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diff --git a/old/67115-0.txt b/old/67115-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 79b018b..0000000 --- a/old/67115-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2248 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Their Child, by Robert Herrick - -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 -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Their Child - -Author: Robert Herrick - -Illustrator: Seymour M. Stone - -Release Date: January 6, 2022 [eBook #67115] - -Language: English - -Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by - University of California libraries) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEIR CHILD *** - - - - - - _LITTLE NOVELS BY - FAVOURITE AUTHORS_ - - - Their Child - - ROBERT HERRICK - - - [Illustration] - - - [Illustration: _Robert Herrick_] - - - - - Their Child - - BY - ROBERT HERRICK - - AUTHOR OF “THE WEB OF LIFE,” “THE MAN - WHO WINS,” “THE GOSPEL OF FREEDOM,” - ETC. - - [Illustration] - - New York - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. - 1903 - - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1903, - BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - - Set up, electrotyped, and published October, 1903. - - - Norwood Press - J. B. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. - Norwood Mass., U.S.A. - - - - -MR. ROBERT HERRICK, the author of “The Gospel of Freedom,” “The - Web of Life,” and “The Real World,” was born in Cambridge, Mass., - April 26, 1868. His father was a lawyer, practising in Boston. His - people on both sides were of New England stock, the Herricks running - back in New England to 1632, and the Emerys, Mannings, Hales, and - Peabodys, with whom among others his genealogy is connected, having - much the same history. Mr. Herrick was educated at the Cambridge - public schools, and at Harvard University, graduating in 1890. His - freshman year and part of his sophomore year were spent in travelling - in the West Indies, Mexico, California, Alaska, and other regions, in - company with his classmate, Philip Stanley Abbot. While in college - Mr. Herrick paid special attention to English studies, attending - courses of lectures delivered by the late Professor Child, Professor - James, and Professor Barrett Wendell, among others. - -For a year he was one of the editors of the _Harvard Advocate_, - and contributed several stories to that magazine. Later he was - editor of the _Harvard Monthly_--the purely literary magazine of - the University,--contributing frequently to its pages. One of his - fellow-editors was Norman Hapgood, the author of “Abraham Lincoln: - the Man of the People,” and “George Washington.” - -After graduation Mr. Herrick began to teach English at the - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under Professor George R. - Carpenter (now of Columbia University), and continued to correct - themes and to give an occasional course in literature until 1893, - when he resigned his position in Boston to accept an instructorship - in English at the University of Chicago. In 1895 he was appointed - Assistant Professor of Rhetoric in the University, and he has since - taught chiefly Rhetoric and English Composition. - -The summer of 1892 he spent in England and on the Continent. In 1895 - he went abroad for fifteen months, for rest and literary work, living - in Paris and Florence during most of the period. While in Europe he - wrote the first draft of “The Man Who Wins,” which was published two - years later; also the first form of “The Gospel of Freedom,” and - various short stories, which were first published in the magazines - and afterward reprinted in “Literary Love Letters and Other Stories,” - and in “Love’s Dilemmas.” In addition to his writing in the line of - fiction, Mr. Herrick has done a great deal of work on more or less - professional topics. Magazine articles about methods of teaching - rhetoric, introductions and notes for school editions of classics, - one or two text-books on rhetoric,--these items give an idea of the - sort of work which has occupied Mr. Herrick’s attention apart from - fiction. He is one of the few modern American writers who have the - courage and the strength to paint life exactly as they see it,--in - its joy, its beauty, its sombreness, and its sorrow alike,--without - making it seem happier or nearer the ideal than it is. - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - Portrait of Robert Herrick _Frontispiece_ - - FACING PAGE - - “His wife was ... hurriedly undressing the child” 50 - - “She knelt beside him and took his head in her hands” 90 - - - - -THEIR CHILD - - - - -[Illustration] - -THEIR CHILD - -I - - -“There he comes with Dora! I am so glad. I wanted you to see him so -much--all of you.” - -The company gathered in the drawing-room smiled sympathetically at the -mother’s pride. They craned their necks about the window to get sight -of the small boy. He was a white speck in the long green lawn. - -“Comes rather reluctantly,” observed Dr. Vessinger, with a touch of -irony. “Doesn’t seem to have his mother’s taste for society!” - -“The little dear! How cunning! A perfect dear!” the women exclaimed -with more or less animation. - -“Why, he is in such a temper! Little Oscar! What is the matter with -little Oscar?” - -The child’s screams could be heard plainly, coming upward from the -lawn, in shrill bursts of infantile passion. Mrs. Simmons was troubled -with a mother’s confusion and distress. The nurse was holding little -Oscar at arm’s length, for safety, while the child circled about her, -kicking and thrusting with legs and arms. Mrs. Simmons stepped through -the open window to the terrace and called: - -“Oscar! Oscar!” But neither nurse nor child paid any attention to her. - -“He is occupied with a greater passion,” the doctor laughed. - -“Unconscious little animals, children,” observed one of the women. - -“He has temperament--” - -“His mother’s?” another woman suggested slyly. She was large, very -blonde, very well preserved, and was known by her intimates as “the -Magnificent Wreck.” - -The shrill cries penetrated at last even the room beyond the large -drawing-room where the people were gathered, and aroused the father, -who had been called on a matter of business into the study. He stepped -briskly into the room,--a handsome man of forty, with black curling -hair and crisp black beard cut to a point. His cheek-bones were high, -and the skin of his upper face was ruddy, as from much living in the -open air. - -“What is the matter with the boy?” he demanded abruptly. - -“Just a case of ‘I don’t want to,’” observed Dr. Vessinger. “When we -are young and feel that way, we let the world know it all of a sudden.” - -“And when we are grown,” joined in the large, blonde woman, smiling at -the doctor, “we say nothing, but do as we like.” - -“If we can,” added a young woman, with nervous anxiety to be in the -conversation. - -Mrs. Simmons had disappeared through the French window that opened -to the terrace. Her husband followed, and the others lounged, after -bandying words on the occasion. They could see below them on the slope -of the lawn the young mother, the nurse, the child. - -“Why, Dora! What is the matter?” they could hear her say. “Oscar, be -still. Be quiet and come to me.” - -She must have spoken reprovingly to the nurse, for next came in injured -Irish tones: - -“What have _I_ done, mum? The boy was pounding the breath of life out -of the Vance child. I could not keep his fists from his face. What have -I done? Indeed!” - -“There, don’t answer any more. Take Oscar to the nursery, and wash his -face, and bring him down. I want these ladies and gentlemen to see him.” - -Little Oscar, who had much the same coloring and shape of head as his -father, listened quietly while his mother spoke to the nurse. When she -had finished and Dora tugged at his hand, he shouted: - -“I won’t! Do you hear? I won’t! Don’t you touch me! I say, don’t you -touch me!” - -He enunciated with great distinctness, with mature deliberation. When -the nurse tried to take his arm, she received a well-aimed blow in the -pit of her stomach, delivered with all the vigor of a lusty five years. - -“Oscar! Why, my little man!” the mother exclaimed helplessly. - -Mr. Simmons, who had been watching the group, vaulted over the terrace -wall and strode rapidly down the slope. Little Oscar, at the apparition -of his long-legged father, turned and fled around the wing of the -house. His nurse followed grumblingly. - -“Bravo!” exclaimed Dr. Vessinger, satirically. “Young Hercules needs -the chastening hand of his sire.” - -“We shall have to call _you_ in, I guess, Vessinger, if the kid’s -temper gets worse. It’s too much for his mother now, and he is only -afraid of me because I am home so little he doesn’t exactly realize I -am his father. When he does, he will be boxing _me_.” - -“Yes,” sighed Mrs. Simmons, red with annoyance. “It has come all of a -sudden, too. He was so gentle as a baby, so sweet. I think it must be -the nurse, Dora.” - -The company looked sympathetic, and she continued apologetically: “She -is a good woman, but she is so tactless. She doesn’t know how to manage -the little fellow. She should appeal to his reason, I think.” - -“It is sometimes difficult to get a quiet hearing,” observed the doctor. - -“Tiresome creatures, nurses,” the Magnificent Wreck added -sympathetically. “I can remember how I hated _mine_.” - -“Can you?” the younger woman put in inadvertently, as though called -upon to applaud a triumph of memory. - -“But what a beautiful child!” exclaimed the Magnificent one, declining -issue with the other. “So like his father, as he stood there, his head -thrown back. When he whirled past us just now, there was the gleam of -the Viking in his eyes!” - -“Yes, all he needed was a