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-.. -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-

-

-.. meta::

-   :PG.Id: 47434

-   :PG.Title: Infatuation

-   :PG.Released: 2014-11-22

-   :PG.Rights: Public Domain

-   :PG.Producer: Al Haines

-   :DC.Creator: Lloyd Osbourne

-   :MARCREL.ill: Karl Anderson

-   :DC.Title: Infatuation

-   :DC.Language: en

-   :DC.Created: 1909

-   :coverpage: images/img-cover.jpg

-

-===========

-INFATUATION

-===========

-

-.. clearpage::

-

-.. pgheader::

-

-.. container:: titlepage center white-space-pre-line

-

-   .. vspace:: 4

-

-   .. class:: xx-large bold

-

-      INFATUATION

-

-   .. vspace:: 2

-

-   .. class:: medium

-

-      BY

-

-   .. class:: large

-

-      LLOYD OSBOURNE

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      AUTHOR OF

-      The Motomaniacs, The Adventurer, Etc.

-

-   .. vspace:: 3

-

-   .. class:: medium

-

-      With Illustrations by

-      KARL ANDERSON

-

-   .. vspace:: 3

-

-   .. class:: medium

-

-      INDIANAPOLIS

-      THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY

-      PUBLISHERS

-

-   .. vspace:: 4

-

-.. container:: verso center white-space-pre-line

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      COPYRIGHT 1909

-      THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      MARCH

-

-   .. vspace:: 3

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      PRESS OF

-      BRAUNWORTH & CO.

-      BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS

-      BROOKLYN, N. Y.

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER I`:

-

-.. class:: center x-large bold

-

-   INFATUATION

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER I

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Phyllis Ladd lost her mother at twelve;

-and this bereavement, especially terrible to

-an only child, brought with it two consequences

-that had a far-reaching effect on her character.

-An ardent, high-strung nature, acquainted

-so early with a poignant sorrow, gets an outlook on

-the world that is so just and true as to constitute

-a misfortune in itself.  A child ought not to think;

-ought not to suffer; ought not to understand.

-Individuality, sympathy, sensibility awaken--qualities

-that go to make a charming human being--but

-which have to be paid for in the incessant

-balance of our complex existence.  Phyllis'

-school-fellows were no longer the same to her; she felt

-herself a person apart; though she played as gaily

-as any of them, and chattered her head off, and

-tripped blithely along Chestnut Avenue entwined

-in the arms of her companions, she was aware, down

-in her secret heart, that she was "different."

-

-At twelve, then, her path diverged from the

-commonplace, in which, as we all have to admit,

-however reluctantly, the chances for a happy life are best.

-

-The second consequence of her mother's death

-was to bring her into contact with a scarcely known

-individual--her father.  This grave, handsome

-man, who sat behind a newspaper at breakfast, and

-who was not seen again till dinner time; who drove

-away every morning behind a liveried coachman

-and a pair of shining bays to a region called "the

-office"; whose smile and voice were always a shy

-delight to her--this demigod, admired, unknown,

-from whom there emanated a delicious sense of

-security and strength, now suddenly drew her to his

-heart, and became her world, her all.

-

-Robert T. R. Ladd was the president of the K. B. and

-O. Railway.  Rich himself, and the son of a

-rich man, his interests in Carthage were varied and

-many, engaging his activities far beyond the great

-road that was associated with his name.  Carthage

-was an old-fashioned city; and the boys who had

-grown up together and succeeded their fathers were

-clannish to a degree little known in the newer parts

-of this country.  Joe, who was prominent in

-electricity and gas, might want to consolidate a

-number of scattered plants, and to that end would seek

-the assistance of Tom and Harry and Bob.  George,

-perhaps, in forecasting the growth of Carthage a

-little too generously, was in temporary straits

-with his land-scheme--well, he would ask Tom

-and Bob to tide him over, making a company of

-himself, and taking them in.  Frank and his

-brother, in converting their private bank into the

-Fifth National--induced as much as anything by

-the vanity of seeing their own names on their

-own greenbacks--would feel the need of a strong

-local man on the new directorate.  Would Bob

-oblige them?  "Why, with pleasure, though if

-somebody else would do as well--"  "Oh, we

-must have *you*, old fellow."

-

-Such was Carthage--at least the Carthage of

-Chestnut Avenue, of the long lines of stately and

-beautiful mansions on what was called the West

-Side, the Carthage that supported the Symphony

-Orchestra, owned the parterre boxes at the opera,

-dined, drove, danced, and did business

-together--as compact and jealous a little aristocracy as any

-in Hungary or Silesia.  Of course there was

-another Carthage--several other Carthages--one a

-teeming riverside quarter where English was an

-unknown tongue, a place black with factory

-chimneys, full of noise and refuse, dirt and ugliness,

-where forty thousand nondescript foreigners pigged

-together, and contributed forty thousand pairs of

-very grimy and unwilling hands to the material

-advancement of the city and state.  There was a

-business Carthage, with banks and sky-scrapers, and

-vast webs of wires that darkened the sky.  There

-was a pleasure Carthage that awoke only at night,

-blazing out with a myriad lights, and a myriad

-enticements.  There was a middle-class residence

-Carthage; a second-class residence Carthage; an

-immense, poor, semi-disreputable, altogether dreary

-Carthage that was popularly alluded to as "South

-of the slot," the name dating from the time of the

-first cable-car line, now long since discarded.

-

-But to return to Phyllis Ladd.

-

-In losing her mother, it might be said she had

-discovered her father.  At first perhaps it was pity,

-loneliness, almost terror that caused Mr. Ladd to

-take this little creature in his arms, and hold her

-as he might a shield.  He had idolized his wife; he

-hardly knew how to go on living without her; one

-day, in his office, as his old friend Latham was

-leaving him, he had pulled open a drawer, and taken

-a loaded revolver from it.  "Latham," he said,

-with a very slight tremor in his voice, "would you

-mind putting this damned thing in your

-pocket--I--I--find it tempts me."

-

-Yes, his little daughter was a shield; he held her

-slim body between himself and despair; he told her

-this again and again, as he sat with bowed head and

-suffusing eyes in the shadow of an irrevocable

-happiness.  And she in whom there stirred, mysteriously,

-dimly, the tenderness of the sublime love that

-had called her into being--she, even while she

-mingled her tears with his, felt within herself the

-welling of an exquisite joy.  To love, to solace,

-to protect, here again instincts were prematurely

-awakened; here again her little feet departed from

-the commonplace to carry her far afield.

-

-In time, as weeks and months rolled on, the

-blow, so unendurable at first, so crushing and

-terrible, softened, as such things will, and a busy world

-again engrossed a busy man.  But the intimacy

-between father and daughter remained, and

-continued unimpaired.  Indeed, it grew even closer, for

-now laughter came into it, and gay bubbling little

-confidences, and a delightful hour before bedtime,

-full of eagerness and zest.  Mr. Ladd, cigar in

-mouth, and his keen handsome face as deferential

-as any courtier's, listened to the interminable

-doings of Satty and Nelly and Jessie, with an

-enjoyment that never seemed to tire.

-

-He, too, had his budget of the day, which, often

-begun whimsically, not seldom ended in a serious

-exposition of his difficulties and problems.  It

-amused him to state such complexities in simple

-language; to bring them down, by some homely

-metaphor, to the comprehension of this adorable

-little coquette, who tried with so many childish arts

-to dazzle and ensnare him.  Even at thirteen she

-was learning the value of drawing out a man about

-himself; she was quite willing to understand the

-Interstate Commerce Law, and become pink and

-indignant over a new classification of "Coal at the

-pit's mouth"--if it meant her father would hold

-her a little tighter, and give her one of those sudden

-glances of approval.

-

-Such intercourse with a shrewd, strong, brilliant

-mind--to a child naturally precocious and adaptive--could

-not fail to have far-reaching consequences

-on her development.  She caught something of her

-father's independence; of his lofty and yet indulgent

-outlook on a universe made up so largely of fools

-and knaves; learned the greatest and rarest of all

-imaginative processes--to put oneself in the other

-fellow's shoes.  When Joe Howard turned traitor

-at the state legislature, and sold out the K. B. and

-O. on the new mileage bill, her wrath at his

-duplicity rose to fever.  "Well, there's his side to it,"

-said Mr. Ladd, with unexpected serenity.  "He

-hasn't a cent; he's mortgaged up to the ears; and

-has a sick daughter dying of consumption.  He's a

-well-meaning man, and I suppose would be honest

-if he could.  But if I were in his place, and your

-life was at stake, and the doctor ordered you to some

-ten-dollar-a-minute place in Colorado or somewhere,

-I guess I'd sell out the K. B. and O. too!"

-

-And for that he got a hug that nearly choked him.

-

-"Money and love, my lamb," he said to her once,

-"those are the wheels the old wagon runs on.  Miss

-Simpkins will fluff you up with a whole lot of fancy

-fixings--but I tell you, it boils right down to

-that."

-

-"Papa," she asked him on another occasion,

-with round wondering eyes, "if it's all like that,

-why are you honorable and noble and splendid?"

-

-"I don't know," he answered, smiling.  "I guess

-it's pride more than anything else.  Theoretically

-the man with the fewest scruples gets farthest in the

-race; but thank the Lord, most of us are handicapped

-with some good qualities that stick to us

-like poor relations."

-

-"But Miss Simpkins says that anybody who is

-bad gets punished for it sooner or later.  She says

-that was why her brother-in-law's house burned

-down; because he was so uncharitable."

-

-"It may be so with the people Miss Simpkins is

-acquainted with," said Mr. Ladd, "but it doesn't

-hold in the railroad business, nor anywhere else

-that I have seen, and I can't help thinking she's a

-trifle more hopeful than the traffic can bear!"

-

-This philosophy, so picturesquely expressed, so

-genial, so amiably cynical, was not perhaps the best

-training for an unusually impressionable mind.

-Miss Simpkins learned to dread Phyllis' preface:

-"But Papa says--"  What Papa said was often

-a bombshell that blew shams to pieces; tore down the

-pretty pink scenery of conventional illusions; and

-drove cobble-stones through the gauze that separated

-Miss Simpkins and her kind from the real world

-beyond.  It was a harsh process, and bad for gauze.

-

-At first, not knowing how else to maintain a

-fairly large establishment, Mr. Ladd had sought

-the services of a "managing housekeeper."  But

-the trouble with her--or rather with them, for he

-had a succession--was that the "managing" was

-considerably overdone.  They were discharged, the

-one after the other, without having "managed" to

-achieve their one consuming ambition, which was to

-capture the rich widower, and lead him to the altar.

-After a while, growing weary of being hunted, and

-altogether at his wits' end, he invited his unmarried

-sister, Henrietta Ladd, to take the foot of his

-table, and a place at his hearth.

-

-She was a thin, plain, elderly woman, with a

-very low voice and a deceptive appearance of

-meekness.  The casual guest at Mr. Ladd's board might

-have taken her for a silent saint, who, unwillingly

-sojourning in this vale of tears, was waiting with

-ladylike impatience for a heavenly crown.  In some

-ways this description would have fitted Aunt

-Henrietta well enough, though it took no account of a

-perverse and interfering nature that was more than

-trying to live with.  The silent saint attempted to

-rule her brother and her niece with a rod of iron,

-and so far succeeded that her two years "tenure of

-the gubernatorial chair" (as Mr. Ladd bitterly

-called it), was fraught with quarrels and unhappiness.

-Her tyranny, like all tyrannies, ended in a

-revolution.  Mr. Ladd brought his "unmarried

-misery"--also his own phrase--to a sharp conclusion,

-and Henrietta departed with a large check

-and a still larger ill-will.

-

-"Phyllis," he said, "I guess we'll just have to

-rustle along by our poor little selves.  The people

-who take charge of us seem to take charge too hard.

-They mean well, but why should they stamp on

-us?--Yes, let's try it ourselves."

-

-And Phyllis, not quite fifteen years old, became

-the acknowledged mistress of the big house.

-

-In her demure head she knew that to fail would

-be to incur a danger that was almost too terrible to

-contemplate.  Her father might be persuaded into

-marrying again, and the thought of such a catastrophe

-sobered and restrained her.  She was on her

-mettle, and was determined to succeed.  She had

-her check-book, her desk, her receipted bills.  She

-had her morning interviews with the cook; sent

-curtains to the cleaners; rang up various tradespeople

-on the telephone; gently criticized Mary's

-window-cleaning, and George's nails, and busied herself

-with these, and innumerable other little cares,

-while Miss Simpkins waited in the study, restlessly

-drumming her long, lean fingers on a French grammar.

-

-Of course, she did several foolish, impulsive

-things, but no more than some little bride might

-have done in the first novelty of controlling a large

-household.  She gave a tramp one of her father's

-best suits of clothes; she was prevailed upon by

-the servants to buy many things that neither they

-nor anybody else could possibly need--including

-an electrically driven knife-cleaner, and a cook's

-table, so compact and ingenious, that it would have

-been priceless on an airship, though in her own

-spacious kitchen it was decidedly out of place; and

-it took her several months to discover that James

-was apparently feeding five elephants instead of

-five horses.

-

-But she was quick to learn better; and with the

-innate capacity she inherited from her father, she

-soon had everything running on oiled wheels.  And

-all this, if you please, at fifteen, with quite a bit

-of stocking between her dress and her trimly-shod feet.

-

-It was seldom that her father ever ventured into

-the realm of criticism; but once or twice, in his

-smiling, easy-going way, he gently pulled her up.

-

-"I don't know much about these things," he

-remarked once, "but don't there seem to be a lot of

-new dresses in this family?"

-

-"One can't go naked, Papa."

-

-"Admitting that, my dear, which with people

-of our position would certainly give rise to

-comment--couldn't we compromise on--well--going

-*half*-naked, and perhaps show a more Spartan

-spirit, besides, in regard to our hats?"

-

-Phyllis' eyes filled with tears; and flushing with

-shame, she pressed her hot cheek against the back

-of the chair she was sitting in, and felt herself the

-most miserable, disgraced, unworthy little creature

-in the whole world.

-

-Mr. Ladd's voice deepened, as it always did when

-he was moved.

-

-"My darling," he said, "don't feel badly about

-it, because it is only a trifle.  But it is not kind

-to your companions to dress better than they do,

-and I am sure you do not wish them to feel envious

-or resentful.  I just ask you to bear it in mind,

-that's all, and be somewhat on your guard."

-

-"I will, Papa."

-

-"Now come and kiss your daddy, and tell him

-you're not cross with him for being such an old

-fuss-cat."

-

-"Y-y-ou are n-not an old fu-u-uss-cat, but the

-dearest, darlingest, bestest--"

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"Do you think it's right to bite a railroad

-president's ear?"

-

-"Yes, if you love him!"

-

-"Or muss up the only hair he has, which isn't

-very much?"

-

-"Yes, if it helps you to think."

-

-"What's that--*thinking*?"

-

-"Yes, Papa."

-

-"It worries me, dearest, to have you doing

-anything as serious as that."

-

-"Papa, it is serious.  Listen!"

-

-"I'm listening,"

-

-"I've a wonderful idea--I'm going to give a party!"

-

-"Splendid--hope you'll ask me!"

-

-"And I'm going to invite Satty Morrison, and

-Julia Grant, and Hetty Van Buren, and Maisie

-Smith, and the two Patterson girls, and perhaps

-Alicia Stewart--and we are going to have

-ice-cream, and lady's-fingers, and chocolate-cake, and

-Christmas crackers, if I can buy them this time of

-year--and, Papa, it's going to be a *hat*-party."

-

-"Oh, a hat-party, goodness me, what's that?"

-

-"To give away all the silly, extravagant hats

-I've bought--though I'll have to get two new ones

-to make them go round--but you won't mind that,

-will you?"

-

-"No, indeed--not for a hat-party."

-

-And next day the invitations were out.

-

-This scandalous way of bringing up an only

-daughter caused many people to shake their heads.

-

-"It'll end in a peck of trouble for Mr. Ladd

-some day," said the old cats, with which Carthage

-was as liberally stocked as any other great and

-flourishing American city.  "Mark my words, my

-dear, no good can come of bringing up a girl like

-a wild Indian, and he'll have nobody to blame but

-himself if she goes headlong to the bad."

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER II`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER II

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-At twenty, Phyllis Ladd was one of the

-prettiest girls in Carthage.  A little above

-medium height, slim, dark, and glowing

-like a rose, she moved with that charming

-consciousness of beauty that is in itself almost a

-distinction.  The French and Spanish in her mother's

-southern blood showed itself in her slender feet and

-hands, in her grace, her voice, her gentle, gracious,

-and engaging manners.  One could not long talk

-to her without realizing that behind those sparkling

-eyes there was a fine and highly-sensitive nature,

-whimsical, original and intrepid; and to know her

-well was to perceive that she was one of those

-women who would love with rare intensity; and

-whose future, for good or evil, for happiness or

-disaster, was irretrievably dependent on the heart.

-

-In a dim sort of way she had the consciousness

-of this herself; her flirtations went no further than

-to dance with the same partner three or four times

-in the course of the same evening; and Carthage,

-which gave its young people a great deal of

-innocent liberty--and which its young people took

-with the greediness of children--in time got to

-consider her, in spite of deceptive appearances, as

-being cold, proud, and "exclusive."  Certainly her

-exclusiveness drew the line at being kissed by

-boisterous young men, and though their company

-pleased and amused her, she refused to single out

-one of them for any special favor.

-

-"They are all such idiots, Papa," she said

-plaintively.  "Aren't there any real men

-anywhere--real men that a girl *could* love?"

-

-"I'm sure I don't know," returned Mr. Ladd.

-"I haven't come across one I'd trust a yellow dog

-to, let alone my daughter.  But, frankly, I'm

-prejudiced on the young-man question--anybody would

-be who has to run a railroad with them!"

-

-"Papa," she cried, throwing her arms around

-his neck, and her mood changing to one of her

-gayest phantasies, "let's go away together, you and I,

-and see if we can't find him.  The Quest of the

-Golden Young Man!  There must be one somewhere,

-and we'll look for him in every hidy-hole

-in the world--in street-cars and banks, and

-ice-cream places, and cellars, and factories, and

-mountains, and ships--just you and me, with a little

-steamer-trunk--and we'll run across him in the

-unlikeliest spot--and he may be a bandit in a cave,

-or a wild, roystering cow-boy shooting up one of

-those awful little western towns--but we'll know

-right off that he's our Golden Young Man--and

-we'll take him, and put him in a crate, and bring

-him home in the baggage-car, and poke him with a

-long sharp stick till he's willing to marry me!"

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The Quest of the Golden Young Man!  It began

-sooner than Phyllis could ever have believed

-possible, and with a companion she would have

-been the last to dream of.  Mr. Ladd had a

-married sister in Washington, the wife of a

-highly-placed treasury official.  Mrs. Sam Fensham was

-a very fashionable, energetic, pushing woman,

-wholly absorbed in the task of pulling competitors

-off the social ladder, and planting her own faultless

-French shoes on the empty rung.  Brother and

-sister had about as much in common as you could

-spread on a dime; but Robert Ladd had all the

-American's admiration of ability, no matter in what

-direction it was exercised; and Sally Fensham

-dearly loved her fraternal relationship to the K. B. and O.

-

-This social strategist had volunteered one of her

-rare visits to Carthage under the stress of bad

-financial weather.  Brother Bob, who regularly

-brightened her Christmas with a check in four

-figures, had some peculiarities of purse and heart that

-Mrs. Fensham was well acquainted with.  You

-might dash him off a letter, slashed with underlining,

-and piteous in the extremity of its *cri de coeur*,

-and get nothing in reply but two pages of humorous

-typewriting, wanting to know why two people,

-without children, could not manage to scrape along

-in Washington on sixteen thousand dollars a year?

-

-But Brother Bob, face to face, was a very different

-person.  If you sat on the arm of his chair,

-and talked of pa and ma and the old days, and

-perhaps cried a little, not altogether insincerely, over

-faces and things long since vanished--if, indeed,

-under the spell of that grave, kindly brother, you

-somehow shed your cares into an infinite tenderness,

-and forgot everything save that you loved him best

-of any one on earth--if--but it always happened--you

-did not need to give another thought, to

-what, after all, was the real object of your visit.

-

-In a day or two, Brother Bob would say; "Sally,

-just how many dollars would make you feel eighteen

-again, and as though you were waiting for Elmer

-Boyd to take you out sleighing?"

-

-You could answer thirty-seven hundred, and get

-it as readily as a postage stamp; and with it a look

-of such honest affection, such a glisten in those

-fine eyes, that your words of thanks stammered a

-little on your tongue.

-

-Well, here was Aunt Sally again--arm-chair--pa

-and ma--the old days--check--and in her

-restless, scheming eyes the birth of a vague idea

-that grew ever more and more alluring,--nothing

-else than to take this very pretty niece of hers back

-to Washington, and enhance the Fensham position

-by a splendid marriage.  She had a vision of balls

-and dinner-parties, all paid for by her millionaire

-brother; a showy French limousine; unlimited boxes

-at the theater and opera; and a powerful nephew-to-be,

-with a name to hoist the portcullis of many a

-proud social stronghold, and allow the wife of a

-highly-placed treasury official to squeeze in.  The

-Motts, the Glendennings, the Pastors, the Van

-Schaicks--the Port Arthurs of Washington

-society--Sarah Fensham would assail all of them,

-holding before her one of their cherished sons, and

-defying them to shoot.  A fascinating prospect

-indeed, and one not beyond realization, considering

-the girl's beauty, and her father's money.

-

-On the subject being broached to Brother Bob,

-it was met with a hostility only comparable to a

-Polar bear being robbed of its cub.  The whole

-marriage-market business nauseated him, he

-declared; his daughter should never be set up on the

-counter to be priced and pawed over; not only

-would her natural refinement revolt at it, but he

-inconsistently and with much warmth announced

-that Carthage was full of splendid young men, the

-sons of his old associates, amongst whom Phyllis

-should find her husband when the time came, and a

-fellow worth fifty of those Washington dudes and dough-heads.

-

-"It's all very well for you to talk," said Sally

-coldly, "but I should say it was more for Phyllis

-to decide than for you."

-

-"She wouldn't hear of such a thing," protested

-Mr. Ladd heatedly.  "She is a quiet, home-loving

-girl, and wouldn't put herself in a show-window

-for anything on earth."

-

-"My house is not a show-window; and what is

-there immodest or wrong in her meeting the nicest

-men in America?"

-

-"Besides, she wouldn't care to leave me."

-

-Angry as she was, there was something in this

-remark that suddenly touched Sally Fensham.  She

-was hard and aggressive, but her heart was not

-altogether withered, and under extraordinary

-circumstances could even be moved.

-

-"My poor Bob," she said, holding the lapels of

-his coat, and looking up at him; "do you not know

-that Phyllis may meet a man to-day at dinner, and

-to-morrow at tea, and the day after drive with him

-for an hour in the Park--and then what's father

-or mother or anything in the world if she loves

-him?  Bob, dear, just get it out of your head that

-you are going to keep Phyllis.  When the right

-man comes you will no more count to her than--than

-that chair!--Oh, yes, of course, every girl

-loves her father in a way--but you have only

-been keeping her heart warm--and once it's set

-on fire--good-by!  And, Bob, dear, listen, is it

-not common sense to let her see the right kind of

-young men; to sift them and weigh them a bit?

-Is it a marriage-market to admit none but those

-who are presentable and well-bred and come of

-nice people?  Is that a show-window?  No, it's

-giving a girl a chance to choose--the chance I

-wish to Heaven I'd had.  We simply try to get

-the nicest man there is, and you are more apt to

-get a prize from a hundred than from six!"

-

-"That applies just as much to Carthage as to

-Washington."

-

-"Bob, you don't know what you've been risking.

-Your whole way of living is utterly crazy.  Why,

-anybody--*anybody* could come here, and make

-love to her, and carry her off under your

-nose--some awful commercial traveler or cheap pianist

-with frowzy hair--Oh, Bob, girls are such

-fools--such crazy, crazy fools!"

-

-"Phyllis isn't."

-

-"Was I?"

-

-"No, I don't think you were."

-

-"But didn't I marry Sam Fensham?"

-

-"I don't see that that--"

-

-Sally laughed; and it was not a pleasant laugh

-to hear in its self-revelation.  Sam was notoriously

-more successful as a treasury official than as a

-husband.

-

-"Bob, she has to go to Washington with me,

-and you must put your hand in your pocket, and do

-things handsomely."

-

-"Against her will?"

-

-Again Sally laughed, more harshly and cynically

-than before.

-

-"Just you ask her," she said.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-That night Mr. Ladd did so, and saw with a sinking

-heart the electrifying effect it had on her.

-

-Go!  Why, she'd jump out of her shoes to go,

-and wasn't daddy the dearest, darlingest, adorablest

-person in the world to propose it!  And Aunt

-Sally's kindness--wasn't it wonderful!  She would

-meet senators and ambassadors, and dance in the

-White House with lovely barons and counts, and

-try out her French on a real Frenchman and see if

-he could understand it!--A winter in Washington!

-What could be more exciting, more delirious!

-

-Mr. Ladd affected to share her delight, and

-manfully concealed his true feelings, which were

-altogether bitter and sad.  But he was a brave old

-fellow, and knew how to take his disappointments

-smilingly.  Besides, what claim had he to resist the

-inevitable?  What right?  What justification?

-He would have bitten his tongue out before he

-would have reproached her, or marred, by the slightest

-word, her overflowing and girlish exuberance.

-It was only as they kissed each other good night that

-the pent-up appeal came.

-

-"Don't forget your old dad in the shuffle," he

-said.  "It's--it's going to be very hard for him

-without you, Phyllis."

-

-Her instant contrition was very sweet to him,

-very comforting and dear.  In fact, he had to

-struggle pretty desperately to allay the storm of

-tenderness he evoked.--No, no, he wanted her to go to

-Washington.  It was the right thing to do--the

-only thing to do.  A girl ought to see something

-of the big world before she married and settled

-down.--Oh, every girl said that to herself, but

-you couldn't get away from the fact that they were

-made for men, and men for them, and a father

-just held the fort till the Golden Young Man arrived.

-

-How they laughed, with tears in their eyes!

-How infinitely precious was the love that bound

-them together!  Dad was never to be lost in the

-shuffle--never, never; and he was to write every

-day, and she was to write; and if it were a hundred

-Washingtons she'd come straight back to him if he

-were lonely, for to her there was only one real

-Golden Young Man, and that was her darling,

-darling father.

-

-Yet as Mr. Ladd shut the study door, and returned

-to his seat beside the lamp, he knew in spite

-of himself that he had said good-by.  His

-guardianship was over; near, now, was that unknown

-man, that unknown rival, for whose pleasure he had

-lavished twenty years of incessant care and

-devotion.  Though Ladd was hardly a believer, the

-wish came out with the fervency of a prayer: "Oh,

-my God, let him be worthy of her!"

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER III`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER III

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-She did write every day; sometimes the

-merest snippets, sometimes long, graphic letters,

-full of the new life and the new people.

-Her début had been an immense success.  Eddie

-Phelps, a horrid, tallowy, patronizing person, but

-socially a dictator, had put the stamp of his

-approval on her, and she had managed to receive it

-and not burst--which, if Papa only knew it, was

-a very remarkable feat.  But, anyway, she had

-been hall-marked "sterling," and was enjoying

-herself furiously.  And the young men were so

-different from Carthage, so much more polished and

-elegant--and pertinacious.  Washington young

-men simply didn't know what "No" meant, and

-it was like shoveling snow to get rid of them.  But

-Aunt Sarah was a regular White Wings, and the

-poor, the detrimental, and the fast--every one, in

-fact, who wasn't a first-class *parti* with references

-from his last place--got carted away before he

-knew what had struck him.

-

-And Aunt Sally!  "Why, Papa, we didn't know

-her at all.  She is as young as I am, and twice as

-eager, and dances her stockings through every other

-night.  Washington is divided between the people

-who hate her, and the people who love her, and

-they put a tremendous zip into either end of it.

-What she really wants is to marry me at the cold

-end, and strengthen her position as she calls it;

-and though I say it, who shouldn't, the cold-end

-young men are coming in fast.  When one proposes

-to me, she calls it a scalp, and looks, oh, so

-pleased!  But if I see any of them working up to

-that I try to stop him in time, though it's awfully

-exciting just the same.  That's why I've only three

-scalps to report instead of about eight.  Oh, Papa,

-what fun it is!"

-

-In time her letters began to change, and there

-were little signs of disillusionment.  One was

-almost a tract on worldliness, in which she talked

-about Vanity Fair, and dancing on coffins, and the

-inner hunger of the soul.  There were also

-increasing references to J. Whitlock Pastor, always

-coupled with "ideals."  J. Whitlock Pastor was quite

-a remarkable young man of thirty, with "a beautiful

-austerity," and "fine mind."  His people were

-immensely wealthy, and immensely fashionable--even

-in Carthage there was a sacredness about the

-name of Pastor--and Phyllis said there was

-something splendid in his taking up forestry as a

-life work, and devoting himself to it, heart and soul,

-when he had been born--not with a silver spoon--but

-with a bird's-egg diamond in his mouth.

-

-If there was anything to be said against J. Whitlock

-Pastor, it was that he was almost too good to

-be true.  He wanted to leave the world better for

-his having been, and all that--and seemed to have

-what might be called an excruciating sense of duty.

-"A very quiet and rather a sad man," wrote

-Phyllis, "whom one might easily mistake for a muff if

-one hadn't seen him on horseback.  He rides

-superbly, and I never saw a ring-master in a circus

-who could come anywhere near him."

-

-All this worked up to a telegram that reached

-Mr. Ladd a few weeks later: "I accepted him last

-night, and, Papa, please come on quick and bless us."

-

-Mr. Ladd hastened to Washington as speedily as

-his affairs would allow, which was five days later,

-and arrived just in time to dress for the

-introductory dinner at Mrs. Pastor's--J. Whitlock's

-mother's.  He tried to imagine he was delighted,

-and caught his daughter in his arms with the

-enthusiasm of a stage parent.  But Phyllis was so

-pale, so calm, so undemonstrative that he hardly

-knew what to make of her.  He put her cool

-indifference down to Washington training, but still it

-puzzled and troubled him.  It was so unlike a girl

-who had met her fate--so unlike another pair of

-lovers that had been so much in his head that

-day--Genivieve de Levancour, and a certain Bob Ladd.

-The contrast gave him a certain sense of foreboding.

-

-In the carriage she was very silent, and nestled

-against him like a tired child.  He repeated his

-congratulations; he strove again to be delighted;

-joked, not without effort, about the exalted position

-of the Pastors, and what a come-down it was for

-them to marry such poor white trash as the Ladds.

-Then it occurred to him that perhaps this jarred

-upon her!  "Forgive me, Phyllis," he said humbly.

-"I--I hardly know what I am saying.  I--I

-guess I'm trying to hide what this recalls to

-me--what this means to me."

-

-She pressed his hand, and snuggled it against

-her cheek, but still shrouded herself in reserve.

-

-"Papa," she said suddenly, "you'd stick to me

-through thick and thin, wouldn't you?  Whatever

-I did--however foolish or silly I might be, you'd

-always love me, wouldn't you?"

-

-"By God, yes," he answered, "though why on

-earth you should ask--"

-

-"Only to make sure," she exclaimed, brightening.

-"Just to be certain that my old-dog father

-hadn't changed.  Now say bow-wow, just to show

-that you haven't!"

-

-Mr. Ladd, very much mystified, and not at all

-comfortable in his mind, obediently bow-wowed.

-It set Phyllis off in a peal of laughter, and it was

-with apparent hilarity that both descended at the

-Pastor's front door.

-

-Whitlock's mother received them in the

-drawing-room.  She was a stately, gray-haired woman,

-with a subdued voice, and a graciousness that was

-almost oppressive.  Her guests had hardly been

-seated, when J. Whitlock himself appeared, and

-excused himself, with faultless and somewhat

-unnecessary courtesy, for not having been found awaiting

-their arrival.  Mr. Ladd saw before him a tall,

-thin young man, of a polished and somewhat cold

-exterior, with a dryness of expression that was

-positively parching.  Like one of those priceless

-enamels of the Orient, one felt that J. Whitlock Pastor

-had been roasted and glazed, roasted and glazed,

-roasted and glazed until the substance beneath

-had become but a matter of conjecture.  The enamel

-was magnificent--but where was the man?

-Mr. Ladd, with a choking sense of disappointment,

-began to suspect there was none.

-

-J. Whitlock opened the proceedings much as the

-czar might have opened a Duma.  He recited a

-neat, dry, commonplace little address of welcome,

-and sounded a key-note of constraint and formality

-that was rigorously maintained throughout the

-evening.  The address was seconded by the

-empress-dowager, and then it was Mr. Ladd's turn

-to swear loyalty to the throne, and burst into

-cheers.  He did so as well as he could, but it was a

-poor, lame attempt; and when, almost in despair,

-he went up to J. Whitlock, and impulsively wrung

-the Imperial hand, the very atmosphere seemed to

-shiver at the sacrilege.

-

-A frigid dinner followed in a dining-room of

-overpowering magnificence.  There was a

-high-class conversation to match, interrupted from time

-to time by a small British army--small in

-number--but prodigal of inches, and calves, and

-chest-measure--who stealthily pounced on plates,

-obtruded thumbs, and stopped breathing when they

-served you.  Mr. Ladd, smarting with an inexplicable

-resentment, compounded of jealousy, scorn

-and chagrin, writhed in his chair, and tugged at his

-mustache, and gazed from his daughter to his

-prospective son-in-law with melancholy wonder.

-

-Yet Phyllis seemed to be perfectly contented,

-sitting there so demure, elegant and self-possessed at

-the terrible board of the Romanoffs.  Mr. Ladd

-could have wished that she had shown a little more

-assertion, a little more--well, he hardly knew what

-but something to offset the unconscious arrogance

-of these people, and to show them that a Ladd was

-as good as they were, if not a darned sight better!

-But Phyllis, if anything, was too much the other

-way.  There was a humility in her sweetness, her

-deference, her touching desire to please.  To her

-father she seemed to have accepted too readily, too

-gratefully, her beggar-maid position at that kingly

-table.

-

-But as he watched her some doubts assailed him.

-He remembered how singular she had been in the

-carriage, how over-wrought, and unlike her usual

-self.  Her eyes, fixed so constantly on her

-intended's, had in them more pleading than love;

-more a curious, studying, seeking look, as though

-she, too, was trying to penetrate the enamel, and

-see beneath.  But her voice softened as she spoke

-to him; she smiled and colored at his allusions to

-"us" and "our"; she shyly referred to their

-projected honeymoon in the western forests, and

-spoke rapturously of galloping through the glades

-at the head of twenty rangers, all sunburned and

-jingling and armed to the teeth.

-

-What was an old fellow to make of it, anyway?

-One could bring up a girl from a baby, and still

-not know her.  Mr. Ladd was very much perplexed.

-

-After dinner, the ladies left the two men at their

-coffee, and retired.  The British Army set out

-liqueurs, cigars, a spirit-lighter, and then noiselessly

-vanished.  Now that they were alone together,

-Mr. Ladd hoped that J. Whitlock would unbend; hoped

-that the long-deferred process of making his

-acquaintance would begin.  He might not be an ideal

-son-in-law, but it was horse-sense to make the best

-of him.  You had to take the son-in-law God gave

-you.  Besides, the man that Phyllis loved was

-bound to have a fine nature; and if he could unveil

-it to her, he surely could unveil it to her father.

-So, between sips of Benedictine, and through the

-haze of a good cigar, Mr. Ladd essayed the task.

-

-He commenced by describing his own early manhood;

-his courtship of Phyllis' mother; his marriage

-in face of a thousand difficulties.  Again and again

-he faltered; it was all so sacred; his eyes were often

-moist--but he persevered; he had to win this

-young man, and how better than by appealing to

-the sentiment that unites all true lovers?  The

-elderly railroad president could not bear utterly to be

-left out of these two young lives.  His daughter

-was lost to him; at best a husband leaves little for a

-father; this stranger had it now in his power to

-make that little almost nothing.  Small wonder,

-then, that Mr. Ladd struggled for his shred of

-happiness; put pride on one side; exerted every faculty

-he possessed to attract the friendship of Phyllis'

-master.  For a husband is a master; a woman is

-the slave of the man she loves; forty centuries have

-changed nothing but the words, and the size and

-metal of the ring.

-

-It used to be of iron, and was worn on the neck.

-

-Mr. Ladd's gaze, that had been fixed in vacancy,

-of a sudden fell full on J. Whitlock's face.  What

-he saw was an expression so cold, so delicately

-supercilious, so patiently polite, that he stopped as

-suddenly as though he had been struck by lightning.

-Was it for this, then, that he had opened this holy

-of holies, into which no human being before had

-ever looked,--this inmost recess of his soul, now

-profaned, it seemed to him, for ever?  For a second

-his shame transcended even his disappointment.  He

-had dishonored the dead, besides dishonoring himself.

-He had allowed this tall, thin, bored creature

-to hear things too dear, too intimate, to be spoken

-even to Phyllis.  My God, what an old fool he

-had been, what an ass!

-

-"Had we not better join the ladies?" inquired

-J. Whitlock, after the pause had lasted long enough

-to redeem the proposal from any appearance of rudeness.

-

-"I suppose we had," returned Mr. Ladd, in a

-tone as dry as his host's; and together they both

-sought the drawing-room.

-

-A long, long hour followed before, in decency,

-a very flustered, embittered, and upset middle-aged

-gentleman could dare to say his adieux.  From the

-frescoed ceiling the painted angels must certainly

-have wept at the sight beneath; or, if they did not

-weep, they surely yawned.  The labored conversation,

-the make-believe cordiality, the awful gap

-when a topic fell to rise no more, certainly made it

-an evening that never could be forgotten.  Blessed

-Briton who said: "Mr. Ladd's kerridge!"  Twice

-blessed Briton who handed them into it, and

-uttered the magic word "'Ome!"

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"Did you like him, Papa?"

-

-"A delightful young man, Phyllis, perfectly delightful."

-

-"And his mother?"

-

-"Charming, charming!"

-

-"I never saw either one of them unbend as they

-did to you."

-

-"It was a great compliment.  I appreciate it."

-

-"You don't think I could have done better?"

-

-"No, indeed.  Not if you love him."

-

-"Papa?"

-

-"Yes, dearest?"

-

-"Papa, I've done something awful.  Shut your

-eyes, and I'll try to tell you."

-

-"Phyllis, what do you--?"

-

-"Are they shut--tight--*tight*?"

-

-"Yes, but I don't--"

-

-"Now, don't talk, Papa, but listen like a good

-little railroad president, and I'll tell you what I

-think of J. Whitlock Pastor, and that is he's

-*unbearable*!  No, no, I'm not joking--I mean it, I

-mean it!  He's unbearable, and his mother's

-unbearable, and the forty yards around them is

-unbearable, and I wouldn't marry him for anything

-under the sun, no, not if he was the only man in the

-world except the clergyman who would do it; and

-Papa, I'm so mortified and ashamed and miserable

-that I don't know what to do.  Didn't you notice

-me to-night, and how shy and crushed I was, sitting

-there like a little Judas, and feeling, oh, horribly

-wicked and treacherous?  It was *all* I could do not

-to scream out that I hated him, just as loud as I

-could: I hate you!  I hate you!  I hate you!--I

-was trying to tell you that when we started, but I

-didn't have the courage.  I wanted you to see him

-for yourself; to realize how unendurable he is;

-I--I--wanted you not to blame me too much, Papa."

-

-To Mr. Ladd it was like a reprieve at the gallows'

-foot.  Blame her?  Why, elation ran to his head

-like wine; he caught her in his arms and hugged

-her; had he saved her from drowning he could not

-have been more passionately thankful.  His

-opinion of the young man came out in a torrent of

-unvarnished Anglo-Saxon.  To every epithet he

-applied to him, Phyllis added a worse.  In their wild

-humor, and bubbling over with a laughter that

-verged on the hysterical, they vied with each other

-in tearing J. Whitlock to pieces.

-

-"But, Phyllis, Phyllis, how did you ever come

-to do it?"

-

-"I don't know, Papa."

-

-"But you must have liked him?"

-

-"I thought I did."

-

-"Was it the attraction of his position--his

-name--and all that kind of thing?"

-

-"No, I thought I loved him."

-

-"How *could* you have thought such a thing?"

-

-"It's incredible, but I did, Papa.  I loved him

-right up to the moment when he kissed me.  And

-how could I stop him after having looked down

-at my toes, and said 'Yes.'  He's been kissing me

-for five days--and, Papa, I hate him."

-

-The fierceness she put into these three words was

-vitriolic.  Disgust, revulsion, outraged pride flooded

-her cheek with carmine.

-

-"Papa, I can't make any excuses for myself.

-It's not prudery; it's not that; but somehow the

-real *me* didn't like the real *him*, and that's all I can

-say about it!"

-

-"You'll have to write to him, and break it off."

-

-"But what am I to tell him, Papa?  It's so

-awful and humiliating for him.  I guess I'll just

-put it down to insanity in my family."

-

-"But, good Lord, we haven't any--we've a very

-decent record."

-

-"Oh, Papa, I simply must have been insane to

-have got engaged to him.--I'll write him a beautiful

-letter of regret, and inclose a doctor's certificate!"

-

-Her incorrigible humor was again asserting itself.

-She outlined the letter, her eyes dancing with

-merriment.  Mr. Ladd, in no mood to criticize these

-swift transitions, joined in whole-heartedly.  They

-laughed and laughed till the tears came, and arrived

-home like noisy children from a party.

-

-Mrs. Fensham, in a very décolleté gown, and

-looking like a sylph of twenty-five, was waiting for

-the carriage to take her to a ball.  She swam up

-in front of Bob, and raised her two little hands to

-his shoulders--a graceful gesture, and one she was

-very fond of.

-

-"And you found him a perfect dear, didn't you?"

-she murmured ecstatically.

-

-"Well, I don't know that I did," faltered Brother

-Bob, placing a kiss on the top of her head.  "The

-fact is, Sally, we've decided to call it off!"

-

-"Bob, you haven't broken the engagement!"

-

-Her lisping voice turned suddenly metallic.  She

-stared from her brother to her niece, a sylph no

-longer, but a woman of forty-five, pale with

-apprehension and anger.

-

-"Phyllis has made a mistake, that's all," he said.

-"He looked very nice in the show-window, but

-now we are going to take him back, and get a

-credit-slip for something we want more."

-

-"A new automobile coat for Papa," put in

-Phyllis mischievously.

-

-"And you can both laugh about it!" exclaimed

-Aunt Sarah in appalled accents.  "Laugh at

-throwing over J. Whitlock Pastor!  Oh, you little

-Carthage nobodies--haven't you any sense at

-all--don't you know what you are doing--isn't he

-as much a duke with us as any Marlborough or

-Newcastle in England?  He was too good; he was

-too nice; he wasn't enough of a snob to blow and

-brag--and that's what he gets for it, the 'No' of

-a silly girl, who'd prefer a barber's block clerk to

-the greatest gentleman in America!"

-

-She tottered to the mantelpiece and burst into

-tears--the first tears she had shed in twenty

-worldly and scheming years--and the only tears

-that did attend the rupture of the Pastor-Ladd

-engagement.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER IV`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER IV

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-There was the usual chatter, the usual

-slanders, the usual innuendoes that

-follow such an event.  Charming little assassins,

-in Paquin gowns and picture hats flew about

-sticking pins into Phyllis' reputation.  Those worse

-gossips, the clubs, were not behindhand either; and

-old gentlemen, who ought to have known better,

-unctuously laid their heads together and passed the

-lies along.  It is so much the custom to dwell on

-the good side of human nature that we are apt to

-forget the existence of another--that cruel

-malignancy, which, in embryo, may be seen any time at

-the monkey-house in the Zoo.  In its more

-developed human form it jostles at our elbows every day.

-

-The American duke himself behaved with a beautiful

-propriety.  Publicly he took all the blame on

-his own shoulders, and hied him to the western

-wilds to scourge the campers and cigarette-smokers

-who infested his beloved forests.  Thus congenially

-employed, he was quite willing to wait for Time's

-healing hand to do the rest.  In a year he was

-completely reënameled, and took a finer polish than

-ever.

-

-Mr. Ladd hoped that Phyllis would return to

-Carthage to hide her head from the storm.  But

-she insisted on staying in Washington, and "seeing

-it through," which she did with the prettiest

-defiance imaginable, returning pin for pin with gay

-insouciance, and dancing the night out in all

-manner of lions' dens.  In her veins there ran the blood

-of that old aristocratic South--of those fighting-cock

-Frenchmen, dark, lithe and graceful, who had

-loved, gambled and gone the pace with headlong

-recklessness and folly; of those fiery Spaniards,

-more grave and still more dissolute, to whom pride

-was the very breath of life, and who could call out a

-man and shoot him with the stateliest of courtesy.--What

-a race it had been in the heyday of its

-wildness and youth, the torment of women, the terror of

-men, alluring even now through the haze of by-gone

-pistol-smoke!  And though it has been dead and

-gone these hundred and fifty years, the strain yet

-persists in some Phyllis here, some stripling there,

-attenuated perhaps, but far, far from lost.

-

-Even to-day such intrepidity casts its spell.  The

-eyes that are unafraid, the mouth that can smile in

-peril, do we not still admire their possessor--and

-that most of all in a young, high-bred and exceedingly

-attractive woman?  Washington certainly did

-in Phyllis Ladd--young-man Washington, that

-is,--and they trooped after her in cohorts, and would

-have drunk champagne from her little slipper had

-she let them.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Months rolled by.  The tide of Phyllis' letters

-rose in Mr. Ladd's drawer--countless pages in

-that fine girlish hand, full of zest, full of the joy

-of living, revealing, intimate, and silent only in

-regard to the most important matter of all--J. Whitlock's

-successor.

-

-Mr. Ladd knew what value to set on her assertion

-that she was "tired of men."  He waited, not

-without jealousy, for preference to show itself;

-reading and re-reading every allusion that might

-afford a clue.  If she wrote that "the ambassador

-was a very kind old man, with aristocratic legs, and

-a profile like a horse, who singled me out for

-much more than my share of attention"--Mr. Ladd

-would forthwith look up that ambassador;

-get his diplomatic rating; and worry about his

-being sixty-six, and twice a widower.

-

-One day, quite out of the sky, a card was brought

-him inscribed, "Captain Baron Sempft von Piller,

-First Attaché, Imperial German Embassy,

-Washington."  As a rule, applicants to see Mr. Ladd had

-first to state their business, and undergo a certain

-amount of sifting before they were admitted.  In

-this manner inventors were weeded out, cranks,

-people with a grievance against the claims' department,

-book-agents, labor-leaders, charity-mongers, bogus

-clergymen who had been refused half-rates--all

-that host who buzzed like mosquitoes outside

-Mr. Ladd's net.  But the First Attaché of the Imperial

-German Embassy was given an open track, which

-he took with a military stride, and the clank of an

-invisible sword.

-

-Mr. Ladd turned in his chair, and beheld a florid,

-tall, fine-looking young man of twenty-eight or so,

-with the stiff carriage of a Prussian officer, and

-unshrinking blue eyes that had been trained not to

-droop in the face of anything.

-

-The captain wasted no time in preliminaries.

-In a carefully-rehearsed sentence, innocent of all

-punctuation, and delivered in a breath, he said:

-"It is not my intention to trespass overlong on the

-time of I know a much-engrossed gentleman but if

-you will kindly grant me three minutes I shall be

-happy to convince you of the integrity of my

-character and the honor of my intentions Mr. Ladd Sir."

-

-Taking another breath that swelled out his

-magnificent chest at least four inches, he resumed:

-"This I now lay before you is my birth-certificate

-these are the reports on my gymnasium courses at

-Pootledam respectively marked good very good

-indifferent good very good till inspired by the thought

-of a military career I entered on probation

-subsequently made permanent by the vote of my

-fellow-officers the tenth regiment of Uhlans which after

-six years of honorable commendation I left

-regretted by every one to place myself in the diplomatic

-service Mr. Ladd Sir."

-

-Taking a third breath, he went on:

-

-"By kindly glancing at this letter which I have

-the honor to bear from my esteemed chief whom

-I am proud also to call my friend you will see to

-your complete satisfaction that I am no needy

-adventurer trading on an historic and greatly-renowned

-name but a man of substance promise and

-ability with the assurance of reaching if I live the

-highest place it is in the power of my country and

-my emperor to grant Mr. Ladd Sir."

