water's edge as her +regretted familiarity with Greenpoint would permit, and presently stood +on a raised spot close beside the river. It was a bare scarp of earth, +touched faintly, here and there, with the most meagre intervals of +struggling green. Its site commanded the delightful view beyond, and +now, at the ruddy but transient advent of evening, this view was +peculiarly delightful. You saw the wrinkled river, drab and tremulous, +under a stretch of sky which the sinking sun had made from verge to +zenith a turmoil of little rosy and feathery clouds. Each cloud had the +damask glow, without its fleetness, that we see in the scales of a +darting trout. The whole ember-colored array arched over the wide stream +in brief, unusual brilliancy, and stole now and then from the gray waves +beneath it a slight gleam, no larger than the bud of a carnation, but +quite as rich-hued. Just beneath Claire was a low, uncouth, many-patched +hut, near to the muddy strand, and looking not unlike something that had +drifted up from aqueous recesses with the intent of making itself +habitable for men. A ragged contiguous wharf had been built here, at +whose edge, when summer came, small boats would be grouped to let. A +little northward, great yellowish piles of lumber loomed, tier after +tier, with big sloops moored beside them, and with one acute red pennon, +on one slim mast, blown out bright against the darkening air. Steamboats +and sail-boats were slipping over the ruffled river, these urged by +their steady mechanic push, those winning the capricious breeze to favor +their full-stretched canvas. Beyond, in dusky, irregular semicircle, lay +the opposite city. Its many church-spires pierced the dimness, but all +its other traits of architecture, viewed at this distance, had a flat, +massed look. There was something symbolic in the isolated saliency of +these spires; they seemed to typify the permanence of a faith which had +already defied centuries. But still more, their vague group merged every +detail of creed into one pictorial whole; you forgot, as you gazed, +what various paths toward salvation this or that steeple might be +supposed to point. The whole effect was simply and powerfully Christian. + +Claire fixed her eyes upon the shadowy city. A few early lights already +dotted its expanse with gold, as if to outspeed the tardier stars +overhead. It spread away, for the gaze that watched it, like a huge +realm of fascinating mystery. Claire forgot how much sin it hid; perhaps +she scarcely knew if it hid any. She thought only of the diversions, +relaxations, festivities that would soon hold sway there. Odd memories +of her old school-fellows crossed her mind. Doubtless Ada Gerrard was +there now, thinking of some new robe in which she would show her plump +white neck with the little freckles on it, that very evening. It should +be a pale-blue dress, Claire decided; that would suit Ada's red hair the +best. How full was the big city, yonder, of happy, handsome, prosperous +people! And so many of them were saying, now that the nightfall had +begun, "I shall go to this ball to-night," or "I shall go to that +theatre." They were getting the theatres ready for the plays, now; the +entrances were being lighted. She could see Wallack's and the Union +Square, each with its small court and the baize doors beyond. Oh, how +pleasant it would be to do something, to look at something, to hear +something, to-night, that she had not done and looked at and heard, +again and again, for weeks and months past! The girl's blood and bone +hungered for a holiday. She must go back home, soon. And there was only +one thought to make the prospect of return endurable; that thought was +meeting her father. But he would be tired; he was always more tired +nowadays than in other times. When he lay upon the lounge in the +basement, and she got the stool and sat down beside him, he would smile +to have her put both arms round his neck and press her cheek up close to +his, but he would go to sleep very soon afterward; he would be so tired +that he would forget even to ask her if she had had a hard time with her +mother that day. And then her mother would grumble a hint that the +dishes were yet to be washed, and she would take her arms away from the +beloved neck, and scrape and clean for quite a long time; and then she +would get sleepy, more because she remembered how early she must rise +to-morrow than because a very little diversion would not have made the +alert young lids loath to shade her eyes for hours to come. + +It would all be the same as on other nights. It was always, every new +night, the same as on that which went before. There was the dull burden +of it. When would the burden be shifted? Would it ever be shifted? Would +it not merely grow heavier, and slowly crush her down, till her back +should get the crook of age, and so bear it with better ease? + +She went nearer to the edge of the hillock, and set her eyes once more +upon the city, as if for a farewell view. Its lights had become more +numerous; the tips of its spires were lost in tender vapor. Above, the +tiny scraps of luminous cloud had begun to fade; the river had roughened +and grown dull, and there was a damp keenness in the freshening breeze. +That exquisite melancholy which is sure to breathe from evening when it +sheds a spell over the triple charm of blended sky, land, and water, was +now in the full tide of its lovely power. + +Claire lifted her hand to her lips, and waved a kiss toward the glooming +city. It was a pretty gesture, and so furtive and stealthy that it might +have fled the notice of any one who stood quite close at her side. And +the low words that now succeeded it, too, were just low enough to escape +such heed, though their sense might easily have met a possible listener +with the effect of broken and half-audible speech. + +"Good-night," she said to the city. "Good-night, and be merry for hours +to come. You seem just like something alive and breathing, but I know +that if you had one mind and one heart to think and to feel with, +instead of the thousands and thousands that you have got, you would pity +me because I'm so sorry that this big, cold river is always between us!" + +Claire nearly broke into a laugh at her own soft and quaint little +apostrophe. Like most lonely people who dislike their solitude, she +often felt the temptation to soliloquize; especially since her +imagination was vigorous, and sometimes loved, as well, to let mount +from its wrist the agile falcon of fancy. But a practical bent, as we +call it, and a rather sharp sense of the humor of things besides, +usually mingled to repress this volatile impulse. As it was, she gave a +strong, tired sigh instead of a laugh, and turned her face homeward, +though not her steps quite yet, for she still remained standing on the +mound beside the water. + +"My holiday," she thought, "is over." She did not know that it was just +beginning. + +Her last action had brought her into abrupt contact with a girlish +figure, whose countenance she might have recognized had not the dusk so +deepened. + + + + +V. + + +"I was mos' sure '_twas_ you, Miss Twining," said the new-comer, holding +out a hand to Claire, "so I run a little further up the hill, jus' to +make reel _certain_ sure." + +"Well, you were not wrong, Josie," said Claire, giving her own hand. It +did not occur to her that she had been called "Miss Twining" and had +answered by "Josie." In this case she took her rights of superiority +without thinking; she did not stop to consider their soundness; it had +always been to her an accepted fact that she was an alien and an exile, +here in Greenpoint, and that the few residents whom she knew must of +necessity admit her claim to having existed under better previous +conditions. There was no taint of arrogance in this unargued assumption. + +"You ain't often out's late's this, Miss Twining," said Josie, with a +little burst of laughter. "Are you, now?" + +"No, indeed," answered Claire. "I am not often out at all." She sighed +again, quite unconsciously. "Well, Josie," she went on, "I must be +getting back home. I've been away too long, as it is. You seem to be +dressed in your very finest. Does it mean that you are going to enjoy +yourself somewhere?" + +Josie gave another laugh. "I expect so, Miss Twining," she said, with a +touch of mysterious piquancy in her manner. She turned herself quickly +about, looking over her shoulder all the while with the air of waiting +for some one to appear. Claire watched her closely during the +unconscious but significant by-play. + +The name of this young girl was Josephine Morley. She was of Irish +parents, but felt ashamed of the fact. Perhaps consciously, perhaps not, +she had banished from her speech all hereditary traces. She spoke in a +rattling way, and every now and then she would heap massive emphasis on +one special word. Her talk made you think of a railway that is all +broken up with _depots_, none of which the engine discountenances. Her +widowed mother kept a grocery store, not amply patronized, and of +moderate prices. By pre-arrangement with the Twinings on a basis of the +most severe economy, Josie would bring them their needed supply of +vegetables thrice a week. She was not so jaunty-looking on those +occasions as she now appeared. Then she would be clad in any flotsam and +jetsam of apparel that charity might have drifted toward her. But +to-night she was smartly dressed. Now that Claire scanned her closer in +the dimness, it was plain that she wore very unusual gear. Josie was not +much over twenty. She was extremely thin, but still rather shapely, and +endowed with a good deal of grace. Her face would have been pretty but +for its high cheek-bones and the hectic blotch of color that was wont to +flush them, in sharp contrast with her remaining pallor. She had had +several sisters who had died of a speedy consumption. Her eyes were +black, and would glitter as she moved them; she was always moving her +eyes; like herself, they never seemed at rest. She constantly smiled, +and the smile would have had a charm of its own if it had failed to +reveal somewhat ruinous teeth. Claire had always liked her vivacity, +though it had seemed to possess a spur that came from an unhealthy +impulse, like the heat of internal fever. She wore a wide-brimmed hat of +dark straw, with a great crimson feather, and a costume of some cheap +maroon stuff, violently relieved by trimmings of broad white braid. The +_ensemble_ was very far from ugly. She had copied its effect from a +popular weekly journal, whose harrowing fiction would sometimes be +supplemented by prints of the latest fashions, "given away" to its +devoted patrons. + +Claire, having drawn nearer to Josie, took in all her details of costume +with ready swiftness. This fleet sort of observation was always an easy +matter for Claire. In most cases of a like sort, she would both see and +judge before others had accomplished even the first process. + +"You seem to be waiting for somebody, Josie," she now said. + +"Yes, I am," returned Josie, with another laugh. She put one slim hand +to her mouth as she laughed; she nearly always employed this gesture at +such a time; it came, no doubt, from a consciousness of dental +deficiencies. "I ain't goin' to be _shy_, Miss Twining," she pursued. +"Why _should_ I? I'm expectin' a gent'man friend o' mine. We was goin' +over t' the city together. We was goin' to _Niblo's_. There's an el'gant +play there, they _say_." ... Here Josie paused, drew backward for an +instant, and then impulsively seized one of Claire's hands in both of +her own. "Oh, Miss Twining!" she suddenly exclaimed, "I know I hadn't +ought to ask you if _you'd_ come along, too, but I do wish you just +_would_! You ain't the same kind as me a bit, and there's more'n me in +Greenpoint--now, 'pon my word there is--that's said when they see you +that you _was_ a reel lady. But still, you might come with me and my +friend, Mr. MacNab, and just get a spell of _'musement_. I know you +ain't had any 'musement in goodness sakes _how_ long! It's a reel +el'gant play! Do say you will! Now I ain't a bit _soft_ on Mr. MacNab. +P'aps he'd _like_ me to be, but I ain't. So three won't spoil comp'ny. +Now, _do_! Oh, Miss Twining, I'd be awful glad if you _would!_" + +Josie's tones, like her words, were warmly persuasive. She still +retained Claire's hand. Nor did Claire withdraw it. She was tempted. She +turned her head toward the darkling city, in whose realm of deepened +shadow many new lights had begun to burn. + +"Ah, Josie," she said, "you are very kind to ask me. But I'm quite +shabby beside you, you know." + +"Pshaw!" flatly objected Josie; "you look fust rate. That ain't _no_ +sort of reason.... Do! Now, _do_!" + +Claire laughed nervously. She was thinking how pleasant it would be to +hear an orchestra play, to see a curtain rise, to watch a drama roll its +story out, behind vivid footlights, between painted scenes. + +"I am sure Mr. MacNab wouldn't like," she said. And then she thought of +how her father would soon come home and miss her, and have to be told, +when they next met, that she had been to the theatre over in New York +with the girl who brought them vegetables thrice a week. She seemed +quite to have made up her mind, presently. She withdrew her hand from +Josie's with a good deal of placid force. + +"No, Josie, I can't," she said. + +"Yes, you _can_!" was the fervid reply. "Yes, you just _shall_, Miss +Twining; now _there_! I ain't goin' t' let you _off_! When I get my mind +set right _onto_ anything, I'm as stubb'n as ever I can _be_! An' I'm +sure you'd _like_ to come. There ain't no doubt of 't--not one single +_grain_!" + +Josie was laughing while she thus spoke, and had again caught Claire's +unwilling hand with more of entreaty than boldness. + +"What makes you sure?" Claire asked. She smiled now, though the smile +was sad. + +Josie's laughter became a high treble ripple. She put both feet, visible +beneath her short skirt, suddenly very close together, and curved her +lithe body in an abrupt burlesque bow. The trick was graceful, though +vulgar; it savored of the cheaper variety entertainments, where Josie +had no doubt found it. She still held Claire's hand, and she was looking +straight into the eyes of her companion with her own dark, brisk eyes. + +"What _makes_ me sure you'd like to go?" she said. "Why, sakes alive, +Miss Twining, I can see the need of a little fun oozin' right out of +your _face_--now, 'pon my word and sacred honor I just _can_! Oh, pshaw! +We'll be home early 'nough. It won't be _much_ more'n quarter past +'leven, I guess. B'sides, who'll _know_? 'Tain't anybody's business but +_ours_." + +'Father would know. It would be his business,' Claire thought. But she +did not answer aloud, as yet. She permitted Josie to retain her hand, +while she turned and gave another glance toward the city across the +river. + +The rapid darkness had thickened. Where New York had lain, dim as a +mirage, hundreds of lights had clustered; their yellow galaxy more than +rivaled the pale specks of fire now crowding with silent speed into the +heavens domed so remotely above them. + +She faced Josie again. She trembled, though imperceptibly. Drooping her +eyes, at first, she then raised them. "Well," she said, "I will let you +persuade me. I will go with you, Josie." + +It was the first time she had ever made a resolve whose fulfillment she +felt sure would displease her father. The certainty that he would not +sanction her going in companionship of this proposed sort made Claire's +decision a sacrilege to herself, even while she perversely took it. She +trampled on her own filial loyalty, and she seemed to feel it tremble in +pained protest under the outrage. It was in vain that a troop of +self-excusing pleas sprang to battle against her shamed afterthought. +She knew that remorse was already whetting for her its poniard. The +gloom of her father's future rebuke had already made itself a part of +the increasing nightfall. + +"Oh, ain't I glad, though!" Josie broke forth, gleefully. Her triumph +was one of pure good-natured impulse, but at the same time she had a +flattered sense that her evening's amusement would now gain a stamp of +distinction. One or two girls in Greenpoint had derided her for +encouraging Mr. MacNab as a devotee. She herself secretly derided the +young man in that same tender office. For this reason she had arranged +that they should meet here to-night at the foot of the little hillock +near the river, and invest their purposed trip with enough clandestine +association to defeat the couchant raillery of certain unsparing +neighbors. + +Almost immediately Mr. MacNab made his appearance below, and Josie +tripped lightly down toward him, followed by Claire at a much more sober +pace. The introduction promptly followed, and Josie's glib, +matter-of-course explanation soon succeeded that. The reason of Claire's +presence was given Mr. MacNab by Josie with a handsome, off-hand +patronage. "It's awful nice o' Miss Twining to _consent_ to go along +with us," she ended. "_Aint_ it, now?" + +"Oh, yes, indeed," said Mr. MacNab. + +The young man was inwardly tortured by this abrupt announcement. He was +very much in love with Josie, and he had felt deeper and deeper thrills +of anticipation all day long, as the hour of their rendezvous drew near. +He was a youth of about two-and-twenty. His stature was so low as to be +almost dwarfish; both Claire's and Josie's well overtopped it. He was +very stout, however; the breadth of his shoulders and the solid girth of +his limbs might have suited six feet of clean height. He had a large, +smooth, moon-like face, a pair of little black eyes, and a pair of huge +red ears. He was immoderately ugly, but with an expression so simply +amiable as quite to escape repulsiveness. You felt that his ready smile +possessed vast hidden funds of geniality; there was no telling what +supple resources that long slit of big-lipped mouth might draw upon, at +a really mirthful emergency. One glance at his abnormal hands, where +every joint was an uncouth protuberance and every nail a line of inky +darkness, left it certain that they held no dainty share of the world's +manual requirements. Mr. James MacNab was an oyster-opener for about +eight months in the year, and a clam-opener through the remaining four. +The narrow window of his employer's shop looked upon Greenpoint Avenue, +wedged between the stores of a butcher and a candy-seller. Like Josie +Morley, James was of Irish parentage; like her, he abjured the accent of +his ancestors, having been born here, and having breathed into his being +at an early age that peculiar shame of Celtic origin which belongs among +our curiosities of immigration. His wages were meagre, and his hours of +work numerous. To-night was a precious interval of relaxation. He had +been released at three o'clock that afternoon, and had gone heavy-lidded +to a tiny cot in a garret-room, where he had slept the exhausted sleep +of one who is always in arrears to the drowsy god. Not long ago he had +waked, highly refreshed, and pierced with the expectation of soon +meeting his beloved Josie. He had four dollars and seventy-five cents in +his pocket, and the possession of this sum gave him a firm sense of +pecuniary security. The strong faith that he was finely dressed, too, +increased his confidence. He had a little low hat of black felt, tipped +sideways on his ungainly head; an overcoat of muddy cinnamon-brown, with +broad black binding along its lappels and edges; and a pair of boots so +capably polished that their lustre dissuaded you from too close scrutiny +of the toe-joint bulging from either clumsy foot. He was entirely +satisfied with his general effect. He knew that nature had not made him +comely, but he felt complete repose of conscience in the matter of +having atoned artistically for this personal slight. + +Josie's tidings left him almost speechless. In a trice his glowing hopes +had crumbled to ashes. He had long known Claire by sight. He had, in a +way, admired her. But she was not of his _monde_, and he saw with woe +and dismay that for this reason her company would prove all the more +burdensome. As a matter of expense, too, it presented the most painful +objections. New drafts must be made upon his limited capital. All his +past calculations were suddenly rendered null. Who could say what +financial disaster might overtake him, if he should now aspire to three +oyster-stews after three seats at the theatre? Would his four dollars +and seventy-five cents not pass its powers of elasticity if subjected to +this unforeseen stretching-process? Claire, meanwhile, was wholly +unconscious of his distress. It was not till they had embarked on the +ferry-boat that the thought of her escort's possible poverty occurred to +her flurried mind. "Oh, Josie," she soon found a chance to whisper, "I +am afraid I shall be a great expense to your friend! I would have +thought of it sooner if you had not pressed me so, without any warning +beforehand. And I have only a little change in my pocket, so I can't"-- + +But here Josie interrupted her with a magnificent murmured fiction to +the effect that they were under the protection of a young man who "jus' +made money hand over fist"; and Claire, believing this handsome +falsehood, let Josie talk with her gallant while she relapsed into +silence. + +They were all on the forward deck of the steamboat, close against its +wooden railing. Claire was a little apart from her companions; she had +instinctively withdrawn from them. The night had now woven its web to +the full. Overhead the stars beamed more richly; below, the black river +shimmered with glassy lustre where it met the sides of the speeding +vessel, and then rolled off again into darkness with great swollen +waves. Long points of light pierced the gloom below the opposite shore, +like golden plummets that were slowly fathoming its opaque tide. Here +and there scarlet or green lights moved over the waters, given by the +viewless barks that bore them the look of weird, wandering +jack-o'-lanterns. These were simply fantastic; they held no human +analogies. A sloop, thus brilliantly decked, hove on a sudden into +sight, not many yards from Claire's peering gaze. Its expanse of canvas, +tense in the sharp breeze, caught a momentary unearthly pallor; it +slipped into view like a monstrous phantom, and like a phantom it +vanished again. This, too, was a merely elfin and quaint apparition; no +sense of vital reality lay behind it. But the journeying ferry-boats, +that voyaged to their several goals on either side the river, took, with +their curved lines of small, keen-lit windows and their illuminations at +various other points, the likeness of stately galleys gliding after +nightfall to some opulent port. All their horrors of nautical +architecture were deadened by merciful shadow. Claire felt the quiet +splendor of the suggestion. Her varied educational past made this fully +possible. But the whole effect of transformation, of magic, of mystery, +and of beauty, which follows the advent of night along all the watery +environs of our great metropolis, appealed to her with deep force. + +She had a fancy that the hard prose had left her life forever; that she +was now being softly swept into luxurious and romantic surroundings; +that the festal and poetic look of city and river symbolized a fairer +and kindlier future. The indulgence of this fancy thrilled her +delightfully; it was a sort of intoxication; she no longer felt +culpable, unfilial; she leaned her graceful young head far over the +boat-rail, as though to gain by this act a stronger intimacy with the +sweet, drowsy sorceries that encompassed her. + +"_My_! ain't it _reel_ chilly out here, though?" said Josie. "We'd ought +to 'a stayed inside, _hadn't_ we, Miss Twining?" + +This half broke the spell with Claire. "I like it so much better out +here," she answered. "The air isn't too sharp for me, and then +everything is so beautiful and strange." She slightly waved one hand +toward the brilliant city as she spoke. + +Josie did not understand at all. How could there be anything beautiful +in a lot of boats screaming to each other after dark with +steam-whistles? But she said "yes," and cast a glance at Mr. MacNab, +which was meant to veto in him the first symptom of surprise. Claire's +superiority must not have the least slight cast upon it. It would never +do to encourage Mr. MacNab in undervaluing the compliment of her +companionship. + +The boat soon landed, and all Claire's lovely illusions fled. Still, +here was the city, noisy, populous, alluring. After disembarking at the +ferry they were yet far away from Niblo's, and a long ride ensued, in a +car crowded and of ill odor. Then came a walk of considerable length, +fleetly taken, for they were a little late by Mr. MacNab's silver +time-piece, which afterward proved to be fast. + +Mr. MacNab was meanwhile in a sort of nervous trance. He had made what +for him was a _tour de force_ in mental arithmetic, though he still +remained insecure about the exactitude of his calculation. However, he +felt confident of one thing: three seats, of a certain kind, would cost +three dollars. A dollar would solidly remain to him, though the precise +amount of surplus change now in his pocket defied all his mathematical +modes of discovery. Pride forbade that he should take out the silver +bits and count them. But his residual dollar could at least pay the +homeward fares. Cold as this comfort may have been, it took, no doubt, a +certain relative warmth when contrasted with dire pecuniary exposure. + +They at length reached the theatre, and easily procured upstairs seats +that commanded an excellent view of the stage. The curtain had not yet +risen. Claire was glad of that; she had the desire not to miss a single +detail of the coming performance. She was intently examining her +play-bill, when, on a sudden, a man's voice, close at her right, spoke +to this effect:-- + +"Hello, Jimmy, is that yerself?" + +The next moment Claire perceived a hand and arm to have been +unceremoniously thrust in front of her, while a young man leaned his +body very much sideways indeed. She receded, herself, not without +annoyance. + +Josie sat next to her, and then came Mr. MacNab, who now permitted +himself to be shaken hands with across the laps of the two girls. + +"Hello, Jack," he responded, at the same time. "What you doin' here?" + +"Come t' see the show," said the person called Jack. + +"Is that so?" + +"'Course. Nuthin' strange 'bout it, is there?" + +"That's all right." + +"S'pose you're on the same racket yerself. Hey?" + +"You bet, ole boy." + +All these utterances were exchanged in tones of the most easy +cordiality. The two young men had ceased to shake hands, but were +leaning each toward the other, apparently quite unconscious of the +inconvenience which they inflicted upon both Josie and Claire. + +"I got sold t'night," Jack continued, with a blended wink and giggle. + +"How's that?" + +Jack gave a demonstrative jerk of the elbow, meant to indicate a vacant +seat on his further side. "Me an' my gal was comin' t'gether, but she +gimme the slip after I'd got mer seats. Sent word she had the headache. +Well, I dunno how 'tis, but I reckon I'll have to punch some feller's +head, 'fore long. Hey, Jimmy?" + +This hostile prophecy was hailed by Jimmy with a laugh whose repressed +enjoyment took the semblance of a goose's hiss, except that its tone was +more guttural and its volume more massive. + +"I guess that's 'bout the size of it, Jack," he replied. The next moment +he straightened himself in his seat, having received an exasperated +nudge from Josie. + +Mr. MacNab's friend followed his example. Claire felt relieved. She +examined her programme again. She had already managed to see quite as +much as she wished of the person seated next her. + +His name was Slocumb. He had a cousin in Greenpoint, an undertaker's +son, whom he would occasionally visit of a Sunday, bringing across the +river to the doleful quarters of his kinsfolk a demeanor of high +condescension and patronage. He was in reality a loafer of very vicious +sort, feeding his idleness upon the alms of an infatuated woman, whose +devotion he did not repay with even the saving grace of fidelity. He had +contrived to hide his real badness of life and lowness of repute from +both uncle and cousin, and had won the latter to believe him a superior +kind of metropolitan product. Together MacNab and he had partaken of +refreshment at the shop of the former's employer, and from such events +had sprung an intimacy with the oyster-opener which had found its most +active development in a near drinking-shop. Mr. John Slocumb had a dull, +brownish complexion, a light-brown eye, and a faint brown mustache. His +face was not ugly, judged by line and feature, but it had a hardness +that resembled bronze; you fancied that you might touch its cheek and +meet no resistance. There was a look of vice and depravity about it that +was not to be explained; the repulsive element was there, but it eluded +direct proof; it was no more in eyelid than in nostril, but it was as +much in forehead and chin as in either. Claire felt the repelling force +almost instantly. Mr. Slocumb's dress was not designed in a fashion to +decrease its effect. He wore a suit of green-and-blue plaid, each tint +being happily moderated, like evil that prefers to lurk in ambush. The +collar of his shirt sloped down at the breast, leaving an unwonted +glimpse of his neck visible. But you saw a good deal of his cravat, +which was green, barred with broad yellow stripes, and pierced by a pin +that appeared to be a hand of pink coral clutching a golden dumb-bell. +His figure was slender almost to litheness, but his shoulders outspread +two such long and bulky ridges that you at once placed their athletic +proportions among the most courageous frauds of tailoring. + +The orchestra had now begun to play a lively and rather clangorous +prelude. And meanwhile Claire was gradually made to learn that Mr. John +Slocumb was keeping up a cool, persistent stare at her half-averted +face. She soon became troubled by this unrelaxing scrutiny, as minutes +slipped by. Mr. Slocumb had a slim black cane that looked like a +polished and rounded whalebone and ended in the head of a bull-dog, with +two white specks of ivory for its eyes. Holding this between his knees, +he flung it from one hand to another in nervous oscillation, while +continuing his stare. + +He had decided that Claire was a damned good-looking girl. He had a +secret contempt for her escort, Mr. MacNab. He judged all men by the +capabilities of their muscle, and he had practical reasons for feeling +sure that his own wiry frame held easy resources for the annihilation of +"poor little Jimmy." 'She looks putty high-toned,' he was reflecting, +'but I guess that's on'y a put-up job to tease a feller. She can't be +much if she's along with that young un. I'll say somepn.' + +He was on the verge of carrying out this resolve and addressing Claire, +when an event occurred which had the effect of thwarting his meditated +impertinence. + +The mind of James MacNab was dull and sluggish. But he had seen a way of +perhaps securing for himself the undivided attention of Josie. He did +not wait for the latter to sanction his design; he feared her opposition +to it, and suddenly spoke, leaning forward again with his look directed +full upon Claire. + +"Miss Twinin'," he said, "'low me t' intrerdooce a friend o' mine, Mr. +Slocumb. Mr. Slocumb, Miss Twinin'; Miss Twinin', Mr. Slocumb." + +During this ponderous formula of presentation Claire had started, +colored, turned toward the neighbor thus pointedly named, and finally +bowed with extreme coldness, at once re-averting her face after doing +so. + +She seized the chance of whispering to Josie: "Why did he do that? I +don't want to meet any strangers to-night. I hoped he would understand." + +"He'd _ought_ to," replied Josie, in swift aside. "I do declare it's +_too_ bad!" + +The next moment she addressed Mr. MacNab. Claire could not hear what she +said to him, but her brisk asperity of gesture somewhat plainly denoted +reprimand. Her remarks, whatever their nature, were met in stolid +silence. He who received them rather enjoyed being scolded by Josie. Her +wrath had the charm of exclusiveness; for the time, at least, it +vouchsafed to him her unshared heed. + +Slocumb made prompt use of his new opportunity. "I guess we'll have a +putty decent show to-night," he said. "They say it lays over most +ev'rything that's been here fur a year or two." + +Claire was now forced to turn and look at the speaker. To ignore him was +no longer to preserve dignity. He had received his right of way beyond +the barriers of her disregard; he had become an authorized nuisance; +civility from herself had taken the instant shape of a debt, due her +present escort. + +"I shall be glad if it is a good play," she said. Her tones were chill +and forced; her manner was repellent because so restrained. Immediately +after speaking she looked at the stage. The orchestra had just stopped +its brassy tumults. The green width of curtain was slowly rolling +upward. + +The play began. It was one of those melodramas that are the despair of +reformatory critics, yet reach the protective approval of the populace +through scenic novelty, swift action, and vivid, if coarse-lined, +portraitures. Claire was too infrequent a theatre-goer not promptly to +fall under the spell wrought by a playwright deft enough for the capture +of others far more experienced than she in tricks of climax, dialogue, +and situation. + +Occasionally, during the progress of this act, she would murmur pleased +comments to Josie. She betrayed an interest that was childish; she had +forgotten the proximity of Slocumb. He still stared at her; he had not +been effectually repulsed by her suppressed, colorless demeanor. Her +refined accent and the musical quality inseparable at all times from her +voice had affected him like a new sensation. He failed to follow the +actors while they diligently stored up material for future agony. He had +enormous confidence in his own powers of fascination with women. It did +not occur to him that Claire might be a lady. He knew nothing of ladies. +He had met some women who disliked him at sight, who would have none of +him, whose fortresses of prejudice he could not storm. But these +incidents of disfavor were rare; his list of conquests far outnumbered +them. + +"She's playin' off," sped his further reflections, once more shaped in +the vernacular of actual speech. "I'll let up on her fur a spell. When +the fust act's through I'll tackle her agin. _She_ aint 's offish as she +looks. Bet she ain't!" + +The act progressed, and at length ended. Its _finale_ foretold a +plentitude of woe and disaster; a great deal of pipe, so to speak, had +been laid for future calamity; everything promised to be inclement and +tempestuous. The audience exchanged murmurs of grim approbation; it was +going to get its money's worth of horror. + +But now an event abruptly took place which for lurid reality far +eclipsed all within the limits of canvas and calcium. Just as the +drop-curtain had reached half-way in its descent, a sudden burst of +flame was seen to issue from one of the wings. It may at once be said +that the fire was completely extinguished soon after the curtain had +touched the boards, and that nothing more serious had caused it than the +momentary conflagration of some gauze side-scene which was to serve in a +coming effect of misty moonlight. + +But the large mass of people who witnessed the blaze, and who saw and +smelt the smoke as it curled and eddied in black spirts forth from +behind the edges of the fallen curtain, had no knowledge of their own +slight peril. Here, in the upper tiers, they rose impetuously; it was a +prompt and general panic. Dashes were made on every hand toward the +staircases. Cries of "fire" sounded from many throats. Claire felt +herself swept by sheer bodily pressure at least twenty yards. A few +seconds before this she had heard a sort of whimpering shriek from Josie +Morley, and then had seen a sidelong wedge of close-packed humanity pry +itself between her own form and that of the girl. Josie was clinging +with both hands to the arm of James MacNab at the moment of her +disappearance. + +Claire was more shocked than frightened. She had never before found +herself in physical danger; to-night was a crucial test for her nerve +and coolness. Both stood the test well. John Slocumb, who had kept close +at her side, with his stout arm firmly clasped about her waist, now felt +a thrill of admiration as she turned to him and quietly said, while they +stood jammed together in the panting throng, whose very fierceness of +impetus had produced for it a brief, terrible calm, "I wish you would +not hold me like that, please. There's no need of it." + +We sometimes hear of the ruling passion that is strong in death. Claire +knew there was danger of her being crushed. But she had not lost her +head, as the phrase goes. She could still prefer solitary extinction to +the fate of being annihilated while in the embrace of Mr. John Slocumb. + +He removed his arm. "All right," he muttered, "if you'd rather go it +alone." + +"I would, thank you," said Claire. + + + + +VI. + + +But, as it happened, they were not separated. The crowd, pouring down +either staircase, soon thinned. There was better breathing-space, and a +fairer chance as well, for the more demoralized to push and struggle. +Slocumb kept close behind Claire. He warded off from her a number of +desperate thrusts. She was not aware of these defensive tactics; she +paid no further heed to her former champion; as her sense of danger +lessened, the idea of re-meeting Josie took shape and strength. When the +first step of the staircase was reached, she stumbled, and then regained +herself. She had no suspicion, at this moment, what actually doughty +work Slocumb was doing, just in her rear. He was a man of unusual +muscular power, and, like not a few of his rough, pugnacious species, +endowed with dogged physical courage. At sight Claire had keenly +attracted him; her recent aversion had piqued him into liking her still +more. If the occasion had grown one of sharper immediate jeopardy, it is +by no means doubtful that he might have shown intrepid heroism as her +rescuer. He was gross, coarse, unprincipled, but he had that quality of +stubbornly defending what he liked which we often see in the finest of +brutes and sometimes in the least fine of men. + +Up to this time the prevailing affright had meant bitter ill to all +whom it had seized. The threat of a hideous destruction had by no means +passed when the crowd about Claire grew less dense; for not far behind +her were two opposite streams of life that had met and were each +destroying the other's progress by their very madness of encounter. +Below stairs, and at one of the intermediate landings, numerous people +had already been severely hurt; limbs had been broken, and acute +injuries of other kinds had been dealt. The cries heard here and there +were made as much by pain as fear. + +But powers of good were working with ardor among the lower quarters of +the building. A man had sprung forth upon the stage, and was imploring +order amid the smoke which partly enveloped him, while at the same time +he shouted to the multitude that the fire was now under perfect control. +Two policemen and two ushers were abetting him further on, where neither +his entreaties nor explanations could reach. Suddenly, with the same +speed shown by the panic at its origin, an orderly lull was manifest in +its haphazard turmoil. A few caught the sense of the cheering +intelligence, and these spread it swiftly from tongue to tongue. At the +moment when this change began to be clearly assertive, Claire and +Slocumb had almost gained the last landing of the stairs. By the time +they were in the lower part of the theatre, not a few persons who +desired to air their bravery, now that safety seemed certain, were +returning to their seats in dress-circle or parquette. "It's on'y a +hoax, after all," said Slocumb. "There's a heap more scared nor hurt. +S'pose we git upstairs again? Hey? What d'yer think?" + +Claire shook her head. "No, I want to find Josie," she answered. "I +don't care to go back. I think she will not, either." + +"All right," said Slocumb; "jus' take my hook, an' we'll git out o' +here, an' watch fur Jim an' her where they're mos' likely to be." + +He extended an arm to Claire as he spoke, and pointed at the same time +toward a spacious outer hallway, in which the terrified multitude had +already become much more tractable. But Claire resolutely refused to see +the offered arm. She had begun to tremble; now that the cause for fright +had passed, she was made to realize with how strong a wrench she had +screwed her nerves to the sticking-point. A touch of giddiness came upon +her; then a knot rose in her throat, and she fought transiently, but +with silent success, against a novel sensation that only slight +self-surrender might have encouraged into turbid hysteria. Still, she +preserved her repugnance, as it were. She would not accept Slocumb's +arm. She had made up her mind that he was a vulgar and worthless +creature, and moreover she had a distressing instinct that he had thus +stayed at her side because of some new-born personal enticement. + +He saw plainly her rebuff, though she did not put it in any salient way, +choosing to let him suppose it a mere unconscious omission. But he +preferred not to let it pass unnoticed. + +"Oho," he said, with surly force, while still keeping his arm crooked, +and shoving it so prominently toward her that no further subterfuge was +possible. "So y' ain't goin' to ketch on, hey? W'at's the reason? We can +git 'long better. Come, now, _let's_." + +"No," said Claire, driven to bay. "I am very much obliged to you, but I +don't need any help." + +"Oh! You'll go it alone. All right." + +But Mr. Slocumb did not look as if he thought it by any means right. His +hard, brown face had clouded with sulky disapprobation. A little gleam +of teeth had stolen out under his crisp, short mustache, with an effect +not unlike what we see when an angry dog snarls. He felt offended, and +this meant that he should either sting with his tongue or smite with his +fists. But in the present case a fresh glance at Claire, whose profile +was turned to him, made his spleen swiftly perish. Her cheek had got a +deep tint of rose; he saw the liquid sparkle of one dark-blue eye, and +the dense, rippling hair, chestnut threaded with gold, flowing above one +faint-veined temple. + +'_Ain't_ she a stunner!' he thought. After that he forgot to be +offended. They were now in a spacious hallway leading directly to the +street. The panic had quite subsided. Knots of people were standing here +and there, loudly discussing their late alarms. Some of the women looked +and acted as if they were midway between mirth and tears. Most of the +men seemed grave; a few were laughing, but in a nervous, furtive way. +Along the centre of the broad passage pressed a line of people whom the +shock had left too dispirited for further sojourn in the house. + +Claire, with her adherent, was among these latter. In quest of Josie, +she scanned every face within her field of vision. She had already +caught sight of more than one injured unfortunate, further back, where +the rush on the lower floor had been most disastrous, and just before +she and Slocumb had gained their present open quarters. On this account, +rather than because of the wild stampede itself, she had quite lost +desire to wait through the rest of the play. It was now her fixed design +to regain Josie and urge the plan of an immediate return to Greenpoint. +Her sense of having met her father's known wishes with overt disrespect +had become an assailant self-reproach. The very harshness of the event +which had so rudely broken in upon her enjoyment seemed to have borrowed +its disrelish from the rebuke that she had known as waiting all along to +shame her. Providence, for the time, had gone with her father; it had +abetted him; it had been telling her, in stern terms of personal threat, +how flagrant was her filial disloyalty. + +She searched for Josie, but found her nowhere visible. She had soon +reached the limit of the large passage. A gate now confronted her, where +a man waited, ready to give those who sought egress a strip of cardboard +insuring their readmission. + +Claire took this guarantee of further diversion unconsciously. The man +had stood at his post through all the furor that had just ended. He was +a sort of new Horatius at the bridge, though possibly with less sublime +motive, his wage being a permanent annuity, and his position one of easy +proximity to Broadway. + +Claire stood in the vestibule of the theatre, and felt the breeze from +the street blow on her heated face, before she was well aware just what +vantage of exit she had secured. Still she had not seen Josie. And she +now began to realize that there was a very strong chance of not seeing +Josie. True, the girl might have returned with Mr. MacNab to their +former seats in the second gallery of the theatre. But Claire's +reluctance to place herself again within the walls of the building had +by this time grown a fierce distaste. Meanwhile, Slocumb had maintained +an unrelenting nearness to her. She knew this perfectly well. If +possible, a more meagre means than the extreme corner of each eye had +told her of it; for so great was her repugnance that she had thus far +grudged him even the knowledge of receiving the most minute regard. But +now she was forced to turn and look at him. + +"Do you think Josie can have gone back into the theatre?" she asked, not +being herself aware just what frost and distance she had put into voice +and manner. + +"Dunno," said Slocumb. "Guess she ain't, though. Guess her an' him's out +there in the crowd." The crowd to which he referred was already dense, +and every moment increasing. It flooded the flag-stones and a portion of +the middle street. Three or four policemen were stirring it to the +needful sense of decorum, no less by application than menace of their +clubs. + +"I am afraid I should never find her there," Claire said, hopelessly. + +"That's so," quickly returned Slocumb. "You'd better come inside agin. +The scare'll be over in a minnit. The piece'll go on, 'fore long, +certain sure." + +"I don't care for the piece," replied Claire, with a little toss of the +head, more anxious than imperious. "I don't want to see the rest of it. +I want to find Josie, and have her take me home at once." + +"All right. Jus' step inside an' wait fur 'em both." + +Claire looked straight at the speaker. She did not know of the droop in +each full-fringed lid of her beautiful eyes. It was an unconscious token +of her abhorrence. + +"Suppose that they should not return," she said. + +"All right," replied Slocumb, brutally impervious. "_I'll_ take yer +home, if they don't." + +"Thank you," faltered Claire. This view of the question gave her a new +shock. It was like hearing that the ferry-boats between New York and +Greenpoint had stopped running for the night. "But I won't trouble you," +she added, trying to make her voice and mien indifferently calm. "I will +wait here a little while, and then, if I don't find Josie, I will go +home alone." + +"Go home alone?" repeated Slocumb, with a sort of sympathetic +interrogation that was detestable to her. "Why, how far is it?" + +"Oh, not very far," she replied, turning her back on him, and feeling +that in another moment she might treat his offensive persistence with +the blunt rigor it deserved. + +"I thought you was livin' over to Greenpoint," said Slocumb, shifting +with tough pertinacity round to her side. + +What a man of cleaner life and thought would simply have praised as +sweet and chaste about her fired in this corrupt oaf his one gross +substitute for sentiment. She could no more appeal to him by her +fineness of line, coloring, or movement than the field-flower when +cropped by the brute mouth whose appetite its very grace and perfume may +perhaps whet. And Claire divined this. Pure things know impure ones, all +through the large scheme of nature. There are nicer grades of +intelligence, of course, as we move along the upward scale of such +antagonisms. The milk will not cloud till we dilute it with the +ink-drop, but a white soul can usually note a black one by earlier and +wiser signals of alarm. + +"Why should I not go home alone?" Claire had been saying to herself. "No +one would know me--I could reach the Tenth Street Ferry--I could ask +some one, and get the right car--Yes, I will try no more to find +Josie--I will break away from this low creature--I have enough money to +bring me safely home--I don't care; I will take my chances and slip +off--he will not follow me when he sees me shun him like that." + +She ignored his last remark. She did not even glance at him where he now +stood. Her gaze was fixed on the crowd, and she was watching to find a +brief break in its edge, through which she might flit and be lost. The +next instant such a chance came. Claire seized it. She made an oblique +dart through the large doorway, slanted her nimble steps across the +pavement, and was soon breasting the adverse tide, so to speak, of a +little human sea. Each man or woman stood in the place of a choppy, +obstructive wave. At every moment poor Claire found herself gently +buffeting a new impediment, male or female, as the case might be. Since +she wanted to move in a course different from that of nearly every one +before or beside her, the carrying out of her object involved a good +amount of determined propulsion. But she at length gained the open, as +it were. She had now only to strike along in a northerly direction until +she reached the point at which a certain line of small cars crossed +Broadway. She was not sure at just what street this intersection +occurred; she knew that it was by no means near by. A cumbrous omnibus +rolled clamorously toward her, and for a moment she was inclined to +hail it; but a swift look into its lighted space, well freighted with +passengers, made her shrink from the concentration of stares that her +sex and loneliness must equally provoke. The publicity of the long, +lamp-fringed sidewalk, with its incidents of potential if not always +tangible policemen, expressed, after all, a more secure privacy. When +she took one of the little trundling cars which would bring her eastward +to the ferry, she would not be forced to clamber and stoop and stagger +before getting a seat. Their mode of conveyance, too, would be somehow +more safely plebeian; they would hold their last fragments of the +work-a-day world going back to Greenpoint; in case of insult, she might +have her final appeal to some reputable occupant bound for the same +destination as herself. + +Meanwhile, the big-bodied omnibus clattered by. Claire had resolved to +walk. The high-perched driver had not seen her pause, hurry to the +curbstone, and then lift a hand which was straightway dropped at the +bidding of her changed mood. But this action, while it wrought delay in +her progress, rendered somewhat earlier her meeting with one who still +obstinately pursued her. Just as she had again started, with slightly +quickened pace, the inexterminable Slocumb appeared at her side. He +seemed to have used no effort in catching up with her. There was a +terrible ease in the way his length of limb accommodated its free stride +to Claire's more repressed motions. He had not immediately given chase. +She had got rather deep into the crowd about the theatre-doors before +his impudence, positive as it always was, had trumped up sufficient real +nerve to follow her. Claire continued walking; but she looked at him +with fixity as she said, "I suppose you saw that I wanted to go alone." + +"'T aint right, nohow," he replied, peering into her face with his bad, +hard eyes. "A putty gal like you hadn't ought t' walk the streets all by +herself after dark. You lemme go along. Don' look scared; I wouldn't +hurt ye fur a cent." + +"Oh, I am not afraid of you," said Claire, between her teeth. "Why +should I be?" + +"That's the ticket. W'y should ye be?" + +"I don't want your company. I have shown this to you, and now I tell it +to you." + +Slocumb laughed. It seemed to Claire that his laugh had the cold of ice +and the thrust of steel in it. His lowered arm touched hers with +intentional pressure, but she swerved sideways, at once thwarting the +contact. He, however, promptly narrowed the distance thus made between +them. + +"Say!" he now broke forth, in peculiar, confidential undertone, as +though a third party were listening. "W'at ye mad fur, hey? You was +along with Jimmy MacNab, wasn't ye? An' wasn't we intrerdooced all +reg'lar? I'm a better feller 'n Jim, any day in the year. Jus' gimme a +show. Won't ye? Say, now, _won't_ ye? I took a dead shine to you the +minnit I clapped eyes on them two nice pink cheeks--blowed if I didn't! +I sez to myself, 'She can walk round any gal I've seen fur a devil of a +time,' I sez." + +Claire looked straight ahead. She still went quickly along. Her feet and +limbs felt light, almost void of sense. Fear had to do with this, and +she was keenly frightened. For the first time in her life she knew the +terror that feminine honesty has when fronted with the close chance of +physical insult. + +Slocumb justified her dread. He had no more regard for common laws of +restraint than the majority of untamed brutes, when conscious, as in his +case, of firm thews and active bulk. As for moral bravery, his nature +harbored no concern with such nicer elements. The only vices he did not +possess were those for which he had never known an hour of temptation. +His father had drank himself to death, and he inherited what was perhaps +an embryo taste in the same direction. He got drunk once a fortnight, +now, in his twenty-seventh year, whereas, two years ago, these +diversions had been much rarer; in a decade, under his uncontrolled +conditions, there was a fair chance of his becoming a sot. To speak more +generally, the vast social momentum of heredity, which seems to be so +plainly understood and so ill appreciated in our golden century, had +Slocumb well in its stern grip. There were no outward incident forces, +as the philosophic phrase goes, to make his case in any way a hopeful +one. He had seen Claire; he had exchanged a word with her; he had liked +her. If his liking were put in the baldest form of explanation it would +have to deal with rather darksome realisms. And it is always preferable +that the pursuant satyr and the unwilling nymph be treated wholly from +the poetic and picturesque point of view. + +Claire would not speak. She was very frightened, as before has been +recorded: she seemed to see, between the gloomy interspaces of the +lamps, a phantasmal semblance of her father, looking untold rebuke at +her, and then vanishing only to reappear. She walked onward with fleet +energy. An idea shot through her mind that she might call a policeman to +rid her of this incubus. But she dismissed the idea at once. It was too +savagely desperate even for the confronting dilemma. + +By this time Slocumb had begun to see plainly that Claire was proof +against all his known methods of conquest. But she was unprotected, and +he had a dogged dislike of giving up the siege. The silence continued +for nearly five blocks. During this time his eyes scarcely once left her +face, gleaming distinct or dim as the lamplight waxed or waned. + +"Say!" he at length re-addressed her. "Ain't ye hungry? I was thinkin' a +stew would go putty good, just now, or a dish o' ice-cream. P'r'aps ye'd +rather tackle sumpn sweet. Hey?" + +She made no answer. He peered closer into her face, and repeated the +last odious little interrogative monosyllable a good many times. But +Claire remained as mute and irresponsive as though it had fallen on +stone-deaf ears. + +This lure suddenly held out to appetite was his last persuasive stroke. +It sprang naturally enough from the man who dealt it. It expressed in +the most exhaustive terms just how narrow and barren his conception was +of Claire's reasons for shunning him. He stood as the hideous result of +a hideous phase of society; and he could no more divine or imagine +higher and richer levels of life than if to know of these had meant to +be familiar with the soil and climates of a remote star. + +He was disappointed and chagrined, but not angry. Anger could not +consort with his present state; another kind of heat already filled his +veins; one flush kept the other aloof. He had now decided that Claire +was not to be conciliated, and yet the perfect lawlessness of his past +made him in a manner unable to snap the bond of attraction and leave +her. Self-control was a sealed book to him; he had not even opened its +cover, apart from learning its rudimentary lessons. + +When they had gone five or six blocks further, and the street at which +Claire would take the cross-town car was by no means far away, he +abruptly caught her arm and drew it close to his side, so holding it +with an exertion of purely muscular strength, beside which her own +resistance counted for little more than the flutter of a bird. + +Even at this most trying juncture she still moved on. He continued to +walk, as well. She veered her face toward his, however, forced out of +all her previous pitiful disdain, and he saw that she had grown pale as +death. + +"Let me go," she said. "Don't dare to hold me like this!" + +"Look here!" he returned, his tones taking a nasal whisper, and his +breath sweeping so close to her nostrils that she caught in it a stale +taint, as of liquor drank some time ago. "I wouldn't harm a hair o' your +head; you can jus' bet on that. I've took a likin' to you, an' I'll +treat ye good. If you wus a lady livin' up t' Fifth Avenyer, ye wouldn't +git more respectfuller behaved to nur I'll do." + +"If you don't let me go," said Claire, gasping a little as she got out +the words, "I'll complain to the first policeman we meet." + +He dropped her arm at once, stopping short. "D' ye mean it?" he asked, +with great show of reproach. "Say! d' ye mean it?" + +But Claire hurried on. She had a wild momentary hope that she had hit at +random upon a blessed source of deliverance. Here, however, she had +quite miscalculated. Slocumb's outburst had merely formed a bit of the +cheap sentimentality which one of his race and stamp would select as the +lame makeshift in a forlorn cause. + +It chanced that when Claire reached the desired corner a car was +opportunely passing. She signaled to it; the driver saw her; it stopped, +and she entered it. Meanwhile Slocumb had kept at her side, though with +the distance between them materially widened. She paid no heed to the +question of whether or not he entered with her. The car was entirely +empty as she took her seat. A little later she slipped a five-cent piece +into the small glass repository for passengers' fares--that touching +proof of the confidence reposed in drivers by those who employ them. +Shortly afterward she saw Slocumb standing on the outer platform. Her +heart and courage almost failed her, then. He presently walked inside +the car, and paid his fare, as she had done. She expected him to sit +down and resume his persecutions, but he did neither. He went out again +and stood on the platform. + +The little car jingled along Eighth Street. It passed the grim, bastard +architecture of the Mercantile Library, once, long ago, an opera house, +in which Steffenone sang to assemblages where a gentleman in +evening-dress or a lady without her bonnet was a rare enough incident, +and nothing prophesied the horse-shoe of resplendent boxes before which +Patti and Nilsson have since revealed their vocal charms. Soon afterward +it came to Third Avenue, easily betrayed by the flare of gaslight in +beer-saloon or liquor-shop, and a thoroughfare in which night revelry +seems to have claimed especial stronghold. Near at hand, that hideous +monument of philanthropy, the Cooper Union, frowns its unavailing +displeasure upon the malt of Schneider and the alcohol of Moriarty, both +of which project their noxious forces southward through the Bowery to +the City Hall, and northward across many reputable side streets on to +the shabby vulgarity of Harlem. + +But Claire was naturally unprepared, just now, either to recognize or +ponder the importance of this great popular boulevard which we call +Third Avenue; how it blends our ruling Irish and German elements in one +huge strand of commercial interests, each petty by itself, yet all, when +massed together, of enormous metropolitan note; how its very name is +pronounced with a mild sneer by our so-called better classes; how it is +held common and of ill repute; how one must not speak of it in a Fifth +Avenue drawing-room, lest he shall be suspected of having trodden its +tainted pavements; and yet how there pulses through its big, tough +artery nearly all the hot, impure political blood that feeds the +venality of our elective systems, making it for this reason a fact to be +always deplored but never lightly dismissed. Should the sombre growl +against that sin of over-possession which we term monopoly ever grow +into a revolutionary roar, it is very thinkable that the Robespierre of +such an event would be born in Third Avenue; but if not, he might safely +be depended on for having near relations there. The little car presently +crossed Second Avenue, at its most quiet portion. All the garish +brilliance had now quite vanished. Once beloved of respectability, this +broad street, here in what we designate its lower portion, has preserved +abundant souvenirs of perished fame. Many of the roomy old mansions +that line it may be dispeopled of their pristine Knickerbockers, but +even these retain much of their old stately repose. Up beyond, the +tenement-house thrives, and the tavern flaunts a bottle-decked casement; +but here, within generous limits, it remains a quarter full of decent +though not dismal gloom, and touched with an occasional solid grandeur. + +The car soon advanced into a very different region. It had reached one +of the two long if not deep river-edges which skirt the central domain +of our wealth and thrift. That squalor which dogs the heel of poverty +was everywhere manifest. The very street-lamps seemed to burn with a +dejected flicker. Night, however, was kind, and spared from view much +unsightly soilure. The high brick houses, thronged with inmates whom all +degrees of want and all modes of toil oppressed, lost themselves in +shadow; but now and then you caught glimpses of the liquid filth +clogging the gutters, and perhaps of a half-submerged cabbage-leaf or a +more buoyant egg-shell, to fleck its slime with baleful color. Here +spoke a crying municipal disgrace. The prosperous part of our city has +its streets kept cleanly throughout the year, but dread injustice is +wreaked upon these that are skirted by abodes of penury and need. Fat +appropriations are of no avail; the tax-money slips into fingers that +are deft in legerdemain; fraud and mismanagement meet as friends; it is +not enough that our beautiful island must crowd her shores with all the +disfeaturing accompaniments of commerce; she is forced, as well, to see +them polluted, far inland, by the foulness born of bad legislation. This +is one of the too frequent cases where, in our enlightened polity, +democracy plays wantonly into the hands of monarchism. + +A little later the car came into a wide, airy expanse, along two of +whose sides it journeyed for a considerable distance. Here was Tompkins +Square, now lighted with innumerable lamps, but only a few years ago a +dark horror to all decent citizens living near it. By day set aside as a +parade-ground for the city militia, which paraded there scarcely twice a +year, its lampless lapse of earth was by night at least four good acres +of brooding gloom, which he who ventured to cross stood the risk of +thievish assault, if nothing more harmful. What added to the unique +repulsiveness of the place for peace-loving denizens of its near +streets, was an occasional concourse of growling and saturnine German +socialists, held with stormy harangues and blood-thirsty diatribes under +moon or star, and amid the congenial environing shadow, which was +relieved, on these lurid occasions, by torches whose fitful flames +typified the feverish theories disclosed. + +But the car now passed a very different Tompkins Square from that of +old. The grim blank has become, since then, a bright-lit realm where the +tramp may fall prone on some of its many neat-built benches, but where +the highwayman will find slim chance to ply his fell trade. When this +region had been passed there remained only a brief space to be traversed +before the ferry was reached. The avenues by this time had ceased to be +numerically named; they had become alphabetical. But Avenues A, B, C, +and D are all quite homogeneous as regards dolorous discomfort. The city +here hides some of its worst lairs, and many a desperado infests them. +After a little journey, such as Claire now took, you gain the small, +dull-looking ferry. + +Meanwhile seven or eight new passengers had entered the car. They were +mostly Germans, and of both sexes. Claire felt a sense of protection. +One stout woman, of truly colossal build, with a sleeping baby in her +arms and an evident husband so hollow-cheeked and slight that it seemed +wrong for him even to assume the responsibility of paying their double +fare, especially reassured her. The rest were commonplace people enough. +One was a weary work-girl; one was a collier, grimy with his trade and +drowsy from drink; one was a dapper, bejeweled Hebrew, with oily amber +whiskers and large, loose red lips; still another was a handsome young +woman, smartly geared, who had said good-night, on entering, to a male +escort, and who now glanced uneasily about her at intervals, as though +fearful of being known. All this while Slocumb remained on the outer +platform. + +Presently the car stopped. Everybody alighted. The Tenth Street Ferry +was close at hand. Claire knew that her hateful adherent was close at +hand also. She paid her toll to the ferryman and glided through the +narrow bit of passage-way forth upon the long dark dock beyond. She +expected, at every new step, to be re-accosted by Slocumb. A boat had +landed, and was soon to disembark again. From the opposite dimness came +an ominous clank of chains, made by the men at either of the two wheels, +and a sudden "All aboard!" flung out in gruff tones as a stimulating +monition. The other passengers all hastened forward. Claire was among +them, though in the rear of the hurry. The foremost had gained the boat, +when she felt a strong clutch upon her arm. Compelled by sheer force to +pause, now, she turned, meeting Slocumb's face quite near her own. He +at once spoke, in the same intimate sort of whisper that she had before +found so distressing. + +"Say! 'T ain't right t' shake me like this. I ain't goin' t' stand it, +either. Come, change your mind. Treat me square. Will ye?" + +Claire, driven to bay, did what her sex is sometimes held by a few +renowned cynics as having a special talent for doing; she employed +stratagem. + +Her voice shook as she said: "Very well. What is it you wish me to do?" + +She could feel the tense grasp upon her arm relax a little. This was +just the kind of result she had aimed for. + +"I want ye t' stay this side the river a spell yet, an' we'll eat somepn +somewhere. Hey?" + +The fingers about her arm had acquired a fondling laxity that half +sickened her. But she waited a little. They were a good ten yards from +the boat. It was possible that both their figures were too shadowed for +the men at the chains to see them. Perhaps, on the other hand, these +wardens did not care to shout a final notice that the boat was now +unmoored. + +Claire still chose to temporize. Her heart beat so that it seemed about +to burst through her side; but she nevertheless kept her brain clear +enough to maintain a subtlety of intent in strange contrast to her deep +fear. + +She had determined to get free if she could, and find refuge among the +passengers on the boat. Here, in the lonely dusk of the dock, she was at +a sad disadvantage; but once within the lighted cabin of the boat, she +could find the same silent protection of mere surrounding that the car +had afforded. She had a latent resolve, also, of future appeal to some +of those whom she knew had preceded her, though this formed no real +part of her present quick-formed scheme. + +"Suppose that I do go with you," she said. "At what time would I be able +to get home?" + +Slocumb's grasp materially loosened. "Why, any time at all!" he +exclaimed. "The boats run till 'bout two o'clock or so, an'"-- + +His sentence was cut short in its valuable explanation by a sudden +disengaging spring on the part of Claire. She ran with her best speed +toward the boat. She now perceived that it was just leaving the pier. By +the time that she had gained almost the extreme edge of the latter, a +voice from the receding boat itself cried out to her, "Don't jump!" + +She saw, then, that a long, curved crevice was widening in a very rapid +way at a slight space beyond the spot where she had abruptly halted. A +few more seconds would make the leap a mere madness; now it needed +nerve, agility, and was indeed a venture. But Slocumb stood behind her. +The risk was worth the prize. Claire waited perhaps ten seconds; the +crevice had grown a fissure; she saw the murky water give a dull flash +or two, far below it. Then she jumped. + +The space had not been more than three feet. She cleared it well. But +_what she had cleared_ sent a sharp terror through her the instant after +both feet had touched the firm bourne of the deck. For a little while +she stood quite still, shivering, with her back to the dock thus boldly +quitted. Her mind was wholly in a whirl. She did not hear the +half-growled words of one of the men who had lately unloosed the boat, +chiding her upon her folly, in gruff contempt of syntax. + +But very soon this access of intense alarm lessened. She partly ceased +to fix her thought upon what she had done, recalling instead, why she +had done it. She turned, giving two flurried looks to right and left, +doubtless from a sense that the abhorred one might have breasted the +same peril as herself--in his case far lighter, of course. + +Her gaze swept the opposite pier. It gleamed drowsy and obscure, with +the effect of some grave marine monster just risen from the muddy tides +below it. Strangely, also, the lights at either side gave it the +semblance of two malign blazing eyes. And in the glimmer thus made +Claire saw Slocumb. + +He had not taken the leap. At first amazement had wrought in him its +brief yet telling effect. Then he had dashed to the end of the pier, +momentarily furious at thus being balked. But in a second his fury had +cooled. And something had cooled it, very new to him, though very +forcible. This was pity. He might easily have cleared the interspace. +But he forbore to do so. He thrust both hands into his pockets, and with +lowered head moved away. In an instant more it was too late for him to +have changed his novel resolve, even had he so wished. + +By the time that Claire's look lighted upon the pier he was nowhere +visible. He had disappeared from her sight forever, as also from her +life. He had been a dread though brief experience--a glimpse given her +into the melancholy darkness of human wrong. The shadows had seemed to +take him back among themselves, where he rightly belonged. Perhaps the +episode of his insolence wrought some sort of effect upon her future +acts; it is certain that she never quite forgot the miserable dismay he +had roused; and when the struggle for worldly success afterward spurred +her with so keen a goad, some vague remembrance of to-night may have +quickened her aspiring impulses and made what we call the socially best +gain fresh worth in her eyes by contrast with such foul deeps as lie +below it. + +Once confident that Slocumb had not followed her, she managed, with +unsteady pace, to reach the outer rail of the deck and lean against it +while the boat traversed the river. She was trembling a good deal, and +felt an extreme weakness as well. But a glow of triumph upbore her. She +had escaped at last! + +The ugly boat, as it sped along, seemed a sentient accomplice of her +final good fortune. She had a fancy that its thick wooden rail dumbly +throbbed beneath her grasp. Her posture was a half-cowering one; the +spell of her poignant fears had not yet passed. Her head leaned itself +peeringly from stooped shoulders in such a way that its slim neck took +the sort of curve we see in a frightened deer's. + +A somewhat late moon had recently risen, whose advent had altered the +whole face of the heavens, flooding it with a spectral, yellowish light. +But borne rapidly across the moon's blurred disk, on some high, fleet +rush of air, scudded volumes of rolling and mutable vapor. They +constantly soared above the great dusky city, at first in dense black +masses, then thinning and lengthening as they came midway between zenith +and horizon. While Claire watched these strange and volatile clouds, so +incessant in their motion and so swift in their continual upward stream, +they took, for her confused fancy, the semblance of pursuant phantom +shapes. They formed themselves into visages and bodies; they stretched +forth uncouth yet life-like arms; they clenched hands of misty gloom, +and shook them far above her, with ghostly, imminent defiance. Her +former transit across the river had been fraught with sweet, poetic +mystery; her present voyage was one touched with a kind of allegoric +terror. + +But the boat soon found its second wharfage. Claire sped out through the +two cabins in time to join the crowd of disembarking passengers. Once +more back in Greenpoint, she hurried along certain familiar streets +until she arrived at her own dwelling. It was now a little after ten +o'clock. She had an instinct that it was about this time. Above the high +piazza, both parlor-windows were dark, but below it the windows of the +basement portion were brightly lit. She passed into the scant space of +garden and sought the lower door; she pulled the bell, set in the +woodwork at her right, and waited. + +No answer came, and she rang again. One of the side-lights gave her a +good view into the hall beyond. She presently saw her mother appear. +Mrs. Twining opened the door. It was not till she and her daughter stood +face to face that the latter made a certain sharp, abrupt discovery. + +"Mother!" she said, "you're pale--you look very strange. Is it because I +staid away so long?" + +"No," replied Mrs. Twining. + +Claire grasped her mother's arm with both hands. "Then what is it?" she +questioned. "You don't mean that--that Father's sick? _Do_ you?" + +Mrs. Twining was white as death, and had dark rings round her fine black +eyes. She laughed with great bitterness as she closed the door. + +"Oh, no," she said. "Your father ain't sick, Claire." + +These few words teemed, somehow, with a frightful irony. Claire knew her +mother's moods so well that she now staggered backward a little as the +two faced each other in this narrow hallway. + +"Mother," she said, with a gasp, "what do you mean? Has anything +_happened_ to Father?