carving-knife to be a first-class pirate,” -Vessinger added lightly. - -The father laughed, but not heartily; and Vessinger, feeling the topic -exhausted, turned to his blonde neighbor: - -“Mrs. Bellflower, there are real clouds in the sky out there. What do -you think of our chances with the rain?” - -“You mustn’t go!” their host and hostess protested. Mrs. Simmons added -in an undertone: “I wonder if it _could_ be the thunder-storm that -upset poor little Oscar so completely? Thunder affects me, always.” - -Dr. Vessinger was at her elbow to say good-by. - -“It is charming to find you again,” he said, taking her hand and -looking boldly into her face. “To find you in this--this splendid -scene, with your charming child and your husband. You are looking so -young that, if it were not for us others, I might shut my eyes and -believe I was in Sicily!” - -He spoke deliberately, as though he wished to give two meanings to -every word he uttered. The young woman’s color changed, and her hands -played with the leaves of a book she had taken at random from the table. - -“You must come again, often--I want to see you,” she said abruptly, -looking at him honestly. “I know you have done some things since that -time, and I am glad of it!” - -“Thank you.” - -“Oh, come! This is nonsense. You aren’t going to slip away on any such -easy excuse as that,” burst in Simmons. “See, your storm is passing -around. And if it comes, what could be finer than a gallop back in the -clear air after the rain has washed the dirt out? It will lay the dust, -too.” - -“No, no!” delivered Mrs. Bellflower. “We don’t want to go yet, doctor. -Maybe we can stay to dinner if it rains. Let’s go out to the terrace.” - -They stepped out of the open windows to the broad brick terrace that -completed the east side of the house. Beneath them in the distance, -to the eastward, lay the great city, and beyond they knew there was -the sea. Over the lofty chimneys and massy ramparts of houses lowered -the storm, which was spreading in two forks about the horizon. Slowly -it was climbing up the dome of the sky toward them. An edging of gold -fired the black mass from time to time. - -“Grand place you have here, Simmons,” Dr. Vessinger observed. “The top -of a hill not too high,--that’s the right place for a country house.” - -“If Olaf were only here oftener,” the wife remarked. “He’s just come -home, and he says he must leave soon again.” - -“Yes, those Jews I work for, the Techheimer Brothers, mean that I shall -earn my salary. They are dickering for some new mines in Mexico, and -want me to look them over.” - -“But you are promised to me for the tenth,” Mrs. Bellflower protested. - -“What are the Techheimers to that?” commented the doctor. - -“Nothing! I shall put them off until the eleventh,” Simmons responded -heartily. “It’s going to be a fierce jaunt, and I am not keen to start.” - -“Take us! We would all go, wouldn’t we, Mrs. Simmons?” the younger -woman put in. - -“I am afraid the hotels wouldn’t please you down there. And queer -things happen sometimes. The last time I was there--it was ticklish. I -never wanted to go back. You wouldn’t have liked it, not you women.” - -“Tell it! Tell us!” they chorused. Vessinger lit a cigarette and -resigned himself to watching the assembling clouds. Imperceptibly he -drew away from the group, as if declining to be one where he was not -first. - -“I _adore_ adventures!” the Magnificent Wreck added sentimentally, -encouragingly. Simmons folded his arms across his breast. His eyes -flashed pleasantly. The story interested him, too:-- - -“Well, it was in ’91, for the Techheimer Brothers. One of the first -jobs I did for them. They wired me from St. Louis that a certain old -Don from whom I had bought several car-loads of ore, which had been -forwarded to their smelter, had done us very prettily. He had salted -his cars very cleverly. The ore ran short of the assay by several -thousand dollars, all told. I had made the assay--you understand? - -“It was my duty to take the three days’ journey from the City of -Mexico to Don Herara’s headquarters in the little town of Los Puertos, -see the old rascal, and without having a quarrel, induce him to refund -the money he had cheated us out of. - -“Los Puertos is almost the loneliest spot I ever got into, for a town. -It is at the end of a two days’ stage-ride from the railroad. It is -hell! Just peons, a great adobe barracks where my old thief lived, a -swift river rushing down from the mountains behind the town--nothing -more. - -“You should have seen us the afternoon of my arrival, sitting in the -old Don’s office, drinking _petits verres_ and swapping compliments. -‘Your honorable excellency,’ said I; ‘Your noble courtesy,’ said he. -And so on. The Don had white hair, a hawk nose, brown eyes, that had -slunk deep under his brows, and the long white beard of a patriarch. He -was a most respectable sinner! - -“Every time some one stepped across the room above I wanted to jump. -I thought he must have a dozen or so of his peons hidden up there -to slice me with their great _machetes_ when he gave the signal. As -the afternoon grew mellow, I began to suggest in ten-foot sentences -that some rascally servant of his honorable right-mindedness had been -deceiving his grace, and had caused my poor masters the loss of some -thousands of dollars, the loss of which was nothing to them compared -with the sorrow they felt that his honorable good name was thus sullied -by an unworthy servant. - -“My old Don gulped my compliments without a wink: he had known what I -was after all along, of course. When I had turned the corner of the -last Spanish sentence, he nodded at me pleasantly, but his brows were -stretched like catgut. He cleared his throat and spat, and I seemed to -hear all sorts of things going on over my head. That little room was -the loneliest place on the earth just then.” - -“Had you a pistol?” broke in Mrs. Bellflower, breathlessly. - -“I carefully left that behind me in the City of Mexico. For if it -should come to that, it would only have complicated matters. I rarely -travel with a revolver.” - -Mrs. Bellflower regretted this lack of picturesqueness. - -“Well, my Don looked at me for a few minutes. Then he said, ‘Shall we -enjoy the cool of the evening in a gentle stroll?’ We went out on the -stony trail up toward the black mountains. They looked cold and bare. - -“‘Los Puertos,’ he remarked philosophically, ‘is a very small place. It -is very far away from your home, Señor Simmons.’ ‘I have been in places -farther away, sir, and got back, too.’ ‘I own it all, Señor Americano; -every soul of these people is mine.’ ‘So,’ I answered, as stiff for the -boast as he, ‘the Techheimers are great people.’ And I blew a lot about -my bosses, how they watched their men and took an eye for an eye, -every time. Finally, we turned back toward the town and came through a -patch of cactus to the river, which was brawling along over big stones. -There was a narrow foot-bridge across. ‘After you,’ says the Don. I -looked him in the eye, and thought I saw the twinkle of mischief. - -“I never wanted to do murder before or since. But there in the dusk, -beside that dirty river of mud and stones from the mountains, where he -meant to drown me, I came near wringing his neck. I guess my nerves -had got tired of expecting things to happen. I walked up to him, and I -must have looked fierce, for he whistled, and one or two men who were -skulking about joined us. I was so mad that a moment more and I should -have had my hands about his windpipe, no matter whether they cut me -into mince-meat the next minute. Do you know what it is to feel like -doing murder? It’s the drunkest kind of feeling you can have--you -don’t know yourself at all--” - -“I should like to try that!” sighed Mrs. Bellflower. - -At this point there seemed to come somewhere from the rooms above a -frightened cry. - -“Mercy!” exclaimed the young woman, “what’s that?” - -Mrs. Simmons sprang up, and stood listening. Then they could all hear -distinctly in a woman’s voice: - -“Oh, oh! He has killed me! Oh, oh!” Then silence. - -Before the last groans reached their ears Mrs. Simmons had darted into -the dark drawing-room, calling as she sped, “Oscar! my little Oscar!” - -On the terrace they could hear again more faintly the “Oh, oh, oh!” -from above. - -“And what _did_ happen to your old Don?” Mrs. Bellflower asked with a -show of unconcern. - -“Why, nothing much. I--” - -“Oh, Olaf! Come, Olaf!” - -It was Mrs. Simmons’s voice this time. Simmons bounded from the -terrace, calling: - -“Yes, Evelyn! Coming, Evelyn!” - -The others jumped from their chairs. - -“Come, Dr. Vessinger!” exclaimed the Magnificent Wreck. “I think it is -time you and I and Miss Flower were gone. Where are the horses?” - -“Do you think we should leave quite yet?” the doctor asked, somewhat -cynically. “It seems to me the story has just begun.” - -“Well, you may stay for the end. But I am going!” - - - - -[Illustration] - -II - - -Simmons stumbled across the hall and up the dark staircase. The -coming storm had suddenly blackened all the house. The open doors of -the bedrooms sucked out the swaying air that came in puffs from the -windows. In the eastern room, above the terrace where they had been -sitting, Simmons found his wife, clasping their child in a hysterical -embrace. - -“What have you done? My darling--my one--my Oscar!” A dry sob ended the -broken exclamations. - -They were huddled in a heap upon the floor beside the window. The -child’s face had a look of intense wonder, of concentrated thought upon -some difficult idea which eluded his baby mind. Across the iron cot at -one side of the room was stretched the inert form of the nurse. - -“Look at her, Olaf,” said Mrs. Simmons. “He has--cut her--stabbed her -with the knife.” - -As Simmons approached the bed, he kicked something with his