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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..99a60cd --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64192 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64192) diff --git a/old/64192-8.txt b/old/64192-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2a7ed28..0000000 --- a/old/64192-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4632 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Priceless Pearl, by Alice Duer Miller - - -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 Priceless Pearl - - -Author: Alice Duer Miller - - - -Release Date: January 1, 2021 [eBook #64192] - -Most recently updated: October 16, 2022 - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRICELESS PEARL*** - - -E-text prepared by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team (https://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by -Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/pricelesspearl00mill - - - - - -THE PRICELESS PEARL - -by - -ALICE DUER MILLER - -Author of -_"Manslaughter," "Come Out of the Kitchen," -"Are Parents People?" etc._ - - -[Illustration: Decoration] - - - - - - -New York -Dodd, Mead & Company -1924 - -Copyright 1923, 1924 -By Alice Duer Miller - -Printed in U. S. A. - - - - -THE PRICELESS PEARL - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -"The girl is simply too good-looking," said Bunner, the office manager, -in a high, complaining voice. "She is industrious, intelligent, -punctual and well-mannered, but simply too good-looking--a disturbing -element in the office on account of her appearance. I made a grave -mistake in engaging her." - -The president, who had been a professor of botany at a great -university before he resigned in order to become head of The Universal -Encyclopedia of Necessary Knowledge Publishing Corporation, was a -trifle deaf, but had not as yet admitted the fact to himself; and he -inquired with the patient, slightly contemptuous surprise of the deaf, -"But I do not understand why she is crying." - -"It is not she who is crying," answered the office manager regretfully; -"it is Mr. Rixon, our third vice president. He is crying because he -has most unfortunately become interested in the young woman--fallen in -love with her--so my stenographer tells me." - -The president peered through his bifocal lenses. He did not wish to be -thought one of those unsophisticated scientists who understand only the -plain unpsychological process of plants. He inquired whether the girl -had encouraged the third vice president, whether, in a word, she had -given him to understand that she took a deeper interest in him than -was actually the fact, "the disappointment of the discovery being the -direct cause of the emotional outbreak which you have just described." - -Bunner hesitated. He would have liked to consider that Miss Leavitt was -to blame, for otherwise the responsibility was entirely his own. In -his heart he believed she was, for he was one of those men who despise -women and yet consider them omnipotent. - -"I can't say I've ever seen her do more than say good morning to him," -he answered rather crossly. "But I believe there is a way of avoiding -a man--with her appearance. You have probably never noticed her, sir, -but----" - -"Oh, I've noticed her," said the president, nodding his old head. "I've -noticed a certain youth and exuberant vitality, and--yes, I may say -beauty--decided beauty." - -Bunner sighed. - -"A girl like that ought to get married," he said. "They ought not -to be working in offices, making trouble. It's hard on young men of -susceptible natures like Mr. Rixon. You can hardly blame him." - -No, they agreed they did not blame him at all; and so they decided to -let the young woman have her salary to the first of the month and let -her go immediately. - -"That will be best, Bunner," said the president, and dismissed the -matter from his mind. - -But Bunner, who knew that there was a possibility that even a beautiful -young woman might not enjoy losing her job, could not dismiss the -matter from his mind until the interview with her was over. He decided, -therefore, to hold it at once, and withdrew from the president's room, -where, as a directors' meeting was about to take place, the members of -the board were already beginning to gather. - -Bunner was a pale fat man of forty, who was as cold to the excessive -emotion of the third vice president as he was to the inconvenient -beauty which had caused it. He paused beside Miss Leavitt's desk in the -outer office and requested a moment of her time. - -She had finished going over the article on Corals and was about to -begin that on Coronach--a Scotch dirge or lamentation for the dead. -She had just been wondering whether any created being would ever want -to know anything about coronach, when Mr. Bunner spoke to her. If she -had followed her first impulse she would have looked up and beamed at -him, for she was of the most friendly and warmhearted nature; but she -remembered that beaming was not safe where men were concerned--even -when they were fat and forty--so she answered coldly, "Yes, Mr. -Bunner," and rose and followed him to his own little office. - -Miss Pearl Leavitt, A. B., Rutland College, was not one of those -beauties who must be pointed out to you before you appreciate their -quality. On the contrary, the eye roving in her neighborhood was -attracted to her as to a luminary. There was nothing finicky or subtle -or fine-drawn about her. Her features were rather large and simple, -like a Greek statue's, though entirely without a statue's immobility. -Her coloring was vivid--a warm brunette complexion, a bright golden -head and a pair of large gray eyes that trembled with their own light -as they fixed themselves upon you, much as the reflection of the -evening star trembles in a quiet pool. But what had always made her -charm, more than her beauty, was her obvious human desire to be a -member of the gang--to enjoy what the crowd enjoyed and do what was -being done. It was agony to her to assume the icy, impassive demeanor -which, since she had been working in offices, she had found necessary. -But she did it. She was hard up. - -When Mr. Bunner had sent away his stenographer and shut the door he sat -down and pressed his small fat hands together. - -"Miss Leavitt," he said, "I am sorry to be obliged to tell you that -during the summer months when so many of our heads of departments are -away on their vacations, we shall be obliged to reduce our office -staff; and so, though your work has been most satisfactory--we have -no complaint to make of your work--still I am sorry to be obliged to -tell you that during the summer months, when so many of our heads of -departments----" - -He did not know what was the matter; the sentence appeared to be a -circular sentence without exits. - -Miss Leavitt folded her arms with a rapid whirling motion. Of course, -since the first three words of his sentence she had known that she had -lost her job. - -"Just why is it that I am being sent away?" she said. - -Sulky children, before they actually burst into tears, have a way -of almost visibly swelling like a storm cloud. It would be wrong to -suggest that anything as lovely as Pearl Leavitt could swell, and yet -there was something of this effect as she stared down at the office -manager. He did not like her tone, nor yet her look. - -He said with a sort of acid smile, "I was about to explain the reason -when you interrupted me. Although your work has been perfectly -satisfactory, we feel that during the summer months----" He wrenched -himself away from that sentence entirely. "It is the wish of the -president," he said, "that you be given your salary to the first of -the month--which I hereby hand you--and be told that it will not be -necessary for you to come here after today. In parting with you, Miss -Leavitt, I wish to assure you that the quality of your work for this -organization has been in every respect----" - -"I want to speak to the president," said Miss Leavitt. - -She did not raise her voice, but no one could have mistaken that her -tone was threatening. She vibrated her head slightly from side to side, -and spit out her _t's_ in a way actually alarming to Bunner, who was a -man susceptible to fear. - -"Our decision is quite final--quite final, I'm sorry to say," he said, -fussing with his papers as a hint that she had better go and leave him -in peace. - -"That's why I want to speak to him." - -"Quite impossible," answered Bunner. "The board is meeting at present -in his room----" - -"What!" cried Pearl. "They're all there together, are they?" And before -the office manager took in her intention she was out of his office, -across the main office and in the board room. - -Like so many people destined to succeed in New York, Pearl came -originally from Ohio. She was an orphan, and after her graduation from -an Eastern college she had gone back to her native state, meaning to -make her home with her two aunts. It had not been a successful summer. -Not only was it hot, and there was no swimming where her aunts lived, -and Pearl loved to swim, but two of her cousins fell in love with -her--one from each family--and it became a question either of their -leaving home or of her going. So Pearl very gladly came East again, and -under the guidance of her great friend Augusta Exeter began to look for -a job. - -She had come East in September, and it was now July--hardly ten -months--and yet in that time she had had and lost four good jobs -through no fault of her own but wholly on account of her extraordinary -beauty. She was not insulted; no one threatened her virtue or offered -to run away with her. It was simply that, like Helen of Troy, "Where'er -she came she brought calamity." - -Her first place had been with a publishing firm, Dixon & Gregory. -When Pearl came to them the business was managed by the two sons of -the original firm; the elder Dixon was dead, and the elder Gregory, -a man of fifty-six or eight, came to the office only once or twice -a week. A desk for her had been put in his private room, as it was -almost always vacant. It ceased, however, to be vacant as soon as he -saw Pearl. He had no idea that he had fallen in love with her--perhaps -he had not. He certainly never troubled, her with attentions; as -far as she knew he was hardly aware of her existence. His emotion, -whatever it was, took the form of quarreling with anyone who did speak -to her--even in the course of necessary business. When at last one -day he met her and the younger Dixon going out to lunch at the same -hour and in the same elevator, but purely by accident, he made such a -violent and inexplicable scene that the two younger partners, after -consultation, decided that the only thing to do was to get rid of the -girl quietly--get her to resign. They were both very nice about it, -and themselves found her another place--as secretary to a magazine -editor--a man of ice, they assured her. She never saw the elder Mr. -Gregory again, and a few months later read in the papers of his death. - -Her new position went well for several months. The editor was, as -represented, a man of ice; but, as Hamlet has observed, being as pure -as snow and as chaste as ice does not protect against calumny, and the -wife of the editor, entering the office one day to find her husband and -his secretary bending over an illegible manuscript, refused to allow -such dangerous beauty so near her husband, and Pearl lost her second -job. - -Her next place was with an ambitious young firm which was putting a -new cleaning fluid on the market. At first, in a busy office, Pearl -seemed to pass almost unnoticed. Then one day the two partners, young -men both and heretofore like brothers, came to her together and asked -her if she would do the firm a great favor--sit for her portrait to -a well-known artist so that they might use her picture as a poster -to advertise their product. Pearl consented--she thought it would be -rather good fun. The result was successful. Indeed, the only criticism -of the picture--which represented Pearl in tawny yellow holding up a -saffron-colored robe at which she smiled brilliantly, with beneath it -the caption, Why Does She Smile? Because Her Old Dress is Made New -by--was that it would have been better to get a real person to sit for -the picture, as the public was tired of these idealized types of female -beauty. But the trouble started over who was to own the original -pastel. It developed that each partner had started the idea from a -hidden wish to own a portrait of Pearl. They quarreled bitterly. The -very existence of the firm was threatened. An old friend of the two -families stepped in and effected a reconciliation, but his decision -was that the girl must go. It did not look well for two boys of their -age--just beginning in business--to have as handsome a woman as that in -the office. People might talk. - -It was after this--some time after--that Pearl took the place with the -Encyclopedia company. Her record began to tell against her. Everyone -wanted to know why she changed jobs so often. She thought she had -learned her lesson--not to beam, not to be friendly, not to do anyone -favors. She had made up her mind to stay with the Encyclopedia forever. -She had had no hint of danger. She hardly knew the third vice president -by sight--someone in the office had told her a silly story about his -crying one day, but she hadn't even believed it. And now she had lost -another job--and in July, too, when jobs are hard to find. - -Heretofore she had always gone docilely. But now she felt she could -bear it no longer--she must tell someone what she thought. - -It was four o'clock on a hot summer afternoon, and round the board-room -table the members were saying "aye" and "no" and "I so move," while -their minds were occupied with the questions that do occupy the mind -at such times--golf and suburban trains, and whether huckleberry pie -in hot weather hadn't been a mistake--when the glass door opened and -a beautiful girl came in like a hurricane. She had evidently been -talking for some seconds when she entered. She was saying, "----are -just terrible. I want to tell you gentlemen, now that I have you -together, that I think men are just terrible." She had a curious voice, -deep and a little rough, more like a boy's than a woman's, yet a voice -which when you once knew Pearl you remembered with affection. "This -is the fourth job I've lost because men have no self-control. I do my -work. I don't even speak to any of you--I'd like to--I'm human, but -I don't dare any more. I attend to business, there's no fault found -with my work--but I've got to go because some man or other can't work -in the office with me. Why not? Because he has no self-control--and -not ashamed of it--not ashamed, that's what shocks me. Why, if a girl -found she couldn't do her work because there was a good-looking man -in the office, she'd die rather than admit she was so silly. But what -does a man do? He goes whining to the president to get the poor girl -dismissed. There it is! I have to go!" - -And so on, and so on. The board was so astonished at her entrance, at -the untrammeled way in which she was striding up and down, digging her -heels into the rug and flinging her arms about as she talked, that they -were like people stunned. They turned their eyes with relief to Mr. -Bunner, who came hurrying in behind her. - -"Miss Leavitt has been dropped," he began, but she cut him short. - -"I've been dropped," she said, "because----" - -"Will you let me speak?" said Mr. Bunner--a rhetorical question. He -meant to speak in any case. - -"No," answered Pearl. "Certainly not. Gentlemen, I have been -dismissed--I know--because some man in this office has no self-control. -I can't identify him, but I have my suspicions." And she cast a -dreadful glance at the third vice president. "Why should I go? Why -shouldn't he? Crying! Woof! How absurd!" - -"Leave the room, Miss Leavitt," said the president; but he weakened the -effect of his edict by leaning forward with his hand to his ear so as -to catch whatever she was going to say next. - -"I haven't shed a tear since my mother died," said Mr. Rixon rather -tearfully to the man next him. - -"This is not the time to discuss your grievance, Miss Leavitt," said -the treasurer, wondering why he had never kept in closer touch with the -office; "but if you feel you have a just complaint against the company -come to my office tomorrow afternoon----" - -"I'll not go near your office," said Pearl, and she began again to -stride about the room, occasionally stamping her right foot without -losing step. "I shall never again go into any office where men are. I -won't work for men. They're poor sports; they have no self----" - -"You said that before," said the treasurer. - -"----control," Pearl went on, for people in her frame of mind cannot be -stopped. "Why shouldn't he go? But no, you have to be protected from a -girl like a herd of sheep from a wolf--a girl who hasn't even looked -at you, at that. If I had ever spoken to the man----" - -"Leave the room instantly, Miss Leavitt," said the president, and this -time he spoke as if he meant it, for he was afraid the identity of the -third vice president might be revealed. Little it mattered to Pearl -what the old man meant. - -"I wouldn't mind so much," she went on, "if you did not all pretend -to be so brave and strong--to protect women. You protect each -other--that's who you protect." - -"Come, come," said a member of the board. "This isn't the way to keep a -job, you know." - -"I don't want to keep this job. I want you for once to hear what a -woman thinks of the men she works for--a lot of poor sports--and not -industrious--none of you work the way girls work for you. Slack, that's -what I call you, and lacking in self-control." - -And she went out as suddenly as she had come in, and slammed the door -so hard behind that those members of the board, sitting near it ducked -their heads into their collars in fear of falling glass. - -There was a minute's pause, and then the president said with a slight -smile, "Well, Mr. Bunner, I think we all see what you meant when you -said this young woman was a disturbing element in the office." - -"There has never been anything like this before," said Bunner; "never -anything in the least like this anywhere I have ever been." - -"Well," said the treasurer, "I don't suppose we need distress ourselves -about her finding another job." - -There was a certain wistful undercurrent in his tone. - -"No," said Bunner, slightly misunderstanding his meaning. "She is -competent and industrious." - -"She ought to get married, a pretty girl like that--not go about making -trouble in offices," said the president. - -"I have always been of the opinion," said the third vice president, -"that it would be much simpler to run the office entirely with men." - -"Oh, it would be much better--much better, of course," said Bunner; -"only women are so much more accurate about detail, more industrious -and less expensive." - -And as there was no woman present to inquire why then men were so much -more desirable, the question dropped, and the president recalled the -board's attention to the subject of the paper to be used in their next -edition--the topic under consideration when Pearl made her entrance. It -was rather hard to take any interest in it now. - -And so Pearl began once again to go the round of agencies, to interview -or be interviewed by office managers, and hear that if she came back -in October there might be a chance. But October was three months away, -and she could not live three months on something less than a hundred -dollars. She even began to scan the columns of the newspapers--from -clerks, through stenographers, ushers, and finally winders--she never -found out what winders were. - -If her dear friend and sage adviser, Augusta Exeter, had been in town -she could have shared her room; but Augusta was in Vermont, visiting -the family of the man she was going to marry. At least, Augusta's last -letter had been from Vermont; but as a matter of fact, three days after -Pearl left the Encyclopedia's employ Augusta came back to New York. -She had had a letter from the agency where her name was registered -practically offering a position which sounded too good to refuse. -Besides, Augusta did not really like farm life in Vermont, and the -Baynes family, for some reason which she could not explain, gave her a -composite picture of Horace, her fiancé, which tended to make her love -him less. Even New York in midsummer was preferable. - -Therefore it happened that as Pearl wandered, lonely as a cloud, from -office to office, longing for her friend's wisdom, Augusta herself was -sitting in the outer office of a company, looking for a job. - -Though the office was that of the Finlay-Wood Engineering Co., the -position which Miss Augusta Exeter was considering was that of a -governess. She was not at all sure that she wanted the place. College -women are not well disposed toward positions as governesses; yet -as Miss Exeter sat there in the busy outer office and watched the -office boys coming in and out, and the impassive young woman at the -switchboard, enunciating again and again, "Finlay-Wood Company," "Hold -the wire," she went over the advantages of this offer--a high salary, -the two hottest months of the summer at Southampton, and the fact that -as she was to be married in October, she could not take a long-time -position in any case. - -Mr. Wood's secretary, with whom so far all the negotiations had -been carried on, had impressed upon her the necessity of being -punctual--"eleven precisely," he had said, for it seemed Mr. Wood was -going to Mexico that afternoon. And so Augusta, who was punctual by -nature, had found herself in the office ten minutes ahead of time. She -sat listening to the telephone girl and watching a door which bore -the simple inscription, "Mr. Wood." And just behind that door a tall -sunburned man in the neighborhood of thirty was standing, slapping the -pockets of his blue serge clothes and saying, "Griggs, I have a feeling -I've forgotten something. What is it I've forgotten, Griggs?" - -The desk was as bare as a desk ought to be when its owner is going away -for two months. Griggs ran his eye proudly over it. - -"No, Mr. Wood," he said. "I don't think anything has been forgotten. -Nothing was left except the letter to the President, the Spanish -dictionary and the Mexican currency. All that has been attended to." - -He consulted a list held in the palm of his hand. - -"It was something of my own," said Wood, and he eyed his secretary with -an air that might have appeared stern but was merely concentrated, when -the door opened and the office boy came in and said, "Miss Stone says -she's notified him that there's a lady there to see him, and will we -let her in to him?" - -"A lady?" said Griggs severely. - -"That's it," said Wood. "It's the governess for my sister. Think of my -nearly forgetting that!" - -"You ought not be worried about such things," said Griggs, as if he -were very bitter about it, "with all your responsibilities." - -Wood smiled. It wasn't true, but it was the way one's secretary ought -to feel. - -"I'd have a lot more to worry me," he said, "if I were married myself." - -"You certainly would," answered Griggs, who was married. - -"But will we let her in to him?" said the office boy, who clung to this -formula, although the head clerk was trying to break him of it. - -"You may let her come in," said Griggs, as if he would perish rather -than allow his chief to hold verbal communication with anything so low -as an office boy, and as he spoke he silently gave Wood a pale-blue -card--one of a dozen on which in beautiful block letters he had written -down the names, degrees, past experience, with notes on personal -appearance, of all the candidates for position of governess in the -household of Wood's sister, Mrs. Conway. - -"This is the best of them?" said Wood, and he ran his eye rapidly over -the card, which read: - -"Augusta Exeter, A. B. Rutland College; Ph. D., Columbia University, -specialized in mathematics and household management." - -He looked up. "Queer combination, isn't it?" - -"I thought it was just what you wanted," answered Griggs reproachfully. - -"Nothing queerer than that," said Wood, and went on: "Six-month dietary -expert--one year training--appearance, pleasing." He glanced at his -secretary. It amused him to think of the discreet Griggs appraising the -appearance of these young women. "What system did you mark them on, -Griggs?" he asked, but got no further, for the door opened and Miss -Exeter entered, and Griggs, with his unfailing discretion, left. - -Wood looked at her and saw that Griggs as usual had been exactly -right--she was neither more nor less than pleasing--a small, slim, pale -girl, whose unremarkable brown eyes radiated a steady intelligence. - -Wood had employed labor in many parts of the world, from Chile to -China, and he had a routine about it--a preliminary intelligence test, -which he applied. - -"Sit down, Miss Exeter," he said. "I think it will save us both time if -you will tell me all that you know about this position"--this was the -test--"and then I'll fill in." - -Augusta sat down. She found herself a trifle nervous. This man -impressed her, for since her childhood she had cherished a secret -romantic admiration for men who exercised any form of power--kings and -generals and men of great affairs. It was a feeling that had nothing to -do with real life and represented no disloyalty to her fiancé, Horace -Bayne, who exercised no power of any kind. - -One reason why it had had no relation to life was that she had not met -any men of this type. Even in the outer office she had been impressed -by the sense of a man waited on and protected by secretaries and -office boys as an Eastern princess is waited upon by slaves. And now -when she saw him she saw that he had exactly the type of looks she -admired most--tall, a little too thin, his face tanned to that shade of -_café au lait_ that the blond Anglo-Saxon acquires under the sun--those -piercing bright-blue eyes--that large handsome hand, which, with the -thumb in his waistcoat pocket, was so clearly outlined against the blue -serge of his clothes. - -She said rather uncertainly, "I know that Mrs. Conway is a widow with -three children----" - -Even this much was wrong. - -"Not, a widow," he said; "divorced." - -"----with three children," Augusta went on; "a girl of seventeen, a boy -of fifteen and a little girl of eleven. I know that during your absence -you want someone to take the care and responsibility of the children -off your sister's shoulders." - -He smiled--his teeth seemed to have the extraordinary whiteness that is -the compensation of a dark skin. - -"I see," he said, "that Griggs has been discreet again." He glanced -at his watch. "I'm going to Mexico in a few hours, Miss Exeter. I -have just twenty-five minutes. If in that time I am not thoroughly -indiscreet I can't look to you for any help. The situation is this: -My sister married Gordon Conway when she was very young--eighteen; he -turned out to be a gambler. I don't know whether you've ever known any -gamblers"--Miss Exeter never had--"but they are a peculiar breed--the -real ones--charming--friendly--gay--open-handed when they are winning; -they become the most inhuman devils in the world when they are losing. -Never get tied up to a gambler. During my poor sister's romance and -marriage Conway was winning--large sums--on the races. But that stopped -a month or so after their marriage, and ever since then, as far as I -know, he has lost--in stocks, at Monte Carlo, and finally at every -little gambling casino in Europe. After about six years of it we -managed to get her a divorce. She has entire control of the children, -of course. Conway has sunk out of sight. Oh, once in a while he turns -up and tries to get a little money from her, but fortunately what -little she inherited from my father came to her after her divorce, -or otherwise he'd have managed to get it away from her. She's very -generous--weak--whichever you call it. One of the things I'm going -to ask you to do is to prevent her seeing him at all, and certainly -prevent her letting him have any money. Though it isn't likely to -happen. I believe he's abroad. - -"The great point is the children. I'm sorry to say that it seems to -me my sister is ruining three naturally fine children as rapidly as a -devoted mother can. Of course, many parents are over indulgent, but my -sister not only indulges her children but gives them at the same time -the conviction that they are such interesting and special types that -none of the ordinary rules apply to them. The elder girl, Dorothy, is -a pretty, commonplace American girl--no fault to find with her except -that her mother treats her as if she were an empress. If, for instance, -her mother keeps her waiting five minutes she behaves as if she were -an exiled queen faced by treachery among her dependents--won't speak -to her mother perhaps for a day. And if I say--which I oughtn't to do, -for it's no use--'Isn't Dorothy a trifle insolent?' my sister answers, -'I'm so delighted to see that she isn't growing up with the inferiority -complex that I had as a girl.' The boy is a perfectly straight manly -boy, but he smokes constantly--at fifteen--and when I criticize him my -sister says before him, 'Well, Anthony, you know you smoke yourself. I -can't very well tell Durland it's a crime. Besides, I have the theory -that if he smokes enough now he'll be tired of it by the time he grows -up.'" - -"But that isn't sound," said Miss Exeter, quite shocked at the sketch -she was hearing. "Habits formed in youth----" - -"Of course it isn't sound," said Wood. "And as a matter of fact, my -sister never thought of it until I objected. She evolves these theories -merely for the sake of protecting her children. Oddly enough, she not -only doesn't want to change them herself but she doesn't want any one -else to change them. Three years ago I engaged in a life-and-death -struggle with her to get Durland--the boy--to boarding school. She -advanced the following arguments against it: First, that he was a -perfectly normal, manly boy and did not need to go; second, that he was -of a peculiar, artistic, sensitive temperament and would be wrecked -by being made to conform to boarding-school standards; third, that -none of the successful men of the country had gone to boarding school; -fourth, that success was the last thing she desired for any son of -hers; fifth, that she did not wish to remove him from the benefits of -my daily influence; and sixth, that I was a person of no judgment and -absolutely wrong about its being wise for a boy to go to school." - -"And is he at school?" Miss Exeter inquired politely. - -"Oh, yes," answered Wood, without seeing anything amusing in her -question. "Although my sister does a good deal to counteract the -effect--by making fun of the teachers and the rules, and always -bringing him, when she goes to visit him, whatever is specially -forbidden, like candy and cigarettes and extra pocket money. You see, -that's where it's going to be hard for you. She not only doesn't want -to discipline them herself but she's against any person or institution -that tries to do it for her. As soon as you begin to accomplish -anything with the children--as I'm sure you will do--she'll be against -you; she'll want you to go." - -"That makes it pretty hopeless, doesn't it?" said Miss Exeter. - -He shook his head briskly. - -"No," he said; "for I have made her promise that she won't send you -away, no matter what happens, until I get back. I know what was in her -mind when she gave the promise--that she could make it so unpleasant -for you that you'd go of your own accord. So, Miss Exeter, I want you -to promise me that you won't go, no matter how disagreeable she makes -it----" - -"Oh, Mr. Wood, I couldn't do that," said Augusta. - -"There's no use in going at all otherwise," he said. "Oh, come, be a -sport! I'll make it worth while. I'll give you a bonus of five hundred -dollars if you're still on the job when I get back--or I'll bring you -a turquoise--I'm going down to inspect the best mine in the world. You -see, I feel this means the whole future of those children--to be with a -woman like you. I know you could do with them just what I want done." - -"You may be mistaken about that, Mr. Wood." - -"I may be, but I'm not." - -The blue eyes fixed themselves on her. She said to herself that it was -the five hundred dollars--so desirable for a trousseau--that turned the -scale, but the blue eyes and the compliment had something to do with -her decision. - -"It seems a reckless thing to promise," she murmured with a weak laugh. - -"No, not at all. I wouldn't let you do anything reckless." He spoke -as a kindly grandfather might speak. "And now we have ten minutes -left, and I want to talk to you about the little one--Antonia." His -face softened, and after a slight struggle he yielded to a smile. "The -truth is," he said, "that she's much my favorite. She's intelligent -and honest, and the justest person of any age or sex that I ever knew -in my life." He paused a second. "Perhaps it is because I'm fonder of -her than of the other two, but it seems to me my sister is particularly -unwise about Antonia." - -His mind went back to his parting the evening before with this small -niece. He and his sister had been sitting on the piazza of the house -they had taken at Southampton--at least she had taken it and he had -paid for it. Only a few yards away the Atlantic, in one of its placid -lakelike moods, was hissing slowly up and down on the sand. The -struggle about a governess had been going on for several weeks. So far -Mrs. Conway had won, for this was his last evening and none had been -engaged. She had a wonderful method for dealing with her brother--a -method to be commended to all weak people trying to get the maximum of -interest and the minimum of control from stronger natures. She listened -to everything he said as if she were wholly convinced by his words and -intended to follow his advice to the last detail, and then she went -away and did just what she had always meant to do. If he reproached her -she looked at him wonderingly and said: "But, Anthony dear, I did agree -with you at the time; but afterward, when I came to think----" Oh, how -well he knew that dread phrase, "afterward, when I came to think!" - -By these methods she had managed to fend off action for three weeks, -agreeing with him most cordially that the children ought to have a -governess, but thinking, after he had gone to New York for the week, -that it would be nice for them to take French lessons with that -charming French lady in the village, or that perhaps the Abernathys' -governess would come over for an hour a day---- - -And now on his last evening he had outmaneuvered her by announcing that -he was interviewing candidates the next morning before he took his -train, and would send her the best. - -"I'm sure it's very kind of you to take all this trouble, Tony," she -said. "Don't send me anyone too hideous, will you?" - -"Griggs describes the young woman I have in mind as of pleasing -appearance." - -"That means perfectly hideous." - -"You wouldn't want a prize beauty, would you?" - -"Certainly I would. I like to have lovely things about me. I suppose -you think that's idiotic." - -He assured her that he never thought her idiotic--at least not -unintentionally--and went on to obtain the famous pledge--the promise -that she would keep the governess he sent her until his return in -September. She agreed finally, partly because it was getting late and -she was sleepy, partly because she reflected that there were more ways -of getting rid of governesses than by sending them away. - -"I'm so sleepy," she said, yawning, "and yet I don't quite like to go -to bed until Antonia comes in." - -"Antonia?" said Wood. "I thought she went to bed at nine." - -It appeared that Antonia had formed the habit lately of sleeping on the -beach--at least for the earlier part of the night--just digging a hole -and curling up there. Her mother thought it an interesting, primitive, -healthy sort of instinct. - -"And yet," she added thoughtfully, as if she knew she were a little -finicky, "I don't like to lock up the house until she comes in." - -"I think you're right," said her brother. These were the things that -terrified him so--a little girl out in the blackness of that beach in -her pajamas. How could he go to Mexico and leave her? He rose and went -to the edge of the piazza, which rested on the dunes. - -He could see nothing but the stars. - -"Shall I call her?" he said. - -"I hate to wake her; but--yes, just give a call." - -He shouted, and in a few seconds a faint, cheerful hullo reached them, -and a little figure appeared over the dunes. - -"Were you asleep, darling?" said her mother. - -"No, I was swimming," said Antonia. She stepped within the circle of -light from the windows, and Wood could see that her dark curly hair was -plastered to her head, and her pajamas clung to her like tissue paper. -"I love to swim at night," she said. "It makes you feel like a spirit." - -She shared her more important thoughts with her uncle. Then, turning -to her mother, she advanced toward her with outstretched arms as if to -clasp her in a wet embrace. - -"Look out for your mother's dress," said Wood, for Edna Conway was as -usual perfectly dressed in white. She smiled at him and took the child -to her breast. - -"Dear Anthony," she said, "if you were married you'd know that a woman -loves her children better than her clothes." - -He was silent, wondering if she knew how much she had had to do with -the fact that he wasn't married. He had no taste for masculine women, -and yet Edna had made him distrustful of all femininity which sooner or -later developed the sweet obstinacy, the clinging pig-headedness, the -subtle ability, under the idiotic coyness of a kitten, to get its own -way. Well off and physically attractive, he had not been neglected by -women, but always sooner or later it had seemed to him that he had seen -the dread shadow of kittenishness. Cattishness he could have borne, but -the kitten in woman disgusted him. - -"And, dearest," his sister was saying to her daughter, "you won't go to -bed in your wet things, will you?" - -Antonia shook her finger at her mother. - -"Now don't begin to be fussy," she said, not impudently, but as one -equal gives advice to another. Yet even this mild suggestion of reproof -was painful to Edna. - -She turned to her brother and said passionately, "I'm not fussy, am I? -I don't see how you can say that, Antonia. It's only that your uncle -wouldn't close an eye if he thought you were sleeping in damp pajamas; -would you, Anthony?" And she laughed gayly. - -This was one of her most irritating ways--to pretend that she was just -a wild thing like the children, but that to oblige some stuffy older -person she was forced to ask the children to conform. - -"I might close an eye, at that," said Anthony. - -The whole incident had finally decided him to take the prospective -governess entirely into his confidence. He had thought at first it -would be more honorable to let her discover the situation for herself, -but now he saw that she would need not only all his knowledge of the -situation but the full conviction that he was backing her, whatever she -did. He became convinced of this even before he saw Miss Exeter. Having -seen her, he had no further hesitation. He thought her as sensible a -person as he had ever met. She sat there in the hard north light of -his office, noting down now and then a few words in a little black -notebook. She was not only sensible--she was to be depended on. - -"The truth is," he said, "that Antonia, not to put too fine a point on -it, is not personally clean." - -Miss Exeter smiled, for to her mind the tone of agony in his voice was -exaggerated. - -"But at a certain age no children are," she said. - -"But most children are forced to be, and my sister lets this child run -wild, so that people talk about it. I suppose I oughtn't to mind so -much," he said, looking at her rather wistfully; "but you can't imagine -how I hate to think that people discuss Antonia's being dirty. And all -my sister says is that she's so glad the child isn't vain. Oh, Miss -Exeter, if you could get Antonia dressed like a nice, well brought up -little girl I think I'd do anything in the world for you." - -She promised that too. In fact, by the time she finally left the -office and was on her way uptown, late for an engagement she had with -Horace Bayne, she was alarmed to remember how many things she had -promised--not only to stay until he came back but to write to him every -day, a long report of just what had happened in the family and what her -impressions of it were. - -"Not letters," he had said, "because I shan't answer them; but -reports--reports on my family, as I am going to make a report on this -mine." - -They were to be typewritten. He had no intention of struggling with any -woman's handwriting, though Augusta murmured that hers was considered -very legible. - -It was not her custom to take a definite step like this without -consulting Horace--not so much because Horace insisted on it as because -she thought highly of his opinion. She was astonished now, as in the -Subway she thought over the interview, to find how little she had been -thinking of Horace. They had been engaged for something over two -years, one of those comfortable engagements, which until recently had -had no prospects of marriage. - -The Rutland College Club is almost deserted in summer. As she ran -upstairs to the library, where she was to meet Horace, she glanced at -her watch and saw to her regret that he must have been waiting almost -an hour, for he was punctual, and usually arrived a little ahead of -the hour. She was sorry--such a busy man; but he would understand--she -would explain---- - -He rose from a deep chair as she entered--a serious young man whom -everyone trusted at first sight. She saw he looked a little more -serious than usual, and her sense of guilt made her attribute this -seriousness to her own fault. She began to explain quickly and with -unaccustomed vivacity. She sketched the interview--Mr. Wood--his -office--the promise--the letters--the turquoise. Horace kept getting -more and more solemn, although it seemed to her that she made a very -good story of it--more amusing perhaps than the reality had been. - -"Isn't it exciting?" she said. "I'm going down on Thursday, under this -contract, to stay two months." - -"No, you're not," said Horace. - -She stared at him. He had never spoken like that in all the years she -had known him. - -"What do you mean, dear?" she said rather reprovingly. - -"You were so busy telling me about this Adonis you're going to work -for you did not stop to consider that I might have some news of my -own. I've landed that job in Canada, and I'm going there on Friday and -you're going with me. You're going to marry me the day after tomorrow -and start north on Friday." - -She stared at him, many emotions succeeding each other on her face. -She had given her word--her most solemn word. She could hear Wood's -quiet voice asserting his confidence in her. "I know I can depend on -you; if you give me your word I know you'll keep it." She could not -break it. She said this, expecting that Horace would admire her for her -dependability--would at least agree with her that she was doing right. -But instead he looked at her with a smoldering expression, and when she -had finished he broke out. In fact he made her a scene of jealousy--the -first he had ever made--but none the worse for that. For a beginner -Horace showed a good deal of talent. He accused her openly of having -fallen in love with this fellow; she wasn't a girl to do anything as -silly as that except under a hypnotic influence. People did fall in -love at first sight. There were Romeo and Juliet; Shakespeare was a -fairly wise guy--these letters every day--why, if she wrote to him, -Horace, once a week he was lucky--but every day to this man. And jewels -and money--no, not much! - -Jealousy, which is popularly supposed to be an erratic and fantastic -emotion, is often founded on the soundest intuition. Augusta found -herself hampered in defending herself by a certain inner doubt; and -her silence enabled Horace to work himself up to such a pitch that he -issued an ultimatum--a dangerous thing to do. She would either marry -him and go to Canada with him, or else everything was over between them. - -It was a terrible situation for Augusta. On the one hand, her spoken -word, given to a person whose good opinion she greatly desired, and on -the other, her sincere love of Horace, increased by the decisive stand -he was taking; for it is unfortunately true that if you do not hate a -person for making a scene you love him more. - -Perhaps Horace saw this. In any case, he would not retreat an inch. -This was the situation when the door of the library opened and in came -Augusta's friend and classmate, Pearl Leavitt, with whom she had an -engagement for luncheon--only in the general strain and excitement of -the morning she had entirely forgotten the fact. - -Pearl, like Augusta herself, was too much occupied with her own mood to -notice that a mood was already waiting for her. It seemed to her that -Augusta and Horace were just sitting there as usual, without much to -say to each other. She had been looking for a job all the morning, and -all the day before, and was discovering that beauty may find it as hard -to get a job as it had been to keep one. - -"Hullo, Gussie! Hullo, Horrie!" she said, striding in, full of her own -troubles. "I think men are just terrible." - -"You must have changed a lot," said Bayne, who was in no humor to let -anything pass. - -He had known Pearl since her freshman year at Rutland, and was -accustomed to seeing her surrounded by a flock of the condemned sex, -whose attentions had never seemed unwelcome. - -"Yes, I've changed," said Pearl. "You see, I've worked for men--at -least I've tried to. I've been trying to all morning. If they kept -turning you down because you were lame or marked with smallpox they'd -feel ashamed, but if they turn you down because they think you're -good-looking----" Miss Leavitt here interrupted her narrative to give a -grinning representation of the speaker. "'Forgive my speaking plainly, -but you are too good-looking for office work.' Doesn't it occur to -them that even good-looking people must eat? And they are so smug -and pleased with themselves. Well, here I am with two weeks' salary -between me and starvation--all on account of my looks. I believe I'll -go and teach in a convent, where there are not any men to be rendered -hysterical by my appearance." - -And she gave a terrible glance at Horace, and then feeling she had been -too severe she beamed at him--beaming at Horace was perfectly safe--and -added, "I've always liked you, Horrie; but I have no use for your -sex--especially as employers; they are too emotional." - -"And what would you say, Pearl," said Horace in a deadly impartial -tone, "if a man offered you a job, and in the first interview told his -life's story, asked you to write to him every day and promised you -jewels if you stayed on the job until he got back--what would you say?" - -"I wouldn't say a word," answered Pearl. "I'd take to the tall timber. -I know that kind." - -"You are both absolutely ridiculous," said Augusta haughtily. - -"You are absolutely right," said Horace. - -"You don't mean to say that someone has been trying to wangle Augusta -away from you, Horace?" asked Pearl, generously abandoning all interest -in her own problems for the moment. - -The two others said no and yes simultaneously, and began to pour out -the story. Augusta's point was that Horace did not respect her business -honor or else he would not ask her to break--Horace's point was that -Augusta did not really love him or she wouldn't think up all these -excuses--she'd marry him as he asked her to do. Ah, but he hadn't had -any idea of getting married until he heard that she was going to take -this place! He had--he had--he had come there to tell her, only she had -been so excited about this other man---- Nonsense, the trouble with -Horace was that he was jealous. No, he was not at all jealous, but if -he were he had good reason to be--writing to a man every day, and -accepting jewels---- - -Pearl kept looking from one to the other, deeply interested. In the -first pause--which did not come for a long time--she said gravely, "How -is it, Gussie? Do you really want to marry Horace?" - -She said it very nicely, but on her expressive face was written the -thought that she herself could not see how anyone could want to marry -him. - -"I do, I do," answered Augusta rather tearfully; "but how can I when -I've given my word?" - -"I'll tell you how you can," said Pearl. "You marry him and disappear -into the wilds of Canada, and I'll take your place with the Conway -family." - -They stared at each other like people waiting for the sound of an -explosion. They were trying to think of obstacles. - -"Except," said Pearl, "that I'm not efficient like you, and not very -good at mathematics." - -"You were efficient in the way you ran the junior ball," said Augusta. -"Everyone said----" - -A spasm of amusement crossed Pearl's face. - -"Did I never tell you about that?" she said. "I vamped the senior at -Amherst who had run theirs, and he not only gave me all the dope but -he did most of my work. I was a mine of information. But that isn't -efficiency." - -"I disagree with you," said Augusta. - -The more she thought of this idea, the more it seemed to her perfect. -There had always been a kind of magic about Pearl, and wasn't magic -the highest form of human efficiency? It was not breaking one's word -to substitute a better article than that contracted for. To send Pearl -in her place would be keeping her word doubly. She saw Pearl charming -Antonia, dazzling the boy, setting all the Conway household to rights -by ways peculiarly her own. - -"But perhaps they won't want Pearl," said Horace. "I mean----" - -"They won't have any choice," said the two girls together. - -"But I mean," reiterated Horace, "that no one would want a governess -who looked like Pearl." - -Then the storm broke over his head. What? Wouldn't he even let her be a -governess? Did he want her just to starve? Would he tell her what she -could do? Starve perhaps--just starve--all men were alike. Again Pearl -began to stride up and down the room, flicking the front of her small -black hat with her forefinger until finally it fell off and rolled -on the floor like an old-fashioned cannon ball. If Horace had spoken -from motives of diplomacy he could not have done better for himself. -His objection made the two girls a unit for the plan. It just showed, -Pearl explained, that if Horace, who had known her all these years, -really considered her looks an obstacle to her taking a place even as -a governess, why, it was hopeless to suppose that she could ever get -another job. - -At length they sent him away--he had a business engagement of his own -for lunch--and they settled down quietly to discuss the details of the -plan over one of the small bare gray wood tables of the club's dining -room. Ordinarily they would have spent most of their time complaining -about the club luncheon, which consisted largely of loose leaves of -lettuce and dabs of various kinds of sauces; but now they were so -interested that they were hardly conscious of what they put into their -mouths. - -Of course, Pearl would be obliged to go in the character of Miss -Exeter. Mr. Wood would undoubtedly have given some description of the -governess' personal appearance when he telephoned his sister, as he -had said he meant to do. But Augusta was not alarmed by this idea. Men -were so queer about women's looks that Mrs. Conway would say, "Isn't -that like a man, not even to know a great beauty when he sees one?" As -to the daily letter, how fortunate that he had insisted it should be -typewritten. Anyone could sign Augusta Exeter to a man who had seen her -signature only once. - -"I hope you won't be found out; I don't see how you can be," said -Augusta. - -"I can't see that it matters much if I am," answered Pearl. "I'll -try to put it off, anyhow, until they have become attached to me for -myself." And then suddenly falling back in her chair, she stared at -her friend with opened eyes. "My dear, I can't do it! How could I have -forgotten? I can't leave Alfred!" - -Alfred was not a beautiful young lover, as her tone of lingering -affection might have seemed to indicate, but a peculiarly ugly -black-and-white cat--black where he ought to have been white, and -vice versa--that is to say, black round one eye, which made him look -dissipated, and black about the nose, which made him look dirty. Also -he had lost one paw. Pearl had rescued him from a band of boys in an -alley and cherished him with a steady maternal affection. - -"Oh, Alfred," said Augusta, as if this did not make much difference. - -This was not only wrong in tone but she had failed to say the thing -Pearl wanted her to say, namely, that Mrs. Conway would be delighted if -the new governess brought her pet cat with her. Pearl explained that -Alfred was really no trouble in the house--he slept all day and caught -mice at night--except one night he did tumble all the way downstairs on -account of his paw. - -"And you'd be surprised, Gussie," said Pearl, her whole generous face -lighting up with admiration; "that cat--that little creature made a -noise like an elephant falling, he's so solid." - -But Augusta, who was not so easily moved to admiration