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diff --git a/36503.txt b/36503.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3774514 --- /dev/null +++ b/36503.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7653 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man's Hearth, by Eleanor M. Ingram + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Man's Hearth + +Author: Eleanor M. Ingram + +Illustrator: Edmund Frederick + +Release Date: June 23, 2011 [EBook #36503] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MAN'S HEARTH *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Susan Skinner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + +A MAN'S HEARTH + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: ELSIE FELT THE GLANCE PASS ACROSS HER AND REST ON ANTHONY + +_Page 223_] + + * * * * * + +A MAN'S HEARTH + +BY + +ELEANOR M. INGRAM + +AUTHOR OF +"FROM THE CAB BEHIND," "THE UNAFRAID," ETC. + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY +EDMUND FREDERICK + +[Illustration] + +PHILADELPHIA & LONDON +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY +1915 + + +COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + + +PUBLISHED OCTOBER 1915 + + +PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY +AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS +PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. TONY ADRIANCE----"MILLIONS, YOU KNOW!" 9 + + II. HIS NEIGHBOR'S WIFE 27 + + III. THE GIRL OUTSIDE 45 + + IV. THE WOMAN WHO GRASPED 55 + + V. THE LITTLE RED HOUSE 77 + + VI. THE WOMAN WHO GAVE 96 + + VII. THE DARING ADVENTURE 109 + + VIII. ANDY OF THE MOTOR-TRUCKS 110 + + IX. THE LUCK IN THE HOUSE 144 + + X. MRS. MASTERSON TAKES TEA 155 + + XI. THE GLOWING HEARTH 173 + + XII. THE UPPER TRAIL 184 + + XIII. WHAT TONY BUILT 203 + + XIV. THE CABARET DANCER 215 + + XV. THE OTHER MAN'S ROAD 229 + + XVI. THE GUITAR OF ALENYA OF THE SEA 243 + + XVII. RUSSIAN MIKE AND MAITRE RAOUL GALVEZ 261 + +XVIII. THE CHALLENGE 271 + + XIX. THE ADRIANCES 283 + + XX. THE CORNERSTONE 308 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE + +Elsie felt the Glance pass across Her and Rest on Anthony _Frontispiece_ + +There Would Have Been no more Bedtime Romps for Masterson and His Son 71 + +The Winter was Hard and Long, but Never Dull to Them 173 + + + + +A MAN'S HEARTH + + + + +CHAPTER I + +TONY ADRIANCE--"MILLIONS, YOU KNOW!" + + +The man who had taken shelter in the stone pavilion hesitated before +taking a place on the curved bench before him. He had the air of +awaiting some sign of welcome or dismissal from the seat's occupant; +receiving none, he sat down and turned his gaze toward the broad Drive, +where people were scattering before the sudden flurry of rain. It +suggested spring rather than autumn, this shower that had swept out of a +wind-blown cloud and was already passing. + +After a moment he drew a cigar-case from his pocket, then paused. +Obviously, he was not familiar with the etiquette of the public parks, +with their freedom and lack of formalities. He was beside a woman--a +girl. He had no wish to be inconsiderate, yet, to speak--in suspicious, +sardonic New York--that was to invite misconstruction, or a flirtation. +Still---- + +"May I smoke?" he suddenly and brusquely shot his question. + +The girl turned towards him. Her eyes were as gray as the rain; heavily +shadowed by their lashes, their expression had a misted aloofness +suggesting thoughts hastily recalled from remote distances. He realized +that he might have come, smoked, and gone without drawing her notice any +more than a blowing leaf. She was not a beauty, but he liked the +clearing frankness of the glance with which she judged him, and judged +aright. He liked it, too, that she did not smile, and that her steadfast +regard showed neither invitation nor hostility. + +"Thank you," she answered. "Please do." + +The form of her reply seemed to him peculiarly gracious and unexpected, +as if she gave with both hands instead of doling out the merely +necessary. He never had known a woman who gave; they always took, in his +experience. Unconsciously he lifted his hat in acknowledgment of the +tone rather than the permission. That was all, of course. She returned +to her study of river and sky, while he drew out his cigar. But +afterward he looked at her, unobtrusively. + +She was dressed altogether in black, but not the black of mourning, he +judged. The costume, plain but not shabby, conventional without being +up-to-date, touched him with a vague sense of familiarity, yet escaped +recognition. It should have told him something of her, but it did not, +except that she had not much money for frocks. He was only slightly +interested; he might not have glanced her way again if he had not been +struck by her rapt absorption in the sunset panorama before them. She +had gone back to that place of thought from which his speech had called +her; withdrawn from all around her as one who goes into a secret room +and closes a door against the world. And she looked happy, or at least +serenely at peace with her dreams. The man sighed with envious +impatience, striving to follow her gaze and share the enchantment. + +The enchantment was not for him. The brief storm had left tumbled masses +of purple cloud hanging in the deep-rose tinted sky, in airy mockery and +imitation of the purplish wall of the Palisades standing knee-deep in +the rosy waters of the Hudson. Along the crest of the great rock walls +lights blossomed like flowers through the violet mist, at the walls' +base half-seen buildings flashed with lighted windows. He saw that it +was all very pretty, but he had seen it so a hundred times without +especial emotion. + +His cigar was finished, yet the girl had not once moved. Abruptly, as +before, he spoke to her, as he moved to leave. + +"What are you looking at?" he demanded. "Oh, I'm not trying to be +impertinent--I would like to know what you see worth while? You have not +moved for half an hour. I wish you could show me something worth that." + +Again she turned and considered him with grave attention. His tired +young face bore the scrutiny; she answered him. + +"I am seeing all the things I have not got." + +"Over there?" + +She yielded his lack of imagination. + +"Well, yes; over there. Don't you know it is always Faeryland--the place +over there?" + +"It is only Jersey--?" + +She corrected him. + +"The place out of reach. The place between which and ourselves flows a +river, or rises a cliff. One can imagine anything to be there. See that +grim, unreal castle, there in the shadows, its windows all gleaming with +light from within. Well, it is a factory where they make soap-powder, +but from here I can see Fair Rosamond leaning from its arched windows, +if I choose, or armored and plumed knights riding into its gates." + +"Oh!" Disappointment made the exclamation listless. "Story-making, you +were? I am afraid I can't see that way, thank you; I haven't the head +for it." + +For the first time she smiled, with a warm lighting of her rain-gray +eyes and a Madonna-like protectiveness of expression. He felt as +distinct an impression as if she had laid her hand on his arm with an +actual touch of sympathy. + +"But I do not see that way, either," she explained. "That was an +illustration. I mean that one can make pictures there of all the _real_ +things that are not real for one's self; at least, not yet real. It is a +game to play, I suppose, while one waits." + +"I do not understand." + +She made a gesture of resignation, and was mute. He comprehended that +confidence would go no farther. + +"Thank you," he accepted the rebuke. "It was good of you to put up with +my curiosity and--not to misunderstand my speaking." + +"Oh, no! I hate to misunderstand, ever; it is so stupid." + +Although he had risen, he did not go at once. The evening colors faded, +first from river, then from sky. With autumn's suddenness, dusk swept +down. Playing children, groups of young people and promenaders passed by +the little pavilion in a gay current; automobiles multiplied with the +homing hour of the city. New York thought of dining, simply or superbly, +as might be. + +The silent tete-a-tete in the pavilion was broken by the softest sound +in the world--a baby's drowsy, gurgling chuckle of awakening. Instantly +the girl in black started from revery, and then the man first noticed +that a white-and-gold baby carriage stood at her end of the curved seat. +Astonished, incredulous, he saw her throw back miniature coverlets of +frost-white eiderdown and bend over the little face, pink as a +hollyhock, nestled there. For the first time in his life he witnessed +the pretty byplay of the nursery--dropped kisses, the answering pats of +chubby, useless hands, love-words and replying baby speech, +inarticulate, adorable. + +The scene struck deeply into inner places of thought he had never known +lay at the back of consciousness. He never had thought very profoundly, +until the last few weeks. And even yet he was struggling, turning in a +mental circle of doubt, rather than thinking. The girl and the child +flung open a door through which he glimpsed strange vistas, startling in +their forbidden possibilities. He stood watching, dumb, until she turned +to him. Her face was kindled and laughing; she looked infinitely candid +and good. But--she looked maid, not mother. Somehow he felt that. + +"You are married?" he questioned, almost roughly. "I did not suppose---- +You are married, then?" + +Into her expression swept scorn for his dulness, compassion for his +ignorance, fused by the flaring fire of some intense feeling far beyond +his ken. + +"Married? No. Or I would not be here!" + +"Why? Where would you be?" + +The baby was standing upright in its coach. The girl passed an arm about +the tottering form to steady the fat little feet, and retorted on her +questioner. + +"Where? Home, of course, making ready for my man! If I lived +there,"--with a gesture toward the tall, luxurious apartment houses on +the Drive, behind them, "I would be choosing my prettiest frock and +coiling my hair the way he liked best. If I lived there, across the +river in one of those little houses, I would be making the house bright +with lamps; wearing my whitest apron and making the supper hot--very +hot, for there is frost in the air and he would be cold and tired and +hungry. And I would have his chair ready and draw the curtains because +he was inside and no one else mattered." She paused, drawing a deep +breath. "That is where I would be," she concluded, as one patiently +lessoning a dull pupil, and reseated the baby in its coach in obvious +preparation for departure. + +The man had stood quite still, dazed. But when she turned away, with a +bend of her dark little head by way of farewell, he roused himself and +overtook her in a stride. + +"Thank you," he said, "I mean for letting me know anyone could feel like +that. I suppose a great many people do, only I have not met that kind? +No, never mind answering; how should you know? But, thank you. May I--if +I see you again--may I speak to you?" + +She surveyed him gravely, as if with clairvoyant ability to read a +history from his face, a face open-browed and planned for strength, by +its square outlines, but that somehow only succeeded in being pleasant +and passively agreeable. It was the face of a man who never had been +brought against conflict or any need for stern decision, whose true +character was a sword never yet drawn from the sheath. And now, he was +in trouble; so much lay plain to see. He was in bitter trouble and, she +guessed, alone with the trouble. + +He stood in mute acceptance of her scrutiny, recognizing her right, +since he had asked so much. Before she spoke, he knew her answer, seeing +it foreshadowed in the gray eyes. + +"If you wish to very much. But--not too soon again." + +She stepped from the curb, allowing no reply, but without apparent +haste, pushing the carriage in which the baby chuckled and twisted to +peep back at her. He watched her thread her way through the rushing +lines of pleasure traffic; saw her reach the other side and disappear +behind a knoll clothed with turf and evergreens that rose between them. +The woman from whose presence he had come to this chance encounter once +had told him that any human being looked absurd propelling a baby-coach. +He recalled that statement now, and did not find it true. It was such a +sane thing to do, so natural and good. At least, it seemed so when this +girl did it. He envied the man, whoever he might be, who did, or would +love her; envied him the clean simplicity she would make of life and the +absence of hateful complications. + +People were glancing curiously at his motionless figure; he aroused +himself and walked on. He had chosen his own way of living, he angrily +told himself; there was no excuse for whining if he did not like the +place where free-will had led him. Yet--had he? Or had he, instead, +been trapped? The doubt was ugly. He walked faster to escape it, but it +ran at his heels like one of those sinister demon-animals of medieval +legend. + +Across the blackening river electric signs were flashing into view; +gigantic affairs insolently shouldering themselves into the unwilling +attention, as indeed they were designed to do by Jersey's desire for the +greater city's patronage. Looking toward one of these, the man read it +with a sullen distaste: "Adriance's Paper." That simple announcement +marked an industry, even a monopoly, great enough to have been subjected +more than once to the futile investigations of an uneasy government. + +The family name was sufficiently unusual, the family fortune +sufficiently well known to have been bracketted together for him +wherever he had gone. In school, in college, and later, always he had +found a courier whisper running officiously before him, "Young +Adriance--paper, you know. Millions!" And always it had led him into +trouble; at twenty-six he was just commencing to realize that fact. The +trouble never had been very serious until now. He never had committed +anything his mother's church would have called a mortal sin. Even yet he +stood only on the verge of commission. But he could not draw back; he +was like a man being inexorably pushed into a dark place. + +The house toward which he turned did not arrest the eye by any +ostentatious display. In fact, it was remarkable only for being one of +the very few houses on lower Riverside Drive which possessed lawns and +verandas. Set in a small town, or a suburb, the gray stone villa would +have been merely "very handsome." Here, it gained the value of an +exotic. To Anthony Adriance, junior, as he climbed the steps that night, +it seemed to stare arrogantly from its score of blinking windows at the +glittering sign on the opposite shore. Cause and effect, they duly +acknowledge each other. The man paused to glance at them both, then let +his gaze fall to the avenue below the terraced lawn. That way the +black-gowned girl had gone. Probably she had turned across into the +city; her dress was hardly that of a resident of the neighborhood. + +The man who took his hat and coat deferentially breathed a message. Mr. +Adriance was in the library and desired to know if his son was dining at +home. + +"Yes," was the prompt, even eager reply. "Certainly, if he wishes it. +Or--never mind; I will go in, myself." + +The inquiry was unusual. It was not Mr. Adriance's habit to question his +son's movements. One might have said they did not interest him. He and +"Tony" were very good acquaintances and lived quite without friction. He +was too busy, too self-centred and ultra-modern to desire any warmer +relation. Affection was a sentimentality never mentioned in that +household; a mutilated household, for Mrs. Adriance had died twenty +years before Tony's majority. + +But it was not curiosity, rather an odd, faintly flickering hope that +lighted the younger man's eyes as he entered the room and returned his +father's nod of greeting. The two were not unlike, at a first glance; +definitely good features: eyes so dark that they were frequently +mistaken for black instead of blue, upright figures that made the most +of their moderate height,--these they had in common. The great +difference between them was in expression; the difference between +untempered and tempered metal. No one would ever have nicknamed the +elder Anthony "Tony." + +"I shall be glad to dine with you," the younger Anthony opened, at once. +"I'll go change, and be back. Were you going to try the new Trot +tonight--I think you said so?" + +"No. I had an hour this afternoon," Mr. Adriance stated, picking up a +pen from the table and turning it in his fingers. He had a habit of +playing with small articles at times--to distract his listener's +attention rather than his own, said those who knew him well. Neither to +his son nor to himself did it occur as incongruous that he should +discuss a lesson in dancing with the matter-of-fact decision that made +his speech cold and sharp as the crackle of a step on a frost-bound +road. "It is not so difficult as the tango, though more fatiguing. Where +had you intended to dine, tonight? At the Mastersons'?" + +Tony Adriance colored a slow, painful red that burned over face and neck +like a flame scar. + +"Fred asked me," he made difficult work of the reply. "I couldn't get +out of it very well, but I am glad of an excuse to stay away. It is +early enough to 'phone." + +Mr. Adriance turned the pen around. + +"If Masterson was to be there, you might safely have gone," he +pronounced. + +"If----" + +"Exactly. Dining with Mrs. Masterson will no longer do. Am I speaking to +a full-grown man or a boy? If Mrs. Masterson chooses to get a divorce, +and you afterward marry her, very good. It is done; divorce is accepted +among us. But there must be no gossip concerning the lady." + +"There is no cause for any," retorted the other, but the defense lacked +fire. He looked suddenly haggard, and the shamed red scorched still +deeper. "She--isn't that kind." + +"No. She is very clever." He laid down the pen and took up a book. "I +was cautioning you. Will you hurry your dressing a little? I have an +early engagement down-town this evening." + +The dry retort was not resented. The younger man did not retreat, +although way was shown to him. Since the subject had been dragged into +the open ground of speech, he had more to say, with whatever reluctance. + +"You don't seem to consider Fred," he finally said. + +"Why should I?" Mr. Adriance looked up perfunctorily. "Masterson is +nothing to me. You have not considered him." + +"I have! At least, I tried to stop this--after I understood. I never +meant----" + +There was a pause, during which Mr. Adriance turned a page. The sentence +was not completed, but Tony Adriance lingered as if in expectation of +some reply to it; an expectation half eager, half defiant. No reply was +made; finally it became evident there was to be none. + +"I thought you might object." He forced a laugh with the avowal, but his +eyes denied the lightness. "Parents do in books and plays, you know. I +thought you might tell me---- Oh, well, to pull out of this and bring +home a woman of my own instead of some other man's woman. It isn't very +pretty!" + +Mr. Adriance looked up with a certain curiosity. + +"You have a sentimental streak, Tony? I never suspected it. Why should I +object to an affair so suitable? You have been following Mrs. Masterson +about for a year; she is altogether charming and will make a good +hostess here--a great lack in our household. I admire her myself, more +than any debutante I ever saw. I am very well satisfied. Suppose you had +brought home some milkmaid romance, a wife to stumble over the rugs and +defer to the servants? No, no; manage this properly, that is all my +advice. Meanwhile, do you know it is after seven o'clock? Unless you +hurry----" + +"Oh, I'll hurry," was the dry promise. "And I am much obliged for the +advice. But I fancy a good many of us may defer to the milkmaids, after +we are dead." + +He swung the door shut with unnecessary force, as he went out. While he +climbed the broad, darkly-lustrous stairs, he was aware that his father +was turning another page of the book; and as a pendant to that picture +had a mental glimpse of Lucille Masterson, lovely, perfect in every line +of costume and tint of color, waiting for a man who was not her husband. +What would the girl in black think of that, he wondered? Yet Lucille +was altogether beyond reproach. She had every right to contemplate a +divorce, in view of Fred Masterson's undoubted wildness and +extravagance. If only she had not discussed it with him, Tony Adriance, +he thought impatiently. If only she had announced her intention to her +husband and the world, instead of broaching it secretly to the admirer +she had chosen for her second husband! It was horrible to meet Masterson +with this knowledge thrust like a stone blocking the way of intercourse. +Certainly she lacked delicacy. + +Of course he must go on gracefully. It was very like climbing these +stairs; one step taken implied taking the next. But he wished that he +had not met the girl in the pavilion. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HIS NEIGHBOR'S WIFE + + +During the next few days, Tony Adriance several times saw the girl in +black. But he did not venture to approach or speak to her. It was too +soon; moreover, he was not altogether certain that he wished to be with +her. She was too disturbing, too concrete an evidence of other +possibilities in life than those he had been taught. He remembered the +story of the Grecian lake that was only muddy when stirred. Probably +those who lived within view of its waters seldom "disturbed Comarina." + +Nevertheless, he always regarded the girl with a keen interest he could +not have explained even to himself. He would glimpse her from his +automobile in passing, or observe her from the opposite sidewalk as he +went in or out of his father's house. She always had the child with her, +and always wore the same frock. Usually, she was to be found in the +white stone pavilion, established on the curved stone bench with a bit +of sewing or a book. He never had imagined so quietly monotonous a life +as hers seemed to be. + +It was at the end of the first week after their meeting that Adriance, +riding slowly along the bridle-path through the park, saw an itinerant +vendor of toy balloons and pinwheels wander into the pavilion where girl +and baby were ensconced. + +The sunlight glittered bravely on the gaudy colors of fluted paper +wheels, the plump striped sides of bobbing globes, and the sleepy, brown +face of the Syrian pedler who mutely presented his wares. The girl +lifted her smiling eyes to meet the man's questioning glance, and shook +her head with a pretty gesture that somehow implied admiration and a gay +friendliness which made her refusal more gracious than another's +purchase. The pedler smiled, also, and lingered to hoist the straps +supporting his tray into a new position upon his bent, velveteen-clad +shoulders, before moving on his way. + +The baby had not been consulted. But his attention had been none the +less enchained. Those pink and yellow things set spinning by the fresh +morning breeze, those red balloons tugging at their cords like unwilling +captives hungry for the clear upper spaces of blue--to see all this +radiance departing was too much! He spread wide both chubby arms and +plunged in pursuit. + +"Holly!" the girl cried, arresting his flight from the coach. "Why, +Holly?" + +Holly hurled himself into magnificent rage. Halted by the outburst, the +Syrian turned back with an air of experienced victory. + +"_Now_ you buy?" he interrogated. + +The girl shook her head, struggling to appease the young +insurrectionist. + +"No, no. Please go away, and he will forget." + +The man took a step away. The baby's screams redoubled; he stamped with +small, fat feet and brandished small, fat fists. + +"You buy?" the pedler blandly insisted. + +"No!" the girl panted. "Please do go. I cannot; I have no money with me. +Holly, dear----!" + +Adriance had found a boy to hold his horse, and came up in time to +overhear the last statement. He halted the Syrian with a gesture. + +"I have," he made his presence known to the combatants. "Won't you let +me gratify a fellowman? Here, bring those things nearer. Which shall it +be, young chap--or both?" + +The girl turned to him with candid relief warming her surprise. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed her recognition. "You are very good. I am afraid, +really afraid it will have to be both. _Oh_----!" + +Holly had deliberately lunged forward and clutched a double handful of +the alluring wares. + +By the time calm was re-established and the amused Adriance had paid, it +seemed altogether natural that he should take his place on the seat +beside the girl; as natural as the pedler's placid departure. Holly lay +back on his cushions in vast content, two balloons floating from their +tethers at the foot of his coach and a pinwheel clasped in his hand. + +"I should like to say that he is not often like this," remarked the +girl, gathering together her scattered sewing, "But he likes having his +own way as much as Mait' Raoul Galvez; and everyone knows what _he_ +raised." + +"I don't," Adriance confessed. He noticed for the first time a softening +of her words, not enough to be called an accent, far less a lisp, but +yet a trick of speech, unfamiliar to him. "What did he raise?" + +"Satan," she gravely told him. "Mait' Raoul knew more about voodooism +and black magic than any white man ever should. It is said he vowed that +he would have the devil up in person to play cards with him, or never be +content on earth or under it. And he did, although he knew well enough +Satan never gambles except for souls." + +"Who won?" + +"Satan did. Yet he lost again, for Mait' Raoul tricked him in the +contract so cleverly that it did not bind and the soul was free. There +is a great split rock near Galvez Bayou where they say the demon stamped +in his rage so fiercely the stone burst." + +"Then Maitre Raoul escaped Hades, after all?" + +"Oh, no! He went there, but merely as a point of honor. He was a +gambler, but he always paid his losses." + +Adriance laughed, yet winced a little, too. A baffled, helpless +bitterness darkened across his expression, as it had done on the +evening of their first meeting. He looked down at the pavement