foot. It -fell upon the tiled fireplace with the tinkle of steel. The woman on -the bed groaned. Simmons turned on the electric light, and hastily -examined the nurse. - -“She’s not badly hurt, Evelyn. A scratch along the neck. She fainted at -the sight of blood, I guess. But what was the knife?” - -He picked up the thing from the fireplace and examined it. It was a -long, dull, sharp-pointed knife, brought from the kitchen to cut bread -with. Along the edge it was faintly daubed with blood. Simmons, still -holding it in his hands, stepped to the window. His wife was crouching -there, sobbing over the child, whom she held in her arms tightly. -Little Oscar’s eyes were fixed upon the thunder-clouds outside. He -neither saw nor heard what was passing in the room. The father leaned -over and touched his forehead with his hand. The child shrank away. - -“You must take him out of here, Evelyn!” he said. “I will look after -her.” - -“She must have been cutting the bread for his supper, and laid the -knife down on the table for a moment. I--I told her never to leave it -about. I have been afraid--of something!” - -“You have been afraid?” her husband asked quickly. “Why so?” - -The boy moved uneasily and turned his head to watch his father. - -“What you got my knife for?” he demanded. “Give me my knife!” - -“You shall never, never have it again!” his mother moaned, clasping him -more tightly. - -“Why not?” he asked curiously. “What’s the matter with Dora? Why’s she -lying on my bed? Tell her to get up. I am tired. Oscar wants to go to -bed.” - -His eyelids fell and rose, as though the long search for the mysterious -thing in his mind had put him into a doze. - -“He does not seem to know what he has done. What is it? Olaf, what is -the matter with him?” - -“Ssh, hush! Don’t rouse him. Get him to bed. _Don’t_ let him know. I’ll -look after Dora--she’s coming around now--and then I’ll call Vessinger, -if it is necessary.” - -“No! no! not him,” she protested vehemently. “I don’t want him to see, -to know anything about it,--no one, but he least of all.” - -Simmons looked mystified by her vehemence. - -“It all seems dark around me!” she moaned. - -“There,” he said soothingly. “Wrap him in that dressing-gown and take -him to your room. I must attend to this woman.” - -In spite of his wife’s objections, however, he went downstairs to look -for the doctor. The room and the terrace were both empty; he could see -the party riding, like a group of scuttled birds, at a hard gallop down -the lane at the end of the lawn. - -“They might have waited to find out!” he muttered. Great drops of rain -splashed on the bricks about him. They had fled from his house even in -the teeth of the storm. He returned hastily to the nurse, bathed the -wound in the neck, and gave her some liquor from his flask. When she -had gone to her room, he went downstairs once more, without crossing -the hall to his wife’s room. That took a kind of courage which he did -not have. Servants had lit the lamps in the long room and pulled the -shades. Outside the rain swept across the terrace and beat upon the -French windows. He waited, listening, irresolute, unwilling to take the -future in his hands. - -Finally he detected a dragging step on the stairs. His wife came slowly -toward him, her erect young woman’s head crushed under a weight of fear. - -“They have gone,” she sighed with relief. - -“Yes, they cleared out in the face of the storm!” - -“I am so glad!” - -“Sit down, dear,” he urged, taking her cold hands. - -She disengaged herself from him before he could kiss her, and sat down -beside the long table in a straight stiff chair. She clasped her hands -tightly and looked at her husband with a face of misery and horror. - -“What is it, Olaf? Tell me what it is. Tell me!” - -“Why, what do you mean by _it_?” he stammered. - -“You know!” she exclaimed passionately. “Don’t let us hide it any -longer. What is the matter with little Oscar, with _our_ child?” - -“What do you mean?” He was still looking for subterfuges. - -“It wasn’t Dora. I knew he would do it some day, and I have tried -to keep things that he could do harm with from him. I dreaded this. -Something seized him,--something inside him,--and he snatched the knife -out of her hand. When I got there, he was looking at the knife. It -was--all bloody. Oh, Olaf! He was talking to himself. Then he dropped -the knife, and he didn’t seem to remember. He is sleeping now, just as -if it had never happened.” - -“It’s just his fearful temper, Evelyn,” the man answered with an -effort. “Dora irritates him, and the thundery air and all. You must -pack up and get to the seashore or mountains, where it’s more bracing. -He’s just nervous like you and me, only more so, because he’s smaller.” - -She shook her head wearily. What was the use of self-deception? Hadn’t -she watched this habit of rage for months? The child was a part of -her; and more than she knew her hand or her foot she knew him. Doctors -talked of nerves and diet. But she had seen the storms gather in the -child and watched them burst. - -“No! That is no use, Olaf. I can’t tell myself those things any more -and be contented. It is worse!” - -Simmons was walking up and down the room, hands thrust in his pockets, -his face knit over the problem. - -“All the world like old Oscar,” he muttered, talking to himself. - -His wife caught up the words greedily. - -“Old Oscar Svenson, your step-father, the one who brought you up and -gave you your education? The one we named him after?” - -The man nodded half guiltily. - -“Yes, old Oscar,--the man who gave me everything,--the chance to live, -to win you--all.” - -He resumed his tramp to and fro across the rug, scrupulously -refraining from stepping beyond the border. His wife still kept her -eyes fixed on him, as though resolved to win from him the secret of the -matter. Suddenly she rose and went to him, putting her arms about his -neck. - -“Let me look at you! You have always been a good man, I know. You need -not tell me so. This cannot be some terrible revenge for your weakness -or wickedness. Have I not held you in my arms? I should have known, if -it had been you, for whom our boy suffers.” - -He kissed her tenderly and led her to a couch; then knelt down beside -her. - -“No, Evelyn--not that. But you must be calm or you will lose your -head. You take it too seriously. Oscar is a baby five years old. A -five-year-old baby!” - -“And some day he will commit murder. My God, will you tell me to be -quiet and not think of that!” - -A maid entered the room to announce dinner. - - - - -[Illustration] - -III - - -Mrs. Simmons sat through the meal, white faced and silent. Her eyes -followed her husband’s nervous movements, but she did not seem to -be listening to his incessant talk. He was trying to talk away the -disagreeable thing between them, and apparently she had not the -strength to join him in the effort. She saw him across the table, -strangely apart from her,--not the lover and husband who had been -woven into her life. He was a large, tall man, with clear black eyes, -a resounding laugh, and vehement, expressive movements. Compared with -Dr. Vessinger he had almost a foreign intensity and emotionality about -him, which it occurred to her suddenly had become more prominent -during the years of their marriage, just as his chest had broadened, -his arms and hands had become thicker, his whole person had grown -mature. - -She recalled him as he was when she had first seen him, in Colorado -Springs, eight years before, tall, large-boned, awkward. He had gained -from civilization. The power that she had felt then in the rough, she -had tested in the common manner of marriage and had never found it -wanting--until now! - -Now, from this fear which beset her, this trouble growing from them -both in the person and soul of the child, she could feel no help in -him. He was turning away his gaze and chattering, believing only in -gross physical ills, such as sickness and sudden death, loss of money -and accident,--calamities which one might name to one’s neighbors, -discuss with one’s doctor, and bemoan quite aloud. But for this which -was unnamable, the fear of destiny, he had no courage: he refused to -see! She must grope her way to the understanding of the riddle; she -must begin, alone, the struggle with the future.... - -The maid poured Simmons a second glass of whiskey and water, and handed -him a box of cigars. He leaned back in his chair, stretching forward -his feet in physical comfort, emphasized by the roar of the summer -tempest, which had finally broken in full fury outside. Forked streaks -of light illumined the pallid curtains; furious bursts of rain hit -sharply the casement windows, as with the thongs of whips. Lull and -sullen quiet; then the fury of the tempest--thus it repeated itself. - -Mrs. Simmons left the room, noiselessly crossing the hall and mounting -the stairs. By the time her husband finished his cigar she had -returned, with the same stealthy, restless step, the same questioning -eyes. - -“He is lying so quietly, Olaf,” she said. “His arm is doubled under -his head, and his little fingers are open. His lips tremble with his -breath. He is my angel again! I cannot believe anything else. Why -should _my_ child be that demon?” - -Her husband put his arm about her affectionately and led her into the -drawing-room. - -“There! You are coming to look at it sensibly, Evelyn,” he said -encouragingly. - -She drew away from his caress. - -“No, no! I know what is there. I had rather see him dead in his bed -there to-night than to see that fire in his eyes grow and burn and kill -him!” - -Suddenly she burst into tears. - -“To fear it always. To think of it day and night. To know that it will -come back and seize him some hour when I am not there to help him! O -God, why did it come to me? What have I done?” - -She wept