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Twining with a cruelty that Claire never forgot and +never forgave. "Your father's dead. He died at nine o'clock. The +doctor's here now. He says it's heart-disease. You're a nice gadabout, +to be off for hours, nobody knows where, and come home to find" ... + +Mrs. Twining ended her sentence at just this point, for Claire had +dropped in a swoon before the next word could be spoken, upon the +oil-cloth of the little hall which her own hands had so often swept. + + + + +VII. + + +That night was one of anguish and horror. As soon as enough strength had +come to her with the return of consciousness, Claire insisted upon being +taken to where her father lay. Not a tear left her eyes as she knelt +beside his body. She was very white, and seemed perfectly calm. She +kissed the dead man, now and then, on forehead and cheek. Once she rose, +went to the window, and set both arms lengthwise upon its sash, propping +her chin against her clasped hands. In this attitude she stared forth at +the heaven, still full of moony light and still alive with its black +pageantry of hurrying clouds. But their motion was more quick, now; the +wind had grown stronger and colder; all touch of mildness was rapidly +vanishing from the atmosphere. Claire felt the panes shake, and heard +them rattle, as she leaned thus. There seemed an awful sympathy between +this wild phase of nature and her own tumultuous, distraught sensations. + +Grief and alarm clashed within her soul. She could not simply and +passionately regret her father's loss, for the thought of her own +friendless and penurious state would thrust itself into her +consciousness. Her feelings of pure bereavement, of standing face to +face with a vast and stern solitude, of having had something torn from +her heart by the roots, were terrible enough. But none the less, on +this account, could she fail to think with inward thrills of fright on +the subject of her merely material future. In an hour or two something +solidly defensive had been shattered and swept away. Her father's +protection had kept aloof, so to speak, the huge, merciless forces of +society. Now these forces were rushing upon her like yonder stream of +antic-shaped clouds. + +"What is to become of me?" she murmured aloud, not knowing that she +spoke at all. "Who will help me? Where shall I turn? I am so alone--so +fearfully alone!" + +Mrs. Twining had come into the room, as it chanced, a moment before the +utterance of Claire's first words. It was now a little before midnight; +she had entered this chamber of death twice before, and had looked at +her daughter's kneeling figure, there beside the corpse, but had retired +again in silence. Now she spoke, as Claire finished speaking. The girl +turned instantly as she began. + +"Yes," she said, in her most hard and curt way. "I s'pose you _are_ +alone, now _he's_ gone! You ain't got any mother, of course not! She's a +cipher; she always was. You're going to quit her, I dare say; you're +going to leave her in the lurch. P'raps you'll find some of those you +was with to-night that'll see you don't come to grief. Well, 't ain't +for me to complain at this late day. I've had chance enough to take your +measure, Miss, long ago!" + +There was a look of dreary fatigue on Claire's white face as she slowly +answered: "Mother, I will not leave you. I don't wish to leave you." + +"Oh, you don't, eh? Then why did you say you was _alone_?" + +"Did I say it?" returned Claire. She put one hand to her forehead. "I--I +must have spoken aloud without knowing it." ... Immediately afterward +she crossed the room, going very close to her mother's side, and looking +with eager meaning into the cold, austere, aquiline face. + +"Don't be unkind to-night," she went on. "Remember this dreadful thing +that has happened. It--it ought to--to soften you, Mother. It has nearly +crazed _me_. I cannot reason; I can scarcely think. I--I can only +suffer!" + +Mrs. Twining curled her mouth in bitter dissent. "Oh, you didn't know +the poor man was sick when you ran off and staid for hours. No, indeed! +If you had, you wouldn't 'a' worried him as you did when he come home to +tea and found you gone. He fell like a log, just as he got up from the +table. But he hadn't eaten hardly a thing, and I guess you know why he +didn't." + +Claire uttered a quick, flurried cry. She grasped her mother's arm. +"You--you don't mean," she exclaimed, in a piteously fierce way, "that +_I_ killed Father--or--or hastened his death by--by not being home? Oh, +say, Mother, that you don't mean this! It would drive me mad if I +believed so! Please say it isn't true!" + +Claire's aspect breathed such desperation that it wrought havoc even +with so stolid a perversity as that of the harsh, unpropitiable being +whom she confronted. + +"Well, no, I don't say _that_," murmured Mrs. Twining, with sullen +alteration of mien and tone. "But I _do_ say, Claire, that you was off +somewhere, and _he_ was fretted and pestered because you was, and" ... + +Here the peculiar nature of this most tormenting woman suddenly revealed +a change. Her grim mouth twitched; her nostrils produced a kind of +catarrhal sniff; her cold black eyes winked, as if tears were lurking to +assail them. The next words that she spoke were in a high, querulous +key. + +"Oh! so you're the only one that's fit to mourn for that poor dead one, +hey? I, his lawful wedded wife, and your own mother, ain't got any right +to grieve! Oh, very well! I'm nobody at all, here. I'd better get away. +You're chief mourner. There's nobody but you. I s'pose you'll pay all +the expenses of the funeral, since you're so dreadful stuck-up about +it!" + +Claire shook her head, in a pathetic, conciliating way. She lifted one +finger, at the same time. Her face was still white, and her dark-blue +eyes were burning feverishly. + +"No, no, Mother!" she said. "This is all wrong. You mustn't speak like +that, here. If you didn't love him, I did. There's a little money yet. +It's yours, but you'll give it; you've told me of it; it will be enough +to bury Father decently. I promise you that if you _do_ give it I will +try very hard to get some work that will support us both." + +Mrs. Twining put a hand on either hip. She stared at Claire for a +moment. Then she answered her. + +"No," she said. "I won't give a cent of it. It's only about a hundred +dollars. He ain't led me such a nice life that I should be so awful +grateful to him now he's gone. There's ways of burying that don't cost +money. Yes, there's ways.... Let 'em come and take him. I ain't going to +beggar myself because he wants a rosewood coffin, and"-- + +"Mother!" cried Claire, pointing toward the dead, "he is _here_!" + +"Oh, well!" said Mrs. Twining. She spoke the two brief words in a sort +of abrupt whimper, taking a step or two toward the calm sheeted form of +her dead husband. "S'pose he _is_ here. I can't use that money, and I +won't!" + +Claire felt the hideous taste of those words. They who have thus far +read this chronicle must have read it ill if they are not sure that no +love for a mother so ceaselessly froward and hostile could now survive +in her daughter's heart. But though she knew her mother capable of dread +acts if occasion favored, Claire was thunderstruck by this last +announcement. + +It appeared to her monstrous and barbarous, as it indeed was. She +clenched both hands, for an instant, and her eyes flashed. + +"Say what you mean!" she retorted, not raising her voice, because of +that piteous reverence which the still, prone shape inspired. "_Can_ you +mean that you will let charity bury our dead for us? _Can_ you mean +that?" + +Mrs. Twining gave a quick, grim nod. "Yes, I do mean it," she returned. +"And if you wasn't a fool you'd see why." + +Claire folded her arms. Her next words came with grave, measured +composure from white, set lips. "I may be a fool," she said, "but thank +God I haven't your kind of wisdom! Keep your money, Mother. Do as you +threaten. But when Potter's Field takes poor Father's body, that will be +the end of everything between you and me. Remember that I said this. I +will never speak to you, never notice you again, if you do so shameful a +thing. If you spend that money as duty and as decency should both +prompt, I will work for you, slave for you, cling to you always. But if +not, we are no longer mother and daughter. You see, I don't speak with +heat or with haste. I am perfectly calm. Now choose which course you +will take. But never say that I did not fully warn you, when it will be +too late for retraction!" + +There was a splendidly quiet impressiveness in this speech of Claire's. +She went and knelt once more beside her father's body after she had +finished it. She had resolved upon no further entreaty or argument. The +very atrocity of her mother's proposed design seemed to place continued +discussion of it beyond the pale of all womanly dignity. + +Mrs. Twining was too coarse a soul to see the matter as Claire saw it. +She preferred to take the chances that her daughter would relent when +the ignoble interment was over. + +To-morrow came, and she gave no sign of altering her purpose. Claire +scarcely addressed a word to her during this day. A few of the +Greenpoint folk called at the house. Among these was Josie Morley, +distressed at the tidings of death, and prepared to utter voluble +regrets for having lost Claire in the crowd during the previous night. + +But Claire would see no one. She remained with her father's body in the +little room upstairs, locking its door when she thought there was any +chance of a visitor being brought thither. + +Now and then she wondered, with a dumb misery, whether her mother had +made any attempt to bring about the loathed burial. She herself had a +few dollars in her possession. This sum she meant to use in seeking +employment after the earth had closed over her father's corpse. Once or +twice a passionate impulse had seized her to go and seek help from those +under whom her father had lately served in his drudging clerkship. But +she repressed this feeling--or rather shame at the thought of possible +refusal, mixed with a natural proud reluctance to own the sad need in +which she stood, repressed it for her. + +The next day she learned the full, torturing truth. Mrs. Twining had +carried out her threat. Two shabby men came with a pine box. They placed +the corpse herein. Claire had already paid it all the final reverential +rites which her sex and her grief would allow. It was dressed in the +same rusty outward garments which it had worn when death came. The men +held a little discussion below stairs with Mrs. Twining. They afterward +departed and remained away two good hours. When they returned they +brought a dark wagon with an arched top. In the interval Claire still +watched. She was quite silent. Perhaps if she had deigned now to plead +with her mother, the latter, already a little frightened at the girl's +stony, unvaried calmness, might have relented and agreed to more seemly +obsequies. But except one glance of immeasurable reproach, during a +brief visit which Mrs. Twining paid to the chamber, Claire gave no +further sign of revolt. + +When the men returned, she chanced to be looking from the window. She +saw the wagon. She shuddered, and went back to her father. No one saw +her bid him the last farewells. She showed no trace of tears when the +men presently reentered the room, but her dark-blue eyes shone from her +hueless face with a dry, glassy glitter. Her mother now appeared. She +looked at Claire in a covert, uneasy way, though there was much dogged +obstinacy about the lines of her mouth. A moment later she spoke to the +men. It seemed to Claire like the refinement of hypocrisy that she +should set her voice in a mournful key. + +"I s'pose you want to get it through right away," she said. + +"Yes, ma'am," replied one of the men. "Those is always the orders." + +Claire went to the window again. It was a raw, misty, drizzling day. She +stared out into the dreary street. She did not want to see that pitiful +box closed and sealed. She presently heard a grating sound which told +her just what the men were doing. + +And then she heard another sound that was quite as harsh. It was her +mother's voice, lowered, and with a sort of whine in it. + +"It's true enough that the dead ought to be buried properly, Claire, but +that ain't any reason why the living shouldn't live--the best way they +can. You take it hard now, but after a while you'll see you ain't got +any real right to blame me. You'll see"-- + +"Don't touch me, please," interrupted Claire. Her mother had laid a hand +on her arm, and she had receded instantly. Then she said, while +steadying her voice, though not caring whether the men heard or no: "Did +you intend going to--to the grave with him?" + +Mrs. Twining gave a great elegiac sigh. "Oh, no, I couldn't stand it. I +should break right down long before I got there." + +"Very well," said Claire, "I am going." + +One of the men looked up at her. He had a small, round face, an odd +blond tuft of beard, and a pair of mild blue eyes. He held his +screw-driver thrust into a screw while he spoke. His voice was very +respectful. He had noticed Claire's look and mien before; he had a wife +and children at home. Scarcely ever, in his experience, had he known a +burial of this sort to take place from a dwelling as apparently thrifty +as the present one. + +"Excuse me, Miss," the man said, "but you couldn't ride in the wagon. +There's just room for him and me." He indicated his companion by a +little motion of the head. "And there's three other bodies. We're takin' +'em to the almshouse." + +"Where is the almshouse?" asked Claire. She could not help giving her +mother one shocked sidelong glance while this question left her lips. + +"It's over in Flatbush," the man said. + +Claire went close up to his side. If he had not seen the white distress +in her face before, he must plainly have seen it now. "I know where that +is," she said. "I could go there. The cars would take me." She put her +hand on the rough wood of the box. The touch was so light that it +resembled a caress. "Would they let me go to--to the almshouse and wait +... near _him_ ... till he is buried?" + +Mrs. Twining at once began to weep. Or rather, she spoke in a wailing +tone that indicated tears, even if no tears really either gathered or +fell. + +"Claire, you mustn't think of going! No, you mustn't! Things are bad +enough, as it is. Now, promise me that you won't take any such notion! +_Do_ promise!" + +Claire paid no heed to this outburst. She was looking with eager fixity +at the man. She had already roused his sympathy; she felt certain of +it; his big, mild eye seemed to tell her so. "They won't all be buried +till about two o'clock," he said. "There'll be five or six bodies +to-day, I guess. If you start from here in about an hour, Miss, you can +get to the buryin'-ground by just the right time. I'll see to it you +do." The speaker here turned and winked one mild eye at his companion. +The latter was staring rather lifelessly at Claire. He had a long, pale, +tired-looking face. + +"All right," he muttered, apathetically, as if he had not at all +comprehended, but was willing to take matters on trust. + +"I'll see to it that he ain't got in till you come," pursued Claire's +new friend. "The Potter's Field ain't far from the County Buildings, as +they call 'em. I s'pose you know how to get to Flatbush?" He scratched +his sandy shock of hair for an instant, and told her just what cars to +take. + +Claire put faith in him. Something made her do so. When the pine box had +been carried down stairs, placed inside the dark wagon, and driven away, +she went to her own room and made a small, neat brown-paper parcel. Her +clothes were few enough, and she left all of these except what seemed to +her of vital necessity. "I don't want to look like a tramp," she told +herself, with a darksome pleasantry. "I shall not, either. I shall only +be a poor, shabby girl with a bundle." + +When she emerged from her room her mother met her in the hall. Claire +wore her bonnet. Mrs. Twining gave a frightened whimper as she saw this +and the parcel. + +"Oh, Claire," she said, "you ain't really going _to_ the--the grave?" + +"Yes, I am," she said. Her tones were so frigid and so melancholy that +they caused a palpable start in her who heard them. + +"Oh, Claire," moaned her mother, "if you go, _I_ can't! I can't see him +buried that way! Of course _you_ can, if you want!" + +"I do want," said Claire. + +"But you'll come back! you'll come home again!" + +As she was passing her mother, there in the hall, Claire turned and +faced her. "I shall never come home again," she said, scarcely raising +her voice above a whisper. "You remember what I told you." + +Mrs. Twining was no longer merely frightened; she was terrified. +"Claire!" she burst forth, "I ain't done right, perhaps. But don't be +headstrong--now, don't! if you'd spoke to me yesterday--if you'd even +spoke to me this morning, I might, ... well, I might, after all, have +given the money. But it's too late now, and" ... + +"Yes, it is too late now," Claire interrupted, and somehow with the +effect of a shaft, shot noiselessly, and tellingly aimed. + +After that she hurried straight down stairs, passed along the lower +hall, and made rapid exit from the house. + +A number of heads had been thrust from neighboring windows while the +body was being borne away. Claire, who endured what was thus far the +supreme humiliation of her life, wondered whether any one was watching +now, but she kept her eyes drooped toward the pavement as she moved +along, and never once looked to left or right. She despised these +possible watchers, and yet she remembered what her dead had been--how +kindly, how pure, how noble; and it was to her sense an infamy that his +ignominious burial should be made a theme of vulgar gossip. + +"He is to be put in Potter's Field," she told her own aching, bursting +heart, while she still hurried along. "Yes, _he_! And he was so good, so +fine, so much a gentleman! He is to be put in Potter's Field!... But I +will see the last sod placed over him.... That man _will_ keep his +word.... I shall stand by poor Father, his only mourner. He will be glad +if he knows. What a slight thing it is to do for him, after all the love +he gave me! But it is all I _can_ do. All, and yet so little!" + +A dreary ride in the cars at last brought her to Flatbush. After +alighting she had quite a long walk through the gray, foggy atmosphere +of a region which the sweetest mood of spring or summer finds no spell +to beautify. It was now as hideous and lonesome as that hateful tract +just beyond Greenpoint. The immense gloomy structures of the almshouses +loomed beside the path she took. The conductor on the car had told her +just how to reach the pauper graveyard. It lay at some distance from the +grim buildings that she was obliged to pass, and within whose walls were +prisoned the sin, the sickness and the madness of a great city. + +Nothing could be more common, more neglectful, more wretchedly +melancholy, than the place she at length gained. It was scarcely an acre +in extent; it did not contain a single tree or shrub; it was enclosed by +a fence of coarse, careless boarding. Its graves were so thick that you +could scarcely pass between them. In each grave had been laid four +bodies, and excepting a pathetic half-dozen or so of simple wooden +crosses, there were no signs to tell who slept here, except rough, low +stakes, each bearing four numbers. Never was the oblivion of death more +sternly typified; never was its dark mockery more dolefully accentuated! + +A little group of men stood near an open grave as Claire reached the +gate. She saw them, and recognized one of them, who advanced toward her. +She felt herself grow slightly faint as she perceived a box placed just +at the rim of the earthy cavity. + +"Was I in time?" she asked of the man, as they walked together inside +the enclosure. + +"Yes," he said, with a very kind voice. "You was just in time, Miss. All +the others is turned in except him. I saved him on purpose." + + + + +VIII. + + +This same afternoon, about two hours later, Claire was in New York. She +had crossed thither, spurred by an idea born of her desperation. It was +a forlorn hope; it was like the straw clutched by the sinking hand; and +yet it formed a comforting preventive against complete despair. She had +remembered her old friend at Mrs. Arcularius's school, the plump-cheeked +and yellow-haired Sophia Bergemann. She had determined to seek her out +and ask her aid in obtaining work. Years had elapsed since Claire and +Sophia had met; but if the buxom young creature had preserved even half +of her old amiable friendship, there was excellent chance of cordial +welcome and kindly assistance. + +'I only hope that she still lives in Hoboken,' Claire thought, while +taking the journey across town. 'Suppose the family have left there. +Suppose I cannot find Sophia. Suppose that she is married and has gone +to live elsewhere--in Europe, perhaps. Suppose that she is dead.' + +More than once, before she had reached the central part of the city, +Claire felt herself grow weak with dread. Night would soon approach. She +had money enough to get lodgment, but in her ignorance and her +loneliness how could she secure it? Her mother's face, clothed with the +old mocking smile, repeatedly rose before her fancy. She seemed to see +the hard, bitter mouth frame certain sentences. "Oh, you'll come back," +it seemed to say. "You've got to. You can't go gallivanting round New +York after dark. I ain't afraid. Oh, you'll come back to Greenpoint, +_sure_!" + +'I will never go back,' Claire said to her own thoughts, answering this +phantasmal sort of taunt. 'No, not if I walk the streets to-night and +many another night. Not if I have to beg for food. Not if I die of +hunger. I will never go back _there_! No, no, no!' + +There was nothing theatrically fervid about this silent resolve. The +girl was quite capable of confronting any sharp ill rather than remeet +the woman who had so pitilessly outraged her most sacred instincts. She +knew well enough that her mother confidently counted upon her return. +She knew well enough that her mother would undergo wild alarm on finding +herself permanently deserted. Yet Claire, with a grim desire of +inflicting punishment for the insult flung at her beloved dead, silently +exulted in what she could not help but deem a just and rightful +vengeance. True, her own act may have dealt the vengeance; but did it +not really spring from that departed soul whose corpse had met the lash +of so undeserved an indignity? When Claire had reached the centre of the +city she suddenly determined to seek Mrs. Arcularius's establishment. +The school might either have changed its locality or else ceased to +exist. Still, she would apply at the old quarters. There she would +inquire for Sophia Bergemann. They might know nothing concerning the +girl. But if this resulted, she would still have all Hoboken left, in +which the dwelling-place of so prominent a resident--even though one of +past time--would most probably be known on inquiry. A throng of memories +beset her as she rang the bell of Mrs. Arcularius's abode. The name of +that august lady gleamed on a large silver-plated square, affixed to the +second door, beyond the marble-paved vestibule. A smartly-dressed maid +answered her summons. Claire stated in brief, civil terms what +information she desired to gain. The maid left her standing in the +well-known hall for several minutes, and at length returned with the +tidings, apparently fresh from the lips of Mrs. Arcularius herself, that +Miss Bergemann was then living at No. -- Fifth Avenue, only a slight +distance away. + +Claire felt a thrill of relief as she thanked the maid and resought the +street. This intelligence seemed a most happy stroke of luck. It augured +well for the success of her sad little enterprise. + +The Fifth Avenue dwelling proved to be a mansion of imposing dimensions. +It stood on a corner, and had a wide window at one side of its spacious +entrance, and two at the other. From either panel of its polished walnut +door jutted a griffon's head of bronze, holding a ring pendant from its +tense lips. Beyond the glossy plate-glass of the casements gleamed misty +folds of lace, and still further beyond these you caught a charming +glimpse of large-leaved tropic plants in rich-hued vases. Claire pulled +a bronze bell-handle that was wrought in the likeness of some +close-folded flower. A dull yet distinct peal ensued, having in its +sound a trim directness that suggested prompt and capable attendance +from interior quarters. While Claire waited for admission she cast her +look downward upon the middle street, and across at the line of opposite +residences, all marked by a calm uniformity of elegance. The sight was +very new to her after Greenpoint, but at the same time it stirred +certain sources of youthful recollection. Many carriages were passing. +One or two were shaped with fashionable oddity, having only a single +pair of huge wheels and a booted and cockaded flunkey, who sat in +cramped, oblique posture, with his back to the other occupants, a lady +and a gentleman, and who seemed forever taking a resigned plunge off the +vehicle, with stoically folded arms. Another was a heavy, sombre family +coach, with two men on the box, both clad in dark, dignified livery. +Still another was the so-called dog-cart, borne along by a team of +responsible silver-trapped bays, and having on its second seat a footman +graciously permitted, in this instance, to face the horses whose +lustrous flanks his own hands had doubtless groomed into their present +brilliance. The two parallel yet contrary streams of vehicles made an +incessant subdued clatter; numerous pedestrians were also passing to and +fro along either sidewalk; the weather had changed again from harsh to +clement; the strip of clear, blue sky above the massive housetops wore a +shining delicacy and airiness of tint; even Claire's new wound, that +still bled unseen, could not distract her from a buoyant congeniality +with the prosperous and festal tumult so amply manifest. She understood +then, and perhaps with a qualm of shame as well, that no grief could +quite repress, however transiently, her love for life, action, and +refined social intercourse. The old desire to win a noted place among +those of her own kind who were themselves notable, quickened within +her, too, as she gazed upon the bright bustle and the palatial +importance which were both so near at hand. + +'Near,' she mused, 'and yet so far! Shall I ever do what _he_ bade me to +do on that night long ago? Shall I ever climb the hill? Shall I not grow +tired and sit down to rest? What chance have I _now_ of ever reaching +the top? Where is the hand to help me even ever so little? Will Sophia +Bergemann do it? Yes; if the ways of the world haven't changed her since +we met at school.' + +A man-servant, in what is termed full-dress, soon opened the door, and +Claire asked if Miss Sophia Bergemann was at home. The man appeared to +be a very majestic person. Claire felt a good deal of secret awe in his +presence. He had a superb development of the chest, a sort of senatorial +nose, and two oblong tufts of sorrel whisker, growing with a mossy +density close to either ear. + +But he was very civil, notwithstanding his grandeur. He told Claire, in +a rich voice that would have deepened her veneration if it had not been +blent with a valiant North-of-Ireland brogue, that Miss Bergemann was at +home but about to leave the house for a drive. + +The hall in which this announcement was made glowed with sumptuous yet +tasteful decorations. A dark curve of heavy-balustered staircase, which +four or five persons might have ascended abreast, met the eye only a +short space away. From the lofty ceiling depended a costly lamp of +illumined glass. Soft, thick tapestries of Turkish design drooped from +several near doorways. A fleet remembrance of the old school-room +sarcasms about the Bergemanns' vulgar Hoboken home flashed through +Claire's mind. + +"Will you tell Miss Sophia, please," she said, in as firm and calm a +tone as she could manage, "that Miss Twining, whom she knew some years +ago, would like to speak with her?" + +The butler was about to reply, when a loud feminine voice suddenly +pealed from upper regions. In reality it was the voice of a lady who had +already descended several steps of the broad, winding staircase; but the +lady was still in obscurity, and therefore the liberal size of the house +caused her tones to sound as if they had come from a still greater +distance. "Michael," shrilled the voice, "I see the carriage isn't here +yet. It's nearly a quarter of an hour behind time. Thomas has done this +twice before in one week. Now, you just send Robert straight round to +the stable, and let him say that we're very angry about it, and that Ma +won't put up with such behavior if it ever happens again!" + +The butler had left Claire before the end of the final belligerent +sentence, and had moved, with a certain military briskness, toward the +first wide step of the staircase. + +"Yes, Miss Sophia," he said, employing his fine sonorous voice so that +it somehow had the effect of not being unduly raised, though still +strongly audible. The next moment he turned toward Claire, with a mien +in which his natural official gravity gave sign of being cruelly +fluttered. + +"Miss Sophia is coming downstairs, Miss," he said. + +Claire had a swift feeling of gratitude for that single word "Miss." She +knew that she was dingily clothed; she had fancied that all her claims +to the nicer grades of gentility lived solely within her mental wish and +hope; but she failed to perceive that her face was filled with those +tender and sweet charms which we term patrician, and that her least +gesture carried with it a grace which previous conditions of culture +alone have the art to bestow. It was indeed true, as Michael had said, +that Miss Sophia was coming downstairs. Claire soon heard a decisive +rustle of robes, and presently a descendent shape dawned upon her view, +arrayed in very modish costume. + +But the instant that Claire caught sight of Sophia she recognized the +plump, rubicund face, grown only a trifle more womanly beneath its +low-arranged floss of yellow hair. She went forward to meet her old +friend. Just as Sophia left the last step of the staircase, Claire had +so managed that they stood very near to each other. + +She did not put forth a hand. Her pale, beautiful face had grown paler, +through fear of some possibly haughty reception. But she spoke the +moment that Sophia's round blue eyes had fairly met her own. + +"I hope you know me," she said. "I hope you have not forgotten me." + +A blank, dismayed look possessed Sophia for a few seconds, and then she +put forth two hands which were sheathed half-way up to the elbow in +dull-brown gloves, seizing both of Claire's hands the next instant. + +"Forgotten you!" she cried. "Why, you're Claire Twining! Of course you +are! And as pretty as a picture, just as you always were! Why, you dear +old thing! Give me a kiss!" + +Claire felt the lips of the speaker forcibly touch each of her cheeks. +Sophia still held her hands. The welcome had been too abruptly cordial. +A mist slipped before her sight and clouded her brain. She staggered +backward.... + +Perhaps she would have fallen, if the magnificent Michael had not been +near enough to place a muscular arm between herself and the floor. But +she rallied almost at once. And while clearness was returning to her +mind, she heard Sophia say, in imperious yet hearty tones,-- + +"Michael, take her into the reception-room! Now, don't look so stupid! +Do as I say!" + +Claire's attack, though more than partly past, still left her weak. She +allowed herself to be led, and indeed half supported, by Michael. A +little later she was seated on a big, yielding lounge, with the sense of +a big, yielding pillow at her back. And presently, close beside her, she +saw the ruddy, broad-blown face of Sophia, surmounted by a Parisian +bonnet of the most deft and dainty millinery. + +"Sophia," she said, breaking into a tremulous, pathetic little laugh, +"please don't--_please_ don't think I've lost my senses! But it--it was +so good of you to--remember me, after we hadn't met for such a long +time, that--that I"-- + +Here Claire burst into an actual tempest of tears and sobs, and +immediately afterward felt Sophia's hands again clasp both her own. + +"Michael!" cried her new hostess at the same moment, in tones of +imperative command, "for Heaven's sake, don't stand staring there, but +_do_ leave the room!" + +"Yes, Miss," came the nicely decorous reply. Faultless servant as he +was, it must still be set to the credit of Michael that he closed a +sliding door of solid rosewood, which worked on easy grooves between the +double _portiere_ of the apartment, just after crossing its threshold. +His act was wholly unnecessary, considering the nature of the command +his young mistress had given; and when we note the obstructing force of +the door itself, it implies a sublime abstinence from the fascinations +of eavesdropping. + +"Now, don't cry so!" exclaimed Sophia, with great sympathy and a strong +suspicion of active emotion as well. "I suppose something dreadful has +happened to you, dear old Claire. What is it? Just tell me, and I'll see +what I can do. You're not dressed as if you were very well off. Is it +poverty? Oh, pshaw! I'll soon fix things all right if you want help that +way. I'll"-- + +Here Sophia abruptly paused, and withdrew her hands. She stood facing +Claire, who still struggled to master the sobs that shook her. Sophia +seemed sternly troubled: her full cheeks had reddened; this was her one +invariable way of showing agitation; she never turned pale, like other +people. "Claire!" she broke forth, in solemn undertone. "I do hope it +isn't _one thing_! I do hope you haven't been ... been _going wrong_! +You know what I mean. I wouldn't mind anything but that, and that I +couldn't forgive--or even excuse!" + +Claire sprang to her feet as the last word passed Sophia's lips. Wrath +had calmed her, and with a wondrous speed. The tears were still +glittering on her cheeks, however, as she spoke, with eyes that flashed +and a lip that curled. + +"Sophia!" she said; "how dare you insult me like this!" + +The distressed frown on Sophia's face instantly vanished. "Oh, Claire," +she cried, "I'm so glad it _isn't_ true! Don't be angry. You see, my +dear, we hadn't met for so long, and you looked as if--as if something +horrible had happened, and it's such a funny, topsy-turvy world. So many +queer things do happen in it. _Don't_ be angry, please!" + +"I am angry," said Claire. In her shabby dress she gave, +notwithstanding, a noble portrayal of disdain. She had taken several +steps toward the door, though Sophia, having caught her arm, endeavored, +with a mien contrite and even supplicating, to detain her within the +chamber. "Why should I not be angry?" Claire went on, her voice dry and +bitter. "Allow that I do look as if I were miserable. Is misery another +name for sin?... No, Sophia, let me go, please.... Perhaps you may +learn, some day, as I've learned already, that the unhappy people in +life are not always the bad ones!" + +But Sophia, whose impulsive and explosive nature had not altered very +markedly since we last heard of her childish escapades, now replied by a +most excited outburst of appeal. Her exuberant figure, which no +dexterity of dressmaking and no splendor of combined satins and velvets +could turn less unwieldy and cumbrous, bowed and swayed till you almost +heard the seams of its rich garb crack their stitches under the fleshly +disturbance to which she subjected them. + +"Claire! Claire!" she ejaculated; "I _have_ insulted you.... But you'll +forgive me--I know you will. I've never forgotten you. You stood up +against that horrid Ada Gerrard and her set so finely, years ago! You +were good then--yes, just as good as gold,--and I'm sure you're just +exactly as good still. Now, Claire, don't look that way! I was talking +to Ma about you only a few days since. Pa's dead, you know--but I +suppose you don't. Yes, I said to Ma that I'd give anything to find out +what had become of you. Ma and I are dreadfully rich--I mean well off. +Poor Pa left ever so much money. He's been dead nearly three years. +There's nobody but Ma and I left. I hate Hoboken. I made her buy this +house. Now, Claire, just stop! You shan't go. You're going to tell me +all about your troubles. Yes, you shall! I'll be your friend. There, let +me kiss you.... Do, Claire!... You know I was always awfully fond of +you. I never knew any girl I was half so fond of as you. I've asked your +pardon. You were always a lady. I remember about that dreadful dress you +came to school in, first. But that didn't matter. You were a lady born, +and you showed it afterward. Every girl thought so, too. Even those +hateful snobs had to own it--I'm sure they did. I see some of them quite +often. Ada Gerrard's a great swell, as they say, now. She gives me a +little nod when I meet her, driving in the Park or on the Avenue. But +you're twice the lady she is. Yes, Claire, I mean it. Kiss me, now, +won't you? Kiss me, and be friends!" + +Claire had succumbed several minutes before this eager tirade was ended. +Her anger had fled. She let Sophia put both arms about her. She returned +Sophia's kiss. Then she leaned her head upon the shoulder of her +companion, and gave way to another access of tears. But they were quiet +tears, this time. The hysteric impulse had wholly passed. A little later +she told Sophia, with as much placid directness as she could manage, +every important detail of the hard, dreary life lived since they two had +last met. + +While she thus spoke, the extraordinary charm of her manner and the +distinct loveliness of her delicate yet notable beauty more than once +thrilled her listener. Sophia's old worship, if the term be not too +strong, returned in full force. She had sworn by Claire, as the phrase +goes, in earlier days. She was prepared to swear by her still. The story +of Mr. Twining's death and the disloyal deportment of his wife roused +her vehement contempt. By the time that Claire had finished her gloomy +recital, the two girls were seated close together. Sophia's large fat +hand, in its fashionable glove, was fervidly clasping Claire's. + +"You did perfectly right!" Sophia at length exclaimed, after the pause +had come, and while her visitor sat with drooped head and pale, +compressed lips. "Your poor father! To bury him that way! It was +frightful! And you told her you'd do anything on earth for her if she +only wouldn't! And I know how you loved your father. Don't you recollect +telling me about him, one recess, when I gave you half my +sardine-sandwich? You said he was a gentleman by birth, and had come of +a fine family in England. That's where you get your swell looks from, +Claire. Yes, you _are_ a swell, even though you've got on a frock that +didn't cost, altogether, as much as one yard of mine.... Why, just look +at me! I'm awkward and clumsy, exactly as I was at Mrs. Arcularius's. +I'll never be any different. And yet I spend loads and loads of money on +my things. I do, really! But gracious goodness! there _you_ sit, with +your sweet, pure face, shaped like a heart, and your hair that's got the +same bright sparkle through its brown that it used to have, and those +long eyelashes over those black-blue kind of eyes, and that cunning +little dimple in your chin, and those long, slender, ladylike hands"-- + +Here Claire stopped her, with a sad smile and a shake of the head. She +spread open one hand, holding it up for scrutiny at the same moment. + +"Don't talk of my hands, Sophia," she said. "They've been doing hard +work since you saw them last." + +Sophia gazed down at the inner portion of her friend's hand, for a +moment, and then suddenly exclaimed,-- + +"Work! Why, they're not hard a bit. Oh, Claire, you've worn gloves all +the time you worked. Come, own up, now!" + +Claire smiled in a furtive way. But she spoke with simple frankness the +next instant. "Well, yes, Sophia," she said, "I _have_ worn gloves as +often as I could. I wanted to save my hands. Some of the girls at Mrs. +Arcularius's used to call them pretty. I wanted them to stay pretty--if +I could manage it. I don't mind telling you so. But I thought they must +have lost every trace of nice looks by this time." + +Sophia bent over the hand that she still held, and whose palm was turned +upward to the light, so that all its inner details, from wrist to +finger-tips, could not possibly escape notice. + +"Why, there's a pink flush all round the edge, inside there," commented +Sophia. "It's funny, Claire. I never saw it in any other girl's hand +before. It's just like the rose-color at the edge of a shell. Upon my +word it is! I don't care a straw what work you've been doing; you've got +hands like--well, I was going to say like a queen. But I don't doubt a +good many queens have awful hands, so I'll say like a lady.... There, +kiss me again.... Here's Ma. Don't mind Ma. She'll be nice. She always +_is_ nice when I want her to be. Isn't that so, Ma?" + +A lady had just entered the small, brilliantly-appointed room in which +Claire and Sophia had thus far held their rather noteworthy converse. +The lady was Mrs. Bergemann. + +She was exceedingly stout; both in visage and form she looked like a +matured and intensified Sophia. As far as features went, she wonderfully +resembled her daughter. Every undue trait of plumpness in Sophia's +countenance was reproduced by Mrs. Bergemann with a sort of facial +compound interest. Flesh seemed to have besieged her, like a comic +malady. Her good-natured eyes sparkled between two creases of it; her +loose, full chin revealed more than one fold of it. She was by no means +attired like a widow of recent bereavement. She wore a bonnet in which +there was no violence of coloring; it was purple and brown, but at the +same time so severely _a la mode_ that if any symbol lurked behind its +decorative fantasies this must have signified the soothing influences of +resignation and consolation. + +She had heard her daughter's last words. She was devoted to Sophia; it +was an allegiance wed with pride. She had been a poor German girl, years +ago, and had drifted, through the chance of matrimony, into her present +opulent place. She was by nature meek and conciliatory; all Sophia's +temper and temerity had come from her father, who had combined large +superficial good-humor with a notorious intolerance of the least fancied +wrong. Sophia's last words had embarrassed her. She had no idea who +Claire was, but the evident cordiality of her daughter's deportment +produced the effect of a gentle mandate. + +"I shan't go driving, Ma!" Sophia exclaimed, after she had made Claire +and her mother acquainted. "I'll stay at home and talk of old times with +Claire Twining. Poor Claire's in trouble, Ma. I won't tell you about it +yet. You go off in the carriage--that is, if it ever comes; but I'm +afraid we'll have to discharge Thomas; he's always behind time." + +"The carriage is here, Sophia," said Mrs. Bergemann. She spoke without +the slightest German accent; this had perished long ago. She was looking +at Claire with the manner of one who has been deeply attracted. "I've +often heard you mention Miss Twining," she went on. "You was talking of +her only the other day, wasn't you, Sophia?" + +"Yes," said Sophia, rising. She went to her mother, and spoke a few low +words, which Claire quite failed to hear. The prompt result of this +intercourse was Mrs. Bergemann's exit from the room. Sophia followed her +to the door, with one hand laid upon her shoulder. + +"All right, Ma," she said, pausing a moment on the threshold. "You go +and take your drive. I'll stay and chat with Claire." + +A little while afterward Sophia had reseated herself at Claire's side. +"Ma likes you," she at once began, in her voluble, oddly frank way. "She +told me she did. She's very funny about liking and disliking people. She +takes fancies--or she doesn't. Ma isn't a swell. She's what they call +vulgar. But she's ever so nice. She never had much education, but she +has a large, warm heart. I wouldn't have her one bit different from what +she is. I wouldn't give Ma for Queen Victoria. She and I are the +dearest friends in the world. I know you'll like her, Claire. She likes +you, as I said. And Claire, look here, now; I want to say something. It +may surprise you. I hope, though, that it will please you, too. You're +going to stay here in this house. You're going to live here as my +friend. Yes, you are. You were always as smart as a steel trap. We'll +read together, every morning. Yes, we will. You know what a perfect fool +I used to be at Mrs. Arcularius's. Well, I'm the same fool still. But +_you_ know a lot; you always did. And you shall help me to be less of an +ignoramus than I am. We've got a library upstairs. Oh, there are a crowd +of books. I got Mr. Thurston to buy them for me. He's a gentleman friend +of ours, and he knows a tremendous amount. He just filled all the +book-shelves for us. I'm sure he bought the right kind of books, too; he +knows pretty much everything in that line. Now, Claire, if you'll do as +I say, we'll get along splendidly together. And as for ... well, as for +salary, you know, I'll"-- + +Here Claire rose, placing a hand on Sophia's arm. "No," she said, "I +couldn't accept such a place as that. I'm not able to fill it. I have +been living a life of hard work for three or four years past. I've +scarcely looked into a book, Sophia, in all that time. I came here to +ask you if you would get me work. I can sew very well; I was always +clever with my needle. If you will give me something of that sort to do, +I will gladly and thankfully remain. But otherwise, I can't." + + + + +IX. + + +Sophia consented to this plan, but only as a strategical manoeuvre. She +had determined that Claire should fill precisely the position just +proffered her, and no other. By seeming to yield she at length won her +cause. She was quite in earnest about her wish for mental improvement. +Nor was Claire, in spite of latter years passed under the gloom of toil, +half as much at sea among the many smart-bound volumes of the library as +she herself had expected. She had been, in her day, a diligent student; +she found that she remembered this or that famous writer, as she +examined book after book. Now and then a celebrated name recurred to her +with sharp appeal of recollection; again she had a vivid sense of +forgetfulness, and of ignorance as well. But she was of the kind who +read swiftly and retain with force. It was not long before she had +discovered certain volumes which guided and at the same time instructed +her in just that literary direction needful for the task required by her +would-be pupil. A great deal of her old intellectual method and industry +soon came back to her. She turned the pages of the many good books +stored on the shelves near by with a hand more composed and deliberate; +she began to see just what Sophia wanted her to do, and realize her full +capability of doing it. + +Meanwhile a week or more had passed. She was now clad in appropriate +mourning. She was one of the family. Sophia, devoted and affectionate, +was constantly at her side. + +Now and then Claire said, with a nervous laugh, "I'm afraid I have never +learned enough to be of the least use to you, Sophia, in the way you've +proposed." + +But Sophia would smile, and answer, "Oh, I'm not afraid, Claire dear. +You'll get it all back again, pretty soon." + +She rapidly got it all back again, and a great deal more besides. The +morning readings began. Sophia soon expressed herself as in raptures; +but it was the teacher that charmed her far more than the teaching. + +Claire's life was now one of easy luxury. She walked or drove with +Sophia every afternoon; she ate delicate food; she slept in a spacious +bed-chamber that possessed every detail of comfort; all things moved +along on oiled wheels; the machinery of her life had lost all its +clogging rust. Greenpoint began to fade from her thoughts; it grew a +dim, detested memory. Scarcely a day passed, however, without she +definitely recalled some incident connected with her father. Now that +this softness and daintiness surrounded her, the refinement which no +adverse years could alienate from his personality became for her a more +distinct conception. She realized how complete a gentleman he had been. +At the same time, under these altered conditions, her own taste for the +superfine niceties of cultivation increased with much speed. She was +like a plant that has been borne back to its native soil and clime from +some land where it has hitherto lived but as a dwarfed and partial +growth; the foliage was expanding, the fibre was strengthening, the +flowers were taking a warmer tint and a richer scent. + +She soon perceived that the Bergemanns moved in a set of almost +uniformly vulgar people. Many of them seemed very wealthy. Nearly all of +them dressed handsomely and drove about in their private carriages. Not +a few of them lived in fine adjacent houses on "the Avenue," as it is +called. Sophia had a number of intimate friends, maidens of her own age, +who constantly visited her. She had admirers, too, of the other sex, who +would sometimes call for her of an evening, and take her to a party, +unattended by any chaperone. She went, during the winter months, to +numerous parties. She belonged to an organization which she always spoke +of as "our sociable," and which met at the various homes of its female +members. One evening a "sociable" was given at the Bergemann mansion. +The music and dancing were kept up till two o'clock in the morning, and +the house was effectively adorned with flowers. Claire, because of her +mourning, abstained from this and all similar gayety. But as a matter of +course she met many of Sophia's and Mrs. Bergemann's friends. Only one +of all the throng had power pleasurably to interest her. + +This exceptional person was Mr. Beverley Thurston, whom we have already +heard Sophia mention as having selected the volumes of her mother's +library. He was a man about forty years old, who had never married. His +figure was tall and shapely; his face, usually grave, was capable of +much geniality. He had traveled, read, thought, and observed. He stood +somewhat high in the legal profession, and came, on the maternal side, +of a somewhat noted family. He managed the large estate of Mrs. +Bergemann and her daughter, and solely on this account was a frequent +guest at their house. He had one widowed sister, of very exclusive +views, who possessed large means, and who placed great value upon her +position as a fashionable leader. For several years this lady (still +called by courtesy Mrs. Winthrop Van Horn) had haughtily refused her +brother's urgent request that she should leave a card upon Mrs. +Bergemann, though several thousand a year resulted from his connection +with the deceased brewer's property. But Mr. Thurston, while he +succumbed to the arrogant obstinacy of his sister, had employed great +tact in blinding his profitable patrons to the awkward truth of her +disdain. He had been bored for three years past by his politic intimacy +with Sophia and her mother, and he had always felt a lurking dread lest +they should make a sudden appeal for his aid in the way of social +advancement. But here he had committed a marked error. Mrs. Bergemann +and Sophia understood nothing whatever about social advancement. They +were both magnificently contented with their present places in society. +The inner patrician mysteries were quite unknown to them. Their +ignorance, in this respect, was a serene bliss. They believed themselves +valuably important. They saw no new heights to gain. + +Mr. Thurston had long secretly smiled at their self-confidence. He was a +clever observer; he had seen the world; the Bergemanns were sometimes a +delicious joke to him, when he felt in an appreciative mood. At other +times the bouncing, coltish manners of Sophia, and the educational +deficiencies of her mother, grated harshly upon his nerves. But when +Claire entered the household he at once experienced a new sensation. He +watched her in quiet wonder. No points of her beauty escaped his trained +eye. What he had learned of her past career made her seem to him +remarkable, even phenomenal. By degrees an intimacy was established +between them. At first it concerned literary subjects; Claire consulted +him about the books appropriate for her readings with Sophia. But they +soon talked of other things, and occasionally these chats took the form +of very private _tete-a-tetes_. Claire was perfectly loyal to her new +friends, but she could not crush a spirit of inquiry, of investigation +and of valuation, so far as concerned the people with whom they +associated. + +The gentlemen distressed her more than the ladies. The latter were often +so full of grace and prettiness that their loud talk, shrill laughter, +and faulty grammar could not wholly rid them of charm. But the gentlemen +had no grace, and slight good looks as an offset to their haphazard +manners. Some of them appeared to be quite uneducated; others would +blend ignorance with conceit; still others were ungallant and +ungracious, and not seldom pompously boastful of their wealth. + +Mr. Thurston was at first cautious in his answers to Claire's rather +searching questions. But by degrees he threw aside restraint; he grew to +understand just why he was thus interrogated. + +He had a slow yet significant mode of talk that was nearly sure of +entertaining any listener. Shallow people had called him a cynic, but +not a few clever ones had strongly denied this charge. Claire began to +look upon him as one who was forever opening doors for her, and showing +her glimpses of discovery that either surprised or impressed the gazer. + +On the evening of Sophia's "sociable" Claire remained in a large chamber +that was approached from the second hall of the house, and appointed +with that admirable taste which clearly indicated that the Bergemanns +had once confided devoutly in their upholsterer, just as they now did in +their milliner. She was quite alone; she held a book open in her lap, +but was not reading it; her black dress became her charmingly; it seemed +to win a richer shade from the chestnut-and-gold of her tresses, and to +increase the delightful fragility of her oval, soft-tinted face. The +music below stairs kept her thoughts away from her book; it pealed up to +her with a dulcet, provocative melody; it made her feel that she would +love to go down and join the merry-makers. But this was only a kind of +abstract emotion; there was nobody in the bright-lit, flower-decked +drawing-rooms whom she would have cared to meet, with the possible +exception of Mr. Thurston, although what she then considered his +advanced age made him seem more suitable as a companion of less jubilant +hours. + +But it chanced that a knock presently sounded at the half-closed door, +and that Mr. Thurston soon afterward presented himself. He sat down +beside her. His evening dress had a felicity of cut and fit that gave +his naturally stately figure an added distinction, even to the +inexperienced eye of Claire. She thought how the white tie at his throat +became him--how different he was, in spite of the gray at his temples +and the crow's-feet under his hazel eyes, from the younger men clad in +similar vesture, whom she had seen pass through the upper hall a little +earlier in the evening. + +By this time Mr. Thurston's acquaintance with Claire had grown to be a +facile and agreeable intimacy. He had learned from Sophia that she was +here alone, and he had sought her with the freedom of one wont to make +himself wholly at home in the mansions of his clients. At the same time, +as it happened, he came with a vastly fatigued feeling toward the guests +below. + +"I didn't want to leave," he began, with his nice, social smile, "until +I had seen you for a few moments." + +"Ah," said Claire, pleased at his coming, and with a little sweet-toned +laugh, "I'm afraid you came up here only because it was too early to go +just yet." + +Mr. Thurston put his head on one side, and his eyes twinkled +quizzically. "Oh, come, now," he said; "are you going to talk badly +about the party? You haven't seen it. I'm sure you'd like to be down +there, dancing and romping among all those young people." + +Claire shook her head; she looked rather serious as she did so. "No," +she answered; "I shouldn't like it at all. I think you know why. There +is nobody there--that is, among the guests--whom I like. Some of them +I've never met. But I don't doubt that they are all much the same. Now, +please don't look as if you didn't understand me. I am sure that you do, +perfectly. Remember, we have talked on these subjects before." + +Mr. Thurston stroked his thick gray mustache, whose ends slightly curved +against cheeks which somehow looked as if they still wore the sun-tan of +travel in remote sultry climates. + +"Of course we have, Miss Claire," he gently exclaimed. "It's wonderful +what an inquiring turn you possess. We've settled that there's no +treachery to Sophia and her mamma in all these dreadful things that you +and I say; haven't we?" + +"Certainly we have settled it," returned Claire, still looking serious. +"But I'm not by any means sure that we do say dreadful things. I ask the +truth, and you tell it me." Here Claire's expression suddenly changed. +She looked at her companion archly, and each cheek dimpled. "At least I +hope you do." + +Mr. Thurston shifted in his seat, and crossed his legs. "I do. I speak +by the card when you ask questions. I'm compelled to. There's an +enormous earnestness about you. You make me think of a person with a +purpose. I'm sure you have a purpose. I haven't yet fathomed it, but I'm +sure it's there." + +"I have a purpose," Claire said. + +"Very well. What is it?" + +"To know about the world I live in. I mean New York, of course. That is +my world, now. I think it a very nice world. At least, I've never seen a +better one." + +"Yes; I understand. And you want to explore it. You want to examine it +in detail. You want to know its bad, worse, worst, and its good, better, +best." + +"I want to know its good, better, best." + +Mr. Thurston laughed again. "Do you know," he said, "that the more I see +of you the more you amuse me? No; I won't say 'amuse'; I'll say +'interest.' You are such a tremendous type. You are so characteristic. I +called you a person with a purpose, just now, and I pretended not to +know what your purpose was. That was an intentional hypocrisy on my +part. I comprehend your purpose thoroughly. You wish to find out what +New York society means. You're making a mental social dictionary. And +you desire that I shall supply you with definitions to the best extent +of my ability. Isn't that true? Pray confess, now." + +Claire looked at him steadily for several seconds. There was a mild yet +bright spark in her dusky-blue eyes, and a faint smile on her lips. + +"You say less than you mean," she answered. "I think that I guess what +is behind your words. I think that you suspect me of wishing to make my +dictionary from motives of future personal preference. That is, you +believe that I am a girl with strong ambitions--that I want to rise, +thrive, succeed.... Well, you're not wrong. I do want to rise, thrive, +succeed. It's in me, as the saying goes. I can't help the impulse." + +Mr. Thurston lifted both hands and slightly waved them. "The impulse is +enough--with you," he said. + +Claire started. "What do you mean?" she asked. + +Mr. Thurston looked at the floor, for a moment, then raised his eyes. +They dwelt on Claire's very forcefully. + +"I mean," he said, "that you are too beautiful and charming not to gain +your object." + +Claire laughed, lightly and yet a little consciously. "That is very kind +of you. If a young man had only said it! How delighted I would have +been!" + +"Then you think me so very old?" Thurston replied, watching her face +with intentness. + +"Oh, no," Claire at once said, growing serious again. "Not that, of +course. But still ... well, it would be idle for me to declare that I +think you young." + +"Perhaps I am younger than you think," he said, with low, peculiar +emphasis on each word. "Mind, I only say 'perhaps.' ... But do not let us +talk of that. As I told you, I am sure you will gain your object. You +will succeed. That is, you will find a higher level than these poor +Bergemanns. There is a restless fire in your soul that will goad you on. +And in the end you must win." + +"Tell me by what means, please." + +"Marriage will be your first stepping-stone." + +"To what?" + +"Success." + +"Success in what form?" + +"Social success. I assume that your aim lies there. You want men and +women of a certain grade to pay you courtesy and deference." + +Claire seemed to muse, for a brief time. "Yes, I do," she then said. +"You are quite right. But you speak of my gaining all this by marriage. +How shall I meet the man who is to lend me such important help?" + +There was a daring candor about this question--a simplicity of +worldliness, in fact--which startled her hearer. But his usual gravity +betrayed no signs of dismay. + +"You will meet him," he said, tranquilly. "Oh, yes; you will meet him. +It is your fate. He will drop to you from the skies. But after you have +secured through matrimony this desired end, will you be contented with +what you have secured? So much depends on that--the success of your +success, as one might say." + +Claire raised her brows in demure perplexity. "I don't understand," she +murmured. + +Thurston slowly shook his head. A smile was on his lips, but it held +sadness, and a hint of pity as well. "If I read you rightly," he +answered, "you _will_ understand, some day." + +Claire made an impatient gesture. "Please don't talk in riddles," she +exclaimed. "Do you mean that the prize will turn out worthless after I +have got it? I have not found this true in my reading. I have not found +many kings or queens who wearied so much of their thrones that they were +ready to resign them." An eagerness now possessed her manner; she leaned +slightly forward; her nostril dilated a little; her color deepened. +"Power and place are what I want, and never to have them will be never +to have contentment. This sounds cold to you. I'm sure of it." + +"Yes," he said, softly; "it sounds very cold. But I don't know that such +a coldness as that will not prove for you a tough safeguard. It is very +protective to a woman--if it lasts." + +"Mine will last, such as it is." + +"I neither affirm nor deny that it will. Time will show." + +She broke into a laugh, full of sportive irony. "You mean that I may +fall in love with somebody. But I have little fear of that." ... Her +face suddenly grew very sober, and her voice trembled some what as she +next said: "I loved my poor dead father dearly. I shall never love any +one else half so much again. No mere words could tell you of my firm +certainty on this subject. But the certainty remains. I don't mean that +I wish to live a loveless life. Far from that! I wish to have friends +in abundance. And I shall not be disloyal to them in any case. But they +must be friends of influence, standing, importance. They must not be +like the Bergemanns, though I mean never to falter for an instant in my +grateful fidelity toward Sophia and her mother." + +"Your frankness," said Thurston, with one of his calm, wise smiles, "has +a positive prodigality. What another woman would hide with the most +jealous care, you openly speak. It is easy to see that your experience +is yet limited." + +"I should not talk to every one as I talk to you," Claire quickly +answered. + +He took one of her hands in his for a few moments. He held it, and she +let him do so. He looked into her face with great fixity. + +"My poor child," he said, "you have a hard road before you. But I know +you mean to tread it with determined feet. In many women there would be +something repellent about such resolves as those you have just +confessed. In you they are charming. I suppose that is easily explained: +you are charming yourself. I shall watch your career with the deepest +concern. You will not mind if I watch it? Am I wrong, here?" + +Claire, still letting him keep her hand, swiftly replied: "Oh, no; of +course I shall not mind. You belong to that other world. You are one of +the people whom I wish to have for my adherents--my clients, as it were. +I hope we shall always be friends. I like you very greatly. You remember +we have talked it all over before now. You have told me of the people +whom I wish to meet. You have even told me some of their names. I have +forgotten nothing of what you have said. I count you as my first +conquest. If others follow--as I firmly believe that they will--we will +have talks together, and laugh over the old times when I was obscure and +a nobody. Yes, if I ever get to be that great lady you prophesy that I +shall become, we will discuss, in little intimate chats, every detail of +my progress toward grandeur and distinction. It will be very pleasant, +will it not? But now I must say something that I have never said before. +I must ask you to help me. Why should you not do so? You have means of +doing so. And you like me; we are excellent friends. If you give me some +real aid I will never forget it. I'm not ungrateful. I'm cold, if you +choose, in a certain way, but I always recollect a service. Don't think +I am begging any favor of you. I'm rather requiring one. Yes, requiring. +You've told me that you think I have ... well that I'm not ugly. You +know just what I want to do. And you've said that I have ... well that +I'm very far from a fool.... Now let us strike a compact. Shall we? Put +me into some path where I may reach your fine, grand world, in which I +should like to shine and be a power!" + +The audacity of this whole speech was exquisite. In plain substance it +belonged to what we call by harsh names. It was the sort of thing that +in ordinary dealing we denounce and even contemn, as the effort of +unsolicited pretension to thrust itself against barred gates with +immodest vigor. But in Claire's case there was no question of ordinary +dealing. Her impetuosity was so lovely, her youth, her beauty, and her +freshness were so entirely delightful, that the unreserved freedom with +which she spoke of aims in their essence purely selfish acquired a +charming picturesqueness. Her ambition, thus openly expressed, lost +every trace of gross worldly meaning. She became, to the eyes of him who +watched her, a fascinating zealot. She seemed to demand what was merely +her just due. It was indeed as though she had been robbed by some +hostile fate of a royalty that she now declared her stolen right, and +proudly reclaimed. All this time she had let Thurston retain her hand. +Once or twice her slight fingers pressed against his palm, with +unconscious warmth. Her face, meanwhile, lifted above the darkness of +her mourning robes, was sweet and brilliant as some early dew-washed +flower. + +Thurston fixed his gaze upon her eyes, whose dark-blue depths were full +of a rich, liquid light. His clasp tightened about her hand. + +"I will give you my help," he said, with a new note in his voice that +was a sort of husky throb; "I will give it to you gladly. But I am +afraid you will not accept it when it is offered." + +"Yes," returned Claire, still not guessing the truth, "I will accept it +most willingly, since it comes from one whom I know to be my friend and +well-wisher." + +"That is not what I mean," Thurston objected. He rose as he spoke, still +holding Claire's hand. + +She looked at him wonderingly. She perceived his changed manner. +"Explain," she said. "How do you mean that you will help me?" + +"I will help you as my wife," Thurston replied. He looked as grave, as +gray, as bronzed, as always; but his voice was in a hoarse flurry. "I +will help you, as my wife, to be something more than a great lady. You +shall be that, if you choose, but you shall be more. Your ambition is +made of finer stuff than you know. I will help you to see just how fine +it is." + +The instant that he began to speak thus Claire had drawn away her hand. +She did not rise. But she now looked up at him, and shook her head with +negative vehemence. + +"No, no!" she said. The words rang sharply. + + + + +X. + + +Not long afterward Claire found herself alone. Thurston had gone. She +felt her cheeks burn as she sat and stared at the floor. His declaration +had strangely shocked her, at first, for the entire man, as it were, had +undergone a transformation so abrupt and radical as to wear a hue of +actual miracle; and it is only across a comfortable lapse of centuries +that the human mind can regard such manifestations with anything like +complacency. Balaam could not have been more bewildered and disturbed +when the Ass spoke. Claire had never thought of Thurston as capable of a +live sentiment toward any woman. She had taken it for granted that all +this part of his nature was in dignified decay, like his hair and +complexion. She had drifted unconsciously, somehow, into the conviction +that his passions, if he had ever felt them, were now like the +lavendered relics that we shut away in chests. She had warmed to him +with a truly filial ardor, and this sudden ruin of their mutual +relations now gave her acute stings of regret. + +But Thurston, who had managed to depart from her with a good deal of +nice repose of visage and demeanor, also contrived, with that skill born +of wide social experience, to make their next meeting by far less +awkward than Claire herself had nervously anticipated. Sophia and Mrs. +Bergemann were both present on this occasion. He looked at Claire in so +ordinary a way, and spoke with so much apparent ease and serenity, that +her self-possession was fed by his, and her dread swiftly became +thankful relief. + +Through the days that followed, Claire and Thurston gradually yet firmly +resumed their past agreeable converse. Of course matters could never be +the same between them. He stood toward her, inevitably, in a new light; +a cloak had fallen from him; she was not quite sure whether she liked +him less or more, now that she knew him as the man who had asked her to +be his wife; but in reality she did like him much more, and this was +because, being a woman, she constantly divined his admiration beneath +the intimate yet always guarded courtesy of his manner. + +Their former chats were resumed, steadily interrogative on her side, +complaisantly responsive on his. As Winter softened into Spring, the +dissipations of Sophia decreased. She had more evenings at home, and not +a few of her devotees would pay her visits during the hours of nine and +eleven. It frequently happened that Thurston would enter the +drawing-room at such times. He always talked with Claire, who would +often emerge from back recesses on his arrival. Both Sophia and her +mother would occasionally deliver themselves of comments upon the +evident preference of their legal adviser. But Mrs. Bergemann was much +more outspoken than her daughter. Sophia could not bring herself to +believe that there was "anything in it," as her own phrase repeatedly +went. She thought Beverly Thurston "just as nice as he could be"; but +the slender and blooming beauty of Claire made to her young eyes +anomalous contrast with Thurston's _fade_ though attractive appearance. + +"Good gracious, Ma!" she once asseverated, in private debate, "Claire +wouldn't ever think of marrying a man old enough to be her father!" + +"She might do worse, now, Sophia," protested Mrs. Bergemann, with the +coolly formulated style of talk and thought which marks so many matrons +when they discuss matrimonial subjects. "You just leave Claire alone. +Wait and see what she'll do. He's taken a shine to her. Recollect, she +ain't got a cent, poor dear girl. He'd make a splendid husband. I guess +he'll propose soon. I hope he will, too. He's a real ellergant +gentleman. Just think how we trust him with rents and mortgages and +things. I declare I don't scarcely know half what he does with my own +property." + +"Pshaw, Ma," responded Sophia, with vast contempt. "Claire wouldn't look +at him that way. She's young, like me. She may be as poor as a +church-mouse, but she isn't going to sell herself like that. Now do be +quiet." + +Mrs. Bergemann became obediently quiet. But she continued to have her +private opinions. Meanwhile Claire and Thurston held their brief or long +interviews, as chance favored. + +Matters had rearranged themselves between them on the old basis. There +was a change, and yet not a change. Claire spoke with all her former +freedom. Thurston listened and replied with all his former concession. + +A certain admirer of Sophia's had of late deserted her, and sought the +attention of Claire whenever occasion permitted. His name was Brady. His +father was the owner of a large and popular emporium on Sixth Avenue. He +was an only child, and supplied with a liberal allowance. The +mercantile success of his father had been comparatively recent. He was +now three-and-twenty; his early education had been one long, persistent +neglect. After the money had begun to flow into the paternal coffers, +Brady had gone abroad, and seen vice and little else in the various +European capitals, and finally, coming home again, had slipped, by a +most natural and facile process, into just that ill-bred, wealthy, +low-toned set of which poor, rich Sophia Bergemann was one of the +leading spirits. + +Claire could hardly endure the attentions of Brady. She was civil to him +because of her two hostesses, whose perception in all matters of social +degree seemed hopelessly obtuse. But Brady had fallen in love with her, +severely and effusively, and she soon had good cause to know it. He was +very tall and slim of figure, with a face whose utter smoothness would +have been the despair of a mercenary barber. His large ears, jutting +from a bullet-shaped head, gave to this head, at a little distance away, +the look of some odd, unclassic amphora. He spoke very indifferent +English, and always kept the last caprice of slang in glib readiness, as +a tradesman will keep his newest goods where he can soonest reach them. +He was excessively purse-proud, and liked to tell you the price of the +big sunken diamond worn on his little finger; of the suite of rooms at +his expensive hotel; of the special deep-olive cigars, dotted with a +lighter yellow speck, which lined his ivory cigar-case. He possessed, in +truth, all the cardinal vulgarities. He was lavishly conceited; he paid +no deference to age; he had not a vestige of gallantry in his deportment +toward women; his self-possession was so frangible that a blow could +shatter it, but his coarse wrath would at once rise from the ruin, like +the foul aroma from a broken phial. At such times he would scowl and be +insolent, quite