as Pearl, was -not at all moved now. - -"I can't see," she observed coldly, "what it is you see in Alfred that -makes you love him so." - -Pearl, who had really a nice nature, wasn't angry. - -"It isn't exactly that I love him so much," she answered. "But I feel -so sorry for him; and when I feel sorry for anyone they to a certain -extent own me. I feel as if I could never make up to them for the way -life has treated them. I feel that way to Alfred--about his paw, you -know." - -"You didn't feel that way to the man who cried in the Encyclopedia." - -"I should say not," answered Pearl. "No, I can't pity him. He was -such a poor sport about it. Men are poor sports where women are -concerned--even Horace. If you had asked him to break his word because -you had had a brain storm he'd have been shocked." - -"He'd have been immensely flattered," said Augusta reflectively. - -"But he thinks it's absolutely all right for him to break up all your -business arrangements because he goes off halfcocked with a fantastic -idea that you've fallen in love with a man you merely want to work for." - -Augusta thought a minute and then she said, "It wasn't quite so -fantastic as you think, Pearl. I was attracted by Mr. Wood. I might -have fallen in love with him if I had been brought into contact with -him much more. Oh, Pearl, haven't you ever felt a sudden charm like -that?" - -Pearl shook her head: She could not say,--perhaps she did not really -herself understand why such emotions were forbidden to her, but the -true reason was that if her speaking countenance had ever turned upon -a man with that thought in mind the next instant her lovely nose would -have been buried in a tweed lapel or grating against a stiff collar. - -"You know," Augusta went on, "that I really love Horace; and Mr. Wood -took no interest in me, except as a governess for his nieces; but have -you never said to yourself, 'There is the type of man whom I could have -loved madly if only things had been different'?" - -Again Pearl's head wagged. Then she said, "Describe my employer to me." - -"Well," Augusta began solemnly, "he has a smooth brown face out of -which look two bright-blue eyes like a Chinaman." - -Pearl scowled. - -"But Chinamen don't have blue eyes," she objected. - -"No more they do. Why did I keep thinking of China then? China-blue, -perhaps, or maybe the way they are set. I think there is an angle--a -little up at the corners. Then his shoulders are broad, or his waist -is awfully thin, because his coat falls in that loose nice way, like -the English officers who came to lecture at college." - -"Mercy," said Pearl, "what things you notice!" - -"And he's very direct, and not at all afraid of saying what has to be -said. And he doesn't lecture you about women's intuition or how he made -his business success or any of those things that men always do talk -about when they offer you a job. And oh, it rings in my ears the way he -said as we parted, 'If you give me your word I know I can trust you to -keep it,' or something like that." - -And at this moment the housekeeper of the club came into the dining -room, nominally to see that luncheon was being properly served, but -actually, as she soon explained, because the club was so lonely in -summer, and her little dog had been killed by an automobile the week -before. Pearl was, of course, immensely sympathetic about this loss; -and Augusta, with a flash of efficiency, suggested that Alfred could -live at the club for the two months Pearl was away, and the housekeeper -greeted the idea with enthusiasm. - -And so, the last obstacle being removed, these two efficient women -went upstairs to the library and, sitting side by side, with the black -notebook between them, worked the whole thing out, as in their college -days they had so often worked up an examination. All the facts that -Wood had spread out for Augusta, Augusta now spread out for Pearl--the -salary, the bonus, the characters of those involved, the results which -Mr. Wood especially wished to see accomplished: That Antonia should be -made clean and neat and dressed like a normal little girl; that Durland -should be taught algebra thoroughly and made to stop smoking, though -that would be difficult; that Mrs. Conway should not be worried by her -former husband, and certainly prevented from lending him money. - -"And there is his address in Mexico, and you're to write every day. -That's the most important thing of all--to write every day." - -Pearl took the notebook and put it into her pocketbook. - -"And how often does he write to me?" she inquired. - -Augusta smiled. - -"He never does--he never answers. I suppose it's the first time in -your life, Pearl, you ever wrote to a man who did not answer your -letters." - -"I rather like the idea," said Pearl. - -They were interrupted by a telegram being brought in and given to -Augusta. She opened it. - -"It's from Mr. Wood," she said; and added with surprise, "It seems to -be about you." - -"About me?" - -"No," said Augusta with relief, "I read it wrong. It's about Mrs. -Conway's jewels. He told me she had a string of priceless pearls that -her husband gave her when they were first married. - -"The message says, 'Please see that pearls are kept in safe on account -of recent Long Island burglaries.'" She gave the yellow sheet to her -friend. "Keep that," she said, "and be sure to mention in your first -report that you have received it. That will make absolutely sure that -you're me." - -"You ought to say 'you're I' if you are going to be a governess," said -Pearl. - -"But I'm not," said Augusta. - - - - -CHAPTER TWO - - -The following Thursday afternoon Pearl stepped from the fast train -to the platform of the Southampton station. Since the train reached -Quogue she had been agreeably aware of the damp saltness in the air, -which comes only from proximity to the open ocean. But now, on the -platform, she smelled nothing but the fumes of innumerable exhausts, -saw nothing but masses of automobiles crowding toward the station like -a flock of parti-colored elephants. She stood dazed for a minute by the -noise of self-starters and the crowd of arrivals, until, darting in and -out under the elbows of chauffeurs and passengers, she saw a little -bareheaded, barefooted figure in a dirty white dress edged with the -finest Valenciennes lace. Pearl felt an instant conviction that this -was her future charge. - -"Antonia," she said in her deep voice, and the child made a rush for -her. - -"Are you Miss Exeter?" she exclaimed, and she gave a little boyish -shake to her head. "I must say I think you are much more than pleasing. -My mother said you'd be much less. She drew me a picture of what she -thought you'd look like. Mother doesn't draw very well. I'm glad you're -not like that. If I'd taken that as a guide I'd never have found you at -all." - -She beckoned to a large green touring car, and having arranged about -Pearl's trunk and seen the bags put into the car, she herself sank -beside Pearl on the wide back seat, while to steady herself on the -slippery leather she raised one leg and clutched the back of the front -seat with her bare flexible toes. - -"How do you like Southampton?" she said. - -If they had gone down the main street Pearl would have seen some old -gray-shingled houses and elm trees that she would have honestly admired -but they had turned eastward and were now driving down a perfectly -straight road at the end of which, through a dip in the dunes, the deep -blue of the afternoon sea could be seen. The country was flat in every -direction except the north, where a wooded rise in the ground cut off -the horizon. To be candid, Pearl did not greatly admire the prospect, -but she said tactfully, "I love the sea." - -"Can you swim?" - -"Yes." - -"Can you play tennis?" - -"Yes." - -"Can you drive a car?" - -"No." - -"Good!" said the child with her friendly smile. "I'm glad I've found -something you can't do. Beckett," she said, leaning forward and -shouting in the ear of the chauffeur, "I mean to teach Miss Exeter to -drive." - -"Maybe it'd be as well to learn yourself first, miss," said the man -coldly. - -Antonia sighed. - -"Beckett's cross," she said, "because I bent the fender coming up. My -legs are too short to reach the foot brake in a hurry. Beckett knows -that, but he doesn't make allowances." - -"Is it safe for you to drive, then?" asked Pearl. - -"Well, if you ask me, no," said Antonia candidly; "but as long as -mother lets me do it, of course I'm going to. I wonder if you're going -to like us. I don't see how anyone could like Dolly." - -"What's the matter with Dolly?" - -"Oh, about everything," answered Antonia. "I'll tell you the kind of -person she is: If you forget something she asks you to do she treats -you as if you were a moron to have forgotten it, and if she forgets -something you ask her to do she treats you as if you were a moron to -have asked her to do it." - -"There must be something to be said for her," Pearl suggested. - -Antonia considered the question. She was, as her uncle had said, the -justest of created beings. - -"I suppose there must be, but I don't know what it is. Then there's -Durland--he's great--only he doesn't notice me much. I wish I were a -boy. I want to wear trousers and be free." - -"You seem to me pretty fairly free." - -Antonia laughed. - -"That's funny," she said. "I mean it's funny that you said that exactly -the way Uncle Anthony talks--that gentle tone that makes you feel like -nothing at all. Do you like Uncle Anthony? Do you think he's handsome?" - -"Yes, indeed I do," answered Pearl, with the modest enthusiasm which -she thought under the circumstances Augusta would have allowed herself. - -"So do I," said Antonia. "So does Miss Wellington, whose mother has -the house next us. She took it before she knew Uncle Anthony was going -to be away all summer--at least that's what mother and I think. Miss -Wellington told me she thought him handsome and she said 'And you can -tell him I said so,' but I didn't--for rather a spiteful reason; I -thought she wanted me to." - -"It sounds that way to me, too," said Pearl. - -"I'm glad you like him," Antonia went on. "He likes you too. He -telephoned mother about you. He said he had found a pearl--wasn't that -funny?" It was funnier than Antonia knew. "So now mother always speaks -of you as the priceless pearl. Mother's rather amusing, like that. -He said you were not so much on looks--just pleasing, he said. But I -think you are perfectly beautiful. Do you think you're beautiful, Miss -Exeter?" - -This was the first crisis. Pearl knew that if she said no Antonia would -distrust her honesty, and if she said yes it might be used against her. -So she compromised. - -"I'll answer that question the day I leave," she said. - -"I'll tell you something funny about that," said Antonia. "Perhaps I -oughtn't to, but I'm going to. Uncle Anthony made mother promise not to -send you away until he came back, no matter what happened; but mother -says she knows a way to get round that if the worst comes to the worst. -You see, I don't want to hurt your feelings; but we all felt it was -rather hard on us to have a governess at all in summer. Mother thinks -it's hard too. She says it's just one of Uncle Anthony's ideas. She -says a man can't take an interest in anything unless he thinks he's -running it. So she just lets him think he runs the family, and then -when he's away she does what she thinks best. This is our gate now. -What do you think of the house? We only rent it. There's Durland going -in for a swim before dinner. I wonder if he'd wait for us. Durland! -Durland!" - -It was quite extraordinary the volume of sound that could issue from so -small a person as Antonia. She sprang out of the car over the closed -door and ran round the house toward the ocean, while Pearl entered the -front door alone. - -A slim, gray-haired figure in delft blue came out of a neighboring room -and said "Good heavens, you are not Miss Exeter, are you?" - -Pearl smiled her most winning smile. - -"Won't I do?" she said. - -But merriment did not seem quite in order. Mrs. Conway's manners were -perfect, but she was not going to begin by being any more friendly than -she could help. - -She answered politely, "Oh, perfectly, I feel sure. Only you do not -look quite as my brother's description led me to expect; but then men -are not very good at describing women." - -Her hair, prematurely gray, gave more the effect of powder. Her -brows were arched so much that she seemed to be looking up from -under a thatch. They were blue eyes; not quite China blue, as Pearl -had heard the family eyes described; they were sad, appealing eyes, -which kept veiling themselves in an effort to seem dignified and -remote. Yes, Pearl thought, there was something pathetic about Mrs. -Conway--something that made her feel just a little bit as Alfred's lost -paw made her feel; so she beamed gently down upon her new employer -while that lady continued: - -"I don't see how Antonia ever found you--from his account. Fortunately -the child is wonderfully quick or you would be waiting at the station -still. Where is she, by the way?" - -Pearl explained that she had dashed down to the beach to ask her -brother to wait for them, and would it be all right if she went -swimming too? Over Mrs. Conway's shoulder Pearl could catch a glimpse -of the piazza, and beyond that the faultless blue rim of the horizon; -and as she talked she could hear close by the thud and hiss as a wave -went up the beach. She longed to be in the water. - -"Oh, yes, go if you want to," said Mrs. Conway. She was not exactly -cordial. Gentle, friendly people like Edna Conway always go too far -when they try to be cold; they have no experience in the rôle. "But try -not to keep them waiting too long. My children hate to be kept waiting." - -"I do myself," answered Pearl gayly. - -"Really?" said Mrs. Conway, and the arched eyebrows went up under the -gray thatch. - -Pearl saw she had said the wrong thing; but whether it was wrong for -a governess to dislike being kept waiting, or presumptuous to put -herself into the same interesting group as the Conway children, she -had no idea. She did not much care either. The smooth blue sea was -waiting for her, and she went springing upstairs, slinging off a string -of beads--translucent pearl-gray glass, the color of her eyes--and -thinking to herself that it was a mercy she had had sense enough to put -her bathing dress in her bag. She tore it out from the lower layers so -violently that shoes and brushes flew into the air like stones from a -volcano; and in a surprisingly short time she was running through the -deserted sitting room, out across the piazza, down the steep wooden -steps to the beach. - -At the edge of the water Durland was standing with his back to her. -Although he was a thin boy of fifteen in a striped red-and-blue bathing -suit, he was standing with one knee advanced, his hand on his hip and a -cigarette dangling from his lip, as if he were the late King Edward VII -at Homburg. Beside him, Antonia was digging a hole like a dog--possibly -her sleeping hole for the evening--and talking all the time. She was -talking about Miss Exeter. - -Durland was deeply opposed to the idea of Miss Exeter. In the first -place he was opposed to women, as a prisoner is opposed to stone -walls. He was surrounded by them, dominated by them. His mother, his -mother's maid, who had been with them forever, his sister Dorothy--they -all bullied him and cut him off from his fellow men. Sometimes, with -disgust, he heard himself using the feminized vocabulary of the women -about him, and though he was as masculine as possible--smoked and -everything--he could not shake off their influence. Then he hated -governesses as representing that most emasculated form of that most -emasculated thing--learning. His friends had already made fun of him -about it. It had been said on the beach, "I hear they're getting a -governess to keep you in order, Durlie." He had decided to make it -clear that he had nothing to do with the woman. He doubted if he even -allowed her to teach him algebra, though as a matter of fact he wanted -to pass his examination. And then, last but not least of his reasons, -he felt opposed to anything that Antonia so wildly recommended, because -that was one way of keeping her in the complete subjection to him in -which she lived. - -So while she chattered of Miss Exeter and her beauty and her youngness -and the sort of niceness of the way in which she looked at you, he -stood gazing out to sea as if the best he could do for his little -sister was just not to hear her at all. - -Then Antonia cried "Here she is!" and executed a four-footed leap on -finger tips and toes; and then Durland was aware of a circular motion -of white arms and long white legs whirling past his shoulder, and the -new governess had plunged into the Atlantic. - -This really wouldn't do at all--governess doing hand-springs. It looked -peculiar, and yet it did pique the curiosity. He sauntered a step -nearer with a slow, sophisticated, loose-kneed walk. Miss Exeter and -Antonia were behaving foolishly, and noisily, too--splashing each other -and laughing. He himself went in as if the object of a swim were not to -disturb one unnecessary drop of water. He swam a stroke or two under -the surface, and coming up out of a wave found himself face to face -with Pearl. The wonderful radiance of those gray eyes came to rest on -his; and his heart melted within him like a pat of butter. It wasn't -just her beauty though that would probably have been enough; but it was -the immense, generous friendliness toward all the world when the world -would allow her to be friendly that warmed and comforted his young -spirit. He gazed at her, and suddenly the gaze was cut short by Pearl's -decision to stand on her head. Two white feet clapped together in front -of Durland's nose. - -If she had been less beautiful he would have said to himself that she -really did not know how to behave. As it was, he thought that she -would certainly lay herself open to unkind criticism. He wanted to -protect her, and he was not without tact. He said, when she came to the -surface, blinking the water from her long, matted eyelashes, "It's nice -to have our own beach, isn't it?--to be able to do what we like--stand -on our heads or anything without being talked about." - -She did not seem to get it at all. - -"Let's swim out," she said, and laid her ear upon the face of the sea -as if she were a baby listening to the ticking of a watch. He swam -beside her, looking into her face, and she gave him a friendly little -beam every now and then. It was wonderful to be under no necessity of -suppressing her cheerful kindness of heart. "Let it do its deadly work" -was her feeling. - -They had a good long swim, and when they came in were met by Mrs. -Conway at the head of the steps. She was dressed for dinner in a faint -pink tea gown with pearls. - -She said civilly, but all on one note, "Dinner is ready, Miss Exeter." - -Yes, she who had so often waited uncomplainingly for hours for her -children, pretending that the clocks were wrong, or the dinner hour -changed, or that the mistake had been hers, was now feeling outraged at -being obliged to wait ten minutes for this governess her brother had so -obstinately insisted on engaging. - -"Oh, I won't be a minute, Mrs. Conway," said Pearl, feeling genuinely -sorry to have inconvenienced anyone, but not feeling at all guilty as -Mrs. Conway wanted her to feel. - -"Yes, I do hope you'll contrive not to be very long," she said, and -could not understand the cause for a dark look her son gave her as he -pursued his shivering way upstairs. - -She went into the sitting room, where her daughter Dorothy was already -waiting. It was not a miracle that Dolly was ready on time, but a -phenomenon to be explained by the fact that she had a bridge engagement -immediately after dinner. - -She was a pretty, round-faced girl, rather like her mother, except that -her hair was still a natural light brown, and her eyes were brown too. -She did not raise her head, as her mother entered, from the fashion -paper which she was languidly studying. - -"Not a very promising beginning, is it?" said Mrs. Conway. She knew -Dolly would be annoyed and she wished to cut herself off completely -from the guilty one. "Do you suppose she's going to keep us waiting for -dinner half an hour every evening?" - -Dolly bent her head to examine a picture of an ermine wrap. - -"Oh, well, mother," she said, "what can you expect if you give in to -every whim of Uncle Anthony's?" - -Mrs. Conway made a pathetic little grimace--pathetic because it was so -obviously intended to win Dolly to her side--to make the girl feel that -she and her mother had a secret alliance against the world at large. - -"You'll find, my dear," she said, "that in dealing with men it's easier -to yield at the moment and find a way out at leisure." - -But Dolly, who had not even looked up long enough to see the grimace, -answered with a bitter little laugh, "It may be easier for you, but not -for us. We have to suffer. That's the trouble with you, mother--you -think of no one in the world but yourself." - -Her mother did not answer--she could not. Tears rose in her blue eyes. -She had enormous capacity for being hurt. Strangely enough, there was -something in her that drove those she loved to say exactly the thing -that would hurt her most. It had always been so with her husband, and -now it was so with her children. - -A misplaced fortitude always led her to hide the fact that she was hurt. - -She said now with false gayety, "Well, my dear, I hope some day you -will find someone who loves you even better than I do, then." - -"I'm sure I hope so," said Dolly, turning the page. - -Her manner suggested that if she could not do that much her life would -indeed be a failure. - -Mrs. Conway stepped out on the piazza. That was the way--you gave -up your life to making your children happy, to shielding them from -grief and anxiety, and then they blamed you and hurt you horribly -for something that was not at all your fault. She felt a moment of -resentment toward her brother. Why had Anthony insisted on this silly -plan? She had been too considerate of Anthony's feelings; she ought -to have refused to have a governess at all. It was much wiser in this -world to be stern and cruel. She decided to be stern and to begin with -Miss Exeter, who entered the sitting room at this moment. She was -wearing a plain cream-colored dress out of which her lovely head--all -brown and rose color and gold--seemed strangely bright colored. - -"I suppose you're Dolly," she said in her deep warm voice, and held out -an open hand. - -Dolly, like most young people, estimated beauty as the best of gifts. -She might have been almost as much captured by Pearl's as her brother -had been, except that her ego was taken up with the outrage of her -being kept waiting--she, the most important person in the house, who -had taken the trouble not only to order dinner on time but--what did -not always happen--to be on time herself. - -She rose, and allowing a limp hand to pass rapidly through Miss -Exeter's, she said, "Do let's go in to dinner, mother." - -"Yes, indeed," said her mother, coming in rapidly from the piazza. "We -dine at eight, Miss Exeter. Another evening I'm sure you will be on -time." - -This was not perhaps a very terrible beginning to a régime of -sternness; but to Durland, just getting down, it appeared one of the -most disgusting exhibitions of slave driving that he had ever heard. - -"It is entirely my fault that we are late," he said, giving his mother -a steady, brave look. - -She answered irrelevantly, "Why, Durland, how nice you look! Are you -going anywhere this evening?" - -"Very likely," he answered coldly. He thought to himself, "Why must she -give Miss Exeter the impression that I look like a cowboy generally?" -He was of course going nowhere. - -So, having completely alienated her two elder children--Antonia had -early supper by herself--Mrs. Conway found herself obliged to direct -her conversation to the interloper. She had her revenge, if she had -only known it, by talking about her brother, questioning Miss Exeter -about him. Had he seemed very much rushed? Did he say anything about -his golf clubs? Wasn't it a delightful office? Wonderful! So cool in -summer. - -Pearl hazarded that the harbor was very beautiful, and learned that Mr. -Wood's office looked north--up the Hudson. She must be careful. - -Durland inquired with a friendly grin whether Uncle Anthony had -frightened her to death. - -"Frightened me?" said Pearl, trying to gain time. - -"Some people are awfully afraid of him." - -"Naughty little boys are," said Dolly. - -It always annoyed her to see her brother sitting at the foot of the -dinner table. They had fought about it for five years--whether she as -eldest child or he as the only man in the house ought to occupy this -place of honor. - -"I'm not afraid of him," said Durland. - -"Oh, are you a naughty little boy?" said Dolly, laughing in an -irritating way. - -Mrs. Conway, to avert war, began talking about the day's schedule--the -problem of how to work in a few lessons without interfering with any of -the more important pleasures of her children. - -"Antonia first, I think. Wouldn't that be your idea, Dolly--Antonia at -half past nine? Dolly and Durland sometimes sleep rather late--so good -for them, I think--but Antonia is up early. She reads sometimes from -five o'clock. She reads a great deal--everything." - -"Quite the little genius, according to mother," said Dolly. - -"She is clever," answered Mrs. Conway passionately. "I don't know why -you two are always so disagreeable about your little sister." - -"Because you spoil her so, mother," said Dolly. - -"Because she's so dirty, mother," said Durland. - -Mrs. Conway made this attack a means of aligning herself with her -children against the governess. - -"Oh, well," she said, "that is all going to be changed now. Miss Exeter -is going to make us all over. Antonia is to be clean and tidy, though -why in the world your uncle thinks it desirable for a child of eleven -to think of nothing but clothes I can't see. And Durland is to be made -into a mathematician. I suppose I'm very ignorant, but I never could -see what good algebra does a person--all about greyhounds leaping -after hares, and men doing pieces of work at seventy-five cents a day. -I wish I could find some like that. Poor Durland, like so many people -with a creative turn of mind, simply cannot do mathematics." - -"More people than creative geniuses are poor at mathematics," said -Pearl genially; and Durland, afraid that she would identify him with -his mother in this ridiculous point of view, looked into those pools of -gray light and said modestly that he was just a dub at problems. - -"Then at half past eleven," Mrs. Conway went on, "you'll be free to -take Antonia to the beach--the public beach, where she likes to get a -swim and see her little friends." - -"Fight a round or two with her little enemies," said her brother. - -"She's only fought once this summer," said his mother. "And I for one -think she was perfectly right. Maud is the most annoying child--ugly -and impertinent like her mother, and very badly brought up." - -"Well, that's not a patch on what they think about Antonia," said -Durland, and he turned to Miss Exeter. "Gee, it was great! This Maud -child said something rude about Antonia's bare feet, and she sailed in -and landed her one on the jaw; and they fought so that the nurses and -governesses all ran screaming away and the life-saving men had to come -in and separate them." - -Mrs. Conway hated this story about her youngest child. - -She rose from table in order to interrupt it, observing that Durland -needn't worry, as now they were all going to be made perfect. - -Pearl on the whole felt encouraged. Augusta, with all her efficiency, -could not have swung this job, she thought. It required a solid, almost -irrational good temper, which Augusta did not possess. Mrs. Conway -would have rendered Augusta acid and powerless in one evening. Pearl -was not so efficient in certain ways, but she had good temper and a -robust will. - -She and Durland went into the sitting room while Mrs. Conway was -getting Dolly off to her bridge party. Durland did what, alas, men -have been doing for many centuries--he attempted to impress the -object of his affection by doing one of the things most certain to -alienate her. He stood before her, lighting a cigarette, shaking the -match deliberately in the air, his legs rather wide apart. Pearl, who -had sunk into a nice deep chair, sprang up and put her hand on his -shoulder. - -"Oh, don't smoke," she said. - -Hundreds of women had said that to him. Even the lovely Caroline -Temple--his former love--had said that her parents had forbidden her to -have him at the house on account of his smoking; such a bad example. - -"Caroline," he had said quietly, "I simply do openly what all the -others do secretly." - -He had not wavered about it. Neither had her parents. He and Caroline -met at the tennis club and at the beach--no longer at her house. But he -had never thought of changing his habits. His cigarette was to him what -a car is to a theatrical star--a symbol of greatness. He was firm now, -even under the pleading of a new idol. - -"I'm afraid I can't give it up," he said. "I'm afraid it has too much -of a grip on me for that." - -He frowned as one who, looking inward, saw nothing but vice and ruin. -He was disappointed to find that she just let it drop--as if she were -not vitally interested in saving him. But before he had time to commit -the natural mistake of asking her why she did not rescue him from his -worse self, his mother came back into the room. - -Her first words were, "Do you think that a good picture of my brother?" - -Something mocking and teasing in her tone unnerved Pearl a little; so -that instead of following the direction of Mrs. Conway's eyes she said -rather wildly, "Where?" - -Durland came to her rescue by politely giving her a large silver frame -in which was the photograph of a man she was prepared to admire, and -so she did admire him--so much that something tense was apparent as -she gazed into those China-blue eyes, which looked--if one had not had -private information--as if they were brown. - -Mrs. Conway watched with sly amusement. The mocking quality in her -question had not arisen, as Pearl half feared, from any doubt as to -the new governess' identity, but rather from the suspicion that there -was more between her brother and this lovely creature than had been -confessed. Like many gentle sweet people, Edna Conway was extremely -suspicious; her mind ran rapidly over a situation, examining though -not necessarily believing all the darkest possibilities. She did not -actually suspect her brother of finding a safe home for a dangerous -girl during his absence, but she did say to herself--perhaps not -unnaturally, "There's more in this than meets the eye." - -A voice from the piazza called, "Did Anthony's pearl arrive?" And a -woman in evening dress entered. - -"Yes, Cora, this is she," said Mrs. Conway, and she added with a -certain hint of malice, "You ought to know each other--both so -consecrated to doing whatever Anthony wants done. Miss Exeter, Miss -Wellington." - -Miss Wellington's emotions were clearly written on her face. She -had been in love with Anthony ever since he succeeded. This which -sounds like a paradox was the simple truth. To her, success was not -necessarily financial--though Wood's had had this agreeable aspect--but -importance and preëminence were to her as essential elements in male -attraction as feminine beauty is to most men. When she was eighteen and -Anthony still in the School of Mines there had been sentimental scenes -which had left her cold. She occasionally referred to them as "the time -when you thought you wanted to marry me," and he did not contradict -her. He had thought he did. He still admired her--she was elegant -in appearance, beautifully dressed, competent in all the practical -aspects of life. If she had married someone else he would have said to -her, "Your marriage was a great blow to me, Cora. I had always fancied -that some day you and I----" But he never would have said it until -after she was safely married. - -She had, however, no intention of marrying anyone else--for the simple -reason that Anthony was by far the most attractive man of importance -that she knew. Her feelings on discovering Pearl--the young person she -had heard described as being of merely pleasing appearance--to be an -exuberant beauty, and discovering her, moreover, staring sentimentally -at Anthony's picture, were not suspicions; she had the conviction of -disaster. She couldn't be cordial; and, Pearl, who had the kind of -sensitiveness that comes from generosity, not from egotism, saw that -the moment had come for her to go upstairs and write her first letter -to the man whose face she liked so much. - -She had always been a poor correspondent. She had never enjoyed -writing before, but now the idea of pouring herself out--or rather not -herself, but her observation of a situation in which he was vitally -interested--delighted her. All of us, it has been said, can write well -if we have something interesting to say. What Pearl had to say could -not fail to be interesting to the man she was writing to. There was no -motive for caution. At last she had found a man with whom she could -be candid and natural. Late into the night the sound of a portable -typewriter could be heard ticking from the room of the new governess. - -It was not easy to put a routine into operation in the Conway -household. At half past nine, the hour set for Antonia's lessons, -Antonia was nowhere to be found. Pearl at last ventured to tap at Mrs. -Conway's bedroom door. Mrs. Conway was sitting up in bed, in white -satin and yellow lace, with her breakfast tray on her lap. - -In response to the news that her youngest child was missing, she -answered, "She's probably gone crabbing. I'm afraid that if you want to -do lessons in summer you will have to get up a little earlier. She was -out of the house by seven, I dare say." And she smiled maliciously. - -Pearl saw that coöperation was unlikely, hostility probable, and -withdrew. - -Durland, her second pupil, presented himself a little ahead of time. He -came downstairs at ten, drank a cup of black coffee and ate a peach. -He was recklessly wearing his last pair of clean white trousers. He was -paler and more like a young bird than usual. He, too, had his problems. - -While willing to oblige Miss Exeter in every particular, while eager to -help her and make her appear a worker of miracles, her mere proximity -prevented his mind from functioning at all. Do what she could, her -efforts to get him thinking about the problem of three men, A, B and -C, who, working together, could do a piece of work in three days, was -like trying to crank a dead automobile. She tried beaming upon him, she -tried being severe; either way his intense emotion flooded his mental -processes. - -She thought, "I've solved worse problems than this, but I'm sure I -don't know what to do." - -He himself gave her the clew. She had explained for the third time -that if you let _x_ equal the number of days that it took A, working -alone--when he interrupted her. He was sitting beside her, leaning his -head on his hand and staring at her in a maze of admiration. - -Suddenly he said, "Do you like teaching, Miss Exeter?" - -"I like teaching girls," she answered with a quick inspiration. - -He drove his unwilling intelligence to take in this incredible -statement. - -"Girls," he said, opening his honest blue eyes and wrinkling his -forehead. "Why girls?" - -"They're so much cleverer than boys." - -She tossed it off as if were a well-known and generally admitted fact. -He was gentle with her. - -"People think just the opposite," he said. - -"Men do." - -"I think you're wrong about that, really," Durland said. "I think -anyone--even a very just man like Uncle Anthony--would say that women -can't think, at least not like men." - -"Would he, indeed?" said Pearl. "Well, I don't know him; but he may be -the kind of man who prefers inferior people of both sexes." - -Durland, unable to believe she really thought this, looked wistfully -into her face for a sign of relenting. - -"Of course," he said, "you are very unusual. You must not judge other -women by yourself." - -"I was fifteenth in my class," said Pearl. "Quite stupid compared to -the others; but even I never had any trouble with algebra. I put my -mind on it. That's the trouble with boys--they're so scattered." - -This was cruel, considering who had scattered him; but like many -cruelties it worked. - -As the hour finished, Dolly came downstairs and said, without looking -at anyone, that she herself was going immediately in the motor to -Shinnecock for her golf lesson and could not delay an instant; but if -Antonia were there and ready there was no objection to dropping her -and Miss Exeter at the public beach. At that moment Antonia, who, just -as her mother had suggested, had been crabbing since dawn, appeared -on the lawn, streaked with seaweed and exuding a faintly ancient and -fishy smell. Dolly was like steel and would not allow her a moment for -changing; and so, dropping her crabs and nets on the piazza, Antonia -with Miss Exeter got into the car after Dolly, and were duly dropped at -the little group of dark-red bathing houses that formed the entrance to -the public beach. - -Pearl found the child, in spite of her personal untidiness, a most -agreeable companion. She had read widely and with imagination. She -knew a great deal of poetry--rather martial poetry--by heart; all of -Horatius, for instance, which she said she usually recited to herself -in the dentist's chair and from which she gained comfort. - -They were walking up the wide steps to the bathing house as she spoke, -and she stopped and bent down to examine a boy's bicycle--she was a -connoisseur of bicycles. - -They came in sight of the beach now--all set out with bright-colored -umbrellas like gay poisonous mushrooms. It was the hour when the beach -was given over to children. - -Pearl was thinking that it looked very pretty, when once again she -heard Antonia's clarion voice break out at her elbow. - -"Hi, there, you kids! Leave that fort alone! It's mine!" - -She darted down the narrow boardwalk toward an immense hole in the -sand, scattering a band of neatly dressed children, much as the -effete Romans were scattered by the first onslaught of the northern -barbarians. Pearl could not help laughing as she saw children run -to their governesses or snatched back by their nurses; but the next -moment she was sorry, for she saw that it was being said in various -tongues that Antonia was quite the worst brought-up child in the world. -Pearl was nothing if not a partisan, and she was already completely on -Antonia's side. - -She and Antonia were supposed to bathe early so as to leave the two -Conway bathhouses free for Mrs. Conway and Dolly when they appeared at -a later and more fashionable hour. "Everything in our family is done -for Dolly," said Antonia when she was finally dragged out of the water. -"It makes me tired the way mother indulges every whim of hers." - -Rebellious or not, however, Antonia was dressed--as much dressed as -she ever was, which was about three-quarters as much as other little -girls--by half after twelve. - -She and Pearl went back to the beach and sat down under the -red-and-black-striped umbrella which the life-saving man had stuck in -the sand for them as if he were about to do a pole vault with it. And -presently Durland, ready for his swim, came and plopped down beside -them, and immediately a girl in a one-piece tomato-colored bathing -dress rose from another part of the beach and came and sat on the other -side of him. - -Antonia, with a thin brown arm, still smelling very slightly of -crabs in spite of her swim, clasped about Pearl's neck, blew in her -governess' ear the information that this was Caroline Temple, Durland's -best girl. Like so many courtships, this one, to the outside world, -seemed to be carried on principally by the lady. She neither looked at -nor spoke to Pearl and Antonia. - -To Durland she said, "Shall we go in now?" - -Durland was digging a small hole near Miss Exeter's hand; his shoulder -was turned to Caroline and he did not shift it as he replied, "You can -if you like." - -There was a pause. Apparently she didn't like, for she did not move, -and after a time she said in the same tone of lowered confidence, "I -have the car here. I'll drive you home." - -"Thanks," said Durland. "I'm on my bicycle." Another pause. - -"Shall we play tennis this afternoon?" - -"I may," answered Durland. - -Pearl began to feel her sex pride wounded. She bent forward, and -beaming upon the newcomer, she said, "You play tennis?" - -Caroline just glanced at her. - -"Of course I do," she said. - -She had not the smallest intention of being rude, for she was a -sweet-tempered child; even less did it occur to her to be jealous -of an elderly woman of twenty-four; but her mind, concentrated upon -the pursuit of Durland, was rendered irritable by inconsequential -interruptions. Durland, however, though no critic of manners, was aware -that a gesture of friendship from a goddess had not been gratefully -received. - -"You might be civil about it," he said, and then looking up at Pearl, -he asked in a softened tone of adoration whether she would like to play -tennis that afternoon. - -"Doubles?" said Caroline, as if this were, of course, possible though -utterly undesirable. - -"Would you like to play doubles?" Durland asked again. - -"If it is convenient to your mother," said Pearl. - -Durland dismissed such an idea as repellent to him and, glancing over -his shoulder to Caroline, he said, "All right. Miss Exeter and I will -play you--if you can get a fourth." - -It was not the way Caroline had designed the set and she said so. She -said clearly and rather complainingly that she had expected to play -with Durland, and yet she did not seem wounded so much as thwarted. - -"I'm sure I don't know whom I can get," she said. - -"I suppose you can get the faithful Wally--anyone can get Wally." - -"I thought you did not like Wally." - -"I?" said Durland, as if it were far beneath him ever to have been -aware of Wally's existence; and without any further answer he got up -and walked into the Atlantic so suddenly that Miss Temple, scrambling -as rapidly as possible to her feet, was several yards behind him as he -dived into his first wave. - -"Isn't she pretty?" said Antonia. "She's been his best girl for two -summers." - -"I don't think he's very nice to her," said Pearl. - -"Well," said Antonia, giving one of her little shakes of the head, "it -would seem wonderful to me if Durlie spoke to me at all. However, it -may be over. Like what Shakespeare says--one foot on land. Next time I -have a chance I'll look and see if her picture is still in the back of -his watch." - -Presently they were back in the same order--Durland first, and Miss -Temple following. He sat dripping, and taking a cigarette from a -package he had left on the sand, he began groping for a match. - -"Oh, Durland," said Miss Temple, "I do wish you wouldn't smoke. It -isn't good for you. It looks so badly." Durland gave a short laugh that -seemed to say that if he had regarded public opinion he would have made -of life a very different thing. In her distress Caroline turned to the -stranger whose presence she had so far refused to acknowledge. "Don't -you think it's wrong for him to smoke?" she said. - -It was Pearl's moment. - -"Why, no," she answered, "I can't see anything wrong about it." - -She put out a lazy hand and took one from the little paper envelope. -Durland's hand, with the match in it, was arrested. - -"But--you're not going to smoke--here? On the public beach?" - -"Isn't it allowed?" asked Pearl, all innocence. "It must be--you are -smoking. Let me have a match." - -"I haven't a match," he said, and threw away his own cigarette so -that she could not get a light from that. It was an important moment -in his life. He thought rapidly. "I hope you won't think me fresh or -anything," he said, "but I don't think a governess ought to smoke, if -you know what I mean--not in public anyhow." - -She wasn't angry, only thoughtful. - -"Well, that's only your opinion." - -It touched him that she knew so little of the world--or of her own -position. He said gently, "I'm afraid you'd find it was everybody's -opinion." - -"Ought you to be so much influenced by the opinion of other people?" - -"Yes, indeed," he answered. The cigarette with which she was still -playing might separate them forever. His mother, he knew, was just -waiting for a good excuse to send her away, and where could she find a -better one? - -She argued it further, tapping the cigarette on her hand as if she were -about to place it between her lips. - -"But you don't pay any attention when people say you oughtn't to smoke." - -Even then he did not know that a trap had been set for him. On the -contrary, he thought he had an original idea of some beauty when he -said impulsively, "I tell you what, I'll swear off if you will." - -She seemed to debate it through an agonizing second or two, while he -looked at her with dog-like eyes. Then she smiled and gave him a strong -hand. - -"All right," she said. "That's a bargain." - -Durland felt flooded with joy--not only at having saved a beloved woman -but at having done it in just the right way. He picked up the package -of cigarettes and flung it toward the sea. It did not quite reach the -water and Caroline sprang up and brought it back to him. - -"I suppose you thought that was empty," she said. - -He tossed it away again without thanking her, but at last to her -repeated clamors he yielded the information that he had given up -smoking. - -"Oh, Durland," she said, "now you can come to the house again. Is that -why you did it?" - -He did not want to deceive the girl, but he could not resist the -temptation of allowing her to deceive herself. He did not answer -directly; but rising, he said, "Anyone who wishes to swim to the -barrels with me may now do so." - -It was more like an invitation than anything he had said all morning, -and they were soon swimming side by side. - -Presently Mrs. Conway in a dark-blue silk bathing dress with ruffles -appeared and dropped a string of pearls into the lap of the governess -as if they had been beads. Pearl had never had such pearls in her -hands before. They were heavier--much heavier than she had imagined, -and brighter, more iridescent, better worth looking at. She was not -given to envy, but she was aware of thinking that there was something -slightly wrong with a world where Mrs. Conway had pearls and she had -not. Antonia insisted on her putting them around her neck. - -"It's much safer--you can't drop them in the sand--Cousin Cora always -does--that's Miss Wellington; she's no relation, but she likes us to -call her cousin--she wants us to call her aunt, but mother says, 'Wait -till she is.'" - -"Oh," said Pearl, conscious of a distinct pang, "is she going to be?" - -Antonia gave one of her head shakes. - -"Mother says, 'Say not the struggle nought availeth.' Older people make -a lot of fun of their best friends, don't they?" - -"Would you like her for an aunt?" said Pearl. - -"Yes and no," Antonia replied. "I think the wedding would be fun, and -I think I'd be a bridesmaid or something; but as a family we prefer -to keep Uncle Anthony to ourselves. Mother says if he marries Cora -we wouldn't lose him as much as if he married a stranger. There was -a Russian actress one year, with red hair; I didn't think her a bit -pretty. She used to send mother flowers and seats for her plays. They -were all pretty sad though. Then there was another time--she was -married this time, but mother said----" - -Antonia broke off to call Pearl's attention to Dolly, who was coming -down the boardwalk in a bathing dress of as many hues as Joseph's coat. -Everything about her was bent--her back, her knees, her elbows, her -fingers, and every crook was obviously intended to charm the young man -by whose side she was walking, who was staring out to sea and very -thoughtfully putting cotton in his ears. Even Pearl, indifferent as she -then supposed herself to be to all men, could not but admit that he was -as splendid an example of young blond manhood as she had ever seen. -Then as he came nearer she saw a certain pale red-rimmedness about -the eyes, and she thought, "He's the kind you'd have to describe as -handsome, and yet if anyone else did, you'd say, 'Oh, do you think him -handsome? I don't like his looks at all.'" - -Antonia meantime was pouring his life history into her ear. - -"Allen Williams. He's twenty-one and has been a freshman for two -years--isn't he handsome?--and very vicious--gambles and drinks and -everything. I heard the Williams' governess telling someone the other -day that Monsieur Allen was _déjŕ trčs connu dans le monde--le monde -gal--gal_--something or other. I wish I knew more French. You can't -really tell much what goes on on the beach unless you know French. Of -course, he's just amusing himself with Dolly." - -"I tell you what I think," said Pearl, suddenly becoming aware that she -had been staring, and not only this, but also stared at. "I think it's -horrid of you to be against your own sister." - -"But look at the way she's giggling and wriggling. I feel ashamed of -her," said Antonia. - -"That's the very time you ought to stick up for her," said Pearl. - -"Well, it's a point of view," said Antonia. "That's what Uncle Anthony -always says when he doesn't agree with you but is too lazy to argue it -out." - -Dolly and Mr. Williams had reached them by this time. Dolly was for -passing by, but Williams stopped and said in a voice clearly audible, -"And who is the beautiful girl in the pearls?" - -Dolly's voice was too low to be audible. She stopped. Spoiled and -selfish she might be, but she was at heart a lady. She introduced Mr. -Williams to Miss Exeter with perfect civility. Williams took Pearl's -hand and looked at her with something fierce and blank in his eyes. - -Oh, how well she knew that look! - - - - -CHAPTER THREE - - -That evening Pearl had the satisfaction of writing Mr. Wood that -Durland had stopped smoking. She gave the whole scene on the beach. -Never before in all her life had she been amused at writing a letter; -she had looked upon them as a duty to be paid to friendship. But to -this man whom she had never seen she enjoyed writing. It was like -patting Alfred--you could express your friendly emotion without fear of -rousing any response whatsoever. Almost every day she had some progress -to report--Mrs. Conway had consented to keep her jewelry in the safe -in her bedroom provided for the purpose. At first she had positively -refused, asserting that as she could never remember the combination -her jewels remained locked up until an expert was sent down from town -to open the safe; and that for her part she would as lief a thief had -them, who might get some fun out of them, as that they stayed locked up -in her safe for the rest of time. But Pearl very competently offered to -make the combination and remember it, and come every morning and get -them out at any hour Mrs. Conway chose. A rumor of burglaries in the -neighborhood induced Edna to yield. - -Then before a week was over algebra became to Durland an illumined -subject, a study of mystic beauty and romantic association. He not -only mastered it in the proud determination to prove that men were not -fools but he invented clever discussions to lengthen his brief hour -into an hour and a half; while Antonia, wondering at his industry, kept -insisting that it was time to go to the public beach. - -All this Pearl wrote, day by day. But she could not write the thing -which of all others she knew Mr. Wood wanted to hear--that Antonia was -dressed like a nice little girl. The best she could say was that the -child was not actually dirty. Nor could she say that she had gained -Mrs. Conway's friendship. That lady remained aloof, a little malicious, -always in the opposition, treating Pearl's triumphs as petty tyrannies -over the children's free spirits, treating Pearl's failures as -splendid triumphs in the field of human freedom. - -When Pearl appealed to her with "I don't think Antonia ought to wear -that torn dress to Olive's for tea, Mrs. Conway," Edna would smile and -answer, "You know, Miss Exeter, I can't think those things a matter of -life and death the way you do. I own I should be sorry if at eleven she -thought of nothing but dress." - -"Like Dolly," said Antonia. - -That, Pearl discovered, was the secret of Antonia's dislike of -neatness. She was afraid of being like Dolly--Dolly, who represented -simply everything of which Antonia disapproved. - -All this Pearl wrote to Anthony; long, long letters composed after the -rest of the household were in bed. "It is long after midnight, and I -should be in bed instead of writing----" - -She paused. The well-known illustrator who had done her picture for -the cleaning-fluid firm had told her--and the illustrator was herself -a beautiful woman, experienced in the ways of the world--that all love -letters from unmarried girls ended with the words, "But it is after -midnight, and I ought to be in bed instead," whether they were written -at noon or at night. - -Love letters! How absurd! - -Letters which amuse the writer to write rarely fail to amuse the -recipient to read. Pearl's letters, arriving as they did in bunches, -amused him not only on account of their dashing style but on account of -the contrast between this style and the pale demure little person he -remembered. Anything written day by day gains a serial interest; and -Anthony, without newspapers, waited for Pearl's letters as the great -interest of life. He had never felt so intimate with his family as -through her careful description of them. His sister, though a fairly -regular correspondent, had to perfection the art of covering the paper -with sentences which by the time they reached her correspondent meant -nothing. "I did so wonder whether the preserved ginger I ordered for -you had caught your steamer of if the man had mistaken the line--he -seemed so stupid----" Pages like this, when he wanted to hear of the -contemporary life of the children. - -Yet this time the first sentence of his sister's letter interested him: - - - She arrived the day before yesterday--your priceless - pearl--Antonia's idea of Helen of Troy. But do you think Helen - would have made a comfortable sort of governess? This young woman - is entirely untrained--turns handsprings on the beach and goes - shouting about the tennis courts in a loud Western voice that I - do hope the children won't learn to copy. Dolly, who is, as you - know, the most sensitively refined being that was ever made, is - quite shocked by her. The two younger ones like her well enough, - but I can't imagine her ever having any control over them. I - always think one must be a little disciplined oneself in order - to exercise control over others. I must confess, Anthony, that I - should pack your selection off tomorrow if I had not given you - my word to keep her. Cora quite agrees with me that Miss Exeter - would do better on the variety stage than as a governess. I don't - think there is any news. Durland has entirely given up smoking, - as I always said he would--entirely of his own accord. You don't - believe me, but a mother has a sort of psychic understanding of - her children. - - -How could he help being on the other side? Yet the letter gave him -something to think about. Helen of Troy--that pale, thin girl! Well, -he should never understand women's estimates of other women's looks. -He laughed aloud over the note about Durland's smoking, Edna and her -psychic understanding! - -But thinking of psychic things--and far away in the folds of that -bare Mexican valley Anthony had time to think--something psychic came -from Miss Exeter's letters which he had not felt in her personality. -He could not call it exactly conceit, but it was like a conviction of -beauty. He did not know how to describe it, but it made him think of -an essay by a novelist which he had read, when or where he could not -remember--was it by Stevenson?