-

-He was inhaling his fourth breath when Mr. Ladd

-managed to interpose a speech of his own.

-

-"I am delighted to see you, captain," he said,

-"and I shall be happy to oblige you in any way I

-can.  Perhaps you desire to inspect what is really

-one of the most perfect double-track railroad

-systems in this country, operated at the minimum of

-expense, and with an efficiency that makes the K. B. and

-O. very favorably regarded by our public.  If it

-falls below the high standard of your own

-government-owned lines, you must credit us with a traffic

-at least sixteen-fold larger per mile than that of

-yours.  I will ask you to bear this in mind before

-making too critical a comparison."

-

-A boyish and most engaging smile overspread the

-captain's features, and for the moment he almost

-forgot how to go on with the set speech he had

-learned so carefully.  But he stiffened his shoulders,

-threw back his head, and continued, like a student

-up for a difficult and trying examination:

-"Before paying my addresses to one whose youth

-beauty and charm has taken captive a heart hitherto

-untouched by the sentiment of love I judged it only

-right as a gentleman and a former German officer

-before seeking to compromise the lady's inclination

-in any way whatever to provide myself with the

-necessary proofs of my unassailable position and

-honor and lay them with profound respect in the

-hands of her highly-considered and greatly-esteemed

-father Mr. Ladd Sir."

-

-Mr. Ladd nearly fell off his chair at this

-announcement; but controlling himself, he bent hastily

-over the papers, and managed to hide his stupefaction.

-He was very much bewildered, and though

-favorably impressed by Von Piller, had the American's

-distrust of all foreigners, particularly if titled.

-The word "baron" conjured up horrible stories of

-imposture and mortification; hungry fortune-hunters;

-shameless masqueraders preying on credulity

-and snobbishness, always with debts at home and

-often wives; old-world wolves ravening for the

-trusting lambs of the new.

-

-But the ambassador's letter was most explicit,

-and its authenticity could be tested in an hour.  The

-craftiest of wolves would not dare to take such a

-risk.  Wonder of wonders, it seemed, too, that the

-baron was rich--one of the Westphalian iron

-kings--with great landed estates besides.  Yes, he was

-certainly a very eligible young man.  No harm

-could be done by rising and shaking hands with

-him.  Mr. Ladd did so, impressively.

-

-"You are very punctilious," he said.  "I wish

-we had more of that ourselves.  Your conduct is

-manly and straightforward, and I esteem it highly.

-Frankly, I should prefer my daughter to marry an

-American--but if a foreigner is to win her, I

-should be very happy to have that foreigner you."

-

-The baron, who was now quite out of set-speeches,

-and had to flounder in English of his own

-making, murmured: "I lofe her--oh, how I lofe

-her!  My friends they say, 'crazy, crazy,' but I

-say, 'no, this tells me I am wise.'"

-

-And with that he pressed his hand to his heart,

-with an air of such simplicity and devotion that

-Mr. Ladd was touched.

-

-"You're a fine young man," he said, "and I wish

-you luck."

-

-"You will speak well of me to her?--Manly,

-straightforward--you will say those words?"

-

-"With pleasure, Baron."

-

-The florid face beamed; the blue eyes were

-shining; Mr. Ladd remembered the tendency of

-foreigners to embrace, and hastened to put the desk

-between them.

-

-"I will go now," exclaimed Von Piller.  "I will

-what you call, get busy.  I will lay at her little feet

-the heart of a man that adores her!"

-

-"Don't be in too big a hurry," said the railroad

-president kindly.  "Take an old fellow's advice;

-begin by trying to make a good impression."

-

-Von Piller smiled complacently.

-

-"Already have I done it," he remarked.  "She

-likes me very mooch.  The battle is half-won, and

-all I need is General Papa to reinforce."

-

-It suddenly shot through General Papa's mind

-that the baron was not so simple as he appeared.

-Mr. Ladd's first feeling of compassion for a

-hopeless suit changed to a grinding jealousy.  It was

-intolerable to him that anybody should carry off his

-precious daughter, and this amiable young man at

-once took on the hue of an enemy.  Their farewell

-was stiff and formal; and when, two hours later,

-the confirming telegram arrived from the German

-embassy, Mr. Ladd hotly consigned Captain Baron

-Sempft von Piller to the devil.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER V`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER V

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Von Piller had not under-estimated the

-"good impression."  It was certainly good

-enough for him to become, two days later,

-the successful suitor for Phyllis' hand.  The

-engagement was in the papers, and everybody was

-happy--save Mr. Ladd.  On top of his natural

-resentment at any poor human biped in trousers

-daring to aspire to his daughter, there were two

-letters from Washington that embittered him beyond

-measure.  The one was from Phyllis; the other

-from Sarah Fensham; and though very different in

-expression their gist was the same.  He was

-besought *not* to come to Washington.

-

-"Dear, darling old daddy," wrote Phyllis, "The

-whole thing is such gossamer, so faint and delicate

-and eider-downish, that one belittling look of yours,

-one unguarded and critical word--would utterly

-destroy it.  Of course, Sempft is not the Golden

-Young Man, and I know it very well, but I really

-do like him lots, and if you will give it six weeks

-to 'set,' as masons say, I believe that it will turn

-very nicely into love.  But just now--!  Oh,

-Papa, the poor little building would topple so

-easily--and you know how hard I have found it already

-to stay too close to those big, greedy, grasping

-creatures who want to race off with one as a

-poodle does with a stick.  Not that Sempft isn't

-awfully nice and considerate, but I know there will

-be times when--!  Oh, Papa, be patient, and give

-me a chance, for if you should hurry over and catch

-me in the right humor, I would send him away so

-fast that he would think he was fired out of a

-Zalinski cannon!"

-

-Sarah's letter was in a more wounding strain:

-"For Heaven's sake, stay away, my dearest brother,

-or you will ruin everything.  That girl of yours is

-too fastidious and wilful for belief, and from the

-bottom of my heart I am sorry for the poor dear

-baron, who is making such a goddess out of an

-icicle.  She is possessed of the same insane pride

-that you have, and is quite of your own opinion that

-nobody is good enough for her.  After bringing her

-up all wrong, don't add to your folly by breaking

-off a second splendid match.  Stay in Carthage,

-and try to acquiesce in the fact that sooner or later

-she is bound to marry somebody; and thank your

-stars that it is somebody to be proud of.  I know

-she is too good for any one but an archangel, but

-still, steel yourself to accept a young, wealthy,

-handsome, brilliant, accomplished, high-born and

-distinguished son-in-law, who has the world at his

-feet.  Naturally to you it is an intolerable prospect.

-I don't ask you to say that it is not.  But for

-Heaven's sake, remain in Carthage, and keep your

-sulks at a distance."

-

-After his first anger had passed, Mr. Ladd took

-himself seriously to task, and forced that other self

-of his to admit the undeniable justice of both these

-letters.  He was a cantankerous, cross-grained old

-curmudgeon, and the right place for a cantankerous,

-cross-grained old curmudgeon was unquestionably--Carthage.

-If he were so utterly unable to make

-allowances for youth and immaturity--and he had

-to assent to the fact that he was unable--he ought,

-at any rate, to have the grace to keep his

-fault-finding face turned to the wall.  Phyllis was right.

-Sarah was right.  Everybody was right, except a

-hot-headed old fellow, with a sick and jealous heart,

-who, if he did not restrain himself, would end by

-marring his daughter's future beyond recall.--Yes,

-he would hold himself in; he would do nothing

-to incur reproach; he would let things take their

-course, and pretend to be a sort of Sunny Jim,

-smilingly regarding events from Carthage.

-

-It was none too easy an undertaking, but he

-was sustained in some degree by the hurried little

-scrawls that reached him, day by day, from Phyllis.--It

-was all going splendidly.  She was so proud

-of Sempft.  He was everywhere such a favorite.

-He was so high-spirited, and manly--and so crazily

-in love with her.  It was nice to have him so crazily

-in love with her.  It was nice to lead such a big,

-swaggering soldier by a pink ribbon--to pin him

-with a little, girlish ticket marked "reserved"--to

-see him jump at the mere raising of an eyebrow

-when some embezzling young débutante had

-sneaked him away into a corner.--Then there was

-the engagement ring she could not pull her glove

-over, with diamonds so large and flashing that they'd

-light the gas; there was the gorgeous pearl-necklace,

-which Aunt Sarah would not allow her to

-accept yet; there was the emperor's wonderful

-cablegram of congratulation, all about Germany and

-America, as though the two countries were

-engaged, instead of merely she and Sempft.  It made

-her feel so important, so international--and

-horrid, shabby men snap-shotted her on the street like

-a celebrity, walking backwards with cameras in

-their hands while everybody fell over everybody to

-see what was going on!--Oh, yes, Papa, she was

-saving it up to brag about to her grandchildren--when

-she was a tiresome old lady in a castle corner,

-with nothing to do but bore chubby little German

-aristocrats.

-

-Her gaiety and sprightliness never wavered.

-Her content, her happiness were transparent.  If

-her ardor for Baron von Piller seemed never to

-pass the big-brother limits, it might be assumed

-she concealed her feelings, and was either too shy

-or too modest to betray them.  Mr. Ladd, who read

-her letters with a microscope, noticed the omission,

-and--wondered.  His misgivings were not

-untinged with pleasure.  Did she really love this man,

-he asked himself again and again?  It was

-impossible to be certain.  Had it not been for the

-J. Whitlock Pastor episode he would have been

-in less doubt.  But with this in mind, he could not

-help wondering--wondering a great deal.

-

-The answer to these conjectures came with a

-startling unexpectedness.  One afternoon, on his

-return home, he found the front door open, and

-an expressman staggering up to it with a trunk.

-In the hall were five more trunks, and Henry and

-Edwards, both in shirt-sleeves, were departing for

-the upper regions with another.  Before Mr. Ladd

-could ask a question there was a swift rush of

-skirts, an inroad of barking dogs, and a radiant

-young person was hanging to his neck with round,

-bare arms.  It was Phyllis, her eyes dancing, her

-face flushed with the romp she had been having with

-the dogs, her hair in wild disorder, and half down

-her back.

-

-"I'm home, Papa," she cried, "home for good,

-and in such awful disgrace you oughtn't to take

-me in!  Yes, your wayward girl has crept back to

-the dear old farm, and though the snow was deep,

-and all she had was a crust from a crippled child--she's

-here, Papa, at last, and, oh, oh, oh, so glad!--Down,

-Watch, down!  Teddy, you'll get one in

-the nose if you don't stop!--Oh, the little wretch

-has got my slipper off!"

-

-Teddy scampered away with it, and there was

-a lively tussle before it was recovered, with all

-manner of laughter and slaps and growls.

-

-"But Captain von Piller?" demanded Mr. Ladd.

-"Is he coming?  Is he here, too?"

-

-"No, Papa," she returned, "he isn't here, and

-he never will be here, and I left him screaming

-till you could hear it all over Washington.  Just

-howling, Papa, and calling for warships!  And

-Aunt Sarah was hollering, too, till the only dignified

-thing left was to tie my sheets together and let

-myself out, which I did before there was a riot!"

-

-"Phyllis, you don't mean that your engagement--"

-

-"Hush, Papa, we can't talk here.--Come upstairs

-to your den."

-

-There she heaped up a dozen pillows on the

-divan; settled herself with Watch's head on her

-lap, and Wally and Teddy beside her; asked if

-there were any chocolate creams, and resigned

-herself to there being none; and then, pushing back the

-soft, thick hair from her eyes, told her father to

-sit at her feet, and not to crowd a valuable dog.

-

-"Yes, all that's finished," she said.  "It was

-splendid and international, and all that, but I could

-not stand it any more.  He was just like poor

-Whitlock, only worse.  I don't know how to describe it,

-Papa, for he was awfully correct and all that--I

-wouldn't for worlds have you think he wasn't--only

-he expected all the conventional things that go

-with being engaged, and wanted me to nestle against

-his waistcoat, and, and--pant with joy I suppose--and

-whisper what a beautiful, wonderful, irresistible,

-bubble-bubble-bubble person he was--and

-shyly kiss his hand, probably--Oh, well, Papa,

-I tried to, and I didn't like it, and in spite of myself

-it seemed wrong and humiliating--and he was so

-large, and pink, and German, and so much of him

-rolled over his collar, and everybody seemed in

-such a conspiracy to poke us into dark corners and

-leave us there, and so finally I just said, 'No, I've

-made a mistake, and here's your ring, and here's

-the cablegram from the Kaiser, and here's the

-photograph of your dead mother--and would you

-mind getting out of my life, please?--and friends

-are requested to accept this the only intimation.'"

-

-"And how did he take it?"

-

-"He wouldn't take it--that was the trouble.

-He made a frightful fuss.  He couldn't have made

-more if we had been really married, and I had

-announced my intention of running away with the

-elevator-boy!  He scrunched my hands till I thought

-the bones would break, and might have thrown

-me out of the window if tea hadn't come in the

-nick of time.  Then he went off to Aunt Sarah,

-with the German idea of stinging up the family--as

-though twenty aunts could make me love a man

-I didn't--and succeeded so well that she

-practically drove me out.  Oh, her position!  I never

-heard the end of it--and of course she said I had

-ruined it, and that she never could hold up her

-head again.  The only thing to do was to run.  So

-I ran and ran and ran--to my old dad!"

-

-She slipped her hand down, and held her father's

-collar as though he, too, were a dog, and gave it

-an affectionate little tug.

-

-"My darling old dad," she murmured.

-

-"It's not so bad to have one, is it?" he said.

-"To know where there is a snug harbor, and an

-old fellow who thinks you are perfect, and

-everything you do is right.  You will get a lot of

-criticism for this, and I suppose Washington will boil

-over--but to my thinking, you couldn't have done

-better, and I am thankful for your courage.  If

-you don't love a man, for God's sake, don't marry

-him, even if you're both walking up the aisle, and

-he's twiddling the ring!--To tell the truth, I

-wasn't a bit partial to Von Piller, and found it

-pretty hard to sit tight, and be told he was forty

-different kinds of a paragon."

-

-"My darling Papa," she observed sweetly,

-"you're never going to like anybody who wants

-to marry me, and it's sure to cost me some worry

-when the right person does come.--Do you

-suppose he ever will?"

-

-"Oh, I guess so."

-

-"In spite of the awful record I have made?

-Aunt Sarah says I am branded as a coquette, and

-no decent man will ever have anything more to

-do with me."

-

-"Rubbish."

-

-Phyllis fondled Watch's ears, which were long

-and silky, and tried the effect on dog-beauty of

-overlapping them on his head.

-

-"Papa, what's the matter with me?  Why

-haven't I any sense?  Why am I not like other

-girls?"

-

-"You are very fastidious."

-

-"Yes, that's true."

-

-"And very proud."

-

-"Yes, inherited."

-

-"And demand a great deal."

-

-"Yes--everything."

-

-"You are in love with love--and are rather

-in a hurry."

-

-"Oh, Papa--shut your eyes--I am love-hungry.

-I want to love--I'm crazy to love.  Only--only--"

-

-"The right man hasn't arrived?"

-

-"I hope it's that.  If it isn't, I'm going to have

-a bad time of it.  It seems so useless; this getting

-engaged and then hating the poor wretch.--It's

-such a terrible waste of energy and heart-beats all

-round."

-

-"Dad included."

-

-"What a nuisance I am, to be sure!  I've

-exhausted everybody's patience except yours, and

-that's getting thin.  It will end in my living alone

-in a shanty with nothing but dogs, and the faded

-photographs of the men I've thrown over.  Aunt

-Sarah called me an awful name; called me an

-engagement-buster; said that the habit would grow

-and grow till I was a horrid old maid with nothing

-to tease but a parrot.--Though I'd love to have a

-parrot--two of them--and raise little parrots!

-Little fluffy baby parrots must be adorable.  Papa,

-let's buy a pair to-morrow, and you'll teach the

-he-one to swear, and I'll teach the she-one to be

-gentle and submissive and always have her own

-way.  And Papa--?"

-

-"Yes, dearest?"

-

-"You aren't cross with me, are you?"

-

-"Not a bit."

-

-"And I may live with you, and add up your

-bills, and bring you your slippers, and dream all

-day of that Golden Young Man who doesn't exist?"

-

-"Oh, don't say that--He does, Phyllis."

-

-"Papa, he doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't!"

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER VI`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER VI

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Socially speaking Carthage was as distant

-from Washington as is Timbuctoo.  While

-the Von Piller hurricane was raging in the

-nation's capital, the Carthage barometer showed

-"fair and rising."  To a storm-tossed little mariner,

-it was like gaining the lee of some palmy isle, and

-casting anchor in still water.  The islanders, too, if

-a trifle homespun and provincial, were the most

-delightful people, and unspoiled by any intrusion of a

-higher civilization.  Phyllis had not realized how

-entirely her outlook had changed until she returned

-to her own home.  She saw her former school

-fellows with new eyes, and while she could not forbear

-smiling at some of their ways, she liked them

-better than ever before.--They, on their side,

-regarded with awe this fashionable young beauty,

-who had jilted a Pastor, and given the mitten to

-a real, live, guaranteed baron, and who had

-descended in their midst, like a racer in a paddock of

-donkeys.

-

-Some of them felt very donkeyfied indeed.  Tom

-Fergus, a gelatinous young man, somewhat

-forward and familiar, who was alluded to in the local

-papers as "one of the leaders of the younger set"

-said she was "raving pretty, but, my stars, what

-was a fellow to talk to her about?"  Billy

-Phillpots, who worked in his father's store (many of

-the young fellows "worked in his father's store")

-vetoed her as "insufferably stuck up," he having

-escorted her home one night, and failed to extort

-the usual toll at the garden-gate.--The good night

-kiss at the garden-gate was quite a Carthage

-institution, and as innocent as the kiss of an early

-Christian.

-

-Life in Carthage was altogether Early Christian--for

-the young people of the better families.

-They met every night, and moved in flocks, like

-sparrows, alighting first in one house and then

-another--taking up the carpets for dancing,

-improvising suppers, crowding round the fireplaces

-to sing, and tell stories.  Presumably there was

-some social line drawn somewhere; but money at

-least counted for little, and anybody that was "nice"

-was allowed in.  And it must be said, on the whole,

-that they were remarkably "nice," and very much

-a credit to high-class democracy.  The boys were

-well-mannered, brotherly and respectful; the girls

-charming in their blitheness and gaiety.  Occasionally

-there was a match, and a couple disappeared as

-completely as though they had fallen into the river

-and been swept away.  You couldn't marry, and

-still be a sparrow.  No, indeed!  You passed into

-another world, and six months after the sparrows

-would hardly know you on the street.  One would

-not venture to say this was cruel--though it

-always came as a shock to the newly-wedded

-pair--it was just the sparrow way, that's all.

-

-Phyllis was soon flying with the rest of them,

-and her ready adaptability caused her to be accepted

-in their midst without more than a passing

-hesitation.  Hiding her riper and more womanly nature,

-and absorbing herself in this animated triviality,

-she pretended to be as much a sparrow as any

-of the flock, and no less lively and empty-headed.

-She was lonely, heart-tired, and very much adrift

-on the sea of life; and in the engaging childishness

-of these girls and boys, who, though of her own

-age, were mentally only up to her elbow, she found

-a sort of solace, a sort of peace.  They kept her

-from thinking; their chatter and good spirits were

-exhilarating; the naïve admiration of the young

-men warmed, and yet did not disturb her.--Before

-her long flight to other skies, the little bird might

-well be thankful for the sparrows.

-

-Spring came--summer.  Her twenty-first birthday

-passed in the Adirondacks, where her father

-had a cottage in that wilderness of woods and lakes.

-She was in her twenty-second year now, and knew

-what it was to feel old--oh, so old!  That she

-was able, by the laws of the land, to buy and hold

-real-estate seemed but a poor set-off to this

-encroachment of time--though her father repeatedly

-pointed out this new privilege the years had brought.

-She could marry, too, without his consent--another

-empty concession to maturity, considering there was

-no one to marry with or without it.  Of course,

-there were a few silly babies running after her as

-though she were a woolly sheep--but no one that

-the wildest stretch of imagination could consider

-a man.  Some of their fathers ran, too--stout

-widowers panting with the unaccustomed exertion,--but

-that was grotesque and disgusting.  Far or

-wide, high or low, there wasn't a pin feather of

-the Golden Young Man.  His noble race was

-extinct.  He lived in books, but you never met him.

-Never, never.  He had died out a million years

-ago, leaving nothing save a tradition for poets and

-novelists to paw over.

-

-Quite convinced that it was a wretched world,

-Phyllis danced and rode, picnicked and camped out

-after deer in a bewitching Wild West costume, and

-was always the first to a party, and the last to leave

-it--all very much like one who found it tolerable

-enough.  Some would have called her an insatiable

-little pleasure-seeker, and been wholly misled.

-"What are any of us doing except waiting for a

-man?" she once announced with shocking candor.

-"It's the fashion to talk of 'other interests' and

-we girls are all graduating, and slumming, and

-teaching little foreign Jews to sing '*My Country

-'Tis of Thee*, and *Columbia*, *Gem of the Ocean*,

-and learning to be trained nurses and bacteriologists--just

-in the effort to save our poor little

-self-respect.  We ruin our complexions, dim our eyes,

-and spoil our nice hands--all the property of some

-future lord and master, whom we really are

-pilfering--and who's deceived?  Who takes it seriously?

-We don't, who do it.  Poof, what a pretense it

-is!--If you have to wait, why not two-step through

-it as I do, and be as happy as you can, like people

-snowed up in a train.  That's what a young girl

-is--snowed up--and I only wish some one would

-come with a spade and dig me out!"

-

-These racy confidences entertained and delighted

-her father, but on other people they often had a

-contrary effect.  The truth from the lips of babes

-and sucklings, however phenomenal, is also

-disconcerting.  Old women, who in private taught their

-daughters a revolting cynicism, and called it

-"putting them on their guard," were much overcome

-by Phyllis' frankness.  It was "bold"; it was

-"unladylike"; it was "dreadful."  They tore Phyllis

-to pieces, and prophesied the most awful things.

-It may be that they were right.  Selfishness is a

-fine ballast, and an anxious regard for number one

-keeps many a little ship on an undeviating course.

-Phyllis was made to smart for her unconventional

-sayings, and they often came back to her, so distorted

-and coarsened by their travels, that her cheeks

-flushed with anger.

-

-"There's one thing I am learning fast," she said,

-"and that is, all my friends seem to be men, and

-all my enemies, women--and I may as well get

-used to it now.  I know there are a few exceptions

-either way, but it's substantially that, anyhow, and

-one might as well face up to it, and save trouble."

-

-"I'm afraid you are what they call a man's

-woman, my dear," said Mr. Ladd.

-

-"I'm glad of it," exclaimed Phyllis saucily.  "I

-don't want to be any other kind of a woman, least

-of all one of those sneaking, cowardly, backbiting,

-hypocritical things.  I don't wonder they used to

-whip them in the good old days.  If men hadn't

-degenerated so terribly, they'd be whipping them now!"

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Autumn saw her back in Carthage again.  Aunt

-Sarah was begging to have her for another Washington

-winter, and was in a beautifully forgiving

-humor.  The breaches in her social position had

-been repaired, and the Demon Want, confound him,

-was knocking loudly at the door of her elegant

-establishment--so that the hope of another visit,

-with its accompanying shower of Brother Bob's

-gold, loomed very attractively before these cold,

-blue eyes.  But Phyllis could not be beguiled; she

-had no wish to repeat that mad winter; her mood

-was all the other way--for her big tranquil house,

-her books, her dogs, her horses, and long dreaming

-hours to herself, undisturbed.  She had loved

-Washington, and had exhausted it.  The strain of its

-business-like gaiety was not to be endured again.

-It was a factory of pleasure, and the hours

-over-long, the tasks over-hard.  Aunt Sarah might ring

-the bell all she wished, but the factory that winter

-would be one toiler short.  When a person has

-entered her twenty-second year, that advanced age

-brings with it a certain serenity unknown to wilder

-twenty.  You are glad to lie back with a dog's

-head in your lap, and lazily watch the procession.

-Silly young men, choking in immense collars, no

-longer can keep you out of bed till three A.M.

-Let the new débutantes have that doubtful joy.

-Twenty-two preferred her book, and her silent

-rooms.--Not that Carthage was without its simple

-relaxations, but they were well spaced out, with

-long intervals between.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"Miss Daisy wants you on the 'phone, Miss."

-

-"Oh, all right--I'm coming.--Hello, hello,

-hello--What a dear you are to ask me--A--matinée

-Wednesday?  Love to!--What's it to be?"

-

-"Oh, Phyllis, you won't be offended, will you,

-but I'm so poor, and their boxes are only five

-dollars, and will hold six, and they've promised to

-squeeze in three more chairs--and so I've invited

-nine--and it's in that cheap, horrid Thalia Theater,

-but nobody can hurt us in a box, and everybody says

-the play's wonderful, and you can eat peanuts,

-which you can't do in a real theater; and it's

-*Moths*, by Ouida, and Cyril Adair is the star, and

-he is so wonderfully handsome--oh, you must

-have seen his pictures in the barber-shop windows--and

-anyway, even if he isn't, the play is delightfully

-wicked--because I had such a fight with

-mama about it, and then Howard has been twice,

-which he wouldn't have done if it wasn't; and even

-if it isn't, how am I to give a theater-party on no

-more than five dollars?  The Columbia boxes are

-fifteen, and so are the Lyceum's, and when they

-say six, it's six, and you simply couldn't dare to

-ask nine girls because they wouldn't let them in.

-But the Thalia man was so pleased and impressed

-that I believe he would have included ice-cream if

-I had asked him--and Phyllis?"

-

-"Yes, darling."

-

-"It would give such a lot of ginger to it, if

-you would lend me your carriage and the

-dog-cart--!  Oh, I knew you would!  What a

-comfort you are, Phyllis.  I don't know how I'd get

-along without you, you are always so generous and

-obliging.  Nettie Havens has volunteered tea at

-her house--just insisted on it when I told her.

-I guess that poor little five never went so far in

-all its little history!  I can't think it ever ran a

-whole theater-party before, with carriages and teas.

-It's an awful tacky way of doing things, I admit,

-but what does it matter if we have a good time?--Yes,

-that's the only way to look at it, and you're

-a darling.  Do you know I think Harry Thayre

-is sweet on--!  Oh, bother, she says I've to ring

-off, or pay another nickel.  If it was a man she'd let

-him have fifteen cents' worth!  Well, good-by,

-good-by--!"

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-It was a pretty sight they presented in their box,

-a veritable flower-bed of young American womanhood.

-The bright, girlish faces, the laughter, the

-animation, the sparkling eyes, the ripples of

-merriment, the air of innocent bravado--all were in

-such contrast to the usual patrons of the Thalia

-that the house could not take its eyes off them.

-It was essentially a shop-girl-and-best-young-man

-theater, with a hoodlum gallery, and a general

-appearance of extreme youth.  Those who did not

-chew gum were almost conspicuous, and a formidable

-young man with a voice of brass, perambulated

-the aisles with a large tray, and terrorized nickels

-and dimes from the pockets of swains.  He had a

-humorous directness that made the price of

-immunity seem cheap at the money.  It was worth a

-dime any time to escape him.

-

-And the play?

-

-It was a rousing love-story, crude, stilted,

-old-fashioned, but developed with a force and

-earnestness that Ouida has always possessed.  The brutal

-Prince, the ill-used Princess, Corrèze, the idol of the

-public, the tenor whose voice has taken the world

-by storm, heart-broken and noble in his hopeless

-love--here were full-blooded situations to make

-the heart beat.  And how nine of them *did* beat

-in that crowded box.  And what scalding tears

-rolled down those youthful cheeks!  And what

-little fists clenched as the Prince, passing all bounds,

-and incensed to frenzy, struck--positively

-struck--the adorable being who was clinging so

-desperately to honor and duty!  Who could blame

-Corrèze for what was to follow?  Assuredly not

-our nine rosebuds, who, if anything, found the

-splendid creature almost too backward, too

-self-sacrificing.  But--!

-

-And Cyril Adair, who played Corrèze with a

-fervid pathos that tore the heart out of your breast!

-Of course, you knew he had taken the world by

-storm.  Of course you knew the public idolized

-him.  Wasn't he the handsomest, manliest, most

-chivalrous fellow alive?  Hadn't he a voice to melt

-a stone, or drive, as cutting as a rapier, through

-even a Prince?  His firm chin, his faultless teeth,

-his strange, smoldering, compelling eyes, his

-vigorous yet graceful frame--small wonder that the

-Princess threw everything to the winds for such a

-man.  Under the circumstances none of the nine

-would have waited half so long.  The Princess'

-devotion to honor and duty seemed hardly less than

-morbid.  Her patience under insults was positively

-exasperating.  She clung to respectability with both

-hands--screamed, raged, but stuck to it as tight

-as a limpet--until a blow in the face, and the vilest

-of epithets from her brutal husband, toppled her

-finally to perdition--that is, if it were perdition

-to link the remainder of her life with that glorious

-being, and abandon everything for love.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The box applauded wildly, and led off the whole

-house.  The curtain was made to rise again and

-again.  Corrèze, advancing to the footlights, was

-left in no doubt as to where he had scored his

-heaviest hit, and rewarded those eager, girlish faces with

-a glance of his fine eyes, and a bow intended for

-them alone.  Phyllis was the least enthusiastic of

-the party, and her silence during the first

-intermission was noisily commented on.  She ate caramels

-slowly, and added nothing but monosyllables and

-an enigmatic smile to the rapturous demonstrations

-of her companions.  But had they noticed her

-during the further course of the performance, they

-might have had something else to wonder at.  With

-parted lips, and breath so faint that she seemed not

-to breathe at all--with a face paling to marble,

-and poignant with a curious and unreasoning

-distress, her eyes never quitted those of Cyril Adair,

-and fixed themselves on his in a stare so troubled,

-so fascinated, that her soul seemed to leave her

-body and to pass the footlights.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER VII`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER VII

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The tea that followed was but a blurred

-memory, a confused recollection of noise

-and chatter, with a stab at the heart every

-time the actor's name was mentioned.  She was

-thankful to get home, and lock herself in her room.

-She was in a tumult of shame, agitation, and an

-exquisite guilty joy.  She partly undressed, and

-threw herself on her bed, shutting her eyes to win

-back the face and voice that had moved her to

-the depths.  What had he done to her?  A few

-hours before she had never known of his existence.

-The merest accident had revealed it to her, and

-now he was causing the blood to surge through her

-veins, and mantle her cheeks with dishonor.  For

-it was dishonor.  Everything in her revolted at

-such a position.  His preposterous name struck

-fiercely on her pride and her sense of the

-ridiculous--Cyril Adair!  How could any one, masquerading

-under such an egregious alias, dare to give her

-a moment's concern.  She burst out laughing at

-herself, a contemptuous and bitter laugh.  Cyril

-Adair!  No dazzled little housemaid could have

-been sillier than she.

-

-Yet his face haunted her, the tones of his voice,

-that strange, smoldering look in his eyes.  How

-greedily that dreadful woman had kissed him!

-Those were no stage kisses.  Before a thousand

-people she had abandoned herself to his arms, and

-fastened that painted mouth to his in an ecstasy.

-The audience thought it was acting.  Phyllis, with

-a keener perception, saw the truth, and it made her

-savage with jealousy.  That dreadful woman was

-shameless, crazy, beside herself.  She had wooed

-him with every fiber of her body, pressing his head

-to her bosom, using every artifice to inflame him,

-and what had brought down the thunders of the

-house had not been a delineation of passion, but

-the naked thing itself.

-

-It was horrible.  Actors and actresses were

-horrible.  No wonder they were despised even while

-they were run after.  No wonder their lives were

-notorious.  How could it be otherwise when--?

-But she envied that woman.  Yes, she envied that

-woman, terrible as it was to admit it.  Hated her,

-and envied her.--No, she pitied her as one of her

-own silly, headlong sex, cursed with this need to

-love.  She was no longer young; she was thirty

-years old if a day; she was probably poor,

-disreputable, with nothing in the world but a trunk full

-of trashy finery, and no home but a cheap hotel.

-Love was the only thing she had, poor wretch, the

-only thing.

-

-And Cyril Adair?  It was hard to imagine him

-in private life except as Corrèze.  But, of course,

-he wasn't Corrèze--that was absurd.  Perhaps he

-would be so changed that one would scarcely know

-him on the street.  She had heard of such

-disillusions--of tottering old men playing boys--and

-wasn't Bernhardt sixty?  But a woman can tell, a

-woman who--who--cares.  That vigorous manhood

-was no made-up pretense; such freshness, such

-warmth, such grace, could not be affected; he was

-certainly not much more than thirty, on the border

-line of youth and early-maturity when men, to her,

-possessed their greatest charm.

-

-Lying there, in a swoon of shy delight, she

-allowed her fancy to fly away in dreams.  Hand in

-hand, they trod a fairy-land of love and rapture.

-She stole sentences from his part, and made him

-repeat them to her alone--avowals, passionate and

-tender, in all the mellow sweetness of the voice that

-still reëchoed in her heart.  He was Corrèze, and

-she, in the madness of her infatuation, had forced

-her way to him and thrown herself humbly at his

-feet.  His love was not for her; she aspired to no

-such heights; but she had come to be his little

-slave; to follow him in his wanderings; to sleep

-across his door, and guard him while he slept.  To

-be near him was all she asked.  His little slave,

-who, when he was dejected and weary, would nestle

-beside him, and cover his hand with the softest

-kisses.  She wanted no reward; she would try not

-to be jealous of those great ladies, though there

-would be times when she could not hold back her

-feelings, and his hand, as she drew it across her

-eyes, would be all wet with tears.

-

-With her maid's knock at the door there came a

-sudden revulsion.  Phyllis called to her to go away,

-unwilling to be seen in her defenselessness, and

-fearful of she knew not what.  But the spell was

-broken.  The bubble of that pretty fantasy vanished

-at one touch of fact.  Harsh reality obtruded itself,

-and with it a pitiless self-arraignment.  She had

-been swept off her feet by a third-class actor, in a

-third-class play, full of mawkish sentiment and

-unreality, in a third-class theater where they chewed

-gum, and ate apples while they wept over the hero's

-woes!  A wave of self-disgust rose within her.

-She felt soiled, humiliated.  How dared this cheap,

-showy creature reach out to take such liberties with

-a woman a thousand times above him?  A creature,

-who in all probability ate with his knife, carried

-on low love affairs with admiring shop-girls, and

-practised his fascinations before a mirror, like a

-trick-monkey!  Pah, the thought of her amorous

-imaginings reddened her cheeks, and consumed

-her with bitterness and shame.  Where was her

-self-respect, her modesty?  If wishes could have

-killed, there would have been no performance of

-*Moths* that night at the Thalia Theater.

-

-At dinner she convulsed her father with an

-account of the play, in which neither Adair nor the

-audience were in any way spared.  In her zest

-and mockery, it all took on a richly humorous

-aspect, and at times she was interrupted by her

-own silvery peals of laughter.  To hear her, how

-could any one have guessed that she had been

-stirred as she had never been stirred before, and

-that the screaming farce she described had been in

-reality the one drama that had ever touched her?

-Was it in revenge for what she had suffered?  Was

-it perversity?  Or was it the attempt to conquer a

-physical attraction so irresistible that it tormented

-and terrified her even while she fought it with the

-best of all weapons--derision?

-

-She passed a wretched night, tossing and turning

-on her bed in a whirl of emotions.  She was

-haunted by that face which appeared to regard her

-with such reproach.  Why had she betrayed him, it

-seemed to ask?  The smoldering eyes, compelling

-always, were questioning and melancholy.  That

-look, of such singular intensity, and with its strange

-and mysterious appeal to some other self of hers,

-again asserted its resistless power.  She felt

-herself slipping back, in a langour of tenderness, to the

-mood that had shocked her so much before.  In

-vain she repeated the saving words--threw out

-those little life-buoys to a swimmer drowning in

-unworthy love--"third-class actor"--"matinée

-hero"--"shop-girls' idol."--The drowning

-swimmer continued to drown, unhelped.  The

-life-buoys floated away, and disappeared.  Engulfing

-love, worthy or unworthy, drew down her spent

-body to the blue and coraled depths, and held her

-there, fainting with delight.

-

-In our secret hearts, who has not, at some time

-or other, felt an unreasoning desire for one all

-unknown.  Is love, indeed--true love, anything else?

-Glamour and idealization--we would not go far

-without either, and many, hand in hand, have trod

-the long path to the grave, and died happy with

-their illusions.  Nature, to screen her coarser

-intent, fools us, little children that we are, with these

-pretty and poetic artifices.  May it always be so,

-for God knows, it is an ugly world, and it does not

-do to peer too curiously behind the scenes.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-There was a Mrs. Beekman that Phyllis knew,

-the widow of a distinguished lawyer, left with

-nothing, who had bravely set herself to earn her living

-as a milliner.  It was to the credit of Carthage that

-Mrs. Beekman's altered fortunes had not impaired

-its regard for her.  She kept her friends in spite

-of the "Hortense" over her shop, and a window

-full of home-made hats, which, of themselves,

-would have amply justified ostracism.  It was no

-new thing for Mrs. Beekman to act as chaperon,

-and repay, in this small measure, many kindnesses

-that verged on charity.  So she was not surprised,

-though much pleased and excited, when Phyllis

-telephoned, and asked her to go with her to the theater.

-"I liked the play so much I want to see it again,"

-trickled that tiny voice into her ear, "and though

-it's at that awful Thalia Theater, we can sit in a

-box, and be quite safe and comfortable.--May I

-call for you a little after eight, dear?"

-

-Mrs. Beekman, who was an indefatigable pleasure-seeker,

-consented with effusiveness.  Phyllis

-was a darling to have thought of her.  One of her

-girls had told her the play was splendid, and that

-the star--oh, what didn't she say about the star!

-Was Phyllis crazy about him, too?  Hee, hee, all

-alike under their skins, as Kipling said!  Not that

-she liked Kipling--he was so unrefined--but

-Miss Britt (you know Miss Britt, the silly one,

-with poodle eyes, and a poodle-fool if ever there

-was one) Miss Britt raved for hours about his

-"somber beauty."  Wasn't it killing!  If Adair

-wanted to, he could leave town with two box-cars

-of conquests!  My, the milliners wouldn't have a

-girl left, and the ice-cream parlors would all have

-to shut.--At eight, dear?--And dress quietly so

-as not to attract attention?  Hee, hee, it was quite

-a lark, wasn't it?

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Sitting in the same box, on the same chair, but

-with a feeling as though years had elapsed since she

-had last been there, Phyllis again saw the curtain

-rise on *Moths*.  The impulse that had brought

-her, the mad desire to see the man who had

-tortured her so cruelly, had changed to a cold

-critical mood, to a disdain so comprehensive that it

-included herself no less than Adair.  Dispassionate

-and contemptuous, it cost her no effort to steel

-herself against his first appearance.  His mouth was

-undeniably rather coarse; she detected a self-complacency

-beneath his Corrèze that his acting failed to

-hide; she saw his glance seek the back-benches with

-a satisfaction at finding them filled, that struck her

-as somehow greedy and tradesmanlike.  What a

-disgusting business it was to posture and rant, and

-choke back sham tears, and mimic the sacredest

-things in life--and watch back-benches with an

-eye to the evening's profits!  The wretchedest

-laborer, with his pick and shovel, was more of a man.

-At any rate he did something that was dignified,

-that was useful and wanted.  He was not framed

-in cardboard; there was no row of lights at his

-honest, muddy feet; his loving was a private matter,

-and when he kissed he meant it.--How fortunate

-it was that she had come!  How unerring the

-instinct that had brought her back to be cured!

-

-But as the play proceeded such reflections were

-forgotten in the intensity of her absorption.  Again

-she was leaning forward with parted lips; rapt,

-over-borne, lost to everything, and pale with an

-indescribable tumult of emotion.  She was conscious

-of no audience; of naught save the man who held

-her captive with a power so absolute and irresistible

-that birth, training, pride, weighed as nothing

-in the balance.  His voice pierced her heart; his

-eyes seemed to draw the soul from her body; she

-trembled at her own helplessness, though the

-realization of it was also a strange and intoxicating

-pleasure.

-

-But intermingled with that pleasure, darting

-through it like a tongue of flame, was a jealousy of

-Miss de Vere that not even the bitterest of

-contempt could allay.  Phyllis felt to the full the

-degradation of being jealous of any one bearing so

-preposterous a name.  Lydia de Vere!  Her lips

-curled at herself.  Oh, that shoddy affectation of

-aristocracy!  Lydia de Vere!  And that in a

-ten-twenty-thirty cent theater, and hardly clothed above

-the waist; and yet, in spite of her painted face,

-her dyed hair, and all of her thirty years, with

-shoulders and breast that a duchess might have

-envied, she was handsome in her common,

-flamboyant, chorus-girl way, with the meaningless good

-looks that one associates with tights and gilt spears.

-Her acting was stilted and false; her fine ladyism

-an impossible assumption; she railed at the Prince

-in the accents of a cook giving notice.  But her

-love for Corrèze taxed no histrionic powers.  It

-was vehement and real, as were the kisses she

-bestowed so freely, and the caresses she lingered over

-with voluptuous satisfaction.  Beneath the drama

-of fictitious personages was another of flesh and

-blood, like a splash of scarlet on a printed page.

-

-What fury and anguish lay pent up in one girlish

-bosom!  What a suffocating sense of defeat,

-bitterness and shame!--  To burn with jealousy of such

-a woman was more lowering than to--  No, she

-would not admit that word to herself.  It was folly,

-infatuation, madness--but not love.  It would

-pass with the swiftness it had come, leaving her in

-wonder at herself, though the scar would remain

-for many a long day.  This man was robbing her

-of something that never perhaps could be altogether

-replaced.  How wicked it was, how unjust--she

-who had done nothing to tempt the lightning!

-She hated him for it; she clenched her teeth and

-defied him; she understood now what she had read

-in books that there are men the mind scorns even

-while the body surrenders.  But she was made of

-stronger stuff; she had pride and courage; her pearls

-were not for swine to trample on.  She would

-put him out of her head for ever.

-

-It was terrible how he always got back again.

-There were tones in his voice that melted every

-resolution.  If ever laughter was music, it was

-his, and the contagion of it swept the house; and

-his face, though not handsome in the accepted sense,

-was striking in the effect it gave of an untamed,

-extraordinary and powerful nature, only half

-revealed.  What was pride or courage or anything?

-What availed the hatred of that hotly-beating little

-heart?  Had he not but to look her way to make

-it his own?  Had he crushed it in his hand, would

-it not have died of joy?  Hatred, resentment,

-outraged self-respect--words, nothing but words.

-

-As the house streamed out she waited in dread

-for Mrs. Beekman's criticism.  However desperately

-she might belittle Adair to herself, Phyllis

-shrank from hearing condemnation on other lips.

-The pride that had failed so utterly to defend her,

-had taken sides with the enemy, devotedly,

-passionately.  Judge of her surprise, then, her

-pleasure and relief, when Mrs. Beekman said to her

-solemnly: "Phyllis, that man's a genius!  He's

-perfectly splendid!"  Misunderstanding her

-companion's silence, and thinking it implied dissent,

-she went on with a note of argument in her voice.

-"Of course one can feel somehow that he has had

-no advantages--that he has probably never been

-within ten miles of the people he is trying to

-represent--(do you remember his shaking hands with

-his gloves on?)--but just the same he has a

-wonderful and magnificent talent, and we'll hear of him

-as surely as the world heard of Henry Irving, or

-Booth, or Bernhardt.  Truly, Phyllis, I believe the

-day will come when we'll be bragging of having

-admired Adair before he was famous; that is, if

-you feel like me about it," she added doubtfully.

-

-"I do, I do!" cried Phyllis.  "I've never seen

-anybody on the stage I've liked as much."

-

-"Well, I have," said Mrs. Beekman candidly.

-"He certainly suffered from being with all those

-idiots, and I don't like that fling-ding walk of

-his.--I guess he's about five years short of the

-winning-post, but we'll see him romp in as sure as

-my name's Emma Beekman."

-

-"Romping in" jarred somewhat on Phyllis' ear,

-but all the same Mrs. Beekman's admiration was

-very sweet to her, and in a queer sort of way was

-comforting and reassuring.  There was dignity in

-idolizing a genius; it raised her in her own good

-opinion.

-

-She forgot the apples and the chewing-gum;

-she forgot even Miss de Vere; a mantle of

-unreasoning happiness enveloped her, and with it

-came a gush of affection for Mrs. Beekman that

-quite astonished the latter.  She held her hand in

-the dark, and tried, with many unseen blushes, to

-keep the one subject uppermost.  To lie back in

-the carriage and hear Adair praised, thrilled her

-with delicious sensations.  She was insatiable, and

-kept the milliner repeating "genius, genius,

-genius," like a parrot.  It cost her an order for a

-twenty dollar hat, but what did she care?  She

-would have given the clothes off her back in the

-extravagance of her desire.  Fortunately

-Mrs. Beekman was nothing loath, and would have

-chattered for ever on this entrancing topic.  "I guess

-we're as bad as my girls," she said, with her

-good-natured laugh, "and he could put us both in the

-box-car, too, if he had the mind."

-

-"I shouldn't care if I was the only one," returned

-Phyllis gaily, "and anyway, I've always loved

-traveling!"

-

-"It would be to the devil," said Mrs. Beekman

-half-seriously.  "That's where such men come

-from, and that's where they go back--and if you

-could follow round the circle, I guess you'd find it

-mile-stoned with silly girls."

-

-"Oh, if I went, I would stay to the end," cried

-Phyllis.  "No putting me off at a way-station.

-I'd take a through ticket."

-

-"And get there alone," put in Mrs. Beekman.

-"Men like that don't go far with any girl.  They

-are a power for mischief, and they weren't much

-wrong in the old days to run them out of

-town--vagabonds and strolling players, you know.  I

-guess in those times they used to take chickens, too,

-and anything portable.  A bad lot, my dear, and

-they aren't any better to-day."

-

-This was a poor return for a twenty-dollar hat,

-and without knowing exactly why, it made Phyllis

-exceedingly miserable.  She felt a diminishing

-affection for Mrs. Beekman; and the world altogether

-suddenly took on a cold and dismal aspect.  Her

-spirits were not revived by finding her father

-sitting up for her.

-

-"What was the play?" he asked, taking her wraps.

-

-"*Moths*, Papa."

-

-"What?  Twice?"

-

-"Oh, I thought it would amuse me to see it

-again, and besides, Mrs. Beekman preferred it to

-anything else in town, and I really went for her

-sake, you know.  It's a charity to take her out

-sometimes; her life is so monotonous, and one feels

-so sorry for her."

-

-Mr. Ladd waited, smiling in advance, for another

-humorous take-off of the piece.  But there was no

-fun in Phyllis that night.  She drank a glass of

-water, kissed him good night, and went silently up

-to bed.

-

-"She doesn't seem very well," he thought, with a

-shade of concern, and remembered that she had

-been pale and tired for some days past.  "If she

-doesn't pick up in a day or two, I believe I'll get

-the doctor."

-

-Had he seen her an hour later, his misgivings

-would have increased.  Kneeling beside her bed,

-her face crushed in the coverlet, she was weeping

-softly and heart-brokenly to herself.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER VIII`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER VIII

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Friday, the day that followed, was memorable

-to her for its decisiveness and remorse.

-She took a long ride, and between canters,

-busied her head with plans of escape.  Washington,

-Florida, Europe--it mattered little where--so

-long as she got away at once.  She looked at

-herself dispassionately, and the more she looked

-the more utterly despicable did she seem.  She

-was undoubtedly in love with this cheap, showy

-actor--(somehow in the sunshine his genius had

-withered, and he seemed to share the general

-tawdriness of gum and apples and shop-boy

-sentiment)--crazily in love, infatuated; and to refuse to

-admit it was but to hide her head in the sand, like an

-ostrich.

-

-The comparison was not a pretty one, but then

-she was not looking for pretty comparisons.  In

-fact, as far as her feelings for Adair were concerned,

-she was eager to find words that could make her

-wince.  She said them out loud, exulting in their

-brutality; gross words, picked up she hardly knew

-where, and put out of mind as unclean and horrible.

-To use them now was a form of self-flagellation,

-and she laid on the whip with a will.  It was

-good for a little fool, she said viciously.  Lash! lash!

-It would keep her out of mischief.  Lash! lash!

-Let her understand once for all what it

-really meant, even if the skin curled off her back.