regardless of sex, years, or general superiority on the +part of the offender. Indeed, he admitted no superiority. The shadow of +the Sixth Avenue emporium hedged him, in his own shallow esteem, with +impregnable divinity. + +"I think," said Thurston, speaking of him one day to Claire, "that he is +truly an abominable creature. The ancients used to believe that monsters +were created by the union of two commingling elements, such as earth and +heaven. But to-day in America we have a horrid progeny growing up about +us, resultant from two forces, each dangerous enough by itself, but both +deadly when they meet. I mean Wealth and Ignorance. This Brady is their +child. If he were merely a poor man, his illiteracy would be endurable. +If he were merely illiterate, we could stand his opulence. But he is +both very uneducated and very rich. The combination is a horror. He is +our modern way of being devoured by dragons, minotaurs, and giants." + +Claire laughed, and presently shook her head in gentle argumentative +protest. "I think there is a flaw in your theory," she said, "and I'll +tell you why. There are the Bergemanns. Sophia, I admit, is not +precisely uncultivated--that is, she has had good chances of instruction +and not profited by them. This may mean little, yet it is surely better +than having had no chances at all. But Mrs. Bergemann--she is both rich +and ignorant, poor dear woman. And yet she is very far from a monster. +She is a sweet, comfortable, motherly person. She would not harm a +fly." Claire put her head a little sideways, and looked with winsome +challenge at her companion; she assumed pretty airs and graces with him, +nowadays, which she had never dealt in before the occurrence of a +certain momentous episode. "What have you to say," she went on, "in +answer to my rather shrewd objection? Doesn't it send you quite into a +corner." + +"Well, I confess that it rather floors me to have Mrs. Bergemann cited +against me," he said, smiling. "I am afraid that I must yield. I am +afraid that my theory is torn in tatters. I must congratulate you on +your destructive instincts." + +He spoke these words with his usual robust sort of languor, in which +there was never a single trace of affectation or frivolity. At the same +time a secret feeling of wonder possessed him; he was thinking how +swiftly active had been the change in Claire since their first +acquaintance. She had told him every particular of her past life, so far +as concerned its opportunities of instruction. He marveled now, as he +had repeatedly done on recent occasions, at her remarkable power to +grasp new phrases, new forms of thought, new methods of inquiry. She had +never, from the first, shown a gleam of coarseness. But she had often +been timid of speech and falteringly insecure of expression. Yet +latterly all this was altered. Thurston had a sense of how phenomenal +was the improvement. It was plain that the books in the library, and +Claire's power of fleet reading, had wrought this benefit upon a mind +which past study and training had already rendered flexibly receptive. +And yet all of the explanation did not lie here; at least half of it +lurked in the fact that she had quitted drudgery, need, and depression. +Her mental shutters had been flung open, and the sunshine let to stream +in through the casements. A few days later she had suspected the +existence of Brady's passion. He made no attempt, on his own side, to +conceal his preference for her society. Claire saw love in his +prominent, slate-colored eyes; she saw it in the increased awkwardness +of his motions when he either walked or sat near her; she saw it in his +bluff yet repressed bravado of manner, as though he were at surly odds +with himself for having been suddenly cut off in the flower of his +vainglorious bachelorhood. She had grown sharper-sighted for the +detection of these tender signs. And even in Brady their tenderness was +unmistakable. His clownish crudity had softened, in all its raw lines. +The effect might be compared to those graceful disguises in which we +have seen moonlight clothe things that repel us under the glare of day. + +One morning when Claire came down to breakfast she found a huge basket +of Jacqueminot roses awaiting her, with Brady's card attached to it. She +flushed, for a moment, almost as red as the florid, velvety petals +themselves. Then she said, equally addressing Mrs. Bergemann and Sophia: + +"How strange that he sent them to _me_! There may have been some +mistake." + +"Oh, not a bit of it!" Sophia exclaimed. "He's dead gone about you, +Claire. I've seen it lately. So has Ma." Here the young lady turned +toward her mother, and lifted an admonishing finger. "Now, Ma, don't you +say a thing!" + +But Mrs. Bergemann would say a number of things. Her amiability was so +expansive, and made such a radius of glow and warmth all about her, +that she rarely found it possible to dislike anybody. She had failed to +realize that Brady was an offensive clod. In her matrimonial concern for +Claire, the fact that he would one day, as the only child of his father, +inherit a vast fortune, reared itself before her with irresistible +temptation. + +"Upon my word," she declared, "I don't know as any girl _had_ ought to +refuse a fellow as awful well-off as he is. Sophia's always talking of +his great big ears, and his boastful ways, and his style of getting into +tantrums about nothin' whatever. But still, I guess he might make a good +husband. He might be just the kind that'll tame down and behave +'emselves after marriage. And they say he ain't a bit mean; he ain't got +_that_ fault, anyhow. And I guess he'd buy a manshun on the Avenu for +any girl he took, and just make her shine like a light-house with +di'monds, and roll round in her carriage, and be high an' mighty as you +can find. _I'd_ think twice, Claire, if _I_ was you, before I let him +slip. That is, I mean if you don't decide you'd rather have Mr. +Thurston, who _does_ seem fond o' you, though I ain't said so before in +your hearing, dear, and who's an ellergant gentleman, of course, even if +he is a bit too old for a fresh young thing like yourself." + +Claire laughed, in a high key, trying to conceal her nervousness. "Oh, +Mr. Thurston is quite too old, Mrs. Bergemann," she said. "Please be +sure of that." + +The rich hue of the roses haunted her all day, even when she was not +near them. Their splendid crimson seemed like a symbol of the luxury +that she might be called upon to refuse. She had heard about the +emporium on Sixth Avenue. It made her bosom flutter when she thought of +being the mistress of a great mansion, and wearing diamonds and rolling +about in her carriage. Then she remembered Thurston's words concerning +this man who had sent her the roses. Was he so much of a monster, after +all? Might she not be able to humanize him? For a long time she was in a +very perturbed state. During this interval it almost seemed to her that +if he should ask her to marry him she would nerve herself and answer +'yes.' + +That afternoon she did not go to drive with Sophia. Mrs. Bergemann went +in her place. Claire sat beside one of the big plate-glass windows of +her delightful chamber, and watched the clattering streams of carriages +pass below. Some of these she had now grown to remember and recognize; a +few of them possessed a dignity of contour and equipment that pleased +her greatly. She would have liked to lean back upon the cushions of some +such vehicle, and have its footman jauntily touch his hat while he +received her order from within, after he had shut the shining door with +a hollow little clang. The door should have arms and crest upon it; she +would strongly prefer a door with arms and crest. + +Suddenly, while watching from the window, she saw a flashy brougham, +with yellow wheels, a light-liveried coachman and a large, high-stepping +horse in gilded harness, pause before the Bergemanns' stoop. The next +instant Brady sprang out, and soon a mellow bell-peal sounded below. +Claire sat and wondered whether he who had sent her the roses would now +solicit her company. It even occurred to her that he might have passed +Sophia and Mrs. Bergemann on the avenue, and hence have drawn the +conclusion that she would be at home alone. + +She was quite right in this assumption. The grand Michael presently +brought up Mr. Brady's card. Claire hesitated for an instant, and then +said that she would see the gentleman. + +She found Brady in the reception-room. He was dressed with an almost +gaudy smartness, which brought all his misfortunes of face and figure +into bolder relief. He wore a suit of clothes that might have been quiet +as a piece of tapestry, but was surely assertive in its pattern when +used for coat and trousers; his cravat was of scarlet and blue satin, +and a pin was thrust into it which flashed and glittered so that you +could not at first perceive it to be a cock's head wrought of diamonds, +with a little carcanet of rubies for the red comb. He had a number of +brilliant rings on his big-knuckled hands, and the sleeve-buttons that +secured his low, full wristbands were a blaze of close-bedded gems at +every chance recession of his sleeve. As he greeted Claire it struck her +that his expression was unwontedly sulky, even for him. He appeared like +a person who had been put darkly out of humor by some aggravating event. + +"How are you, Miss Twining?" he said, holding Claire's hand till she +herself withdrew it. "I hope you're well. I hope you're as well as they +make 'em." + +Claire sat down while she answered: "I am very well, Mr. Brady." Her +visitor at once seated himself beside her, leaning his face toward her +own. "I am sorry that both Mrs. Bergemann and Sophia are out," she went +on, with the desire to bridge an awkward interspace of silence. + +"Oh, _I_ ain't, not a bit," said Brady, ardently contradictory. "I'm +glad of it, Miss Twining. I wanted to have a little chin with you." He +laughed at his own slang, crossed his long legs, and leaned back on the +lounge which Claire was also occupying. At the same time he turned his +face toward his companion. + +Claire felt that decency now compelled her to offer a certain +acknowledgment. "I want to thank you for those lovely flowers," she +said. "They were beautiful, and it was very kind of you to send them." + +He began to sway his head slightly from side to side. It was his way of +showing nearly every emotion, whether embarrassment, perplexity, +chagrin, or even mollification. + +"Come, now," he began, "you didn't really think a lot about 'em, did +you?" + +"I liked them very much," returned Claire. She was watching him, in all +his unpleasant details, though very covertly. She was asking herself, in +the dispassionate reflectiveness born of her calculating yet feverish +ambition, whether she could possibly consent to be his wife if he should +ever ask her. The remembrance of his great prospective wealth dealt her +more than one thrilling stroke, and yet feelings of self-distrustful +dread visited her also. She feared lest she might commit some +irreparable mistake. She was still very ignorant of the world in which +she desired to achieve note and place. But she had, at the same time, a +tolerably definite understanding of some things that she aimed to do. +Her talks with Thurston had let in a good deal of light upon her mind. +She had not lost a single point in all his explanatory discourse. + +"I'm glad you _did_ like 'em," said Brady, examining his radiant rings +for an instant. "They cost a heap of stamps," he added, suddenly lifting +his head and giving her an intent look. "But I don't mind that. I ain't +a close-fisted chap, especially when I'm fond of anybody. I guess you've +seen that I think a deal about _you_. I can't talk flowery, like some +chaps, but that don't matter." ... At this point he suddenly took +Claire's hand; his face had acquired a still more sulky gloom; it was +clouded by an actual scowl. "Look here, now, Miss Twining," he said, "I +never expected to get married. I've had some pretty nice girls make +regular dead sets at me--yes, I have--but none of 'em ever took my +fancy. You did, though. I stuck it out for two or three weeks, and I +daresay I kept giving myself clean away all the time. But I saw 't +wasn't any use; I'm caught, sure; there ain't any mistake about it. +We'll be married whenever you say. I'll do the handsome thing--that is, +Father will. Father's crazy to have me settle down. He's worth a lot o' +money--I s'pose you know that. He'll like you when he sees you--I ain't +afraid he won't. We can have a slam-bang stylish wedding, or a plain, +quiet one, just as you choose. And don't you be alarmed about too big a +difference between you and I. Father may kick a little at first, but +he'll come round when you've met once or twice. He'll see you're a good, +sound girl, even if you ain't as high up, quite, as he'd want me to go +for. There, now, I've broken the ice, and I s'pose it's all fixed, ain't +it?" + +Claire had been trying to withdraw her hand, for several moments, from +the very firm grasp of this remarkable suitor. But as Brady ended, she +literally snatched the hand away, and rose, facing him, contemptuous, +and yet calm because her contempt was so deep. + +"It is impertinent for you to address me like this," she said, in +haughty undertone. "You have no right to take for granted that I will +marry you. In the first place, I do not like you; in the second place, I +think myself by no means your inferior, but greatly above you as regards +breeding, education, and intelligence; and in the third place, I would +never consent to be the wife of one whom I do not consider a gentleman." + +She at once left the room, after thus speaking, and saw, as she did so, +that Brady's face was pale with rage and consternation. His insolent +patronage had wounded her more than she knew. On reaching her own room, +she had a fit of indignant weeping. But by the time that Sophia and Mrs. +Bergemann returned from their drive, she was sufficiently tranquil to +betray no sign of past perturbation. + +That evening Sophia went to one of her "sociables." A male friend called +for her, and they were driven together to the entertainment in question, +with superb yet innocent defiance of those stricter proprieties +advocated in higher social realms. Mrs. Bergemann retired somewhat +early, and Claire was left alone, as it happened, with Thurston, who +chanced to drop in a little after nine o'clock. Just before Mrs. +Bergemann left the drawing-room, she contrived to whisper, in garrulous +aside, with her plump face quite close to Claire's, and all her genial, +harmless vulgarity at a sort of momentary boiling-point: "I shouldn't be +surprised, dear, if he should pop to-night. And if he does, I ain't sure +that you hadn't better have him than Brady, for he's ever so rich, +though the other'll get that Sixth Avenu store and two or three millions +o' money behind it. Still, please yourself, Claire, and don't forget to +leave the hall gas burnin' for Sophia when you go upstairs." + +Claire was in a very interrogative mood to-night. "I should like to have +Mr. Brady explained a little more fully," she said, when Thurston and +herself were again seated side by side. + +Her companion gave a soft laugh. "I thought that we had exhausted that +subject," he said. "It's not a very rich one, you know." + +"I don't want you to tell me anything about his character as a man," +Claire quickly replied. "But I want to find out his standing in +society." + +"He has no standing in society," said Thurston, with instant +decisiveness. + +"Do the people of whom you have spoken repeatedly--those whom you term +the best class, I mean--entirely refuse to know him?" + +"Not at all. They have never been called upon to know or not to know +him. The best class is in a different world altogether. Perhaps Brady is +aware of their existence; he may have read of their entertainments in +the newspapers, or he may have seen them occasionally at +watering-places. But that is all. His self-importance prevents him from +realizing that they are above him. He is essentially and utterly common. +He is surrounded by a little horde of sycophants who worship him for his +money, and who are, in nearly all respects, as common as himself." + +"You mean the set of people with whom Sophia associates?" + +"Yes. I mean the rich, vulgar set of which you have so frequently seen +specimens in this very room." + +Claire seemed to muse for a short while. "But the others?" she soon +asked. "Those people who hold themselves above the Bergemanns--are they +all refined and cultured? That is, are there any Bradys among them? Are +there any Mrs. Bergemanns or Sophias?" + +"I should emphatically say not. One may meet people among them who are +by no means models of propriety or of high-breeding, but only as +exceptional cases. They are generally found to be ladies and gentlemen; +I don't know two more comprehensive words than those for just what I +desire to express. Of course I have no large moral meaning, now. I would +merely imply that in outward actions, at least, they preserve the +niceties. Their occasional deeds of darkness may be as solidly bad as +anything of the kind elsewhere. I should be very loth to describe them +as saintly. But they are usually polished. Quite often they are rank +snobs. Still oftener they are stupid. Their virtues might best be +explained negatively, perhaps. They don't shock you; they are not crude; +they haven't forgotten that a verb agrees with its nominative in number +and person; they don't overdress themselves; they very rarely shout +instead of talking, and ... well, for a final negative, they never tell +the truth when its utterance might wound or annoy." + +Claire had seemed to be listening very earnestly. She did not respond +with her usual promptness. Her tones were slow and thoughtful when she +at length said: "And they are what you would call an aristocracy?" + +"I don't know why they are not. They are incessantly being compared, to +their own disadvantage, with the aristocracies of foreign lands. But I +have traveled considerably, in my time, and on the whole I prefer them +to all similar bodies. There is less sham about them, and quite as much +reason for existence. They point a very sad moral, perhaps; they +illustrate what certain austere critics like to call the failure of +republican ideas. But I've had so many good friends among them that I +can't consider any institution a failure which is responsible for their +development." + +"And it is very hard to become one of their number," Claire said, after +another little pause. She did not put the words as a question. + +"You seem to think it hard," Thurston answered. Rare as was any +impulsive order of speech with him, this slight yet meaning sentence had +nevertheless found utterance, almost against his will. + +It was his first reference to the episode which both vividly remembered, +though in far different ways, and which had cast round their subsequent +intercourse, even when directed upon the most mundane topics, a delicate +glamour of sentiment plainly perceptible to each. Claire dropped her +eyes, for a moment, then suddenly lifted them, while the pink was yet +deepening in her cheeks. + +"Let us suppose that I am not speaking of myself," she said. "Indeed," +she went on, with a soft, peculiar smile that had hardly lighted her +lips before it fled, "you have told me that _my_ gate into the kingdom +of the elect is through--well, through matrimony." She now looked at her +companion with so subtle a blending of the arch and the grave that +Thurston, in all the solidity of his veteran experience, was baffled how +to explain it. "Suppose," she suddenly announced to him, "that I should +marry Mr. Brady. He is your abhorrence, I know. But if he put his +millions at my disposal, could I become the great lady you and I have +talked about?" + +Thurston was stroking his mustache, and he now seemed to speak under it, +a trifle gruffly, as he answered her. + +"Yes," he said, "I think you could--provided Brady quitted the world +after marrying you." + +Claire gave a little rippling laugh. "They would never allow him to be +one of them?" she asked, in tones whose precise import her hearer still +failed to define, and which impressed him as midway between raillery and +seriousness. + +"No, never. If he has proposed to you, my poor child, don't for an +instant flatter yourself that you could use him as a ladder by which to +climb up into your coveted distinction." + +These words were spoken with a commiserating ridicule. Tried a man of +the world as he was, Thurston had of late been so deeply wounded that he +now felt his wound bleed afresh, at an instant's notice, and deal him a +severe pang as well. But Claire, quite forgetting to make allowances, +flushed hotly, and at once said:-- + +"I never told you that Mr. Brady had proposed to me. And I do not think +it proper or civil for you to throw in my face what I have put to you in +the shape of a confidence." + +"Marry Brady. By all means marry him," said Thurston. He had not been so +bitterly affronted in years. + +Claire felt conscience-stricken by the recollection of her own thoughts +just previous to Brady's offer. She had permitted herself to weigh the +question of whether or not marriage with such a man might be possible. +Then had come the sharp sense that it would be degrading. For this +reason she was now humiliated beyond measure, and hence keenly angry. + +"I shall not marry him," she said, her lip faintly quivering. "Why do +you speak to me like this?" Tears of shame now gathered to her eyes, and +her voice notably faltered. She found no more words to utter. She felt +that she was in a false, miserable position. She felt that she deserved +Thurston's contempt, too, since she had given him, stupidly and rashly, +a hint of what had passed between herself and the man whom they both +despised. + +Thurston rose and placidly faced her. He was so angry that he had just +enough control left to preserve tranquillity. + +"I don't know that I have said anything very hard to you," he began. + +"Yes, you have," retorted Claire, her voice in wretched case. She +knotted both hands together while she spoke. She was still seated. + +Thurston went on as if there had been no interruption. "But if I tell +you the plain truth, I don't doubt you will think me hard. I will tell +it because you need it. You are still a mere girl, and very foolish. I +am profoundly sorry for you. You have no possible regard for that +frightful young millionaire, and yet you have permitted yourself to +think of marrying him. Such a marriage would be madness. You would not +accept me because you thought me old, but it would be better if you +married a decent man of ninety than a gross cad and ruffian of +twenty-three. But whether you do sell yourself in this horrid way or no, +it is a plain fact that you are in danger of committing some terrible +folly. I see by your face that you do not mean to heed my words. But +perhaps if you listen to them now, you will recall them and heed them +hereafter." + +"No," cried Claire, tingling with mortification, and seizing on satire +as a last defensive resort against this deserved rebuke, whose very +justice revealed her own culpability in a clearer light; "no, if you +please, I won't listen! I shall ask, instead, that you will kindly grant +me the liberty of purchasing my own sackcloth and of collecting my own +ashes." + +She half turned away from him, with glowing face, as she spoke; it was +her intent to beat a prompt retreat; but Thurston's firm, even tones +detained her. + +"I warn you against yourself," he went on. His anger had cooled now, and +melancholy had replaced it. "You have some fine traits, but there is an +actual curse hanging over you, and as a curse it will surely fall, +unless by the act of your own will you change it into a blessing. It is +more than half the consequence of your land and your time, but it is due +in part, also, to your special nature. In other countries the women whom +fate has placed as it has placed you, are never stung by ambition like +yours. They are born _bourgeoises_, and such they are contented to +remain. If they possess any ambition, it is to adorn the sphere in which +their destinies have set them, and this alone. They long for no new +worlds to conquer; their small world is enough, but it is not too small +to hold a large store of honest pride. All over Europe one finds it +thus. But in America the affair is quite different. Here, both women and +men have what is called 'push.' Not seldom it is a really noble +discontent; I am not finding fault with it in all cases. But in yours, +Claire Twining, I maintain that it will turn out a dowry of bitter risk +if not woful disaster. I exhort you to be careful, to be very careful, +lest it prove the latter. Don't let your American 'push' impel you into +swamps and quicksands. Don't let it thrust you away from what is true +and sterling in yourself. Be loyal to it as a good impulse, and it will +not betray and confound you like a bad one. You can do something so much +better than to wreck your life; you can make it a force, a guidance, a +standard, a leadership. You can keep conscience and self-respect clean, +and yet shine with a far surer and more lasting brilliancy on this +account.... Think of my counsel; I shall not besiege you with any more; +no doubt I have given you too much, and with too slight a warrant, +already.... Good-by. If I should never see you again, I shall always +hope for you until I hear ill news of you. And if bright news reaches +me, I shall be vain enough to tell myself that we have not met, talked, +argued--even quarreled, perhaps--without the gain on your own side of +happy and valued results." ... + +Thurston passed from the room, swiftly, and yet not seeming to use the +least haste, before Claire, strongly impressed and with her wrath at a +vanishing point, could collect herself for the effort of any coherent +sort of reply. + +She had caught one very clear glimpse of his face just as he +disappeared. His hazel eyes, troubled, yet quiet, had momentarily dwelt +with great fixity on her own. As she afterward recalled this parting +vision of a face grown so familiar through recent weeks, it appeared to +her solely in imaginative terms. It ceased to be a face; it became a +reproach, a remonstrance, an advice, an entreaty. + +Immediately after his exit she sank into a chair, feeling his late words +ring through mind and heart. She had never liked him so much as at that +moment. + +She had a sense that he meant to avoid seeing her again. But she did not +realize through how much vivid novelty of experience she must pass +before they once more met. If any such prescience had reached her, she +would have gone out into the hall and plucked him by the sleeve, begging +him to return, filled with conciliatory designs, eager that he should +abandon all thought of permanent farewell. + +But as it was, she let the hall-door close behind him, and sat staring +at the floor and saying within her own thoughts: "He is right. I am in +danger. I can save myself if I choose. And I _will_ save myself in +time!" + +She clenched both hands as they drooped at either side, and her eyes +flashed softly below their shading lids. + + + + +XI. + + +She was wholly unprepared for the intelligence, a few days later, that +Thurston had gone, in the most sudden manner, to Europe. The Bergemanns, +mother and daughter, were both amazed by the departure of their legal +adviser, without a premonitory word from him on the subject and +apparently at such brief notice. Claire, in the midst of her own +consternation, sharply dreaded lest some suspicion should dawn upon them +that she was concerned in this precipitate change. But if Mrs. Bergemann +let fall any hint that such was her belief, it was made in the hearing +of Sophia alone; and the latter had scouted from the first, as we know, +all idea that Thurston's regard for her friend could partake of +lover-like tenderness. The letter which he had written to his client, +announcing that he had sailed, gave no reason for this abrupt course. It +was a letter somewhat copious in other respects, however, and made +thoroughly plain the fact that the partner of him who wrote it would in +every way defend and supervise the interests of Mrs. Bergemann. "I shall +probably be abroad a number of months," ran Thurston's written words, +"but during that time rest sure that all details of the slightest +importance with respect to your affairs shall be safely communicated +through Mr. Chadwick." + +Mr. Chadwick soon afterward presented himself. He was a lank man, of +bloodless complexion and irreproachable manners. "I think he's a reg'lar +wet blanket," said Mrs. Bergemann, with critical cruelty, "after dear, +high-toned Mr. Thurston. He _was_ high-toned, Claire, wasn't he, now?" +she persevered, with a sidelong, timorous look toward Sophia, who +chanced, besides Claire, to be present at the time. + +"Now, Ma!" broke in Sophia, accompanying this vocative with a tart +gesture of remonstrance, "Claire doesn't know a bit better than you or I +do whether he was high-toned or not. _Do_ you, Claire?" + +"I think almost everybody who ever met him," said Claire, answering the +appeal, "must have seen it very clearly." + +She spoke this with nice composure. But she was inwardly dismayed, +wounded, almost tortured. For many succeeding days she contrived to +absent herself from all Sophia's guests. Brady had totally disappeared +from her experience; he no longer presented himself at the house. He was +secretly fearful lest Claire might publish the fact of his proposal +broadcast among the adherents with whom he stood supreme as their +moneyed and autocratic leader. He suffered those torments of humiliation +which only a small soul, with small views of things and an immoderate +vanity, has learned the petty trick of suffering. It is by no means +hyperbole to state that he inwardly cursed Claire for being the girl +within whose power he had put it to say that she had actually repelled +his superb matrimonial advances. Longer concern with so unwholesome a +creature would be idle for the chronicler, especially since henceforth +he drops out of our record somewhat as Slocumb did, and with a scarcely +more chivalrous exit. + +Claire now passed through a period of extreme repentance. Her old +longings had vanished; she silently planned for herself, with ascetic +enthusiasm, a future of humility and obscurity. She was a zealot in a +totally new way; she had abandoned all thought of marrying, and had +conceived the idea of mentally fitting herself to become a governess. +With this end, she spent hours in the library. Incapable of doing +anything by halves, she now bent the full force of her strong will and +capable intellect toward obtaining a proper educational competence. She +swam far out, so to speak, into the blue waters of knowledge, and +breasted them with good, vigorous strokes. She was, for the time at +least, passionately in earnest. Thurston's farewell words rang +incessantly through her memory. She would crush down all that American +"push," once and forever. She would steer from the perils against which +he had warned her, by one broad, divergent swerve. Her remorse and her +resignation held a poetic ardor of kinship. Her past longings had indeed +been a folly, and as such she would unvaryingly treat them. She would be +consistent henceforward, and seek only what lay within her lawful scope +of action. She was like the convert to a new faith, and she had all a +convert's intensity of fervor. + +From her two friends, however, she chose to guard with caution the +secret of this change. It was now the early portion of June, and the +fierce heat of summer had literally leapt down on the city after several +weeks of raw, inclement May weather. The judgment long ago passed upon +our climate, that it has a summer, an autumn, a winter, but no spring, +had never been more fully confirmed. The city was wrapt all day in a +torrid drowse; the pavements lay either in bleak glare or breathless +shadow. On the benches of the parks, where spots of dusk were wrought by +overbrowing branches, groups of jaded citizens huddled together in moist +discomfort. The cars tinkled sleepily; the omnibuses lagged in rumbling +sloth; foul smells beset the nostrils, even from genteel gutters or the +doorways of high-priced restaurants. People looked up at the wool-like +pallor of the sky, and wished that it would darken into the cooling +gloom of a thunderstorm. + +But Claire scarcely minded the heat. She had known the fetid miseries of +a Greenpoint summer. Those spacious chambers and halls of the +Bergemanns' solid-built mansion were delicious indeed by contrast. +Striped awnings had been affixed to each window, whose scalloped edges +would flap in chance waftures of breeze, while the stout bunting above +them changed the sunny rigors outside to a continual soothing gloom. It +was true that she had no sympathy with hot weather; she liked an +atmosphere in which quick movement was pleasantly possible. But she was +nevertheless very much at her ease here and now. She read; she studied; +the library, bathed in a tender dimness, pleased her with its vague rows +of books, its rough rich carpeting, its dark massive wood-work. She had, +for a time, that exquisite feeling of the scholar who clothes himself +with silence, solitude, and repose, and who lets the outer world touch +him through soft, impersonal yet cogent mediums. During this interval +she was completely happy. It was the old self-surrender of the +_devote_. Literature was henceforth to be her cult, her idolatry. The +mere process of reading had always been one of ease and speed with her. +Past training helped her now in the way of method and system. She had +learned how to learn. Her French readings were frequent. Sophia had a +French maid with whom she often conversed. Her proficiency in the +language soon became marked and thorough. + +But suddenly her new contentment was shattered, and by a rude stroke. +Mrs. Bergemann began to talk of leaving town. Claire almost felt, at +first, as if the ground were giving way beneath her feet. She could only +accompany her friends to a watering-place in the position of a dependent +and pensioner. Her salary must stop, because her relations with Sophia +must of necessity lose all their instructive character. "You would never +continue our readings, Sophia," she said, "in a crowded hotel, where you +would have countless distractions." + +"Oh, yes, I would, Claire," was the alert reply. "We'll keep it up just +the same. You'll pack a few books in one of the trunks, and I'll promise +to be a good girl; you needn't feel a bit afraid. Ma's decided on Coney +Island. Now, don't look so glum, as if you didn't have a friend in all +the world. You've been sort of queer, lately; you talk slower, somehow, +and you stick up there in the library nearly all the time. But you're +still my own nice Claire. I swear by you, dear girl, just as I always +did. If there's anything on your mind I won't ask you what it is." + +"There is something on my mind, Sophia," Claire said. "But you must not +ask me what it is, just yet. I will tell you soon. Yes, I hope to tell +you quite soon." + +She went with them to Coney Island. They engaged rooms at the Manhattan +Beach Hotel. The books had been packed and brought, but very few of them +were ever opened. + +"It's not a bit of use, Claire!" Sophia affirmed, after the lapse of +about five days. "We can't manage it. There's always something +happening, as you see. Besides, nobody works here. Everybody idles. It's +in the air. Let's take a vacation." + +"Why, yes, girls," said Mrs. Bergemann, at this point, with motherly +persuasion. "You better just lay up some health for next winter, and +quit the books till we get home. Or p'raps we may get tired of this +place 'fore the summer's through, an' go somewheres where it ain't so +lively--I mean some lazy place like Lake George or the White Mountains. +Then books and reading will fit in kinder natural. But I don't think +_I'll_ care to leave here for a good big while. I ain't ever seen +anything like it before. If we could only go driving here, now, and them +horses wasn't eating their heads off over in the city, why 'twould be a +reg'lar paradise. Sophia, I've just rec'lected that I came to this very +spot twenty years ago if it's a day, with poor Pa! We was quite a young +couple, then ... that girl wasn't more'n a baby, Claire. We took her +along. Pa carried you, Sophia. The Brewery wasn't started in them times, +an' ... well, I guess we got along with about five hundred dollars a +year, over at the small saloon at Hoboken." + +"Now, Ma, you needn't go into such very close particulars, please!" +chided Sophia, whose large, warm heart was not democratic enough always +to stand the intense humility of certain maternal reminiscences. + +"Pshaw!" said Mrs. Bergemann, with a good-humored laugh; "we don't mind +Claire. She's one of us. Besides, we're up here in the bedroom, not down +on that crowded piazzer. Well, girls, as I was saying, Pa and me came +here that day, an' I declare to goodness, the place was only a bare +strip o' sand with a few little shanties here and there, that they +called hotels. And just look at it now! Three monstrous palaces, and all +New York streaming down every decent afternoon. It's like enchantment. I +can't believe I'm where I was twenty years ago. I'm afraid I must be +dreaming. But if I am, I don't want to wake up; I want to keep right on +till the first o' September." + +"Only a few years ago the island was very much the same as you describe +it twenty years ago," said Claire, who had dipped into a small +descriptive handbook telling about the marvelous growth of this unique +and phenomenal watering-place. + +"I s'pose I ought to find it a little bit too _gay_," pursued Mrs. +Bergemann, presently, in reflective afterthought. "Poor Pa's been gone +such a short time." Here the lady heaved an imposing sigh which her +massive bust made no less visible than audible. "But I can grieve just +as well by mixing in with folks as if I was hung round with crape an' +stuck off alone somewheres. Everybody's got their own ways o' grieving, +an' I ain't goin' to forget poor Pa merely 'cause I look about a little +and make my second-mourning kinder stylish. Not a bit of it!" + +Mrs. Bergemann certainly showed the courage of her opinions, as regarded +the sort of grief due her departed spouse. Her laugh was loud in hall, +in dining-room, or on piazza. Her costumes tinkled with black bugles, +or rustled and crackled in sombre yet ornamented grandeur. It is +probable that grief may have dealt her real pangs, and yet that the +irrepressible glow and warmth of her spirits kept always at bay the +gloom and chill of grief. Her nature was not a shallow one; she could +feel with depth and force, but she could not mope or even muse; solitude +was hateful to her; she was gregarious; she wanted to hear the voices +and look into the faces of her kind. In spite of her German origin she +was excessively representative, from a purely American stand-point. Her +very vulgarities--and they were certainly profuse--possessed a wide, +healthful sincerity. Her enormous benevolence stood for her in the place +of refinement; it was indeed a certain code of manners by itself; she +was always so good to you that you might pardonably forget to remark the +unconventionalism of her goodness. She was precisely the sort of person +whom Coney Island must have pleased. + +But it pleased Claire in a totally different way. The immense concourse +of people who flocked thither, by such easy modes of travel, from New +York and Brooklyn and elsewhere, were an incessant source of interest. +Their numbers, their activities, their enjoyments, kept her blood in a +soft tingle. This brilliant and picturesque city by the sea appeared to +her in the light of a delicious reparation. It was a long, splendid +festivity, compensating her for those years of dire dullness passed but +a few miles away. All her recent resolutions to spend a life of lowly +quietude, had melted into thin air. The ambition to climb, to shine, and +to rule was once more a dominant force within her being. It seemed to +her as if she had flung away some sort of irksome disguise, and now +beheld it lie like an ugly heap near at hand, while wondering, in the +exhilaration of regained freedom, how she had ever chosen to shroud +herself with its clogging folds. + +She bathed every day in the ocean, and acquired a richer fund of health +on this account. Either with Sophia or alone, though more often the +latter, she explored the whole wondrous little life-crowded island, in +which every grade of human society, from lowest to highest, held for her +its distinct representation. The two huge Iron Piers, jutting out into +the surf and assailed by continual salty breezes, charmed her with their +streams of coming and departing people, with their noonday lunchers, +with their _table d'hote_ diners, seated over cigarettes or coffee in +the sweet marine dusk. She loved West Brighton, with its beer-bibbers, +its gaudy booths, its preposterous exhibited fat woman, its amazing +Irish giant, its games of strength or skill, and its whirling +_carrousels_, where delighted children span round on wooden horses, +cows, lions, or dragons, to the clamors of a shameless brass band. But +Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, and the Oriental each afforded a +steadier satisfaction. The delicate and lightsome architecture of these +three hotels, with their myriads of windows, their _chalet_-like +patterns of roof, gable, and chimney, and their noble outlooks upon the +sea, grew dearer to her as the structures themselves became more +familiar. She loved the fine sonorous music that pealed forth from the +big deft-built pavilions, where troups of well-trained minstrels set +many a brazen instrument to their capable lips, and would often find +assembled thousands for their listeners, either in the long, salubrious +afternoons, or in the breezy starlight and moonlight of those exquisite +seaside evenings. Her observant eyes were never weary of watching, and +they forever found something to watch. She soon acquired an +extraordinary keenness in the matter of "placing" people at sight. Few +points of manner, costume, or visage escaped her. She found herself +classifying and arranging the vast crowds that she daily encountered. +She became familiar with the faces of many who frequently disembarked +from the loaded cars. Nor was her own face in turn unnoticed. Augmented +health had freshened its tender tints, and lent to its lines a choicer +symmetry. Many an eye dwelt upon her with admiration. Almost +instinctively she had learned the art of disposing her black garments to +dainty advantage, and of heightening their effect with little subdued +touches of maidenly tastefulness. + +Sophia's diversions increased with each fresh day. Many of the male +devotees with whom she had romped during "sociables" of the previous +winter, sought her in these new surroundings. Claire was compelled to +acknowledge former introductions, and sometimes to assume a +conversational attitude with the friends of her friend. But they all +seemed to her alike; they all reminded her of Brady, though in a +mercifully moderated way. She was invariably civil to them, though they +wearied and tried her. They made her recall Thurston, whose remembered +comments fleeted through her mind, while his grave, manly image appealed +to it in retrospective vision. She was on the verge of a novel and +important experience; but, of this unborn fact her longing for better +companionship alone gave monition, and addressed her by the imaginative +stimulus which we sometimes carelessly term presentiment. + +One evening, as she joined Mrs. Bergemann and Sophia upon that portion +of the hotel piazza which was usually set aside for its regular patrons, +she found the two ladies in conversation with two gentlemen, of whom she +knew only one, ranking him as not by any means the most ill-bred of +Sophia's friends. He was a young man named Trask, of canary-colored +eyebrows and a cloudy complexion, who had made himself a favorite with +both sexes of his particular set through rousing no jealousies by +superior personal and mental gifts, yet winning golden repute as one +whose complaisant good-will would wince under nothing short of positive +imposition. The second gentleman was presented to Claire as Mr. +Hollister, and her look had scarcely lit on his face before she felt +convinced that he was quite of another world from his companions. Even +while he was seated she could see that he was tall and of shapely build. +His head was small, and covered with glossy blond curls; his blond +mustache fringed a lip of sensitive cut, though the smooth chin beneath +it fell away a little, leaving his large, frank blue eyes, broad +forehead, and well-formed nose to fail of implying the strength they +would otherwise have easily told. He wore a suit of some thin, dark +stuff that clung tightly about his athletic arms and chest, and +contrasted with the light silken tie knotted at his wide, solid throat. +Every detail of his dress was what Claire soon decided to be in the best +fashion; she had already learned a good deal about the correct reigning +mode in men's dress. The extraordinary nicety and comprehensiveness of +her observation had made this one of the sure results of her present +sojourn. + +She liked Mr. Hollister at sight, and she liked him more after she had +heard him speak. His voice was full and rich, like the voice of a man +used to the shout that often goes with the out-door game; he could not +be more than five-and-twenty, at the most, she decided; he seemed a +trifle bashful, too, but bashful with a virile grace that pleased her +better, in so robust and engaging a person, than the most trained +self-possession could have done. + +Sophia had always felt a liking for the yellow-eyebrowed young +gentleman; they were the firmest of friends. The coming of Claire +appeared to relieve her from the responsibility of "entertaining" Mr. +Hollister, whom she had never met till this evening. She soon drifted +away arm-in-arm with her preferred companion, among the dark throngs +beyond the huge bright-lit piazza. Mrs. Bergemann, perhaps from an +instinctive perception of how matters lay with Claire, presently rose +and sought the society of a matronly friend, seated not many yards +distant, whom she had known in anterior Hoboken days, and who had +reached nearly as fat a prosperity as her own, from possibly similar +causes. + +Claire was glad to be alone with her new acquaintance. He had roused her +curiosity; she wanted to find out about him, to account for him. Thus +far they had said the most impersonal and ordinary things to each other. +She remembered afterward that they had used the old meteorological +method which has so often served as the plain, dull path into fervent +friendships or still warmer human relations; they had talked of the +weather. + +"I'm really surprised to hear that it has been so very hot in the city," +Claire said, breaking the pause that followed Mrs. Bergemann's +departure. + +"Oh, it has been dreadful, I assure you," said Mr. Hollister. "Ninety in +the shade at four o'clock." + +"Why, we have had a lovely breeze here, all day, straight from the +ocean," Claire resumed, with a pretty little proprietary wave of one +hand seaward, as though she were commending the atmospheric virtues of +her own special domain. "Once or twice I have felt actually chilly." He +looked incredulous at this, then broke into a soft, bass laugh; laughter +was frequent with him, and made his blue eyes sparkle whenever it came. + +"I've forgotten how it feels to be chilly," he said. "I wonder if I +could stand any chance of reviving the sensation down on the shore +yonder." + +He spoke the words in the manner of an invitation, and doubtless seeing +prompt acquiescence in Claire's face, at once leaned forward to ask +"Will you go?" Claire straightway rose, answering "With pleasure." She +took his offered arm, and thought while she did so how strong and firm +it was, as if bronze or stone were beneath its flimsy vestment, instead +of muscular mortality. The band in the illuminated pavilion near by had +lately paused, but it now struck up a waltz rich in long mellow-pealing +cadences. "Is this your first visit here?" said Claire, as they +descended the broad piazza steps, down toward the smooth, trim levels of +grass and the massive, rounded beds of geranium, whose scarlets and +greens now looked vague in the starlight. "Or have you been here many +times before," she went on, "during past seasons, and so lost all your +enthusiasm for this charming place?" + +"I've been here about six times in all," he answered, "but my enthusiasm +is still in fine order. It's ready to break forth at any minute. If you +want, Miss Twining, we can have a combined eruption this evening." + +Claire thought this clever; it had so fresh a sound after the blunt fun +she had long heard; it made her think a little of the way Beverley +Thurston phrased his ideas, though any resemblance between the two men +could only exist for her in the large generic sense that they were both +gentlemen. She laughed, with a note of real glee among the liquid +trebles of her mirth. It seemed to her that she had already got to know +Mr. Hollister quite well. And yet they were still such strangers! She +had still so much to learn regarding him! + +"I'm glad you've nothing to say against this delightful island," she +declared, as if mildly jubilant over the discovery. "I heard a man on +the sands talking about it to a friend only a few mornings ago. He was a +shabby man who wanted shaving, and I'm not sure that he had on any +collar. I think he must have been a kind of philosopher. He said that +Coney Island was an immense fact. There is just my opinion--that it is +an immense fact." They were now but a slight distance from the foamy, +rolling plash of the dark sea-waves. The music came to them in bursts of +softer richness. With her arm still in that of her companion, Claire +half turned toward the hotel, starred with countless lights, and +looking, as it rose above the vague throngs beneath it, like some palace +of dreamy legend, lit for festival. + +"I often think that this mere strip of sand must be so surprised," she +continued, "to find itself grown suddenly important and famous after it +has lain here lonely, almost unnoticed, for long centuries. I sometimes +fancy that I can hear the waves talk to it as they break on its shore, +and ask it what is meant by this wonderful change." + +"That's a very pretty way of looking at the matter," replied Hollister, +while he gazed down into her face from his considerably taller height +with a keener expression of interest and charm than he himself guessed. +"Perhaps the waves congratulate Coney Island on its final success in +life, and gently quote to it the old proverb about everything coming to +those who know how to wait." + +Claire started. "Do you believe that?" she said. "_Does_ everything come +to those who know how to wait?" + +Hollister laughed again. "You talk as if _you_ had been waiting. But I'm +sure it can't have been for very long." + +This last sentence was put at least half in the form of a question. But +she evaded it, saying with a light little toss of the head: "Hasn't +everybody always something to wait for, between youth and old age?" + +"Tell me something about your expectations, won't you?" he asked, with +the non-committal tenderness of a man whose acquaintanceship has been +too brief for any serious depth to accompany his words. "You can't think +how much I wish that I was one of them." + +"One of my expectations? You?" + +"Decidedly." + +"But how could I answer you on that point?" she returned, letting him +catch in the gloom a glimpse of her sly smile. "You're only a name to +me. If you'll not think my candor rude, I haven't an idea who you are." + +"I don't believe I should think you rude if you really were so," he +said, smiling, and yet seeming to mean with much quiet force each word +that he spoke. "So you want me to give an account of myself? Well, I'm a +rather obscure fellow. That is, I don't believe I know more than ten +people in New York at all well. I lead a quiet life; I'm what they call +a Wall Street man, but I mingle with the big throng there only in a sort +of business way. I was graduated at Dartmouth two years ago, and spent a +year in Europe afterward. Then I came back, and began hard work. There +were reasons why I should do so--I mean financial reasons. I'm not a New +Yorker; I was born and reared in Providence. Do you know Providence?" + +"No," said Claire. "I know only New York." + +She was looking at him interestedly at short intervals; they had resumed +their stroll again; her arm was still within his; he had continued to +please her, though she felt no thrill of warm attraction toward him, +however mild in degree. She had a sense of friendship, of easy +familiarity. But apart from this, she was conscious, as a woman +sometimes not merely will but must be, that she had won him to like her +by a very easy and rapid victory. Already she was not sure but that she +had won him to like her strongly as well. Her few recent words of reply +had carried with them a subtle persuasion of which Hollister himself was +oddly and most pleasurably conscious. He yielded to their effect, and +became somewhat more free in his personal confidences. + +"My father had been a Dartmouth man," he went on. "That was the reason +of my going there. Father and Mother have both passed away, now. It's a +lovely old college, and it gained me some strong friendships. But I find +that all my favorite classmates have drifted into other cities. They +sometimes write to me, even yet, after my year in Europe. But, of +course, the old good feeling will shortly cease ... how can it fail to +cease?... I'm a good deal alone, just now. I know a number of men there +in Wall Street, but I feel a little afraid of making friends with them. +I don't just know why, but I do. Perhaps it's because of getting into +bad habits. Some of them, I've noticed have very bad habits. And I've +made up my mind ... that is, I--I half promised my poor dear mother just +before she.... Well, Miss Twining, the plain truth is that I keep +regular hours and live straight, as they say. I like to take a sail down +here while the weather is hot, but I nearly always take it quite by +myself. To-night I happened to meet Trask on the boat. I'd nearly +forgotten Trask. He was in my Freshman year with me, but he dropped off +after that. It was he who introduced me to--to the Miss--excuse me, but +I really forget your friend's name." + +"Miss Bergemann," said Claire. + +"Oh, yes--Miss Bergemann." He paused, at this point, gently forcing +Claire to pause also. They were still beside the sea; the music still +came to them in its modulated sweetness. Hollister bent his head quite +low, looking straight down into her upturned face. + +"I've told you ever so much about myself," he said. "I wish, now, that +you'd give me a little knowledge also. Will you?" + +"About _my_self?" asked Claire. "About just who I am?" + +"Well, yes, if you don't mind." + +She reflected for a short space. Then she began to speak. She told him, +as she went on, more than she had at first intended to tell. He listened +intently while they slowly walked on, beside the dark, harmonious +billows. + +Before she had ended, he had realized that he was in love with her. He +had never known anything of such love till now. His heart was fluttering +in a new, wild way; he could scarcely find voice to answer her when she +at length ceased to speak. But she had not told him all her past life. +She had reserved certain facts. And her own feelings were entirely +tranquil. Not the least responsive tremor disturbed her. + + + + +XII. + + +Hollister nearly missed the last boat back to the city, that evening. +His night was partially sleepless, and morning brought with it a mental +preoccupation that was surely perilous to what tasks lay before him. +Like most men who have escaped the stress of any important sentiment +until the age of five-and-twenty, he was in excellent condition for just +such a leveling seizure as that to which he had now made complete +surrender. He was what we call a weak nature, judged by those small and +ordinary affairs of life which so largely predominate in almost every +human career. If some great event were ever fated to rouse within him an +especial strength, this summons had not yet sounded, and he still +remained, for those who had found cause to test the fibre of his general +traits, a person in whom conciliating kindliness laid soft spell upon +them all. His friends at college had been mostly of tough calibre, of +unyielding will; he seemed unconsciously to have selected them in order +that they might receive his concessions. But they were never encouraged +in fostering the least contempt for him. The spark of his anger always +leapt out with the true fire, prompt to resent any definite disrespect. +Yet the anger sometimes cooled too quickly toward those whom he liked; +there had been cases where he would waive his own claims to be +indignant, with too humble a repentance of past heat. Necessarily such +qualities made him popular, and this result was not lessened by the fact +of his being almost rashly generous besides. His mental gifts had never +been called powerful, but he had cut no sorry sort of figure as a +student; and he possessed an airy humor that seldom deserted for a long +time either his language or thought. + +During the week that followed his introduction to Claire, he visited the +hotel where she was a guest on every evening but two. One of those +evenings chanced to be fiercely rainy; he could not have come to Coney +Island without having his appearance there savor markedly of the +ludicrous. The other evening was the last of the week. He had asked +Claire to marry him the night before. She had not consented, neither had +she refused: she had demurred. He was piqued by her hesitation, and +affrighted by the thought of her possible coming refusal. He passed a +night and a day of simple torture. Then, his suspense becoming +insupportable, he appeared once more within her presence. His aspect +shocked her; a few hours had made him actually haggard. His hand +trembled so when she placed her own within it that she feared the +perturbation might be noticed by others besides herself, there on the +crowded piazza where they met. + +"I've come to get your answer," he began, doggedly, under his breath. +"You said last night that you were not sure if you--you cared enough for +me. Have you found out, by this time, whether you do or no?" + +"There are two empty seats, yonder, near the railing of the piazza. +Shall we sit there?" She said this almost in a whisper. + +"If you choose. But I--I'd rather be down on the sands. I'd rather +listen to it there, whatever it is." + +But Claire feigned not to hear him. It was her caprice to remain among +the throng. She moved toward the empty seats that she had indicated, he +following. In all such minor matters she had already become the one who +dictated and he the one who acquiesced. + +The night, lying beyond them, was cool but beautifully calm. An immature +moon hung in the heavens, and tinged the smooth sea with vapory silver, +so that its outward spaces took an unspeakable softness, as though +Nature were putting the idea of infinity in her very tenderest terms. + +There was no music to-night, for some reason. The buzz of voices all +about them soon produced for each a sense of privacy in the midst of +publicity. + +"You asked me to be your wife last night," Claire began, looking at him +steadily a little while after they were both seated, and not using any +special moderation of tone because certain of her own vantage in the +prompt detection of a would-be listener. "Before I give you any final +answer to that request--which I, of course, feel to be a great honor--it +is only just and fair that I should make you know one or two facts of my +past life, hitherto left untold." + +This was not the language of passion. Perhaps he saw but too plainly its +entire lack of fervor. Yet it seemed to point toward future consent, and +he felt his bosom swell with hope. + +"If it is anything you would rather leave untold," he said, with a +magnanimity not wholly born of his deep love, "I have not the least +desire to learn it." + +Claire shook her head. "You must know it," she returned. "I prefer, I +demand that you shall know it." + +He felt too choked for any answer to leave him. If she imposed this +condition, what was meant by its sweet imperiousness except the happy +future truce for which he so strongly yearned? On some men might have +flashed the dread suspicion that her words carried portent of an +unpardonable fault, about to be confessed there and then. But +Hollister's love clad its object in a sanctifying purity. Apart from +this, moreover, his mind could give none of that grim welcome which +certain dark fears easily gain elsewhere. The sun had long ago knit so +many wholesome gleams into his being that he had no morbid hospitality +for the entertainment of shadows. + +"I want to tell you of how my father died," Claire went on, with her +face so grave in every line that it won a new, unwonted beauty from the +change. "And I want to tell you, also, of something that was done to me +after his death, and of something that I myself did, not in personal +revenge for my own sense of injury, but with the desire to assert my +great respect for his loved memory, and to deal justice where I thought +justice was deserved." + +Then in somewhat faltering tones, because she had deliberately pressed +backward among recollections so holy that she seemed to herself like one +treading on a place filled with sacred tombs, she recounted the whole +bitter story of her mother's avarice, of her father's ignoble burial, +and of her own resultant flight. The tears stood in her eyes before she +had ended, though they did not fall. As her voice ceased she saw that +Hollister had grown very pale, and that his brows met in a stern frown. +At the same moment his lip trembled; and as he leaned forward, took her +hand into his own, pressed it once, briefly but forcibly, and then +released it, she caught within his gaze a light of profound and +unmistakable sympathy. + +"I think your mother's course was infamous," he said. "Did you suppose +that I could possibly blame you for leaving her?" + +Claire had dropped her head, now, so that he could see only the white +curve of her forehead beneath its floss of waved and gold-tinted hair. +And she spoke so low that he could just hear her, and no more. + +"Yes, I thought you might blame me.... I was not sure.... Or, if not +this, I feared that the way in which poor Father was buried might ... +might make you feel as if I bore a stain--or at least that the disgrace +of such a burial, and of having a mother who could commit so hard and +bad an act, must reflect in shame upon myself." + +If they had been alone together, Hollister would have answered this +faint-voiced, hesitant speech by simply clasping Claire within his arms. +But the place forbade any such fondly demonstrative course. He was +forced to keep his glad impetuosity within conventional bounds; yet the +glow on his face and the tremulous ardor of his tones betrayed how +cogent a surge of feeling was threatening to sweep him, poor fellow, +past all barriers of propriety. + +As it was, he spoke some words which he afterward failed to remember, +except in the sense that they were filled with fond, precipitate denial +of all that Claire had said. He felt so dazed by the bliss that had +rushed upon him as to fail, also, of recalling just how he and Claire +left the populous piazza, and just how they reached the lonelier dusk of +the shore. But the waves brought him rare music as he paced the sands a +little later. His was the divine intoxication that may drug the warder, +memory, but that wakes to no remorseful morrow.... + +Claire wondered to herself when she was alone, that night, at the +suddenness of the whole rapid event. She had given her pledge to become +Herbert Hollister's wife in the autumn. While she viewed her promise in +every sort of light, it seemed to her sensible, discreet, even +creditable. He was a gentleman, and she liked him very much. She had no +belief, no premonition that she would ever like any one else better. She +was far from telling herself that she did not love him. We have heard +her call herself cold, and it had grown a fixed creed with her that she +was exempted by some difference of temperament from the usual throes and +fervors. He suited her admirably, in person, in disposition, in manners. +She need never be ashamed of him; she might indeed be well proud of so +gallant and handsome a husband. Her influence over him was great; she +could doubtless sway, even mould him, just as she desired. And she would +bear clearly in mind those warning words of Beverley Thurston's: she +would use her power to good ends, though they might be ambitious ones. +From a worldly stand-point, he was comfortably well off; his income was +several thousands a year; he had told her so. With his youth and energy +he might gain much more. She would stimulate, abet, encourage him toward +the accomplishment of this purpose. He should always be glad of having +chosen her. She would hold it constantly to heart that he should find +in her a guide, a help, a devoted friend. And he, on his side, should +aid her to win the place that she coveted, loving her all the better +because she had achieved it. + +When these rather curious meditations had ceased, she fell into a placid +sleep. She had been wholly unconscious of the selfish pivot on which +they turned. It had quite escaped her realization that they were +singularly unsuited to the night of her betrothal. She had no conception +of how little she was giving and how much she was demanding. She fell +asleep with a perfectly good conscience, and a secret amused expectancy +on the subject of Sophia's and Mrs. Bergemann's surprise when to-morrow +should bring them the momentous tidings of her engagement. + +But they were not so much surprised as she had anticipated. The +attentions of Hollister had been brief, yet of telling earnestness. +Sophia hugged her friend, and cried a little. "You mean old thing," she +exclaimed, "to go and get engaged! Now, of course, you'll be getting +married and leaving us." + +"I'm afraid that's the natural consequence," said Claire, with a smile. +Mrs. Bergemann pressed her to the portly bosom, and whispered +confidentially, just after the kiss of congratulation: "He's a real +ellergant gentleman. I think I know one when I see one, Claire. And +don't you let Sophia set you against him. She better try and do half as +well herself. _She'll_ marry some adventuring pauper, if she ain't +careful, I just do believe." + +Claire felt a great inward amusement at the thought of Hollister being +depreciated in her eyes by any light value which Sophia might set upon +him. As it proved, however, Sophia soon learned to forgive him for the +engagement, and to treat him very graciously. Before the summer had +grown much older Claire and her lover began to be pointed out by the few +other permanent boarders of the hotel, with that interest which clings +like a rosy nimbus about the doings of all betrothed young people. They +certainly made a very handsome couple, as they strolled hither and +thither. But Claire's interest, on her own side, had been roused by +certain little coteries that would often group at one end of the monster +piazza. The ladies of these small assemblages were mostly very +refined-looking persons, and many of the gentlemen reminded her of +Hollister, though their coats, trousers, boots, and neck-ties not seldom +bore an elaborated smartness unpossessed by his. They looked, in current +idiom, as though they had come out of band-boxes, with their high, stiff +collars, their silver-topped walking sticks, and their general air of +polite indolence. The ladies, clad in lace-trimmed muslins and wearing +long gloves that reached above their elbows, would hold chats with their +gallants under the shade of big, cool-colored parasols. Claire was often +pierced by a sense of their remarkable exclusiveness when she watched +their dainty gatherings; and she watched them with a good deal of covert +concern. Hollister could not even tell her any of the gentlemen's names. +This caused her a sting of regret. She wanted him to be at least +important enough for that. His ignorance argued him too unknown, too +unnoted. One day, to her surprise, Claire perceived Mrs. Arcularius, her +former august schoolmistress, seated amid a group of this select +description. Mrs. Arcularius had lost none of her old majesty. It was +still there, and it was an older majesty, by many new gray hairs, many +acquired wrinkles. She was a stouter person, but the stoutness did not +impair her dignity; she bore her flesh well. + +Claire determined to address her. She waited the chance, and carried out +her project. Mrs. Arcularius was just rising, with two or three other +ladies, for the purpose of going inside to luncheon, when Claire decided +to make the approach. + +She looked very charming as she did so. Hollister had brought her a +bunch of roses the evening before, and she had kept them fresh with good +care until now. They were fixed, at present, in the bosom of her simple +white muslin dress, and they became her perfectly. She went quite close +to Mrs. Arcularius, and boldly held out her hand. + +"I am very glad to meet you again," she said, "and I hope you have not +forgotten me." + +Mrs. Arcularius took her hand. Under the circumstances she could not +have done otherwise without committing a harsh rudeness. And she was a +woman whose rudenesses were never harsh. + +With her disengaged hand she put up a pair of gold eye-glasses. "Oh, +yes, surely yes," she said, while softly dropping Claire's hand; "you +were one of my pupils?" + +Claire did not like this at all. But she would not have shown a trace of +chagrin, just then, for a heavy reward. She smiled, knowing how sweet +her smile was, and promptly answered: + +"I'm sorry that you only remember me as one of your pupils. I should +like you to remember my name also. Are you quite certain that it has +escaped you? Does not my face recall it?" + +"Your face is a very pretty one, my dear," said Mrs. Arcularius. She +looked, while speaking, toward her recent companions, who were moving +away, with light touches of their disarranged draperies and sidelong +glances at Claire. Her tones were impenetrably civil, but her wandering +eye, and the slight averted turn of her large frame, made their civility +bear the value, no less, of an impromptu veneer. + +Claire divined all this, with rapid insight. Her wit began to work, in a +sudden defensive way. She preserved her smile, looking straight at Mrs. +Arcularius while she said, in a voice pitched so that the other ladies +must of necessity hear it: + +"I was so obscure a little girl among all the grand little girls who +went to your school in my time, that I don't at all blame you for +finding it inconvenient to recall me. I fear I have been mistaken in +addressing you as the woman of business, my dear madam, when you find +the great lady alone to your humor. But you have played both parts with +so much success that perhaps you will pardon me for alluding to one at +the expense of the other." + +There was nothing pert in Claire's little speech. The few seconds that +it took her to make it were epical in her life; they showed her the +quality of her own powers to strike back with a sure aim and a calm +nerve; she was trying those powers as we try the temper of a new blade. + +She moved away at once, with tranquil grace, and not a hint of added +color or disconcerted demeanor. It was really very well done, in the +sense that we call things well done which depend upon their manner, +their felicity, their _chic_ of method. The ladies looked at each other +and smiled, as though they would rather have kept their lips grave +through politeness to Mrs. Arcularius; and she, on her own side, did +not smile at all, but revealed that disarray of manner which we can best +express in the case of some large fluttered bird by noting its ruffled +plumage. + +Nothing in Claire's past had qualified her for this deft nicety of +rebuke. Those stands made against her mother's coarse onsets had surely +offered but a clumsy training-school for such delicate defiance. And yet +her history has thus far been followed ill if what she said and did on a +certain day in Mrs. Arcularius's school-room has not foreshadowed in +some measure the line of her present action. Perhaps it was all purely +instinctive, and there had been, back in the gentility of her father's +ancestry, some dame of nimble repartee and impregnable self-possession, +who had won antique repute as dangerous to bandy speech with. + +But Claire's tranquillity soon fled. She was scarcely out of Mrs. +Arcularius's sight before an angry agitation assailed her. When, a +little later, she met Sophia in one of the halls, it was with sharp +difficulty that she hid her distress. + +Still, however, she did hide it, sure of no sympathy, in this quarter, +of a sort that could help to heal her fresh wound. That evening, +however, a little after the arrival of Hollister, and while they walked +the sea-fronting lawns and listened to the distant band, as had now +grown a nightly and accepted event with them, she narrated the whole +circumstance of the morning. + +"Do you think I did right, Herbert?" she finished, sure of his answer +before it came. + +"Perfectly, my darling," he said, looking down into her dim, uplifted +face. "I wouldn't have had you do anything else. You must cut that old +Gorgon if you ever meet her again. You must cut her dead, before she has +a chance to serve the same trick on you." + +"I don't know about that," returned Claire, as if his words had set her +thoughts into a new groove. "Perhaps she may be of use to me afterward. +I may need her if we ever meet in ... society." She slightly paused +before speaking the last word. "If she hasn't left by to-morrow I shan't +see her, you know. I won't cut her; I simply shan't see her. It will be +better." + +Hollister laughed. What he would have disliked in another woman +fascinated him in Claire. "You little ambitious vixen," he said, in his +mellow undertone. "I suppose you will lead me a fine dance, after we are +married. I suppose you will make me strain and struggle to put you high +up, on the top rung of the ladder." + +"I should like to be on the top rung of the ladder," said Claire, with +that supreme frankness a woman sometimes employs when sure that the man +who listens to her will clothe each word she speaks in an ideal halo. + +At the same time, she had an honest impulse toward Hollister which +should be recorded to her credit. She had not planned for him any +thrilling discoveries of her worldliness after their marriage; she +candidly saved him all peril of disappointment. But he, on the other +hand, could see neither rock nor shoal ahead. If she pointed toward +them, he looked only at the hand which pointed, and not at the object it +so gracefully signaled. + +She did not see Mrs. Arcularius again. That lady's visit had doubtless +been for a day only. The dainty groups still assembled, mornings and +afternoons, just as before. Now and then she thought that some of their +members--those who had witnessed the little scene with her former +schoolmistress--gave her a look of placid attention which seemed to say: +"There you are. We remember you. You are the young person who asserted +yourself." + +She wanted them to address her, to strike an acquaintance with her. But +they never did. This piqued her, as they were all permanent residents at +the hotel. She made no concealment of her wish to Hollister. + +"It is too bad you do not know some of their male friends," she said. +"If you did, I should get you to introduce them." + +He fired a little at this, mildly jealous. "Do you really mean it?" he +asked, with doleful reproach. + +Claire did not understand his jealousy, at first; then it flashed upon +her, through a sudden realization of his great fondness. + +"Oh, I should merely like to know them for one reason," she said, +laughing. "They would introduce me in turn, perhaps, to those charming +looking ladies, who belong to another world. I like their world--that +is, the little I have seen of it. I want to see more. I want to have +them find out that I am quite suited to be one of them." + +His jealousy was appeased. He softened in a moment. It was only her +pretty little foible, after all--her delightfully droll longing to be +ranked among the lofty aristocrats. + +"I wish I did know some of the men you mean," he said, with apologetic +concern, as though she had asked him for some gift which he could not +manage to secure. "I think that I have seen two or three of them in Wall +Street; but we have never met on speaking-terms." + +More than once he pointed out to her a gentleman in the throng whom he +did know, or told her the name of such an acquaintance, after +transiently bowing to him. But Claire, with a fleet glance that was +decisively critical, never expressed a desire to meet the individuals +thus designated. Something in their mien or attire always displeased +her. She dismissed them from her consciousness with the speed born of +total indifference. + +And now a most unforeseen thing happened. Mr. Trask, of the yellow +eyebrows, had made repeated visits to Sophia, but Claire, because of the +novel change in her own life, had failed to observe what to Mrs. +Bergemann had become glaringly evident. One day, in the middle of +August, Claire entered the latter's room, and found Sophia weeping and +her mother briskly loquacious. + +"I don't know what she's crying about, Claire," Mrs. Bergemann at once +proceeded to explain, with an aggrieved look toward her tearful +daughter. "She don't want to go with me home to Germany; I s'pose that's +it. And there's my own flesh and blood, Katrina Hoffmann, who's written +me a letter, and begged me in it to come and pay her a visit before she +dies. And because I want to go across in September--after you're +married, Claire, of course--Sophia behaves like a baby." + +"Katrina Hoffmann!" now exclaimed Sophia, with plaintive contempt. +"She's Ma's second-cousin, Claire. And what does Ma care about Germany? +She was a child of ten when she left it. I don't want to go, and I won't +go, and there's all about it!" + +But Sophia, for the first time in her life, had found a master in the +mother who had so incessantly yielded to her least whim. The letter from +Germany, as Claire soon discovered, was a mere pretext for flight. And +Trask, of the yellow eyebrows, had caused this fugitive impulse in Mrs. +Bergemann. She had learned about Trask; he was a clerk in an insurance +company, on seven hundred a year. Sophia was the heiress of three +millions. It would never do. All Mrs. Bergemann's rich fund of good +nature shrank into arid disapproval of so one-sided a match. She +developed a monstrous obstinacy. It was the old maternal instinct; she +was protecting her young. They went to Germany in spite of all Sophia's +lamentations. They went in the middle of September, and poor Trask was +left to mourn his lost opportunities. Certain threats or entreaties, +declaimed in private to Sophia by her affrighted parent, may have laid a +veto upon the maiden's possible elopement. Or it may have been Trask's +own timid fault that she did not fly with him. For she was very fond of +Trask, and might have lent a thrilled ear to any ardent proposition from +so beloved a source. But Trask had not a romantic soul; he accepted his +fate with prosaic resignation. Moreover, his tendency to be obliging, to +grant favors, to make himself of high value in an emergency, may have +come forth in heroic brilliancy at the private request of Mrs. Bergemann +herself. + +Wherever the real truth of the matter may have lain, Mrs. Bergemann and +Sophia, as a plain fact, went to Europe in September, leaving the +bereaved Trask behind them. But both, before their departure, were +present at the marriage of Claire and Herbert Hollister. + +It was a very quiet wedding. It occurred on an exceedingly hot day. +Sophia and her mother were to sail the day after. They both gave +effusive good-byes to Claire as she left the Fifth Avenue mansion in her +traveling-dress at Hollister's side. + +"I feel as if I should never, never see you again!" Sophia said, in a +sort of pathetic gurgle, with both arms round Claire's neck. + +It was indeed true that they never met again. Sophia afterward forgot +Trask, and married in Europe. Her husband, as a few ill-spelled letters +would from time to time inform Claire, was a Baron. Up to the period +when these letters ceased, Sophia had repeatedly declared herself to be +very happy. Claire occasionally wondered whether Mrs. Bergemann had +approved of the Baron. But Mrs. Bergemann did not come back to tell, +which, after all, seemed like a good omen. + +On that sultry September day of their marriage, Claire and Hollister +started for Niagara, where they remained but a brief while. They then +returned to Manhattan Beach by mutual consent. The weather still +remained very hot. It was what we call a late season. + +They found at the hotel a moderate number of guests, who were waiting +for the first sharp gust of autumn to make them scurry in droves from +the seaside. + +Hollister resumed his business. He went and came every day in the train +or boat. + +Claire did not feel at all like a bride. But she and her husband had +talked together about their future, and she had the sense of a great, +vital, prosperous change. She felt like a wife. + + + + +XIII. + + +A long chain of days followed, each in every way like the other. One +steady yet lazy wind pulsed from the south; the skies were clad with an +unaltering blue haze from dawn till dark, except that a rosy flush, like +a kind of languid aurora, would steal into the full round of the horizon +with each new sunset, and stay until evening had first empurpled it, +then darkened it completely. Afterward the stars would come forth, +golden, globular, and rayless, while the same unchanged southerly wind +would get a damp sharpness that made at least a light wrap needful if +one remained out of doors. The great piazza would be almost vacant an +hour or so after nightfall, and the whole shore quite lonely. As +regarded all after-dark visitors, the island had virtually closed its +season. But Claire and Hollister haunted the piazza a good deal when the +early autumnal darkness had emptied it of occupants. After they had +dined he would light his cigar, and then select a certain hundred yards +or so of the firm wooden flooring, over which they passed and repassed, +arm-in-arm, more times than perhaps both their healthful young frames +realized. The other guests of the hotel doubtless conjectured that they +were saying all sorts of tender trifles to each other, according to the +immemorial mode of those from whom the honeymoon has not yet withdrawn +her witching spells. But in reality there was very little between them +of what we term lover-like discourse. Claire discouraged it in her +husband, who obeyed the tacit mandate. + +She was prosaic and practical on these occasions. It amused and charmed +Hollister to find her so. In any guise that it chose to wear, her +personality was an enchantment. Claire planned just how they were to +live on their return to town, and he thought her irresistible in this +role of domestic anticipation. + +"We shall have to find apartments," she told him. "We cannot afford to +rent a house of our own. But apartments are very nice and respectable. +They are quite different from a boarding-house, you know. I should be +very sorry if we were compelled to board." + +"So should I," declared Hollister. "Are you sure that we have not enough +to let us rent a small house?" + +Claire's eyes glistened, as though the chance of their income being made +to stretch thus far suggested charming possibilities. But she soon gave +a sad shake of the head. "No," she decided. "We should only find +ourselves running into debt. We had better take no rash risks. Your +business is full of them, as it is, Herbert. Besides, a year or two may +make the change easy for us." + +She amazed him by the speed with which she learned just how his affairs +stood. Her quick mastery of facts that with most women baffle both +memory and understanding, was no less rare than thorough. It had always +been thus with her. Whatever she wanted to comprehend became her mental +possession after slight and brief effort. It was not long before she +read the price-list of stocks in the morning papers with nearly as +lucid a perception of just what it meant as Hollister himself. She made +her husband explain as well as he could--and this was by no means +ill,--both the theory and practice of Wall Street speculation. She soon +began to know all his important investments, and talk of them with +facile glibness. + +Her control over Hollister daily strengthened. She would have swayed a +man of much firmer will, and it is certain that he grew steadily more +deferent to her judgment, her counsel, or even her caprices. The desire +that she so plainly laid bare to him he had already estimated as a most +right and natural development. In his eyes it was touched with no shade +of selfishness; its egotism was to be readily enough condoned; one liked +self-assertion in those whom nature had wrought of finer stature, from +better clay. The queen pined for throne and sceptre; they were a debt +owed her by the world; she could not help being born royal. + +It irritated him that those people in the hotel whom she had expressed a +wish to know, should not have sought her acquaintance and society. She +must have struck them as a creature of great beauty and grace. Why had +they not been won into paying her tribute? This was Hollister's fond way +of putting the matter to his own thoughts. A few of these same people +still remained. They formed a little clique among themselves; they, too, +were waiting for the drowsy and torpid weather to wake up and send them +townward. They saw Claire daily, almost hourly, and yet they never +showed a sign of caring to do more than see her. Hollister secretly +resented their indifference. His pride perhaps conspired with his love +in making him bring Claire a fresh supply of flowers every evening, that +she might wear them brilliantly knotted in the bosom of her dress. She +remonstrated with him on the extravagance of this little devoted act, +but for once he overruled her protest by a reference to the cheapness of +flowers at that especial season. She always wore the flowers. Jutting +forth in a rich mass from the delicate symmetry of her breast, they +became her to perfection, as their lovely contact becomes all save the +most ill-favored of women. She allowed Hollister to continue his +pleasant, flattering gift. The mirror in her dressing-room was of +generous proportions. + +By day she liked to stroll the shore, or to sit with a book on one of +the many benches, and watch, when not reading, the pale blue sweep of +ocean, smooth as oil, and flecked with a few white-winged ships. Some of +the sails were so faint and far away to the eye that they made her think +of blossoms blown by a random breeze clear out into the misty offing. +But now and then a boat would move past, hugging the shore, and wearing +on its breadth of canvas huge black letters that advertised a soap, a +washing powder or perhaps a quack medicine. The tender poetry in sky or +sea gave these relentless merchantmen (if the term be not inapt) a most +glaring oddity. But Claire did not wholly dislike, after all, the busy +push of life and traffic which they so harshly indicated. If she had +been less capable of understanding just how vulgar a note they struck, +she might have disapproved of them more stoutly. As it was, she accepted +their intrusion with full recognition of its ugliness, yet with a latent +and peculiar sympathy. It reminded her of the vast mercantile city that +lay so near--the city where her young husband was seeking to augment +his gains, and by a process of slight essential difference. + +But curiously in contrast with this feeling was Claire's mode of now and +then speaking to the shabby people who frequented the shore, and +repeatedly giving them alms when this or that woful story of want would +meet her ears. Past experiences made her singularly keen in detecting +all the sham tales of beggars. She had learned the real dialect of +poverty, and her sense was quick to perceive any suspicious flaw in its +melancholy syntax. More than once she would engage little dingy-clad +children in converse, and nearly always a coin would be slipped into +their hands at parting. But one day it happened that a child of smart +gear, a little girl about five years old, came up to her side and began +prattling on the subject of a sandy structure which the plump, tiny +hands had just erected, a few yards away. The child had a fat, stupid +face which was shaded by a big, costly-looking hat, along whose brim +coiled a fashionable white plume. Every other detail of her dress +implied wealthy parentage. Her little form exhaled a soft perfume, as of +violets. She looked up into Claire's face with dull, unintelligent eyes, +but with a droll assumption of intimacy, while chattering her fluent +nonsense regarding the product of her recent sportive toil. Claire was +not prepossessed, but at the same time she took the little creature's +hand very socially, and listened to her brisk confidences with amiable +heed. + +But a French _bonne_, in a fluted cap, suddenly appeared upon the scene, +and cut short the child's further overtures of friendship by drawing her +away with swift force and a gust of voluble French reprimand. The child +broke into peevish screams, and was at once lifted by the strong arms of +the _bonne_, just as a lady abruptly joined them. The lady shook her +forefinger at the child, while she was being borne away with passionate +clamor. + +"Tu as ete tres mechante," exclaimed the new-comer, remaining +stationary, but following with a turn of the head and unrelaxed finger +this tragic departure. "Nous avions peur que tu ne fusses tombee dans la +mer. Tais-toi, Louise, et sois bon enfant!" + +Distance soon drowned the lamentations of little Louise, and the lady +now addressed herself to Claire. + +"I hope my bad little girl hasn't been troubling you," she said. "It is +really the nurse's fault that she strayed away in this wild style. Aline +is horridly careless. I've already discharged her, and that makes her +more so. Last week at Newport the poor child nearly fell over the cliffs +because of that woman's outrageous neglect." + +"Your little girl was in no danger here, I think," said Claire, smiling. + +"Oh, no; of course not," returned the lady. She gave Claire a direct, +scanning look, and then dropped upon the bench beside her. "Coney Island +is very different from Newport. We had a cottage there all summer. Do +you know Newport?" + +"No," said Claire. "It is a very delightful place, is it not?" + +"Well, yes," returned the lady, with a covert dissent in her admission. +"It's nice, but it's awfully stiff." + +"Do you mean ceremonious?" asked Claire. + +"Yes. I got frightfully tired of it. I always do. My husband likes it, +and so I go on his account. I'd much rather go to Narragansett or Mount +Desert. They're more like real country, don't you know? You haven't got +to button your gloves all the time, and pose your parasol. You're not +bothered with thinking whom you shall know and whom you shan't. You can +let yourself loose. I love to let myself loose. But you can't do it in +Newport. Everybody there is on a kind of high horse. Now I like to come +down, once in a while, and ride a pony." + +The lady gave a shrill, short laugh as she ended these words. Claire had +already noted all her personal details. She was tall of figure and +extremely slender. She had a sharp-cut face which would have gained by +not being of so chill a pallor. Her black eyes were full of restless +brilliancy; her lips were thin, and marked at their rims by a narrow +bluish line. She carried herself with an air of importance, but her +manner was very far from the least supercilious display. She promptly +impressed you as a woman whose general definition was a democratic one, +though aristocracy might also be among her minor meanings. She had no +claims to beauty; she was too meagre in point of flesh, too severe in +general contour, too acute in her angles. She lacked all the charm of +feminine curves; she was a living conspiracy of straight lines. You +could not closely observe her without remarking the saliency of her +joints; she seemed put together on a plan of cruel keenness. At the same +time, her motions were not awkward; she managed her rectilinear body +with a surprising ease and pliancy. Her health appeared excellent, +notwithstanding her slim frame and chalky color. The warmth, speed, and +geniality of her speech, evidently springing from high animal spirits, +no doubt enforced this inference. + +Claire felt not a little puzzled by her, and had an immediate wish to +find out just who she was. On the afternoon of yesterday she had once or +twice joined the patrician group and had chatted with this or that +member of it, apparently on the most familiar terms. Claire already +knew, having thus observed her, that she was a recent arrival. But past +experiences made it seem quite probable that she was merely a tolerated +nobody. 'Would she join me like this and address me so affably,' Claire +asked herself, 'if she were some one of real note?' + +At the same time, any trace of such self-depreciation was far enough +from showing itself in Claire's spoken answer. + +"Everything is tiresome, I suppose," she said, "if there is +too great a supply of it. For my own part, I think that I like the +conventionalities, as they are called. I haven't seen enough of them in +my life to be wearied by them. I have known what poverty is in other +years, and now, when I contrast it with the little ceremonies and forms +that accompany prosperity, I find myself rather glad that these exist." + +Her companion looked surprised for a moment. She put her thin face +rather close to Claire's. The candor of the latter was a novelty. Claire +had used it with a somewhat subtle intent. Her fleet tact had told her +that it was best frankly to count herself outside of the social pale +behind which she more than suspected that this garrulous matron +belonged. + +"Oh, so you've been poor?" came the somewhat rattling response. "But of +course you're not so now, or you wouldn't speak of it. Poverty must be +so perfectly awful. I mean when one is born different from the people +who ... well, don't you know, the people who are in tenement-houses, and +all that." The speaker here paused, while arranging the long +_mousquetaire_ gloves that reached in tawny wrinkles far up either sharp +arm. "Well," she suddenly recommenced, "I dare say I ought to care more +for style and form and fashion. I was brought up right in the midst of +it. All my relations are perfectly devoted to it. They look on me as a +kind of black sheep, don't you know? They say I'm always going into the +highways and hedges to pick up my friends. But I don't mind them; I +laugh at them. They're here now in full force. There are two of the +Hackensacks, and two of the Van Corlears, and two of the Van +Kortlandts--all cousins of mine, more or less removed. I was a Van +Kortlandt before I married. I'm Mrs. Manhattan Diggs, now, and I have +been for five years. The best of the joke is that my husband, whom I +perfectly dote on, by the way, and who's the dearest in all Christendom, +disapproves of me as much as my relations do. The other day he called me +a Red Republican, because I said society in New York was all trash. So +it is trash. It's money, money, and nothing else. When he makes me +dreadfully mad I throw his name at him. _Diggs_, you know. Isn't it +frightful? His mother was a Manhattan--one of the real old stock, and +she married a man by that name--an Englishman with a fortune. If he +hadn't been rich I'd have pitied my poor husband. He'd never have made a +dollar. I tell him that all he can do is to sit in the club-window, and +drive, and bet, and play cards. But he's just as lovely to me as he can +be, so I don't mind. I worship him, and he worships me, so we get on +splendidly together, of course.... And now I've told you my name, you +must tell me yours. I hope it's prettier than mine. It ought to be, +you're so immensely pretty yourself." + +"My name is Mrs. Hollister," said Claire. "Mrs. Herbert Hollister. I +have been married only a few weeks." + +"A bride! Really? How delightful! Do you actually mean it? I dote on +brides. I'm sure we shall be friends." + +They rapidly became so. Claire was by no means averse to the +arrangement. Mrs. Diggs was violent, explosive, precipitate, but she was +not vulgar. Besides, her roots, so to speak, were in the soil that +Claire liked. They lunched together that day at one of the little tables +in the vast, airy dining-room. While they were seated at the meal, +several of the elegant ladies passed on their way toward other tables. +Mrs. Diggs nodded to each of them familiarly, and her nods were +distinctly returned. Claire took special note of this latter point. + +"Your relations will think you have deserted them," she said. + +Mrs. Diggs laughed. "They think I'm always deserting them," she +exclaimed. "I don't believe my absence is a great affliction; they +manage to endure it.... Oh, by the way, here comes Cousin Cornelia Van +Horn. She must have arrived to-day. Excuse me for a moment. I'll have to +go and speak to her." + +Mrs. Diggs hastily rose and went toward a lady who was herself in act of +crossing the room, but who paused on seeing her approach. The meeting +took place not far from where Claire was seated. She saw Mrs. Diggs +give her kinswoman a kiss on each cheek like the quick peck of a bird. +They were cheeks that time had faded a little, but the face to which +they belonged had a haughty loveliness all its own. At least +five-and-thirty years had rounded her figure into soft exuberance, +mellowing but scarcely marring its past harmonies. She was very blonde; +her eyebrows, each a perfect arch, and the plenteous hair worn in a dry, +crisp matwork low over her white forehead, were just saved from too pale +a flaxen by the least yellow tinge. Her features were cut like those of +a cameo, but they were too small and too near together for positive +beauty, while her eyelids had too deep a droop, and her nose, by nature +lifted too high at the extreme tip, lost nothing of the pride, even the +arrogance it bespoke, from the exquisite poise of her head above a long +throat and sloping shoulders. Claire decided that she had never seen a +woman so stately and yet so lightsome, or one who could so clearly +suggest the serenity and repose of great self-esteem without thrusting +its offensive scorn into harsh evidence. + +Mrs. Diggs remained with her new companion several minutes. Her severe +back, in all its rather trying outlines, was presented to Claire during +this interval, though once she slightly turned, making a little gesture +with her bony hand that seemed to indicate either the table she had just +quitted or the figure still seated there. And soon afterward Claire saw +that the person whom she had heard named by Mrs. Diggs was looking +steadily at her with a pair of cold, light-blue eyes. While she returned +this look it struck her that a change of color touched the placid face +of her observer, though the flush from faint pink into pink only by a +shade less dim might easily have passed for a trick of deceptive fancy. + +Mrs. Diggs presently came trotting back to the table, with her odd +combination of graceful movement and bodily sharpness. + +"My dear Mrs. Hollister," she began, while seating herself, "do you know +that Cousin Cornelia knows all about you? I happened to mention your +name before you were married--Miss Twining, wasn't it?" + +"Yes," replied Claire. + +"Well, the name seemed to strike her, and she at once asked if you had +not stayed quite a long time with Mrs.... Mrs.... Oh, you mentioned her +when you spoke of being here several weeks before your marriage." + +"Mrs. Bergemann," said Claire, and immediately added, in tones full of +quiet interest: "Well, Mrs. Diggs?" + +"Why, that was what _placed_ you, don't you know, with Cousin Cornelia. +Yes, Mrs. Bergemann; that was the name." + +"Did your cousin know Mrs. Bergemann?" inquired Claire. + +"She didn't say so. But she appeared to know just who _you_ were. I +think she's going to make me present you. There seems to be some queer +mystery. She acted rather strangely. Are you sure you've never met +before?" + +"Yes, I am perfectly sure," answered Claire. "Did you not say that the +lady's name was Van Horn?" + +"Cousin Cornelia's? Why, yes; of course it is. She's my second cousin. +She's related on the Van Kortlandt side. She was a Miss Thurston." + +"Thurston," repeated Claire, not interrogatively, but as though she had +caught the sound with recognition the instant it left the speaker's +lips. She broke into a smile, now. "That explains everything. She is a +sister of Mr. Beverley Thurston, is she not?" + +"Cousin Beverley? Of course she is. Do you know _him_?" + +"Oh, yes," said Claire. "I knew him very well." + +"Why, you don't tell me so!" blithely exclaimed Mrs. Diggs. "I dote on +Beverley. I suppose he thinks me dreadful, but I dote on him, just the +same. He is so broad, don't you know? He's seen so much, and read so +much, and lived so much, generally. And with it all he's so +conventional. That is the way I like conventionality--when you find it +in some one who makes it a sort of fatigue-dress for liberal views, and +not the uniform of narrow ones." + +"I approve your description of Mr. Thurston," said Claire, slowly. "It +tells me how well you know him." + +Mrs. Diggs creased her forehead in puzzled style, and bent her face +closer toward Claire's. "What on earth do you suppose it was that made +him dart off so suddenly to Europe?" she asked. + +Claire stooped, as though to discover some kind of objectionable speck +in the cup of chocolate that she was stirring, and then removed what she +had found, with much apparent care. "He did go quite unexpectedly, did +he not?" she said, lowering her head still more as she put the speck on +her saucer and examined it with an excellent counterfeit of the way we +regard such things when uncertain if their origin be animal or +vegetable. She wondered to herself, at the same time, whether Mrs. Diggs +would notice her increased color, or whether she herself had merely +imagined that her color had undergone any sort of change. "At some other +time," she went on, letting the words loiter in utterance, with a very +neat simulation of preoccupied attention ... "at some other time, Mrs. +Diggs, I should like to talk more with you about Mrs. Van Horn's +brother. But just now I want to ask you about Mrs. Van Horn herself." + +Here Claire briskly raised her head. The problem of the aggressive speck +had seemingly been solved. "I have heard Mr. Thurston mention that he +had a sister of that name," she continued, now speaking with speed, "but +he told me almost nothing regarding her. She appears to be a very +important person." + +Mrs. Diggs glanced toward a distant table at which she had already seen +her cousin seat herself. Then she turned to Claire again, as though +confident of how safely remote was the lady whom she at once proceeded +to discuss. + +"Cornelia _is_ a very important person, Mrs. Hollister. As I told you, +she's my second cousin. I used to see a good deal of her before I was +married. She's at least ten years older than I am. She brought me out +into society. I was an orphan, don't you know, and there was nobody else +to bring me out. I _had_ to be brought out, for I was eighteen, and all +the rest of the family were either in mourning, or were too old, or else +had gone to Europe, or ... well, something of that sort. So Cornelia +gave me a great ball. It was splendidly civil of her. But I don't think +she did it from the least benevolence. No, not at all. She had ended her +term of widowhood, and wanted to _appear_ again, don't you know? The +ball was magnificent, and it gathered all her old _clientele_ about her. +I remember it so well; it is only eight years ago. I stood at her side, +behind a towering burden of bouquets which it made my wrist ache to +hold. Cornelia was in white satin, with knots of violets all over her +dress. I shall never forget that dress. She wore amethysts round her +throat, and in her hair, and on her arms. It was a kind of jubilant +second-mourning, don't you know? She looked superb; she was eight years +younger than she is now. People gathered about her and paid their court. +She resumed old acquaintances; she received open or whispered +compliments; she was the event of the evening. _I_ was nearly ignored. +And yet it was _my_ ball; it had been given for me, to celebrate my +_debut_ in society. But as the evening progressed I began to discover +that I had been made a mere pretext. Cornelia herself was the real +reason of the ball. She had simply used me as an excuse for reemerging. +She reemerged, by the way, with seventy thousand a year, and a +reputation for having been one of the reigning belles of New York before +she married Winthrop Van Horn. She was poor when she married Winthrop, +and he lived only a few years afterward. He left her every penny of his +money; there were no children. Cornelia was a devoted wife; at least, I +never heard it contradicted, and I've somehow always accepted it. I +think everybody has always accepted it, too. He died of consumption in +Bermuda, and it is usually taken for granted, don't you know, that he +died in Cornelia's arms. For my part, I can't imagine anybody dying in +Cornelia's arms.... But that's neither here nor there. She kept herself +as quiet as a mouse for five years. But mice are nomadic, and they gnaw +everything. And Cornelia, during those five years of bereaved woe, to my +certain knowledge, took a peep at every capital in Europe. After the +ball--the ball that she gave _me_, please understand--she became a great +leader. She's a great leader still. Didn't Beverley tell you _that_, +Mrs. Hollister?" + +"No," stated Claire, keenly interested by this nimble monologue. "As I +said, Mr. Thurston scarcely did more than mention his sister's name." + +Mrs. Diggs applied herself actively to a fragment of cold chicken, which +she had left neglected through all these elucidating items. Claire +watched her, thinking how clever she was and yet how uncircumspect. With +what slight incentive had been roused this actual whirlwind of family +confidences! + +"She perfectly adores Beverley," Mrs. Diggs presently continued. "I have +an idea that she does so because he's a Thurston--or rather because +_she's_ one. She has contrived to make it appear very exceptional to be +a Thurston. The Thurstons have never been anything whatever. Her mother +married into the family, and cast a spell of aristocracy over them. But +Cornelia never alludes to the Van Kortlandt connection. She knows that +can take care of itself. I believe her grandfather, on the other side, +was a saddler. But she has managed to have it seriously disputed whether +he was a saddler or a landed Knickerbocker grandee. The panels of her +carriage bear a Thurston crest. It is a very pretty one; I am quite sure +she invented it. I once told Beverley so, and he laughed. _He_ has +never used it, though he has never denounced it as spurious. The joke is +that she ignores the Van Horn crest entirely, which is the only one she +has any right to air. Cornelia is a great leader, as I said. She has +Thursday evenings in the big old house on Washington Square which her +late husband left her. Lots of people have struggled to go to Cornelia's +Thursdays, and not gone, after all. It's absolutely funny to observe +what a vogue she has got. She could make anybody whom she chose to take +up a social somebody by merely lifting her finger. But she never lifts +her finger. That is why she is so run after. You can't get her to use +the power she possesses. It yearly grows more of a power, don't you +know, on this very account. It's like a big deposit in a bank, that gets +bigger through lying there untouched. She won't spend a penny; she lets +it grow. The women of New York are becoming a good deal less flippant, +some of them, than they used to be. Clubs and receptions have come into +fashion, where intellectual matters are seriously, even capably +discussed. Somebody will read a paper on something sensible and +literary, and a little debate will follow. At one of these +clubs--composed strictly of women--it is forbidden to mention the last +ball, though this may have occurred on the preceding night and everybody +may have seen everybody else there, talking the usual gay nonsense. The +whole thing is a kind of 'movement,' don't you know? It's very +picturesque and it's extremely in earnest. It makes one think a little +of the old historical French _salons_. It has laid bare some charming +and surprising discoveries. It has shown how many women have been +reading and thinking in secret, during those long intervals of leisure +that have occurred between their opportunities for being publicly silly, +inane, flirtatious, and hence of correct form. On the other hand it has +led certain women to cultivate their minds as they would a new style of +dressing their hair. All that we used to satirize in former +entertainments of this kind fails to exist in those I am describing. +Pipe-stem curls and blue spectacles are replaced by the most Parisian +felicities of costume. A delightful-looking creature in a Worth dress +that fits her like a glove will give us her 'views' on the Irish +land-question or the persecution of the Jews in Russia.... And now I +come to the real object of my digression, as the long-winded orators +say. Cornelia Van Horn frowns upon all this. She has gathered about her +a little faction, too, which frowns obediently in her defense. You must +not fancy for a moment that Cornelia could not shine in these assemblies +if she chose to favor them. She has brains enough to _out_shine nearly +all their supporters. But she condemns the intellectual tendency in +women when thus openly exhibited. If they want to read and think, they +should do it in the quiet of their closets, and in the same way that +they write their letters, or glance over their accounts, or distribute +their household orders. There is no objection to philosophy, science, +belles-lettres, so long as these are not made to interfere with the +general dignified commonplace of the higher social life. To be +individual, argumentative, reformatory, is to be professional. To be +professional is not to be 'good form.' The moment that a drawing-room is +made to resemble a lecture-room or a seminary it becomes odious from a +patrician stand-point. Only queens and duchesses can afford to paint +pictures or to write books, without loss of caste. A consistent +aristocracy never discovers new ideas; it accepts old ones. Agitators +are the enemies of repose, and repose is the soul of refinement." + +Here Mrs. Diggs gave a gleeful trill of laughter that made Claire +compare it to her mind as well as her person; it was so clear and sharp. +"Oh, you can't imagine," she went on, "how radical Cornelia is in her +positively feudal conservatisms. I'm so liberal, don't you know, that I +can appreciate her narrowness. I relish it as one does a delicious joke. +But it's a very curious sort of bigotry. There's nothing in the least +spontaneous about it. I've a conviction that she sweeps her eye more +widely over this fine Nineteenth Century than any of the ladies I've +been telling you about. She has seen that she can only reign on one kind +of a throne, and she sticks there. And I assure you, there isn't the +least doubt that she reigns in good earnest.... I'm surprised that +Beverley Thurston didn't tell you about her. Beverley has got her +measure so exactly. He thinks me dreadful, as I said, but he's fond of +me. I'm sure we always amuse each other." + +"No," said Claire, shaking her head slowly, "he was very reticent on +that subject. Perhaps he thought I might want to know her if he painted +her portrait as you have done. That would have been awkward for him, +provided his sister had declined my acquaintance. And I dare say she +would have declined it, as I was not in her exclusive circle." + +Mrs. Diggs put her head a little on one side. She was looking at Claire +intently. A smile played like a faint flicker of light on her thin lips, +whose two bluish lines always kept the same tinge. + +"Why are you so candid with me?" she asked. + +"Candid?" repeated Claire. + +"Yes. Why do you show me that you would like to know Cornelia Van Horn?" + +"Why?" still repeated Claire. "Did I show you that?" + +"Not openly--not in so many words, don't you know? But I imagine it." + +"You are very quick at imagining," said Claire, with a little playful +toss of the head. "Well, if you choose, I _should_ like to know her. I +should like to know any one who ranks herself high, like that, and has a +recognized claim. I have a fellow-feeling for ambitious people. I'm +ambitious myself." + +Mrs. Diggs seemed deeply amused. She lifted a forefinger, and shook it +at Claire. + +"I'm afraid you're _very_ ambitious," she said. + +"Well, I am," admitted Claire, not knowing how much rosy and dimpled +charm her face had got while she spoke the words. "I am quite willing to +concede that I have aims, projects, intentions." + +Mrs. Diggs threw back her head, and laughed noisily. But she lowered her +voice to a key much graver than her laugh, as she said:-- + +"You're as clever as Cornelia, in your way. Yes, you are. I shouldn't be +surprised if you were a good deal cleverer, too. I suspect there's a +nice stock of discreet reserve under your candor." + +Claire creased her brows in a slightly piqued manner. "That is not very +pleasant to hear," she said. + +Mrs. Diggs stretched out her hand across the table so pointedly and +cordially that Claire felt forced to take it. + +"I like you. You interest me. Forgive me if I've annoyed you." + +"You haven't annoyed me," was Claire's reply. + +"I want to see those aims, projects, intentions," Mrs. Diggs continued, +still holding her hand, and warmly pressing it besides. "Yes, I want to +see you _exploiter_ them--carry them out. You shall do it, if I can help +you. And you will _let_ me help you, I hope? You won't think me +disagreeably patronizing, will you? I only speak in this way because +I've taken a desperate fancy to you." + +"Thanks," said Claire. Her eyes were sparkling; her heart was beating +quickly. + + + + +XIV. + + +When Hollister returned that evening, almost the first words that Claire +spoke to him were: "Congratulate me, Herbert. I have taken a fine +forward step at last." + +"What do you mean, my dear?" + +"I have got to know somebody of importance. I have launched my ship." + +"Oho," laughed Hollister, understanding. "I hope the ship will prove +seaworthy, little captain. You must steer with a prudent eye, remember. +All sorts of squalls will lie in wait for your canvas, no matter how +well you trim it." + +"That is just the kind of sailing I like," said Claire. "I've been +becalmed long enough." + +He laughed at this, in his hearty way, as though it were quite a marvel +of wit. "Come and tell me," he proposed, "about the important somebody +who has been sensible enough to discover you." + +They were alone together, in their wide, cheerful apartment, overlooking +the ocean. They were about to go down and dine, and Hollister had just +finished a few preparatory details of toilet. Lights had been lit, for +the rapid autumn dusk had already thickened into nightfall; but though +they could not see the starlit level of waters just beyond their +windows, they had a sense of its nearness in the moist, salty breeze, +whose tender rush made the drawn shades bulge, and set the loose lawn +curtains fluttering buoyantly. + +Hollister sank into a chair as he spoke the last sentence, and at the +same time put an arm about his wife's waist, drawing her downward until +she rested upon his knee. The roses at her bosom brushed his face, and +he thrust his head forward with a sigh of comic infatuation, as though +rapturously inhaling their perfume. But his free hand soon wandered up +along the chestnut ripples of her hair, and he began to smooth them, +with a touch creditably dainty for his heavy masculine fingers. + +Claire permitted his caresses. She always permitted, and never returned +them. He had slight sense that this was a coldly unreciprocal course; it +appeared to fit in neatly enough with the general plan of creation that +she should receive homage of any sort without further response than its +mute recognition. That was the way he had constantly known her to act, +or rather not to act; a change would have surprised, perhaps even +shocked him; she would have ceased to be his peculiar, accustomed +Claire; his revered statue would have lost her pedestal, and he had +grown to like the pedestal for no wiser reason than that he had always +seen it enthrone her. + +"I will tell you all about my discoverer," Claire said, with +matter-of-fact directness; and she at once began a swift and succinct +little narration. + +"Diggs," Hollister suddenly broke in, with one of his fresh laughs. "Oh, +look here, now; you've made some big mistake. She can't be one of your +adored swells, with such a name. It's--it's ... cacophonous, +positively!" + +"Wait, if you please," said Claire, with demure toleration, as though a +bulwark of proof made this skeptic assault endurable. "Her husband's +name, in the first place, is not _simply_ Diggs; it's _Manhattan_ +Diggs." She made this announcement with an air of tranquil triumph; but +Hollister at once gave another irreverent laugh. + +"Oh, of course!" he cried. "I remember, now. I know him. That is, I nod +to him on the street, now and then. Is _he_ here? Why, he's nearly +always tipsy, you know." + +"Tipsy!" repeated Claire, rising with an incredulous look. "Oh, Herbert, +you must be mistaken. She worships him. She says that he treats her +charmingly, and that they get on together with perfect accord." + +"It would be rather strange to find two of that name even in such a +great place as New York," said Hollister, with a slight shrug of the +shoulders. "I don't believe I am mistaken a bit, Claire. He's a tall +man, with fat yellow side-whiskers and a face as red as your roses. He's +got a lot of money, I'm told. He goes down into the street, and dawdles +an hour or so a day at his broker's. But I've never seen him thoroughly +sober yet. Upon my word, I haven't." + +Claire soon met the husband of Mrs. Diggs. It was after dinner, in one +of the spacious, modern-appointed sitting-rooms, now so often +half-vacant of occupants, or sometimes wholly vacant, through these +lengthened September evenings. + +"I want to present my husband," said Mrs. Diggs, preceding a tall man +with fat yellow side-whiskers, whom Hollister had before this recognized +across the dining-room as his own particular, chronically tipsy Mr. +Diggs, beyond all possibility of mistake. + +Claire had a little chat with Mr. Diggs, while Hollister, who had +claimed acquaintance and shaken hands with him, seated himself at the +side of his volatile spouse. + +Claire soon became bored. Mr. Diggs was plainly tipsy; Herbert had been +right. But he was most uninterestingly tipsy. He had sense enough +remaining to conduct himself with a sort of haphazard propriety. He +incessantly stroked either one or the other whisker, and kept up a +perpetual covert struggle not to appear incoherent. He was at times +considerably incoherent; a few of his sentences made the nominative seem +as if it were swaggering toward its verb. But he was vastly polite. He +told Claire that his wife had fallen in love with her. A little later, +however, he spoke of his wife with a certain jolly disparagement. + +"Kate is full of a lot of new things. I don't know what I'm going to do +with her--really, I don't. She'll be a regular free-thinker before I +know it. And I don't like free-thinkers; I think they're a sad lot. Now, +don't you?" + +Claire gave short, evasive answers to these and a number of similar +appeals. Mr. Diggs distressed her; he was not at all the sort of person +whom she desired to meet. She soon made herself so intentionally +_distraite_ that he rose and told her he was going to smoke a cigar, +which he would bring into the sitting-room after he had obtained it, +provided she did not object. She professed herself wholly sympathetic +with this arrangement, and tried not to let her lip curl as she watched +the unsteady pace of its proposer across the long sitting-room. + +But he had scarcely retired before Mrs. Diggs broke off her converse +with Hollister and exclaimed to Claire:-- + +"Where on earth has dear Manhattan gone? You don't mean that he has left +you? How shameful of him!" + +"I believe he has gone to get a cigar," Claire said. + +"Oh, a cigar," retorted Mrs. Diggs. "Yes, poor Manhattan is an +inveterate smoker." She now looked at Hollister and Claire equally, with +quick, alternate movements of the head. "I feel sure that tobacco is +beginning to injure him, though it is really a very small kind of vice, +don't you know? It saves a man from other worse ones. Manhattan, dear +boy, smokes a good deal, and I suppose I should be grateful it's only +that. I hear such dreadful tales from my friends about their husbands +_drinking_. I don't know what I should do if dear Manhattan _drank_. I'm +so glad he doesn't. If he did, I--well, I actually believe I should get +a divorce!" + +Claire felt that her husband's eye, full of merry furtive twinkles, had +fixed itself upon her all through this unexpected speech. But she kept +her face from the least mirthful betrayal. Mr. Diggs did not come back +with his cigar. + +Claire now wondered, as she watched her new friend, and entered into +conversation with her, whether this unconsciousness of her husband's +continual excesses could be real and not feigned. It was hard to suppose +that so much shrewd observation and so cunning a recognition of human +foibles and follies could by any chance consort with the obtuse lack of +perception which her late comments had implied. And yet Claire somehow +became conscious that Mrs. Diggs had really meant it all. The anomaly +was hard to credit; it was one of those absurd contradictions with which +human nature often loves to bewilder us; and yet its element of +preposterous self-delusion held at least the merit of being genuine. + +Claire had reached a distinct conclusion to this effect, when Mrs. Van +Horn, entering the room, paused and looked all about her. There were +several other groups scattered here and there, but the lady presently +fixed her gaze upon that small one of which Mrs. Diggs was a unit. And +very soon afterward she began to move in the direction of her cousin. + +Mrs. Diggs was so seated that she could plainly note the approach. She +half-turned toward Claire, and said in rapid undertone, seeming only to +speak with the extreme edges of her lips:-- + +"Can I actually trust my senses? Is it fact or hallucination? Cornelia +is coming this way. I told you she wanted to know you, but I didn't +dream that she would condescend to seek anybody, like this, short of a +queen, or, at the lowest, a duchess.... Yes, here she comes; there's no +mistake." + +Mrs. Diggs quitted her chair, a little later. She took a few steps +toward her cousin, meeting her. Hollister also rose; Claire, naturally, +did not rise. + +"I want to present Mrs. Hollister," said Mrs. Diggs, after a few seconds +of low-toned converse with the new-comer. "My cousin, Mrs. Van Horn," +she at once added, completing the introduction. It was then Claire's +turn to rise also, which she did. + +"I think you know my brother," said Mrs. Van Horn to Claire, when all +were again seated. "I mean Mr. Beverley Thurston." + +"Oh, yes," said Claire. + +Her monosyllables were quite intentional. She had not liked the lady's +manner. There had been a remote, superb chill about it. She was +distinctly conscious of being descended to, as though from an invisible +stair. The nearer view that she had gained of Beverley Thurston's sister +made her sensible of a new and original personality. Mrs. Van Horn was +so blonde, so superfine, so rarely and choicely feminine. Her warmth was +so faint and her coolness so moderated. She was like a rose that had in +some way blent itself with an icicle, the shape of the flower remaining, +and its flush taking a hue that had the tint of life yet the pallor of +frost. + +Claire determined not to speak again unless Mrs. Van Horn addressed her. +This event soon occurred. Hollister and Mrs. Diggs had fallen into +conversation. Mrs. Van Horn surveyed them, with her nose a little in the +air, and her eyelids a little drooped. She seemed on the point of +interrupting their talk, and of ignoring Claire, who had leaned back +with a nice semblance of entire unconcern. In a few moments, however, +this mode of treatment underwent change. + +"I have heard my brother speak of you," she said, fixing her light-blue +eyes full on Claire's face. "It was before you were married, I think." + +"Yes," replied Claire. "We were very good friends. I missed him after he +had gone." + +"He went suddenly," said Mrs. Van Horn. + +"Very suddenly," responded Claire, with a smile as complaisant as it was +inscrutable. + +Mrs. Van Horn looked downward; she appeared to be examining one or two +of her rings; they were not numerous, though each of them had an odd +individuality of prettiness. "There seemed to be no good reason why he +should go," she soon said, lifting her eyes again. "He has been there so +often." + +"I should think it would be hard to go too often," said Claire. + +"You have been, then?" + +"No. But I wish to go very much.... Not yet, however." + +"Not yet?" repeated the lady. Claire could not accuse her of staring, in +any downright way, but she had an impression that every least detail of +her own dress or person was receiving the most critical regard. "I +suppose your husband's affairs detain him here, for the present." + +"Yes," returned Claire, but at the same time she shook her head +negatively. "It isn't that, however. I mean it would not be only that. +There is something for me to see, to know, to do, here. I haven't +finished with my own country yet," she proceeded, giving a bright smile. +"I am not yet ready for Europe." + +Mrs. Van Horn laughed. But it was not a laugh with any amusement in it, +neither was it one that contained any irony. "My brother thought you +very clever," she said. "He told me so repeatedly." + +"That was kind of him," Claire answered. She did not decide that Mrs. +Van Horn was patronizing her; she decided, on the contrary, that the +sister of Thurston was trying to make her disinclination to patronize +most plainly apparent. "It is pleasant to hear that he thinks well of +me," Claire went on. "He is a man whose good opinion I shall always +highly value." + +Mrs. Van Horn leaned forward. She was smiling, now, but it struck Claire +that her smile was at best a chilly artifice. "You did not show much +regard for his good opinion in one instance," she said, lowering her +voice so that Claire just caught it, and no more. "I mean when he asked +you to marry him. You see, I know all about that. He told me. It sent +him to Europe." + +This was, of course, a bombshell to Claire. But even while the color was +getting up into her cheeks with no weak flood, she realized that it had +been meant for a bombshell, and made swift resolve that its explosion +should not deal death to her self-command. + +"I am sorry that he told you," she rather promptly managed to say. "I +have kept it a secret from everybody. I thought he would do the same." + +"Oh, he has no secrets from me," returned Mrs. Van Horn, with what +seemed to Claire an extraordinary brightness of tone. The speaker +immediately drew out a little jeweled watch and looked at the hour. "It +is later than I thought," she now said. "I have two letters to write; I +must be going upstairs. Pray come and see me, Mrs. Hollister, when you +are back in town," she continued, while putting her watch away again, +and calling Claire by her name for the first time since they had met. +"Mrs. Diggs will tell you my address. Promise me that you will not +forget to come. I leave rather early to-morrow, and may not have a +chance of repeating my request." Here she rose and put out her hand. +Claire took it, but said nothing. She had lost her self-command, after +all; she was almost too embarrassed to utter a word. Mrs. Van Horn had +nearly gained one of the doors of the great room before Claire realized +what had taken place. A certain splendor of courtesy enveloped the whole +departure. It was admirably conducted, notwithstanding its abruptness. +It was one of the things that Mrs. Van Horn always did surprisingly +well; she could enter or retire from a room with an effect quite her own +in its supple graciousness and dignity. But Claire soon felt that both +the graciousness and dignity had something mystic about them. It was +somehow as if an oracle had pronounced something very oracular indeed. +The civility of the invitation had been so totally unforeseen, and it +had followed with so keen a suddenness the recent bewildering +revelation, that Claire did not know how to explain the whole +proceeding, to construe it, to read between its lines. + +Hollister, who had received a brief, polite bow of adieu, and risen as +he returned it, broke the ensuing silence. + +"Didn't she go away quite in a hurry?" he asked. "I hope you haven't +offended her," he added, jocosely, to his wife. + +"Cornelia didn't look a bit offended," said Mrs. Diggs, regarding +Claire, or rather her continued blush. "But that means nothing. You +didn't quarrel, now, did you, Mrs. Hollister?" + +"Oh, no," said Claire, still dazed and demoralized. "She asked me to +visit her in town; she was very urgent that I should do so." + +"You don't really tell me such a thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Diggs. "You've +no idea how prodigious an honor she was conferring. It's like decorating +you with the order of St. Something--actually it is." + +"I'm afraid I failed to value it in that way," replied Claire, who was +recovering herself. + +"Of course you did. You haven't yet taken in the full enormity of +Cornelia's importance. You can't do it until you see her surrounded by +her own proper atmosphere--with her foot on her native heath, so to +speak. Then you'll understand the massive condescension of to-night." + +"I think I would just as lief not understand it," laughed Hollister, +with his characteristic play of gentle humor. "It doesn't repay you to +climb these _very_ big mountains. Everybody says that there's very +little to see after you've got to the tops of them." + +Mrs. Diggs echoed his laugh. She was looking at Claire, however, with +her bright, black, restless eyes. "I think your wife may want to climb," +she said. "I'll be her guide, if she'll let me. There's a very good view +from the summit of cousin Cornelia. You can look down on a lot of +smaller peaks." + +Claire shook her head. She had got her natural color again, but not her +natural manner; she spoke in a tone of preoccupied seriousness that did +not harmonize with her light words. + +"I shouldn't like to fall down one of her glaciers and be lost," she +said. + +"Oh, there's no fear of that," cried Mrs. Diggs. "You're too +sure-footed." + +Somewhat later that evening, when they were alone together, Hollister +asked his wife: + +"Did that Mrs. Van Horn say anything that hurt you, Claire?" + +"Oh, no. What made you think so, Herbert?" + +"I.... Well, perhaps I only fancied it.... You had known her brother, +hadn't you?" + +"Yes. He was a good deal at the Bergemanns' last Spring. He went to +Europe afterward. I suppose that was why she wanted to know me better." + +Claire said this with a fine composure. She was standing before her +dressing-table, disengaging the roses from her breast. Hollister stole +up behind her and clasped her in his arms, setting his face close beside +hers, and looking with a full smile at their twin reflection, which the +mirror now gave to both. + +"So you've got among the great people at last, little struggler," he +said; "you've begun to be a great person yourself." He kissed her on the +temple, still keeping his arms about her. "I suppose you'll make quick +work of it now. I'm glad, for your sake--you know I am! You're bound to +succeed. I shall be awfully proud of you." + +This seemed quite in the proper order of things to Claire. Her husband's +approval was a matter-of-course; it was like the roses he gave her every +day--like the kiss, the embrace, the loving devotion that had each grown +accepted synonyms of Herbert himself. She forgot the words and the +caress with careless promptitude. But she did not forget what Mrs. Van +Horn had said to her, downstairs in the great sitting-room. Her sleep +that night was perturbed by the memory of it. "Does that woman like me, +or does she hate me?" repeatedly passed through her mind, in the +intervals between sleeping and waking. "Does she feel that she owes me a +grudge, and long to pay it? Is she angry that I refused her brother? How +strange it would be if I should find myself face to face with some hard, +bitter enmity just at the threshold of the new life I want to live." + +But the bright morning dissipated these brooding fears. It was a very +bright morning, and an unexpectedly cold one. The sea sparkled with the +vivid brilliance of real autumn as Claire looked at it from her window +on rising, and every trace of its former lazy mist had left the silvery +crystal blue of the over-arching sky. A sharp barometric change had +occurred during the night. Claire and Hollister effected their toilets +with numb fingers and not a few audible shivers. The flimsy architecture +of the huge hotel, reared to court coolness rather than to resist cold, +had suddenly become an abode of aguish discomfort. + +Its occupants fled, that day, in startled scores. Mrs. Diggs was among +the earlier departures. She bade farewell to Claire, wrapped in a +formidably wintry mantle. Her leave-taking was warm enough, though her +teeth almost seemed to chatter while she gave it. Her husband was at her +side, looking as though the altered weather had incited him to even a +more bacchanal disregard of his complexion than usual. The +chubby-cheeked little girl, her French _bonne_, and the maid of Mrs. +Diggs, were also near at hand. They were all five on the piazza, where +Hollister and Claire had also gone, both careless, in their youthful +health and vigor, of the rushing ocean wind that blew out into straight +lines every shred of raiment that it could seize. Little Louise was +whimpering and contumacious; she wanted to break away from Aline, and +pulled against the latter's tense clasp of her hand as if the wind and +she were in some hoydenish, fly-away plot together. An admonitory stroke +of bells had just sounded from the near depot; the train would soon +glide off from the big wooden platform beyond. Mrs. Diggs was in a +flurry, like the weather; her great wrap could not warm her; she looked +more chalky of hue than ever, and the bluish line at her lips had grown +purplish. But a defective circulation had not chilled her spirits; she +was alive with her wonted vivacity. + +She had caught Claire's hand, while turning at very brief intervals +toward Aline and the child. Her sentences had become spasmodic, +polyglot, and parenthetical; they were half addressed to Claire and half +to the recalcitrant Louise. + +"Now you _won't_ forget just where you're to find me, will you, my dear +Mrs. Hollister?... _Sois bonne fille, Louise; nous allons a New York +tout de suite_.... I want so much to see you as soon as you can manage +to come. Did you ever know anything like this dreadful gale? I'm so cold +that I believe it will take a good month to warm me.... _Tais-toi, +cherie, tu vas a New York, ou il ne fait pas froid du tout_.... You're +going this afternoon, you say? I don't see how you can wait. There's +cousin Jane Van Corlear just going inside--I promised to go along with +her. Say good-by, Manhattan; the cold weather has made you as red as a +turkey-cock, hasn't it, dear boy?... _Aline, prenez garde! Elle est bien +mechante, elle veut etre absolument perdue...._ Well, good-by, both of +you. I do hope you won't freeze before you get off!" + +When the Diggs family had disappeared, Claire and her husband went and +finished their packing. That afternoon they left the deserted hotel, +reaching New York at about dusk. They had themselves driven to the +Everett House; Hollister had occasionally lodged there in bachelor days, +and proposed it as a temporary place of sojourn. + +It proved less temporary than they had expected. Apartments were easy +and yet hard to procure. A good many sumptuous suites, in haughty and +handsome buildings, were offered them at depressing prices. They found +other suites, in buildings far less grand, which pleased them less and +suited their purse better, but still left a certain margin as regarded +proposed rental expenditure. Five or six days were consumed in these +monotonous modes of search. They could obtain lodgment that was too +dear, and lodgment that was too cheap; but they could not hit the golden +mean of adaptability which would combine delectable quarters with +moderate rates. + +"It is tiresome work," Claire at length said, "and it is keeping you +from your business, Herbert, in a most shameful way. I really don't see +what we are to do." + +"The apartments in West Thirty-Sixth Street, that we saw yesterday," +ventured Hollister, genially, "were rather nice, though small, of +course." + +"Quite too small," affirmed Claire. "Besides, the house itself had a +dingy air. It looked so--so economical, Herbert. We don't want to look +economical; we want only to _be_ it." + +Hollister made a blithe grimace. "I am afraid that to be it and to look +it are inseparable," he said. "The grain of the rind tells the quality +of the fruit." He put his head a little sideways and glanced at his wife +with a quizzical eye. "Now, in the way of downright bargains, Claire," +he went on, "there is that nice basement house which is for rent entire +in Twenty-Eighth Street. The one we drifted into by mistake during our +wanderings of yesterday, you remember." + +"I'd rather not think of it," said Claire, with a sort of musing +demureness. "I liked it very much. I don't believe there is a furnished +house to rent in the whole city that could be had for the same terms. +But you know very well that we could not afford to take it, with the +need of at least three servants, apart from other expenses." + +"True," said Hollister. "That is, unless I get along better--make a hit +on the street, you know." + +"Oh, well," said Claire, "there is no use in depending upon chance. Of +course," she added, slowly, with a grave, affirmative motion of the +head, "I should like very much to have the house. You know I should." + +"Then, we'll rent it," Hollister struck in, swiftly and with fervor. "It +won't be much of a risk, but we'll take what risk there is. The first +quarter's rent would be absolutely sure, Claire. Are you agreed?" + +He spoke entirely from his loving perception of how much she would like +to reign as the ruler of her own establishment. It thrilled him to think +of her in this proper, sovereign sort of character. + +"It will not be right, Herbert," Claire said. "We made up our minds to +spend just so much and no more." ... + +But her tones lacked all imperative disapproval. Perhaps she was +thinking how pleasant it would be for Mrs. Diggs to find her handsomely +installed as the mistress of her own private dwelling. + +On the following day Hollister rented the little basement house in +Twenty-Eighth Street. Claire accompanied him while he did so. She was +frightened when the terms asked were finally accepted. She was still +more frightened when she thought of the steady, draining expenses which +must follow. But, after all, her alarm only acted as a sort of +undercurrent. Above it was the large, delightful satisfaction of +foreseeing herself the reigning head of a distinct establishment. It was +an extremely pretty house, no less outside than inside. The occupation +by its new tenants had been arranged as immediate, and this notable +event soon occurred. Claire went herself to hire the three servants. She +found a great supply at a certain depot for this sort of demand. She +engaged three whom she liked the most, or rather disliked the least. And +very soon she and her husband quitted their hotel for good. They became +the co-proprietors of the basement house in Twenty-Eighth Street. + +Certain new tasks occupied Claire. She quickly performed them. Her +administrative faculty now showed itself in clear and striking relief. +Her penurious past had taught her unforgotten lessons; she went into her +new place with none of a neophyte's unskilled rawness; her fund of +domestic, of managerial experience was like an unused yet efficient +well; she had only to give a turn of the hand and up came the buckets, +moistly and practically laden. True, she worked under the most altered +conditions; she was no longer a drudge but a supervisor; and yet the +very grimness of that early apprenticeship had held in it a radical +value of instruction. She who had known of the prices paid for inferior +household goods, could use her knowledge now to fine profit in the +purchase of better ones. Having swept with her own toil floors that were +clad coarsely, she could in readier way discern uncleanly neglect on the +part of underlings who swept floors clad with velvet. + +Her responsibility was borne with great lightness. "I think I am a sort +of natural housekeeper," she soon told her husband. "It all comes very +easy. I find that my daily leisure is increasing at a rapid rate." She +directed with so much system, discipline, and keen-sightedness, that +speed was a natural result. Her detection of negligence and fraud was +prompt and thorough. She discouraged the least familiarity in her +servants. On this point she was severely sensitive; she maintained her +dignity in all intercourse with them, and sometimes it was a dignity so +positive and accentuated that it blent with her personal beauty in +giving the effect of a picturesque sternness. The secret of its exercise +lay wholly in her former life. She had once been socially low enough for +these very employees to have treated her as an equal. All that was dead +and in its grave. She wanted to keep it there forever. Instinctively she +stamped down the sods, and even held a vigilant foot upon them. + +She was soon prepared to seek out Mrs. Diggs and pay her a long, +intimate visit. She found her new friend in a small but charming home. +The drawing-room into which she was shown displayed a great deal of good +taste, and yet it had not a touch of needless grandeur. Its least +detail, from the cushion of a sofa to the panel of a screen, suggested +permanent and sensible usage. It was a room that shocked you with no +inelegance, while it invited you by a sort of generally sympathetic +upholstery and appointment. + +Mrs. Diggs was delighted to hear of the new Twenty-Eighth Street +residence. She took Claire's gloved hand in both of her slim, bony ones, +and proffered the most effusive congratulations. + +"It's so much nicer, don't you know, to be a real _chatelaine_, like +that--to have your own four domiciliary walls, and not live in a +honeycomb fashion, like a bee in its cell, with Heaven knows how many +other bees buzzing all about you. I'm inexpressibly glad you've done it. +Now you are _lancee_, don't you know? You can entertain people. And I'm +sure, my dear, that you do want to entertain people." + +Claire gave a pretty little trill of a laugh. "I have no people to +entertain, yet," she said. + +Mrs. Diggs was still holding her hand. "Oh, you sly mouse!" she +exclaimed. "You've got great ideas in your head for the coming winter. +Don't tell me you haven't. Remember our talks at Coney Island. And +you're going straight for the big game. You're not of the sort that will +be content with a small, low place. Not you! You want a large and a high +one. It's going to be a great fight. Now, don't say it isn't. I know all +about you. I dote on you, and I know all about you. You intend to try +and be a leader. You've got it in you to be one, too. I believe you'll +succeed--I do, honestly! I'll put my money on you, as that dear +Manhattan of mine would say of a horse.... You're not annoyed at me?" + +"Not at all," smiled Claire. "But everything must have a beginning, you +know. And I have no beginning, as yet. I have only met yourself and" ... +She paused, then, looking a little serious. + +Here Mrs. Diggs dropped Claire's hand, and burst into a loud, hilarious +laugh. Her mirth quite convulsed her for several seconds. + +"Cornelia Van Horn!" she presently shouted in a riotously gleeful way. +"Myself and Cornelia Van Horn! That is what you mean. Isn't it, now? +_Isn't_ it?" + +She was looking at Claire with both hands in her lap and her angular +body bent oddly forward. She gave the idea of a humorous human +interrogation-mark. + +"Well, yes," said Claire, soberly, and a little offendedly; "I do mean +that. Pray what is there so funny about it?" + +Mrs. Diggs again became convulsed with laughter: "Funny!" she at length +managed to say. "Why, it's magnificent! It's delicious! You're going to +tilt against Cornelia! Of course you are! You don't know a soul yet; +you're quite obscure; but you have a sublime self-confidence. That is +always the armor-bearer of genius; it carries the spear and shield of +the conqueror. My dear, I always wanted to have somebody beard Cornelia +in her den, don't you know, like the Douglas! I'm with you--don't forget +that! I'll help you all I can. And when you've shaken the pillars of New +York society to their foundations, please be grateful and recollect that +I set you up to it." + +She threw back her head and laughed again, in her boisterous, vehement, +but never ill-bred way. + +Claire sat and watched her. She was not even smiling now; she was biting +her lip. She had concluded, some time ago, that she understood Mrs. +Diggs perfectly. But she did not know, at present, in what spirit to +take this noisy paroxysm. Was it sincere, amicable amusement, or was it +pitiless and impudent mockery? + + + + +XV. + + +But Claire's doubts were soon settled. If that visit did not precisely +end them, a few succeeding days forever laid the ghost of her spleen. +Mrs. Diggs had been jocundly candid, and that was all. No baleful +sarcasms had pulsed beneath her vivacious prophecies. She soon convinced +Claire that she was a stanch and loyal confederate. + +She often dropped into the Twenty-Eighth Street house, and praised its +appointments warmly. "Your little reception-room is perfect," she told +Claire, "with those dark crimson walls and that furniture so covered +with big pink roses. I like it immensely, don't you know? I wouldn't +have liked it two or three years ago; I would have thought crimson and +pink a weird discord; but fashion gives certain things their stamp; it +makes us wake up, some morning, and find our hates turned to loves." +About the dining-room, on the same floor, and the drawing-room, on the +floor above, she was genially critical. This or that detail she +discovered to be "not just quite right, don't you know?" and Claire in +nearly all such cases changed dissent into agreement after a little +serious reflection. Some of the resultant alterations involved decided +expense. This Claire regretted while she would let her husband incur it. +Hollister always did so readily enough. Wall Street had rather smiled +upon him, of late. A few of his ventures had become bolder, but +flattering successes had persistently followed them. + +"The theatre is all lit," he said to her one evening, "but the curtain +doesn't rise. How is that, Claire?" + +She knew perfectly well what he meant, but chose to feign that she did +not know. They had been surveying together a few decorative +improvements, recently wrought, in mantel, dado, or even table-cover. + +"I don't think I follow your metaphor," said Claire. There was the tiny +outbreak of a smile at each corner of her mouth. It struck Hollister, +who was standing quite near her, that she looked delightfully prim. He +kissed her before he answered, and then, while he did so, let his lips +almost graze her ear, saying in an absurd guttural semitone, as of +melo-dramatic confidence:-- + +"I mean that it's time for Act First. Time for the lords and ladies to +enter, with a grand flourish of trumpets. Of course, when they do come, +they'll all kiss the hand of their charming hostess, just like this." + +But she would not let him kiss her hand, though he caught it and made +the attempt. + +"There are no lords and ladies in New York," she said, laughing and +receding from him at the same time. "And if they _should_ come, they +would never behave in such an old-fashioned style as that." + +But though she treated them lightly, his words fed the fuel of her deep, +keen longing. She had made up her mind that Mrs. Diggs had been right. +She would never be content to take a low place. Nothing save the highest +of all would ever satisfy her. + +At the same time she clearly understood that great sums of money were +needed to accomplish any such end. She spent several days of brooding +trouble. She had not great sums of money--or rather, Hollister had not. +And there seemed slight chance of her husband ever securing them. + +"The season is dreadfully young yet," said Mrs. Diggs to her, the next +day, while they sat together. "There is simply nothing going on. There +are no teas, no receptions, and, of course, no balls. But we'll go and +take our drive in the Park. Do hurry and dress." + +Claire dressed, but not very quickly. She kept Mrs. Diggs waiting at +least fifteen minutes. Mrs. Diggs's