--in which the writer had spoken of the -uncontrollable way in which heroines whom you constantly described -as lovely kept turning plain and uninteresting on your hands; and -the other way round--how heroines, with just a few words of friendly -description, suddenly walked through your pages as tremendous beauties, -with no assistance from you. Clara Middleton, in the Egoist, had been -cited as one of the latter class. Well, it seemed to him that this -girl was like that. He had seen her--a nice-looking young woman, but -her letters were the letters of a beauty. Probably it was the profound -subconscious egotism of the woman coming out. The point was that she -was getting away with it. He wrote and asked Durland to send him a -photograph of her. But it did not need much diplomacy on the part of -Pearl to prevent its ever being dispatched. - -As a matter of fact, she did not dread discovery very much. It seemed -to her it would be nothing more than an awkward moment--after all, -he already knew her better than he had ever known Augusta--only -before he came back she must have worked all the desired miracles. -Far from dreading his return, she looked forward to it with veiled -excitement--great fun, like taking off your masks at a fancy ball. - -She had been with the Conway family almost a month when she witnessed -the first trial of strength between the hostile factions--Dolly against -Antonia. There was only one spare room in the cottage since the -governess had come. Dolly announced at luncheon, very casually, that -she had invited Allen Williams to spend the following Sunday with them. -Antonia broke out at once with the passionate sense of defeat that -betrays the young. She had invited her best, indeed her only, friend -Olive, who was to be abandoned by her family, for the coming Sunday. - -"You said I could ask her, mother. I did ask her--you let me ask her. -I asked her first--before Dolly asked Allen--you said I could"--over -and over again; but Dolly's flashing silence was more impressive. -Pearl knew that it was not so much a question of justice as of trial -by torture. Mrs. Conway would yield to whichever of her children could -inflict the most pain upon her, and that, of course, was Dolly. Dolly -did not reiterate her position like Antonia. Now and then she dropped -a frigid sentence that revealed her argument. Her mother had always -told her she might ask anyone she liked for week ends. She had asked -Allen and he had accepted. As for Olive, she lived in Southampton--why -shouldn't she stay in her own house? It was just as an excuse for -little girls to sit up talking all night and steal food out of the -pantry and get the whole household upset. - -This was shrewd. The last time Olive had come to stay it had resulted -in the loss of a cook. Mrs. Conway remembered this as Dolly spoke. -Her position was painful. She had promised Antonia she could have her -friend this Sunday, when Olive's parents were away. But then on the -other hand she had also encouraged Dolly to ask anyone she liked to -the house. Yet she disliked young Williams and feared Dolly's growing -devotion to him. Somebody had already said to her that it was a pity -for Dolly to make herself so conspicuous with him--he was no good, that -young man. But part of her tragedy as a mother was that she sympathized -with her children when thwarted in something in which she knew they -ought to be thwarted. She knew now that Dolly's hold on young William's -interest was of the slightest; she knew that the girl had obtained this -promise of a week end visit with difficulty--perhaps even it was mere -convenience--he wanted to go to some party, or to see some other woman. -Mrs. Conway knew that if she decided in favor of Antonia, as perhaps -strict justice would demand, there never would be any other week end -for Williams. Dolly would lose him; and though this was exactly what -she desired, she could not be so cruel as to bring it about. So she -decided in favor of her elder daughter, and managed as usual to anger -both of them. - -"I'm afraid, my dear," she said to Antonia, as if she were being -particularly impartial, "that this is one of those terrible occasions -on which you are called upon to be unselfish and noble and all that. I -own I don't care for this young man who says bur-r-rud and wor-ruld, -and seems to me to be quite the dullest person I ever met; but Dolly -is older than you, you know, and must be allowed to have her playmates -first. When you are a big girl and want to have beautiful young morons -to stay----" - -"I hope I shan't ride roughshod over other people's rights," said -Antonia with snapping eyes. - -"I'm sorry my friends must be insulted, mother, just because I have -ventured to invite them to your house. Believe me, if I had a house of -my own I would not trouble you either with my friends or myself." - -Tears rose to Mrs. Conway's eyes. She was so deeply hurt she could not -even pretend that she wasn't; so hurt that she spoke naturally to the -governess when for a second after luncheon, owing to the withdrawal in -opposite directions of her two daughters, she found herself alone with -the interloper. - -"Young people are so cruel," she said. "What more could I do for -Dolly? I sacrifice poor little Antonia, I make the house hers--and she -tells me practically she only stays with me because she has to." - -As Pearl went upstairs Dolly called her into her room--the first time -she had ever done such a thing. But after all the woman with all her -faults had the virtue of not being a member of the family. - -"You see what I mean, Miss Exeter," she said, looking up from polishing -her nails with a feverish rapidity. "Everything in this house is done -for Antonia--or would be if I did not fight for my rights. Nobody likes -to make a scene, but to ask a man like Mr. Williams--you don't know, -but women--older women--married women--like Mrs. Temple--so silly--it -just bores Allen; but he feels he ought to go there, and when he said -he would come here instead, fancy my having to put him off because -Antonia wanted that fat Olive to come, when Olive lives here anyhow." - -Pearl's limpid gray eyes gazed at her sympathetically. It was her -nature to be sympathetic, and presently Dolly was telling her how she -had first met Allen, how he had danced and how wonderfully their -steps went together. It seemed as if she had remembered every syllable -that had ever fallen from his lips, and loved to repeat them, though -they were of a conspicuously commonplace character. Then she confided a -secret--he had asked himself. She would never have dared to ask him. - -"Dared!" said Pearl, every inch the feminist. - -"Oh, well," Dolly retreated rapidly, "this house is so full of -uninteresting children like Antonia and Durland--under your feet all -day long; but when Allen said himself, telling how he didn't want to go -to the Temples, 'Why don't you ask me?'----" - -Her voice softened over the remembered tones; of course she had asked -him. - -Pearl's heart sank at this news. She wondered if she were vain to -attach a dread significance to his initiative. She remembered that -peculiar fierce stare from those pale eyes. Well, she wouldn't speak to -him--that was all there was to that. - -Presently she left Dolly and went to knock on Antonia's door, which was -suspiciously shut; usually Antonia lived and dressed open to corridors. - -Yes, as Pearl feared, Antonia was lying on her bed, crumpled as to -clothes and damp about the cheeks. Miss Exeter could see now, she said; -she was treated like a step-child. Her mother didn't love her as she -loved Dolly, and how could anyone love Dolly?--that's what she couldn't -understand. - -Pearl had not thought it worth while to try to argue Antonia's -case with Dolly, but the child was so clear-minded she did try to -put Dolly's side of the case to her. Antonia admitted it all, but -impatiently. - -"And why is he willing to come," she said--"a man like him? He's just -making a convenience of Dolly, or something. He doesn't think anything -about her at all." - -It was exactly Pearl's own impression. Then why was he coming? - -He came on Friday afternoon by the fast train, and Dolly in her new -pink hat and her white motoring coat--just back from the cleaner and -smelling a little bit of gasoline, but so much more becoming than her -gray one--went to meet him. She and Allen and Mrs. Conway were all -dining out that evening, and Pearl had organized a picnic for herself -and Antonia and Durland, far up the beach, with the moon and a fire -of driftwood and a great deal of excellent food. They did not see the -house guest that evening. - -The next morning at half past nine Pearl was obliged to go to the -garage to find Antonia; she was studying the oiling system of the green -car. There was nothing unfriendly in her attitude to study; she was -perfectly willing to learn, if she could only manage to remember that -lesson time had come. - -They had lessons on the piazza. Pearl, looking out over the dazzling -sea and thinking how pleasant a swim was going to be, had said "How -do you spell 'separate,' Antonia?" and Antonia, twining her bare toes -about the calf of the other leg, had got as far as "Well, I know it's -an _e_ where you expect an _a_ or just the other way," when Williams, -bending his head slightly under the curtains, stepped from the dining -room upon the piazza. - -He looked extremely polished and soaped. He had on white trousers, a -gray coat, a blue tie. Antonia, who had never seen him so near before, -stared at him, forgetting even to say good morning. He bowed rather -formally to the governess, but to Antonia he said, "Where were you -last evening? I was watching for you and you didn't appear." - -He sat down and drew her toward him with an immaculate brown hand. - -Pearl had never seen Antonia embarrassed before. The child kept -glancing up at Williams as if fascinated, and glancing quickly away -again as if dazzled. Then she turned both knees inward, seemed to dig -her toes into the boards and answered in a low, husky voice that they -had been out on a picnic. - -"I think you might have asked me," said Williams. - -He spoke in that tone of false comedy--as if anything you said to a -child must be ridiculous--that was peculiarly annoying to Pearl. - -Antonia bent her head and muttered that she had not thought he would -have enjoyed it. - -"I should have enjoyed it," he said, and drew Antonia closer, so that -over her head he could give Pearl a hard, significant look. - -Pearl rose to her feet. This was a situation she understood thoroughly. -She was not going to lose another job on account of a man--a boy -rather, younger than herself. In spite of Williams' protests and -teasing efforts to retain the child, she swept her up to her bedroom -to finish her lessons. But she no longer had Antonia's full attention. - -When asked again to spell "separate," Antonia answered, "He is -handsome, isn't he?" - -"Not to my mind," Pearl answered firmly. "He's clean and healthy -looking." - -"He's beautifully clean," said Antonia. "Think of going about with -someone like that!" The measure of her collapse might be taken when a -few minutes later she dashed to the window to watch him drive away with -her sister, and turning back she exclaimed sadly, "Gee, I never thought -I'd wish I was Dolly!" - -Pearl thought to herself that there was no great difficulty in seeing -through this young man's plans. He wasn't the kind who wept on the desk -like the third vice president of the Encyclopedia company. No, he was -going to use Antonia's open admiration as an avenue to the governess. -Well, the situation could not prolong itself. This was Saturday, and he -would be going early Monday morning. There oughtn't to be much trouble -in keeping out of his way. She could count on Dolly's coöperation. She -sighed, wishing that Mrs. Conway were more friendly. Dolly would keep -him playing golf as late as possible; they would not meet again until -luncheon, and that was perfectly safe. - -She miscalculated. Williams' will was stronger than Dolly's. It was a -day of long, regular waves, high but without force, turned back from -the shore by a northerly wind. Antonia was standing near shore diving -them, wave after wave, and shaking her short hair out of her eyes after -each one passed over her head. Pearl had swum out beyond the line of -breakers and was sitting on a barrel, enjoying the sensation of being -pulled gently in and out as each swell rolled past her. Suddenly on the -shore she saw Williams and Dolly appear in their bathing things. She -understood it all. Dolly had been lured to the beach at this early hour -by the idea of an undisturbed tęte-ŕ-tęte. The girl sat down, as if -confident that Williams was going to do the same, but he stood gazing -out to sea. Pearl felt his eyes reach her, and then he dived into one -of the great crested billows and she saw that he was making straight -for her barrel. He was coming fast, but he was coming under water. When -he reached the barrel Pearl was not there. Looking back, he saw her -almost at the shore. - -He was, however, the kind of man in whom opposition rouses a sort of -malignant persistence. All through luncheon she kept catching his pale -eye. She thought Durland noticed it, and hoped that Dolly didn't. -Antonia hardly moved her eyes from his face. - -After lunch, when they were all in the sitting room, Antonia ran away -to get him a match before anyone else had noticed he needed one. Dolly -smiled. - -"What's this, Allen?" she said. "Is Antonia another of your victims?" - -Williams frowned, not because he was in the least annoyed but to -indicate that he was a man impervious to flattery. Pearl had one of her -inspirations. - -"If it's true," she said, "Mr. Williams has it in his power to do us -all a great favor. Do ask him, Dolly, to say to Antonia that he likes -to see a little girl neatly dressed like other little girls." - -"That would, indeed, be a miracle," said Dolly, not wanting anything -Allen might accomplish to be underestimated. - -"Certainly, if I can," said Allen, looking at the governess. - -Pearl was standing turning over the papers on the table, ready for -flight, although with Durland and Dolly both in the room she felt -perfectly secure. She was delighted with her idea. - -"It would be a great help in my life," she said, "if you would." And -she looked straight at him and smiled as if she saw before her a -combination of a god and a saint. It was a look that went straight to -his rather stupid head, through which all sorts of ideas began to dance -brightly. - -"And what do I get out of it?" he asked. - -Dolly laughed. "Oh, Allen," she said, "you must not be so mercenary." - -And Pearl, avoiding his hard, demanding eyes, slipped quietly out of -the room just as Antonia returned with the matches. - -Pearl had not been in her room more than five minutes when a knock came -at the door, instantly followed by the entrance of Antonia. The first -impression was that the child was in physical pain. Her whole face was -trembling, her hand was clasped over her mouth, and the instant the -door was shut behind her she burst out crying. - -Mr. Williams had said she was dirty! - -Pearl, full of pity and feeling horribly guilty, denouncing Williams in -her heart as a heavy-handed idiot, could not but marvel over the power -of romantic love. Everyone, even the adored Durland, had been saying -for years that Antonia was dirty, and eliciting nothing from her but -pitying smiles; and now this agony of shame and remorse was occasioned -by the same words from a total stranger. - -Suffering like this, Pearl knew, could be allayed only by action. She -invented action. Antonia should appear for church the next morning, -clean, faultless, perfect in every detail. Antonia shook her head -dumbly--she had nothing--it was Saturday and all her white dresses were -in the wash--her light-blue crępe de chine had raspberry-ice stains on -it--and she had hidden it away; her green linen was covered with motor -oil. Mrs. Conway's maid had long ago refused to take any responsibility -for Antonia's wardrobe, and Pearl could not blame her. - -But the value of the plan was its difficulty. Antonia's agony would -not have been soothed by anything easy, and this was not easy. It took -all afternoon and most of the evening. Under some crab nets a pair of -gray sučde slippers were found, which Pearl cleaned with gasoline and -a little powder; stuffed into the crown of a riding hat to make it -smaller was a pair of fine gray silk stockings; her best black hat, -worn only once, had fallen into the water and was a ruin; but retrimmed -with a pink rose from an evening dress of Pearl's, it looked better -than before. At last a crumpled pink linen dress was discovered wrapped -about some precious phonograph records. Pearl borrowed the maid's -electric iron and went to work at this. She was so tired when she had -finished that she omitted, for the first time, her daily letter to -Anthony. - -Dressing Antonia the next morning was an excitement. The child's -spirits had revived so that she could look at the situation with her -customary detachment. - -"I'm like that thing in the Bible," she said. "I've put away childish -things." - -"It will be great fun, you'll find, being as nice-looking as you can -be," said Pearl. - -Antonia nodded. - -"But the other was fun too," she said. - -Everything turned out exactly as Pearl had intended. Dolly did not -come down to breakfast, and Williams did. So, by a miracle, did -Mrs. Conway. Antonia's entrance created a sensation--her carefully -curled hair, her spotless linen, her long slim legs in their gray silk -stockings. Not only Williams but even Durland administered honeyed -words of praise. Mrs. Conway approved of her child, but allowed no -credit to Miss Exeter. - -"It's so silly to worry about those things," she said. "I always knew -that she would eventually begin to take care of her appearance. I shall -write Anthony that feminine vanity has asserted itself just as I knew -it would." - -Mrs. Conway and Pearl and Durland and Antonia went to church, -accompanied, as Pearl knew they would be accompanied, by Williams. He -said it was entirely on account of Antonia--was a privilege to go to -church with a little girl who looked as pretty as she did. Although -he spoke in an irritating tone, as if you could make fun of a child -without a child suspecting it, Pearl saw that Antonia was flattered at -receiving any of his priceless attention. - -In the few weeks of Pearl's stay she had become attached to the little -wooden church on the dunes. She always sat so that she could look out -through the door of the south transept, the upper half of which was -usually open, and see the ocean; when it was rough it seemed to roll -out a deeper accompaniment than the organ's to: - - - _Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,_ - _For those in peril on the sea._ - - -There was a tradition that this was always sung. - -Sometimes an impatient dog would stand on its hind legs and look in, -seeking a praying master; and once a wolfhound had bounded over the -half door of one transept and, not finding his owner, had bounded out -at the other. - -During the sermon Pearl, it must be confessed, was engaged in composing -her daily report to Anthony. At last she had accomplished the great -achievement--at last she could tell him the thing he most wanted to -hear. She made up her mind that she would begin: "All through church -I looked at Antonia's pretty little profile under a black hat trimmed -with pink roses----" Life presented itself to her in the form of her -letters to Wood, thus offsetting the sense of loneliness that Mrs. -Conway's mocking aloofness caused her. She was still composing when, -after church was over, they walked--Mrs. Conway and Williams ahead and -Pearl with Durland on one side and Antonia on the other--the few yards -that separated the church from the public beach. Antonia's appearance -was much noticed. - -Pearl heard an elderly gentleman murmur to Mrs. Conway, "Your little -daughter is lovely--lovely. Is beauty contagious?" And he gave a -glance at Pearl, who was looking perfectly unconscious but caught Mrs. -Conway's bitter reply: "Thank you; I see you feel she was never exposed -to it before." - -For the first time in her life Antonia was the center of a group -of boys--many of them in their first long trousers; all with stiff -turned-down collars, white against the sunburn and freckles of their -summer complexions. They were telling her, with the perfect candor of -youth, that she might have been the recipient of their attentions long -before this if she had been dressed as she was dressed today. - -"How could I go round the links with a girl without shoes?" one -conservative had wailed, revealing a hidden struggle. And Bill Temple, -Caroline's elder brother, a year older than Durland, and likely to -be junior tennis champion, had said loudly in passing, "Gee, the kid -certainly looks great in that get-up!" If he had composed "Helen, thy -beauty is to me----" all in her honor he could not have given her a -fuller joy. - -Pearl was so happy that she allowed her generous nature to lead her -into making an acknowledgment to Williams. She had just heard him agree -to motor to New York after dinner that evening--his stay was a question -of only a few hours now, and on the crowded beach---- - -She looked up at him and said, waves of gratitude and friendliness -rolling toward him like a perfume, "We owe all this to you." - -He answered without the least change of expression and in a tone that -did not carry an inch beyond Pearl's left ear, "Have you any idea what -you do to men?--drive them mad----" - -She did not answer at all, but stepped back and allowed other people to -come between them; and presently, knowing that the Conway car would be -crowded, she invited the willing Durland to walk home with her along -the beach. - -There were a good many outsiders at luncheon, and though Williams -followed her closely into the dining room she slipped into a chair -between the two children, and all through the meal was aware of -Williams' steady, rather sulky stare from across the table. - -After luncheon was over she disappeared. She had the afternoon to -herself, for Antonia was going out with her mother. Pearl took a -parasol and went and sat on the beach, concealed by the jutting of a -dune. She took a book with her, but hardly read. She sat there for an -hour, and about four, knowing that Dolly and Williams had arranged -to play golf and that she would now have the house to herself, she -went back, thinking about the Sunday papers. Almost the only hardship -she felt in her position was that her rights to the newspapers were -not properly respected--the butler, who was a baseball enthusiast, -regularly removing the papers to the pantry as soon as Mrs. Conway had -read the headlines. - -The sitting room was deserted and the newspapers strewn about the -table--a condition which should have suggested to Pearl that the room -had been too recently occupied for the servants to have had time to -come in and put it to rights. But she didn't think of that. She took up -the first sheet that came to hand and saw a long illustrated article -about the turquoise mines of Mexico, into which she plunged with a -thrill of interest. She was standing with both arms outstretched, her -gold-colored head a little bent. - -Suddenly she felt two hard, masculine arms go round her, a kiss on the -back of her neck, another on her reluctantly turned cheek. It happened -in a second. As she struggled ungracefully, angrily, she saw over -Williams' shoulder the figure of Durland rising from the hammock on the -piazza. - -If Wood had received that batch of Sunday letters at the mine he would -have torn open Pearl's first--as likely to promise the most amusement. -But he got them at his hotel in Mexico City, and conscious of great -leisure--for he was staying there a week or so on his way home while -he dickered over taxes with a governmental department--he adopted a -different method. He ranged them before him inversely in the order of -interest. They came--first Durland's. He wondered what Durland wanted, -for his nephew was never moved to the momentous effort of writing -except under the stress of great financial necessity; second, Edna's; -third, that of Miss Wellington, who did not write often; and last -Pearl's thick typewritten budget. - - - _Dear Uncle Anthony_: I know mother is writing her point of view - about this, and I want you to know the truth. I was there and - mother was not. Miss Exeter could not have helped what happened. - If it was any of our faults it was Dolly's--not only for having - that kind of a thug to stay but for being as usual an hour late in - getting off, so that Miss Exeter thought they had gone. You can - imagine how I felt in seeing a great beast like Williams coming - up behind her and grabbing her like that. I let him know what I - thought, but I would like to have pasted him one on the jaw. I - wish you had been here. Mother is all wrong--a dreadful injustice - is being done a very wonderful woman. She is patient, but I don't - suppose she will stand much more. I wouldn't if I were her. - - Your affectionate nephew, - DURLAND CONWAY - - -Wood tore open his sister's letter. His thought was, "Impossible!" - - - _Dear Anthony_: I am sorry, after the trouble you took ["A lot you - are," he thought] that your priceless pearl will really have to - go. It has been an impossible situation from the first, but I have - loyally tried to carry it through for your sake--you seemed to - care so much about it. I have never liked the girl. She has a sort - of breezy aggressiveness that I can't stand, and Cora Wellington - felt just the same. I did not write you, but that first evening - Cora said to me, "Where is Anthony's judgment--sending you a - girl like that?" I do not like the effect she has had on the - children--taking all the spirit out of poor Durland, and Antonia - appeared dressed for church this morning like a little French doll. - - However, when Durland discovered her this afternoon clasped in - the arms of a detestable young man by the name of Williams--Allen - Williams, whom Dolly, poor child, has had spending Sunday, much - against my inclination--I did feel that things had reached a point - when even you would hardly blame me for getting rid of her. I sent - for the girl and told her she must go. I was surprised and, I own, - hurt, Anthony, when she answered that you had extracted a secret - promise from her not to go until you released her. - - I hope you see what a disagreeable and humiliating position you - have put me in. I think I should have ignored both her promise - and my own, except that the girl has acquired such a hold over - Durland and Antonia that they go on like little maniacs about the - injustice I am doing her. Dolly and Cora entirely agree with me. - However, I have consented to keep her until I get a telegram from - you releasing us both. I do hope you will immediately send it on - the receipt of this letter. - - -Wood laid the letter down with a feeling of the most intense surprise. -Allen Williams--a young man unfavorably known to him as an admirer -of the most conspicuous of the year's Broadway beauties--that man -spontaneously interested in a girl like Miss Exeter--a ruthless, -stupid young animal like Williams attracted by that pale, honest, -intellectual, badly dressed girl--without an effort on her part. No, -that was too much to ask him to believe. - -He opened Cora's letter. Cora wrote a large, sprawling hand, and her -only rule was never to write upon the next consecutive page, so that -her correspondent went hopelessly turning her letters round and about -to find the end of a sentence. Wood caught "----getting herself kissed -in poor Edna's blameless sitting room in broad daylight, and thus -getting rid of her and an undesirable suitor of Dolly's at one fell----" - -He twisted the letter about, trying to find the end of this, but coming -only upon a description of moonlight on the ocean, he tossed it aside -and opened that of the culprit herself. - - - I regret to say, [it began in vein that struck Wood as none too - serious] that I have caused a scandal. A young man called Williams - tried to kiss me--in fact he did--when I was reading the paper - and didn't even know he was in the house. I should have dealt - with him; but Durland, who saw it all, was so cunning and manly, - and ordered him out of the house. Your sister is naturally annoyed - with both of us and won't believe I was not to blame. She keeps - quoting something you once said to Dolly under circumstances - described as similar--that no man kisses a girl if he knows it's - really against her will. If you did say that, Mr. Wood, you're - wrong. If a man wants to kiss a girl something in his psychology - makes him feel sure she wants him to. But the loathsome creepiness - a girl feels at having a man whom she doesn't like touching her is - something no man can possibly understand. - - Williams has behaved technically correctly and actually - horridly--saying sourly enough that it was entirely his fault, - that he alone was to blame, but letting everyone see that he feels - I led him on--only that, of course, a gentleman's lips are sealed. - However, he was instantly shipped back to New York on a slow train - that stops at every station. - - As soon as he was gone Mrs. Conway and I had rather a scene. - She wanted me to go at once. I said I could not go without your - permission. She finally agreed to let me wait until you had been - heard from. I need not say I shall do exactly as you wish. It will - not be particularly easy to stay after this, but I will do it if - you wish--or go--just as you telegraph. - - -Whatever Anthony Wood's faults might be, lack of decision was not -usually one of them. He folded the letters neatly on his table, took -his panama hat from the peg, went to the telegraph office and sent his -sister the following message: - - - Letters received. Please keep Miss Exeter until my return. Should - be back within two weeks. - - -And then, rapid decisions being at times dangerously like impulses, he -sent a second one to Miss Exeter herself, which read: - - - Wish to express my complete confidence in you. - - -The days before those two messages came were trying ones in the Conway -household, which was now divided into two hostile parties--Pearl, -Durland and Antonia on one hand; Mrs. Conway and Dolly, occasionally -reenforced by Miss Wellington, on the other. Miss Wellington did not -make matters any easier by suggesting to Edna that something similar -must have taken place in the case of Anthony himself--just what you'd -expect from that sort of girl--that hair, that great curved red mouth. -She understood from dear little Dolly that Williams had told her--as -much as a man could tell such a thing--that he could hardly have done -anything else. - -What Williams had really said, for few men are as bad as their adoring -women represent them, was that her mother was taking the incident too -seriously. - -Pearl could not have borne life if it had not been for her daily -letter, which she continued to write. Mrs. Conway hardly spoke to her; -and if she did, she spoke slowly, enunciating every word carefully as -if Pearl's moral obliquity had somehow made her idiotic. Durland, loyal -to the death, was not much help, because he merely hated his family -and scowled through every meal. Antonia, on the other hand, was one of -those rare natures who could be an ally without being a partisan. - -"Of course," she would say calmly to anyone who would listen to her, -"Allen only came here at all in the hope of seeing Miss Exeter, but you -can't expect Dolly to understand that." - -Anthony's two telegrams arrived one evening at dinnertime and were -handed by the butler, one to Mrs. Conway and one to the governess. -Pearl's heart sank on seeing there were two. She thought it must mean -he was deciding against her; and though she found her present position -unpleasant, she did not want Mr. Wood to decide against her. She -opened hers and read its few words at one glance. It was not her habit -to blush, but she blushed now with a deep emotion--of gratitude and -admiration. Not many men would have stood by her, she thought, in a -situation like this. She knew where Antonia got her sense of justice. -Or, she thought with something very like jealousy, was it really -Augusta in whom he was expressing his confidence, not in her at all? -Yes, of course, anyone who had once seen Augusta would feel confidence -in her. - -The next day she settled back to the routine--lessons with Antonia and -then with Durland--the public beach--a silent luncheon--then sometimes -a little feeble tennis with Antonia; but more often now her mother took -the child out with her, as if Pearl were not a proper person to be -given charge of a pure young child. Left alone, Pearl would take her -book and parasol and retire to the Conway's beach. She seldom read, -for, to be candid, she was not a great reader; but she would sit and -stare at the empty sea--empty at least if the wind were from the south; -but when it turned and blew from the north, then the whole ocean would -be dotted with fishing boats out of Gardiner's Bay; and Pearl, lying -there idly, would watch the rowboats putting out and taking in the -nets. Sometimes Antonia was permitted to be her companion, and then -she read aloud to the child. Antonia was in the stage of development -when she loved poetry, but poetry of a stirring, narrative quality--The -Ballad of East and West, The Revenge, The Burial of Moses. She would -lie with her head in Miss Exeter's lap, gazing up into the unquenchable -blue of the sky, and say "I'm going to learn that one by heart," and -would get as far as the second verse when it was time to go in and -dress. After dinner Pearl and Durland would play Russian bank, which he -had proudly and lovingly taught her; and Dolly and Mrs. Conway would -run over to Miss Wellington's, where they could abuse the governess to -their heart's content. - -One night--just between night and day--Pearl woke with an overmastering -sense of dread. She had been dreaming that the sea, a perpendicular -wall miles and miles high, was coming over the dunes. After two or -three days of damp heat the waves had been rising; local weather -prophets were talking about the August twister. Now, as she sat up in -bed, listening and looking into the dark, she became aware that the -wind had risen; the wooden house was creaking and trembling like a ship. - -She was frightened, as an animal must be frightened without reason and -out of all proportion. In the medley of little sounds she thought she -detected the sound of something hostile. The pearls--she thought of the -pearls. - -It would have been easy to lock her door--no, not easy, for as she sat -rigid in her bed she found the idea of motion terrifying; but she could -have summoned courage to cross the floor and lock the door. Only, Pearl -was afflicted by a sense of responsibility. - -She turned on her light--that helped her. She was no longer terrified -like an animal; she was merely frightened like a human being. She got -up, put on her dressing gown and, crossing the hall by a supreme effort -of courage, entered Mrs. Conway's darkened room. Perfectly gentle, -regular breathing greeted her ear. She knew where the switch was and -turned on the light. - -Mrs. Conway sat up in bed and said, "Is anything wrong--the children?" - -Pearl's fears melted in the face of human companionship. She felt calm -again and rather foolish as she explained that she had felt alarmed -for no special reason--had thought about the pearls. Mrs. Conway -glanced at the closed safe. - -"I thought," she said, "that the argument for keeping valuables in the -safe was that we could sleep calmly. The safe can't be opened unless -you give the combination." - -"It was childish of me," said Pearl. "I was frightened." - -Mrs. Conway smiled at her more kindly than she had ever done. It -was one of the contradictions in her nature that she was physically -brave--a fact obscured to most observers on account of her moral -cowardice. Like most brave people, she was kind to the timid. - -"It's the storm," she said. "It gets on some people's nerves. I hope -the roof isn't leaking; it nearly always does in one of these storms. -What were you afraid of?" - -"I don't exactly know," said Pearl. - -"Would you like me to go back to your room with you? Would you like to -sleep on my sofa?" Edna asked. - -But that was too ignominious. A faint wild dawn was breaking, and Pearl -knew that with the night her terror had gone. She went back to bed. - -The next morning the wind was still blowing like a hurricane from -the south, though the rain had stopped. Great waves were running -up the beach, in some places as far as the sand hills, and forming -a long, narrow pool at the base of the dunes. As soon as lessons -were over Antonia dragged Miss Exeter to the beach--it was no easy -matter, for the wind blew the sand stingingly against face and hands. -There was no use in going to the public beach that morning, for the -bathing apparatus of barrels and life lines had been washed away, the -bathhouses were threatened, and there was a rumor that the sea was -washing into Lake Agawam. - -Pearl and Antonia sat on their own dunes, watching the wild scene, -and suddenly Antonia said, "Look here, Miss Exeter, I want to ask you -something. Perhaps I oughtn't to." - -Pearl had so completely lost any sense of having a guilty secret that -she answered tranquilly, "Go ahead." - -"Is Uncle Anthony in love with you--like Mr. Williams?" - -Ah, Pearl knew what that meant: Antonia had taken a long drive with -her mother and Miss Wellington the day before! She picked her words -carefully. - -"I only saw your uncle once," she said. - -"But Allen only saw you once or twice--and look at the darn thing!" - -"Mr. Williams is not in the least in love with me." - -"Miss Wellington said that some women have the power of rousing----" - -"Antonia, I don't want to hear what she said." - -"You don't like her, do you?" - -"No." - -"Shake," said Antonia heartily. "I don't like her, though she's very -kind to me; but it doesn't seem to me"--Antonia's voice took on the -flavor of meditation--"that she quite tells the truth. For instance, -just before Uncle Anthony went away, she telephoned to him one morning -and asked him to come over. He was playing a game of parcheesi with -me--I'd teased him a good deal to play--and he said he couldn't come, -and she--well, I couldn't hear what she was saying, but at last he -said, rather ungraciously, 'All right then, I'll come.' And he went, -and he took me with him. And we only stayed about ten minutes, -although she wanted us to stay longer. And then later at the bathing -beach I heard her telling someone that she was late--she was sorry--she -couldn't help it, because Anthony Wood came in just as she was -starting--of course she adored having him run in like that, but it did -take a good deal of one's time--'one's time'--that's what she said. I -call that a lie, don't you?" - -"I certainly do," said Pearl. - -"That's what I like about you, Miss Exeter; you say right out what -you think--even to a child." Antonia looked thoughtful. "It's a great -mistake not to tell children the truth; it makes it so hard for them -to know what to do. For instance, we have an aunt--a great aunt--Aunt -Sophia. She's awful, or as you would say, just terrible, but it seems -she's going to leave us all her money. Now if mother would tell us -that, it would be simple; but she doesn't. She says to be nice to Aunt -Sophia because she's such a dear. She isn't a bit a dear. So I had -to find out all by myself why mother, who's so awful to most of her -relations, is so nice to Aunt Sophia. I did. And it's the same thing -about my father. He tried to kidnap me once--at least he met me on my -way to school and asked me to take a drive with him. I wouldn't do -it. Mother said it was lucky I didn't. But it wasn't luck. It was good -judgment. Grown-up people are queer about that. When they do something -wise they say it was wise. But when a child does something wise they -say it was lucky. Children have more sense than people think; they have -to have." - -"You have," said Pearl, who had never thought of all this before. - -"Now this morning, do you know why mother wanted to get us all out of -the house?" Antonia continued. - -Pearl felt tempted to say that Mrs. Conway always wanted to get her -out of the house, but she merely shook her head, and Antonia went on, -"Because she is going to have an interview with my father." - -"With your father?" Pearl sprang to her feet. "Are you sure?" - -Antonia nodded. - -"When mother is going to see father she looks the way I feel as if -I looked when I'm going to the dentist--don't you know, you say to -yourself, 'I wouldn't think twice about this if I were brave'--and then -you think about it all the time. You know, mother doesn't think she -tells us everything, but she really does, except about my father. And -so, you see, if it's something about my father I always know, because -mother's worried without saying why." - -This reasoning seemed sound to Pearl. She felt that in order to fulfill -Anthony's instructions she must go to Mrs. Conway's assistance at once. -She did not like to burst in upon them from the open windows of the -sitting-room, and so ran round the house to the front door. A small, -shabby automobile was standing in the circle, and as Pearl bounded up -the steps a man came out quickly and got into it--a pale man, with long -white hands and something of Durland's birdlike quality. She saw that -she was too late. She went into the sitting-room. - -Mrs. Conway was standing in the middle of the room, supporting one -elbow in one hand and two fingers of the other resting against her -chin. She looked so white that every grain of rouge seemed to stand -out--away from her cheeks. She turned her eyes coldly upon Pearl. - -"Well?" she said. - -Pearl had not thought at all what she was going to say, and blurted -out, "Oh, Mrs. Conway, I thought you might need me! I thought I could -help you if--Mr. Wood said----" - -Edna, rather to her own surprise, suddenly lost her temper. - -"I'm tired of being considered a perfect fool," she said. "Anthony! -I know what Anthony thinks--that I'm always going to give Gordon -all the children's money. As a matter of fact, I know better than -anyone--though it isn't always very easy to say no, no, no, to a man -who has been your husband and who insists if he had five dollars he -could make a fortune; but I do say it--I always have--always--almost -always. It's a little too much to be watched over and lectured by you, -Miss Exeter." - -After which speech Mrs. Conway left the room. - -Luncheon was more than usually silent that day, although Edna attempted -to take an interest in the children's morning, asking whether it had -been pleasant in the water. - -"My goodness, mother," Antonia answered, "have you looked at the water? -We'd certainly have been drowned if we'd gone in." - -After lunch was over Edna was obliged to address Miss Exeter directly. - -"I think you went off this morning without unlocking my safe," she said. - -"Oh, I'm sorry," said Pearl. - -Mrs. Conway smiled faintly. - -"It was quite what I expected--it always happens with safes," she said. -"But now perhaps you will get me my pearls." - -Pearl went eagerly, and as she went she remembered that she had -remembered to unlock the safe--just before she went to the beach with -Antonia. Yes, as she thought, the safe was very slightly ajar. She took -the long, slim, blue velvet case from its compartment and brought it to -Mrs. Conway in the drawing-room. - -It was empty! - -The surprise was like a physical blow, and yet no one at first supposed -that the pearls were actually gone. Mrs. Conway, as so often happens to -anyone who has sustained a loss, was instantly severely lectured by her -three children on her habitual carelessness. - -Then a superficial search was made on her dressing table, on the glass -shelves in the bathroom. Then a recapitulation was made--a joint effort -on the part of everybody--of just what had occurred since the pearls -were last seen. - -Everyone agreed that Mrs. Conway had been wearing them at dinner -the night before. She had gone to bed rather early, and distinctly -remembered that she had put the pearls in their slim blue velvet -case and put the case in the safe and shut the safe, which was then -automatically locked. She did not remember seeing the safe unlocked in -the morning. - -No, Pearl explained, the reason for this was that she, Pearl, had -knocked at the door about eleven, just after finishing Durland's -algebra lesson. There had been no answer, because Mrs. Conway was in -her bath--her bathroom opened out of her bedroom. Pearl had been in a -hurry, so that she had just run and unlocked the safe and had called to -Mrs. Conway that it was unlocked. There had been no one in the room at -the time; but the maid--the maid had been Dolly's nurse when she was a -baby, and was therefore absolutely above suspicion--had been sewing in -the next room. - -Mrs. Conway did not contradict this story. She simply raised her -eyebrows and said that she had not noticed that the safe was open. - -Evidently it must have been open all day long--very unfortunate. - -Pearl felt and probably looked horribly guilty. Of course she ought -to have looked to see whether the pearls were in their case when she -opened the safe. She usually did. She remembered, too, her strange -terror of the night before. Was it possible that that had been based -on something real? Had she really heard a footstep under the noise of -the storm? Could there have been a burglar in the house, hidden perhaps -all night, and stepping out at the right moment about noon when the -upstairs rooms were deserted? - -It was Pearl who insisted on telephoning to New York for a detective. -Mrs. Conway at first objected and said she would feel like a goose if -the pearls were immediately discovered--caught in the lace of her tea -gown, or something like that. But Pearl was quite severe. If there had -been a robbery, she knew that every minute was of importance. - -Just before dinner she called an agency. Two detectives arrived by -motor about ten o'clock that night. They had a long secret conference -with Mrs. Conway. Then one went back to New York and the other--the -head man, Mr. Albertson--took up his residence in the house. - -Pearl went to bed more worried than ever. It didn't seem to her that -the detectives had really taken hold of the situation. She herself -could think of a dozen things they might have done that night. It did -not occur to her that their first action was to look up the past record -of everyone in the household. - - - - -CHAPTER FOUR - - -Human nature being as it is, it is probable that the loss of the pearls -was nothing to Edna Conway in comparison with the satisfaction of being -able to telegraph her brother that his priceless Pearl was suspected of -having stolen them. She was a kind-hearted woman and would not normally -have wished to put even the most degraded criminal in prison; but there -seemed an ironic justice in the fact that a woman sent to reform the -manners of her children should turn out to be a thief. She valued her -pearls too. They were not only beautiful and becoming but they had a -sentimental association. Her husband had given them to her when they -were first married, after a tremendous success at Monte Carlo. They had -cost a great deal of money in the days when pearls were cheap, and yet, -as he had got them from a ruined Polish nobleman, they had not cost -their full value. He had said to her as he gave them to her, "There, my -dear, if I never give you anything else----" As a matter of fact, he -never had given her anything else; in fact, he had often tried to take -them away from her when things had first begun to go wrong. But Edna -had managed to cling to them, feeling that they would always keep away -that wolf which idle well-to-do middle-aged women appear to dread more -than any other group in the community. - -Edna was not only kind-hearted but she was normally utterly lacking -in persistence; she would not have been able to conceal suspicions -from anyone over a protracted period. But malice is a powerful motive, -and she managed in the days that followed the loss to play her part -admirably. The idea that Anthony was already hurrying home to meet the -imposter who had slipped into the real Miss Exeter's place gave her a -determination she usually lacked. - -It was perhaps stupid of Pearl not to guess that her fraud had been -detected as soon as the detectives set to work. But Pearl was so much -interested in the recovery of the jewels that it never crossed her -mind she herself was suspected. She did notice a slight change for -the better in Mrs. Conway's manner--a certain sugary sweetness--a -willingness to be in the same room with her, especially if the -detectives were for any reason busy--a new interest in all her plans. - -The thought that occupied her mind was the idea that Wood was on his -way home; that at last she and the man she had been writing to every -day for weeks were to meet face to face. How could he fail to be -pleased with her--she who had made Antonia neat, Durland studious, and -had at least suggested to Dolly's egotism that there were other women -in the world at least as attractive as she? Pearl thought a great deal -about their first meeting; there would be a certain awkwardness about -it, especially if it took place in the presence of the family, as it -probably would. Still, she could manage it. She would say in a few -simple words that she was Augusta Exeter's best friend, and had taken -her place. He was sure to be amused and smile that nice smile which -Augusta had described. The interview went on and on in her imagination, -a different way each time she imagined it; but always agreeable, always -exciting, always ending in Mr. Wood expressing his gratitude and -admiration. - -Yet this man about whom she was thinking so constantly was actually -speeding toward her, feeling as bitter about her as it is possible to -feel about a person you have never seen. We forgive anything better -than being made ridiculous. It was not mere vanity, though, that made -Anthony so angry. He knew that much of his power over his sister had -been destroyed. Everything that he suggested in the future would be met -by Edna's amused "Another priceless pearl, Anthony." Yes, he said to -himself as he sat with folded arms and stared out of the train window, -he had made a fool of himself. What did he know of the real Miss -Exeter? He had no one but himself to blame. - -He had been on the point of starting home when he received Edna's -second telegram announcing her loss. Everyone, as the author of -Cranford has observed, has a pet economy, and Edna's economy was -telegrams. She never cabled or telegraphed if she could help it, and -then she usually obscured her meaning by compressing it into as few -words as possible. When Anthony opened this one and saw its great -length and her name at the bottom of it he knew that something was -terribly wrong. It said: - - - Pearls stolen from safe. Only governess had combination. - Detectives discover she is imposter. Real Miss Exeter married and - went to Canada two days after you saw her in New York. This woman - has no idea she is suspected. Is closely watched and has had no - opportunity of disposing of jewels. Pearls thought to be still on - place or hidden on beach. Please return immediately. Be careful - about telegrams. She might get them first. - - -As soon as Anthony read that message he felt a conviction that it was -all true. Whether or not she had stolen the pearls, he knew she was an -imposter, for he realized now that he had known from the beginning that -he had been in correspondence with a beautiful woman. He had tried to -tell himself that the quality he felt in her letters was the vanity -of a plain one, but all along he had known in his heart that in some -strange and subtle way beauty had exuded from every line she wrote. He -had been made a fool of by a beautiful and criminal woman. Well, he -would hurry home and settle that score in short order. He was not a -cruel man, he said to himself, but this did not seem a situation that -called for mercy. - -It was, of course, necessary that someone should meet Anthony on his -arrival in New York and acquaint him with all the details. As Edna was -unwilling to leave her household, the duty fell to Miss Wellington, who -complained a great deal and leaped at the chance. - -So when Anthony got off the train in the Pennsylvania Station there was -not only his secretary but his old friend, Cora Wellington, waiting -to greet him. The secretary remained to see about the bags, while he -and Miss Wellington drove to his apartment. The robbery was still a -secret--not to be told to the papers--even the secretary did not know -of it. As they drove up the long incline to the level of Seventh Avenue -Cora said the thing that Anthony wanted to hear and yet would not say -even to himself: - -"Really, Anthony, I think Edna might have guessed that it was not the -governess you had sent. You couldn't have selected such a person--dyed -yellow hair and a sort of exuberant, almost coarse good looks that you -wouldn't admire in any woman and would not tolerate in a governess, I'm -sure." - -It was agreeable to hear, but he would not admit it. - -"Poor old Edna," he said. "I don't feel exactly in a position to -criticize. This woman must be clever." - -"Clever!" exclaimed Miss Wellington. "It's uncanny! Instantly she -obtained an almost hypnotic influence over Durland and Antonia. Even -Dolly was on the point of succumbing--if it had not been that the -woman overreached herself in her affair with young Williams. Between -ourselves, Anthony, though I haven't said this to Edna, I don't feel -at all sure that that affair did not go a great deal further than the -kiss." - -Anthony frowned in silence. This was almost more than he could bear. -He said to himself that it was the idea of Antonia being brought into -contact with such a situation that disgusted him. - -Cora was kind enough to sit in his drawing-room and wait while he had -a bath and dressed. It was a nice room and she thought as she waited -how she would rearrange the furniture if ever she should come to live -there. There were photographs of the children about--Antonia as a baby, -Durland in his first sailor suit, a picture of Edna with the three -children grouped about her like English royalties. - -She was wearing the pearls. - -Then Anthony came out of his room, looking handsome and sleek and brown -and very well dressed in blue serge; and they went out and had luncheon -together, and then started at once for their drive of a hundred miles -in Anthony's car. - -She answered all his questions--and one he did not ask. She -volunteered: "I must confess, Anthony, when I first saw this girl--saw -how unsuitable she was--I felt your wonderful judgment must have been -clouded by your having fallen in love with her." - -"Recollect, please," he returned, "that even if it had been the girl I -saw, I had only seen her once." - -"Don't people fall in love at first sight?" - -Anthony smiled. - -"I don't," he said; and he went on to describe the slow process by -which a love which can be depended on to last must necessarily grow. - -To Miss Wellington, who had known Anthony for fifteen years, the -description was perfectly satisfactory. - -They reached Edna's house a little after five. Dolly had gone away -the day before to soothe her wounded feelings at a house party in -the Adirondacks. Durland was playing golf and Antonia having supper -with her friend Olive. Edna alone received the traveler. She did not -reproach him; she gave him the greeting of a woman simply crushed by -anxiety. - -He said, "I'm awfully sorry about this, Edna. You've had a disagreeable -time--aside from the pearls, I mean." - -She raised her large sullen eyes. - -"If only you had not made me promise, Tony--so that I was not free -to turn a thief out of my house until she had actually stolen my -valuables. A woman has an intuition when she's allowed to follow it." - -He had not a word to say in answer. He had an interview with the -detective--the head man, Mr. Albertson; the other one was engaged in -watching Miss Exeter--the false Miss Exeter, who was sitting, as her -custom was of an afternoon, on the beach. It was this habit of sitting -for hours alone on the beach that had led to the theory that the pearls -were hidden there, waiting the right opportunity to be dug up and -dispatched to a confederate. - -Mr. Albertson was a tall, gray-haired man of the utmost dignity. -His figure would have been improved by a faithful addiction to the -daily dozen, and his feet were extraordinarily large. He had a calm, -grand manner and was extremely chivalrous in his attitude toward all -women--even those he was engaged in sending to jail. He reminded -Anthony of the walrus--or was it the carpenter?