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diff --git a/old/52699-0.txt b/old/52699-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 4e5c424..0000000 --- a/old/52699-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3925 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chinese Coat, by Jennette Lee - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Chinese Coat - -Author: Jennette Lee - -Release Date: August 2, 2016 [EBook #52699] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHINESE COAT *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - - - - - - -THE CHINESE COAT - -By Jennette Lee - -New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons - -1920 - -TO - -GERALD STANLEY LEE - -“I take my way along the island’s edge” - - - - - -CONTENTS - -THE CHINESE COAT - -I - -II - -III - -IV - -V - -VI - -VII - -VIII - -IX - -X - -XI - -XII - -XIII - -XIV - -XV - -XVI - -XVII - -XVIII - -XIX - -XX - -XXI - -XXII - -XXIII - -XXIV - -XXV - - - - -THE CHINESE COAT - - - - -I - -Eleanor MORE walked away from the coat. She looked back at it across -the glass case of fichus and ribbon bows, and went on down the aisle of -show-cases to the coats and suits at the end. Stewart’s was having a -sale of coats and suits, and Eleanor More was there—not because she -could afford to buy anything, even at a sale, but because she was a -woman. - -She had been passing the store and seen the crowd pressing in through -the wide doors... She had hesitated a minute and gone in. - -It was nearly six o’clock now, and the crowd had thinned. Here and -there a wandering figure could be seen, half ready for flight, pausing -to peck at some bargain crumb; and helpers with long gray covers were -appearing and shrouding the glass cases and counters for the night. The -light in the shop began to seem gray and a little ghostly; out of it the -gold and blue colors of the Chinese coat gleamed freshly, like a bit of -Oriental flame caught in this dull sale of Western goods and held fast. - -Eleanor More glanced at the coat again—down through the gray-shrouded -counters. Then she turned swiftly and went back. It stood by itself on -its dummy figure at the end of the glass cases; in the fading light from -a window above, the fantastic gold shadows of the dragons chased each -other and played hazily across it. - -She halted before it, and half reached out her hand to it. - -A woman with a large bust and paper cuffs on her sleeves came drifting -toward her. “Anything I can show you, madam?” - -Eleanor More looked up. “I was looking at this coat.” Her hand moved -vaguely to the dragons. - -The woman’s eyes followed the gesture. “It’s a great bargain!” -She put out her hand to it. - -“Would you like to slip it on?” - -Eleanor More drew back. “Oh—I wasn’t thinking of buying. I was -looking. I just happened—to see it——” - -The woman’s hands were busy with the neck of the coat. She slipped it -deftly from the lay figure and held it up. “No harm in trying,” she -said. - -Eleanor More looked at it and drew away—and came back. She held out -her hands with a little laughing gesture. - -“No—I cannot afford—” She put her hands into the blue sleeves -with the quaint trailing ends and drew it up about her. - -The woman gave a little pat to the shoulders and smiled, pointing to a -long mirror at the right. - -Eleanor More moved to the mirror; she stood looking at herself. - -Behind her stretched the gray counters—shrouded in for the night’s -rest. Only a figure here and there was visible in the distance. Her eyes -caught the empty spaces behind her. - -“It is late!” she said hastily. “I am keeping you!” She looked -over her shoulder at the woman who seemed, in the gray light, receding -dimly. - -But she came forward with a smile. “There is no hurry.” She touched -the coat and adjusted it. - -“It suits you perfectly!” - -Eleanor More glanced again into the long mirror. The blue and gold -covered her from head to foot; and above it, her face looked out at her, -a little mistily, and smiled to her. - -She shook her head and the mirrored lady shook her head—slowly. Then -they both smiled radiantly and the gold dragons crumpled their tails as -the coat was flung swiftly back. - -“I don’t know why I put it on! I think it bewitched me! Here—take -it! Thank you very much.” She spoke—half under her breath, and the -woman took the coat in her hands. She stood smoothing the folds. - -“It is a great bargain—marked down for to-day.” She touched the -tag with casual finger, and Eleanor’s eyes followed the motion. - -“I know—It’s absurdly cheap—and very beautiful! But I simply -cannot afford it! Thank you for showing it to me—so late!” She -moved, a little blindly, toward the stairs. The elevator had ceased to -run. - -When she was gone the woman stood with the coat in her hand irresolute. -A helper coming by with an armful of gray covers cast a flitting glance -at it. - -“Want a top?” - -But she shook her head. “I will put it in the box for to-night.” - -The helper went on down the aisle. The woman drew a box from beneath -the counter and folded the dragons with careful hand, and smoothed their -tails and placed the coat in its box. Through a bit of tissue-paper -across the top of the blue and gold it gleamed and shimmered softly, and -the woman brushed light finger-tips across it as she pressed the paper -down and tucked it in and set the box aside. - -Then she went down the room, and disappeared among the shadows of -counters and cases, and the shop was left alone. Darkness slipped in -from outside, and pushed the grayness before it. It clothed the dummy -figure in black, and descended on the box of dragons, blotting it out. -It covered the whole room. - -In the darkness beneath the counter lay the Chinese coat, with its bit -of tissue-paper lying across the glory of blue and gold, safely tucked -away. - -Only the vast oblongs of windows remained to show faintly, against the -street outside, where the light came in. - - - - -II - -THAT night she dreamed of the coat. She saw its soft folds descending on -her out of the sky, and she held up her hands to it and caught it to -her and wrapped it about her and ran in the wind, singing. And all the -dragons came alive and pranced beside her—and she threw off the coat -and ran with the dragons, unclothed. And the freedom of it was like -life—flooding down on her out of the sky; and then the dragons moved -from her—they were receding into the distance, their great heads held -high; and she ran, stumbling, after them, alone and naked—and suddenly -she was in a crowded street and the people were looking at her, and -shame drew about her as a vast garment; she shrank back into it, trying -to hide—but there was no cover for her—and she woke with a dry, -choking sob. - -She got carefully out of bed and tiptoed from the room, closing the -door behind her. In the next room, she could see the daylight straggling -through the curtains. She threw up the shades and watched it come. A -flush of light was in the sky over the mean little houses at the rear; -even the houses themselves, not yet touched by the light, had a fresh, -waiting look; and in the chicken-yards the hens ran about busily, -pecking at something, or nothing. In one of the vacant lots a man was -hoeing. His bent back had a look of strength. As she watched him, he -stopped his work a moment and looked up at the sky. Then he went on -hoeing, with slow strokes. - -The rooms were filled with light when she came from her bath; and she -threw open the windows, and went about getting breakfast with quick -steps. - -She put the plates on the table and paused and went to the door and -opened it. The little porch outside, half-shaded with vines, was -streaked with sunshine along the floor. She stepped out on to it, -holding out her hand, as if to test the warmth. - -She drew a table from the wall and brought a cloth for it and laid the -table for breakfast on the porch. - -Presently she looked up. A man in the doorway was surveying her with a -smile. - -She came across to him and lifted her face. - -He bent to kiss it. “Up early, weren’t you!” - -“I couldn’t sleep—Do you like it—out here?” She waved her -hand. - -“Fine!” He surveyed the table. “Couldn’t be beat! Shall I bring -things out?” - -“I was afraid you might not like it.” She poured his coffee. -“Father never liked it—eating out-of-doors—at home.” - -“This is home,” said the man. He was sipping his coffee and looking -contentedly at the vine-shadows on the floor. - -“My other home, I mean.” - -“You never had any other home.” - -“Well—what I called home—till I knew better!” She laughed the -words at him, and he nodded gravely. - -“Father used to wear his hat—some days his muffler—if we tried to -eat out-of-doors. So we gave it up. I am glad you like it!” - -She fell silent, watching the shadows; and he watched her face. She was -quiet a long time. - -The man finished his breakfast—he looked at her. - -“What are you thinking of?” he asked. - -She started. “Oh—I—Nothing very much.” She flashed a little look -at him and got up from the table. - -“Better tell me,” he suggested. - -“It wasn’t anything—not anything that will ever be—anything.” -She began to gather up dishes. - -“Made you look pretty happy,” he said. - -“Did it?” she laughed out. She stood a moment, looking thoughtfully -at the vine-shadows on the cloth.... “It was a coat I saw at -Stewart’s, yesterday—a perfectly absurd coat—for me!” - -“No coat could be absurd for you—not if you wanted it!” - -“Yes—I wanted it—I suppose.” She looked again at the white cloth -and waited. “I think it bewitched me.... It was a Chinese coat, you -see!” - -He looked at her blankly. “A Chinese coat—for you!” - -She nodded. “I told you it was absurd!” - -“Well—” He regarded it thoughtfully. “If you want it... But what -could you do with—a Chinese coat?” - -“That’s what I don’t know.” She was very meek. “I just seemed -to think—I wanted it.” - -“You couldn’t wear it to church?” - -“No-o—” She hesitated. “I could wear it to the opera—if we -should go.” - -He laughed out. “And to the circus!” He came around and touched her -hair where the light fell on it. “How much did it cost—this Chinese -thingumabob?” - -“Fifty dollars—” It came out slowly—and he whistled softly -between his teeth. - -“For the opera!” he said. - -She threw out her hands. “Of course I didn’t mean it! But you asked -me—what I was thinking about——” - -“Of course I did!” He was prompt. “And I’ll see what we -have—to spare.” - -He moved toward the door. “Sure you couldn’t use it for anything -else”—he looked back over his shoulder—“except the opera?” - -“Well—I could make a kimono of it.” She glanced at him -half-pleadingly—then she laughed out. “I don’t want the old thing! -I don’t know why I told you!” - - - - -III - -If she thought of the coat through the day, there was no sign of it in -her face. She went about her work with busy, preoccupied look. She -did the dishes, and dusted and made beds and went to market; and after -luncheon, which she had by herself on the porch, she lay down, a little -while, watching the streaks of light that came through the blind-slats -and fell across the matting, and almost reached to the bed... and when -she saw them again, they were lying along the pillow close to her—and -it was five o’clock. - -She sprang up with a little exclamation and hurried to the kitchen. - -But, after all, Richard was late, and everything was ready when he came. - -He cast a happy look about the room, - -“Nice home!” he said. - -She smiled and set the dinner on the table. - -“You were late.” - -“Well, rather! It’s been a great day—” He looked at her -thoughtfully across the table, and took up the carving-knife and tested -it gently on his thumb. “Martin came in—about the lot, next door!” - -She glanced quickly at him. “What did he say?” - -“Said he’s ready—to sell.” - -They were both silent. - -Presently she gave a little sigh. “Well, of course we can’t—But -it’s too bad!” - -He looked at her, smiling. “That’s the queer thing! It’s just -possible——” - -“What do you mean?” - -“Well—I’d been looking things over—about your Chinese coat, you -know——” - -“Oh-h!” Her glance held his. - -He nodded. “I’d made up my mind to get it for you—if it took our -last - -“But I told you—” - -He held up a hand. “And I’d just figured out how I could do -it—when Martin came in and offered the lot for three hundred—fifty -dollars down.” - -Her eyes were on his face. - -“Of course, yesterday, or day before, I should have said—we -couldn’t do it.... But there was the money—in my hand, -practically.” - -“Did you give it to him?” She leaned forward, a little breathless. - -He looked at her. “Do you think I did?” - -“Why—I—don’t know.” - -He got up and came over to her and bent down. “It is your Chinese -coat!” he said. “You didn’t suppose I was going to mortgage your -possessions—without letting you know!” - -“You mean I can have it—the coat!” She had clasped her hands—she -was gazing at something far beyond him—far beyond the room, it seemed. - -He watched her face a minute. “You sure can have your coat—if you -want it!” he said softly. - -She drew a long breath and the light ran back into her face, flooding -it. - -“Oh—!” She threw out her hands. “I don’t want it!—I just -wanted to be sure I could want it—if I wanted to!” - -“I know.” He looked down at her with quiet understanding. - -“So it is the lot?” he said. - -“Of course it is the lot! Go and eat your dinner, silly boy!” - - - - -IV - -They were not likely to forget the night they decided to buy the lot -next door. It seemed the beginning of married life together. To be sure, -they had been married nearly a year and they had bought and furnished -the house; they had even bought a strip of land on the other side of the -house that had come into the market soon after they were married—while -they still had a little money to spare. - -But in all their purchases before, there had been an element that -marked them off by themselves. This new purchase was something -different—something entered into from choice, and with a free heart. - -They called it the Chinese lot. - -It was Eleanor who named it and told - -Richard laughingly. But even to herself it was not a common, every-day -name. It seemed a kind of dream-place, in a faint, happy light, with -Chinese dragons chasing across it. - -Within twenty-four hours after their decision, the deed for the lot was -in Richard’s pocket; and twenty-four hours later the fence between was -torn down, and builders were at work on a wall that took in the new lot -and made the whole place one. - -Eleanor More watched the men with shining eyes. When her work was done -she took her sewing-basket and went into the sunshine across the yard, -and stepped over the boundary into the new lot. Just beyond the boundary -was a great oak-tree, with wide branches and great roots bulging out -of the ground. As she sat down under the tree, she noted the roots; the -happy thought crossed her mind of children playing there—each great -root a playhouse—with little dishes and mud pies.... Her eyes followed -the dream, as she unfolded her work and sat sewing, with the light -flecking down on her and on the root playhouses and green grass. - -Richard More found her there when he came home from work. He went across -to see how much had been finished on the wall. Then he came back and -stood and watched her swift needle and the light on her hair. - -She looked up. - -“Nice place!” he said approvingly. - -“Yes—I like the roots!” She patted one of them beside her. - -He looked at it vaguely. - -“Fine!” he said. - -She smiled, but she did not explain. - -“Why didn’t you ever sit here before?” he demanded, looking about -him. - -The needle paused. “Why—?... We never owned it before!” - -“You didn’t have to own it—to sit on it.” - -“Oh, yes I did! Owning it is half the sitting on it!” - -He threw himself on the ground beside her and looked up into the -oak-tree, throwing back his head. - -Her puzzled eyes regarded him. - -“I should never think of coming out here to sit—if we didn’t own -it—you know that.” - -“Hah! Just like a woman!” - -She pricked the needle through the muslin in her hand. - -“There was the fence,” she said. - -“Climb over!” He had taken a pipe from his pocket. - -She reached out her hand. “Not before dinner!” decisively. -“You’ll spoil your appetite!” She captured the pipe. - -“Oh, very well!” He leaned against the tree and watched her. - -She was folding her sewing neatly. “I should never have climbed -over!” She pinned the work together in a compact roll and nodded to -him. - -“You could have gone round—” he said with a teasing note. - -“You know what I mean, Dick! I shouldn’t have wanted to sit under a -tree that did not belong to us—and that belonged to the Martins or to -the Suttons, or to anybody—and not in our own yard—nobody would!” - -“Funny idea!” said Dick slowly. “Same tree, same place, just -Ours!” - -She smiled at him. “Help me up! It’s time for dinner.” - -He strolled across the grass beside her to the house, and