miserably, but when he tried to comfort her she held herself -aloof. In their misery they were apart, God dealing with each one in -his sorrow separately. - -“Come, Evelyn!” the husband broke out. “Enough of this! To-morrow we’ll -have in a doctor, the best you can find in the city. Maybe he’ll just -give him a dose of something and jog his liver.” - -But his wife, who had been standing beside the window, her forehead -pressed against the cold pane, whirled about and faced him. - -“Did you--ever think--that--you were old Oscar’s son?” - -“What put that into your head? I told you all I knew--the story old -Oscar told me. The whole camp had it the same way.” - -“That he found you in the frozen cabin of those Vermonters up among the -Rockies? Your father and mother had died from cold and hunger, and he -found you just in time?” - -“Yes, that was it.” - -He hesitated a moment; and then he added honestly: - -“It must have been so; but I have never found a man who knew anything -about the cabin, or those Vermonters. Well, it made no difference--so -long as you took me.” - -“No, it made no matter to me. I said so then when you asked me to marry -you.” She waited a moment before adding, “And I say so now. _Nothing_ -can make it any different!” - -“Bless you for that!” - -But she quickly parted from his kiss. - -“Tell me about old Oscar. He was rough and bad at times, wasn’t he?” - -“Yes, rough,--not bad--a fierce customer, a regular Berserker, when he -was taken that way,--when he was drunk or in a bad humor. But I don’t -want to think of that--he was so good to me, brought me up, gave me my -education, taught me my profession himself, and put me in the way of -having a happy life. It isn’t right to remember his bad side.” - -“What do you mean? You never told me he was bad. I thought you meant he -was rough and uneducated--that he made his way without a cent from the -time he landed in New York. What else do you mean? Was he a bad man? -Was he wicked?” - -The man walked to and fro, disturbed and puzzled. He had stumbled on -the worst idea in the world for his wife to feed her imagination upon, -and yet he knew that she was aroused--he could not put her off with -excuses. He had never told her of his old barbarian benefactor’s darker -side, partly because he did not like to mention rude vices to her and -partly because it seemed disloyal to his kindest friend. And he was not -skilful in handling the truth. What he had to say, he was forced to -blurt out plainly. - -“Why, it wasn’t drawing-room life in a Colorado camp in those days, -anyway, and the older crowd were a pretty rough lot, all of them. -Oscar Svenson was better than most, generally. But he would have his -times of being drunk and disorderly, and he was such a big fellow and -so strong that when he got violent the camp generally knew it. I can -remember once when I was a little fellow sitting in the corner of the -saloon when he had one of his fits. He was a giant, a head taller than -I am, with a great mane of hair all over his head, growing down the -nape of his neck in a thick mat under his shirt.” - -Mrs. Simmons started, and twisted her hands nervously. But she -controlled herself. - -“Go on!” - -“When he was drunk, he didn’t shoot--that wasn’t his way. He would use -his knife, or take up a man in his arms and crush him like a bear with -his two hands. That day--but, pshaw! It’s all nonsense, my sitting here -and telling you fool stories to make you creepy. The rain has stopped. -I’ll tell Tom to harness up, and we’ll drive over to the Country Club -to see if they’ve got the election returns yet. Come, dear! Try to be -strong and patient.” - -“No! I shall not go out to-night one single step. I can’t get that cry -out of my head, and I should hear it worse if I were away from the -house. Tell me about that terrible old man. Did he kill a man before -your eyes?” - -“I hate to have you think of him so. He gave me everything, even _you_.” - -She smiled forlornly. - -“He was different in nature from us tame folk in the States. He came -from a people that drink deep and have fiery passions,--big-boned, -strong-hearted people, as gentle as women and as savage as bulls. I’ve -seen him--” - -“What makes you stop so short, when you are just ready to tell -something? I want to hear the worst thing you remember.” - -He stammered and hunted for an excuse. - -“Come, come. It’s all rot. They tell stories about men. Such a fellow -as old Oscar Svenson you must make allowances for, take the good -with the bad. There were plenty of better men than he at his worst, -but few as good as he at his best. You can’t line such men up with -meeting-house folk. I’ll tell you how he saved the Irish family off -Keepsake trail, all alone. But it is stifling here. Come out to the -terrace, now the rain has stopped.” - -There they sat together on a bench in the corner of the terrace, while -he told the story of old Oscar’s magnificent courage and will. The -big Norwegian had ploughed his way ten miles up the mountains in a -blinding snowstorm to carry food to a woman and some children. The -woman’s husband was too cowardly to leave the camp. And when old Oscar -had reached the cabin, finding one child sick, he had gone back to the -camp for medicine. - -As Simmons told the story, the stars came out in the soft summer -heavens; the damp odor of cut grass filled the air. The parched -earth, having drunk, breathed forth. But the woman’s tense gaze never -softened. When he had finished, she said: - -“Now you must tell me the worst thing he ever did. I will know it!” - -“They say he threw a man over a precipice once, and nearly broke his -back. The fellow had been stealing water, when there wasn’t enough to -go around, and he had had his share. He lied about it, too. Old Oscar -just chucked him off the trail like a rat. He would call that justice. -I don’t know. That was before I knew him.” - -She shivered, and held her husband’s hand more tightly. - -“Go on!” - -“There were other stories of the same thing; well, we’d call it murder -now, maybe!” - -And she forced him to tell much--the dark deeds of this old Berserker -in his mad rages,--swift, brutal love, murder--all that the furies -of blood drive a man to do. Bit by bit, she had them all,--stories -whispered here and there on the slopes of mountains, in far-off -mining camps and towns, where the Norseman had spent his life; things -remembered out of that rough childhood for which she had pitied her -husband, for which she had loved him the more, with a woman’s desire -to make the bitter sweet. As the soft summer night got on, she heard -the story of that killing, the sole one which he had seen with his own -eyes. He had locked it tight within his breast all the years since: the -quarrel with a friend about some insignificant trifle, the burst of -anger, the sudden blow, and then, while the boy tried to part the men, -a strange look of wonder on the fierce face from which the red passion -was paling. And the next morning forgetfulness of it all! - -“But it troubled him always like a bad dream--he could never remember -exactly what he had done. He never thought _I_ knew.” - -She rose from the bench and walked away from him to the end of the -terrace. - -“And, my Evelyn,” he pleaded, “you loved me first because _he_ had -been all I had had. You asked nothing of me--you gave me all your love -gladly.” - -He had an uneasy feeling that something strange and impalpable was -pushing its way between them. - -“Yes,” she murmured. “It was--a long time ago.” - -“Seven years. Is that a long time?” - -“Yes. I was a girl then. It is always a long time to when one was a -girl.” - -“It doesn’t seem to me a long time!” - -“Well, it’s a great while since, since _this_ came up--like a -mountain. The past is on the other side.” - -“I don’t know what you mean. No kind of trouble should divide man and -wife!” - -For a few moments there was silence; then she cried, in the accent of -reproach, of accusation: - -“Can’t you see? You were _his_ child!” - -“Old Oscar’s?... Sometimes I have thought it might be so. I am dark -like him. But we can never know it now.” - -“_I_ know it! The devil in that bad old man has slept in you and is -waking in little Oscar,--my child, _my_ child! That is what you have -brought me for my love. I took you because I loved you, because I was -mad to have you. I wanted you just for myself, just to give me joy. -Now! Now!... I can sit and watch the child who is me fight with that -devil. Oh! there is nothing but pain!” - - - - -[Illustration] - -IV - - -Moods of the night pass with their tragic glooms, and the first lines -of sorrow fade into dull distaste and distant apprehension. Husband and -wife met day by day, and slowly the black cloud between them became -imperceptibly mist: the man dared raise his eyes to that pitiable -face, and the silent wife began to speak. Doctors had come and applied -their poultices against panic,--the vast circle of probabilities, the -excellences of regimen. - -Then the engineer, in the fulfilment of his business engagements, had -gone away for six weeks, which the mother and child had spent at the -seacoast for a change of air. Early in September they were living once -more in the pleasant country house outside the great city, and husband -and wife were talking almost confidently of what they should do in this -matter and that, speaking with more and more certainty as the days -slipped past. Something grave in the woman’s voice, a touch of doubt in -the glance between them--those signs alone remained, and the memory. - -Another trip to the mines was to be made; the date of departure Simmons -put off, in order that he might take his wife to the large dance at -the Bellflowers’. On this day he returned from the city by an early -afternoon train. When the coachman drew up before the house, no one -could be seen about the place. Simmons