--who wept so bitterly -for the oysters while he sorted out those of the largest size. Mr. -Albertson melted with pity for that sweet young creature as he -detailed the growing mass of evidence against her: The burglaries in -Southampton since her coming; the fact that she had insisted on having -the combination of the safe; the fact that Mrs. Conway had locked the -pearls in the safe and that only Miss Exeter had gone to the safe -afterward; the mysterious appearance of Miss Exeter in Mrs. Conway's -room during the night before the robbery, and, of course, her alias. -It had been largely a matter of form, Mr. Albertson said--the sending -of his men to look up her record. It had been a shock to them all to -find that the agency which had originally sent Wood the names of -governesses could offer proof that their Miss Exeter had married and -gone to Canada. So far they had not been able to get any information as -to this woman who had slipped into her place. Some of her things had a -P on them. Mr. Albertson mentioned that there was a notorious English -thief--Golden Polly or Golden Moll. - -"She's called by both names," said Mr. Albertson. "This girl answers -her description very good." - -Wood nodded. Had he in fact been getting a daily letter all these weeks -from Golden Moll? The idea intrigued him not a little. - -"I think I'll go and have a talk with her," he said. - -"By all means, by all means," said Mr. Albertson. "We've just been -waiting for you, you know--just to see how she'll act when confronted -with you. She hasn't a notion, you know, that you've left Mexico. But," -he went on in his deep rich voice, "I'd speak her fair if I was you. -Kindness, Mr. Wood, never does any harm. What are we put in this world -for except to help each other--women especially? If I was you I'd say, -'Look, girlie, we want to help you. We have you dead to rights, and -you'd better come across. Come across, girlie,' I'd say, 'and make it -easy for everyone.'" Mr. Albertson had already recommended this speech -to Mrs. Conway without success, and now it seemed to him that Mr. Wood -was not really going to make it. - -"Ay, yes," Anthony said rather noncommittally. - -He turned from Mr. Albertson quietly, as is some people's manner when -they are doing something important and, crossing the piazza, stood a -moment at the top of the steps. - -The sun had just set behind his right shoulder, and to those who love -the sea the bare flat scene had at this moment an extraordinary beauty. -All round the circle of the horizon there was a grayish lilac color. -The sea was blue and gray, the beach was pink, with gray shadows under -the dunes--strange blending colors that come with no other light. -The storm was over, and the sea, though not smooth, was heaving with -a slow, regular swell. The beach, even to the dunes, was strewn still -with seaweed and lumber and all the flotsam and jetsam of a high tide. - -Immediately in front of Anthony was a large rose-colored parasol, the -owner of which had evidently forgotten to put it down, although for an -hour now it could have been of not the slightest use. Nothing appeared -beneath it but the tip of a white sučde slipper. - -Anthony stood and looked, a smile hovering at the corners of his mouth. -There she was--possibly the Golden Moll of Albertson's suspicions, -certainly the writer of interesting letters, the reformer of his -niece's manners, the stealer of the pearls. - -Then he heard Antonia's voice behind him, calling his name. Ordinarily -she would have stolen up behind him and clung round his neck with her -feet off the ground; but now she evidently wanted him to get the full -effect of her changed appearance, for she stood ten feet off and spoke -to him. Oddly enough, she was wearing the very clothes which Pearl -had described--the pink linen, the hat with the pink rose, the gray -silk stockings and gray sučde pumps. Nothing, Anthony thought, could -have been more accurate. The child was very beautiful, just as he had -hoped--hardly dared to hope--to see her. - -She gave him just that second to take her all in, and then sprang at -his neck. - -"Oh, don't you think I look nice?" she said passionately. "It's all -Miss Exeter--your priceless pearl--and she is priceless. Don't you -think I look nice? I like her better almost than anyone I ever knew, -because she's so straight. Don't you think I look nice?" - -"Indeed I do," said her uncle. He managed to free his neck from the -yoke of Antonia's arms and held her off and turned her round. "Yes," he -said, "you look exactly as I like to see you." - -Antonia smiled and then sighed. - -"I feel every stitch I have on," she said, "particularly the shoes -and stockings." She raised first one leg and then the other and shook -it, with a gesture not at all graceful. "I've never worn them except -in winter before. But still, it does make a difference in one's -popularity--clothes--particularly with boys. Boys are funny, Uncle -Anthony." - -Nothing interested Anthony more than to discuss the problems of life -with his niece, but at the moment his mind was not sufficiently -disengaged. He was sorry to interrupt her, but he was obliged to go and -have a few words with her governess. - -"That's all right," said Antonia. "I'll go too." And she slipped her -arm through his and, leaning her head against the point of his shoulder -prepared to descend the steps. - -But Anthony explained to her that he wished to talk to Miss Exeter by -himself. Antonia was disappointed. She had looked forward to being -present when her uncle and the governess met again, but she adjusted -herself as usual. - -"There's Mr. Albertson," she said. "I'll get him to come and sit with -me while I have supper, and tell me stories of crime. He says there -aren't any people like Sherlock Holmes, and that stories like that make -it hard for real detectives. I suppose that's true, and yet it's horrid -to face facts sometimes, isn't it, Uncle Anthony? It makes real life -seem pretty dull sometimes." - -"Real life is not dull, Antonia," said her uncle, "take it from me." - -He watched her safely into a conversation with Mr. Albertson, and then, -with his hands in his pockets, he sauntered down the steps, across the -sand toward that rose-colored parasol. - -"Good afternoon, Miss Exeter," he said pleasantly. - -It had been kept a profound secret that Anthony was on his way -home. The detectives had pointed out to Mrs. Conway that this was -important--that if the woman knew she was about to be unmasked she -might be goaded into sudden action--perhaps even into destroying the -pearls. - -Hearing a strange voice calling her by name, Pearl came out of a -trance into which the sunset and the sea had thrown her; glancing up -from under her parasol, she saw at once that the speaker was Anthony -Wood, and that he was exactly as she had imagined him. Seeing this, -her heart gave a peculiar leap, and she beamed at him, more freely and -wonderfully than she had ever beamed at anyone in the world. The look -affected him--it would have affected any man; not just her beauty, for -he had seen a good deal of beauty in his day, but this warm, generous -honesty combined with beauty was something he had never seen. For -a second or two they just looked at each other, Pearl beaming and -beaming, and Wood looking at her, his face like a dark mask, but his -turquoise eyes piercing her heart. - -She spoke first. She said in her queer deep voice, "Oh, I'm so glad -you've come, Mr. Wood." - -"Are you?" he said. - -Of all the sentences with which she might have greeted him--sentences -of excuse, of explanation, of appeal--he had never thought of her -saying this, and saying it with all the manner of joy and relief. - -"Indeed I am," she went on, still on that same note. "Have you seen -Antonia?" - -"Yes, I have." - -"And isn't she----" - -"We'll leave that for a moment," he said, for her effrontery began -to annoy him, and his tone was curt. But instead of being alarmed or -apologetic, she gave a little chuckle. - -"Oh, yes, I know," she said; "of course you want an explanation; only I -wanted to be sure you'd seen my great achievement first, for it is an -achievement, isn't it?" - -His eyebrows went up. - -"Do you really expect to be praised for anything you may have done," -he said, "before you offer some explanation as to why you are here -masquerading as Miss Exeter?" - -Pearl's face fell. He was really quite cross. It seemed hard to her -that the meaningless sort of beam with which she accompanied a casual -good morning had been enough to reduce the third vice president to -weeping on his desk, while a particularly concentrated beam--a beam -designed to say in a ladylike, yet unmistakable manner that the one -man of all men was now standing before her--seemed to have no effect -whatsoever on said man. She tried it nevertheless. - -Anthony, seeing it, suddenly became angry. Did this woman, he thought, -who was perhaps a thief and was certainly an impostor, really suppose -she was going to charm him, Anthony Wood, by her mere beauty--he who -was well known to be indifferent to women? She would learn---- - -But what she would learn was not formulated, for she now surprised -him by jumping to her feet and running like a gazelle toward the -sea, crying out something to him which he did not catch. He started, -however, in full pursuit--his first thought being that she intended -to drown herself; the second that she meant to fling the pearls into -the sea--the well-known trick of destroying the evidence in a tight -place. She ran on. The sea was up to her knees--up to her waist, fully -dressed as she was; she was now swimming. They had the sea entirely to -themselves. Even the detectives, trusting to Mr. Wood, had withdrawn -for a bite to eat; and at five o'clock all those fortunate people who -come to the seaside for the summer are engaged in golfing or playing -bridge, and seem to ignore the existence of the Atlantic Ocean. - -Anthony had hesitated at the brink of the sea long enough to take off -first his shoes, second his watch and third the light coat which he -had worn driving the car, so that he was some little distance behind -her. Swimming hard and for the most part under water, he did not see -for some time the object which had attracted Pearl's attention. Neither -suicide nor the pearls were the object of her plunge, but a small white -dog which appeared to be drowning. Some children up the beach had been -throwing sticks for it, and now at the end of a long afternoon it had -got caught in some current and was obviously in trouble, every third or -fourth wave washing over its little pointed nose. - -Pearl, never doubting that Wood was actuated by the same motives as -herself, panted out, "Can we get there in time?" - -He came alongside her now. - -"You're not going to drown too!" he said. - -She shook her wet head. Together they towed the exhausted little -creature back. As soon as she could walk Pearl picked it up in her arms -and strode ashore. - -"Don't you think it was a crime for those children to go away and leave -him like that?" Her gray eyes, instead of beaming, glowed angrily. - -"Are you so against crime?" said Anthony, trying to smooth the water -out of his hair. - -She did not even take the trouble to answer but became absorbed in -tending the dog. It was a white dog, at least its hair was white; but -now, soaked and plastered to its body, the general effect was of a -cloudy pink with gray spots. It was the offspring probably of a spotted -carriage dog and a poodle. Between it and Pearl a perfect understanding -seemed to have been at once established. She knelt beside it, and -suddenly looking up at Anthony with one of her spreading smiles, she -said, "I'm afraid it's awfully ugly." - -"It has personality," he answered. He could not but be aware that -Pearl's thin dress was clinging to her almost as closely as the dog's -soft coat. - -"Let me have your coat," she said. - -He held it out, expecting that she meant to put it on, for every line -of her figure was visible, and every line was lovely. But Pearl was -utterly unconscious of herself. She took the coat and wrapped the dog -in it, so that only its head stuck out, with its adoring eyes turned -to her. As he watched her he found he knew positively that she had not -taken the pearls. It was no logical process; he did not say, "This girl -is too kind or too generous or too without selfconsciousness or too -much at peace." Perhaps it was a combination of all these ideas, or -perhaps it was just the miracle of personality; but somehow or other he -knew positively and for all time that she was not a thief; that she, -on the contrary, was just what in his opinion a woman ought to be. He -looked down at the bent golden head, dripping pure drops of crystal. -Dyed! What a spiteful goose Cora Wellington was! - -Then Durland came down the steps. - -"What's happened?" he asked. - -"We've been rescuing a dog," said Anthony. "Miss--Exeter and I." So far -he knew no other name for her. - -Durland smiled at him above her head, as much as to say, "Could -anything be more ridiculously attaching than women are--this woman in -particular?" And Anthony smiled back in a similar manner. - -Then there was a shout, and Antonia, having finished her supper and -exhausted at least for the moment Mr. Albertson's narrative powers, -came flying down the steps, eager to know why it was that Miss Exeter -and her uncle had been in swimming with their clothes on. When -explained, it appeared to her the most natural thing in the world. - -"Isn't he sweet?" she said, when she had heard the story. "I think -Horatius would be a good name for him--on account of 'Never, I ween, -did swimmer, in such an evil case, struggle through such a raging -flood'--you know. Do you think mother will let us keep him? Or do you -want to keep him, Miss Exeter? Oh, dear, I suppose you do!" - -"No, I can't," said Pearl, with regret. "I'd like to, but Alfred hates -dogs." - -Anthony was surprised to hear his own voice saying sharply, "And who is -Alfred?" - -"He's my cat," said Pearl, turning her whole face up to him. "Everyone -says he's very ugly, but I love him." - -They smiled at each other; it was so obvious that Anthony refrained -from saying, "Lucky creature." - -Presently they moved toward the house--first Pearl, bearing Horatius -still wrapped in Anthony's motoring coat; then Durland, most solicitous -lest the dog should be too heavy for Miss Exeter; then Anthony carrying -his shoes and coat and waistcoat; and then Antonia, dancing about. They -approached the house in a quiet and rather sneaky way, by the kitchen -entrance. Anthony had no wish to meet his sister, who supposed that he -had been grilling a criminal. The children felt grave doubts that their -mother would welcome Horatius at all--not that she was a cruel woman, -but that she feared strange curs about the house. Fortunately the cook, -who had a great weakness for Antonia, was cordial, and allowed Horatius -to dry out behind the kitchen stove. - -It was now high time to dress for dinner, so there was a good excuse -for stealing softly up the back stairs. - -While Anthony was tying his tie a knock came at the door, and Edna -came in with the manner of a person confidently expecting important -intelligence. - -She said in a low voice, but with an immense amount of facial -gesticulation to take the place of sound, "Albertson told me you had an -interview. What did you find out?" - -For the first time Anthony realized that he had been an hour in the -company of the false Miss Exeter without having even asked her true -name. He might at least have done that. A weak man would have answered -irritably that what between stray dogs drowning and Edna's children -interrupting he had not had an opportunity to ask the woman anything. -But he was not weak. He simply told her the truth. He saw that she -accepted the story with reservations. A drowning dog was all very well, -but how about her pearls? - -Dinner ought to have been a terrible meal, with Edna bitter and -suspicious and the two detectives looking in at the window every now -and then--just to show that they were on the job; but, as a matter of -fact, it was extremely gay and pleasant. Antonia was allowed to hover -about the room in honor of her uncle's return, and Pearl and Anthony -were--or appeared to be--in the highest spirits. - -Need it be recorded that Pearl had on her best dress? It was a soft, -black, shining crępe which she had run up one afternoon in the spring -when she felt most depressed about not being able to find a position. -Dressmaking often lightened her black moments; it was to her an -exciting form of creation. It had been quickly and casually done, but -it had turned out well. Round her neck she wore the silliest little -string of bright blue-glass beads, which someone had once given a doll -of Antonia's in the dead past when Antonia played with dolls, and which -Antonia herself occasionally wore. Antonia had left them in Pearl's -room, for her new-found personal neatness did not as yet extend to the -care of her possessions, and in an impulse Pearl had put them on and -found the result good. So did Antonia. - -"Oh, see!" she said as they sat down at table. "She has on my beads." - -"Fancy Miss Exeter wearing someone else's beads!" said Edna in a tone -hard to mistake for a friendly one. - -"But don't they look well on her?" said Antonia. "Uncle Tony, don't -you think they look well on her? How could you describe her as 'of -pleasing appearance'? It nearly made me miss her at the station -that first day. I went dodging about, trying to find a pale, plain -girl--that's what mother told me to look for. I think Miss Exeter is -beautiful, don't you?" - -"Antonia!" said her mother scornfully, as if nonsense were being talked. - -Anthony, however, never allowed his niece to put him in a hole. - -"I certainly do," he said, and he looked straight at Pearl, and she -looked straight at him and laughed and said, "You'd be a brave man to -say no when Antonia takes that tone." - -"I should be worse than brave--I should be a liar," said Anthony. - -The sentiment, which brought a lovely beam from Pearl, brought him a -dark glance from his sister. She thought it was not like Anthony to be -silly about a woman, and then the encouraging idea occurred to her that -he was luring her on in order to win her confidence--clever creature -that he was. - -As soon as dinner was over the children rushed away to feed Horatius; -and Edna, who felt the need of uninterrupted conversation with her -brother, led him across the lawn to Miss Wellington's house. It was -not easy, for he showed the same reluctance to go that people show -toward leaving a wood fire on a cold day; but when Miss Exeter--who, -of course, everyone knew wasn't Miss Exeter--said she had a letter to -write he rose to his feet. - -"A letter?" he said, the idea being, of course, that now he was at -home, there could be no more letters in the world. - -Pearl nodded. It really was important, for she had always promised -Augusta to write her a full account of the first meeting with her -respected employer; and, as a matter of fact, Pearl was bursting with -eagerness to express her emotion to someone. If she wrote at once the -letter could be posted that evening, when, about nine o'clock, a man -came to deliver and receive mail. - -As Edna and her brother went out they passed Mr. Albertson on guard, -and Edna conveyed the information to him that "she" had gone to write a -letter. Albertson made a reassuring gesture and they passed on. - -Cora was all eagerness and cordiality. - -"And what has Anthony discovered about her?" were her first -words--spoken to Edna, but directed toward him. - -Edna came nobly to his assistance, gave an account of the rescue of -Horatius quite as if she thought it a natural, explainable incident, -which she was really very far from thinking. - -"And what are his impressions?" said Cora. - -Anthony found this question almost as embarrassing as the first one. -He could not share his impressions. They were mingled--that the girl -was beautiful--that swimming was a sensuous and graceful motion--that -wet garments clinging to lovely limbs had not been sculptured since -the Greeks made statuettes--that absolute integrity is consistent with -masquerading under another name than your own and stealing someone -else's references. But, alas, these convictions were as impossible to -share as a religious revelation. He turned for help to the most ancient -methods. - -"And what do you think of her, Cora?" he said, as if he really cared. - -"I wrote you what I thought," said Cora, and went into it again, while -he sat smoking and trying to remember whether or not he had ever read -that letter of Cora's with the long description of moonlight on the -sea. He rather thought he hadn't. - -"Ah," said Edna, willing to do Cora a kindness, "so you and Anthony -correspond, do you?" At which Cora laughed self-consciously, and -Anthony looked like a graven image--his well-known method of concealing -emotion. This time the emotion was simply irritation, but Edna said to -herself, "Well, after all, she wouldn't be so bad." - -In the short pause that followed, Durland bounded suddenly into the -room. His eyes, which were normally blue like his mother's, looked -almost white in the sudden lights of the room. They were very wide -open, and his small face was pale under his freckles and set with anger. - -"Look here, Uncle Anthony," he said, "did you know what is going on in -our house? Did you know they suspected Miss Exeter of stealing mother's -pearls?" No one answered, and he continued, his voice shaking a little: -"She asked me to give a letter she had been writing to the man who -comes with the evening mail, and as I did Albertson came out and tried -to take it from me--but that was a little too much." The letter was -still in his hand, crumpled from the struggle. "I never heard of such -a thing! It's an outrage! Did you know of this, mother?" There was -something menacing in his tone. - -"My dear boy," said Edna, in that patronizing tone that people use as -if their ability to conceal something from a child were a tremendous -proof of their own superiority. "I'm afraid it will be a great shock -to you, but you must face the fact that she did steal my pearls--at -least so we believe; and that she is not Miss Exeter at all--she is -a notorious English jewel thief known by the agreeable sobriquet of -Golden Moll." - -"You don't know that, Edna," said her brother quickly. - -"I should say not!" cried Durland. "Mother, I think it's perfectly -rotten of you to think it's even possible." - -Edna turned to her brother. - -"You see, Anthony," she said, "what you've done to me, introducing this -woman into my house--turning my own children against me." - -Cora smiled at the boy soothingly. - -"But Durland doesn't know that we have proof that she took the -pearls," she said, as one calmly able to make all smooth and easy. - -"No, Durland," said his mother, "I have not been able to tell you--the -detectives would not let me until your uncle got back--that we have -proof. Miss Exeter is not Miss Exeter at all--just an imposter. Oh, -tell him, Anthony--tell him that she's--a common, everyday thief." - -"I can't do that," said Wood, "because I don't think so." - -"You mean," said his sister, as if now, indeed, a chasm had opened at -her very feet, "that you have any doubt that she stole the pearls?" - -"I'm perfectly certain that she didn't," said Wood. - -Edna burst out at this into a wail of reproach and anger, ending with -the not unnatural accusation that her brother must be in love with the -woman too. - -"Yes, perhaps I am," said Anthony. - -The idea was new to him, and not repugnant; but he spoke more to annoy -his sister than from any more serious motive; but as he spoke he saw -that Pearl and Mr. Albertson were in the room and must have heard him, -Pearl, however, was too much excited already to register any further -excitement. She strode into the room as she strode into the board -room of the Encyclopedia; and almost at once catching sight of her -letter, still in Durland's hand, she made a grab for it; only Edna was -quicker--or rather nearer--and succeeded in getting it first. Pearl -turned to Anthony. - -"Mr. Wood," she said, "I want my letter--I won't have anyone read my -letter. It's an outrage!" - -Mr. Albertson felt his moment had come. - -"Now look, girlie," he said, "we about have the goods on you. Think of -your folks! We want to help you." He took the letter from Mrs. Conway. -"I know," he said, "that a lady's correspondence ought to be sacred, -but----" - -"But," said Edna, not able to refrain from interrupting--"but ask her -why it is she doesn't want her letter read." - -"Well, I reckon I can figure that out for myself," said Mr. Albertson. - -But in this instance--perhaps the only one of his long and successful -career--he was wrong. He could not figure out why it was Pearl objected -so violently to allowing that letter to be read. - -The reason was this: She had always promised Augusta that she would -communicate her first impressions of Mr. Wood, and as soon as he and -his sister left the house to go to Miss Wellington's she had run -upstairs, and on the much-used typewriter she hastily ticked out a -prose lyric on the subject of her meeting with the only man she ever -could have or ever had loved. It began: - - - My dear, he came this afternoon. Why didn't you tell me what he - was like? Oh, I know you said he was attractive. Attractive! - He's incredible! He's devastating! And that voice! You never - said a word about that voice, which makes me shake every time he - speaks--like a telegraph wire in a wind. Oh, Augusta, isn't it - silly? But I think I love him---- - - -That was just the way it began. - -At the sight of that letter in Mrs. Conway's hands, a storm of emotion -swept over Pearl, even before she remembered just what she had said. -But as phrase after phrase flashed before her eyes and seemed actually -to tingle down to the tips of her fingers, she sprang like an animal -at its prey, and would have had it, too, if it had not been for Mr. -Albertson, who catching her elbow as she went by, not only stopped her, -but spun her completely round--so vigorous had been her motion. - -Frustrated in action, Pearl burst into speech. She said that she must -and would have that letter back; she said that opening other people's -letters was a state's prison offense; she went on like a maniac, and -every word she uttered made Mr. Albertson feel more and more convinced -that the letter must be read. Still, he was a chivalrous man; he -believed in chivalry as some people believe in Christianity--as the -important highway in their lives, from which at moments they are -obliged to stray. - -"Now look, girlie," he said again, in accents even more honeyed, "don't -excite yourself. Why would you mind me reading your letter, which I see -is to another lady?" - -"It's none of your business why I mind," said Pearl. "I just do. Oh, -Mr. Wood," she said, turning to Anthony, "don't let them read my -letter!" - -"I won't," he said. "I'll read it myself." - -"Oh, no!" said Pearl with a little scream. - -There was a pause. Anthony already had the letter in his hands now. He -looked very gravely at Pearl. - -"I'm sorry you mind," he said. "But this letter must be read either by -my sister or me or Albertson. Which one would you rather have read it?" - -It was a hard choice. Pearl looked deliberately from one to another, -and then she looked at Anthony. - -"You," she said. - -In complete silence he opened it and read it carefully through. Pearl -stood motionless, watching him, studying his face. If he had laughed, -if he had even smiled, she would have killed him. She was hardly aware -of Albertson and Edna and Cora and Durland, all also watching him, to -read in his face what he was reading on the paper. None of them read -anything. His face was like a mask. He folded the letter and replaced -it in the envelope. Then he took out his pocketbook and put the letter -in it and put the pocketbook back in his pocket. - -Then he said, "I wish to have a word with Miss Exeter alone." There was -a small room that opened off the room in which they were sitting; he -walked toward it. "May we go in here, Cora?" he said. He made a motion -with his hand, and Pearl, like a person bewitched, preceded him. - -"Don't be long, Tony," Edna called to him. - -"I may be some time," he answered, and shut the door behind him. - -Five minutes passed--ten. To those waiting it seemed an hour. Once Mr. -Albertson walked near the door and bent his head. - -"Can you hear anything?" said Edna. - -"Not a thing," said Mr. Albertson. - -"You wouldn't be such a cad as to listen, would you?" said Durland. - -Nobody answered him. More time elapsed; and then Albertson, springing -up, walked with a firm step to the door and turned the handle. It was -locked. Albertson shook back a long gray lock from his forehead. - -"What do you make of that?" he said. - -Miss Wellington laughed. - -"Mrs. Conway has the right explanation, I think," she said. "She's done -the trick with Mr. Wood too." - -"Not at all," said Edna. "How can you be so low, Cora? I only said -that to make Anthony angry. He's finding out--luring her to tell him -everything." - -"Kidding her along, you mean?" said Mr. Albertson, who hated people not -to use the right word. - -"They've probably both got out of the back window by this time," said -Miss Wellington. - -This time Mr. Albertson frankly leaned his ear against the crack of the -door. - -"No, they're there yet," he said, moving away again. "I can hear them -talking--low." - -Another silence succeeded to this information, and then Mrs. Conway's -butler appeared in the doorway. He looked about and said over his -shoulder, "Yes, sir, she's here." He drew back and ushered in Gordon -Conway. - -Edna looked at the man who had been her husband and said irritably, -"You, Gordon; This is really a little too much!" - -"Hullo, father," said Durland. - -"Hullo, Durlie," said his father, as if he were trying to be cordial; -and then, seeing Albertson, he added in a tone really cordial, "Why, -Albertson, how do you do? I haven't seen you since the night what's his -name--who had that crooked wheel in Hester Street--was pulled. Off the -force?" - -The two men shook hands. - -"Gordon," said Edna, again determined to know the worst, "what do you -want?" - -"Why, oddly enough--nothing at all," replied Mr. Conway. - -He did not give the same impression of furtiveness and wasted pallor -that Pearl had gained when she had caught a glimpse of him on the -steps. No one could say he had a color, but he was distinctly less -corpselike. There was nothing shabby about him now either. He was very -well dressed in a dark morning suit; his boots, his tie, the wrist -watch which he kept glancing at as if his time was rather short, were -all of the most elegant sort. - -"No, my dear," he went on, "you ought to welcome me most cordially, -for I have come to make you a present--quite a present." And fishing -languidly in his pocket he produced the string of pearls. - -"A present!" cried Edna. "Those are my pearls!" - -"They are now," said her husband politely, "because I have made up my -mind to give them to you." - -"You gave them to me originally--they were always mine." - -Conway shook his head a number of times. - -"So you have always said, Edna; but saying a thing over and over again -does not make it any truer. I did not give them to you----" - -"You did," said Edna. - -"Ah, Edna," he answered sadly, "how you can take the grace out of life! -You can make even the present of a splendid string of pearls seem -ungracious. I never gave them to you. I let you wear them while you -were my wife--a mistake, for when you ceased to be my wife you would -not give them back--natural, but hardly honest." - -"That's absolutely untrue," said Edna. - -He did not allow her to ruffle him. - -"But now," he went on, "I do give them to you--freely and completely. -Be witness, Albertson, that I present this string of pearls to this -lady--who was once my wife." - -Edna was examining them pearl by pearl. - -"They seem to be all right," she said. "The number is right. What's -this?" she added, indicating an emerald drop which had never been on -them before. - -"That's an extra; that's interest on the money," answered Conway with a -flourish; "that's an expression of thanks for your courtesy in letting -me have them at a moment when they meant so much to me." - -This recalled the question of how he had obtained them. "Gordon," she -said, "did you steal those out of my safe?" - -He shook his head. "You can't steal what is already your own." - -"I can't see how in the world you got them," said Edna, "unless that -woman is a confederate. Did she give them to you?" - -"I don't even know what woman you mean, Edna," he answered. "If you -mean a magnificent Hebe who was coming into the house in a hurry as I -was going out the other day, I may say I should always be glad to be -her confederate in anything--one of the few times in my life, Edna, I -was actually sorry to leave your house. No, I did not go to your safe, -although I am interested to know that you have one." - -"That's where they were," said Edna indignantly, looking round. "The -pearls were locked up in the safe. I know that." - -"Like so much of your more positive information, my dear, that, too, is -wrong," said Conway. "You had them on when I called. And as we talked -they came unfastened, and you took them off and laid them on the table -beside you. Something told me that you had not been aware of what you -did, and so when you refused so very roughly to lend me the sum of -money I needed I simply took back my pearls--when you were not looking." - -"Gordon," said Edna, "you stole my pearls." And her tone had a note -of triumph as if the old delight of putting him in the wrong had not -entirely died. - -"I took my pearls from the table," said Conway, "and turned them for a -few days into cash, with which I know you will be glad to know I made -a lot of money--a pot of money, Albertson--there is money still to be -made on the races for a smart fellow who knows how; and then, my dear, -with a quixotic impulse I gave you the pearls, as I have always thought -of doing. Some men might have given them to a younger and more amiable -woman, but my nature has always been distinguished by a peculiar form -of loyalty. I give them to you--for the sake of old times." - -"You brought them back for the sake of not going to jail," said Edna, -her eyes flashing at him. He smiled gently. - -"Edna," he said, "as time goes on you learn nothing--absolutely -nothing. Durland, when are you going to begin to grow? Good night, -Albertson. Remember that you are a witness to this gift. Good night." - -And he had taken his departure before anyone spoke again. It was -Durland who spoke first. His voice shook a little. - -"You see, mother," he said, "what a terrible injustice you have done -Miss Exeter. She might sue you, only she's too generous. Oh, if you had -only told me that my father had been about that day--only you never -tell me anything, as if I were a baby. You will apologize to her, won't -you?" - -"I do not seem to be likely to get the chance of speaking to her at -all," said Edna, glancing at the closed door. - -Cora Wellington rose to her feet. - -"I'm sorry to be inhospitable, Edna," she said, "but I have had a -long, hard day attending to your business, and I want to go to bed. -In fact, I think I'll go." And she walked firmly out of the room and -upstairs, where, since the house--like the Conways'--was lightly built, -she could be heard rapidly walking about on her heels in the room -immediately overhead. - -"Well," said Mr. Albertson, "It looks like I may as well be getting -back to the Great White Way myself. I congratulate you on the happy -termination of this affair, Mrs. Conway. I do not think that emerald is -genuine, but I presume it is the sentiment that will appeal to you. I -feel as happy as you do that that sweet young lady is as innocent as a -baby." - -It cannot be said that Edna looked particularly happy over this point. -She raised her shoulders. - -"But we don't know yet who she is. She certainly is not Miss Exeter." - -Albertson smiled. - -"You will find it was just a girlish prank," he said. "And I think we -may presume that Mr. Wood now knows the whole story. I think if you'll -permit me I'll call my assistant and we will get the car and be off." - -Mrs. Conway, once again wearing her pearls, and Durland, still talking -of apologies, accompanied Mr. Albertson back to the other house. - -So the room was empty. Gradually it seemed to lose even the -remembrance of its late occupants. The down cushion of the chair in -which Edna had been sitting rose softly to its accustomed level with -something like a sigh of relief. A wicker sofa, of stiffer nature, -creaked in every fibre. A drooping flower in a glass vase gave a little -shiver and shed every last petal on the table, as if it had been -waiting all the evening to do this. Even the window curtains ceased -swaying in the sea-breeze. It was as if the room and everything in it -settled down to a breathless expectancy. - -And at last the door of the little room opened and Pearl and Anthony -came out. They did not appear at all surprised to find the room empty. -They would not have been surprised to find the universe empty--to hear -phantom newsboys calling an extra announcing that no one existed but -themselves--"Rumor confirmed that only Pearl and Anthony Exist." - -Pearl looked about her with that beautiful starry blankness that -certain emotions bring to any human countenance--a thousand times -starrier than ever before. - -"I wonder," she said, without the slightest trace of real interest, -"what has happened." - -"Haven't you been listening to me," said Anthony. "A miracle has -happened--we have fallen in love." - -Nevertheless he understood her meaning; and just to please her he -walked to the door and glanced into the corridor. It was as essentially -empty as the room. Then as he returned to her, although she was staring -in the opposite direction and he made not the slightest sound on the -thick rug, she turned her face slowly up and over her shoulder, and met -his lips with hers. Nor did either of them mention this as a miracle or -even an example of uncharted psychic powers. - -It was a long kiss; an inexperienced onlooker might have thought it a -quiet ritual rather than a manifestation of human passion. When it was -over, they stood once more in complete silence. Then Pearl said: - -"I think we ought to go back to our sister's house." - -"I suppose so," said Anthony. And again by an apparently mystical -understanding they moved not across the lawn toward Mrs. Conway's -house, but out across the dunes toward the beach. - -There was no moon, but the milky way like a narrow cloud rose straight -out of the sea, and the Scorpion was brightly festooned above the -southern horizon. - - - - -+-------------------------------------------------+ -|Transcriber's note: | -| | -|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | -| | -+-------------------------------------------------+ - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRICELESS PEARL*** - - -******* This file should be named 64192-8.txt or 64192-8.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/4/1/9/64192 - - -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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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 <a -href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. 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.</p> -<p>Title: The Priceless Pearl</p> -<p>Author: Alice Duer Miller</p> -<p>Release Date: January 1, 2021 [eBook #64192]</p> -<p>Most recently updated: October 16, 2022</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRICELESS PEARL***</p> -<p> </p> -<h4 class="pgx" title="">E-text prepared by Martin Pettit<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (https://www.pgdp.net)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (https://archive.org)</h4> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/pricelesspearl00mill - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/front.jpg" alt="front" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<h1>THE PRICELESS PEARL</h1> - -<hr /> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="title page" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="bold2">THE PRICELESS<br />PEARL</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">BY</p> - -<p class="bold2">ALICE DUER MILLER</p> - -<p class="bold">AUTHOR OF<br /><i>"Manslaughter," "Come Out of the Kitchen,"<br /> -"Are Parents People?" etc.</i></p> - -<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/dec.jpg" alt="decoration" /></div> - -<p class="bold space-above">NEW YORK<br />DODD, MEAD & COMPANY<br />1924</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center">Copyright 1923, 1924<br />By <span class="smcap">Alice Duer Miller</span></p> - -<p class="center space-above"><i>Printed in U. S. A.</i></p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="bold2">THE PRICELESS PEARL</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2><span>CONTENTS</span></h2> - -<table summary="CONTENTS"> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td><span class="smaller">PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER I</td> - <td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER TWO</td> - <td><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER THREE</td> - <td><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="left">CHAPTER FOUR</td> - <td><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">THE PRICELESS PEARL</p> - -<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> - -<p>"The girl is simply too good-looking," said Bunner, the office manager, -in a high, complaining voice. "She is industrious, intelligent, -punctual and well-mannered, but simply too good-looking—a disturbing -element in the office on account of her appearance. I made a grave -mistake in engaging her."</p> - -<p>The president, who had been a professor of botany at a great -university before he resigned in order to become head of The Universal -Encyclopedia of Necessary Knowledge Publishing Corporation, was a -trifle deaf, but had not as yet admitted the fact to himself; and he -inquired with the patient, slightly contemptuous surprise of the deaf, -"But I do not understand why she is crying."</p> - -<p>"It is not she who is crying," answered the office manager regretfully; -"it is Mr. Rixon,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> our third vice president. He is crying because he -has most unfortunately become interested in the young woman—fallen in -love with her—so my stenographer tells me."</p> - -<p>The president peered through his bifocal lenses. He did not wish to be -thought one of those unsophisticated scientists who understand only the -plain unpsychological process of plants. He inquired whether the girl -had encouraged the third vice president, whether, in a word, she had -given him to understand that she took a deeper interest in him than -was actually the fact, "the disappointment of the discovery being the -direct cause of the emotional outbreak which you have just described."</p> - -<p>Bunner hesitated. He would have liked to consider that Miss Leavitt was -to blame, for otherwise the responsibility was entirely his own. In -his heart he believed she was, for he was one of those men who despise -women and yet consider them omnipotent.</p> - -<p>"I can't say I've ever seen her do more than say good morning to him," -he answered rather crossly. "But I believe there is a way of avoiding -a man—with her appearance. You have probably never noticed her, sir, -but——" </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Oh, I've noticed her," said the president, nodding his old head. "I've -noticed a certain youth and exuberant vitality, and—yes, I may say -beauty—decided beauty."</p> - -<p>Bunner sighed.</p> - -<p>"A girl like that ought to get married," he said. "They ought not -to be working in offices, making trouble. It's hard on young men of -susceptible natures like Mr. Rixon. You can hardly blame him."</p> - -<p>No, they agreed they did not blame him at all; and so they decided to -let the young woman have her salary to the first of the month and let -her go immediately.</p> - -<p>"That will be best, Bunner," said the president, and dismissed the -matter from his mind.</p> - -<p>But Bunner, who knew that there was a possibility that even a beautiful -young woman might not enjoy losing her job, could not dismiss the -matter from his mind until the interview with her was over. He decided, -therefore, to hold it at once, and withdrew from the president's room, -where, as a directors' meeting was about to take place, the members of -the board were already beginning to gather.</p> - -<p>Bunner was a pale fat man of forty, who was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> as cold to the excessive -emotion of the third vice president as he was to the inconvenient -beauty which had caused it. He paused beside Miss Leavitt's desk in the -outer office and requested a moment of her time.</p> - -<p>She had finished going over the article on Corals and was about to -begin that on Coronach—a Scotch dirge or lamentation for the dead. -She had just been wondering whether any created being would ever want -to know anything about coronach, when Mr. Bunner spoke to her. If she -had followed her first impulse she would have looked up and beamed at -him, for she was of the most friendly and warmhearted nature; but she -remembered that beaming was not safe where men were concerned—even -when they were fat and forty—so she answered coldly, "Yes, Mr. -Bunner," and rose and followed him to his own little office.</p> - -<p>Miss Pearl Leavitt, A. B., Rutland College, was not one of those -beauties who must be pointed out to you before you appreciate their -quality. On the contrary, the eye roving in her neighborhood was -attracted to her as to a luminary. There was nothing finicky or subtle -or fine-drawn about her. Her features were rather<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> large and simple, -like a Greek statue's, though entirely without a statue's immobility. -Her coloring was vivid—a warm brunette complexion, a bright golden -head and a pair of large gray eyes that trembled with their own light -as they fixed themselves upon you, much as the reflection of the -evening star trembles in a quiet pool. But what had always made her -charm, more than her beauty, was her obvious human desire to be a -member of the gang—to enjoy what the crowd enjoyed and do what was -being done. It was agony to her to assume the icy, impassive demeanor -which, since she had been working in offices, she had found necessary. -But she did it. She was hard up.</p> - -<p>When Mr. Bunner had sent away his stenographer and shut the door he sat -down and pressed his small fat hands together.</p> - -<p>"Miss Leavitt," he said, "I am sorry to be obliged to tell you that -during the summer months when so many of our heads of departments are -away on their vacations, we shall be obliged to reduce our office -staff; and so, though your work has been most satisfactory—we have -no complaint to make of your work—still I am sorry to be obliged to -tell you that during the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> summer months, when so many of our heads of -departments——"</p> - -<p>He did not know what was the matter; the sentence appeared to be a -circular sentence without exits.</p> - -<p>Miss Leavitt folded her arms with a rapid whirling motion. Of course, -since the first three words of his sentence she had known that she had -lost her job.</p> - -<p>"Just why is it that I am being sent away?" she said.