-

-On her return home she stopped at the telegraph-office

-to carry out her intention of volunteering a

-visit to Aunt Sarah's.  Night or day, in season or

-out, there she always had a refuge.  If blood in

-Aunt Sarah's case, was not thicker than water, there

-was the more robust bond of hard cash always to be

-relied upon.  A niece who descended in a shower

-of gold could count with confidence on the bread

-and salt of hospitality, and the sincerest of

-welcoming kisses.  There is something to be said for

-people you can count on with confidence.  An

-affectionate, love-you-like-a-daughter aunt might have

-made excuses.  A money-loving, pleasure-loving,

-wholly selfish aunt, living very much above her

-income, was one of the certainties of life.

-

-But as she reined in her horse, and the groom

-ran to give her his hand to dismount, she wondered,

-after all, whether she would telegraph.  The

-flagellation had been very successful; the September

-sunshine had killed the pitiful glimmer of the

-footlights; the crisp invigorating air had brought

-sanity with every breath.  No, indeed, she would not

-telegraph, she was not half the fool she had thought

-herself; it was a girlish weakness to exaggerate

-everything--infatuation included.  She would

-telephone to that nice New Yorker instead and

-invite him to tea.  That oldish man with the

-charming distinction and courtesy, who had shown

-symptoms of infatuation, too.--Yes, a good whipping

-to be followed by two hours of an excessively

-devoted Mr. Van Suydam, and perhaps a

-boy-and-girl-evening later with the carpet up--and why

-should anybody be scared of anything?

-

-So the telegram was not sent; and a young lady,

-very much restored, and looking adorably fresh and

-pretty on her Kentucky mare, came galloping up

-Chestnut Avenue in excellent spirits and appetite.

-

-As for Mr. Van Suydam--he threw over a big

-reception to come, and was so agreeable and eager,

-in such a sweet, restrained, smiling way, that he

-was allowed to hold a little hand a long, long while,

-and murmur a whole heartful of tender things that

-amounted virtually to a declaration--which was

-cruel of Phyllis, not to say unladylike and shocking;

-for with half-shut eyes she tried to imagine it was

-quite another man who was wooing her, and

-abandoned herself to the fiction with a waywardness

-that was inexcusable.  But however unjust it was

-towards Mr. Van Suydam, who was an honorable

-man, and meant what he said, and was naturally

-much elated--his suit did Phyllis good, and even

-as dummy for another, an inevitable comparison

-would insist upon obtruding itself.  Caste is very

-strong; it is difficult to associate good-breeding,

-honor and distinction with a ten-twenty-thirty cent

-star; and though Mr. Van Suydam, was nothing

-to Phyllis personally she could not help realizing

-the high value she set on the qualities he exemplified--so

-high, indeed, that it began to seem impossible

-for her to care seriously for any man without them.

-

-An evening with the sparrows rounded out that

-day of good resolves and healthy common sense.

-She danced with a zest that no genuinely-infatuated

-person could have felt, and told ghost stories

-afterwards before the fire, and listened to others being

-told, with shudders of unaffected enjoyment.

-"And my dear, when she looked at that man again,

-*she saw that his throat was cut from ear to ear!*"--It

-was a jolly evening, innocently hilarious, and

-as wholesome as an ocean breeze.  Morbidity and

-introspection could not persist in an atmosphere so

-genially youthful.  Phyllis never thought once of

-Cyril Adair, and flirted outrageously with Sam

-Hargreaves, convulsing the sparrows by sharing his

-ice-cream spoon.  Ordinarily quiet and backward,

-and even a little disdainful, she showed herself in

-wild spirits that night, and her audacity, humor

-and gaiety were irresistible.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-It was very discouraging, after a night's sleep,

-as untroubled as a babe's, to awaken again with a

-dull ache within her, and to discover, with

-hopeless despondency, that she was not cured at all.

-Alas for the girlish armor she had striven so hard

-to put about her--Mr. Van Suydam, Sam Hargreaves,

-the bitter, ugly things she had said to herself,

-the defiant resolutions.  Where was that pride

-she had stung to fury?  Where was that sense of

-caste which yesterday had seemed so peremptory?

-

-The morning found her bereft of everything,

-wretched, defenseless, with no longer even the will

-to fly.  She was under the spell once more, and

-powerless to throw it off.  Her whole prepossession

-was to see Adair again, cost what it might.

-Nothing else mattered.  She was mad, infatuated,

-contemptible to herself--but she could only be

-appeased by the sight of him.  Yet how was it

-possible?  How could she contrive it?  She could

-not well ask Mrs. Beekman a second time.  That

-any one should suspect her secret was intolerable--she

-would rather have died.  The circle of her girl

-friends was too small to arrange another theater-party

-without submitting herself to unbearable

-innuendoes and home-thrusts.  Those young women

-had a preternatural instinct for detecting the dawn

-of love.  In other things they might be stupid and

-blind, but for this they were as watchful as hawks,

-and as merciless as only twenty can be.  What of

-her admirers then--Mr. Van Suydam, say, or

-good-natured, fat Sam?  But they could be very

-sharp, too--and besides, she could not be so

-forward as to seek an invitation.  Young girls in

-Carthage had a great deal of liberty--but it had

-its limits.  Perhaps she could take one of the

-house-maids with her to the matinée--it was Saturday

-and the piece was given twice.  But this would

-appear queer, especially if it reached her father.

-

-There seemed nothing for it but to dress very

-plainly and go by herself.  It was something to

-remember that matinées practically existed for

-women only--though attending one alone was

-unheard of in Phyllis' set.  It was less a social law

-than a sort of fact.  Girls went to matinées in pairs

-apparently--always had--and apparently always

-would.  "Who did you go with, my dear?" was

-an inevitable question.  Well, if necessary, one

-could meet that with a fib; and if one were found

-out, it was no great crime after all--but rather

-a mild escapade that a blush could condone.  Of

-course a box was out of the question.  She could

-not sit solitary in a box for the whole house to gape

-at.  But there was nothing to prevent her buying

-two orchestra seats, so that any one recognizing

-her might draw a natural deduction.  An

-adjoining empty seat was almost a chaperon, besides

-permitting her to widen her distance from an

-unpleasant neighbor.  If there should be two

-unpleasant neighbors, she could always rise and walk out.

-

-At two she was passing the Thalia Theater with

-an air of well-feigned unconcern, though her steps

-grew slower, and she stole quick frightened

-glances at the bustling entrance.  She felt the need

-of such a preliminary survey before she could

-screw her courage up to the point of joining the

-in-going throng, who by daylight looked so

-depressingly dingy and common that she was fairly

-daunted by the sight of them.  Even in the plainest

-clothes she possessed, she felt that she would be

-noticeable among people like that, and this was

-brought home to her the more by the impudent

-stare of several young men, who parted, none too

-politely, for her to pass.  They knew she had no

-business there alone; that she belonged to another

-world; and there was speculation, as well as

-forward admiration, in the looks they cast at her.

-She felt they had somehow divined her hesitating

-purpose, and were grinning at her humiliation.

-She quickened her pace, and got by with fiercely

-flaming cheeks, and a desolating sense of failure.

-

-But the desire was so overmastering that after

-a few minutes she turned, and again coerced her

-reluctant feet.  Impudent young men could do her

-no harm.  What a coward she had been to let them

-disconcert her.  She would put down her sixty

-cents, and enter boldly, telling herself she was a

-factory girl, whose young man happened to be late.

-She might even leave the second ticket at the

-box-office with the phantom's name on it--though no,

-that would mean too much talking, and she

-distrusted her voice.  But, anyhow, nothing was

-going to keep her out of the theater.  Didn't soldiers

-walk tip to breastworks, bristling with guns and

-cannons--whole rows of them, with probably a

-very similar shakiness in their legs?  She would

-advance on that box-office in the same spirit--right,

-left, right, left--rubadub, rubadub--with

-sixty cents in her hot little hand.

-

-She had scarcely reached the outskirts of the

-crowd when she suddenly heard her name called

-aloud.  It went through her like a knife, and she

-hardly dared turn her guilty head.  There, beside

-the curb, in a big automobile, was Mr. Van Suydam,

-with a party of women in veils and furs, all

-signaling to her.  There ensued an animated

-conversation.  Where was she going?  Why shouldn't

-she jump in with them?  Mr. Van Suydam would

-sit on the floor of the tonneau, and give her his

-place.  They were so insistent that it was not easy

-to refuse.  She fibbed manfully, and invented

-pressing engagements....  At last they rolled

-off, waving their hands....

-

-But this chance meeting cost her all the poor

-courage she possessed.  Why, she could not explain

-to herself--but it was gone, and there was nothing

-for it but to hasten away.  She felt she had escaped

-detection by a hair; the precious matinée was lost;

-her eyes smarted with disappointment and chagrin.

-She rankled with the injustice of it, too--the

-unmerited and unsought disaster that this infatuation

-really was.  She was so wholly innocent of any

-blame.  She had done nothing--absolutely

-nothing--to incur it.  If you caught measles or

-smallpox every one was sorry for you; it was admittedly

-a misfortune for which you were in no way

-responsible.  But if you caught love (she smiled

-at her own phrase), it was an unspeakable disgrace!

-Yet what was the difference?  Did it not lie

-outside one's self?  How unjust it was, then, to make

-a criminal of a woman for what was beyond her

-power to control; and the exasperating part was

-that she felt a criminal to herself!

-

-Her heart was heavy with shame.  One instinct

-made her love unreasonably; another instinct

-arrogated the right to criticize with unsparing

-venom.  What a contradiction!  What a cruel

-heritage from all those thousands of dead people

-who had gone to make her body and her mind

-with odds and ends of themselves!  She had done

-no harm, yet some blind, unknown, malignant force

-was grinding her under its heel.  She understood

-now why old-fashioned people believed so implicitly

-in the devil.  It was their crude explanation of

-the unexplainable.

-

-She locked herself in her room, and impelled by

-a thought that had been dancing dizzily in her

-head, opened her desk, and drew out a sheet of

-note-paper.  She managed to write: "Dear

-Mr. Adair"; and then, blushing crimson, covered her

-face with her hands, and began to tremble with an

-uncontrollable emotion.  To continue that letter--to

-send it--was to outrage every feeling of

-modesty within her.  Under the circumstances any

-letter, however cold or conventional, was an avowal.

-She might almost as well write "*je t'adore*" under

-her photograph, and leave it at the stage-door.

-But that blind, unknown, malignant force, after a

-moment of respite, again drove her on.  She might

-shiver and blush, but the compulsion of it was like

-iron, and she had to obey.

-

-"Dear Mr. Adair," she wrote, "I have seen

-*Moths* twice, and may I, a mere member of the

-public, and altogether unknown to you, take the

-great liberty of expressing my admiration of your

-wonderful performance?"  She stopped at the

-last word, and debated it over with herself--quite

-coolly, considering the throes she had been in a

-minute before.  No, "performance" would not do.

-Bears performed; so did acrobats; it was not the

-right word at all.--She took another sheet of

-paper, and began again: "Dear Mr. Adair: I have

-seen *Moths* twice, and may I, a mere member of

-the public, and altogether unknown to you, take

-the great liberty of expressing my admiration of

-your powerful portrayal of a noble nature struggling

-against an illicit passion?  Nothing I have

-ever seen on the stage has moved me so deeply, and

-though praise from an absolute stranger may seem

-little in your eyes, I can not resist the impulse that

-makes me write.  Trusting you will receive this

-in the spirit that prompts it, believe me, in sincere

-homage, Phyllis Ladd."

-

-She read it, and re-read it till the words lost all

-meaning.  What would he think of it?  What

-sort of person would it conjure up to him?  The

-hand, and the paper, and the engraved address all

-denoted refinement and good taste.  It would be

-quite evident to him that she was a lady, with a

-social position of the best--that is, if he knew

-what Chestnut Avenue meant in Carthage, and

-especially such a number as 214.  But there was

-nothing to show that she was young, or

-unmarried--or--or--good-looking.  The letter might just as

-well have been written by a matron of fifty.  If

-only she could have added "aged twenty-one, and

-generally considered a very pretty woman."  She

-would have liked him to know that, even if she

-were never to see him again; would have liked

-to tantalize his curiosity in regard to the unknown

-Phyllis Ladd whose name was signed at the end.--Though

-he probably received bushels of notes.  All

-actors were said to.  And being a man he would

-probably like some of the warmer ones better--those

-from frankly adoring shop-girls, hampered

-neither by social position nor backwardness.  Hers

-would be pushed to one side, and never thought of

-again.  Oh, the little fool she was to send it!

-What could come of it but shame, and good

-Heavens, hadn't she had enough of that already?

-

-But undeterred, and wilful in spite of everything,

-she addressed an envelope, folded her letter inside

-it, and went out to drop it herself into the box.  As

-it slipped from her fingers she felt an intense

-pleasure in her daring.  It was only a coward who

-took no risks.  There was her letter in the box

-gone beyond retaking.  For better or worse, for

-good or evil, it had started on its road, and let

-come what might.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER IX`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER IX

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The next morning, towards noon, Cyril

-Adair was lounging over the bar of the

-Good Fellows' Grotto, with one well-shod

-foot perched on the metal rest below.  Before him

-was a Martini cocktail, and the admiring, deferential

-face of Larry, the bar-keeper.  Adair stood the

-scrutiny of daylight better than most actors.  Late

-hours, dissipation and grease-paint had not

-impaired a fine and ruddy skin that the morning razor

-left as fresh as a boy's.  His brown eyes were clear,

-and there was about him an air of unassailable

-health that was enhanced by broad shoulders, a neck

-as firm as any ever cut from Greek marble, and a

-finely-swelling chest--the physique, in fact, of

-what he had some pretensions to be--a good,

-welter-weight boxer.  His skill in this direction was

-well known, and his readiness when tipsy to

-exercise it on any one unfortunate enough to offend

-him, was one of the scandals of his stormy and

-scandalous life.  His engagements, nine times out

-of ten, had the knack of ending in the police

-court, with raw beefsteak for the plaintiff's eye,

-and the option of "seven day's hard" for the

-uncontrite defendant.  Even when stark sober--and

-to do him justice he drank only in fits and starts,

-with long intermissions between--there was

-something subtly formidable in the man, and people

-instinctively made way for him, and treated him

-with a respect verging on fear.

-

-He was over-dressed in what was the last

-accentuation of the prevailing fashion--with far too

-much braided cuff, with far too startling a

-waistcoat, with far too extravagant a tie and pin--and

-worse than anything, wore them all with assertiveness

-and self-complacency.  Though his manners

-were good (when he liked,) and his address

-agreeable, and even ingratiating, he was too showy, too

-self-satisfied, too elaborately at ease, and his

-assurance seemed to rest, not on the conventional

-groundwork of birth and breeding, but rather on

-his power and will to knock you through the door

-if he cared to take the trouble.

-

-Of course, he was profoundly ignorant, knowing

-nothing, reading little, his life bounded by the

-footlights on one side, and the stage-door on the

-other--and like all such men perpetually nervous

-lest he should be found out.  His inherent ability

-was enormous--as enormous as his vanity.  He

-had fought his way up from nothing--from the

-muddy streets in which he had sold papers, and

-begged, and starved, his whole boyhood long.  He

-was full of instincts that had never had the chance

-of becoming anything more--instincts, which, if

-cultivated, might have made him a very different

-man.  He was passionately fond of bad music;

-delighted in the only pictures he knew, those in hotels

-and saloons; he had, stored away in a memory

-that never forgot anything, half the plays of

-Shakespeare, and thousands of lines of trashy verse.

-A savage, in fact, in the midst of our civilization,

-which, after trying to grind him into powder, and

-denying him everything, was unjust enough to

-despise him heartily for what he had made of

-himself unaided.  Could he have refrained from taking

-offense at trifles, and from punching people's heads,

-he could easily have retained the high place he had

-once held on the New York stage.  He had no one

-to thank but himself if he were now touring the

-country in a fifty-class company, with an enemy in

-every manager who had ever employed him.  He

-had a strong, unusual talent.  In the delineation of

-somber and misunderstood natures, contradictory,

-pent-up, heroic--the out and out bad man with a

-spark of good--he was admitted by metropolitan

-critics to have no equal in America.  Others copied

-him slavishly and made successes, while he, their

-inspiration and their model, remained comparatively

-unknown.  There were times when he felt

-very badly about it, but a pretty face and a

-provocative petticoat could always divert his attention.

-Needless to say he had not to look far to find either.

-

-"Larry," he asked nonchalantly, "do you know

-any people in Carthage here named Ladd?"

-

-"I don't believe I do, Mr. Adair," returned

-Larry, scratching his head.  "Leastways, none

-except Robert T. R. Ladd, the railroad president."  Larry

-was unable to conceive that this mighty name

-could possibly have any bearing on Adair's

-question.  "No, I don't believe I do."

-

-"Oh, the railroad president?  Any family?"

-

-"Just one daughter."

-

-"Well, go on--tell me about her."

-

-"Why, there isn't much to say, except people

-call her the prettiest girl in Carthage--but then

-they always say that of a millionaire's daughter--Emma

-Satterlee would turn the milk sour, and yet

-in the society notes--"

-

-"Did you ever see her?--No, no, I don't mean

-that one--the railroad man's--the Ladd girl?"

-

-"Yes, I saw her onst in a church fair.  She

-hit *me* all right.  Slender brunette, very

-aristocracy, with the kind of eyes that if you're *fond*

-of brunettes--seem like--"

-

-"How old is she?"

-

-"Hell, how do I know!  Twenty--twenty-one--something

-around there.  Just a girl."

-

-"And the prettiest one in Carthage?" repeated

-Adair, sipping his cocktail as though the

-description pleased him.

-

-"Well, I would leave *my* happy home for her,"

-said Larry, with a grin.  "Pretty--I'd say she

-was pretty--pretty enough to eat."

-

-"Lives out Chestnut Avenue way, doesn't she?"

-

-"Yes, in the stone house that's set back in a

-kind of park, with a big gate in front and a

-driveway.  The Ladds' are at the top of the top, you

-know.  My, I felt I was breaking into the swell

-bunch myself when she told my fortune for a dollar.

-If I had had the nerve and the money I guess

-she would be telling it yet!  And she smiled so

-sweet when she took it, like I was as good as

-anybody.  God forgive me if I seem to talk

-disrespectful of her, for she's a lady through and

-through, and I knew it even if I was only a

-bar-keeper."

-

-"Toss you for the drinks," said Adair, draining

-his glass.  "Hand over the box, Larry."

-

-"Sure Mike," said the bar-keeper rattling the

-dice.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Adair encountered an acquaintance, a commercial

-traveler named Hellman, on the sidewalk outside.

-

-"Just the fellow I wanted to see," he cried.

-"Hellman, there is such a word as temerity, isn't

-there?"

-

-"Bet your life," said Hellman.  "The temerity

-of my playing *Hamlet*, you know--the temerity of

-you thinking yourself a better-looking man than I

-am--the temerity of--"

-

-"And you spell it t-e-m-e-r-i-t-y?" interrupted

-Adair.

-

-"Yes, why?"

-

-"Oh, I used it in a letter I was writing to a girl,

-and I didn't want to mail it till I was sure."  He

-showed the envelope in his hand, with his thumb

-hiding the name.

-

-"Always at it," said Hellman, with an unpleasant

-laugh.  "Who are you throwing the handkerchief

-at now?"

-

-"The prettiest girl in Carthage," returned Adair

-genially.  "There's a box over there--let's drop

-it in."

-

-And together they crossed the street, and sent

-the letter on its way.

-

-It was to Phyllis, begging in warm but respectful

-language for the privilege of calling on her.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER X`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER X

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"Dear Mr. Adair: I hardly expected you

-to reply to my note, nor could I have

-thought it would please you so much as

-you say.  Indeed, I hope you will not misjudge

-it--or me--for it was written on the same impulse

-that makes one applaud in the theater itself, and

-with no ulterior idea.  Frankly, I do not think

-I ought to ask you to call--the circumstances are

-so peculiar--and it is all so against the

-conventionalities.  In Washington or New York it would

-be different, but this little place--like all little

-places--is strait-laced beyond belief.  It will be

-my loss more than yours, which perhaps will be

-some consolation to you.  Yet it seems too stupid

-to say no--that is, if you really *do* want to

-come--and I am going to ask you after all.  Surely

-a little talk over a cup of tea to-morrow at five

-ought not to arrest the stars in their courses, or

-bring down the pillars of the universe on our

-unfortunate heads?  And if any one should come in,

-we might say that we had met before in Washington?

-That would place our acquaintance on a

-more correct footing, and save me, at least, the

-possibility of embarrassment.  Is this asking too

-much of you?  Sincerely yours, Phyllis Ladd."

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XI`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XI

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-There are men who pursue women with a

-skill, zest and pertinacity that others do

-bears or tigers, and with very much the

-same hardihood and delight.  In the rich preserves

-of the world, so well stocked with youth and beauty,

-they find an unending enjoyment, and an unending

-occupation.  No sooner have they brought down

-one, and beheld her bleeding and stricken at their

-feet, than they are up and off, with another notch

-on their gun, and fresh ardor in their hearts.  They

-are debarred from taking the tangible trophies of

-skin and head; a slipper, a glove, a bundle of letters

-are often all they have to show; but within them

-wells the satisfaction of the hunter who has made

-a "kill."

-

-Amongst this race of sportsmen there were few

-hardier or more daring than Cyril Adair.  That

-the game was cruel or cowardly had never occurred

-to him.  The women he knew--all of the lower

-class--frequently played their side of it with eyes

-wide open, and ran--not to escape--but with the

-full intention of being caught.  This is not urged

-in his extenuation.  Often he was not aware of

-the subterfuge.  Women to him were but prey,

-and in more venerable times he would have

-waylaid any lady he favored, with a club.

-

-Behold him in immaculate afternoon costume,

-striding along Chestnut Avenue--boutonniere,

-silk-hat, cane, new suede gloves, etc.--a devil of a

-fellow in his own estimation, with an air and a

-swagger that reflected his profound contentment

-with himself.  He had never gone a-hunting before

-in such a splendid wood.  The thought that he was

-actually going to invade one of those imposing

-mansions made his pulses leap.  How big they

-were, how aristocratic!  What incomes they

-represented!  What mysteries of ease and luxury lay

-hidden behind those stately windows!  He was

-tremendously stirred; tremendously excited.  He

-swelled with self-complacency.  He was hardly

-over thirty, he was handsome, he was a

-genius--and the women loved him!

-

-A man-servant admitted him.  Yes, Miss Ladd

-was expecting him.  His hat and cane were taken,

-while he gazed, somewhat daunted, at the immense

-hall in which he found himself.  He had a

-confused sense of tapestries; of stone bas-reliefs very

-worn and old; of oriental rugs; of strange-looking,

-moldy chairs, straight-backed and carved, with

-massive arms, on which there was still the fading

-gilt of the fifteenth century.--He was led through

-another room of a similar cold and spacious

-magnificence, and then up-stairs to the drawing-room.

-Here he was left, while the man departed to inform

-his mistress of the visitor's arrival.

-

-The elegance and beauty with which Adair found

-himself surrounded fairly took his breath away.

-His only standard was that of fashionable hotels,

-yet here was something that made the splendors of

-the Waldorf or the Auditorium seem suddenly

-tawdry in comparison.  His instinctive good taste

-was ravished by the old Venetian brocades, the

-rich dark pictures, the Sheriton furniture, the

-harmonious blending of all these, and so many other

-half-seen and half-comprehended things into a

-gracious and exquisite whole.  Near him was the

-table set out for tea, with silver that it was a joy

-to look at; and about the little island it made in

-the vastness of the room was a wealth of red roses,

-marking as it were the boundaries of coziness and

-intimacy.

-

-Adair's complacency was not proof against such

-aristocratic and undreamed of surroundings.  His

-exultation fell, and pangs of self-pity assailed him.

-What was he but a child of the gutter, an outcast--a

-man full of yearning for the unattainable, who

-had been starved and kept down by merciless

-circumstances?  Such swift transitions were not

-unusual in his peculiar and contradictory nature.

-After all, he was an artist, even if often a brute and

-a fool, and somewhere within him, very much

-overlaid and shrouded, there was a spark of the divine

-fire.  Yes, he said to himself, he was coarse and

-common, and ignorant and unrefined.  He had done

-much with himself; he had achieved wonders,

-considering the handicap he had always been

-under--but admitting all that, what enormous deficiencies

-still remained!  How ill at ease he was in such a

-room as this!  How hard he would have to strive

-to hide his lack of knowledge and breeding!  He

-had almost wished he had never come.  In such a

-place he was an intruder--a boor--condemned

-to blunder through a part with no author's lines to

-help him.

-

-As it turned out, nothing could have been more

-fortunate for him than this dejected mood.  First

-appearances are everything, and he might easily--so

-easily--have made an intolerable impression.

-Indeed, in the cold fit, almost the terror, succeeding

-the impulse that had caused Phyllis to invite him,

-she was prepared to find him forward, and perhaps

-eager to take advantage of her recklessness, and

-misconstrue it.  At the hint of such a thing she

-would have frozen; and the fact that she would

-only have had herself to blame would have doubled

-her humiliation.  A woman who makes the first

-advances to a man is more capable than any of

-sudden revulsions.  Her pride is on edge, and

-morbidly apprehensive.

-

-But the grave, quiet, handsome man awaiting her

-dispelled these fancies as soon as their eyes had

-met.  He thanked her with an embarrassment not

-unbecoming under the circumstances, for the

-unconventionality that had given him the privilege of

-meeting her.  His smile as he said this was charming;

-his respect and courtesy beyond reproach; that

-other nature of his, the artist-nature, so quick and

-responsive in its intuitions warned him to put a

-guard on himself.  Besides, if the room had

-over-awed him, how much more overpowering was the

-apparition of this slim and radiant woman, the

-mistress of all this splendor, whose pure dark face filled

-him with an indefinable sense of another world in

-which he was but a clod.  Though he was a

-connoisseur of pretty women, and had possessed in

-his disreputable past many of greater physical

-beauty than Phyllis, not one of them had had the

-least pretensions to what in her appealed to him so

-strongly--distinction.  From her glossy hair to

-the tips of her little feet, she was the embodiment

-of race, of high-breeding and high spirit; it was as

-marked in her girlish beauty as in any thoroughbred.

-She was the child of those who had admitted

-no superior save their God and their King.

-

-Adair found himself bereft of all his assurance.

-The professional besieger, accustomed to advance

-with sureness and precision, unaccountably held

-back, hardly knowing why his heart had turned to

-water.  It seemed presumptuous enough that he

-should even talk on terms of equality with one so

-immeasurably above him.  His humility was

-painful.  He stammered.  He colored.  His hand

-trembled on his tea-cup as he strove to keep alive

-a conversation of the usual commonplaces.

-

-"Miss Ladd," he said suddenly, "you mustn't

-think I am a gentleman--because I am not.  I

-am not accustomed to this kind of thing; you are

-the first lady I--I've ever met."  He arrested the

-expostulation on her lips and went on hurriedly.

-"It's much better to tell you that right off.  I

-don't know those books you speak of; I don't know

-anything very much; I am awfully uncultivated

-and ignorant.  There, I have said it!  It will make

-me feel more comfortable, and it will be lots better

-than pretending I am something I'm not."

-

-"You are a great actor, Mr. Adair."

-

-"My God," he returned with simplicity, "sometimes

-I'm not so sure that I am."  Then he burst

-into laughter at his own artlessness--a delightful

-laugh, contagious and musical, that no one could

-hear without liking him the better.  Phyllis

-laughed, too, and somehow with it the ice seemed

-broken, and constraint disappeared.  "Miss Ladd,"

-he went on, "people like you, and places like this,

-are the realities which we try so hard to copy with

-our poor theatrical pasteboard and calico.  I used

-to hate Mansfield for saying we ought to work as

-servants amongst--well, people we couldn't meet

-in any other way, and yet the ones we are audacious

-enough to represent on the stage.  He meant it as

-an insult, of course--but he was right in some

-ways.  Just seeing you pour tea makes me feel how

-badly we do even that!"

-

-Phyllis, naturally, was touched and flattered.

-

-"Why, we just pour it anyhow," she said, smiling.

-

-"Precisely," exclaimed Adair, "and now let me

-do it our way!"  He drew nearer the table, put his

-hand to the tea-pot, and grimacing at an imaginary

-company, proceeded to pour and pass several

-imaginary cups with a grotesque affectation of grace

-and elegance.  "Two lumps, dear Sir James?--Patricia,

-the Bishop is famishing for some almond

-cake.--Oh, mercy me, and what's become of the

-Dook?"  It was an admirable bit of mimicry, and

-so gay and captivating in its satire that Phyllis

-thought she had never seen anything so clever.

-She laughed with delight and clapped her hands.

-

-"Though you shock me, too," she protested.

-"Corrèze mustn't do things like that--it isn't in

-keeping."

-

-"Corrèze?"

-

-"Yes, you are not Mr. Adair to me, though I

-know that's your name, and I have invited you.  I

-can only think of you as Corrèze."

-

-"Was I as good as that in the part?"

-

-"I told you what I thought of it in my note."

-

-"And you really meant it?"

-

-"Would I have written if I hadn't?  It was an

-awful thing to do.  I can't think of it without

-burning with shame.--How can you say you are

-not a gentleman, Mr. Adair?  Only a gentleman

-would have put the right construction on it."

-

-He was questioning her face with his fine eyes.

-His intuition again stood him in good stead.  This

-was not provocation, it was innocence.  To himself

-he said: "No, it is impossible."

-

-Then aloud: "It was the only construction--and

-I felt childishly pleased.  We're great children,

-you know, we actors; and after all, are we

-to blame for liking approbation?  Just think a

-moment.  How close it all is to the ridiculous, our

-standing up there and declaiming all sorts of

-red-hot emotions, with painted paper on one side, and

-bald-headed fiddlers on the other!  Doesn't it

-sometimes come over a man--sort of shoot through

-him--the feeling of what a monkey-spectacle he

-is making of himself?  *You* go ahead and play

-Lady Macbeth in a nightgown; rage and strut

-before those cold, scornful faces.  Then let one

-amongst them cry: 'Bravo, bravo,' and give you

-a hand!--My Lord, you'd give him your watch

-and chain, your diamond pin--don't you see, he

-returns you your self-respect, makes your work

-worth the doing?--and that's what your note did

-for me, Miss Ladd."

-

-"Oh, Mr. Adair, don't talk to me about the

-cold, scornful faces at your performance.  I was

-there twice, and saw how they called you out!"

-

-"Miss Ladd," he said, his strong, handsome,

-eager face whimsically alight, "let me confess the

-honest truth--an actor simply can't have enough

-admiration!"

-

-"You worry me for fear I didn't make mine

-warm enough!  For really, Mr. Adair, in all

-sincerity, I--"

-

-"Well, go on."

-

-"Bravo, bravo!"  Her lips parted mockingly

-over her white teeth as she pretended to

-applaud madly.  It was the daintiest teasing, and

-more charming in the intimacy it implied than any

-downright praise.  Adair glowed with a pleasure

-so honest and boyish that Phyllis might be forgiven

-for not suspecting the baser depths he hid so well.

-

-"I'm a conceited ass," he admitted, "and after

-all, isn't it enough to turn a man's head to be

-here with you, and feel I owe it to the ginger I put

-into Corrèze?  Most people get their friends by

-introductions and all that, but I just snatched you

-out of a whole theater full of strangers.  For you

-are my friend, aren't you, Miss Ladd?"

-

-"Yes, Corrèze."

-

-"You'll be making me jealous of the chap," he

-cried running his hands through his hair with

-make-believe exasperation.  "I think he is a good

-deal of a whining humbug myself, and the sly way

-he throws bouquets at himself is disgusting.  Miss

-Ladd, I am ever so much nicer than he is--really

-I am--though I see I shall never be able to

-convince you."

-

-"No reason why you shouldn't try."

-

-"Perhaps I am ashamed to," he returned, with

-an intensity of expression that became him well.

-"You find me in a wretched little theater, the

-cheapest of cheap stars--the hoodlum's pet, the

-shop-girl's dream--and how can it help coloring

-your whole idea of me?  You admire my Corrèze,

-but for me myself how can you have anything but

-contempt?  No, no--listen--it's true--and the

-more you knew of my history the more contemptuous

-you'd be.  I've been rated very high; I've had

-every chance in the world; I've played with the

-biggest kind of people, and--succeeded.  Yet I

-have always been the dog who hanged himself.

-No, there is no mystery about it--there never is

-with a man who is sinking--a man of ability.  It's

-his own fault every time--every, every time."

-

-His earnestness made Phyllis thrill.  Adair was

-playing his best rôle--himself, and playing it with

-the fire and eloquence he could always bring to it.

-His voice, incomparable in the beauty and range

-of its tones, was never so effective as when tinged

-with emotion.  Nothing was more manly, more

-sincere, more moving.  It rose and fell in cadences

-that lingered in the ear after the words themselves

-were spoken--veritable music, affecting not only

-the listener, but the musician as well.  Under the

-spell of it he now found himself tempted into

-strange confidences.  Never before had he spoken

-of his childhood and early life except to lie, to

-brag, to romance.  Yet here, to his own wonder,

-and impelled by he hardly knew what, he was

-unbosoming himself of the whole ignoble truth.

-That instinct of his, so often wiser than himself,

-so diabolically helpful, was showing him the right

-road.  Had Phyllis been some little milliner this

-would have been no road at all; such a one would

-have been too familiar with the seamy side of life

-to find any glamour in the tale; such a one would

-have preferred the bogus palaces and bogus splendors

-his instinct would then have indicated.  Phyllis'

-intelligence was too keen thus to be deceived;

-even genuine splendors would have interested her

-less than this pitiful story of the slums; it not only

-touched her sensibility to the quick, but enhanced

-Adair in her tender and sympathetic eyes.

-

-His father had been an Englishman--a remittance

-man named Mayne--George Cyril Augustus

-Fitzroy Mayne.  Whether his pretensions were

-justified or not, and they were inordinate,

-including "Wales" and "Cambridge," he was beyond

-all doubt a gentleman, with grand manners, a back

-like a ramrod, and a curt, military directness in

-speaking.  He used to say "dammy"; was fond

-of alluding to himself as "an old Hussar"; was

-wont to remark that a gentleman could always be

-told by his hat and his boots; and once, when

-attacked on the street, had shown extraordinary

-courage and adroitness in defending himself with a light

-cane.  This was about all Adair remembered of

-him, except that he drank hard; had recurring fits

-of delirium tremens in which he raged and fought

-like a wild beast; and finally, dying in a hospital

-ward, was buried like a dog in the Potter's Field.

-

-Adair's mother had been an Irish peasant girl.

-She was kind and warm-hearted, and spoke with a

-brogue; she was always laughing and singing, even

-under circumstances when a right-minded person

-would have thrown himself into the East River.

-She drank, too.  Everybody drank.  He used to

-be given sips from her glass, and knew what it was

-to be tipsy before he was eight.  It was about that

-time he began to sell papers on the streets, for

-his father was dead, and his mother--  Well, he

-wouldn't go into that.  But in her way she had

-always been good to him.  She wouldn't let the

-men beat him.  When she was sent to the Island

-for the second time he thought his little heart would

-break.  She didn't last long after that.  How

-could she, gone as she was in consumption, and

-drinking like a fish?  Oh, what a hell it was--what

-a hell!  His pennies were all his own now,

-though he often had to fight to keep them.  He

-was always fighting to keep them--first in

-desperation, then by degrees with some coolness and

-science.  The bigger boys coached him; egged

-him on; he became a regular little bantam.  They'd

-make up a purse--a quarter or something--and

-set two little wretches to pounding each other.

-Anything was allowed, you know--biting, kicking,

-scrooging, hair pulling!  There was only one rule,

-and that was to win.

-

-Well, so it went on, till he was sixteen or

-thereabouts, the toughest young tough you could see

-on Avenue A.  He was nicknamed Fighting Joe,

-and they used to get up cheap little matches for him

-in the back rooms of saloons--real fighting,

-stripped to the waist, and four ounce gloves.  His

-only ambition was to get into the prize ring, and in

-his dreams at night he would see his picture in the

-*Police Gazette*.  Then the Settlement workers came--a

-pale-looking outfit, with Mission furniture and

-leaflets.  They were regarded as a great

-infliction--as an insult to an honest tough neighborhood.

-It was the correct thing to break their windows,

-and lambast their followers.  Fighting Joe took a

-prominent part in this righteous task.  What did

-it matter that several of them were women?  What

-did such brutes care for that?  If ever there was

-a young savage on earth it was he.

-

-One of the women was tall and pretty--not

-very young--twenty-eight or twenty-nine perhaps.

-Miss Cooke, she was--Miss Grace Cooke.  She

-would never see him but what she would turn white

-with anger and fear.  You see, everything was put

-down to him, all that he did do, and all that he

-didn't--and totaling up both sides of it, it ran

-to a lot.  He couldn't begin to remember the

-caddish things he was answerable for; he didn't care to

-try; my God, what a brute he was, what a brute!

-And yet he admired this woman; guessed he was

-in love with her in a calfy way; took every chance

-to see her--and insult her!  Of course, there

-wasn't the faintest reason why he shouldn't have

-walked into the Settlement, said he was sorry, and

-have been received with open arms.  But people

-like that can't say they are sorry--they don't know

-how.  Besides, the social disgrace of it would have

-been awful!  Joe Mayne running with that gospel

-gang!  The thing was incredible.

-

-Late one winter afternoon he saw her in the

-midst of a crowd of hobbledehoys, hooting and

-jeering at her.  She was walking as fast as she

-dared, looking straight ahead of her, and pretending

-not to notice.  It was dark; the street was empty;

-and if she was scared she had mighty good reason

-for it.  One of the fellows lurched against her, and

-down she went on the sidewalk; as she tried to

-rise another rolled her over, and tore her hat off.

-Of course, it was a great joke, and they were all

-roaring with laughter.  Then it was he came

-running up--Joe--and when she saw him she gave

-him a look he would remember to the day he died.

-Oh, the terror of it--the shrinking!  But he

-smashed one on the jaw, caught another between

-the eyes, and lifted her up, half fainting as she

-was, and tried with his dirty hands to smooth her

-hair, and put on her hat again.--That's how they

-came to be friends; that's how he came to be landed

-in the Settlement; everything real in his life dated

-from that moment.

-

-He was with them two years; with them as long

-as she lived.  There wasn't a good quality in him

-that she didn't put there.  On census forms, and

-such things, when asked his religion, he always

-felt inclined to write: "Grace Cooke."  By God,

-it would have been the truth.  She was his

-religion yet, far though he had fallen away from

-it--oh, so far--!  She stood for everything that

-was good and beautiful and noble.  It wasn't love.

-It was beyond all love.  She was a Madonna, a

-saint, and he had had the privilege to kneel at

-her feet--a Caliban of the slums, a tough, a

-hoodlum, unworthy to touch the hem of her garment.

-Then she died, and that was the end of it.  He

-didn't care for the Settlement after she died.  He

-got a job as chucker-out in a low place called the

-Crystal Palace.  There was a dais, and performers

-used to sing.  He thought he would try it himself,

-and made quite a hit.  Then he began giving

-recitations--*The Fi-erman's Dream*, and that kind

-of thing, and they caught on.  He owed it all to

-Grace Cooke, who had taught him to read--(not

-ordinary reading, he had picked that up somehow

-for himself)--but real reading, dramatic reading.

-From this it was a step to monologues in costume,

-and from that to the vaudeville stage.

-

-Sitting there in the growing dusk, and in an

-atmosphere so conducive to confidence, Adair

-unfolded his early life with a tender, persuasive and

-charming humor.  He often laughed; often he was

-silent; again and again he would look up, and

-seek Phyllis' eyes in a lingering glance as though

-to assure himself of her interest.  For once in his

-life he was shy; the slim, pretty hand he gazed

-at so covetously was safe from any touch of his;

-something told him that the least familiarity would

-cost him all he had gained.--It was not policy on

-his part.  He was too humble to think of policy.

-To be with her alone seemed presumption enough--to

-feel her sympathy, her friendship.  Not a

-word or act of his should mar that wonderful day.

-

-He rose, apologizing for having stayed so long.

-

-"It is your own fault," he said, holding out his

-hand, "you've made me forget everything."

-

-"I'm afraid it was the other way round, Mr. Adair,"

-she returned, trying to smile, and thankful

-for the darkness that veiled her face.

-

-"Am I ever to see you again?"

-

-She shook her head.

-

-"You mean it is good-by, Miss Ladd?"

-

-"Yes, it's good-by."

-

-Her hand was in his, so soft, so motionless, yet

-somehow so reluctant to leave his grasp.  His head

-was turning; he could not go like that.  No, no,

-he could not.  He suddenly pulled her towards

-him, and caught her in his arms, kissing her hair,

-her cheek, her mouth, with a passion that cared

-little whether she was crushed or smothered in

-his embrace.  Good God, what was he doing?

-After holding back so long, what diabolical folly

-had tempted him to this?  Yet she had said it was

-good-by.  He had nothing to lose.  Let her pant

-and struggle and tremble, he would take tribute

-of her beauty nevertheless, however much she was

-insulted or outraged.  His lips were wet with her

-tears.  He forced her to receive his kisses on her

-mouth, exulting in the strength that allowed her

-no escape.  But was she resisting him?  A tremor

-of maddening delight shot through his frame.  Her

-mouth was seeking his, and he heard her whispering

-breathlessly: "I love you, I love you, I love you!"

-

-It was so unexpected, so surprising, that he let

-her free.  She sank into a chair and covered her

-burning face, repelling him as he threw himself

-on his knees beside her.

-

-"If you don't go, I shall never forgive you!"

-she exclaimed.  "Haven't you shamed me enough?

-Do you want me to die of humiliation?"  Then,

-from the heart, came the woman's cry: "What will

-you think of me?"

-

-That instinct, which in Adair took the place of

-conscience, honor, all the conventional virtues and

-restraints, again came steadfastly to his help.  He

-bent down; kissed her on the brow; and getting

-his hat and cane abruptly took his departure.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XII`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XII

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The dictionary with unhesitating positiveness

-informs us that infatuation is "unreasonable

-or extravagant passion."  But

-are there not those who have stayed unreasonably

-impassioned to the end, those whose earthly

-parting has been but at the grave?  And does not love

-of the admitted, recognized, unextravagant, very

-much approved, bless-you-my-children kind only

-too often ring out its knell in the divorce court?

-That Phyllis was infatuated with this good-looking

-scamp was beyond question, if by that one meant

-his physical attraction held her as much a slave

-as any of our ravished ancestors in the Vikings'

-boats.  Her will was gone; her judgment; all her

-nicely-balanced highly-critical young-ladyism.  It

-was horrifying to her to realize it; her powerlessness

-was at once an agony and a delight; it came over

-her, with a frightening sense of injustice, that a

-woman's happiness lies beyond herself, and is for

-ever dependent on some man.

-

-Naturally she sat down, and wrote him a sad

-little letter.  He was to forget everything that had

-passed, and not misjudge her for an uncontrollable

-impulse.  Were he to presume upon it, she would

-not only die of shame, but would be forced to

-perceive that her trust had been misplaced.  As a

-gentleman and a man of honor--and she knew him

-to be both--he would understand that it was

-impossible for them ever to meet again, and that her

-good-by was indeed irrevocable.  But her good

-wishes would always attend him, and she would

-sign herself, in all sincerity, his friend, Phyllis

-Ladd.  This done, she waited in a fever of

-impatience for his answer, hoping, dreading, tumultuously

-inconsistent, hot fits and cold succeeding each

-other in her troubled and anxious heart.

-

-It may be imagined how unkindly Adair took

-her commands.  In his large, straggling hand, and

-over six sheets of hotel paper he expressed his

-energetic dissent.  It was a trite letter--flowery

-and theatrical--her haunting eyes, the memory

-of her adorable beauty, the despair of a man who

-had found love only to lose it, etc.  Had Phyllis

-been herself it would have made her smile.

-Nothing, indeed, could have shown how far she had

-traveled on the road of illusion than her acceptance

-of these well-worn phrases.  The tears sprang to

-her eyes at the smooth and nicely-rounded description

-of his wretchedness; she glowed and thrilled

-at the praise of herself, its boldness redeemed by

-what she ascribed to a lover's ardor; the pathetic

-plea for another meeting was irresistible.  It might

-be unwise; it was sure to be painful; but, after all,

-it was his right.  He loved her; he bowed to her

-decision; his life was hard at best, and now doubly

-so; what he asked was so little for her to give,

-yet to him it was everything--to see her once

-more before they parted for ever.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-They met this time at the corner of a remote

-street.  He was very pale, very quiet, and it was

-not a lie he told her that he had been unable to

-sleep for thinking of her.  Had she known better

-what those thoughts were she would have shrunk

-from him.  But, fortunately or not, she did not

-know.  She, too, was quiet and pale, and it was with

-the sense of an impending fate that she took his arm,

-and slowly walked with him along the foot-path.

-Unconsciously he was more masterful with her,

-now that she was away from that daunting house,

-and that awe-inspiring drawing-room.  The

-sanctity that had enveloped her there had largely

-disappeared.  Here was a situation he was used

-to--a distractingly pretty girl, a sidewalk rendezvous,

-and an infatuation that needed but the right

-handling to bring it to the proper conclusion.

-

-Yet with everything so plain--and apparently

-so easy, Adair himself was in a whirl of strange

-and new emotions.  Something had pierced his

-colossal selfishness, and was disturbing him.  It

-was annoying at a time when he needed all his

-wits about him, and he resented it as a symptom

-of unmanly weakness.  One drop of real love in

-that ocean of sham was threatening to poison the

-whole.  He did not put it thus concretely.  He only

-knew that he was uncomfortable, and not rising

-as he should to the occasion.  Except for that

-far-away Grace Cooke he had never known a decent

-woman.  His counterfeit love had been lavished

-on counterfeit innocence: and counterfeit purity.

-Fooling, he had always been fooled.

-

-But this proud and melting young beauty lay

-outside of all his experience.  Had she defended

-herself he would have known better how to attack.

-But she made no demur when he took her hand

-and kissed it; she did not resist, when, after

-looking up and down the street to see if they had it

-to themselves, he caught her boldly in his arms,

-and crushed her against himself, murmuring a

-torrent of words that came so readily to his practised

-lips.  How radiantly she smiled when he tore off

-a tiny corner of her letter, and told her she had

-to eat it as a punishment.  Her saucy obedience put

-him in a seventh heaven, and it was with a sort

-of ecstasy that he snatched it from her, fearful

-lest it might do her harm.  That letter, in one

-sense, had been disposed of almost as soon as they

-had met.  She had tried, for a moment or two,

-to adhere to it, and to make him see the necessity

-of that good-by.  But under the glamour of his

-presence she faltered and broke down, and all that

-was left of the matter was her incoherent plea

-for forgiveness.  What tenderness she put into this

-request!  There never could be a good-by between

-them--never, never--and her eyes swam with

-tears at her disloyalty to him.

-

-Both felt an uplifting gaiety and light-heartedness,

-as she said, in extenuation of her happy

-laughter, that they were like people who had grown

-rich overnight, for had they not discovered an

-enormous nugget--a nugget of love?  It had been

-lying there for any to find, but they had been the

-lucky ones!  They had a right to be excited, hadn't

-they?  The only really serious thing was the fact

-that they might have missed it.  They might have

-stubbed against it, and passed on--like idiots.

-She developed this fantasy with captivating grace

-and archness, Adair meanwhile lost in admiration,

-not only of the delicate fancy that kept him smiling,

-but of her varying expressions so revealing of

-unexpected charm.  She grew prettier and prettier

-to him--more kissable, more adorable.  He kept

-forgetting his ulterior purpose in the rapture of

-being with her; he forgot his conceit, forgot his

-role; he was perilously near being in love.  Perhaps

-he was in love.  At any rate, when he recollected

-to take advantage of this unconcealed regard for

-him--of all this young ardor and innocent

-passion--the words somehow would not leave his tongue.

-

-Her sensitive mouth, so responsive to every look

-of his, the sweet candor of her eyes, her

-transparent belief in him--all forbade.  There would

-be time enough for that; and having made this

-concession to his manhood, he straightway put the

-idea by, dimly realizing to himself that it was

-unpleasant to him.  It takes a bad man to appreciate

-and exalt the best of women; he sees her in such

-a contrasting light; her baser sisters give her by

-relief an angelic brightness.  It is not for nothing

-that they say the reformed rake makes the best

-husband.  Not that Adair had gone so far as this,

-however.  He was not reformed, and cold chills

-would have run down his back at the horrid

-prospect; while his own brief career as a husband had

-left him with a hatred for the word and the

-institution.  It was merely a fleeting impulse,

-stronger for the moment than he was, and induced

-by his artist love of beauty, which included this

-time in its comprehension, a rare, gracious and

-exquisite nature.