carriage was also waiting. It was +not at all like its owner, this carriage. It was burly and somewhat +cumbrous. The silver-harnessed horses that drew it had clipped tails and +huge auburn bodies. But the wheels of the vehicle were touched here and +there with a tasteful dash of scarlet, as if in pretty chromatic tribute +to the violent complexion of "dear Manhattan." When they were being +rolled side by side together in this easy-cushioned carriage, Mrs. Diggs +said to Claire:-- + +"You kept me waiting a little eternity. I hate to wait. I suppose it's +because I'm so nervous. I've been to three or four different doctors +about my nervousness. They nearly all say it's a kind of dyspepsia. But +that seems to me so ridiculous. Dyspepsia means indigestion, and I can +digest a pair of tongs--no matter at what hour I should eat it. My dear +Claire" (she had got to use this familiar address, of late), "I don't +see how you can get on without a maid. That is why you're so slow with +your bonnet and wraps; be sure it is. Oh, a maid is a wonderful +comfort." + +"So is a carriage like this," said Claire, smiling. + +"Yes, a carriage is indispensable, too. At least I find it so. You will +also, my dear, when you come to pay visits among a large circle of +friends." + +"I'm afraid that both the maid and the carriage will be out of my reach +for a very long time yet," said Claire. "Our taking the house, you know, +was a great act of extravagance." + +"Oh, your husband is doing finely in Wall Street. I have heard from +Manhattan about his brilliant strokes. Manhattan thinks him intensely +clever. His success is creating a good deal of talk, I assure you." + +This was true. Hollister would now often laugh and say: "The luck seems +to be all on my side, Claire. And I don't take any very fearful risks, +either, somehow. The money isn't coming in by hundreds, at present; it +is coming in by thousands. I'm getting to be a rather important fellow; +upon my word, I am. My own dawning prominence amuses me considerably. +But it isn't turning my head the least in the world. A lot of the big +men down there are taking me up. A month ago they scarcely knew if I +existed." + +Then he and Claire would talk together of the real speculative reasons +for his success; he would find that she had forgotten hardly an item of +past information; her judgments and decisions were sometimes so shrewd +that they startled him, considering how purely they were based upon +theory and hearsay. Once or twice he permitted her counsels to sway him, +though not with her secured sanction. The result turned out notably +well. He told her what he had done, and why he had done it, after the +triumph had been achieved. She was by no means flattered on discovering +the faith he had reposed in her. She even went so far as to markedly +chide him for having reposed it. + +"Remember, Herbert," she said, "that I am of necessity ignorant +regarding these matters, in every practical sense. All my opinions are +quite without the value of experience. Please never take me for your +guide again. Never sell nor buy a single share because I venture the +expression of an idea on sales or purchases. I am proud and glad to +think myself the cause of your having made a lucky operation; that, of +course, I need not tell you. But I should not forgive myself for ever +leading you into disaster." + +She reflected, secretly: 'How weak Herbert is! He is no doubt clear and +quick of mind, and he is of just the light-hearted, easy temperament +that has what he himself calls "nerve on the Street." But how weak he is +in his trust of _me_! Does not that show him weak in other ways? Would a +man of strong nature let his fondness ever so betray his prudence? I +must be guarded hereafter in my talks with him. I really know nothing; I +only use his knowledge to build upon. What he is doing is three quarters +mere hazard, and the rest cleverness. I see plainly that he has begun a +very precarious career. He may win in it; others have won. He may win +enormously; I am just beginning to accept his chances of doing so. But +there must be no balking and thwarting on my part. He would ruin +himself, most probably, if I proposed it. He is so weak where I am +concerned! Yes, in all such ways he is so weak!' + +She could not dwell upon the fact of this weakness with any tender +feeling. She had grown to accept his love as something so natural and +ordinary that she could coldly survey as a flaw any point in its +devotion which verged upon indiscreet excess. Just at this period in her +life it sometimes struck her that she was very cold toward her husband. +But no pang of conscience accompanied the realization. She had disguised +nothing from Herbert. He knew precisely what she wished to do. He even +sympathized with her aim, and desired to abet it. She could not help +being cold. Besides, he had never offered the faintest objection to her +coldness. He evidently wanted her to be just as she was. And moreover, +she was no different at this hour, when the possibility of a great +social victory assumed definite outlines--when she was his wife and the +mistress of his household--when she was sure of sharing his fortunes +until death should end further companionship--than she had been at the +hour when he had first asked her to marry him. She had a great sense of +duty toward him. She meant to leave no obligation of wifely fealty +unfulfilled. And this determination, flinchlessly kept, must stand for +him in place of passion. She had no passion to give him. She had given +all that to her dear dead father. If he were alive, now, and dwelling +with her, what joy she would have in putting her arms about his neck, +her lips to his cheek, and telling him how the hopes whose seed he had +sown long ago might soon ripen into splendid fruit! + +"You tell me that you have new adherents, new friends," she soon said to +her husband. "If any of them are people of prominence--of the sort I +would wish to know--why do you not ask them here, to our house?" + +"True enough," said Hollister. "That is an idea." And then, with beaming +hesitation, he added: "But I thought you would not want them without +their wives." + +Claire seemed to meditate, for a slight time. "I should not want them +without their wives," she presently said, "unless I felt sure that their +wives were the kind of women whom I would be very willing to have among +my acquaintances." + +A few days later Hollister announced to Claire that he had arranged a +dinner at which some four gentlemen besides himself were to be present. +He had placed the whole affair in the hands of a noted _restaurateur_, +who assured him that it should be conducted on the most admirable plan. + +"It was intended as a little surprise for you," he said. "The men are +all of the kind that I am nearly sure you will approve. I mean they are +what is called "in society." You see, I am getting quite wise with +regard to these matters. A few weeks have made a world of difference +with me. I am waking up to a sense of who is who. Before, it was all +stupid treadmill sort of work. I cared very little about associates, +connections, influence. I wanted to make both ends meet, and found the +process a rather dull one. Now I am in a wholly different frame of mind. +I am beginning to amuse myself as much by the study of men as by the +study of stocks. I have several distinct adherents, several more +distinct supporters, and one or two would-be patrons. I don't think I +was ever unpopular on the Street; I was simply unimportant. But now that +I'm important I have got to be quite popular.... I dare say the whole +thing is attributable to yourself, Claire. You've pricked me into life. +I was torpid till I met and knew you." + +She was considerably alarmed about the plan of the dinner-party. She was +not at all sure if it would be in good style for Hollister to give it +with herself as the only lady present. As soon as circumstances +permitted, she hastened to consult with Mrs. Diggs. + +"Oh, it's all right," decided the oracle. "You are always certain of +being correct form if you do anything like that in company with your +husband. But, my dear Claire, it is too bad that you couldn't find three +more ladies besides yourself and me. You see, I invite myself +provisionally, so to speak. Isn't it dreadful of me? But then I take +such an interest in you that I want to be present, don't you know, at +the laying of your corner-stone. Manhattan ought to be asked, too, dear +fellow; it's etiquette, don't you know? But then you need not mind, this +once." + +"I wish that I knew three more ladies," said Claire, thoughtfully. + +"Yes ... that would make a dinner of just ten. A dinner of ten is so +charming. Mr. Hollister wouldn't object, would he?" + +Claire quickly shook her head. "Oh," she said, "Herbert never objects." + +It was so seriously spoken that Mrs. Diggs broke into one of her most +mutinous laughs. "How delicious!" she exclaimed. "What a superb conjugal +truth you condense in one demure little epigram!... Well, if 'Herbert,' +as you say, 'never objects,' there is ... let me see ... there is +Cornelia Van Horn." + +"Would she come if I asked her?" said Claire. + +"You haven't asked her, so of course you don't know. Nobody can ever +predicate anything about Cornelia. But considering how grand was her +amiability at Coney Island, I should say that.... Well, yes, I should +say that Cornelia _would_ come." Here Mrs. Diggs raised one thin finger, +and shook it in smiling admonition. "That is," she added, "if you call +on her, as she requested." + +Claire looked grave. "I will call on her," she at length said. "I have +not felt sure whether I would or no. I did not like her way of asking +me, or her manner beforehand.... But I will call on her, provided there +are two other ladies." Here she paused a moment, and then proceeded with +decision. "But of course there are no other two ladies. At least, not +yet." + +Mrs. Diggs's eyes were sparkling most humorously. "I don't know why it +is," she exclaimed, "that you always entertain me so when you talk of +Cousin Cornelia. There's a latent pugnaciousness in the very way that +you mention her name. It seems to be fated that you and she shall become +dire foes. She's so big and mighty that I'm always reminded, when you +discuss her, of dauntless little David, with his sling and stone, +marching against the doughty old giant.... As for our _one_ other lady, +Claire, how about Mrs. Arcularius?" + +"Mrs. Arcularius? Why, we have quarreled." + +"Nonsense. You snubbed her mildly. I don't doubt that she will come. +Women at her time of life have survived nearly every sentiment except +that of appetite. Ten to one that she will scent the odor of a good +dinner, and come, as your dear former instructress, and all that, don't +you know?" + +"Very well," said Claire, with gravity; "I might ask her. But then there +would be the fifth lady. I am afraid that she is not to be found." + +Mrs. Diggs put one slim hand to one pale temple, and drooped her bright +eyes. "I have it!" she presently exclaimed. "There is my other cousin, +Jane Van Corlear. We won't ask Jane until we are sure of the others. +Then we shall be certain of getting her to fill the vacant place. You +remember her at Coney Island, don't you? No? Well, in a certain sense +nobody ever remembers poor Jane, and nobody ever forgets her. She has +been a widow for years, like Cornelia. But she never asserts herself. +She is tallowy, obese, complaisant. She rarely goes anywhere, and yet +she leaves a sort of aristocratic trail wherever she has been. She will +accept if I tell her to; she always gives in to me, though in her +sluggish way I know she thinks me objectionable. Poor Jane is a perfect +goose, and yet I dote on her. She is such a dear, consistent, +inoffensive, companionable goose, don't you know? Claire, your +dinner-party is entirely arranged." + +"I am afraid not," said Claire, dubiously. + +The next day she and Mrs. Diggs concocted the invitations together. On +the day following, the two ladies whom they had asked each sent a +courteous, conventional refusal. + +Mrs. Van Horn gave no reason for her refusal. Mrs. Arcularius mentioned +a previous engagement as the reason of her non-acceptance. + +"You see," said Claire, to her fallacious counselor, "our ladies are not +obtainable, after all." + +She was secretly chagrined; but Mrs. Diggs showed herself openly so. "It +is too bad!" declared the latter. "I've a lurking belief in the +authenticity of Mrs. Arcularius's 'previous engagement.' As for +Cornelia, I suspect pique at your not having been to visit her. But we +shall see what we shall see, regarding Mrs. Van Horn. Of course our +little dinner is ruined. You must preside as the only woman, Claire, and +I don't doubt you will do it charmingly. But I shall drop in upon +Cornelia to-morrow, and try to sound the unfathomable." + +Mrs. Diggs did so, and on the afternoon of the same day she sought out +Claire, filled with her recent exploring skirmish. + +"She received me, my dear Claire, with a great deal of high-nosed +graciousness. I hadn't been three minutes in her presence before I felt +that her cold, serene eyes were reading me through and through. She +mentioned you herself; she made it a point to do so. She spoke of you as +that pretty young woman whom Beverley used to know. Then she recollected +that you had asked her to dinner. 'But of course I could not accept,' +she said, with her best sort of ducal look. 'I do not really _know_ your +friend. I have met her only once, and then for a few minutes.' She +wanted to change the conversation, after that; she has vast tact in the +way of changing conversations; great leaders like herself always have. +But I wouldn't put up with that at all. I am usually a good deal awed by +Cornelia. But I made up my mind not to be awed to-day at any hazard. I +reminded her that she had sought to know you and asked you to visit her. +I showed her that I wouldn't stand her delicate rapier-thrusts. I swung +a bludgeon, and I flatter myself that I swung it rather well. I told her +that she had given you a perfect right to invite her. I told her that +you had treated her with unusual courtesy, and that instead of leaving a +slip of meaningless pasteboard with her footman, you had resolved on the +more honest and significant civility of asking her to dinner. Moreover, +I added, the fact of her brother having been your most intimate friend +had rendered, to my thinking, the civility a still more kindly and +genuine one." + +"You must have made her very angry," said Claire, with a peculiar +fleeting smile. + +"Angry? She was in a white heat. She could never be in a red one, don't +you know, she is so constitutionally placid and chill. She replied that +you had actually attempted to offer her patronage, and that your effort +had amused her not a little." + +"Did she say that?" questioned Claire, with a certain quick eagerness. +"Then I was right at first. She had some unpleasant purpose in wanting +me to visit her." + +"Good gracious!" exclaimed Mrs. Diggs; "you never suggested such a thing +before!" + +Claire had grown very grave and calm again. "Did I not?" she said. +"Well, I had supposed it. It was a sort of fancy." + +Mrs. Diggs took one of Claire's hands and held it, at the same time +giving her an intent look. + +"You're keeping something from me," she said. "Yes, Claire, I know you +are.... Did Beverley Thurston ever ask you to marry him?" + +Claire colored to the roots of her rich-tinted tresses. She tried to +draw her hand away, but Mrs. Diggs still retained it. + +"He did!" exclaimed her friend. "Your complexion tells me so! Everything +is explained now. You refused Beverley. Yes, my dear, you refused him. +And she somehow got wind of it. Perhaps Beverley told, or perhaps his +complexion, like yours, divulged secrets, don't you know?... And yet, on +second thought, Beverley's complexion could do nothing so expressive; it +is too battered and world-worn; its capability for blushing is entirely +null.... No, _he_ told her. And she has not forgiven you, and never +will. Her monstrous pride would not permit her to do so. I understand +everything, now. You remember what I told you about her clannish +feeling--how she loves to quietly exalt her family name?... Ah, my dear +Claire, you have committed, in her eyes, the great unpardonable sin. I +was right; I felt it to be in the air that you and she would prove +enemies. I begin to think myself a sort of haphazard sibyl; I divined +what would happen, and it has happened. You have presumed to refuse her +brother, and Cornelia knows it. Prepare to be crushed." + +Claire lightly tossed her graceful head, and her lip curled a little as +she did so. + +"I am not at all prepared to be crushed," she said. "Mrs. Van Horn has +spoiled our prospective dinner-party, as regards ladies, but she has not +spoiled _me_." + +"Delightful!" declared Mrs. Diggs, softly clapping her hands. "That's +the spirit I like to see. The fight has begun; it's going to be serious. +But remember that I am always your devoted auxiliary!" ... + +The dinner took place. There were no ladies present except Claire +herself. It was an extremely elegant dinner. Claire rose when coffee was +being served, and left the gentlemen together. She performed, so to +speak, her unaided office of hostess with singular charm and dignity. +And during the progress of the dinner she made a friend. + +This was Mr. Stuart Goldwin. Everybody in Wall Street knew Stuart +Goldwin. He had drifted into that stormy region of risk about four years +ago. He had so drifted from a remote New England town, and his +speculative successes had been phenomenal. He was reputed to be worth, +at present, a good many millions of dollars. He had acquired an enormous +influence among his constituents; he was the reigning Wall Street King. +But he had none of the vulgarity which had marked a few of his immediate +predecessors; he had always shown a full appreciation of his royalty and +the duties resultant from it. He had been admitted, with singular +promptness, into the social holy of holies; he was hand in glove with +what are termed the best people; he belonged to three or four of the +most select clubs; his circle of acquaintances had rapidly become huge. +Women liked him as much as men. He was personally the type of man whom +women like. His frame was tall and imposing; he wore a large tawny +mustache, which drooped with silky abundance below a delicately-cut +nostril. His eyes were large, and of a soft, glistening hazel. His +manners were full of a fascinating frankness. His age was about forty +years, but he might have passed for considerably younger. Books had not +fed his rapid and distinctive intelligence, for he had no time to read +them; and yet he had caught the reverberation, as it were, of the best +and newest ideas announced by the best and newest writers. + +Claire thought him delightful. He, in turn, thought her even more than +this. She was a discovery to him. He had never married, and he was fond +of saying, in his blithe, epigrammatic way, that half womankind was so +enchanting to him as to have made, in his own case, anything except the +most Oriental polygamy quite out of the question. He had wit in no small +store, but when he liked a woman greatly it was his most deft of arts to +keep this in very judicious reserve, and employ it only as a means of +subtly wooing forth the mental sparkle of her to whom he paid court. + +Claire found herself vain, in a covert way, of her own conversational +gifts, before she had talked with Goldwin more than twenty minutes. She +would have liked to talk with him exclusively during the dinner, but her +two other guests were persons of importance who ought not to receive her +impolitic neglect. She managed matters with tact and skill. Everybody +thought her charming when she glided from the dining-room, in decorous +retreat before that little anti-feminine bayonet, the after-dinner +cigar. She had made a distinct success. She felt it as she sat in the +drawing-room, waiting for the gentlemen to ascend and join her. + +Goldwin had not deceived her. She read him with lucid insight. She saw +him to be imposingly superficial; she perceived him to be a man whose +polished filigrees would ring hollow at so much as one sincere tap of +the finger-nail. He was agreeable to her, but not admirable; he +captivated, but he did not dazzle her. She compared him with Beverley +Thurston (never thinking to compare him with her husband), and noted all +the more clearly his lack of genuine and manly magnitude. He came and +joined her before any of the other gentlemen. His face was a little +flushed from the wine he had taken, but with no unbecoming suggestion of +excess. + +"I couldn't stay away from you," he said, sinking into a happy, +half-lounging posture on the sofa at her side. He was faultlessly +dressed, in garments that seemed to accept every bend of his fine +moulded figure without a wrinkle of their dark, flexible surface. "Your +husband smokes the nicest sort of cigar, but he has another possession +that seems to me vastly superior." Then he broke into a mellow laugh, +and waved one hand hither and thither, with an air of mock explanation. +"I allude to this beautiful little drawing-room," he continued. + +His mirthful sidelong look made Claire echo his laugh. "I will tell +Herbert how much you like it," she said; "he will be so pleased to +know." + +"Pray do nothing of the sort!" he expostulated, with a good deal of +comic seriousness. "I should never forgive you if you did. Husbands are +such oddly jealous fellows. There is no telling what innocent little +outburst of esteem may sometimes offend them." + +Claire thought the time had come for a decisive parry, in the parlance +of fencers. "Oh, Herbert is not at all jealous," she said, measuring the +words just enough not to make them seem out of accord with her bright +smile. "He has never had the least occasion to be, I assure you." + +He fixed his eyes with soft intentness on her sweet, blooming face. +"Never?" he questioned, quite low of tone. + +"Never," she answered, gently laconic. + +"But he might take some stupid pretext ... who knows?" + +"Oh, if he did I would soon show him the stupidity of it. We understand +each other excellently." + +They talked on for at least a half hour. The other gentlemen remained +below. Goldwin made no more daring complimentary hazards. He listened +quite as much as he talked. Their converse turned upon social +matters--upon what sort of a season it would be--upon the coming +opera--upon the nature of New York entertainments--upon the men and +women who were to give them. Claire made it very plain to him that she +wanted to enter the gay lists. She at length said:-- + +"Do you know Mrs. Van Horn?" + +Goldwin laughed. "Why don't you ask me if I know the City Hall," he +said, "or the Stock Exchange? Of course I know her." + +"Do you like her?" + +"Nobody ever likes her. Who likes statues?" + +"People sometimes worship them." + +"Oh, she is a good deal worshiped, if you mean that." + +Hollister and his two remaining guests now appeared. Claire re-welcomed +both the latter gentlemen with beaming suavity. They were both important +personages, as it has been recorded. They both had important wives, to +whom they repaired, a little later, and to whom they loudly sang praises +of Claire's loveliness. The remarks of each took substantially the same +form, and the following might be given as their connubial and somewhat +florid average:-- + +"That fellow Hollister's wife, you know. The man I dined with to-night. +Didn't know he had a wife? Well, you'd have known it if you'd been +there. She's a splendid young creature. Handsome as a picture, and good +style, too. By the way, Stuart Goldwin was there; you know how hard it +is to get _him_. I shouldn't wonder if these Hollisters were going to +make a dash for society, soon. Now, don't repeat it, my dear, but the +fact is, this Hollister can be of considerable service to me in a +business way. There's no use of going into particulars, for women never +understand business. But ... if anything _should_ occur--any card be +left, I mean, you may be sure what my wishes are.... Oh, of course; look +sour, and refuse point blank. Bless my soul, when did you ever do +anything to help along _my_ interests? You'll spend the money fast +enough, but you won't turn a hand to help me make it. All right; do as +you please. Hollister is to-day the most rising young man on the Street. +There's a regular boom on him. He's got Goldwin for a friend. You must +know what _that_ means." + +Both ladies did know what it meant. Both ladies had looked sour, but +both in due time entertained their afterthoughts. They were ladies of +high fashion, each prominent within an exclusive clique. They were not +powerful enough to indorse any new struggler for position; their own +right of tenure was not unassailable. They dreaded this Mrs. Hollister, +as it were, but they secretly resolved that it would be folly to ignore +her. Meanwhile a certain interview, held by Stuart Goldwin with a +certain lady of his acquaintance, was of quite different character. +Goldwin did not reach the house of Mrs. Ridgeway Lee until some time +after ten o'clock. It was an exceedingly pretty house. Its drawing-room, +though as small as Claire's, must by comparison have put the latter +completely into the shade. It was an exquisite artistic commingling of +all that was rare and fine in upholstery and general embellishment. Mrs. +Ridgeway Lee, too, was in a manner rare and fine. She rose from a deep +cachemire lounge to receive Goldwin. She was dressed in crimson, with a +great cluster of white and crimson roses at her breast. She pretended to +be annoyed that he should have presumed to come so late. She had the +last French novel in her hand, pressed against her heart, as though she +loved its allurements and disliked being thus drawn from them. Goldwin +knew perfectly well that she had expected him, that she was very glad he +had come. He often wondered to himself why he did not ask her to be his +wife. She was passionately in love with him; she had been a widow almost +since girlhood. She had a great deal of money, for which he cared +nothing, and a great deal of beauty, for which he could not help but +care. She had almost seriously compromised herself by permitting him to +show her attentions whose intimacy, in the judgment of the world, should +long ago either have ceased entirely or else have assumed matrimonial +permanence. + +Yet she was a woman who could, to a certain degree, compromise herself +with impunity. Her connections were all people of high place. She was +distantly related to Mrs. Diggs and nearly related to Mrs. Van Horn, who +felt toward her that fondness which may exist between a queen and a +lady-in-waiting. Apart from this, she was a social dignitary. Her +artificiality was more plainly manifest than that of Goldwin, and it had +become a commonplace among her friends to say that she was affected. +But she had made her affectation a kind of fashion; other women had so +liked the peculiar flutter of her lids, the drawl of her voice, the +erratic movements and extraordinary poses of her body, that they had +imitated these with disastrous fidelity. She said clever, daring, +insolent, or amiable things all in the same slow, measured way, and +generally managed to leave an impression that a fund of unuttered +experience or observation lay behind them. She was prodigiously pious +for one of her pleasure-loving nature. Her charity was liberal and +incessant. She trailed her Parisian robes through the wards of +hospitals, or lifted them in the ill-smelling haunts of dying paupers. +Her religion and her charity went hand in hand. For some people they +were both shams; for others they were ostentation, half founded upon +sincerity; for others they implied a feverish craving to drown the +remorse born of persistent indiscretions; and still for others they were +an intoxication, indulged in by one who did nothing half-way, and +resorted to as some women drug themselves with opium, chloral, or +alcohol. She denounced the new intellectual tendency among social equals +of her own sex, as something wholly terrible; she frowned upon it no +less darkly than her kinswoman, Mrs. Van Horn, but for a different +reason. Its occasional lapses into rationalistic and unorthodox thought +roused her dismay and ire. + +"Science," she would say, in her grave, loitering manner, "is perfectly +splendid. I adore it. I read books about it all the time." (There were +those who roundly asserted that she did not know protoplasm from +evolution.) "But this confusing it with religion is simply blasphemous +and awful. I have the profoundest pity for all who do not believe +devoutly. I wish I could build asylums for them, and visit them, as I do +my sick and my poor!" + +Goldwin always listened to these melancholy outbursts with a twinkling +eye. She had long since ceased to try and convert him to her High Church +ritualisms. He would never go to church with her and witness, in the +edifice which she attended, the Episcopal ceremonial imitate, as he +said, the Roman Catholic ceremonial just as far as it dared and no +further. But he would never have gone to any church with her, and she +knew it, and mourned him as ungodly. That was the way, some of her foes +asserted, in which she made love to him: she mourned him as ungodly. + +But she showed no signs of making love to him to-night. She received +him, as was already stated, with a shocked air. + +"It is dreadfully late," she said, giving him her hand. "You ought not +to do it. You know that you ought not to do it." + +He kept her hand until she had again seated herself on the cachemire +lounge. Then he sat down beside her. + +Her type of beauty had been called that of a serpent. It was true that +her present posture on the lounge oddly resembled a sort of coil. Her +face wore at nearly all times a warm paleness; its color, or rather its +lack of color, had little variation. Her hair was black as night; her +eyes luminous, large, and very dark; her head small, her figure lissome +and extremely slender, her shoulders narrow and falling. She could not +be ungraceful, and her grace was always what in another woman would have +been called unique awkwardness. She appeared, now, to be gazing at +Goldwin across one shoulder. Her crimson dress was in a tight whorl +about her feet. She had a twisted look, which in any one else would have +suggested an imperiled anatomy. But you somehow accepted her at first +sight as capable of a picturesque elasticity denied to commoner +_physiques_. + +"I dropped in only for a minute," said Goldwin. "I wanted to tell you +about the dinner." + +"Well? Was it nice?" + +"Immensely. There was only one woman, but a marvelous woman. She is +Hollister's wife. I feel as if I'd been hearing a new opera by Gounod. +Don't ask me to describe her." + +Mrs. Lee was watching the speaker's face with great intentness. It was a +face that she knew very well; she had given it several years of close +study. + +"She is handsome, then?" + +"She's exquisite. She is going to take things by storm this winter. She +wants to do it, too. And I mean to help her." + +"Who was she?" + +"I don't know. And I don't care. I'm her devoted friend. I hope you will +be. I want you to call on her." + +"Are you crazy?" said Mrs. Lee. She said it so quietly and slowly, as +was her wont to say all things, that she might have been making the most +ordinary of queries. + +"Yes," laughed Goldwin, "quite out of my head." + +"Do you think I will go and see a woman I don't know, merely because you +ask me to do it?" + +He let his eyes dwell steadily upon her pale, small, piquant face, +lifted above the long, rounded throat, on which sparkled a slim gorget +of rubies, to match her dress. + +"You've done things that I wanted you to do before now," he said softly. +"You'll do this, I am sure." + +She put one hand on his arm. The hand was so tiny and white that it +seemed to rest there as lightly as a drifted blossom. "Will you tell me +all about her?" she said, in her measured way. + +"I told you that I couldn't describe her. She's like flowers that I've +seen; she's like music that I've heard; she is like perfumes that I have +smelt. There's poetry for you. You're fond of poetry, you say." + +She still kept her hand on his arm. He had very rarely praised a woman +in her hearing. He had never before praised one in this fashion. + +"Will you tell me one thing more?" she said. "Have you fallen in love +with her?" + +Goldwin threw back his head and laughed. "Good heavens!" he exclaimed, +"she is a married woman, and her husband worships her." + +"Will you answer my question?" persisted Mrs. Lee. + +"Yes," said Goldwin, suddenly jumping up from the lounge. "She is +tremendously fond of her husband. There ... your question is answered." + + + + +XVI. + + +Rather early the next morning, Mrs. Diggs dropped in upon Claire, "to +hear all about it," as she said, alluding to the dinner-party. + +She dismissed two of the gentlemen with two little contemptuous nods. +"They are both well enough in point of respectability," she affirmed. +"So are their wives. All four are so swathed in dull convention that you +even forget to criticise them; they're like animals which resemble the +haunts they inhabit to such a degree that you can tell them from the +surrounding foliage or furrows only when they move or show life. Whom +else did you have?" + +"There was Mr. Stuart Goldwin," said Claire. + +"Goldwin? Yon don't mean it, really? _Did_ you have Goldwin?" Here Mrs. +Diggs looked hard at Claire, and slowly shook her head. "My dear," she +went on, "it must indeed be true that your husband is achieving great +financial distinction. Pardon my saying it, Claire, but Goldwin wouldn't +have put his limbs under your mahogany if this had not been true. He's +an enormous personage. Other Wall Street grandees have been very small +pygmies in the social estimate. But Goldwin carries everything before +him. You needn't tell me that you like him. It would be something +abnormal if you didn't. He is really the most charming of men. You can't +trust him, don't you know, further than you can see him; he bristles +with all sorts of humbug. And yet you accept him, because it is such +well-bred, engaging humbug. He has hosts of adherents, and he deserves +them. He gives the most enchanting entertainments. They are never +vulgar, and yet they cost vast sums. For example, he will give a +Delmonico dinner, at which every lady finds a diamond-studded locket hid +modestly in the heart of her bouquet. I need not add that in a +matrimonial way he is simply groveled to. But beware of him, my dear +Claire; he is dangerous." + +"Dangerous?" repeated Claire. + +"Well, not so much in himself. Goldwin, in himself, is a shallow yet +clever man, a forcible yet weak man, a man whose pluck has aided him a +good deal, and whose luck has aided him still more. He has caught the +trick of looking like a prince, and hence of giving his princely +amassment of money a superb glamour. He will fade, some day, and leave +not a rack behind. Of course he will. They all do. I don't know that he +would if he married. And now I come to my previous point. He doesn't +marry; therefore, he is dangerous." + +"I don't follow you," Claire said. + +"He doesn't marry Mrs. Ridgeway Lee. That is what I mean. As it is, she +guards his approaches. She is a woman of high position, considerable +queer, uncanny beauty, monstrous affectation, and a fondness for _him_ +that amounts to idolatry. She's the most intense of pietists; she riots +in all sorts of religious charities. She has other idolatries besides +Goldwin, but he is her foremost. I have never been just able to make her +out. She is a sort of cousin of mine. She's wonderfully handsome, but +it's the lean, cold beauty of a snake. As I said, she guards Goldwin's +approaches. She's a widow, and a rich one, and she wants Goldwin to ask +her to marry him. He doesn't, however, and hence she coils herself, so +to speak, at the threshold of his acquaintance. If any other woman draws +near--I mean, too near--she hisses and bites.... Oh, don't look +incredulous. I've known her to positively do both. She'll do it to you, +if Goldwin is too attentive. That is why I warn you; that is why I call +that nice, brilliant, headlong, gentlemanly Goldwin a dangerous man." + +In a few more days Hollister, of his own accord, proposed to Claire that +she should engage a maid. He also told her that he had made purchase of +two carriages, a span of horses, and an extra horse for single harness +besides. + +"You will be able to drive out, either in your coupe or your larger +carriage, my dear," he said, "by Wednesday next." Then he broke into one +of his most genial laughs, and added: "I hope that is not too long to +wait." + +Claire took this prophecy of coming splendor with serious quietude. She +had talked with her husband regarding his recent plethoric influx of +thousands. + +"I've an idea, Herbert," she said, using a slow, wise-seeming +deliberation. "It is this: why do you not buy our house? We both like +it; it is comfortable and agreeable; it fills all our wants. And it is +for sale, you know." + +Hollister looked grave, then smiled, then affirmatively nodded. + +"I'll do it, Claire," he answered. "I'll do it to-morrow, if you wish." + +"I do wish, Herbert. And when you have bought the house, I want you to +put it in my name. I want you to give it to _me_." + +He started, and stared at her. A gleam of distrust appeared to slip +coldly into his frank eyes. Claire saw this, but answered his look with +firm calm. "Why do you say that?" he murmured. + +She went nearer to him, and laid one hand on his shoulder. "Why do I say +it?" she softly iterated. "Because I know something of the risks and +perils you are daily forced to meet." + +He watched her intently and soberly, for a few seconds, after she had +thus spoken. Then his characteristic smile broke forth like a burst of +sun. He kissed her on the lips. "It shall be just as you say!" he +exclaimed, drawing her nearer to him, with a look which they of bids and +sales and stock-traffic had never seen on his manly yet winsome face. +"You are right. You are always right, Claire. There's a lot of money +drifting in; it seems as if the money would never stop drifting in." + +"I hope it never will," said Claire, showing her pure teeth in a laugh, +as he again kissed her. At the same time she drew back from him while +his encircling arm still retained her, in a way to which he had grown +wholly familiar, and which, in an unwedded woman, would have readily +seemed like the reserve of absolute maidenhood. + +A slight further lapse of days brought grand results for Claire. She was +legally the owner of the charming little house in which she dwelt; she +had her maid, obsequiously attendant on her least wants; she possessed +her coupe, drawn by a large, silver-trapped horse; she possessed, also, +a glossy, dark-appointed carriage, drawn by two horses of equally smart +gear, and supervised by coachman and footman in approved and modish +livery. + +Mrs. Diggs was in ecstasies at the prosperous change. "Now you're indeed +_lancee_, don't you know?" she said. "By the way, has Cornelia Van Horn +left a card on you, my dear?" + +"No," said Claire. + +"Can she really mean open warfare?" + +"Let her wage it," Claire answered. "That is better than to have it +concealed." + +The opera-season began the next evening. Hollister had engaged a box, +permanently. It was a season that opened with much auspicious +brilliancy. Claire appeared in her first really notable toilette. One of +the reigning _modistes_ had made it, and for the first time in her life +she was called upon to stand the test of surpassingly beautiful +dressing. It is a test that some very fair women stand ill. They show to +best advantage, in garments which have no atmosphere of festival; it +becomes them to be clad with domesticity or at least moderation. This +was by no means true, however, of Claire. The diamond necklace which +Hollister had spread on her dressing-table but a few minutes before the +hour of departure glittered round her smooth, slender neck with telling +saliency. Her gown was of a pale, pink brocaded stuff, and she carried +its full-flowing train with a light-stepping and perfect repose. Before +she had unclasped her cloak and seated herself in the box at Hollister's +side, numerous lorgnettes were leveled upon the lovely, dignified +picture that she made. When she had seated herself, the spell continued. +The large pink roses in her bosom were not deep or sweet enough of tint +to do more than heighten the fresh, chaste flush in either cheek. She +bore herself with a fine and delicate majesty. Her dark-blue eyes told +of the quicker pulse that stirred her veins only by a more humid and +dreamy sparkle. She was inwardly glad to be where she sat, and to be +robed as she was robed, but her pleasure softly exulted in its own +outward repression; she was wonderfully self-poised and tranquil, +considering her strong secret excitement. Nearly everybody who looked +upon her pronounced her to be very beautiful, and a good many people, +before an hour had passed, had looked at her with the closest kind of +scrutiny. + +The opera was a favorite one; a famed and favorite prima-donna sang in +it. Below, where the real lovers of music mostly thronged, Claire's +presence produced neither comment nor criticism. But up in the region +sacred to fashion, inattention, gossip, and flirtation, she rapidly +became an event which even the most melodious cavatina was powerless to +supersede. + +It was not all done by her beauty and novel charm. Hollister, sitting at +her side, nonchalant, handsome, of excellent conventional style in garb +and posture, materially helped to increase the notability which +surrounded her. His success had publicly transpired; a few of those +newspapers which are little save glaring personal placards had of late +proclaimed with graphic zeal his speculative triumphs. He had leapt into +notoriety in a day, almost in an hour. There was but one man in the +house besides her husband whom Claire knew. This man was Stuart Goldwin, +and he soon dropped into her box, remaining there through the two final +acts. Hollister, meanwhile, chose to be absent. He had found some +friends who were solicitous of presenting him to certain ladies. He +spent nearly the whole of these two acts in chatting with these same +ladies. They were all gracious; one or two of them had strong claims to +beauty. It was no less an important evening with himself than with +Claire. Perhaps with him it was even more so, since he obtained his +social acceptance, as it were, by great dames whom he pleased with his +handsome face, happy manners, and growing repute as a potential +millionaire. + +His wife, on the other hand, had gained a different victory. She was +pronounced to be charming and remarkable; she had acquired the prestige +of Goldwin's open attentions. But she was a woman, and she had not yet +received the endorsement of her own sex. It might possibly soon arrive, +or it might be withheld: there was still no actual certainty. + +Claire loved the music, but she would have heard its cadences in +discontent if fate had decreed that she should sit, this evening, with +no attendant devotee. She knew well that Goldwin's company distinguished +her. Mrs. Diggs had given her points, as the phrase goes. She was quite +aware that the horse-shoe of boxes in our metropolitan opera-house, and +the other more commodious proscenium boxes which flank its stage, are at +nearly all times occupied by just the kind of people among whom she +wished to win her coveted lofty place. She understood that they would +note, comment, gauge, admire, or condemn; and while her manner bespoke a +sweet and placid unconsciousness of their observation, she was alive to +the exact amount of observation which she attracted. + +"I am so glad that you came," Goldwin told her. "For very selfish +reasons, I mean. You appear, and you corroborate my statements. Now +people can at last see and judge for themselves. The verdict is sure." + +He said many more things in this vein, all uttered low, and all +accompanied by his smile, that seemed either to mean volumes or to leave +his true meaning adroitly ambiguous. + +Mrs. Ridgeway Lee was in a somewhat near box. When Goldwin returned to +her side, just as the curtain was falling on the last act, she accepted +his escort to her carriage with a fine composure. He met Mrs. Van Horn, +a little later, in the crush that always occurs along the Fourteenth +Street lobby of our Academy when a full house disgorges its throng. + +The two ladies talked together. Not far away from them stood Mrs. Diggs +and Claire, each waiting for an absent husband to secure her carriage. + +"What a contrast there is between them," Claire murmured to her +companion. "One is so blonde and peaceful, the other so dark and +restless." + +"Yes, my dear Claire. Have you caught Cornelia's eye?" + +"No. She does not appear to see me." + +"She sees you perfectly. She has not yet made up her mind just how to +act." + +"I think that she means to cut me," said Claire, under her breath. + +"Never," came the emphatic answer, so bass and gruff because of its +vocal suppression that it produced odd contrast with Mrs. Diggs's bodily +thinness. "To cut you would be to burn her ships. She has an object in +knowing you. I'm afraid it's a dark one. But be sure that she is only +making up her mind just _how_ to know you. She will soon decide; she +has already delayed too long, and she feels it. Be ready for a prompt +change." + +If the behavior of Mrs. Van Horn was really to be explained on the +theory of her prophetic cousin, then she made up her mind very soon +after the delivery of these oracular sentences. A chance turn of the +neck seemed to render her conscious of Claire's neighboring presence. +She bowed with soft decision the instant that their eyes met; and Claire +returned the bow. + +The next instant she laid one gloved hand on the arm of Mrs. Ridgeway +Lee, and then both ladies moved in Claire's direction. Their progress +was of necessity made between the forms of several assembled ladies, who +nodded and smiled as the great personage and her companion pushed +courteously past them. They were mostly the loyal adherents of Mrs. Van +Horn, in the sense that they held it high honor to have the right of +occasionally darkening her Washington Square doorway. Two or three of +them were perhaps co-regents with her as regarded caste and power. + +They all saw and intently watched the little astonishing action that now +followed. Mrs. Van Horn glided up to Claire and extended her hand. + +"I was so very sorry to have missed your dinner, Mrs. Hollister," said +the great lady, with her best affability, "but another engagement forced +me to be absent." She again put her hand on the arm of Mrs. Ridgeway +Lee; she had thus far wholly ignored Mrs. Diggs; her nose was well in +the air, as usual, but her smile was bland, conciliatory, impressive; +she glowed with an august amiability. + +"I want you to let me present my cousin, Mrs. Lee," she proceeded. "We +have both heard so much about you, of late, from Mr. Goldwin. You can't +think how devoted a friend you have suddenly made." + +Before Claire could answer, Mrs. Lee spoke. She had got herself into her +usual extraordinary twist. Her visage, her hands, and her lower limbs, +regarded according to their relative disposements, would have made a +very sinuous line. Like Mrs. Van Horn, she was wrapped in an opera +cloak. But her dark little head rose from the large circlet of swansdown +about her slight throat with an effect not unlike the slim crest of a +turtle stealing from its shell. She constantly suggested a creature of +this lean and chill type, though rarely with any of its repulsive +traits. + +"Indeed, yes!" she softly exclaimed to Claire. "Mr. Goldwin is a great +friend of mine, and he has told me hundreds of charming things about +you." + +"Our acquaintance has been a very short one," said Claire, looking at +Mrs. Diggs. In a certain way, she sought to gain a kind of tacit cue +from the latter's face. She failed to perceive just how matters were +drifting. Was this patronage on the part of both ladies? Or was it meant +for irreproachable courtesy? + +Mrs. Diggs gave a laugh. "Goldwin can say a hundred charming things very +easily on a brief acquaintance," she declared. "Can't you?" were her +next words, delivered to Goldwin himself, who had just then slipped up +to the group. + +"Oh, no, I can't," he at once replied, "unless I mean every one of +them." + +"Dear me!" said Mrs. Diggs, "how quickly you grasp the situation! So +you heard what we were talking about, did you? You've found out that we +were discussing your last enthusiasm?" + +"Ah," said Goldwin, "I have very few of them. Don't cheapen me, please, +in the regard of Mrs. Hollister." + +"You seem to count upon her regard with singular confidence," said Mrs. +Van Horn. + +"That's entirely our affair," laughed Goldwin. He looked at Claire, but +while he did so Mrs. Van Horn placed her hand within his arm. She took +it for granted that her carriage had been properly summoned by the +financier, and she was going to permit him to accompany her thither, as +she had permitted him to find it; she nearly always put herself in the +attitude of permitting favors and not soliciting them, by some deft, +secure art, quite her own. The bow of farewell which she gave Claire was +handsomely suave. Mrs. Lee moved away at her other side. Mrs. Lee had +been her guest, that evening, and they were to ride home together. + +"So, Claire, it's settled," presently said Mrs. Diggs. "Cornelia is to +know you. So is Sylvia Lee. Be careful of them both. I can't feel +certain, yet, of exactly what it all means.... Here's that dear +Manhattan of mine. He has got our carriage. Shall I remain with you till +your husband reappears?... Very well; I will. But this is no place in +which to talk over the whole odd, interesting thing. I'll try and drop +in upon you soon; possibly to-morrow, if I can manage it.... Does +Manhattan see us? Just observe how stupidly he stares everywhere but +here. He's been a little strange and absent-minded all the evening. I +really think he's forgotten where he left me. He smokes too many of +those strong, horrid cigars, don't you know? I truly believe that they +cloud his brain half the time ... but then it's better he should smoke +too much than drink too much. I don't know what I _should_ do if the +dear fellow drank too much!" ... + +Mrs. Diggs did present herself at Claire's house on the following day. +But Claire was not at home. She had driven out in company with her +husband. + +It was a momentous drive. They had left home together at about one +o'clock. Claire had no idea whither they were going, at first. Hollister +had chosen to assume an air of profound mysticism. "I have a great +surprise for you," he said. + +There was no characteristic twinkle in his eye as he made this +statement. Claire felt that he was far from saddened, and yet his +gravity looked an undoubted fact. + +"I will accompany you blindly," she said, just before they entered the +carriage. "I suppose, however, there are some more jewels at Tiffany's +which you want me to see and choose from." + +"No," said Hollister, shaking his head. "I shouldn't spend nearly a +whole day away from Wall Street for anything of that sort." + +The carriage had soon passed Tiffany's by a considerable distance, in +what we call the downward direction. As its progress increased, Claire's +curiosity heightened, but for some time she gave no proof of this. Her +talk was of their new attainments, of their growing pastimes, pleasures, +and luxuries. She spoke often with a slightly unfamiliar speed; it was a +little habit that of late had come upon her; it betrayed gentle +excitement in place of previous composure. To Hollister, when he +observed it at all, the effect was filled with charm; he no more +disliked it than he would have disliked to see a very tender breeze +lightly agitate some beautiful bloom. But now his gravity by no means +lessened under the spell of Claire's rather voluble advances. She had +plainly seen the change; on a sudden she herself became serious as he; +then, after an interval of almost complete silence, she placed her hand +in his. The carriage was now very near to one of the Brooklyn ferries. +No doubt the first real suspicion of the truth had flashed through +Claire's mind when she abruptly said:-- + +"Where _are_ we going, Herbert? You really _must_ tell me." + +He met her intent look; she had rarely seen his blithe eyes more solemn +than now. + +"Haven't you guessed by this time?" he said. + +"Perhaps I have," she answered. Her tone was a low murmur; she had +averted her eyes from his, and would have withdrawn from him her hand, +had not the clasp of his own softly rebelled against this act. Her +cheeks had flushed almost crimson. "Go on," she persisted. "Tell me if I +am right." + +"I think you are, Claire; I think you have guessed it, at last." The +carriage had just entered the big gateway of the ferry; wheels and hoofs +took a new sound as they struck the planks of the wharf. "Don't you +remember that night at the Island, a little while after our engagement, +when you told me that it would give you such joy to regain your father's +body and to have it decently buried, in a Christian way?" + +"Yes, Herbert ... I remember." She spoke the words so faintly that he +scarcely heard them. + +"Well, Claire, I made you a promise, then, and I recollected the +promise." + +"But _I_ forgot it!" she cried, throwing both arms about his neck, for +an instant, and kissing his cheek. Immediately afterward she burst into +tears. "Oh, Herbert, you remembered and I forgot! How wicked of me! I +let other things--things that were trifles and vanities--drive it from +my mind! Poor, dear, dead Father! He would never have done that to me! +He loved me too well--far too well!" + +The tears were rushing down her face, and her frame was in a miserable +tremor. Already he had caught both her hands, and was firmly pressing +them while he bent toward her, and while she leaned in a relaxed posture +against the back of the carriage. He thought her repentance as exquisite +as it was needless; he held it as only a fresh proof of her sweet, +refined spirit. It brought the mist into his sight, and made his voice +throb very unwontedly, to see her weep and tremble thus. + +"My darling," his next words hurried, "you're not in the least to blame. +You would have thought about it a little later, I'm certain. But so much +has happened since our marriage, you know. Besides, what you call +trifles and vanities are just what he wanted you to think about. He must +be glad (if the dead are ever glad or sorry in any way) to see you climb +higher, and get the notice and influence you deserve. You never slighted +his memory at all. Don't fancy you did, Claire. He was in your mind all +the while, only you postponed speaking of him a little longer than you +intended. You had told me what to do, don't you see, and you felt a +certain security as regarded my doing it. That was all. Now do cheer +up. We've quite a ride to Greenwood after we leave the ferry. Everything +has been done, quietly, dear, without your knowing. I thought it would +pain you too much to stand beside any open grave of his. The body was +not hard to find. You recollected its ... its number, you know. I'm sure +you will like the stone I've had put over him. It is just a plain +granite one, with the name, and date of death. The date of birth shall +be put there afterward; I didn't want to ask it of you yet; that would +have spoiled my surprise." + +She grew perfectly calm again, some time before they reached the +cemetery. The cessation of her tears deeply relieved Hollister. He had +never seen her weep before, and the betrayal of such emotion, feminine +though it was, had harshly disturbed him. Once more composed, she +returned to him in her proper strength. She became Claire again. It was +not that he did not like her to show weakness, but rather that in +showing weakness she appeared new and odd to him, and hence not just his +own strong, serene, familiar Claire. Any jar, as it were, in the +steadfast vibrations of his fealty sent to the heart of this most +unswerving loyalist a strange, acute dismay. + +The autumn darkness had almost fallen upon the multitudinous tombs of +Greenwood before Claire was willing to leave that of her father. His +name, cut in the modest gray of the stone, seemed for hours afterward +cut into her conscience as well. The grand repose of the place, too, +left its haunting thrill in her soul. A great sombre note had been +struck through all her being, at a time when brain and nerves had begun +to feel the full intoxication of worldly longing. While she was living +intensely, death had come to her in the shape of keen, reproachful +reminder. The vast cemetery had now no vernal or summer charm. Above, +the sky was soft as a clouded turquoise, but underfoot, and on tree and +shrub, the lovely melancholy of waning autumn met the bitter melancholy +of a far more woful decay. It was all like one mighty threnody put to +mighty yet very tender music. With a certain sinister and piercing +eloquence, moreover, this huge, mute city of death addressed Claire. +Many noted family names had of late passed into her memory, as those of +people whom it would be safe, wise, politic to know; and not a few of +these she now saw, lettered on slabs or shafts, and graven over the +portals of vaults. Each one, as her gaze read it, wore a frightful +sarcasm. More than once she closed her eyes and shuddered, as the +carriage made both exit and entrance here in this sad domain. The +perfect culture of the place rendered its doleful pathos even more +poignant. The dead were not neglected, here; others, now alive and of +the bright world she had yearned to triumph in, must soon lie down +beside them. The narrow beds were kept well tended, perhaps, for just +this dreary and hideous reason. + +That night she spent almost without sleep. She heard her mother's +vindictive voice ring through the stillness; she had waking visions of +her father's face, clad with an angelic rebuke; she seemed to listen +once more while Beverley Thurston spoke those words of remonstrance and +chiding which were the last he had uttered in her presence: "I warn you +against yourself ... there is an actual curse hanging over you ... it +will surely fall, unless by the act of your own will you change it into +a blessing." + +Yes, her aim had been false and worthless. She knew it well, at last. +Her father's grave had told her so. She was born for better things than +to fling down a dainty gauntlet of social warfare at Mrs. Van Horn. The +big world had big work for such a woman as herself to front and do. She +realized it now; she had realized it all along. Herbert thought she had +been right merely because he loved her. To-morrow she would make Herbert +see clearly the folly of his own acquiescence. Now that the money had +come, there were great charities possible. She would go back, too, among +her books; these should teach her more than they had ever yet taught. It +was true enough that in one way she was cold; she could not feel passion +like other women. The infatuation of a Mrs. Ridgeway Lee was an enigma +to her. But she could love a loftier ideal of life--love it and try to +climb thither by the steeper and harsher path. This, surely, was what +her father had meant, long ago. + +Such were her new reflections and her new resolves. It took just one +day, and no more, to dissipate them completely. Mrs. Diggs sent her a +note on the following afternoon, saying that a hundred little +obstructive matters had prevented her purposed visit that morning, but +begging to have the pleasure of her own and her husband's company at +dinner on the same evening. Would not Claire drop in very early--say +about four o'clock? "It is my visiting day," wrote her correspondent. +"Perhaps there will be four or five feminine callers, perhaps none. If +there are none, we can have a good three hours' chat, don't you know? +I've some new things from Paris that I want to show you. It strikes me +that Worth's taste grows more depraved every year, and I want you to +give me your advice as to whether I shall throw all these hideous +importations over to my maid or no. You can leave a little note at home +for that delightful husband of yours, telling him that the Diggses dine +at seven. Or you can show him this note, unless you have jealous +feelings with regard to my florid adjective." + +Claire quitted the house at about four that afternoon, leaving behind +her a few lines for Hollister. She chose to go on foot, the day being +fair and pleasant. But she had scarcely got twenty yards away from her +own stoop, when a carriage rattled past her, stopping suddenly. It was +an equipage of great elegance. Claire soon perceived that it had stopped +before the door from which she had just made exit. A footman sprang from +the box, and immediately afterward what appeared to be more than a +single card was handed him by an unseen occupant of the carriage. He +then ascended the stoop of the Hollister abode, and sharply rang its +bell. When his summons was answered the man held brief converse with +Claire's new butler, and then presented, with a little bow, the card or +cards intrusted to him. In a trice he was down the stoop again, and +again at the carriage door. He did not seem to deliver any spoken +message, but merely touched with one raised finger the rim of his +cockaded hat. The carriage then started briskly off, without its +high-throned driver paying the slightest heed to the fact that his +liveried associate must scramble up to his side while the vehicle was in +full motion. But this feat was accomplished with great ease; a mannerism +of fashion demanded that the footman should so perform it; the approved +effect of complete unconcern on the one hand and up-leaping agility on +the other was never produced with more complete success. + +Claire had soon reentered the house. She found two cards there, awaiting +her inspection. One bore the name of Mrs. Van Horn, and one that of Mrs. +Ridgeway Lee. + +"Delightful!" exclaimed Mrs. Diggs, on learning this occurrence from +Claire herself, about a half hour later. "That visit, from those two +women, has an enormous meaning. How sorry I am you were not at home. It +would have been two against one, but I'm inclined to pay you the very +marked compliment of saying that both your antagonists, deep and clever +as they are, would have been no match for you. Well, hostilities are +postponed. It's an armistice, not a truce. I insist, you see, on using +the terms of warfare. How the battle will be fought is still a mystery, +of course; but two potent truths simply _can't_ be overlooked. You +refused Cornelia Van Horn's brother. That is one of them." + +"And the second?" asked Claire, a little absently, because she felt what +answer would come. + +"The second? You've roused pointed admiration in the man whom Sylvia Lee +worships." + +Claire looked at the speaker, and slowly shook her head. There was +doubt, trouble, irresolution in her face; and now, when she spoke, her +voice had a weary, almost plaintive note. + +"I--I feel like not engaging in the fight, if you really think there is +to be one," she said, hesitantly. "I don't mean because I am afraid," +were her next words, delivered with much greater swiftness. "Oh, no, not +that. There are other reasons. I can't explain, just now." Here she +paused, and her face softly brightened, while she gave a little shrug +of the shoulders. "Well," she abruptly went on, "perhaps I shall never +explain." + +She never did explain. This was her last feeble protest against the +slow, sure force of that subtle fascination which was once more steadily +reclaiming her. The gloomy remorse and the vital energy of yesterday's +mood had, neither of them, quite left her. But they both soon withdrew +their last remnant of sway. + +Hollister came a little late to Mrs. Diggs's dinner. It had been a great +day with him. He had risked a very important sum by retaining a large +number of shares in a certain precarious stock. He had his reasons for +doing so, and they were clever reasons, judged by the general conditions +of the market. He had made a memorable stroke, and all Wall Street knew +of it before the usual hour for brokers to seek other than their daily +haunts of hazard. He was radiant, if this could be said of one whose +spirits were always bright, as his temper was sweet. There were only +four at dinner. Mr. Diggs overflowed with congratulations to Hollister. +He was quite as tipsy as usual, and to Claire's thinking, quite as +tiresome. + +But the dinner was not tiresome. Mrs. Diggs was at her loquacious best. +The recent brilliant manoeuvre of her husband had roused in Claire all +the old exultant feeling. Yesterday was now indeed yesterday. She was +already plunging an eager look straight onward through a long rosy vista +of to-morrows. + +"I'm so glad, Herbert!" she said, as they were being driven home +together. "Perhaps I didn't show that I was, there at dinner. That +dreadful Mr. Diggs is made of such explosive material that I was afraid +he would want to drink your health standing, or something of that absurd +sort, if I ventured to tell you how glad I really was that you've made +another hit, luckier than any you ever made before." + +Hollister put his lips to her cheek. "I know just how glad you are," he +said, while kissing her. "You needn't tell me another word about it." + +Claire had spoken with that little half-excited trip of the tongue, +which has been recorded as a late change in her demeanor. + +She was silent, not having returned her husband's caress. This was quite +like the accustomed Claire. Yesterday, in the carriage which had borne +them to Greenwood, she had flung her arms about his neck and kissed him, +as any ordinary wife might do. + +Hollister was quietly re-accepting her, so to speak, as the +extraordinary wife--or, in other terser phrase, as Claire. + +He went on speaking before she had a chance to answer him. He was still +holding her hand while he spoke. "Oh, by the way, Claire, Goldwin had a +good deal to do with my luck. He gave me points, as they say down there. +But don't breathe it to a living soul. Goldwin's an awfully good friend +of mine, I find, though we haven't always pulled together in a business +way." + +"Yes?" Claire answered. + +She had somehow got her hand away from his. She was using it to arrange +her wrap about the throat. + + + + +XVII. + + +The gay season had soon set in with full force. It promised to be a +season of especial brilliancy. Claire rapidly found people gathering +about her. She began to have a little list of her own. The wives of the +two gentlemen who had dined with herself and husband in Goldwin's +company, each asked herself and husband to dine at their own house. The +dinners were both of sumptuous quality, and attended by numerous other +guests. Claire made a deep impression at both places. Her toilettes were +rich and of unique taste; she was by far the most beautiful woman at +either assemblage. The sudden financial glory of Hollister, whose actual +wealth was tripled if not quadrupled by rumor, cast about her +exceptional grace, beauty, and wit an added halo of distinction. She was +the kind of woman whom women like. In not a few of her own sex she +quickly roused an enthusiastic partisanship. + +"You are bound to lead, or nothing," Mrs. Diggs soon said to her. "I see +this very clearly, Claire,--though, for that matter, I have seen it all +along." + +"I mean to lead, or nothing," answered Claire, with her superb candor. +"Thus far I have not found it difficult." + +Mrs. Diggs put up her thin forefinger. + +"Tut, tut," she remonstrated. "Don't be too confident. Ambition _may_ +overleap itself. Remember that you are still on the threshold." + +"I've crossed it," said Claire, laughing. "I've got into the +drawing-room." + +"No, you haven't, my dear. You have yet achieved nothing secure, +absolute, decisive. Now, I'm not a bit of a snob, myself, as you know. +But I understand how to reason like one; I can measure the mettle of the +foe you've got to fight with. Let us talk plainly together, as we always +do. None of the very heavy swells have as yet admitted you. There's no +use of denying this. You're being a great deal talked about. You've +broken bread already, and you've received invitations to break more +bread, with some very nice, exclusive women. But they are not of the +first rank; they're not of the great, proud, select clique. True, +Cornelia has called on you, and Sylvia Lee has called. You've returned +their visits, and have seen neither; neither was at home. But then +neither _is_ at home except on her visiting-day, and that is customarily +written with much legibility on both their cards. But on both the cards +which you received, _no day at all was written_. I've never mentioned +this before, have I? Well, it never occurred to me until last night. I +was nervous, and couldn't sleep; that dear Manhattan was out at the +club, smoking those horrid cigars, which flush his face so and hurt his +poor, dear brain, I'm sure. Perhaps it was that which kept me awake and +made my mind wander toward you, and reflect upon this peculiarly +interesting stage of your career. The little circumstance I have +mentioned may mean nothing, but I'm inclined to think otherwise; +everything, no matter how trivial, about Cornelia, is sure to mean +something. But, however this may be, affairs have now reached a peculiar +pass with you. You must make a _coup_, my dear--a grand _coup_." + +"Which you have arranged entirely," said Claire, smiling, "I haven't a +doubt. And now you await my sanction of it?" + +Mrs. Diggs creased her pale forehead, in a reflective frown. "No, not +precisely that, my dear; I haven't yet quite decided what it is to be. +But I have almost decided. Suppose that you do not make it at all--that +is, not in your own person. Suppose that I make it for you." + +"You?" inquired Claire. + +"Yes. Suppose that I send out cards for a huge reception, and place your +card within the same envelope. Then you would receive at my side, don't +you know, and everybody who came must henceforth be on your list as well +as on mine. I would launch you boldly forth, in other words. I would put +you under my wing. I would give you my _cachet_." + +A marked intimacy now existed between Claire and Goldwin. He would often +drop in of an evening--sometimes of an afternoon. Hollister was not by +any means at home every evening, when he and Claire had no mutual +engagement. He was getting to have a good many solitary engagements. +"Stag" dinners claimed him; there would be nocturnal trysts with certain +fellow-financiers on the subject of the morrow's chances. Then, too, he +had been made a member of the Metropolitan Club, an institution oddly +hard, and in a way oddly easy, to enter; it was the one great reigning +club of the continent; none other precisely resembled it; the social +leaders who did not belong to it were few, and to cross its doorstep at +will was the unfulfilled dream of many a social struggler. + +Claire cordially liked Goldwin. If he had been obscure she would still +have liked him, though his importance was so knit in with his +personality, he exhaled such an atmosphere of pecuniary and patrician +celebrity, that one could ill think of him as ever being or ever having +been obscure. She was boldly frank with him regarding her ambitious +aims. He would throw back his handsome head and laugh most heartily at +her ingenuous confidences. He would tell her that she was the most +exquisite joke in the world, and yet that he was somehow forced to +accept her as quite the opposite of one. "Ah, yes, intensely opposite," +he would add, with a fluttered pull at his silken mustache that she felt +to be studied in its emotional suggestiveness, with a large sigh that +she suspected of being less studied, and with a look in his charming +hazel eyes that would nearly always make her avert her own. His homage +had become a very substantial fact, and she knew just how much of it the +popular standard of wifely discretion would permit her to receive--just +how much of it would be her advantage and not her detriment. He was too +keen not to have perceived that she had drawn this judicious line of +calculation. Now and then he made little semi-jocose attempts to +overleap it, but at the worst a word could curb him where a glance +failed. She found him, all in all, saltatory but never vicious; a stout +pull of the rein always brought him to terms. + +After her converse with Mrs. Diggs, just recorded, she told him of the +latter's proposed _coup_. He looked at her sharply for a moment, and +then made a very wry grimace. + +"Good Heavens!" he exclaimed. "That woman endorse you! It would be +complete ruin." + +"Mrs. Diggs is my friend, and as such I must insist upon your always +speaking with respect of her in my presence," reprimanded Claire, +stoutly. + +"Respect? Why, of course I respect her. Not physically; she's +constructed on too painful a plan of zigzags. But in all other ways I +consider her delightful. She's got a big, warm heart in that angular +body of hers. She's as liberal as the air. But she isn't good form--she +isn't a swell, and no earthly power could make her so. Of course she +doesn't think she has really lost caste. She may tell you that she does, +but privately she has an immense belief in her ability to play the fine +lady at a moment's notice. I don't know any woman more flatly +disapproved of by her own original set. Shall I tell you what this idea +of hers would result in if practically carried out? A distinct injury to +yourself. She has a crowd of queer friends whom she wouldn't slight for +the world; she's too consistently good-hearted. She'd invite them all, +and they would all come. Her notable relations--the Van Horns and Van +Corlears and Amsterdams and Hackensacks, and Heaven knows who +else--would yawn and perhaps shudder when they got the tickets for her +entertainment. They would mostly come, too, and all their grand friends +would no doubt follow them. But they would come with a feeling of deadly +rancor toward yourself; they would never forgive you for setting her up +to it, and nothing could induce them to believe that you had _not_ set +her up to it." Here Goldwin crossed his legs with an impatient violence, +and stared down at one of his shoes with enough intensity for it to +have been concerned in the last caprice of the stock-market. "Oh, no," +he went on, "that would never do. Never in the world. It wouldn't be a +_coup_ at all; it would be a monstrous _fiasco_. Take my advice, now, +and politely but firmly nip any such proceeding in the bud." + +Claire did. On his own side, Goldwin was secretly determined that she +whom he thought the most fascinating, novel, and beautiful woman he had +ever met, should achieve the full extent of her desires. These desires +affected him much as they affected Hollister; they were part of Claire's +charm for him; they were like the golden craft of scrollwork that framed +the picture; they set