</p> - -<p>Sulky children, before they actually burst into tears, have a way -of almost visibly swelling like a storm cloud. It would be wrong to -suggest that anything as lovely as Pearl Leavitt could swell, and yet -there was something of this effect as she stared down at the office -manager. He did not like her tone, nor yet her look.</p> - -<p>He said with a sort of acid smile, "I was about to explain the reason -when you interrupted me. Although your work has been perfectly -satisfactory, we feel that during the summer months——" He wrenched -himself away from that sentence entirely. "It is the wish of the -president," he said, "that you be given your salary to the first of -the month—which I hereby hand you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>—and be told that it will not be -necessary for you to come here after today. In parting with you, Miss -Leavitt, I wish to assure you that the quality of your work for this -organization has been in every respect——"</p> - -<p>"I want to speak to the president," said Miss Leavitt.</p> - -<p>She did not raise her voice, but no one could have mistaken that her -tone was threatening. She vibrated her head slightly from side to side, -and spit out her <i>t's</i> in a way actually alarming to Bunner, who was a -man susceptible to fear.</p> - -<p>"Our decision is quite final—quite final, I'm sorry to say," he said, -fussing with his papers as a hint that she had better go and leave him -in peace.</p> - -<p>"That's why I want to speak to him."</p> - -<p>"Quite impossible," answered Bunner. "The board is meeting at present -in his room——"</p> - -<p>"What!" cried Pearl. "They're all there together, are they?" And before -the office manager took in her intention she was out of his office, -across the main office and in the board room.</p> - -<p>Like so many people destined to succeed in New York, Pearl came -originally from Ohio. She was an orphan, and after her graduation <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>from -an Eastern college she had gone back to her native state, meaning to -make her home with her two aunts. It had not been a successful summer. -Not only was it hot, and there was no swimming where her aunts lived, -and Pearl loved to swim, but two of her cousins fell in love with -her—one from each family—and it became a question either of their -leaving home or of her going. So Pearl very gladly came East again, and -under the guidance of her great friend Augusta Exeter began to look for -a job.</p> - -<p>She had come East in September, and it was now July—hardly ten -months—and yet in that time she had had and lost four good jobs -through no fault of her own but wholly on account of her extraordinary -beauty. She was not insulted; no one threatened her virtue or offered -to run away with her. It was simply that, like Helen of Troy, "Where'er -she came she brought calamity."</p> - -<p>Her first place had been with a publishing firm, Dixon & Gregory. -When Pearl came to them the business was managed by the two sons of -the original firm; the elder Dixon was dead, and the elder Gregory, -a man of fifty-six or eight, came to the office only once or twice -a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>week. A desk for her had been put in his private room, as it was -almost always vacant. It ceased, however, to be vacant as soon as he -saw Pearl. He had no idea that he had fallen in love with her—perhaps -he had not. He certainly never troubled, her with attentions; as -far as she knew he was hardly aware of her existence. His emotion, -whatever it was, took the form of quarreling with anyone who did speak -to her—even in the course of necessary business. When at last one -day he met her and the younger Dixon going out to lunch at the same -hour and in the same elevator, but purely by accident, he made such a -violent and inexplicable scene that the two younger partners, after -consultation, decided that the only thing to do was to get rid of the -girl quietly—get her to resign. They were both very nice about it, -and themselves found her another place—as secretary to a magazine -editor—a man of ice, they assured her. She never saw the elder Mr. -Gregory again, and a few months later read in the papers of his death.</p> - -<p>Her new position went well for several months. The editor was, as -represented, a man of ice; but, as Hamlet has observed, being as pure -as snow and as chaste as ice does not protect <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>against calumny, and the -wife of the editor, entering the office one day to find her husband and -his secretary bending over an illegible manuscript, refused to allow -such dangerous beauty so near her husband, and Pearl lost her second -job.</p> - -<p>Her next place was with an ambitious young firm which was putting a -new cleaning fluid on the market. At first, in a busy office, Pearl -seemed to pass almost unnoticed. Then one day the two partners, young -men both and heretofore like brothers, came to her together and asked -her if she would do the firm a great favor—sit for her portrait to -a well-known artist so that they might use her picture as a poster -to advertise their product. Pearl consented—she thought it would be -rather good fun. The result was successful. Indeed, the only criticism -of the picture—which represented Pearl in tawny yellow holding up a -saffron-colored robe at which she smiled brilliantly, with beneath it -the caption, Why Does She Smile? Because Her Old Dress is Made New -by—was that it would have been better to get a real person to sit for -the picture, as the public was tired of these idealized types of female -beauty. But the trouble started over <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>who was to own the original -pastel. It developed that each partner had started the idea from a -hidden wish to own a portrait of Pearl. They quarreled bitterly. The -very existence of the firm was threatened. An old friend of the two -families stepped in and effected a reconciliation, but his decision -was that the girl must go. It did not look well for two boys of their -age—just beginning in business—to have as handsome a woman as that in -the office. People might talk.</p> - -<p>It was after this—some time after—that Pearl took the place with the -Encyclopedia company. Her record began to tell against her. Everyone -wanted to know why she changed jobs so often. She thought she had -learned her lesson—not to beam, not to be friendly, not to do anyone -favors. She had made up her mind to stay with the Encyclopedia forever. -She had had no hint of danger. She hardly knew the third vice president -by sight—someone in the office had told her a silly story about his -crying one day, but she hadn't even believed it. And now she had lost -another job—and in July, too, when jobs are hard to find.</p> - -<p>Heretofore she had always gone docilely. But <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>now she felt she could -bear it no longer—she must tell someone what she thought.</p> - -<p>It was four o'clock on a hot summer afternoon, and round the board-room -table the members were saying "aye" and "no" and "I so move," while -their minds were occupied with the questions that do occupy the mind -at such times—golf and suburban trains, and whether huckleberry pie -in hot weather hadn't been a mistake—when the glass door opened and -a beautiful girl came in like a hurricane. She had evidently been -talking for some seconds when she entered. She was saying, "——are -just terrible. I want to tell you gentlemen, now that I have you -together, that I think men are just terrible." She had a curious voice, -deep and a little rough, more like a boy's than a woman's, yet a voice -which when you once knew Pearl you remembered with affection. "This -is the fourth job I've lost because men have no self-control. I do my -work. I don't even speak to any of you—I'd like to—I'm human, but -I don't dare any more. I attend to business, there's no fault found -with my work—but I've got to go because some man or other can't work -in the office with me. Why not? Because he has no self-control—and -not ashamed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>of it—not ashamed, that's what shocks me. Why, if a girl -found she couldn't do her work because there was a good-looking man -in the office, she'd die rather than admit she was so silly. But what -does a man do? He goes whining to the president to get the poor girl -dismissed. There it is! I have to go!"</p> - -<p>And so on, and so on. The board was so astonished at her entrance, at -the untrammeled way in which she was striding up and down, digging her -heels into the rug and flinging her arms about as she talked, that they -were like people stunned. They turned their eyes with relief to Mr. -Bunner, who came hurrying in behind her.</p> - -<p>"Miss Leavitt has been dropped," he began, but she cut him short.</p> - -<p>"I've been dropped," she said, "because——"</p> - -<p>"Will you let me speak?" said Mr. Bunner—a rhetorical question. He -meant to speak in any case.</p> - -<p>"No," answered Pearl. "Certainly not. Gentlemen, I have been -dismissed—I know—because some man in this office has no self-control. -I can't identify him, but I have my suspicions." And she cast a -dreadful glance at the third vice <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>president. "Why should I go? Why -shouldn't he? Crying! Woof! How absurd!"</p> - -<p>"Leave the room, Miss Leavitt," said the president; but he weakened the -effect of his edict by leaning forward with his hand to his ear so as -to catch whatever she was going to say next.</p> - -<p>"I haven't shed a tear since my mother died," said Mr. Rixon rather -tearfully to the man next him.</p> - -<p>"This is not the time to discuss your grievance, Miss Leavitt," said -the treasurer, wondering why he had never kept in closer touch with the -office; "but if you feel you have a just complaint against the company -come to my office tomorrow afternoon——"</p> - -<p>"I'll not go near your office," said Pearl, and she began again to -stride about the room, occasionally stamping her right foot without -losing step. "I shall never again go into any office where men are. I -won't work for men. They're poor sports; they have no self——"</p> - -<p>"You said that before," said the treasurer.</p> - -<p>"——control," Pearl went on, for people in her frame of mind cannot be -stopped. "Why shouldn't he go? But no, you have to be protected from a -girl like a herd of sheep from a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>wolf—a girl who hasn't even looked -at you, at that. If I had ever spoken to the man——"</p> - -<p>"Leave the room instantly, Miss Leavitt," said the president, and this -time he spoke as if he meant it, for he was afraid the identity of the -third vice president might be revealed. Little it mattered to Pearl -what the old man meant.</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't mind so much," she went on, "if you did not all pretend -to be so brave and strong—to protect women. You protect each -other—that's who you protect."</p> - -<p>"Come, come," said a member of the board. "This isn't the way to keep a -job, you know."</p> - -<p>"I don't want to keep this job. I want you for once to hear what a -woman thinks of the men she works for—a lot of poor sports—and not -industrious—none of you work the way girls work for you. Slack, that's -what I call you, and lacking in self-control."</p> - -<p>And she went out as suddenly as she had come in, and slammed the door -so hard behind that those members of the board, sitting near it ducked -their heads into their collars in fear of falling glass.</p> - -<p>There was a minute's pause, and then the president said with a slight -smile, "Well, Mr. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>Bunner, I think we all see what you meant when you -said this young woman was a disturbing element in the office."</p> - -<p>"There has never been anything like this before," said Bunner; "never -anything in the least like this anywhere I have ever been."</p> - -<p>"Well," said the treasurer, "I don't suppose we need distress ourselves -about her finding another job."</p> - -<p>There was a certain wistful undercurrent in his tone.</p> - -<p>"No," said Bunner, slightly misunderstanding his meaning. "She is -competent and industrious."</p> - -<p>"She ought to get married, a pretty girl like that—not go about making -trouble in offices," said the president.</p> - -<p>"I have always been of the opinion," said the third vice president, -"that it would be much simpler to run the office entirely with men."</p> - -<p>"Oh, it would be much better—much better, of course," said Bunner; -"only women are so much more accurate about detail, more industrious -and less expensive."</p> - -<p>And as there was no woman present to inquire why then men were so much -more desirable, the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>question dropped, and the president recalled the -board's attention to the subject of the paper to be used in their next -edition—the topic under consideration when Pearl made her entrance. It -was rather hard to take any interest in it now.</p> - -<p>And so Pearl began once again to go the round of agencies, to interview -or be interviewed by office managers, and hear that if she came back -in October there might be a chance. But October was three months away, -and she could not live three months on something less than a hundred -dollars. She even began to scan the columns of the newspapers—from -clerks, through stenographers, ushers, and finally winders—she never -found out what winders were.</p> - -<p>If her dear friend and sage adviser, Augusta Exeter, had been in town -she could have shared her room; but Augusta was in Vermont, visiting -the family of the man she was going to marry. At least, Augusta's last -letter had been from Vermont; but as a matter of fact, three days after -Pearl left the Encyclopedia's employ Augusta came back to New York. -She had had a letter from the agency where her name was registered -practically offering a position which sounded too good to refuse. -Besides, Augusta <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>did not really like farm life in Vermont, and the -Baynes family, for some reason which she could not explain, gave her a -composite picture of Horace, her fiancé, which tended to make her love -him less. Even New York in midsummer was preferable.</p> - -<p>Therefore it happened that as Pearl wandered, lonely as a cloud, from -office to office, longing for her friend's wisdom, Augusta herself was -sitting in the outer office of a company, looking for a job.</p> - -<p>Though the office was that of the Finlay-Wood Engineering Co., the -position which Miss Augusta Exeter was considering was that of a -governess. She was not at all sure that she wanted the place. College -women are not well disposed toward positions as governesses; yet -as Miss Exeter sat there in the busy outer office and watched the -office boys coming in and out, and the impassive young woman at the -switchboard, enunciating again and again, "Finlay-Wood Company," "Hold -the wire," she went over the advantages of this offer—a high salary, -the two hottest months of the summer at Southampton, and the fact that -as she was to be married in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>October, she could not take a long-time -position in any case.</p> - -<p>Mr. Wood's secretary, with whom so far all the negotiations had -been carried on, had impressed upon her the necessity of being -punctual—"eleven precisely," he had said, for it seemed Mr. Wood was -going to Mexico that afternoon. And so Augusta, who was punctual by -nature, had found herself in the office ten minutes ahead of time. She -sat listening to the telephone girl and watching a door which bore -the simple inscription, "Mr. Wood." And just behind that door a tall -sunburned man in the neighborhood of thirty was standing, slapping the -pockets of his blue serge clothes and saying, "Griggs, I have a feeling -I've forgotten something. What is it I've forgotten, Griggs?"</p> - -<p>The desk was as bare as a desk ought to be when its owner is going away -for two months. Griggs ran his eye proudly over it.</p> - -<p>"No, Mr. Wood," he said. "I don't think anything has been forgotten. -Nothing was left except the letter to the President, the Spanish -dictionary and the Mexican currency. All that has been attended to." </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> - -<p>He consulted a list held in the palm of his hand.</p> - -<p>"It was something of my own," said Wood, and he eyed his secretary with -an air that might have appeared stern but was merely concentrated, when -the door opened and the office boy came in and said, "Miss Stone says -she's notified him that there's a lady there to see him, and will we -let her in to him?"</p> - -<p>"A lady?" said Griggs severely.</p> - -<p>"That's it," said Wood. "It's the governess for my sister. Think of my -nearly forgetting that!"</p> - -<p>"You ought not be worried about such things," said Griggs, as if he -were very bitter about it, "with all your responsibilities."</p> - -<p>Wood smiled. It wasn't true, but it was the way one's secretary ought -to feel.</p> - -<p>"I'd have a lot more to worry me," he said, "if I were married myself."</p> - -<p>"You certainly would," answered Griggs, who was married.</p> - -<p>"But will we let her in to him?" said the office boy, who clung to this -formula, although the head clerk was trying to break him of it.</p> - -<p>"You may let her come in," said Griggs, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> if he would perish rather -than allow his chief to hold verbal communication with anything so low -as an office boy, and as he spoke he silently gave Wood a pale-blue -card—one of a dozen on which in beautiful block letters he had written -down the names, degrees, past experience, with notes on personal -appearance, of all the candidates for position of governess in the -household of Wood's sister, Mrs. Conway.</p> - -<p>"This is the best of them?" said Wood, and he ran his eye rapidly over -the card, which read:</p> - -<p>"Augusta Exeter, A. B. Rutland College; Ph. D., Columbia University, -specialized in mathematics and household management."</p> - -<p>He looked up. "Queer combination, isn't it?"</p> - -<p>"I thought it was just what you wanted," answered Griggs reproachfully.</p> - -<p>"Nothing queerer than that," said Wood, and went on: "Six-month dietary -expert—one year training—appearance, pleasing." He glanced at his -secretary. It amused him to think of the discreet Griggs appraising the -appearance of these young women. "What system did you mark them on, -Griggs?" he asked, but got no further, for the door opened and Miss -Exeter entered, and Griggs, with his unfailing discretion, left. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> - -<p>Wood looked at her and saw that Griggs as usual had been exactly -right—she was neither more nor less than pleasing—a small, slim, pale -girl, whose unremarkable brown eyes radiated a steady intelligence.</p> - -<p>Wood had employed labor in many parts of the world, from Chile to -China, and he had a routine about it—a preliminary intelligence test, -which he applied.</p> - -<p>"Sit down, Miss Exeter," he said. "I think it will save us both time if -you will tell me all that you know about this position"—this was the -test—"and then I'll fill in."</p> - -<p>Augusta sat down. She found herself a trifle nervous. This man -impressed her, for since her childhood she had cherished a secret -romantic admiration for men who exercised any form of power—kings and -generals and men of great affairs. It was a feeling that had nothing to -do with real life and represented no disloyalty to her fiancé, Horace -Bayne, who exercised no power of any kind.</p> - -<p>One reason why it had had no relation to life was that she had not met -any men of this type. Even in the outer office she had been impressed -by the sense of a man waited on and protected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> by secretaries and -office boys as an Eastern princess is waited upon by slaves. And now -when she saw him she saw that he had exactly the type of looks she -admired most—tall, a little too thin, his face tanned to that shade of -<i>café au lait</i> that the blond Anglo-Saxon acquires under the sun—those -piercing bright-blue eyes—that large handsome hand, which, with the -thumb in his waistcoat pocket, was so clearly outlined against the blue -serge of his clothes.</p> - -<p>She said rather uncertainly, "I know that Mrs. Conway is a widow with -three children——"</p> - -<p>Even this much was wrong.</p> - -<p>"Not, a widow," he said; "divorced."</p> - -<p>"——with three children," Augusta went on; "a girl of seventeen, a boy -of fifteen and a little girl of eleven. I know that during your absence -you want someone to take the care and responsibility of the children -off your sister's shoulders."</p> - -<p>He smiled—his teeth seemed to have the extraordinary whiteness that is -the compensation of a dark skin.</p> - -<p>"I see," he said, "that Griggs has been discreet again." He glanced -at his watch. "I'm going to Mexico in a few hours, Miss Exeter. I -have just twenty-five minutes. If in that time I am<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> not thoroughly -indiscreet I can't look to you for any help. The situation is this: -My sister married Gordon Conway when she was very young—eighteen; he -turned out to be a gambler. I don't know whether you've ever known any -gamblers"—Miss Exeter never had—"but they are a peculiar breed—the -real ones—charming—friendly—gay—open-handed when they are winning; -they become the most inhuman devils in the world when they are losing. -Never get tied up to a gambler. During my poor sister's romance and -marriage Conway was winning—large sums—on the races. But that stopped -a month or so after their marriage, and ever since then, as far as I -know, he has lost—in stocks, at Monte Carlo, and finally at every -little gambling casino in Europe. After about six years of it we -managed to get her a divorce. She has entire control of the children, -of course. Conway has sunk out of sight. Oh, once in a while he turns -up and tries to get a little money from her, but fortunately what -little she inherited from my father came to her after her divorce, -or otherwise he'd have managed to get it away from her. She's very -generous—weak—whichever you call it. One of the things I'm going -to ask you to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> do is to prevent her seeing him at all, and certainly -prevent her letting him have any money. Though it isn't likely to -happen. I believe he's abroad.</p> - -<p>"The great point is the children. I'm sorry to say that it seems to -me my sister is ruining three naturally fine children as rapidly as a -devoted mother can. Of course, many parents are over indulgent, but my -sister not only indulges her children but gives them at the same time -the conviction that they are such interesting and special types that -none of the ordinary rules apply to them. The elder girl, Dorothy, is -a pretty, commonplace American girl—no fault to find with her except -that her mother treats her as if she were an empress. If, for instance, -her mother keeps her waiting five minutes she behaves as if she were -an exiled queen faced by treachery among her dependents—won't speak -to her mother perhaps for a day. And if I say—which I oughtn't to do, -for it's no use—'Isn't Dorothy a trifle insolent?' my sister answers, -'I'm so delighted to see that she isn't growing up with the inferiority -complex that I had as a girl.' The boy is a perfectly straight manly -boy, but he smokes constantly—at fifteen—and when I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> criticize him my -sister says before him, 'Well, Anthony, you know you smoke yourself. I -can't very well tell Durland it's a crime. Besides, I have the theory -that if he smokes enough now he'll be tired of it by the time he grows -up.'"</p> - -<p>"But that isn't sound," said Miss Exeter, quite shocked at the sketch -she was hearing. "Habits formed in youth——"</p> - -<p>"Of course it isn't sound," said Wood. "And as a matter of fact, my -sister never thought of it until I objected. She evolves these theories -merely for the sake of protecting her children. Oddly enough, she not -only doesn't want to change them herself but she doesn't want any one -else to change them. Three years ago I engaged in a life-and-death -struggle with her to get Durland—the boy—to boarding school. She -advanced the following arguments against it: First, that he was a -perfectly normal, manly boy and did not need to go; second, that he was -of a peculiar, artistic, sensitive temperament and would be wrecked -by being made to conform to boarding-school standards; third, that -none of the successful men of the country had gone to boarding school; -fourth, that success was the last thing she desired for any son of -hers; fifth,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> that she did not wish to remove him from the benefits of -my daily influence; and sixth, that I was a person of no judgment and -absolutely wrong about its being wise for a boy to go to school."</p> - -<p>"And is he at school?" Miss Exeter inquired politely.</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes," answered Wood, without seeing anything amusing in her -question. "Although my sister does a good deal to counteract the -effect—by making fun of the teachers and the rules, and always -bringing him, when she goes to visit him, whatever is specially -forbidden, like candy and cigarettes and extra pocket money. You see, -that's where it's going to be hard for you. She not only doesn't want -to discipline them herself but she's against any person or institution -that tries to do it for her. As soon as you begin to accomplish -anything with the children—as I'm sure you will do—she'll be against -you; she'll want you to go."</p> - -<p>"That makes it pretty hopeless, doesn't it?" said Miss Exeter.</p> - -<p>He shook his head briskly.</p> - -<p>"No," he said; "for I have made her promise that she won't send you -away, no matter what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> happens, until I get back. I know what was in her -mind when she gave the promise—that she could make it so unpleasant -for you that you'd go of your own accord. So, Miss Exeter, I want you -to promise me that you won't go, no matter how disagreeable she makes -it——"</p> - -<p>"Oh, Mr. Wood, I couldn't do that," said Augusta.</p> - -<p>"There's no use in going at all otherwise," he said. "Oh, come, be a -sport! I'll make it worth while. I'll give you a bonus of five hundred -dollars if you're still on the job when I get back—or I'll bring you -a turquoise—I'm going down to inspect the best mine in the world. You -see, I feel this means the whole future of those children—to be with a -woman like you. I know you could do with them just what I want done."</p> - -<p>"You may be mistaken about that, Mr. Wood."</p> - -<p>"I may be, but I'm not."</p> - -<p>The blue eyes fixed themselves on her. She said to herself that it was -the five hundred dollars—so desirable for a trousseau—that turned the -scale, but the blue eyes and the compliment had something to do with -her decision. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> - -<p>"It seems a reckless thing to promise," she murmured with a weak laugh.</p> - -<p>"No, not at all. I wouldn't let you do anything reckless." He spoke -as a kindly grandfather might speak. "And now we have ten minutes -left, and I want to talk to you about the little one—Antonia." His -face softened, and after a slight struggle he yielded to a smile. "The -truth is," he said, "that she's much my favorite. She's intelligent -and honest, and the justest person of any age or sex that I ever knew -in my life." He paused a second. "Perhaps it is because I'm fonder of -her than of the other two, but it seems to me my sister is particularly -unwise about Antonia."</p> - -<p>His mind went back to his parting the evening before with this small -niece. He and his sister had been sitting on the piazza of the house -they had taken at Southampton—at least she had taken it and he had -paid for it. Only a few yards away the Atlantic, in one of its placid -lakelike moods, was hissing slowly up and down on the sand. The -struggle about a governess had been going on for several weeks. So far -Mrs. Conway had won, for this was his last evening and none had been -engaged. She had a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>wonderful method for dealing with her brother—a -method to be commended to all weak people trying to get the maximum of -interest and the minimum of control from stronger natures. She listened -to everything he said as if she were wholly convinced by his words and -intended to follow his advice to the last detail, and then she went -away and did just what she had always meant to do. If he reproached her -she looked at him wonderingly and said: "But, Anthony dear, I did agree -with you at the time; but afterward, when I came to think——" Oh, how -well he knew that dread phrase, "afterward, when I came to think!"</p> - -<p>By these methods she had managed to fend off action for three weeks, -agreeing with him most cordially that the children ought to have a -governess, but thinking, after he had gone to New York for the week, -that it would be nice for them to take French lessons with that -charming French lady in the village, or that perhaps the Abernathys' -governess would come over for an hour a day——</p> - -<p>And now on his last evening he had outmaneuvered her by announcing that -he was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>interviewing candidates the next morning before he took his -train, and would send her the best.</p> - -<p>"I'm sure it's very kind of you to take all this trouble, Tony," she -said. "Don't send me anyone too hideous, will you?"</p> - -<p>"Griggs describes the young woman I have in mind as of pleasing -appearance."</p> - -<p>"That means perfectly hideous."</p> - -<p>"You wouldn't want a prize beauty, would you?"</p> - -<p>"Certainly I would. I like to have lovely things about me. I suppose -you think that's idiotic."</p> - -<p>He assured her that he never thought her idiotic—at least not -unintentionally—and went on to obtain the famous pledge—the promise -that she would keep the governess he sent her until his return in -September. She agreed finally, partly because it was getting late and -she was sleepy, partly because she reflected that there were more ways -of getting rid of governesses than by sending them away.</p> - -<p>"I'm so sleepy," she said, yawning, "and yet I don't quite like to go -to bed until Antonia comes in." </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Antonia?" said Wood. "I thought she went to bed at nine."</p> - -<p>It appeared that Antonia had formed the habit lately of sleeping on the -beach—at least for the earlier part of the night—just digging a hole -and curling up there. Her mother thought it an interesting, primitive, -healthy sort of instinct.</p> - -<p>"And yet," she added thoughtfully, as if she knew she were a little -finicky, "I don't like to lock up the house until she comes in."</p> - -<p>"I think you're right," said her brother. These were the things that -terrified him so—a little girl out in the blackness of that beach in -her pajamas. How could he go to Mexico and leave her? He rose and went -to the edge of the piazza, which rested on the dunes.</p> - -<p>He could see nothing but the stars.</p> - -<p>"Shall I call her?" he said.</p> - -<p>"I hate to wake her; but—yes, just give a call."</p> - -<p>He shouted, and in a few seconds a faint, cheerful hullo reached them, -and a little figure appeared over the dunes.</p> - -<p>"Were you asleep, darling?" said her mother.</p> - -<p>"No, I was swimming," said Antonia. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> stepped within the circle of -light from the windows, and Wood could see that her dark curly hair was -plastered to her head, and her pajamas clung to her like tissue paper. -"I love to swim at night," she said. "It makes you feel like a spirit."</p> - -<p>She shared her more important thoughts with her uncle. Then, turning -to her mother, she advanced toward her with outstretched arms as if to -clasp her in a wet embrace.</p> - -<p>"Look out for your mother's dress," said Wood, for Edna Conway was as -usual perfectly dressed in white. She smiled at him and took the child -to her breast.</p> - -<p>"Dear Anthony," she said, "if you were married you'd know that a woman -loves her children better than her clothes."</p> - -<p>He was silent, wondering if she knew how much she had had to do with -the fact that he wasn't married. He had no taste for masculine women, -and yet Edna had made him distrustful of all femininity which sooner or -later developed the sweet obstinacy, the clinging pig-headedness, the -subtle ability, under the idiotic coyness of a kitten, to get its own -way. Well off and physically attractive, he had not been neglected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> by -women, but always sooner or later it had seemed to him that he had seen -the dread shadow of kittenishness. Cattishness he could have borne, but -the kitten in woman disgusted him.</p> - -<p>"And, dearest," his sister was saying to her daughter, "you won't go to -bed in your wet things, will you?"</p> - -<p>Antonia shook her finger at her mother.</p> - -<p>"Now don't begin to be fussy," she said, not impudently, but as one -equal gives advice to another. Yet even this mild suggestion of reproof -was painful to Edna.</p> - -<p>She turned to her brother and said passionately, "I'm not fussy, am I? -I don't see how you can say that, Antonia. It's only that your uncle -wouldn't close an eye if he thought you were sleeping in damp pajamas; -would you, Anthony?" And she laughed gayly.</p> - -<p>This was one of her most irritating ways—to pretend that she was just -a wild thing like the children, but that to oblige some stuffy older -person she was forced to ask the children to conform.</p> - -<p>"I might close an eye, at that," said Anthony.</p> - -<p>The whole incident had finally decided him to take the prospective -governess entirely into his confidence. He had thought at first it -would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> more honorable to let her discover the situation for herself, -but now he saw that she would need not only all his knowledge of the -situation but the full conviction that he was backing her, whatever she -did. He became convinced of this even before he saw Miss Exeter. Having -seen her, he had no further hesitation. He thought her as sensible a -person as he had ever met. She sat there in the hard north light of -his office, noting down now and then a few words in a little black -notebook. She was not only sensible—she was to be depended on.</p> - -<p>"The truth is," he said, "that Antonia, not to put too fine a point on -it, is not personally clean."</p> - -<p>Miss Exeter smiled, for to her mind the tone of agony in his voice was -exaggerated.</p> - -<p>"But at a certain age no children are," she said.</p> - -<p>"But most children are forced to be, and my sister lets this child run -wild, so that people talk about it. I suppose I oughtn't to mind so -much," he said, looking at her rather wistfully; "but you can't imagine -how I hate to think that people discuss Antonia's being dirty. And all -my sister says is that she's so glad the child isn't vain. Oh, Miss -Exeter, if you could get <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>Antonia dressed like a nice, well brought up -little girl I think I'd do anything in the world for you."</p> - -<p>She promised that too. In fact, by the time she finally left the -office and was on her way uptown, late for an engagement she had with -Horace Bayne, she was alarmed to remember how many things she had -promised—not only to stay until he came back but to write to him every -day, a long report of just what had happened in the family and what her -impressions of it were.</p> - -<p>"Not letters," he had said, "because I shan't answer them; but -reports—reports on my family, as I am going to make a report on this -mine."</p> - -<p>They were to be typewritten. He had no intention of struggling with any -woman's handwriting, though Augusta murmured that hers was considered -very legible.</p> - -<p>It was not her custom to take a definite step like this without -consulting Horace—not so much because Horace insisted on it as because -she thought highly of his opinion. She was astonished now, as in the -Subway she thought over the interview, to find how little she had been -thinking of Horace. They had been engaged for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> something over two -years, one of those comfortable engagements, which until recently had -had no prospects of marriage.</p> - -<p>The Rutland College Club is almost deserted in summer. As she ran -upstairs to the library, where she was to meet Horace, she glanced at -her watch and saw to her regret that he must have been waiting almost -an hour, for he was punctual, and usually arrived a little ahead of -the hour. She was sorry—such a busy man; but he would understand—she -would explain——</p> - -<p>He rose from a deep chair as she entered—a serious young man whom -everyone trusted at first sight. She saw he looked a little more -serious than usual, and her sense of guilt made her attribute this -seriousness to her own fault. She began to explain quickly and with -unaccustomed vivacity. She sketched the interview—Mr. Wood—his -office—the promise—the letters—the turquoise. Horace kept getting -more and more solemn, although it seemed to her that she made a very -good story of it—more amusing perhaps than the reality had been.</p> - -<p>"Isn't it exciting?" she said. "I'm going down on Thursday, under this -contract, to stay two months." </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> - -<p>"No, you're not," said Horace.</p> - -<p>She stared at him. He had never spoken like that in all the years she -had known him.</p> - -<p>"What do you mean, dear?" she said rather reprovingly.</p> - -<p>"You were so busy telling me about this Adonis you're going to work -for you did not stop to consider that I might have some news of my -own. I've landed that job in Canada, and I'm going there on Friday and -you're going with me. You're going to marry me the day after tomorrow -and start north on Friday."</p> - -<p>She stared at him, many emotions succeeding each other on her face. -She had given her word—her most solemn word. She could hear Wood's -quiet voice asserting his confidence in her. "I know I can depend on -you; if you give me your word I know you'll keep it." She could not -break it. She said this, expecting that Horace would admire her for her -dependability—would at least agree with her that she was doing right. -But instead he looked at her with a smoldering expression, and when she -had finished he broke out. In fact he made her a scene of jealousy—the -first he had ever made—but none the worse for that. For a beginner -Horace<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> showed a good deal of talent. He accused her openly of having -fallen in love with this fellow; she wasn't a girl to do anything as -silly as that except under a hypnotic influence. People did fall in -love at first sight. There were Romeo and Juliet; Shakespeare was a -fairly wise guy—these letters every day—why, if she wrote to him, -Horace, once a week he was lucky—but every day to this man. And jewels -and money—no, not much!</p> - -<p>Jealousy, which is popularly supposed to be an erratic and fantastic -emotion, is often founded on the soundest intuition. Augusta found -herself hampered in defending herself by a certain inner doubt; and -her silence enabled Horace to work himself up to such a pitch that he -issued an ultimatum—a dangerous thing to do. She would either marry -him and go to Canada with him, or else everything was over between them.</p> - -<p>It was a terrible situation for Augusta. On the one hand, her spoken -word, given to a person whose good opinion she greatly desired, and on -the other, her sincere love of Horace, increased by the decisive stand -he was taking; for it is unfortunately true that if you do not hate a -person for making a scene you love him more. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> - -<p>Perhaps Horace saw this. In any case, he would not retreat an inch. -This was the situation when the door of the library opened and in came -Augusta's friend and classmate, Pearl Leavitt, with whom she had an -engagement for luncheon—only in the general strain and excitement of -the morning she had entirely forgotten the fact.</p> - -<p>Pearl, like Augusta herself, was too much occupied with her own mood to -notice that a mood was already waiting for her. It seemed to her that -Augusta and Horace were just sitting there as usual, without much to -say to each other. She had been looking for a job all the morning, and -all the day before, and was discovering that beauty may find it as hard -to get a job as it had been to keep one.</p> - -<p>"Hullo, Gussie! Hullo, Horrie!" she said, striding in, full of her own -troubles. "I think men are just terrible."</p> - -<p>"You must have changed a lot," said Bayne, who was in no humor to let -anything pass.</p> - -<p>He had known Pearl since her freshman year at Rutland, and was -accustomed to seeing her surrounded by a flock of the condemned sex, -whose attentions had never seemed unwelcome. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Yes, I've changed," said Pearl. "You see, I've worked for men—at -least I've tried to. I've been trying to all morning. If they kept -turning you down because you were lame or marked with smallpox they'd -feel ashamed, but if they turn you down because they think you're -good-looking——" Miss Leavitt here interrupted her narrative to give a -grinning representation of the speaker. "'Forgive my speaking plainly, -but you are too good-looking for office work.' Doesn't it occur to -them that even good-looking people must eat? And they are so smug -and pleased with themselves. Well, here I am with two weeks' salary -between me and starvation—all on account of my looks. I believe I'll -go and teach in a convent, where there are not any men to be rendered -hysterical by my appearance."</p> - -<p>And she gave a terrible glance at Horace, and then feeling she had been -too severe she beamed at him—beaming at Horace was perfectly safe—and -added, "I've always liked you, Horrie; but I have no use for your -sex—especially as employers; they are too emotional."</p> - -<p>"And what would you say, Pearl," said Horace in a deadly impartial -tone, "if a man offered you a job, and in the first interview told his -life's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> story, asked you to write to him every day and promised you -jewels if you stayed on the job until he got back—what would you say?"</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't say a word," answered Pearl. "I'd take to the tall timber. -I know that kind."</p> - -<p>"You are both absolutely ridiculous," said Augusta haughtily.</p> - -<p>"You are absolutely right," said Horace.</p> - -<p>"You don't mean to say that someone has been trying to wangle Augusta -away from you, Horace?" asked Pearl, generously abandoning all interest -in her own problems for the moment.</p> - -<p>The two others said no and yes simultaneously, and began to pour out -the story. Augusta's point was that Horace did not respect her business -honor or else he would not ask her to break—Horace's point was that -Augusta did not really love him or she wouldn't think up all these -excuses—she'd marry him as he asked her to do. Ah, but he hadn't had -any idea of getting married until he heard that she was going to take -this place! He had—he had—he had come there to tell her, only she had -been so excited about this other man—— Nonsense, the trouble with -Horace was that he was jealous. No, he was not at all jealous, but if -he were he had good reason<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> to be—writing to a man every day, and -accepting jewels——</p> - -<p>Pearl kept looking from one to the other, deeply interested. In the -first pause—which did not come for a long time—she said gravely, "How -is it, Gussie? Do you really want to marry Horace?"</p> - -<p>She said it very nicely, but on her expressive face was written the -thought that she herself could not see how anyone could want to marry -him.</p> - -<p>"I do, I do," answered Augusta rather tearfully; "but how can I when -I've given my word?"</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you how you can," said Pearl. "You marry him and disappear -into the wilds of Canada, and I'll take your place with the Conway -family."</p> - -<p>They stared at each other like people waiting for the sound of an -explosion. They were trying to think of obstacles.</p> - -<p>"Except," said Pearl, "that I'm not efficient like you, and not very -good at mathematics."</p> - -<p>"You were efficient in the way you ran the junior ball," said Augusta. -"Everyone said——"</p> - -<p>A spasm of amusement crossed Pearl's face. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Did I never tell you about that?" she said. "I vamped the senior at -Amherst who had run theirs, and he not only gave me all the dope but -he did most of my work. I was a mine of information. But that isn't -efficiency."</p> - -<p>"I disagree with you," said Augusta.</p> - -<p>The more she thought of this idea, the more it seemed to her perfect. -There had always been a kind of magic about Pearl, and wasn't magic -the highest form of human efficiency? It was not breaking one's word -to substitute a better article than that contracted for. To send Pearl -in her place would be keeping her word doubly. She saw Pearl charming -Antonia, dazzling the boy, setting all the Conway household to rights -by ways peculiarly her own.</p> - -<p>"But perhaps they won't want Pearl," said Horace. "I mean——"</p> - -<p>"They won't have any choice," said the two girls together.</p> - -<p>"But I mean," reiterated Horace, "that no one would want a governess -who looked like Pearl."</p> - -<p>Then the storm broke over his head. What? Wouldn't he even let her be a -governess? Did he want her just to starve? Would he tell her what she -could do? Starve perhaps—just starve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>—all men were alike. Again Pearl -began to stride up and down the room, flicking the front of her small -black hat with her forefinger until finally it fell off and rolled -on the floor like an old-fashioned cannon ball. If Horace had spoken -from motives of diplomacy he could not have done better for himself. -His objection made the two girls a unit for the plan. It just showed, -Pearl explained, that if Horace, who had known her all these years, -really considered her looks an obstacle to her taking a place even as -a governess, why, it was hopeless to suppose that she could ever get -another job.</p> - -<p>At length they sent him away—he had a business engagement of his own -for lunch—and they settled down quietly to discuss the details of the -plan over one of the small bare gray wood tables of the club's dining -room. Ordinarily they would have spent most of their time complaining -about the club luncheon, which consisted largely of loose leaves of -lettuce and dabs of various kinds of sauces; but now they were so -interested that they were hardly conscious of what they put into their -mouths.</p> - -<p>Of course, Pearl would be obliged to go in the character of Miss -Exeter. Mr. Wood would <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>undoubtedly have given some description of the -governess' personal appearance when he telephoned his sister, as he -had said he meant to do. But Augusta was not alarmed by this idea. Men -were so queer about women's looks that Mrs. Conway would say, "Isn't -that like a man, not even to know a great beauty when he sees one?" As -to the daily letter, how fortunate that he had insisted it should be -typewritten. Anyone could sign Augusta Exeter to a man who had seen her -signature only once.</p> - -<p>"I hope you won't be found out; I don't see how you can be," said -Augusta.</p> - -<p>"I can't see that it matters much if I am," answered Pearl. "I'll -try to put it off, anyhow, until they have become attached to me for -myself." And then suddenly falling back in her chair, she stared at -her friend with opened eyes. "My dear, I can't do it! How could I have -forgotten? I can't leave Alfred!"</p> - -<p>Alfred was not a beautiful young lover, as her tone of lingering -affection might have seemed to indicate, but a peculiarly ugly -black-and-white cat—black where he ought to have been white, and -vice versa—that is to say, black round one eye, which made him look -dissipated, and black<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> about the nose, which made him look dirty. Also -he had lost one paw. Pearl had rescued him from a band of boys in an -alley and cherished him with a steady maternal affection.</p> - -<p>"Oh, Alfred," said Augusta, as if this did not make much difference.</p> - -<p>This was not only wrong in tone but she had failed to say the thing -Pearl wanted her to say, namely, that Mrs. Conway would be delighted if -the new governess brought her pet cat with her. Pearl explained that -Alfred was really no trouble in the house—he slept all day and caught -mice at night—except one night he did tumble all the way downstairs on -account of his paw.</p> - -<p>"And you'd be surprised, Gussie," said Pearl, her whole generous face -lighting up with admiration; "that cat—that little creature made a -noise like an elephant falling, he's so solid."</p> - -<p>But Augusta, who was not so easily moved to admiration as Pearl, was -not at all moved now.</p> - -<p>"I can't see," she observed coldly, "what it is you see in Alfred that -makes you love him so."</p> - -<p>Pearl, who had really a nice nature, wasn't angry.</p> - -<p>"It isn't exactly that I love him so much," she answered. "But I feel -so sorry for him; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> when I feel sorry for anyone they to a certain -extent own me. I feel as if I could never make up to them for the way -life has treated them. I feel that way to Alfred—about his paw, you -know."</p> - -<p>"You didn't feel that way to the man who cried in the Encyclopedia."</p> - -<p>"I should say not," answered Pearl. "No, I can't pity him. He was -such a poor sport about it. Men are poor sports where women are -concerned—even Horace. If you had asked him to break his word because -you had had a brain storm he'd have been shocked."</p> - -<p>"He'd have been immensely flattered," said Augusta reflectively.</p> - -<p>"But he thinks it's absolutely all right for him to break up all your -business arrangements because he goes off halfcocked with a fantastic -idea that you've fallen in love with a man you merely want to work for."</p> - -<p>Augusta thought a minute and then she said, "It wasn't quite so -fantastic as you think, Pearl. I was attracted by Mr. Wood. I might -have fallen in love with him if I had been brought into contact with -him much more. Oh, Pearl, haven't you ever felt a sudden charm like -that?" </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> - -<p>Pearl shook her head: She could not say,—perhaps she did not really -herself understand why such emotions were forbidden to her, but the -true reason was that if her speaking countenance had ever turned upon -a man with that thought in mind the next instant her lovely nose would -have been buried in a tweed lapel or grating against a stiff collar.</p> - -<p>"You know," Augusta went on, "that I really love Horace; and Mr. Wood -took no interest in me, except as a governess for his nieces; but have -you never said to yourself, 'There is the type of man whom I could have -loved madly if only things had been different'?"</p> - -<p>Again Pearl's head wagged. Then she said, "Describe my employer to me."</p> - -<p>"Well," Augusta began solemnly, "he has a smooth brown face out of -which look two bright-blue eyes like a Chinaman."</p> - -<p>Pearl scowled.</p> - -<p>"But Chinamen don't have blue eyes," she objected.</p> - -<p>"No more they do. Why did I keep thinking of China then? China-blue, -perhaps, or maybe the way they are set. I think there is an angle—a -little up at the corners. Then his shoulders<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> are broad, or his waist -is awfully thin, because his coat falls in that loose nice way, like -the English officers who came to lecture at college."</p> - -<p>"Mercy," said Pearl, "what things you notice!"</p> - -<p>"And he's very direct, and not at all afraid of saying what has to be -said. And he doesn't lecture you about women's intuition or how he made -his business success or any of those things that men always do talk -about when they offer you a job. And oh, it rings in my ears the way he -said as we parted, 'If you give me your word I know I can trust you to -keep it,' or something like that."</p> - -<p>And at this moment the housekeeper of the club came into the dining -room, nominally to see that luncheon was being properly served, but -actually, as she soon explained, because the club was so lonely in -summer, and her little dog had been killed by an automobile the week -before. Pearl was, of course, immensely sympathetic about this loss; -and Augusta, with a flash of efficiency, suggested that Alfred could -live at the club for the two months Pearl was away, and the housekeeper -greeted the idea with enthusiasm. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> - -<p>And so, the last obstacle being removed, these two efficient women -went upstairs to the library and, sitting side by side, with the black -notebook between them, worked the whole thing out, as in their college -days they had so often worked up an examination. All the facts that -Wood had spread out for Augusta, Augusta now spread out for Pearl—the -salary, the bonus, the characters of those involved, the results which -Mr. Wood especially wished to see accomplished: That Antonia should be -made clean and neat and dressed like a normal little girl; that Durland -should be taught algebra thoroughly and made to stop smoking, though -that would be difficult; that Mrs. Conway should not be worried by her -former husband, and certainly prevented from lending him money.</p> - -<p>"And there is his address in Mexico, and you're to write every day. -That's the most important thing of all—to write every day."</p> - -<p>Pearl took the notebook and put it into her pocketbook.</p> - -<p>"And how often does he write to me?" she inquired.</p> - -<p>Augusta smiled.</p> - -<p>"He never does—he never answers. I suppose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> it's the first time in -your life, Pearl, you ever wrote to a man who did not answer your -letters."</p> - -<p>"I rather like the idea," said Pearl.</p> - -<p>They were interrupted by a telegram being brought in and given to -Augusta. She opened it.</p> - -<p>"It's from Mr. Wood," she said; and added with surprise, "It seems to -be about you."</p> - -<p>"About me?"</p> - -<p>"No," said Augusta with relief, "I read it wrong. It's about Mrs. -Conway's jewels. He told me she had a string of priceless pearls that -her husband gave her when they were first married.</p> - -<p>"The message says, 'Please see that pearls are kept in safe on account -of recent Long Island burglaries.'" She gave the yellow sheet to her -friend. "Keep that," she said, "and be sure to mention in your first -report that you have received it. That will make absolutely sure that -you're me."</p> - -<p>"You ought to say 'you're I' if you are going to be a governess," said -Pearl.</p> - -<p>"But I'm not," said Augusta.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER TWO</h2> - -<p>The following Thursday afternoon Pearl stepped from the fast train -to the platform of the Southampton station. Since the train reached -Quogue she had been agreeably aware of the damp saltness in the air, -which comes only from proximity to the open ocean. But now, on the -platform, she smelled nothing but the fumes of innumerable exhausts, -saw nothing but masses of automobiles crowding toward the station like -a flock of parti-colored elephants. She stood dazed for a minute by the -noise of self-starters and the crowd of arrivals, until, darting in and -out under the elbows of chauffeurs and passengers, she saw a little -bareheaded, barefooted figure in a dirty white dress edged with the -finest Valenciennes lace. Pearl felt an instant conviction that this -was her future charge. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Antonia," she said in her deep voice, and the child made a rush for -her.</p> - -<p>"Are you Miss Exeter?" she exclaimed, and she gave a little boyish -shake to her head. "I must say I think you are much more than pleasing. -My mother said you'd be much less. She drew me a picture of what she -thought you'd look like. Mother doesn't draw very well. I'm glad you're -not like that. If I'd taken that as a guide I'd never have found you at -all."</p> - -<p>She beckoned to a large green touring car, and having arranged about -Pearl's trunk and seen the bags put into the car, she herself sank -beside Pearl on the wide back seat, while to steady herself on the -slippery leather she raised one leg and clutched the back of the front -seat with her bare flexible toes.</p> - -<p>"How do you like Southampton?" she said.</p> - -<p>If they had gone down the main street Pearl would have seen some old -gray-shingled houses and elm trees that she would have honestly admired -but they had turned eastward and were now driving down a perfectly -straight road at the end of which, through a dip in the dunes, the deep -blue of the afternoon sea could be seen. The country was flat in every -direction except<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> the north, where a wooded rise in the ground cut off -the horizon. To be candid, Pearl did not greatly admire the prospect, -but she said tactfully, "I love the sea."</p> - -<p>"Can you swim?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"Can you play tennis?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"Can you drive a car?"</p> - -<p>"No."</p> - -<p>"Good!" said the child with her friendly smile. "I'm glad I've found -something you can't do. Beckett," she said, leaning forward and -shouting in the ear of the chauffeur, "I mean to teach Miss Exeter to -drive."</p> - -<p>"Maybe it'd be as well to learn yourself first, miss," said the man -coldly.</p> - -<p>Antonia sighed.</p> - -<p>"Beckett's cross," she said, "because I bent the fender coming up. My -legs are too short to reach the foot brake in a hurry. Beckett knows -that, but he doesn't make allowances."</p> - -<p>"Is it safe for you to drive, then?" asked Pearl.</p> - -<p>"Well, if you ask me, no," said Antonia candidly; "but as long as -mother lets me do it, of course I'm going to. I wonder if you're going<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> -to like us. I don't see how anyone could like Dolly."</p> - -<p>"What's the matter with Dolly?"</p> - -<p>"Oh, about everything," answered Antonia. "I'll tell you the kind of -person she is: If you forget something she asks you to do she treats -you as if you were a moron to have forgotten it, and if she forgets -something you ask her to do she treats you as if you were a moron to -have asked her to do it."</p> - -<p>"There must be something to be said for her," Pearl suggested.</p> - -<p>Antonia considered the question. She was, as her uncle had said, the -justest of created beings.</p> - -<p>"I suppose there must be, but I don't know what it is. Then there's -Durland—he's great—only he doesn't notice me much. I wish I were a -boy. I want to wear trousers and be free."</p> - -<p>"You seem to me pretty fairly free."</p> - -<p>Antonia laughed.</p> - -<p>"That's funny," she said. "I mean it's funny that you said that exactly -the way Uncle Anthony talks—that gentle tone that makes you feel like -nothing at all. Do you like Uncle Anthony? Do you think he's handsome?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, indeed I do," answered Pearl, with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> modest enthusiasm which -she thought under the circumstances Augusta would have allowed herself.</p> - -<p>"So do I," said Antonia. "So does Miss Wellington, whose mother has -the house next us. She took it before she knew Uncle Anthony was going -to be away all summer—at least that's what mother and I think. Miss -Wellington told me she thought him handsome and she said 'And you can -tell him I said so,' but I didn't—for rather a spiteful reason; I -thought she wanted me to."</p> - -<p>"It sounds that way to me, too," said Pearl.</p> - -<p>"I'm glad you like him," Antonia went on. "He likes you too. He -telephoned mother about you. He said he had found a pearl—wasn't that -funny?" It was funnier than Antonia knew. "So now mother always speaks -of you as the priceless pearl. Mother's rather amusing, like that. -He said you were not so much on looks—just pleasing, he said. But I -think you are perfectly beautiful. Do you think you're beautiful, Miss -Exeter?"</p> - -<p>This was the first crisis. Pearl knew that if she said no Antonia would -distrust her honesty, and if she said yes it might be used against her. -So she compromised. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I'll answer that question the day I leave," she said.</p> - -<p>"I'll tell you something funny about that," said Antonia. "Perhaps I -oughtn't to, but I'm going to. Uncle Anthony made mother promise not to -send you away until he came back, no matter what happened; but mother -says she knows a way to get round that if the worst comes to the worst. -You see, I don't want to hurt your feelings; but we all felt it was -rather hard on us to have a governess at all in summer. Mother thinks -it's hard too. She says it's just one of Uncle Anthony's ideas. She -says a man can't take an interest in anything unless he thinks he's -running it. So she just lets him think he runs the family, and then -when he's away she does what she thinks best. This is our gate now. -What do you think of the house? We only rent it. There's Durland going -in for a swim before dinner. I wonder if he'd wait for us. Durland! -Durland!"</p> - -<p>It was quite extraordinary the volume of sound that could issue from so -small a person as Antonia. She sprang out of the car over the closed -door and ran round the house toward the ocean, while Pearl entered the -front door alone. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> - -<p>A slim, gray-haired figure in delft blue came out of a neighboring room -and said "Good heavens, you are not Miss Exeter, are you?"</p> - -<p>Pearl smiled her most winning smile.</p> - -<p>"Won't I do?" she said.</p> - -<p>But merriment did not seem quite in order. Mrs. Conway's manners were -perfect, but she was not going to begin by being any more friendly than -she could help.</p> - -<p>She answered politely, "Oh, perfectly, I feel sure. Only you do not -look quite as my brother's description led me to expect; but then men -are not very good at describing women."</p> - -<p>Her hair, prematurely gray, gave more the effect of powder. Her -brows were arched so much that she seemed to be looking up from -under a thatch. They were blue eyes; not quite China blue, as Pearl -had heard the family eyes described; they were sad, appealing eyes, -which kept veiling themselves in an effort to seem dignified and -remote. Yes, Pearl thought, there was something pathetic about Mrs. -Conway—something that made her feel just a little bit as Alfred's lost -paw made her feel; so she beamed gently down upon her new employer -while that lady continued: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I don't see how Antonia ever found you—from his account. Fortunately -the child is wonderfully quick or you would be waiting at the station -still. Where is she, by the way?"</p> - -<p>Pearl explained that she had dashed down to the beach to ask her -brother to wait for them, and would it be all right if she went -swimming too? Over Mrs. Conway's shoulder Pearl could catch a glimpse -of the piazza, and beyond that the faultless blue rim of the horizon; -and as she talked she could hear close by the thud and hiss as a wave -went up the beach. She longed to be in the water.</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes, go if you want to," said Mrs. Conway. She was not exactly -cordial. Gentle, friendly people like Edna Conway always go too far -when they try to be cold; they have no experience in the rôle. "But try -not to keep them waiting too long. My children hate to be kept waiting."</p> - -<p>"I do myself," answered Pearl gayly.</p> - -<p>"Really?" said Mrs. Conway, and the arched eyebrows went up under the -gray thatch.</p> - -<p>Pearl saw she had said the wrong thing; but whether it was wrong for -a governess to dislike being kept waiting, or presumptuous to put -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>herself into the same interesting group as the Conway children, she -had no idea. She did not much care either. The smooth blue sea was -waiting for her, and she went springing upstairs, slinging off a string -of beads—translucent pearl-gray glass, the color of her eyes—and -thinking to herself that it was a mercy she had had sense enough to put -her bathing dress in her bag. She tore it out from the lower layers so -violently that shoes and brushes flew into the air like stones from a -volcano; and in a surprisingly short time she was running through the -deserted sitting room, out across the piazza, down the steep wooden -steps to the beach.</p> - -<p>At the edge of the water Durland was standing with his back to her. -Although he was a thin boy of fifteen in a striped red-and-blue bathing -suit, he was standing with one knee advanced, his hand on his hip and a -cigarette dangling from his lip, as if he were the late King Edward VII -at Homburg. Beside him, Antonia was digging a hole like a dog—possibly -her sleeping hole for the evening—and talking all the time. She was -talking about Miss Exeter.</p> - -<p>Durland was deeply opposed to the idea of Miss Exeter. In the first -place he was opposed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> to women, as a prisoner is opposed to stone -walls. He was surrounded by them, dominated by them. His mother, his -mother's maid, who had been with them forever, his sister Dorothy—they -all bullied him and cut him off from his fellow men. Sometimes, with -disgust, he heard himself using the feminized vocabulary of the women -about him, and though he was as masculine as possible—smoked and -everything—he could not shake off their influence. Then he hated -governesses as representing that most emasculated form of that most -emasculated thing—learning. His friends had already made fun of him -about it. It had been said on the beach, "I hear they're getting a -governess to keep you in order, Durlie." He had decided to make it -clear that he had nothing to do with the woman. He doubted if he even -allowed her to teach him algebra, though as a matter of fact he wanted -to pass his examination. And then, last but not least of his reasons, -he felt opposed to anything that Antonia so wildly recommended, because -that was one way of keeping her in the complete subjection to him in -which she lived.</p> - -<p>So while she chattered of Miss Exeter and her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> beauty and her youngness -and the sort of niceness of the way in which she looked at you, he -stood gazing out to sea as if the best he could do for his little -sister was just not to hear her at all.</p> - -<p>Then Antonia cried "Here she is!" and executed a four-footed leap on -finger tips and toes; and then Durland was aware of a circular motion -of white arms and long white legs whirling past his shoulder, and the -new governess had plunged into the Atlantic.</p> - -<p>This really wouldn't do at all—governess doing hand-springs. It looked -peculiar, and yet it did pique the curiosity. He sauntered a step -nearer with a slow, sophisticated, loose-kneed walk. Miss Exeter and -Antonia were behaving foolishly, and noisily, too—splashing each other -and laughing. He himself went in as if the object of a swim were not to -disturb one unnecessary drop of water. He swam a stroke or two under -the surface, and coming up out of a wave found himself face to face -with Pearl. The wonderful radiance of those gray eyes came to rest on -his; and his heart melted within him like a pat of butter. It wasn't -just her beauty though that would probably have been enough; but it was -the immense, generous friendliness toward all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> world when the world -would allow her to be friendly that warmed and comforted his young -spirit. He gazed at her, and suddenly the gaze was cut short by Pearl's -decision to stand on her head. Two white feet clapped together in front -of Durland's nose.</p> - -<p>If she had been less beautiful he would have said to himself that she -really did not know how to behave. As it was, he thought that she -would certainly lay herself open to unkind criticism. He wanted to -protect her, and he was not without tact. He said, when she came to the -surface, blinking the water from her long, matted eyelashes, "It's nice -to have our own beach, isn't it?—to be able to do what we like—stand -on our heads or anything without being talked about."</p> - -<p>She did not seem to get it at all.</p> - -<p>"Let's swim out," she said, and laid her ear upon the face of the sea -as if she were a baby listening to the ticking of a watch. He swam -beside her, looking into her face, and she gave him a friendly little -beam every now and then. It was wonderful to be under no necessity of -suppressing her cheerful kindness of heart. "Let it do its deadly work" -was her feeling.</p> - -<p>They had a good long swim, and when they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> came in were met by Mrs. -Conway at the head of the steps. She was dressed for dinner in a faint -pink tea gown with pearls.</p> - -<p>She said civilly, but all on one note, "Dinner is ready, Miss Exeter."</p> - -<p>Yes, she who had so often waited uncomplainingly for hours for her -children, pretending that the clocks were wrong, or the dinner hour -changed, or that the mistake had been hers, was now feeling outraged at -being obliged to wait ten minutes for this governess her brother had so -obstinately insisted on engaging.</p> - -<p>"Oh, I won't be a minute, Mrs. Conway," said Pearl, feeling genuinely -sorry to have inconvenienced anyone, but not feeling at all guilty as -Mrs. Conway wanted her to feel.</p> - -<p>"Yes, I do hope you'll contrive not to be very long," she said, and -could not understand the cause for a dark look her son gave her as he -pursued his shivering way upstairs.</p> - -<p>She went into the sitting room, where her daughter Dorothy was already -waiting. It was not a miracle that Dolly was ready on time, but a -phenomenon to be explained by the fact that she had a bridge engagement -immediately after dinner. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> - -<p>She was a pretty, round-faced girl, rather like her mother, except that -her hair was still a natural light brown, and her eyes were brown too. -She did not raise her head, as her mother entered, from the fashion -paper which she was languidly studying.</p> - -<p>"Not a very promising beginning, is it?" said Mrs. Conway. She knew -Dolly would be annoyed and she wished to cut herself off completely -from the guilty one. "Do you suppose she's going to keep us waiting for -dinner half an hour every evening?"</p> - -<p>Dolly bent her head to examine a picture of an ermine wrap.</p> - -<p>"Oh, well, mother," she said, "what can you expect if you give in to -every whim of Uncle Anthony's?"</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway made a pathetic little grimace—pathetic because it was so -obviously intended to win Dolly to her side—to make the girl feel that -she and her mother had a secret alliance against the world at large.</p> - -<p>"You'll find, my dear," she said, "that in dealing with men it's easier -to yield at the moment and find a way out at leisure."</p> - -<p>But Dolly, who had not even looked up long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> enough to see the grimace, -answered with a bitter little laugh, "It may be easier for you, but not -for us. We have to suffer. That's the trouble with you, mother—you -think of no one in the world but yourself."</p> - -<p>Her mother did not answer—she could not. Tears rose in her blue eyes. -She had enormous capacity for being hurt. Strangely enough, there was -something in her that drove those she loved to say exactly the thing -that would hurt her most. It had always been so with her husband, and -now it was so with her children.</p> - -<p>A misplaced fortitude always led her to hide the fact that she was hurt.</p> - -<p>She said now with false gayety, "Well, my dear, I hope some day you -will find someone who loves you even better than I do, then."</p> - -<p>"I'm sure I hope so," said Dolly, turning the page.</p> - -<p>Her manner suggested that if she could not do that much her life would -indeed be a failure.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway stepped out on the piazza. That was the way—you gave -up your life to making your children happy, to shielding them from -grief and anxiety, and then they blamed you and hurt you horribly -for something that was not at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> all your fault. She felt a moment of -resentment toward her brother. Why had Anthony insisted on this silly -plan? She had been too considerate of Anthony's feelings; she ought -to have refused to have a governess at all. It was much wiser in this -world to be stern and cruel. She decided to be stern and to begin with -Miss Exeter, who entered the sitting room at this moment. She was -wearing a plain cream-colored dress out of which her lovely head—all -brown and rose color and gold—seemed strangely bright colored.</p> - -<p>"I suppose you're Dolly," she said in her deep warm voice, and held out -an open hand.</p> - -<p>Dolly, like most young people, estimated beauty as the best of gifts. -She might have been almost as much captured by Pearl's as her brother -had been, except that her ego was taken up with the outrage of her -being kept waiting—she, the most important person in the house, who -had taken the trouble not only to order dinner on time but—what did -not always happen—to be on time herself.</p> - -<p>She rose, and allowing a limp hand to pass rapidly through Miss -Exeter's, she said, "Do let's go in to dinner, mother."</p> - -<p>"Yes, indeed," said her mother, coming in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>rapidly from the piazza. "We -dine at eight, Miss Exeter. Another evening I'm sure you will be on -time."</p> - -<p>This was not perhaps a very terrible beginning to a régime of -sternness; but to Durland, just getting down, it appeared one of the -most disgusting exhibitions of slave driving that he had ever heard.</p> - -<p>"It is entirely my fault that we are late," he said, giving his mother -a steady, brave look.</p> - -<p>She answered irrelevantly, "Why, Durland, how nice you look! Are you -going anywhere this evening?"</p> - -<p>"Very likely," he answered coldly. He thought to himself, "Why must she -give Miss Exeter the impression that I look like a cowboy generally?" -He was of course going nowhere.</p> - -<p>So, having completely alienated her two elder children—Antonia had -early supper by herself—Mrs. Conway found herself obliged to direct -her conversation to the interloper. She had her revenge, if she had -only known it, by talking about her brother, questioning Miss Exeter -about him. Had he seemed very much rushed? Did he say anything about -his golf clubs?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> Wasn't it a delightful office? Wonderful! So cool in -summer.</p> - -<p>Pearl hazarded that the harbor was very beautiful, and learned that Mr. -Wood's office looked north—up the Hudson. She must be careful.</p> - -<p>Durland inquired with a friendly grin whether Uncle Anthony had -frightened her to death.</p> - -<p>"Frightened me?" said Pearl, trying to gain time.</p> - -<p>"Some people are awfully afraid of him."</p> - -<p>"Naughty little boys are," said Dolly.</p> - -<p>It always annoyed her to see her brother sitting at the foot of the -dinner table. They had fought about it for five years—whether she as -eldest child or he as the only man in the house ought to occupy this -place of honor.</p> - -<p>"I'm not afraid of him," said Durland.</p> - -<p>"Oh, are you a naughty little boy?" said Dolly, laughing in an -irritating way.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway, to avert war, began talking about the day's schedule—the -problem of how to work in a few lessons without interfering with any of -the more important pleasures of her children.</p> - -<p>"Antonia first, I think. Wouldn't that be your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> idea, Dolly—Antonia at -half past nine? Dolly and Durland sometimes sleep rather late—so good -for them, I think—but Antonia is up early. She reads sometimes from -five o'clock. She reads a great deal—everything."</p> - -<p>"Quite the little genius, according to mother," said Dolly.</p> - -<p>"She is clever," answered Mrs. Conway passionately. "I don't know why -you two are always so disagreeable about your little sister."</p> - -<p>"Because you spoil her so, mother," said Dolly.</p> - -<p>"Because she's so dirty, mother," said Durland.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway made this attack a means of aligning herself with her -children against the governess.</p> - -<p>"Oh, well," she said, "that is all going to be changed now. Miss Exeter -is going to make us all over. Antonia is to be clean and tidy, though -why in the world your uncle thinks it desirable for a child of eleven -to think of nothing but clothes I can't see. And Durland is to be made -into a mathematician. I suppose I'm very ignorant, but I never could -see what good algebra does a person—all about greyhounds leaping -after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> hares, and men doing pieces of work at seventy-five cents a day. -I wish I could find some like that. Poor Durland, like so many people -with a creative turn of mind, simply cannot do mathematics."</p> - -<p>"More people than creative geniuses are poor at mathematics," said -Pearl genially; and Durland, afraid that she would identify him with -his mother in this ridiculous point of view, looked into those pools of -gray light and said modestly that he was just a dub at problems.</p> - -<p>"Then at half past eleven," Mrs. Conway went on, "you'll be free to -take Antonia to the beach—the public beach, where she likes to get a -swim and see her little friends."</p> - -<p>"Fight a round or two with her little enemies," said her brother.</p> - -<p>"She's only fought once this summer," said his mother. "And I for one -think she was perfectly right. Maud is the most annoying child—ugly -and impertinent like her mother, and very badly brought up."</p> - -<p>"Well, that's not a patch on what they think about Antonia," said -Durland, and he turned to Miss Exeter. "Gee, it was great! This Maud -child said something rude about Antonia's bare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> feet, and she sailed in -and landed her one on the jaw; and they fought so that the nurses and -governesses all ran screaming away and the life-saving men had to come -in and separate them."</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway hated this story about her youngest child.</p> - -<p>She rose from table in order to interrupt it, observing that Durland -needn't worry, as now they were all going to be made perfect.</p> - -<p>Pearl on the whole felt encouraged. Augusta, with all her efficiency, -could not have swung this job, she thought. It required a solid, almost -irrational good temper, which Augusta did not possess. Mrs. Conway -would have rendered Augusta acid and powerless in one evening. Pearl -was not so efficient in certain ways, but she had good temper and a -robust will.</p> - -<p>She and Durland went into the sitting room while Mrs. Conway was -getting Dolly off to her bridge party. Durland did what, alas, men -have been doing for many centuries—he attempted to impress the -object of his affection by doing one of the things most certain to -alienate her. He stood before her, lighting a cigarette, shaking the -match deliberately in the air, his legs rather wide apart. Pearl, who -had sunk into a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> nice deep chair, sprang up and put her hand on his -shoulder.</p> - -<p>"Oh, don't smoke," she said.</p> - -<p>Hundreds of women had said that to him. Even the lovely Caroline -Temple—his former love—had said that her parents had forbidden her to -have him at the house on account of his smoking; such a bad example.</p> - -<p>"Caroline," he had said quietly, "I simply do openly what all the -others do secretly."</p> - -<p>He had not wavered about it. Neither had her parents. He and Caroline -met at the tennis club and at the beach—no longer at her house. But he -had never thought of changing his habits. His cigarette was to him what -a car is to a theatrical star—a symbol of greatness. He was firm now, -even under the pleading of a new idol.</p> - -<p>"I'm afraid I can't give it up," he said. "I'm afraid it has too much -of a grip on me for that."</p> - -<p>He frowned as one who, looking inward, saw nothing but vice and ruin. -He was disappointed to find that she just let it drop—as if she were -not vitally interested in saving him. But before he had time to commit -the natural mistake of asking her why she did not rescue him from his -worse self, his mother came back into the room. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> - -<p>Her first words were, "Do you think that a good picture of my brother?"</p> - -<p>Something mocking and teasing in her tone unnerved Pearl a little; so -that instead of following the direction of Mrs. Conway's eyes she said -rather wildly, "Where?"</p> - -<p>Durland came to her rescue by politely giving her a large silver frame -in which was the photograph of a man she was prepared to admire, and -so she did admire him—so much that something tense was apparent as -she gazed into those China-blue eyes, which looked—if one had not had -private information—as if they were brown.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway watched with sly amusement. The mocking quality in her -question had not arisen, as Pearl half feared, from any doubt as to -the new governess' identity, but rather from the suspicion that there -was more between her brother and this lovely creature than had been -confessed. Like many gentle sweet people, Edna Conway was extremely -suspicious; her mind ran rapidly over a situation, examining though -not necessarily believing all the darkest possibilities. She did not -actually suspect her brother of finding a safe home for a dangerous -girl during his absence, but she did say to herself—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>perhaps not -unnaturally, "There's more in this than meets the eye."</p> - -<p>A voice from the piazza called, "Did Anthony's pearl arrive?" And a -woman in evening dress entered.</p> - -<p>"Yes, Cora, this is she," said Mrs. Conway, and she added with a -certain hint of malice, "You ought to know each other—both so -consecrated to doing whatever Anthony wants done. Miss Exeter, Miss -Wellington."</p> - -<p>Miss Wellington's emotions were clearly written on her face. She -had been in love with Anthony ever since he succeeded. This which -sounds like a paradox was the simple truth. To her, success was not -necessarily financial—though Wood's had had this agreeable aspect—but -importance and preëminence were to her as essential elements in male -attraction as feminine beauty is to most men. When she was eighteen and -Anthony still in the School of Mines there had been sentimental scenes -which had left her cold. She occasionally referred to them as "the time -when you thought you wanted to marry me," and he did not contradict -her. He had thought he did. He still admired her—she was elegant -in appearance, beautifully dressed, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>competent in all the practical -aspects of life. If she had married someone else he would have said to -her, "Your marriage was a great blow to me, Cora. I had always fancied -that some day you and I——" But he never would have said it until -after she was safely married.</p> - -<p>She had, however, no intention of marrying anyone else—for the simple -reason that Anthony was by far the most attractive man of importance -that she knew. Her feelings on discovering Pearl—the young person she -had heard described as being of merely pleasing appearance—to be an -exuberant beauty, and discovering her, moreover, staring sentimentally -at Anthony's picture, were not suspicions; she had the conviction of -disaster. She couldn't be cordial; and, Pearl, who had the kind of -sensitiveness that comes from generosity, not from egotism, saw that -the moment had come for her to go upstairs and write her first letter -to the man whose face she liked so much.</p> - -<p>She had always been a poor correspondent. She had never enjoyed -writing before, but now the idea of pouring herself out—or rather not -herself, but her observation of a situation in which he was vitally -interested—delighted her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> All of us, it has been said, can write well -if we have something interesting to say. What Pearl had to say could -not fail to be interesting to the man she was writing to. There was no -motive for caution. At last she had found a man with whom she could -be candid and natural. Late into the night the sound of a portable -typewriter could be heard ticking from the room of the new governess.</p> - -<p>It was not easy to put a routine into operation in the Conway -household. At half past nine, the hour set for Antonia's lessons, -Antonia was nowhere to be found. Pearl at last ventured to tap at Mrs. -Conway's bedroom door. Mrs. Conway was sitting up in bed, in white -satin and yellow lace, with her breakfast tray on her lap.</p> - -<p>In response to the news that her youngest child was missing, she -answered, "She's probably gone crabbing. I'm afraid that if you want to -do lessons in summer you will have to get up a little earlier. She was -out of the house by seven, I dare say." And she smiled maliciously.</p> - -<p>Pearl saw that coöperation was unlikely, hostility probable, and -withdrew.</p> - -<p>Durland, her second pupil, presented himself a little ahead of time. He -came downstairs at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> ten, drank a cup of black coffee and ate a peach. -He was recklessly wearing his last pair of clean white trousers. He was -paler and more like a young bird than usual. He, too, had his problems.</p> - -<p>While willing to oblige Miss Exeter in every particular, while eager to -help her and make her appear a worker of miracles, her mere proximity -prevented his mind from functioning at all. Do what she could, her -efforts to get him thinking about the problem of three men, A, B and -C, who, working together, could do a piece of work in three days, was -like trying to crank a dead automobile. She tried beaming upon him, she -tried being severe; either way his intense emotion flooded his mental -processes.</p> - -<p>She thought, "I've solved worse problems than this, but I'm sure I -don't know what to do."</p> - -<p>He himself gave her the clew. She had explained for the third time -that if you let <i>x</i> equal the number of days that it took A, working -alone—when he interrupted her. He was sitting beside her, leaning his -head on his hand and staring at her in a maze of admiration.</p> - -<p>Suddenly he said, "Do you like teaching, Miss Exeter?" </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I like teaching girls," she answered with a quick inspiration.</p> - -<p>He drove his unwilling intelligence to take in this incredible -statement.</p> - -<p>"Girls," he said, opening his honest blue eyes and wrinkling his -forehead. "Why girls?"</p> - -<p>"They're so much cleverer than boys."</p> - -<p>She tossed it off as if were a well-known and generally admitted fact. -He was gentle with her.</p> - -<p>"People think just the opposite," he said.</p> - -<p>"Men do."</p> - -<p>"I think you're wrong about that, really," Durland said. "I think -anyone—even a very just man like Uncle Anthony—would say that women -can't think, at least not like men."</p> - -<p>"Would he, indeed?" said Pearl. "Well, I don't know him; but he may be -the kind of man who prefers inferior people of both sexes."</p> - -<p>Durland, unable to believe she really thought this, looked wistfully -into her face for a sign of relenting.</p> - -<p>"Of course," he said, "you are very unusual. You must not judge other -women by yourself."</p> - -<p>"I was fifteenth in my class," said Pearl. "Quite stupid compared to -the others; but even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> I never had any trouble with algebra. I put my -mind on it. That's the trouble with boys—they're so scattered."</p> - -<p>This was cruel, considering who had scattered him; but like many -cruelties it worked.</p> - -<p>As the hour finished, Dolly came downstairs and said, without looking -at anyone, that she herself was going immediately in the motor to -Shinnecock for her golf lesson and could not delay an instant; but if -Antonia were there and ready there was no objection to dropping her -and Miss Exeter at the public beach. At that moment Antonia, who, just -as her mother had suggested, had been crabbing since dawn, appeared -on the lawn, streaked with seaweed and exuding a faintly ancient and -fishy smell. Dolly was like steel and would not allow her a moment for -changing; and so, dropping her crabs and nets on the piazza, Antonia -with Miss Exeter got into the car after Dolly, and were duly dropped at -the little group of dark-red bathing houses that formed the entrance to -the public beach.</p> - -<p>Pearl found the child, in spite of her personal untidiness, a most -agreeable companion. She had read widely and with imagination. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> -knew a great deal of poetry—rather martial poetry—by heart; all of -Horatius, for instance, which she said she usually recited to herself -in the dentist's chair and from which she gained comfort.</p> - -<p>They were walking up the wide steps to the bathing house as she spoke, -and she stopped and bent down to examine a boy's bicycle—she was a -connoisseur of bicycles.</p> - -<p>They came in sight of the beach now—all set out with bright-colored -umbrellas like gay poisonous mushrooms. It was the hour when the beach -was given over to children.</p> - -<p>Pearl was thinking that it looked very pretty, when once again she -heard Antonia's clarion voice break out at her elbow.</p> - -<p>"Hi, there, you kids! Leave that fort alone! It's mine!"</p> - -<p>She darted down the narrow boardwalk toward an immense hole in the -sand, scattering a band of neatly dressed children, much as the -effete Romans were scattered by the first onslaught of the northern -barbarians. Pearl could not help laughing as she saw children run -to their governesses or snatched back by their nurses; but the next -moment she was sorry, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> she saw that it was being said in various -tongues that Antonia was quite the worst brought-up child in the world. -Pearl was nothing if not a partisan, and she was already completely on -Antonia's side.</p> - -<p>She and Antonia were supposed to bathe early so as to leave the two -Conway bathhouses free for Mrs. Conway and Dolly when they appeared at -a later and more fashionable hour. "Everything in our family is done -for Dolly," said Antonia when she was finally dragged out of the water. -"It makes me tired the way mother indulges every whim of hers."</p> - -<p>Rebellious or not, however, Antonia was dressed—as much dressed as -she ever was, which was about three-quarters as much as other little -girls—by half after twelve.</p> - -<p>She and Pearl went back to the beach and sat down under the -red-and-black-striped umbrella which the life-saving man had stuck in -the sand for them as if he were about to do a pole vault with it. And -presently Durland, ready for his swim, came and plopped down beside -them, and immediately a girl in a one-piece tomato-colored bathing -dress rose from another part of the beach and came and sat on the other -side of him. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> - -<p>Antonia, with a thin brown arm, still smelling very slightly of -crabs in spite of her swim, clasped about Pearl's neck, blew in her -governess' ear the information that this was Caroline Temple, Durland's -best girl. Like so many courtships, this one, to the outside world, -seemed to be carried on principally by the lady. She neither looked at -nor spoke to Pearl and Antonia.</p> - -<p>To Durland she said, "Shall we go in now?"</p> - -<p>Durland was digging a small hole near Miss Exeter's hand; his shoulder -was turned to Caroline and he did not shift it as he replied, "You can -if you like."</p> - -<p>There was a pause. Apparently she didn't like, for she did not move, -and after a time she said in the same tone of lowered confidence, "I -have the car here. I'll drive you home."</p> - -<p>"Thanks," said Durland. "I'm on my bicycle." Another pause.</p> - -<p>"Shall we play tennis this afternoon?"</p> - -<p>"I may," answered Durland.</p> - -<p>Pearl began to feel her sex pride wounded. She bent forward, and -beaming upon the newcomer, she said, "You play tennis?"</p> - -<p>Caroline just glanced at her. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Of course I do," she said.</p> - -<p>She had not the smallest intention of being rude, for she was a -sweet-tempered child; even less did it occur to her to be jealous -of an elderly woman of twenty-four; but her mind, concentrated upon -the pursuit of Durland, was rendered irritable by inconsequential -interruptions. Durland, however, though no critic of manners, was aware -that a gesture of friendship from a goddess had not been gratefully -received.</p> - -<p>"You might be civil about it," he said, and then looking up at Pearl, -he asked in a softened tone of adoration whether she would like to play -tennis that afternoon.</p> - -<p>"Doubles?" said Caroline, as if this were, of course, possible though -utterly undesirable.</p> - -<p>"Would you like to play doubles?" Durland asked again.</p> - -<p>"If it is convenient to your mother," said Pearl.</p> - -<p>Durland dismissed such an idea as repellent to him and, glancing over -his shoulder to Caroline, he said, "All right. Miss Exeter and I will -play you—if you can get a fourth."</p> - -<p>It was not the way Caroline had designed the set and she said so. She -said clearly and rather<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> complainingly that she had expected to play -with Durland, and yet she did not seem wounded so much as thwarted.</p> - -<p>"I'm sure I don't know whom I can get," she said.</p> - -<p>"I suppose you can get the faithful Wally—anyone can get Wally."</p> - -<p>"I thought you did not like Wally."</p> - -<p>"I?" said Durland, as if it were far beneath him ever to have been -aware of Wally's existence; and without any further answer he got up -and walked into the Atlantic so suddenly that Miss Temple, scrambling -as rapidly as possible to her feet, was several yards behind him as he -dived into his first wave.</p> - -<p>"Isn't she pretty?" said Antonia. "She's been his best girl for two -summers."</p> - -<p>"I don't think he's very nice to her," said Pearl.</p> - -<p>"Well," said Antonia, giving one of her little shakes of the head, "it -would seem wonderful to me if Durlie spoke to me at all. However, it -may be over. Like what Shakespeare says—one foot on land. Next time I -have a chance I'll look and see if her picture is still in the back of -his watch." </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> - -<p>Presently they were back in the same order—Durland first, and Miss -Temple following. He sat dripping, and taking a cigarette from a -package he had left on the sand, he began groping for a match.</p> - -<p>"Oh, Durland," said Miss Temple, "I do wish you wouldn't smoke. It -isn't good for you. It looks so badly." Durland gave a short laugh that -seemed to say that if he had regarded public opinion he would have made -of life a very different thing. In her distress Caroline turned to the -stranger whose presence she had so far refused to acknowledge. "Don't -you think it's wrong for him to smoke?" she said.</p> - -<p>It was Pearl's moment.</p> - -<p>"Why, no," she answered, "I can't see anything wrong about it."</p> - -<p>She put out a lazy hand and took one from the little paper envelope. -Durland's hand, with the match in it, was arrested.</p> - -<p>"But—you're not going to smoke—here? On the public beach?"</p> - -<p>"Isn't it allowed?" asked Pearl, all innocence. "It must be—you are -smoking. Let me have a match."</p> - -<p>"I haven't a match," he said, and threw away<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> his own cigarette so -that she could not get a light from that. It was an important moment -in his life. He thought rapidly. "I hope you won't think me fresh or -anything," he said, "but I don't think a governess ought to smoke, if -you know what I mean—not in public anyhow."</p> - -<p>She wasn't angry, only thoughtful.</p> - -<p>"Well, that's only your opinion."</p> - -<p>It touched him that she knew so little of the world—or of her own -position. He said gently, "I'm afraid you'd find it was everybody's -opinion."</p> - -<p>"Ought you to be so much influenced by the opinion of other people?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, indeed," he answered. The cigarette with which she was still -playing might separate them forever. His mother, he knew, was just -waiting for a good excuse to send her away, and where could she find a -better one?</p> - -<p>She argued it further, tapping the cigarette on her hand as if she were -about to place it between her lips.</p> - -<p>"But you don't pay any attention when people say you oughtn't to smoke."</p> - -<p>Even then he did not know that a trap had been set for him. On the -contrary, he thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> he had an original idea of some beauty when he -said impulsively, "I tell you what, I'll swear off if you will."</p> - -<p>She seemed to debate it through an agonizing second or two, while he -looked at her with dog-like eyes. Then she smiled and gave him a strong -hand.</p> - -<p>"All right," she said. "That's a bargain."</p> - -<p>Durland felt flooded with joy—not only at having saved a beloved woman -but at having done it in just the right way. He picked up the package -of cigarettes and flung it toward the sea. It did not quite reach the -water and Caroline sprang up and brought it back to him.</p> - -<p>"I suppose you thought that was empty," she said.</p> - -<p>He tossed it away again without thanking her, but at last to her -repeated clamors he yielded the information that he had given up -smoking.</p> - -<p>"Oh, Durland," she said, "now you can come to the house again. Is that -why you did it?"</p> - -<p>He did not want to deceive the girl, but he could not resist the -temptation of allowing her to deceive herself. He did not answer -directly; but rising, he said, "Anyone who wishes to swim to the -barrels with me may now do so." </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was more like an invitation than anything he had said all morning, -and they were soon swimming side by side.</p> - -<p>Presently Mrs. Conway in a dark-blue silk bathing dress with ruffles -appeared and dropped a string of pearls into the lap of the governess -as if they had been beads. Pearl had never had such pearls in her -hands before. They were heavier—much heavier than she had imagined, -and brighter, more iridescent, better worth looking at. She was not -given to envy, but she was aware of thinking that there was something -slightly wrong with a world where Mrs. Conway had pearls and she had -not. Antonia insisted on her putting them around her neck.</p> - -<p>"It's much safer—you can't drop them in the sand—Cousin Cora always -does—that's Miss Wellington; she's no relation, but she likes us to -call her cousin—she wants us to call her aunt, but mother says, 'Wait -till she is.'"</p> - -<p>"Oh," said Pearl, conscious of a distinct pang, "is she going to be?"</p> - -<p>Antonia gave one of her head shakes.</p> - -<p>"Mother says, 'Say not the struggle nought availeth.' Older people make -a lot of fun of their best friends, don't they?" </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Would you like her for an aunt?" said Pearl.</p> - -<p>"Yes and no," Antonia replied. "I think the wedding would be fun, and -I think I'd be a bridesmaid or something; but as a family we prefer -to keep Uncle Anthony to ourselves. Mother says if he marries Cora -we wouldn't lose him as much as if he married a stranger. There was -a Russian actress one year, with red hair; I didn't think her a bit -pretty. She used to send mother flowers and seats for her plays. They -were all pretty sad though. Then there was another time—she was -married this time, but mother said——"</p> - -<p>Antonia broke off to call Pearl's attention to Dolly, who was coming -down the boardwalk in a bathing dress of as many hues as Joseph's coat. -Everything about her was bent—her back, her knees, her elbows, her -fingers, and every crook was obviously intended to charm the young man -by whose side she was walking, who was staring out to sea and very -thoughtfully putting cotton in his ears. Even Pearl, indifferent as she -then supposed herself to be to all men, could not but admit that he was -as splendid an example of young blond manhood as she had ever seen. -Then as he came nearer she saw a certain pale<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> red-rimmedness about -the eyes, and she thought, "He's the kind you'd have to describe as -handsome, and yet if anyone else did, you'd say, 'Oh, do you think him -handsome? I don't like his looks at all.'"</p> - -<p>Antonia meantime was pouring his life history into her ear.</p> - -<p>"Allen Williams. He's twenty-one and has been a freshman for two -years—isn't he handsome?—and very vicious—gambles and drinks and -everything. I heard the Williams' governess telling someone the other -day that Monsieur Allen was <i>déjŕ trčs connu dans le monde—le monde -gal—gal</i>—something or other. I wish I knew more French. You can't -really tell much what goes on on the beach unless you know French. Of -course, he's just amusing himself with Dolly."</p> - -<p>"I tell you what I think," said Pearl, suddenly becoming aware that she -had been staring, and not only this, but also stared at. "I think it's -horrid of you to be against your own sister."</p> - -<p>"But look at the way she's giggling and wriggling. I feel ashamed of -her," said Antonia.</p> - -<p>"That's the very time you ought to stick up for her," said Pearl. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Well, it's a point of view," said Antonia. "That's what Uncle Anthony -always says when he doesn't agree with you but is too lazy to argue it -out."</p> - -<p>Dolly and Mr. Williams had reached them by this time. Dolly was for -passing by, but Williams stopped and said in a voice clearly audible, -"And who is the beautiful girl in the pearls?"</p> - -<p>Dolly's voice was too low to be audible. She stopped. Spoiled and -selfish she might be, but she was at heart a lady. She introduced Mr. -Williams to Miss Exeter with perfect civility. Williams took Pearl's -hand and looked at her with something fierce and blank in his eyes.</p> - -<p>Oh, how well she knew that look!</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER THREE</h2> - -<p>That evening Pearl had the satisfaction of writing Mr. Wood that -Durland had stopped smoking. She gave the whole scene on the beach. -Never before in all her life had she been amused at writing a letter; -she had looked upon them as a duty to be paid to friendship. But to -this man whom she had never seen she enjoyed writing. It was like -patting Alfred—you could express your friendly emotion without fear of -rousing any response whatsoever. Almost every day she had some progress -to report—Mrs. Conway had consented to keep her jewelry in the safe -in her bedroom provided for the purpose. At first she had positively -refused, asserting that as she could never remember the combination -her jewels remained locked up until an expert was sent down from town -to open the safe; and that for her part she would as lief a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> thief had -them, who might get some fun out of them, as that they stayed locked up -in her safe for the rest of time. But Pearl very competently offered to -make the combination and remember it, and come every morning and get -them out at any hour Mrs. Conway chose. A rumor of burglaries in the -neighborhood induced Edna to yield.</p> - -<p>Then before a week was over algebra became to Durland an illumined -subject, a study of mystic beauty and romantic association. He not -only mastered it in the proud determination to prove that men were not -fools but he invented clever discussions to lengthen his brief hour -into an hour and a half; while Antonia, wondering at his industry, kept -insisting that it was time to go to the public beach.</p> - -<p>All this Pearl wrote, day by day. But she could not write the thing -which of all others she knew Mr. Wood wanted to hear—that Antonia was -dressed like a nice little girl. The best she could say was that the -child was not actually dirty. Nor could she say that she had gained -Mrs. Conway's friendship. That lady remained aloof, a little malicious, -always in the opposition, treating Pearl's triumphs as petty tyrannies -over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> the children's free spirits, treating Pearl's failures as -splendid triumphs in the field of human freedom.</p> - -<p>When Pearl appealed to her with "I don't think Antonia ought to wear -that torn dress to Olive's for tea, Mrs. Conway," Edna would smile and -answer, "You know, Miss Exeter, I can't think those things a matter of -life and death the way you do. I own I should be sorry if at eleven she -thought of nothing but dress."</p> - -<p>"Like Dolly," said Antonia.</p> - -<p>That, Pearl discovered, was the secret of Antonia's dislike of -neatness. She was afraid of being like Dolly—Dolly, who represented -simply everything of which Antonia disapproved.