-

-They were together for nearly two hours, and

-when they were forced at last to part it seemed as

-though only the half had been said.  Yet not for

-an instant had they ever got near the realities.

-With Adair these were consciously avoided.  It

-was one thing to say: "I love you," with mellow

-vibrations, and impassioned eyes; quite another to

-descend to the practical considerations that might

-reasonably be expected to follow.  He felt neither

-in the humor to lie, nor to palter with the ugly

-truth, and in a sort of anger dismissed both

-alternatives.  He was intoxicated with her; she mounted

-to his brain like wine; he only knew one thing, that

-come what might, she should never get away from

-him.  This was all his dizzy head could hold.

-The future could take care of itself.

-

-As for Phyllis she was in that rapt state of

-happiness when a woman can do nothing but glow

-and worship.  Had not the king descended from

-his throne for her?  At last was not her long

-heart-hunger gloriously appeased?  Was she not

-so possessed with this demigod that all other

-sublunary concerns seemed to vanish into

-insignificance?  She walked on air; she exulted in the

-memory of his caresses; she was the more precious

-to herself now that she was his, now that she

-belonged to him so utterly.  She hoarded every

-compliment he had paid her; and wondered, in delicious

-doubt, though not altogether unconvinced, whether

-she could be, indeed, all that she had seemed to him.

-As for the deeper questions, she had the woman's

-faculty of answering them in formless dreams.

-

-They were settled in a vague, tender and

-altogether perfect manner.  He--and she--and a

-billowing bliss on which they floated evermore, hand

-pressed in hand, mouth against mouth, in an

-ineffable and transcendant content.

-

-Adair, once beyond her influence, was aware of

-a certain sagging of that higher nature she had

-conjured into being.  Not that he loved her any

-less; he was on fire for her, and his coarse passion

-was inflamed a thousandfold by their second

-meeting.  But, as he said to himself, he had muffed it.

-He was not the first man to feel a twinge of guilt

-at having been *good*.  He was a child of his world,

-of his conditions, upbringing and environment, and

-ought not to be blamed over-much--rather commended

-for the first faint stirrings of an embryo

-conscience, which, if it had died all too soon, was

-still a spark of grace.

-

-The performance tired him more than usual.  He

-was slack, and could not get into his part.  As a

-consequence, to offset his disinclination, he

-overplayed, and left the theater thoroughly

-exasperated, and out of heart.  He took supper moodily

-by himself, and though ordinarily abstemious--for

-no one with his complexion could be accused of

-habitual excess--he drank high-ball after high-ball

-with a brutal satisfaction in fuddling himself.

-He grew wickeder with every gulp, more

-cold-blooded and determined.  He would see this thing

-through, by God.  He would take her with him

-on the road.  She was ripe for it; she was crazy

-about him--lady and all, there was the devil in

-her all right.  The nicest women were the worst

-when they let themselves go.  What a fool he had

-been ever to bother with the other kind.  He had

-always been a cheap fellow, pleased with cheap

-things--with raddled actresses, and silly tiresome

-shop-girls.  Here was a little piece that put them

-all in the shade; prettier than the prettiest, dewy

-fresh, with a twist to everything she said so that

-it was an endless pleasure to be with her.  She was

-so quick, so daintily impudent, so finely bred and

-educated.  God, what an armful!  God, what a

-little mistress for a tired and lonely man, sick to

-death of common women!

-

-He reeled up-stairs, half drunk, and sought his

-room, to sleep the sleep of perfect health and

-perfect digestion.  Whatever else Adair was, he was

-a sound and vigorous human animal, with a

-constitution of iron.  No dreams disturbed his

-repose--no spectral finger of remorse pointed at him.  A

-child could not have lain more peacefully on its cot

-than he.

-

-It will be asked why he could not Have married

-Phyllis properly and honestly?  Apart from other

-considerations was she not the only daughter of

-a millionaire father?  How did Adair come to

-overlook this very obvious advantage, and embark

-instead on all the troubles and vexations attending an

-illicit connection?  To answer this question it is

-necessary to go back four or five years, and rake

-up his marriage with Ruby Raeburn, the dancer.

-She, too, had been the daughter of a rich

-man--Laidlaw Wright, the Michigan lumber king.  Adair

-had thought he was doing a very good thing for

-himself.  To have a father-in-law who is a "lumber

-king" has a pleasant sound.  Without knowing

-exactly how it was to happen, he looked forward

-confidently to a flow of dollars in his direction, either

-in cash, or vicariously in royal "tips."  Surely a

-lumber king would take care of his own--and of

-his own's husband.  Ruby herself had not been

-above reproach in holding out the bait, and

-everybody had congratulated him, or sneered at him for

-"marrying money."  Alas, for the disillusion that

-followed.  Laidlaw Wright was the hardest-fisted

-man on the Lakes, and no bulldog, guarding a

-lunch basket, could have shown more formidable

-fangs than he at any hand slipping towards his

-money-bags.  Adair learned the sad truth that when

-you possess the millionaire's daughter, it does not

-necessarily follow that you possess the millionaire.

-His dead body must too often be crossed first--and

-this event, however desirable, can not be unduly

-hurried.

-

-And meanness was not the only drawback to

-Laidlaw Wright's character.  He could spend

-money as viciously as he withheld it, and make

-of it a whip of scorpions for the scourging of

-sons-in-law.  When Adair's domestic unhappiness

-reached the acute stage, the cantankerous old

-fellow jumped into the ring, snorting battle and

-destruction.  Money was poured out like water;

-giants of the bar were retained at enormous fees;

-detective bureaus' worked night and day.  Adair

-was shadowed; his door was burst open at a time

-of all others when he would have much preferred

-to have it stay shut; statutes of which he had never

-dreamed, lying hidden and unrepealed in the dark

-recesses of the law, were evoked against him with

-startling effect.  He was sent to prison in default

-of the bail he could not give.  Then after eighteen

-weary days, which the giants of the bar would

-willingly have made eighteen months, he was tried,

-and his case dismissed.  But as he left the court

-room he was again arrested.  That implacable old

-man, with his cohorts of lawyers and detectives,

-had furbished up fresh charges.  The indictment

-was a mile long.  Again there was bail, default, and

-gnashing of teeth in a stinking cell.  Of course,

-he had legal remedies, but these involved legal

-tender.  He had spent his last dollar; legal remedies

-had to be paid for, and he had nothing to pay with.

-A wealthy and vindictive man, if he choose to do

-so, and does not grudge the outlay, can make our

-judicial machinery into a most serviceable steam-roller.

-

-After the divorce, when all seemed settled and

-done with, there were alimony bomb-shells to be

-contended with.  This tribute on his son-in-law's

-freedom became the obsessing prepossession of

-Laidlaw Wright's life.  He subordinated the

-lumber business to collecting this forty-five dollars a

-week, until it became Adair's fixed and unalterable

-purpose to escape payment by every means in his

-power.  North or South, East or West, the battle

-went on.  Injunctions, contempt proceedings,

-printed forms in immense envelopes, beginning with

-the familiar phrase: "You are cited to appear

-before Judge So-and-So to show cause why that you,

-etc., etc."--rained on Adair's head wherever

-Saturday night might find it.  Incidentally eyes were

-blackened; blood streamed on box-office floors;

-bandaged functionaries and limping attorneys cried

-for vengeance in shabby court rooms--and not

-only cried, but often got it, in a heaping measure.

-And afar, the lumber king, like a horrible spider

-whose net covered the country from sea to sea,

-kept the wires busy and hot with hate.

-

-When Ruby was killed in what was called "the

-hansom cab mystery"--an ugly affair that was

-never really cleared up--the old man probably

-mourned less for her than for the loss of his

-cheerless hobby--the persecution of Cyril Adair.

-However wealthy you are, you can not move the

-legal steam-roller without at least a pretense of

-justification; and now the justification lay with

-Ruby Raeburn in the grave, as stilled as her dancing

-feet, as finished and done with as the life that

-had gone out so tragically.

-

-It had all left Adair with a profound hatred of

-marriage, and a still profounder hatred of rich

-fathers-in-law.  The one suggested jail, mortification,

-alimony, raided box-offices, large and determined

-individuals bursting in your doors; the other

-an unrelenting monster, pitiless and crafty, trailing

-after you night and day, like a bloodhound.  There

-was no glamour to Adair in Robert Ladd's millions,

-but rather a sinister and awful significance; and

-as for marrying Phyllis, and putting his head again

-in that noose--who that had been in hell ever

-willingly went back to it?  The very thought made

-him shudder.  He might be weak and impulsive,

-and easily swept off his feet by her damned

-beauty--but he wasn't as weak and impulsive as *that*!

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XIII`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XIII

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-As had been previously arranged he met her

-the next day at the same place.  He had

-come in a closed cab, which he had left a

-couple of blocks away, and he insisted on their

-returning to it, and having out their talk in its

-shelter.  Phyllis demurred at first; it wore an

-unpleasant look to her; it was not fear exactly--she

-trusted Adair too absolutely for that--but rather

-a disinclination in which good taste played the

-bigger part.  It seemed to her low, and discreditable,

-and unworthy.  Her love was too fine a thing,

-and too dear to her, to have it associated with

-dingy cushions, a dirty floor carpet, and the

-vulgarizing secrecy of that shabby interior.  It took some

-persuasion to get her to consent; and though she

-did so at last under the spell of that irresistible

-voice, it was with a sudden quenching of the

-brightness that had illumined her heart.

-

-But it never occurred to her to think the worse

-of Adair.  A man could not be expected to have

-the sensitiveness of a woman.  His love was like

-himself, robust and masterful; he fastened a string

-to your little collar, and dragged you after him

-with a splendid insouciance.  Every one of your

-four little paws might be holding back; you might

-be whimpering most pitifully, but if he wanted a

-closed cab, in you had to go, whether you liked it

-or not.  Not that you would have had him different;

-it was sweet to submit; and if he were big, and

-direct, and unshakable--so, too, was his love.

-

-They drove slowly through the suburban streets,

-locked in each other's arms.  He kissed her back to

-happiness, to rapture, the discreet twilight screening

-them in its shadow.  Her qualms disappeared, her

-reluctance, her shrinkings from the ugliness and

-commonness of that horrid old box.  Nothing

-mattered so long as they could be together, and in

-her exaltation she even suffered some pangs of

-remorse for having resisted his pleadings at

-all.--She had never cared for children, but as her arms

-were clasped about his neck, she felt a welling

-tenderness for him that opened her understanding to

-the love of a mother for her babe--the divine

-compassion, the exquisite desire to protect and shield,

-the willingness, if need be, to die herself rather than

-to have it suffer the least of harm.  She whispered

-this to him in words so sincere and moving, with

-eyes so moist, and lips so quivering, and her whole

-young face so glorified by the shining soul within,

-that Adair would have been less than human had

-he not succumbed.

-

-He was abashed; his carefully rehearsed plans

-were glad to creep out of sight and hide; it would

-have needed very little for him to fall on his knees,

-penitent and ashamed, and blurt out--not the

-truth; the truth wasn't tellable--but enough to

-make him seem less of a beast to himself, less of a

-hypocrite and villain.  But he paused midway; and

-the impulse, which, if he had allowed it to control

-him might have carried him into unsuspected regions

-of honor and manliness, died still-born; and left

-him--if not exactly what he had been--at least

-not so very much the better.

-

-With everything so favorable to his purpose, it

-continued to be a mystery to him that he still held

-back.  This backwardness, this fear, was a new

-sensation.  He had won prettier women in his

-day, and had won them briskly and straightforwardly,

-move by move, with cool premeditation.

-

-Why should he falter at this one, like a ninny?

-What was it about her that checked and daunted

-him?  She had flung herself at him; she had neither

-the will nor the knowledge to protect herself; she

-was as innocent as a child, and had delivered

-herself over to him as guilelessly.  But it was not her

-innocence that stood in his way; he had no such

-scruples about innocence; innocence, if anything,

-ought to have whetted the pursuit.  It was

-something subtler than that--this withholding force.

-It was more as though she were some proud young

-queen who had been craftily made drunk with drugs,

-and then had been abandoned in her helplessness

-to become the sport of a passing soldier....

-How surprised Adair would have been had he been

-told that the love always on his lips, profaned with

-every breath he drew, a lie in every sense save the

-very lowest, was, in all good earnest, stealthily

-making entry in his heart!

-

-Making?  Why, it had been there from the first,

-all unknown to him.  But like many a man the

-devious road seemed to him the straighter; it was

-the one he meant to follow, anyhow, lead where

-it might; he would overcome this strange

-squeamishness that annoyed and bewildered him.  What

-an ass he was!  He remembered his first deer, and

-how the rifle had shaken in his hands--how his

-teeth had chattered--how it had calmly walked

-past him, not twelve yards away, and disappeared

-unscathed.  The boys had called it "buck fever,"

-and had guyed him.  Hell, this was a kind of buck

-fever, too, though without the excuse of

-inexperience ... but still there was no sense in

-hurrying matters.  There was plenty of time, old

-fellow, plenty of time.

-

-Thus the day lingered out in talk and vows and

-kisses, with nothing achieved in any direction, and

-the situation apparently unchanged.  Love has a

-wonderful power of floating on without ever

-touching the banks of reality!  And when one of the

-lovers keeps the bark deliberately in mid-stream, and

-the other poor lunatic is so lost in ecstasy that her

-understanding is in the skies--hours can pass like

-minutes, and darkness descend all unawares.

-

-Again they kissed and parted, and Phyllis

-returned home in the sweet weariness of one who

-has drunk deep of the cup of love.  No unanswered

-questions fretted her, no disturbing thoughts of

-why he had been silent on the most important thing

-of all.  She was young, fresh, pretty, well-born

-and rich--why then should she doubt?  What, to

-a little milliner, would have been the inevitable and

-all-engrossing conjecture, troubled her not a bit.

-Men had been proposing to her for two years; love

-out of wedlock, while it might be familiar in books,

-was inconceivably remote to her; marriage was like

-breathing; it was one of the great unconsidered

-facts of life; one loved--one married.

-

-Her preoccupation was rather with closer and

-dearer things--the varying expressions of that

-fine and intensely alive face; the mouth with its

-ever changing charm; that, smiling, could lift one

-to paradise, that, laughing, seemed to gladden the

-whole world; the eyes so lustrous, so melting, and

-yet that at a word could turn so fierce; the wavy

-hair that was such a joy to her to caress; the broad

-shoulders that had pillowed her girlish head, and

-had given her such a comforting sense of vigor and

-strength--all her own by the divinest of divine

-rights.  Womanlike, she was trying to merge

-herself in the man she loved; to subordinate her own

-individuality in his; to become, if she could, a slim,

-small, dainty counterpart of this God-given creature

-who had stooped to her from high Heaven itself.

-

-She ate a good dinner and enjoyed it; drank a

-glass of claret with a connoisseur-like satisfaction

-in its fine bouquet; for she came of a stock with

-a royal taste for pleasure, in little things as well

-as big.  If her father appeared somewhat

-constrained, and more grave and silent than was his

-wont, she ascribed it to nothing more than a hard

-day at the office; and exerted herself with all her

-superabundant good humor to amuse and distract

-him.  But for once she was unsuccessful, and as

-the meal proceeded his brown study increased.

-After dinner, as usual when they were alone, they

-went up to his "den," the custom being for him

-to smoke a cigar while she glanced over the

-evening papers, and read to him what seemed to be

-of interest.  As she stood leaning negligently

-against the mantelpiece she was surprised to notice

-that he did not settle himself in his usual chair.

-He came up to her instead, and she felt a sudden

-knocking at the heart as her uplifted eyes met his.

-

-"How long has this been going on?" he demanded

-in a low voice.

-

-"What do you mean, Papa?"

-

-He paused as though to control himself.--She

-knew very well what he meant, and shivers ran

-down her back.

-

-"Your carrying on with this actor fellow.

-This--this Adair."  He snapped out the name as

-though it tasted bitter on his lips--spat it--his

-gray mustache bristling.

-

-She was panic-stricken; her knees weakened

-beneath her; she had only presence of mind enough

-to tell herself that lies could not help her.  But

-lies or not, at that moment she could not have

-uttered a word.  It was all she could do to hold to

-the mantel for support.

-

-Mr. Ladd drew out his pocket-book, and from it

-a letter.

-

-"A man like that always has some female consort,"

-he went on brutally, "some woman of his

-own class who follows his shabby fortunes, and

-considers him for the time being as her especial

-property; and who protects herself when that

-property is in danger by ways that suggest themselves

-to vulgar and common minds.  At least, I do not

-consider it an unjust inference that this anonymous

-letter--"

-

-Phyllis uttered a little cry, and hid her face

-in her hands.--So that was what it was?--She

-ought to have suspected it.  But even in her shame

-a dart of jealousy passed through her heart.  Who

-was this woman who was trying to rob her of Adair?

-

-"It is a typical letter of the kind," continued

-Mr. Ladd, with grim persistence, "and written in

-a hand supposed to be disguised, as though

-anything could disguise the greater matter of the

-writer's innate vileness and swinishness.  It starts

-with the usual pretense of good will, of friendly

-warning; and then passes, with hardly a transition,

-to charges that in a police court would entail its

-being cleared of any women amongst the spectators.

-Frankly, Phyllis, it is abominable--though I am

-going to read it to you, not with the idea of causing

-you pain, of punishing you, but to show you much

-better than any words of mine could do, the sort

-of cattle you are getting mixed up with.  One

-judges men by the company they keep; whoever

-this woman is, it may be presumed she knows Adair

-well, and is a friend of his; otherwise what could

-prompt all this venom?  The letter is a mass of

-lies, but it has a side-light value on this man you're

-letting fool you.  They are a squalid, contemptible

-crew, and all tarred with the same stick."

-

-He stopped to put his glasses on his nose; and

-smoothing out the letter, began deliberately to read

-it: "'You ought to know the goings-on of that

-girl of yours, and if nobody else is enough your

-friend to tell you, I--'"

-

-But Phyllis cried out before he could proceed further.

-

-"Oh, Papa," she exclaimed in passionate

-entreaty, "don't, don't!  You mustn't!  You're

-degrading me!  I--I can't stand it!"

-

-"You know my reasons for wanting you to hear

-it," he said coldly.

-

-"And you are going to force me to?"

-

-"Yes, I am--for your own good, Phyllis."

-

-As their eyes met something within her seemed

-to break.  In all her life her father had been

-everything that was kind and gentle and indulgent.  His

-arms had ever been her refuge; she had cried out

-her baby sorrows on his shoulder; how often, in

-contrast to other girls, she had thought herself the

-most fortunate of women to have such a father.

-Now, in her direst need he was pitiless and

-inflexible.  He was determined to humiliate her with

-that horrible letter--for his manner, everything,

-said that it was horrible.  To gain his point he was

-willing to sweep away the fabric of all these years.

-Oh, the stupidity of it, the cruelty!  Nothing could

-ever be the same again between them after that.

-He could degrade her, but it would cost him every

-iota of her love.

-

-Her bosom swelled.  Her anger was at so white

-a heat that she no longer felt the fears and shrinkings

-that had at first assailed her; her heart beat

-high, but to another and a fiercer measure.

-

-What a moment for him to begin again: "'You

-ought to know the goings-on of that girl of yours,

-and if nobody else--'"

-

-"Papa, *Papa*!"

-

-"My dear, you must not interrupt me.  I insist on--"

-

-"Then let me read it to myself."

-

-He paused, looking at her in indecision; and

-from her to the coals in the grate.  She perceived

-the meaning of his hesitation, and laughed scornfully.

-

-"Oh, you can trust me," she said, holding out

-her hand.  "Do you want my word, or what?

-I won't destroy it.  Rest assured I shall give you

-the pleasure of knowing I am reading every word

-of it."

-

-He resigned it to her, tugging at his mustache,

-and watching her covertly as she moved nearer the

-light and began to read.  He marveled at her

-composure, her decision.  She was not evading the

-ugly task--her eyes moved too slowly for that,

-and her face reflected too clearly the unsparing

-comments on her behavior.

-

-It was coarse beyond belief.  Only a man half

-out of his wits could have allowed any woman of

-his family to read such a thing.  Many of the

-expressions she had never heard before, but it is

-a peculiarity of gross Anglo-Saxon to be readily

-understood.  Nothing was lost on Phyllis, either

-in the description of the man she loved, or the

-accusations of the vilest kind leveled at herself.

-It was an infamous production, soiling and disgusting,

-nakedly spiteful, and nakedly pornographic.

-

-She perused it unflinchingly to the end; studied

-the signature, "One who knows," and handed it

-back to her father.

-

-"I thought people were put in prison for writing

-such letters," she said in an even voice.

-

-"So they are," he returned curtly, "though that

-isn't quite the point."

-

-"What is the point?"

-

-"To know how much of it is true."

-

-Again her composure startled him.  "Is it

-possible you believe any of it?" she asked.

-

-"Yes, I do," he said.--He was holding the letter

-in his hand, like a lawyer in court, cross-examining

-a witness.  He was determined to get at the bottom

-of all this.

-

-"Is it true you went to the theater twice?"

-

-"As a spectator--yes."

-

-"Is it true that you wrote a letter to him?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"Is it true you invited him here?"

-

-"Yes, he came once."

-

-"And it's true you met him afterwards on one

-of the streets in the Richmond district?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"It's true you let him kiss you there before

-everybody--embrace you--hug you like a silly

-servant-girl?"

-

-She ignored the insult, and answered imperturbably:

-"It was a deserted place; I didn't know

-any one was spying on us."

-

-"And it's true to-day you met him again?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"And drove together in a closed cab?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"Now, Phyllis, my girl, on your honor; I am

-asking you this as your father; I have the right to

-ask it, and the right to a sacredly truthful answer--the

-affair has gone no further than this?"

-

-"No."

-

-"On your honor?"

-

-"On my honor."

-

-"And all the rest of it?"--He touched the letter.

-

-"Lies, Papa--revolting, hideous lies."

-

-He stumbled towards his chair; seated himself

-in it; reached for the cigar-box.  He had expected

-a scene; he had expected tears, pleading, and

-repentance.  He had a penetrating sense of having

-mismanaged everything.  Perhaps he ought not to

-have shown her that letter.  It had shocked her

-through and through, but not in the way he had

-intended.  He had meant it to be like a surgeon's

-knife--one sure swift stroke, and she was to rise

-cured, disillusioned.  The effect had been

-disconcertingly different; he had affronted her to the

-quick, he had roused a defiance all the more to be

-feared because it was cool, subdued, controlled--the

-kind that is apt to last.--He lit his cigar, and

-blew out breath after breath of smoke.  He must

-not make another mistake.  He would think a little

-while before he began again.

-

-She glided slowly towards the door, but with

-an air so unconcerned, so free from any suggestion

-of flight, that he suspected nothing.  The fact of

-her leaving the door ajar seemed to imply an

-immediate return.  Several minutes passed before he

-suddenly became uneasy.  So peremptory was his

-conviction that she was near that he cried:

-"Phyllis, Phyllis," before rising to find out what had

-become of her.  But she was not in the corridor

-outside.  He sought her boudoir--nor was she here

-either.  Her bedroom off it?  It was empty, too.

-Thoroughly alarmed, he descended the stairs, softly

-calling out, "Phyllis, Phyllis!"  He was answered

-by a servant's voice below: "Is it you, Sir?"

-

-"Yes, Henry, I am looking for Miss Phyllis?"

-

-"She went out a minute ago, Sir."

-

-"Went out?"

-

-"Yes, Sir."

-

-Good God, she was gone!

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XIV`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XIV

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Once outside the door, she had raced

-downstairs like the wind, put on her hat anyhow,

-and sped into the darkness, without waiting

-for wrap or gloves.  Her first idea had been

-to reach the theater, but as she turned down side

-streets in order to evade pursuit and get the

-Fairmount Avenue car line, she realized that this

-involved too much time.  Her watch, hastily looked

-at under a lamp, showed that it was after eight

-o'clock, and that she could not hope to gain the

-theater before the first act began.  She decided to

-telephone instead, and accordingly, walking very

-fast, and sometimes running until a pain in her

-side forced her to desist, she made her way to

-Fairmount Avenue, and to a drug-store she knew

-to be there.  It was the matter of a moment to

-look up the number of the Thalia Theater, unhook

-the receiver, and get central.

-

-"Nick-el," murmured that impersonal arbiter of

-human destinies.

-

-"I don't understand--please give me my

-number, I'm in such a hurry."

-

-"Nick-el!"

-

-"Drop a nickel in the slot, Miss," said the clerk

-helpfully.

-

-She had come away without her purse.  She

-hadn't a penny!

-

-As quick as thought she pulled off one of her

-rings, and laid it on the counter.

-

-"I have forgotten my purse," she said.  "Please

-let me have a quarter, and I'll redeem the ring

-to-morrow."

-

-She had been resourceful enough to recollect

-she needed more than a nickel--there was the

-trolley fare to the theater and back.

-

-The clerk took the ring with no great willingness;

-examined it with every apparent intention of

-denying her request; then examined her with the

-same sharp look.  The horrid creature recognized

-her, and his manner changed to a cringing

-deference.  "Oh, Miss Ladd, I beg your pardon, I didn't

-know it was you, Miss Ladd.  A quarter?  Why

-certainly, Miss Ladd.  Only too happy to oblige

-you, Miss Ladd.  Take back your ring, and pay

-any time at your convenience, Miss Ladd."  He

-rang open his cash register, and passed her three

-nickels and a dime, together with the ring.  "Put

-it back where it belongs," he said, smirking and

-rubbing his hands.  "My, what would the boss

-say to me if I told him I had kept Miss Phyllis

-Ladd's ring!"

-

-She thanked him, and again gave the number

-at the telephone, dropping in the nickel that had

-cost her so much.  The clerk, though he had moved

-away, was all eyes and ears, and she had an

-unpleasant sensation of being watched.  But it was

-too late to draw back now.  Her need was too

-urgent, too desperate for such irritating trifles to

-deter her from her purpose.  The horrid creature

-would stare.  Well, let him stare!  He would chatter

-about it, too, of course.  Well, let him chatter!

-

-"Thalia Theater--box-office."

-

-"I want to speak to Mr. Adair at once."

-

-"It's impossible--he's in his dressing-room, and

-we ring up in eight minutes."

-

-"I simply have to speak to him."

-

-"Can't do it--it's against the rules."

-

-"Oh, you must, you simply must!"

-

-"Who are you?"

-

-"Miss Ladd!"

-

-"Who did you say?"

-

-"Miss Ladd--L-A-D-D."

-

-"What is it, please, that you want to see

-Mr. Adair about?"

-

-"Something very important."

-

-"I'm sorry, but I can't do it."

-

-"No, no, please.  Mr. Adair will never forgive

-you if you don't."  Then she had an inspiration.

-Where or how she had learned the name she hardly

-knew, but it flashed across her mind at this

-moment.  "Is Mr. Merguelis there?"

-

-"I am Mr. Merguelis."

-

-"Mr. Tom Merguelis?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"Then you might know who I am.  Mr. Adair--"

-

-"Oh, say, yes--you're not the little lady that he--"

-

-"Yes, that's me."

-

-"But, my dear, he's in his dressing-room, and

-that's on the level."

-

-"I simply must talk to him for a second, and

-you must go and get him."

-

-"Hello, hello--is that you?  Hello--yes, my

-dear, I'm sending for him.  Please hold the line."

-

-What an age it seemed, standing there with the

-receiver to her ear, and her heart bursting with

-impatience.  Meaningless scraps of talk strained

-her attention; when these stopped she was in terror

-lest she had been cut off; at last there was the

-peculiar jarring and disturbance that showed

-someone getting into touch at the other end, followed

-by Adair's strong clear challenge.

-

-"Who wants Mr. Adair?"

-

-"I do--it's Phyllis."

-

-"Oh, my little girl, I'm in a frightful rush.

-Hurry up, tell me what's the matter?"

-

-"I want to see you as soon as I can--something

-awful has happened."

-

-"What?"

-

-"I can't tell you here--but can't you guess?"

-

-"Trouble at home?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"Found out?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"Your father?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-Adair paused.  Events were moving faster than

-he had anticipated.  He was both thrilled and

-bewildered at the suddenness of it all.

-

-"It's risky," he said, in a voice that shook a

-little, "but you'll have to come up and see me

-here--there's nothing else for it."

-

-"That's what I want to do," she answered.

-

-"I'll fix it up with the door-keeper to take you

-to my dressing-room.  Just say you have an

-appointment with me, and he'll understand.  Wait

-there for me until the first act is over--will you?"

-

-"Yes, Cyril."

-

-"And you will excuse me if I run?  They'll

-have to hold the curtain as it is."

-

-"Yes, yes--and I'll be there."

-

-"Au revoir, sweetheart!"

-

-"Good-by--I won't be long."

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The stage-door, like most stage-doors, was to be

-found in a cut-throat alley, so dark, dangerous, and

-forbidding in its aspect that it took all of Phyllis'

-courage to enter it.  A ratty-looking individual, so

-compactly built into the entrance that he could open

-the door by a shove of his boot, exerted this

-labor-saving device in answer to her knock, and glowered

-at her from over the paper he was reading.

-

-"What do you want?" demanded the ratty individual.

-

-"I have an appointment with Mr. Adair."

-

-He rose without a word; and leading her up some

-steps, guided her inside the theater.  In the

-twilight of the wings were some stage-hands in

-overalls; an actor whom she recognized as the wicked

-prince, sitting on a soap-box, waiting listlessly for

-his cue; from the stage itself came the sound of

-voices raised to an unreal pitch, and strangely

-exciting and fantastic, in a cadence that was neither

-recitative nor speech.  She could not help noticing,

-even in her agitation, the shabby, dilapidated,

-disorderly appearance of everything--the ropes, the

-dusty props, the frayed material of the scenes, the

-general air of comfortlessness--receiving the shock

-that comes to every one on first seeing the theater

-from the wrong side.  But the ratty individual gave

-her no time to take more than a passing glance,

-leading the way with whispered warnings through

-a gorge of canvas, and down a twisting iron stair

-to the dressing-rooms below.  He stopped at one of

-the little cabin-like doors, opened it, and ushered

-her in.  Then he left her, and shuffled away with

-diminishing footfalls.

-

-The dressing-room was bald, bare, uncarpeted,

-and painted a staring white.  Below a mirror

-flanked by two flaring gas-jets there ran a sort of

-shelf on which were grease-paints, crayons, brushes,

-a pot of cold-cream, a pot of rouge, and other

-necessaries for "making up."  From nails on the

-wall--common, every-day nails--there straggled an

-untidy line of men's clothes.  On a box in the

-corner was a wash-basin, pitcher, soap, and a towel that

-was none too clean.  Three empty chairs, and a

-wall decoration completed the picture.  The wall

-decoration was a printed notice, in large and

-emphatic letters: "Smoking positively prohibited in

-this theater.  Ladies must not use alcohol curling-irons."

-

-Most young women, in a situation so equivocal

-and so unfamiliar, would have been ill at ease,

-frightened, apprehensive of many vague and dimly

-suspected dangers.  But Phyllis' faith in Adair had

-none of this faltering quality.  She loved, and

-loving she trusted.  Her tremors had ended the

-moment the door had closed her in--the moment, in

-fact, when the others would have trembled most.

-To her, on the contrary, the little room breathed

-security for the very reason that it was Adair's.

-With adorable folly she pressed kisses on all his

-outstretched possessions; nuzzled her cheek against his

-coat; put her little foot beside one of his big man's

-shoes, delighting in the contrast--and altogether

-felt greatly comforted and refreshed.

-

-After a while she heard a tremendous commotion

-overhead that swelled, sank and swelled again

-as the house broke into applause at the end of the

-act.  There was a lumbering, scratchy, pattering

-sound as of a dozen pianos being moved at once by

-stalwart men in slippers--it was the new scene

-being set.  The passageway outside, previously so

-still, resounded with a rush of feet--with

-exclamations and laughter as the company scudded to make

-their respective changes.  The door was flung open,

-and there, brisk and smiling, on the threshold stood

-Corrèze!

-

-Phyllis ran to his arms, and hiding her face

-against him began to cry.  She was so happy, so

-wretched; the misery of that last hour had tried

-her more than she knew; her joy at seeing Adair

-seemed to exhaust the little strength she had left,

-and her conflicting emotions could find vent only

-in tears.  How sweet it was to be petted, to be

-soothed--to feel so small, and weak, and helpless

-in that powerful clasp!  Her tears flowed afresh.

-Flowed at the thought of her love for him, of his

-love for her, at the beauty, wonder, and solace

-of it all.  Nothing could ever harm them as long

-as they had each other, nothing, nothing.

-

-She made him take a chair, and seating herself

-at his feet crossed her arms on his knees and looked

-up at him.  In this position it seemed easier to

-confide, easier to answer his persistent questions,

-easier at the same time to satisfy her craving to

-nestle close.  As Adair heard of the letter he

-turned as black as a thunder-cloud and his hands

-clenched.

-

-"I know whom I've to thank for that!" he

-exclaimed furiously.  "The damned little treacherous

-hound, I could choke her for it!  I've seen

-something working in her eyes all along, but I never

-dreamed she could be as low and contemptible as

-that!  And so she was keeping tab on us, was she,

-with all her mean little eyes and ears, the dyed toad!"

-

-"Cyril, you really know who it is?"

-

-He made a hissing sound--a disgusted assent.

-"She isn't twenty feet from here," he exclaimed,

-"unless she is at the key-hole this moment."  He

-rose; stepped to the door, and looked out.  "Not

-here," he said.

-

-"But tell me, is she one of the actresses in the

-company?"

-

-"Never you mind," he returned roughly; and

-then, with a quick remorse at the look in Phyllis'

-face, he apologized in a roundabout fashion by

-denouncing the stage in general.  "It's a low, dirty

-business," he cried, "and the people in it are a

-low, dirty lot; and I guess I'm not so damned much

-better myself; and if you had a spark of sense

-you'd clear out, and never see me again!  Do you

-hear what I'm telling you, little chap?  Do you

-hear, Phyllis girl?"  He put down his hand, and

-caught her ear between his thumb and finger, giving

-it a shake.  "Skin out, you darling baby.  Your

-father's right.  Go back with my compliments, and

-tell him I said so!"

-

-His jeering tone hurt her; there was too much

-sincerity in his self-contempt, too genuine a ring

-to his proposed dismissal.  The contradictory

-creature, stung to the quick by that letter, and

-indignantly conscious of much of its truth, was

-floundering towards righteousness, like a walrus

-after a floe.  Hell, he didn't mean her any harm.

-Let her get out.

-

-"You'd better hurry," he said, pinching her ear

-again.  "I'm just a cheap actor, as common as the

-dirt in the road, and you're a beautiful young lady

-a million times too good for this kind of game.

-All that you can get out of it is dishonor and

-disgrace.  Go away--let's drop it--love somebody

-who's worth loving."

-

-He tried to push her from him, but she clung

-only the tighter, her face paling at his earnestness,

-and stubbornly looking up at his.

-

-"You couldn't say that if you were--what you

-say you are."

-

-"How do you know it isn't a trick!" he

-exclaimed, "just another move in the game--just

-to get you a little further out of your depth, and

-then drown you?"  His hands closed round her

-neck with brutal pleasure in her youth, her

-softness, her delicacy, her powerlessness.

-

-"It's strange," he said wonderingly, "but at

-this moment when you have never been more tempting

-to me, I am willing to let you go--want to let

-you go.  It's the first good resolution in my life,

-yet you stick here like an infatuated little noodle,

-waiting for it to pass."

-

-She snuggled closer against him.

-

-"Am I tempting?"

-

-"My God, yes."

-

-"And you love me?"

-

-"Oh, my darling, I do, I do!"

-

-"And wouldn't it be nice for a poor little lonesome

-cheap actor, who's really a great big splendid

-noble person of genius, if he only knew it--to

-have me to pet him and love him and adore him,

-and kiss away his morbid, silly moods, and make

-such a darling baby of him that he'd burst out

-crying if I were out of his sight a minute?"

-

-He looked at her sharply for an underlying

-meaning--a comprehension--an assent.  But her

-candor and innocence were transparent; the purity

-beneath those limpid depths shone like a diamond in

-a pool.  Her love took no thought of anything

-base or wrong, either in him or in her; all she

-sought was the assurance that he loved her, and

-wanted her; and this achieved she was content to

-leave the rest to him with unquestioning faith.  She

-did not come of the class to whom marriage is

-vividly seen as a protection, a safe-guard, a coveted

-lien on a pocket-book and a man, enforceable by the

-police; to her it was more one of those inevitable

-formalities that attend all the big events of life,

-from being born to being buried, and which one

-accepts as a matter of course.

-

-Adair, in a gust of passion, caught her up on

-his knees, and crushed her unresisting body in his

-arms.  Everything was forgotten in the maddening

-rapture of the moment.  The fragrance of her

-young beauty over-mastered him.  His head reeled

-in the greatest of all intoxications--the

-woman-drunkenness that makes men crazy.  Between his

-clenched teeth he whispered: "You are mine, and

-I am going to keep you--you shall never get

-away now.  You had your chance, but it's gone,

-fool that I was ever to offer it.  But now I'll kill

-you first; do you hear, Phyllis, I'll kill you first,

-for you're mine, body and soul, and you've gone too

-far ever to draw back."  His voice sank lower; he

-was beside himself; all he knew was that she was

-shaking convulsively--that her face, her lips were

-burning--that love, shame, devouring fever all

-flamed in the eyes she tried to hide from him.

-

-A knock at the door startled him to his feet.

-Rap, rap, rap!

-

-"You're called, Mr. Adair," said the voice from

-without.

-

-"All right, Williams!"

-

-His quick, matter-of-fact tone was as much a

-shock to Phyllis as the interruption itself.  To fall

-from the clouds, and then land so squarely and

-coolly on the earth below was a performance

-disturbing to witness.  It seemed to cast suspicion on

-his sincerity up above.  But the misgiving was a

-fleeting one, for as he turned to her, she perceived

-in his air of concern and resolution that she was

-still the dominant thought in his mind.

-

-"See here, Phyllis," he said, speaking fast, "this

-means only one thing.  The company leaves

-Saturday night after the show to jump to Ferrisburg.

-You must come with me--that's all there is to

-it.--Will you?"

-

-She bowed her head, for somehow she could

-not answer in words.

-

-"It won't do for us to see each other till then;

-but you ring me up on Saturday between twelve

-and one at the St. Charles Hotel, and we'll fix up

-the dates.  Have you got that straight?"

-

-She bowed her head again, more overcome than ever.

-

-"Don't worry about a trunk, or any damned

-foolishness of that sort.  Trunks have busted more

-elopements than six-shooters--just a nightie and

-a tooth-brush, and we'll manage the rest at

-Ferrisburg!"  His glance sought for some evasion, some

-backwardness, but there was neither.

-

-"It's the only thing to do," she said simply.

-"Only, only--"  She was holding fast to his hand,

-swaying a little.

-

-He waited for some objection; some silly,

-feminine obstacle--

-

-"You do love me, don't you?" she asked as

-pleadingly as a child.  "If you love me I could do

-anything.  Tell me you love me, Cyril."

-

-He kissed her hastily, saying "yes," and again

-"yes," and ran out of the dressing-room.  A thin

-deferential man peeped in.  "I'm Mr. Adair's

-dresser, Miss," he said.  "He told me to show you

-the way out.  If you would be so good as to

-follow me, Miss."

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: center white-space-pre-line

-

-   \*      \*      \*      \*      \*

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-"Good-night, Miss!"

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XV`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XV

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-In the meanwhile, Mr. Ladd, closely buttoned

-up and walking to keep himself warm,

-restlessly paced the drive-way, awaiting Phyllis'

-return.  At every nearing footfall he would stiffen

-and stop, and his throat would contract with

-something very much like trepidation.  His anger was

-all gone.  In its place was not only contrition and

-self-reproach for having shown her that letter, but

-a very real alarm of the situation he had precipitated.

-He had been inconceivably stupid--inconceivably

-unkind and blundering.  He had driven

-the girl straight into the fellow's arms, and had

-now doubled what he had to undo.  Looking back

-on it he seemed to have said everything he ought

-not to have said; done everything he ought not to

-have done.  It was a case for frankness, tenderness,

-and considerate understanding.  Hurry, too,

-in such matters, was the root of all evil.  Romance,

-like faith, grew with persecution.  Gad, if she really

-thought herself in love with this egregious actor,

-he would put his pride in his pocket, invite him to

-the house, pretend to like him, and thus earn the

-right to stipulate for conventions and a long

-engagement.  No cruel father here, but a cool man

-of the world, craftily leaving it to others to

-tittle-tattle, to disparage, and best of all to deride with

-a laughter infinitely more effective than the sternest

-and angriest of arguments.  Yes, that was the

-program and he must put an iron hold upon himself

-to see that he did not swerve from it by a hair.

-

-He ran forward in the dark as he heard some one

-coming, and recognized Phyllis dimly against the

-lighted street behind.

-

-"Phyllis!" he cried, "Phyllis!" and he caught

-her hand and held it.  Her touch, even more than

-her silence, told him how estranged they were.  His

-agitation paralyzed his tongue; he hardly knew

-how to begin; he murmured under his breath,

-"Forgive me, forgive me"; and then, louder, with an

-uncontrollable resentment that flashed up in spite

-of all his self-warnings: "Don't deny it--you've

-been to him!"

-

-"I wasn't going to deny it, Papa."

-

-"Where?  At the theater?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"You went there alone--not even a maid with

-you?  Have you parted with all sanity?"

-

-His tone was overbearing, harsh, scornful.

-Alas, for his good and wise intentions!  In the

-impact of two stubborn natures, each rousing in

-the other an invincible antagonism, there could be

-no tenderness, no consideration.  Each was fighting

-with the flag nailed to the mast; she for Adair,

-he for his daughter.

-

-"It was your doing, Papa.  I had no alternative."

-

-"Oh, what a lie!  I'd sooner have gone with

-you myself, however bitter or humiliating it might

-have been for me."

-

-The picture of such an escort to such a rendezvous

-made her laugh in spite of herself.  It was not the

-kind of laughter to soften or turn away wrath.  To

-Ladd it seemed heartlessness itself.

-

-"It's unbelievable," he broke out, "my God,

-Phyllis, what am I to say to you?  Isn't the man

-self-condemned on the face of it--with his closed

-cabs, and underhanded meetings, and now stripping

-you of every rag of reputation by letting you come

-to him at his theater?  And what do you mean

-by the theater, anyhow?--His dressing-room, of

-course?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-Her answer wrung a groan from him.

-

-"Phyllis, Phyllis!" he exclaimed.  Then in an

-altered voice, full of irritated reasonableness, he

-went on: "Do you realize that we could have had

-the same--well, disagreement--over that Pastor

-fellow you were engaged to?  Wouldn't you have

-been just as wilful in his case--just as sure?

-Wouldn't it have been the same with Baron von

-Piller if I had objected violently at the time you

-engaged yourself to him?  Look back on both these

-affairs.  You aren't altogether a fool.  Mayn't this

-be a third mistake?"

-

-She seized his hand in both her own, and squeezed

-it with all her strength.

-

-"It's because I love him *like that*!  Not the

-love that comes of compliments, of attentions and

-flowers, but *that*!--But of course you don't

-understand--you can't."

-

-Mr. Ladd ignored this slight on his more limited

-knowledge, though his lip curled sardonically

-under his mustache.

-

-"I am more concerned in how he loves you," he

-said.  "He's acting like a cad, and you know it."

-

-"Papa!"

-

-His voice outrang hers.  "Love," he cried, with

-piercing contempt, "that kind of love is the

-commonest thing there is.  There isn't a drab on the

-streets who hasn't tasted it to the dregs.  God

-help you when you wake up, and see this man as

-he is--schemer, scoundrel, blackguard.  Do you

-think I don't know?  Do you think I haven't run

-across hundreds?  Do you think I'm going to let

-an adventurer like that get his hooks into you,

-and drag you down into his own filthy mire?

-You're the only thing I have in life; I live for you;

-there isn't an hour of the day when you're not in

-my mind.  You can't dismiss all this at the nod of

-a stranger.  It carries its obligations--for you,

-too; the obligation of more than twenty years; not

-for feeding and clothing you, I don't mean anything

-so banal--but the deeper one of a love that has

-kept you warm and happy--that has grown without

-your knowing it to be a very part of you, as

-it is all of me."

-

-Had he stopped there the harm might still have

-been undone.  But with a perversity inexplicable

-at that moment when the tide had turned, and

-responsive tears were streaming down those girlish

-cheeks, he had a sudden outburst of rancor that

-destroyed everything he had gained.

-

-"To think that anybody named Cyril Adair--my

-God, *Cyril Adair*, with its suggestion of sticky

-sweetness, and tinsel, and footlights, and mock

-heroics--could come between two sane, grown-up

-people like you and me!--Cyril Adair!" he

-repeated, and laughed mirthlessly.

-

-There was nothing he could have urged against

-Adair that could have hurt her more.  A young

-and devoted woman can always find excuses for

-her lover's past.  It belongs to a time before her

-little hand had been stretched out to save him,

-before she had brought hope and light to one who

-had never known either, and had consequently--and

-naturally--abandoned himself to despair.

-With a feeling surely divine, and often justified by

-results, she never doubts her ability to wash that

-black sheep to the fleecy whiteness of her own dainty

-wool.  But poor Cyril's name was a very different

-matter; it was worse in its pinchbeck and aristocratic

-pretensions, and school-girl-novel picturesqueness

-than the most crimson of sins.  It would still be

-stamped on the luckless sheep after he had been

-whitened as white as snow--the Scarlet Letter of

-vulgarity, so to speak--affronting good taste on

-every hill-side.  Nothing more showed the degree

-of Phyllis' infatuation than that she had been able

-to tolerate this name; and now, to have it flung in

-her face, with an emphasis so sneering--the one

-taunt for which she had no answer--was more than

-she felt herself able to bear.

-

-She drooped beside her father, realizing the

-futility of any further argument, and of a sudden

-so tired that the woes of the world seemed to be

-on her shoulders.  Her voice, when at last she

-broke the silence, was weary, though with none

-of the weariness of surrender, but rather that of a

-settled and altogether sad determination.

-

-"We seem to have said all there is to say--good

-night, Papa."

-

-He would have detained her, but she moved away

-from him, and preceded him into the house.  He

-followed, respecting her wish to terminate the

-scene.  He was weary, too, and no less willing to

-be alone.  He had to think and to act, and much

-had to be done that night.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-They met at breakfast as usual.  She kissed him

-dutifully, and poured out his coffee as though this

-Wednesday morning was no different from any

-other Wednesday morning.  They talked on

-indifferent subjects until the servants had left them.

-Then the suspended battle was renewed.

-

-"My dear," said Mr. Ladd, with an uncertain

-smile, "I am thinking of sending you on a visit

-to your Aunt Sarah's.  It will be better for both

-of us to stay apart for a time, and see matters with

-a little more calmness and--consideration for each

-other.  There's no sense in being over-hasty, and

-making momentous resolutions in this twinkling-of-an-eye

-sort of way.  There's lots of time--oceans

-of time.  You may change, I may change--for I

-don't set up to be inflexible, and neither do you.

-Yes, you'll go to your Aunt Sarah's, and then to

-Paris with her if you like, or Monte Carlo.  I guess

-I can fix it up to the nines, even to a look-in at

-Paquin's, and one of those expensive strolls down

-the Rue de La Paix.  Go ahead--why not?"

-

-"I'd rather stay here, Papa."

-

-"Phyllis, this is a request--a favor to me.  I

-want you to."

-

-"When?"

-

-"Why not the noon train?  I've taken a

-drawing-room for you, and a berth for your

-maid--and Sarah's expecting you."

-

-"You told her?"

-

-He made no attempt to avoid the implication of

-her eyes.

-

-"No," he replied.  "No, I don't believe in roaring

-out your troubles over the long distance 'phone.

-It was enough to call it an impulse.  With you, my

-dear, that is always a sufficient reason."--They

-both laughed, and Mr. Ladd's anxious cordiality

-redoubled at so favorable a symptom.  "If it's the

-real thing, Phyllis, time won't hurt it."

-

-"It is the real thing, Papa."

-

-"But you will go?"

-

-"No."