helped set the -table while she was in the kitchen. - -He did not smoke his pipe. She had laid it on a high shelf over the -mantel as she came in. She had to climb on a chair to reach the mantel. -Dick could have reached it with one lift of his hand. But he only eyed -it, half-humorously, as he set out doilies and finger-bowls and counted -spoons, and called out to the kitchen to know how many forks were -needed. - -Not for worlds would he have taken down the pipe—not for a single -whiff. He had a kind of savage pleasure in it—watching it up -there—with its old familiar brown bowl turned to the wall.... Time had -been when that pipe was his only friend.... He did not own a house and -lot then—and an oak-tree.... - -He peeped out of the window at the tree, serene in the evening light.... -Suddenly he saw a Chinese Coat—blue and gold, she had said it was; and -the happiness in his face deepened. He whistled softly between his -teeth as he arranged forks and spoons.... “Our forks and spoons!” he -said—and laughed out. - -She came to the door. “What are you talking about?” - -“Nothing—my dear—nothing!” and she returned to the kitchen. - -Richard More had not married until he was thirty-five. Eleanor was -twenty-six. It had not been easy to win her. She had her tutoring to -do.... He took her away from her home town—into his kitchen. But he -knew she was happy—far happier than she had been in her little world -that looked up to her.... As for himself, he felt as if he moved in -a new world—a great world that stretched through leagues—to the -moon—or the sun.... The pipe-dreams of old days seemed like hen-coop -dreams in the spaces in Eleanor’s mind. Each day he began exploration -anew; and each day, in the little circle of her being, he seemed to -sweep out into the world—great cosmic paths, and tracks of stars and -shining spaces.... - -She came from the kitchen, smoothing down the sleeves of her gown and -casting a last look at the table. - -“Too many forks!” she said. - -She removed one from each plate, and put it back in its place—neatly -in its compartment in the drawer of the shining sideboard. - - - - -V - -A MONTH later he hurried home one day from work. It was Saturday noon, -and a half-holiday for him. - -She was finishing her luncheon. The light in the half-darkened -dining-room seemed to him mysterious and cool as he came in from the -street outside. - -She looked up in surprise. “You are home early!” - -He glanced at her plate. “Through luncheon?” - -“Almost—Do you want something?” - -“No. I’ve had mine—Let’s go off somewhere!” - -In ten minutes she was ready and they left the house. He tucked the key -in his vest pocket and they hurried across the lawn to catch an outgoing -car. - -As he passed the oak-tree he glanced at it with a knowing smile. He -might almost have been said to wag his head at it. And he patted the -pocket where the key lay.... Close beside the key were five round golden -disks—little yellow disks that might at any minute turn into great -gold dragons. - -They left the car at a fork in the road and were in the open country; -they climbed a high hill, and a hill behind the high hill, and came out -at last upon a bluff overlooking miles of country. - -She took off her hat and sat down with a happy sigh, lifting her face to -the breeze that came across the hill. - -“Isn’t it good!” - -He nodded, without speaking. His eyes were on the mountains in the -distance. His heart was talking to five gold coins that lay just over it -and caused it to beat in a jolly happy rhythm. - -He put out a hand and touched hers. - -“Something nice has happened today!” he said. - -She turned her eyes to him. - -“I think this is pretty nice!” Her hand swept all the reach of space -about them. - -“Guess,” he said teasingly. - -“Something we want?” - -“Of course. More than anything in the world,” he said after a -minute. - -She turned her eyes on him gravely. She looked at him a full minute. -“How do you know that?” she said softly. - -“I know.” He moved nearer to her, and they watched the light -change and sweep in great shadows across the fields below. “You want -it—more than anything in the world,” he said, speaking slowly. “I -knew you did—when I took it for the lot.” - -She patted the hand that lay beside her own. - -“I did not want it—not so very much,” she said. “Anyway, I -wanted the lot more.... And, besides, I’ve been so busy getting ready -for Annabel——” - -“Getting ready for William Archer,” he corrected gravely. - -“Getting ready for Annabel—” she pursued, “that I have not had -time to think about things—just things for myself.” - -“This is not just for yourself—it is for me, too.” - -She turned a startled, half-questioning look at him. - -He nodded gayly, watching her face. “Did you think I didn’t want -that Chinese coat?” - -“Oh, did you?” Her face had flushed like a child’s. “I thought I -was—just silly about it!” - -“So you were. That’s why I wanted it for you.... But, of course, it -was sensible to get the lot.” - -“Of course!” Her assent was wholehearted and happy. - -“So now we’re going to get the coat, too—to-day. I had some money -come in”—he patted his pocket—“and there’s enough.” - -“It may be gone—!” she said quickly. - -“Don’t think so. I sent over word. They’ve got a Chinese coat.” - -“Oh, I hope it is the same one—!” She breathed a happy sigh. - -“We ought to go right away!” She started up. - -“Time enough.” He spoke lazily. “I told them to hold it—till -five o’clock.” He took out his watch. “Two hours. Plenty of -time.” - -She sank back. Presently she looked at him. - -“I never guessed how much I wanted it! I did not know!”--after a little -pause--"I think I did not let myself know." - -Then they talked for a while about Annabel--whose name was William -Archer, he pointed out to her.... And they laid plans that ran far ahead -into the future--almost till Annabel was an old lady and lonely--only -she would have married by that time--and there would be other -Annabels.... It seemed to stretch away infinitely. - -It was all wonderful--and mysterious. She turned and buried her face in -the moss for a long time and was very quiet. - -And overhead a great bird passed by. Richard watched the circling -flight. - -She patted her hair and began to pin on her hat. - -He watched her, smiling gravely. - -“Now we will go and buy the coat,” he said—“that wonderful -Chinese coat—blue and gold, I think you said, my dear—with the great -gold dragons on it!” - - - - -VI - -As they drew near the store he became aware that she was deeply excited; -there was a little flush in her face, and she walked with quickened -step. He laid his hand on her arm protectingly. But she did not slow her -pace. - -“Plenty of time,” he said softly in her ear. - -She only gave him a sidelong glance and hurried on. - -“It may not be the one!” she murmured as they entered the store. - -“Then we’ll hunt till we find one like it!” he replied valiantly. - -Through the elevator grills she recognized the woman who had waited on -her before, and she went swiftly toward her. - -“We have come to see the coat,” she said simply. - -The woman looked at her, almost in pity, it seemed. - -“There’s another party interested in the coat—You mean the Chinese -coat, I suppose?” - -Eleanor’s face was blank. There was a little catch in her throat. - -The woman reached down a hand beneath the counter. “We promised to -hold it—” She glanced at the clock, and drew out a box. - -“The other party said he was pretty sure to take it.” - -Through the tissue-paper a maze of blue and gold showed dimly. - -She lifted the paper, throwing it back. - -“I guess I’m the other party,” said Richard More. He stooped -forward, smiling a little. - -“Of course you are!” said Eleanor with a breath of relief. “Of -course you are—the ’other party’.” - -She turned to the woman. “It was my husband wanted to see it,” she -said almost proudly. - -The woman consulted a slip of paper. “Name of ’More’.” she -asked. - -Richard nodded. “Let’s have a look at it.” - -The woman lifted the garment from the box and flung it wide on the -counter before them; and all the color in it glowed softly and the -colors that lay on the counter about it glared and seemed hard. - -“Pretty thing!” said Richard More. He pulled his mustache a little -nervously. - -The woman lifted the coat and shook it out. - -“Let madam try it on,” she suggested. - -She came from behind the counter and placed it on Eleanor’s shoulders, -smoothing the folds. - -“It’s not a usual garment—Not every one could wear a garment like -that.” She moved back a little, gazing with half-closed eyes. - -“It suits madam perfectly!” - -The husband surveyed it. “Turn around,” he commanded. - -Eleanor turned and moved from him down the cleared space to the mirror. -And he was conscious of something remote in her movements. She seemed to -withdraw, to hold herself removed, wrapped in the blue and gold folds of -the coat. - -He moved after her and she turned and faced him. - -“It’s all right!” he said approvingly. - -He half put out his hand to touch an end of blue sleeve that trailed -away to a tasselled cord.... Then he withdrew his hand. “It’s all -right!” he repeated vaguely. - -The clerk came forward and lifted the tassel and let it fall in place; -her fingers sprayed over the garment in an easy, official way. - -“How much is it?” asked Richard More. - -She consulted the tag hanging on a bit of gold cord in front. She -dropped it. - -“Ninety-five dollars,” she said indifferently. - -She stooped to arrange a fold of the coat. - -Eleanor More turned a little. She seemed to gaze down with wide, -reproachful eyes at the woman’s bent form. - -Her husband’s tone was crisp. “We understood the price was—less -than that,” he said. - -The woman straightened herself and looked at him. “That was last -month—for the sale. It was marked down.” - -“And now it’s marked up, is it?” he asked a little cynically. - -She assented and touched the coat gently with her fingers, stroking it. -“It is a coat Mr. Stewart bought himself,” she said—“in China. -He found it when he was buying goods—and liked it. But we’ve had it -in stock some time, and he told me to mark it down for the sale. After -that, when no one bought it”—she seemed to look at Eleanor almost -with reproachful eyes—“then he told me to put back the original -price.... It’s more than worth it, of course.” - -“Of course,” said Richard absently. He was wondering how much -Eleanor really wanted the coat. - -She had not spoken from the moment it was laid on her shoulders. She -seemed to have withdrawn into it—to have become an inaccessible part -of its mystery and charm. - -“I had not expected—to pay more than fifty dollars,” said Richard -More slowly. “I happen to have that amount with me——-” - -The woman waited on the suggestion.... She looked at the two people -before her. - -“I’ll speak to Mr. Stewart—if he hasn’t gone. It’s not like -regular stock. I don’t know whether he would sell it for less——” - -She moved away from them down the store and they stood, with all the -dummy figures standing around, and waited for her. - -Richard More did not speak. He longed to ask his wife whether she wanted -it as much as that—as much as ninety-five dollars. But he could not -shape the words that would say it. He almost wondered whether she would -understand—if he asked her. - -She stood with her hands hanging idle and her eyes looking down. She was -like a prehistoric creature—an Oriental Madonna of ageless form and -beauty.... Almost, he fancied, there were tears in the lidded eyes.... -He started and turned brusquely. - -The clerk was coming back. He looked at her keenly as she came toward -them. - -She shook her head. “Ninety-five dollars,” she said. “But you can -have a charge, of course.” - -His hand moved to his pocket and his eyes were on his wife’s face. - -She turned, with a shiver of the long silken lines, and she threw back -the coat with a laugh. - -“How absurd, Richard I—We can’t pay all that money—for a -whim!” - -His hand stayed itself from the pocket. “Don’t you want it?” he -asked doubt-ingly. - -“Of course not!” She shook the coat from her and stepped out. - -The woman caught it with a quick gesture as it fell. - -His hand waited, fingering the coins in his pocket. “I think we could -manage it——” - -“Oh—! I don’t want it!” She ignored the woman. She moved swiftly -past her and was half-way to the elevator. He sprang after her, with a -backward glance of apology at the woman, who stood with the coat on her -arm, gazing after them. - -In the elevator Eleanor shivered a little, and he squeezed her arm in -his in the darkness. - -“It’s all right!” he said soothingly, beneath his breath. - -She nodded and pressed a little against him. - -When they stepped into the light he glanced at her face. It had almost a -tragic look. - -“Better go back and get it,” he said peremptorily. “Hang the -price!” - -But she shook her head. - -Half-way to the door, he touched her arm. “Let’s get it!” he said -coax-ingly. - -“I don’t want it!” She turned a gaze on him—half-tragic, -half-humorous.... “Do you know why I would not get it?” she -demanded. - -“I don’t know anything!” he declared, jostling through the crowd -to keep pace with her. “I’m incapable of knowing—anything!” - -She smiled—a little wistful smile—up at him. “I wouldn’t get -it.... Can you hear me?” - -“Yes. I can hear you.” He bent his head to her, and they moved as a -unit through the crowd. “I can hear you. Go ahead!” - -“I thought suddenly”—she gasped a little—“how awful it would -be if Annabel should ever want to have clothes—things to wear—as -badly as I wanted that coat—and all those dear little beasts winding -around on it!... It wasn’t a coat!” Her lips were close to his ear, -a little smile seemed to run from them to him, and he laughed out. - -“It wasn’t a coat!” she said fiercely. “It was a blue and gold -temptation—with dragons! I wouldn’t have it—at any price!” - -“Not for fifty dollars?” he asked—and he bent a keen look at her -unconscious face in the crowd. - -“Not if they would give it to me!” she said with swift decision. -“I want Annabel to be mild in her nature!” - -Richard More followed her. Privately he fancied that Annabel would be a -person who would know her own mind. If she wanted a blue and gold coat, -she would have it, he thought; and if she didn’t want a blue and gold -coat, she wouldn’t have it, he thought.... And William Archer—? -Well—blue and gold were not exactly colors to be desired in the case -of William Archer. In any case Annabel and William Archer must look out -for themselves. - -He was going back to-morrow, or the first chance he could, and buy that -Chinese coat for his wife. He wanted it for her.... As they made their -way out of the store, he saw it again, wrapped about her, and he saw -the down-bent face with its look of mystery, rising above the shimmering -folds. - - - - -VII - -She seemed to have brought away with her some secret of the coat—a -touch of its mystery and charm. - -Richard watched her as she went about the house, occupied with little -things. He fancied there was a look in her face that came and went -shadowily—as if the curtains before a hidden place were swept aside by -an unseen wind.... And before he could look again—it was gone. - -Her face in repose was very common-place, he knew; it had grown a little -full and there was a humorous, almost conceited, little upward twist to -the mouth, that he found annoying.... And then suddenly, when she was -off guard, the look had fled and he was gazing at the strange face. - -He found himself growing troubled, driven by a force he did not quite -comprehend—a disbelief in the solid earth and the turning of the -seasons.... He had sown grass-seed in the new lot; the wall was finished -and vines had been planted at its base. But the lot had to his eyes an -unsubstantial look. He had an almost superstitious feeling that it had -been bought with a price. - -He had gone back for the Chinese coat the Monday morning after they were -there. He was waiting at the door when the store opened and he hurried -directly to the first floor, too impatient to wait for the elevator to -make its trip. - -The woman saw him coming. She stopped her work and waited.... He fancied -her look was a little startled. - -He told her he would take the coat. He would pay part on it and have the -rest charged—he would take it with him. - -Little by little he grasped the fact that the coat was gone. - -“But we were here late! There was no one else.... You had no chance to -sell it!” He could have believed she was lying to him. - -But her face was open—and there was unmistakable regret in her voice. -“I would have reserved it for you with pleasure over Sunday, or -longer—if you had told me.... I thought your wife did not care for -it.” - -“She—she may have thought the price was a little steep,” he -admitted. “But I wanted her to have it—I intended she should have -it.” - -“I am sorry. A woman came—not two minutes after you left—I still -had the coat on my arm. She