</p> - -<p>All this Pearl wrote to Anthony; long, long letters composed after the -rest of the household were in bed. "It is long after midnight, and I -should be in bed instead of writing——"</p> - -<p>She paused. The well-known illustrator who had done her picture for -the cleaning-fluid firm had told her—and the illustrator was herself -a beautiful woman, experienced in the ways of the world—that all love -letters from unmarried girls ended with the words, "But it is after -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>midnight, and I ought to be in bed instead," whether they were written -at noon or at night.</p> - -<p>Love letters! How absurd!</p> - -<p>Letters which amuse the writer to write rarely fail to amuse the -recipient to read. Pearl's letters, arriving as they did in bunches, -amused him not only on account of their dashing style but on account of -the contrast between this style and the pale demure little person he -remembered. Anything written day by day gains a serial interest; and -Anthony, without newspapers, waited for Pearl's letters as the great -interest of life. He had never felt so intimate with his family as -through her careful description of them. His sister, though a fairly -regular correspondent, had to perfection the art of covering the paper -with sentences which by the time they reached her correspondent meant -nothing. "I did so wonder whether the preserved ginger I ordered for -you had caught your steamer of if the man had mistaken the line—he -seemed so stupid——" Pages like this, when he wanted to hear of the -contemporary life of the children.</p> - -<p>Yet this time the first sentence of his sister's letter interested him:</p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>She arrived the day before yesterday—your priceless -pearl—Antonia's idea of Helen of Troy. But do you think Helen -would have made a comfortable sort of governess? This young woman -is entirely untrained—turns handsprings on the beach and goes -shouting about the tennis courts in a loud Western voice that I -do hope the children won't learn to copy. Dolly, who is, as you -know, the most sensitively refined being that was ever made, is -quite shocked by her. The two younger ones like her well enough, -but I can't imagine her ever having any control over them. I -always think one must be a little disciplined oneself in order -to exercise control over others. I must confess, Anthony, that I -should pack your selection off tomorrow if I had not given you -my word to keep her. Cora quite agrees with me that Miss Exeter -would do better on the variety stage than as a governess. I don't -think there is any news. Durland has entirely given up smoking, -as I always said he would—entirely of his own accord. You don't -believe me, but a mother has a sort of psychic understanding of -her children.</p></blockquote> - -<p>How could he help being on the other side? Yet the letter gave him -something to think about. Helen of Troy—that pale, thin girl! Well, -he should never understand women's estimates of other women's looks. -He laughed aloud over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> the note about Durland's smoking, Edna and her -psychic understanding!</p> - -<p>But thinking of psychic things—and far away in the folds of that -bare Mexican valley Anthony had time to think—something psychic came -from Miss Exeter's letters which he had not felt in her personality. -He could not call it exactly conceit, but it was like a conviction of -beauty. He did not know how to describe it, but it made him think of -an essay by a novelist which he had read, when or where he could not -remember—was it by Stevenson?—in which the writer had spoken of the -uncontrollable way in which heroines whom you constantly described -as lovely kept turning plain and uninteresting on your hands; and -the other way round—how heroines, with just a few words of friendly -description, suddenly walked through your pages as tremendous beauties, -with no assistance from you. Clara Middleton, in the Egoist, had been -cited as one of the latter class. Well, it seemed to him that this -girl was like that. He had seen her—a nice-looking young woman, but -her letters were the letters of a beauty. Probably it was the profound -subconscious egotism of the woman coming out. The point<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> was that she -was getting away with it. He wrote and asked Durland to send him a -photograph of her. But it did not need much diplomacy on the part of -Pearl to prevent its ever being dispatched.</p> - -<p>As a matter of fact, she did not dread discovery very much. It seemed -to her it would be nothing more than an awkward moment—after all, -he already knew her better than he had ever known Augusta—only -before he came back she must have worked all the desired miracles. -Far from dreading his return, she looked forward to it with veiled -excitement—great fun, like taking off your masks at a fancy ball.</p> - -<p>She had been with the Conway family almost a month when she witnessed -the first trial of strength between the hostile factions—Dolly against -Antonia. There was only one spare room in the cottage since the -governess had come. Dolly announced at luncheon, very casually, that -she had invited Allen Williams to spend the following Sunday with them. -Antonia broke out at once with the passionate sense of defeat that -betrays the young. She had invited her best, indeed her only, friend -Olive, who was to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> be abandoned by her family, for the coming Sunday.</p> - -<p>"You said I could ask her, mother. I did ask her—you let me ask her. -I asked her first—before Dolly asked Allen—you said I could"—over -and over again; but Dolly's flashing silence was more impressive. -Pearl knew that it was not so much a question of justice as of trial -by torture. Mrs. Conway would yield to whichever of her children could -inflict the most pain upon her, and that, of course, was Dolly. Dolly -did not reiterate her position like Antonia. Now and then she dropped -a frigid sentence that revealed her argument. Her mother had always -told her she might ask anyone she liked for week ends. She had asked -Allen and he had accepted. As for Olive, she lived in Southampton—why -shouldn't she stay in her own house? It was just as an excuse for -little girls to sit up talking all night and steal food out of the -pantry and get the whole household upset.</p> - -<p>This was shrewd. The last time Olive had come to stay it had resulted -in the loss of a cook. Mrs. Conway remembered this as Dolly spoke. -Her position was painful. She had promised Antonia she could have her -friend this Sunday,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> when Olive's parents were away. But then on the -other hand she had also encouraged Dolly to ask anyone she liked to -the house. Yet she disliked young Williams and feared Dolly's growing -devotion to him. Somebody had already said to her that it was a pity -for Dolly to make herself so conspicuous with him—he was no good, that -young man. But part of her tragedy as a mother was that she sympathized -with her children when thwarted in something in which she knew they -ought to be thwarted. She knew now that Dolly's hold on young William's -interest was of the slightest; she knew that the girl had obtained this -promise of a week end visit with difficulty—perhaps even it was mere -convenience—he wanted to go to some party, or to see some other woman. -Mrs. Conway knew that if she decided in favor of Antonia, as perhaps -strict justice would demand, there never would be any other week end -for Williams. Dolly would lose him; and though this was exactly what -she desired, she could not be so cruel as to bring it about. So she -decided in favor of her elder daughter, and managed as usual to anger -both of them.</p> - -<p>"I'm afraid, my dear," she said to Antonia, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> if she were being -particularly impartial, "that this is one of those terrible occasions -on which you are called upon to be unselfish and noble and all that. I -own I don't care for this young man who says bur-r-rud and wor-ruld, -and seems to me to be quite the dullest person I ever met; but Dolly -is older than you, you know, and must be allowed to have her playmates -first. When you are a big girl and want to have beautiful young morons -to stay——"</p> - -<p>"I hope I shan't ride roughshod over other people's rights," said -Antonia with snapping eyes.</p> - -<p>"I'm sorry my friends must be insulted, mother, just because I have -ventured to invite them to your house. Believe me, if I had a house of -my own I would not trouble you either with my friends or myself."</p> - -<p>Tears rose to Mrs. Conway's eyes. She was so deeply hurt she could not -even pretend that she wasn't; so hurt that she spoke naturally to the -governess when for a second after luncheon, owing to the withdrawal in -opposite directions of her two daughters, she found herself alone with -the interloper.</p> - -<p>"Young people are so cruel," she said. "What<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> more could I do for -Dolly? I sacrifice poor little Antonia, I make the house hers—and she -tells me practically she only stays with me because she has to."</p> - -<p>As Pearl went upstairs Dolly called her into her room—the first time -she had ever done such a thing. But after all the woman with all her -faults had the virtue of not being a member of the family.</p> - -<p>"You see what I mean, Miss Exeter," she said, looking up from polishing -her nails with a feverish rapidity. "Everything in this house is done -for Antonia—or would be if I did not fight for my rights. Nobody likes -to make a scene, but to ask a man like Mr. Williams—you don't know, -but women—older women—married women—like Mrs. Temple—so silly—it -just bores Allen; but he feels he ought to go there, and when he said -he would come here instead, fancy my having to put him off because -Antonia wanted that fat Olive to come, when Olive lives here anyhow."</p> - -<p>Pearl's limpid gray eyes gazed at her sympathetically. It was her -nature to be sympathetic, and presently Dolly was telling her how she -had first met Allen, how he had danced and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> how wonderfully their -steps went together. It seemed as if she had remembered every syllable -that had ever fallen from his lips, and loved to repeat them, though -they were of a conspicuously commonplace character. Then she confided a -secret—he had asked himself. She would never have dared to ask him.</p> - -<p>"Dared!" said Pearl, every inch the feminist.</p> - -<p>"Oh, well," Dolly retreated rapidly, "this house is so full of -uninteresting children like Antonia and Durland—under your feet all -day long; but when Allen said himself, telling how he didn't want to go -to the Temples, 'Why don't you ask me?'——"</p> - -<p>Her voice softened over the remembered tones; of course she had asked -him.</p> - -<p>Pearl's heart sank at this news. She wondered if she were vain to -attach a dread significance to his initiative. She remembered that -peculiar fierce stare from those pale eyes. Well, she wouldn't speak to -him—that was all there was to that.</p> - -<p>Presently she left Dolly and went to knock on Antonia's door, which was -suspiciously shut; usually Antonia lived and dressed open to corridors.</p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> - -<p>Yes, as Pearl feared, Antonia was lying on her bed, crumpled as to -clothes and damp about the cheeks. Miss Exeter could see now, she said; -she was treated like a step-child. Her mother didn't love her as she -loved Dolly, and how could anyone love Dolly?—that's what she couldn't -understand.</p> - -<p>Pearl had not thought it worth while to try to argue Antonia's -case with Dolly, but the child was so clear-minded she did try to -put Dolly's side of the case to her. Antonia admitted it all, but -impatiently.</p> - -<p>"And why is he willing to come," she said—"a man like him? He's just -making a convenience of Dolly, or something. He doesn't think anything -about her at all."</p> - -<p>It was exactly Pearl's own impression. Then why was he coming?</p> - -<p>He came on Friday afternoon by the fast train, and Dolly in her new -pink hat and her white motoring coat—just back from the cleaner and -smelling a little bit of gasoline, but so much more becoming than her -gray one—went to meet him. She and Allen and Mrs. Conway were all -dining out that evening, and Pearl had organized a picnic for herself -and Antonia and Durland, far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> up the beach, with the moon and a fire -of driftwood and a great deal of excellent food. They did not see the -house guest that evening.</p> - -<p>The next morning at half past nine Pearl was obliged to go to the -garage to find Antonia; she was studying the oiling system of the green -car. There was nothing unfriendly in her attitude to study; she was -perfectly willing to learn, if she could only manage to remember that -lesson time had come.</p> - -<p>They had lessons on the piazza. Pearl, looking out over the dazzling -sea and thinking how pleasant a swim was going to be, had said "How -do you spell 'separate,' Antonia?" and Antonia, twining her bare toes -about the calf of the other leg, had got as far as "Well, I know it's -an <i>e</i> where you expect an <i>a</i> or just the other way," when Williams, -bending his head slightly under the curtains, stepped from the dining -room upon the piazza.</p> - -<p>He looked extremely polished and soaped. He had on white trousers, a -gray coat, a blue tie. Antonia, who had never seen him so near before, -stared at him, forgetting even to say good morning. He bowed rather -formally to the governess, but to Antonia he said, "Where were you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> -last evening? I was watching for you and you didn't appear."</p> - -<p>He sat down and drew her toward him with an immaculate brown hand.</p> - -<p>Pearl had never seen Antonia embarrassed before. The child kept -glancing up at Williams as if fascinated, and glancing quickly away -again as if dazzled. Then she turned both knees inward, seemed to dig -her toes into the boards and answered in a low, husky voice that they -had been out on a picnic.</p> - -<p>"I think you might have asked me," said Williams.</p> - -<p>He spoke in that tone of false comedy—as if anything you said to a -child must be ridiculous—that was peculiarly annoying to Pearl.</p> - -<p>Antonia bent her head and muttered that she had not thought he would -have enjoyed it.</p> - -<p>"I should have enjoyed it," he said, and drew Antonia closer, so that -over her head he could give Pearl a hard, significant look.</p> - -<p>Pearl rose to her feet. This was a situation she understood thoroughly. -She was not going to lose another job on account of a man—a boy -rather, younger than herself. In spite of Williams' protests and -teasing efforts to retain the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> child, she swept her up to her bedroom -to finish her lessons. But she no longer had Antonia's full attention.</p> - -<p>When asked again to spell "separate," Antonia answered, "He is -handsome, isn't he?"</p> - -<p>"Not to my mind," Pearl answered firmly. "He's clean and healthy -looking."</p> - -<p>"He's beautifully clean," said Antonia. "Think of going about with -someone like that!" The measure of her collapse might be taken when a -few minutes later she dashed to the window to watch him drive away with -her sister, and turning back she exclaimed sadly, "Gee, I never thought -I'd wish I was Dolly!"</p> - -<p>Pearl thought to herself that there was no great difficulty in seeing -through this young man's plans. He wasn't the kind who wept on the desk -like the third vice president of the Encyclopedia company. No, he was -going to use Antonia's open admiration as an avenue to the governess. -Well, the situation could not prolong itself. This was Saturday, and he -would be going early Monday morning. There oughtn't to be much trouble -in keeping out of his way. She could count on Dolly's coöperation. She -sighed, wishing that Mrs. Conway were more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> friendly. Dolly would keep -him playing golf as late as possible; they would not meet again until -luncheon, and that was perfectly safe.</p> - -<p>She miscalculated. Williams' will was stronger than Dolly's. It was a -day of long, regular waves, high but without force, turned back from -the shore by a northerly wind. Antonia was standing near shore diving -them, wave after wave, and shaking her short hair out of her eyes after -each one passed over her head. Pearl had swum out beyond the line of -breakers and was sitting on a barrel, enjoying the sensation of being -pulled gently in and out as each swell rolled past her. Suddenly on the -shore she saw Williams and Dolly appear in their bathing things. She -understood it all. Dolly had been lured to the beach at this early hour -by the idea of an undisturbed tęte-ŕ-tęte. The girl sat down, as if -confident that Williams was going to do the same, but he stood gazing -out to sea. Pearl felt his eyes reach her, and then he dived into one -of the great crested billows and she saw that he was making straight -for her barrel. He was coming fast, but he was coming under water. When -he reached the barrel Pearl was not there. Looking back, he saw her -almost at the shore. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> - -<p>He was, however, the kind of man in whom opposition rouses a sort of -malignant persistence. All through luncheon she kept catching his pale -eye. She thought Durland noticed it, and hoped that Dolly didn't. -Antonia hardly moved her eyes from his face.</p> - -<p>After lunch, when they were all in the sitting room, Antonia ran away -to get him a match before anyone else had noticed he needed one. Dolly -smiled.</p> - -<p>"What's this, Allen?" she said. "Is Antonia another of your victims?"</p> - -<p>Williams frowned, not because he was in the least annoyed but to -indicate that he was a man impervious to flattery. Pearl had one of her -inspirations.</p> - -<p>"If it's true," she said, "Mr. Williams has it in his power to do us -all a great favor. Do ask him, Dolly, to say to Antonia that he likes -to see a little girl neatly dressed like other little girls."</p> - -<p>"That would, indeed, be a miracle," said Dolly, not wanting anything -Allen might accomplish to be underestimated.</p> - -<p>"Certainly, if I can," said Allen, looking at the governess. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> - -<p>Pearl was standing turning over the papers on the table, ready for -flight, although with Durland and Dolly both in the room she felt -perfectly secure. She was delighted with her idea.</p> - -<p>"It would be a great help in my life," she said, "if you would." And -she looked straight at him and smiled as if she saw before her a -combination of a god and a saint. It was a look that went straight to -his rather stupid head, through which all sorts of ideas began to dance -brightly.</p> - -<p>"And what do I get out of it?" he asked.</p> - -<p>Dolly laughed. "Oh, Allen," she said, "you must not be so mercenary."</p> - -<p>And Pearl, avoiding his hard, demanding eyes, slipped quietly out of -the room just as Antonia returned with the matches.</p> - -<p>Pearl had not been in her room more than five minutes when a knock came -at the door, instantly followed by the entrance of Antonia. The first -impression was that the child was in physical pain. Her whole face was -trembling, her hand was clasped over her mouth, and the instant the -door was shut behind her she burst out crying.</p> - -<p>Mr. Williams had said she was dirty! </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p> - -<p>Pearl, full of pity and feeling horribly guilty, denouncing Williams in -her heart as a heavy-handed idiot, could not but marvel over the power -of romantic love. Everyone, even the adored Durland, had been saying -for years that Antonia was dirty, and eliciting nothing from her but -pitying smiles; and now this agony of shame and remorse was occasioned -by the same words from a total stranger.</p> - -<p>Suffering like this, Pearl knew, could be allayed only by action. She -invented action. Antonia should appear for church the next morning, -clean, faultless, perfect in every detail. Antonia shook her head -dumbly—she had nothing—it was Saturday and all her white dresses were -in the wash—her light-blue crępe de chine had raspberry-ice stains on -it—and she had hidden it away; her green linen was covered with motor -oil. Mrs. Conway's maid had long ago refused to take any responsibility -for Antonia's wardrobe, and Pearl could not blame her.</p> - -<p>But the value of the plan was its difficulty. Antonia's agony would -not have been soothed by anything easy, and this was not easy. It took -all afternoon and most of the evening. Under some crab nets a pair of -gray sučde slippers were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> found, which Pearl cleaned with gasoline and -a little powder; stuffed into the crown of a riding hat to make it -smaller was a pair of fine gray silk stockings; her best black hat, -worn only once, had fallen into the water and was a ruin; but retrimmed -with a pink rose from an evening dress of Pearl's, it looked better -than before. At last a crumpled pink linen dress was discovered wrapped -about some precious phonograph records. Pearl borrowed the maid's -electric iron and went to work at this. She was so tired when she had -finished that she omitted, for the first time, her daily letter to -Anthony.</p> - -<p>Dressing Antonia the next morning was an excitement. The child's -spirits had revived so that she could look at the situation with her -customary detachment.</p> - -<p>"I'm like that thing in the Bible," she said. "I've put away childish -things."</p> - -<p>"It will be great fun, you'll find, being as nice-looking as you can -be," said Pearl.</p> - -<p>Antonia nodded.</p> - -<p>"But the other was fun too," she said.</p> - -<p>Everything turned out exactly as Pearl had intended. Dolly did not -come down to breakfast, and Williams did. So, by a miracle, did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> -Mrs. Conway. Antonia's entrance created a sensation—her carefully -curled hair, her spotless linen, her long slim legs in their gray silk -stockings. Not only Williams but even Durland administered honeyed -words of praise. Mrs. Conway approved of her child, but allowed no -credit to Miss Exeter.</p> - -<p>"It's so silly to worry about those things," she said. "I always knew -that she would eventually begin to take care of her appearance. I shall -write Anthony that feminine vanity has asserted itself just as I knew -it would."</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway and Pearl and Durland and Antonia went to church, -accompanied, as Pearl knew they would be accompanied, by Williams. He -said it was entirely on account of Antonia—was a privilege to go to -church with a little girl who looked as pretty as she did. Although -he spoke in an irritating tone, as if you could make fun of a child -without a child suspecting it, Pearl saw that Antonia was flattered at -receiving any of his priceless attention.</p> - -<p>In the few weeks of Pearl's stay she had become attached to the little -wooden church on the dunes. She always sat so that she could look out -through the door of the south transept, the upper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> half of which was -usually open, and see the ocean; when it was rough it seemed to roll -out a deeper accompaniment than the organ's to:</p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div><i>Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,</i></div> -<div class="center"><i>For those in peril on the sea.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>There was a tradition that this was always sung.</p> - -<p>Sometimes an impatient dog would stand on its hind legs and look in, -seeking a praying master; and once a wolfhound had bounded over the -half door of one transept and, not finding his owner, had bounded out -at the other.</p> - -<p>During the sermon Pearl, it must be confessed, was engaged in composing -her daily report to Anthony. At last she had accomplished the great -achievement—at last she could tell him the thing he most wanted to -hear. She made up her mind that she would begin: "All through church -I looked at Antonia's pretty little profile under a black hat trimmed -with pink roses——" Life presented itself to her in the form of her -letters to Wood, thus offsetting the sense of loneliness that Mrs. -Conway's mocking aloofness caused her. She was still composing when, -after church was over, they walked—Mrs. Conway<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> and Williams ahead and -Pearl with Durland on one side and Antonia on the other—the few yards -that separated the church from the public beach. Antonia's appearance -was much noticed.</p> - -<p>Pearl heard an elderly gentleman murmur to Mrs. Conway, "Your little -daughter is lovely—lovely. Is beauty contagious?" And he gave a -glance at Pearl, who was looking perfectly unconscious but caught Mrs. -Conway's bitter reply: "Thank you; I see you feel she was never exposed -to it before."</p> - -<p>For the first time in her life Antonia was the center of a group -of boys—many of them in their first long trousers; all with stiff -turned-down collars, white against the sunburn and freckles of their -summer complexions. They were telling her, with the perfect candor of -youth, that she might have been the recipient of their attentions long -before this if she had been dressed as she was dressed today.</p> - -<p>"How could I go round the links with a girl without shoes?" one -conservative had wailed, revealing a hidden struggle. And Bill Temple, -Caroline's elder brother, a year older than Durland, and likely to -be junior tennis champion, had said loudly in passing, "Gee, the kid -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>certainly looks great in that get-up!" If he had composed "Helen, thy -beauty is to me——" all in her honor he could not have given her a -fuller joy.</p> - -<p>Pearl was so happy that she allowed her generous nature to lead her -into making an acknowledgment to Williams. She had just heard him agree -to motor to New York after dinner that evening—his stay was a question -of only a few hours now, and on the crowded beach——</p> - -<p>She looked up at him and said, waves of gratitude and friendliness -rolling toward him like a perfume, "We owe all this to you."</p> - -<p>He answered without the least change of expression and in a tone that -did not carry an inch beyond Pearl's left ear, "Have you any idea what -you do to men?—drive them mad——"</p> - -<p>She did not answer at all, but stepped back and allowed other people to -come between them; and presently, knowing that the Conway car would be -crowded, she invited the willing Durland to walk home with her along -the beach.</p> - -<p>There were a good many outsiders at luncheon, and though Williams -followed her closely into the dining room she slipped into a chair -between the two children, and all through the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> meal was aware of -Williams' steady, rather sulky stare from across the table.</p> - -<p>After luncheon was over she disappeared. She had the afternoon to -herself, for Antonia was going out with her mother. Pearl took a -parasol and went and sat on the beach, concealed by the jutting of a -dune. She took a book with her, but hardly read. She sat there for an -hour, and about four, knowing that Dolly and Williams had arranged -to play golf and that she would now have the house to herself, she -went back, thinking about the Sunday papers. Almost the only hardship -she felt in her position was that her rights to the newspapers were -not properly respected—the butler, who was a baseball enthusiast, -regularly removing the papers to the pantry as soon as Mrs. Conway had -read the headlines.</p> - -<p>The sitting room was deserted and the newspapers strewn about the -table—a condition which should have suggested to Pearl that the room -had been too recently occupied for the servants to have had time to -come in and put it to rights. But she didn't think of that. She took up -the first sheet that came to hand and saw a long illustrated article -about the turquoise mines<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> of Mexico, into which she plunged with a -thrill of interest. She was standing with both arms outstretched, her -gold-colored head a little bent.</p> - -<p>Suddenly she felt two hard, masculine arms go round her, a kiss on the -back of her neck, another on her reluctantly turned cheek. It happened -in a second. As she struggled ungracefully, angrily, she saw over -Williams' shoulder the figure of Durland rising from the hammock on the -piazza.</p> - -<p>If Wood had received that batch of Sunday letters at the mine he would -have torn open Pearl's first—as likely to promise the most amusement. -But he got them at his hotel in Mexico City, and conscious of great -leisure—for he was staying there a week or so on his way home while -he dickered over taxes with a governmental department—he adopted a -different method. He ranged them before him inversely in the order of -interest. They came—first Durland's. He wondered what Durland wanted, -for his nephew was never moved to the momentous effort of writing -except under the stress of great financial necessity; second, Edna's; -third, that of Miss Wellington, who did not write often; and last -Pearl's thick typewritten budget. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> - -<blockquote><p><i>Dear Uncle Anthony</i>: I know mother is writing her point of view -about this, and I want you to know the truth. I was there and -mother was not. Miss Exeter could not have helped what happened. -If it was any of our faults it was Dolly's—not only for having -that kind of a thug to stay but for being as usual an hour late in -getting off, so that Miss Exeter thought they had gone. You can -imagine how I felt in seeing a great beast like Williams coming -up behind her and grabbing her like that. I let him know what I -thought, but I would like to have pasted him one on the jaw. I -wish you had been here. Mother is all wrong—a dreadful injustice -is being done a very wonderful woman. She is patient, but I don't -suppose she will stand much more. I wouldn't if I were her.</p> - -<p class="right">Your affectionate nephew,<span class="s3"> </span><br /> -<span class="smcap">Durland Conway</span></p></blockquote> - -<p>Wood tore open his sister's letter. His thought was, "Impossible!"</p> - -<blockquote><p><i>Dear Anthony</i>: I am sorry, after the trouble you took ["A lot you -are," he thought] that your priceless pearl will really have to -go. It has been an impossible situation from the first, but I have -loyally tried to carry it through for your sake—you seemed to -care so much about it. I have never liked the girl. She has a sort -of breezy aggressiveness that I can't stand, and Cora Wellington -felt just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> the same. I did not write you, but that first evening -Cora said to me, "Where is Anthony's judgment—sending you a -girl like that?" I do not like the effect she has had on the -children—taking all the spirit out of poor Durland, and Antonia -appeared dressed for church this morning like a little French doll.</p> - -<p>However, when Durland discovered her this afternoon clasped in -the arms of a detestable young man by the name of Williams—Allen -Williams, whom Dolly, poor child, has had spending Sunday, much -against my inclination—I did feel that things had reached a point -when even you would hardly blame me for getting rid of her. I sent -for the girl and told her she must go. I was surprised and, I own, -hurt, Anthony, when she answered that you had extracted a secret -promise from her not to go until you released her.</p> - -<p>I hope you see what a disagreeable and humiliating position you -have put me in. I think I should have ignored both her promise -and my own, except that the girl has acquired such a hold over -Durland and Antonia that they go on like little maniacs about the -injustice I am doing her. Dolly and Cora entirely agree with me. -However, I have consented to keep her until I get a telegram from -you releasing us both. I do hope you will immediately send it on -the receipt of this letter.</p></blockquote> - -<p>Wood laid the letter down with a feeling of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> the most intense surprise. -Allen Williams—a young man unfavorably known to him as an admirer -of the most conspicuous of the year's Broadway beauties—that man -spontaneously interested in a girl like Miss Exeter—a ruthless, -stupid young animal like Williams attracted by that pale, honest, -intellectual, badly dressed girl—without an effort on her part. No, -that was too much to ask him to believe.</p> - -<p>He opened Cora's letter. Cora wrote a large, sprawling hand, and her -only rule was never to write upon the next consecutive page, so that -her correspondent went hopelessly turning her letters round and about -to find the end of a sentence. Wood caught "——getting herself kissed -in poor Edna's blameless sitting room in broad daylight, and thus -getting rid of her and an undesirable suitor of Dolly's at one fell——"</p> - -<p>He twisted the letter about, trying to find the end of this, but coming -only upon a description of moonlight on the ocean, he tossed it aside -and opened that of the culprit herself.</p> - -<blockquote><p>I regret to say, [it began in vein that struck Wood as none too -serious] that I have caused a scandal. A young man called Williams -tried to kiss me—in fact he did—when I was reading the paper -and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> didn't even know he was in the house. I should have dealt -with him; but Durland, who saw it all, was so cunning and manly, -and ordered him out of the house. Your sister is naturally annoyed -with both of us and won't believe I was not to blame. She keeps -quoting something you once said to Dolly under circumstances -described as similar—that no man kisses a girl if he knows it's -really against her will. If you did say that, Mr. Wood, you're -wrong. If a man wants to kiss a girl something in his psychology -makes him feel sure she wants him to. But the loathsome creepiness -a girl feels at having a man whom she doesn't like touching her is -something no man can possibly understand.</p> - -<p>Williams has behaved technically correctly and actually -horridly—saying sourly enough that it was entirely his fault, -that he alone was to blame, but letting everyone see that he feels -I led him on—only that, of course, a gentleman's lips are sealed. -However, he was instantly shipped back to New York on a slow train -that stops at every station.</p> - -<p>As soon as he was gone Mrs. Conway and I had rather a scene. -She wanted me to go at once. I said I could not go without your -permission. She finally agreed to let me wait until you had been -heard from. I need not say I shall do exactly as you wish. It will -not be particularly easy to stay after this, but I will do it if -you wish—or go—just as you telegraph.</p></blockquote> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> - -<p>Whatever Anthony Wood's faults might be, lack of decision was not -usually one of them. He folded the letters neatly on his table, took -his panama hat from the peg, went to the telegraph office and sent his -sister the following message:</p> - -<blockquote><p>Letters received. Please keep Miss Exeter until my return. Should -be back within two weeks.</p></blockquote> - -<p>And then, rapid decisions being at times dangerously like impulses, he -sent a second one to Miss Exeter herself, which read:</p> - -<blockquote><p>Wish to express my complete confidence in you.</p></blockquote> - -<p>The days before those two messages came were trying ones in the Conway -household, which was now divided into two hostile parties—Pearl, -Durland and Antonia on one hand; Mrs. Conway and Dolly, occasionally -reenforced by Miss Wellington, on the other. Miss Wellington did not -make matters any easier by suggesting to Edna that something similar -must have taken place in the case of Anthony himself—just what you'd -expect from that sort of girl—that hair, that great curved red mouth. -She understood from dear little Dolly that Williams had told her—as -much as a man could tell such a thing—that he could hardly have done -anything else. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> - -<p>What Williams had really said, for few men are as bad as their adoring -women represent them, was that her mother was taking the incident too -seriously.</p> - -<p>Pearl could not have borne life if it had not been for her daily -letter, which she continued to write. Mrs. Conway hardly spoke to her; -and if she did, she spoke slowly, enunciating every word carefully as -if Pearl's moral obliquity had somehow made her idiotic. Durland, loyal -to the death, was not much help, because he merely hated his family -and scowled through every meal. Antonia, on the other hand, was one of -those rare natures who could be an ally without being a partisan.</p> - -<p>"Of course," she would say calmly to anyone who would listen to her, -"Allen only came here at all in the hope of seeing Miss Exeter, but you -can't expect Dolly to understand that."</p> - -<p>Anthony's two telegrams arrived one evening at dinnertime and were -handed by the butler, one to Mrs. Conway and one to the governess. -Pearl's heart sank on seeing there were two. She thought it must mean -he was deciding against her; and though she found her present position -unpleasant, she did not want Mr. Wood to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>decide against her. She -opened hers and read its few words at one glance. It was not her habit -to blush, but she blushed now with a deep emotion—of gratitude and -admiration. Not many men would have stood by her, she thought, in a -situation like this. She knew where Antonia got her sense of justice. -Or, she thought with something very like jealousy, was it really -Augusta in whom he was expressing his confidence, not in her at all? -Yes, of course, anyone who had once seen Augusta would feel confidence -in her.</p> - -<p>The next day she settled back to the routine—lessons with Antonia and -then with Durland—the public beach—a silent luncheon—then sometimes -a little feeble tennis with Antonia; but more often now her mother took -the child out with her, as if Pearl were not a proper person to be -given charge of a pure young child. Left alone, Pearl would take her -book and parasol and retire to the Conway's beach. She seldom read, -for, to be candid, she was not a great reader; but she would sit and -stare at the empty sea—empty at least if the wind were from the south; -but when it turned and blew from the north, then the whole ocean would -be dotted with fishing boats out of Gardiner's Bay; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> Pearl, lying -there idly, would watch the rowboats putting out and taking in the -nets. Sometimes Antonia was permitted to be her companion, and then -she read aloud to the child. Antonia was in the stage of development -when she loved poetry, but poetry of a stirring, narrative quality—The -Ballad of East and West, The Revenge, The Burial of Moses. She would -lie with her head in Miss Exeter's lap, gazing up into the unquenchable -blue of the sky, and say "I'm going to learn that one by heart," and -would get as far as the second verse when it was time to go in and -dress. After dinner Pearl and Durland would play Russian bank, which he -had proudly and lovingly taught her; and Dolly and Mrs. Conway would -run over to Miss Wellington's, where they could abuse the governess to -their heart's content.</p> - -<p>One night—just between night and day—Pearl woke with an overmastering -sense of dread. She had been dreaming that the sea, a perpendicular -wall miles and miles high, was coming over the dunes. After two or -three days of damp heat the waves had been rising; local weather -prophets were talking about the August twister. Now, as she sat up in -bed, listening and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> looking into the dark, she became aware that the -wind had risen; the wooden house was creaking and trembling like a ship.</p> - -<p>She was frightened, as an animal must be frightened without reason and -out of all proportion. In the medley of little sounds she thought she -detected the sound of something hostile. The pearls—she thought of the -pearls.</p> - -<p>It would have been easy to lock her door—no, not easy, for as she sat -rigid in her bed she found the idea of motion terrifying; but she could -have summoned courage to cross the floor and lock the door. Only, Pearl -was afflicted by a sense of responsibility.</p> - -<p>She turned on her light—that helped her. She was no longer terrified -like an animal; she was merely frightened like a human being. She got -up, put on her dressing gown and, crossing the hall by a supreme effort -of courage, entered Mrs. Conway's darkened room. Perfectly gentle, -regular breathing greeted her ear. She knew where the switch was and -turned on the light.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway sat up in bed and said, "Is anything wrong—the children?"</p> - -<p>Pearl's fears melted in the face of human companionship. She felt calm -again and rather<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> foolish as she explained that she had felt alarmed -for no special reason—had thought about the pearls. Mrs. Conway -glanced at the closed safe.</p> - -<p>"I thought," she said, "that the argument for keeping valuables in the -safe was that we could sleep calmly. The safe can't be opened unless -you give the combination."</p> - -<p>"It was childish of me," said Pearl. "I was frightened."</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway smiled at her more kindly than she had ever done. It -was one of the contradictions in her nature that she was physically -brave—a fact obscured to most observers on account of her moral -cowardice. Like most brave people, she was kind to the timid.</p> - -<p>"It's the storm," she said. "It gets on some people's nerves. I hope -the roof isn't leaking; it nearly always does in one of these storms. -What were you afraid of?"</p> - -<p>"I don't exactly know," said Pearl.</p> - -<p>"Would you like me to go back to your room with you? Would you like to -sleep on my sofa?" Edna asked.</p> - -<p>But that was too ignominious. A faint wild dawn was breaking, and Pearl -knew that with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> the night her terror had gone. She went back to bed.</p> - -<p>The next morning the wind was still blowing like a hurricane from -the south, though the rain had stopped. Great waves were running -up the beach, in some places as far as the sand hills, and forming -a long, narrow pool at the base of the dunes. As soon as lessons -were over Antonia dragged Miss Exeter to the beach—it was no easy -matter, for the wind blew the sand stingingly against face and hands. -There was no use in going to the public beach that morning, for the -bathing apparatus of barrels and life lines had been washed away, the -bathhouses were threatened, and there was a rumor that the sea was -washing into Lake Agawam.</p> - -<p>Pearl and Antonia sat on their own dunes, watching the wild scene, -and suddenly Antonia said, "Look here, Miss Exeter, I want to ask you -something. Perhaps I oughtn't to."</p> - -<p>Pearl had so completely lost any sense of having a guilty secret that -she answered tranquilly, "Go ahead."</p> - -<p>"Is Uncle Anthony in love with you—like Mr. Williams?"</p> - -<p>Ah, Pearl knew what that meant: Antonia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> had taken a long drive with -her mother and Miss Wellington the day before! She picked her words -carefully.</p> - -<p>"I only saw your uncle once," she said.</p> - -<p>"But Allen only saw you once or twice—and look at the darn thing!"</p> - -<p>"Mr. Williams is not in the least in love with me."</p> - -<p>"Miss Wellington said that some women have the power of rousing——"</p> - -<p>"Antonia, I don't want to hear what she said."</p> - -<p>"You don't like her, do you?"</p> - -<p>"No."</p> - -<p>"Shake," said Antonia heartily. "I don't like her, though she's very -kind to me; but it doesn't seem to me"—Antonia's voice took on the -flavor of meditation—"that she quite tells the truth. For instance, -just before Uncle Anthony went away, she telephoned to him one morning -and asked him to come over. He was playing a game of parcheesi with -me—I'd teased him a good deal to play—and he said he couldn't come, -and she—well, I couldn't hear what she was saying, but at last he -said, rather ungraciously, 'All right then, I'll come.' And he went, -and he took me with him. And we only stayed about ten <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>minutes, -although she wanted us to stay longer. And then later at the bathing -beach I heard her telling someone that she was late—she was sorry—she -couldn't help it, because Anthony Wood came in just as she was -starting—of course she adored having him run in like that, but it did -take a good deal of one's time—'one's time'—that's what she said. I -call that a lie, don't you?"</p> - -<p>"I certainly do," said Pearl.</p> - -<p>"That's what I like about you, Miss Exeter; you say right out what -you think—even to a child." Antonia looked thoughtful. "It's a great -mistake not to tell children the truth; it makes it so hard for them -to know what to do. For instance, we have an aunt—a great aunt—Aunt -Sophia. She's awful, or as you would say, just terrible, but it seems -she's going to leave us all her money. Now if mother would tell us -that, it would be simple; but she doesn't. She says to be nice to Aunt -Sophia because she's such a dear. She isn't a bit a dear. So I had -to find out all by myself why mother, who's so awful to most of her -relations, is so nice to Aunt Sophia. I did. And it's the same thing -about my father. He tried to kidnap me once—at least he met me on my -way to school and asked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> me to take a drive with him. I wouldn't do -it. Mother said it was lucky I didn't. But it wasn't luck. It was good -judgment. Grown-up people are queer about that. When they do something -wise they say it was wise. But when a child does something wise they -say it was lucky. Children have more sense than people think; they have -to have."</p> - -<p>"You have," said Pearl, who had never thought of all this before.</p> - -<p>"Now this morning, do you know why mother wanted to get us all out of -the house?" Antonia continued.</p> - -<p>Pearl felt tempted to say that Mrs. Conway always wanted to get her -out of the house, but she merely shook her head, and Antonia went on, -"Because she is going to have an interview with my father."</p> - -<p>"With your father?" Pearl sprang to her feet. "Are you sure?"</p> - -<p>Antonia nodded.</p> - -<p>"When mother is going to see father she looks the way I feel as if -I looked when I'm going to the dentist—don't you know, you say to -yourself, 'I wouldn't think twice about this if I were brave'—and then -you think about it all the time.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> You know, mother doesn't think she -tells us everything, but she really does, except about my father. And -so, you see, if it's something about my father I always know, because -mother's worried without saying why."</p> - -<p>This reasoning seemed sound to Pearl. She felt that in order to fulfill -Anthony's instructions she must go to Mrs. Conway's assistance at once. -She did not like to burst in upon them from the open windows of the -sitting-room, and so ran round the house to the front door. A small, -shabby automobile was standing in the circle, and as Pearl bounded up -the steps a man came out quickly and got into it—a pale man, with long -white hands and something of Durland's birdlike quality. She saw that -she was too late. She went into the sitting-room.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway was standing in the middle of the room, supporting one -elbow in one hand and two fingers of the other resting against her -chin. She looked so white that every grain of rouge seemed to stand -out—away from her cheeks. She turned her eyes coldly upon Pearl.</p> - -<p>"Well?" she said.</p> - -<p>Pearl had not thought at all what she was going to say, and blurted -out, "Oh, Mrs. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>Conway, I thought you might need me! I thought I could -help you if—Mr. Wood said——"</p> - -<p>Edna, rather to her own surprise, suddenly lost her temper.</p> - -<p>"I'm tired of being considered a perfect fool," she said. "Anthony! -I know what Anthony thinks—that I'm always going to give Gordon -all the children's money. As a matter of fact, I know better than -anyone—though it isn't always very easy to say no, no, no, to a man -who has been your husband and who insists if he had five dollars he -could make a fortune; but I do say it—I always have—always—almost -always. It's a little too much to be watched over and lectured by you, -Miss Exeter."</p> - -<p>After which speech Mrs. Conway left the room.</p> - -<p>Luncheon was more than usually silent that day, although Edna attempted -to take an interest in the children's morning, asking whether it had -been pleasant in the water.</p> - -<p>"My goodness, mother," Antonia answered, "have you looked at the water? -We'd certainly have been drowned if we'd gone in."</p> - -<p>After lunch was over Edna was obliged to address Miss Exeter directly. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I think you went off this morning without unlocking my safe," she said.</p> - -<p>"Oh, I'm sorry," said Pearl.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway smiled faintly.</p> - -<p>"It was quite what I expected—it always happens with safes," she said. -"But now perhaps you will get me my pearls."</p> - -<p>Pearl went eagerly, and as she went she remembered that she had -remembered to unlock the safe—just before she went to the beach with -Antonia. Yes, as she thought, the safe was very slightly ajar. She took -the long, slim, blue velvet case from its compartment and brought it to -Mrs. Conway in the drawing-room.</p> - -<p>It was empty!</p> - -<p>The surprise was like a physical blow, and yet no one at first supposed -that the pearls were actually gone. Mrs. Conway, as so often happens to -anyone who has sustained a loss, was instantly severely lectured by her -three children on her habitual carelessness.</p> - -<p>Then a superficial search was made on her dressing table, on the glass -shelves in the bathroom. Then a recapitulation was made—a joint effort -on the part of everybody—of just what had occurred since the pearls -were last seen. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> - -<p>Everyone agreed that Mrs. Conway had been wearing them at dinner -the night before. She had gone to bed rather early, and distinctly -remembered that she had put the pearls in their slim blue velvet -case and put the case in the safe and shut the safe, which was then -automatically locked. She did not remember seeing the safe unlocked in -the morning.</p> - -<p>No, Pearl explained, the reason for this was that she, Pearl, had -knocked at the door about eleven, just after finishing Durland's -algebra lesson. There had been no answer, because Mrs. Conway was in -her bath—her bathroom opened out of her bedroom. Pearl had been in a -hurry, so that she had just run and unlocked the safe and had called to -Mrs. Conway that it was unlocked. There had been no one in the room at -the time; but the maid—the maid had been Dolly's nurse when she was a -baby, and was therefore absolutely above suspicion—had been sewing in -the next room.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway did not contradict this story. She simply raised her -eyebrows and said that she had not noticed that the safe was open.</p> - -<p>Evidently it must have been open all day long—very unfortunate. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> - -<p>Pearl felt and probably looked horribly guilty. Of course she ought -to have looked to see whether the pearls were in their case when she -opened the safe. She usually did. She remembered, too, her strange -terror of the night before. Was it possible that that had been based -on something real? Had she really heard a footstep under the noise of -the storm? Could there have been a burglar in the house, hidden perhaps -all night, and stepping out at the right moment about noon when the -upstairs rooms were deserted?</p> - -<p>It was Pearl who insisted on telephoning to New York for a detective. -Mrs. Conway at first objected and said she would feel like a goose if -the pearls were immediately discovered—caught in the lace of her tea -gown, or something like that. But Pearl was quite severe. If there had -been a robbery, she knew that every minute was of importance.</p> - -<p>Just before dinner she called an agency. Two detectives arrived by -motor about ten o'clock that night. They had a long secret conference -with Mrs. Conway. Then one went back to New York and the other—the -head man, Mr. Albertson—took up his residence in the house. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> - -<p>Pearl went to bed more worried than ever. It didn't seem to her that -the detectives had really taken hold of the situation. She herself -could think of a dozen things they might have done that night. It did -not occur to her that their first action was to look up the past record -of everyone in the household.