called out heartily: - -“I say, where are you? Is any one about? Evelyn!” - -Windows and doors were open; the summer wind blew through the house. -There was a vacancy about it all which impressed the man. - -“There was somethin’ or other goin’ on when I hitched up,” the coachman -ventured to remark. “There were a lot of hollerin’ and screamin’, sir; -somethin’ up with the children.” - -He had the air of being able to tell more if necessary. Mr. Simmons -jumped to the ground and entered the house. A servant, who finally -appeared in answer to his repeated calls, told him that she had seen -Mrs. Simmons crossing the meadow below the lawn, in the direction of -the little river at the bottom of the grounds. She had little Oscar -with her, so said the maid, and she seemed to be hurrying. - -He hastened to the little boat-house on the river. Hot summer -afternoons it was a common thing for his wife to row upon the river, -yet every moment he quickened his steps until he was on the run. From -the meadow wall he could see his boat tied to a stake in the stream, -riding tranquilly. Evelyn was not on the river. He followed the -foot-path, hesitatingly, beside the sluggish stream, calling in a -voice which he tried to make quite natural: - -“Evelyn! Oscar! Evelyn--where are you?” - -There was a yard or two of sandy beach beside the boat-house, and there -he found them. His wife was kneeling down on the sand, her face to the -river, engaged in hurriedly undressing the child. She had him almost -stripped of his clothes, and she was talking to him, while he listened -with the attention, the thoughtfulness, of a man. Suddenly spying his -father, he laughed and broke from his mother’s arms. - -“There’s Dad!” he cried. “Are you going away, too, with mamma and me? -She’s going to take me far out into the river, away and away, and we -are never coming back any more, never going to play any more up there -on the lawn!” - -His voice rose in the childish treble of wonder, and he added, after a -moment: - -[Illustration: “HIS WIFE WAS ... HURRIEDLY UNDRESSING THE CHILD.”] - -“Now you come, too, Dad.” - -“Evelyn! What does this mean?” - -She had risen hastily when little Oscar called out to his father. Her -eyes were red with tears, and her hands shook with nervousness. - -“I thought it would be all done, all over, before you came,” she -murmured. “But he would not come with me unless I took off his clothes. -I tried to take him in my arms, but he broke away.” - -The man shuddered as he gradually comprehended what it meant. Little -Oscar ran back to his mother and put his face close to hers. - -“Mamma is sick,” he said gently. “You must take her home and put her to -bed and have Dora sing to her.” - -His lithe little body danced up and down. The hot wind waved his black -curls around his neck. His mother pushed him away. - -“Take him,” she groaned. “It kills me to look at him.” - -Simmons gathered up the child’s clothes and began to put them on the -dancing figure. - -“What has crazed you?” he demanded roughly of his wife. - -“I will tell you--when he is gone,” she answered wearily, leaning her -head against the shingled wall of the boat-house. - -Little Oscar ran to and fro in his drawers, wet the tips of his feet, -and threw sand into the water, while his father was trying to dress -him. Finally the mother took the child, put on his shirt, and told him -to run home. He dashed into the thicket of alders beside the river with -a shout. Soon they heard his voice in the meadow, ringing with the joy -of living, the animal utterance of life. - -“It was this afternoon,” the mother explained. “The Porters’ children -and the Boyces’ boy were playing on the terrace. Dora was away. I was -reading in my bedroom--I had told Dora I would look after the children. -I must have dropped asleep with the heat--perhaps a minute, perhaps -longer. Suddenly, I _felt_ something fearful. I seemed to hear a -choking, a gurgling. When I jumped up, awake, everything was still, -quiet,--too quiet, I thought; and I ran to the window over the terrace.” - -She covered her face with her hands to shut out the sight of it, and -the rest came brokenly through her smothered lips: - -“Oscar was there--he and little Ned Boyce. Ned was lying--down on the -brick floor--and Oscar had his hands about his throat choking him. I -must have screamed. Oscar jumped up, and looked around. He said--he -said just like himself,--‘What is it, mamma?’” - -She stopped again and swallowed her tears. - -“When I got down there, Ned was white and still. I thought he was -dead. It was a long, long time before he got his breath, before he was -himself. If, if I hadn’t wakened just then--” - -Above them in the mottled sunshine on the lawn they could see little -Oscar running, then stopping and listening, like some sprite escaped -from the river alders. The man watched him springing over the turf, his -little shirt fluttering in the breeze, and gradually his head sank. -Then he straightened himself, and taking his wife’s hand led her back -along the river path into the meadow. - -“Ned Boyce is a bad-tempered little fellow: he irritated and -exasperated Oscar until with the heat and all that he clutched him. We -must think so at any rate. I’ll lick it out of him, if I catch him at -it!” He ended with this feeble, masculine threat, this desire to take -his exasperation out on somebody else--to be paid for his distress of -mind. “But it frightens me to think of your coming here and thinking of -doing such a thing!” - -He turned his mood of reproach directly to her. - -“If you had seen Ned lying there so white--it was whole minutes before -he opened his eyes,”--she protested; and then it seemed to come over -her in a wave that in her struggle with this evil she was alone,--her -husband did not really understand what it meant. To him it was trouble, -like difficulty with servants,--something which his buoyant nature -refused to take altogether seriously. For him there was always a way -out of a situation: to her there was no avenue out in this situation. -She took her hand from his arm and stepped forth steadily by herself. - -She had done him wrong! In his slower, less vivid mind, the tragedy was -printing itself. He no longer could talk comfort. Something heavy and -hard settled down on his spirit: he saw himself and this tender woman -caught in a rocky bed of circumstance. In the gloom of his mind he -could see no light, and he groaned. - -Thus, together they mounted the slope of the lawn to the pleasant -cottage, side by side and yet withdrawn from one another. As they -reached the terrace little Oscar darted out, like a fleet arrow, from -the big syringa where he had lain hidden. His voice rippled with joy: - -“You’re so slow, you two! Do you see what I got? A piece of Mary’s -Sunday cake. And _that’s_ what’s left. I’ll give you that, mamma, if -you’ll be good.” - -“Take him away!” his mother exclaimed fretfully. “I can’t look at him -yet. I have had enough for one day.” - -She entered the house and locked herself in her room. Later, when her -husband knocked, she opened the door; she had been sitting before her -dressing-table, looking vacantly into the mirror. - -“I don’t suppose you want to go over there to their party?” he ventured -timidly. “I’ll send Tom over with a note.” - -“Why would I not go? Why should I stay at home? Is this the sort -of place a woman would want to stay in all the time, do you think? -Heavens! if anything could make me forget for one quarter of an -hour _this_ idea,--anything, I would go--and sin for it too! Do you -understand?” - -The man’s face winced for the pain she had to bear. Again she burst -out, looking into the mirror, her hair fallen about her strong young -breast and shoulders: - -“You brought this to me, you! Why didn’t something tell me of all that -was hidden away in you, all that some day would come out from you and -be mine? You did not let me know. Now I cannot get away from it! O my -God! Why do you make me live? What right have you to make me live and -endure?” - -He did not resent her bitter reproaches. It was the instinctive recoil -of her young body from terrible suffering, the first twitch of the -flesh from the knife. There were no tears left in the eyes now; -nothing shone there but passion and resentment. - -“Stay at home? It’s the night of all others I’d go somewhere--get -something. No! I won’t give in. I’ll get away from it, forget it, and -be happy again. I will--see me do it.... They dine at half-past eight. -Have the carriage at eight. I shall be ready.” - -He walked to and fro in the dressing-room, wishing to say something -that could soften her mood. At last he put his hand gently on her -beautiful bare shoulders and lowered his face to hers. - -“We must take this together, love,” he whispered simply. - -“Don’t speak of it!” she cried, drawing herself from his touch. “Don’t -touch me. I shall go mad, mad! You will have two instead of one, then.” - - - - -[Illustration] - -V - - -“Your husband seems to be having a good time,” Dr. Vessinger observed, -twirling his champagne glass between his strong bony fingers. “Does he -often enjoy--these good spirits--this--enthusiasm?” - -Below them in the main portion of the large dining-room of Mrs. -Bellflower’s house, the guests were supping at small tables. Dr. -Vessinger had captured one of the few tables in the breakfast room at -one side. Simmons was seated next to Mrs. Bellflower. His good-natured, -bearded face was thrown back, and his eyes shone with champagne. His -wife looked at him with surprise; she had not noticed him before. He -was talking a great deal, and repeating what he said to right and left, -in a loud voice, with much laughter. She could not hear what he was -saying, but she divined that it was silly. - -“No! I never saw him so--excited, before,” she answered her companion. -“He doesn’t usually