it off, and made it more precious; there was a +lovely imperiousness about them that would have bored him in another +woman, like a kind of ugly greed, but that in her were a delight. + +He had made up his mind to serve her, brilliantly, conspicuously, and he +soon did so. He issued invitations for a dinner at Delmonico's, and gave +it on a scale of splendor that eclipsed all his previous hospitalities. +Rare music stole to the guests while they feasted; the board was +literally pavilioned in flowers; the wines and the viands were marvels +of rarity and cost; beside the plate of each lady lay a fan studded with +her monogram in precious stones; during dessert a little cake was served +to everybody present, which, when broken, contained a ring with the word +_bienvenu_ embossed in silver along its golden circlet. The host had +very carefully chosen his guests from among the autocrats and arbiters +of fashion. Claire and Hollister were the only persons who did not +represent aristocracy at its sovereign height. But on Claire fell the +chief honors. It was she whom Goldwin conducted into the dining room; +it was she to whom he directed the major share of his attentions, +contriving with slight apparent effort that she should know every one +else, and making it evident that the affair was held in large luxurious +compliment to herself alone, though not thrusting this fact into more +than partial prominence. + +Goldwin, for certain marked reasons of his own, had been from the first +resolved upon the attendance of Mrs. Ridgeway Lee. He sent no invitation +to Mrs. Van Horn. He knew that Claire suspected the latter of adverse +feelings, and he knew no more than this. But Mrs. Van Horn was not a +necessity to the success of his festival; she could easily be replaced +by some other leader, and it would be much better not to invite her at +all than to invite her without avail. But Mrs. Lee must appear. + +He had been prepared for refusal, and it promptly came. On the evening +of the day it reached him, he presented himself at Mrs. Lee's residence. +He found her alone. She had denied herself to four or five other +gentlemen during the previous hour. She had expected Goldwin, though she +tried to look decorously surprised when he entered her elegant little +drawing-room. + +She had chosen to clothe herself in black satin, the shimmer of whose +tense-drawn fabric about bust and waist, and of its trailing draperies +about the lower portion of her lithe person, gave to her strange beauty +an almost startling oddity. An irreverent critic who had recently seen +her in this robe had declared that she made him think of a wet eel. +Allowing the comparison to have been apt, if ungallant, there is no +doubt that she could have suggested only an eel very much humanized, +with a face of quite as extraordinary feminine beauty as that possessed +by the deadly lady whom Keats so weirdly celebrated. + +Her dark eyes seemed to-night lit with the smouldering fires of fever. +The moment Goldwin looked well at her he made up his mind that he was to +have a hard time of it. She had undoubtedly guessed the purport of his +dinner, and she meant to tell him so. He strongly suspected that she +meant to tell him so, as well, with considerable verbal embellishment. + +He pretended, in a playful way, to be dazzled by her fantastic apparel. +He put both hands up to his eyes and rubbed them in a comic imitation of +bewilderment. + +"I'm not prepared to tell you whether I like it or not," he said, while +he sank into one of the big, yielding chairs. "But I consider it +splendidly effective. It makes you appear so beautifully slippery. You +look as if you could slide into an indiscretion, and then squirm right +out again without being observed by anybody." + +Mrs. Lee bit her lip. She had often let him say more saucy things than +this to her, and not resented them. But to-night her mood held no such +tolerance. + +"You once promised me," she said, "that you would never speak rudely +about my personal appearance." She seemed to shape with some difficulty +this and the sentences that followed it. "I did not make myself. Perhaps +if I had been granted that privilege I might have hit on a type more +suited to your taste." + +Goldwin shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, come," he said, "you've let me +chaff you a hundred times before, and treated it as a joke." + +He was still seated, while she stood. He forgot to think this a +discourtesy toward her; he would have remembered it as such with almost +any other woman; his outward manners were usually blameless; but perhaps +he was no more at fault than she herself for the present negligence. + +As it was, it did not strike her. She was thinking of other weightier +things. A delicate table stood near her, and she half turned toward it, +breaking from a massive basket of crimson roses one whose rich petals +were heavy-folded and perfect, and fixing it in the bosom of her +night-dark dress. Goldwin was watching her covertly but keenly all the +while. She seemed to him like an incarnate tempest--he knew her so well. +His furtive but sharp gaze saw the tremor in her slim, pale fingers as +she dealt with the discompanioned rose. + +Finding that she did not answer, he went on: "You're out of sorts +to-night. Has anything gone wrong during the day?" + +She tossed her head for an instant, and her lip curled so high that it +showed the white edge of her teeth. But promptly she seemed to decide +upon a mild and not a harsh retort. "I have been at the hospital most of +the afternoon," she said. "I prayed for an hour beside a poor old woman +who was dying with cancer." She gave a quick, nervous shudder. "It was +horrible." She closed her eyes, then slowly unclosed them. "Horrible," +she repeated, in her most measured way. + +"It must have been simply ghastly," observed Goldwin, with dryness. "For +Heaven's sake, why don't you swear off these debauches of charity for at +least a month or two? They're completely breaking you up. It's they +that put you in these frightful humors." + +She came several steps toward him, and sank into a chair quite close at +his side. She twisted herself so inordinately, in taking this new +posture, that her detractors would have decided the whole performance +one of her most aggravating affectations. "What frightful humors?" she +asked. This question had the same loitering, somnolent intonation that +always belonged to her speech, and contrasted so quaintly with her +nervous, volatile turns and poses. + +Goldwin saw that the time had come. "Oh, you know what I mean," he said. +"You went and refused my dinner. Of course you didn't mean it." + +"I did mean it," said Mrs. Lee, very low indeed. + +"Nonsense. I'm like an enterprising salesman. I won't take 'no' for an +answer." + +"I shall give you no other." + +He leaned nearer to her. "What on earth is the matter?" he inquired. "I +am going to make it a very nice affair. I don't think I've ever done +anything quite as pretty as this will be. You used to tell me that no +one did these things just as well as I. You used to say that if I ever +left you out of one of my state feasts you'd cut my acquaintance." + +She had drooped her small, dark head while he spoke, but now, as he +finished, she raised it. Her tones were still low, but unwonted speed +was in her words. + +"I don't doubt you will make it a very nice affair. But you give it +because you want to give distinction to a woman who has bewitched you. +Don't deny that Mrs. Hollister will be there. I know it--I am certain of +it." + +"I don't deny it," said Goldwin, crossing his legs quietly, "now that +you afford me a chance of stating it." + +He saw her control an inward shiver from displaying more overt signs. + +"Oh, well," she said, "do not let us discuss the question any more. I +sent you my regret to-day. I have another engagement, as I told you." + +"Another engagement is easily broken." + +"It is a dinner engagement." + +"I don't believe you." + +"You are grossly rude." + +"I know I am. It's perfectly awful. It's the first time I ever insulted +a woman. I shall be in the depths of repentance all day to-morrow. I +don't know if I shall ever really pardon myself. But ... I don't believe +you, all the same." + +He said this with a mournful deliberation that would at any other time +have roused her most enjoying laughter; for he had in him the rich fund +of true comedy, as many of his friends were wont loudly to attest, and +at will he could draw flattering plaudits of mirth from even the +gloomiest hearer. + +But Mrs. Lee did not show the glimpse of a smile. + +"There is no use," she said. "I have given you my answer. I shall not +go. I shall not permit you to make of my name and position a mere idle +convenience. I shall not lend you either one or the other, that it may +serve your purpose in presenting to society any adventuress who may have +pleased your fancy." + +Goldwin was very angry at this speech. She had no idea how angry it had +made him, as he quietly rose and faced her. + +"What right have you to call her an adventuress?" he asked. + +Her eyes flashed as she looked up at him. "Of course she is one. Her +husband, too, is an adventurer. They're both trying to push themselves +in among the best people. And you are helping them. You are helping him +because of her; and you are helping her ... well, you are helping her +because of herself." + +Goldwin gave a smile at this. She perceived, then, how very angry he +was. She knew his smile so well that when it came, different from any +other she had ever seen on the same lips, it struck her by its cold +novelty. + +"You called upon this adventuress," he said; "you were willing to do +that." + +"Yes--to please you." + +"Allow that as your reason. You called on her in private to please me. +You will not meet her in public to please me. Is not that just how the +case stands?" + +She fixed her eyes on his face. Her feverish look had grown humid. He +could plainly note that her lips trembled. She was so alive, now, to a +sense of his being very indignant, that this realization frightened her, +and she let him see, with pitiable candor, just how much it frightened +her. + +"You are in love with Mrs. Hollister," she murmured. "And--she is in +love with you." + +She showed him the full scope of his power by those few words. He walked +toward the door, pausing on its threshold. + +"I won't remain to hear you insult a woman whom I respect," he said; +"you called her an adventuress, which is untrue; you now say something +even worse." + +"Will you deny it?" she asked, rising. + +Her question had a plaintive, querulous ring, which the circumstances +made something more than pathetic. + +"Will you reconsider your refusal?" he said, making the interrogation a +reply. + +She sank back into her seat again. + +"No, never!" she exclaimed. + +"Good night," he returned. He went immediately out into the hall, put on +his coat and hat, and left the house. + +"She will yield," he told himself. "I am sure of it. She showed me that +she would if I were only hard enough. I mean to be hard. I can make it +up in kindness by and by." + +He waited three days. No word came to him from Mrs. Lee. But on the +fourth word came to him. + +"I knew it," he thought, as he read her note. + +Mrs. Lee went to the dinner in a truly marvelous gown. It was some +curious blending of crimson and black silks, that made her look sombrely +clad in one attitude and luridly clad in the next. Her only jewelry was +a thin snake of rubies about her slender throat, and the head of the +snake, set directly beneath her chin, was a big gold one, having two +large garnets for eyes. All the women pronounced her costume +ridiculously overdone. All the men professed to like it. She never +appeared in gayer spirits. Next to Claire she was the most notable +feminine guest. + +But Claire ruled absolute. She had never been more beautiful, perhaps +because she had never felt more secretly and victoriously exultant. The +delicious music, the piercing yet tender odor of the lavish flowers, the +insidious potency of the wines, which she sipped sparingly and felt +dangerously tingle through her veins--all these influences wrought upon +her a species of stimulating enthrallment which made the whole splendid +banquet seem, on the following day, like some enchanted dream. On one +side sat Goldwin, the genius who had created this lovely witchery, +urbane, devoted, allegiant; on the other side sat a man of deserved +eminence, a wit, a scholar, a statesman. She talked with both +companions, and it could not be said that she then charmed both, for one +was already her loyal devotee. As for the other, though advanced in +years and freighted with pungent experiences, he soon tacitly admitted +that he had at last found, at the most discriminating period of his +career, a woman whose graces of intelligence and beauty met in faultless +unison. As all the ladies rose, leaving the gentlemen to their coffee +and cigars, he leaned toward Goldwin, even before Claire's draperies had +swept the threshold of the dining-room, and significantly murmured:-- + +"You were right. She is an event." + +That dinner was the stepping-stone by which Claire mounted into +immediate triumph. All through the next year she was the reigning +favorite in just that realm where she had aimed to reign. Her father had +died a pauper and been buried as one. She, the mistress of many +thousands, having fixedly remembered what a feeble, disappointed, +obscure, broken-down man had said to her in early childhood, now stood +as the living, actual result of his past counsel. Years ago the seed had +been sown in that dingy little basement of One-Hundred-and-Twelfth +Street. To-day the flower bloomed, rare and beautiful. The little girl +had climbed the hill to its top, after all. She had not grown tired and +gone home before the top was reached. She had done her father's bidding. +She was sure he would be glad if he knew. + +'And yet am I quite sure?' she would sometimes ask herself. 'Was this +what he really meant when he spoke those words?' + +She knew perfectly the folly of the course that she now pursued. Her +occasional self-questionings were a hypocrisy that she realized while +she indulged it. But they were very occasional. She had slight time for +introspection, for analysis of her own acts. + +Flattery and devotion literally poured in upon her, like the new wealth +that continued to pour in upon her husband. The house in Twenty-Eighth +Street was soon exchanged for a spacious mansion on Fifth Avenue. Claire +ceased to know even the number of her servants. She had a housekeeper, +who superintended their engagements and discharges. She dwelt in an +atmosphere of excessive luxury, and found herself loving it more and +more as she yielded to the spell of its subtle enervation. + +Her second winter was the confirmation of her sovereignty. As the phrase +goes, she was asked everywhere. Her bright or caustic sayings were ever +on the lips of loyal quoters. Her toilettes were described with +journalistic realism in more than a single newspaper. Cards for her +entertainments were eagerly sought, and often vainly. Foreigners of +distinction drifted into her drawing-rooms as if by a natural process of +attraction. She had scarcely a moment of time to herself; when she was +not entertaining she was being entertained. Her admirers, women and men, +vied in efforts to secure her presence. She had acquired, as if by some +magic instinct, the last needed personal touch; she had got the grand +air to perfection. Diplomatists who had met and known the most noted +beauties of European courts had nothing but praise to pay her serene +elegance of deportment, the undulating grace of her step, the nice +melody of her voice, the fine wizardry of her smile. She had never seen +Europe, yet she might have spent all the years of her youth on its soil +with no lovelier results than those which now marked her captivating +manner. She was American, past question, to transatlantic eyes; yet +these found in her only the original buoyancy and freshness of that +nationality, without a gleam of its so-termed coarseness. + +Foes, of course, rose up against her. There can be no sun without +shadow. She had made herself so distinct a rarity that cheapening +comment could not fail to begin its assault. It did so, in hot earnest. +Two women had denied their sanction to her sudden popularity. These were +Mrs. Van Horn and Mrs. Ridgeway Lee. They were not open enemies; +neither, to all appearances, were they covert ones. They were on +speaking terms with her. They met her constantly, yet they offered her +no deference. Deference was what she now required, and with a +widely-admitted right. + +The invidious statements that stole into circulation regarding her could +not be traced either to the vengeance of Beverley Thurston's sister or +the jealousy of Stuart Goldwin's abandoned worshiper. It is possible +that the most leal of Claire's defenders never thought of so tracing +them. But the statements were made, and took wing. She had been a vulgar +girl of the people. Her parentage was of the most plebeian sort. A lucky +marriage had given her the chance, now accepted and enlarged. Her +maiden name had been this, that, and the other. She was absolutely +nobody. + +Claire heard none of these scorching comments. She reigned too haughtily +for that. Mrs. Diggs heard them, but Mrs. Diggs betrayed no sign of +their existence. Goldwin was now devotedly at Claire's side; they were +repeatedly seen in public together; the world in which she ruled +considered it a splendid subjugation; she had brought the great Wall +Street King obsequiously to her feet. + +But no breath of slander tainted the relation between them. Claire had +been very clever; she had blunted the first arrow, so to speak. She had +done so by means of her complete innocence. Goldwin was in love with +her; no one doubted this. It was something notable to have said of one. +But she was so safely not in love with Goldwin that she could +continually, by strokes of frank tact, show the world her own calm +recipiency and his entire subservience. A swift yet sure chasm widened +between herself and Hollister. The latter had become a man of incessant +and imperative engagements. Claire never dreamed of feeling a jealous +pang, and yet she knew that her husband, no less than herself, had +become a star of fashion. Hollister was assiduously courted. He and +Claire would now meet once a day, and sometimes not so often. They had +separate apartments; it was so much more convenient for both. The same +dinner-engagement frequently claimed them; but on these occasions she +would appear in the lower hall to meet him, rustling beneath some new +miracle of dressmaking, and they would get into the carriage together +and be driven to the appointed place. At the dinner they would be +widely separated. He would sit beside some woman glad to have secured +him; she would be the companion of some man happy because of her +nearness. The dinner would break up; the hour would be somewhat late; +they would get into their carriage; Hollister would have an appointment, +at the club, or somewhere. He would let Claire into the great new house +with his latch-key. "Good night," he would say, and hurry off into the +carriage that had waited for him. Claire would ascend and be disrobed by +a sleepy maid. To-morrow there would perhaps be another dinner, of the +same sort. Or it might be an affair to which she went alone, and from +which Goldwin accompanied her home. Goldwin was always prepared to +accompany her. He obeyed her nod. + +But Hollister was still her devout subject. It was merely that the +sundering stress of circumstances divided them. He did not forget +Claire; he postponed her. Everything was in a whirl with him, now; he +was shooting rapids, so to speak, and by and by he would be in still +water again. For the present, he had only time to tell himself that +Claire was getting on magnificently well. It was like driving four or +six restive horses abreast, with his wife seated at his side. He must +attend to the skittish brutes, as it were; her safety, no less than his +own, depended on his good driving. But she was there at his side; he +felt comfortably sure of this fact, though he could not turn and look at +her half often enough. + +The January of this second winter had been prolific in heavy +snow-storms, and the sleighing had filled town with its jocund tinkles. +One afternoon Claire, leaning back in a commodious sleigh, and muffled +to the throat in furry robes, stopped at Mrs. Diggs's house, and the two +ladies were driven together into the Park. It was a perfect afternoon of +its kind. There was no wind; the cold was keen but still; not a hint of +thaw showed itself in the banks of powdery snow skirting either edge of +the streets, or in those pure, unroughened lapses which clad the +spacious Park, beneath the black asperity of winter trees, traced +against a sky of steely blueness. + +Claire was in high spirits; her laugh had a ring as clear as the +weather. Mrs. Diggs shivered under the protective wraps of the sleigh. +"My circulation was never meant for this sort of thing," she said, at +length. "We've gone far enough, haven't we, Claire? It's nearly dark, +too." + +This was a most glaring fallacy, coined by the desperation of poor Mrs. +Diggs's discomfort. But the chilly light was growing a blue gloom above +the massed housetops when the two ladies found themselves at Claire's +door. + +It had been arranged that they should dine quietly together that +evening. Hollister would not be at home, and Claire, for a wonder, +would. Mrs. Diggs had been complaining, of late, that she never had a +moment of privacy with her friend. Claire had agreed, three days ago, to +disappoint for one night all who were seeking her society. "We shall +have a cosey dinner," she had said, "of just you and me. We will chat of +everything--past, present, and future." + +Mrs. Diggs recalled that word 'cosey' as she entered Claire's proud +dining-room, with its lofty arched ceiling, where little stars of gold +gleamed from dark interspaces between massive rafters of walnut. She +crouched on a soft rug beside the deep, large fire-place, in which great +logs were blazing. And while she basked in the pleasant glow, her eye +wandered about the grave grandeurs of the noble room, scanning its dusky +traits of wainscot, tapestry, tropic plants, or costly pictures: for all +was in sombre shadow except the reddened hearth and the small central +table, on whose white cloth two great clusters of wax-lights had been +set, stealing their colors from a group of flowers, and its clean +sparkle from the glass and silver. The whole table was like a spot of +light amid the stately dimness. + +"Really, very splendid indeed, Claire," said Mrs. Diggs, in a sort of +ruminative ellipsis, letting her eye presently rest on the tips of her +own upheld fingers, which the firelight had turned into that milky pink +that we often see float through opals. "But I really think I liked the +little basement house better, take it all in all." + +"Did you?" murmured Claire, who was standing near her, enjoying the +warmth, but not bathing in it like her half-frozen friend. "I didn't." + +A very impressive butler soon glided into the room, and told Madame in +French that she was served. Mrs. Diggs scrambled to her feet; the +majesty of the butler had something to do with her speed in performing +this act, though hunger was perhaps concerned in it. + +"That dreadful sleigh-ride has left me my appetite," she said, while +seating herself opposite Claire, "so I see it hasn't quite killed me." + +"I think you will survive it," said Claire, with one of her little +musical laughs. + +There was not much talk between the two friends while dinner lasted, and +what there was took a desultory and aimless turn. The butler waited +faultlessly; there were eight courses; Claire had said that it would be +a very plain dinner, and Mrs. Diggs secretly smiled as she remembered +the words. The cooking was perfect; it had all of what the _gourmets_ +would call Parisian sentiment, though no undue richness. Claire ate +sparingly, yet with apparent relish. She drank a little champagne, which +she had poured into a goblet and mixed with water. There were other +wines, but she touched none of them. Mrs. Diggs did, however, sipping +three or four, until she lost her chalky wanness of tint and almost got +a touch of actual color. + +"I never take but one wine, as a rule," she said, "and that's claret. +But the sleigh-ride chilled me to the bone. I begin to feel quite warm +and comfortable, now. Do you always take champagne, Claire?" + +"Always. But only a little. It's companionable to touch your lips to, +now and then, when you sit through those very long dinners. I suppose +the dullness of certain society originally drove me to it. But I am very +careful." + +'What an air she said that with!' thought Mrs. Diggs. 'And one year ago, +at Coney Island, she was unknown, unnoticed.' + +The whole repast was exquisite. While it lasted, Claire never once spoke +to the butler. He needed no orders; everything was done as well and as +silently as it could be done. In his way he was an irreproachable +artist, like the invisible _chef_ below stairs, who had evoked this +blameless dinner from the chaos of the uncooked. + +Just at the end of dessert, Claire said to her guest: "Shall you take +coffee?" + +"Oh, dear, no," replied Mrs. Diggs; "I don't even dare. I'm nervous +enough as it is." + +But Claire had coffee, black as ink, and served to her in a tiny cup as +thin as a rose-leaf. Presently the two friends became aware that they +were alone. The butler had gone without seeming to go. Like a mysterious +_au revoir_ he had left behind him two crystal finger-bowls, with a slim +slice of lemon floating in each. Claire had finished her coffee. She +rose and leaned toward the flowers in the centre of the table. As her +fingers played among them they seemed to break, almost of their own +accord, into two separate bunches. She went round to Mrs. Diggs and gave +her one of these, retaining the other. Presently each had made for +herself an impromptu _corsage_. Mrs. Diggs had not spoken for several +minutes; she had indeed been abnormally quiet ever since the butler's +departure. The calm, graceful splendor of it all had awed her. It had +such a finish, such a choiceness, such gentle dignity of execution. + +"Shall we sit near the fire?" asked Claire, as together they moved from +the table. "Or would you prefer one of the drawing-rooms?" + +"The fire is so lovely," said Mrs. Diggs. "Let's sit here." She dropped +into a chair as she spoke. Claire also seated herself, not far from the +fire, though a little distance away from her friend. + +Suddenly the flood-gates of Mrs. Diggs's enthusiasm burst open. She had +considerable silence to make up for. "Oh, Claire," she exclaimed, "it's +just _perfect!_ I don't see how you do it! I don't see where on earth +you got the experience from! If I had seven times your money _I_ +couldn't begin to have my household machinery move in this delightful, +well-oiled way. My servants would steal; my _chef_ would get drunk; my +magnificence would all go awry; I'm sure it would!" + +Claire laughed. "I'm very composed about it all," she said. "I keep +quite cool. I like it, too. There is a great deal in that. I don't mean +management so much as the superintendence of others' management. I'm a +sort of born overseer." + +"You're a born leader." Mrs. Diggs was looking at her very attentively +now. "And how capably you _are_ leading! How you've carried your point, +Claire! I observe you, and absolutely marvel! I can't realize that you +are really and truly _my_ Coney Island Claire, don't you know? You've +shot up so. You're so mighty. It's like a dream." + +"It's a very pleasant dream." + +She said this archly and mirthfully. But Mrs. Diggs on a sudden became +solemn. + +"Claire," she went on, "you remember what I told you in our little +confab, the other day, at the Lauderdales' reception? It's true, my +dear. You're like a person at a gambling-table, who begins to play for +pastime and ends by playing for greed. You know I dote on you, and you +know I never choose my words when I'm in downright earnest. Your love +for pomp and luxury, my dear, is becoming a vice. Yes, an actual vice. +You don't take your triumphs moderately, as you do your +champagne-and-water. You drink deep of them, and let them fly to your +head. Oh, I can see it well enough. And I tremble for you, I tremble, +Claire, because" ... + +"Well? Because?" ... + +She put these questions with a smile, as Mrs. Diggs paused. But it was a +smile of the lips only. + +"Oh, because affairs might change in a day, almost an hour. You know +just what vast risks your husband constantly runs. You know what _might_ +happen." + +Claire rose at this. Her repose was gone; her piquant excitability had +seemed abruptly to return. She did not appear in the least angry. Mrs. +Diggs would have liked it better if she had shown a wrathful sign or +two. + +"Don't let us talk of those grim matters, please," she said. She came +very close to her companion, and then, taking both the latter's hands, +sank down on her knees. Her face was lit with a charming yet restless +cheerfulness. "Dear friend, you spoke a minute ago of my triumphs. Do +you know, I've never secured just what I wanted until to-day? You +thought I had, but you were wrong. Shall I tell you why?" Mrs. Diggs was +inwardly thinking, as one ill-favored but generous woman will sometimes +think of another, how purely enchanting was her manner, and how richly +she deserved to win the social distinction she had attained. + +"I suppose you mean, Claire, that Hollister to-day completed the last +thousand of his fourth or fifth million, eh?" + +"Oh, not at all. I don't mean anything of the sort. I don't know +anything about Herbert's affairs, nowadays. He keeps them all to +himself." + +"Well, then, what is it?" + +"You'll laugh when you hear. You recollect the great ladies' luncheon +that I am to give next Friday?" + +"Of course I do. I'm going to honor it." + +"And so are two others. Mrs. Van Horn and Mrs. Ridgeway Lee. They have +never honored anything of mine until now. Poor Mrs. Arcularius yielded, +and bowed before me, long ago. My old school-enemy, Ada Gerrard, more +freckled, more arrogant, more stupid than ever, is one of my most +willing allies. I had conquered them all, but I could not conquer those +two women. They stood aloof, and their standing aloof was a perpetual +distress." + +"Claire, Claire," exclaimed Mrs. Diggs, "you make me wonder at you! What +was the hostility of these two women, whether open or repressed? You had +all the others to pay you court. Why should you have cared? They saw +your success. They are powerful, but their power could not keep you from +asserting and maintaining yours. I repeat, why should you care?" + +"I did care. But it is all over now." She rose to her feet, with a full +laugh, as she said these words. "They are coming to my luncheon. They +have both accepted. They have acknowledged me. I have forced them to do +so." + +She uttered that last sentence with a mock fierceness that ended in +laughter. But she could not hide from her friend the intense seriousness +from which these expressions had sprung. + +Before Mrs. Diggs could answer, a servant entered the room by one of the +draped doorways leading into the _salons_ beyond. He was not the butler, +who had so admirably served them at dinner, but a footman, charged with +other special offices. He handed Claire a card, which she read and +tossed aside. The next moment she dismissed him by a slight motion of +the hand. + +"Let me see that card," said Mrs. Diggs. "Has anybody called whom I +know?" + +Claire was looking straight into the tumbled, lurid logs of the hearth. + +"Yes, you know him, of course," she said. "It was only Stuart Goldwin. I +am not at home to-night. Not to any one except you, I mean. I gave +orders." + +A silence ensued. Mrs. Diggs presently made one of her plunges. "Claire, +they say that Goldwin is madly in love with you." + +She gave a sharp turn of the neck, fixing her eyes on her friend's face. +"That is _all_ they say, I hope. They can't say--well, you understand +what they can _not_ say." + +"That you care for him? Well, no.... You have been very discreet. You +have arranged wonderfully. Very few women could have done it with the +same nicety." + +Claire threw back her head, with a haughty, fleeting smile. "Any woman +could have done it who felt safe--perfectly safe, as I feel." + +"You mean that this grand Goldwin, who sways the stock-market, can't +quicken your pulse by one degree." + +She looked steadily at Mrs. Diggs. "I did not say that I meant that. But +I do, if you choose to ask me point blank. We're very good friends. He +amuses me. I fancy that I amuse him. If I do more he doesn't tell me so. +He understands what would happen if he did." + +She was staring at the fire again. Its lustres played upon the silken +folds of her dress, and made the gold glimmers start and fade in her +chestnut hair. + +Mrs. Diggs was not reclining in her chair; she was leaning sideways, +with both black eyes riveted on Claire's half-averted face. + +"Claire," she said, "I'm so awfully glad to hear you say that. It makes +me like you better, if such a thing were possible. Upon my word, to be +frank, in the most friendly way, I _did_ think there was a little +danger, don't you know, of.... Well, you've settled all doubts, of +course. But then, my dear, you never were enormously fond of Hollister. +You let him adore _you_, don't you know? Oh, I've seen it all. There's +no use in getting angry." + +"I'm not angry," said Claire. She was again looking full at her friend. +She had put one dainty-booted foot on the low gilt trellis which rose +between the rug and the hearthstone. "We seem to drift upon very +unpleasant subjects this evening," she continued. "I am afraid our +little intimate reunion is not going to be a success." + +"You _are_ angry!" exclaimed Mrs. Diggs, reproachfully. "You've changed, +Claire. You're not the same to me as you were before you became a great +lady. Now, don't deny it. You feel your oats, as my dear Manhattan would +say. You keep me at a distance. You"-- + +Here Mrs. Diggs paused, for the same footman who had before appeared now +made a second entrance. This time he handed Claire a note. "There is no +answer, Madame," he said in French, and at once softly vanished. + +"Pardon me," said Claire, as she tore open the envelope. Mrs. Diggs +watched her while she read the contents of the note. Her perusal took +some time. She read the three written pages once, twice, thrice. Her +face had grown very grave in the meanwhile. + +Suddenly she crumpled the note in one hand, and flung it into the fire. +Her eyes flashed and her lip quivered as she did so. + +"For Heaven's sake, Claire," appealed her friend, "what _is_ the matter? +I suppose Cornelia or Sylvia Lee sends a regret for luncheon. You are so +foolish to mind what they do! You recollect what I used to tell you +about Cornelia. But why should you mind her airs and caprices now? You +are utterly above her--or rather, you have shown her that two can reign +in the same kingdom. You could cut her dead with perfect impunity. +That's a good deal to say, don't you know, but you positively could!" + +"No, no," said Claire, with a clouded face and a little wave of the +hand, "it has nothing to do with either of those women. It is" ... here +she paused, and her breath came quick. "It is from Beverley Thurston." + +"Beverley!" exclaimed Mrs. Diggs. "Why, he's in Europe." + +"He got back yesterday. He has learned about me. I suppose his sister +has told him. And he writes to me in a tone of impertinence. Yes, it's +nothing else. He writes to me as if I were some sinful creature. He +presumes to be sorry for me. He says that he will pay me a visit if I +can spare him an hour from the giddy life I am leading.... I don't +remember the exact words he uses; it is not so much what he writes as +what he seems to write. The whole note breathes of patronage and +commiseration. To _me!_--think of it! What right has he? What right did +I ever give him?" + +Mrs. Diggs started up from her chair. "Why, my dear Claire," she said, +"you are greatly excited!" + +"I am miserable!" cried Claire. She almost staggered toward +Mrs. Diggs, and flung both arms about her friend's neck. "I am +miserable--miserable!" she went on, with a sudden paroxysm of tears. She +leaned her proud young head on Mrs. Diggs's bony shoulder, beginning to +sob quite wildly. "Do I deserve reproaches? Have I been so wrong? What +evil have I done? Let my conscience trouble me if it will, but _he_ is +not my conscience. How dare _he_ reproach me?" + +A violent seizure of sobs made Claire incapable of further speech. Mrs. +Diggs let the clinging arms clasp her. She did not know what to answer; +she scarcely knew what to think. She only felt, at that unexpected +moment, that she loved Claire very much, and would always stay her +stanch friend, no matter what bitter ill might overtake her. + + + + +XVIII. + + +As Claire was descending into the lower hall, at about four o'clock the +next afternoon, she saw her husband enter the house with his latch-key. +She quickened her step a little, and met him at the landing of the +stairs. They had not seen each other for twenty-four hours; she had +breakfasted in her room, that morning, as was of late almost habitual +with her, and by the time that she left it he had been driven away in +his brougham. On the previous night he had reached home long after she +had retired to bed. All this was no new thing. Its first and second +occurrence had shocked them both, as an unforeseen result of their +altered existence. But repetition had set it securely among the +commonplaces. They accepted it, now, with a matter-of-course placidity. + +"I was going to the Vanvelsors' reception," Claire said. "Did you think +of dropping in?" + +"No," answered Hollister. He had taken her hand, and was holding it +while he spoke. The next moment he kissed her cheek, and soon let his +eye wander over the complex tastefulness of her attire. He then drew her +arm within his own, and led her toward the near drawing-room, whose +threshold they crossed. Except his recorded monosyllable, he had said +nothing for an appreciable time, and Claire, regarding his face with a +sidelong glance, had already detected there marked signs of worriment. + +"No," he presently continued, taking a seat on one of the rich-clad +sofas, and gently forcing her to sit beside him. "I had no idea of going +there. I don't feel like anything gay, Claire. Things are doing horribly +on the Street. There's a dreadful squall. I hope it will be only a +squall, and soon blow over." He then named a certain stock in which he +had very comprehensive interests. "It has dropped in the most furious +fashion," he proceeded. "Claire, I've lost seventy thousand dollars +to-day, if I've lost a penny." + +He talked more technically of his ill-luck after that, and told her what +he believed to be the reason of the adverse change. She listened with +great attention. She knew so much of Wall Street matters that she +scarcely missed a point in all that he explained. + +"So Goldwin is on the other side," she said, when he had finished. + +"Yes, Goldwin is safe. But you can't tell what to-morrow will bring. No +one is really safe. Prices are flying about. It's a shocking state of +affairs." + +"There is nothing for you to do just now, is there?" Claire asked, after +a little pause. + +"Oh, no; I may get a few telegrams later. But nothing serious will +happen till to-morrow." + +She laid her hand on his arm. She was more alarmed and perplexed than +she chose to show. "Then come with me to the reception," she said; "you +might as well, Herbert. It is better than to brood over the state of +matters down there." + +He shook his head negatively. "I should make a very bad guest," he +replied. "Go yourself, Claire. But remember one thing." He was looking +at her very fixedly; his frank blue eyes were full of a soft yet +assertive pain. "Our life may alter suddenly for the worse. We may have +to give up all this." He waved one hand here and there, as though +generalizing the whole luxurious encompassment. "There is no telling +what _may_ happen. I never felt the insecurity of my career as I feel it +now. Do you know, Claire, that a few more such days as this may ruin +me?" + +"Ruin you?" she repeated. + +She was pale as those words left her lips. Hollister had proposed to her +a terrible possibility. + +"Yes, Claire, I mean it. Of course I am looking at the worst that might +happen. But I want to prepare you." + +She rose, keeping her eyes on his. "I don't know what I should do," she +said, "if I lost what I have now. I have grown used to it, Herbert. I +won't let myself think that it might pass away--that I should be left +without all these good and precious things." + +As she spoke the last words he rose also, and caught both her hands, +looking eagerly into her face. + +"Claire," he exclaimed, "you _must_ think of losing it all! You _must_ +try to reconcile yourself with the idea! If you don't, the ordeal will +be all the harder when it comes." + +"When it comes?" she again repeated. + +"Yes--you see just how I stand. You have grasped the whole wretched +situation. Of course there's a chance that I may right myself, but" ... + +"I'll take that chance," she broke in, quite forcibly withdrawing her +hands. "So will you, Herbert. I prefer to look at it this way. We will +both take the chance." + +Hollister's face was full of reproach. + +"Claire!" he exclaimed. "I see that you love this new life with a +positive passion!" + +"I love it very much," she answered. "I love it so much that I should +suffer fearfully if I were turned adrift from it.... Come, we will both +go to the Vanvelsors' reception." + +"No," replied Hollister. He walked away from her. By her lack of +sympathy she had dealt him a cruel sting. + +"Very well," responded Claire, as she watched his receding figure, "_I_ +am going." + +His back was turned to her, but he suddenly veered round, facing her, +and saying, with a bitter sharpness: "Go, if you please! Go, and leave +me to my misery! If you cared for me in the right manner, you would not +want to go. You would want to stay with me, and forget, for a while at +least, the gay crowds that admire and court you!" + +These words were utterly unexpected. He had never before alluded to her +lack of fondness. She was embarrassed, ashamed. For a moment she could +not speak. Then she simulated an affronted demeanor; it seemed her sole +refuge. "I--I care for you as much as I have always cared," she said. +"No more and no less." + +She moved toward the door at once, after thus speaking. She wondered if +he would seek to detain her. He did not.... She entered her coupe very +soon afterward. During the drive to Mrs. Vanvelsor's reception she had a +keen remembrance of just how Hollister had looked when her final gaze +had dwelt upon him. She knew that she had stung at last into life the +perception of how much he had been giving and how little he had +received. Her conscience sternly smote her; she was more than once on +the verge of ordering that the vehicle should be driven home again. But +in her then mood any attempt at amendment seemed wildly futile. What +could she say to her husband? That she deplored his possible ruin? Yes; +but not that such regret sprang from the sweet sources of a wifely, +unselfish love. She could not regard the possibility of being flung +downward from her present high place with any unselfish feeling. Mrs. +Diggs had touched the living and sensitive truth last night: her thirst +for luxury had grown a vice. Soft raiment, obsequious attendance, a +place of supreme social distinction, all these had become vitally, +imperiously needful to her happiness. + +It was not the sort of happiness which she believed high or fine. She +could most clearly conceive of another, less fervid, less material, less +intoxicating, fraught with a spiritual incentive and an intellectual +meaning. But it was too late to dream of that now. She had taken the +bent; she must have power or nothing. She regarded the idea of being +obscure and with straitened funds as a calamity simply horrible. +Hollister must think her cruel as death; that was inevitable. She did +not blame him for blaming her. She blamed herself for having married him +with loveless apathy. His reproachful words haunted her--but what could +she do? He wanted genuine tenderness, sympathy, fortifying cheer. But he +wanted these from an impulse of which her heart had always been +incapable. Fate was avenging itself upon her. She had tampered with holy +things. Her marriage oath had been a mockery. Could she go back and tell +him this? Could she go back and lie to him, feign before him? No; best +that she should not go back at all. + +The reception was a great crush. But they seemed to make way for her +with a sort of obeisance. No one jostled against her; they all appeared +to give her a little elbow-room in the throng, while they either bowed +or stared. She was secretly agonized. She smiled and spoke as +effectively as usual; she held her court among them all, as of late she +had invariably held it. But her heart was sick; she was besieged by a +portentous dread, and she was pierced with that self-contempt whose +length of thrust is measured by a consciousness of how far the being we +might have become surpasses the being that we are. While she stood the +centre of a small, courtly group, a gentleman softly pushed his way into +her notice and held out his hand. She took the hand, and looked well +into the face of him who had extended it. The new-comer was Beverley +Thurston. As Claire looked she swiftly noted that his familiar face wore +marked signs of change. He had distinctly aged. The gray at his temples +had grown grayer; the crows'-feet under his hazel eyes were a little +more apparent; perhaps, too, his gravity of manner was more clearly +suggested by a first glance. At the same time she felt herself regarding +him in a new light and by the aid of amplified experience. She silently +and fleetly made him stand a test, so to speak, and at once decided that +he stood it well. She had met no man since they had parted who bespoke +high-breeding and gentility with more immediate directness. + +"I thought I should find you here," he said, as their hands dropped +apart. + +"Did you come on that account?" she asked. + +"Not entirely, because I had great fears of not being able to do more +than watch you from a distance." + +"Ah," she said, with a pretty graciousness, and loud enough for all the +others to hear, "you have an excellent claim upon me--that of old +acquaintance." + +Her surrounders felt that there was either dismissal or desertion +waiting for them. She managed to make it promptly plain that her +favoring heed had been wholly transferred to Thurston; she showed it to +them with a cool boldness which they would have resented with resolves +of future neglect if indulged in by many another woman present; for they +were all men who put a solid worth upon their courtesies, and had a +fastidious reluctance ever to be charged with sowing them broadcast. + +But Claire had long ago learned that the security of her reign depended +upon an occasional open proof of how she herself trusted its power. She +had guessed the peril of continuing monotonously clement. To talk with +Thurston now interested her more than any other conversational project. +It was not long before she had slipped her hand into his arm, and was +saying, as they moved through the crowd:-- + +"If you care to go into the conservatory, we shall find it much +pleasanter there, I think." + +The house was one of those new and majestic structures near the Park. It +occupied a corner, sweeping far backward from Fifth Avenue into an +adjacent street. It had an almost imperial amplitude, and was a building +in which no lordly or pleasurable detail seemed to have been overlooked. +The conservatory, whose spacious interior wooed through breadths of +glass its kindest warmth from the churlish winter sunshine, was of +refreshing temperature after the heated rooms beyond, while its masses +of leafing or blooming plants loaded the air with delightful odors. + +A few people were strolling about the cool courts, as Claire and +Thurston now entered them. The entertainment of to-day was a kind of +house-warming; the Vanvelsors, in current metropolitan phrase, were old +people, but their present mansion was new in a decisive sense; they had +migrated hither from a residence in Bond Street, where they had dwelt +for forty years or more. The push of the younger generation, left with +inherited millions, had thus architecturally asserted itself. Few of +their guests knew the ways of their changed and palatial home. But +Claire knew them; she had dined in this imposing abode not less than a +fortnight ago. There were many bearers of precious Dutch names who had +known the Vanvelsors for many decades; but Claire had been preferred to +hosts of these nice-lineaged legitimists. She was the fashion; other +people were paying homage to her; the younger Vanvelsors liked +everything that was the fashion; they had paid homage, too. + +"We can find a seat," Claire said to her companion; "the place is not +full, as you see; we might sit yonder, in those two vacant chairs--that +is, if you care to sit; I do; I am tired." + +It was not until they were both seated, with glossy tropical leaves +touching their heads, that Thurston answered:-- + +"You say you are tired. That might mean a little or a great deal. Which +does it mean?" + +Claire responded with a question, looking at him fixedly. + +"Why did you write me that letter?" she said. + +"Did it offend you?" he asked. + +"No and yes. You might not have reproached me until you knew more of the +real truth." + +Thurston stroked his gray mustache. "I think I knew all the truth," he +said. "I know it now, at least." + +"Your sister has told you," Claire retorted, with speed. + +"Yes and no," he responded, not mocking her own recent words, yet +leaving a distinct impression that he had half repeated them. "You +forget that I have seen you reigning on your new throne." + +"Let us be candid," said Claire. "Your note was almost a sneer." + +He slowly shook his head. "It was a regret." + +"You think I might have done greater things." + +"I think you might have done better things." + +"You admit that I have achieved success?" + +"A marvelous success. It shows your extraordinary gifts. The town, in a +certain way, is ringing with your name. If an ordinary woman had gained +your place she would have found in it a splendid gratification. She +would have been amply, perfectly satisfied." + +"You mean that I am not satisfied. Pray allow it. Your tones and your +look both show it me." + +Thurston smiled, transiently and sadly. "I mean that you are miserable," +he said. + +Claire bit her lip, and slightly drooped her head. "You have no cause to +tell me that." + +He leaned closer to her. "I do tell you. It is true. I saw it in your +face when I first looked at you. There is a change. I can't define it, +but it exists. You are more beautiful than when I saw you last. You have +an air of ease, dignity, command. But you express a kind of superb +weariness, and yet occasional flashes of excitement are in your talk and +demeanor. You see, I have watched you from a distance; I have my +opinions." + +"Yes, you have your opinions," said Claire, lifting her head and +directly regarding him. "That is very plain." + +"It all makes an exquisite picture," Thurston continued. "I have seen +the world, as you know. I have seen many beautiful women. Your +personality, as I now encounter it, is an absolute astonishment to me. I +don't know where, in these few months, you acquired your repose, your +serenity, your magnificence, your air. Do you remember what I told you +of the restless American type that you represent? I knew you would +strive to rise; it was in you; you pushed to the front, as I was sure +you would do. But I had no prescience of this mighty accomplishment." + +"You are sneering at me, as your note sneered," said Claire, looking at +him steadily. "Acknowledge it. I perceive it with great accuracy. I +somehow cannot answer you as I would answer another. You warned me +months ago. You knew what I desired, and told me of the danger that lay +in my path. I recollect all that you wanted me to try and be. Perhaps I +_would_ have tried, under differing conditions." + +She paused, and Thurston instantly said, "As my wife you would have +tried--and succeeded." + +"Perhaps," she answered, very low of tone, not meeting his look. "But +all that is past. Don't pull corpses out of graves." + +"My love for you is living," he said to her. There was no touch of +passion in his voice; there was only a mournful respect. "I don't think +I am wrong to speak of it now. There's a sanctity and chastity about the +feeling I bear for you which the fact of your being a wife does not +affect. I want to know the man whom you have married; I am curious to +meet him and know him well. He has a large publicity, as you are aware. +They have heard of him in Europe." + +"I understand the question you wish to put yet do not," Claire said, at +this point. "You lead up to it very adroitly; I might play the role of +ignorant innocence, if I chose. But I do not choose. You want to ask me +whether I loved the man I married." + +Thurston again stroked his mustache, for a moment. "Yes," he presently +said, "I should like to know that." + +A silence now ensued between them. Claire broke it. "He loved me," she +said. + +"Which means that you did not care for him?" + +"Oh, yes. I cared very much. It was no worldly sale of myself. He was +not even rich when I married him. He attracted me--in a manner charmed +me. I felt that I should never meet another man who would attract and +charm me more. Do you understand?" + +"Thoroughly.... Since then you have met Stuart Goldwin. I know him well. +He is a man of exceptional fascination. They tell me that he is your +slave." + +"Do they?" said Claire, coloring under this rapid attack of candor. +"Well, if he is my slave--which I, of course, deny--then I am not his. +They did not tell you that, I am sure. They did not even hint it." + +"No. You have escaped the least breath of scandal." + +"Be sure that I have. And I shall continue to escape it. I recollect +that you once declared I was cold, and that my coldness would prove a +safeguard. 'It is very protective to a woman,' you said." + +"Quote me in full or not at all," he corrected, with a grim pleasantry. +"I said that it is very protective to a woman--while it lasts." + +"True," returned Claire. "And it _has_ lasted. I prophesied that it +would last, and I was right.... By the way, from whom have you learned +all these important items? Perhaps from your sister. She is not my +friend." + +Thurston started a little. "She is not your enemy?" he said, putting the +words as a distinct question. + +"I hope not. But I am by no means sure. Thus far she has held herself +aloof from me. She has not openly opposed me, but she has behaved with +telling reserve. Everybody else has paid me tribute, so to speak. No, I +am wrong. There is one other woman--her cousin, Mrs. Lee." + +"Of course you know why poor Sylvia would be your foe. She is madly in +love with Goldwin; she has been for years. You must have cost her dire +pangs." + +Claire chose to ignore this last statement. "I think your sister +dislikes me from pride," she said. "I mean pride of family." Here she +paused for a moment, and seemed almost bashfully reluctant to proceed. +But her hesitation had in it a gentle, unassuming modesty; it sprang +wholly from unwillingness to touch on a subject which she knew that only +the most delicate tact should deal with, if to deal with it at all were +not folly and rashness. "Your sister found out," she softly continued, +"that you had liked me enough to ask me to be your wife. Heaven knows, +Beverley Thurston, that _I_ did not tell her!" + +Thurston looked very grave. "I told her," he said. "Or rather, she drew +it from me. I was foolish to let her. Cornelia is so clever.... Well," +he suddenly went on, with an unusual show of animation, "do you mean +that she accused you of having rejected me?" + +"She did not put it in the form of an accusation. She stated it. Wait; I +will tell you more; I will tell when, where, and how it all happened." + +Claire did so. He listened with deep attention. She narrated the whole +episode of her well-remembered conversation with his sister in the +dining-room at the Coney Island hotel. + +"Ah, what a woman that sister of mine is!" he exclaimed, in his subdued +way, as Claire finished. "I must talk with her. I dine there to-night. I +will find out if this knowledge has been at the root of her late +behavior." + +Claire laid her gloved hand lightly on his sleeve. "I think it best to +say nothing. I feel that you are my friend--always my friend. As such +you will more discreetly let matters rest where they are." + +"Let matters rest where they are?" he repeated. + +"Yes." Her face broke into a smile as she spoke the next words. "Mrs. +Van Horn--the great Mrs. Van Horn--has withdrawn her disapprobation. The +day after to-morrow she and Mrs. Lee lunch with me. It is a ladies' +lunch. You have no idea how monstrously important an event her +attendance is to be. It is my crowning glory. After that I shall have no +more worlds to conquer. She is actually coming; I have it in her own +graceful handwriting. Frankly, I am quite serious. If you had followed +affairs, if you hadn't been off in Europe for months, you would +understand the momentous nature of your sister's acceptance." + +Claire rose as she ended her last sentence. The conservatory was quite +empty of guests; the waning winter sunlight told of the hour for +departure. "It is time to go," she now continued. "Remember, whenever +you come to me you will be welcome. I shall be at the opera to-night. +Drop into my box if you get away from your sister's dinner before ten, +and feel like hearing some music." + +Thurston replied that he would certainly do so. But, as it happened, he +partially failed to keep his promise. Mrs. Van Horn's dinner was +attended by several guests. He wanted to talk with his sister, and it +was somewhat late before he found the desired opportunity. + +"Did you enjoy it, Beverley?" said his hostess, referring to the dinner. +They were in the front drawing-room together. Thurston had seated +himself near the fire-place, in a big chair of gilded basket-work with +soft plush cushions. He was playing with a small locket at his +waistcoat, and his look did not lift itself from the bauble as Mrs. Van +Horn spoke. She came near his chair and stood at his side for a moment. +She had been giving her servants a few orders relative to the morrow. +She looked very well that evening. The color of her gown was a sort of +tea-rose pink, and she wore a collar of large pearls about her throat, +and ornaments of pearls in her blonde hair. While her brother was +answering, she dropped in a chair quite near his own. + +"I thought it about as successful as your dinners always are," he said. +"Everything went off to perfection, of course.... No, I forget; there +was one drawback. A serious one." + +"What was it?" + +"Sylvia Lee." + +"You never could endure Sylvia," said Mrs. Van Horn, in her grand, cool, +suave way. + +"I think her abominable," replied Thurston. "Her affectations irritate +and depress me. They appear to grow with age, too. She behaved more like +a contortionist than ever, to-night. But it is not only the wretched, +sensational bad taste of her poses and costumes. It is a conviction that +she is as treacherous as the serpent she resembles. And then her +religious attitudinizing ... has she got over that yet? I suppose not." + +Mrs. Van Horn, who would sharply have resented these biting comments if +any lips but her brother's had delivered them, now answered with only a +faint touch of petulance. "You will never believe any good of Sylvia, so +it is useless to tell you how unjust I consider your opinions. But she +is more passionately absorbed in charities and religious devotion than +ever before. If you could see some of the people whom she goes among, +and whom she has constantly visiting her in her own house, you would be +forced to grant that the shallow hypocrisy with which you charge her is +a most sincere and active almsgiving." + +"Say notorious, too. She's a Pharisee to the tips of her fingers. I +should like to know of one good deed that she has ever performed in +secret. She parades her piety and her benevolence just as she does her +newest fantasies in dressmaking. She thinks them picturesque. She would +rather die than not be picturesque, and I believe that when she does die +she will make some _ante-mortem_ arrangements about an abnormal coffin. +It's a marvel to me that Stuart Goldwin should have put up with her +nonsense as long as he did.... By the way, how does she stand his +desertion?" + +"Has he deserted her?" + +"Oh, come, now, Cornelia, you know quite well that he has." Thurston was +looking directly at his sister for the first time since their interview +had begun. + +Mrs. Van Horn gave a light, soft laugh. + +"You mean for Mrs. Hollister, Beverley?" + +"Of course I do." + +"I see that you have picked up some precious bits of gossip since you +got back." He was watching her very closely, and perceived, knowing her +as scarcely any one else knew her, that a severe annoyance dwelt beneath +those last words. She slightly tossed her delicate head. "You are so +relentless with poor Sylvia that I naturally don't want to feed the fuel +of your disapprobation. Well, then, let me admit that Goldwin _is_ +devoted to your former friend." + +"Say my present friend, if you please, Cornelia." + +He saw a little gleam, like that of lit steel, creep into her pale-blue +eyes. "Oh, then you still call her that?" + +"Most certainly. Should I withdraw my friendship because she refused to +marry me when I was old enough to be her father? On the contrary, I am +liberal enough to applaud her good sense." + +"Beverley," exclaimed his sister, in tones of harsh disgust, "how can +you show so little self-respect?" + +He saw that she had grown pale with anger. He set his eyes upon her face +with a fresh intentness of gaze. He had a distinct object in view, and +he was determined, if possible, to reach it. He leaned much closer +toward her while he said, in slow, deliberative tones:-- + +"My self-respect, or lack of it, is quite my own affair. Pray understand +that. You never forgave Claire Twining for refusing me, Cornelia. You +need not attempt to deceive me there. I repeat, you never forgave her. +Your pride would not allow you." + +Her voice shook as she answered him. She was bitterly distressed and +agitated. He had touched an old wound, but one which had not healed. She +loved him as she had never loved any other man. He was part of herself; +his blood was hers; he belonged to the egotism which was her ruling +quality. Her speech now betrayed neither wrath nor disgust; it was full +of mournful dismay. The times in her life had been rare when her glacial +composure had shown such excessive disturbance. + +"I concede, Beverley, that it hurt me very deeply to realize your +humiliation. It seemed to me then, as it seems to me now, that a girl of +her class should have been glad to marry a man of your place and name. +What was she? And what were and are _you_?" + +"Pshaw! I was and am an elderly, faded old fellow." + +Mrs. Van Horn rose from her chair. She was visibly trembling. "You could +have given that adventuress a position far more stable than she holds +now, as the wife of a lucky stock-gambler!" + +Thurston remained seated. "You call her an adventuress," he said, "and +yet you visit her--you put her on a social equality with yourself." + +During the vigilant scrutiny with which he accompanied these words, Mrs. +Van Horn's brother decided that in all his experience of her he had +never seen her show such perturbation as now. + +"People acknowledge her," she said, a little hoarsely. "I have never +been to her entertainments. I have never accepted her, so to speak. If +you inquire, you will find this to be true. It is current talk, my +reserve, my disapproval." + +He shot his answer with quiet speed, meaning that it should hit and +tell. "You are going to the lunch that she gives on Friday. I happen to +be certain of this--unless you have had the wanton rudeness to write her +that you would go, while meaning to remain away." He rose as he spoke +the last word. Brother and sister faced each other. There was a tranquil +challenge in Thurston's full and steady gaze. + +She recoiled a little. "I--well, yes--I did intend to go," she replied, +below her breath, and actually stammering. + +"What is your reason for going," he questioned, "if you despise and +dislike her so?" + +She threw back her head; her self-possession had returned, and with it a +stately indignation. + +"You are insolent," she said. + +Thurston broke into a hard laugh. + +"Yes," he exclaimed, "I am insolent to the great lady because I detect +her on the verge of some petty revenge! Oh, I know you too well, my dear +sister," he went on, with stern irony. "You can't rebuff me in that way. +There is something behind this fine condescension. Sylvia Lee and you +have been putting your heads together. Your revenge and her jealousy +will make a rather dangerous alliance. You are both going to the lunch. +You are both employing a new line of tactics. What does it mean? I +demand to know. I have a right to know." + +He was very impressive, yet his voice was hardly raised above that of +ordinary speech. She had always admired his gravity and calm; he had +been for years her ideal and model gentleman; she hated excitement of +any sort, and to see it in him gave her a positive feeling of awe. + +"Beverley," she murmured, half brokenly, "remember that if I had any +thought of punishment toward the woman who trifled with you and humbled +you, it has been because I am your sister--because I was fond of +you--because" ... + +He interrupted her with a quick, waving gesture of the hand. "You talk +insanely," he said. "She neither trifled with me nor humbled me. I was a +fool even to tell you how sensibly she acted. What you call your +fondness is nothing but your miserable pride. I see clearly that you +have some detestable plan. Do you refuse to tell me what it is?--me, who +have the right to learn it!" + +Every trace of color had left her cheeks, and she was biting her lips. +There was very little of the great lady remaining in her mien or visage, +now. + +"You have twice spoken of your right," she faltered. "On what is such a +right based? How can you possibly possess it? You are nothing to her. +You are neither her husband nor"-- + +"I am her lover," he broke in. "I am her lover, reverent, devout, loyal, +and shall be while we both live! She is the most charming woman I have +ever met. I met her too late, or she would be my wife now. It was not +her fault that she refused me. She is not a bit to blame. Good Heavens! +have I the monstrous arrogance to assume that she should have married an +old fossil like myself because I was of a little importance in the +world? No, Cornelia, that preposterous assumption belongs to you. It is +just like you. And you call it love--sisterly love. I call it the very +apex of intolerable pride. But admit for the moment that it is I and not +yourself whom you care for. Will you tell me, on that account, what it +is you mean or meant to do?" + +Before he had finished, Mrs. Van Horn had sunk into a chair and covered +her face with both hands. Her sobs presently sounded, violent and rapid. +In these brief seconds she was shedding more tears than had left her +cold eyes for many years past. + +"I mean to do nothing--nothing!" she answered, with a gasp almost like +that which leaves us when in straits for breath. + +"Do you give me your sacred promise," he said, "that this is true?" + +The words appeared to horrify her. She looked at him with streaming +eyes, while a positive shudder shook her frame. + +"Oh, Beverley, what degradation this seems to me! Degradation of +_yourself_! You may call me as proud as you choose. It is no insult. It +is a compliment, even. I am proud of _being_ proud. I had never given up +hope that you would marry some woman of good birth, good antecedents, +your equal and mine--young enough, too, to bear you children. I am +childless, myself--how I would have loved your children! Their own +mother would not have loved them more. Every penny of my large fortune +should have gone to them. This has been my dream for years past, and now +you shatter it by telling me that an upstart, a parvenu, a nobody from +nowhere, holds you ensnared beyond escape!" + +Thurston was not at all touched. This outburst, so uncharacteristic and +so unexpected, did not bear for him a grain of pathos. He saw behind it +nothing save an implacable selfishness that chose to misname itself +affection. The ambition of Claire saddened him to contemplate; it had so +rich a potentiality for its background. He was forever seeing the true +and wise woman that she might have been. Even the nettles in her soil +flourished with a certain beauty of their own, proving its fertile +resources if more wholesome growths had taken root there. But in +Cornelia Van Horn's nature all was barren and arid. The very genuineness +of her present grief was its condemnation. Her tears were as chilly to +him as the light of her bravest diamonds; they had something of the same +hard sparkle; she wept them only from her brain, as it were; her heart +did not know that she was shedding them. + +"The bitter epithets which you apply to my _ensnarer_," he said, with a +momentary curve of the lips too austere to be termed a smile, "make me +the more suspicious that you harbor against her designs of practical +spite. I want your promise that you will refrain from the least active +injury--that you will never use the great social power you possess, +either by speech or deed, to her disadvantage. Do you give me this +promise, or do you refuse it? If the latter, everything is at an end +between us. The monetary trusts you have consigned to me shall be at +once transferred to whatever lawyer you may appoint as their recipient, +and from to-night henceforward we meet as total strangers." + +"A quarrel between you and me, Beverley!" said his sister, trying to +choke back her sobs, and rising with a cobweb handkerchief pressed in +fluttered alternation to either humid eye. "A family quarrel! And I have +been so guarded--so careful that the world should hold us and our name +in perfect esteem!