-

-"Phyllis, I insist."

-

-"I'm sorry, but it's impossible."

-

-"You have to.  You must."

-

-"I won't!"

-

-It is the terrible part of stereotyped situations that

-people will make use of the stereotyped expressions

-that go with them.  Mr. Ladd was the kindest and

-most devoted father on earth, yet the venerable

-formula rose to his lips: "You defy me under my

-own roof?"

-

-It of course forced out the stereotyped reply:

-"I can leave it."

-

-Mr. Ladd, in silence, looked at her long and

-steadily; then he bent his head.  She saw nothing

-but the iron-gray hair; the stooping, dejected

-shoulders; the hand, lying as limp as dead, on the

-damask cloth.

-

-"Papa?"

-

-No answer.

-

-"Papa?"

-

-She ran to his side, all revolt gone, her only

-thought to comfort him.  Her bare arms entwined

-themselves about his neck in a paroxysm of

-remorse; her bosom swelled; her voice was incoherent

-as she lavished her young tenderness upon him.  It

-was a moment that would decide her life.  Had

-her father left the initiative to her, had he been

-content to accept mutely these tokens of her

-surrender--he would have won, then and there, and

-nothing again would ever have come between them.

-But with blind stupidity he had to persevere with

-the intention their clash had interrupted.

-

-"I will tell you my real reason for wanting you

-to get away," he said.  "It wasn't what you

-thought at all--it was to spare you unnecessary

-pain.  Last night I sent Reynolds, our best

-secret-service man, to New York with *carte blanche* to

-confer with the Pinkertons and ransack this

-fellow's record from top to bottom.  From what

-Reynolds told me he already knew--I mean what's

-said down-town, I believe it will be a black one, so

-black that there won't be any question about your

-giving him up--just on the facts brought out--facts

-that can not be disproved or contested.  Reynolds--"

-

-"But, Papa, I don't understand.  You are setting

-detectives to go back over his life, like a

-criminal?  *Detectives?*"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"But how dishonorable, how infamous!"

-

-"Oh, it's done every day; it's common, my dear;

-if the man's straight it can't hurt him--but if

-he has anything to hide, why, we turn on the

-search-light, and find out what's wrong.--It's all done

-secretly; he won't know; don't worry about that.--I

-expect a full report in a few days, and would

-rather not have you here when I get it."

-

-"And do you think that's fair or right, or

-anything but--fiendish?"

-

-"How do you know he isn't married, Phyllis?"--he

-shot this at her mercilessly.  "How do you

-know anything except what he's told you?  You

-may be willing to believe him, and all that--but

-I'm your father, and I want to *know*, and by God,

-I'm going to know!"

-

-"Papa, don't!"

-

-"Aha, you're not very confident, are you?"

-

-"He's a man.  I don't doubt he's been foolish,

-and bad, and fast, but to see it written down

-cold-bloodedly on sheets of paper is more than I can

-bear.  I am willing to ignore that; I am willing

-to take him as he is *now*.  Oh, Papa, a woman

-can forgive so much."

-

-"Yes, my dear, and a great deal that a father

-never could."

-

-"I beg you, Papa, I implore you to telegraph to

-them to stop."

-

-"It's too late--besides it has to be done; I

-insist on it; I'm going to strip that man's past to

-the bone."

-

-"Even if it costs you me?  Even if this is the

-end of everything between us?"

-

-"Fiddle-de-dee, these theatrics are unworthy of

-you!  You're going to take the noon train to

-Sarah's, and behave yourself; and this business,

-however disagreeable to both of us, has got to go

-through."

-

-Her lips tightened mutinously.  She was not a

-young woman who could be driven.

-

-"I'll stay here, or walk right out of your

-house--and you know where."

-

-"Then stay," he cried, rising wrathfully, "and

-may God forgive you for the misery you are

-bringing down on me.  I'm only trying to do what's

-best, and you treat me as though I was one of that

-fellow's cruel parents on the stage!  It's no time

-to mince matters, and I tell you straight out, Phyllis,

-he's a blackguard and a scoundrel, and when you

-see the Pinkertons' report, I guess you'll go down

-on your knees and beg my pardon for your

-heartlessness and obstinacy."

-

-He glared at her, expecting a retort that would

-add fresh fuel to his anger, but she was silent,

-downcast, trembling.  The answer she made was to

-herself, inaudible save to her anguished soul: "Oh,

-that Saturday night were here!"

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XVI`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XVI

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The four days that followed were almost

-unendurable in the strain they entailed.

-Phyllis was heavy with her secret; beset

-by emotions so conflicting that they seemed to rend

-her to pieces; forlorn and desolate under her

-father's studied coldness.  The detectives' report

-did not come, or was withheld perhaps,--but the

-apprehension of it was always hanging horribly

-above her head.  It was not the facts themselves

-she feared most, though she dreaded them, too;

-it was to hear them tauntingly on her father's lips;

-to be forced to stand, and listen, and cringe at what

-the human ferrets had unearthed.--Anxious days;

-leaden days; sad, introspective, interminable days,

-never to be recalled in after life without a peculiar

-depression.

-

-On Saturday, at the stroke of noon, she was in

-a telephone booth, with shivers cascading down her

-back, and the eagerest heart in Carthage thumping

-under her breast.  In the time she took to get her

-number, she had decided to go, not to go--then

-again to go, then again not to go.  It was awful,

-and she couldn't; it was awful, and she would!

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"Hello, is that the St. Charles Hotel?"

-

-"Yes, Chincholchell, whodyerwant?"

-

-"Mr. Cyril Adair?"

-

-"Hold the line."

-

-He must have been waiting there for his voice

-answered immediately, abrupt and deep: "Hello,

-is that you?"

-

-"Yes,--you know who."

-

-"Is it all right--you are coming?"

-

-"If you want me to."

-

-His only answer to that was a laugh that shook

-the wire.  How manly and confident it sounded in

-contrast to her own quavering whisper!

-

-"Now, listen, you darling baby, and get this

-right.  We're to pick up the Alleghany local at ten

-minutes past midnight, and at half-past eleven I'll

-have Tom Merguelis waiting for you in a cab, across

-the Avenue on the southeastern corner.  Can you

-manage to get out of the house, do you think?"

-

-"Oh, yes."

-

-"No trunk, you know--just the few things you

-need, and the fewer the better."

-

-"I understand."

-

-"Find Tom--that's all you have to do--and

-the rest is for him."

-

-"Yes, Cyril."

-

-"Say it as though you meant it!  I'd rather

-have you back out now than fail me at the last

-moment.  That's an awful faint 'yes.'"

-

-"Don't blame me if I'm scared--you'd be

-scared too, in my place."

-

-"Well, how scared are you going to be at

-half-past eleven--that's the real point of it?"

-

-"Cyril, dearest?"

-

-"Yes, my darling."

-

-"I'm coming, I want to come, I'm crazy to come--and

-you mustn't think for a single moment that

-I won't."

-

-"That's the way to talk!"

-

-"And you'll be good to me, won't you?"

-

-"My precious!"

-

-"And love me, oh, so well?"

-

-"Yes, yes!"

-

-"And I'll try to be the best little wife that ever

-made a man warm, and comfortable, and happy--and

-I'm going to keep your heart-buttons sewed

-on as well as the others--and darn your beautiful

-big soul with girl-silk--and dress you every day

-in a lovely new suit of kisses, so that people will

-turn round on the street, and ask who's your tailor!

-And Cyril?"

-

-"Yes, sweetheart?".

-

-"I'm the happiest girl in the world, and the

-luckiest!  And I'm not scared a bit, and I'll be

-there at half-past eleven, and I love you, and I'm

-going to run away with you; and I'm glad I'm

-going to run away with you, and I'm twenty-one,

-and my own mistress, and as bold as brass, and six

-policemen couldn't stop me, and I'm just a little

-slave panting for her master, and I've gnawed the

-ropes through with my teeth, and no one shall ever

-tie me up again, or keep me away from you, Amen!"

-

-Again there was that manly, confident laugh.

-

-"I think that little slave had better run home

-again and pretend to tie up," he said.  "It would

-spoil everything if your father got wind of

-this--I know those rich old fellows--they can be a

-power for mischief whether the law is on their

-side or not.  Good-by, my darling, take care of

-yourself, and look out for Tommy at eleven thirty.

-Good-by!"

-

-"I hope we will never say that word to each

-other again," exclaimed Phyllis.  "It's a horrid

-word and I hate it.  Good-by, Cyril, and don't

-forget your little slave, counting the minutes at

-home!"

-

-"Ta, ta, my lamb, I won't forget her.  Couldn't

-if I would, ta, ta!"

-

-There is no harder task than to fold one's hands

-and wait.  Adair had his matinée and his evening

-performance to engross his thoughts, and allay to

-some degree his fever of anticipation.  But Phyllis

-had no such resource.  Restless, nervous, on edge

-with suspense--fits of joy alternating with craven

-terror--she wore out the longest afternoon of her

-life, and an evening that was more trying still.

-Her father, to make matters worse, attempted some

-advances; spoke to her with unexpected kindness;

-hovered on the brink of another appeal.  What a

-little Judas she felt, sitting opposite him for

-perhaps the last time, and maintaining a constraint

-that was, indeed, her armor, for if she responded

-at all she knew she would never go that night.

-So she parried and fenced, and kept the

-conversation impersonal at any hazard, while his face

-grew steadily more overcast, and the lines of his

-forehead deepened.  She excused herself early,

-pleading fatigue, and relaxed her attitude to kiss

-him tenderly good night.

-

-"It'll all come right before long," she murmured

-softly.  "Good night, my darling daddy, and

-remember I love you whatever happens."

-

-She was off before he could take advantage of a

-mood so melting.  But he felt much consoled,

-nevertheless.

-

-"She's coming round," he said to himself.  "I

-might have known she would.  That's the comfort

-of her being such a good girl, and so intelligent!"

-

-Up-stairs, the young lady thus complacently

-described was stripping off her dinner gown, and

-wondering what dress she would replace it with.  She

-was the daintiest of soubrettes in her long

-dark-red silk stockings, and Watch, her Russian poodle,

-gazed at her with an approving, first-row-of-the-orchestra

-expression that made him look too wicked

-and dissipated for anything.  She gave him a

-gentle kick on the nose to remind him that staring

-wasn't gentlemanly, and finally chose a blue

-tailor-made by Redfern.  When this was on, the rest of

-her preparations were easy.  She could not well

-take Watch, so she took his collar, and this was

-the first to go into the little hand-bag.  A

-nightgown followed, a pair of stockings, tooth-brush,

-comb and brush, tooth-powder, some handkerchiefs,

-the photographs of her father and mother, still in

-their frames, and a pair of patent leather slippers

-with gilt buckles.  Surely no little bride of her

-importance and social position had ever set forth

-with so slender a trousseau.  There it all was,

-dog-collar below, slippers on top, in a bag no bigger

-than an exaggerated purse.  She smiled a little

-tremulously as she looked at it, touched as only a

-woman could be by the magnitude of her sacrifice.

-Her clothes and her father--tears for both, thus

-equally abandoned, suffused her eyes.

-

-The next thing was a note of farewell, to be

-found the following morning on her unused

-pillow.  "I am going away with Mr. Adair," she

-wrote, "taking my own life in my own hands for

-better or worse.  Whether we are to be friends--you

-and I--depends entirely upon yourself, although

-alienation from you will be very hard for

-me to bear.  Forgive me if you can, and do not

-let your disappointment and chagrin embitter you

-against me; or what would hurt me almost as

-much--against him.  To-night when I kissed you

-it was good-by, and if it is for ever it will be your

-own fault, and very, very cruel, for I love you,

-dearest father, I love you.  Ever your devoted

-Phyllis."

-

-By half-past nine everything was ready; and it

-was with a consuming impatience that she went into

-her boudoir with Watch, and ensconsed herself on

-the sofa to wait.  A confidential Russian poodle

-can be of great help to a young lady in distress.

-Watch's sympathy; Watch's certainty of everything

-coming out right; Watch's implied determination to

-soften the blow to Mr. Ladd; Watch's willingness

-to whine over the general tragedy of things--all

-were whimsically comforting.  Best of all, he could

-listen for ever and ever with one ear cocked up,

-and never lose for an instant his air of highly

-gratified interest.  And what didn't he hear during that

-hour and three quarters on the sofa!  What

-secrets of longing and tenderness, of girlish hopes,

-of girlish dreams, of delicious falterings and

-trepidations--all breathed into that woolly ear!

-

-Then came the suffocating moment of

-departure--the quieting of an unruly friend--the peeping

-from the door; the tip-toeing down the stairs; the

-panicky stops to cower and listen; the stealthy

-passage of the great dim hall; the groping for bolts

-and chains; the heavy door swinging heavily back;

-the cold, dark, starry night beyond; the egress into

-it; the wild sense of escape and freedom; the sound

-of gravel under the eager little feet; the gate-way;

-the wide silent Avenue; the glimmering lights of

-the cab at the farther corner; and--

-

-"Yes, I'm Tom Merguelis, Miss.  Jump in--everything

-is ready."

-

-She discovered herself sitting beside a very tall,

-very thin young man, who smiled down at her in a

-quizzical, friendly manner not unsuggestive of the

-Cheshire Cat.  That vague, deprecatory grin was

-as much a part of Mr. Merguelis as his sandy hair,

-his retreating chin, and the whole amiable vacancy

-of his expression.  His youth had been passed

-before the public as "assistant" to Professor

-Theophilus Blitz, the exhibiting hypnotist, who was

-accustomed nightly to run pins into him; make him

-drink kerosene under the impression it was beer;

-smack his lips over furniture-polish; eat potato

-peelings for sausages; bark like a dog, meow like a cat,

-make love to a bolster, and generally disport

-himself to the astonishment and horror of clodhopper

-audiences.  Six years of this had left Tommy

-without a digestion, and that fixed and bewildered grin,

-which to Phyllis, under the unusual circumstances

-of their meeting, seemed to her not without a satiric

-quality.

-

-But as they drove through the deserted streets

-she realized her mistake, and corrected so unjust

-a first impression.  The artless, gawky creature

-idolized Adair, and was proud beyond measure to

-be serving him so romantically.  It gave him an

-extraordinary fellow-feeling for Phyllis to have her

-also on her knees at the shrine of the demigod; and

-he overflowed with a hero-worship so naïve and

-sincere that she could not help liking him--grin

-and all.  Indeed, it seemed a happy augury for her

-own future that Adair could excite so profound an

-admiration in those about him.  Mr. Merguelis

-seemed as infatuated as she, and saw nothing

-strange in these midnight proceedings.  There was

-approval in that everlasting grin.  Would she please

-call him Tommy?  Mr. Adair called him Tommy.

-They shook hands on it in the semi-darkness, and

-she knew she had found a friend.

-

-Phyllis expected that Cyril would be waiting for

-her at the station, and was much cast down to learn

-that she was to remain alone with Tommy until

-the train arrived.  "Then we'll all bustle on board

-together, and nobody will notice you," explained

-Tommy.  The good sense of this was apparent,

-yet at the same time she could not help feeling

-a little forlorn and slighted.  "Nobody will notice

-you," said Young Lochinvar's Tommy.--Now that

-the die was cast, why should she not be noticed?

-She was ready to avow herself Adair's before all

-the world, and why not on that dark, ill-lighted

-platform, when her courage was nearly spent and

-her slim young body drooping?

-

-They sat on a bench, and waited in a corner of

-the vast cavern, she with her bag in her lap, Tommy

-with his unrelaxing grin fixed on space.  Waited

-and waited, while stragglers passed, immigrants

-with babies and bundles, hurrying couples

-returning to the suburbs from a night in town.  Above

-the noise there suddenly rose a louder thunder.  It

-was the train bursting in with a roar, hissing steam

-and grinding its brakes as it slowed down,

-throbbing majestically.  Tommy seized her by the arm

-and ran along the platform.

-

-"Day car reserved for Steinberger's theatrical company?"

-

-"Third car back."

-

-"Day car reserved for Steinberger's theatrical company?"

-

-"Jump in!"

-

-Others were scrambling in, too.  Phyllis had a

-fleeting glimpse of Miss de Vere, still with dabs of

-make-up on her sulky, handsome face; of the wicked

-Prince, loaded down with baggage, and excitedly

-taking the direction of everything on his shoulders;

-of a stout, authoritative Jew with a diamond pin,

-who was staring at her with a greedy curiosity,

-and that cattleman's look, as of one who could tell

-the shape, age, attractiveness, and market value of

-a human heifer at a single glance.  They jostled

-into the empty car, a dozen or more, settling

-themselves anywhere, anyhow, like a big boisterous

-family.  Tommy and Phyllis slipped into a seat at

-the farther end, and they had hardly done so

-before the latter felt a hand reach over and touch her

-cheek; and turning, saw Adair!  Tommy sprang

-up, and made way for him, Adair taking the vacated

-place as though by right.

-

-Whatever pique she might have held against him

-vanished in the magic of his presence.  His hand,

-closing on hers, communicated peace and resolution.

-No longer was she afraid, or lonely, or sad, or

-uneasily conscious of those other prying and

-speculating occupants of the car.  The goal was attained;

-stronger shoulders than her own now lifted her

-burden; she had run her race, and could now lie,

-all spent and weary, in that haven of heart's

-content.  His musical voice flowed on in caressing

-cadences.  Had Tommy carried out his instructions?

-Had Tommy explained the need of an unobtrusive

-departure, so that any chance reporter or

-busybody might be put off the scent?--Oh, the

-poor baby, how neglected she must have felt, on

-this the night of nights; how utterly ignored and

-forgotten!

-

-He drew her head against his cheap fur coat, and

-stroked her cheek and tresses--his sweetheart, his

-darling, his little bride!  It was sweet to be petted;

-sweeter still to enjoy the luxury of self-pity as he

-expatiated with smiling exaggeration on her sad,

-miserable, wretched waiting with Tommy, in the

-sad, miserable, wretched station!  She closed her

-sleepy eyes, and nestled closer, awake only to catch

-every soft word of endearment.  Of these she could

-not have enough.  It was heavenly to doze away

-with: "I love you, I love you, I love you," falling

-in that insatiable little ear; heavenly to feel that

-big hand playing with her hair, and tempting kisses

-as it lingered against her mouth; heavenly to feel

-so weak, and small, and helpless, and tired against

-that muscular arm.  Divine mystery of love!

-Divine the dependence of woman on man, of man on

-woman, neither complete without the other, and

-each so different...  "My little bride"

-... "I love you, ... I love you,

-... I love you..."

-

-The train rumbled through the darkness.  The

-seats held the huddled figures of the company, all

-as limp as sacks, as oblivion stole upon them.  Feet

-were cocked up; hats were pulled over brows;

-haggard women, pale men, sprawling in disorder, and

-through long familiarity as unrestrained as some

-low, coarse family--sloppy slippers and frank

-stockings to the garter; unbuttoned collars,

-unbuttoned vests; dirty cuffs on racks--the squalid

-evidences of a squalid intimacy.

-

-Looking down at that pure profile, and inhaling

-with every breath the fragrance of an exquisite

-young womanhood which would be his so soon to

-take, and, if he wished, to fling away, shattered

-and destroyed beyond all mending, Adair felt, with

-dawning comprehension, and mingled elation and

-pain, all that had gone to put this creature so

-infinitely above him.

-

-What care, what money, what anxious thought

-had been lavished to make her what she was.

-How incessant the effort; how jealous the

-guarding through all these years; how elaborate and

-costly the training to fit her for the proud, high

-position to which she had been born.  It came

-over him with a strange new perception that the

-very innocence of her surrender was but another

-proof of that queenly rearing.  She was not of a

-world where women suspected or bargained.  They

-lived their gracious lives within triple walls,

-unaware of the sentinels and outposts for ever

-watching over them.  And what were the sensations of

-the lucky thief, who had closed his fingers on the

-prize, and run?  They were not altogether as

-joyful as one might have thought.  The thief was

-very much bemused.  That trusting head, snuggled

-against his breast, was causing a curious

-commotion in the heart beneath.

-

-But he overcame the unmanly weakness.  Hell,

-he would take what the gods had sent him.  He

-hadn't raised a hand to get her; she had thrown

-herself at him; oh, she knew what she was doing,

-well enough, though she probably expected him to

-marry her.  Perhaps he would, later on.  He

-wasn't prepared right there to say he wouldn't.

-But there was plenty of time for that.  He hoped

-she wouldn't turn out to be one of the crying,

-troublesome kind.  Add a Laidlaw Wright father-in-law

-to that, and one might as well shoot oneself--what

-with writs, attachments, box-office seizures,

-injunctions, citations "to show cause," detectives

-going through your pockets, black eyes, fines,

-contempt-proceedings--all raining on a fellow in

-buckets!  He smiled grimly at the recollection.  No

-more of that for him.--Well, if she didn't like

-the other way, she would just have to make the

-best of it.  Her innocence here again would be a

-great help.  The poor little lamb believed every

-word he said.  Besides, with women, kisses could

-always atone for everything.

-

-The train rumbled on and on.  Adair succumbed

-to a fitful and uneasy slumber, through which there

-ran a thread of tormenting dreams.  He had lost

-her; they had become separated, and over the heads

-of a crowd he saw her disappearing in a vortex

-of hurrying people; he struggled unavailingly to

-follow, swearing, hitting out, shouldering and

-elbowing like a madman; the cruel reality of it

-awakened him to find her sleeping in his arms.  He

-awakened her, too,--roughly,--to share his relief,

-his joy.  He made her hold him round the neck;

-made her kiss him, all sleepy as she was; crushed

-and cuddled her in a transport of sudden passion.

-Then he nodded off again, his lips resting on her

-silken hair, blissfully content, and no longer afraid

-to close his heavy lids.

-

-They were bundled off at Ferrisburg at three in

-the morning, all of them so sodden with sleep that

-they could scarcely keep their eyes open.  A

-dilapidated bus, and a freckled boy received them, the

-former representing the Clarendon Hotel, the latter,

-Miss MacGlidden's theatrical boarding-house.  The

-company divided accordingly, with some grumpy

-facetiousness, the lesser members trailing away on

-foot after the boy, the principals climbing into the

-bus,--the trunks of both stacked high on the

-platform to await the morning.

-

-The hotel, in spite of its fine name, was a bare,

-dismal, ramshackle place; and the lowered lights,

-and uncarpeted floors gave it a peculiarly

-forbidding air as the doors were unlocked to admit them.

-Phyllis, clinging to her lover's arm, and overcome

-with weariness, took little heed of the

-arrangements being made for their accommodation.  She

-had no idea of the *Cyril Adair and wife* that

-was being written almost under her nose.  Even

-when she accompanied Cyril up-stairs at the heels of

-a yawning darky, she was equally unaware that

-her room was also to be his.  No sleepy child at her

-father's side could have been more trusting.

-

-The darky shuffled off, leaving them alone

-together in the big, cold bedroom.  Adair took her

-in his arms, and kissed her, murmuring something

-that she only half heard and altogether failed to

-understand.  All that she grasped was that he

-would return in a little while--that she was to

-undress, and go to bed, while he went down to get

-his dress-suit case.  He opened her own little bag,

-and laughed as he arranged the contents on the

-chiffonier, she with blushes, struggling to restrain

-him.  Then he was gone, and when she went to

-lock the door, she found that the key was gone, also.

-

-She took off her hat, her cloak, her bodice, and

-with no light save a pair of wretched candles

-began to brush her unloosened hair.  A terrible

-misgiving was stealing over her which she tried to

-allay by prolonging this familiar task.  The

-missing key, the talk of coming back--what was she

-to think?  A deadly fear struck at her heart.  It

-was not all for her honor.  There was more at

-stake than even that--the greater disaster of

-Adair's unworthiness.  Could this be the love for

-which she had abandoned everything?  Was it all

-a lie, a fraud, a trick?  She suddenly seemed to

-lose the strength to stand, sinking into the nearest,

-chair, huddled and trembling.

-

-No, no, he could not be so inconceivably base.

-She was wrong.  His love was as real as hers.  He

-was incapable of such coldblooded premeditation.

-Everything she had was his.  It was not that.  The

-thought of giving herself to him had filled her with

-an unreasoning joy.  But to be cheated, to barter

-her life, her soul in exchange for his pretense--oh,

-she would have rather died!  She would have

-starved for him, would have sold the clothes off

-her back for him, would have borne unflinchingly

-odium, contempt, disgrace, asking only that he love

-her well.  But without that--!  It was for him to

-choose; she had no resistance left; but if it were,

-indeed, all a lie she would kill herself the next day.

-One could outlive many things, but not *that*.

-There are some cheats that leave one with no

-redress save death.

-

-She heard his step in the corridor; heard the door

-softly open; looked up with dilating eyes to learn

-her fate.  The words Adair meant to say never

-were said.  He stopped, staring down at her with

-a gaze as questioning as her own.  It was one of

-those instants that decide eternities.  All that she

-had thought, all that she had dreaded were articulate

-in the piteous face she raised to his.  It was a look,

-which, mysteriously, for that perceptive instant was

-open for him to read.

-

-"They have got me a room on the other side of

-the house," he said, "but I had to come back first

-to say good night."  He ran over to her, kissed her

-lightly on her bared shoulder, pressed a great

-handful of her hair across his lips, and hurried away

-before temptation could overmaster him.

-

-There was no one to be found anywhere, but he

-remembered the stove still burning in the bar-room,

-and the empty chairs gathered socially about it.

-Thither he made his way through the silent office

-and corridors, and drawing his cheap fur coat close

-about him, settled himself to pass what little

-remained of the night.  There was sawdust on the

-floor, spittoons, scraps of sausage-rind; the air stank

-stalely of beer and spirits; the single gas-jet, turned

-very low, flickered over the nude women that

-decorated the mean, fly-blown walls, and flickered, too,

-over a man, half-slumbering in a chair, who, but

-glimmeringly to himself, had taken the turning road

-of his life.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XVII`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XVII

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The sensation of most runaway couples,

-after filling up a blank form, and having

-a marriage service gabbled over them by

-a shabby stranger in a frock-coat, is one of unmixed

-astonishment at the facility of the whole proceeding.

-A dog-license is no harder to obtain, and the

-formalities attending vaccination are even greater.

-

-Phyllis emerged from the Reverend Josiah Lyell's

-with a ring on her finger, and a cardboard

-certificate on which the Almighty, angels, and forked

-lightning were depicted above her name and

-Adair's.  The first discussion of their married life

-was what to do with this monstrosity.  Phyllis was

-for tearing it up, but Adair, superstitiously afraid

-of bad luck, insisted stoutly on its being retained.

-

-"I'll hide it at the bottom of my trunk," he said.

-

-They returned to the carriage, which was awaiting

-them as composedly as though nothing in

-particular had happened in the ten-minute interval.

-Adair wished to take a drive before going back

-to the hotel, thinking that the air and repose would

-be soothing for their nerves,--but to his surprise

-Phyllis demurred.

-

-"I've been married your way," she said, "now

-you must come and be married mine."

-

-"Yours, Phyllis?"

-

-"Yes, tell him to drive to a Catholic church."

-

-He gave the order good-humoredly.  "Aren't

-you satisfied?" he asked.  "Do you want more

-angels and forked lightning?"

-

-"You see, I've always been a sort of Catholic,"

-she explained.  "Not a good Catholic, but a poor

-little straggler, galloping on half a mile behind, like

-a baby sheep that's got left.  I've never liked

-the confession part of it, but really, Cyril, there's

-a sort of whiff of Heaven about a Catholic church

-that I need occasionally.  It's just as though you

-were awfully hungry, and went in to smell a

-beautiful dinner a long way off!"

-

-"All right, Phyllis, if we are going to get

-married we might as well do it thoroughly," assented

-Adair.  "If you think that beautiful dinner will

-help us any, let's go and smell it by all means."

-

-As kind fate would have it, it was rather an

-attractive church, and better still it was altogether

-deserted.  The autumn sunshine was streaming

-through stained-glass windows; a faint perfume of

-incense lingered in the air; the peace and solitude

-gave an added dignity to the altar, with its suffering

-pale Christ, its tall candles, its effulgent brasses

-gleaming in the rosy light.  Phyllis made Adair

-kneel at her side, and holding his hand tightly in

-hers, prayed silently with downcast eyes, and the

-least quiver of a smile at the corner of her lips.

-

-On their way out they stopped at the font.  She

-crossed herself, touched her fingers to the water,

-and scattered some drops on Adair's face.

-"That's that you will always love me," she said,

-with captivating solemnity, "that's that you will

-always be true to me; and that's that--I may

-die first!"

-

-Adair dabbled his own hand in the holy water,

-as though the act had a religious significance, "Oh,

-God," he said, looking up in all seriousness, "if

-there is a God--take care of this sweet wife of

-mine, and guard her from every harm; and if there

-isn't, I swear by this I am going to do it myself

-just as well as I know how!"

-

-They kissed each other, and were about to go,

-when Phyllis noticed the poor-box.  She slipped

-off her best ring, a little diamond such as girls are

-permitted to wear, and unhesitatingly dropped it in.

-Adair, caught by the picturesqueness of the

-offering, would have sacrificed his horseshoe pin had

-he not been prevented.

-

-"No, that's too pretty," she cried jealously.

-"Haven't you something you don't like that God

-*would*?"

-

-A little rummaging discovered a gold pencil-case

-which seemed to fulfill this demand--at least on

-Adair's side--and it forthwith followed the ring.

-Then they sought the open air.

-

-"Now, at last I feel really married," said Phyllis

-gaily, as they climbed back into the carriage.

-"What a strange, dizzy, *safe* sort of feeling it

-gives one.  And just think I could hug you right

-now before the driver, and that old lady with the

-basket, and that little boy blowing his baby brother's

-nose--and nobody could say Boo!"

-

-.. _`She waited for him at the stage-door.`:

-

-.. figure:: images/img-220.jpg

-   :figclass: white-space-pre-line

-   :align: center

-   :alt: She waited for him at the stage-door.--*Page* 284

-

-   She waited for him at the stage-door.--*Page* `284`_

-

-She alarmed Adair by pretending to carry the

-hugging into effect until he tried to push her away,

-and told her to behave.  She replied with a

-delighted, bubbling outcry over her new freedom:

-"Oh, but I'm married now, and can do just what

-I like, and can have breakfast in bed with you

-every morning, and put my shoes out with yours

-to be blacked, and I'm Mrs. Adair, and have a

-wedding-ring, and a certificate with forked

-lightning on it!"  She exultantly popped up her feet

-on the seat in front, showing a shocking amount

-of black silk stocking with a bravado that made

-him grab at her skirt to pull it down; and in

-the ensuing romp there was more silk stocking still,

-and so much happy laughter on her part, and scandalized

-protestation on his that the driver turned

-round, and they were all but disgraced.

-

-The narrowness of the escape sobered her, and

-for the rest of the drive she was demureness itself.

-What a joy it was to recline with half-shut eyes,

-and let the air fan away all the troubled memories

-of the night before!  Mind and body craved repose,

-and mind and body found it in the cradle-like

-movement of the carriage.  Adair was very tired, too,

-and willing enough to share his pretty companion's

-mood.  Deliciously conscious of each other, though

-more asleep than awake, they abandoned themselves

-to the fresh bright morning, and breathed

-in deep drafts of contentment.

-

-On their return to the hotel, the carriage stopped

-and Tommy Merguelis jumped up on the step.  His

-perennial grin, and withered, foolish face was not

-unclouded by a certain anxiety.  He dropped a

-bunch of roses into Phyllis' lap, with an awkward

-compliment which got as far as she was a rose

-herself, and then ended midway with a terrified giggle.

-

-"I'm awful sorry," he said, addressing Adair,

-"but you're wanted at the theater, Mr. Adair, and

-I've been chasing around after you for the last

-half-hour.  They want you to rehearse right off with

-Miss Clarke, and coach her a bit in the business."

-

-"Why, what's the matter with De Vere?" asked

-Adair, surprised.

-

-A slight glaze seemed to spread itself over the grin.

-

-"She won't be in the bill for a day or two,"

-said Tommy.  "She's been suddenly taken awful

-bad."  He paused, seeking a decorous name for the

-attack in question, and finally veiled it in the

-obscurity of a foreign language: "A crisis de nerves,"

-he added.

-

-"Oh, tantrums?" said Adair in a plainer tongue.

-"What a confounded nuisance!"

-

-"She kept yelling and yelling until we got the

-doctor," went on Tommy; "and then on top of that

-Miss Clarke had to get into a hair-pulling match

-with Miss Larkins--and so I think you had better

-hurry, Mr. Adair, if there's to be anything doing

-to-night."

-

-"Great Lord, I think so, too!" cried the latter, to

-whom, like all stars, the evening performance was

-next to a religion.  "You go on to the hotel," he

-went on, turning to Phyllis, "and make yourself

-as comfortable as you can."  The vexation in his

-voice was even a better apology than the one in

-words.  "I'm damned sorry," he said.  "It's the

-most infernal shame.  Forgive me, Phyllis, please

-do, and try not to mind."

-

-Thus it was that she drove to the hotel alone,

-while Adair and Tommy strode off to quiet the

-tempest in the theater, and start a tedious and

-prolonged rehearsal with Miss de Vere's understudy.

-

-Phyllis went to her room, and found one alleviation

-of its loneliness in examining that mysterious

-object, her wedding-ring.  It was so strange, so

-unfamiliar, so charged with significance and finality.

-Just a trifling hoop of gold, and yet with what

-myriad meanings.  Probably in days gone by, when

-of brass or iron it was riveted on the neck, little

-brides mirrored themselves in pools with a similar

-awe at their altered state, and a similar questioning

-of the unknown future.

-

-For better or worse, for good or evil, her life

-was linked to Adair's beyond all recalling, and the

-emblem of their compact glittered on the hand she

-gazed at so long and earnestly.

-

-But you can not hypnotize yourself for ever with

-a wedding-ring--even one not two hours old.

-There was another matter that called more

-insistently for her attention.  Cyril had promised her

-two hundred and fifty dollars for her clothes, and it

-behooved her to get pen and ink, and begin making

-her calculations.  This she did with much erasing,

-much crinkling of girlish brows--with a profound,

-wise-baby expression as though all the world were

-at stake.  There was a delicious immodesty in

-spending Adair's money for such laced and ribboned

-femininities--nightgowns, stockings, chemises, and

-what she wrote down ambiguously as "those

-things," and colored as she wrote it.  How thrilling

-it was, and how exquisitely shocking!  Oh, dear,

-what nice ones they would have to be,--twenty-five

-dollars gone for six in the twinkling of an eye,

-for surely economy here would be a crime, men

-being notoriously fond of--

-

-"Mrs. Adair?"

-

-Her new name was so unfamiliar that she

-hesitated before answering: "Come in."

-

-"A gentleman to see you, Mrs. Adair."

-

-The door opened, and there on the threshold

-stood her father!  His face was white, his eyes

-morose and sunken, his whole air so formidable that

-in the first shock of recognition Phyllis could do

-no more than stare at him in terror.

-

-"May I enter?" he asked, in that deeper intonation

-of his which he never used except under

-some special stress.  As he spoke he looked about

-sharply, and with a bristling hostility as though

-expecting to discover a second occupant of the room.

-

-"Mr. Adair isn't here," she said, answering the

-silent question.  "I am all alone, Papa."

-

-She would have kissed him, but he brushed past

-her to a chair, and seated himself heavily, laying his

-silk hat and his gloves on the floor beside him.

-Thus stalwartly in possession of the chamber, he

-appeared more formidable than ever, and the

-deliberate gaze he bent on Phyllis was masterful and

-menacing.

-

-"So you've gone and thrown away your life,"

-he said at last.  "Forgive me, my dear, if I am

-not able to congratulate you upon it."

-

-"I married Mr. Adair this morning, if that's

-what you mean."  She hardly knew how to say

-more without adding to her offense.  Her father

-was bound to put her in the wrong whatever reply

-she made.  A terrible hopelessness weighed her

-down, and crushed the unspoken appeal on her lips.

-

-"Thrown away like that," he repeated, with a

-gesture.  "You, who had everything; you, with

-beauty, position, money, brains--my God, the

-folly of it--the cruel, wicked, heartless folly of it!"

-

-"Don't, Papa!" she pleaded.  "It's done, and

-so what's the good of wounding me now?"

-

-"Done!" he cried out bitterly.  "That depends

-on what you mean by the word.  I will call it done

-in six months when you will leave him for good,

-and he will name his price for a divorce.  That's

-the way adventurers marry money nowadays.  They

-enjoy the girl till they are tired of her, and then

-sell!"

-

-Phyllis struggled to keep her composure under

-the affront.  "You are very unjust," she returned

-in a low voice that trembled in spite of herself.

-"You are determined to think the worst of him,

-and make it impossible for us ever to be friends.

-But you are wrong, Papa.  He's not an adventurer,

-nor anything like it.  Surely I ought to know

-better than you, and if I have been willing to love

-him, and marry him--"

-

-"Oh, I'm not going to argue with you about

-him," interrupted Mr. Ladd harshly.  "You believe

-in him now, of course.  One can't reason with

-lunatics, and I shan't try.  I'll give you six

-months--perhaps even less--and then I want you to

-remember what I am saying to you now."

-

-"That you were right?"--Her voice was

-scornful.--"Oh, Papa, this is unworthy of you."

-

-"Phyllis," he retorted, "that's the last thing on

-earth I would ever say to you.  If you should come

-back to me disillusioned, broken, utterly weary of

-the muddle you have made of it all, you will find

-everything unchanged between us and the whole

-matter as ignored as though it had never been.

-That's what you are to remember--that my heart

-and my purse will never be closed against you."

-

-"Though both are dependent on my giving up

-my husband?"

-

-"He will give you up, my dear, fast enough."

-

-"How dare you say that, Papa--how dare

-you!"  A mist of anger was in her eyes, and two

-spots of crimson glowed dangerously on her cheeks.

-Never in her life had she been more roused; up to

-that moment she had still hoped to save the day

-and win her father over, but now she perceived the

-irrevocable nature of what was being said.  Yet

-outwardly, at least, she restrained herself, and hid

-within her quivering breast a tumult that seemed

-to rend her to pieces.

-

-"If I seem to be misjudging Mr. Adair it is only

-because I know more about him that you do,"

-continued Mr. Ladd in a tone not untinged with a grim

-satisfaction.  Even as he spoke he drew out a thick

-packet, and unfolded it on his knee.  It was a mass

-of typewriting, with here and there a notorial seal

-on paper of a different color, and an occasional

-newspaper cutting neatly pasted in the center of a

-little sea of comment.  "Here we have him in

-black and white," he went on, "and frankly, Phyllis,

-he offers you a very poor promise of a happy

-married life."

-

-"And you expect me on my wedding morning to

-sit down and read these things--these abominable

-slanders your detectives have scraped together?"

-

-"Oh, no.  But I demand to have Mr. Adair sit

-down and answer them."

-

-"Would you believe him if he did?"

-

-"Facts are facts.  He can't deny them."

-

-"And you called *me* unreasonable?  Oh, Papa!"

-

-Mr. Ladd ignored the taunt.

-

-"When he appreciates that his whole disreputable

-past is known to me," he went on, with the

-same inflexible composure, "he may condescend to

-consider--an arrangement."

-

-"An arrangement?--What do you mean?"

-

-"I have brought a blank check with me," he

-explained.  "He can name anything--and get it.

-I'd rather pay more now than less later."

-

-His brutality overwhelmed her.  It took her a

-few seconds to understand the incredible baseness

-he imputed to Adair.  In the light of this her

-father's previous insults paled to insignificance.

-She was too stunned to make any reply, and for

-a while could do nothing but look at him in

-speechless wonder.  Then she rose, and rang the bell.

-

-"The marriage could be annulled," said Mr. Ladd,

-oblivious of everything except his one

-preoccupation.  "The next thing is to keep the

-newspapers quiet, and that I can do.  We'll go abroad--"

-

-The darky came running up with a pitcher of

-ice water.  No one ever rang for anything else in

-the Clarendon Hotel.  He entered, jingling the ice.

-

-"Show this gentleman out," said Phyllis, "and

-I want you to remember I shall not be home to

-him again."

-

-"Phyllis!"

-

-The entreaty in his voice moved her not a bit,

-nor the outstretched hand, veined, wrinkled and

-shaking.

-

-"It's conceivable I may forgive you for this,

-Papa," she exclaimed, "though God knows it will

-be hard.  But if you offer that check to Cyril I

-shall hate you till the day I die!"

-

-"Have it your own way then," he returned dully,

-and with a curious break in his voice.  "Take your

-own wilful road, and come back to me when your

-heart's broken.  I'll be waiting for you, Phyllis,

-and ready to forget and forgive."

-

-She disdained to make any reply.  The darky

-officiously gathered up the silk hat and gloves from

-the floor, and presented them to Mr. Ladd.  The

-latter, with a last look at his daughter's unrelenting

-face, turned in silence, and passed out.

-

-"The stairs are to the left, sah," said the darky.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XVIII`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XVIII

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Whether disillusion was finally destined

-to arrive or not, there was certainly not

-a hint of it during those succeeding

-weeks.  There was no happier little bride in

-America, than Phyllis Adair, and intimate acquaintance

-with that extraordinary creature, man, only

-redoubled her delight in him.  The bigness, directness,

-simplicity, intolerance, and dog-like devotion

-of her husband were an unfailing joy to her.  No

-little girl who had been given a coveted St. Bernard

-could have taken more anxious, eager, excited care

-of him.  She would feed Adair with the daintiest

-morsels from her own plate; she would exert every

-faculty she possessed to amuse and distract him

-when he fell into one of his despondent moods;

-she would mock him with such pretty archness when

-he grew irritable over trifles.  "Damn it all,

-where did that fool Williams put my patent leather

-shoes?"--"Damn it all, you will find them in

-the bottom of the wardrobe neatly ranged with the

-others," she would answer.  No matter how ill

-his humor she always found the means to make him

-smile; her quick wit, or her slim, audacious body

-each exultantly willing to tease and bewitch him.

-

-Of all human gifts surely that of loving has

-received the least general recognition.  A genius

-for music, a genius for mathematics or natural

-history, or sculpture, or mechanics, is at once admitted

-and acclaimed.  But what of a genius for loving,

-which of all is infinitely the rarest?  The trouble

-is that every one is conceited enough to think that

-he (or she) is a wonder at it.  But frankly, do

-we really indeed see so many love-geniuses about

-us?  Are we not rather struck instead by an almost

-universal love-poverty?  If the husband stays

-drearily at home every night of his life, and if the

-wife is entirely absorbed in the baby, are we not

-asked enthusiastically to applaud a happy home?

-This is the national ideal, and tens of thousands

-are yawning heroically through it.  But where's

-love in any but half-pint sizes?  Everybody insists

-it is there in barrelfuls, much as they insisted in

-the fairy tale in the case of the man with the

-invisible clothes.--We are not defending hubby when

-he gets tangled up with the blonde lady, but

-emotionally speaking (only *emotionally*, be it

-understood), it may be an upward step.  If you have

-a ten per cent. capacity to love, it is hard to be

-fobbed off with a four per cent. partner.

-

-Phyllis was one of the chosen few in whom the

-capacity to love was inordinate.  Her one thought

-was to make herself indispensable to the man to

-whom she had given herself.  Adair was the last

-thing in her head at night, the first at dawn.  Hardly

-was there an act of hers in which his personality

-was not a contributing factor.  Her insatiable

-ambition was to please and delight him, and her brain

-was ever busy to find fresh ways, and improve on

-the old.  Her finesse, her humor, her ardent and

-tender imagination--all were enlisted to a single

-end.  Passion she had in plenty, for she was of a

-voluptuous nature, and the blood coursed hotly in

-her veins--but she had more than that to give him,

-and was possessed of a thousand captivating arts to

-ensnare this love that was said to be so elusive, and

-bind it tight with a myriad silken threads.

-

-It will be asked was Adair worthy of so supreme

-a devotion?  Is it not enough to answer that he

-was not altogether unworthy?  There was a lot of

-human clay in the creature, and while Phyllis was

-exerting all her blithe young ardor to keep the

-altar-fires aflame, he was content to look on lazily, and

-man-like, take many things for granted.  Had she

-been no better, their love would have run the

-ordinary course, and perished fast enough on the rocks

-of habit and satiety.  Adair's spiritual side was all

-but dormant.  He was encased in materialism as

-stoutly as some of us in fat; whatever gropings he

-had toward higher things were all in the direction

-of the stage.  Feelings he could not initiate

-himself he took here ready made, and showed almost

-a genius in their comprehension.  He presented a

-paradox of one who could admirably "get into"

-any written character, and yet who was wholly

-unable to "get into" his own.

-

-Phyllis knew much more what laid beneath than

-he.  To her the yearning, troubled, inarticulate

-soul of the man appealed as pathetically as the

-sight of some great, ashamed, bearded fellow who

-had never been taught to read.  In the finer sense

-Adair had never been taught anything.  His instincts

-alone had saved him from being a clod.  In

-his fight up from the bottom he had arrived a good

-deal splashed with mud; and Phyllis, figuratively

-speaking, rolled back her sleeves, and set herself to

-tubbing him.

-

-He was extraordinarily submissive in this respect,

-extraordinarily grateful and responsive.  He made

-no pretense of hiding his ignorance, but questioned

-her like a child, and often as artlessly.  At

-thirty-four he was having the universe reconstructed for

-him, and the process filled him with astonishment.

-Phyllis read aloud to him from such unheard-of

-authors as Thackeray, Carlyle, Hardy, Stevenson,

-and Meredith until these strange names became

-quite familiar.  She could read French, too,

-translating as she went, while he sat back, profoundly

-respectful and impressed, his humility tinged with

-the zest of ownership.  Yes, her youth, her beauty,

-her intelligence, her love, all were his; and as he

-gazed at her through the haze of his cigar, the

-words often fell heedlessly on his ear as he felt the

-mantling of a divine contentment.

-

-Yet he could be very masterful on some matters.

-Phyllis was not allowed to receive the advances of

-the company, or to associate with any of its members,

-a prohibition not a little difficult to obey in the

-course of their constant traveling together.  But if

-Phyllis shrank from being rude, Adair suffered from

-no similar delicacy, and was brutally direct in

-making his wishes plain to his stage companions.  It

-was not only that he feared Lydia de Vere, whose

-yellowish eyes were full of enmity, and whose

-powers for mischief he well knew; but in contrast

-to his dainty wife these theater-people somehow

-began to strike him as tarnished and common, and

-he was jealously reluctant to expose her to their

-familiarities.  Intercourse with Phyllis was

-sharpening his critical faculty; his view-point was

-insensibly changing; there were even times when he

-realized his own deficiencies.--Tommy Merguelis

-was the one exception he made.  The lanky young

-man, when weighed in the new scales, was found

-to be less wanting than the others.  There was

-something sensitive and refined about Tommy.

-Ill-health, pins, and years of furniture-polish had been

-as cleansing fires.  He was a humble person who

-would accept his humble inch and grin gratefully,

-and not reach out for an ell.  Yes, Phyllis might

-be friends with Tommy.

-

-With them on their travels from town to town

-went a punching-bag, which Adair inflated and

-set up as soon as their trunks were unpacked.

-Every morning, stripped to the waist, Phyllis had

-to double up her little fists, and start a-pummelling

-for ten furious minutes.  There could be no begging

-off from this daily rite; it was one of the iron

-rules of married life; pleadings, caresses, protests

-all were in vain.  An icy bath had to follow, and

-if she hesitated too long on the brink, or showed

-too mutinous a row of toes, Adair would jump up,

-and tumble her in as mercilessly as a boy with

-a puppy.  At night, too, he was no less rigid in

-regard to her prayers.  His own religion was very

-nebulous.  He never prayed himself nor went to

-church; but apparently that was no reason why

-Phyllis should be similarly backward.  It gave him

-a peculiar pleasure to see her kneeling beside the

-bed, her night dress flowing about her slender,

-girlish body, and her hair drawn back, and held

-by a circlet of red ribbon.  He knew no prettier

-picture, nor was it without a tender and uplifting

-value.  For it was his name that moved on her

-lips, and who would not have been proud to send

-so enchanting a little deputy to plead for one

-before the Throne of Grace?  Then it was that he

-seemed to love her best; and though all unaware of

-it, he, too, was praying in the deeper, unspoken

-language of the heart.

-

-"You've forgotten your prayers!"

-

-"Oh, it was so cold--I thought I wouldn't to-night."

-

-"Jump up!"

-

-"It's so cosy here with you--and you ought to

-have said it sooner--and anyhow, I won't."

-

-"Jump up!"