drink champagne.” - -“He seems to like it rather well,” the doctor replied, watching him -drain a fresh glass. “It’s a good thing to have such good spirits, -isn’t it?” He turned his eyes to hers, and raised his glass. “To your -beautiful self, Evelyn!” - -She could feel the warmth of her blood as it rushed over her face and -neck, at his deliberate words. - -“Why do you call me that?” she asked brusquely. - -“You may remember that I called you that once before,” he replied, -unperturbed; “and then you had no objection to my familiarity.” - -They were both silent, while in their minds rose that “once before”: -the roses blooming in the Sicilian garden, husbanded by bees; the young -American doctor sent south to recover from a sickness; the romance of -their hearts beating in unison with the romance of the place. - -Gradually her eyes fell from the doctor’s face. For, later, she had -forgotten him, measured him by another and found him less than she -desired. She had sent him away, the young American doctor of the -Sicilian garden, and had never thought to ask herself before, whether -she could regret it. Now she raised her eyes to his face and wondered -whether she were regretting it. - -He was handsome and mundane. In those eight years he had pushed himself -from obscurity to a point of worldly ease. Perhaps she had done that -for him by sending him away! To her, now, though married, he was more -interesting than ever before. What she had done to him then he had -surmounted; and now, somehow, it seemed the gods had put the cards -into his hands. - -Suddenly, while she was wondering, he leaned nearer to her and said: - -“You are miserable. I can tell it from the lines in your forehead. And -your eyes are hot with fever.” - -He spoke impersonally; it was like the soothing hand of the physician -to his patient. Simmons was laughing still more hilariously, and his -neighbor, the Magnificent Wreck, was laughing with him; those near them -were shouting and clapping their hands; they were urging him to do -something. To his wife it all seemed silly. - -“Does _that_ worry you?” continued Vessinger, following her eyes. - -She looked at her husband again with a sudden sense of detachment from -him. He was foolish, like a child, and she suspected why he was foolish -and drank too much: he wished not to think. She despised his male way -of trying to escape from himself. His was the man’s simple, coarse -instinct--to drink, to laugh, to forget! - -Suddenly he was just a man in black and white, like all the others who -had come to her that evening and said words and smiled and danced and -gone away. He was just a man, like one-half creation. - -“Yes,” she replied steadily to the doctor. “I am miserable. Does it -make you happy to know that?” - -She did not comprehend what inferences he might draw from the -juxtaposition of acts and words. - -“In a way, it does,” he answered calmly. “But I shouldn’t let _that_ -bother you. Our hostess, good woman, loves a laughing guest, and your -husband is colossal. The best of men forget themselves, you know, and -on the morrow they are ashamed. A good wife forgives--that is her -_métier_.” - -The racket below increased until every one stopped his eating or his -talk to find out what made the disturbance. Simmons was rising somewhat -unsteadily to his feet. His tie had come undone. His large brown eyes, -usually twinkling with gentle kindliness, flashed with the passion of -the moment. - -“Bravo! Simmons! Bravo! A song!” rose from some of the guests. “Sing -your old song, Sim!” one called out. The guests jostled into the -dining-room, deserting the terrace, where they had been supping and -flirting. There were some among the men who had been at the School of -Mines and knew his college fame. - -“So your husband sings?” Dr. Vessinger asked. - -“We will hear,” his wife replied tranquilly. “Listen!” - -The drinking song, which was not meant for dinner-parties where any -proprieties were observed, rolled out, at first uncertainly and then -with greater force. At the end of the stanza, young men’s voices from -all over the house shouted out the chorus. One or two of the older men -shook their heads, and while laughing said: “No, no. That’s too bad! -Some one should stop him.” - -“It seems to take,” Dr. Vessinger murmured to Mrs. Simmons. “He has -chosen that moment of inspiration when we are all drunk enough to think -it a great song and not too drunk to join the chorus. Bravo! More, -more!” he called with those who were applauding. - -It was, apparently, a tremendous success. Men were patting Simmons on -the back, and a servant was filling his glass with champagne. The calls -for another stanza grew more clamorous. - -His wife looked at him stonily. She did not make much of his -unaccustomed drinking, of the spectacle he was offering of himself to -their public. She was wondering at his male mind. How could _he_ find -it in him--just now with the truth they both knew but two hours cold -in his memory--how could he find the heart to drink and sing? She had -said to him defiantly that she would get joy in spite of all. But was -there anything in life which could make her drink and sing and forget? -Her heart was shut to pleasure, and she looked at him coldly, as one -might look at a bad actor who is much applauded. - - * * * * * - -He, poor man! had sat down to the feast with the twin devils of despair -and remorse by his side. The others around him laughed and were merry. -Why should _his_ food taste bitter when to them it seemed sweet? Why -should his be the wife and his the child? He felt himself to be a -common man, and wished to have their taste for the feast, their content -with common life. So he began to drink because it was pleasant to -drink. The devils faded as the spirit of champagne entered him. At -last he was comfortable, and then happy. The woman by his side, the -Magnificent Wreck, became beautiful, witty, and alluring. The woman -at his left smiled with a pretty doll’s smile, showing her nice teeth, -white like porcelain. He was drunk; he knew it, and he was happy! - -So he wanted to sing, to make the room ring with his new joy. There -seemed to open a concealed door in his mind, and out tramped words and -sounds, expressing beautiful, happy feelings; he was singing.... - -“On the table! On the table!” they shouted to him. “Up, up!” - -The older men were trying to calm the racket to a more decorous note. -But already they had cleared the dishes and glass from his end of the -table, and the Magnificent Wreck, with glistening eyes, was applauding, -urging him on. He hopped on his chair, like a boy, as he had done years -ago at college dinners. He placed one foot on the table to steady -himself, raised the long-stemmed wine-glass above his head, and, less -certainly, out rolled the second stanza. - -It was good to be drunk, if this were being drunk! Again, with all the -volume of the first time, sprang the notes of the chorus. - -Simmons raised his long-stemmed glass and waved it slowly in a circle -above his head. They clapped and stamped and sang over again the chorus. - -“Why not leave? Why inflict this on yourself?” the doctor asked his -companion. - -“_That_ does not make me miserable,” she answered coldly, recognizing -how he had mistaken her. “It is foolish, of course, to drink too much. -He will be sorry to-morrow.” - -“What is it then that burns your eyes, and gives you that look of pain?” - -“I will _never_ tell you!” - -“Perhaps I can guess,” he answered at random. - -Her eyes lost their defiance. Perhaps this subtle doctor, who could -read the miseries of life, had seen and comprehended all, that -afternoon when he had come to call. The shame that she vowed to herself -he should know last of all, he knew, perchance, _best_ of all. - -“Don’t reject my sympathy,” he added. “I pity you.” - -His voice had softened from the tone of irony. His gentleness broke -down her pride. There was something humanly warm and kindly in his -sympathy. It seemed to reach farther than her husband’s. A mist -gathered in her eyes, and she lowered her head that he might not see -the possible tears and the quivering lips.... - -Would her fate have been thus cruel, if, in the years gone by, in the -Sicilian garden, she had preferred this man,--if this man, who loved -her, had been bound with her? Would she have known the clutch of terror -and felt the wound from the arms of her son? The child who was hers and -another’s--might he not have been wholly hers? - -She thought bitterly how the male heart had its escape from -misery,--such an easy, common one! She wanted _her_ escape. She could -not drink and shout; she could fly, leave the terror behind her, and -seek a new self in a new world. - -“To one that loves you as I do, your misery is his misery, and your -despair is his.” - -She felt that she should resent his words, but her heart welcomed them. - -There was a cry in the room below them, then a crash, and the song -came to an inglorious end. Simmons had circled the swaying yellow ball -of sparkling wine in too ample an arc. The champagne dashed upon the -laughing, upturned face of their hostess; the glass shattered on the -floor. A kindly hand saved Simmons from falling. - -Dr. Vessinger’s sharp eyes detected the glance of contempt in the -wife’s face. - -“I think a breath of night air would suit us both better than this -hubbub,” he suggested, opening the casement window behind him. “Will -you take my arm, Evelyn?” - -She hesitated a moment, a sense of duty to be done detaining her. Then, -with another look at her husband, at the noisy room of flushed people, -repugnance mounted too high; she placed her hand on the doctor’s arm, -and stepped down to the terrace beneath the casement. Beyond lay the -scented gardens, the breadth of cool heavens, the velvet darkness -outside the range of light from the cottage