must have been in the elevator that came up -as you went down.... And the minute she saw the coat she stopped. She -seemed to know she wanted it. - -“I tried it on her right there where we stood, and she bought it and -paid for it and took it away.... I don’t think she meant to buy a -coat when she came up. She was looking for something else, I think, and -happened to see the coat and took a fancy to it and bought it. I’m -sorry you did not tell me to save it.... It was much more becoming to -your wife. It really seemed made for your wife.” Her voice was full of -interest and a gentle kindness. - -There were no customers in the store; he felt as if he and the woman -were alone in a vast place. She was not a mere clerk. She seemed linked -with the coat and its destiny, and with their lives. - -He thanked her and went away. And the next day he went again to see if -they could get him a duplicate of the coat—if he left an order. - -She looked at him tolerantly. “A coat like that,” her glance seemed -to say, “is to be taken when you have the chance—and not be coming -back for duplicate orders!” - -“There was not a chance in a thousand,” she told him. - -“I’ll take your order, of course, and I’ll tell Mr. Stewart. But -they don’t make those coats by the dozen; and, besides, it is very, -very old—hundreds of years, perhaps.” - -“I know!” He groaned a little. - -He seemed to see all the mysterious color of the coat and the shimmer -of its folds—and the look in Eleanor’s face. “I hope you can get -something like it for us,” he said inanely. - -He had not gone back to inquire again. - -They had his address; they were to send him word if they found anything. -Mr. Stewart was to make a trip to the East very soon. She would send him -word. - -It was left at that. They would send him word.... He planned, in the -back of his mind, to buy the coat for Eleanor but not to give it to -her—not just yet. He would buy it, he thought, and put it away; and -when William Archer arrived, he would bring it out and throw it about -her shoulders. He liked to fancy her in it and to think how it would -help her disappointment about Annabel.... She could enjoy it to the -full. She would not be afraid of injuring Annabel or her morals—when -William Archer was there. - -But no word came and the months slipped by. - - - - -VIII - -THEN, one evening, Richard More came home from the office and found a -new look in his house. He knew it, even before he caught a glimpse of -a nurse’s white cap hurrying through the lower hall and before the -doctor met him at the foot of the stair. - -“I am just going,” said the doctor. - -“Going—?” Richard caught himself. “Has it come?” - -The doctor smiled at him—at the ignorance and youthful credulity of -it. - -“I shall be back in an hour or two. Everything is going splendidly. -Your wife has courage!” And he was gone. - -“Courage—Eleanor? Of course she had courage! She was made of it. -What did the doctor know about Eleanor’s courage?” He hurried up the -stairs... the fleeting sense of life in his quick steps. - -She turned to him with the little upward twist of her lip. “It’s all -right, Dickie!” - -There was no mystery, no courage—only Eleanor’s competent look as -if there were dusting to be done, and men-folks were better out of the -way.... And yet, behind it, he had a sense that she withdrew to some -high place, to a remote, inaccessible cliff, and looked down on him with -wide eyes. - -He wandered miserably about the house; a part of the night he slept, and -part of it he spent at the telephone, sending orders for the doctor -and nurse, and answering the door-bell when the response came.... All -through the early hours he longed fiercely for the arrival of William -Archer. Then, as the night went on, he lost interest in William Archer -and his coming, and would have welcomed Annabel.... And he cast aside -even the thought of Annabel. He longed only for an end to the misery.... -And when at last the doctor said in businesslike tones, “A fine girl, -Mr. More!” he only blinked at him, and his tousled hair took on a more -rebellious twist. - -“A fine girl! What of it!... What had girls to do with this?” - -“A fine girl” did not connect herself, in any vague way, with -Annabel or with life.... Probably a new girl for the kitchen....! Well, -they needed a girl! They needed a dozen girls! - -He wandered out miserably—and the doctor followed him with a quick -look and something in a glass. - -“Here, drink this!” - -And Richard drank it—and looked at him stupidly. Something was -happening inside his brain—things were growing more settled and -luminous. A smile wreathed his face. - -“It’s a girl, is it?” he cried jubilantly. - -The doctor nodded. - -Richard More clapped him on the shoulder. - -“Good work!” he said. - -The doctor removed the shoulder gently. He turned toward Eleanor’s -room. - -“You can stay outside,” he said as he disappeared. “We shall not -need you for a while.” - -And Richard sat down in his parlor on the small sofa and took his -tousled head in his hands and held it fast. He may have dozed a little. - -When he got up and straggled to the kitchen, he found a strange woman -making a fire in the range. - -She had finished polishing off the top of the range and held a black -cloth in her hand. The hand was very black, he noticed. - -He nodded to her and went past her to the door and opened it. The world -looked very fresh. The earth and the grass on either side the path were -very dark and moist—as if they had been dipped in some curious fluid, -and the sky had a kind of luminous quality—swelling with fulness and a -freshness of light. - -Richard More looked up at it and drew in a deep breath—and with the -intake he understood, for the first time, that all men see the earth -new-washed one morning in their lives. He had a sense of kinship with -the earth and with every one living on the earth. - -When he turned back to the kitchen, the woman was putting the black -cloth under the sink. - -“It’s a girl!” he said. He tried in vain to keep the morning out -of his voice. - -“Glory be to God!” said the woman. She turned promptly and -straightened her back and beamed on him. - -He held out his hand to her and grasped the blackened one. He did not -suspect how many young fathers had shaken hands with cooks. - -His experience was unique. He looked about the kitchen with -satisfaction. - -Ellen Murphy brought some broth and put it on the gas-range. - -He watched her with kindling eyes. - -He had been familiar with his kitchen before. But it had not looked to -him just as it looked now.... That broth she was heating was for -his wife... to keep her alive. He looked at a row of saucepans with -intelligent gaze. - -Ellen Murphy tested the broth and went from the room, carrying it with -careful hand. - -He watched her disappear and looked about the homelike room.... She was -going to feed Eleanor. Just outside the door was the ice-box, where he -had blundered in the night, breaking up the ice, crushing it for the -doctor—they had told him to hurry—hurry!... Ages ago it seemed. And -now Eleanor was to have her broth. She was being fed.... Those stew-pans -over there were for her. Somehow out of this kitchen, she was to be fed, -his baby was being fed—they were all being fed! - - - - -IX - -He thrust his hands into his pockets and strolled down the back path to -the chicken-yard. He peered through the wire at the strutting fowls. His -hair was tousled, there were red rims about his eyes—and he had never -felt so alive. - -The chicken-yard was close to the back fence; on the other side of the -fence were chicken-yards that belonged to the houses at the rear. - -They were very common people in the houses at the rear. And the houses -themselves, facing on the parallel street, were unsightly and small. -Richard had taken pains to have no relations with the houses in the -rear. He had an instinctive sense that it might lead to complications. - -A man was at work in the yard across the fence, digging a post-hole. -Richard’s eye fell on him. He came nearer to the fence and leaned on -it and looked over. The man looked up. - -Richard nodded. “Fine morning!” he called. - -The man nodded a reply, and shifted his pipe in his teeth and thrust his -shovel into the ground. His back was very broad, Richard noticed. There -was something mighty in the swing of the great shoulders as they flung -up the earth out of the hole. - -Richard watched a minute in silence. The man paused and wiped his -forehead with the back of his hand. He spit casually on his palms and -took up the shovel. - -Richard’s voice halted him and he put down the shovel and came over to -the fence. Richard smiled a little awkwardly. - -“I didn’t mean to stop your work. I was wondering what you were -going to put there.” He indicated the hole. - -The man’s face was broad, and a little stupid. It stared at Richard. -Then it looked at the hole. - -“It’s a new run I’m making for the hens. The old one’s dusty.” - -“I see!... You’ve got a fine lot of birds!” Richard waved a hand. - -“Pretty good!” The man eyed them with slow pride. “Got nine eggs -yesterday,” he said. - -“It’s a great morning!” responded Richard. - -The man’s gaze lifted itself to the clear, fresh-washed sky, and came -back and rested on the oak-tree across the lot. “You’ve got a pretty -place—nice tree over there!” - -Richard wheeled and faced it. “I bought that tree last spring—needed -more room—for the children—to play.” He spoke with offhand -fatherhood. - -“You got children?” said the man. His voice was astonished and a -little pleased. - -“One,” said Richard. “A little girl.” - -The man nodded pleasantly. “I never saw her playing round,” he said -simply. - -“No—well... She was born this morning!” Richard laughed out. - -The man smiled at him a slow, deep smile.... And all his face changed in -the light. - -“Say, that’s great!” he exclaimed. - -“You’re a man now!” he added after a minute. The rough face -grew quiet and strong. And Richard had a sense of something human that -stirred in him. This man digging a post-hole had known! - -They stood a minute in silence, looking about them at the morning and -the free space of sky and watching the sun that had come over the roofs -of the shabby houses. - -It shone full in Richard’s eyes. He turned abruptly. - -“I must go in for breakfast.” - -The man spat absently on the ground and went back to his shovelling. - -In the chicken-yard the hens scuttled about, picking up chaff and bits -of grain out of the dust. Over in the corner of Richard More’s yard -stood the great oak-tree spreading its branches wide; and in the lot at -the rear the stolid, unkempt man lifted his shovel and thrust it into -the ground and threw out a handful of earth.... - -As Richard went up the path, he glanced at the house—The blinds of the -upper window to the east were being drawn carefully together.... She -was lying there in the shaded room. She would be sleeping now.... And -suddenly he saw her in the blue coat, as if she lay wrapped in its -folds—in her slumber. He had a sense of loss—that he had not given -it to her.... Perhaps he should never be able to give it to her now. - -He glanced at the oak-tree, standing majestic in the lot across the lawn -with its great gnarled roots protruding from the ground. And as he -went up the path he had a sudden blind sense, almost of anger, at the -oak-tree and its strength. - - - - -X - -The thing that surprised Richard most was the ease and efficiency with -which Eleanor handled Annabel—she seemed to know by instinct things -that Richard could not understand—and that he could not understand how -she came by. - -If she reached out her hands to take Annabel, her fingers seemed, of -themselves, to curve into the places where they would fit into the -spineless bundle and give it support. If Richard tried to take up the -bundle, his fingers fell away like the legs of the brittle crab and the -bundle collapsed, incalculable and helpless. - -“How do you do it?” he would say. And he would right Annabel and try -to still her protests. - -And Eleanor would only smile gently, and send him on some masculine -errand while she soothed Annabel’s feelings in the proper way. - -Richard had once watched a cat with her kittens and he had a vivid sense -of the kinship of method—so had kittens always been brought into the -world and tended; so they would always be—likewise babies. - -It was not something that could be read in a book or taught in a -school.... Eleanor grew very beautiful these days. The little upward -twist left her mouth; and if it grew almost too knowing in its sense of -the boundless and accumulated wisdom of ages as regards babies—that, -Richard decided, was Annabel’s fault.... Really, to know how to manage -a little handful like Annabel might make any one proud. - -For one thing, Annabel knew exactly what she wanted.... And she usually -got it. She was often disciplined on the way to it, and thwarted—but -in the end she got what she wanted. - -As Richard More watched Annabel’s progress through life, he thought -more than once of the regal gesture with which Annabel’s mother had -thrown back the Chinese coat and cast it aside for Annabel’s sake.... - -And now he saw Annabel! Life was often very puzzling. But Richard More -had not time to spend working it out. He was too prosperous to puzzle. -Whatever he put his hand to seemed to flourish. Men came to have -faith in his ventures, and to watch for his investments as pointers to -success. His business increased and his family increased.... William -Archer came in due season, and then Claude, and then Martin, and -Christine, and that was the end. - -The children grew up healthy and normal, except Claude. There seemed -some obscure trouble with the boy, and before he was six years old it -had declared itself. Within a year, in spite of expensive doctors and -care, he died. That had been their first and their only real sorrow. - -It was when they came back to the house from the funeral that he told -Eleanor of his second attempt to get the coat for her.... They were -alone in the house. The children had been sent away during the child’s -illness and had not come back. - -He fancied Eleanor drooped a little as they came into the house; and -his mind went out for something to comfort her.... It encountered the -Chinese coat. - -So, as they sat together in the house that seemed so curiously desolate -and different from their usual life together, he told her of the morning -he went back to Stewart’s and of his disappointment, and of how he had -never quite given up hope that some day Stewart would send for him and -tell him to come and get the coat. - -She listened with wide, set eyes—almost like a child to a fairy-tale. - -“That was very dear of you, Richard!” she said. And she smiled to -him, almost as she smiled to the children, and he felt the quick tears -in his eyes. - -And then suddenly she had thrown herself in his arms. - -“Oh, Dick, I am so lonely!” she cried. - -And that was the way she came back to him. - -After that, although she still guided the children and her hand was on -the helm in all decisions, it was to Richard she turned for assurance. - -She had come apparently to uncharted waters, and she did not try to make -soundings. - -And Richard More was as puzzled by her reliance on him as he had been by -her wisdom with babies and with life. - -It did not occur to him that in her reliance, too, there might be a kind -of wisdom—not to be expounded by logic, perhaps—but deep as life.... -For himself, he knew that he had not wisdom to advise any one. He simply -did what he could—and when his advice prospered, he was as naively and -proudly surprised as any one. - - - - -XI - -THE children were brought up in the oak-tree. Richard made a cradle-box -at the end of one of the low boughs that almost swept the ground and -there was always one baby in the box on the bough and one on the ground -among the roots—a new one that had just come down from the bough. - -And then, presently, one of those on the ground—with the help of -Eleanor and a chair—climbed to the first branches close to the -trunk.... Then another one climbed, and another, till they were all -swarming in the great oak—no longer close to the trunk, but far out on -the branches among the leaves, swinging and lilting in the wind. - -The boys played they were sailors climbing the masts that swayed giddily -beneath them; they sat on cross-beams and gazed out to sea; or they were -on the scaffolding of tall buildings, hammering great steel beams into -place as the sky-scrapers rose in the air; or they were the advance -force of an army—scouting aeroplanes, swooping toward a besieged town. - -Between the branches of the great tree and the wind that swayed them -or drove shrilly against them, the boys adventured on life. But Annabel -made of the tree an outdoor home as like the one across the lawn as the -leaves and branches and a great trunk shooting up through the centre -would permit. The tree-trunk was the chimney, of