-

-"Oh, Cyril, that hurts!"

-

-"Of course, it hurts."

-

-"It's wicked to pinch as hard as that."

-

-"It's wickeder not to say your prayers."

-

-"Oh, Cyril, don't, *don't*!"

-

-"Jump up, then."

-

-"I'm not in the right frame of mind now--you

-have pinched it all away.--All right, all right,

-don't--I'll do it!  Though I don't think a

-pinch-prayer would be as good as a real one.  Do you?"

-

-"This is the prayer-rush time--God won't notice it."

-

-"Not even if I am black and blue?  Why, the

-angels will be shocked."

-

-"They are that already with the fuss you have

-made.  Roll out, you bad little chap,--out with you!"

-

-Sometimes Adair was sharp with her--impatient

-and fretful.  He made very little effort to control

-his moods, which, as with most artists, were as

-changeable and capricious as those of a child.  Nine

-women out of ten would have retorted in kind,

-and the honeymoon period would have insensibly

-passed, and with it much of the charm and rapture

-of their union.  It was due to no help of Adair's

-that they did not descend to the ordinary plane

-of married life, with its deliquescence of nearly

-everything beautiful and romantic--occasional

-harshness on one side, tears and pin-prickings on

-the other, and departing illusions on both.  People

-can still get along very tolerably in this manner,

-and remain fairly fond and faithful, but no one can

-contend it is the poet's ideal.  It was certainly not

-Phyllis', and she was determined to avoid such a

-catastrophe.

-

-In her ambitious little head the honeymoon was

-to be only the beginning of a sweeter intimacy

-beyond.  She saw, lying latent in Adair, a capacity

-to love as great as her own (she was presumptuous

-enough to think that no one could love any better),

-and her one consuming endeavor was to draw it

-forth.  Whether or not the prize was worth the

-winning never occurred to her.  This big,

-splendid, untamed man-animal was hers, with all his

-weaknesses and defects, with all his fine qualities

-and bad, and she had accepted the responsibility

-of him with naïve self-confidence.  To love was

-her vocation, and she set herself to it with delight.

-

-Her unfailing gaiety, her pretty artifices to

-amuse and cajole him, her constant study of means

-to give him pleasure--all were as the drops that

-wear away the stone.  High-spirited, quick-tempered,

-and with a sensitiveness that a glance could

-wound, she yet put such a rein upon herself that

-no provocation could draw from her an unkind

-word.  She might grow suddenly silent, her mouth

-might quiver, her eyes glisten, but no sharp retort

-ever passed her lips.  There are many men with

-whom this would not have answered.  To some,

-indeed, an exquisite gentleness and forbearance

-almost tempts their harshness.  Feeling themselves

-in the wrong their vanity is insulted, and with

-morbid perversity they go from bad to worse.  But

-Adair was not of this sort.  With all his faults

-he was a man of generous instincts, and capable of

-quick and headlong repentances.  He could come

-in like a thunder-cloud, on edge with nerves, snappish,

-morose, ready to fly off the tangent at a trifle--and

-five minutes later would be sitting at Phyllis'

-feet, his face in her lap, conquered, contrite,

-declaiming hotly against himself, his ill-temper all

-striking inward.

-

-These lapses of his helped his love much more

-than they hurt it, and through them he began to

-acquire some self-control, some degree of

-consideration--some shame.  In him devotion brought

-out devotion.  Instead of resenting Phyllis'

-strategems to keep him good-humored and happy, he

-was touched to the quick.  It was a new idea, this

-of keeping love alight; of consecrating thought

-and care to it and guarding the precious flame from

-extinction.  It dawned upon him as something

-entirely novel and unheard-of.  Yet it was beautiful;

-he approved of it heartily.  He innocently ascribed

-the invention to Phyllis, and as usual was

-tremendously impressed.  It made him wonder whether

-she ever thought of anything else but love.  As he

-grew to know her better he saw that it inspired all

-she did--that every impulse and every action

-sprang from it.

-

-Had he been a king, and she the transient, pretty

-butterfly of the moment, she could not have striven

-harder to fascinate and hold him.  Her saucy

-tongue, her fancifulness, her audacity, her

-often-declared determination to be as much sweetheart as

-wife--all were as spice to a love that might

-otherwise have cloyed.  To adore a man is not

-enough--there is nothing the poor darling silly animal

-gets tired of so soon as being adored.--One had

-to keep him interested, captivated, filling in one's

-own little person all his complicated needs of

-passion, comradeship, entertainment, variety, and

-mental recreation.  But how well one was repaid!  If

-one gave a whole harem's worth of love, one

-received a whole harem's worth back, and sweetest

-of all one could watch the unfolding and ripening

-of a really fine nature.  She was sure her infatuation

-had guided her truly in that respect; that her

-choice had fallen on a man with heart and soul big

-enough to repay her devotion.  He might be rough,

-but she had never a moment's doubt as to the

-diamond, nor as to her ability to shape and polish it.

-

-It was a process, unfortunately, that could not

-be hurried.  Against her in the endeavor were the

-ingrained habits and wilfulness of twenty years.

-From his boyhood up Adair had lived in an

-atmosphere of unrestraint, a Bohemian of Bohemians,

-without ties, care-free, the whim of the moment his

-only guide.  Some backslidings on his part were

-inevitable and Phyllis, with all her illusions, was

-sane and cool enough to foresee them.  It was hardly

-a surprise to her, therefore, though frightening

-and dismaying, when late one night, after

-awaiting him in vain, Tommy Merguelis appeared

-unexpectedly in his stead.  Any stranger to the young

-man would have judged him to be in high spirits;

-his shrill, nervous laugh was louder than usual;

-and he stammered and giggled as though bubbling

-over with an unextinguishable good nature.  To

-Phyllis' practised eyes, however, these were ominous

-signs, and her breath came a little quickly, as she

-asked news of her husband.

-

-"Oh, he's all right," said Tommy, standing with

-one hand on the door-knob, and showing no

-inclination to enter the room.  "Oh, Mr. Adair is all

-right--and hee, hee, don't you worry about him.

-He's detained, that's all, and he sent me to say he

-might be late, and, and--"

-

-"And what?"

-

-"They've got him into a game down at

-Mr. Feld's--the owner of the theater, hee, hee--and

-he couldn't well refuse, or at least--"

-

-"Oh, Tommy, please--I don't understand."

-

-"Just a little game of draw."

-

-"Cards?"

-

-"Yes--poker."

-

-This did not strike Phyllis as anything very terrible.

-

-"And he sent you to tell me he would be late?"

-she inquired, much reassured.

-

-Tommy lied manfully.  As a matter of fact he

-had invented the message--and the errand--to

-shield Adair, who had forgotten everything in the

-absorption of the game.  "Yes," he said, "he can't

-manage to be back to supper with you, and is awful

-sorry about it, and hopes you won't mind."  Though

-Tommy could lie, he could not act.  His

-anxiety was obvious; he wriggled uncomfortably;

-and his silly, convulsive smile presaged some

-disagreeable revelation.  Phyllis, now thoroughly

-alarmed, and with characteristic directness went

-straight for the truth.

-

-"Tommy, has he been drinking?"

-

-"Oh, ah, well, hee, hee--yes, he has."

-

-"And they are playing high?"

-

-"A dollar limit."

-

-"And you came here to warn me?  Don't deny it,"

-

-"Oh, ah, well, hee, hee--yes, I did,

-Mrs. Adair."--As Phyllis paused, troubled, uncertain,

-full of distress, Tommy added: "I don't know

-as it wouldn't be a good plan for you to come along

-with me and get him."

-

-"Would he come?"

-

-"Anybody would come for you, Mrs. Adair."

-

-"Surely he doesn't often gamble, Tommy.  He

-has never spoken to me of it?"

-

-"Oh, there's nothing he don't do when the fit

-takes him.  Hee, hee, he's that kind, you

-know--temperamental."

-

-The word, and the woebegone indulgence with

-which it was uttered made Phyllis smile.  Her

-humor was always close to the surface, even when

-there were tears between.

-

-"You are a dear, good fellow," she said, "and

-I'll never forget your kindness to-night, though as

-for doing anything, I am going to stay here."

-

-He was amazed at the gentleness of her tone.

-

-"I am never going to be his taskmaster," she

-went on, as much to herself as to Tommy.  "As

-far as I am concerned he shall always be as free

-as air.  If I went after him at all, it would be to

-sit on his knee, and drink with him."

-

-Tommy's scandalized face again made her laugh.

-

-"Don't be afraid," she said with tremulous

-gaiety, "I won't do it this evening, anyhow.  Now

-run away, Tommy, and tell them down-stairs we

-shan't need any supper after all."

-

-She shut the door after him, and stood with her

-back to it, forlornly regarding the empty room.

-She was more than hurt, more than mortified.  She

-had to ask herself if she had failed.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XIX`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XIX

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-It was dawn when Adair staggered in, undressed

-and rolled in beside her.  Her long

-vigil had been succeeded by an overpowering

-slumber, and she was not aware of his return until

-the streaming sunshine awakened her toward nine

-o'clock.  She wondered at first why her heart was

-so heavy, and then, with reviving recollection, sat

-up, and gazed at her sleeping husband.  Even a

-debauch could not impair his fine complexion, and

-the thick, black hair clustered against the ruddy

-skin softened Phyllis' expression as she studied

-his face long and earnestly.  The charm of that

-vigorous manhood was irresistible, and whatever

-lurking grudge she still had against Adair was lost

-in a fresh access of tenderness.  His uneasy

-breathing, his hot dry forehead, his parched and parted

-lips, all appealed as well to the woman in

-her--the mother, the nurse.

-

-For once the routine of punching-bag and bath

-was forgone, and her first task on rising was to

-set about preparing breakfast.  This, with the

-pair, was a trifling matter, consisting of rolls, cream

-and butter ordered over night and set outside their

-door on a tray every morning, and the coffee Phyllis

-made herself over a spirit lamp.  She was thus

-busily engaged when she was conscious of a movement

-on the bed, and turned to see her husband

-lowering at her with bloodshot eyes.  Awake, he

-looked disheveled, surly, ill and exasperated.  His

-head was splitting, and he was in one of those vile

-humors when a man avenges his physical distress

-on those about him.  He pushed Phyllis away as

-she ran over to him, and told her roughly to leave

-him alone.  The offer of a cup of coffee outraged

-him.  Groaning and swearing, he pulled himself

-into a sitting posture, and in a voice as intentionally

-disagreeable as he could make it demanded some

-hot water.

-

-Holding the cup in both hands, he began to drink

-it in angry little sips, finding a malign satisfaction

-in the change that had come over Phyllis.  Pale,

-silent, wounded and frightened, she was utterly at

-loss to know what to do.  Every word was a

-stab, and she had a stupefying feeling that the end

-had come.  Her only coherent thought, the only

-manifestation of resentment within her, was to

-contribute nothing to bring about the catastrophe.  If

-Adair were determined to pull down their little

-paradise about their ears, and destroy for ever the

-filmy and poetic fabric of a perfect love, she, at

-least, would hold herself innocent of the sacrilege.

-But, oh, the pang of it, the heartrending misery,

-the disillusion!

-

-"Now, go ahead," he said sullenly.  "I'm ready--go ahead!"

-

-She faltered and trembled in asking him what he meant.

-

-He burst out with a scornful laugh.

-

-"I was drunk last night," he said, "you know

-that as well as I do, and here I am ready to take

-my medicine--can't avoid it, I know that--and

-want to get it over with.  You wouldn't be a

-woman if you didn't pay me out."

-

-The vulgarity of the conception stung her.

-

-"I--I don't pay people out," she said simply.

-

-"Oh, no, you're the quiet kind," he went on with

-an ugly jeer, intent somehow on putting her in the

-wrong.  "You don't say anything, but you sit

-there and freeze a fellow--and oh, my God, yes,

-cry!  There you go, cry, cry, cry!"

-

-She did break down for a moment under his

-deliberate cruelty, but quickly rallying, came over,

-and sat beside him on the bed.

-

-"Don't, don't quarrel with me," she said pitifully,

-and then added with a gleam of humor, "after

-all, it wasn't I that was drunk, you know."

-

-She put out her hand, and for a while he

-permitted it to lie against his aching forehead.  All

-would have been well had he not unfortunately

-spilled his cup.  At this his latent fury broke out

-anew.

-

-"For God's sake, don't crowd all over me!" he

-cried.  "Sit over there, where we can talk like

-sensible people.  You have made me all wet with the

-damned stuff."

-

-The fault was his own, and due to his unsteady

-hands, but he was wilfully pleased to put her in the

-wrong.  He glowered at her with savage reproach

-as she moved a little farther away in obedience to

-his command.  She was disconcertingly quiet, and

-it seemed to him an added injustice to be cheated

-of a scene.  There was nothing but her anguished

-eyes, and her drooping and utterly dispiriting

-attitude to tell him how well he was succeeding.

-

-"You're a little fool," he announced inconsequently.

-

-He waited for her to answer, but she made no

-sign of having heard him, sitting there stricken,

-numb.

-

-"To have tied up with such a damned goat,"

-he added, with immense conviction.

-

-Still no answer.

-

-"The best thing you can do is to pack up and

-go," he went on.

-

-At this she did find her voice, ghost of a one

-that it was.

-

-"Is that what you really want me to do, Cyril?"

-

-"It's what you ought to do," he returned, with

-a sternly paternal air.

-

-"It's for you to decide."

-

-His mumbling reply turned into a groan.

-

-"I lost nearly four hundred dollars last night,"

-he said, after a deadly pause.  "Then I had to get

-into a scrap with Jake Steinberger, and Willie

-Latimer, and George Wright, and there was a hell of a

-shindy till somebody turned in a police-alarm, and

-I only dodged arrest by the skin of my

-teeth--not but what I'll be summonsed to-day, sure as

-sure.  On top of that my engagement is gone, for

-I lammed Jake half to death, and I guess he had

-rather break up the tour all-standing than keep me

-in the bill another night.  And--and--"

-

-"You thought you'd make a clean sweep of

-everything, once you were at it, and alienate me,

-too?"

-

-"Yes, like a damned goat," he repeated dully.

-

-"Well, you have succeeded," she said in the same

-low, even tone, "I dare say you'll be sorry some

-day at having broken your toys.  There isn't

-anything more to be said, is there, except good-by?"

-

-She was about to rise when Adair flung himself

-out of the bed, and kneeling before her, pulled off

-her little slippers and began kissing her naked feet.

-His repentance was so sudden, so abject that it was

-almost as though he had gone crazy.  It was indeed

-an hysterical revulsion, and his frame shook, and

-his hands clenched themselves on her flesh as he

-abased himself before her.  He begged incoherently

-for forgiveness, for mercy; he would kill himself

-if she were to leave him; he loved her; he could

-die for her; the disgrace and despair of it all had

-driven him mad.  At first she resisted, struggling

-to free herself, and too deeply affronted for any

-atoning words to touch her; but her powerlessness

-in his grasp, the warmth of his quick, tumultuous

-breath against her, even the physical pain he was

-unconsciously inflicting--all at last took her

-womanhood by storm, and she drew up his head,

-and allowed him to sob his heart out in her lap.

-

-How little did either of them know, she sitting

-on the bed in her night-dress, he nestling close

-against her in an agony of shame and contrition,

-that a battle of the soul had been fought and won;

-that the finer nature had triumphed over the coarser;

-that an insensible but a most real step had been

-taken upward.  Phyllis extorted no promises; Adair

-made no vows; rather they clung to each other like

-little children who had safely passed the edge of

-a precipice, and in security beyond were trembling

-at what they had risked.

-

-The woman, always the more practical partner,

-was the first to descend from the clouds to mundane

-considerations.

-

-"And what's the poor little damned goat

-going to do?" she asked, the quoted profanity on

-her pretty lips as piquant and tender as a lullaby;

-and accompanying it with a smile so arch that

-Adair's face, too, could not but light with it.

-

-"Face the music and then get out," returned the D. G.

-

-"Out where, dearest?"

-

-Adair grew overcast.

-

-"Mortimer Clark's on the road somewhere," he

-said reflectively, "and I'm sure he'd make room

-for me if he had to fire a whole company.  Then

-there's Nan O'Farrell in the *Diamond Diadem*

-and Leo Foster in the *Slaves of Circumstance*.

-They are all on the cheap, and would jump at the

-chance of getting me at their prices.  As soon as

-I get round to it, I'll telegraph."

-

-Phyllis hesitated, but at last the words came.

-

-"On the cheap," she repeated.  "Why don't

-you aim higher, Cyril?  Why don't you try the real

-people--those who are worth while, especially now,

-when you're going to break away from Steinberger?"

-

-His only reply was a shake of the head.

-

-"You know you're too good for this sort of

-thing," she went on.  "It isn't flattery to tell you

-that--you see it yourself every night--I saw it,

-and that's why I--  Oh, Cyril, let's try to get

-where you belong."

-

-"You don't understand," he said moodily.

-"You don't understand a bit.  I had all that once,

-and I kicked it over.  The stage is an awfully

-small place--for anybody that amounts to

-anything, you know--though as big as an ocean for

-the others.  There isn't anybody of

-importance--manager or star--who doesn't *hate* me."  He

-perceived the doubt in her glance, and continued

-swiftly: "Oh, it's no conspiracy, or jealousy, or

-anything of that kind--a tip-top man can

-override all that if there's money in him for the

-box-office--but I've set them all against me.  There

-isn't one I haven't punched or insulted somehow.

-I hold the record for being the best-detested man

-on Broadway.  Why, Alfred Fielman once--that

-was six years ago, when I was by way of being

-a metropolitan favorite, and all that, ha, ha--he

-had me on a forty weeks' contract, and at the end

-of three he gave me a check for the rest and told

-me he had no more use for my services.  Thirty-seven

-weeks' full salary--think of it--and the door!"

-

-"But isn't it different now?" asked Phyllis,

-enfolding him with a pair of the whitest, softest,

-shapeliest arms in the world, and pressing her cheek

-against his face.  "You've got good since then,

-and are now mama's little man!"

-

-"Look at last night," protested mama's little

-man dismally.  "Drinking, fighting, gambling, and

-my job out of the window!  That's been me right

-along--two weeks' notice, and for God's sake,

-never come back!"

-

-"Just a damned goat," rippled Phyllis, her teeth

-shining like pearls, and her cheeks dimpling

-mischievously.

-

-"A silly ass," ejaculated Adair with much self-contempt.

-

-"Now, I want to tell you my idea," cried Phyllis.

-"We're going to pack up, poor booful disgraced

-genius--and wife (as they add on hotel registers);

-and we're going to count our poor little pennies,

-and take a tourist sleeper to New York, and get

-a little flat of the sort they rent to dormice in

-reduced circumstances, and live on air and kisses

-and hope--while poor Booful will go round

-telling everybody he's a reformed character, and

-looking for an engagement.  And if the top all hates

-him, and if the middle is all full, why Booful will

-begin at the bottom, while Mrs. Booful will wash,

-and cook, and darn his socks--oh, no, listen,--yes,

-and darn his socks, and pet him when he is

-discouraged and cross, and keep everything scrupulously

-clean (in books if you're awfully poor, you're

-always scrupulously clean, haven't you noticed it)?

-Yes, scrupulously clean, and oh, so economical of

-every nickel till everybody begins to see that Booful

-isn't a damned goat, but a man of splendid talent,

-and up, up, up he'll go like a balloon, till there

-won't be a garbage-can without his name on it, or

-a bill-board without somebody "presenting" him

-in letters six feet high, and fame and money will

-pour in like a Niagara, and, and--Cyril, why

-shouldn't we?"

-

-His look of indulgence and amusement had

-gradually changed to downright eagerness.

-

-"If you can stand it, I can," he said.

-

-"Oh, Cyril, I'm not afraid--let's do it!"

-

-"We'll be starvation poor."

-

-"But in a home of our own--no more of these

-horrid hotels, no more traveling, and something big

-to live and hope for."

-

-"Those dormice flats are awfully squeezy--and dark."

-

-"So's a robin's nest, for that matter."

-

-"And those pretty hands--it would be wicked

-to spoil them."

-

-"Oh, I won't spoil them--besides, what would

-be the good of them if they couldn't work for the

-man I love."

-

-"Scrubbing floors, and cleaning kettles and

-polishing the stove?"

-

-"You can help a little."

-

-"And suppose, instead of being easy, it's very

-hard?  It takes courage to start again.  You'll

-have to be brave enough for two, for I've none of

-that kind of grit or perseverance.  Do you think

-you can bolster up a great big fellow like me, who'll

-come home like a baby and cry?"

-

-"We'll bolster up each other."

-

-"I--I wish I was more worthy of you, Phyllis."

-

-"Stop kissing my toes--it tickles--and oh,

-Cyril, don't bite them!"

-

-"I'm ashamed--you are so sweet and good and

-clever and brave--and the whole of me isn't worth

-that little pink one, and I don't think I've ever

-loved you so much as I do this minute, or

-*respected* you more.  If you were married to a

-street-car conductor I believe you'd make him

-president of the United States--and if your

-husband mayn't bite you, who can?"

-

-"You darling!"

-

-"And I swear by that one that I love you better

-than anything in the world; and by that one

-I'll be true to you all my life; and by that one I'll

-cut my tongue out before I'll ever say an unkind

-word to you again; and by that one I'm going to

-do everything you say, just as though you were an

-angel from Heaven, which you are if ever there was

-one; and by that fat little big toe that I'm going

-to try to copy the tenderest, gentlest, most exquisite

-nature that God ever breathed into a human being;

-and by the whole chubby little white satin foot--"

-

-"Do sit up--it's important."

-

-"I thought it was all settled.  We'll start for

-New York as soon as I am fired--officially."

-

-"Cyril?"

-

-"Yes, sweetheart?"

-

-"I'm so infatuated with you that perhaps I don't

-see things as they are.  It is not a dream, is it,

-that you really could get on in New York--I mean

-if you lived down all the ill will against you there?

-I try to detach myself, and criticize you

-dispassionately--but you always seem to me so

-tremendously good."

-

-"I am good--in my own kind of work."

-

-"You've no dread of failure?"

-

-"In handing out the goods--?  Not a particle,

-Phyllis.  Why should I?  Haven't I done it?"

-

-"In your New York days?"

-

-"Why, Phyllis, this isn't brag.  I've got notices

-to show for it, corking notices.  What you have

-seen me do is not my best.  No one could do that

-with the support I get, and I have to carry the whole

-outfit single handed.  A company ought to be a

-string orchestra--and they give me a brass band!"

-

-"Have you got the notices?--I'd love to see them!"

-

-"They're at the bottom of the trunk somewhere--three

-books of them."

-

-"Do get them out, and let me read some."

-

-After long rummaging the books were produced.

-Phyllis, who in the interval had put on a peignoir,

-and begun to comb her hair, seized on one of them

-enthusiastically.  It was an unwieldy, shabby old

-volume, and so heavy it was hard to hold.  The

-exertion, and perhaps the excitement had caused

-Adair's head to throb again, and he was glad to

-stretch his length on the bed while Phyllis,

-drawing up a rocking chair, seated herself as close as

-she could beside him.

-

-The actor had not exaggerated his past successes.

-For three seasons he had been a notable figure on

-Broadway, and if his reputation had been more one

-of promise than achievement it was in dazzling

-contrast to what he had since become.  He had himself

-almost forgotten the stir he had made--not the

-deafening curtain calls, the brimming box-offices,

-the deferential managers,--none could forget

-that--but the soberer, yet more valuable evidence of

-the critics.  It was electrifying to listen to them

-again; to see across the mean, intervening years that

-other self of his lording it so high; to realize, with

-mingled bitterness, wonder and hope that he was

-still the same man, with the same if not richer

-powers, and a new-born resolution to regain what

-he had so lightly valued and so unconcernedly

-thrown away.

-

-Phyllis, pink with excitement, and tripping

-occasionally over the longer words, read notice after

-notice with indefatigable zest, constantly substituting

-Booful and other endearing epithets for the

-more formal name in print, while her husband lay

-back, listening delightedly, and contributing

-exclamations, "By George, and it was William Winter

-who said that!"--"Say, that's Huneker, isn't it?"

-"A column in *The World* isn't handed out to

-everybody, not by a long sight."

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-.. class:: center white-space-pre-line

-

-BOOFUL OPENS AT WALLACK'S

-THE HONOR OF THE REGIMENT PLEASES, BUT

-NEEDS CUTTING.

-THE STAR SCORES AS MOODY HERO, AND EXCELS

-HIMSELF IN MAGNIFICENT PORTRAYAL OF

-EBHARDT.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"Those who went last night to see *Booful* were

-not disappointed, however they may have disagreed

-about the play itself.  For that brilliant young

-*darling* it was hardly less than a personal triumph,

-and from the rise of the curtain--"

-

-It was a very inconsiderate moment for a heavy

-rap at the door.

-

-"Come in," cried Adair.

-

-In the shadow stood a bulky figure--a blue

-figure--a figure with something shining on its

-swelling chest.  Phyllis looked and quailed as the

-bravest of us do at the sight of the Law, intruding

-its hob-nailed boot into what is metaphorically

-termed our castle.  In this case the castle was so

-small, and the Law so large and red and impressive

-that the former seemed but a trifling refuge against

-oppression.  In the accents of a green and troubled

-island the new-comer asked: "Are you Misther

-Adair--Misther Surul Adair?"

-

-"That's me, all right," said the actor.

-

-"You're summonsed for assault and battery, and

-here's the payper, and it's before Judge Dunn ye're

-to come at two o'clock."

-

-"Where do I go, officer?"

-

-"The city hall, police court number one."

-

-"Two o'clock, you say?  Very good.  Tell

-Judge Dunn I have much pleasure in accepting his

-kind invitation."

-

-The functionary unbent genially.

-

-"Tay will be served on the lawn," he said, "and

-the Marine Band will be in attendance, and some of

-our younger set will be there--in blue."

-

-It seemed incredible to poor, trembling Phyllis

-that Adair could burst out laughing.  But he did,

-and that with every indication of undiminished

-spirits.

-

-"All right, officer, I'll be there."

-

-"Good morning, sorr."

-

-"Good morning, officer."

-

-The tears were streaming down Phyllis' face as

-she ran to Adair, and threw her arms around his

-neck; but he caressed and comforted her, and

-gradually got her to smile again.

-

-"I feel better," he said.  "Be a dear, and make

-me some fresh coffee.--Oh, Phyllis, isn't it jolly!"

-

-"Jolly?  Oh, how can you--"

-

-"Oh, I mean about going back to New York!

-A fellow who's hit them once can hit them

-again, and by George, with you to help me, I just

-know I'm bound to land!"

-

-"But this awful police court!"

-

-"Don't worry about that--they've never hanged

-a Free Mason yet.--Easy with the cream,

-sweetheart.--Where was it we left off?  Oh, yes, here

-it is: 'Adair opens at Wallack's.  Those who

-went last night to see Cyril Adair--'"

-

-

-.. _`*From the Leamington Courier of November 28th, 190--*`:

-

-.. figure:: images/img-265.jpg

-   :figclass: white-space-pre-line

-   :align: center

-   :alt: *From the Leamington Courier of November 28th, 190--*

-

-   *From the Leamington Courier of November 28th, 190--*

-   AMUSING SCENE IN JUDGE DUNN'S COURT

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-.. class:: center

-

-   *From the Leamington Courier of November 28th, 190--.*

-

-.. class:: center bold

-

-   AMUSING SCENE IN JUDGE DUNN'S COURT

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-Yesterday the proceedings

-in Judge Dunn's court were

-enlivened by the presence of

-Cyril Adair the actor, who,

-on the complaint of Jacob

-Steinberger, his manager, and

-Messrs. Willard Latimer and

-George Augustus Wright,

-brother players, was haled

-before the bar of justice for

-assault and battery.  The three

-complainants showed

-unmistakable traces of a fistic

-encounter, and there was a

-subdued ripple of merriment

-at their bandaged appearance.

-The encounter was the

-outcome of a midnight game of

-poker, and there was a direct

-conflict of evidence as to who

-began the fray.

-

-Judge Dunn finally summed

-up against the defendant, and

-in default of a fine, ordered

-him to find personal security

-to be of good behavior for

-three months.  Much

-amusement was then caused by

-Mrs. Adair unexpectedly stepping

-forward, and pleading most

-charmingly with the judge to

-permit her to assume the

-obligation.  The court was

-unable to resist so attractive a

-bit of femininity, and though

-remarking it was somewhat

-irregular, consented, amid

-general laughter, to grant

-her request.

-

-The judge made up for it,

-however, by giving the

-defendant a stiff little lecture

-before dismissing the case,

-expressing his surprise that the

-husband of so young and

-pretty a wife should care to pass

-the early morning hours at

-poker and fisticuffs.  Adair

-accepted the rebuke with

-great good nature and

-prompted by his wife thanked

-his honor for his forbearance,

-adding to the general hilarity

-by repeating aloud some of

-the advice that was being

-whispered in his ear.

-Apologies followed outside, and

-the whole party returned to

-their hotel in the same hack.

-All's well that ends well!

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XX`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XX

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Adair waited until Christmas before

-severing his connection with Steinberger.  The

-holidays were bad for theatrical business,

-and the prospect of a temporarily reduced salary

-and several extra matinées seemed to make this

-period an auspicious one for departure.  With two

-hundred and eighty dollars, their trunks, the clothes

-they stood in, and hearts beating high with eagerness

-and hope, the pair took the train for the City

-of Success.

-

-Even on their way to it their respective positions

-began to change.  The actor, for all his broad

-shoulders and big voice and commanding presence,

-betrayed from the first a helplessness and dependence

-that both pleased and surprised his little wife.

-He anxiously deferred to her in everything; fell in

-readily with every suggestion; listened with

-profound respect to her plans.  He knew New York

-inside out; poverty was no stranger to him, nor

-the makeshifts and struggles of the poor; yet in the

-crisis of their fortunes it was the girl that took the

-lead--the girl who had never suffered a single

-privation in her life, who had been reared in luxury,

-to whom money and ease were as the air she

-breathed.

-

-Left to his own unguided will Adair would have

-gravitated to a dingy bedroom in a dingy boarding-house.

-It was Phyllis who perceived the greater

-freedom, and the unspeakably greater comfort and

-charm of a tiny apartment.  The nest-making instinct

-was strong in her, and also the bred-in-the-bone

-belief that it was the woman's place to guard

-her man's well-being, and to send him forth to work

-in the best of trim.  She did not know how to

-cook; she had never swept out a room in her life,

-she had never even folded a table-cloth, yet her

-self-assurance and determination never wavered.

-All this could be learned--pooh, it only needed

-hard work and intelligence,--she would answer for

-its being the nicest little flat in New York, and

-would dismiss Adair every morning in his best

-clothes, smiling, well-fed, and happy, to look for an

-engagement.

-

-Brave, confident little heart!  Intent little head

-absorbed in calculations; magic the love that could

-cast effulgence over those soiled green notes, and

-the phantom gray city, and the man, none too good,

-or wise on whom such a treasure of devotion was

-lavished!  But some conception of it pierced his

-thick skin, and what there was in him that was

-unselfish and noble felt disquieted at the contrast, and

-strangely stirred and humbled.

-

-"Phyllis," he said huskily, "I--I didn't know

-what love meant until I met you.  I guess lots of

-men go all their lives and never know.  I've been

-sitting back here, thinking how nearly I might

-have missed it."

-

-"And getting quite scared and worried?--The

-poor precious!  If it wasn't for the conductor and

-that bald-headed man who's sure we're not

-married, because I put my feet on the seat, and wear

-red stockings--I'd kiss you right now, and give

-you a gurgle hug!"

-

-"There are lots like me," Adair went on with

-unaffected seriousness, "but, Phyllis, there is only

-one of you.  I suppose people are born like that

-sometimes--just one of them--and there aren't

-any more.--When we get round to it, we must

-have children; you mustn't be allowed to die and

-disappear; it wouldn't be right by the world."

-

-Phyllis wrote down: "Pair tea-cups and saucers,

-thirty cents," and announced that in the meanwhile

-the world would have to wait, as one couldn't

-do everything at once.  She added a duster to the

-list and a pie-pan, while a smile hovered at the

-corners of her lips.  It impelled her to press her

-knee against Adair's, and whisper something so

-sparklingly improper that he blushed.  Then she

-returned to housekeeping considerations with a

-pleased and saucy air, never so happy as when she

-had embarrassed him.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Accommodation for dormice, although plentiful,

-left much to be desired, except for dormice fond

-of grubbiness, gloom, and ill-smelling passages and

-halls.  For dormice willing to live on

-One-hundred-and-jump-off-the-earth Street there was light

-and air, and reasonably sized rooms, and even

-skimpy glimpses of the Hudson.  But Cyril wished

-to be near the theater district and the Thespian

-Club of which he was a member, and this restricted

-their choice to below Fifty-ninth Street.  Heavens,

-what innumerable janitors they raised from the

-depths, what miles and miles of stairs they climbed,

-what desperate moments of indecision they endured,

-as, utterly spent, the precious deposit was nearly

-tempted from their pockets!

-

-At last, however, at the tail of the most offensive

-little man in New York, whose questions included

-the likelihood or not of an increase in the family,

-and who had to be specifically assured that his

-new tenants meditated starting neither a bagnio nor

-a sweatshop, nor were going to teach music, or keep

-naphtha on the premises--at the tail of this

-personage, who at every step remembered some fresh

-prohibition, and some fresh possibility, the ideal was

-reached on the seventh floor of a house between

-Second and Third Avenue.  It was a box of a

-place--sitting-room, bedroom, kitchen and bath--but

-shiny new, and with every window open to the sun,

-and Fifty-eighth Street to look out on instead of

-some dismal rear.  It was taken at twenty-one

-dollars a month; their trunks followed them in; and

-they camped out their second night in New York

-on the bare boards of their new home.

-

-With all our talk of the value of money very

-few of us have any conception of it.  How many at

-least could believe that a small apartment in New

-York could be furnished, and prettily furnished, for

-a hundred and fifty dollars?  On a doll-baby scale,

-of course, with pictures taken from the ten cent

-weeklies, and framed in blue creton and the same

-invaluable material accomplishing wonders over

-packing cases, improvised into wash-stands, bureaus

-and seats.  Phyllis sent Adair off to the club, and

-set to work alone.  She did not want him to see

-her dirty, tousled, and wearing an old dressing-gown

-of his in that chaos of disorder; though she

-presented a sweeter figure than she knew on her

-knees beside the pail, and scrubbing the floor like

-a little stage soubrette, or hammering creton with

-her mouth full of tacks and an inspired expression

-that would have befitted a Madonna.  She was too

-girlish, too young, for anything to harm her beauty,

-and so gay and charming that all who came fell

-under her spell.  Gawky messengers helped to move

-boxes, nail down matting, and elucidate the

-mysteries of setting up a bed.  The janitor's wife, a

-faded German woman with gentle eyes and a soft

-voice, and all the European's respect for caste,

-insisted on joining in; and when, Phyllis, with

-difficulty and some shame, managed to explain she was

-unable to pay for such services, the creature kissed

-her hand, and redoubled her exertions.  Beauty is

-a power everywhere, and if the poor can not pay

-its toll in compliments, they can wash windows,

-clean up litter, and carry an offering of frankfurters

-and sauerkraut up six flights of stairs; and with

-many an "*Ach*" and "*lieber Gott*" urge the little

-"high-born" to rest and eat.

-

-And so amid kindliness and good will, the tiny

-apartment was got into shape, while the dark wild

-days without turned to snow, and the frosted panes

-showed nothing through but white and desolation.

-The dormice lay snug in their nest, and though

-their money ebbed, and the cupboard was next to

-bare, and the household work at times weighed

-hardly on unaccustomed, slender shoulders, perhaps

-they were too near Heaven to complain.

-

-Adair had never been a very respectable nor

-popular member of the Thespian Club, that influential

-organization from which the New York stage is so

-largely recruited; and the return of the lost sheep

-was not accompanied by any particular enthusiasm.

-But Adair was too noticeable a man, and his talent

-too well remembered for his presence not to cause

-some stir, and soon there was comment on his

-extraordinary change for the better.  He was

-certainly no longer the loud, swaggering, over-dressed

-Adair of the old days, with the dubious geniality,

-and the restless eyes.  He did not drink; he seemed

-to have lost his surly streak; in many other ways

-more indefinite he had softened and improved.  The

-Thespians, who were nothing if not good-natured

-and generous, very willingly let bygones be

-bygones, and some of the more important began to

-suggest his name to managers.

-

-But the managers were made of sterner stuff than

-the actors and playwrights; they had longer memories,

-and skins that still smarted.  They brightened

-at the name of Adair for the unexpected pleasure

-it gave them to say "No."  Each had his special

-wrong to avenge, each his emphatic and passionate

-denunciation of a man they abominated.  "I've

-only two rules in running my theaters," said

-Mr. Fielman.  "The first is to give the public the best

-that money can buy; the second, never to engage

-Mr. Cyril Adair!"--Mr. Paw went further: "My

-poy, they say in our peeziness that the box-office

-talks, but if it said Adair all day and all night, I'd

-sooner get out and sell shoe-laces on the street than

-see his damn sneering face in any broduction of

-mine!"  Niedringer was no more encouraging,

-and the Fordingham Brothers were curt and profane.

-

-But the New York theatrical world is a big one;

-and these giants, while of enormous importance, do

-not rule all the roost.  There are always new

-producers bobbing up; stars themselves make

-ventures into management and branch out; many

-others, independent on a smaller scale, choose the

-companies that support them.  Then there are the

-second class houses, the vaudeville houses, the stock

-companies--all requiring an army of professional

-people.  Then, too, hardly a season passes without

-several incoming actors from some woolly, wild,

-unheard-of region, arriving, full of eagerness to add

-Broadway laurels to brows already crowned in

-Teepee City or Nuggetville, Nevada.  Add to these,

-imported English companies with the lesser parts

-often unfilled, and "angels," both male and female,

-with barrels of money for some stagestruck pet,

-who, desirous of a short cut to greatness, insists

-on beginning (and usually ending) at the top;--and

-you will have some small conception of what

-New York is--theatrically.

-

-Adair did not despair.  Not only was the

-atmosphere of the Thespian Club too redolent of

-success for that, but he was sustained besides by a

-couple of small offers which he received for the

-"road."  Determined though he was to appear on

-Broadway, it was good for his courage and

-perseverence to have these engagements to refuse.

-They served to take the edge off the rebuffs he

-constantly experienced, and gave him something not

-altogether mournful to reflect on as he waited

-interminable hours in agents' and managers'

-anterooms.  Not but what there were times when it

-was almost unendurable.  Rejection, with an actor,

-carries with it a personal mortification; and his air

-of fashion, his nosegay, his smartly folded overcoat,

-his affected jauntiness--all intensify by their

-contrast the bitterness of his lot.  He slinks off with

-pitiful bravado, and eyes suspiciously bright, to pull

-himself together for another attempt at another

-place, as dispirited a figure as any to be seen under

-heaven.

-

-While Adair, with an effort as clumsy as it was

-touching, strove to hide his disappointment from

-his wife, and put by in their little home a steadily

-deepening sense of failure--she, on her side, was

-keeping him in ignorance of a matter that troubled

-her exceedingly.  Her father had begun to write

-to her, but in such a way that a reconciliation,

-instead of becoming nearer, seemed more remote and

-impossible than ever.  With all his tenderness and

-longing, and almost pathetic appeal "to be friends

-again," he was unable to resist taking flings at

-Adair.  His hatred for the man came out in

-implications and covert allusions Phyllis could not

-forgive.  Ostensibly holding out the olive branch,

-his letters served instead to heighten the estrangement,

-for behind everything was his conviction it

-was simply her pride that kept them apart; that

-having made a mess of her life, and committed an

-irreparable folly, she was defiantly accepting the

-misery she had brought down upon herself.  That

-she was insanely happy--that she adored her

-husband--that neither poverty nor hardship counted a

-jot in her decision--all these to Mr. Ladd were

-incredibilities.--Yet the same story dressed up for

-him on the stage or in a book, would have won his

-sympathy, and reached his heart.--Of such

-inconsistencies are we made, and the poor puppets are

-cried over when flesh and blood is denied.

-

-Of course, Phyllis was abnormally sensitive.

-Had her husband secured a good engagement, and

-some recognition she would have been in a more

-receptive mind to receive her father's advances.

-But Adair's unspoken anxiety, their diminishing

-money, their meager meals and the need that they

-had to take account of every penny--here were so

-many reasons to accentuate her critical faculties.--And

-this to be held as a proof that she had been

-"dragged down" was altogether too much.  At

-first, full of eagerness and over many a

-closely-written page she had tried to explain matters to

-her father; but his disbelief was chilling, and from

-hopelessness her feelings gradually changed to

-anger.  For a couple of weeks she had kept the

-thousand-dollar check he had sent her, hoping that

-he would so far relent toward Adair that she might

-accept it without disloyalty.  Then, chagrined, she

-had returned it, though her extremity was bitter, and

-the tears dripped over the letter that bore it back.

-No reconciliation was possible that did not include

-her husband, or that was offered to him contemptuously

-and grudgingly.  If this were impossible she

-begged her father to write no more, and spare her

-further suffering.  His answer was as unreasonable

-as the others, and he contrived to wound even while

-he thought he was conceding everything.

-

-His next letter she sent back unopened, and also

-the one after that.  Then there were no more, and

-the postman's whistle presaged nothing after that

-but a post card from Tommy.  These, with pictures

-of a local court house, or a new Masonic building,

-or some bald park, were almost daily visitors.  But

-they spoke of affection and remembrance, and to a

-sad heart were not without their comfort.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Early one afternoon the sound of the key in the

-lock warned her that Adair had unexpectedly

-returned.  His face announced his good news before

-he could so much as utter a word, and then the

-facts came out in a panting, breathless torrent.

-Shamus O'Dowd--she knew Shamus O'Dowd,

-the Irish comedian?--No?--What, never heard

-of Shamus O'Dowd?--Well, anyway, O'Dowd

-was at the Herald Square--big business--seats

-selling three weeks in advance--*A Broth of a Boy*,

-you know--and the fellow who was playing

-Captain Carleton had dropped out, and the

-understudy wasn't satisfactory--and--and--it was

-seventy-five dollars a week--and here were the

-lines--and you could have knocked him over with

-a feather when O'Dowd came right up to him at

-the club, and fixed it up in five minutes, and they

-had run through a rehearsal to give him a notion

-of the business, and it was a damned good character

-part, and--then, I wonder if that twenty-one

-dollar apartment had ever seen the like--with Phyllis

-sitting in Booful's lap, and her arms tight around

-his neck, and talking two to his one, all rapture and

-exclamations as though he had done something

-extraordinary instead of merely getting a job; and

-Booful, no less proud and foolish and excited felt,

-too, he had done something extraordinary, holding

-to the lines as though they were a patent of

-nobility, and crazy to begin the study of them; and

-describing the play with such humor and absurdity

-that his little wife thought she had never heard

-anything so funny in her life, her teeth shining

-as she laughed and laughed--especially at

-O'Dowd, who was described as fifty, with a

-bull-neck, and ever too much of him in front and

-behind, with a very short coat, and bounding fat

-legs, and such a Broth of a Boy that he was ready

-to fight or dance or sing or make love at the drop

-of a hat, and generally to caper from sheer

-exuberance of Irish youth.--Then Booful turned

-suddenly serious, and got up, and said that on no, no

-account was he to be disturbed, and began to pace

-like a lion up and down the doll-baby sitting-room,

-mumbling his part to himself with a far-away

-expression, and an occasional frown and swear as he

-missed a word; while Phyllis, pretending to sew,

-squeezed herself into a corner, and made as though

-she was not watching him, which she did in timid

-little peeps, thinking how handsome he was and

-noble and manly and splendid, with such returning

-recollections of his devotion, and gentleness, and

-simple, unrepining courage in the hard days now

-fast finishing, that she could have swooned from

-very tenderness.

-

-*A Broth of a Boy* was a typical Irish drama.

-The central figure was a rollicking imbecile, with a

-tuneful voice and the customary shillelah, who foils

-the wicked mortgager, chucks colleens under the

-chin, does a hair-raising leap over a waterfall, and

-is altogether so Brothy and gay that no one can

-resist him.  The usual British officer, condemned

-to carry out an unpalatable order, and falling under

-the spell of a pair of saucy Irish eyes, is found

-not to be half so bad a fellow as we had anticipated;

-and though a good deal of a booby, and the target

-for sarcasms that he is too obtusely English to

-perceive, gradually wins the toleration and even the

-affection of the gallery.  In real life he would

-probably have been court-martialed for his arrant

-disregard of instructions, nor would a bare-legged

-milk-maid have been considered quite the prize the

-dramatist deemed her.--But one mustn't criticize

-this dreamy region too harshly.  That great baby,

-the public, loves it,--and in the theater-world there

-is plenty of room for this grotesque Ireland, and

-always will be; and baby's patronage feeds many

-worthy and deserving people, who otherwise might

-have not a little trouble of it to live.

-

-Yes, let us be lenient toward the Irish drama.

-It brought seventy-five dollars a week to that little

-apartment high up in East Fifty-eighth Street, and

-hope and courage to hearts that were beginning to

-falter.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XXI`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XXI

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-In the whole house that night of Adair's return

-to Broadway there was probably but one

-person in front who was even aware that the

-bill had been changed.  That rapt little spectator

-waited with her heart in her mouth for the actor's

-appearance, and thrilled herself with fairy tales

-while the play ponderously opened, and took its

-course.  Adair would be recognized; there would

-be a wild demonstration of welcome; cheers,

-applause, yes, an ovation, with people standing up,

-and the gallery in an uproar!--It was a dream, of

-course, a phantasy, for her head was too squarely

-set on her shoulders to count on anything of the

-sort, but nevertheless it exhilarated her enough to

-make the reality doubly, trebly disappointing.

-

-His entrance was unheralded by a single

-handclap, O'Dowd having just retired amid thunders,

-with part of the audience still insistently humming

-the refrain of *Sweet Kitty O'Rourke*, (words by

-Stevowsky; music by Cohen).  Adair's first few

-lines were altogether lost in consequence, the

-scene beginning in vehement pantomime, and the

-house only gradually, and with extreme unwillingness,

-resigning itself to the exit of the star.  It

-must be said they had some right to regret him.

-Adair was anxious and forced, and so desperately

-in earnest to be funny that he suggested a

-marionette.  Phyllis' surprise turned to dismay, and

-dismay to an inexpressible pain.  That he won many

-a boorish laugh only heightened her misery.  It

-was worse than bad, it was common, and she could

-have bent down and cried in very shame.  But in

-the throes of her despair she was watchful, and her

-pretty brows corrugated with the intensity of her

-attention.  Poor though the part was, surely it

-could be done better, oh, so much better; and if

-only she dared--!  An infinite compassion dimmed

-her eyes, an infinite pity, for was it not for her he

-had stooped to this vile clowning, debasing himself,

-blowing out his cheeks like a turkey-gobbler, feverishly

-catching at every trick to get a grin or a titter?

-All this sacrifice of dignity, manhood and self-respect

-to keep the poor little pot boiling on Fifty-eighth Street?

-

-It was terrible to sit through the play, and to

-realize with more and more conviction that this

-sacrifice was unnecessary--that the rôle,

-straightforwardly acted, and the comic-policeman side of

-it ignored, might be made into something worth

-doing--not very much worth doing of course--but

-still redeemed from utter banality.  But Phyllis

-knew how her husband bristled at the least touch

-of criticism.  Ordinarily so loving and indulgent, a

-single word of disapprobation could set him off like

-an hysterical woman; before now she had

-inadvertently raised such storms, and looked back on

-them with terror.  She asked herself what she was

-to do, and could find no answer.  Everything in

-her revolted from lying to him, and yet she would

-be forced to.  It was not cowardice, but the

-disinclination of seeing him suffer, and the dread of

-incurring the harshness and anger of the man she

-idolized.  Enmity in his eyes seemed to strike her

-to the ground; her heart stopped beating; something

-seemed to die within her.--No, at any cost, she

-must lie, lie, lie.

-

-.. _`284`:

-

-She waited for him at the stage-door, a slight

-dejected figure under the gaslights, and conscious

-for the first time that her clothes were shabby, and

-that her gloves were old and worn.  O'Dowd's

-carriage stood by, and she envied the coachman his

-warm fur collar, and with it came the thought of

-all she had given up to marry Adair.  This put

-her in better spirits, for she was pleased with

-everything that enhanced her love, and gave it an unusual

-and romantic quality--so that for a moment she

-seemed less cold, less sad, and a delicious

-heroine-feeling enshrouded her.  Had it not been for the

-fear of what was to come she would have been

-altogether happy.  But a pang of apprehension shot

-through her, and all the pretty fancies engendered

-by the fur collar of a sudden disappeared.--She

-was again standing on the wintry street, tired,

-frightened, and disheartened.