as if in +fear of accidentally encountering his companion's clear glance. + +"I never read that story," he acknowledged. "Thank you." + +"I fancy it never was written," she returned. "There is a song about it; +a sleepy, creepy song which should never be sung between midnight and +dawn." + +He watched her draw the thread in and out, for a space. She was +embroidering an intricate monogram in the centre of a square of fine +linen, working with nice exactitude and daintiness. + +"What is it?" he wondered, finally. + +Her glance traced the direction of his. + +"A net for goldfish," she replied. + +It was not until long afterward he understood she had told him that she +sold her work. + +The river glittered, breaking into creamy furrows of foam under the +ploughing traffic. The sunshine was warm and sank through Adriance with +a lulling sense of physical pleasure and tranquil laziness. How bright +and clean a world he seemed to view, seated here! He felt a pang of +longing, keen as pain, when he thought that he might have had such +content as this as an abiding state, instead of a brief respite. How had +he come to shut himself away from peace, all unaware? How was it that he +never had valued the colorless blessing, until it was lost? + +After a while he fell to envying Maitre Raoul, who had gone to the devil +honorably. + +A long sigh from Holly, slumbering amid his trophies, awoke Adriance to +realization that his companion possessed the gift of being silent +gracefully. He had not spoken to her for quite half an hour, yet she +appeared neither bored nor offended, but as if she had been engaged in +following out some pleasant theme of meditation. A sparrow tilted and +preened itself on the rail, not a yard from her bent, dark head. Over at +the curbstone, the boy who guarded Adriance's horse had slipped the +bridle over one arm and was playing marbles with two cheerful comrades +who made calculated allowances for his handicap, based on his coming +reward from the rider. + +"I am afraid I am very dull," Adriance presently offered vague apology. + +"Are you?" + +"I mean, I am not entertaining." + +She lifted her eyes from her sewing to regard him with delicate +raillery. + +"No. If you had been the entertaining sort of person, I could never have +let you talk to me," she said. "But I think you had better go, please, +now. Two imported nursemaids in bat-wing cloaks have been glowering at +us for some time as it is. Holly and I shall be grateful to you a +thousand years for this morning's rescue." + +He rose reluctantly, with a feeling of being ejected from the only +serene spot on earth. + +"Thank you for letting me stay," he answered. "You are very kind. I----" + +His lowered glance had encountered her little feet, demurely crossed +under the edge of her sober skirt. They were very small, serious shoes +indeed; not a touch of the day's capricious fancy in decoration relieved +them. But what struck to the man's heart was their brave blackness, the +blackness of polish that could not quite conceal that they had been +mended. Of course, he at once looked away, but the impression remained. + +"I hope Holly will not imitate Mait' Raoul any more," he finished +lamely. + +The girl frankly turned to watch him ride away. Her natural interest +seemed to the man more modest than any pose of indifference. + +But it seemed that she was appointed by Chance to make Tony Adriance +dissatisfied and restive. It was altogether absurd, but the fanciful +legend she had told him taunted and hunted his sullen thoughts. He took +it with him to his home, when he changed into suitable attire to keep a +luncheon engagement with Mrs. Masterson. It still accompanied him when +he entered the great apartment house where the Mastersons lived. + +He had not wanted to act as Lucille Masterson's escort on this occasion. +His attendance had been skilfully compelled. But now he hated the duty +so much that he was dangerously near rebellion. He hesitated on the +threshold of the building, half inclined not to enter; to go, instead, +to a telephone and excuse himself for desertion on some pretext. + +It was too late. Already the door was held open for him by a footman +whose discreetly familiar smile Adriance saw, and resented. He winced +again when the elevator boy stopped at the Mastersons' floor without +being told, implying the impossibility of Mr. Adriance's call being +intended for any other household. He never had noticed these things +before; now, he felt himself disgracefully exposed before these black +men. + +He was altogether in a mood of bitter exasperation, when he was ushered +into Mrs. Masterson's little drawing-room. He recognized this condition +with a vague sense of surprise at himself underlying the dominant +emotion. All his life he had been singularly even-tempered. Now he +combated a wish to say ugly, caustic things to the woman who had brought +him here. He did not want to see her. + +Yet she was very pleasant to see. Indeed, both the scene and his hostess +were charming, as they met his view. Mrs. Masterson was standing before +a long mirror, surveying herself, so that Adriance saw her twice; once +in fact, and once as a reflection. Sunlight filled the room, which was +furnished and draped in a curious shade of deep blue with a shimmering +richness of color, so that the lady's gray-clad figure stood out in +clear and precise detail. But Mrs. Masterson could bear that strong +light, and knew it. Without turning, she smiled into the mirror toward +the man whose image she saw there. + +"How do you like the last Viennese fancy, Tony?" she composedly greeted +him. + +Her voice was not one of her good points. It was naturally too +high-pitched and harsh, and although by careful training she had +accustomed herself to speak with a suppressed evenness of tone that +smothered the defect to most ears, there resulted a lack of expression +or modulation perilously near monotony. Adriance listened now, with a +fresh sense of irritation, to the fault he only had observed recently. +Before answering, he surveyed critically the decided lines of the +costume offered for his approval; its audacious little waistcoat of +cerise-and-black checked velvet, the diminutive hat that seemed to have +alighted like a butterfly on the shining yellow hair brushed smoothly +back from Mrs. Masterson's pink ears, and the high-buttoned gray boots +with a silk tassel pendant at each ankle. Those exquisite and costly +boots taunted him with their sharp contrast to those he had studied an +hour before; they spurred him on to rudeness as if actual rowels were +affixed to their little French heels. + +"The skirt is too extreme," he stated perversely. + +"They are going to be so; this is quite a bit in advance," she returned. +"Do you like it?" + +"Not so well! It makes a woman look like a child; except for her face." + +Lucille Masterson's tact was often at fault from her lack of humor. +Instead of retorting with laughter or silence, she opposed offence to +his wilfulness. + +"Thank you," she answered freezingly. "I seem to have aged rather +suddenly." + +"You know well enough how handsome you are," he said, a trifle ashamed. +"Of course I did not mean what you imply. But, after all, we are not +children, Lucille, either of us. We are a man and a woman who are +going----" + +"Well?" + +"To gather a rather nasty apple!" He forced a smile to temper the +statement. + +She slowly turned around and regarded him. + +"What do you mean?" she demanded, lifting her narrow, arched eyebrows. +"My _costume trottoir_, and apples----? Aren't you considerably +confused, Tony?" + +"Can't we at least face what we are doing?" he countered. "If we are +able to do a thing, we ought to be able to look at it, surely. We can +put through this thing, and our friends will think none the less of us; +they are that kind. But they are not all the people on earth, you know. +What the maid who brushes your gown or the man who opens the door for me +says of us downstairs may come nearer the general opinion. Perhaps we +would better have considered that. For I am afraid the majority of the +white man's world cannot be altogether wrong." + +There was a quality in his voice that alarmed her. He had flung himself +into a chair beside her desk, and sat nervously moving back and forth +the trinkets nearest his hand. She stood quite still, studying him +before committing herself by a reply. This was a Tony Adriance strange +to her. + +"It seems very cowardly, to me, to be afraid of what people will say," +she slowly answered. "And I will not have you speak to me as if I were a +wicked woman, Tony. You know that I am not. You know I have borne with +Fred's neglect and extravagance much longer than other women would." + +He flushed dark-red at the taunt of cowardice, but he spoke doggedly, +tenacious of his purpose. + +"You could not give Fred another chance? You remember, he and I were +friends, once. He has played too much with the stock market. Well, I +might get my father to help him there; we might fix it so that he won +sometimes, instead of lost. You do not know how hard it is for me to +come into Fred's house this way." + +A flash of blended anger and fear crossed Mrs. Masterson's large, +light-colored eyes. + +"Is it?" she doubted, cuttingly. "You have been coming here for a whole +year, Tony." + +She had found the one retort he could not answer. Adriance opened his +lips, then closed them with a grim recognition of defeat. Who would +believe he had come here innocently? How could he tell this beautiful +and sophisticated woman that he had been vaguely, romantically charmed +by her without ever dreaming of any issue to the affair or of letting +her suspect his mild sentimentality? How could he hope she would credit +the tale, if he did tell her? + +She had been watching his changing expression; herself paled by a very +genuine dread. Now, suddenly she was beside him, her hands on his +shoulders. + +"Don't you love me any more, Tony? You come in here to-day and rage at +me----! Have you taught me for months to need you and count on you for +all the future, only to leave me, now? Oh, I believed _you_ were strong +and true!" + +A caress from her was so rare an event, so unfamiliar a concession, that +her mere nearness fired Adriance. Her fragrant face was close to his; +he looked into her eyes, like jewels under water, suffused by her terror +of losing him. + +His kiss was her victory. Instantly she was away from him; half across +the room and sending furtive glances toward the curtained doorways, even +toward the windows five stories above the street. The guilt implied in +the action made it to Adriance as if a hand had struck the kiss from his +lips. + +"We must be careful," she cautioned. "Suppose someone were coming in? +You didn't mean all that, Tony? You love me as much as ever?" + +Adriance moved toward her. + +"I won't answer that in Masterson's house," he said, his voice shaken. +"Lucille, you have got to do now what I asked you to do weeks ago: you +must leave here at once and marry me as soon as it can be done. Since we +have begun this thing, we must carry it through as decently as possible. +And it is not decent for you to stay here or for me to come here. If you +come with me now, to-day, I will put you with someone who can act as +chaperon until the divorce is obtained; one of my aunts, perhaps. If +you do this, and help me to keep what honestly is left, I give you my +word that I never will fail you as long as I live, come what may." + +She drew back from his vehemence. Assured of herself and him, now, she +permitted a frown to tangle her fair brow in half-amused rebuke. + +"My dear boy, what a dramatic tirade! Of course I will come to you the +first moment possible--but, to-day? And just now you were deprecating +gossip! You must let me arrange this affair. I am not ready to leave +Fred, yet. Do you not understand? I must wait until he makes another one +of his scenes; I must have a fresh reason for going, not a past one +already tacitly overlooked." + +"You will not come?" + +She turned from his darkened face to the mirror. + +"You really are very selfish, Tony. Pray think a little of me instead of +yourself. But I will try to do as you wish; next month, perhaps. I could +go to Florida for the winter." + +Adriance sat down again beside the desk and took a cigarette from a +small lacquered tray that stood there. He was beaten, but he was not +submissive. He bent his head to the yoke with a bitter, sick reluctance. +Yet he understood that it was too late to draw out. Lucille loved him; +whether intentionally or not, he had won her. No, he must finish what he +had begun. + +The cigarette was perfumed, and nauseated him. He dropped it into an +ash-receiver, but it had given him a moment to steady himself. After +all, Masterson did neglect his wife. If he could not keep his own, why +should Tony Adriance turn altruist and try to do it for him? At least, +Lucille might be happy. + +Mrs. Masterson had touched her hat into place, surveying her vivid +reflection. She was wise enough to take her triumph casually. + +"Shall we go?" she questioned. "Nan Madison hates late arrivals, you +know. Do make your man throw away that cravat you are wearing, Tony. +Gray is not your color. It makes you look too pale; too much----" + +"Like Maitre Raoul Galvez?" he dryly supplied, rising. + +"Who was he?" + +"A man who raised the Devil. I am quite ready if you wish to go." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GIRL OUTSIDE + + +Tony Adriance slipped into the habit of pausing for a few words with the +girl in black whenever circumstances set them opposite each other. And +that was quite often, since his home was so near the pavilion she had +adopted as her place of repose. He rather avoided his friends, during +the days following his futile rebellion against Lucille Masterson's +will, yet he was lonely and eager to escape thought. He could talk to +the girl, he admitted to himself, because she did not know him. + +They met with a casual frankness, the girl and he, like two men who find +each other congenial, yet whose lives lie far apart. Their brief +conversations were intimate without being inquisitively personal. She +had a trick of saying things that lingered in the memory; at least, in +his memory. Not that she was especially brilliant; her charm was her +earnestness, at once vivid and tranquil, and the odd glamor of +enchantment she threw over plain commonsense, making it no longer +plain, but alluring as folly. + +But she continued to wear the shabby little boots, with their optimistic +bravery of blacking. They really were respectable boots, aging, not +aged. The fault lay with Adriance, not them; he was too much accustomed +to women "whose sandals delighted his eyes." If her feet had been less +childishly small, they might have preoccupied him less. As it was, they +preoccupied him more and more. + +There is no accepted way of offering a pair of shoes to a feminine +acquaintance. Nevertheless, in the third week of his friendship with the +girl, Adriance bought a pair of pumps for her. He had seen them in a +glass case set out before a shop and stopped to gaze, astonished. They +were so unmistakably hers; the size, the rounded lines, the very arch +and tilt were right! They were of shining black, with Spanish heels and +glinting buckles. + +He took them home with him, but of course he dared not give them to her. +He had an idea that he might essay the venture on the last occasion of +their meeting; if she punished him with banishment, then, it would not +matter. For he meant to leave New York when Lucille went to Florida. He +would spend the necessary interval between the divorce and his marriage, +in Canada, alone. + +Meanwhile, there was the girl. + +It was on the last day of October that he found her knitting instead of +embroidering; a web of gay scarlet across her knees. + +"A new suit for Holly's big Teddybear," she explained, as he sat down +opposite to her. "Christmas is coming, you know. I like to have all +ready in advance. Don't you think the color should become a brown-plush +bear?" + +"It is not depressing." + +"It is the color of holly. And depression is not a sensation to +cultivate, is it?" She paused to gaze across the river, already shadowed +by approaching evening. "I believe in fighting it off with both hands; +driving a spear right through the ugly thing and holding it up like Sir +Sintram with that wriggly monster in the old picture." + +"You would be a good one to be in trouble with," he said abruptly. + +She disentangled his meaning from the extremely vague speech, and nodded +serious assent. + +"Yes, perhaps. I'm used to making the most of things." + +"The best of them," he corrected. + +"Of course! The most best--why should anyone make more worst?" + +They laughed together. But directly the restless unhappiness flowed back +into his eyes. + +"They do, though!" he exclaimed. + +"Then they are wrong, all wrong," she said decidedly. "They should set +themselves right the moment they find it out." + +"But if they can't?" he urged, with a personal heat and protest. "Things +aren't so simple as all that. Suppose they can't set one thing straight +without knocking over a lot of others? You _cannot_ go cutting and +slashing through like that!" + +"Oh, yes; you can," she contradicted, sitting very upright, her gray +eyes fired. "You must; anyone must. It is cowardly to let things, +crooked things, grow and grow. And one could not knock down anything +worth while that easily. Good things are strong." + +He shook his head. But she had stirred him so that he sat silent for a +while, then rather suddenly rose to take his leave. + +"You never told me your name," he remarked, looking down at her. He +noticed again how supple and deft her fingers were, and their capable +swiftness at the work. + +"No. Why?" she replied simply. + +"I don't know," he accepted the rebuke. "I--beg your pardon." + +"Oh, certainly. Holly is trying to shake hands before you go." + +Of course he and the baby had become friends. He carefully yielded his +forefinger to the clutching hands, but he did not smile as usual. + +"Look here," he spoke out brusquely. "Just as an illustration that +things are not as easily kept straight as you seem to think--I know a +man who somehow got to following one woman around. I don't think he +knows quite how. Of course, he admired her immensely, and liked her. +Well, I suppose he felt more than that! But he never even imagined +making love to her, because she was married. You see, he was a fool. One +day when he called, she told him that she was going to get a divorce +from her husband. She has the right. And the man found she expected to +marry him, afterward; she thought he had meant that all along. What +could he do? What can he do?" + +The baby gurgled merrily, dropping the forefinger and yawning. The girl +laid down her work to tuck a coverlet about her charge. + +"I do not know," she admitted, her voice low. + +Adriance drew a quick breath. + +"That isn't all of it. The husband is the man's friend. Why, they used +to sleep together, eat together----! And he doesn't know. Don't you see, +the man has to fail either the husband or wife? How can you straighten +that?" + +She looked up, to meet the unconscious self-betrayal of his defiant, +unhappy eyes. + +"I am very sorry for him," she answered gravely. And, after a moment. +"She must be very clever." + +He started away from the suggestion with sharp resentment. Clever--that +was his father's term for Lucille Masterson; and it was hateful to him. +He would not analyze why he felt that repugnance to hearing Lucille +called clever. He refused to consider what that implied, what ugly +depths of doubt were stirred in him to make him wince in anger and +humiliation. Suddenly he bitterly regretted having told the story to +this girl, even under the concealed identity. + +"No doubt," he made a coldly vague rejoinder. "I dare say the matter +will work itself out well enough. It is getting late; I think I must +go." + +It was altogether too abrupt, and he knew it. But he could do no better. +He knew the girl's eyes followed him away, and he walked with careful +ease and nonchalance. + +Out of her sight, he walked more slowly. Already the autumn twilight was +settling down like a delicate gray veil. At the foot of the Palisades, +opposite, a familiar point of light sprang into view among the myriad +lights there; a point that ran like fire through tow, up, across, around +until the glittering words shone complete: "Adriance's Paper." + +The name was reflected in the dark water. Down there, it swayed weakly +and its legend was broken by the river's ripples. "You shine, up there, +but I govern here," the Hudson flung its scorn back to the man-made +arrogance. He was like that reflection, Tony Adriance thought, with a +fancy caught from the girl's trick of imagery; he was the mere +reflection of his father's successes, shifting, worthless, inseparable +from the gold-colored reality above, dancing and broken on the current +of a woman's will. He himself was--nothing. He winced under the +self-applied lash. It was knotted with truth; he, personally, never had +counted. Even Lucille never had said she loved him; she simply had taken +his devotion for granted, and used it. Would she have promised herself +to him if he had been a poor man? Would she ever have contemplated +divorce from Masterson, with all his faults, if Tony Adriance had not +brought himself and his gilded possibilities across her path? The +questions were ugly, and sent the blood into his face. He stopped +walking and stood by the stone wall edging the sidewalk, facing the +river. + +He always had resented being merely his father's heir, in a vague, +unanalyzed way. Now resentment threatened to flame into rebellion. + +Rebellion against what? His father, who left him absolute freedom from +any restraint? Lucille, whom he was at perfect liberty never to see +again, if he chose to deny her assumption? He was very completely +trapped by circumstance, since the trap was open and yet he could not +leave it. + +The delicate dot on the _i_ of irony was that he had loved Lucille, yet +he knew he must be miserable with her all their lives. He thought of her +even now with a certain longing, yet he would always distrust her and +detest himself. His fingers gripped the stone edge; he felt a passionate +envy of men who were strong enough to do insane, desperate things, to +tear their own way ruthlessly through the clinging web of other people's +ways. He fancied the girl in black to be such a person; if she +considered herself right in any course, she would take it. + +But after a while he turned away and began to walk home. He had to +dress, for he was dining with the Mastersons. It had been insisted upon, +to make amends for the night he had stayed away to dine with his +father. Lucille was not yet ready for any audible whisper to suggest +divorce to the world or her husband. Tony must come and go as usual for +a few weeks more. She had chosen to forget his appeal, after quelling +his mutiny. Mrs. Masterson was not a generous victor. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE WOMAN WHO GRASPED + + +The Mastersons' apartment had, like many such apartments, a charming +little foyer. It was lighted by a jade-green lamp, swung in bronze +chains delicately green from the tinting of time; and the notes of +bronze and dull jade were carried through all the furnishings, through +leather and tapestry and even a great, dragon-clasped Chinese vase. But +those greenish lights were not always becoming to visitors. When Tony +Adriance entered the foyer that evening they were so unbecoming to him +that the maid privately decided he was ill. Her master not infrequently +came home with that worn look about the eyes and mouth. She wondered if +Mr. Adriance gambled. + +None of the other guests had arrived. Indeed, it was not yet time. The +clink of glass and bustle of servants in the dining-room alone told of +the coming event in hospitality. Hospitality? Tony Adriance stood still, +arrested in his movement toward the drawing-room; the sick distaste of +all the last weeks finally culminated in paralysis before the prospect +of the farce he was expected to play out, with his unconscious host as +spectator. + +"I--am not ready," he found himself temporizing with the maid. His +glance fell upon a desk and prompted him. "I have forgotten an important +letter; I will write it before I go in. Don't wait; I know my way." + +She obeyed him. Of course he had nothing to write, but he fumbled for a +sheet of paper and picked up a pen. He was awake at last to the enormity +of his presence here as a guest; before he had glimpsed it, now he saw +it, stripped naked. + +He could not go on. There was no reason why the conviction should have +come to him at this moment, but it did so. As he sat there, that +knowledge rose slowly to full stature before his vision like an actual +figure reared in the path he had been following. It was no longer a +question of Lucille's desires or his own; he could not do this thing. + +He was not accustomed to intricate windings of thought, or to +self-analysis. He hardly understood, as yet, what was aroused in him, or +why. But he knew that he must act; that his time of passive drifting was +ended. Once Lucille had reproached him with cowardice. To-day, the girl +in the pavilion had innocently brought the charge again. And the girl +was right; it was cowardly to let a wrong grow and grow. Masterson's +friend in Masterson's house! Adriance dropped the pen his clenching +fingers had bent, and stood up. + +The maid had gone back to that centre of approaching activities, the +kitchen. Alone, Adriance went down the corridor to the drawing-room. + +Mrs. Masterson was alone there, moving some introduced chairs into less +conspicuous situations. The alien chairs were covered in rose-color and +marred the clouded-blue effect of the room. She pushed them about with a +vicious force, as though she hated the inanimate offenders; her +expression was sullen and fretful. + +That expression altered too quickly, when she saw Adriance standing on +the threshold. He caught the skilful change that transformed it into +winning plaintiveness. + +"You, Tony?" she greeted him, advancing to give him her hand. "I am so +glad it was no one else. _You_ know how I must contrive and make the +best of what little I have. How I loathe this cramped place, and +bringing chairs from bed-chambers to have enough, and all pinching----!" +She glanced about her with a flare of contempt, her smooth scarlet lip +lifting in a sneer. + +Adriance slowly looked over the room, not very large, perhaps, yet +scarcely cramped; made lovely by opalescent lamps and fragrant by the +perfume of roses set in high, slender vases of rock-crystal. All one +wall was smothered in the silken warmth of a Chinese rug, against whose +blue was lifted the creamy whiteness of an ivory elephant quaintly +carved and poised on its pedestal. Even to his eyes nothing here +warranted discontent. + +"I thought this very pretty," he dissented. "I thought Masterson had +done things very well, here." + +"Well enough, for a nook in a house; not for the house," she retorted. +"I hate living in apartments. I always have wanted stairs; wide, shining +stairs down which I would pass to cross broad rooms!" + +She drew a thirsty breath. In the gleaming gown which left uncovered as +much of her beauty as an indulgent fashion allowed, her large light eyes +avid, her yellow head thrown slightly forward as she looked up at the +man, she was a vivid and unconscious embodiment of greed. Not the +pitiful greed of necessity, but the greed which, having much, covets +more. As if he shared her mind, Adriance knew that she pictured herself +descending the stairs in his father's house gowned and jewelled as Mrs. +Tony Adriance could be and Lucille Masterson could not. + +He was not aware of the change in his own face until he saw its +reflection in the sudden alarm and question clouding hers. He answered +her expression, then, compelling his voice to hold its low evenness of +speech with the inborn distaste of well-bred modern man for betrayed +emotion. + +"That is it," he interpreted. "That is why you would marry me and leave +Masterson. You want more than he can give you. If he had as much to give +as I have, it would not matter what he did. You would bear with him. +Perhaps you have been bearing with me." + +"Tony!" she stammered. + +"It is quite true. I have been a solemn fool. I have been nerving myself +to lay down my self-respect without flinching, because I believed that I +had led you to count upon me; and all the while you were counting upon +what I owned." + +She gathered her forces together after the surprise. + +"Rather severe, Tony, because I dislike expensive tenement life!" she +commented, with careful irony. Turning aside, she laid her lace scarf +across a table, gaining a respite from his gaze. "Have I ever pretended +not to care for beautiful, luxurious things? And does that argue that I +care for nothing else? I think you should apologize--and pay more heed +to your digestion." + +He paused an instant, steadying himself. As usual, she had contrived to +make him feel in the wrong and ashamed. + +"I do apologize," he said, less certainly. "I did not come in here to +say all that, Lucille. But I did come to say what reaches the same end. +We cannot finish this thing we have begun. We could not stand it. Think +whatever you may of me as a coward, I am not going on." + +"Indeed, I think you have gone far enough," she calmly returned. +"Suppose we sit down and be civilized. Will you smoke before dinner?" + +He shook his head, baffled in spite of himself by her elusiveness, but +also angered to resolution. And he knew that he had seen her truly a +moment since; the loveliness that had glamoured his sight for a year +could not hide from memory that glimpse of her mind. + +"I am not staying to dinner, thanks," he refused. "And I am not playing. +Our matter looked bad enough as it was, but you showed me a worse thing, +just now. It was bad enough to take my friend's wife for love; I can't +and won't take her by means of my father's money." + +She wheeled about, swiftly and hotly aflame, and they stared at each +other as strangers. + +"You have forgotten that we are engaged," she said stingingly. "Or +doesn't your conscience heed a broken word?" + +"Perhaps it is heeding the tactfulness of being engaged to one man while +you are married to another," he struck back, goaded to a brutality +foreign to his nature. + +The faint chime of touching glasses checked them on the brink of a +breach that would have made reconciliation impossible. Mrs. Masterson +dropped into a chair, snatching up a fan to shade her flushed face. +Adriance stood stiffly, where he was, wisely making no attempt at +artificial nonchalance. The servant who entered saw only composure in +his immobility. + +Mrs. Masterson eagerly lifted the offered cocktail to her lips, as if +anger had parched them. Adriance took a glass from the tray presented to +him, but at once set it aside upon the table; now that he realized, he +felt that the hospitality of this house was not for him. But the brief +interlude helped both of them. + +When the servant had gone, Adriance spoke with restored calmness. + +"You see, even now the situation has warped us all awry. If it were +not so, I should like to buy things for you, I suppose. I can +imagine----" + +He broke the sentence; quite suddenly he had remembered the little +buckled shoes bought for the girl in the pavilion. He had looked +interestedly at other things in the shop, while he waited for his +parcel. It would have given him delight to purchase certain elaborate +stockings and absurd lace-frilled handkerchiefs. + +"I can imagine that I should," he finished lamely. "Lucille, you will +come to agree with me, I hope. But even if you do not, I cannot go on." + +She rose and came up to him with a swift movement that brought both her +hands against his shoulders before he grasped her intention. Her warm +face was directly beneath his own. + +"Is there someone else, Tony?" she demanded. "Some girl? Of course it +would be a young girl who inspired all this; 'pure as water'--and as +tasteless! Is that it?" + +She might have struck him with less effect. Tony Adriance went +absolutely numb with disgusted wrath. What preposterous thing did she +imply? The shining gray eyes of the girl in the pavilion looked at him +across the alert, probing gaze of Lucille Masterson; looked at him with +beautiful candor, with indignation. He felt outraged, as if the young +girl herself had been made present in this nasty scene. And without +cause! He had no thought of loving that sober little figure; he was sick +of love. + +"I am sorry you cannot credit me with one disinterested motive," he said +coldly. "As it happens, you are wrong. There is no one except you. I am +going away because you are neither unmarried nor a widow, since you +force me to repeat all this. If you were either----" + +"You would stay?" she whispered. + +He looked down at her, and as always before her magic his strength grew +weak. He lifted her hands from his shoulders, before replying. + +"Yes," he conceded, his voice changed. "But it is over, Lucille. Tell +Masterson I have gone abroad; to stay." + +As he moved toward the door, Mrs. Masterson turned to the table and +caught up his untouched glass. Fear and chagrin were swept from her +face; it still glowed from her late rage, but her eyes were lighted +with confidence and ironic relief. + +"To your safe voyage and pleasant return!" she exclaimed lightly, facing +him across the room. "For you will come back, Tony. The spasm will pass; +and leave you lonely. I can wait, then. Good-night." + +She laughed outright at the consternation in his glance, as he paused. +But he turned and went out, leaving her leaning across the arm of one of +the discordant rose-colored chairs, watching him. + +Back in the foyer, Adriance stopped to recover a conventional composure +of bearing before going out. He recalled that he must pass inspection by +the elevator boy and footman; must meet their wonder, no less obvious +because dumb, at his departure before the dinner. + +The heavy blankness of his waiting was broken by the gayest sound in the +world. The gurgling laughter of a happy child rippled through the +silence like a brook, cascading down in a cadence of chuckles. As if to +confirm the recognition to which Adriance started, a girl's clear laugh +joined the baby merriment. Opposite him, light showed in a thin line +through a curtained doorway. Without the slightest remembrance of +proprieties or conventions, he sprang that way and swung the door open. + +He was on the threshold of a nursery; a room pink as the inside of a +rosebud, gay with all the adorable paraphernalia babyhood demands, +fragrant with violet-powder and warm as a nest. At the foot of a shining +little bed, clutching the brass rail for support while executing a +stamping dance, was the lord of the domain; his silk-fine, frankly red +hair rumpled into glinting ringlets about his moist, rosy face, his blue +eyes crinkled shut by mirth. The girl knelt opposite, steadying the +chubby figure and serenely indifferent to the small, mischievous fingers +that had loosened her dark hair from its braids. Without her hat, she +was younger, even more wholesome and good than he had thought. She +looked as fresh and candid as the damp, open-lipped kisses the baby +lavished upon her. + +Perhaps the intruder moved, perhaps she felt his gaze, for as he watched +the girl broke up the picture. She rose abruptly, turned, and saw him +standing there. + +At first her startled face told only of surprise; indeed his mere +presence there gave her no reason to feel more. But in his dismay and +bewilderment and complete obsession Tony Adriance betrayed himself. + +"I didn't know," he stammered, grasping blindly at justification and +apology. "I didn't know who Holly was--or that you lived here. I am +sorry; I should not have spoken----" + +He stopped short. He had forgotten the fiction of a third person with +which he had masked his confidence in the park; forgotten that the girl +knew neither his name nor his purpose in this house. Quite without +necessity he had enlightened her. + +For the girl was swift of perception. Perhaps his expression alone would +have told her the truth, if he had been silent. Mechanically she had put +one arm around the baby, now she drew it closer, as if in protection. +Her rain-gray eyes grieved, reproached, rebuked him. Possessed of +Lucille Masterson's plans, holding her son, she faced him in judgment. + +Of course he had known Lucille had a child, somewhat as he knew his +father owned the factory behind the electric sign. He never had seen +either of them, except distantly; they meant nothing actual to him. But +now, there seemed nothing in the world so important. The girl had not +spoken, yet she had abruptly brought him face to face with new things. + +"You know, I would have taken him, too," he tried to answer all she left +unsaid, hating himself for the unsteady humility he could not keep from +his voice. "I always meant to. I meant to do everything for the boy. I +could--I am Anthony Adriance." + +She spoke, then, her smooth voice all roughened. + +"You can buy him everything? You cannot buy him his father. And nothing +will make up for that." + +"But----" + +She struck down the weak protest. + +"I _know_. I have a good father. And Holly," the infinite compassion of +her glance embraced the baby, "he has not even a real mother to do her +half. It is not right; you cannot make it right." + +"But I have! I am going----!" + +He faltered. How was he to explain to her the scene that had just been +enacted? Was it decent to Lucille? + +"I've done my best," he stammered. "I told you; you know I've not liked +this." + +The exclamation blended defiance and appeal; it was almost a cry wrested +from him. His position had been hard enough before the introduction of +this new element. The girl understood, for the anger died from her eyes +like a blown-out flame. + +"There must be a way," she said quite gently. "There is always a right +way, if one can only find it. I think you had better not stay here, now. +Mr. Masterson always comes at this time; it is even late for him." + +The warning had been delayed too long. Almost with the last word, a +man's step sounded in the foyer, the curtains rustled apart and the door +swung. + +"What, Tony in a nursery!" exclaimed the master of the house, with an +oddly tired gayety. He came forward and gave his hand to Adriance, his +amused scrutiny wholly cordial. If he wondered how the other man came +here, he was both too indifferent and too well-bred to betray the fact. +"You have caught me; here is the only place I am behind the times," he +added. "Hello, son!" + +Adriance was spared the necessity of replying. The baby, who had stood +staring round-eyed at the visitor, exploded into a very madness of +chuckles and shouts, twisting out of the girl's hold and plunging toward +the newcomer with fat arms insistently spread. With an apologetic, +half-diffident glance at his guest, Masterson caught and swung Holly +into the game of romps demanded. + +It was a good game, evidently the result of practice. The pink room rang +with treble shrieks of glee; and Masterson laughed, too, occasionally +interjecting phrases of caution or comment. + +"Jove, what a punch! How's that for muscle, Tony? Easy, son! How do +_you_ like your wig pulled? Steady, now." + +[Illustration: THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO MORE BEDTIME ROMPS FOR MASTERSON +AND HIS SON] + +The two in the background looked on. Adriance's throat was contracting; +he was suffocating with a terrible sense of barely having escaped a +shameful action. He understood the girl even better now. Only, if he +loathed himself so much, yet knew that at least he had ended the wrong, +how much more must her clear sight find him despicable in her ignorance +of his tardy amendment! He dared not look at her. He tried to remember +Lucille Masterson's regretfully murmured plaints of Fred's carelessness +with money, his "wildness" and neglect of her. But he could only think +heavily that if Mrs. Masterson had obtained a divorce, the custody of +the child would surely have been awarded to her, the irreproachable +wife. There would have been no more bedtime romps for Fred Masterson and +his son. How much alike the two looked! He had forgotten how very auburn +Fred's hair was, and how boyish his eyes were when he laughed. + +With a final toss and shout the dishevelled, panting baby was replaced +in the bed, one cheek poppy-red from a rough masculine caress. A little +shame-faced over the sentimentality, Masterson turned to his guest. + +"All over!" he affected lightness. "Come have a Martini before dinner, +Tony." + +"No, thanks. I couldn't." Adriance pulled himself together with a sharp +effort. "I heard your kiddie laughing, and just looked in here. I ought +to apologize; I have not yet met this lady----" + +Masterson regarded him curiously. + +"Miss Elsie Murray, Mr. Adriance," he obeyed the implied request. "Miss +Murray is good enough to be Holly's guardian, since no one of his family +has time for that--or inclination." + +She was a nurse. The simple fact came home to Adriance for the first +time. The severe black dress, the little white cuffs and collar that +made it a uniform, her constant attendance upon the baby--all the +obvious evidence had been overshadowed for him by her face and bearing, +the personality out of all accord with the position in which she was. + +There was no change in her face. He comprehended that she never had +imagined him ignorant of her relation to Holly. Through all his +whirling confusion of thought, Adriance contrived to hold outward +composure and acknowledge the introduction as he would that to any +gentlewoman. The quaint word seemed to suit her. + +She met him with a poise at least equal to his own. But it was he who +offered his hand, heedless of Masterson's observation. It seemed to him +that he never had desired anything in his life so desperately, with such +passionate eagerness as he desired to be justified before this girl. He +wanted her to know the very thing he could not honorably tell anyone: +that he had broken with Lucille Masterson of his own free will. His eyes +sought hers, unconsciously beseeching her grace of comprehension; +indeed, he had a confused idea that she would comprehend that his +offered handclasp was ventured only because he was not going to do the +wrong they both hated. + +Perhaps she did understand. At least, she gave him her hand, for the +first time in their acquaintance. He grasped it with a brightening of +his drawn face, leaning toward her. + +"Thank you!" he said. "I congratulate Holly; you will teach him in time +about Maitre Raoul Galvez." + +That speech took her by surprise; for an instant she did not withdraw +her hand, her direct gaze meeting his. He saw her gray eyes cloud and +clear, and cloud again; abruptly her dark lashes cloaked them from him. + +"Yes," she murmured. "Yes." + +Masterson was staring at the two, his lips parted by cynical interest. +But no one perceived the second observer. Mrs. Masterson had come to the +doorway while Masterson was playing with the baby and still stood there, +narrowed, incredulous eyes appraising the amazing tableau offered by her +nursemaid and Tony Adriance. She herself had followed Adriance for a +last word, unaware of her husband's return home. And she had found this +group, in her nursery. + +When the others moved, she drew back. The curtains noiselessly fell +shut. The two men came into the foyer almost immediately, but the bronze +lamp lighted an empty room. + +Masterson asked no questions of his guest as they paused outside the +nursery, but Adriance had recollected himself enough to shelter the +girl from embarrassment. + +"I stopped one day to speak to your boy in the park," he remarked +casually. "Miss Murray was telling him an odd fairy tale that struck my +fancy; Creole, I should think." + +Masterson dropped his hand on the other's shoulder with an intimacy long +unused between them, ignoring the explanation. + +"We never seem to get together, any more, except at some society +nonsense," he regretted. "We used to be pretty close, Tony. Remember +that night in the Maine camp after the canoe had upset, when there was +only one blanket left and we tossed up for it? I don't remember who won, +but I know we both slept under it----as much as we could get under." He +laughed reminiscently. "Well, it's a far cry from there to here! Shall +we go in to Lucille?" + +"Thank you, but I have made my excuses to Mrs. Masterson," Adriance +answered steadily. "I had a telegram----! I am off for the rest of the +year; perhaps longer. I am going to South America." + +"Your father's business? I remember you once spoke of some such thing. +I wish I were going with you." + +He sighed with impatient fatigue, and the two stood for a silent moment. +Masterson aroused himself to hold out his slender, nervous hand. + +"Well, good luck go with you, Tony. It usually does, though! 'To him +who hath----.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE LITTLE RED HOUSE + + +The next day it stormed. A biting north wind hunted across river and +city; a wind that carried the first ice-particles of the approaching +winter. There were no children on the Drive or in the park, except a few +sturdy urchins neither of the age nor class attended by nurses. No one +uncompelled cared to face the grim, gray, scowling day whose breath was +freezing. + +In the Adriances' breakfast-room, an effort had been made to offset the +outside cheerlessness by aid of lamps glowing under gold-colored shades. +But only an optimist could have deluded vision into accepting the +artificial sunshine as satisfactory. Tony Adriance was even irritated by +the feeble sham, and snapped out the lamp nearest to him as he took his +seat. + +The action was trifling, but Mr. Adriance, seated on the opposite side +of the round table, glanced keenly at his son and read an interpretation +of it. He believed that Tony wished to shadow the pale exhaustion of +his face. In this he was wrong; Tony Adriance was quite past thoughts of +his appearance. Not having looked in a mirror, he was not even aware of +the traces left by the last night. He did not at all appreciate the +significance with which his father presently inquired, courteously +concerned: + +"You are not well, this morning?" + +"Quite well, thank you," Tony replied; he glanced up from his plate +somewhat surprised at the question. + +Mr. Adriance met the glance with sincere curiosity. His first hazard +failing, he sought for a second. Indeed, he knew very well that Tony had +none of the habits which lead to uncomfortable mornings, although to a +casual regard his present bearing suggested a white night. Fortunately, +he had not perceived the innuendo within the older man's question and +was not offended. Mr. Adriance detested being in the wrong. + +Tony was too listless to pursue the subject at all. After vainly waiting +a moment for his father to explain the inquiry, he proceeded with the +business of breakfasting more or less indifferently. He was +conjecturing as to his own ability to set forth his trouble for the calm +inspection of the gentleman across the table. He had come down-stairs +with that intention, born of the night's bitter experience of solitude +in unhappiness. Now he felt that the project was impossible. His father +and he were not on terms of sufficient intimacy. He suffered an access +of discouragement and weariness. His only idea had failed, yet something +must be decided, some course followed. + +"You dined at the Mastersons', last night, I believe?" Mr. Adriance had +found his second hazard. Unconsciously his voice sharpened; it would be +intolerable if Tony and Masterson had made some clumsy scene between +them. Occasionally Mr. Adriance wondered what so clever a woman as +Lucille Masterson had seen in either of the two. + +"No," Tony denied. + +"No? I had understood----?" + +"I dined down-town." + +That was the first deliberate lie the younger man had told the older in +all their life together. But Tony confronted an utter impossibility; he +could not confess that he had sat until midnight in a park pavilion, +with no more thought of life's common-sense routine than a sentimental +boy. Nevertheless, his voice sounded unconvincing to his own ears, and +humiliation swept over him like a wave of heat. The desire to get away +from everyone and everything familiar made it difficult for him not to +spring up and leave the room and the unfinished breakfast. + +But Mr. Adriance was convinced and appeased. In his relief, he felt a +really kind desire to relieve Tony from his evident depression. + +"You appear to have something on your mind," he observed. "If it is +anything I might remove, pray call upon me, Tony." + +"Financially?" queried his son, drily. + +"Certainly, if you wish. You are not in the least extravagant. In fact, +you are a charming contradiction of a great many popular conceptions +concerning those not forcibly employed." + +"Thank you. But I wish you would employ me, sir, if not forcibly. I want +to go away for a time; not just--for amusement. Can you not send me +somewhere to take charge of your interests instead of a hired agent? I +could learn to help you, perhaps." + +The last expression was unfortunate. Mr. Adriance's brow contracted and +the cordiality left his gaze. + +"I am not yet superannuated," he signified. "When I am in need of help, +I will ask it, Tony. Naturally I intend training you to take charge of +your own affairs after my death. You will find that quite enough to +occupy you, some day. I am sorry if you are unable to amuse yourself, +already. Next year, if you like, we will take up the matter of your +business education. This year, I shall be too busy. You are young and I +am not old." + +His glance turned toward a mirror set in a buffet opposite. The face +reflected was clear in outline, firm to the verge of hardness; the eyes +full and alert, the carefully brushed hair so abundant that its grayness +gave dignity without the effect of age. Self-appreciation touched Mr. +Adriance's lip with a smile, as he gazed, smoothing away his slight +annoyance. His son, tracing that glance, felt a movement of kindred +admiration and a renewed sense of his own personal inadequacy. Tony +Adriance had accomplished nothing, yet he was already tired. How would +he look when he was thirty years older? Hardly like that, he feared. Nor +would Fred Masterson! Whose was the fault, and what the remedy? + +Mr. Adriance, returning to his coffee, surprised the other's observation +of him, and shrugged an unembarrassed acceptance of the verdict. + +"We have plenty of time, you see," he remarked. "Moreover, you are +hardly ready for abstract affairs. You are not sufficiently settled. +After you are married that will come. I myself married young. Marriage +makes private life sufficiently monotonous not to interfere with the +conduct of outside matters of importance." + +"Does it?" speculated Tony, doubtingly. + +"It should. Monotony is closer to content than is agitation, would you +not say?" + +"Doesn't that depend on the kind of monotony?" + +"Surely. That is why each man should choose his own wife." + +"I see. If I ever choose a wife, I shall remember the advice." + +This time Mr. Adriance was astonished. He did not miss the significance +of the remark, or the alteration in Tony since the previous day, when he +had last seen him. It was not possible to be explicit in a matter so +delicate, especially with servants present; but his curiosity was not to +be denied. + +"You have not--reached that point? I had fancied----" + +"I have no such engagement at present," was the steady reply. + +Mr. Adriance pushed away his finger bowl and allowed his cigar to be +lighted by the deferential automaton behind his chair. + +"I am sorry," he said. + +His son did not misunderstand him; in fact, he understood more clearly +than perhaps did the older man himself. Mr. Adriance had chosen the +hostess he wanted for his house, or rather, he had been enchanted by +Tony's supposed choice. Lucille Masterson filled his ideal of his son's +wife. Her loveliness would be a point of pride; her social experience +would make her competent for the position; moreover, she was too clever +not to have courted and won the genuine liking of Tony's father long +ago. Fred Masterson was hardly considered, except as an obstacle readily +removed, when the proper time came. And now, Tony himself was +overturning all the pleasant family life that Mr. Adriance had planned. +He knew that his father never willingly relinquished a perfected