course, and she -had roaring fires in every room, up stairs and down, and cooking and -sweeping and dusting, with lively flourishes and much running up and -down stairs. She was a little lonely at times, because the boys—who -did not really care for the game—would suddenly desert her for -excursions in the aeroplanes, or to shoot arrows from the house-top. -She was liable to find herself, at any moment, with her house swept and -dusted, and no one to live in it with her. Only down from the top -among the leaves and the swaying limbs would come wild growls and quick -whispers—intent and breathless calls to action.... Then Annabel would -leave her dust-cloths and her pots and pans, and creep stealthily up, -up, up—till the topmost branch was reached, and the wind blew in her -face, and her little pigtails stood straight out with delight and she -was filled with the glow of life. For days she would play the game in -the top of the tree. And then, some morning, she would find herself back -among her treasures—her sticks and bits of moss and leaves, close to -the trunk of the tree, going up and down stairs in happy content; and -her imagination would grow deep and intent. Her face, pressed against -the bark, seemed no longer to need the swing of the dangerous branches -and the surging of the wind to rouse it. She would sit close to the -trunk of the tree on a solid limb, and play the great game almost -without stirring—a deep silent game that stirred her to the very -core.... The boys were willing to play house with her and sometimes to -sweep and dust a little along the branches, and visit back and forth, -upstairs and down. But as for sitting on a limb, intent and still, -gazing at what went on beneath the line of sight!... They left her -sitting there alone, gazing at nothing, and fled to the top of the tree -and yelled with shrill vacant calls of delight and relief. - -But when the youngest baby, who proved happily to be a girl, when the -time for climbing came—when this youngest baby had been pulled and -boosted by Annabel up into the tree beside her, and when two of them -could sit happily side by side, looking at each other in silence, then -there seemed a fairer division of forces. - -Gradually the boys, when they ventured far out on dangerous limbs, would -feel a silent tug pulling them back to the heart of things. - -And underneath the tree where the children played, Eleanor sat with her -sewing or reading or with the youngest baby on her lap, and sang to it -or played with it till it was time for it to sleep in its cradle-box in -the tree.... - -And Richard coming home at night, or at noon on half-holidays, would -find his family there, and he would climb with the boys, or sit with -Eleanor under the tree, or play with the youngest baby. Or he would -stroll with his pipe back and forth across the lawn, puffing it and -listening to the voices that came from the tree, or watch his wife, with -the sunlight and the shadow-leaves falling on her work. - -Sometimes he took them all for excursions into the country—at first in -street-cars, crowding and piling in; and then in the old surrey that was -big enough to carry them all; and at last in the touring-car that swept -up the miles. - -There was no pause in his prosperity; though the tax of the growing -family made it a little difficult sometimes to adjust business and -family demands.... And then suddenly the money began to come in and pile -up faster than he could use it. He was counted one of the solid men of -the region; and the family life expanded on all sides. The problem -now was not whether the business could afford it, but whether the -children’s characters could afford it. - -Richard and Eleanor sought for expensive schools that would force a -child to live simply and fare hard and think keen and straight; and when -no such schools were to be found, Richard took William Archer out of the -expensive school that was making a nonentity of him, and put him into -the business and drove him hard. - -And Annabel was brought home on the plea that her mother needed her. - -She was not quite strong that year, it seemed. - -So Annabel took charge of the house—and of Eleanor and Richard, and of -every one in sight. - - - - -XII - -THAT Annabel knew her own mind, there was no question; and that Annabel -also knew her mother’s mind, there was no question in Annabel’s -mind.... She was not perhaps altogether responsible for this feeling -about her mother. It would have taken a more astute person than Annabel -to discover that all that went on underneath Eleanor More’s quiet look -was not open for the world to read. - -Annabel loved her mother and trusted her; and to the best of her ability -she took care of her—though she knew, with a kind of fierce pity, that -her mother could never be of her own generation, and that she could not -know the real nature of the plans and visions that swept before that -generation. - -“I am a suffragist!” she announced one day in swift assertion. - -And Eleanor More looked up with a quiet smile. “I am one, too,” she -replied. - -Annabel stared at her a minute. “I didn’t know you were—a -suffragist!” - -Then she looked at her with slow suspicion. - -“You know what a suffragist is, don’t you?” - -“Yes.” Eleanor went on with her sewing. - -“Oh—I Well.... am going to march—in the procession!” She was -watching her mother’s face. - -“When is the procession?” There was a little upward twist to -Eleanor’s lip that might have been amusement at her position, or -dismay. “When did you say the procession is?” - -“Next week—Monday.... You going to march?” - -“Yes.” Eleanor threaded her needle and drew in the end and twisted -it into a skilful knot. “Yes—I think I shall march.” It was quite -casual, and she inspected her work. - -“Well—!” Annabel turned it in her mind. “You’d better get -a short skirt—if you are going to march. You haven’t a thing that -clears the mud!” - -“Very well.” - -So Annabel had out her mother’s wardrobe and turned and planned, and -had a woman in to shorten a skirt for her. And all the days before the -parade, she watched her solicitously, and waited on her—as if she were -an invalid. - -“I can’t bear to have you march in that old parade!” she exclaimed -almost viciously. - -“I don’t mind it.” - -“I don’t suppose you do.... But I mind it for you!” She rumpled -her hair, with a quick gesture, like a boy’s. “I’ve no idea what -they’ll do. They may throw sticks at you, or—eggs!” - -“Well, if it doesn’t hurt you, it won’t hurt me,” said Eleanor -placidly. - -Annabel stared at her. Then she smiled. She shook her head. - -“It isn’t the same thing,” she declared. “You little know—how -much it isn’t the same thing!” - -And, after all, the parade was not so terrible. They assembled quietly, -and with importance, at the city hall and marched through the principal -streets, and had speeches; and Eleanor and Annabel marched side by side. - -And Annabel was so busy guarding her mother from unpleasant experiences, -and looking after her comfort, and providing places for her to sit down -when the procession stopped a minute, that she quite forgot to have -experiences of her own or to be thrilled or frightened at her temerity, -or any of the exciting things that her imagination had cast beforehand. - -“I call it a rather tame performance!” she declared at dinner that -night, after it was over, “—a rather tame performance!” - -And Richard, who had stood on the sidewalk and watched his wife and -daughter march past, with a little amused smile, nodded assent. - -“You made a mistake taking your mother, perhaps?” he suggested -mildly. - -Annabel cast a quick glance at her mother’s unperturbed face, and her -look lightened. - -“Mother’s a sport!” she declared. “I didn’t take her! She took -herself!” She was silent a minute.... Then—slowly: “I’m not so -sure I shouldn’t have backed out the last minute, you know—if mother -hadn’t been so set on going!” She looked at her meditatively. “You -can’t tell what mother will do!” she declared. “She does the -queerest things—queer for her, I mean!” - - - - -XIII - -The next week Annabel became flitting in her movements. She began to -take an interest in her clothes, and evolved dainty, distracting gowns -that made her piquant face almost beautiful. And she multiplied new ways -of doing her hair—a new way for each new hat—till William Archer -declared she might as well be a week-end visitor. - -“Don’t you like it?” she demanded. She turned her head for -inspection. She had come down to luncheon in a new hat that defied -description. - -William Archer surveyed it. “Well—it’s different! I can’t say -it’s my idea of a suffragist hat!” - -“I’m not a suffragist,” said Annabel calmly. - -“How long since?” asked William Archer. - -“Oh—quite a while.” - -Eleanor was looking on with a little, amused smile. - -“Turncoat!” said William Archer. - -“I don’t care.... I’d rather be a turncoat than a—frump!” - -“You don’t have to be——!” - -“They are—most of them—!” said Annabel viciously. - -“Why, Annabel—!” It was Eleanor’s voice. “Some of the nicest -women are suffragists. I saw some very fine ones in the parade.” - -Annabel turned indignant eyes on her. - -“I saw one there! And I hope never to see her again!” She said it -severely, and the family laughed out. - -She nodded her head sagely under its tilting hat that came down well -over one eye, and gave her a young and military look—as if she were -winning her spurs. - -“You may laugh!” she declared. “It’s no place for mother!” - -“All right for you, I suppose?” suggested her father teasingly. - -“I told you I’d got over it,” she said firmly. - -“Like the measles!” said William Archer. - -She regarded him thoughtfully. “Something like that—you don’t have -it, and you feel well—perfectly well—and then you talk with -some one, or have tea or something, and you get all excited and -uncomfortable——” - -“And break out—” said William Archer. - -“Yes—and see your mother walking in the middle of the -street—ploughing along!” Her indignant glance was on Eleanor’s -calm face. “I felt just ashamed!” she declared. - -“I thought mother walked rather well!” said Richard. - -“Yes—I was quite proud of mother!” said William Archer. - -“Well—I hope it’s the last time you’ll have a chance to -’be proud of mother’—that way!... I never dreamed she would do -it!—What made you?” she asked. She turned an accusing look on her. - -“Why—I think I—caught it, perhaps,” said Eleanor. “Isn’t -your hat just a little far forward, dear?” - -Annabel jumped up and went to the glass and adjusted the hat with -conscientious touch. “It looks so simple!” she murmured. “But it -really takes brains!—There—how is that?” She turned for approval, -with serious, intent look. - -“Just like a French cadet!” said William Archer. He had finished -luncheon, and was standing in the doorway looking back. - -She made a little mouth at him, and when he had gone she came and stood -by her father’s chair. He looked up. - -“Where are you off to?” he asked. - -“There’s the matinee party first; and then Helen’s tea—it’s -her day—and then Harold is going to take me for a spin, if we get out -in time.... Good-by, dear things! I’ll see you at dinner.” - -She bent and kissed them, and all the elusive perfume and shining color -and the little flitting ends of ribbon fluttered with her from the room. - -Richard More smiled across at his wife. “Enter Hamlet!” he said. - -“Yes—It’s all decided!” she added softly. - -He put down his cup. - -“When?” - -“Ages ago—in heaven, I suppose.” She smiled a little wistfully. - -He looked relieved. “Oh—that kind of deciding!” - - - - -XIV - -They were alone at dinner. Annabel came in late and joined them, -and there were only the three of them in the big room. It was very -restful—with the shaded light from the candles; and there was a veiled -happiness in the girl’s smile—a little wistful look that flitted -through it when it rested on her mother’s face. - -Richard More watched in silence. - -“Did you have a good time?” he asked abruptly. - -“Fine!” She crumbled her bread absently. - -“What make of car is he running now?” - -“What make—Oh—!” She looked up. “I didn’t notice.” - -She was scanning her mother’s face—as if she had not quite seen her -before. - -“I saw the prettiest thing to-day, mother—pretty for you!” She -leaned forward, still gazing at her. “It would just suit you!” - -“Yes?” Eleanor’s eyes met the look behind the words. “What was -it?” - -“A queer sort of garment—not a kimono exactly, and not a coat—just -a garment.” She threw open her arms with a whimsical gesture. - -Her mother’s look grew veiled. “Where was it?—where did you see -it?” - -“At Helen’s tea. Mrs. Martin had it.... She helped pour and she had -it on when she came in. She threw it off in the hall—a kind of regal -thing, you know!” She made another gesture and laughed. “And I -thought in a flash of you!” - -Richard More was looking at his wife—her glance met his. - -“I am too old to wear a thing like that,” she said tranquilly. - -The girl shook her head. “It wasn’t old, and it wasn’t young.... -It was just like you!” She said it softly, half to herself under her -breath, and she nodded to her father with a little shy pleasure in the -words. “I kept thinking all the time we were driving—how beautiful -you would look in it.” - -“What color was it?” asked Richard More. - -“A sort of blue shade—very deep and rich—and gold things running -all over it—a perfectly stunning thing!” - -“So you think your mother would look well in something like that?” -he said gravely. - -His face was turned to his wife. - -“I should like to see her in it,” said the girl wistfully. “I -never thought before how beautiful mother is! She’s always been—just -mother!... I think she’s growing pretty,” she added reflectively. -She was gazing at her with puzzled eyes. - -“Go on—tell about the coat!” said Eleanor. - -“Why—that’s all! I only saw it as she threw it off—and when -we came out, it lay there across a chair and Harold said, ’What -a stunning thing!’ and I said, ’Yes—for mother!’.rdquo; She -laughed and Eleanor smiled faintly. - -“And then what did he say?” - -The girl hesitated a minute. - -“You are growing pretty, you know!” she replied irrelevantly. “And -you’re almost the only woman I know that has wrinkles—nice ones!” - -“Silly child!” said Eleanor. But her face flushed a little. - -Annabel nodded. “I’ve been puzzling about it—about faces—lots of -those suffrage women—I didn’t know what it was—I couldn’t make -out! But that’s it—they haven’t any wrinkles!” She said it -triumphantly. - -“They do keep young,” said Richard More thoughtfully. - -She turned on him almost fiercely. “It isn’t young! -It’s—massage! I’ve got so I just seem to hate that look—all -puffed out and smooth and softish like putty. It’s a kind of -chromo-face,” she said indignantly—“a just-as-good face, you -know!” - -Her father laughed out. - -She nodded savagely. “That’s the way I feel, and I didn’t -know—till to-day.” Her voice grew gentle. - -“When I get old I’m going to have wrinkles—like mother!” - -“There’s one on your nose, now—where you’re turning it up,” -said Richard. - -“I don’t care.... Now mother’s wrinkles”—she leaned forward -and touched one lightly with her finger—“mother’s wrinkles -are—beautiful!” - -“You flatter me!” said Eleanor, with a little serene smile mocking -the light in her face. - -“There—! That’s it! Do you see?” She motioned to her father. -“That little line that makes fun of you!—I’m going to have one -just like that!” She leaned back and looked at the wrinkle with -artistic approval. - -Suddenly she jumped up and came and put her arms around her mother’s -neck. - -“Do you think I would let any one massage that wrinkle off your -face—you dear old thing, you!” She bent and kissed the wrinkle. - -And Eleanor put up a hand to the smooth cheek, close against her -own—with the little flush coming and going in it. - -“What did Harold say?” she asked. - - - - -XV - -SO Annabel was engaged. And then, almost before they knew it, Annabel -was married, and her place was removed from the dining-table, and the -circle about the table closed in a little, and Eleanor looked at it with -regretful eyes. - -But the young people were not far off. And two extra plates had often to -be laid for dinner or luncheon, or even for breakfast; so that the whole -number of plates for the year was perhaps not much reduced. - -William Archer was paying attention to his neckties and socks, and -growing fussy about the cut of his hair. And the younger children were -coming up with demands for a sensible education that the school system -of the country did not supply. And Richard and Eleanor More still found -life a rich and satisfying adventure. - -Richard sometimes wondered as he watched her face and the little new -wrinkles coming to it—what life would have been if he had married some -one else—some one besides Eleanor—the Rumley, girl, for instance.... -He was almost engaged to the Rumley girl, at one time, he remembered.... -He had blundered along—and heaven knows, he might have married the -Rumley girl!... The thought always gave him a little fleeting shiver -down his back. And then a sense of strength and well-being swept over -him—of the inevitableness of life. It could not have been any -other way—or any one but Eleanor!... She had said that Annabel’s -engagement was “decided in heaven.”