-

-Adair emerged in a jubilant humor, and squeezed

-her arm as he passed his own through hers, and

-moved in the direction of the cars.  Boisterous and

-gay, he was in no mood to notice Phyllis'

-constraint, and took her approval for granted as he

-overflowed with talk.  It was a great relief to her

-to remain silent, and nestle close to all that bigness

-and confidence, and be borne along by that strong

-arm.  All her doubts and fears were lost in an

-unreasoning gladness, and what did anything

-matter but love?

-

-Meanwhile the genial tide of Adair's discourse

-continued without intermission.--O'Dowd, who

-was a prince of good fellows, had patted him on

-the back.  Eddie Phelps was up in the air, too, and

-said he had simply walked away from the other

-man--and oh, how good it was to be in a theater

-again!  It was a piffling part, but after all it was

-something to have made the best of it, to have

-shown them what could be done in it by a first

-class man.  That was the beauty of the stage--a

-real actor could take a janitor or an organ-grinder

-and create a lot out of nothing.  Did she know

-that all that business in the second act was his?--Yes,

-positively--every bit of it his, and no wonder

-O'Dowd hugged him at the wings, and said it was

-great--yes, just like that--before everybody!

-You see, it had pulled up the whole thing where it

-had used to drag, giving it zip and go.  Eddie

-Phelps said that the other fellow had never got a

-hand there.  He had done better than that, hadn't

-he?  And if it hadn't been such a damned feeder

-for the star--oh, well, success was success, if it

-were only an inch high!

-

-In this strain of self-laudation, Adair boarded

-a car, and praised himself all the way home.

-Throughout he took Phyllis' concurrence for

-granted, and his exuberance was unclouded by the

-least suspicion of the truth.  He had half finished

-his supper when with that instinct which was one

-of the most unexpected endowments of his

-character, he all at once perceived something to be

-amiss.  It wasn't Phyllis' fault; she had given not

-a hint of dissatisfaction; nothing was further from

-her thoughts than to mar that night.

-

-But when he laid down his knife and fork, and

-stared at her across the table she knew in an instant

-what was coming.

-

-"My God, Phyllis," he exclaimed, "it is not

-possible you--you didn't like it?"

-

-.. _`It is not possible you--you didn't like it?--Page 287`:

-

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-   :alt: It is not possible you--you didn't like it?--Page 287

-

-   It is not possible you--you didn't like it?--Page 287

-

-She would have given worlds for the lie that

-would not come; her eyes shrank from his; the

-sincerity and conviction of his tone made deceit

-impossible.  It was almost in a whisper that she

-answered: "Oh, Cyril, Cyril,--I'm afraid I didn't."

-

-He pushed away his plate and got up; he could

-not suffer such a mortification sitting; the flat

-itself seemed too small to hold his sudden shame,

-his agitation, the staggering shock of what seemed

-to him his wife's disloyalty.

-

-"What was the matter with it?" he demanded

-passionately.  "What was it you did not like?--No,

-no, you needn't try to wriggle out of it; you've

-said too much to stop now; you've as good as told

-me it was damned bad, and I want to know why.--The

-words don't matter; it isn't a question of

-how you put it, nor how much I mind being

-knocked by the one person on earth--!  My God,

-Phyllis, what do you mean by saying I was bad?"

-

-She was terrified.  No culprit in the dock ever

-trembled more guiltily, or faced a brow-beating

-prosecutor with so stricken a look.  Her husband's

-bitter and contemptuous tone cut her like a lash.

-But it was too late now to make excuses, to palliate

-the offense.  There was nothing for it but to go

-on--to justify herself--and the better she could do

-it the more she would wound him!  And all this

-on a night that surely ought to have been their

-happiest.

-

-"You made the captain too--too common,"

-she stammered.  "He is supposed to be a high-bred,

-aristocratic man--stupid, of course--but a

-gentleman through and through.  In real life--"

-

-"Oh, real life!" he interrupted roughly, "that's

-where all you ignorant, criticizing people go wrong.

-He has nothing to do with real life--he's a

-preposterous stage figure, a convention.  I have to take

-what I'm given; I'm not the dramatist; I can't

-write new lines for him, can I?  My business is to

-hide the strings that pull his arms and legs, and

-make him possible--and by George, I did it!"

-

-"But Cyril, dearest, listen--even when you first

-come on you're not polite enough, not chivalrous

-enough.  You almost burst out laughing at--"

-

-"That's to give contrast to him afterwards."

-

-"But you can do that, and still keep him a gen--I

-mean nice, and--"

-

-This was all she was allowed to say.  Adair

-towered over her, convulsed, shaking, his voice hardly

-governable as he stormed and raged.  It was the

-best thing he had ever done; it was perfect; there

-was fifteen years of stage experience in that one

-creation.  It was awful that it should all go for

-nothing; it shook his nerve; it shook his

-confidence in himself; he hardly knew how he could go

-on playing the part.  He wouldn't, he'd throw it

-up; he warned her to be more careful next time, or

-as an actor he would be done for.  It wasn't that

-he was afraid of criticism--intelligent criticism--he

-welcomed intelligent criticism--the criticism of

-those who knew the stage--helpful criticism.

-But to club a man in this ignorant, crass way was

-simply to murder him.  How could he ever bear

-to let her see him again in anything?  He was

-sensitive; he was cruelly sensitive; it was because

-he had temperament; and if he couldn't please the

-person he liked he had no courage or heart left,

-even if he set the whole house crazy.  Here was

-one of the best things he had ever done, killed for

-ever--and it was she who had killed it!  It was

-the penalty of loving her that he could not go on

-without her approval; he knew she was wrong; in

-any one else he would have dismissed it with a shrug,

-and forgotten it the next minute; yet with her--!

-Perhaps this sounds more ignominious than it

-was.  To Phyllis at least there was a great pathos

-in the exasperated outburst that was very far from

-being due to vanity alone.  The revelation of her

-husband's weakness, of his utter dependence on her

-good opinion, atoned not a little for the violent

-things he said.  It enlarged her understanding of

-the childishness that lies so close beneath the

-artist-nature--of its swift extremes of feeling--and

-showed her, too, the amazing intensity that Adair

-put even into a small rôle, and taught her afresh

-what a life and death matter the stage was to him.

-His frenzy, therefore, instead of rousing her

-resentment, and worse still her scorn and anger,

-rather quickened within her a tragic pity.  His

-burning face, his dilating eyes, his quivering

-twitching mouth--all the evidences of an uncontrollable

-mortification--brought forth instead that womanly

-feeling, so rich in generosity and indulgence, that

-would sacrifice everything for the one it loved.

-

-To prove that she was right seemed to her of

-much less importance just then than to smooth

-down that wild, distraught man-creature who

-belonged to her.  With love in peril all other

-considerations were swept away.  No pride stood

-between, no sense of injustice; love was too precious

-for such pettinesses to interfere.--Then with what

-piteous artifices she began to eat her words!  How

-adroitly did she argue so that her surrender should

-not be too apparent, giving way by such fine

-gradations that Adair hardly suspected the imposture.

-How contritely she confessed herself in the wrong,

-her cringing little heart all submission, her whole

-young body eager to atone her fault.--The wild,

-distraught man-creature was by degrees coaxed

-back to tameness and sanity; the thunders subsided;

-with kisses and caresses he was even prevailed upon

-to resume his place at table, where, lecturing her

-masterfully as he ate, though with a steadily

-lessening severity, dormice peace was at length restored.

-By the time Phyllis had brought him his slippers,

-lit his cigar, and snuggled herself against his knees,

-like a sweet little Circassian who had disturbed her

-Bashaw, and had been graciously forgiven by that

-dearest and best of men, Adair mellowed sufficiently

-to feel some slight self-reproach.  He apologized

-for having got so worked up; fondled her glossy

-hair; called her his darling little stupid whom he

-loved so well he couldn't endure her to find fault

-with him.  Between whiffs, mellowing even more,

-he admitted that he might have been slightly

-unreasonable, even unkind, but put it all down to his

-disappointment at failing to please her.  "I worked

-so hard," he said.  "I just fell over myself to make

-them laugh.  I--I had to think of the seventy-five,

-you know, and holding down the job; and as

-the others liked it, I--I thought you would.  My

-sweetheart girl must try and make some allowances.

-I couldn't help feeling cross and nervous

-and all worked up--and, and, it's awful to fail,

-Phyllis."

-

-She, at this, the naughty little hypocrite, would

-have eaten more humble pie; would have protested

-afresh that it was only one tiny-winy thing she had

-objected to--though even on that she wasn't half

-as sure as she had been.  But Adair cut her short.

-In his softened humor he was prepared to concede

-something to her criticism; there was a speck of

-truth in what she had said, however much it had

-upset him; he was going to pull up the part a bit;

-he was--

-

-Phyllis had sprung up, and darted into the bedroom,

-with so sparkling a smile, and with such an

-air of animation and mystery that Adair hardly

-knew what to make of it all.  But he was accustomed

-to her girlish escapades, and lay back with

-his cigar, listening to bureau-drawers being hastily

-opened and shut, and awaiting developments with

-amused anticipation.  She could be such a little

-devil when the fancy seized her, and rejoiced in

-the most shocking exhibitions for his private

-delectation.  He was unprepared, however, for her to

-bound out in a suit of his own, the sleeves and

-trousers rolled up, and her hair half-hidden

-beneath a jaunty cap.  She had made herself up for

-Captain Carleton, and the moment she opened her

-mouth Adair recognized the fine parody of himself

-in the rôle.  The words she had pat, her

-retentive memory having caught and retained them

-during his laborious "study"; and while she was less

-sure of the imaginary milk-maid, she paraphrased

-the latter's lines with sufficient accuracy to keep her

-cues straight.  She knew she was playing with

-fire; her face was a picture of mingled roguishness

-and terror, yet she was impelled by a headlong

-daring that was irresistible.

-

-She flung herself into the scene with mad

-abandonment, mimicking his voice, his gestures, his

-laugh, the very way he leaned against the

-pasteboard gate--a whirlwind little figure, dancing

-crazily on the egg-shells of his vanity.  It was the

-cleverest, wickedest, most unsparing travesty of

-his whole performance, carried through with

-inordinate zest and mischief, and heightened by a slim

-young beauty that had never seemed to him more

-alluring.  Her little feet had never looked so small

-as with the coarse trousers flapping about her

-ankles; the audacious curves above intensified her sex;

-while the partly opened coat displayed the ribbons

-and lace of her night-dress beneath--the whole a

-vision of captivating girlhood.

-

-Adair at first made no sign at all except to

-stare at her in a sort of stupefaction.  His face

-grew so dark that she felt shivers running down

-her back, and for a moment she wondered if she

-had not mortally offended him.  The first smile

-she wooed from him set her pulses dancing with

-relief.  Yes, he was smiling, he was laughing, he was

-clapping his hands; and then, oh, the joy of it,

-he was bursting out with great, deep "Ha, ha's"

-of delight!  Thus encouraged, she redoubled her

-exertions; she outdid herself; she was in the second

-scene now, and was tearing it to pieces like a puppy

-with a rag-doll, panting with excitement and

-success, and rapturous with victory.  Adair jumped

-up, and in a paroxysm of admiration, passion,

-exultation and self-reproach, ran and crushed her in

-his arms.  Phyllis felt the filmy lace-stuff rip

-asunder, and his lips seeking her flesh, while all

-incoherent he breathed out that he loved her, loved

-her, loved her, and that she was right; yes, he

-had been playing it all wrong; never would he go

-against her judgment again, and then and there

-took back every word he had said!  He was just

-a vain, silly, conceited, swollen-up jackass, not even

-worth her finger-tip; and he couldn't forgive

-himself for the way he had treated her; and the only

-thing he could think of doing to show how badly

-he felt was to plump down and kiss her little

-slippers, which he forthwith did with a humility that

-would have been more impressive had there been

-a less frantic flurry of kicks and protests.

-

-Thus the evening that had begun so ill ended in

-tenderness and profound accord.  The very last

-thing Mr. Dormouse murmured as he lay locked

-in his wife's arms was that she was the cleverest

-little actress in the world, and pretty enough to

-eat, and a million times too good for him--which

-on the whole was the truest thing Dormouse

-had said for a long while, and showed that

-his ideas were improving.  Little though he knew

-it he was improving in every way, and could he

-have set himself back six months he would have

-been astounded at the contrast.  Women make men

-in other senses than the physical, and this robust

-lump of egoism, selfishness, ignorance and conceit

-was being slowly and unconsciously transformed.

-Something of Phyllis was passing into him, and in

-the magic of that soul-infiltration the grosser side of

-him had begun to crumble.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XXII`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XXII

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-It is disappointing to chronicle that the altered

-and improved rendering of the English

-captain passed almost unnoticed.  Mr. Kemmel,

-O'Dowd's right-hand man, indeed had objected to

-the change; and failing to bully Adair into submission

-had carried the affair up to the star.  But that

-comedian, with a kindness that bordered on a

-sublime indifference, refused to interfere.  "Hell, it

-don't matter how he plays it as long as he gets the

-words over," was his sage comment; and a wave

-of a large, fat hand dismissed the subject for ever.

-O'Dowd had his own private reasons for wishing

-to stay on good terms with Adair, which he was

-too regal, if not too cautious, to pass on at that

-moment to Mr. Kemmel.  O'Dowd, being star,

-manager, and half-author of the piece was minting

-money under all three heads, and his concern for

-the box-office was proportionately great--so great

-that he could consider the choice of an understudy

-without irritation, and even accept a man who

-might "draw."

-

-On first being commanded to understudy his principal,

-Adair had accepted the task much in the spirit

-of Mary Ann, when she is told: "Oh, I forgot to

-say you must do the washing, too!"  It was a

-drudgery and a bore that he would have been well

-content to avoid, for one look at O'Dowd's red

-face and vigorous frame convinced him of the

-remoteness of the contingency for which he was to

-fit himself.  He set no hopes in that direction, and

-it came to him as a real surprise, a couple of weeks

-after he was engaged, to be asked into the office

-and told of a new contract he was to sign.

-

-"'The Guv'nor ain't satisfied with that fourth

-clause," said Mr. Kemmel.  "He says it ain't

-plain--hey, there, don't let Phelps go, I want him and

-Klein for witnesses."

-

-"Where isn't it plain?" demanded Adair, who

-remembered the document as one of unusual rigor,

-without even the usual two weeks' notice.  "Do

-you wish to add penal servitude to my other

-fifty-seven penalties?"

-

-Mr. Kemmel did not deign to smile.  He was a

-pale, bald Jew of about thirty-six, with a peculiarly

-bleak way of addressing actors.

-

-"No," he answered, "we want to clear up the

-understudy part of it."

-

-"Understudy part of it?  What do you mean?"

-

-"Well, if you went on for five or six weeks,

-taking the Guv'nor's place every night and

-matinée--you might make out like it was a new

-engagement--and try to stick us."

-

-Adair was too mystified to take offense.

-

-"Stick you?" he repeated.

-

-"Yes, sue us afterwards for three or four times

-the salary."--Mr. Kemmel sighed, and looked

-upward, as though reflecting on man's inhumanity to

-man.  "In this business one has to be so careful,"

-he added, as impersonally as though he were

-speaking to a stone pillar, "so careful--well, as I was

-saying, here we have iron-claded it, and you are to

-sign where it is penciled, and return the old

-contract to-morrow."

-

-The typewritten words swam a little as Adair

-gazed at them; he was afraid of being tricked; he

-wanted to make sure that the precious seventy-five

-a week had not been tampered with.  But there it

-was, all right, along with the new proviso.  It was

-difficult to believe that this last amounted to

-anything, for O'Dowd's appearance precluded the least

-idea of illness.  The man was as strong as a bull,

-with a voice that shook your ear-drums, and the

-shoulders of a negro coal-heaver.  He was offensively

-healthy, and so limited in any interest but

-the theater that he moped visibly of a Sunday.

-One might as well understudy the Metropolitan

-Museum on the chance of its taking a night off.

-Adair laughed as he signed the new contract, and

-hardly thought of the matter for a day or two

-afterwards.

-

-It was Kemmel who again brought it home to him.

-

-"I'm keeping the orchestra for you to run over

-the Guv'nor's songs again with them," he said.

-"You sing them good enough, but the leader says

-you crowd the overture, and sometimes get ahead

-of him."

-

-There are no people in the world so unmurmuring

-as actors; they will rehearse till their voices

-crack and their legs drop off, and all this, too often,

-under volleys of insults and reproaches.  Adair

-had played two performances that day, and was

-worn out and hungry; yet it never occurred to him

-to make any objection to such an unexpected order.

-The poor, weary orchestra was there, as hungry

-and worn out as he, but as willing as every one

-connected with the stage seems always to be; they

-scraped and tootled and drummed and bassooned

-for two mortal hours, from a quarter past eleven

-till after one A.M., while Adair sang Irish melodies

-to the darkened house.  O'Dowd himself, in a

-stage-box, was the solitary though far from silent

-spectator.  Cigar in mouth, profane, morose and

-savagely critical, he bellowed furiously from his

-dark crimson cave.

-

-"No, no, no, *no*!  Hell's bells, do that again!

-At the second verse there now!  For God's sake,

-Mr. Glauber, emphasize the key-note, boom it out

-on that first cornet so he can't miss it, and lam it

-in again on the minor.  The minor!  *The minor*,

-damn it!  And, oh Lord, Adair, call that a brogue?

-Hell's bells, it's because you're in such a

-hurry--Glauber will wait for you--damn it, give it again,

-let it stick to your teeth--like this: 'Of owl the

-ma-a-a-a-ids of swate Kilda-a-a-a-rrr--'"

-

-Adair had an unusually tuneful voice, and the

-middle register of his rather high baritone was full

-of warmth and charm.  These catchy melodies

-appealed to him, and the sentiment was of a

-downright, popular kind.  One rollicked the humor and

-quavered the pathos, and either put in brogue or

-didn't as one remembered or forgot it.  As a

-matter of fact--except for the brogue--he did the

-songs more justice than the great O'Dowd himself,

-and sang them more sweetly and appealingly.  He

-had no conception of it that night, however, as he

-was hectored and bullied without cessation until his

-eyes smarted, and his bewildered head was whirling.

-He had a whipped feeling as he went off, and

-a corroding sense of defeat and failure.  It was

-idiotic to expect him to sing, and now that he had

-been tested and found wanting he hoped the silly

-goats would leave him alone.

-

-He turned as he was putting on his overcoat in

-the wings, and saw that one of the silly goats had

-followed him.  It was Mr. Kemmel, more bleared

-and bleak than ever, and evidently with something

-disagreeable to say.

-

-"Oh, Adair," he exclaimed in a low voice, "hold

-on a minute, I want to talk to you.  I've called a

-full rehearsal for to-morrow at nine o'clock,

-orchestra and all--for you'll have to go on in the

-Guv'nor's place to-morrow night!"

-

-"I go on?--*I*?"  Adair was thunderstruck.

-"What do you mean, Kemmel?"

-

-"Just that."

-

-"But he's as well as I am."

-

-"The climate ain't agreeing with him, hee,

-hee!"--Kemmel's cackle was as cold as the draft off

-an iceberg.

-

-"The climate?"

-

-"New York state.  He's got to get right out

-to-night, and that with us playing a run, and with

-eight weeks of our lease unexpired.  If it weren't

-for the lease, and my Lord, the forfeit to Boaz and

-Gotlieb, he'd jump us out with him, run or no run.

-Ain't it awful, Mabel!"

-

-"But Kemmel, what's the matter?"

-

-"Well, it's like this, Adair.  He and Julia

-Garrett were divorced here two years ago, and the

-dime museum freaks who tried it allowed her to

-marry again, and forbade him.  They do things

-like that in New York, and if you kick it's

-contempt of court!  The next day he married our

-Mrs. O----, Claudia Kirkwood at Chicago.  See?

-There's nothing they can't forget here in two years,

-and so we came back, feeling pretty safe--and

-would have been, too, if number one hadn't got

-tired of the man who was keeping her in London,

-and rushed over here with her little hatchet.  We've

-been trying to buy it, but it wasn't for sale--at

-least not at any figure we could pay--so we made

-a bluff offer of eight thousand, and reserved our

-Pullman!"

-

-"Are you going to try to keep the run here?"

-

-"*You* are!"

-

-"And if I can't--if I don't draw?"

-

-"Then we'll close."

-

-"I wonder you didn't get Anderson Bailey or

-Henry Millard, or that man who has just left

-Blanche Mortimer--what's his name?"

-

-"Costs too much--you're cheap."

-

-Then to take the edge off this remark, he added:

-

-"Say, that's not a knock; we wouldn't take them,

-anyway; I'm not throwing any bouquets, Adair,

-but you are damned good in it, really damned

-good--and are exactly what we want.  And don't you

-feel sore about the money, either.  We are paying

-you seventy-five salary, and four hundred and

-twenty-five worth of chance to make a big hit.  You

-wish to get on, don't you?  Well, you may be a

-made man in eight weeks.  We're taking a gamble,

-and so must you.  What if you are a holy frost?

-Don't go around belly-aching for money, but see

-if you can't win out.  We believe you can; we are

-sure you can; go ahead!"

-

-Praise, opportunity, the belief of others in

-you--how softening they are!  Kemmel, the niggardly,

-the fault-finding, the lean, mean jackal of

-the Irish lion, suddenly took on a new hue.  Adair

-found himself shaking his hand.  What a good

-chap Kemmel was, after all!  He shook his hand

-cordially, effusively, all former bitterness forgotten

-in an intoxication of joy.  Kemmel melted too, under

-that irresistible spell; had a spasm of expansiveness

-and indiscretion; went so far as to say, in a

-darkling, confidential manner, that Adair had sung

-"all round" the boss.

-

-"That's why I went for you like I did and balled

-you up now and then," he confided.  "It wouldn't

-do to have him think *that*, you know.  He's funny,

-like all of them, and while two-thirds of him is

-box-office, the other third is temperament--and

-my, it don't do to jar it!"

-

-Phyllis had been sent home alone long before

-this, and Adair found her sound asleep in bed.  A

-considerate husband would have let her lie

-undisturbed, and would have kept his great news till the

-morning.  But Adair had no more compunction in

-waking her up than if she had been a pet puppy;

-and rolled her over, and tumbled her about almost

-as roughly, and with the same clenched-teeth zest

-in her drowsiness, beauty and helplessness.  And

-she, woman-like, loved it, roughness and all--which

-goes to show how stupid consideration is at

-times, and how misplaced.  Adair never gave it a

-thought, and his selfishness was rewarded by two

-bare, satiny arms reaching for his neck, and the

-eagerest little mouth in the world begging kisses

-and taking them.

-

-And the news?

-

-Don't blame him if it had grown a little.  It

-was so truly-truly big that there could be no harm

-in making it a trifle bigger.  Is it not permissible,

-with your adoring little wife nestling beside you in

-her nightie, and holding you fast lest you might

-suddenly be snatched away by some envious and

-ruthless agency--is it not permissible, I say, to

-add a stick and a cocked hat to some ordinary, very

-plainly-dressed facts?  The whole rehearsal, thus

-gloriously reviewed in the retrospect, was brought

-up to the key of Kemmel's appreciation.  The

-unexpired lease of the theater was seen to be a

-subterfuge, and no doubt O'Dowd had gone away

-to organize a number two company--the shrewd

-fellow; he and Kemmel mighty well knew they

-had made a "find"--they weren't in that business

-for nothing--and both were up in the air about it.

-The next thing would be a two years' contract,

-with a real salary and percentages!  Cyril Adair,

-the Irish comedian, ha, ha!  Well, why not?  It

-would bring him back to Broadway in the right

-way, the big way!  Bring him back to stay, by

-George, for with this as a stepping-stone they'd

-never get him off the grand old street again.

-And once solid--

-

-With unloosened imagination they soared the

-sky, vying ecstatically with each other in that

-ethereal azure where everything is possible, two little

-children before the opening doors of paradise, and

-hardly less simple and naïve--big hand on little,

-voice outstripping voice, girl-heart and man-heart

-blended in an idyllic love.  But alas, closer than

-paradise, oh, so much closer--on the next floor,

-in fact--was an honest motorman of the Metropolitan

-Street Railway, who lumbered out of bed, and

-hammered loudly on the floor for silence.  On East

-Fifty-eighth Street this was a hint not to disturb a

-sleeping toiler.  Bang, bang, bang, and the creaking

-springs and bedposts as the stalwart Brother of

-the Ox again sought repose.  He got it all right;

-he often had to hammer, but never had to hammer

-twice; Phyllis had a great deal of humorous

-tenderness for her working-men neighbors--those

-decent, silent men who used to pass her so

-respectfully on the stairs; who played cheap

-phonographs on Sunday nights, raised families and

-canaries, owned dogs and took in boarders, till one

-wondered their apartments didn't bulge out and

-burst!--So McCarthy returned to the Land of

-Nod, and the dormice, reduced to whispers, soon

-kissed each other sleepily, and took their own road

-thither.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XXIII`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XXIII

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-One wonders sometimes why almost

-anybody can not be a successful Irish

-comedian?  Given a good figure, a pleasing,

-sympathetic voice, and a face naturally inclined to

-smile--and the rest seems as easy as taking

-pennies from a blind man.  Certainly Adair caught his

-house as surely as ever did O'Dowd, and moved

-through the piece amid the same thunders of

-applause.  Younger, handsomer, and an incomparably

-better actor, and with that charm, so baffling to

-describe, which yet was ever-present and

-ever-compelling, he measured himself against his

-predecessor, and never for a moment had the least doubt

-of the outcome.  It is not often that fairy tale

-came as bravely true; that the dream of overnight

-turned as quickly into the fact of to-day.  Small

-wonder that Adair, standing there on the stage

-when all was done, his ears still ringing with the

-applause of that departing audience, was too

-exalted, and much too self-sure to fret at Kemmel's

-misgivings.

-

-"Oh, you did fine," cried Kemmel.  "You were

-splendid, splendid!  But will they ever come back?"

-He jerked his head in the direction of the curtain.--"It

-was O'Dowd that brought them--not you;

-they already had their tickets; the pinch comes

-to-morrow, day after to-morrow.  Can you draw them

-then, ah, that's the point?--No, no, don't

-misunderstand me, Adair.  I'm all up in the air about

-you; you justified all we hoped; more than we

-hoped; you don't need to be told how you hit them

-to-night.  But I'm scared--scared of your

-success--and I'm that nervous that I--!"  Again he

-turned towards the curtain, and his voice was

-almost a wail.  "Oh, my God, Adair, will they ever

-come back?"

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The astonishing thing was that they did--crowded

-back, swarmed back, breaking all the records

-of the piece.  Business rose by leaps and

-bounds till they were playing to capacity; till the

-thrilling words "sold out" were posted almost

-nightly on the box-office window; till a ravening

-horde of speculators took possession of the

-sidewalk in front, alternately delighting Kemmel with

-their advertising value, and wringing his soul with

-anguish at the money he saw going astray.  Not

-that these were his only preoccupations; he was too

-loyal to his employer's interest, and too expert a

-theatrical man to let a success run along without a

-guiding hand.  Adair's name went up in electric

-letters; pictures and paragraphs were scattered

-broadcast; an option was secured on another theater

-to continue the run, and, what seemed to him the

-best of all, he had Adair securely tied up by a new

-contract.  Kemmel, in his own words, was "on

-to his job," and in his letters to O'Dowd he was

-already urging a number two company, and submitting

-estimates and names.

-

-The new contract, of course, was a marvel of

-one-sidedness; on-to-his-job Kemmel naturally

-saw to that, and paid a legal iron-worker twenty-five

-dollars to make it of seamless steel.  But on

-the running out of the existing contract at

-seventy-five dollars a week, it assured Adair two hundred

-and fifty as long as it pleased O'Dowd to

-employ him.  Seamless steel could not accomplish

-everything, and a substantial increase of salary had

-to be accorded.  Adair would have stood out for

-more; but Phyllis, with feminine caution, prevailed

-on him, to make no demur.  Booful's day would

-come; stick to her and he would wear diamonds--not

-to speak of bells on his darling fingers and toes;

-but just now money was secondary to cementing

-his position till he was stuck up so high on Broadway

-that they'd have to feed him with a ladder.--Besides,

-two hundred and fifty dollars a week was

-an *awful* lot of money.  Forty weeks at two

-hundred and--

-

-"Forty weeks, you goose!" expostulated Adair.

-"I'd be the last person to object if it were forty

-weeks.  But down there, on that smudgy blue

-place, they can cancel everything in forty seconds."

-

-"People aren't cancelled who are playing to capacity."

-

-"I know, but the utter damned meanness that--"

-

-"Poor little Booful mustn't worry, and if he'll

-stop damning and rampaging, I'll take him down

-to his Uncle Macy's, and show him that lovely

-fur coat I want him to buy as soon as we have

-some money."

-

-"I suppose you are right, Phyllis, but it galls me to--"

-

-"My darling, sweetheart love," she broke in with

-pretty seriousness, "nothing is so important as your

-success, and once make that secure, money follows

-as a matter of course.  Let Booful keep shinning

-up the pole, even if they do pick his pockets, and

-never think of anything but the gilt ball at the

-top, and--and *me*."

-

-This was good advice and Booful acted on it.

-The two hundred and fifty, too, looked less

-despicable as every day drew it nearer; and as it became,

-not an abstraction to be argued over and theoretically

-scorned, but a tidy little bundle of greenbacks

-that would go far to ease life, both on the spending

-side of it and the saving.  Oh, yes, half of it

-was to be laid by in the bank for a rainy day.

-Meanwhile, they lived up to the last cent of the

-seventy-five, which once so much, now suddenly

-grew meager by contrast, and by the greater

-inroads made upon it.  Booful rolled home in cabs;

-there were little restaurant suppers with a fizzling

-pint of wine; Phyllis bought a coveted peignoir,

-made out of pale blue fluffy-nothingness, and with

-a hand-embroidered collar delicately touched with

-gold.--Well, why not?  The nearing future was

-too bright not to discount it a little in the present.

-

-We have said that Kemmel kept his press agent

-busy; and in the same thoroughgoing spirit that

-placarded every garbage-can from Twenty-sixth

-Street to Harlem, strove by a thousand means to

-get Adair's name prominently into the papers.  If

-he succeeded beyond all expectations he ascribed it

-to his own astuteness, instead of to the fact that

-Adair, for the moment, was an extremely spectacular

-figure in the theatrical world.  It was one of

-the remarkable things about this man that he

-impressed himself so indelibly in the recollection of

-every one who had ever known him.  It was too

-often a disagreeable recollection; he had sown

-hatred with a royal hand; yet, in a queer, negative,

-altogether unprofitable way he had fascinated

-everybody.  Others might make a disagreeable

-impression and be forgotten.  But no one ever forgot

-Adair.  Magnetism, personality, genius--whatever

-word one chose to call it--he had the peculiar

-faculty of arresting attention, of exciting interest, of

-making people talk and speculate about him.

-

-It was indubitably at times a most unlucky gift.

-With his reappearance and success the flood-gates

-of his past were opened, and there gushed forth a

-Niagara of malignant chatter.  His amours, his

-fights, his disreputable escapades, his divorce--all

-were revived.  Every one seemed to have a story

-to his discredit, and to be in haste to get it into

-print.  Nor was his marriage to Phyllis allowed to

-escape the same soiling publicity, and the tale was

-embellished with slanders and innuendoes that

-would have goaded a much more patient man to

-fury.  Adair was with difficulty restrained from

-knocking editorial teeth down editorial throats;

-and it showed Phyllis' power over him, and the

-change generally in his disposition that the police

-courts were untroubled by his presence.

-

-Lies about herself Phyllis could bear with some

-fortitude, but Adair's earlier life, as thus revealed

-by the sensation-mongers, cost her many a bitter

-pang.--The woman who had tried to shoot him at

-the Café Martin, and the whole revelation of that

-horrid affair--the Burt-Wauchope scandal, where

-rather than save himself by compromising an

-unknown girl, he had gone to prison for contempt;

-and that, not quietly and nobly, but with a

-vain-glorious satisfaction in his martyrdom--the

-discreditable spree on Tim Bartlett's yacht--how

-horrible, how unendurable it was--this graveyard

-resurrection of bygone years!

-

-Adair never justified himself to her, never tried

-to palliate or explain away the incidents of his

-outrageous past.  That instinct, which in all his

-relations with her invariably guided him aright, served

-him as well now as it had always before.  He was

-more gentle, more tender, trusting to kisses rather

-than words.  "Don't let this hurt you," he once

-said to her, the only time he had ever ventured to

-speak to her, "that wasn't me, Phyllis.  There

-wasn't any me until you came.  You know that,

-don't you?  No me at all, but just a big brute,

-and if he didn't have a soul it was because it was in

-your bureau drawer along with your stockings and

-handkerchiefs, and I guess you thought it was a

-sachet bag or something, and never looked at it twice."

-

-The most jealous, dismayed and heart-sick of

-women could not have resisted such pleading; not

-if she were in love, that is, and her lover's voice

-was as appealing, and his eyes as convincing and

-sincere.--In a divine commingling of wife-love and

-mother-love, so pure, so uplifting that it

-transcended all physical expression, save alone what the

-breast could give, she drew his head to her bosom,

-comforting him, comforting herself in an act

-emblematic of all that is most beautiful in humanity.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The more one studies the stage the more one is

-surprised by its disregard of principles that govern

-every-day, ordinary affairs.  Perhaps it is because

-actors are all children, who have clung tenaciously

-to playing Indian in the hall, and shooting tigers

-under the parlor sofa long after the rest of us have

-grown up.  It is a good thing for the world that

-"temperament" is so largely confined to the

-paste-board walls of the theater; or we might see our

-grocer sulking over his butter, or railway

-presidents impetuously ordering off trains because they

-had taken a sudden distaste to the landscape of

-some state.  Self-interest, that sheet anchor of

-society, is but a kedge to the theatrical ship, and many

-plow the main without even that.  Caprice often

-outweighs all money-making considerations; and

-though we are far from decrying those who

-sacrifice dollars to art (and there are many), may one

-not be a little peevish with the others, whose vanity

-and wilfulness often take such spiteful forms?

-

-It certainly cost Shamus O'Dowd all of twelve

-thousand dollars, if not double or treble that amount

-to close the run at the Herald Square Theater and

-bring it to a peremptory conclusion.  From his

-Rocky Mountain ranch he had watched, with a

-grinding and increasing anger, the success of the

-man to whom he had left his rôle.  The swelling

-royalty returns exasperated him; the laudatory

-notices, sent in such profusion by Kemmel (who was

-innocent enough to think they would please)--were

-as tongues of flame leaping up the legs of a captive

-at the stake (such fat legs as they were, and with

-such an ample scorching surface), and all the talk

-of another theater and a second company clogged

-his eyes with blood, and seared his low, coarse

-face with the furrows of an intolerable indignation.

-

-Nightly for twenty-five years he had been taking

-others' crimes on his brawny shoulders--murder,

-arson, embezzlement, forgery--he grabbed for

-them all, never so happy as when misjudged, with

-only the audience in the secret of his sacrifice;

-nobody on the stage could do anything wrong

-without his making a rush to take the blame--and the

-oaths he kept with an incredible fidelity; the superb

-impulses that started from him as freely as perspiration;

-his goodness, chivalry, and almost insensate

-honor--!  Oh, the irony of reality as contrasted

-with those affecting fictions!

-

-"Dear Kemmel," he wrote, in his ugly, sprawling,

-impatient hand.  "Take the bloody show right

-off, and fire Adair, and keep the others on

-half-salary till you can fix me up a route outside of New

-York.  In God's name, what do you think I'm made

-of, that I'm to play a number two company all

-around the clock while he's starring my hit on

-Broadway?  And don't you put up any back-talk

-about it, either, for I mean every word of it if it

-takes my last red--though you must see that it

-don't.  If we have to go forfeit on the theater,

-hell's bells, pay the bloody cormorants, and do you

-hear, Get Out!!!  For I'm sick of the whole

-business.  Fix it up with Mallory to send out

-something like this, even if you have to pay space

-rates for it, and I want it featured:--'The

-substitution of Mr. Cyril Adair for Mr. Shamus

-O'Dowd in the star-rôle of *A Broth of a Boy*

-has resulted so disastrously to the management that

-the Herald Square Theater will be dark on Monday

-night, and all outstanding tickets refunded at the

-box-office.  The experiment was an unfortunate

-one for all parties, for Mr. O'Dowd, previous to

-his departure from New York, owing to his

-doctor's orders, was playing to enormous business, and

-bade fair to remain all the season.  In

-Mr. O'Dowd's hands *A Broth of a Boy* has been a

-record money-maker, and friends of the genial star

-will be enthusiastic to learn of his early return to

-harness.  The old adage of the lion's skin is thus

-verified again, and we are not disparaging

-Mr. Cyril Adair when we say he was unlucky to be

-cast for the Donkey.'

-

-"I hope this is all clear, and that I have not

-overlooked anything.  Perhaps when you are about

-it you had better fire Grace Farquar, too.  Pretty

-girls are cheap, and I should like another more

-come-on, preferably a blonde this time.  Received

-your check for $1,182.40.  No more for the

-present.  Cordially yours, Shamus O'Dowd."

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XXIV`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XXIV

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The right girl's cheek against his own is

-usually worth more to a man than all the

-philosophy to be found in books.  Adair

-was stunned; he was too helpless, too hurt even to

-murmur.  When one is struck by a thunderbolt,

-one lies where one falls.  He expected Phyllis to

-fall also, and in a dull, heart-broken way was

-surprised by her intrepidity.  She picked up the great,

-despairing creature; kissed him, petted him, crooned

-over him like a baby, smiling through her tears, and

-exerting all her pretty fancifulness to make him

-smile, too.  Men may excel in marching up to

-cannon and saving people from burning buildings, and

-descending to the bottom of the sea in submarines;

-but in the forlorn hopes of life it is most often the

-women who lead.

-

-After a while Adair was revived; on examination

-it seemed that he wasn't seriously damaged at all,

-only scared--oh, yes--just scared all out of his

-poor Booful wits; and a fairy potion called:

-"What does anything matter as long as we have

-each other?" was extraordinarily effective in

-pulling him together again.  Then Phyllis jumbled up

-all the swear-words she had ever heard, and hurled

-them indiscriminately at Shamus O'Dowd, with

-such piquancy and humor, coming as they did from

-that sweet mouth, and with such a delicious

-lady-intonation that Adair was convulsed, and a tiny

-bit shocked--which was precisely what she had

-schemed for, the daring little wretch.

-

-Thus began a new era of looking for an engagement;

-and it must be said it was a very sad, anxious,

-bitter era, for they were dreadfully

-poor--hungry-poor--and every time there was a knock at the

-door it was a dun who had to be coaxed and

-persuaded into going away.  Adair's recent

-prominence had done little to incline managers towards

-him, and though they were more civil, and he

-generally got greater consideration at their hands, it

-was evident that their former hostility still

-persisted.  But his professional reputation now stood

-pretty high; and occasionally one, bolder than the

-rest, would coquette with him, keeping him on

-tenter-hooks while a frantic search was made "for

-somebody that would do as well."  This somebody

-was always found, and Adair would be told politely

-that "the vacancy had been filled."

-

-Incidentally he learned that his parting from

-O'Dowd had been grossly misrepresented by that

-"genial star," who had spread it about broadcast

-that Adair was as impossible as ever, and so inflated

-and top-lofty that it had been cheaper to break the

-run of the piece than to stand his vagaries any

-longer.  This was in such accord with Adair's

-former character that it found ready credence up

-and down Broadway; and the great Mr. Fielman

-himself enunciated the general sentiment when he

-said to Rolls Reece, the dramatist: "If that

-fellow Adair only had the manners and decency of a

-common hod-carrier, I'd give him a five years'

-contract, and make a fortune out of him; but the stage

-is on too high a level nowadays for men like that

-to get a second chance to disgrace it--at least from me!"

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-No one appreciates more than an actor the need

-for being well-dressed when seeking an engagement.

-His appearance is a considerable part of his

-capital, both on the boards and off; he may have

-had little breakfast, and less lunch, but his clothes

-must be good, and his linen immaculate, and in a

-"profession" judged so largely by superficialities,

-it behooves him, poor dog, to affect at any cost an

-air of fashion that but too often is the most pathetic

-of masquerades.

-

-It was now that Phyllis rose to the occasion with

-an unexpected capacity that showed she was, indeed,

-her father's daughter.  She got the janitress to

-teach her how to wash and iron white shirts; and

-in a short time could glaze a bosom better than her

-instructress, and almost as well as a French

-laundry-man.  She learned how to press Adair's coats and

-trousers; she turned his ties; she ironed his collars;

-she cleaned his gloves with gasolene.  No man was

-ever valeted with more assiduous care, or sent out

-every morning looking sprucer or better-groomed.

-When she kissed him good-by for the day it was

-always with a playful admonition, for Adair bore

-adversity none too well, and though he tried to hide

-his despondency he was beginning to break down

-under the long continued strain.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"And he knows he's a great, big, handsome,

-splendid Booful?"

-

-"Oh, he's sure of it!"

-

-"And he's going to step out like a Crown Prince

-going down to see his Emperor-Papa at the club?"

-

-"You bet he is."

-

-"And swing his cane as though he owned all

-Broadway--and throw back his head like a Greek

-statue, and swagger into their horrid old offices

-like a millionaire?  For he *is* a millionaire, you

-know--not a money-one, but a Love-Millionaire--for

-don't I love him millions and millions?"

-

-It took a kiss to answer that; and then the

-Love-Millionaire, laughing a little tremulously, would

-hurry away, whistling with much bravado as he

-went down the stairs, two at a time, as suited a

-great, big, handsome, splendid Booful; who,

-whatever his demerits in the past, was fast retrieving

-himself before the Great Judge.--And if, on his

-departure, Phyllis would lay her head on her arm

-and give way to uncontrollable tears, you would

-be wrong to feel too sorry for her.  For the

-misfortune that draws a man and woman together,

-and extorts from each their noblest qualities is not

-really a misfortune at all, but a precious and

-beautiful thing that it would become us more to envy.

-

-Thus the days passed in a deadening, cowing,

-unutterably depressing search for work.  Adair was

-rebuffed, put off, told to call again; he abased

-himself to men he despised; he forced his presence with

-hungry persistence on dramatists and stars who

-were putting on new plays, affecting a good

-fellowship that was a transparent, dismal lie.  He tried

-to buy them wine, cigars--inveigle them into

-promises, and his lunch often went in a tip to some

-greedy understrapper who guarded their portals.

-

-It is strange the mile-wide demarcation that

-divides the real stage--the stage of Sothern, John

-Drew, Faversham, Maude Adams, etc., from that

-other to which Adair had so long associated himself.

-This other had no representative save Adair in the

-whole Thespian Club.  It was a region apart, and

-a region that Adair was determined never to

-return to.  It would have called him back willingly

-enough, and in his desperation he might have

-returned to it had it not been for Phyllis.  It was

-she who kept his resolution alive; she was too

-confident of his talent to let him throw it back into that

-Dead Sea; it meant the abandonment of every

-serious ambition;--artistically speaking, suicide,

-death.--Booful belonged to the top, and it was his

-business and hers to get him there.

-

-Brave words, but how about fulfilment?  The

-end of the month would find them turned out of

-doors.  Phyllis dreaded to see herself in the glass,

-she was becoming so pale and wan; in the unequal

-battle everything was going except her courage;

-sometimes, alone in the silent apartment, even that

-seemed to droop, and a daunting terror would

-overwhelm her--less for herself than for Adair.  He

-was drinking again, and justified himself with a

-bitter vehemence.  "They all say, 'Have a

-drink'!" he exclaimed.  "Nobody ever says 'Have

-an eat'!"--His harsh, despairing humor recurred

-to her, as well as his sudden resentment at her pity.

-He had made atonement, but the sting remained--or

-rather a foreboding of something somber and

-evil that in spite of herself she could not shake off.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-One day at the club a card was brought Adair,

-inscribed Mr. John H. Campbell; and the boy told

-him the gentleman was waiting to see him in the

-visitors' room.  Adair knew no such person, but

-he went out to greet him with mingled curiosity

-and hope, for here perhaps was the long-sought

-engagement.  An imposing, distinguished looking,

-very well-dressed man of fifty rose from the sofa,

-and asked him, with much suavity, whether he had

-the pleasure of addressing Mr. Cyril Adair.  This

-question being quickly and politely settled, the

-imposing gentleman begged for a few words of

-conversation; and indicating a place for Adair beside

-him, he reseated himself with a bland, kind air

-which yet was not without an underlying

-seriousness, not to say solemnity.

-

-"I have come on a very confidential matter," he

-said, fixing Adair with his shrewd, keen,

-heavy-lidded eyes.  "A matter, Mr. Adair, so delicate

-that it is not easy to convey it except in a

-round-about form.  May I explain I have sought you

-out at the request of--Mr. Ladd?"

-

-There was a pause; the shrewd, heavy-lidded

-eyes slowly inventoried Adair and read beneath

-the tarnished air of fashion.  Failure, need,

-hunger sap a man, and can not be hid, least of all from

-a professional observer.  John Hampden Campbell

-was one of the leaders of the New York bar and

-was what they call a "court room lawyer" of high

-rank; which means that others hand up the guns,

-while he shoots them off.  His knowledge of

-human nature was profound, and being profound was

-neither unsympathetic nor unkind.  But he could

-shoot straight, nevertheless, and it was hardly a

-satisfaction to the victim to hear that murmur of

-"poor devil!" as the eminent counsel laid aside

-the smoking weapon.

-

-"My father-in-law!" exclaimed Adair in amazement.

-

-"He would be happier if he could cease to bear

-that name," said Mr. Campbell.

-

-"He can hardly very well help himself," retorted

-Adair bluntly.

-

-"No, but you could," put in the lawyer, with a

-vagueness that was intentional.  "By this time you

-must realize that it is a union that is scarcely to

-your own best interests nor the young lady's."

-

-"Haven't noticed it," said Adair, staring at him

-queerly.

-

-"Mr. Ladd would be prepared to make very

-heavy sacrifices to put back things as they were

-before."

-

-"What sort of sacrifices?"--Adair's tone was

-not unfriendly; it was rather questioning and

-perplexed.

-

-"We would rather leave it to you to suggest

-them, though we are counting more on your

-concern for her welfare.  Frankly, Mr. Adair, without

-meaning the least disrespect, and with a thorough

-knowledge of your honorable and straightforward

-conduct--do you consider you're acting rightly in

-holding this young lady to what most people would

-call a very bad bargain?"

-

-"Being married to a starving actor?"

-

-"Oh, that is putting it too--too--"

-

-"Of course, she has thrown herself away--I

-know that."

-

-There was a gleam in the heavy-lidded eyes.

-

-"It could all be rectified," said Mr. Campbell

-soothingly.  "Very easily, and very quickly

-rectified.  It is just a question, it seems to me, of our

-getting together, and talking it over reasonably.

-In fact, some of the details might be omitted

-entirely.  Mr. Ladd is a man of very large means,

-and is the soul of honor.  He would see to it that

-your future was made easy."

-

-"How easy?" asked Adair.

-

-"I mean," returned Mr. Campbell, "that he

-would substantially recognize your honest desire to

-be guided by his wishes--wishes that you admit

-are just, and so much to the young lady's advantage

-that you are willing to withdraw entirely."

-

-"Those are all words," exclaimed Adair; "let's

-get to figures."

-

-Mr. Campbell looked pained.  After having

-confined the interview so skilfully within the limits

-of irreproachable good taste, this brutality outraged

-his ear.  He had not been unprepossessed by Adair,

-and felt sorry for him.--But here was the cloven

-hoof.--The fellow was just a low, mercenary

-adventurer after all.

-

-"The figures are ten thousand dollars," he answered coldly.

-

-"Why, I don't call that anything!"

-

-"Cash," added Campbell, with a pursing of his lips.

-

-"Of course, it's cash," cried Adair, "it's going

-to be that, whatever it is.  Only it isn't enough.

-She's worth more than ten thousand dollars."

-

-Campbell saw that his personal bias had made

-him err.  Adair's vibrating tone had caught the

-note of his own; suavity and good humor were

-all-important, and he scurried back to them, like an

-incautious general flying for the batteries he has

-left behind.  When he spoke again it was in his

-best lullaby manner.