windows, pointed in places -by tall poplars. - -“Let us get beyond the sound of their noise,” the doctor murmured, -drawing her more closely to him. A fresh burst of laughter, doubtless -caused by some new antic of her husband, sped her steps away from the -band of light about the house. She shivered with distaste of it. Not -that! Rather to flee away in the cool, dark night, away forever from -the life which she had known and which was a failure,--to find escape -from the threatening horror which was hers and his! - -Vessinger drew her wrap more closely about her, with an air of -domination, and she followed submissively through the deserted alleys -of the dark garden, listening to his tense words, in a lethargy of -spirit.... - -There was an eruption from the brilliant house. Men’s voices reached -the pair in the garden. The voices protested, coaxed; for a time they -faded away to the other side of the house. Then they returned, and the -woman in the garden heard her husband speaking thickly and loudly. - -“That’s all right, boys. But I must find my wife, first. Dixey says he -saw her go out here, when I was singing.” - -She started involuntarily, but the doctor restrained her. - -“They will take him away,” he whispered, “in a minute.” - -Evidently that was what his companions were endeavoring to do, but -Simmons with drunken obstinacy persisted in his point. - -“Yes,” he said, in his loud, confident voice, “I’ll go with you all -right, just as soon as I find my wife. Never left my wife. It wouldn’t -be right, you know!” - -She slipped her arm from her companion, and walked rapidly toward the -terrace, Vessinger following her. - -“I am here, Olaf,” she said, going up to the knot of men. “Are you -looking for me?” - -His companions separated awkwardly,--all but one, who held Simmons’s -swaying figure. - -“That you, Evelyn? Wanted to tell you that I am going in town with -these fellows. Let me get the carriage for you. Don’t mind going home -alone, do you, Evelyn?” - -“I will take Mrs. Simmons to her carriage,” Vessinger offered, stepping -forward. - -“Excuse me!” Simmons replied, waving him back. “Will you take my arm, -Evelyn?” - -Together in some fashion, they reached the _porte-cochère_, and there -again Vessinger tried to put Mrs. Simmons in the carriage, to whisper a -word privately to her. - -“Shan’t I drive back with Mrs. Simmons?” he asked. Simmons wavered -unsteadily, looking at Vessinger all the time. Then he said very -distinctly: - -“No thank you, Vessinger. We can trust the coachman,--good man, the -coachman.” - -He handed his wife to the carriage. - -“Won’t you come, Olaf?” she asked. “I think you had better come with -me.” - -Her tone was cold and hard. The man drew himself up quickly. - -“Thank you, Evelyn. I had rather not. Good-night.” - -He closed the carriage door, and turned to the men, who had been -awkwardly watching the performance from a distance. - -“Drive on, Tom. Ready now, boys.” - - - - -[Illustration] - -VI - - -The morrow was close and sultry. The sun pursued its course through -the heavens, round and red like a ball of heated metal. Careful -housewives in suburban cottages scrupulously drew in the shutters, -pulled the shades, and closed the windows against the fierce heat. Thus -they produced the musty coolness of the tomb, in which they existed -languidly until late afternoon. Then easterly windows were opened, -admitting fresh air. - -On the eastern piazza of the Simmons house, as the sun sank, there -appeared two people. Mrs. Simmons moved here and there restlessly, her -face pale with the heat of the day, dark circles beneath her blue eyes. -She looped up the wilted tendrils of the climbing vine, patting the -belated blossoms with her soft, plump hands. Behind her in the shade of -the long house Dr. Vessinger lounged on a chair, smoking a cigarette. - -“Evelyn!” - -The doctor’s low voice just reached to her. She started and turned her -face to him. He was a slight man, with an active, well-proportioned -body. How much he had done for himself since those far-off days when -she had first known him! He was Some One now; she had a vague movement -of pride that she had held his fancy all these years. - -“You knew I should be out to-day?” he questioned, following her with -his intelligent eyes. - -“Yes,” she answered dully. “I suppose I did. It was the proper thing -to do,” she added bitterly. “No! I don’t mean that! I know you are -kind--only I suffer so!” - -“Has your husband turned up yet?” - -“No, but he telephoned that he should be back for dinner, late, quite -late.” - -“Oh! Pat Borden took care of him. He was well looked after. You needn’t -worry.” - -“Why should I, about him?” she asked inquiringly, as if she failed to -see any significance in what he said. “He telephoned; he is well; he -will be here this evening. I do not think about him especially.” - -“I hope you have thought about--” - -“No, no, please don’t say those foolish things. They don’t sound well -the day after.” - -He threw away his cigarette and joined her. - -“You men are all alike!” she continued musingly. “You are all at the -bottom brutal; you don’t care for anything but--what it means to _you_. -I wonder if there was ever a man born who could care for a woman more -than for himself?” - -“If there were, the woman would tire of him in a week.” - -“Mamma! You here?” - -Oscar came skipping out of the house, making one long leap from the -drawing-room window to the railing of the veranda. Then he ran toward -his mother, arms stretched out to hug her. - -“Nice little fellow,” Dr. Vessinger remarked propitiatingly. “Won’t you -come here, little man?” - -“No, no!” the mother objected hastily. “Run away, Oscar. Ask Dora to -take you to the Laurels. It will be shady and cool there.” - -The child looked steadily and curiously at the doctor. - -“Who is that gentleman, mamma?” he demanded. - -“Ha, ha, well said!” the doctor laughed. “He wants to know who your -friends are, madam. He will manage _you_ one of these days. Come here, -sir!” - -Instead of running forward at the doctor’s invitation, the child backed -steadily into his mother’s dress, eying the stranger with dislike. -Mrs. Simmons glanced up at the doctor, surprised and annoyed at his -conduct. Did he not understand? How could he anger the child, perhaps -provoke one of his frightful paroxysms? It was disagreeable in him to -dwell thus on her misery, to play with the child. - -“Go away, Oscar,” she said, leading him away from the terrace. - -At the same moment Dr. Vessinger walked toward the mother and child. -Oscar stood still, his limbs stiffening, his under lip trembling. Tears -began to gather in the mother’s eyes. She was frightened, and she hated -the imperious man. - -“Come, dear,” she urged. “Come with mamma. Be good and do as I want you -to.” - -She had leaned down to him, and he threw one arm about her neck and -drew her close to him, looking defiantly at the doctor. - -“Is he the man who makes you cry, mamma?” he asked. “Send him away. I -will drive him away!” - -As the mother watched him, standing there with his head thrown back, -the black curls falling on his brown neck, he recalled to her vividly -his father. She had seen the man in something like the attitude of the -child. Commanding, erect, noble, defiant,--so she had seen him and -worshipped him during the months of their ardent first love. The little -mite was like her lover born again. - -“Fiery little devil, isn’t he?” the doctor remarked, hesitating and -disconcerted. “Looks as if he would like to smash me, stick a knife -into me, or something. Handsome, though!” - -“I think you had better sit down,” Mrs. Simmons answered coldly. As the -man stood irresolute, she added vehemently: - -“Why do you tease the child? Go back!” - -The doctor turned back to his chair sulkily. The mother kissed the -boy’s face, gently loosening the grasp of the strong little arm about -her neck. “Come, Oscar,” she whispered. “We will go together!” - -She led him from the terrace, he looking backward constantly and -scowling at the unacceptable guest. - -“Send him away, mamma,” he said. “I don’t like him.” - -“Ssh, ssh,” his mother murmured reprovingly, seeking to soften his -barbarian instincts. - -She was gone for what seemed to the doctor an interminable time, and -when she returned there was something cold and severe in her pale face. -Before she seated herself, she began to say what she had in mind: - -“Dr. Vessinger, there is something I must say to you, all at once, -now, and then you must go. You have made love to me,--yesterday -evening,--and I listened. I was in great agony of mind, and so -foolishly absorbed in my pain that I thought you--you understood what -my trouble was. I wanted to escape from it--at any price. I was wild -and bad. Now, well, you don’t understand; and I know, myself, I could -not get any joy or give any, without him, little Oscar.” - -“I don’t understand,” Dr. Vessinger exclaimed, thoroughly mystified. - -“No, you don’t understand,” she admitted with cool irony. “Perhaps it -is not necessary that you should. You doubtless see that I could not -give you the pleasure you look for.” - -“I do not admit that for one moment,” he protested, rising. - -She held out her hand. - -“I was right--eight years ago; that is all, my friend.” - -He took her hand and held it, trying to come nearer, to melt the icy -mood of the woman. She smiled pleasantly at him, unmoved, confident, -and in another world of feeling than his. - -“You are not well,” he stammered, “not yourself!” - -“Who can tell what _is_ yourself? Last night I wanted the freedom of -my youth. Now I am ready to take the other thing, which makes us -old,--pain. Good-by.” - -He still held her hand, and she smiled at him, aloof. Just then a man’s -voice sounded from inside the house, and Simmons poked his head out of -the drawing-room window. - -“Oh! You