--Oh, it is horrible!" + +"I did not infer that it would be pleasant," he answered. "You yourself +have power to avert or bring it about. All remains with yourself." + +"I--I must make you a promise," she retorted, in what would have been, +if louder, a peevish wail, "just as though I had really intended +some--some gross, revengeful act! You--you are ungentlemanly to impose +such a condition! You--you are out of your senses! That creature has +bewitched you!" + +He saw her eye, tearful though it was, quail before his own narrowed and +penetrating look. He felt his suspicion strengthen within him. + +"I do impose the condition," he said, perhaps more determinedly than he +had yet spoken. "I do exact the promise. Now decide, Cornelia. There is +no hard threat on my part, remember. You don't like the idea of an open +rupture with me, you don't think it would be respectable; it would make +a little mark on your ermine--a _defaut de la cuirasse_, so to speak. +But your beloved world would possibly side with you and against me; you +would not lose a supporter; you would still remain quite the grand +personage you are. Only, I should never darken your doors again; that is +all. Come, now, be good enough to decide." + +She sank into her seat once more; her eyes had drooped themselves; the +tears were standing on her pale cheeks. "I did not know you had it in +you to be so cruel," she said, uttering the words with apparent +difficulty. + +"I am afraid I always knew that you had it in you," he returned. "Come, +if you please.... Your answer." + +"You--you mean my promise?" + +"Yes. Your faithful and solemn promise. We need not go over its +substance again. If you break it after giving it I shall not reproach +you; I shall simply act. You understand how; I have told you." + +She was silent for some time. She had got her handkerchief so twisted +between her fingers that they threatened to tear its frail fabric. + +Without raising her eyes, and in a voice that was very sombre but had +lost all trace of tremor, she at length murmured:-- + +"Well, I promise faithfully. I will do nothing--say nothing. My conduct +shall be absolutely neutral--null. Are you satisfied?" + +"Entirely," he said. + +He at once left her. He reached the opera just as it was ending. Claire, +in the company of two ladies and two gentlemen, and attended by +Goldwin, was leaving her box when he contrived to find her. Hollister +had purchased one of the larger proscenium boxes some time ago; he had +given a great price for it to an owner who could not resist the princely +terms offered. + +"You are very late," Claire said, giving him her hand, while Goldwin, +standing behind her, dropped a great fur-lined cloak over her shoulders, +and hid the regal costliness of her dress, with its laces, flowers, and +jewels. "Have you been dining with your sister all this time, or were +you here for the last act, but talking with older friends elsewhere?" + +"No," replied Thurston, who had already exchanged a nod of greeting with +Goldwin. He lowered his voice so that Claire alone could hear it. "I +arrived but a few minutes ago. I have been talking seriously with my +sister. You were quite right. She has withdrawn her disapprobation. You +have conquered her, as you conquer everybody." + +He saw the faint yet meaning flash that left her dark-blue eyes, and he +read clearly, too, the significance of her bright smile, as she said:-- + +"Ah, you reassure me. For I had my doubts; I confess it, now." + +"So had I," he returned. "But they are at rest forever, as I want yours +to be." ... + +At an early hour, the next morning, Mrs. Van Horn surprised her friend +and kinswoman, Mrs. Ridgeway Lee, in the latter's pretty and quaint +_boudoir_, that was Japanese enough, as regarded hangings and +adornments, to have been the sacred retreat of some almond-eyed Yeddo +belle. + +Mrs. Lee had had her coffee, and was deep in one of Zola's novels when +her friend was announced. Her coupe would appear at twelve, and take her +to a certain small religious hospital of which she was one of the most +assiduous patrons; but she always read Zola, or some author of a similar +Gallic intensity, while she digested her coffee. + +She had concealed the novel, however, by the time that Mrs. Van Horn had +swept her draperies between the Oriental jars and screens. + +"I have come to talk with you about that affair--that plan, Sylvia," +said her visitor, dropping into a chair. + +"You mean ... to-morrow, Cornelia?" + +"Yes.... By the way, have you seen the morning papers?" + +"I glanced over one of them--the 'Herald,' I think. It said, in the +society column, that I wore magenta at the Charity Ball last night. As +if I would disgrace myself with that hideous color! These monsters of +the newspapers ought to be suppressed in some way." + +"You didn't think so when they described your flame-colored plush gown +so accurately last Tuesday. However, you deserve to be ridiculed for +going to those vulgar public balls." + +"But this was for charity, and"-- + +"Yes, I know. Don't let us talk of it. If you had read the paper more +closely you would have seen the statement, given with a great air of +truth, that Herbert Hollister's millions are flowing away from him at a +terrible rate, and that to-night may see him almost ruined." + +"How dreadful!" said Mrs. Lee, in her slow way, but noticeably changing +color. + +Mrs. Van Horn gave a high, hard laugh. "Of course you are sorry." + +"Sorry!" softly echoed Mrs. Lee, uncoiling herself from one peculiar +pose on the yellow-and-black lounge where she was seated, and gently +writhing into another. "Of course I am sorry, Cornelia. Although you +must grant that _she_ merits it. To desert her poor, ignorant, miserable +mother! To run away and leave her own flesh and blood in starvation!" +Here Mrs. Lee heaved an immense sigh. "Ah, Providence finds us all out, +sooner or later! If that wicked woman's sin is punished by her husband's +ruin, who shall say that she has not richly deserved it? But in spite of +this, Cornelia dear, _our_ stroke of punishment will not be too severe. +With regard to my own share in our coming work, I feel that I am to be +merely the instrument--the humble instrument--of Heavenly justice +itself!" + +"No doubt," replied Mrs. Van Horn, with frigid dryness. "But you must do +it all alone to-morrow, Sylvia. I have come to tell you so. I can have +no part whatever in the proceeding. However it is carried out--whether +you bring Mrs. Hollister face to face with her plebeian parent or no, I +shall be absent. It is true, I accepted for the lunch. But I shall be +ill at the last moment. I withdraw from the whole ingenious plot. I +shan't see the little _coup de theatre_ at all. I wish that I could. You +know I have never forgiven the refusal of Beverley any more than you +have forgiven ... well, something else, my dear Sylvia. But I must +remain aloof; it is settled; there is no help for it." + +Mrs. Lee opened her big black eyes very wide indeed. "Have you lost your +senses, Cornelia?" she queried, with her grotesque, unfailing drawl. +"What! After my wonderful meeting with Mrs. Twining at the hospital! +After your exultant conclusion that we had far better fix the stigma of +ingratitude and desertion upon her shameless daughter with as much +publicity as possible! After our talks, our arrangements, our +anticipations! After all this, you are _not going to-morrow_! I don't +understand. I am sure that I must be dreaming!" + +"Let me explain, then," said Mrs. Van Horn, with a quiver in her usually +serene tones that was a residue of last evening's dramatic defeat and +surrender. "For once in my life, Sylvia, I--I have found my match, I +have failed to hold my own, I have been ignominiously beaten. And the +victor is my own brother, Beverley." + +She went on speaking for some time longer, with no actual interruption +on the part of her companion, though with very decided signs of +consternation and disapproval. + +"Oh, Cornelia, it is too bad!" exclaimed Mrs. Lee, when the recital was +finished. "He couldn't have meant that he would cut his own sister! What +_is_ to be done? Well, I suppose it must all be given up. And it would +have been such a triumph! And she deserves it so--running away from her +own mother whom she had always hated and disobeyed! We have that poor, +horrid, common, but pitiable Mrs. Twining's own word for it, you know. +And she would have been such a magnificent spectre at the banquet! She +would have risen up like Banquo, ill-dressed, haggard, rheumatic, +pathetic. Everybody would have denounced this unnatural daughter when +they saw the meeting. I can't realize that you, _you_ could let it all +be nipped in the bud!" + +"It isn't all nipped in the bud, Sylvia," said Mrs. Van Horn, sharply. + +"But it _is_! Why isn't it? You certainly don't expect me to carry it +out alone?" + +Mrs. Van Horn decisively nodded. "Yes, Sylvia," she answered, "that is +just the point. I do expect you to carry it out alone. You are clever +enough, quite clever enough, and" ... Here the speaker paused for a +moment, and then crisply, emphatically added: "And after all is said, +remember one thing. It is this: You have a much larger debt to pay her +than I have." + +A malign look stole into Mrs. Lee's black eyes. She was thinking of +Stuart Goldwin. She was thinking of the man whom she had passionately +loved--whom she passionately loved still. + +"I believe you are right, Cornelia," she at length replied, in her usual +protracted and lingering style. She had got herself, as she spoke, into +one of her most involved and tortuous attitudes; she had never looked +more serpentine than now. + + + + +XIX. + + +Claire felt, on this same day, like casting about in her mind for some +pretext by which she might postpone her grand luncheon on the morrow. +She had passed a sleepless night, having gone to bed without seeing +Hollister. In the morning she had avoided meeting him. She had no +comfort to administer, no reparation to offer. The mask had been +stripped from her face; the comedy had been played to its end. She had a +sense of worthlessness, depravity, sin. At the same time she recklessly +told herself that no atonement was in her power. A woful weakness, which +took the form of a woful strength, over-mastered her as the hours grew +older. Her thirst for new excitements deepened with her misery and +anxiety. But she sat in her dressing-room or paced the floor till past +three in the afternoon. There were numberless people whom she might have +visited; there were several receptions that afternoon at which her +presence would have been held important by their respective givers. Even +the known jeopardy of her husband's position would have heightened the +value of her appearance, adding to her popularity the spice of curiosity +as well. + +More than once she said to herself: 'I will go to one of these places. I +will show them how quietly I bear the strain. If by to-morrow no crash +has come, they will admire my nerve and courage. For if I once went, +they should never discover a trace of worriment or suspense. I think the +fact of my being closely watched would even make me talk better and +smile brighter. The wear and tear of the whole thing might make me +forget a little, too. And I want so to forget, if I can!' + +But she did not go. The morning papers lay on a near table. She had read +every word that they had to tell her of the fierce financial turmoil. +Some of the stern figures they quoted made her heart flutter with +affright; some of their ominous and snarling editorials wrought an added +discomfort. + +If Hollister weathered the storm, she decided, all would remain as it +had been before. Or, if not precisely that, the general outward effect +would continue quite the same. She would shine among her courtiers; she +would dazzle and rule. He would feel his wound, now that he knew the +pitiless truth of her indifference, but he would make the engrossing +ventures of his business-life drown its pain until this had perhaps +ceased forever. They would drift further apart than they had ever done +in recent months, but to the eye of the world there would be no +severance. It was possible that he would vex her with no more +reproaches. It was probable that as time passed he would forget that he +had ever had any reproaches to offer. + +While Claire's reflections, nervous and fitful, took by degrees some +such shape as this, she found a desperate, yearning pleasure in the hope +that she might still drink the _vin capiteux_ of worldly success. She +almost felt like flinging herself on her knees and praying that the +delicious cup might not forever be dashed from her lips. To this stage +had her triumphs brought her. She was the same woman who had made those +resolves of abstinence and reformation which her biographer has already +duly chronicled. She was the same woman whose conscience had smitten her +with a sense of higher and purer things when the farewell of Thurston +warned her by such appalling remonstrance, and when she found herself +confronting her father's placid tomb amid the solemnities of Greenwood. +And yet how abysmal was the difference between then and now! The chance +of radical change in heart, aim, and ideal had then been given her; but +now all thought of such change woke only a willful, imperious dissent. +Her vision turned upon her own soul to-day, and showed her its mighty +lapse from grace, its supine and incapable droop. The debasing spell had +been woven; what counterspell was potent enough to break it? Occasional +flashes of regret and aspiration might well assail her spirit, or of +recognition that she had lost a high contentment in gaining a low one. +This was natural enough. It has been aptly put into metaphor that the +saddest place in Purgatory is that from which the walls of Paradise are +visible. + +By four o'clock Hollister had not returned. But Mrs. Diggs had made her +appearance instead, and Claire welcomed it as a happy relief from the +torment of her own thoughts. "My dear," said this lady, "there has been +nothing so dreadful in Wall Street since the crisis of the famed Black +Friday. My poor Manhattan came home at about three o'clock, utterly +jaded out. I made him go to bed. He could scarcely speak to me. I asked +him about your husband's affairs, but he gave me only mumbling answers; +excitement had put him into a kind of stupor, don't you know?" + +"Yes," assented Claire, understanding the nature of the collapse +perfectly. "So he told you nothing of Herbert's affairs? Nothing +whatever?" + +"Nothing that I could really make out. I should be in a wild state, and +have a feeling about the soles of my feet as if I were already going +barefoot, don't you know, if I hadn't long ago insisted upon Manhattan's +putting a very large and comfortable sum safely away in my name." + +Claire thought of the house that had been assigned to her, of her +jewels, of her costly apparel. But to remember these merely aggravated +her distress. What a meagre wreck they would leave from the largess of +her past prosperity! + +"I wouldn't be awfully worried, if I were you," continued Mrs. Diggs. +"If the worst _should_ come, your husband will be sure to save something +handsome. These great speculators always do. Some odd thousands always +turn up after the storm has blown over. Perhaps he will begin again, and +do grander things than ever before." + +"That is cold consolation," said Claire, with a bitter smile. + +"I know it is for _you_, Claire, dear, who have been tossing away +hundreds to my dimes. I might say horrid things, but I won't. I might +talk of retribution for your extravagances, and all that. But I so +detest the _je vous l'avais bien dit_ style of rebuke. And I don't want +to rebuke you a bit. You have your faults, of course. But you're always +my sweet, beautiful Claire. My heart will ache for you if anything +frightful _should_ happen. I say it to your face, dear, as I would say +it behind your back, that you are the one woman of all others whom money +perfectly adorns. You spent it like a queen, and you looked like a queen +while you spent it. You remember how I used to gush over Cornelia Van +Horn's grand manner? It could never hold a candle to yours. I'm afraid I +abused you like a regular pickpocket the other night. Oh, yes, I pitched +into you just as hard as I could. But at the same time I was thinking +how well you carried your worldliness--what a kind of a _beau role_ you +made of it, don't you know? And whatever _should_ come, Claire, always +recollect that I'll stick to you, my dear, through thick and thin!" + +The vernacular turn taken by Mrs. Diggs during this eager outburst gave +it a spontaneity and naturalness that more than once brought the mist to +Claire's eyes. She felt the true ring of friendly sympathy in every word +that was spoken; the touches of slang pleased her; they were like the +angularities of the lady's physical shape, severe and yet not +ungraceful. She was sorry when her visitor rose to go, and had a sense +of dreary loneliness after she had departed. + +It would soon be the hour for dinner. But she could not dine. She knew +that the decorous butler who waited on her would perceive her efforts to +choke down the proffered food. Perhaps he would tingle with secret dread +regarding his next wages. He read the newspapers, of course; everybody +read them nowadays; and her husband's impending ruin had been their +chief and hideous topic. + +As the chill winter light in the room turned blue before it wholly died, +she sat and thought of how many people would be glad to hear the very +worst. They seemed to her a pitiless legion. Then, as she thought of +how many would be sorry, three names rose uppermost in her mind: Mrs. +Diggs, Thurston, and Stuart Goldwin. Yes, Goldwin surely would have no +exultant feeling. He was full of arts and falsities, but he could not +fail to regret any calamity that brought with it her own sharp +discomfiture. + +'He has lately been Herbert's rival in finance,' she told her own +thoughts. 'Circumstance has in a manner pitted them against each other. +Herbert rose so quickly. They have not been enemies, but they have stood +on opposite sides in not a few matters of speculation. Still, I am sure +he will lament the downfall, if it really comes. He will do so for my +sake, if for no other reason. I should have questioned him more closely +last night at the opera. I am sure he wanted me to speak with more +freedom of the threatening disaster. I should have asked him'-- + +And then Claire's distressed ruminations were cut short by the quiet +entrance of her husband. The door of the chamber had been ajar. +Hollister simply pushed it a little further open, and crossed the +threshold. + +The dusk had begun, but it was still far from making his face in any way +obscure to her. As she looked at it, while slowly rising from her chair, +she saw that it had never, to her knowledge, been so wan and worn as +now. He paused before her, and at once spoke. + +"Have you heard?" he said. + +She felt herself grow cold. "What?" she asked. + +"I'm cleaned out. Everything has gone. I thought you might have seen the +evening papers. They are full of it. Of course they don't know the real +truth. Some of them say that I have five millions hidden away." He +laughed here, and the laugh was bleak though low. "But I tell you the +plain truth, Claire--there's nothing left. The truth is best; don't you +think so?" + +He was steadily watching her, as he thus spoke, and the detected irony +of his words pierced her like a knife. A wistful distress was in the +frank blue of his eyes; they seemed to reflect from her own spirit the +wrong that she had done him. + +"Yes, Herbert," she answered, still keeping her seat, "I think that the +truth is always best." + +A great sigh left his lips. He put both hands behind him, and began +slowly pacing the floor, with lowered head. While thus engaged, he went +on speaking. + +"I can't think how I ever shot up as I did. I never was a very bright +fellow at Dartmouth. I always had pluck enough, but I never showed any +great nerve. Wall Street brought out a new set of faculties, somehow. +And then everybody liked me; I was popular; that had a great deal to do +with it, I suppose--that and a wonderful run of luck at the start. And +then there was one thing more--one very important thing, too. I see now +what a tremendous incentive it really was. I mean your wish to rise and +rule people. If it hadn't been for that, I'd have let many a big chance +slip." + +He paused now, standing close beside his wife's chair. "I was always +weak where you were concerned," he said, regarding her very intently, +and with a cloud on his usually clear brow that bespoke suffering rather +than sternness. "You know that, Claire. I yielded always; I let you wind +me round your finger--I was so fond of the finger. If you had said, +'Herbert, do this or that folly,' I'd have done it, and it wouldn't have +seemed half so much a folly because of your loved command. Is not this +true?" + +He came still closer to her after he had uttered the last sentence. He +was so close that his person grazed her dress. + +Claire was very pale, and her eyes were shining. "It is perfectly true," +she answered him. + +Hollister's tones instantly changed. They were broken, hoarse, and of +fervid melancholy. "Perfectly true. Yes, you admit it. You know that I +am right. I gave you everything--love, interest, energy, respect, +obedience. And what did you give me? Your marriage-vows, Claire!--were +those falsehoods? Speak and tell me! I never thought so till yesterday. +Good God, woman! I never thought about it at all. You were my wife; you +were my Claire. You were stronger in nature than I, and I loved your +strength. I loved to have you lead, and to follow where you led. But +your love--oh, I counted on that as securely as we count on the sun in +heaven! And yesterday the truth burst on me! It wasn't I that you had +cared for. It was the high place I could put you in, the dresses and +diamonds I could buy for you, the"-- + +He suddenly broke off. A great excitement was now in his visage, his +voice, his whole manner. Whether from pain or wrath, it seemed to her +that his eyes had taken a much darker tint, and that an unwonted spark, +chill and keen, lit them. + +"If it all _is_ true," he went on, speaking much more slowly, and like a +man who breathes hard without openly showing it, "then I thank God that +no child has been born of you and me!" + +She sat quite still. She was utterly conscience-stricken. From all the +facile vocabulary of feminine self-excuse her bewildered and shamed soul +could shape no sentence either of propitiation or denial. At such a time +she felt the infamy, even the farce of lying to him. And how could she +respond with any sufficiency, any gleam of comforting assurance, unless +she did lie? + +"You say that I led you into this disaster, Herbert," she presently +responded, with an effort, and more than a successful one, to steady her +voice. "I don't deny it, but at the same time remember that my +forethought provided for us both in a case of just the present sort. I +have the other house, you know. Its sale will bring us something. And +then there are all my jewels--and"-- + +His eyes flashed and his lip curled. "You talk in that business-like +style," he cried, "when I am asking you if you ever really loved me! Is +your evasion an answer, Claire? _Were_ your marriage-vows falsehoods?" + +His hand grasped her wrist, though not with violence. She rose, +unsteadily, and shook the grasp off. + +"Oh, Herbert," she said, "I never saw you like this before! Let us think +of what we can do in case all _is_ really lost." + +He withdrew from her, breaking into a hollow laugh. He stared at her +with dilated, accusing eyes. + +"You don't dare tell me. But I read it, as I read it yesterday.... What +can we do? Ah! you're not the woman to live on a thousand or two a year. +You want fine things to wear and to eat. You want your jewels, +too--don't sell them, for you couldn't get along without them, now." He +kept silence for a moment, and then hurried with swift steps toward the +door, again pausing. A kind of madness, that was born of an agony, +possessed him and visibly showed its sway. "Get some one else to put you +back into luxury," he went on, lifting one hand toward his throat, as +though to make the words less husky that were leaping from his lips. +"Get Goldwin to do it. Yes, Goldwin. You've only to nod and he'll kneel +to you--as I knelt. Perhaps he's got from you what I never could get. +You know what I mean--I've told you." + +He passed at once from the room, flinging the door shut behind him. The +room was in dimness by this time. Claire almost staggered to a lounge, +and sank within it. His wild insult had dizzied her. + +He had not meant a word of it. He was tortured by the thought that she +had never cared for him. He had used the first fierce reproach that his +sorrow and exasperation could hit upon. He went to his own apartments, +dressed, and then left the house. He forgot that he had not dined, but +remembered only that there might be some sort of forlorn financial hope +discovered by a certain assemblage of men less deeply involved than +himself, yet all sufferers in a similar way, which would take place +privately that same evening at a popular hotel not far distant. All +recollection of having suggested an infidelity to Claire quite escaped +from his perturbed and over-wrought brain. The piercing realization that +she had never loved him still continued its torment. But he failed to +recall that the desperate sarcasm of his mood had ever hurled at her the +name of Goldwin. + +A knock at the door of the darkened room waked Claire from a kind of +stupor. The knock came from her maid, and it acted with decisive +arousing force. Lights were soon lit, and dinner, that evening, was +ordered to become a canceled ceremony. + +"You may bring me some _bouillon_, Marie," Claire directed. "That, and +nothing else." + +She drank the beverage when it was brought, and changed her dress. The +glass showed her a pale but tranquil face. + +'I would have clung to him if he would have let me,' incessantly passed +through her thoughts. 'But now he tells me that another can give me the +luxury that I have lost. He is right. Goldwin will come this evening; I +am sure of it.' + +Goldwin did come, and she received him with a mien of ice. Underneath +her coldness there was fire enough, but she kept its heat well hidden. + +"I came to talk intimately with you," he at length said, "and you treat +me as if we had once met, somewhere, for about ten minutes." + +The smouldering force of Claire's inward excitement started into flame +at these words. "I know with what _intimate_ feelings you came," she +replied, meeting his soft glance with one of cold opposition. "You want +to tell me that you can set Herbert right with his creditors." + +"Yes," he answered, slowly, averting his eyes, "I did have that desire. +Is there anything wrong about it?" + +"Yes. You should not have come to me. You should have gone to him." + +"Why?" he asked. + +"Why?" repeated Claire, breaking into a sharp laugh. A moment later she +tossed her head with a careless disdain. "I'm not going to tell you why. +You know well enough. See Herbert. Ask him if he will let you help him." + +"You are very much excited." + +"I have good reason to be." + +"You mean this dreadful change in your husband's affairs?" + +"Yes, I mean that, and I mean more. You mustn't question me." + +"Very well, I won't." + +But he soon did, breaking the silence that ensued between them with +gently harmonious voice, and fixing on Claire's half-averted face a look +that seemed to brim with sympathy. + +"Would Hollister take my help if I offered it? Does he not dislike me? I +believe so--I am nearly sure so. You tap the floor with your foot. You +are miserable, and I understand your misery. So am I miserable--on your +account. I know all the ins and outs of your distress ... ah, do not +fancy that I fail to do so. He has said hard things--undeserved things. +He has perhaps mixed my name with his ... what shall I call them? ... +reproaches, impertinences? You have had a quarrel--a quarrel that has +been wholly on his side. He has accused you of not caring enough for +him. It may be that he has accused you of not caring at all. Of course +he has dilated on your love for the pomp and glitter of things. As if he +himself did not love them! As if he himself has not given all of us +proof that he loved them very much! Well; let that pass. You are to +renounce everything. You are to dine on humble fare, dress in plain +clothes, sink into obscurity. This is what he demands. Or, if it is not +demanded, it is implied. And for what reason? Because he still sees you +are beautiful, attractive, one woman in ten thousand, and that having +gambled away every other pleasure in life he can still retain you." + +Claire rose from the sofa on which they were both seated. She did not +look at Goldwin while she answered him. Her voice was so low that he +just caught her words and no more. + +"To what does all this tend? Tell me. Tell me at once." + +Goldwin in turn slowly rose while he responded: "I will tell you, if you +will tell me whether you love your husband well enough to share poverty +with him after he has insulted you." + +"I did not say that he had insulted me." + +"I infer it. Am I right or wrong?" + +Still not looking at him, she made an impatient gesture with both hands. + +"Allowing you are right. What then?" + +He did not reply for several minutes. He was stroking his amber mustache +with one white, well-shaped hand; his eyes were now turned from hers, +hers from him. + +"I shall go abroad in a short time. I shall go in less than a +fortnight," he said. + +It was a most audacious thing to say, and he knew it thoroughly. It was +the bold stroke that must either annul his hopes completely, or feed +them with a fresh life. + +Claire seemed to answer him only with the edges of her lips. + +"How does that concern me?" + +"In no way. I did not say it did. But you might choose to sail a week or +two later. Alone, of course. It would be Paris, with me. You have told +me that you wanted very much to see Paris." + +She turned and faced him, then, more agitated than angry. + +"You speak of my husband having insulted me. What are you doing now?" + +"I am trying to save you." + +"Good Heavens! from what?" + +"From him. Listen. I did not mean for you to go directly to Paris. You +would travel. But at a certain date I could meet you there. I could meet +you with--well, with a document of importance." + +"Explain. I don't understand you at all." + +"Suppose I put the case in certain legal hands here. Suppose they worked +it up with skill and shrewdness. Suppose they gained it. Suppose they +secured a divorce between you and him on--grounds" ... + +"Well? What grounds?" + +"Of infidelity. You know the life he has lived. Or rather, you don't +know. He has been so gay, so prominent, of late, that almost any +well-feed lawyer could"-- + +Claire interrupted him, there. "Leave me at once," she said, pointing +toward the door. "Leave me. I order you to do it!" + +He obeyed her, but stopped when he had nearly reached the threshold. + +"As my wife," he said, "you would reign more proudly than you have ever +reigned yet. The moment you were free I would be so glad to make you +mine--you, the loveliest woman I ever knew, and the most finely, +strictly pure!" + +"Leave me," she repeated; but he had quitted the room before her words +were spoken. + +She glanced in the direction whence his voice had come to her, and then, +seeing that he was gone, she dropped back upon the sofa, and sat there, +staring straight ahead at nothing, with tight-locked hands and +colorless, alarmed face. + + + + +XX. + + +She heard Hollister reenter the house that night at a very late hour, +and pass to his own apartments. It was only after dawn that she obtained +a little restless and broken sleep. By nine o'clock she rang for her +coffee, and then, after forcing herself to swallow it, began to dress, +with her maid's assistance. Marie was a perfect servant. As she +performed with capable exactitude one after another careful duty, the +ease and charm of being thus waited upon appealed to Claire with an +ironical emphasis. The very softness and tasteful make of her garments +took a new and dreary meaning. She had forgotten for weeks the dainty +details of her late life, its elegance of tone, smoothness of movement, +nicety of balance. These features had grown customary and inconspicuous, +as cambric will in time grow familiar to the skin that has brushed +against coarser textures. But now the light, so to speak, had altered; +it was cloudy and stormful; it brought out in vivid relief what before +had been clad with the pleasant haze of habit. The very carpet beneath +Claire's tread took a reminding softness; the numberless attractions and +comforts of her chamber thrust forward special claims to her heed; even +the elaborate or simple utensils of her dressing-table had each its +distinct note of souvenir. She must so soon lose so much of it all! + +As if by some automatic and involuntary process, memory slipped images +and pictures before her mental vision; she had noted them in the still, +dark hours of the previous night, and they remained unbanished now by +the glow of the wintry morning. She saw herself a child, cowed and +satirized by her coarse and domineering mother; she witnessed the +episode of her gentle father's firm and protective revolt; she lived +again through the prosperous rise of the family fortunes; she watched +herself brave and quell the insolence of Ada Gerrard, and slowly but +surely gain rank and recognition among those adverse and disdainful +schoolfellows; she endured anew the chagrin of subsequent decadence--the +commonness and the disrelish of her public school career, the +disappointment and monotony of her Jersey City experience, and then, +lastly, the laborious and deathly tedium of Greenpoint.... Here the +strange panorama would cease; the magic-lantern of reminiscence had no +more lenses in its shadowy repository; the actual took the place of +dream, and startled her by an aspect more unreal than though wrought +merely of recollection. + +Had these recent weeks all been true? Had she climbed so high in fact +and not in fancy? Was the throne from which fate now gave harsh threat +of pushing her a throne not built of air, but material, tangible, solid? +The strangeness of her own history affected her in a purely objective +way. She seemed to stand apart from it and regard it as though it were +some lapse of singular country for which she had gained the sight-seer's +best vantage-point. Its acclivities were so sheer, its valleys were so +abrupt, it took such headlong plunges and made such unexpected ascents. + +The discreet and sedulous Marie divined little of what engrossed her +mistress's mind, and withdrew in her wonted humility of courtesy when +Claire, no longer needing her service, at last dismissed her. + +But before doing so, Claire took pains to learn that Hollister had not +yet descended for his breakfast, which of late he had usually eaten +alone in the great dining-room. She soon passed into her adjacent +boudoir, where fresh treasures and mementos addressed her through a +silent prophecy of coming loss. + +Here was a writing-table, well supplied with various kinds of +note-paper, all bearing her initials in differing intertwisted devices. +Not long ago she had questioned her husband on the subject of the +Hollister crest; she would have been glad enough to receive from him +some clew that might lead to its discovery; but he had expressed frank +and entire ignorance regarding any such heraldic symbol. + +Claire took a sheet of note paper, and in a hand that was just unsteady +enough to show her how strong an inward excitement was making stealthy +attack upon her nervous power, began a brief note to Stuart Goldwin. +When finished, the note (which bore no ceremonious prefix whatever, and +was unmarked by any date) ran as follows:-- + + "The words which you chose to address to me last night have + permanently ended our acquaintance. As a gentleman to a + gentlewoman, you were impolite. As a man to a woman, you were + far worse. I desire that you will not answer these few lines, + and that when we meet again, if such a meeting should ever + occur, you will expect from me no more sign of recognition than + that which I would accord any one who had given me an + unpardonable insult. + + C. H." + +Claire sealed and directed this note. She did not send it, however. +After its completion she went downstairs into the dining-room. + +Hollister was seated there, being served with breakfast. He had already +found it impossible to eat; he was sipping a second or third cup of +strong tea. + +When his wife appeared, he slightly started. Claire went to the fire and +stood before it, letting its warmth and glow hold her in thrall for +quite a while. Her back was now turned to him; she was waiting for the +butler to depart. He presently did so, closing a door behind his exit +with just enough accentuation to make the sound convey decisive and +final import. + +Claire then slowly turned, removing one foot from one of the polished +rods that bordered the flame-lit hearthstone. She looked straight at her +husband; she did not need to see how pale he was; her first look had +told her that. She had chosen to ignore all that he had said last night. +It did not cost her much effort to do this; she had too keen a sense of +her own wrong toward him not to condone the reckless way in which he had +coupled her name with Goldwin's. Besides, had not Goldwin's own words to +her, a little later, made that assault seem almost justified? She felt +nothing toward him save a great pity. Her pity sprang, too, from +remorse. She lacked all tenderness; this, joined with pity, would have +meant love. 'And I cannot love him!' she had already reflected. 'If I +only could, it would be so different. But I cannot.' + +When she spoke, her words were very calm and firm. "I thought you might +have something more to tell me," she said. "I came down to see you +before you went away, for that reason. You said last night that +everything had gone. There will be a day or two left us, I suppose; I +mean a day or two of--possession." + +He was stirring the tea with his spoon. His eyes were bent on the table +as he did so. He spoke without lifting them. "Oh, yes," he answered. +"Perhaps four or five days. They will seize the house, after that," he +went on, "and all the furniture and valuables. Of course they can't +touch what is really yours. I mean your diamonds, your dresses, _et +cetera_." + +A pause followed. "To-day I have a luncheon-party," said Claire. + +"Yes ... you told me. I remember." + +"I hope nothing of ... of _that sort_ will happen to-day." + +"No." He had taken his spoon from the cup, and was staring down at it, +as though he wanted to make sure of some flaw in its metal. His face was +not merely pale; it had the worn look of severe anxiety. "You can have +your luncheon-party with impunity. By the way, our own _chef_ gets it +up, doesn't he? You didn't have Delmonico or any one else in, did you?" + +"No," she answered. "Pierre was to do it all. He had his full orders +several days ago." + +A fleet, bitter smile crossed Hollister's lips. He put his spoon back +into the cup, but did not raise his eyes. "Oh, everything is safe enough +for to-day," he said. + +Claire moved slowly toward him. "Herbert," she said, and put forward one +hand ... "I don't see why we should not be friends at a time like this. +You were angry last night, and said things that I am sure you didn't +mean--things that I've almost forgotten, and want entirely to forget. +Let us both forget them. Let us be friends again, and talk matters over +sensibly--as we ought to do." + +She herself was not aware of the loveless chill that touched every word +she had just spoken. There was something absolutely matter-of-fact in +her tones; they rang with a kind of commercial loudness. It was almost +as though she were proposing a mercantile truce between man and man. + +Hollister visibly winced, and slowly rose from the table. Every sentence +that she had uttered had bitten into his very soul. His pride was alive, +and keenly so. But he was not at all angry; he felt too miserably +saddened for that. + +"Claire," he said, "we had best not talk of being _friends_. If I spoke +to you harshly last night, I'm sorry. I don't quite recollect just what +I did say. Of course we must have a serious talk about how we are to +live in future. But not now, if you please--not now. Your luncheon will +go off all properly enough. Things are not so bad as _that_. I shall be +away until evening. Perhaps when I come home again we can have our +talk." + +Claire looked at him with hard, bright eyes. She assured herself that he +had causelessly repulsed her. Even allowing the wrong that she had done +him of marrying him without love, why should he now repel, by this +self-contained austerity, an advance which, in her egotistic misery, she +believed a sincere and spontaneous one? She was wholly unaware of her +own unfortunate demeanor; it seemed to her that she had done her best; +she had tried to conciliate, to appease, to mollify. Was not her note to +Goldwin now in the pocket of her gown? Was not that note a defense of +Herbert's own honor as of hers? She made the distinctly feminine error, +while she rapidly surveyed the present contingency, of taking for +granted that her husband possessed some obscure and mesmeric intuition +regarding this same unseen piece of writing. + +"Oh, very well," she replied, with an actually wounded manner; "you may +do just as you please. I might have resented the unjust and horrible +thing you said to me last evening, but I did not. I did not, because, as +I told you, I thought it best for us to be friends once again." + +"Friends." He repeated the word with a harsh fragment of laughter. His +changed face took another speedy change; it grew sombre and forbidding. +"You and I, Claire, can never be friends. While we live together +hereafter I'm afraid it must only be as strangers." + +"Strangers!" she repeated, haughtily and offendedly. + +"Yes! You know why." He walked toward the tapestried door of the +dining-room, and flung one of its curtains aside, holding it thus while +he stood on the threshold and looked back at her. "You yourself make the +reason. I'll do all I can. I don't know of any unjust or horrible thing +that I said last evening. I only know that you are and have been my wife +in name alone." + +He had forgotten his speech regarding Goldwin. He had never had any +suspicion, however remote, that she had transgressed her wifely vows. He +simply felt that she had never loved him, and that she had married him +for place and promotion in a worldly sense; that, and no more. + +The draperies of the door at once shrouded his departing figure. Claire +stood quite still, watching the agitated folds settle themselves into +rest. 'He meant that Goldwin is my lover,' she told herself. 'What else +could he possibly have meant?' + +She had some half-formed intent of hurrying after him and venting her +indignation in no weak terms. Best if she had done so; for he might then +have explained away, with surprise and perhaps contrition, the fatal +blunder that she had made. But pride soon came, with its vetoing +interference. She did not stir until she heard the outer door close +after him. Then, knowing that he was gone, she let pride lay its gall on +her hurt, and dull her mind to the sense of what wrong she had inflicted +on him by the permitted mockery of their marriage. + +'He had no reason to judge so vilely of me,' sped her thoughts. 'His +approval of that intimacy was clearly implied, however tacit. What must +our lives together now become? He has brought a shameful charge against +me; if I loved him I could doubtless pardon him; love will pardon so +much. But as it is, there must always remain a breach between us. A +continuance of our present brilliant affluence might bridge it over. The +distractions and pleasures of wealth, fashion, supremacy, would make it +less and less apparent to both; but poverty, and perhaps even hardship +as well,--how should these fail to mercilessly widen it?' + +Everything looked black, threatening, and miserable to Claire as she +began to attire herself for the great lunch. Her maid had just finished +dressing her hair, when a note was handed her. + +It was from Mrs. Van Horn. Very brief and entirely courteous, it +expressed regret that a sudden sick headache would prevent her from +numbering herself among Claire's favored guests that morning. 'The first +token of my altered fortunes,' she thought, with a pang that was like a +stab. 'This woman was the last to come under my ensign; she is the first +to desert it.' + +She recalled Thurston's words to her at the opera on the previous night. +Surely there was some grave discrepancy between these and the acts of +his sister. As for the headache, that was of course transparent sham. If +this lofty lady had wanted to deceive, she might have done so more +plausibly. But perhaps she did not care whether or no her excuse looked +genuine. Rats leave a falling house. That was all the letter meant. +Claire could have thrown it down upon the floor and stamped on it. In +reality, she tossed it with seeming unconcern into the fire, and gave a +quiet order to Marie which she wished taken directly to the butler, +regarding the reduced number of her coming guests. + +When Marie reentered the apartment, she bore a card. It was the card of +Thurston. On it were written in pencil these words: "I beg that you will +see me for a few moments, if you can possibly manage." + +She at once went down and received him. He looked fixedly into her face +for a slight while, after they had seated themselves. He knew all that +had happened, and he understood just how savage and calamitous must seem +to her the blows from which she was now suffering. He read excitement +and even despair in every line of her features, though he clearly +perceived that both were held under a determined repression. + +'She means not to let herself go one inch,' he decided. 'If she did, she +would break down altogether. She has wound herself up to a certain +pitch. She will keep just this way for hours yet. She will keep so--if +nothing strange and unforeseen should happen.' + +A deep and vital pity pierced him while he watched her. He loved her, +and his love made him unreasonably lenient. A sacred sadness invested +her, for his eyes, in this the hour of her misfortune and overthrow. He +forgot how blameworthy she had been, and could remember only that +destiny would soon hurl in the dust the crown that she had worn with so +much grace and grandeur. + +"Did you come to speak of my--of our trouble?" she said, her lip +quivering for an instant and no more. + +"No," he replied. "But since _you_ speak of it, is all chance of +recovery gone? May not matters right themselves somehow?" + +She shook her head in quick negative. "I think not. He has lost +everything--or nearly that." She broke into a smile, which had for her +companion only the brightness one might see in tears. "I suppose it +seems to you like a punishment--a retribution." Her gaze dwelt on him +with a mournful kind of pleasantry. It was like the spirit of Comedy +slipping her gay mask a little down and showing beneath it a glimpse of +pallor and fatigue. + +"But do not let us talk of that. You wanted to talk of something else. +What was it? your sister's refusal, at the eleventh hour, to come to my +lunch?" + +"Has she refused?" + +"She has a sick headache," returned Claire, with a bit of joyless +laughter--the saddest he had ever heard leave her lips. "I don't doubt +our disreputable downfall has given it to her. Don't make excuses for +her; she is quite right to have her headache. It's a fastidious +prerogative, you know. I shan't require a physician's certificate. I +only hope that all the others will be cruel in just as civil a manner." + +The tragic bitterness of these words, though they were quietly enough +uttered, stung Thurston to the quick. When a man loves as he loved, +compassion waits the ready vassal of tenderness. He had a momentary +feeling of hostility against an elusive, disembodied foe--against +circumstance itself, so to speak, for having wrought discord in a life +that was meant to hold nothing but melody. + +He swiftly decided not to tell the real truth regarding his sister. "I +would not concern myself with Cornelia's absence," he said. "Another +matter, of much more import, must be brought to your notice. It is then +settled that Cornelia remains away. I did not know that she would do so. +She made no mention of it during our interview last night." + +"Her headache had not arrived. Neither had the morning papers, which +said such hard things of my husband." + +"As you will. Let all that pass. I wish to speak of a lady who will +almost certainly be present at your entertainment to-day. I mean Sylvia +Lee. Don't ask me why I warn you against her, for I can't give you any +lucid reasons. She intends some mischief. I suspected it last night from +something my sister let fall, and I visited Mrs. Lee this morning with a +most detective purpose. I gained no clew, and yet my suspicions were by +no means lulled. I have never liked Sylvia; we are related, but she has +always struck me as an abhorrent kind of creature, bristling with +artifice, destitute of nearly all _morale_, capable of the worst +cunning, equipped with the most subtle resources of treachery. Be on +your guard against her to-day. This sounds mysterious--melodramatic, if +you will; but she has some snare laid for you, some petty but perhaps +ugly revenge. You know why I use that last word. She has wanted to marry +Goldwin for years. She isn't a bit above the grossest, most unscrupulous +hatred. She told me that she didn't believe in your husband's ruin, and +that a few more days would see him on his feet again. This makes me all +the more convinced that she will not put her little sharpened dagger +back into its sheath. She has hatched some sort of horrid plot. Thwart +it if you can. I wish I could be here to help you." + +Claire had grown very pale, but her eyes sparkled vividly. "I am your +debtor for these tidings," she said. She drew a deep breath, and he +surmised that under the soft curve of her joined lips she had for a +brief moment set her teeth closely together. "I thought the lunch would +be a hard ordeal, even as matters stood," she went on, "and that I would +need my best nerve and courage to get through it all right, with proper +coolness and dignity. But now the task looks far less easy. Still, I +shan't flinch. I wish you _were_ to be here; but that is not possible." + +Just then a clock on the opposite mantel gave one little silver note +that told it was half-past twelve. Claire rose as she heard the sound. +"I must leave you now," she pursued. "I have only an hour left for my +toilette, and I shall need it all." She threw back her head, and a +dreary smile gleamed and fled along her lips. "I mean to meet all these +grand ladies without one sign of defeat. I shan't wear my heart on my +sleeve. This lunch was to have been my crowning triumph. It proves a +funeral-feast, in its way, but they shan't find me playing +chief-mourner. I intend to die game, as the phrase is." She gave a +slight shudder, drooping her eyes. "It will be as though I stood in a +house whose walls might crumble all about me at any moment--as if I +could hear the crack of plaster and the creak of beams. But I shan't run +away; I shall stand my ground very firmly, depend on it, until the +bitter end. When the crash comes nobody will be buried in the ruins but +myself--that is certain, is it not?" + +Here her joyless laugh again sounded, and Thurston, swayed by an +irresistible mood, caught one of her hands, pressing it hard within his +own. + +"You shall not be buried in the ruins!" he exclaimed. "Take my word for +it, you shall not! It will all only be the beginning of a new and better +life. You shall have learned a hard yet salutary lesson--that, and +nothing more." + +She shook her head, meeting his earnest eyes. "You are my good genius," +she said. "It is too bad you have not had more power over me." + +"Who is your evil genius?" he asked, with slower tones, while she drew +her hand from his. + +"Myself," she answered. "I am quite willing to concede it." ... She +appeared to muse for a little while. "I shall have one true friend here +to-day," she soon continued. "I mean Mrs. Diggs. She is very loyal to +me; she would do almost anything I should ask. You don't like her, or so +she tells me, but I hope you will like her better than your other +cousin, Mrs. Lee." + +"I respect her far more. I have never doubted her goodness. But she +gives me nerves, as the French say. She is at such a perpetual gallop; +if she would only break into a trot, sometimes, it would be like anybody +else's walk.... You think you can trust her as an ally to-day?" + +"Implicitly. She has promised to come early, too--before the others, you +know." ... Claire locked the fingers of both hands together, and held +them so that the palms were bent downward. The weary smile again touched +her lips and vanished. "What a day it is to be! And what a day it +_might_ have been!" She held out her hand to him, after that. "Good-by. +With all my heart I thank you! You have done all that you could do." + +He did not promptly reply. He was thinking whether he had really done +all that he could do.... And this thought followed him hauntingly as he +left Claire to meet whatever catastrophe fate had in store for her. + +Mrs. Diggs kept her promise, and was shown into Claire's dressing room a +good quarter of an hour before the other guests were due. The lady +started on seeing her friend, whose toilette was now completed, and +whose robe, worn for the first time, was of a regal and unique beauty. +It was chiefly of white velvet, whose trailing heaviness blent with +purple lengths of the same lustreless and sculpturesque fabric. The +white prevailed, but the purple was richly manifest. In her hair she +wore aigrettes of sapphires and amethysts shaped to resemble pansies, +and while the sleeves were cut short enough to show either arm from +wrist almost to elbow, and permit of bracelets that were two circles of +jewels wrought in semblance of the same flower and with the same blue +and lilac gems, her bust and throat were clad in one cloud of rare, +filmy laces, from which her delicate head rose with a stately yet aerial +grace. Excitement had put rosy tints in either cheek; the jewels that +she wore had no sweeter splendor than her eyes, and yet both by color +and glow in a certain way aptly matched them. A gear of velvet is +dangerous to women in whom exuberance of figure has the least assertive +rule. Velvet is the sworn enemy of _embonpoint_. But Claire's figure was +of such supple and flexile slenderness that the weight and volume of +this apparel made her light step and airy contour win a new charm and a +new vivacity. + +"It is all perfect--quite perfect," said Mrs. Diggs, after taking a +rapid survey of Claire's attire. "But, my dear, are you perfectly sure +that" ... + +"Sure of what?" Claire asked, as her friend hesitated. + +"Well ... that it is just in good taste, don't you know? I mean, under +the circumstances." + +"What circumstances?" she exclaimed, putting the question as though she +did not wish it answered, and moving a few paces away with an air of +great pride. "I intend to fall gloriously. The end has come, the fight +is lost; but I shan't make a tame surrender--not I! They shall see me at +my best to-day, in looks, in speech, in manner. I'm glad you like my +dress; I want it to be something memorable." + +"You say that with a kind of bravado, Claire. There's a bitter ring to +your mirth. Oh, I'm so sorry for you! That lovely dress hides an aching +heart. You will suffer, poor child. This lunch will be a positive +torture to you." + +A moment after these words were spoken, Claire was close at Mrs. Diggs's +side, holding one of her hands with firm pressure. + +"You don't know how much of a torture it must be," she said, "and for +what reason." She immediately repeated all that Thurston had told her. +When she had finished, Mrs. Diggs was in a high state of perturbation. + +"I haven't a doubt that Beverley is right!" she exclaimed. "If there +_was_ any plot, Cornelia Van Horn was in it, too, and her brother has +made her throw away her weapons. But Sylvia Lee intends to deal the blow +alone.... What can it be? I'm at my wit's end to guess. There's but one +thing to do--keep a continual watch upon her. Claire, can you be, by any +chance, in that woman's power?" + +"Her power?" faltered Claire.... "I hope not," she added.... "I _know_ +not," she then said, as the full sense of Mrs. Diggs's question struck +her, and using a tone that was one of surprised affront. + +"Now, don't be offended, my dear. I merely meant that Sylvia isn't a bit +too good to magnify some slight imprudence, or twist and turn it until +she has got it dangerously like an actual crime.... But _nous verrons_. +After all, Beverley's fears may be groundless. With all my heart I hope +they are!" + +Not long afterward Claire was receiving her guests. All the great ladies +came, except, of course, Mrs. Van Horn. The last arrival was that of +Mrs. Lee. She contrived to make her entrance a very conspicuous one. She +was dressed with even more fantastic oddity than usual, and she spoke in +so shrill and peculiar a voice that she had not been in the +drawing-room more than five minutes before marked and universal +attention was directed upon her. + +"Sylvia is in a very singular state of excitement," Mrs. Diggs murmured +to Claire. "I know her well. That slow drawl of hers has entirely gone. +She acts to me as if she were on the verge of hysteria. I don't know +whether you felt her hand tremble as it shook yours, but I thought that +I plainly _saw_ it tremble. Just watch her, now, while she talks with +Mrs. Vanvelsor. She has a little crimson dot in each of her cheeks, and +she is usually quite pale, you know. There's something in the +wind--Beverley was right." + +"Her place at the table is rather distant from mine," said Claire, with +a scornful, transitory curl of the lip. "So there is no danger of her +putting a pinch of arsenic into my wine-glass." + +"You're not nervous, then? I am. I don't know just why, but I am." + +"Nervous?" Claire softly echoed. "No, not at all, now. I've other more +important things to think of. What _could_ she do, after all? Let her +attempt any folly; it would only recoil on herself.... Ah, my friend, I +am afraid I'm past being injured. This is my _finale_. I want it to +prove a grand one." + +"It will, Claire. They have all come, as you see. They have met you with +perfect cordiality, and you have received them with every bit of your +accustomed grace. I dare say that some of them are stunned with +amazement; they no doubt expected to find you shivering and colorless." + +The repast was magnificent. There were more than thirty ladies present, +and these, all brilliantly attired and some of striking personal beauty, +made the prodigal array of flowers, the admirable service of many +delicious viands, and the soft music pealing from the near hall just +loudly enough not to drown conversation while it filled pauses, produce +an effect where the most unrestrained hospitality was mingled with a +faultless refinement. + +Claire's spirits seemed to rise as the decorous yet lavish banquet +proceeded. Her laugh now and then rang out clear and sweet, while she +addressed this or that lady, at various distances from where she herself +sat. Mrs. Diggs, whose place was next her own, observed it all with +secret wonder. She alone knew the bleeding pride, the balked aspiration, +the thwarted yearning, which this pathetic and fictitious buoyancy hid. +It was a defiance, and yet how skilled and radiant a one! Could you +blame the woman who knew how to bloom and sparkle like this, for loving +the world where such dainty eminence was envied and prized? Was there +not a touch of genius in her pitiable yet dauntless masquerade? Who else +could have played the same part with the same deft security, and in the +very teeth of failure and dethronement? + +Claire's gayety and self-possession made more than one of her guests +lose faith in the tale of her husband's ruin. They were all women of the +world, and they all had the tact and breeding to perceive that their +hostess, now if ever, merited their best courtesy. They could all have +staid away at the last moment; Mrs. Van Horn held no exclusive claim to +the possession of her headache; its right of appropriation belonged +elsewhere. But they had not availed themselves of it; they had chosen to +sit at Claire's board, to break her delicate bread. Hence they owed her +their allegiance to-day, even if to-morrow they should find expediency +in its harshest opposite. But it now appeared to them as if she were +refuting the widespread rumor of her husband's misfortunes; her own +equipoise and scintillance bespoke this no less than the irreproachable +_chic_ of the entertainment to which she had bidden them. + +Mrs. Lee was not very far away from Claire, and yet the latter never +addressed or seemed to notice her. But Mrs. Diggs noticed her; she +indeed maintained a vigilant, though repressed, watchfulness. + +"You have quieted her," she found a chance to murmur in Claire's ear, +sure that the indefinite nature of the pronoun would not be +misunderstood. "She is still looking excited and queer, but she has +almost relapsed into silence. Perhaps she really wanted to poison you, +and feels hurt at the lost opportunity." Mrs. Diggs had had several sips +of good wine, and felt her anxiety lessened; her jocose ebullition was +the result of steadied nerves. "I never saw you so _spirituelle_, +Claire," she went on. "You have said at least eight delicious things. I +have them all mentally booked, my dear. When we are next alone together +I will remind you of them." + +"Pray don't," Claire answered, putting the words into a still lower +aside than her friend's. "I shall have hard enough work to forget, then. +I shall want _only_ to forget, too." + +She had just finished this faint-spoken sentence when one of the +servants handed her a note. As she glanced at its superscription the +thought passed through her mind that it might be some dire and alarming +message from her husband. But the next instant a flash of recollection +assailed her. She remembered the handwriting--or, at least, in this +festive and distracting environment, she more than half believed that +she did so. + +Her hands, while she swiftly tore open the envelope, were dropped upon +her lap. She read several lines of a note, and then crushed it, quickly +and covertly. As her eyes met those of Mrs. Diggs she had a sense that +she was becoming ghastly pale. + +"What is it?" whispered her friend. + +"Oh, nothing," she afterward remembered saying. The servant was still +close at her elbow. She turned her head toward him. + +"Let her wait," she said. "Tell her that I will see her quite soon." + +The whole affair had been very rapid of occurrence. No one present had +given a sign of having observed it. + +'If I had only not grown so pale,' she thought. + +The paper was still clutched in her left hand, and she had thrust this +half-way beneath the table-cover. With her right hand she began to make +a play of eating something from the plate before her, as she addressed +the lady on her other side. What she said must have been something very +gracious and pleasant, for the lady smiled and answered affably, while +the servants glided, the music sounded, the delightful feast progressed. +Everything had grown dim and whirling to Claire. And yet she had already +realized perfectly that Mrs. Lee was striking her blow. It had come, +sudden, cruel, direct. Her blurred mind, her weakened and chilling body, +did not leave that one fact any the less clear. She understood just what +it was, why it was, and whence it was. + +The note had been from her mother. It was half illiterate invective, +half threatening rebuke. Its writer waited outside and demanded to see +her. "If you don't come," the ill-shaped writing ran, "I will come to +you." Claire knew that this thing had been Mrs. Lee's work as well as if +a thousand witnesses had averred it. The missive contained no mention of +Mrs. Lee, but she nevertheless had her certainty. + +'I must go,' she told herself. 'I must go and meet her. _Can_ I go? Can +I walk, feeling as I do? Should I not fall if I tried?' + +She always afterward remembered the food that her fork now touched and +trifled with. It was a sweetbread croquette, with little black specks of +chopped truffle in its creamy yielding oval, and the air that they were +playing out in the hall was from a light, valueless opera, then much in +vogue. She always afterward remembered that, too. So do slight events +often press themselves in upon the dazed and dilated vision of a great +distress. + +'Can I rise and walk?' she kept thinking. 'Should I not fall if I +tried?' + + + + +XXI. + + +It is doubtful if any guest save Mrs. Diggs and one other had seen +Claire either receive, open, or read her note. The constant movements of +servants hither and thither, and the little conversational cliques +formed among the ladies at this central stage of the entertainment, +would have made such an escape from general notice both natural and +probable. But Mrs. Diggs, who had thus far kept a furtive though +incessant watch upon Mrs. Lee, soon felt certain that her cousin had not +merely seen what had passed; she was visibly affected by it as well; she +could not help regarding Claire across the considerable space which +intervened between them. Her expression was a most imprudent betrayal; +it clearly told, by its acerbity and exultance, that she held the +present occasion to be one of prodigious and triumphant import. No one +except Mrs. Diggs was watching her, and she was unaware of even that +sidelong but intent gaze. The natural mobility of her odd face, which +repelled some and attracted others, needed at all times a certain check; +but chagrins or satisfactions were both readily imprinted there. It +corresponded to the pliability of her body; it would have been a face in +which some clever actress might have found a fortune. She usually +restrained it with discretion, but just now the force of a malign joy +swept aside prudent control. Before Mrs. Diggs's exploring search of it +ended, her last doubt had fled. + +'I never saw her look more like the snake that she is,' Claire's friend +had thought. 'The mischief--the deviltry, it may be--lies in that +letter. Claire has grown as white as its paper; but nobody notices, +thank Heaven! She won't faint--she isn't of the fainting sort.' + +"Claire," she now said aloud, yet in tones which the most adroit of +eavesdroppers could not have more than just vaguely overheard, "did you +get any bad news a minute ago?" + +Claire was no longer addressing the lady at her side. "Why do you ask?" +she responded. "Do I look pale?" + +"Not at all; not the least in the world; I've never seen you more +composed," returned Mrs. Diggs, with enormous mendacity, hoping that her +charitable lie would bear reassuring and tranquilizing results. + +It did, as soon became apparent. Claire's condition was that in which we +grasp at straws. Perhaps she grew several shades less pale on hearing +that she was not so. + +"I must leave the room," she said, pronouncing the words with the edges +of her lips. "I must leave immediately." + +"Are you unwell?" + +"No--yes--it isn't that. I must go. Could I do it without--without--?" +She paused here; she had not enough clearness of thought, just then, to +finish her sentence coherently. + +"Without causing remark?" gently broke in Mrs. Diggs. "Why, of course +you could, my dear. Are you not hostess? A hundred things might call +you away for a little while. No one would dream of thinking it in the +least strange. Why on earth should one?" + +There was a light nonchalance about this answer that Mrs. Diggs by no +means felt. She knew that something had gone terribly wrong. Her +rejoinder had been a stroke of impromptu tact, just as her recent glib +falsehood had been. + +Its effect upon Claire was immediate. Her friend was doing her thinking +for her, so to speak, and was doing it with a rapid, unhesitating +_aplomb_. + +"You don't know what has happened, do you?" she now said. + +Mrs. Diggs at once felt the helpless disability of mind and nerves which +this last faltered question implied. + +"Give me your note," she said. "Slip it under the table. You will not be +seen." + +Claire obeyed. Mrs. Diggs had long ago learned how and why her friend +had left home, before that episode began of her residence with the +Bergemanns. She read the note like lightning, and digested its contents +with an almost equal speed. The sprawl of its writing was uncouth +enough, but not illegible. + +For a slight space horrified sympathy kept her silent. Then she said, +with a coolness and placidity that did her fine credit, considering the +cause in which she employed them:-- + +"I would go at once. You can keep everything quiet. Of course you can. I +will follow you shortly. I will make a perfect excuse for you. You are +feeling a little unwell--that is all. No one has noticed; take my word +for that; I am simply _certain_ of it. When you return--which I promise +you that you shall do quite soon--scarcely a comment will have been made +on your absence. Go, by all means. Go at once, as I said." + +'Some of her color has come back,' at the same time passed through poor +Mrs. Diggs's anxious and agitated thoughts. 'I knew she wouldn't faint; +it isn't _in_ her. She will see that I'm right, in a minute. Her wits +will begin to work. She will go.' + +Claire did go. She had no after-recollection of how she left the great +dining-room. But she had indeed moved from it in so silent and yet so +swift a way that her chair had been vacant several seconds, and her +skirts were sweeping one of the thresholds of exit, before the fact of +her departure became even half perceived among the guests. + +Once in the large, empty drawing-room immediately beyond that which she +had quitted, she felt her leaping heart grow quiet, and her bewildered +brain clear. It took only seconds, now, to restore in a great measure +her self-possession and her courage. + +She passed into the further drawing-room. Both were as void of human +occupant as they were rich and stately in their countless beauties of +adornment. Her visitor was evidently not here. Then she remembered the +smaller reception-room which opened off from the main hall. She directed +her steps thither. They were firm steps; she had grown sensible of this, +and of her newly acquired composure as well. + +Two breadths of Turkish tapestry hung down over the doorway of the +reception-room, thus obscuring its interior. As Claire softly parted +them and entered, she saw her mother. + +Mrs. Twining stood near a white-and-gilt table that was loaded with +choice ornaments. The chamber was one of great elegance and charm. It +was all white and gilt and pink; there were cherubs on its ceiling +throwing roses at each other; its hangings were of rose-color, and its +two or three mirrors were framed in porcelain of rare design. A +_connoisseur_ who was among Claire's admirers had once assured her that +this little room was exquisite enough to stir the dust of Pompadour. + +Mrs. Twining did not at all look as though she might have been any such +famous ghost. Not that she did not present a ghostly appearance. Her +black eyes seemed to be of twice their former size, so lean and haggard +was her altered face. Its cheek-bones stood out with a sharp prominence. +You saw at once that some serious illness had wrought this wan havoc. +Her garments were dark and decent; she did not seem to be a beggar; no +rusty and shabby poverty was manifest on her person. She had refused +stoutly to wait in the hall, and the servant who had admitted her, being +hurried with other matters, had yielded to her insistence, yet deputed +an underling to keep watch on the reception-room after showing her +thither. Claire had not seen the sentinel, who was stationed at a little +distance up the hall, and who joined his fellows when sure that the lady +of the house had condescended to meet this troublesome intruder. + +Mrs. Twining looked boldly and severely at her daughter. The drapery had +fallen behind Claire's advancing figure. The two faced each other in +silence for a lapse of time that both no doubt thought longer than it +really was. Each, in her different way, had an acute change to +confront. Claire scarcely recognized her mother at first. Mrs. Twining, +on her own side, had good reasons to be prepared for a difference, and +the superb house had in a way told her, too, what she might expect. But +still, for all that, this was Claire! This was her Claire, whom she had +last seen not far removed from slums and gutters--who had gone forth +from the little Greenpoint home, not two years since, to follow her +father's charity-buried corpse! And here she stood, clad in her +white-and-purple vestments, a shape of more lovely and high-bred +elegance than any she had ever looked upon. The face was the same--there +could be no doubt of that. But everything else--the figure, the attire, +the jewels, the velvets, the laces, the movement, the posture, the mien +... it was all like some fabulous, incredible enchantment. + +Forewarned and forearmed as she had been, Mrs. Twining stood +wonder-stricken and confused. The soft strains of the near music seemed +to speak to her instead of Claire's own voice, and with a disdain in +their melody. She saw no disdain on Claire's face, however, as her eyes +scanned it. But it was quite inflexible, though very pale. + +Claire broke the silence--if that could be called mere silence which was +for both so electric and pregnant an interval. + +"You have come at a strange time. And your note shows me that you chose +it purposely." + +Mrs. Twining gave a sombre laugh. What associations the sound woke in +its hearer! + +"I was all ready for just this kind of a welcome," she said, knitting +her brows. She began to stare about the room. "It's very fine. It's +mighty splendid. But I wonder the walls of this house don't fall and +crush you, Claire Twining! I wonder I ain't got the power, myself, to +strike you dead with a look!" Her voice now became a growl of menace; +there was something very genuine in her wrath, which she had persuaded +herself to believe an outgrowth of hideous ingratitude. "But I didn't +come to show you your own badness," she went on. "You know all about +that a ready. What I've come for is quite another kind of a thing--oh, +yes, quite." Here she laughed again, with her mouth curving downward +grimly at each corner. + +"What have you come for?" inquired Claire. + +"To get my rights!