-

-"My dear fellow," he said, "the real point is

-that you concede the principle.  That is so, is it not?"

-

-"Hell, yes," returned Adair.  "I'd concede a

-lot for fifty thousand dollars."

-

-"But that is a very, very large sum of money."

-

-Adair, with one hand in his trousers pocket, was

-restlessly turning over the two nickels that were

-there--all he had.

-

-"I don't think so," he said.  "Anyway, she's

-worth that, and more."

-

-"I was hardly authorized to commit Mr. Ladd

-to such an amount," objected Mr. Campbell,

-"though I will not say right off that I might not

-entertain it.  But you understand, Mr. Adair, that

-it implies you will not resist an action for divorce,

-and--  Well, you know we'd like to have the matter

-absolutely settled and done with."

-

-"For fifty thousand dollars?"

-

-The heavy-lidded eyes were obscured by a

-momentary glaze.

-

-"We will meet you," said Mr. Campbell.

-

-Adair rubbed the nickels together, and asked,

-with a slight catch of his breath, if he could have

-something on account.

-

-"Certainly," assented the lawyer, producing his

-pocket-book.  He removed a sheaf of bills, and

-Adair perceived that they were in denominations

-of a thousand dollars each.  He had never seen a

-thousand-dollar bill before in his whole life, and

-here was a thick packet of twenty or more.  No

-wonder that he was overawed.  Campbell noticed

-his fascinated stare, and dilly-dallying with the

-notes, spread them out with an elaborate carelessness.

-To Adair, it was all a blur of $1,000, $1,000,

-$1,000, $1,000, a green mist of money, a crisp,

-crinkling, dizzying affluence.--Campbell was saying

-something to him.  There was a paper to be signed.

-It was a temporary memorandum to be replaced

-later by a more formal document.  Buzz, buzz, buzz!

-The paper was handed to him.  Buzz, buzz, buzz,

-and the room going round and round.  He was

-standing on his feet, shaking with the pent-up

-passion that he had been so long holding back.  The

-actor in him had been waiting for that, but the

-actor was lost in the man.

-

-"You're a damned hound!" he cried hoarsely,

-"And the man who sent you is a damned hound,

-and here is your damned paper, and may it choke

-you both!  My wife isn't for sale, do you hear

-that!  My wife isn't for sale, whether it's for fifty

-thousand or fifty million!  Is that plain?  Do you

-concede the principle, or shall I boot it into you?

-I thought I'd lead you on; I thought I'd just see

-how far you'd go--you with your sable overcoat,

-and fat pocket-book, and your stinking respectability.

-I had you sized up all right, and was only

-giving you rope to hang yourself.  Get out of

-here, and get out quick, or I'll kick you from here

-to your cab.  Get out!"

-

-It was needless to say that John Hampden

-Campbell did not need to be pressed.  Shadrach,

-Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace could have

-scarcely been in a bigger hurry.  Cramming the

-notes and papers in his pockets, he sped from the

-visitors' room like a large, imposing projectile which

-had been fired from some monster cannon.  A second

-later his flying coat-tails were deposited in his

-cab, and he was speeding away, considerably shaken

-in spirit and body, for the mountain quiet of his

-twenty-eight story office.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Lying on Phyllis' table, all ready for mailing,

-was a long letter to her father.  Pride had crumbled

-and she had determined to seek his help.  She

-had begun it with constraint, attempting, none too

-effectually, to conceal her sense of injury and

-injustice; but as page followed page the old

-tenderness returned with an irresistible force.  That gray,

-handsome head was before her, that mellow voice

-was in her ears, and the wretchedness and folly

-of alienation came home to her with a new and

-piercing significance.  The request for money; the

-cold, exact exposition of her need--was passed and

-forgotten in the impetuous rush of her pen.  She

-loved her husband, she loved her father, and this

-estrangement was unbearable.  Like many women

-under the stress of a deep emotion she wrote with

-a singular eloquence.  She wept as she described

-Cyril--his unceasing goodness, his loyalty, his

-fortitude, his good humor and devotion.  He was

-everything a woman loved best in a man; and

-instead of her marriage having been a mistake, a

-failure, it was more than she thought life could

-ever give her.  Would not her father forget all

-that had passed, as she, too, would forget?  Their

-love was too deep, too dear, to make reconciliation

-impossible.  She would climb into his lap again,

-and put her arms about him--his sad, worn,

-desolate little girl--and they would whisper to each

-other what fools they had been, and kiss away the

-last shadow of misunderstanding.

-

-So it ran, page after page, in her fine, delicate

-hand, an appeal that no father could have resisted.

-A beautiful letter, touched with the quality of tears;

-full of womanly longing; heart crying to heart,

-across an aching void.  Alas, that it never went.

-It was torn to pieces, and thrown passionately on

-the floor.  Campbell had intervened, and the news

-of his offer was thus received in the little flat on

-East Fifty-eighth Street.  "That's the end of it,"

-cried Phyllis, regarding the scraps of paper.

-"That's the end of everything between Papa and me!"

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XXV`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XXV

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-It is one of the peculiarities of looking for a

-theatrical engagement that hope is never quite

-extinguished.  There is always some one who

-wants you to call next week; there is always a

-company just short of a part they are considering

-you for; there is always some friendly member

-of the Thespians who has "mentioned your name,"

-and gives you a scribbled address or a telephone

-number.  This is stated to explain the fact why

-Adair, instead of surrendering to circumstances,

-as any other man would have done in any other

-walk of life, still snatched at straw after straw with

-egregious determination.  His circumstances were

-becoming absolutely desperate.  Suspension from

-the club was staring him in the face; in eight days

-his sticks of furniture and his trunks would be

-dumped out on the street; it was only by the most

-rigid parsimony that body and soul could be kept

-together.  Phyllis said the dormice were floating

-on a shingle, and with tearful laughter would

-expatiate on the pitiful, half-drowned things, so scared

-and hungry on a bobbing sea.  What was to

-happen when they slid off?--Oh, but Booful wasn't

-to mind.  She'd hold his poor, pretty, dormouse

-head up, and swim him off to a lovely island where

-there were peanuts on peanuts, and an alabaster

-mousery with all modern improvements.

-

-That lovely island seemed a terribly long way

-off.  As the emblem of an engagement it lay so far

-over the horizon that Adair began to doubt its very

-existence.  His eyes grew lack-luster; he lost his

-confident bearing; poverty and failure stamped him,

-as they stamp every man with an unmistakable

-mark.  We instinctively move away from the

-unsuccessful.  We see that mark, and widen our

-distance.  Success likes success.  It isn't decent to

-be very, very poor.  Fingers tighten on pocketbooks,

-and respectable, prosperous legs quicken their

-steps.--Adair was sinking, though the dismal

-masquerade still went on--the immaculate cuffs,

-the once smart tie, the pressed clothes, shiny with

-constant ironing.  There is many such a figure on

-Broadway--and in some mean room there is usually

-a woman who believes in him, stinting herself

-and starving for his sake.

-

-One dark, wintry Sunday afternoon in early

-spring, as Phyllis was sitting near the frosted

-window, sewing and thinking and dreaming by

-the scanty light, she was roused by the tramp of

-many footsteps on the stair outside, and a confused

-bumping, scuffling sound, accompanied by a hoarse

-murmur of voices.  With a horrible premonition

-she ran to the door and opened it, giving a cry as

-she recognized Adair being supported in by two

-companions.  His face was swollen and discolored;

-one eye was closed in a rim of crimson; his mouth

-was dribbling blood; sawdust and filth befouled

-his clothes, and a stench of vile whisky exhaled

-from him like a nauseating steam.  He was helped

-over to a sofa, and allowed to collapse, while the

-men hurried away as though ashamed of their task,

-and thankful to have done with it.

-

-It was the first time he had ever appeared

-repugnant to Phyllis; he was drunk, and she knew

-it, and the fumes of the disgusting stuff stifled her

-with loathing.  But she unloosened his collar, laid

-a couple of pillows under his head, unlaced his

-shoes; and bringing a basin, rinsed the oozing blood

-from his lip.  With pity, yes, but with the raging,

-furious pity that goes with lost illusions, and the

-falling of one's little world; a pity less for him

-than for herself that this should be the end of a

-love that to her had been the very breath of life.

-

-He regarded her stupidly with his one open eye,

-moaning faintly, and drawing himself laboriously

-near the basin, spat into it.  Then he put out his

-hand, and tried to touch her, but she shrank from him.

-

-"Phyllis," he said, in a raucous whisper, "Phyllis";

-and then, as though overcome by the exertion,

-closed that single bleary eye, and dozed off.  But it

-was not for very long.  He awakened again.

-"They loaded me up with that cursed whisky,"

-he whispered.  "I was all in, and needed it.  God,

-if they didn't pour a bottle of it down my throat!"--For

-a while he rambled on brokenly, spluttering

-with laughter as he held up his clenched fist as

-though he found a strange, childish entertainment

-in the action.--Little by little he pulled himself

-together.  He was a powerful man, sound to the

-core, and though he was badly spent, health and

-nature were rallying to his side.

-

-"Come here," he said, in the same husky whisper,

-but with a noticeable increase of vigor and

-self-command.  "Come here, I wanter tellyerboutit."

-

-Phyllis crouched by his side, so dejected and

-heartsick that it was well for him she hid her face.

-

-"I was with Morty Stokes and a whole lot of

-them," he went on, his words running together

-tipsily.  "Tagging on, too, you know--royal,

-open-handed fellow, Morty, good fren' of mine,

-always something to eat--gives bell-boy tip that

-would keep us for a week.  And it was down at

-the Queensbury Club, pay ten dollars, and,

-member--one-day member, you know--though the fight

-we went to see was tipped off--wasn't any, you

-know--but we stayed on, Morty opening champagne,

-and Kid Kelly was there who beat Cyclone

-Crandall last month; and somehow Morty and the

-Kid got into a row about Tammany corruption, and

-both so blind that neither of them could have spelled

-Tammany for a million, and everybody had to pull

-them apart.  Then Morty, just blazing said: 'I

-can't lick you, but here's a fellow that can,' and he

-pointed at me, and says, 'Cyril, I'll give you five

-hundred dollars to wipe this dirty loafer off the

-map!'  And I took it as a joke, and said yes I

-would, and before I knew it they were appointing a

-referee, and Kid Kelly was stripping down to the skin."

-

-Adair stopped and laughed--a groaning kind

-of laugh, as mirthless as the wind that rattled the

-window-panes.  "He had only been out of training

-ten days, and as for my standing up against him

-he might have been Battling Nelson.  But it

-suddenly came into my head, why here's a chance to

-make something--not Morty's five hundred dollars

-for licking him--I'd only drunk half a glass

-of wine, and knew better--but a bit at the other

-end of it; and so I said, yes, four hundred for the

-winner, and a hundred for the man out, and all as

-insultingly as I could make it, as though that

-hundred was for the Kid instead of me.  And finally,

-when it was all settled, it all wasn't--Morty

-standing out for two ounce gloves, and the others for

-sixes, he saying he wanted to mark the dirty mutt

-with something to stay; and that it was to be two

-ounces or nothing, though what was to happen to

-me in the mix-up wasn't mentioned, the fact being

-he didn't care as long as he could see the Kid

-pounded; and it was two shakes the Kid didn't

-pound *him*, it all worked up to such a hullabaloo,

-with some of them holding him, and others the Kid,

-and all of them yelling at once till at last they shoved

-us into the ring, with Tom Hallahan for referee,

-and Billy Sands holding the stakes and keeping

-time, and then we shook hands and squared off.

-

-"The Kid wasn't so soused but what he had an

-inkling of the truth, and at the first go-off he meant

-to let me down easy, like the good-hearted Irish

-boy he was, and I could see it in his eye--(half

-of fighting is in the eyes, Phyllis)--and it was just

-a pat here, and a wallop there, and a lot of

-quick-stepping and stage-play, all feints and parries and

-pretending.  But I wasn't for selling the fight,

-thinking Morty might sour on it, and call the whole

-thing off--so I walked right into the Kid, hammer

-and tongs; and by the time I had barked my

-knuckles on his teeth, and landed him a lefter on

-the jaw for all I was worth, he was as savage as

-hell, and ready to kill me; and by George, it was

-only bull-headed luck that he didn't--that, and

-the wine he had drunk, and I stood up to him for

-five rounds; and first it was for the hundred

-dollars, and then for my very life.  I managed to get

-on my legs before I was counted out on the fifth,

-though the floor was heaving like a ship at sea,

-and I saw about eight of him, shooting out sixteen

-arms, and eighty-four fists; and down I went for

-keeps.--But I got it!"

-

-He opened his hand, and showed two fifty dollar bills.

-

-"They won't put us out on the street for yet

-a while," he said gloatingly.  "We're a hundred

-dollars ahead, not to speak of about nine quarts of

-whisky!  Take it, sweetheart, and, and--"

-

-Her arms were about him, and she was sobbing,

-her lips seeking his, unmindful of the blood, the

-swollen, discolored flesh, the stale reek of whisky,

-every fiber in her agonizing with tenderness and

-remorse.  Those things that but a minute before

-had filled her with an unutterable revulsion, that

-had shocked and dismayed her beyond expression

-were of a sudden transformed into the evidences

-of a tragic devotion.  It was for her that he came

-to be lying there, disheveled, bleeding and dirty;

-covered with livid bruises; smashed, disfigured, and

-cruelest of all--misjudged.  No wonder that the

-scorching tears fell; that the girlish arms could not

-hold him tight enough; that the little head snuggled

-down so pitifully, so guiltily, to atone for the cruel

-wrong.

-

-"I guess the dormice are still on their shingle,"

-said Adair, "though a lot of skin and fur has been

-rubbed off one of them.  Make him a cup of tea,

-dearest--his little nose is hot, and I'm sure it

-would do him good!"

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XXVI`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XXVI

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-It was a week before Adair ventured to go out

-except at night, and it was longer still before

-he outgrew the stiffness following the lost

-battle.  He congratulated himself on having come

-so well out of it, for an ordinary man, however

-good an amateur boxer, runs a serious chance of

-harm in a fight with a champion pugilist.  The

-doctor passed his ribs, passed his jaw, deliberated over

-his collarbone, and finally reduced the damages to

-a pair of broken knuckle-bones and a badly-sprained

-wrist.  Privately he warned Phyllis that her

-husband had had a narrow escape, and told her to

-keep him out of mischief for the future.  "He's

-the worst-mauled man I have examined for a long

-while," he said, "and that blow over the heart

-might have killed him.  Next time let him agree

-with his adversary quickly according to the

-Gospel--or use a club, and use it first."

-

-But the knuckles and the wrist were not all the

-damage.  With lessened strength there was

-lessened will, lessened courage; and acquiescence in

-defeat succeeded the long spun-out endeavor to turn

-the tide of fortune.  Soon it was tacitly understood

-between them that they could strive no longer; and

-when Adair, with something of a catch in his voice,

-said he would go round and see Heney, Phyllis

-made no demur.  Heney represented that other

-stage of nonentities and fourth-raters; that

-maelstrom of hopelessness, cheapness and shoddy; that

-vast theatrical system which cadges for the public's

-small change, and seeks to please the factory-girl

-and the artisan.  To go back to it was to abandon

-everything--ambition, reputation, future.

-

-Yet it was pleasant to be warmly received.

-Heney was overjoyed, gave him a good cigar,

-patted him on the knee, and said he was just the

-chap he had been looking for to take out *The

-Danites*.  He had been working over the piece

-himself to introduce Portolini's trained dogs, and

-incidentally to "jack it up."  Heney was common

-and underbred and talked with a toothpick in his

-mouth--but he was a man not without a certain

-feeling.  He made no allusions that might

-embarrass Adair, and ignored recent events.  His

-consideration was increased perhaps by the opportunity

-thus given him of getting Adair for *The Danites*.

-He had been hoping to revivify it with the trained

-dogs, but here was a man who could command

-success, for Adair was a money-maker and the surest

-"draw" in the business.  Terms were quickly

-settled.  A hundred a week, and a forty weeks'

-contract, with the usual notice on both sides.  It could

-be typed and signed later on; meanwhile here was

-a spare carbon of the play to look over; and

-rehearsals would begin as soon as the dogs had

-finished their vaudeville dates at One Hundred

-Twenty-fifth Street and Brooklyn.

-

-Adair left the office feeling as though he had

-sold himself to the devil.  An old nickname of his

-recurred to him as he walked slowly homeward:

-"The Four-bit Mansfield."  He kept repeating it

-on the way, "The Four-bit Mansfield, The Four-bit

-Mansfield!"  Yes, that was what he was; that was

-as near as he would ever get to the real thing;

-before he hadn't cared, but now it was gall and

-wormwood to him.  Yet it was as "The Four-bit

-Mansfield" that he had won Phyllis.  It would not

-do to forget that.  Winning Phyllis had been the

-most wonderful event in his life, little though he

-had appreciated it at the time.  Looking back at

-it all he was astounded at his own blindness;

-astounded and frightened, too, to recall how easily

-the affair might have had a different ending.  Love

-was a queer business; he hadn't really cared very

-much for her at first; he had simply taken her

-because she was so bewitchingly pretty--and with

-such innocence had offered herself; and yet, bit by

-bit, it had grown to this, grown into something

-that was the only thing in life.  He could readily

-conceive himself dying for Phyllis if it meant

-saving her or protecting her, and that with no tom-fool

-fuss either, or theatrics.

-

-A fellow couldn't hope to carry away all the

-prizes, and he'd rather be a "Four-bit Mansfield"

-with Phyllis than the biggest kind of a star without

-her.  What a gay, gentle, insinuating, clever little

-wretch she was!  He could come home in the

-damnedest humor--it hurt him to think how often

-he had--so cranky and impatient and cross that

-any other woman in the world would have flounced

-into a fury--and little by little she would coax

-him and pet him and smooth him down till instead

-of flinging plates at each other, as most people would

-have done, by George, she'd be sitting on his knee,

-and he'd be smiling down at her, a thousand times

-more in love than ever, with such a pang of

-self-reproach, and such a new understanding of her

-sweetness and tenderness that his heart would swell

-till he could hardly speak.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-When Adair left his house that afternoon to

-call on Heney, he noticed a large, luxurious

-limousine snailing along Fifty-eighth Street as though

-the chauffeur was searching for a number; and he

-wondered what so fine a car could be doing in such

-a mean neighborhood.  Had he seen it stop in front

-of his own door he would have been more surprised

-still, for that was what it did, to the extreme

-gratification of the youngsters playing about the

-sidewalk.  A gentleman alighted, rang the bell

-marked "Adair," pushed open the door when it

-began to emit mysterious clicks of welcome, and

-toiled up those interminable stairs till he found

-Phyllis awaiting him at the entrance of her little

-apartment.

-

-"I beg your pardon," he said, "I'm looking for

-Mr. Adair?"

-

-Phyllis saw before her a thin, dark, exceedingly

-well-dressed man of about forty, with an aquiline

-nose, a pale handsome face, and an air of noticeable

-distinction and importance.

-

-"I'm sorry, but he has just gone out," she

-answered.  "I am Mrs. Adair--will you not come in?"

-

-He followed her into the sitting-room with a

-manner of such ease and good-breeding that Phyllis

-was suddenly transported back to her former

-existence, and tingled with a pleasurable curiosity.

-

-"Perhaps I can do instead," she said, smiling,

-and offering the stranger a chair.

-

-"Not only as well--but better," he returned.

-"If I had not heard about you I should not be

-here at all."  He kept staring at her in a keen,

-questioning way with something of the penetration,

-and the appearance of inner mental working of

-some great specialist studying a patient.  Though

-continuing to look at her, Phyllis could feel that

-those brilliant eyes had left nothing in the room

-unnoticed, and she realized with a twinge how

-pinched and shabby it all must seem to him.

-

-"I am Rolls Reece, the dramatist," he observed

-at last.  "It may be that you've never heard of

-me, though I hope you have--for it will facilitate

-matters."

-

-Of course that name was familiar to Phyllis.

-Rolls Reece was the author of more successful plays

-than any man in America.  He was the founder

-of a school--his own school--and to take a

-foreign word for which we have, no equivalent

-he was essentially a *féministe*.  In representing

-nice women on the stage, women of refinement and

-position, he had a field in which he stood

-paramount.  Not that he confined himself wholly to

-plays of this type, however.  He was an indefatigable

-worker; with an ambition that balked at

-nothing; he was always reaching out, always trying

-experiments; a piece of his, *Money, the King*, had

-been strength and brutality personified.--That it

-was Rolls Reece who was before her filled Phyllis

-with a sudden and gratified astonishment.

-

-"Certainly I know your name," she said.

-"Who is there that doesn't!"

-

-He waved the compliment from him with a

-gesture of his hand--a hand as fine and small as a

-woman's.  One invariably associated Rolls Reece

-with those fine, small hands, which, when he grew

-excited, gripped themselves on his chair with the

-tenacity of a sailor's in the rigging of a ship.  It

-showed the importance he attached to this interview

-that he was already beginning to clench the

-furniture.

-

-"My dear lady," he went on, "I have to be

-frank with you--and being frank, especially in

-regard to an absent husband, is neither easy nor

-agreeable.  Perhaps I had better give you the sugar

-on the pill first; and that is I have outlined a play

-that I should like to write with the idea of

-Mr. Adair creating the central figure.  If I could

-write it with him in mind, I am presumptuous

-enough to think I could make a big thing of it.--He

-could do it, of course--do it magnificently.

-This talk does not turn on his talent, his ability,

-which is immense.  No, no, these are not

-compliments.  Years ago when I was a nobody on the

-*Advertiser*, doing theatrical criticism with a

-recklessness and off-handedness that now makes my

-gooseflesh quiver to look back on--just a

-know-it-all young ass--I remember the profound

-impression Mr. Adair's work used to make upon me.

-I have often seen him since, going out of my way

-to do so--one has had to, you know--and that

-original conviction of his power has steadily grown

-with me."

-

-He stopped, giving her that curious look of

-his, so grave, and yet with what might be called a

-smile in suspension.

-

-It swiftly lit up his face as Phyllis remarked:

-"Now for the pill?"

-

-"Yes, the pill," faltered Rolls Reece, gripping

-the arms of his chair, and appearing acutely

-uncomfortable.  "Ahem, the pill is--I suppose it

-isn't grammatical to say are--well, in fact, some

-of Mr. Adair's characteristics that those who

-admire him most, must deprecate and

-deplore--characteristics that have unhappily hampered, or

-rather so far have ruined his career.  Please,

-please, Mrs. Adair, do not stop me!  This is not

-a question of personalities at all.  Regard me

-simply as a contractor, looking for a first-class

-workman--Bill, we'll call him; and it having

-reached me in a round-about way that Bill has

-married and pulled up, I've dropped in on

-Mrs. Bill to make sure."

-

-"Are you not afraid Mrs. Bill may be prejudiced

-in her husband's favor?"

-

-"My dear lady, it is remarkable to find any one

-prejudiced in Bill's favor!  That it should be his

-wife is all the better."

-

-"Better for what?"

-

-"I've told you I want to write that play for him."

-

-At this Phyllis' rising ill-will died away.  There

-was too much of the little Frenchwoman in her

-for her not to become diplomatic and cool when her

-husband's interests were at stake.  Instead of

-making a hot rejoinder, she replied, with a

-frankness not at all easy under the circumstances: "I

-understand perfectly what you mean, Mr. Reece.

-It is true he has spoiled everything, and has an

-awful lot to live down.  I ought to be grateful to

-you as the first person--the first important

-person--who has realized that he has changed.

-But how am I to convince you of it?"

-

-"By speaking just as you do."

-

-"Oh, I can hardly hope that a wife's word will

-count for much.  Yet, Mr. Reece, it is absolutely

-true."

-

-"It is not his past that bothers me," went on

-Rolls Reece.  "Everybody has a past, and I was

-a theatrical critic once myself--but what I want

-to be assured of is that he won't begin a new

-one.  Really, Mrs. Adair, if I put him in a big

-Broadway production can I be guaranteed that he

-will--behave?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"And neither drink, nor quarrel with anybody,

-nor punch anybody's head--(including mine)--or

-calmly leave us in the lurch because he doesn't

-like the pattern, say, of the dressing-room carpet?"

-

-"Wait and talk with him yourself.--All that

-folly is over and done with."

-

-"The longer I live," observed Rolls Reece, "the

-more I appreciate that women are the power behind

-the throne.  Every man, in a queer, subtle sort

-of way, reflects some woman.  I came here to see

-whom Adair was reflecting, and if I hadn't been

-satisfied I shouldn't have stayed.  My interest

-is selfish, of course.  My unwritten play to me

-is much more important than Mr. Adair;

-otherwise--to me, I mean--his peculiarities of

-character would be of supreme unimportance.--May

-I say he reflects an unusually charming and

-delightful one?"

-

-Phyllis smiled.

-

-"I hope that means it is all settled?" she asked.

-

-"If you'll go bond for him--yes."

-

-She clapped her hands.  "Oh, I'm so glad," she

-cried.  "Oh, Mr. Reece, I can not tell you how

-poor we are, how desperate.  It has been such a

-heart-breaking struggle, and we had almost reached

-the giving-up place.--But tell me, you say the play

-is not written yet?"

-

-"Oh, no, we're talking of an October opening."

-

-October!  They were then in early April.  The

-joy, the elation died under that crushing blow.

-What was to become of them during the intervening

-months?  Phyllis could scarcely speak, the

-disappointment was so keen.  "It will be very hard

-for us to wait," she said at last.  "Mr. Adair has

-to go back to the cheap theaters, and from what he

-said I am afraid he will have to sign a long

-contract."

-

-Under any other circumstances Rolls Reece

-would have laughed.  Adair, that disreputable

-genius, as a scrupulous respecter of contracts,

-foregoing the star part in a New York production at the

-dictates of honor and conscience was sublimely

-incredible.  But nevertheless Phyllis' own

-sincerity impressed him.  Her beauty was of a fine,

-sensitive, aristocratic type, the kind that the

-dramatist, of all men, would recognize and appreciate the

-most.  The proud yet touching air, the exquisite

-girlishness, the arch, appealing, pretty manners--all

-disturbed him with a feeling that verged on

-jealousy.  No doubt Adair had altered.  To be

-believed in by such a woman surely counted for

-something; to be put on a pedestal by her was to stay

-there, of course; it was impossible to conceive

-anything low or underhanded being confided to one

-who struck him as the embodiment of candor.

-The surprise was how Adair had ever got her.

-

-"I have thought of all that," he said, referring

-to her last remark.  "If Mr. Adair will be satisfied

-with modest rôles, and will consent to go on the

-road, I can contrive to keep him busy the whole

-summer."  In the mouth of any other man, what

-he added would have sounded intolerably

-conceited; but he had been successful too long, and had

-grown too used to it, for the sentence to be

-anything but matter-of-fact.  "I have eight companies

-out, you know, and whether my managers like it or

-not, they'll have to find room for your husband."

-

-His tone was so considerate, so kind, and his

-eyes gave such a sense of dawning friendship that

-Phyllis' reserve melted.  She spoke eagerly, with

-a little tremor of emotion, and a delicious

-consciousness of sympathy and responsiveness.  "I

-want to tell you about him," she said.  "I couldn't

-do it before when it seemed in doubt whether you'd

-risk your play with him or not.  It would have

-seemed, oh, as though I were trying to plead with

-you, and debasing myself and him to win you over.

-But now that it is settled I am not ashamed--no,

-Mr. Reece, I am proud to make you realize how

-you have misjudged him."

-

-With this as a beginning she told him of their

-coming to New York; of their struggles and

-privations; of Adair's unshaken, unwavering devotion

-during those bitter days.  With poverty love had

-not flown out of the window; no, it had drawn them

-closer together than ever before.  She might never

-have known otherwise the depth of the noblest and

-tenderest heart that ever beat; he had never

-complained, never railed--had borne himself

-throughout with a sort of silent fortitude, and oh,

-all this with such an effort to be cheerful,

-to make light of things that were grinding

-them to pieces.  She told him of her father's

-offer, of Adair's passionate rejection of it at

-a moment when he was next to starving; of

-the fight with Kid Kelly, and the hundred dollars

-he had earned at such a cost.  Through her mist

-of tears she saw that Rolls Reece was not unmoved;

-his eyes, too, were moist; once he took her hand,

-and pressed it to his lips, with something about

-their being friends--always friends.  Throughout

-he had perceived the other side of the story, the

-side she had not dwelt on, and indeed was scarcely

-aware of--her own intrepid part in that comradeship,

-her own sustaining courage and love.  The

-picture she drew of Adair conjured up for the

-dramatist another even more touching; and old

-bachelor that he was, and pessimist of pessimists

-on the marriage question he momentarily turned

-traitor to all his convictions.

-

-When she stopped, with a sudden shame at

-having unbosomed herself to a stranger, and in a

-confusion that was all the prettier for the blush that

-accompanied it, and the air at once so deprecating

-and scared as though she were disgraced for ever--Rolls

-Reece hastened to save her from the ensuing

-embarrassment.

-

-"You mustn't regret having taken me into your

-confidence," he said.  "I'm just an old

-sentimentalist, and belong more than anybody to that

-world that loves a lover.  It is worth all those

-stairs to hear anything so really affecting and

-beautiful, and when I said I wanted to be friends,

-I meant it."

-

-"I'm afraid you're almost as impulsive as I am,

-and as indiscreet."

-

-"Oh, my dear lady, if it wasn't for indiscretion

-what a dreary planet this would be to live

-in.--Imagine the heartrending effect if everybody

-thought before they spoke, and men were all wise,

-and women were all prudent!  Why, what would

-happen to dramatists?"

-

-"You are nice," she said, giving him a candid,

-smiling look in which there was a lurking roguishness;

-"and I'm glad we're going to be friends; and

-I'm not a bit sorry I gave you a peep into an awfully

-hidden place--a girl's heart, you know--though,

-of course, you mustn't expect to make a habit of it;

-and I'm glad you're the great, famous, splendid

-Rolls Reece, and are going to like me, and write

-Cyril a wonderful play, and be our fairy uncle

-for ever and ever; and some day, when you are

-accused of plagiarism or something, and they put you

-in jail, I'll come down to the prison and bring you

-a loaf of bread with a file in it, or change clothes

-with you in your cell, and then it will come home

-to you how very lucky you were ever to know me,

-and you will skip off to South America bursting

-with gratitude."

-

-"In the meanwhile I'm afraid the fairy uncle had

-better bring his call to an end," remarked Rolls

-Reece.  "It's less spectacular--though I can still

-be grateful, mayn't I?  Indeed, I am so happy,

-Mrs. Adair, for you have convinced me in more

-ways than you are aware of that we have been

-unjust to your husband, and that I may safely trust

-the play to him."

-

-"I can't help doubting whether you'll ever come

-back?" she said, as they stood confronting each

-other.  "It's a dream, and you are a dream-dramatist,

-and I'll wake up from a nap, and will

-find everything more miserable than before because

-of it.--Some day you will know what this means

-to us," she added poignantly.  "Some day when--when

-it's long, long passed, and we can talk about

-it like ordinary people.--You have to get a little

-way off to be sorry for yourself, don't you?  I am

-just beginning to see how unspeakably wretched

-and forlorn we were, that poor boy and I, though

-I should probably have never found it out if it

-hadn't been for you."

-

-"Well, that's over," said Rolls Reece comfortingly.

-"If he'll work hard, and do his best, I'll

-back Mr. Adair through thick and thin.  He has an

-unquestionable talent; it will be a pleasure, an

-inspiration to write for him; if he'll do his share, I'll

-engage to do mine, and between us we'll keep at

-it, play on play, till we land a winner.  Only--"

-and here he paused, and raised a warning finger.

-

-"He'll be as good as gold," said Phyllis, filling

-in the interval.  "Don't let the fairy uncle worry

-about that."

-

-"And when may I see him?"

-

-An appointment was forthwith made for the

-same evening; and the dramatist shook hands, and

-was about to go when Phyllis exclaimed again that

-it was a dream, and that it simply couldn't, couldn't,

-couldn't be true, and asked him laughingly to leave

-his umbrella as something tangible to show Adair.

-Rolls Reece caught at the notion, but instead of

-anything as prosaic as an umbrella, slipped off a

-superb ruby ring instead, and laid it on the table.

-

-"There's the pledge of the fairy uncle's return,"

-he said gaily, and hurried away before it could be

-restored to him.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"Good Heavens, Phyllis," cried Adair, "what's

-that thing?"

-

-"A ring."

-

-"But it's a ruby--why, it's valuable--where

-on earth did it come from?"

-

-"A fairy uncle left it."

-

-"Left it?"--Adair stared at her astounded.

-

-"Yes, I was afraid he wouldn't keep his promise

-to come back, so he said I could hold it by way

-of a pledge."

-

-"But who is He?"

-

-"Rolls Reece, I think his name is."

-

-In an instant he was by her side, clutching at

-her arm.

-

-"Phyllis--my God--it wasn't really Rolls Reece?"

-

-"Yes, Booful-love-darling, it just was, and I've

-adopted him as our fairy uncle, and he has adopted

-us, and he's coming back at nine this evening to talk

-things over, and he wants to star you in a new play

-of his, and listen, listen, Cyril, he believes in you,

-and says you have an immense talent, and says he is

-going to write you play after play, and, oh, my

-darling, my darling, my darling--!"

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`CHAPTER XXVII`:

-

-.. class:: center large bold

-

-   CHAPTER XXVII

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Rolls Reece returned and redeemed his

-ring, and attested his sincerity in manifold

-and delightful ways.  He did not mince

-matters with Adair, however, and put it to

-him straight, in a man-to-man talk that lasted

-but twenty minutes yet in which everything

-was said, accepted, and agreed on.  The actor,

-dosed alternately with home-truths and praise,

-emerged triumphantly from the ordeal.

-

-He was told he had missed a magnificent career;

-that it was only his own unmitigated folly he had to

-thank for it; that the number of successful

-dramatists who were willing to write plays for him was

-reduced to precisely one--and that one was none

-too sure of his, Adair's, reformation--though as

-confident as ever, more than ever, of his genius.

-That word, like charity, covered a multitude of sins,

-if Rolls Reece could say that nothing else mattered.

-Adair, in fact, let the whole case against him go by

-default.

-

-"I'm changed," he said simply.  "That's all

-behind me, Reece.  The reason for it is in the other

-room there--and I should think the sight of her is

-worth all the denials and protestations I could

-make."

-

-"Yes, indeed, it is, Adair," said Rolls Reece.

-

-"I suppose there are men who can get along by

-themselves, and be decent," remarked Adair.  "But

-I need girl-ballast in my little ship, and if I had had

-it earlier I shouldn't have made such a confounded

-ass of myself."

-

-"Then we can count it as all arranged--and

-I'm going to start at work on the play to-morrow."

-

-"It may sound commonplace," said Adair, "but

-apart from your play, and success, and all that--I'd

-like to make her, well, you know--feel that she

-hadn't drawn such an awful blank in the husband-raffle.

-Oh, God, Reece, I've pulled her down to

-this--look at this place I've made her live in, will

-you?--And I shan't breathe a free breath till I

-get her out of it."

-

-"It is in your own hands, Adair."

-

-"Perhaps you overestimate my--well, what I can do?"

-

-"No, I don't, and I'm not alone in that either.

-Fielman, Fordingham, Taylor, Niedringer--it's

-common talk with all of them.  You can pull it off

-if you want to."

-

-"Oh, Lord, don't say that again, Reece.  If

-anybody on this mortal earth ever wanted to, it's me."

-

-"Not another word then.  You're satisfied and

-so am I; and if you should ever feel discouraged,

-remember there are only about thirteen men in

-America who can act, and you are one of them, and

-not the last, either.  Let's call in that charming

-wife of yours, and see if she doesn't agree with me."

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Rolls Reece secured a six weeks' engagement for

-Adair in a play of his called *The Upstarts*, that

-was touring Washington, Baltimore, Syracuse,

-Cincinnati, and what are called the near-by cities.  The

-hundred and fifty dollars a week seemed a veritable

-fortune, though it was judged wiser to husband it

-by letting Phyllis remain in New York, and thus

-save the heavy traveling expenses that would

-otherwise have been incurred for her.  The dormice

-had learned the value of money with a vengeance.

-Adair himself, once the most careless of spenders,

-now showed an economy that was laughable and

-pathetic.  He foreswore cigars; lived in the

-cheapest of cheap boarding-houses; grudged every penny

-that could be saved.  There was to be no more

-shingle for dormice, but a warm little nest lined

-with green bills, from which, in hard times, they

-could put out their little noses unafraid.

-

-Rolls Reece expected to secure him another

-engagement with a western company to fill in the

-summer months; and with such an agent enlisted in

-his service the most spendthrift of actors needed

-to have taken no thought for the future.  But

-Adair, who never did anything by halves, was

-cautious to the point of penury.  He was determined

-Phyllis should never suffer such privations again,

-and those who called him miserly and mean little

-suspected the reasons that made him appear so.

-Phyllis herself was kept in the dark lest she should

-emulate his example; and the savings-bank account

-rose and rose without her having the least knowledge

-of it.  The equivalent of cabs, good dinners,

-cigars, wine, expensive rooms, and Pullman berths

-stacked themselves in that yellow pass-book, and

-bore witness to a stoical self-denial.  No more

-shingles for dormice, thank you!

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-In spite of the separation Phyllis was not

-unhappy during those long, silent days.  Spring was

-in the air, and her heart, too, basked in that inner

-sunshine of contentment and hope.  Like a weary

-little soldier she was glad to rest on the battlefield

-beside the parked cannon, and enjoy the contemplation

-of victory.  Body and soul had been sorely

-tried; the reaction left both in a sweet languor; it

-was pleasant to do nothing; to lie back dreaming.

-

-Rolls Reece came often to see her, and many a

-day they spent in his big motor racing over the

-snowy landscape of Long Island or Westchester

-County.  He sent her flowers; he was assiduous in

-the little attentions women like; he was always so

-cheerful, so helpful, so kind.  For him it was an

-intimacy that might have had a dangerous ending.

-He was perilously near falling desperately in love

-with Phyllis, and the latter never showed more

-address than in the way she guided him past the rock

-on which their friendship might have foundered.

-She was quite frank about it--disarmingly frank.

-She liked him too well to lose him, and told him so,

-and was prettily imperious with him, and yet never

-provocative nor coquettish.  A man and woman

-friendship is nothing without sentiment, but it has

-to be a loyal, tender sentiment, that can cause neither

-the least self-reproach.  Rolls Reece slipped by the

-rock unhurt, admiring as he did so the adroitness

-of the young beauty whom he knew had grown so

-fond of him.  As to that there was never any

-question--it was self-confessed--and being a man he

-was naturally flattered and pleased.

-

-But he was high-bred, sensitive, clever, and

-innately a gentleman, with an unusual perception, and

-a taste for the rarer and finer qualities of women.

-Others in his place might have persevered harder,

-and then turned sullen.  He did neither.  Indeed,

-Phyllis' whole love-story, as it came out by

-degrees, touched him profoundly.  Her audacity, her

-daring, her blind reckless headlong surrender to the

-man that had captivated her--all these to him were

-more than moving.  A woman that could stake

-everything for love was altogether to Rolls Reece's

-taste.  And Phyllis had not only staked everything,

-but had succeeded in the more difficult task of

-making love endure and grow.  There were many

-subjects on which she knew nothing; she could not

-have told the name of the vice-president, and she

-thought the Balkans were in South America, but

-when it came to love the dramatist was amazed at

-her profundity.  On this topic, however, the one

-topic that seriously interested her, she had an

-insight and a knowledge, not to speak of a whole

-whimsical vocabulary that made Reece appreciate

-his own shortcomings.  Love, passion, sex--these

-were the real things of life and that demure brown

-head was insatiably concerned with them.

-

-Of course, the new play, too, came in for an

-endless amount of talk and discussion.  It was to be

-called *The Firebrand*, and every few days Rolls

-Reece had a little sheaf of manuscript to read to her.

-It dealt with a young man, who, in the whirl of

-politics, had secured the place of a police-court

-magistrate in a low quarter of Chicago.  The suffering,

-misery and injustice thus passing in review before

-him, first startles and then rouses a nature

-passionately sympathetic and humane.  His decisions are

-original, picturesque, and conventions are torn to

-pieces.  He clashes with the boss who has put him

-into office, and defies him.  The young judge makes

-enemies right and left; alienates the family of the

-girl he is engaged to; is sold up at auction through

-liabilities assumed on behalf of a children's society

-he has started.

-

-The boss leads in the machinations to ruin him,

-which is made the easier by the firebrand's own

-hot-headedness and indiscretion; the third act is in an

-assignation house where the judge is trapped.  He

-explains his innocence to his triumphant tormentors;

-he tells of the half-grown girl he has trailed there,

-and appeals, with a fine outburst, to their humanity

-to help him save her; the boss refuses, and taunts

-him with the scandal that next day will shake

-Chicago.  Then the judge plays his trump card, and

-tells them what he had been trying to hold back,

-that the girl is no other than the boss' own daughter;

-and smashing open a door discloses her and the

-satyr, who has brought her there.  This, in brief,

-was the play, shorn of all its externals--an

-intense, powerful, essentially modern play, brutally

-real, and yet animated by a burning purpose, and

-a resentment no less fiery against the diabolical

-misgovernment of our large cities.

-

-Rolls Reece labeled it "dangerous goods," which

-in truth it was, and was correspondingly uplifted.

-He said he was tired of writing sugar-candy plays,

-and wished to show his detractors that he could

-grapple with big emotions as well as the lesser,

-pink-tea femininities with which his name was

-always associated.  "And remember, Mrs. Adair,"

-he explained, "I don't want a goody-goody young

-man with a benevolent forehead and a spotless past,

-and a Y.M.C.A. accent--but an impatient,

-chip-on-his-shoulder, impulsive fellow, who would like

-to get off the bench and fight somebody.  It's a

-Cyril Adair play, and I am going to fit him as

-carefully as a Fifth Avenue tailor.  And on the

-police-court judge side of it, I am going to show the public

-the colossal power those men have for good or evil.

-They can blight more human lives in one morning

-than the whole Supreme Court could do in ten years.

-In their dingy little field they are absolute monarchs,

-from which there is no appeal.  We owe thousands

-of criminals to their crass stupidity, and when they

-work in collusion with corrupt politicians they are

-a scourge and a terror to every decent man or

-woman in their midst."

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The dramatist had referred several times to a

-friend of his, Andrew Hexham, whom he particularly

-wished Phyllis and Adair to meet.  Ordinarily

-so frank he was somewhat hazy and mysterious

-in his references to this personage, who

-apparently was a man of large fortune, and of

-considerable importance in theatrical affairs.  Once

-Reece dropped his play, and went off for three

-days--an extraordinary lapse from his habit of

-persistent industry--and on his return mentioned he

-had been, staying with Hexham, smiling in a queer,

-guilty kind of way that tantalized Phyllis' curiosity.

-But nothing could be got out of him--at least

-nothing that could explain his singular

-entertainment whenever Hexham's name came up.  It

-seemed, however, that this man had to be won over;

-that *The Firebrand* was in some dim manner

-dependent on his good will; that he was a fussy,

-troublesome, dictatorial person, not a little

-prejudiced against Adair.  This had to be overcome at a

-meeting; and Phyllis, especially, was commanded to

-go out of her way to be "nice to him"--"You're

-such an irresistible little baggage when you choose,"

-said Rolls Reece.  "I want you to tie him up in

-bow-knots, just as you tied me, to dazzle him, and

-then we'll sign the contract right there before he

-can undazzle himself."

-

-"I'm not much good at fascinating people unless

-I like them," returned Phyllis ingenuously and

-doubtfully.

-

-"Oh, you'll like him," protested Reece.  "I'll

-answer for that, you know."

-

-"Well, I'll do my best," said Phyllis, wondering

-to herself what it all meant.  "I'll sit very close,

-and make dachshund eyes at him, and encourage

-him to talk about himself.  That's the secret of

-woman's charm when you analyze it.  See how it

-caught you!"

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-It was too bad, though, that Rolls Reece should

-have chosen the Sunday that Adair ran over from

-Philadelphia, where *The Upstarts* was booked for

-a week.  The pair had been separated for nearly

-four weeks, and Phyllis wanted her husband all to

-herself.  Rolls Reece, Andrew Hexham, even *The

-Firebrand* itself, were very secondary things when

-weighed against the rapture of Adair's return.

-She pleaded with Rolls Reece to postpone the

-meeting until Monday afternoon, but the dramatist

-with unexpected obstinacy stood out for Sunday

-evening.  Hints were lost on him, and even some

-pink-cheeked, shy, half-murmured things merely

-made him laugh instead of relenting.--Sunday

-night it had to be.

-

-But to do him justice, the dramatist tempered

-severity with his usual generosity.  He sent a

-prodigal amount of flowers, as well as a case of

-champagne, and would have contributed his colored butler

-had he been allowed--which he wasn't.  Phyllis

-said that the Pest Person (as all that day she hotly

-called Mr. Hexham)--the Pest Person had to take

-them as they were, and if there was one thing worse

-than a hired butler, it was a borrowed one.  If the

-Pest Person didn't like the way he was treated--if

-he were the sort of Pest Person who judged people

-by striped nigger-trousers and gilt chandeliers,

-why, he could just go to the devil.--Which went to

-show, incidentally, how good that four weeks' rest

-had been for Phyllis, and how fast she was getting

-back her former spirit.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-At nine that evening Adair and Phyllis were

-both waiting for their visitors.  True to her

-promise to Rolls Reece the latter had dressed

-herself with unusual care; and Adair, who was allowed

-to see but not touch, swore she had never looked

-more ravishing.  Her fresh young womanhood

-entranced him; she was so slender, so graceful, so

-girlish, and the red rose in her hair was not more

-exquisite.  What a beauty she was!  How altogether

-perfect from the top of her dark head to her

-trim little feet!--And the saucy mouth that was

-always ready to part on the dazzling teeth; the

-low, sweet, eager voice; the bubbling, caressing

-laugh--after four weeks of loneliness, of dismal,

-dreary separation, it was as though he had never

-really appreciated them before; and it was

-intolerable to be stuck to a chair and forbidden to move

-when everything in him bade him seize her in his

-arms, and assert his master's right.

-

-Worst still, Rolls Reece and the Pest Person

-were late.  The minutes ticked away--five past,

-ten past, a quarter past, twenty past--and yet there

-was neither dramatist nor Pest.--Ah, there they

-were at last!  Phyllis ran to admit them, fumbling

-at the latch of the door in her excitement.  She

-opened it on the dimly-lighted landing, and held

-out both hands in welcome to Rolls Reece, who

-stood before her.  His friend was hidden in the

-shadow, but as she glanced towards him recognition

-suddenly pierced her heart.  It was her father!

-

-All he said was her name, and that so humbly,

-and with an intonation so affecting that she flung

-her arms about him in a paroxysm of tenderness,

-unmindful of everything save the love that suddenly

-flooded her whole being.  Misunderstanding,

-self-justification, the rights or wrongs of their unhappy

-estrangement--all were forgotten, all were swept

-away.  Clinging to him she guided him along the

-passageway and into the sitting-room, where Adair,

-bewildered and astonished, was waiting to receive

-them.  Even in the throes of that tumultuous

-moment Phyllis, trying to see with her father's eyes,

-took in Adair with a welling pride.  Never had he

-appeared to her more manly, more distinguished

-or noble; and when she said: "My husband,

-Daddy," it was with a little air that told of her

-own content with the man of her choice.

-

-"I am here in the character of a repentant father,

-with ashes on his head," said Mr. Ladd; and going

-up to Adair, held out his hand.  "Will you not

-forgive me?" he asked, "and may we not be

-friends?"

-

-Rolls Reece had looked forward to being present

-at this evening of reconciliation; of being patted on

-the back for the big part he had taken in it; of

-drinking his own champagne amid the ensuing

-festivity and joy.  But as he saw the two men's hands

-meet and grasp; as he saw Phyllis press between

-them, her eyes suffusing, and sobs choking her

-utterance, he realized that he was gazing at a scene

-too sacred for him to share.  He silently effaced

-himself, shut the door without noise, and tiptoed

-down the stairs.

-

-"It's a good world," he murmured to himself,

-"yes, a damned good world; and in spite of what

-people say, things often work out right."

-

-.. vspace:: 3

-

-.. class:: center

-

-   THE END

-

-.. vspace:: 6

-

-.. pgfooter::

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