here, Evelyn?” - -Perceiving Vessinger, he added gruffly: - -“Where is Jane or some one? I must be off to-night, and I want them to -pack my bag and give me some dinner!” - -“How are you, Simmons?” the doctor called out in his cool manner. “Come -out here and let’s have a look at you!” - -“I’m all right, Vessinger,” Simmons answered sulkily, stepping through -the window. - -“That was a great performance you gave us last night, Simmons, a -triumph! I never heard anything better. Your waving that glass over the -Bellflower’s crown of false hair was magnificent!” - -Simmons glowered at the man and looked furtively at his wife. She -seemed to be gazing at something at the other end of the lawn. - -“Oh!” Simmons muttered. “Damn nonsense!” - -His handsome face looked thin and pale, as if he had been paying well -for his moments of forgetfulness. - -“Yes,” continued the doctor, with an insistence which seemed to Mrs. -Simmons to be petty malice. “You were the success of the evening. Mrs. -Bellflower ought to thank you for your parlor tricks.” - -“Oh! damn,” commented the harassed man, looking miserably toward his -wife. - -She turned suddenly to the two men. - -“We have had enough of last night, haven’t we?” - -“So you’re off again?” the doctor persisted, seeking a new topic. - -“Yes, yes, long trip. God knows when I shall get back.” This last he -muttered to himself. Vessinger did not hear it, but Mrs. Simmons -looked quickly at her husband. He hung his head. - -“You--you are going away?” she asked in a low voice, forgetting the -other man’s presence. “To leave me? Going to-night?” - -“Why, those Jews telegraphed me--last night--got it this morning--must -be in Chicago to meet them.” - -He turned to enter the house. Mrs. Simmons followed him without -regarding Vessinger. - -“I am off,” the doctor said to her. “Good-by.” - -But no one heeded him. - - - - -[Illustration] - -VII - - -“Olaf!” - -There was a note of dread in her voice, which arrested the man’s -footsteps. - -“What?” he asked curtly. - -“You will not leave me, _now_! You are not going away?” - -“You can’t want me around much, after last night,” he answered -hesitatingly. - -“What do you mean?” she asked quickly, a flush coming to her face. - -“There’s no use of going over it, is there? I began to drink, of -course, because I was so damned blue about the boy and you. It seemed -as if everything was helplessly mixed up, and there was no way of -straightening it out. After all the fight I made to be something, -and to win you, and to give you a good place in the world,--all that -was suddenly smashed. I couldn’t stand sitting there and thinking of -nothing but that. And when I looked about at those folks, and saw how -gay and lively and light-hearted they were, I said to myself: ‘Why -haven’t I a right to a good time, too? What’s the use of mulling over -this black stuff in my mind?’ But I couldn’t make a big enough effort -to keep away from it! I kept on thinking of you and little Oscar, with -all those gay people talking and laughing and handsome women. ‘My God,’ -I said to myself, ‘if I can’t stop thinking of this, I shall have to -get up and go outside.’ So I took up my glass of champagne, which I -hadn’t touched,--never drink it, as you remember; it was the stuff old -Oscar used to start in with when he was on a blow-out--that is why I -never could bear it. - -“That first glass made everything easier and more natural. It untied -the knots in my face. And another made things pleasant; well, there’s -no use in going on! I made a beastly fool of myself, sang that fool -song, disgraced you before all your friends. Showed them how you had -married just a hand out of the mines! My God, I should think you’d -_want_ me to go away and never come back!” - -He had dropped into a chair, and lay there limp, his head fallen -forward upon his hands. She listened to him with increasing wonder, -trying to comprehend the significance of his abasement. What was it -which he made so much of? Singing a silly song, drinking too much wine. -That was his man’s way of escape from the pain of living, which had -fastened upon them both. Thus he had tried to live for himself and defy -God to make him wretched! - -And her way? She reddened with the shame of it, and was silent. Both -of them, so she saw, had been trying to flee from the grief that had -overtaken them; to take their lives out of the place of despair, away -to some new peace and joy. She saw it now very clearly, and she knew -suddenly that through that gate there was no escape for either of them. -The trap that had caught them was set in the obscure past and was made -secure. - -“But you would not really leave me, Olaf? You could not. You could not! -I and our child would follow you in your thoughts everywhere.” - -She knelt beside him and took his head in her hands. - -“I tried to run away, too. And I could not. Nor could you. Mine was -so much worse than yours! I will tell you some day. Yours was nothing -to me, nothing. Believe me. I think nothing of it, nothing more than -if you spilled a glass of wine on my dress, or went out in the rain -without your coat, or did something else foolish. Don’t think of that, -Olaf! We have so much else to feel, you and I.” - -[Illustration: “SHE KNELT BESIDE HIM AND TOOK HIS HEAD IN HER HANDS.”] - -She drew his head to her. She was his mother and yearned, and yet was -afraid, also. The man’s tired eyes looked into her eyes. He, too, had -suffered in his male way as she had suffered. About his face there was -a look, wistful and young and tender, such as it had been in the past -when she had loved him passionately. She kissed his lips, thus wiping -away his self-contempt. - -“Do you remember, Olaf?” she whispered. “Do you remember the night you -carried me down the mountain, when the horse stumbled on the trail and -you were afraid to trust him again? Your arms were a shield about my -body. I want them now, my husband!” - -He saw that black night, the slipping sand and rocks beneath his feet, -the precious body in his arms, the white face upturned to his. When he -could go no farther safely, they had camped among the rocks under a -scrawny fir. He had built a wind screen of brush against a boulder, -and they had crawled within. There he had held her locked in his arms -the whole night that she might rest while he watched and loved.... - -Other memories of their ardent years crowded this one. First she had -taken the journeys with him, going to the mines, living in the camps. -Then she had waited for him here at home, where he had placed her among -her old friends, in this pleasant country house. He was often away, -but he worked the more fiercely to get back to her. Once he had come -wilfully, without warning, from British Columbia, three thousand six -hundred miles, without a pause, hurled on his course by an irresistible -desire to know that his joy was real, to see that she lived on the -earth still and was his. He had arrived after dinner, and found her -dressed to go out,--tall, white, beautiful,--more wonderful than in -the camp he had dreamed she was. When she looked up and saw him,--the -unexpected, welcome one,--she had given a glad cry, and lifted her arms -and face to his, careless of the maid, her gown, his travel-stained -self.... - -“I had two or three days, and I thought I would come on,” he had said, -repaid already in good fact.... - -She had her memories, too. Her woman’s life was woven with the little -intimacies of the seven married years. Their life together, their -passion and joy,--it blazed before her in the stillness. She had -thought it was to go on like that always, for many years, fading -perchance when they were old into something gentler, less abundant. -Now, suddenly, in the space of a few days, she was brought to see that -such joy had a term set within her own experience. It was past! - -“We have loved so much,” she murmured. “We have been so happy. That is -over now.” - -He nodded, bringing her hands to his lips. He knew what she meant. The -old joy, the careless pleasure of their early selves, had gone under -the shadow. Something out of them had been created in those hours of -freedom, which was now asserting its control over them,--something from -the past, unknown to them, gathered up and expressed through them. -_They_ were now to be less, and this which had come out of them was to -be more. Sorrow or satisfaction, it was all one,--it was to be met and -borne with. Youth had passed; selfish joy had been blown away--there -remained their child. - -“Little Oscar,” the mother murmured. “We must do what we can for him, -mustn’t we?” - -“All that can be done!” he exclaimed. - -“Live with him, take him away from here, fight for him,” she whispered. -“As long as he lives. As long as we live!” Her tears fell upon his -hands. - -“Yes! that is it. We must fight together for the child as long as we -live!” - -And they both divined something of how the years must be, living not -for themselves but largely for their child, changing their life as his -needs changed, preparing to struggle with him against the odds of his -fate. - -“Where is he?” he asked. - -They found him playing by himself under a great tree. When he saw them -coming across the lawn, he stood very still and watched their faces, -looking at them keenly. His mother took his hand and leaned over to -kiss him. He put his other hand up to his father. Thus they walked -slowly back toward the house, the child gravely marching between his -parents, holding them to him, one on either hand. - - - - -_The Macmillan Little Novels_ - -BY FAVOURITE AUTHORS - -Handsomely Bound in Decorated Cloth - - 16mo 50 cents each - - -_Philosophy Four_ - - A STORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. By OWEN WISTER, author of “The - Virginian,” etc. - -_Man Overboard_ - - By F. 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