... That was it! - -People might laugh—and, of course, it was a kind of fatalism—but -things like that had to be.... The sun had to rise in the East to-morrow -morning—that was not fatalism! - -There was one regret that followed him—though he never mentioned -it, and he seldom thought of it, consciously.... Sometimes a look in -Eleanor’s face would bring it back—and he would wonder why he should -mind so much—that he had not been able to get the coat for her—the -Chinese coat they had seen at Stewart’s that day.... It was not such -a wonderful garment, after all—was it?... He had given her more -expensive things than that—more beautiful things—had he?... And then -he would see her face as she stood for a moment wrapped in its folds and -looking down. - -The day Annabel mentioned the coat she had seen at the tea he had been -deeply startled. And he wanted to speak to Eleanor about it afterward. -But something held him. Perhaps she had forgotten... perhaps she did not -care—so much as he fancied. - -Once, when they were going to the opera, he turned in the limousine and -caught a flitting smile on her lips as they flashed by a light and he -asked her what she was thinking about. She laughed out. - -“The Chinese coat, dear.... I could have worn it to-night.” - -He could not have told whether there were tears in her voice. He only -thought as she stepped from the car and walked beside him into the lobby -that he had never seen her so beautiful; and he had had the happy sense -of people turning their heads to look at her—stare a little.... - -There was a kind of radiance about Eleanor sometimes.... He had given -her everything in the world—except the Chinese coat. - -And the little regret never left him. - -Later it came to him that Stewart might, after all, have got the coat -for him—and simply be waiting for him to call. - - - - -XVI - -He went to Stewart’s that afternoon. The store had been enlarged and -greatly changed. He had not seen it for years—hardly since the day -when he arranged, or thought he arranged, that they were to “send him -word.”... Perhaps he had misunderstood. How foolish he had been not -to inquire before.... Regretting it all these years—and never -asking—when perhaps he had only to walk in and say casually: “You -don’t happen to have a coat—a Chinese coat—that I left an order -for—blue and gold, I think it was—with dragons on it?” - -But when he asked the casual question, the girl at the counter only -shook her head. She was indifferent. - -“Was it this week?” she asked. “I’ve only been here a week.” - -“No—it was... some time ago,” said Richard More. - -“Perhaps they will know in the buying department. I will ask.” - -She was gone a long time. And Richard More looked about him. He would -not have known it for the same place—a great skylight had been put in -and the floors cut out from roof to basement, letting down a flood of -light. And the stairs and elevators were changed—they used to be over -there to the left.... It must have been just about here that she -stood when she tried on the coat. He half-closed his eyes and saw her -there—and all the hope and freshness came back to him—and the look -in her face. - -The girl returned, efficient and indifferent. “They have not had an -order. I can take it again.” She reached for her pad. - -Richard More looked at it distrustfully. - -“I think I will see Mr. Stewart himself,” he said slowly. He -half-started to take a card from his pocket. Then he changed the -gesture. He was suddenly thinking of the gold coins he had carried -there.... - -“Tell Mr. Stewart, please, that the gentleman who left an order for -a Chinese coat—several years ago—would like to speak with him about -it.” - -There was another long wait—then a boy with buttons and a little proud -air escorted him to the top of the building. - -“Mr. Stewart don’t see many folks,” he volunteered, as they -approached a door. - -“Doesn’t he? Then I am fortunate.” - -The boy nodded gravely and rapped. - - - - -XVII - -THE gray-haired man at the desk looked up with a sharp line between the -bushy eyebrows. He stared a moment and got up. - -“Is it you!” He held out a cordial hand. - -He served on a dozen boards with Robert More—and was proud of it. - -“I never supposed you were interested in the Chinese coat!” He -touched a paper on the desk. - -“Sit down. They said the man who left the order was here—and -I happened to have kept the name, ’Richard More.’ But it never -occurred to me it was you!” He was still standing and staring at him -as if he could not quite believe his eyes. - -“I did not expect you to remember the order,” said Richard. “I -merely sent up word—on the chance.” - -The other nodded. “Oh, yes. I remember it quite well.... You see I -took personal interest in the coat. I never really meant to sell it.... -It was a curious garment....” - -The two men of business sat silent—as if seeing it before them. - -It was Stewart who roused himself first. “I came on it in a -town—a little back in the interior. I was there on other business, -semi-confidential business for the government—and I saw this coat and -liked it, and bought it.... I think I had a half-idea of giving it to my -wife.” He smiled a little absently. - -“I did not know you were married,” said Richard More politely. He -really knew very little about the man. It did not interest him—except -for politeness. - -Stewart looked at him keenly a minute. “I am not married,” he said. -“I never have been.... If I had married I should not have let the -Chinese coat go.” He spoke with a certain curious emphasis and Richard -glanced at him. - -He nodded. “I should have kept it—for her,” he said. “I knew -enough for that!... It gives me a queer kind of feeling to know that -you were interested in it too. I somehow should not have suspected it of -you.” He looked at him thoughtfully. - -“My wife liked it,” said Richard stiffly. “I wanted it for her.” - -“Yes—a woman would like it.... I remember the woman that had -charge of the department—she’s been dead a number of years, now—I -remember she always liked it. She would keep it in a box—half the -time. Wouldn’t have it out where people could see it—seemed to be -afraid somebody would buy it!” He chuckled. “If I’d really wanted -to sell that coat I should have been pretty sharp with her.”... He -roused himself. “Well, she’s dead!” - -“You didn’t find another one, I suppose?” said Richard politely. - -“No—not exactly.” He seemed to be trying to recall something. - -“There was one—I got word of one.... But it was far in the -interior—farther in than I’d ever gone, or had time to go. I left -word in a general way for them to negotiate for it.... But they’re -slow—the Chinese.... Ever been there?” - -Richard shook his head—a sudden intention came to him. - -“Well, it’s a wonderful country!” said Stewart. “And they’re -a wonderful people. But different—different from us.... That’s where -folks have always made a mistake. They think because the Chinese have -heads and legs, and wear clothes, they are like us.... But they are no -more like us than—than trees are like—lions.... They’re both of -’em alive, and that’s about all you can say—” He broke off with -a laugh. - -Richard smiled. “You know them pretty well, do you?” - -“I’ve spent a good deal of time there.... But I don’t know them. -Nobody knows ’em!” He spoke with quiet conviction and something that -arrested Richard’s attention. - -“I’ve sometimes thought I should like to go there.”... He had -thought it not two minutes ago for the first time—but it seemed to -him now that he had always intended to go—that it was something he had -been moving toward all his life. - -The other nodded. “You won’t regret it. I mean to go back myself, -some time.” - -They parted with a kind of friendliness they would not have expected -from their previous knowledge of each other. Richard had in his pocket -such directions as the man could give him. - -“I can’t tell you precisely where the place is, nor how to get to -it. I never knew, myself.... And it’s a country you have to find your -own way in. Go slow and trust ’em. Don’t hurry them too much.... I -wouldn’t be surprised if you’d find the coat—if there really was -one, like the one we knew—I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d find it -just where it was twenty years ago when they told me about it. They’re -a slow-moving people! But they’ve found out some things... some things -we don’t know yet.... In a sense they’ve forgotten more than we ever -knew,” he added with a smile. - -“Here, wait a minute!” He went to a cabinet across the room and -took from a pigeonhole a yellow and discolored map. He brought it to the -table and spread it out. - -“Here is the region I spoke of—up here.... And these red lines show -where I have been myself; and the little blue crosses are places where -I got information—the right sort—where people are friendly and -intelligent... they will not have changed much—” He looked at the -map thoughtfully and took it up and folded it in slow fingers. - -“I am going to give you this. It may be useful to you, and I may not -go myself—I am an old man now.” - -So Richard More took the map and went out. He had come expecting to -make a business inquiry, in a businesslike way; and he had encountered -something that was not business—something that the piece of worn and -discolored paper seemed vaguely to whisper as it rustled in his pocket. - - - - -XVIII - -THE next day he brought the runabout to the door and honked once—and -waited. - -Eleanor coming down the path stopped—and glanced at the car. She -quickened her steps, a look of happy surprise in her face. - -“You are going to drive yourself!” - -“Trust me—can’t you?” said Richard. - -She got in with a sigh of content. “There are always people!” she -said, “and people and people!—till you can’t think!” She threw -out her hands in a whimsical gesture. - -“Well—you can think now!... No one to hinder!” - -They took the road to the open country. And she rested back beside him. -He could feel her quiet contentment—though she did not speak—not -even when they left the open highway and travelled a rougher road that -skirted the hills and came at last to the end of a grass-grown cart-path -half-way up the hill. He turned the nose of the car a little one side. - -“As far as we go,” he said quietly. - -She got out with a smile. “Farther than last time—isn’t it?” She -looked about her happily. - -“You remember then?” he said. He came and stood beside her. - -“Did you think I could forget?” - -“It has been a long time——” - -“Only a minute,” she replied gayly. “Come—are we going up?” - -“I wonder—?” He looked a little doubtfully at the hill before -them—and there was a hill beyond that, he knew, and another beyond -that. - -“It’s more of a climb than I remembered,” he said thoughtfully. - -But she was already going on ahead of him, pushing aside the underbrush -and walking with light step.... The birch stems came between them and he -saw her hazily, always a little ahead, ascending the hill.... Then her -pace slowed and he hurried and overtook her. - -He looked at her sternly. “Sit down!” he said. - -He spread his coat and she sat down on it almost meekly. She was -breathing fast. There was a little flush of color in her face. - -She looked about her with happy eyes. “Oh—I am glad you thought of -it!” - -“You have no sense!” said Richard shortly. - -“Sense—?... Oh!” - -“To hurry like that!—We have the day before us!” - -“Have we?” She looked about with a little puzzled vagueness. “I -think I must have been hurrying—to get back to set the table for -dinner!” She was laughing at him. “It felt like being a girl!” she -said. - -“I shall go ahead after this,” responded Richard. “I’m not -going to have you fainting away or twisting an ankle, or any other silly -thing!” - -“Nonsense!” - -But when they started again he led the way; and they stopped at -judicious intervals—to look at the view and talk of scenery—and -Richard kept a careful eye on the face with its flitting color, and on -her quickened breath. She leaned a little against him the last part of -the way. Then they came out on the open bluff, with the country lying -before them. - -She stood gazing down at it with shining eyes. “Nothing has -changed!” she cried after a minute. - -“Not from up here,” said Richard. “Sit down.” - -He made a place for her by a birch-tree and she leaned back against it -and they looked out in silence over the wide country. - -Presently he turned and looked at her. She had fallen asleep. Her -head rested against the birch-tree and her face wore a soft flush in -sleep.... Now that it was quiet and the smile was gone, he could -see that it was very tired. A quick desire seized him—to keep the -face—to stay the change in it. A woman should not grow old!... And -then as he looked at her, he saw that she was more beautiful than she -had ever been. - -She opened her eyes and smiled to him hazily. “Twenty-five years!” -she murmured sleepily, and the eyes closed. He moved a little nearer to -her till her head rested against him and she slept on. - -When she opened her eyes, the light had changed. She sat up with a swift -look. - -“How stupid in me—to go to sleep!... But how wonderful it is!” -She was gazing at the darkened light that spread like a veil over the -country below. The grass and trees were misty in it—only a winding -river caught a touch of glamour from an unseen source and glowed through -the dusk. The darkness grew and deepened on the plain, and the sides of -the hill were blurred in it—shadowy shapes crept up. - -“We must go,” said Richard. “The days are short.” - -“Yes”—she breathed a little sigh—“yes—we must go.” She got -up. - -But he stayed her and she stood arrested, looking down at him. - -“There—was something—I wanted to tell you,” he said. - -She glanced at the plain—with the little gleaming river shining in it. -“It is late!” she said. - -“I brought my bug-light.” He touched his pocket. “Sit down.” - -So she sat down beside him and he told her of the map in his pocket. He -took it out and spread it before her. And she leaned toward it in the -dim light—studying the discolored lines as he explained them to her. - -“Do you want—to go—so much?” she asked, looking up at last. - -“If you want to—Yes.” - -She was silent a minute. - -“Martin thinks he is going to be an engineer,” she said -irrelevantly. - -He spurned it. “Martin has sense—he doesn’t need his mother—to -have sense for him!” - -“But an engineer!” she said. - -“They will lead the world to-morrow,” he responded. - -“Oh—!” It was a little sigh of surprise and relief. - -“I didn’t know engineers were anything important!” she added after -a minute. Then she laughed out. - -The darkness gathered closer—coming up from the plain—and the little -river was only a gleam through its veil of haze. - -She looked down on it. - -“Very well,” she said. “We will go. I am ready to go.... Perhaps -it will rest me to go.” - - - - -XIX - -The whole family was at the station to see them off. Annabel had -provided luncheon and a tea-basket and little pillows and waxed paper -and drinking-cups, and she flitted about her mother with watchful eyes. -There was a kind of jealous loyalty in her, as if she would hold her -mother by main force from this foolish thing she had entered upon.... -She went with them into the car and settled the little pillow in place -and stood with her hand on her mother’s shoulder.... Outside, through -the window, she could see the others laughing and talking. - -Her mother lifted her face quickly. “You will be carried off!” she -said hurriedly. - -The younger woman smiled down at her—and her face broke in little, -helpless lines. She bent and kissed her almost fiercely. “You take -care of yourself!... If anything happened to you—!” And she was -gone. - -Outside, the group moved and laughed and waved inane farewells. Annabel -joined it wiping her eyes. She waved her handkerchief at the receding -window and dabbed it swiftly across her eyes. - -The red light at the end of the rear car receded into a dark tunnel. - -Annabel caught her breath. “I don’t see why we let her do it!” she -said helplessly. - -“You couldn’t stop mother!” It was William Archer. He tucked -her hand protectingly in his arm. “She’ll be all right!” he said -reassuringly. - -Annabel shook her head. They had turned away from the blackness of the -tunnel and were walking toward the station. The others had scattered a -little, and gone on ahead. Annabel’s eyes followed them. - -“She isn’t fit to do it!” she said.... “She’s like a child. I -feel as if I couldn’t—!” Her lip trembled, and she broke off. - -William Archer smiled down at her. “Mother’s all right! She brought -us up—five of us. And she’s pretty near brought father up—and I -guess a few Chinamen won’t frighten her!” - -Annabel looked at him absently. - -“I didn’t tell her where I put the extra flannels—for the steamer. -They say it’s cold—sometimes!” - -“Telegraph!” replied William Archer promptly. “Want me to go home -with you?” - -They stood at the corner of the street. Annabel shook her head. -“Of course not! Don’t be silly!... I shall telegraph to-night—a -night-letter.” - -“Whereto?” - -She looked at him helplessly. “I don’t know.... And she’s always -been so fixed before! Wherever I went, I seemed always just kind of -circling around mother and coming back to her. And now she’s off like -that—whirling into space!” She made a sweeping gesture of her hands -and looked up to him appealingly. - -The little laugh left William Archer’s face. “There’s no one in -the world, of course, like mother.... Never has been—for me.... I -suppose all men feel that way—about their mothers.” He said it -slowly and looked at her inquiringly. “But it seems somehow as if she -were somebody in particular—and nobody else could know—how we feel -about her.” - -“They can’t—and they don’t!” said Annabel grimly. - -They stood looking at each other with quiet understanding. They had not -felt so near together in years, not since they played in the branches of -the oak-tree, and William Archer had called down to her from the topmost -branch: “Come on up!” - -She nodded to him with a little smile of remembrance and affection, and -they turned and went their separate ways. - - - - -XX - -From the window of the train Eleanor More looked out on green fields. -They had emerged from the dark mouth of the tunnel into a spring day. -The evening light was on the fields, and they stretched away to distant -woods. The shadows along the ground caught a glow from the sky. - -“Looks like a clear day to-morrow,” said Richard. - -She nodded quietly. Her eyes were on the level green fields that moved -past them, mile after mile. - -He put out his hand and covered hers where it lay on the seat between -them. - -“Tired?” he asked. - -She shook her head. Then she drew a long breath and looked at him with a -smile. - -“How good it seems!” she said slowly. “How good it seems—to get -away from them all!” - -“We are beginning all over,” he responded. - -“Yes.... I can’t seem to worry about what’s happening to them.... -Just a little worry—because I don’t worry—that’s all!” - -“You’ll get over that in a mile or so,” he replied confidently. - -It would seem she did get over it—or at least if she did not, she -concealed it skilfully. The little lines in her face smoothed, one by -one, and a tranquil look came to it. - -She sat for hours as the train moved over the level plain, the look -of abstraction in her eyes and the gentleness and strength in her -face revealing themselves—as the lines of a landscape are sometimes -revealed by a change of light or by the passing of a storm—all the -surface life slipped from it. - -And Richard More, watching, had a sudden sense of the mysterious force -of very familiar things.... This was Eleanor’s face—that he had -known and loved for years; and it was the face of a strange woman, an -unknown majestic presence who moved beside him always. - -And then the mask of greatness would slip from her, and she would -chatter for days about nothing, trivial things—delighting like a child -in the discoveries he brought and laid in her lap when he alighted at -some lonely station—a flower or a bit of mineral; and the train would -plunge on again, dipping around the curve of a hill, climbing along a -dizzy cliff, while she sat beside him, her hand a little reached out to -him, her breath half stayed by a glance of delight. - -“It is a voyage of discovery,” he said in her ear. - -“How foolish—to want to stay in one place—always!” Her hand -swept up to the piling masses of snow, glacial vastnesses that gleamed -high above them. “How foolish!” she said softly. - -And the strange look of dignity and strength came swiftly into her face. - -“A voyage of discovery,” he repeated.... “Do you think we shall -find it?” - -She looked at him with puzzled eyes. - -“Find—?” she said vaguely. - -“The Chinese coat?” - -“Oh—!” she laughed out. “Perhaps so. It doesn’t matter—does -it?” She nodded toward the distant peaks of snow—a faint tinge of -pink was beginning to rest on them.... “It does not matter!” she -said softly. - -“No—it does not matter.... But I should like to find it—for -you.” - -When she looked at him her eyes were full of tears. - -“Foolish boy!” she said, “to care—for that!” - -“We will go back—if you say so,” he responded. He was watching her -closely. - -She reached out a quick hand. - -“No—Oh, no! We must go on!” she cried under her breath. - -He laughed out. “I thought so! You care for it—as much as I do.... -Only - -“I want to go on,” she said swiftly. “What would the children -say—if we should come back now?” - -“They would be a little surprised—to see us walk in,” he admitted. - -“Very well, madam—to please you, we will go on.” - -They talked in any foolish way that pleased them, and they did not hurry -on the journey. - -He had a time-table of the dates of sailing of the Japanese line they -were to travel by, and a stateroom engaged on each boat sailing for the -next month. - -One after one he relinquished them, by telegraph, as the days slipped -by. - -They stopped off for two weeks at a high mountain inn that they liked; -and several times they rested for days in some spot that pleased her -fancy. - -He watched her face. When it grew fatigued, he gave directions to the -Japanese courier who had joined them at a point on the journey, and they -left the train at the next station. - -The courier came and went like a shadow along the route—sometimes -ahead of them and sometimes following, but always at hand when he was -needed. - -Eleanor grew to watch for his face as if he were a kind of meteor that -played a game with them. - -“There he is!” she would exclaim at some station as she looked out -and caught a glimpse of him. “There he is, Richard!” And if the -train went on without him, she would press her face to the glass and -lean forward to watch till he was out of sight. - -“What a wonderful people!” she said. “When I see him I seem to -understand—almost! And then he is gone! Is he going with us—all the -way?” - -“Perhaps so,” said Richard. “I had arranged with him only to San -Francisco. But we can keep him on if you like.... There will be plenty -like him on the boat. They are all Japs on the boat.” - - - - -XXI - -On the steamer they were, as Richard had predicted, all Japanese. Not -only the crew and attendants, but many of the passengers showed the dark -skin and straight hair of the race to the west. There were Chinese, -too, and strange foreign faces that Richard More did not know. A few -Americans were on board—bound on business or pleasure to China and -Japan—but the majority of the passengers were of alien race. - -Richard More and his wife sat day after day in their steamer-chairs, -looking out to sea and watching the strange faces drift between them and -the horizon line.... They came and went, dreamlike and vague.... Now -a face would silhouette itself on the sky, turbaned and dark and -motionless against the approaching west; and now gesticulating hands -moved swiftly, and sharp staccatoed words flitted by them along the -deck. They were in a foreign world, a cosmopolite world—a restless, -moving strangeness of life.... It was not possible not to feel, deep -underneath, the common tie of race or nation that made them one.... Only -a boat moving to the west—and the faces moving with it. - -The courier left them at the dock at San Francisco. Eleanor caught a -glimpse of his face among the crowd as the boat moved out. - -“There he is!” she cried to Richard, her hand on his arm and her -eyes searching the dock. Then the crowd jostled—and the face was gone. -There were many dark faces along the dock’s edge, watching the boat -recede, and she could not see that one was more familiar than another. - -She had come to fancy on the journey that she knew the courier a little; -but now she saw that she had known only his strangeness; there were -dozens like him, and he was merged in the deeper alienism of his race. - -He was replaced by a Chinese interpreter who was to act as guide for -the rest of the journey. Richard More, searching for a courier who was -familiar with the languages and dialects of the different provinces of -China, had come upon Kou Ying, who was contemplating a journey home. For -a consideration, he was willing to go with them into the interior and to -remain with them as long as they wished. - -Eleanor had seen him only at a distance, leaning against the rail and -looking out to sea, or rolling a cigarette with slow lingering touch in -his yellow hands extending from the wide, silken sleeves. - -She fancied, once or twice, that a glance from the oblique eyes rested -on her with slow intentness. But when she looked again she saw that the -glance was vacant of meaning and that it slipped past her and gazed out -along the pathless sea to the west. - -“I cannot make him out!” she said to Richard. - -“Don’t you like him?” he demanded. “We will exchange him at -Shanghai. There are always plenty to be had, I understand. But I thought -the man seemed intelligent—and the boat gives us a little chance to -get acquainted.” - -He looked at her keenly. “We don’t need to keep him, you know.” - -She wrinkled her eyes in a little perplexity, gazing at the figure that -stood well to the front of the boat.... His back was turned to them and -the wind blowing against the boat filled the blue coat and trousers -like little balloons. One could fancy the thin yellow legs inside the -balloons, holding like grim little steel pipes to the deck. There was a -wiry strength in the man and a kind of gripping forcefulness that went -oddly with the placid face and slow figure. - -“I don’t know what it is,” she said slowly. “I do not dislike -him. But he makes me feel as if the world were queer—a little -topsy-turvy, I think—almost as if I saw a pine-tree lift its roots out -of the ground and go skipping along the grass!” Her husband laughed -out. “Kou Ying doesn’t skip much!” - -“No.... His soul skips!” - -“All the better for us, isn’t it?” - -“Perhaps—” Her eyes brooded on the ballooning little figure, -anchored to the deck. - -“No—Don’t send him away!” She shook her head with decision. - -“Well, I’m glad you like him. I fancy he’s going to be pretty -useful to us later on.” - -He got up and strolled over to the man, and Eleanor More watched the two -figures side by side—the tall, well-built American and the thin little -figure of steel in its swelling, puffed-out garments. - -Presently they moved along the deck and passed out of sight. When they -reappeared, at the other end of the boat, Eleanor was lying half-asleep, -her eyes closed and her face very quiet. - -She opened her eyes, as they came up. - -The oblique gaze was looking down on her out of an impassive face. She -smiled dreamily.... Now she understood. The man was journeying too. - -“This is Kou Ying,” said Richard casually. - -The Oriental made a gesture of service... and the pine-tree danced -hazily before Eleanor’s eyes. She smiled a little. - -“You are going with us?” she asked. - -The stolid face had not changed. But something, far back in the eyes, -responded to the smile. - -“As long as you need me, madam,” said the man courteously. - -“We are looking for a coat,” said Richard. - -“Hadn’t you told him?” asked Eleanor, a little astonished. She sat -up in her chair. - -“No. I waited—to be sure.” - -The Chinese eyes regarded him, incurious and quiet. - -“We saw a coat, several years ago,” said Richard, addressing them. -“A coat that we should like to find—or one like it.” - -“A mandarin coat?” asked the man quietly. - -“No-o—I don’t think so. It was longer——” - -“Blue, with gold things on it—Dragons,” said Eleanor eagerly, -“and marks down the front like this—” She drew a few lines on the -paper beside her. - -“Ah—!” The man’s breath gave a little whistling sound.... - -“That is a very old coat,” he said softly. “Hundreds of -years—very, very old.” - -His face took on a strange, removed look. “It will be difficult to -find—I am afraid.” - -He spoke the words with a clear, clipping sound, and looked out to the -west, steadying himself to the motion of the boat. - -“There are not many chances of finding it,” he said at last with -grave accent. “But I will help you—if I can.” - -“We are depending on you,” said Richard More. - -The man bowed and walked away. - -After that Eleanor saw him often, mingling with the different groups of -Chinamen on the deck and talking and laughing with easy familiarity. - -“He is making inquiries,” said Richard. “He tells me there are -people on board from nearly every province in China. He may find a clew -before we leave the boat.” - -It might have been only imagination on Eleanor’s part that the groups -of Chinamen began to regard her with interest. As they passed her chair, -she would fancy for a moment she caught a gleam in the opaque black -eyes.... Then, as she looked, it was gone.... A group of them, by the -ship’s rail, talking in clear staccato tones, would give her a sudden -sense that she was closely concerned in what they were saying. But when -she looked, the stolid faces were as impassive as the long black queues -depending from each round hat almost to the ship’s deck and responding -in oblique black lines to the attraction of gravity—as the boat moved -up and down.... After a time she ceased to think of them. She sat in her -chair, day after day, with half-closed eyes, watching the faces drift -past and the water beyond the ship’s rail rise and fall. - - - - -XXII - -THEY made no friends on the boat as they had made none in the train. It -had rested her to leave all social relations behind as the train moved -west, and she showed a strange reluctance to forming new ties. She -seemed to have swung free from the past.... Richard, as he watched her, -had a sense that she gathered herself for something she was journeying -to meet.... Her face against the steamer-chair seemed to absorb light. -It held a still look—as if it waited some signal. - -But if Eleanor More, lying in her chair, made no acquaintances on the -boat, and if the groups of Chinamen did not seem to observe her as they -passed, there were others on the boat who showed open interest in the -quiet figure that lay day after day looking under lowered lids to the -west. - -More than one woman slowed her pace as she came near the steamer-chair. -Sometimes they lingered a moment ready to enter into conversation. But -it was always Richard More who spoke to them, and after a minute’s -courteous talk walked on with them, leaving the steamer-chair to its -unbroken quiet. - -His care for his wife, his almost reverent watchfulness for the figure -in the chair, gave it a place apart, an aloofness that no one broke in -upon. - -Yet often they saw her, from a distance, laughing and talking with her -husband like a child. There was something unwarranted in the sweetness -and freshness of her laugh.... It seemed to have left care behind, and -yet to be filled with sympathy that sprang from a deep place. - -A woman with little fine lines in her face and a quick mobile mouth -looked at her companion and smiled, as the laugh came to them. - -They had been standing by the boat-rail, looking out to sea, silent for -a long time. - -He returned the smile. “Well?” - -“I was only thinking—she knows!” She made a little gesture toward -the steamer-chair. - -“Knows what?” said the man vaguely. - -“Everything!” replied the woman. “Things I would give my life -for!” She turned her back on him. Her eyes followed the foam in the -boat’s wake. - -He watched her a minute in silence. Then he moved nearer to her and laid -his hand on hers where it lay on the boat’s rail. “Why not?” he -said. - -She shook her head and smiled. “I cannot be sure!” She faced him. -“If I were sure... I would marry you to-morrow—to-day—any time!” -She threw the words at him. “How can one be sure?” He regarded -her gravely. “Isn’t that what it means?... Isn’t that a part -of it—to take the risk?... Suppose there were no risk... would that -be—love?” - -“Oh—I don’t know!