--_that's_ what I've come for! To let people see who I +am, and how you've cast me off--me, your mother. I d'clare I don't +believe there ever was so horrible a case before. Perhaps some o' the +folks in yonder can tell me if they ever knew one." + +Claire kept silent for a moment. Her face was white to the lips, but +there was no sign of flinching in it. + +"I did not cast you off," she said. "I left you because you outraged and +insulted the dead body of my father. I have never regretted the step I +took, nor do I regret it now. You say you've come here to get your +rights. What rights? Shelter and food? You shall receive these if you +want them. I will ring and give orders at once that you shall be taken +to a comfortable room and be treated with every care that it is in my +power to bestow. In spite of what I said to you on the day when you +shocked and tortured me into saying it, I would still have sought you +out and rendered you my best aid, if I had known that you were ill. For +I see that you have been ill--your appearance makes that very plain. But +I had no knowledge of any such fact. You were stronger than I when we +parted--stronger, indeed, and better able to work. This is all that I am +willing to say at present. In an hour or two I will join you, and hear +anything you may choose to tell me." + +While Claire was in the midst of this rather prolonged reply, Mrs. Diggs +quietly entered the room. The speaker saw her, and did not pause for an +instant, but put forth her hand, which Mrs. Diggs took, while she +steadily watched the large, gaunt, hollow-cheeked woman whom her friend +addressed. + +If anything could have intensified the vast sense of accumulated wrong +in Mrs. Twining's breast, it was this placid appearance of one who so +promptly indicated that she stood toward Claire in a supporting and +accessory attitude. + +"So, you'll make terms, will you?" said the parent of Claire. "You'll +browbeat me--_me_, your mother--with your fine clothes and fine house +and fine servants? And where's my satisfaction, if you please, Miss? +Hey? Oh, I ain't any saint--you know that, by this time. I ain't going +to forget how I laid eight months in Bellevue Hospital, crippled and +nearly dying. First it was the typhoid fever, 'n then it was the +pneumonia, 'n then it was the inflammatory rheumatism. And where was +_you_, all that time? Spending your thousands as fast as the Wall Street +stock-gambler you'd married could scrape 'em together. Who's this friend +that steps in and looks as if she was going to protect you? Hey? You're +both afraid I'll go in among those grand folks you've got eating and +drinking somewheres, and speak my mind. You'll send me up to a +comf'table room, will you? You'll give orders to your servants about me, +will you? And s'pose I object to being treated like a troublesome tenth +or 'leventh cousin? S'pose I go straight into where they all are, and +just tell 'em the square, plain truth?" The scowl on her wasted face was +very black, now. She had made several quick steps nearer to Claire and +Mrs. Diggs. Once or twice during this acrid tirade she had waved one +hand in front of her, and made its finger and thumb give a contemptuous +audible click. But her voice had not noticeably lowered. + +Claire had been watching her with great keenness. She had been reading +her mood. By the light of the past--the retrospective light flung from +weary years lived out at this mother's side, did this daughter now +swiftly see and as swiftly understand. + +"Claire," said Mrs. Diggs, spurred by an impulse of heroic interference +no less than an alarmed one, "let me speak a few words; let me"-- + +"No," interrupted Claire. Her simple veto seemed to cut the air of the +room. She turned and met Mrs. Diggs's gaze for a moment, while dropping +her hand. "I thank you, Kate; but please leave all to me." + +Then she faced her mother's irate glare. She was still decidedly pale, +but in her clear voice there was no hint of tremor. + +"Very well," she said, "suppose you _do_ go in and find my friends. +Suppose you _do_ tell them everything. I do not merely invite you to go; +I challenge you to go. I will even show you the way myself." + +"Claire!" faltered Mrs. Diggs, below her breath. + +Claire walked toward the curtained doorway and slightly parted its +draperies. She was looking at her mother across one shoulder. + +"Will you come?" she asked. "I am quite ready." + +The enraged look began to die from Mrs. Twining's face. She receded a +little. "I can go myself when I choose," she muttered. "I can find the +way myself, when I'm ready. I ain't ready yet." + +Claire let the draperies fall. She resumed her former position. "You +will never be ready," she said, with a melancholy scorn, "and you know +it as well as I. You thought to come here and make me cringe with terror +before you, while you threatened and stormed. But you had no intention +of bringing matters to any crisis. You think me very prosperous, very +powerful, and very rich. You are secretly glad that I am. You would not +on any account harm me as a person of importance; but you wanted to keep +me, as one, in a state of rule, a state of subjection. By that means you +could climb up to a place something like my own ... so you have argued. +You would share what I have secured. You were always a very ambitious +woman. Your sickness (which Heaven knows I am sorry enough to hear +about) hasn't changed you a particle. I thought at first that it might +have turned or clouded your brain--have made you reckless of +consequences. But it has done nothing of the sort. You are precisely the +same as ever." + +Here Claire paused. Her mother had sunk into a chair. In her working +lips and the uneasy roll of her eyes a great, abrupt dismay was evident. + +"I think I can guess just what has occurred to send you here," Claire +soon proceeded. "You became sick; you got into the hospital. While you +were there a certain lady now and then visited your bedside. You told +this lady who you were. Perhaps she asked you questions, and drew out +all your history--perhaps you gave her all of it voluntarily. The lady +was an enemy of mine. She put this and that together. She began by +suspecting; she finished by being certain. We will say that you +described me to her with great accuracy; or we will say that she knew I +had once lived with the Bergemann family, and that you easily recalled +the fact of Sophia Bergemann having been my friend long ago at Mrs. +Arcularius's school. It is of no consequence how the real truth +transpired; it _did_ transpire. As you grew better, the lady formed a +little plot. I think you perceived this; it is like you to have +perceived it. You saw that the lady wanted to make you her tool, her +cat's-paw." + +Here Mrs. Twining rose, and put out both hands. "She didn't do it, +though," was her flurried exclamation. "She thought she'd have me come +here and get up a scene. I was 'cute enough to see that. I was reading +her just like a book, all the time." + +"I have no doubt of it," said Claire, with the same melancholy scorn. +"But you chose _this time_ at which to come. You were willing to be her +accomplice _that far_." + +"She wouldn't tell me where you lived nor what was your name," protested +Mrs. Twining. "She kept putting me off whenever I asked her. She fixed +things at the hospital so's I only left it to-day; she made 'em keep me +there, though I was well enough to quit more 'n a week ago." + +"She told you to-day, then, of this entertainment? She told you that if +you came to-day, at a certain hour, you would find me surrounded by +friends?" + +Mrs. Twining set her eyes on the floor. She had begun to tremble a +little. "Well, yes, she said something of that sort. And I knew what she +was up to, just as clear as if she'd told me she had a grudge against +you and was crazy to pay it. I was going to stay away till the party was +all over--but I ... well, I" ... + +Here the speaker raised her eyes and flashed them confusedly at her +daughter. That glance was like the expiring glow of her conquered, +treacherous wrath. + +"Look here, Claire, I'm weak, and I can't stand this kind of thing much +longer. Let me go up to that room and lay down. I'll wait till you come +up. We can talk more when all your big friends have gone." + +"I will send a woman to you," said Claire. "You can give her what orders +you please." ... + +"Do you feel strong enough to go back at once?" asked Mrs. Diggs, when +she and Claire stood, presently, in the front drawing-room. + +"Oh, yes, perfectly," was Claire's answer. + +Mrs. Diggs kissed her. "Claire," she said, "the more I see of you, the +more you astonish me. I thought everything was lost, and how splendidly +you turned the tables! Ah, my dear, you were born for great things. You +ought to have been on a throne. I hate thrones. I'm a Red Republican, as +I told you the first time we met. But I'd change my politics in a minute +if you represented an absolute monarchy." + +Claire smiled. The color was coming back to her cheeks. "I am on a kind +of throne now," she said. "Only it is going to pieces. Kate, you have +seen that woman. She is my mother. I wish you had seen and known my +father. Whatever strength there is in me comes from _her_. But what +little good there is in me comes from _him_." + +They went back into the dining-room immediately afterward, and Claire +spoke with lightness to a few of the ladies about having felt a +temporary indisposition which had now entirely ceased. She at once +changed the subject, and throughout the remainder of the repast betrayed +not a sign by which the most alert watcher could have detected the least +mental disturbance. + +A watcher of this sort was Mrs. Lee, and both Claire and Mrs. Diggs were +certain of it. "She hasn't tasted a morsel for three courses," soon +whispered the latter. "Upon my word, I don't think I could be restrained +from throwing a glass or a plate at her, if I were sure it wouldn't hit +somebody else. I was always a wretched shot." + +But Mrs. Diggs delivered another kind of missile after the banquet had +broken up and the ladies had all passed once again into the +drawing-rooms. + +"I want to speak with you, Sylvia, if you don't object," she said dryly +to Mrs. Lee. The latter had opportunely strayed away from her +companions; she was pretending to scrutinize a certain painting in the +front apartment. This gave Mrs. Diggs precisely her desired chance. + +"You know I've never liked you, Sylvia, and I don't think you've ever +liked me," her cousin began. She showed no anger; her voice was so +ordinary in tone that she might have been discussing the most +commonplace of matters. + +Mrs. Lee started, and twisted herself, as usual, into a fresh pose. "I +really don't see the occasion, Kate," she murmured, "for this vast +amount of candor." She had got back her old drawl. She was concerned +with a knot of roses at her bosom, which had or had not become partially +unfastened; her gaze was drooped toward the roses, and thus avoided that +of her kinswoman. + +"You don't see the occasion for candor, Sylvia? I do. You know just what +you have tried to do this morning. There is no use of denying." + +"Tried to do?" she repeated, raising her eyes. + +"Yes," sped Mrs. Diggs, with a kind of snap in every word. "We've never +liked each other, as I said, and I preluded my remarks with this +statement because I want to show you why, from to-day henceforward, we +are open foes. You would have had Claire Hollister's mother rush like a +mad woman into that dining-room. You wanted it. You planned, you plotted +it. There's no use of asserting that you didn't." + +Mrs. Lee quietly threw back her head. "Oh, very well, since the poor +woman," she began, "has really betrayed me, I"-- + +"Betrayed you?" broke in Mrs. Diggs. "She has done nothing of the sort. +If you exacted any promise from her, I know nothing of that--nor does +Claire. We both understood that you were behind the whole affair, and +when Mrs. Twining was taxed with your complicity she did not presume to +disavow it." + +Mrs. Lee looked at her roses again, and touched some of their petals +with a caressing hand. + +"If you think me culpable to have told a poor wretch in a hospital the +address of the daughter who had deserted her," she said, "I am only +sorry that your code of morals should so materially differ from mine." + +"Morals?" replied Mrs. Diggs, with a quick laugh that seemed to crackle. +"It's amusing, truly, to hear such a word as that from you to me, +Sylvia!" + +Mrs. Lee again lifted her eyes. She was smiling, and her small, dark +head, garnished with a tiny crimson bonnet, was set very much sideways. +"My dear Kate," she said, "did it ever occur to you how enormously +vulgar you can be at a pinch?" + +"I'd answer that question if I didn't see through the trick of it. We're +not talking of manners, if you please; we're talking of morals. Do you +consider that there is anything moral in a mean, underhand revenge? That +is exactly what you resorted to. To serve a spiteful hatred, you would +have had Mrs. Twining dart like a Fury into yonder dining-room." + +"If it were not unladylike, I should tell you that you are uttering a +falsehood." + +"Bah! You can tell me so a thousand times, if you want. Why did you +never let Claire's mother know her marriage-name or her address until +to-day? Why did you keep her in the hospital until to-day? Why, unless +you wanted to unloose her, like a raging lioness?" + +"Really, Kate, you have passed the bounds of impertinence. You are now +simply diverting." + +Mrs. Diggs laughed a second time. "I intend to divert you still further, +Sylvia, before I have done with you." + +Mrs. Lee took a step or two in an oblique direction. The lids of her +dark eyes had begun to move rapidly. "I have the option of declining to +be bored," she answered, in a muffled voice, "unless you intend personal +violence. In that case, you know, there are always the footmen." + +"Answer me one question, please, if you have a spark of honesty left. +What right had you to believe that Claire Hollister ever wronged her +mother?" + +"You haven't yet become violent. You are still diverting. So I will +answer. She left her alone in poverty, neglect, and misery." + +"She left her after a life of tyranny and persecution. She left her a +strong, hale, able woman. She left her with ten, twenty times as much +money in her pocket as Claire herself had--for Claire had scarcely +anything, and this persecuted heroine of a mother had enough money to +give her dead husband decent Christian burial, yet refused it. Did she +tell you that, Sylvia, when you found her sick in the hospital? Did she +tell you how her daughter cried out in grief, beside the very body of a +dead and beloved father, that if only he were not laid in Potter's +Field--if only he might receive holy rites of interment, she would work, +even slave, for her mother's support? Did she tell you--this model and +deeply wronged parent--that her child got from her nothing but a surly +refusal? Did she tell you that Claire then, and only then, resolved to +leave her forever? Did she tell you how Claire, faithful till the last, +followed her father, on foot or by street-car, to his pauper grave, and +saw the clods heaped over him as if he had been a dead dog, while she, +his lawful wife, stayed shamelessly at home? No, Sylvia; I will warrant +that she made another plausible story, nearly all false, with just a +grain of truth. And you readily accepted it, because it suited your +malicious ends to do so!" + +By this time Mrs. Lee had produced an exquisite fan of dark satin, +painted with charming figures of birds and flowers. While she used the +fan, slowly and gracefully, she answered: "And is it possible that you +credit this theatrical improbability, Kate?" + +Mrs. Diggs looked stern. "I don't merely believe it--I know it," she +said. "I have seen the woman. To see her--to hear her speak, was enough. +You, too, have had both experiences." + +Mrs. Lee still slowly fanned herself. "That is quite true. I have. The +charity-burial story is the purest nonsense, the most preposterous +invention, on your dear friend's part. That is my confident belief; I +assure you it is. Do you want me any more, Kate? Or are you going to +keep me here with your wild tales an hour or two longer?" + +Mrs. Diggs never in her life, with all her personal deficiencies, looked +so simply and calmly dignified as when she responded:-- + +"I shall keep you only a very little while longer, Sylvia. You may or +may not have wanted Claire's mother to enter that dining-room. But you +had your hour for her coming neatly timed, and any mortification, any +distress that you could have inflicted would have been a pleasure to +you. But I think that in all this wily and clever performance you quite +failed to remember me. I'm very staunch, very loyal to Claire. And I +give you my word that your share in the event of to-day shall not go +unpunished." + +Mrs. Lee stopped fanning herself. "Unpunished?" she repeated, haughtily +enough. + +"Oh, yes. Are you surprised at the word? Let me explain it. I merely +mean that in as short a time as I can possibly command Stuart Goldwin +shall know every detail of your recent behavior. And pray don't have the +least fear that he will disbelieve me. He knows how devoted _I_ am to +Claire Hollister. You know just how devoted to her _he_ is. I wonder in +what kind of estimation he will hold you after I have narrated my little +story, not missing a single particular ... not one, Sylvia--rest certain +of that!" + +Mrs. Lee began to fan herself again, and at the same time moved away. +Mrs. Diggs's eyes followed the slim, retreating figure. She had already +seen that her cousin's face wore an expression of pained affright. +Claire's guests had begun to make their farewells. Mrs. Lee did not join +them in this civility. She slipped from the drawing-room, instead, +unnoticed by any one, except her late antagonist, and perhaps Claire +herself. + +'She will try to meet Goldwin before I do,' thought Mrs. Diggs. 'But she +will not succeed. I, too, will leave without saying good-by to Claire, +who might not approve my scheme of chastisement if she learned it. But +it is no affair of hers. I am doing it entirely on my own account. I +propose to make Sylvia Lee remember this day as long as she lives.' + +Among the carriages of the departing guests, that of Mrs. Lee was the +first one to roll away. The carriage of Mrs. Diggs soon followed it. +Both were driven at a rapid rate, and for a certain time in the same +direction. But ultimately the courses of the two vehicles diverged. + +Each lady sent a telegram to the same destination, less than ten +minutes afterward. And each lady, after so doing, employed the same +formula of reflection: 'He will come as soon as he receives it.' + +But Mrs. Diggs's summons was the more potent; it contained the name of +Claire. + + + + +XXII. + + +Goldwin was the recipient of the two telegrams. He went first (being +driven rapidly in a cab from his Wall Street place of business) to the +house of Mrs. Diggs. + +He remained with her for at least two hours. It was now somewhat late in +the afternoon. He dined at his club, and by eight o'clock in the evening +was ringing the bell of Mrs. Lee's residence. + +She was alone, and received him with a freezing manner. "At last you are +here," she said. + +"At last," he replied, with careless ambiguity, throwing himself into an +arm-chair, and looking straight at a very comfortable wood-fire that +blazed not far off. + +"Did you receive my telegram?" + +"I did." + +"In time to come to me when it entreated you to come?" + +"I received it this afternoon. I have been prevented from making my +appearance until now." + +His voice was quite as cold and distant as her own. She went up to his +chair and laid her hand upon its arm. + +"Your manner is very abrupt and strange," she said, in greatly softened +tones. "Has anything occurred?" + +He turned and met her look. He nodded significantly once or twice +before answering. "Yes, something has occurred, most decidedly. Can't +you guess what it is? If so, you will save me the distress of +explaining." + +For several moments she was silent. "I suppose you mean that you have +seen Kate Diggs," she then hazarded. + +He nodded again. "I have," he replied. + +"Ah!" said Mrs. Lee, with an airy satire. "Then she must have made a +very strong case against me, as the lawyers phrase it." + +"Undoubtedly she has," he answered, rising. "I have heard the +prosecution; do you want me to hear the defense?" + +"Of course I demand that you shall do so," she exclaimed, "although I +don't at all like the word you describe it by! I have no need whatever +of defending myself." + +Goldwin gave one of his rich, mellow laughs. The twinkle had come back +to his eye; all his wonted geniality seemed to reclothe him. And yet his +companion rather felt than saw that it was worn as an ironical disguise. + +"Upon my word, I think you have been very hardly treated," he declared. +The sting of the real sarcasm pierced her, then, and she sensibly +recoiled. "You ought to have been allowed the privilege of witnessing +your little scandalous comedy, after you had planned it so cleverly. How +you must have suffered when it all went off in so tame and quiet a way!" + +Mrs. Lee, pale and with kindling eyes, slightly stamped one small foot. +The sound wrought by this action was faint, though quite audible. + +"You believe all that Kate Diggs has told you!" she exclaimed. "You +think I wanted a public scene. It is not true. I wanted her to be +humiliated by her own conscience at a time when she thought herself most +enviable, most lofty. I had no other motive. It was not revenge. It +never was anything like revenge." + +Goldwin's face had sobered, but he made a little shrug of the shoulders, +which was like him at his brisk, mercurial best. He had plainly seen her +falsehood. "Why on earth do you use the word?" he asked. + +She recoiled once more. "Use the word?" she half stammered, as if thrown +off her guard by this unexpected thrust. A moment afterward she went on, +with renewed vehemence, all her native drawl flurriedly quickened by +excitement. "I used it because Kate Diggs used it--because she presumed +to say that I brought that poor, suffering, deserted, outraged mother +face to face with her daughter for this reason. I don't doubt that Kate +has invented the same nonsense for you that she tried to foist upon me. +She is very loyal to her friend. She has most probably told you that +Mrs. Twining was always a monster to her daughter, and that she insisted +on having her dead husband buried by charity, in spite of prayers, +supplications, adjurations from the bereaved offspring. For my own part, +I choose utterly to discredit this trumped-up tale. I never heard +anything that resembled it from the feeble lips of the wretched woman +who had lain for weeks in the hospital. I only heard"-- + +Goldwin here broke in with a voice more hard and stern than any which +Mrs. Lee had known to leave his lips. + +"If you will pardon me for saying so, I do not wish to continue as your +listener. If you think my interruption outrageously rude, then let me +admit with frankness that I can not--yes, literally _can_ not--endure +what you now choose to state." + +She gave her small, dark head a passionate toss. "You can't endure it," +she cried, "because you think that woman perfection! You can hear +nothing that is not in her praise. You used to tell me that you thought +Kate Diggs ridiculous; you used to laugh at her as a wild, eccentric +creature. And now you are willing to credit her fictions." + +"They are not fictions," said Goldwin. "All she told me to-day was pure +truth. Don't try any longer to shake my credence of it. Your efforts +will not avail, I assure you." + +Mrs. Lee shivered. She put both hands up to her face, pressing them +there for a moment, and then suddenly removed them. She set her dark +eyes on Goldwin's face; they were glittering moistly. + +"You think I edged that woman on, to serve purposes of revenge," she +faltered. "Well, Stuart, if I did so, what was my real reason?" + +Goldwin was drawing something from an inner side-pocket of his +evening-coat. "Truly," he said, in dry, tepid tones, "I have no idea." +He fidgeted with the required something while he thus spoke. The next +moment he had produced it. It was a slim packet of letters. + +"I want to give you these," he said, with a brief, formal bow. + +He handed her the packet. She examined it for several minutes. + +"My letters," she murmured. + +"Your letters," he answered, with a slight repetition of his recent bow. + +She thrust the packet into her bosom. "You ... you have _kept_ all +these?" she questioned, after hiding them. + +"Yes," he said. + +"And you give them back to me now," she pursued, "with a meaning? Well, +with what meaning?" + +Goldwin walked quietly toward the doorway that led into the adjacent +hall. "Oh, if you want the meaning put brutally," he said, using a tone +and demeanor of much suavity, "I ... I--well, I am tired." + +"Tired?" she repeated. Her next sentence was a sort of gasp. "You--you +hate me for what I have done!" + +"I did not say that." His foot was almost on the threshold of the door +while he spoke. + +"Stuart!" she exclaimed, hurrying toward him. The lithe symmetry of her +shape was very beautiful now; her worst detractor could not have said +otherwise. She felt that the man whom she loved was leaving her forever. +She put a hand on either of his shoulders. She tried to look into his +eyes while he averted his own. + +"Will you leave me like this?" she went on. "You knew me long before you +knew _her_! Don't let us quarrel. I--I confess everything. I--I have +been very foolish. But you won't be too harsh with me--you will forgive, +will you not?" + +He did not answer her. He removed her hands. Then he receded from her. + +"Stuart!" she still appealed. + +"I have given you back your letters," he responded, standing quite near +the threshold. + +"Tell me one thing--do you love her? Is it because you love her that you +want to part from me? I--I have scarcely seen you for weeks. You once +said that a day wasn't a day unless you had seen me. Do you remember? +I've been stupid. But you won't mind so much when you've let me explain +more. Don't go quite yet. Stay a moment, and" ... + +He had passed quietly from her sight. She waited until she heard the +clang of the outer hall door. Then she understood what a knell it meant. +The alienation must now be life-long. She had made him despise her, and +she could never win him back. Seated before the fire, that snapped and +flashed as if in jeering glee at her own misery, she wept tears that had +a real pathos in them--the pathos of a repulsed love. She had never +believed herself at fault in her conduct toward Claire. Jealousy had +speedily blackened the filial act of her rival, but in any case the +story, as Mrs. Twining told it, would have roused her conviction that +this desertion had been a most unnatural and cruel one. So esteeming it, +she had played the part of castigator. She was not sure that she would +have done very differently if Claire had not been at all an object of +her hatred. She had not found the least difficulty in persuading herself +that it was wholly a moral deed to use with vengeful intent knowledge +which she would have been justified in using with an intent merely +punitory. + +But now she had wrecked all her own future by seeking to destroy +Claire's. Mrs. Twining had broken faith and betrayed her. The passion +which she felt for Goldwin was an irrecoverable one. Her detestation of +the woman who had caused their ceaseless parting grew as she wept over +the ruin of her hopes, and mingled its ferocious heat with the more +human tenderness of her tears. She passed a lurid hour, there in her +little picturesque parlor; she was in spiritual sympathy, so to speak, +with its Oriental equipments. She could have understood some of those +clandestine assassinations which the poisoned draught, the stealthy +bow-string, and the ambushed scimitar have bequeathed to history and +legend. Her past pietistic fervors had left her with no memento of +consolation. A stormy turbulence had taken hold of her mental being, and +shaken it as a blast will shake a bough. In her sorrow she was still a +woman; in her hate she was something grossly below it. + +She at length remembered the letters that he had returned to her, and +drew them forth from her bosom. For a moment the anguish of loss gained +mastery in her soul, and she held the packet clasped between both hands, +her eyes blinded to any sight of them, and her frame convulsed with +racking, internal sobs. She knew that she must read them all over again, +and thus replunge into coverts of memory whose very charm and fragrance +would deepen her despair. To re-peruse each letter would be like prying +open the slab of a grave. + +A sudden impulse assailed her as the violence of her grief subsided. She +rose, and raised the letters in one hand, meaning to hurl them into the +opposite blaze, and thus spare herself, while the destructive mood +lasted, fresh future pangs. But at this moment her glance lighted on the +packet itself. It was of moderate thickness, and tied together by a +strip of ordinary cord. Inside the cincture so made, and held there +insecurely by one sharp corner, a folded paper had caught, which seemed +foreign to the remaining contents. Mrs. Lee disengaged this paper, +opened it, and cast her tear-blurred eyes, carelessly enough at first, +over some written lines which she had immediate certainty were not her +own. + +But presently a little cry left her lips. She turned the page with a +rapid jerk, searching for a signature. She did not find any, but found +merely two initials instead. She dropped into her seat again, and with a +fire in her dark eyes that seemed to have quickly dried their last trace +of moisture, she read, pausing over nearly every word, and pondering +every sentence, a letter which ran thus:-- + + _Friday._ + + DEAR MR. GOLDWIN,--I think that I meant all the harsh treatment + I gave you last evening. When I recall what my feelings then + were, I am certain that my indignation was quite sincere. But + very much has happened since then to change me, and to change + my surroundings as well. I suppose I am in a most reckless mood + while I write these lines: my head is hot, and my hands are + cold, and tremble so that the words I am shaping have a + strange, unfamiliar look, as though I myself were not writing + them at all. Well, for that matter, the same woman whom you + lately parted from is not writing them. Another woman has taken + her place. She is a wayward, desperate sort of creature; she is + a coward, an ingrate, a worthless and feeble egotist. + + But this new identity of mine will last. I have made up my mind + to take a bold step, and nothing can now deter me. I shall not + be explicit; at some + other time I will send for you and tell you everything. You + shall hear my reasons for acting as I propose to act. I don't + claim that they are strong or good reasons, and yet I feel that + they contain a certain propulsion--they push me on. My marriage + has been an irreparable mistake; I can't go back and live the + last year over again; I can't repossess my yesterdays. Hence, I + have become willful and headstrong about my to-morrows. If I + had ever really loved Herbert, all would now be so different! + But I have never loved anybody who is now living. There you + have a frigid confession. You never roused in me anything but a + decided liking; that other woman--the woman who called herself + by my name a few hours ago--used to disapprove a good deal that + there is about you. But my new self will doubtless pass over + these faults very indulgently; she will have enough of her own + to account for. Still, she can never do more than think you + good company. I fancy that when I was a very young child nature + locked up a certain cell of my heart, and then threw away the + key where no one can ever find it. + + I mean to go abroad, very secretly, after the sale of certain + property and chattels shall have put me in possession of the + needed funds. It will be a flight--and a flight from more than + you are yet aware of. If we meet abroad--say in Paris--I may + even stoop to discuss with you that question of a divorce. It + is horrible for me to write these words. It is sin, and I feel + the stab of it. But surely Herbert deserves to be rid of me, + and perhaps he will come in time to value his freedom. I should + want him to have the right of marrying again. Would not that + be a possible arrangement? I know almost nothing of the law on + these points. + + It does not now seem conceivable that I should ever become your + wife after I had ceased to be his. I have had enough of + marriage without love. But if you should prevail with me, it + would be only because of your great wealth, and the ease and + distinction that are now slipping away from me. You see I am + hideously candid; I don't mince matters ... where would be the + use? + + Do not answer this, but destroy it immediately. In regard to + the last request, I count with perfect confidence upon your + honor. Were it not that I did so, I should never send you this + imprudent, daring, perilous scrawl. + + Do not come to me until I send for you. I cannot tell how long + that will be. + + C. H. + +Before Mrs. Lee refolded the letter which contained these words, she had +read them through certainly five successive times. + +Not until then had she made up her mind just what to do. She would put +the letter in an envelope, and direct this, very legibly, to Herbert +Hollister. Her determination was as fixed as fate.... + +When her guests had all departed, on the afternoon of this same day, +Claire slowly walked the spacious drawing-rooms for at least twenty +minutes, with her eyes bent upon the floor. + +She felt literally hunted down. The end had come; the clock had struck +twelve, and her fineries were rags, her coach-and-four was a pumpkin and +mice. She had carried it off well until the very last; she was sure of +this, and the surety gave her, even now, a bitter pleasure. She had no +doubt that the coming of her mother, with imperative demands of support +and countenance, would mean a return of all the old taunts and gibes. If +Claire's wealthful life of to-day had been destined to continue, this +prospect would have opened a less dreary vista; as it was, she foresaw +only a dropping back into the former ruts and sloughs of maternal +acrimony and intolerance. The history of her past would in a manner +repeat itself. There would be poverty again, or something closely akin +to it; there would be the mother's unpardoning disapprobation of her +child's ill-favored lot. For one marked difference, Herbert would be +present, as a fresh, assertive force. And what a miserably adverse force +it must prove! To exist with him would be hard enough, now, under any +circumstances. But if he felt perpetually the shadow and weight of this +second gloomy and heavy personality, what new hostile traits might not +his depression, his impatience, his revolt develop? + +Claire tried to take a very calm survey of the whole potential +consequence. In so doing she regarded the advent of her mother as one +factor that consorted with other untoward agencies; the central knot of +the tangle would be wrought of several tough and stubborn threads. There +could be no unraveling it. 'But the knot could be cut,' she thought, +silently continuing her metaphor, as she paced the stately rooms. + +It sent a thrill of actual terror to her when she reflected _how_ the +knot could be cut. To the feet that have set their tread on slippery +ways, evil can do much downward work by a gentle push. Claire felt +herself lapsing, now.... + +What if she wrote to Stuart Goldwin a letter very different from the one +she had already written him, and which was then hid under the fleecy +laces that clad her bosom? What if she told him that she must fly from +it all?--the love that she had outraged by cold hypocrisy, the keen if +mute reproaches that would be punishment and torture alike, the thrusts +and innuendoes from a tongue whose venom had poisoned her childhood, the +tarnish in place of splendor, the dullness in place of brilliance, the +obscurity in place of prominence, the service in place of +mastery--perhaps even the toil in place of ease? + +She tried, in a pitiable way, to rebuff temptation by taking the sole +means at hand of ending these desperate reflections. In reality she took +the most cogent means of rendering temptation more potent. She tightened +its black clutch on her soul; she went upstairs and talked with her +mother. + +Mrs. Twining had been securely convalescent some time ago. She had +passed through a complicated and dangerous illness; she had given Death +odds, yet won with him. She was still subject to those attacks of +fatigue which are inevitable with one who has proved victor in so grim a +wrestle. But she had once more gained a very firm foothold on that +solidity which bounds one known side, at least, of the valley of the +shadow. She intended, in a physical sense, to live a good many years +longer; her freshening vitality was like that of a fire in a forest, +which has stretched an arm of flame across a bare space, at the risk of +not reaching it, but in the end has caught a mighty supply of woodland +fuel. + +Claire found her stretched quite luxuriously on a lounge, with a little +table beside her, which held the remains of a hearty repast. She had +the traditional vast appetite of the recovering invalid. She had +devoured enough to have sunk a hearty person of average digestion into +abysses of dyspepsia. She had enjoyed her meal very much. It had +appeared to her as an earnest of many similar joys. + +She promptly began a series of her old characteristic sarcasms and slurs +as soon as Claire appeared. Mingled with them was an atmosphere of +odious congratulation--a sort of verbal patting on the back--which her +daughter found even more baneful than her half-latent sneers. She was +thoroughly refreshed; her food (mixed with some admirable claret) had +gone straight to the making of bodily repairs. She had never had +anything so fine and wholesome in the hospital, though after the +patronage of Mrs. Lee she had been supplied with not a few agreeable +dainties. The temporary result was that she had become in a great +measure her real self. + +Claire said very little. She did a large amount of listening. She had +never known her mother not to be without a grudge of some sort. It +brought back the past with a piercing vividness, now, while she sat and +heard. The vision of a pale, refined face, lit by soft, dark-blue eyes, +rose before her, and the memory of many a wanton assault, many a +surreptitious wound, appealed to her as well. Her father had stood it +all so bravely--he had been such a gentleman through it all! _She_ had +stood it only with a sturdy, rebellious disapproval through many of the +years that preceded his death. + +She stood it, now, with a weary tranquillity. When she went away from +her mother, these were her parting words:-- + +"I do not think I shall tell my husband, for some few days, that you are +here. There are reasons why I should not. He has some very engrossing +matters to occupy him. But you will be perfectly comfortable in the +meanwhile. Order what you please. The servants will obey you in every +particular. If you should need me, I will come immediately. You have +only to send me word. I shall be at home for the rest of to-day, and all +through the evening." + +Claire went into her own private sitting-room, after that. When she had +been there a little while, she had torn up her first letter to Goldwin. +When she had been there a little while longer, she had written the +second letter. Having finished the last, she promptly dispatched it, by +messenger, to Goldwin's private address. + +Between the hours of ten and eleven that same evening, the following +note from Goldwin was brought to Claire:-- + + _Friday Night._ + + In some unaccountable way I have lost the letter which you sent + me to-day. I feel in honor bound to tell you of this loss, + after a protracted search through my apartments and numerous + inquiries and directions at my club. I cannot sufficiently + blame myself for not having at once burned it to a crisp. But I + thrust it into my pocket after many readings, with the wish to + learn each word by heart before it was finally destroyed. Do + not feel needlessly worried. I shall do my best to recover it, + and even if it should be read by other eyes than yours and + mine, the fact of your mere initials being signed to it is an + immense safeguard. + + S. G. + +Claire had grown deathly pale as she finished the perusal of this note. +She had prepared herself for a night of wretched unrest, but here was a +dagger to murder sleep with even surer poignance. + +It was past midnight when she heard Hollister go to his apartments. She +fancied that his step was a little unsteady. If this was true, no vinous +exhilaration made it so. An excitement of most opposite cause would have +explained the altered tread. + +A saving hand had interposed between himself and ruin. The chance had +been given him of starting again--of meeting all the fiercest of his +creditors, and appeasing them. Instead of utter wreck, he had chiefly to +think of retrenchment. Perhaps what Claire believed unsteadiness in his +step was a brief pause near her own door. But even if an impulse to tell +her the good news may for a moment have risen uppermost, there must have +swept over him, promptly and sternly, the recollection of a dark and +sundering discovery. + +Meanwhile Claire, wondering if the lost letter had, through any baleful +chance, drifted into his hands, lay pierced by that affrighted remorse +which a monition of detected guilt will bring the most hardened +criminal, and which of necessity strikes with acuter fang the soul of +one yet a neophyte in sin. + + + + +XXIII. + + +Hollister passed downstairs the next morning at a little after nine +o'clock. He had obtained some sleep, of which he stood in sad need. The +cheerful elasticity of his temperament would have placed him, by natural +rebound, well in the sunlight of awakened hope and invigorated energy, +and after hours of miserable disquiet he would now have felt relieved +and peaceful, but for one leaden and insuperable fact. This had no +relation whatever with financial turmoils and embarrassments; it +concerned Claire, and the desolate difference with which her image now +rose before his spirit. + +He had told her that they must henceforth be as strangers, but already +the deeps of his unselfish love were stirred by a longing, no less +illogical than passionate, to make reality of what had once been +illusion, and to verify Claire's indifference through some unknown spell +of transformation into that warmth which had thus far proved only +lifeless counterfeit. Already Hollister found within him a spacious +capacity of pardon toward his wife. Already he had begun to exonerate, +to make allowances; and more than all, he had already told himself that +to live on without her love would be a hundredfold better than to part +with her companionship. Here cropped out the old vein of complaisance +and conciliation which had run through his earlier collegiate life, and +which later experiences amid all sorts of risk and rivalry had never +wholly obscured. It had been his power to concede, his amiable pliancy, +wed with a peculiar intellectual shrewdness, that had gone far toward +the accomplishment of his phenomenal successes. The man who makes the +best of things by instinct is very apt to have the best of things made +for him by fortune. + +His inalienable love for Claire caused him to regard her long hypocrisy +with fondly lenient eyes. The wrong done himself rapidly took a +secondary place; it was nearly always thus with Hollister, except in +those grosser cases of wanton injury from his own sex; and now, when it +became a matter between his heart and the woman that heart devotedly +loved, he was ready to forego a most liberal share of the usual human +egotism. + +He had a hard day before him. Exertion, diplomacy, astuteness, +concentration, all were needed. He was still to fall, but no longer with +a headlong plunge. He would now fall on his feet, as it were, but it +required a certain agile flexibility to make the descent a graceful one. +At any other time he would promptly have left the house after +breakfasting. As it was, he waited for Claire. She appeared sooner than +he had expected her. She had drank her coffee upstairs. He saw her +figure, clad in a morning robe of pale-tinted cachemire, enter the front +drawing-room. He had lighted a cigarette, and was standing beside the +hearth, where a riotous fire flung merry crimson challenge to the sharp +weather outside. He at once threw away his cigarette, and went forward +to meet her. + +She perceived him when he had gained the centre of the second +drawing-room. She stood perfectly still, awaiting his approach. There +was more than a chill misgiving at her heart lest some inimical hand had +sent him her own fatal letter. She did not know how she would act in +case he immediately accused her. Hours of sleepless unrest had not +supplied her with a single defensive plea. + +The new serenity on Hollister's face struck her at a glance. It gave her +a sudden relief; it was like a reprieve just before execution. When he +said "good morning" she answered him with the same words. She wondered +if he had already noticed her pallor, or that a dark line lay under +either eye. Her dressing-mirror had told her of these changes.... Might +he not guess at sight the guilty agony that she had been enduring? + +Her altered looks were not lost upon him. They were a new intercession +in her behalf. "I have good news for you," he said, almost tenderly. He +went toward the richly-draped mantel just opposite where she stood, and +leaned one arm along its edge. He purposely let his eye wander a little, +so that she would suspect in him no intentness of scrutiny. + +"Good news?" she repeated, softly. + +"Yes. I thought it was all up with me, yesterday. But a friend of yours +has placed funds at my disposal which will enable me, with wise +management, to weather the worst of the storm. He dropped into my office +at a very critical moment. He used the nicest delicacy and tact. Before +I actually realized that he was offering me very substantial aid, he had +done so. And yet, with all his graceful method, he didn't beat about the +bush. He was frankly straightforward. He said just why he wished to see +my affairs righted--or at least creditably mended. That reason was his +deep respect and sincere admiration for you. He told me, with a winning +mixture of humor and seriousness, that you represented for him the one +great repentance of his bachelorhood. And when I looked at his +world-worn sort of face and his decidedly gray locks, and began to +wonder whether he meant his amazing proposition in any unpleasant sense, +he assured me that he had always seen in you, the daughter whom he had +possibly missed being the father of.... Of course you now recognize his +portrait; or have I not drawn it clearly enough?" + +"Do you mean Beverley Thurston?" asked Claire. + +"Yes. You see, now, how generous an act of friendship he performed." + +"Yes, I see," Claire murmured. + +"The funds he proffered--and which I accepted--are by no means all his +own. His influence is so great, his standing is so secure, that he has +actually been able to associate four well-known capitalists (one of +whom, by the way, chanced to be my personal friend) in carrying out this +wonderfully benevolent work." Here Hollister paused for a considerable +space. "Of course," he at length went on, "I shall not do more than just +escape a positive deadlock. The next few years must be full of cautious +living and thinking. I have accepted the burden of a huge debt; but I +believe firmly in my power to pay it off. And I have learned a lesson +that I shall always profit by. They shall never call me a Wall Street +king again. I have seen my last of big ventures. I shall want, if I can +manage hereafter when every penny of liabilities shall be settled, to +drift slowly but safely into a steady banking channel. I shall have +friends enough left on the Street; I shan't have lost caste; I shall +still hold my own. At least twenty good men have gone clean down in this +flurry, without a chance of ever picking themselves up again. But I am +going to pick myself up--that is, thanks to the helping hand of your +precious elderly friend; for I could never have done it alone." + +Claire knew not what to answer. She was thinking of the sweet, deceitful +kindliness that Thurston had employed. She was thinking how little she +deserved his timely and inestimable support. She was asking herself +whether he would not have shrunk in sorrowful contempt from all such +splendid almsgiving if he had known the real truth concerning her recent +mad and sinister act. + +While she was trying to shape some sort of adequate reply, the entrance +of a servant rendered this unnecessary. The man handed Hollister a +letter, bowed, and departed. + +Claire's heart instantly began to beat hard and fast. A mist obscured +her gaze while she watched Hollister tear open the envelope and unfold +its contents. There was a sofa quite near; she sank into it; she felt +dizzy enough to close her eyes. But she did not. She looked straight at +her husband, and saw him begin a perusal of the unfolded sheet. Was it +her letter to Goldwin? Why should she even fancy this? Were there not +hundreds of other sources whence a letter might come to Herbert? + +In a very little while she saw her husband grow exceedingly pale. He +left off reading; he looked at her, and said: "Did you write this?" He +held the paper out toward her as he spoke. + +Claire rose, crossed the room, and cast her eyes over the extended page. + +"Yes, it is mine," she answered him. + +The voice did not seem his own in which he presently said: "I must read +it. I must read it with my full attention. If I leave you for a little +while, will you remain here until I return?" + +"Yes," she said. + +"You promise this?" + +"I promise--yes." + +Without another word to her, he walked back into the dining-room. +Perhaps twenty good minutes passed before he returned. Claire had +meanwhile nerved herself to meet something terrible. She had no idea +what her husband's wrath would be like, but she felt that there might +almost be death in it. + +Hollister had hardly begun to address her before she perceived that he +did not reveal a single trace of wrath. His eyes were much brighter than +usual; he had not a vestige of color; his voice was low and of an +increased unfamiliarity, but it did not contain the slightest sign of +indignation. + +She had seated herself on the sofa again, and he now came very close to +her, standing while he spoke. He held the letter in his hand, which +trembled a little. + +"You wrote this to Goldwin, and it has been lost by him. Some one else +has found it, and sent it to me. The handwriting on the envelope is not +his." + +Claire looked at him in blank amazement. It did not seem to her that he +could possibly be the man whom she had thus far known as Herbert +Hollister. He appeared radically and utterly changed. She could not +understand just where the change lay, or in what it consisted. She was +too bewildered to analyze it or in any way draw conclusions from it. She +was simply pierced with a pungent sense of its existence. + +"He lost it," she said. "He wrote me that he had lost it. You are right +in thinking that some one else has sent it to you." + +She wondered what he would now say. She forgot even to feel shame in his +presence. She was asking herself what had so completely altered him. Why +was he neither angry nor reproachful? The very expression of his +features looked strangely unusual. It was almost as if the spirit of +some new man had entered into his body. + +"Whoever has sent this," he soon said, "is your enemy, and wishes you +great harm. But thank God I have it!" He crushed the paper in his hand, +immediately afterward, and thrust it within his pocket. Claire rose from +the sofa. Her hands hung at either side, in a helpless way. Her eyes +were still fastened upon his face. + +"Are you acting a part?" she asked, with a sort of weary desperation. "I +realize that I have done a horrible thing. But tell me at once what +course you mean to take. If I am to leave your house, and never to be +noticed by you again, order me to go, and I will go. The letter shows +you that I care nothing for that man. I don't make excuses; I have none +to make. But I am not an adulteress even in thought. Remember what I +say. My sin, dark as it is, has not that one hideous element. I wanted +to desert you--to go abroad--you read the whole story in the letter. You +have only to speak the word, and you shall have looked on me for the +last time.... It is your silence that tortures me.... Why are you +silent? Here I stand before you, without a shadow of right to defend +myself, and yet you force from me a certain kind of miserable defense, +because you will not either rebuke or denounce me." + +He had been looking at her very steadily. He now caught one of her hands +in both his own. + +"Claire," he said, "I have only one wish--one thought: to save you." + +"Save me?" she repeated. + +He went on speaking with great speed. His eyes were fixed on her own, +and they were filled with a light that was rich and sweet. She had never +known him to be like this before; he was just as tender as of old, but +beneath his tenderness there was a strength, a decision, a virile +assertion, that gave him a new, startling personality. + +"Yes," he said, "to save you. There is no great mischief done, as it is. +I think some woman sent me your letter. It is just what some envious or +spiteful woman would do. But I have it, and can destroy it. You ask me +what course I mean to take. You ask me whether I shall bid you to leave +my house. My only answer, Claire, is this: if you have no love for me, +then I have a very great love for you. I think you knew this long ago. I +am your friend, poor child--not only your husband, but your friend. You +shan't go wrong while I have the brain and the nerve to stand between +you and folly. Other men might take another course. I don't care. You +are pure, still; I am certain of it, and you shall remain pure. You are +my wife; I will protect you; it's my duty to protect you. You have never +loved me; you married me without a spark of love. But I gave you as +large a love as man ever gave to woman. It's in my heart still. It can +never die. If it were not so large and so true it would not seek to +guard and shield you now. But it does--it must.... Claire, Claire, you +have been terribly foolish! A little more, and I could have done nothing +to save you. A little more, and I must have cast you off. But as it is, +I can and will plant myself between you and disgrace!" + +He had been holding her hand all through the utterance of these words. +But now he released it, and slightly withdrew from her. + +She advanced toward him. There was a look of absolute awe on her face. +She recognized how much her own blindness had been hiding from her. His +very stature seemed to have risen. His tolerance appealed to her with +sublimity. It flashed through her mind: 'What other man would have acted +as he has done?' + +In a few brief moments she knew him as the noble and high being he +really was. The tears besieged her eyes. The enormity of the wrong she +had done him horrified her. She stood quivering in his presence. The +impulse assailed her literally to kneel before him. She grasped his arm; +her dry, tearless eyes searched his pale face with a madness of +contrition in their look. + +"Herbert," she faltered.... "Herbert, I--I never knew till now that you +could be so grand and strong! What kept me from loving you was your own +love for _me_. It seemed to make you weak; it seemed to put you below +me. You were always yielding to me--always paying me reverence. But _I_ +should have bowed before _you_. You were worthy of it, and I did not +see ... I never saw till now!... Herbert, _I love you_!... Oh, these are +not idle words! They spring straight from my soul! If you want the +repentance of my future life, it is yours! Why did you not show me your +real self till so late? What shall I do to prove my love? You must not +pardon me so easily--no, I cannot endure that! It makes me sick with +shame to be treated so! Such a mercy would be cruelty. You must punish +me, somehow--I must undergo some penance, the harder the better. You +have no right to trust me again until I have passed through some sort of +cleansing fire--suffered, been mortified, humiliated, taught a stern and +fearful lesson! You gave me everything; there was nothing in the world I +did not owe to you; you lifted me from dependence into the most +brilliant prosperity. And I--Good Heavens! I was a viper of ingratitude! +I might call it madness; I might say that the lust for riches and power +made me conceive this treacherous and contemptible idea of deserting +you--made me decide that we could not live together when the wealth had +gone. But it was no madness--there was too clear a method in it for +that. It was merely base and mean--it can have no palliative.... +Herbert, don't look at me with any love, any pity in your face. I can't +bear it--I--I want to creep away somewhere and die. I am not fit to have +you touch me--No, no! you _must_ not!" ... + +She had receded from him; she meant to quit the room, though her limbs +felt weak and her head giddy, and she was not sure whether she could +reach the doorway without falling. But on a sudden his arms clasped her. +How strong they seemed! She had never till now had so keen a sense of +even his bodily strength. When his lips touched her own she burst into +tears. She was still struggling to free herself, but he held her too +firmly; she could not escape. + +"Claire," she heard him say, with a tenderness of tone more exquisite +than any he had yet used, "I couldn't help forgiving you, dear, no +matter how hard I might try. Oh, darling, let us begin all over again! +You say that you do love me at last! Well, I believe you! _I want to +believe you, and I will!_ How could I ever punish you? You haven't been +so greatly to blame--don't torment yourself by thinking you have. People +were flattering and courting you; they made you a perfect queen; they +turned your head. Now all that is over. I think there is a great +happiness in store for us both, my love--a happiness that the money +never brought us while it lasted. Perhaps, after all, it is better that +I should find you weak. It makes you more human in my sight. I shan't +bow down before you any more, as you say that I did; I shall only love +you ... love you forever--love you till death, and beyond it, too, I +hope!" + +He was kissing her cheek as he uttered these final words; but it had +already seemed to take a certain chill, and in another moment he was +forced to bear up her form, for it had no power whatever of +self-support. She had fainted in his arms.... + +She found him close beside her when she regained consciousness. She lay +upon the lounge in her own dressing-room upstairs. He was bathing her +forehead with cologne, and holding to her nostrils a handkerchief +drenched with it. He had begun to be alarmed at her continued swoon. +The first thing that her eyes reopened upon was his smile of glad +relief. + +The light of that smile stayed with Claire through years. It bathed her +life in perpetual sunshine. + +Everything altered in a few more weeks. They left the great house and +went to live in the smaller one, which Claire personally owned, and +which Hollister would not let her give back to him, though she pleaded +with him more than once on this subject. + +"No," he would always say. "It is yours, and that means it is mine as +well. I meant, when the crash first came, that you should keep it, and I +was glad that the law made it yours. If I let you give it back to me, +this would look as if I had lost faith in you. And I have lost no faith; +I have gained a new faith--that is all." + +'To think that I should ever have known this man and not have loved +him!' she would say to herself again and again. + +Every successive day brought with it a dear surprise. She felt toward +her husband as though his nature were a region through which she had +journeyed heedlessly but was now revisiting with sharpened vision, +vitalized intelligence. Traits and qualities that she could not but +remember him to have possessed, now assumed a beauty, a harmony, a +proportion, an allurement that she had never before dreamed of +recognizing. A fresh light, so to speak, flooded the beloved landscape +of his character. Vale, grove, wayside, were all preciously different +from of old. Over them sang awakened birds, and still higher leaned a +shining sky, fond, fathomless, prophetic. + +Very few of their former fashionable acquaintances showed the slightest +sign of deserting them. Hollister had been one of the many victims of +the dire panic, but it soon became generally understood that he was +going to make honorable settlement with his creditors--that he was on +the list of the seriously wounded, so to speak, and not on that of the +killed. In many instances there was even an increase of civility. Cards +were left at the door of the small house, just as they had been left at +the door of the more spacious one. Society made it a matter of _amour +propre_ not to drop them. It had taken them up; it could not afford to +discountenance them for the single fault of a reduced income. The +thorough-paced plutocrat is always very slow to admit his claims founded +on anything so vulgar as a purely mercenary basis; and the aristocrat, +on the other hand, will very often pay you a kind of proud loyalty when +he has once openly ranked you as his equal. Moreover, both Claire and +her husband had an ample personal popularity to fall back upon. They had +been graceful and charming young figures, felicitously harmonizing with +their festal background. Their absence left a sensible void. + +But it was an absence, and as such it continued. Claire's love for the +superficial glitter and pomp of what she had always inwardly felt to be +sham and falsity was no longer even a dumb sensation. It had become the +merest memory, and by no means a pleasant one. She had changed for the +last time in her life. The change was securely permanent, now. If she +looked into the future and asked herself what unfulfilled desire lay +there, it was always to thrill with the hope that Herbert might one day +be rid of all financial worriment, and that their home, already lit and +warmed by a precious mutual love, might receive the blessing of a happy +tranquillity as well. + +For a long time this hope looked very far from being realized. She was +untiringly devoted to his interests, and would hold long talks with him +regarding the complicated and distracting nature of his affairs. Her apt +mind, her ready and shrewd counsel, no longer surprised him; but he +recognized with an untold joy the different motives that now spurred and +animated her. In the end light began to break from darkness. Hollister +still kept steady the extraordinary nerve which had before enabled him +to set aflame and continue such astonishing pyrotechnics of speculation. +It slowly and surely became evident to him that he would soon have +steered clear of all disastrous reefs, and bring forth from the final +dying rage of the big tempest a ship not so wholly shattered that +careful repairs and cautious sailing hereafter might not keep it very +seaworthy for many years. + +Claire had meanwhile exulted in her economies, and conducted them with +that same easy tact and skill which had marked her past supervision of a +large and splendid establishment. She still preserved a certain residuum +of friends. There was no ascetic renunciation of all worldly pleasures, +either on her own or Hollister's part. It amused her to observe just +whom she retained as her intimates and allies. The survival of the +fittest, in this respect, was something to note and value. It showed her +that the gay throng in which she had shone was not all made of +worthlessly flippant members. But those, both men and women, whom she +now liked to have about her had each stood some pleasant test, had each +presented to her some solid or sterling trait of mind or character, +which gave them a passport into the gentler, healthier, and wiser +conditions of her new life. + +Beverley Thurston paid only rare visits to her home. She understood why +he did not come oftener; she never pressed him to come. She had thanked +him for his great service, with moist eyes and breaking voice. But she +had not told him of the sweet ascendancy that her husband had gained. +She had tried to let him see this change. Such revelation had been less +difficult than spoken words; for all words on a subject that had now +become so holy appeared to her impious. + +During many days after imparting to her husband the knowledge that he +must henceforward receive her mother into his household, she had dreaded +the clash of their widely opposite natures, and foreseen trouble that +would only lend weight and severity to that which fate had already +inflicted. But by degrees she found herself laughing with Herbert at the +shadows of her own fears. He treated Mrs. Twining as a kind of grim +joke. With her invigorated health, she was prepared to hold him strictly +accountable for his altered circumstances. Her sarcasms were more +pitiless than Claire had ever remembered them. She took the attitude of +a person who has been shut out from a banquet until the viands are all +demolished, and then admitted to feed upon the unsatisfactory debris. +She had no intention whatever of forgiving Hollister his misfortunes. In +all her career of repulsive deportment she had never achieved a more +obnoxious triumph. And yet, by the sheer force of good-humored, +gallant, conciliatory kindness, Hollister at length succeeded in +conquering her. She found it simply impossible to annoy him. He insisted +upon not taking her seriously. His amiability was so impenetrable that +she finally receded before it, and began to profess toward him a sort of +gloomy, reluctant liking. + +"I see," Claire said to him one day. "She is my punishment. But why +should you share it?" + +"Nonsense," he answered. "I think she is immense fun." It seemed to +Claire that he was quite in earnest as he thus spoke. + +"She really does like you," Claire said. "In all my life, Herbert, I +have never known her to like--actually _like_--any one till now." + +"That makes it all the funnier," he returned, with a slight, blithe +laugh. She knew he was in earnest, then, and felt a deep sense of +comfort. + +Once Claire had spoken to him of Goldwin.... It already seemed far back +in the past, now, although it was scarcely a year ago. Her words had +been very few; her cheeks had burned while she uttered them. + +"Herbert," she had said, "I feel that I must ask you whether you +have--have met"--And here she paused. Then, while he saw the pain and +shame on her face, she went stammeringly on: "Oh, you know whom I +mean--I don't want even to speak his name again--but it is best that I +knew on ... on what terms you are, and all that." + +He grew pale while he looked at her. His voice was very grave, but +perfectly kind. + +"I see him nearly every day, Claire. That is inevitable, you know. I +have spoken to him only once since--that time. I didn't quite know +whether I was strong enough to keep my temper. But I did keep it. I told +him that I had learned everything. And then I told him, very quietly, +that if he ever dared to address me again I would find an excuse for +cowhiding him." + +Claire sprang up from her seat. "Oh, Herbert! did you say that? And did +he ... stand it?" + +"Yes, he stood it. I didn't think he would, for a moment or two. It was +imprudent of me, perhaps--on your account, I mean. But he walked away, +without a word.... And now, Claire, promise me that you will never, as +long as we both live, refer to this matter again." + +She threw her arms about his neck. "Never!" she cried. "I didn't want to +speak of it, as it was. I promise you, with all my heart!" + +They had been married several years when a child, a boy, was born to +them. Claire made the most adoring of mothers. Mrs. Diggs, who was +forever dropping in upon her friend, with even more than her former +intimacy, said, once, while she watched the baby laugh on its mother's +lap, after the bath that Claire had lovingly given it with her own +hands:-- + +"Upon my word, it does seem so odd, don't you know? I can't just quite +realize it, even yet, Claire, dear." + +"Realize what?" said Claire, looking up from the rosy little treasure on +her lap with a smile and two touches of color, for which the joy of her +own motherhood was solely responsible. + +"Why, that you are the same being I used to know. It's a perfectly +lovely change. You remember how I used to dote on you then. But I dote +on you even more, now. Still, where _have_ all your grand ambitions +flown to?" + +Claire looked serious, for a moment. Then she gave a light, sweet laugh. +"Oh, I'm a very ambitious woman yet," she said. + + +THE END. + + + + +[Illustration] + +Works of Fiction + +PUBLISHED BY + +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, + +4 PARK STREET, BOSTON, MASS. + + +Thomas Bailey Aldrich. + + Story of a Bad Boy. Illustrated. 12mo $1.50 + Marjorie Daw and Other People. 12mo 1.50 + Prudence Palfrey. 12mo 1.50 + The Queen of Sheba. 12mo 1.50 + The Stillwater Tragedy. 12mo 1.50 + + +Hans Christian Andersen. + + Complete Works. First complete edition in English, published by + arrangement with the author. In ten uniform volumes, crown 8vo. + + The Improvisatore; or, Life in Italy 1.50 + The Two Baronesses 1.50 + O. T.; or, Life in Denmark 1.50 + Only a Fiddler 1.50 + In Spain and Portugal 1.50 + A Poet's Bazaar 1.50 + Pictures of Travel 1.50 + The Story of my Life. With portrait 1.50 + Wonder Stories told for Children. Illustrated 1.50 + Stories and Tales. 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Steel portrait. 2 vols. 3.00 + The Snow-Image 1.50 + English Note-Books. 2 vols. 3.00 + Septimius Felton 1.50 + + _Fireside Edition._ With 23 Vignette Illustrations. Complete in + thirteen volumes, including the Index volume. 16mo. + The set 21.00 + Half calf 42.00 + Half seal 45.00 + Tree calf 53.00 +(_Sold only in sets._) + + The Scarlet Letter. _Holiday Edition._ Illustrated by + Mary Hallock Foote. Red-line border. 8vo 4.00 + Morocco, or tree calf 9.00 + Tales of the White Hills, and Legends of New England. 32mo .75 + Legends of Province House, and A Virtuoso's Collection. 32mo .75 + + +Oliver Wendell Holmes. + + Elsie Venner. A Romance of Destiny. Crown 8vo 2.00 + The Guardian Angel. Crown 8vo 2.00 + The Story of Iris. 32mo .75 + + +Blanche Willis Howard. + + One Summer. A Novel. "Little Classic" style. 18mo 1.25 + Holiday Edition. Illustrated by Hoppin. Square 12mo 2.50 + + +Augustus Hoppin. + + Recollections of Auton House. Illustrated. Small 4to 1.25 + A Fashionable Sufferer. Illustrated. 12mo 1.50 + + +William Dean Howells. + + Their Wedding Journey. Illustrated. 12mo 1.50 + The Same. Illustrated. Paper covers. 16mo .50 + The Same. "Little Classic" style. 18mo 1.25 + A Chance Acquaintance. Illustrated. 12mo 1.50 + The Same. Illustrated. Paper covers. 16mo .50 + The Same. "Little Classic" style. 18mo 1.25 + A Foregone Conclusion. 12mo 1.50 + The Lady of the Aroostook. 12mo 1.50 + The Undiscovered Country. 12mo 1.50 + A Day's Pleasure, etc. 32mo .75 + + +Thomas Hughes. + + Tom Brown's School-Days at Rugby. + _Illustrated Edition._ 16mo 1.00 + Tom Brown at Oxford. 16mo 1.25 + + +Henry James, Jr. + + A Passionate Pilgrim, and Other Tales. 12mo 2.00 + Roderick Hudson. 12mo 2.00 + The American. 12mo 2.00 + Watch and Ward. "Little Classic" style. 18mo 1.25 + The Europeans. 12mo 1.50 + Confidence. 12mo 1.50 + The Portrait of a Lady. 12mo 2.00 + + +Anna Jameson. + + Studies and Stories. "Little Classic" style. 18mo 1.50 + + +Douglas Jerrold. + + Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures. Illustrated. + "Riverside Classics." 16mo 1.00 + + +Sarah Orne Jewett. + + Deephaven. "Little Classic" style. 18mo 1.25 + Old Friends and New. "Little Classic" style. 18mo 1.25 + Country By-Ways. 18mo 1.25 + The Mate of the Daylight. 18mo 1.25 + + +Rossiter Johnson. + + "Little Classics." Each in one volume. 18mo. + + I. Exile. + II. Intellect. + III. Tragedy. + IV. Life. + V. Laughter. + VI. Love. + VII. Romance. + VIII. Mystery. + IX. Comedy. + X. Childhood. + XI. Heroism. + XII. Fortune. + XIII. Narrative Poems. + XIV. Lyrical Poems. + XV. Minor Poems. + XVI. Nature. + XVII. Humanity. + XVIII. Authors. + Each volume 1.00 + The set 18.00 + Half calf, or half morocco 45.00 + The Same. In nine volumes, square 16mo, + The set 13.50 + Half calf 27.00 + Half morocco 30.00 + Tree calf 40.50 +(_Sold only in sets._) + + +Charles and Mary Lamb. + + Tales from Shakespeare. 18mo 1.00 + The Same. Illustrated. 16mo 1.00 + + +George Parsons Lathrop. + + An Echo of Passion. 16mo 1.25 + + +Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. + + Hyperion. A Romance. 16mo 1.50 + _Popular Edition._ 16mo .40 + _Popular Edition._ Paper covers, 16mo .15 + Outer-Mer. 16mo 1.50 + _Popular Edition._ 16mo .40 + _Popular Edition._ Paper covers, 16mo .15 + Kavanagh. 16mo 1.50 + + +Nora Perry. + + The Tragedy of the Unexpected, and Other Stories. + "Little Classic" style. 18mo 1.25 + + +Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. + + The Gates Ajar. 16mo 1.50 + Men, Women, and Ghosts. 16mo 1.50 + Hedged In. 16mo 1.50 + The Silent Partner. 16mo 1.50 + The Story of Avis. 16mo 1.50 + Sealed Orders, and Other Stories. 16mo 1.50 + Friends: A Duet. 16mo 1.25 + Doctor Zay. 16mo 1.25 + Beyond the Gates. 16mo 1.25 + + +Joseph Xavier Boniface Saintine. + + Picciola. "Riverside Classics." Illustrated. 16mo 1.00 + + +Jacques Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. + + Paul and Virginia. "Riverside Classics." Illustrated. 16mo 1.00 + The Same, together with Undine, and Sintram. 32mo .75 + + +Sir Walter Scott. + + The Waverley Novels. _Illustrated Library Edition._ This + edition has been carefully edited, and is illustrated with 100 + engravings by Darley, Dielman, Fredericks, Low, Share, + Sheppard, and Other artists. The introduction which appeared in + the _Abbotsford Edition_, and the illustrated notes inserted in + subsequent editions, have been reproduced here, furnishing all + needed explanation of the novels and the history of their + production. There are also a glossary and a very full index of + characters. In 25 volumes, 12mo. + + Waverley. + Guy Mannering. + The Antiquary. + Rob Roy. + Old Mortality. + Black Dwarf, and Legend of Montrose. + Heart of Mid-Lothian. + Bride of Lammermoor. + Ivanhoe. + The Monastery. + The Abbot. + Kenilworth. + The Pirate. + The Fortunes of Nigel. + Peveril of the Peak. + Quentin Durward. + St. Ronan's Well. + Redgauntlet. + The Betrothed, and the Highland Widow. + The Talisman, and Other Tales. + Woodstock. + The Fair Maid of Perth. + Anne of Geierstein. + Count Robert of Paris. + The Surgeon's Daughter, and Castle Dangerous. + Each volume 1.00 + The set 25.00 + Half calf 62.50 + Half seal 75.00 + + _Globe Edition._ Complete in 13 volumes. With 100 + Illustrations. 16mo. + The set 16.25 + Half calf, or half morocco 35.00 +(_Sold only in sets._) + + Tales of a Grandfather. _Illustrated Library Edition._ + With six steel plates. In three volumes, 12mo 4.50 + Half calf 9.00 + Ivanhoe. Fancy binding. 8vo 1.00 + Half calf 2.50 + + +Horace E. Scudder. + + The Dwellers in Five-Sisters' Court. 16mo 1.25 + Stories and Romances. 16mo 1.25 + + +Mark Sibley Severance. + + Hammersmith: His Harvard Days. 12mo 1.50 + + +T. D. Sherwood. + + Comic History of the United States. Illustrated. 12mo 2.50 + + +J. E. Smith. + + Oakridge: An Old-Time Story of Maine. 12mo 2.00 + + +Mary A. Sprague. + + An Earnest Trifler. 16mo 1.25 + + +Harriet Beecher Stowe. + + Agnes of Sorrento. 12mo 1.50 + The Pearl of Orr's Island. 12mo 1.50 + Uncle Tom's Cabin. _Popular Illustrated Edition._ 12mo 2.00 + The Minister's Wooing. 12mo 1.50 + The Mayflower, and Other Sketches. 12mo 1.50 + Nina Gordon (formerly called "Dred"). 12mo 1.50 + Oldtown Folks. 12mo 1.50 + Sam Lawson's Fireside Stories. Illustrated. + _New Edition_, enlarged 1.50 + The above eight volumes in box 12.00 + Uncle Tom's Cabin. _Holiday Edition._ With red line + border. Introduction, and a Bibliography by George Bullen, + of the British Museum. Over 100 Illustrations. 12mo 3.50 + Half calf 6.50 + Morocco, or tree calf 8.00 + _Illustrated Subscription Edition._ + With 106 Illustrations. 8vo. +(_Sold only by Subscription._) + + +Gen. Lew Wallace. + + The Fair God; or, The Last of the 'Tzins. A Tale + of the Conquest of Mexico. 12mo 1.50 + + +Henry Watterson. + + Oddities in Southern Life and Character. Illustrated. 16mo 1.50 + + +Adeline D. T. Whitney. + + Faith Gartney's Girlhood. 12mo 1.50 + Hitherto: A Story of Yesterdays. 12mo 1.50 + Patience Strong's Outings. 12mo 1.50 + The Gayworthys. 12mo 1.50 + Leslie Goldthwaite. Illustrated. 12mo 1.50 + We Girls: A Home Story. Illustrated. 12mo 1.50 + Real Folks. Illustrated. 12mo 1.50 + The Other Girls. Illustrated. 12mo 1.50 + Sights and Insights. 2 vols. 12mo 3.00 + Odd, or Even? 12mo 1.50 + Boys at Chequasset. 12mo 1.50 + The above twelve volumes in box 18.00 + + *.* _For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt + of price (in check on Boston or New York, money-order, or + registered letter) by the Publishers,_ + + +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, +4 PARK ST., BOSTON, MASS.; 11 EAST SEVENTEENTH ST., +NEW YORK. + +_A Catalogue containing portraits of many of the above authors, with a +description of their works, will be sent free, on application, to any +address._ + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Ellipses left as per original. + +Changes made: + + Pg. 120 "chance of a a [deleted one "a"] visitor being brought thither" + Pg. 130 "a mansion of imposing dismensions" changed to "dimensions" + Pg. 153 "a simplicity of wordliness" changed to "worldliness" + Pg. 183 "door-ways of high-priced restaurants." changed to "doorways" + Pg. 207 "side-long glances at Claire." changed to "sidelong" + Pg. 220 "Nous avions peur que tu ne fus [changed to "fusses"] tombee" + Pg. 246 "Then you'll understand the massive condecension" + changed to "condescension" + Pg. 249 "elle veut d'etre absollument" changed to "absolument" + Pg. 249 "nous allons a New York toute de suite" changed to "tout" + Pg. 249 "elle veut d'etre absolument perdue" changed to "etre" + Pg. 307 "difficulty this and the sentences that fellowed" + changed to "followed" + Pg. 360 "don't you know, if I had'nt" changed to "hadn't" + Pg. 415 "I do not wish to continue [as] your" added "as" + Pg. 449 "The Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Sketches. 6mo" + changed to "16mo" + + +Multiple spellings not changed: + + ain't, aint + 'Tain't, 'T ain't + cobble-stones, cobblestones + melo-dramatic, melodramatic + p'raps, p'r'aps + schoolfellows, school-fellows + undercurrent, under-current + woodwork, wood-work + staunch, stanch + subtle, subtile + loyal, leal + + +Also kept as it appears in the original: + + Pg. 125 "what her dead had been" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Ambitious Woman, by Edgar Fawcett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AMBITIOUS WOMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 38075.txt or 38075.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/7/38075/ + +Produced by Fulvia Hughes, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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