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER FOUR</h2> - -<p>Human nature being as it is, it is probable that the loss of the pearls -was nothing to Edna Conway in comparison with the satisfaction of being -able to telegraph her brother that his priceless Pearl was suspected of -having stolen them. She was a kind-hearted woman and would not normally -have wished to put even the most degraded criminal in prison; but there -seemed an ironic justice in the fact that a woman sent to reform the -manners of her children should turn out to be a thief. She valued her -pearls too. They were not only beautiful and becoming but they had a -sentimental association. Her husband had given them to her when they -were first married, after a tremendous success at Monte Carlo. They had -cost a great deal of money in the days when pearls were cheap, and yet, -as he had got them from a ruined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> Polish nobleman, they had not cost -their full value. He had said to her as he gave them to her, "There, my -dear, if I never give you anything else——" As a matter of fact, he -never had given her anything else; in fact, he had often tried to take -them away from her when things had first begun to go wrong. But Edna -had managed to cling to them, feeling that they would always keep away -that wolf which idle well-to-do middle-aged women appear to dread more -than any other group in the community.</p> - -<p>Edna was not only kind-hearted but she was normally utterly lacking -in persistence; she would not have been able to conceal suspicions -from anyone over a protracted period. But malice is a powerful motive, -and she managed in the days that followed the loss to play her part -admirably. The idea that Anthony was already hurrying home to meet the -imposter who had slipped into the real Miss Exeter's place gave her a -determination she usually lacked.</p> - -<p>It was perhaps stupid of Pearl not to guess that her fraud had been -detected as soon as the detectives set to work. But Pearl was so much -interested in the recovery of the jewels that it never crossed her -mind she herself was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>suspected. She did notice a slight change for -the better in Mrs. Conway's manner—a certain sugary sweetness—a -willingness to be in the same room with her, especially if the -detectives were for any reason busy—a new interest in all her plans.</p> - -<p>The thought that occupied her mind was the idea that Wood was on his -way home; that at last she and the man she had been writing to every -day for weeks were to meet face to face. How could he fail to be -pleased with her—she who had made Antonia neat, Durland studious, and -had at least suggested to Dolly's egotism that there were other women -in the world at least as attractive as she? Pearl thought a great deal -about their first meeting; there would be a certain awkwardness about -it, especially if it took place in the presence of the family, as it -probably would. Still, she could manage it. She would say in a few -simple words that she was Augusta Exeter's best friend, and had taken -her place. He was sure to be amused and smile that nice smile which -Augusta had described. The interview went on and on in her imagination, -a different way each time she imagined it; but always agreeable, always -exciting, always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> ending in Mr. Wood expressing his gratitude and -admiration.</p> - -<p>Yet this man about whom she was thinking so constantly was actually -speeding toward her, feeling as bitter about her as it is possible to -feel about a person you have never seen. We forgive anything better -than being made ridiculous. It was not mere vanity, though, that made -Anthony so angry. He knew that much of his power over his sister had -been destroyed. Everything that he suggested in the future would be met -by Edna's amused "Another priceless pearl, Anthony." Yes, he said to -himself as he sat with folded arms and stared out of the train window, -he had made a fool of himself. What did he know of the real Miss -Exeter? He had no one but himself to blame.</p> - -<p>He had been on the point of starting home when he received Edna's -second telegram announcing her loss. Everyone, as the author of -Cranford has observed, has a pet economy, and Edna's economy was -telegrams. She never cabled or telegraphed if she could help it, and -then she usually obscured her meaning by compressing it into as few -words as possible. When Anthony opened this one and saw its great -length<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> and her name at the bottom of it he knew that something was -terribly wrong. It said:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>Pearls stolen from safe. Only governess had combination. -Detectives discover she is imposter. Real Miss Exeter married and -went to Canada two days after you saw her in New York. This woman -has no idea she is suspected. Is closely watched and has had no -opportunity of disposing of jewels. Pearls thought to be still on -place or hidden on beach. Please return immediately. Be careful -about telegrams. She might get them first.</p></blockquote> - -<p>As soon as Anthony read that message he felt a conviction that it was -all true. Whether or not she had stolen the pearls, he knew she was an -imposter, for he realized now that he had known from the beginning that -he had been in correspondence with a beautiful woman. He had tried to -tell himself that the quality he felt in her letters was the vanity -of a plain one, but all along he had known in his heart that in some -strange and subtle way beauty had exuded from every line she wrote. He -had been made a fool of by a beautiful and criminal woman. Well, he -would hurry home and settle that score in short order. He was not a -cruel man, he said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> to himself, but this did not seem a situation that -called for mercy.</p> - -<p>It was, of course, necessary that someone should meet Anthony on his -arrival in New York and acquaint him with all the details. As Edna was -unwilling to leave her household, the duty fell to Miss Wellington, who -complained a great deal and leaped at the chance.</p> - -<p>So when Anthony got off the train in the Pennsylvania Station there was -not only his secretary but his old friend, Cora Wellington, waiting -to greet him. The secretary remained to see about the bags, while he -and Miss Wellington drove to his apartment. The robbery was still a -secret—not to be told to the papers—even the secretary did not know -of it. As they drove up the long incline to the level of Seventh Avenue -Cora said the thing that Anthony wanted to hear and yet would not say -even to himself:</p> - -<p>"Really, Anthony, I think Edna might have guessed that it was not the -governess you had sent. You couldn't have selected such a person—dyed -yellow hair and a sort of exuberant, almost coarse good looks that you -wouldn't admire in any woman and would not tolerate in a governess, I'm -sure." </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> - -<p>It was agreeable to hear, but he would not admit it.</p> - -<p>"Poor old Edna," he said. "I don't feel exactly in a position to -criticize. This woman must be clever."</p> - -<p>"Clever!" exclaimed Miss Wellington. "It's uncanny! Instantly she -obtained an almost hypnotic influence over Durland and Antonia. Even -Dolly was on the point of succumbing—if it had not been that the -woman overreached herself in her affair with young Williams. Between -ourselves, Anthony, though I haven't said this to Edna, I don't feel -at all sure that that affair did not go a great deal further than the -kiss."</p> - -<p>Anthony frowned in silence. This was almost more than he could bear. -He said to himself that it was the idea of Antonia being brought into -contact with such a situation that disgusted him.</p> - -<p>Cora was kind enough to sit in his drawing-room and wait while he had -a bath and dressed. It was a nice room and she thought as she waited -how she would rearrange the furniture if ever she should come to live -there. There were photographs of the children about—Antonia as a baby, -Durland in his first sailor suit, a picture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> of Edna with the three -children grouped about her like English royalties.</p> - -<p>She was wearing the pearls.</p> - -<p>Then Anthony came out of his room, looking handsome and sleek and brown -and very well dressed in blue serge; and they went out and had luncheon -together, and then started at once for their drive of a hundred miles -in Anthony's car.</p> - -<p>She answered all his questions—and one he did not ask. She -volunteered: "I must confess, Anthony, when I first saw this girl—saw -how unsuitable she was—I felt your wonderful judgment must have been -clouded by your having fallen in love with her."</p> - -<p>"Recollect, please," he returned, "that even if it had been the girl I -saw, I had only seen her once."</p> - -<p>"Don't people fall in love at first sight?"</p> - -<p>Anthony smiled.</p> - -<p>"I don't," he said; and he went on to describe the slow process by -which a love which can be depended on to last must necessarily grow.</p> - -<p>To Miss Wellington, who had known Anthony for fifteen years, the -description was perfectly satisfactory. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> - -<p>They reached Edna's house a little after five. Dolly had gone away -the day before to soothe her wounded feelings at a house party in -the Adirondacks. Durland was playing golf and Antonia having supper -with her friend Olive. Edna alone received the traveler. She did not -reproach him; she gave him the greeting of a woman simply crushed by -anxiety.</p> - -<p>He said, "I'm awfully sorry about this, Edna. You've had a disagreeable -time—aside from the pearls, I mean."</p> - -<p>She raised her large sullen eyes.</p> - -<p>"If only you had not made me promise, Tony—so that I was not free -to turn a thief out of my house until she had actually stolen my -valuables. A woman has an intuition when she's allowed to follow it."</p> - -<p>He had not a word to say in answer. He had an interview with the -detective—the head man, Mr. Albertson; the other one was engaged in -watching Miss Exeter—the false Miss Exeter, who was sitting, as her -custom was of an afternoon, on the beach. It was this habit of sitting -for hours alone on the beach that had led to the theory that the pearls -were hidden there, waiting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> the right opportunity to be dug up and -dispatched to a confederate.</p> - -<p>Mr. Albertson was a tall, gray-haired man of the utmost dignity. -His figure would have been improved by a faithful addiction to the -daily dozen, and his feet were extraordinarily large. He had a calm, -grand manner and was extremely chivalrous in his attitude toward all -women—even those he was engaged in sending to jail. He reminded -Anthony of the walrus—or was it the carpenter?—who wept so bitterly -for the oysters while he sorted out those of the largest size. Mr. -Albertson melted with pity for that sweet young creature as he -detailed the growing mass of evidence against her: The burglaries in -Southampton since her coming; the fact that she had insisted on having -the combination of the safe; the fact that Mrs. Conway had locked the -pearls in the safe and that only Miss Exeter had gone to the safe -afterward; the mysterious appearance of Miss Exeter in Mrs. Conway's -room during the night before the robbery, and, of course, her alias. -It had been largely a matter of form, Mr. Albertson said—the sending -of his men to look up her record. It had been a shock to them all to -find that the agency which had <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>originally sent Wood the names of -governesses could offer proof that their Miss Exeter had married and -gone to Canada. So far they had not been able to get any information as -to this woman who had slipped into her place. Some of her things had a -P on them. Mr. Albertson mentioned that there was a notorious English -thief—Golden Polly or Golden Moll.</p> - -<p>"She's called by both names," said Mr. Albertson. "This girl answers -her description very good."</p> - -<p>Wood nodded. Had he in fact been getting a daily letter all these weeks -from Golden Moll? The idea intrigued him not a little.</p> - -<p>"I think I'll go and have a talk with her," he said.</p> - -<p>"By all means, by all means," said Mr. Albertson. "We've just been -waiting for you, you know—just to see how she'll act when confronted -with you. She hasn't a notion, you know, that you've left Mexico. But," -he went on in his deep rich voice, "I'd speak her fair if I was you. -Kindness, Mr. Wood, never does any harm. What are we put in this world -for except to help each other—women especially? If I was you I'd say, -'Look, girlie, we want to help you. We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> have you dead to rights, and -you'd better come across. Come across, girlie,' I'd say, 'and make it -easy for everyone.'" Mr. Albertson had already recommended this speech -to Mrs. Conway without success, and now it seemed to him that Mr. Wood -was not really going to make it.</p> - -<p>"Ay, yes," Anthony said rather noncommittally.</p> - -<p>He turned from Mr. Albertson quietly, as is some people's manner when -they are doing something important and, crossing the piazza, stood a -moment at the top of the steps.</p> - -<p>The sun had just set behind his right shoulder, and to those who love -the sea the bare flat scene had at this moment an extraordinary beauty. -All round the circle of the horizon there was a grayish lilac color. -The sea was blue and gray, the beach was pink, with gray shadows under -the dunes—strange blending colors that come with no other light. -The storm was over, and the sea, though not smooth, was heaving with -a slow, regular swell. The beach, even to the dunes, was strewn still -with seaweed and lumber and all the flotsam and jetsam of a high tide.</p> - -<p>Immediately in front of Anthony was a large rose-colored parasol, the -owner of which had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> evidently forgotten to put it down, although for an -hour now it could have been of not the slightest use. Nothing appeared -beneath it but the tip of a white sučde slipper.</p> - -<p>Anthony stood and looked, a smile hovering at the corners of his mouth. -There she was—possibly the Golden Moll of Albertson's suspicions, -certainly the writer of interesting letters, the reformer of his -niece's manners, the stealer of the pearls.</p> - -<p>Then he heard Antonia's voice behind him, calling his name. Ordinarily -she would have stolen up behind him and clung round his neck with her -feet off the ground; but now she evidently wanted him to get the full -effect of her changed appearance, for she stood ten feet off and spoke -to him. Oddly enough, she was wearing the very clothes which Pearl -had described—the pink linen, the hat with the pink rose, the gray -silk stockings and gray sučde pumps. Nothing, Anthony thought, could -have been more accurate. The child was very beautiful, just as he had -hoped—hardly dared to hope—to see her.</p> - -<p>She gave him just that second to take her all in, and then sprang at -his neck. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Oh, don't you think I look nice?" she said passionately. "It's all -Miss Exeter—your priceless pearl—and she is priceless. Don't you -think I look nice? I like her better almost than anyone I ever knew, -because she's so straight. Don't you think I look nice?"</p> - -<p>"Indeed I do," said her uncle. He managed to free his neck from the -yoke of Antonia's arms and held her off and turned her round. "Yes," he -said, "you look exactly as I like to see you."</p> - -<p>Antonia smiled and then sighed.</p> - -<p>"I feel every stitch I have on," she said, "particularly the shoes -and stockings." She raised first one leg and then the other and shook -it, with a gesture not at all graceful. "I've never worn them except -in winter before. But still, it does make a difference in one's -popularity—clothes—particularly with boys. Boys are funny, Uncle -Anthony."</p> - -<p>Nothing interested Anthony more than to discuss the problems of life -with his niece, but at the moment his mind was not sufficiently -disengaged. He was sorry to interrupt her, but he was obliged to go and -have a few words with her governess.</p> - -<p>"That's all right," said Antonia. "I'll go too."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> And she slipped her -arm through his and, leaning her head against the point of his shoulder -prepared to descend the steps.</p> - -<p>But Anthony explained to her that he wished to talk to Miss Exeter by -himself. Antonia was disappointed. She had looked forward to being -present when her uncle and the governess met again, but she adjusted -herself as usual.</p> - -<p>"There's Mr. Albertson," she said. "I'll get him to come and sit with -me while I have supper, and tell me stories of crime. He says there -aren't any people like Sherlock Holmes, and that stories like that make -it hard for real detectives. I suppose that's true, and yet it's horrid -to face facts sometimes, isn't it, Uncle Anthony? It makes real life -seem pretty dull sometimes."</p> - -<p>"Real life is not dull, Antonia," said her uncle, "take it from me."</p> - -<p>He watched her safely into a conversation with Mr. Albertson, and then, -with his hands in his pockets, he sauntered down the steps, across the -sand toward that rose-colored parasol.</p> - -<p>"Good afternoon, Miss Exeter," he said pleasantly.</p> - -<p>It had been kept a profound secret that Anthony was on his way -home. The detectives had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> pointed out to Mrs. Conway that this was -important—that if the woman knew she was about to be unmasked she -might be goaded into sudden action—perhaps even into destroying the -pearls.</p> - -<p>Hearing a strange voice calling her by name, Pearl came out of a -trance into which the sunset and the sea had thrown her; glancing up -from under her parasol, she saw at once that the speaker was Anthony -Wood, and that he was exactly as she had imagined him. Seeing this, -her heart gave a peculiar leap, and she beamed at him, more freely and -wonderfully than she had ever beamed at anyone in the world. The look -affected him—it would have affected any man; not just her beauty, for -he had seen a good deal of beauty in his day, but this warm, generous -honesty combined with beauty was something he had never seen. For -a second or two they just looked at each other, Pearl beaming and -beaming, and Wood looking at her, his face like a dark mask, but his -turquoise eyes piercing her heart.</p> - -<p>She spoke first. She said in her queer deep voice, "Oh, I'm so glad -you've come, Mr. Wood."</p> - -<p>"Are you?" he said.</p> - -<p>Of all the sentences with which she might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> have greeted him—sentences -of excuse, of explanation, of appeal—he had never thought of her -saying this, and saying it with all the manner of joy and relief.</p> - -<p>"Indeed I am," she went on, still on that same note. "Have you seen -Antonia?"</p> - -<p>"Yes, I have."</p> - -<p>"And isn't she——"</p> - -<p>"We'll leave that for a moment," he said, for her effrontery began -to annoy him, and his tone was curt. But instead of being alarmed or -apologetic, she gave a little chuckle.</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes, I know," she said; "of course you want an explanation; only I -wanted to be sure you'd seen my great achievement first, for it is an -achievement, isn't it?"</p> - -<p>His eyebrows went up.</p> - -<p>"Do you really expect to be praised for anything you may have done," -he said, "before you offer some explanation as to why you are here -masquerading as Miss Exeter?"</p> - -<p>Pearl's face fell. He was really quite cross. It seemed hard to her -that the meaningless sort of beam with which she accompanied a casual -good morning had been enough to reduce the third vice president to -weeping on his desk,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> while a particularly concentrated beam—a beam -designed to say in a ladylike, yet unmistakable manner that the one -man of all men was now standing before her—seemed to have no effect -whatsoever on said man. She tried it nevertheless.</p> - -<p>Anthony, seeing it, suddenly became angry. Did this woman, he thought, -who was perhaps a thief and was certainly an impostor, really suppose -she was going to charm him, Anthony Wood, by her mere beauty—he who -was well known to be indifferent to women? She would learn——</p> - -<p>But what she would learn was not formulated, for she now surprised -him by jumping to her feet and running like a gazelle toward the -sea, crying out something to him which he did not catch. He started, -however, in full pursuit—his first thought being that she intended -to drown herself; the second that she meant to fling the pearls into -the sea—the well-known trick of destroying the evidence in a tight -place. She ran on. The sea was up to her knees—up to her waist, fully -dressed as she was; she was now swimming. They had the sea entirely to -themselves. Even the detectives, trusting to Mr. Wood, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> withdrawn -for a bite to eat; and at five o'clock all those fortunate people who -come to the seaside for the summer are engaged in golfing or playing -bridge, and seem to ignore the existence of the Atlantic Ocean.</p> - -<p>Anthony had hesitated at the brink of the sea long enough to take off -first his shoes, second his watch and third the light coat which he -had worn driving the car, so that he was some little distance behind -her. Swimming hard and for the most part under water, he did not see -for some time the object which had attracted Pearl's attention. Neither -suicide nor the pearls were the object of her plunge, but a small white -dog which appeared to be drowning. Some children up the beach had been -throwing sticks for it, and now at the end of a long afternoon it had -got caught in some current and was obviously in trouble, every third or -fourth wave washing over its little pointed nose.</p> - -<p>Pearl, never doubting that Wood was actuated by the same motives as -herself, panted out, "Can we get there in time?"</p> - -<p>He came alongside her now.</p> - -<p>"You're not going to drown too!" he said.</p> - -<p>She shook her wet head. Together they towed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> the exhausted little -creature back. As soon as she could walk Pearl picked it up in her arms -and strode ashore.</p> - -<p>"Don't you think it was a crime for those children to go away and leave -him like that?" Her gray eyes, instead of beaming, glowed angrily.</p> - -<p>"Are you so against crime?" said Anthony, trying to smooth the water -out of his hair.</p> - -<p>She did not even take the trouble to answer but became absorbed in -tending the dog. It was a white dog, at least its hair was white; but -now, soaked and plastered to its body, the general effect was of a -cloudy pink with gray spots. It was the offspring probably of a spotted -carriage dog and a poodle. Between it and Pearl a perfect understanding -seemed to have been at once established. She knelt beside it, and -suddenly looking up at Anthony with one of her spreading smiles, she -said, "I'm afraid it's awfully ugly."</p> - -<p>"It has personality," he answered. He could not but be aware that -Pearl's thin dress was clinging to her almost as closely as the dog's -soft coat.</p> - -<p>"Let me have your coat," she said. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> - -<p>He held it out, expecting that she meant to put it on, for every line -of her figure was visible, and every line was lovely. But Pearl was -utterly unconscious of herself. She took the coat and wrapped the dog -in it, so that only its head stuck out, with its adoring eyes turned -to her. As he watched her he found he knew positively that she had not -taken the pearls. It was no logical process; he did not say, "This girl -is too kind or too generous or too without selfconsciousness or too -much at peace." Perhaps it was a combination of all these ideas, or -perhaps it was just the miracle of personality; but somehow or other he -knew positively and for all time that she was not a thief; that she, -on the contrary, was just what in his opinion a woman ought to be. He -looked down at the bent golden head, dripping pure drops of crystal. -Dyed! What a spiteful goose Cora Wellington was!</p> - -<p>Then Durland came down the steps.</p> - -<p>"What's happened?" he asked.</p> - -<p>"We've been rescuing a dog," said Anthony. "Miss—Exeter and I." So far -he knew no other name for her.</p> - -<p>Durland smiled at him above her head, as much as to say, "Could -anything be more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>ridiculously attaching than women are—this woman in -particular?" And Anthony smiled back in a similar manner.</p> - -<p>Then there was a shout, and Antonia, having finished her supper and -exhausted at least for the moment Mr. Albertson's narrative powers, -came flying down the steps, eager to know why it was that Miss Exeter -and her uncle had been in swimming with their clothes on. When -explained, it appeared to her the most natural thing in the world.</p> - -<p>"Isn't he sweet?" she said, when she had heard the story. "I think -Horatius would be a good name for him—on account of 'Never, I ween, -did swimmer, in such an evil case, struggle through such a raging -flood'—you know. Do you think mother will let us keep him? Or do you -want to keep him, Miss Exeter? Oh, dear, I suppose you do!"</p> - -<p>"No, I can't," said Pearl, with regret. "I'd like to, but Alfred hates -dogs."</p> - -<p>Anthony was surprised to hear his own voice saying sharply, "And who is -Alfred?"</p> - -<p>"He's my cat," said Pearl, turning her whole face up to him. "Everyone -says he's very ugly, but I love him." </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> - -<p>They smiled at each other; it was so obvious that Anthony refrained -from saying, "Lucky creature."</p> - -<p>Presently they moved toward the house—first Pearl, bearing Horatius -still wrapped in Anthony's motoring coat; then Durland, most solicitous -lest the dog should be too heavy for Miss Exeter; then Anthony carrying -his shoes and coat and waistcoat; and then Antonia, dancing about. They -approached the house in a quiet and rather sneaky way, by the kitchen -entrance. Anthony had no wish to meet his sister, who supposed that he -had been grilling a criminal. The children felt grave doubts that their -mother would welcome Horatius at all—not that she was a cruel woman, -but that she feared strange curs about the house. Fortunately the cook, -who had a great weakness for Antonia, was cordial, and allowed Horatius -to dry out behind the kitchen stove.</p> - -<p>It was now high time to dress for dinner, so there was a good excuse -for stealing softly up the back stairs.</p> - -<p>While Anthony was tying his tie a knock came at the door, and Edna -came in with the manner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> of a person confidently expecting important -intelligence.</p> - -<p>She said in a low voice, but with an immense amount of facial -gesticulation to take the place of sound, "Albertson told me you had an -interview. What did you find out?"</p> - -<p>For the first time Anthony realized that he had been an hour in the -company of the false Miss Exeter without having even asked her true -name. He might at least have done that. A weak man would have answered -irritably that what between stray dogs drowning and Edna's children -interrupting he had not had an opportunity to ask the woman anything. -But he was not weak. He simply told her the truth. He saw that she -accepted the story with reservations. A drowning dog was all very well, -but how about her pearls?</p> - -<p>Dinner ought to have been a terrible meal, with Edna bitter and -suspicious and the two detectives looking in at the window every now -and then—just to show that they were on the job; but, as a matter of -fact, it was extremely gay and pleasant. Antonia was allowed to hover -about the room in honor of her uncle's return,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> and Pearl and Anthony -were—or appeared to be—in the highest spirits.</p> - -<p>Need it be recorded that Pearl had on her best dress? It was a soft, -black, shining crępe which she had run up one afternoon in the spring -when she felt most depressed about not being able to find a position. -Dressmaking often lightened her black moments; it was to her an -exciting form of creation. It had been quickly and casually done, but -it had turned out well. Round her neck she wore the silliest little -string of bright blue-glass beads, which someone had once given a doll -of Antonia's in the dead past when Antonia played with dolls, and which -Antonia herself occasionally wore. Antonia had left them in Pearl's -room, for her new-found personal neatness did not as yet extend to the -care of her possessions, and in an impulse Pearl had put them on and -found the result good. So did Antonia.</p> - -<p>"Oh, see!" she said as they sat down at table. "She has on my beads."</p> - -<p>"Fancy Miss Exeter wearing someone else's beads!" said Edna in a tone -hard to mistake for a friendly one.</p> - -<p>"But don't they look well on her?" said <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>Antonia. "Uncle Tony, don't -you think they look well on her? How could you describe her as 'of -pleasing appearance'? It nearly made me miss her at the station -that first day. I went dodging about, trying to find a pale, plain -girl—that's what mother told me to look for. I think Miss Exeter is -beautiful, don't you?"</p> - -<p>"Antonia!" said her mother scornfully, as if nonsense were being talked.</p> - -<p>Anthony, however, never allowed his niece to put him in a hole.</p> - -<p>"I certainly do," he said, and he looked straight at Pearl, and she -looked straight at him and laughed and said, "You'd be a brave man to -say no when Antonia takes that tone."</p> - -<p>"I should be worse than brave—I should be a liar," said Anthony.</p> - -<p>The sentiment, which brought a lovely beam from Pearl, brought him a -dark glance from his sister. She thought it was not like Anthony to be -silly about a woman, and then the encouraging idea occurred to her that -he was luring her on in order to win her confidence—clever creature -that he was.</p> - -<p>As soon as dinner was over the children rushed away to feed Horatius; -and Edna, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> felt the need of uninterrupted conversation with her -brother, led him across the lawn to Miss Wellington's house. It was -not easy, for he showed the same reluctance to go that people show -toward leaving a wood fire on a cold day; but when Miss Exeter—who, -of course, everyone knew wasn't Miss Exeter—said she had a letter to -write he rose to his feet.</p> - -<p>"A letter?" he said, the idea being, of course, that now he was at -home, there could be no more letters in the world.</p> - -<p>Pearl nodded. It really was important, for she had always promised -Augusta to write her a full account of the first meeting with her -respected employer; and, as a matter of fact, Pearl was bursting with -eagerness to express her emotion to someone. If she wrote at once the -letter could be posted that evening, when, about nine o'clock, a man -came to deliver and receive mail.</p> - -<p>As Edna and her brother went out they passed Mr. Albertson on guard, -and Edna conveyed the information to him that "she" had gone to write a -letter. Albertson made a reassuring gesture and they passed on.</p> - -<p>Cora was all eagerness and cordiality.</p> - -<p>"And what has Anthony discovered about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> her?" were her first -words—spoken to Edna, but directed toward him.</p> - -<p>Edna came nobly to his assistance, gave an account of the rescue of -Horatius quite as if she thought it a natural, explainable incident, -which she was really very far from thinking.</p> - -<p>"And what are his impressions?" said Cora.</p> - -<p>Anthony found this question almost as embarrassing as the first one. -He could not share his impressions. They were mingled—that the girl -was beautiful—that swimming was a sensuous and graceful motion—that -wet garments clinging to lovely limbs had not been sculptured since -the Greeks made statuettes—that absolute integrity is consistent with -masquerading under another name than your own and stealing someone -else's references. But, alas, these convictions were as impossible to -share as a religious revelation. He turned for help to the most ancient -methods.</p> - -<p>"And what do you think of her, Cora?" he said, as if he really cared.</p> - -<p>"I wrote you what I thought," said Cora, and went into it again, while -he sat smoking and trying to remember whether or not he had ever read -that letter of Cora's with the long description<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> of moonlight on the -sea. He rather thought he hadn't.</p> - -<p>"Ah," said Edna, willing to do Cora a kindness, "so you and Anthony -correspond, do you?" At which Cora laughed self-consciously, and -Anthony looked like a graven image—his well-known method of concealing -emotion. This time the emotion was simply irritation, but Edna said to -herself, "Well, after all, she wouldn't be so bad."</p> - -<p>In the short pause that followed, Durland bounded suddenly into the -room. His eyes, which were normally blue like his mother's, looked -almost white in the sudden lights of the room. They were very wide -open, and his small face was pale under his freckles and set with anger.</p> - -<p>"Look here, Uncle Anthony," he said, "did you know what is going on in -our house? Did you know they suspected Miss Exeter of stealing mother's -pearls?" No one answered, and he continued, his voice shaking a little: -"She asked me to give a letter she had been writing to the man who -comes with the evening mail, and as I did Albertson came out and tried -to take it from me—but that was a little too much." The letter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> was -still in his hand, crumpled from the struggle. "I never heard of such -a thing! It's an outrage! Did you know of this, mother?" There was -something menacing in his tone.</p> - -<p>"My dear boy," said Edna, in that patronizing tone that people use as -if their ability to conceal something from a child were a tremendous -proof of their own superiority. "I'm afraid it will be a great shock -to you, but you must face the fact that she did steal my pearls—at -least so we believe; and that she is not Miss Exeter at all—she is -a notorious English jewel thief known by the agreeable sobriquet of -Golden Moll."</p> - -<p>"You don't know that, Edna," said her brother quickly.</p> - -<p>"I should say not!" cried Durland. "Mother, I think it's perfectly -rotten of you to think it's even possible."</p> - -<p>Edna turned to her brother.</p> - -<p>"You see, Anthony," she said, "what you've done to me, introducing this -woman into my house—turning my own children against me."</p> - -<p>Cora smiled at the boy soothingly.</p> - -<p>"But Durland doesn't know that we have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> proof that she took the -pearls," she said, as one calmly able to make all smooth and easy.</p> - -<p>"No, Durland," said his mother, "I have not been able to tell you—the -detectives would not let me until your uncle got back—that we have -proof. Miss Exeter is not Miss Exeter at all—just an imposter. Oh, -tell him, Anthony—tell him that she's—a common, everyday thief."</p> - -<p>"I can't do that," said Wood, "because I don't think so."</p> - -<p>"You mean," said his sister, as if now, indeed, a chasm had opened at -her very feet, "that you have any doubt that she stole the pearls?"</p> - -<p>"I'm perfectly certain that she didn't," said Wood.</p> - -<p>Edna burst out at this into a wail of reproach and anger, ending with -the not unnatural accusation that her brother must be in love with the -woman too.</p> - -<p>"Yes, perhaps I am," said Anthony.</p> - -<p>The idea was new to him, and not repugnant; but he spoke more to annoy -his sister than from any more serious motive; but as he spoke he saw -that Pearl and Mr. Albertson were in the room and must have heard him, -Pearl, however, was too much excited already to register any further<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> -excitement. She strode into the room as she strode into the board -room of the Encyclopedia; and almost at once catching sight of her -letter, still in Durland's hand, she made a grab for it; only Edna was -quicker—or rather nearer—and succeeded in getting it first. Pearl -turned to Anthony.</p> - -<p>"Mr. Wood," she said, "I want my letter—I won't have anyone read my -letter. It's an outrage!"</p> - -<p>Mr. Albertson felt his moment had come.</p> - -<p>"Now look, girlie," he said, "we about have the goods on you. Think of -your folks! We want to help you." He took the letter from Mrs. Conway. -"I know," he said, "that a lady's correspondence ought to be sacred, -but——"</p> - -<p>"But," said Edna, not able to refrain from interrupting—"but ask her -why it is she doesn't want her letter read."</p> - -<p>"Well, I reckon I can figure that out for myself," said Mr. Albertson.</p> - -<p>But in this instance—perhaps the only one of his long and successful -career—he was wrong. He could not figure out why it was Pearl objected -so violently to allowing that letter to be read.</p> - -<p>The reason was this: She had always promised<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> Augusta that she would -communicate her first impressions of Mr. Wood, and as soon as he and -his sister left the house to go to Miss Wellington's she had run -upstairs, and on the much-used typewriter she hastily ticked out a -prose lyric on the subject of her meeting with the only man she ever -could have or ever had loved. It began:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>My dear, he came this afternoon. Why didn't you tell me what he -was like? Oh, I know you said he was attractive. Attractive! -He's incredible! He's devastating! And that voice! You never -said a word about that voice, which makes me shake every time he -speaks—like a telegraph wire in a wind. Oh, Augusta, isn't it -silly? But I think I love him——</p></blockquote> - -<p>That was just the way it began.</p> - -<p>At the sight of that letter in Mrs. Conway's hands, a storm of emotion -swept over Pearl, even before she remembered just what she had said. -But as phrase after phrase flashed before her eyes and seemed actually -to tingle down to the tips of her fingers, she sprang like an animal -at its prey, and would have had it, too, if it had not been for Mr. -Albertson, who catching her elbow as she went by, not only stopped her, -but spun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> her completely round—so vigorous had been her motion.</p> - -<p>Frustrated in action, Pearl burst into speech. She said that she must -and would have that letter back; she said that opening other people's -letters was a state's prison offense; she went on like a maniac, and -every word she uttered made Mr. Albertson feel more and more convinced -that the letter must be read. Still, he was a chivalrous man; he -believed in chivalry as some people believe in Christianity—as the -important highway in their lives, from which at moments they are -obliged to stray.</p> - -<p>"Now look, girlie," he said again, in accents even more honeyed, "don't -excite yourself. Why would you mind me reading your letter, which I see -is to another lady?"</p> - -<p>"It's none of your business why I mind," said Pearl. "I just do. Oh, -Mr. Wood," she said, turning to Anthony, "don't let them read my -letter!"</p> - -<p>"I won't," he said. "I'll read it myself."</p> - -<p>"Oh, no!" said Pearl with a little scream.</p> - -<p>There was a pause. Anthony already had the letter in his hands now. He -looked very gravely at Pearl. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> - -<p>"I'm sorry you mind," he said. "But this letter must be read either by -my sister or me or Albertson. Which one would you rather have read it?"</p> - -<p>It was a hard choice. Pearl looked deliberately from one to another, -and then she looked at Anthony.</p> - -<p>"You," she said.</p> - -<p>In complete silence he opened it and read it carefully through. Pearl -stood motionless, watching him, studying his face. If he had laughed, -if he had even smiled, she would have killed him. She was hardly aware -of Albertson and Edna and Cora and Durland, all also watching him, to -read in his face what he was reading on the paper. None of them read -anything. His face was like a mask. He folded the letter and replaced -it in the envelope. Then he took out his pocketbook and put the letter -in it and put the pocketbook back in his pocket.</p> - -<p>Then he said, "I wish to have a word with Miss Exeter alone." There was -a small room that opened off the room in which they were sitting; he -walked toward it. "May we go in here, Cora?" he said. He made a motion -with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> hand, and Pearl, like a person bewitched, preceded him.</p> - -<p>"Don't be long, Tony," Edna called to him.</p> - -<p>"I may be some time," he answered, and shut the door behind him.</p> - -<p>Five minutes passed—ten. To those waiting it seemed an hour. Once Mr. -Albertson walked near the door and bent his head.</p> - -<p>"Can you hear anything?" said Edna.</p> - -<p>"Not a thing," said Mr. Albertson.</p> - -<p>"You wouldn't be such a cad as to listen, would you?" said Durland.</p> - -<p>Nobody answered him. More time elapsed; and then Albertson, springing -up, walked with a firm step to the door and turned the handle. It was -locked. Albertson shook back a long gray lock from his forehead.</p> - -<p>"What do you make of that?" he said.</p> - -<p>Miss Wellington laughed.</p> - -<p>"Mrs. Conway has the right explanation, I think," she said. "She's done -the trick with Mr. Wood too."</p> - -<p>"Not at all," said Edna. "How can you be so low, Cora? I only said -that to make Anthony angry. He's finding out—luring her to tell him -everything." </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Kidding her along, you mean?" said Mr. Albertson, who hated people not -to use the right word.</p> - -<p>"They've probably both got out of the back window by this time," said -Miss Wellington.</p> - -<p>This time Mr. Albertson frankly leaned his ear against the crack of the -door.</p> - -<p>"No, they're there yet," he said, moving away again. "I can hear them -talking—low."</p> - -<p>Another silence succeeded to this information, and then Mrs. Conway's -butler appeared in the doorway. He looked about and said over his -shoulder, "Yes, sir, she's here." He drew back and ushered in Gordon -Conway.</p> - -<p>Edna looked at the man who had been her husband and said irritably, -"You, Gordon; This is really a little too much!"</p> - -<p>"Hullo, father," said Durland.</p> - -<p>"Hullo, Durlie," said his father, as if he were trying to be cordial; -and then, seeing Albertson, he added in a tone really cordial, "Why, -Albertson, how do you do? I haven't seen you since the night what's his -name—who had that crooked wheel in Hester Street—was pulled. Off the -force?"</p> - -<p>The two men shook hands. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Gordon," said Edna, again determined to know the worst, "what do you -want?"</p> - -<p>"Why, oddly enough—nothing at all," replied Mr. Conway.</p> - -<p>He did not give the same impression of furtiveness and wasted pallor -that Pearl had gained when she had caught a glimpse of him on the -steps. No one could say he had a color, but he was distinctly less -corpselike. There was nothing shabby about him now either. He was very -well dressed in a dark morning suit; his boots, his tie, the wrist -watch which he kept glancing at as if his time was rather short, were -all of the most elegant sort.</p> - -<p>"No, my dear," he went on, "you ought to welcome me most cordially, -for I have come to make you a present—quite a present." And fishing -languidly in his pocket he produced the string of pearls.</p> - -<p>"A present!" cried Edna. "Those are my pearls!"</p> - -<p>"They are now," said her husband politely, "because I have made up my -mind to give them to you."</p> - -<p>"You gave them to me originally—they were always mine." </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> - -<p>Conway shook his head a number of times.</p> - -<p>"So you have always said, Edna; but saying a thing over and over again -does not make it any truer. I did not give them to you——"</p> - -<p>"You did," said Edna.</p> - -<p>"Ah, Edna," he answered sadly, "how you can take the grace out of life! -You can make even the present of a splendid string of pearls seem -ungracious. I never gave them to you. I let you wear them while you -were my wife—a mistake, for when you ceased to be my wife you would -not give them back—natural, but hardly honest."</p> - -<p>"That's absolutely untrue," said Edna.</p> - -<p>He did not allow her to ruffle him.</p> - -<p>"But now," he went on, "I do give them to you—freely and completely. -Be witness, Albertson, that I present this string of pearls to this -lady—who was once my wife."</p> - -<p>Edna was examining them pearl by pearl.</p> - -<p>"They seem to be all right," she said. "The number is right. What's -this?" she added, indicating an emerald drop which had never been on -them before.</p> - -<p>"That's an extra; that's interest on the money," answered Conway with a -flourish; "that's an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>expression of thanks for your courtesy in letting -me have them at a moment when they meant so much to me."</p> - -<p>This recalled the question of how he had obtained them. "Gordon," she -said, "did you steal those out of my safe?"</p> - -<p>He shook his head. "You can't steal what is already your own."</p> - -<p>"I can't see how in the world you got them," said Edna, "unless that -woman is a confederate. Did she give them to you?"</p> - -<p>"I don't even know what woman you mean, Edna," he answered. "If you -mean a magnificent Hebe who was coming into the house in a hurry as I -was going out the other day, I may say I should always be glad to be -her confederate in anything—one of the few times in my life, Edna, I -was actually sorry to leave your house. No, I did not go to your safe, -although I am interested to know that you have one."</p> - -<p>"That's where they were," said Edna indignantly, looking round. "The -pearls were locked up in the safe. I know that."</p> - -<p>"Like so much of your more positive information, my dear, that, too, is -wrong," said Conway. "You had them on when I called. And as we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> talked -they came unfastened, and you took them off and laid them on the table -beside you. Something told me that you had not been aware of what you -did, and so when you refused so very roughly to lend me the sum of -money I needed I simply took back my pearls—when you were not looking."</p> - -<p>"Gordon," said Edna, "you stole my pearls." And her tone had a note -of triumph as if the old delight of putting him in the wrong had not -entirely died.</p> - -<p>"I took my pearls from the table," said Conway, "and turned them for a -few days into cash, with which I know you will be glad to know I made -a lot of money—a pot of money, Albertson—there is money still to be -made on the races for a smart fellow who knows how; and then, my dear, -with a quixotic impulse I gave you the pearls, as I have always thought -of doing. Some men might have given them to a younger and more amiable -woman, but my nature has always been distinguished by a peculiar form -of loyalty. I give them to you—for the sake of old times."</p> - -<p>"You brought them back for the sake of not going to jail," said Edna, -her eyes flashing at him. He smiled gently. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Edna," he said, "as time goes on you learn nothing—absolutely -nothing. Durland, when are you going to begin to grow? Good night, -Albertson. Remember that you are a witness to this gift. Good night."</p> - -<p>And he had taken his departure before anyone spoke again. It was -Durland who spoke first. His voice shook a little.</p> - -<p>"You see, mother," he said, "what a terrible injustice you have done -Miss Exeter. She might sue you, only she's too generous. Oh, if you had -only told me that my father had been about that day—only you never -tell me anything, as if I were a baby. You will apologize to her, won't -you?"</p> - -<p>"I do not seem to be likely to get the chance of speaking to her at -all," said Edna, glancing at the closed door.</p> - -<p>Cora Wellington rose to her feet.</p> - -<p>"I'm sorry to be inhospitable, Edna," she said, "but I have had a -long, hard day attending to your business, and I want to go to bed. -In fact, I think I'll go." And she walked firmly out of the room and -upstairs, where, since the house—like the Conways'—was lightly built, -she could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> be heard rapidly walking about on her heels in the room -immediately overhead.</p> - -<p>"Well," said Mr. Albertson, "It looks like I may as well be getting -back to the Great White Way myself. I congratulate you on the happy -termination of this affair, Mrs. Conway. I do not think that emerald is -genuine, but I presume it is the sentiment that will appeal to you. I -feel as happy as you do that that sweet young lady is as innocent as a -baby."</p> - -<p>It cannot be said that Edna looked particularly happy over this point. -She raised her shoulders.</p> - -<p>"But we don't know yet who she is. She certainly is not Miss Exeter."</p> - -<p>Albertson smiled.</p> - -<p>"You will find it was just a girlish prank," he said. "And I think we -may presume that Mr. Wood now knows the whole story. I think if you'll -permit me I'll call my assistant and we will get the car and be off."</p> - -<p>Mrs. Conway, once again wearing her pearls, and Durland, still talking -of apologies, accompanied Mr. Albertson back to the other house.</p> - -<p>So the room was empty. Gradually it seemed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> to lose even the -remembrance of its late occupants. The down cushion of the chair in -which Edna had been sitting rose softly to its accustomed level with -something like a sigh of relief. A wicker sofa, of stiffer nature, -creaked in every fibre. A drooping flower in a glass vase gave a little -shiver and shed every last petal on the table, as if it had been -waiting all the evening to do this. Even the window curtains ceased -swaying in the sea-breeze. It was as if the room and everything in it -settled down to a breathless expectancy.</p> - -<p>And at last the door of the little room opened and Pearl and Anthony -came out. They did not appear at all surprised to find the room empty. -They would not have been surprised to find the universe empty—to hear -phantom newsboys calling an extra announcing that no one existed but -themselves—"Rumor confirmed that only Pearl and Anthony Exist."</p> - -<p>Pearl looked about her with that beautiful starry blankness that -certain emotions bring to any human countenance—a thousand times -starrier than ever before.</p> - -<p>"I wonder," she said, without the slightest trace of real interest, -"what has happened." </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> - -<p>"Haven't you been listening to me," said Anthony. "A miracle has -happened—we have fallen in love."</p> - -<p>Nevertheless he understood her meaning; and just to please her he -walked to the door and glanced into the corridor. It was as essentially -empty as the room. Then as he returned to her, although she was staring -in the opposite direction and he made not the slightest sound on the -thick rug, she turned her face slowly up and over her shoulder, and met -his lips with hers. Nor did either of them mention this as a miracle or -even an example of uncharted psychic powers.</p> - -<p>It was a long kiss; an inexperienced onlooker might have thought it a -quiet ritual rather than a manifestation of human passion. When it was -over, they stood once more in complete silence. Then Pearl said:</p> - -<p>"I think we ought to go back to our sister's house."</p> - -<p>"I suppose so," said Anthony. And again by an apparently mystical -understanding they moved not across the lawn toward Mrs. Conway's -house, but out across the dunes toward the beach. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> - -<p>There was no moon, but the milky way like a narrow cloud rose straight -out of the sea, and the Scorpion was brightly festooned above the -southern horizon.</p> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:<br /><br /> -A Table of Contents has been added.<br /><br /> -Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.<br /></p></div> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRICELESS PEARL***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 64192-h.htm or 64192-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/4/1/9/64192">http://www.gutenberg.org/6/4/1/9/64192</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>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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