—I don’t know!” She spoke as if urged by -something within. - -Suddenly she turned to him. “It used to be so simple—to be a -woman.... One loved and married—and there were children—and then one -died. That was all! But now—!” She broke off. - -“Yes. Now, you are free—and being free, you must choose—And that -means knowledge.” He looked at her narrowly. - -“Yes!” She moved a little from him. “And I shall know—when I -have made the mistake—perhaps!” - -“When you take the risk!” he responded cheerfully. “Shall we go -for our walk? That is safe—ten times round the deck—six times a -day!” - -She smiled and placed her hand in his arm and they swung into the easy -step of the ship’s constitutional. - -Six times they passed the quiet figure in its chair. Then the woman -slowed her pace a little. - -“I cannot bear it any longer—not to know!” She lifted her hand to -the figure wrapped in its steamer-rug and lying so still. “When I look -at her—I cannot bear it!... She knows. She has foregathered with the -great—! She knows the secret!” They had come to a stop, and she -turned to him. “If I marry you I shall not be happy—” She seemed -to throw out the words accusingly. - -“Are you happy now?” he asked gently. - -“I am free!” she flung back.... “There are things women must -do—for the world!” She looked about her vaguely. - -“This is one of them—perhaps. But—” He looked at her narrowly. -“Not unless—you love me.” - -She looked at him and smiled subtly. - -“I want to do brave things. I want to vote and reform cities and -states. I want to found kingdoms and rule them! But—I am—going to -marry you.” - -He moved a little toward her. - -She held up her hand. “I am going to marry you—because you hold the -secret—of the Past.... I cannot live without it.” She caught -her breath and half reached out her hands—as if to a blind god who -demanded sacrifice. There was a wistful look in her face. - -He regarded it sharply. “You think you will fathom the Past—by -marrying me?... That is why you do it?” - -She nodded gravely. - -He turned his back on her and looked over the rail, out to sea. - -“No woman is going to march through my heart, slamming doors behind -her!” he said under his breath. - -She regarded the obstinate back a minute and her face grew tender.... -She had become gentle—as if she saw something precious. She put out -her hand and touched his arm. - -“Don’t be afraid of me, Gordon! I will wait—at the threshold!” - -He wheeled suddenly and held out his arms. - -But she glanced over her shoulder. Only the empty decks—a Japanese -sailor lounging by the rail—and the quiet figure of the woman asleep -in her chair. - -She put up her face with the breath of a kiss and drew near to him.... -And in her half-slumber, beneath lowered lids, Eleanor More dreamed -on.... And the boat moved to the west and to the new world—the old -world of the Past—new with coming life in the cycles of the earth and -the sun. - -At Shanghai there were a few days of delay while Kou Ying arranged for -accommodations on the river-steamer, and telegraphed ahead for runners -and provisions and an escort to be waiting at the various points where -they might wish to stop off. - -Richard had instructed him to make arrangements that would leave them -free to follow any clew that developed as they went. Strings of cash -were provided and paid out by Kou Ying with judicious, watchful hand; -and banks in the interior received word to hold sums subject to call. -The news of the American who was to follow, penetrated far ahead.... If -any help were to be had from tradition or rumor Kou Ying had set -turning the wheels that would bring it to them as they ascended the long -meandering river that stretches from east to west across the country and -forms the waterway and news route of all upper China. - -Even in Shanghai the little party became the subject of almost official -interest. Courteous overtures were made to Richard More of information -to be had—at a price. - -The capacious suite of rooms Kou Ying engaged for them in Shanghai’s -leading hotel became an emporium of silks and stuffs and woven garments -of every shape and kind.... Colored brocades, rich embroideries stiff -with gold and gorgeous designs lay about on chairs and tables; and -yellow-skinned merchants from the native part of the city displayed -their trays and rolls of precious coats and robes for the American -lady’s choice. - -But she turned from them all with a little smile. “It was much simpler -than any of these, and more beautiful—I think,” she said quietly. - -And when Kou Ying interpreted her words, to them, they repacked the -garments in their long trays, and saluted her gravely and retired.... -Was it only fancy, or did swift looks cross between the impassive faces -as they moved from her? - -It was as if she were in a veiled world—tissues of filmy thinness.... -She had only to put out her hand and brush them aside—to find what she -sought—something beautiful and fine and eternal that waited. - -Rumors from the old city were brought that Kou Ying sifted with cautious -hand. Of some he made notes on the thin, yellow, rustling paper he -always carried with him; and some he dismissed with a curt wave that -swept the bearers in ignominious retreat from his presence. - -They fled from the august wrath of this man who had learned American -ways, but who had not forgotten, it would seem, the duplicity and -crookedness of his native land! - -Eleanor More saw very little of Kou Ying during these days of -preparation. Except when he was acting as interpreter for her, he -came and went with even, inscrutable countenance, arranging details, -directing movements—preparing for the long and difficult journey that -lay ahead. - -Never by word or movement did he indicate other than the most casual -interest in the object of their journey or in his employers. He gave -the service agreed upon and he handled Richard More’s money with -scrupulous exactness; but he showed no other sign of caring for the -expedition or of interest in its success. - -When the preliminary arrangements were concluded and they sat on the -boat’s deck looking out across the Chinese landscape that the season -of high water made visible on either bank, Kou Ying showed even less -interest in their movements. - -He sat, or stood, a little distance from them, his gaze resting stolidly -on the level fields and low-lying crops, as they moved past. At a sign -from Richard he would approach and explain some point of interest, or -give information as to the average yield of the fertile soil or the -price of crops. - -Then, after a courteous moment of silence, he would return to his -solitary watching, and the look of withdrawal would come over his face. - -Mile after mile they saw the unvarying fields go by, and the -multitudinous boats pass and repass on the great river. - -For years, it seemed to them, they had been making their way through -this fertile land, plying a steady course up the winding stream that led -to the unknown country they sought. - -Then one morning Kou Ying came to them. - -“In a few hours we disembark,” he said courteously. “There is a -shop in Ichang you may wish to visit.” - -But the shop in Ichang proved only a duplicate of the shops of old -Shanghai, and they returned to the river and moved on—this time in -their own boat, a clumsy, roomy junk that went more slowly and was -propelled by the wind or by stalwart rowers—up through great gorges, -where the river made its tortuous way—up, steadily up, over rapids or -along the smooth-flowing water between gigantic walls. - -And as Eleanor More watched the muscles in the half-naked backs, bending -to the oars or tugging and straining at the rope that hauled the boat -through swift foaming rapids, she felt as if she ascended some great -river of a dream world.... So Dante may have watched the shades appear -and vanish, or a turn of the journey reveal new and mysterious regions -of the unknown world. - -Already they had fallen into the habit of saying little. They sat in the -sedan chairs that had been provided for the upper reaches, motionless -and silent. - -Above them the great walls stretched dizzily or opened out around quiet -waters where the light lay dazzling on distant peaks; or they watched -the water as it broke and swirled about the bow and the boat groaned and -bumped under the tugging strain that brought it at last one reach higher -up. - -Often the journey was halted for expeditions into the country on one -side or the other as they made their way steadily toward the Thibetan -ranges that stretched to the west. But no clew had been reached.... -Always the courteous reception of Kou Ying’s inquiries—always -the spreading before them of gorgeous robes and flower-embroidered -garments—but no glimpse or hint of a blue coat and shining dragons. - -“I begin to feel as if it were a dream,” said Eleanor, “we have -been remembering all these years—only a dream-coat. It was so long -ago!” she mused. “And this is another life.” She motioned to -the strange fields about them—the low houses among the trees and -the carved, fantastic temple rising from the grove near by. “Almost -another world!” she murmured. - -The sedan chairs halted for luncheon. A little distance away, the -bearers sat or lolled at rest. In the distance Kou Ying consulted with a -Taoist priest, who shook his head and turned away. - -They saw Kou Ying move swiftly after him and press a coin in his hand. -The priest stopped and regarded it with passing motion, and spoke a few -words again, and shook his head and went on to his temple. - -Kou Ying returned to them with the usual formula of failure. He motioned -to the bearers to take up the chairs and continue the journey. - -But Richard More stayed him. “Wait,” he said. He was searching in -his pocket for something. - -Kou Ying paused without interest. - -And Richard More took from his pocket a yellow paper, and began to -unfold it with slow, rustling fingers. - -The Oriental’s face changed subtly. He moved toward it and reached out -his hand. - -“What is that?” he demanded. - -Richard More looked up. “I had forgotten—that I had it,” he said -absently. - -Kou Ying reached to it. But Richard held it away. His finger traced a -line along the paper and paused.... - -“This must be the place—here?” He looked about him, at the -clustering houses and the Taoist temple on the right. - -Kou Ying’s face bent eagerly above the paper. - -“Where did you get this?” he asked huskily. There was a strange, -quiet gleam in the yellow face. - -“The man I told you of—Stewart—gave it to me.... I had -forgotten—till now. Will it help, do you think?” - -Kou Ying looked at him, almost with compassion, it seemed. - -His finger touched the paper. But he made no further move to take it. - -“Hold it to the light!” he said. - -And when Richard More held it against the light they saw, gleaming high, -an imperial dragon and beside it the four strange cabalistic marks. - -“It is the royal seal,” said Kou Ying quietly—“the seal of a -dynasty long since deposed. Only documents of rare value are inscribed -on this paper.” - -He waited a moment in silence. “It will tell us the way,” he said -slowly-“Whoever sees that paper must speak true words—on penalty of -death.” - -He held out his hand. “Give it to me,” he said quietly. - -And Richard More yielded it without demur. - -The man’s whole bearing had changed. His face had lost its sullen -look. He gazed down at the yellowed paper with quiet intentness. - -Presently he looked up. The smile on his face was youthful and full of -light. The antagonism was gone, and the repression and difference of -race. - -“I wish I had known before—that you carried this,” he said gently. -He smoothed it in his yellow fingers. - -“What would you have done—different?” asked Richard, a little -curious. - -“I should have served you in spirit,” said Kou Ying. “This is -the map of the spirit country.” He touched it reverently and waited a -moment. - -“I cannot tell you more. My words would not have meaning—for -you———” - -But Eleanor More leaned forward a little, with parted lips. - -“Tell us,” she said swiftly. - -And Kou Ying looked at her a moment in grave silence. The paper in his -hand seemed to radiate a kind of light and remove him mistily. - -“You will know,” he said, “—all that the paper can tell. You -will know—soon.... But I cannot tell you.” - -He motioned to the bearers and they took up the chairs and moved -forward. - -And wherever the chairs halted and the paper was presented, there was -swift hurrying and obedient response to Kou Ying’s questions and -demands. The little procession became a kind of royal convoy. Each -village that was entered received it with honor and hastened to serve it -and to speed it on its way—almost as if eager to be rid of so fateful -a mission. - -There was no dallying in progress now, and no detours leading to -fruitless results. Each halt found the route ahead prepared and -directions ready for Kou Ying’s hand.... But the end that they sought -was always a little farther on—a day’s journey on. - -They left the travelled region and ascended into a hilly country where -the road wound constantly up and the bearers were obliged to force their -way through paths that were no longer wide enough for two abreast. At -last only the empty chairs could be carried and they ascended by slow -stages, halting often to rest. - -“We are near the end now!” Kou Ying looked gravely at Eleanor More. - -Her face had grown a little tired, but it held a light that scanned each -break in the road with quiet happiness. - -Richard More watched her uneasily. “You are not tired?” he asked. - -She shook her head. “I am strangely rested.... I am getting -acclimated, perhaps.” - -He looked again at the quiet face. It was true that it seemed -rested—more rested than he had ever seen it. But there was a pallor -about it that touched him strangely. - -He took her hand and held it in his as they ascended the hill, guiding -her, almost carrying her over the rough places, till the path before -them opened out into a little clearing and they stood on the summit of -the mountain. - -Below them the path wound downward to a valley of trees and little farms -that stretched away to the plain; and in the centre of the valley stood -a walled city.... They noted the circling walls and the gates and towers -that thrust upward. In the midst of the city was a curious and rounded -mountain, and on the summit of the mountain two thin, shining trees and -a temple with little points and peaks glinted in the light.... Below the -temple, shrined in the face of the mountain, something glowed. The light -fell on it and shifted a little and the sun that had been struggling -through gray clouds shone full on the face of the god—hewn from the -ribs of the mountain and gilded till it shone like brass.... Colossal in -dignity and repose, the great face gazed out over the roofs and towers -of the walled city, to the plain beyond. - -Eleanor More caught her breath and leaned forward, gazing with quiet -eyes. - -Kou Ying beside her gave a quick cry and flung himself prostrate on -his face.... And all the bearers of the little retinue as they came -straggling into the opening prostrated themselves, with half-uttered -sounds of awe. - -Richard More, standing among the kneeling figures, noted quietly the -distance of the descending path that led to the city. And when Kou Ying -rose and stood beside him, the American motioned with his hand to the -mountain and the god that faced them, rising above the city walls. - -“From here we go on alone,” he said. - -Kou Ying gazed at him a moment in silence. He seemed weighing something -in his mind. - -“You will need an interpreter,” he said gravely. - -Richard More laughed out. He touched the string of cash that hung -beneath his coat. - -“This will talk!” - -But Kou Ying shook his head with a smile. - -“You must go to the temple—not the one above, but below. Beside the -Buddha—can you see it?” - -Richard More shaded his eyes, and nodded assent. At the base of the -mountain, rising barely to the knees of the great seated figure, he -could see the other temple huddled among the trees. - -“I can see it,” he said. - -“Go there—and inquire. Here—take the map. I think we are very -near now. But—” Kou Ying hesitated. “I should feel safer—” -he murmured. Then his eyes fell on Eleanor More standing with relaxed -hands, waiting, and his face lighted and glowed curiously. He drew aside -with a gesture of abnegation. - -“If you need me, signal from the gate—or from the wall. I shall wait -here with the men—and come if you need me.” He bowed gravely and -motioned to the men. They drew back and watched the two figures descend -the winding path that led to the valley. - -Sometimes a rock obscured them, and sometimes they passed under -overhanging trees or disappeared beneath the arch of a bridge or -fantastic tower that spanned the way.... Each time a little nearer to -the city and to the great seated figure of the Buddha of the mountain. - -And when the two figures halted a minute at the gate and disappeared -within the wall Kou Ying made a significant gesture to the men; and the -little retinue in the clearing on the mountain above the valley fell on -their faces in silence.... - -Across the valley, the great Buddha brooded, and above it rose the -temple and two thin trees, transparent in the gray morning light. - -And on the high plateau that faced the god, the single figure of Kou -Ying stood erect among the kneeling men and kept watch for a signal from -the gate or the city wall. - - - - -XXIII - -Through his barred window, the old priest looked out at them with -unseeing eyes. - -There was an interval and he stood beside them, looking down at their -dusty clothes and travel-stained faces with quiet, understanding gaze. - -Even before the interpreter came, with his high, sing-song words that -translated their wishes, even before Richard More took from his pocket -the yellow map and laid it in the old priest’s hand, they knew that -they were come to the end of their search. - -The priest listened with bowed head. Once or twice he nodded assent, and -when the interpreter finished, he looked at Eleanor More with slow, kind -eyes. - -He folded the map and handed it back and pointed to a little house among -the trees. Then he spoke to the interpreter in a low tone and motioned -to the figure of the god cut in the rock above, and entered the temple. - -An old man, half-asleep before his door, roused himself. He listened to -the interpreter and shook his head. His face was as motionless as the -plank it leaned against. - -The interpreter spoke again, sharply, and the old eyes turned to him -with slow, incurious look. - -The interpreter flung one hand upward, toward the seated Buddha towering -above; and the old gaze followed it unsteadily—up—up to the great -gilded face. - -For a long minute he gazed at the god in the face of the mountain. Then -he rose slowly and entered the darkened house. - -They heard a sound of scraping within and a creaking, as if a door -opened, then silence.... The city was very quiet about them—a gentle -intoning from the temple and a rustling of leaves on the mountainside. - -For a long time they waited in the silence before the half-swung door. -The old man appeared and beckoned to them and they passed into the cool -quiet. - -They traversed a passage and crossed a court and entered a low room. - -The room was empty except for two objects on the right as they -entered—a shrine to Buddha revealed through the half-open doors the -god within; and across the room on a raised platform facing the shrine -stood a red-and-black lacquered coffin. - -At the sight of the coffin Eleanor More’s face changed subtly. She -turned to the interpreter. - -“Why have you brought us to a house of mourning?” Her hand moved -toward the raised platform. - -The old man at the interpreter’s side spoke a few words.... And the -interpreter translated in his sing-song voice. - -“It is his son—who is dead. He has no other to do him honor,” he -chanted slowly, as if the words were full of presage. - -And Eleanor More’s eyes turned to the old man with a quiet look. But -the stolid face gave no response. - -With a courteous gesture and a low word to the interpreter, the old man -moved toward the shrine across the room and, squatting before it, opened -a drawer beneath the half-open doors and drew out an oblong box. - -The three people standing by the red-and-black coffin waited quietly as -he lifted it and turned to them. - -“What is it?” asked Richard More. - -He had a curious thrill—as if at the end of a long quest he put out -his hand in the dark and touched a human hand like his own. - -The old man crossed to them in silence, and laying the box on the -platform by the coffin lifted the lid.... A faint scent of spices -drifted out; it floated about them and enveloped them as he took out, -one by one, the soft thin papers that filled the box, and revealed lying -at the bottom something that glowed and shimmered a little. - -Eleanor More leaned forward breathless. Her hands half-reached to the -shimmer of blue and gold as the old man lifted it from the box and -opened it with slow, reverent fingers.... The dragon’s played across -the surface, and on the breast as he held it up were four cabalistic -marks—the signs in the transparent map that guided them on their -journey. - -They stood a moment in silence. All the color of the coat seemed to -gather to a soft intensity, and glow. - -Eleanor More caught her breath with a little sound. “I had -forgotten!” she said. “I had forgotten....!” Her face was filled -with light—a look of happiness pervaded it. - -Richard More glanced at her. “Ask him how much it is,” he said in a -low voice to the interpreter. - -The interpreter spoke the words and listened a moment and translated the -answer swiftly: “Money will not buy the coat—not all the gold in all -the world,” he chanted back. - -Again and again Richard More made his demand.... And again he offered -larger sums. But the old face opposite remained untouched. - -“Money cannot buy it,” replied the interpreter. - -It was like a refrain that came and went between the two men, as they -faced each other—Richard More urgent, imperious, and strong; the old -Chinaman impassive and quiet. His face had not changed from its look of -calm endurance. - -“He will not sell it,” repeated the interpreter. “He only shows -it to you at the priest’s command. It is a legacy—from mother to -son.” - -“His son is dead,” said Richard almost harshly. His hand moved to -the coffin with an abrupt gesture.... “His son is dead——-” - -The words held themselves on his lips. - -He was facing a small door across the room. His hand fell to his side in -a gesture of silence. - -The woman in the doorway stood looking at them with deep, intent gaze. -Then she moved toward them—as one who comes in her own right. - -She spoke a word to the interpreter. He gave quiet assent and waited -while she spoke. - -“She says the coat is of royal lineage,” he translated slowly—“a -heritage in her family—since Time.... She is of a dynasty long since -deposed. Only the coat remains. No one remembers whence it came—no one -reads the dragon marks....” He translated the words as they came from -her lips in quaint exact phrasing. “But there is a tradition—” his -voice went on—— - -He listened again—a half-curious flutter of his lids rested on Eleanor -More’s face. - -She had withdrawn to one side and stood looking down at the -red-and-black lacquered surface of the coffin.... Her hands were folded -quietly. Something within her seemed to hold itself remote. - -His gaze ran from her to the woman who stood speaking the words that he -translated, half under his breath——— - -“There is a tradition—” he repeated softly, “that the coat is -immortal—” - -They turned to it where it lay beside the coffin. It seemed to shimmer -and gather light. - -“—a tradition that the coat is immortal,” went on the singing -voice of the interpreter.... “And one day there shall come from the -East—a woman—a woman out of the East.... And her sons shall cherish -the coat!” - -Eleanor More stirred a little. - -The voice of the interpreter took on a high sing-song note, alternating -with the low, gentle phrasing of the Chinese woman’s words.... “Her -sons and her sons’ sons—forever.” - -The voice ceased and the room was very still. From somewhere in the -house came a rustling sound that rose and died away. - -Eleanor More raised her eyes and looked steadfastly at the other woman. -She moved a step—and half held out her hands. But the other did not -stir and she crossed the space between them.... They were of equal -height. As Richard More turned a startled glance, he was aware of -something curiously alike in the two figures—a lift of the head, -an air of quiet endurance—but more than all, a kind of -dignity—something regal—that stirred vague memories.... When had he -stood before and seen two women thus?... Surely in some other life—in -some other age and time, he had looked on at a supreme moment of joy and -abnegation. - -For a long moment, the two women confronted each other, gazing deep into -the other’s eyes. Then with a little gesture, the Oriental, in her -softly rustling garments, moved to the platform and lifted the Chinese -coat in her hands and placed it in Eleanor More’s. - -Were there tears in the eyes that gazed... or only a deep, still joy? - -Before Richard More could question—the look was gone. The Oriental -woman was moving from them and the door closed softly behind her. - -He watched it swing together, with a sense that something irretrievable -had passed—a mystery and wonder—out of life.... Then he turned and -saw his wife’s face. - -She was gazing down at the coat with a look almost of fear. “Her sons -and her sons’ sons—forever,” flashed through his mind.... She -lifted her eyes and smiled at him, holding out the coat. - -“Carry it for me, Dick!” - -He moved quickly toward her. “You are tired?” he said tenderly. - -“No—I am not tired!” She looked about her. “I am only glad.... -It was a long journey, wasn’t it?” She spoke with quiet conviction. -“But now it seems short—and easy to find....” - -She looked about her again. Her eyes rested wonderingly on the shrine of -the Buddha and on the shallow platform with its coffin and the three men -standing by it.... - -“I have been here before, I think—and yet...” She passed her hand -across her eyes. “I cannot——” - -“Never mind!” He had taken the coat from her and handed it to the -interpreter, who was folding it in slow, skilful hands. - -The old Chinaman had not stirred from his place, a little to one side. -He looked on with impassive gaze. - -Richard More glanced at him and a sense of something wonted came to -him... a sudden vision of the oak-tree with its great roots protruding -from the ground, and the low-swung branches. He moved quickly to the -platform. From about his neck he removed the long strings of cash and -placed them beside the coffin and from his pocket he took handfuls of -the Chinese silver “shoes” that had served them on their journey.... -They would not need them now.... He piled them about the coffin. - -The old eyes of the Chinaman gazed straight before him. His lips parted -in half-spoken words that the interpreter took up, translating softly. - -“He will go to the grave of his ancestors.... He is old and his sons -are dead.... He will bury this son, the last of his race—” His hand -touched the lacquered surface gently. “He will offer worship at the -sacred mountain and pay vows before the tomb of his ancestors. The money -you have given shall make glad the hearts of his ancestors.” - -He ceased. The old man approached the coffin. For a long moment he stood -with hands resting on it—as if he would gather from it something -of the strength of the race that was passing. Then with grave face he -lifted the strings of cash and placed them about his neck and gathered -up the silver shoes from beside the coffin and took from a little shelf -by the platform a red umbrella and a pair of half-worn sandals. With -courteous gesture he passed from the room. - - - - -XXIV |In the grove outside the city wall they paused to rest. - -The interpreter, who had come with them from the house and refused -to leave them till the city gate was reached, had been paid and was -returning to the temple. - -As they passed through the streets, they had been conscious of curious -whispers, glances from behind opaque windows and rustling from concealed -doorways and passages beyond—so a hive of bees despoiled of its comb -stirs with low-murmured sound and the restless whir of wings.... But no -one had approached them, no one barred passage to the light oblong box -that Richard More carried so carefully in his hand. - -At the entrance to the grove he glanced at his wife. - -“We shall rest here,” he said with quiet decision. - -And she acquiesced—a little smile coming to her lips as they entered -the grove. - -The green light filtered through the boughs. It touched the twisted -trunks with a still look of mystery and strangeness. - -“How beautiful!” she said under her breath. - -He made a place for her to sit down, and as she leaned against the -gnarled trunk, looking up to the boughs where the filtering light came -through, he was struck again by the pallor of her face. - -“You are tired!” he exclaimed. “I shall signal Kou Ying to bring -the chairs!” He moved to the entrance of the grove—but she stayed -him. - -“No—wait! I like it—to be alone with you.... Don’t call Kou -Ying—yet!” - -She looked about with dreamy eyes. “It is so beautiful here—and -quiet—I shall rest,” she said slowly. - -Then her eyes fell on the box and she smiled. - -“Open it!” she commanded. - -And as his fingers undid the cord and lifted the thin rustling papers -and drew the coat from its place, she laughed and chatted like a child. -And her laughter, sounding through the grove, had something sweet and -strange in it. - -He lifted the coat and laid it before her. She looked down at it. She -put out her hand and stroked the dragons, the laughter still in her -eyes. - -“For William Archer,” she said. - -“And his sons,” responded Richard. - -“And his sons’ sons forever,” she finished dreamily. - -Her hand still stroked the dragons. - -“I did not think you—would get it—for me!” she said. - -“Of course I should get it—if you wanted it.... You had only to say -you wanted it!” - -“You knew that!” he added after a minute. - -“Yes, I knew.” A little sigh touched her lips. - -They sat a moment in silence. Then he lifted the coat. “Put it on,” -he insisted gently. - -She lifted her arms to the sleeves and smiled at him as he wrapped -it about her.... Suddenly the look of pallor was in her face. It grew -strangely quiet, and a touch of wistfulness curved the smile of the -lips. - -He looked down at her, startled... the pallor in the quiet face seemed -passed to his own. - -Hastily he laid down the still figure and ran to the entrance of -the grove.... At the edge of the path he paused and looked up and -motioned—gesticulating swiftly to a single figure on the plateau -above. - -From his post above Kou Ying started. He leaned forward and lifted his -hand in a swift gesture. - -He gave a harsh call. - -The men behind him leaped to their feet and ran from the trees. There -was confusion and hurry and a swift chatter of voices, as they seized -the empty sedan chairs and slung them to their shoulders, and moved -forward toward the winding path that led from the hill. - -From the edge of the hill before he descended Kou Ying looked down -again. - -The valley below was still. No one moved among the trees. - -From the mountain opposite, the quiet face of the Buddha looked across -to the plain. - - - - -XXV - -In the grove he bent above the deathlike face. A tremor crossed it. - -She brushed a hand lightly across her eyes, as if visions fled, and sat -up. The color came slowly back to her face. - -“I had a dream!” she breathed. - -The green light of the grove shimmered about her softly and touched her -face. - -“It was William Archer and the coat. But I cannot remember—” She -passed a hand across her forehead. - -“Never mind,” said Richard. “We are going to take it home to -him.” - -Her hand dropped to the dragons and smoothed them absently. - -“And to his sons’ sons forever!” she murmured happily. - -At the entrance to the grove, dark incurious faces peered in at the -blue-robed figure that rested against the gnarled trunk.... The sound of -quick, indrawn breath passed among the leaves. - -Richard More lifted her to her feet. - -“Come!” he said. - -They passed out of the grove where the sedan chairs waited them. The -bearers prone on their faces on the ground uttered low words that rose -in a kind of chant and ended in the long indrawn note of awe. - -Kou Ying alone stood erect. - -He held out his hand to the blue-robed figure and escorted it to the -sedan chair and seated it with grave care. - -Richard More took his place in the chair beside her. - -“We return by the lower route,” said Kou Ying. - -He spoke a sharp word to the bearers. They sprang to their feet and -touched the handles of the chairs. - -“Keep to the lower hill by the spur,” he commanded. - -The procession moved toward the low hill that edged the plain. And as -they made their way up the long slope at an easy trot Richard More’s -eyes rested on his wife. - -She sat erect beneath the canopy of the chair, the blue robe with its -gold dragons wrapped about her. Her tranquil face in its white hair -looked across the plain.... She was more beautiful than he had ever -known her! A queen in this robe of the Past! - -He reached his hand till it touched the one that lay on the arm of the -chair. The face with its tranquil smile turned to him. - -And he saw with a start that the blue of the eyes and the blue of the -coat were one.... - -They reached the spur of the hill and Kou Ying gave the signal to halt. - -Behind them in the face of the cliff the seated Buddha looked across the -plain. - -And ahead, far beyond them on the plain, a single figure beneath a red -umbrella plodded stolidly on, moving toward the tomb of its ancestors. - -And as it went the red umbrella bobbed slowly, a spot of color in the -distant far-reaching grayness of the plain. - - - - - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chinese Coat, by Jennette Lee - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHINESE COAT *** - -***** This file should be named 52699-0.txt or 52699-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/6/9/52699/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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