plan; +rarely, indeed, was he turned aside from a purpose on which his mind was +fixed. + +"Perhaps you will reconsider that statement later," Mr. Adriance +presently suggested. + +"I think not, in the sense you mean," he made slow reply. + +Mr. Adriance raised himself abruptly. + +"I hope so," he said, with a touch of sharpness; "I hope you are not +going to grow irresolute and changeable, Tony. I detest weakness of +character. Perhaps you had better take a trip somewhere and get yourself +in tone." + +"Perhaps," Tony agreed; his voice was not yielding, but sullen and +desperate. + +Indeed, he was as near illness as a man may be without physical injury +or disease. After his father had left the breakfast-room he sat for a +long time in utter mental incapacity to undertake any line of effort. +Finally he arose, oppressed with a sense of suffocation in the rich, +sombre atmosphere; of imprisonment and helplessness. He wanted air and +solitude, the solitude he had come to the breakfast-room to escape, and +he could think of no place where he could be so well assured of both as +in his motor-car. + +In his abstraction he walked bareheaded and without an overcoat across +the frozen stretch of lawn between the house and the garage. He was +quite indifferent to the weather; his chauffeur put him into furs and +passed him his gloves and cap as a matter of course, or he might have +fared forth poorly equipped to meet the wind and storm. + +He swung his machine from the cement incline into the street and turned +across Broadway. He did not wish to pass Elsie Murray ensconced in the +park pavilion with Holly Masterson at her knees; yet his thoughts were +so swayed by her that when he reached One Hundred and Thirtieth Street +he turned west again and took the ferry across the Hudson. He had no +better reason for doing so than the tranquillity and content she seemed +to draw from contemplating the opposite shore. + +He sped up Fort Lee hill with a crowd of other cars, turned west and +north to escape their companionship and all the landmarks he knew. He +avoided the main highway and chose mere cross and hill roads and lanes. +Always he had before him the vivid, pretty face of Lucille, the tired +young face of Masterson and the gray eyes of Elsie Murray. + +A nurse-maid! The girl who had told him the legend of Raoul Galvez, the +girl by whose standard he had come to measure himself and his companions +and who had fixed the sluggish attention of his conscience upon the +mischief being wrought by his yielding good nature--that girl was +Lucille's nurse-maid. That amazement of the night before remained with +him, coloring all other emotions. He had come out to arrange his +thoughts, but the hours passed and they remained in chaotic condition. + +Near noon he was running through a narrow woodland track when a bend in +the road suddenly revealed his way blockaded by an enormous wagon that +stood before him. It was a moving van; its canvas sides distended by +bulky furniture and household fittings, its rear doors tied open to +allow a huge old-fashioned cupboard to stand between. Adriance brought +his machine to an abrupt halt. + +"Clear the way there," he impatiently shouted to the invisible driver; +"what is the matter--broken down?" + +The answer came, not from the concealed front of the van, but from the +bank bordering on the side of the road. + +"All right; but ain't it a shame that you blew in at dinner-time!" + +The reply was unexpected; Adriance looked towards the complainant's +voice. In the shelter of a big boulder that gave some protection from +the wind, three men were seated, each with a leather lunch-box on his +knee. Two of them wore the striped aprons of moving-men; the third +evidently was the spokesman and the driver. All three held various +portions of food and stared down at the intruder in the attitude in +which his advance had arrested them. + +"It ain't as if we could just turn out," the driver pursued, not +resentfully but with an impersonal disgust. He put the apple in his hand +back into his lunch-box and stood up. "We've got to go on a mile before +there's room for you to pass. Come on, boys." + +"No," Adriance aroused himself from self-absorption to forbid the +upheaval. "I am in no hurry; finish your lunch, and I will wait." + +The three on the bank stared harder. + +"You're a sport," complimented the driver; "but it ain't more than five +minutes after twelve." + +"What has that to do with it? Oh, I see; you mean that you rest until +one?" + +"You're on." + +"Well, I said that I was not in a hurry," he accepted the delay he had +not contemplated. "Take your rest and I will smoke." + +The three men regarded each other, then the driver slowly sat down. The +munching horses were blanketed against the cold, but the men appeared +careless of temperature. They obviously were constrained by the presence +of the man in the automobile, however. + +"This road ain't much used," the driver ventured presently. "We're +taking this load to a farmhouse up here a ways. That's why we thought we +could stop traffic without being noticed." + +His round, bright eyes asked a question that Adriance answered with +doubtful truthfulness. + +"I lost my way." + +"Oh!" The driver paused, then suddenly slid down the bank. + +"Ain't we the hogs," he observed deprecatingly, coming up to the side of +the car and offering his lunch-box. "Won't you eat?" + +The tired, dark-blue eyes of Tony Adriance met the cheerful, light-blue +eyes of the other man. The two men were about the same age, and one of +them was desperately lonely and sick of his own thoughts. They both +smiled involuntarily. + +"Thanks, I will," said Adriance; and took a thick, rye bread sandwich +from the box presented. The driver sat down on the running-board of the +automobile and there ensued a well-employed silence. + +The sandwich was excellent. Adriance had eaten little breakfast; yet, +left to himself, he would hardly have thought of food in his bitter +preoccupation; but it did him good. The ham smeared with cheap mustard +had a zest of its own, a little brutal, perhaps, but effective. It was a +generously designed sandwich, too, not a frail wafer. He ate it all, +even the acrid crust. + +"'Nother?" invited the host. + +"No, thanks; but that one tasted good." Adriance drew out his +cigar-case. "Won't you all have a smoke with me, now?" + +The cigars were passed and lighted. Before returning the case, the +driver frankly inspected the fine leather toy with the tiny monogram in +one corner. + +"That's all right," he approved, returning it to its owner. "I was +afraid you'd pull out a little gold box of cigarettes." + +"Why?" amused. + +"Oh, I don't know, my luck, I guess." + +"You don't like them?" + +"Me? I got a pipe three years old that holds _some_ tobacco--that for +me. But this cigar is all right. Ever try a pipe?" + +"Yes." + +The driver leaned back comfortably against the spare tire strapped +beside the car, gazing up at the gray, cold sky. + +"A pipe, my feet on the kitchen stove, the kids and the missus--me for +that, nights." + +Adriance looked at him with startled scrutiny. Almost he could have +imagined that Elsie Murray had come to the man's side and prompted him. +What, was it then real and usual, that homely content she once had +painted so vividly? Did most men have such homes? + +"You're married?" he vaguely asked. + +"Sure, these five years; we got two kids." The boyish driver chuckled +and shook his head reminiscently. "Darn little tykes! What they ain't up +to I don't know. Dragged a big bull pup in off the street last week, +they did, and scared the missus into fits. Pete--he's four--had it by +the collar bold as brass, and it ugly enough to scare you. Say, I'm +trying one of those schemes for training kids on him; exercising him, +you know. You ought to see the muscles he's got already, arms and legs +hard as nails. Think it will work all right?" + +Adriance looked down into the eager face. + +"Yes, I do," he said slowly. "You cannot be more than twenty-five or +six----?" + +"Twenty-five is right." + +"You must have worked pretty hard?" + +"Ever since I was fourteen," was the cheerful assent. He pulled out a +watch of the dollar variety and looked at it. "One o'clock it is! We'll +get along again, boys. Yes, I've been busy. But the missus and I are +saving up. Some day I'm going to have a trucking business of my own; +there's good money in it. Well, we're sure obliged to you for waiting +for us." + +The other two men were coming down the bank. Adriance drew off his glove +and held out his hand to his acquaintance. + +"I am glad I met you. Good luck!" + +"Same to you!" He pulled off his mitten to give the clasp. "Are you +going to the ferry?" + +"I--I--? Yes." + +"Well, turn off when you get to the next road. It's a poor one, but it's +a short cut to the Palisades road." + +The horses were unblanketed and the bags which had held their luncheon +removed. The men climbed into their places, and presently Adriance's +lusty machine was rebelliously crawling on behind the moving-van. + +At the end of a mile they came to the side road, and parted with +cheerful shouts of farewell. + +It was impossible to measure the good that interlude of healthy +companionship had done to Tony Adriance. It had swept aside vapors, +cleared his mind to normality, invigorated him like a pungent tonic. Yet +it had laid a reproach upon him. He contrasted himself with that boyish +husband and father; yes, contrasted Mr. Adriance, senior, with that +driver who was anxiously training his son's body by his own efforts +after the day's work. He could not recollect his father ever playing +with him or seriously advising him. Even Fred Masterson was doing +better. + +The road debouched abruptly upon the main highway. A passing automobile +momentarily delayed Adriance, and looking idly across the way, he +perceived a house. After the other car had passed and the way was open, +he sat quite still in his machine, gazing. + +There was nothing about the house before him to catch the eye except a +certain air of quaint sturdiness that had survived desertion. It was +rather a cottage than a house, bearing a sign "For Sale," and +unoccupied. It was a red-painted cottage, built in that absurd Gothic +fashion once favored by some insane builders. Its ridiculous roof and +windows were highly peaked; its high, narrow porch had a pointed top +like a caricature of the entrance to _Notre Dame de Paris_. It stood +quite back from the road with an air of abandonment; but it was +unconquerably cheerful, even against the gray sky. It was a house that +wanted to be cosy. + +Suddenly Adriance realized that he was very tired. He was not ready to +go home; he even thought with abhorrence of going there. Yet he was +weary of guiding his machine along the highway. He left his seat and +walked up the wood path--two planks in width--leading to the cottage. +The windows gaped, uncurtained; he looked in, then deliberately seated +himself upon the step and lapsed into heavy revery. + +There were few passers-by on such a day. Those who were compelled to the +road lingered in the cold to look curiously at the automobile standing +by the gutter and at the young man who sat on the old wooden step. + +It was four o'clock when Tony Adriance rose and went back to his +automobile. He did not turn down to the ferry, but looked again at the +signboard on the house; then turned his machine about and drove to an +address which was seven miles inland. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WOMAN WHO GAVE + + +Tony Adriance had not really heeded the weather until he found his way +to the stone pavilion on Riverside Drive at dusk that evening. Cold and +wind had recorded slight impression on his preoccupied mind and his +healthy body. Indeed, his feeling was that of a man passing through a +fever, rather than one chilled. And he was hot with a savage sense of +victory, for he brought decision back with him. He knew, at last, what +he meant to do. + +He was brought to heed the weather by his need of seeing the girl who +was Holly's nurse. He stood for a while in the pavilion, after realizing +the absurdity of expecting to find her, and considered. He was +accustomed to having his own way; hardly likely to abandon it when his +necessity loomed urgent. His distrust of himself was deep, if +unconfessed; he dared not wait until the next day. Besides, the storm +might continue. After a brief pause of bafflement, he walked up to +Broadway, found a stationer's shop and a messenger, and dispatched a +note to Miss Elsie Murray. He looked curiously at the name, after it was +written; it seemed so soft, even childish, matched with that +steadfastness of hers to which he held as to the one stable thing in his +knowledge. + +Would she come? The doubt bore him company on his way back to the +pavilion. Could she free herself from duties to come, if she wished? He +did not know, but he was obstinately resolved to see her that night. He +was indeed like a man in a fever; one idea consumed him. + +A quarter of an hour passed; a half hour. Dusk, their hour of adventure +fixed by chance, had almost darkened to night when Adriance saw the +small figure for which he watched step from the curb. She hurried, +almost ran across the broad avenue, the wind wrapping her garments +around her. + +"Thank you," the man greeted her, his gratitude very earnest. + +The girl brushed aside his speech with a gesture. She was breathing +rapidly; amid all the shadows her face showed white and small. + +"Of course I came," she said. "It was not easy--to come. I cannot stay +long. But I knew you would not have sent unless it was important." + +"No," he affirmed, and paused. "I wonder why you are there? I mean, why +are you somebody's nurse, to be ordered about when you could do so much +better things? Of course, I can see how different you are!" + +He stopped, with a sense of alarmed clumsiness. Because she was weary, +the girl sat down on the cold stone bench before answering. + +"You are quite wrong," she said quietly. "I cannot do clever things at +all. I do not mean that I am stupid, exactly, but that I cannot do +anything so especially well as to make people pay me for it. Neither can +my father. I think he is the best man in the world, and my mother the +dearest woman, but they cannot make money. He is a professor of romance +and history, at a small college in Louisiana. There are a good many of +us--I have four younger sisters--so I came North to support myself." + +"But----" + +"Not as a nurse, of course. I came with an old lady whose son we knew at +the college. She asked me to be her private secretary. But after a few +months she died. I could not go back to be a burden. After I had tried +to find other things to do, and failed, I came to take care of Holly. +Why are we talking about me? There was something important, you said?" + +"I--yes," Adriance said. He could read so much more than she told. +Afterward he was ashamed to remember that he neither felt nor expressed +any pity for her disappointed hopes. His whole attention was fixed on +her steady courage; the fighting spirit that he had divined in her and +toward which his indecision reached weak hands groping in the dark for +support. + +The girl shrank behind the stone column nearest her as a blast of +freezing wind rushed past. + +"Well?" she spurred his hesitation. + +She was successful. He moved nearer her to be heard; the fever of the +last twenty-four hours thickened and hurried his speech. + +"I'm not going to tell you about Mrs. Masterson," he told her. "In the +first place, you would not listen, and in the second place, I have +nothing to say. But you must know that last evening she broke her +engagement with me. I mean, before I saw you in the nursery. I was free, +then." + +"She dismissed you?" + +He had deliberately thought out the falsehood that protected Lucille +Masterson at his own expense. But it was harder than he had anticipated +to play this weak role before Elsie Murray. + +"Yes," he forced the difficult acknowledgment. + +"You need not have told me that," her slow reply crossed the darkness to +him. "I know it is not true. And I know what is true. It does not matter +how I--learned. But we may as well speak honestly." + +He could have cried out in his great relief. Instead, he seized the +offered privilege of speech. + +"I will, then! You know what I have done to Fred Masterson. I brought +the glamour of money, of what I could buy, into his household and made +his wife awake to discontent and ambition. I didn't know what mischief I +was working, until too late. I did not understand some of it until last +night. Now, what? Suppose I go away? Where can I go? Abroad, or on a +hunting trip? While I was gone she would get the divorce, when I came +back she and the rest would push me into the marriage. My own father is +pushing me. Everyone pities her and thinks the thing is suitable. You +don't know me! I like her, and I'm easily pushed. I tell you I never did +anything but drift, until last night. I am afraid of myself, yet." + +"Then, why have you sent for me?" she asked, after a silence. + +There was as much sullenness as resolution in the unconscious gesture +with which he folded his arms. + +"Because I mean to stop this thing. Because I am going to take my own +way for the rest of the journey instead of being pushed and pulled. I +quit, to-night." + +"How? What do you mean?" + +"I am leaving the position where I am not strong enough to stand firm. +And because I know myself, I am fixing it so I cannot go back. You"--he +stumbled over the word--"you are not much better off than I, so far as +getting what you want out of life is concerned. Do you want--will you +try the venture with me? I think, I'm sure I could keep my half of a +home. You once said you would like to be a poor man's wife----" + +The last word died away as if its boldness hushed him with a sense of +what he asked so readily. The girl rose to her feet, swaying slightly in +the strong wind; her fingers gripped the stone railing behind her while +she strove to see his face through the dark. A street lamp sent a faint +grayness into the pavilion, but he stood in shadows. + +"You--are asking--me----?" + +He laughed shortly to cover his own embarrassment. + +"To marry a man who isn't much more than a chauffeur out of work! +Driving a car is my only way of earning money, just now. Of course, if +we go away together we will have to live on what I can bring in. It's +not very dazzling, but neither is being a nurse." + +Comprehension slowly came to her. + +"You would do this so you never could go back," she whispered, half to +herself. "To be cut off from everyone, because of me!" + +"Not that!" he offered quick apology. "Why, you are above me by every +count I can make! No, it is because I can't stand alone. And, of +course--if I were married----" + +"Mrs. Masterson would give her husband another chance," she finished. + +He could not see her expression, but he felt her bitterness, and that he +was losing. + +"Don't be offended," he appealed. "I thought we could be good +friends--why, if I did not respect and--and admire you, would I be +asking to spend my life with you? I know I am not offering you much, but +it's my best." + +"You do not love me." + +He bent his head to the assertion; for it was an assertion, not a +question. After the dazzling companionship of Lucille Masterson, love +was scarcely an emotion he could associate with the grave, quiet little +figure of Elsie Murray. He was surprised and embarrassed anew, and +showed it. + +"I am not very sentimental, I'm afraid. Couldn't we start with +friendship? I'll try to make a good comrade for everyday." + +The delay was long, so long that he anticipated the refusal and felt his +heart sink with a sense of loss and apprehension. All his plans, he +suddenly realized, were founded upon a strength drawn from her. He felt +the tremor of his structure of resolution, with that support withdrawn. +Unreasonable bitterness surged over him. Even she would not have him, +penniless. + +She was shivering. He noticed that, when she spoke. + +"You wish us to understand each other?" she said, her voice quite +steady. "Very well. Remember, then, I never knew who you were until last +night. You were just a man who seemed lonely, as I was just a woman +alone. Remember that I am human, too, and imagine things, and how +monotonous it is to be a nurse and do the same things every day. I +thought you talked to me and came so often because you were commencing +to like me. Once you bought violets from a man on the corner, then threw +them away before you crossed to me. I knew you meant them for me, but +feared I would not like you to give them to me. I liked you better for +throwing them away than for buying them. I was--foolish. And I cannot +marry you, because you do not love me, while I--might you." + +With the last low word, she passed him and went from the pavilion, not +in running flight, but with the swift, certain step of finality. +Adriance was left standing, struck out of articulate thought. The +astounding blow had fallen among his accumulated ideas and scattered +them like dust. She loved him. Slowly stupefaction gave place to hot +shame for the insult of his proposal to her. He had been coarse, selfish +beyond belief and wrapped in egotism. He had asked her to be his wife +with the grace of one engaging a housemaid. And he might have had the +unbelievable! A slow-rising excitement mounted through him; a tingling, +vivifying interest in the future he had faced with such sullen +indifference. + +She was gone from sight. Adriance was not rapid of thought, or +readjustment. But he knew where to look for her, now. He sprang from the +pavilion and ran, throwing his weight against the wind's blustering +opposition. The physical effort, in that stinging air, sent his blood +racing with tonic exhilaration. He felt dulness and morbidity dropping +away from him; zest of life taking their place. + +The girl was crossing a dark little strip of park that lay before the +house where the Mastersons lived, when he overtook her. + +"Elsie Murray!" he panted. "Elsie Murray!" + +His voice had changed, and his accent. He spoke to her possessively; he +no longer depended, he directed. Instantly sensitive to the difference, +the girl stopped. + +"Are you running away from me, Elsie Murray?" His hand closed lightly on +her arm, he stood over her with the advantage of his superior height, +and she heard him draw the cold air deeply into his lungs. "I did not +tell you the truth, back there. I meant to, but I did not know it +myself. I want what you might give, and I want to give as much to you. +Why, do you know what started me toward ending all this bad business, +what has given me the will to keep on? It was what you said, the first +night I saw you, about a woman waiting for her husband, with the lamps +lit, and all. I can't say what I mean--I'm clumsy! But, will you come +keep the lamp for me?" + +She tried to speak, but to his dismay and her own, instead covered her +face; not weeping, but fiercely struggling not to weep. + +"No," she flung refusal at him. "No! No!" + +As her firmness lessened, his gained. She looked pitiful and helpless, +she, his tower of strength. Suddenly, protectingly, he caught her from +the assault of a violent swirl of the gale; caught and held her against +him, in the curve of his arm. + +"If you may love me, and I want you, we have enough to start with," he +gently insisted. "I promise you I'll do my part. Will you try it with +me?" + +She remained still. But the long pause, the contact between them, joined +with the change in the man and helped him. + +"Will you marry me to-night?" he pressed. + +She drew away from him with a flare of her natural resolution. + +"No! Not to-night, if you could!" + +"To-morrow, then?" + +"Go home," she bade him. "Go home; think of everything--of what you have +and what you would leave, of all you want and must miss. _Think._ And +if, to-morrow----" + +"Yes?" + +"If you are sure, come back. I----may try it." + +He knew better than to force her further. + +"To-morrow, then, I will meet you at noon, in the pavilion," he yielded, +quietly, in spite of his leaping excitement. "And there is something +else. Once I bought these, for you. Of course I dared not give them to +you, afterward. But I did not throw them away, and I brought them in my +pocket to-night. Perhaps you will wear them to-morrow, when we go away." + +The storm swooped down again. This time he did not hold her from the +gust, and she flitted with it into the darkness. But she took the little +package he had pressed into her hands; she had at last the little pair +of buckled shoes. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DARING ADVENTURE + + +They were married at two o'clock the next day. The wedding was in +church, at Elsie Murray's desire. With a certain defiance expressive of +his attitude toward all the world, Adriance, after obtaining their +license, took her to the rector of that costly and fashion-approved +cathedral which the Adriances graced with their membership and +occasional attendance. Of course the two were met with astonishment, but +there was a decision in the young man's speech and bearing that forbade +interference. The clergyman did not find the familiar, easy, +good-natured Tony Adriance in the man who curtly silenced delicate +allusion to the wedding's unexpectedness and the surprising absence of +Mr. Adriance, senior. + +"I am over age, and so is Miss Murray," was the brief statement, whose +finality ended comment. "Will you be good enough not to delay us; we are +leaving town?" + +There were no more objections. Of course the bride was not recognized as +Mrs. Masterson's nurse; she simply was an unknown girl. And she did not +in any way suggest that Mr. Adriance was marrying out of his world. +Adriance himself entirely approved of her in this new role. He liked her +dark-blue suit with its relieving white at throat and wrists, and her +small hat with a modest white quill at just the right angle. And she +wore the shining, Spanish-heeled, small shoes of his choosing. He +noticed how large her gray eyes were, when she lifted them to his, +large, and clear as pure water is clear under a still, gray sky. But her +heavy lashes threw shadows across them, as he had once seen lines of +shadow lie across a little lake in Maine on an autumn day. He wondered +if she was happy, or frightened. He could not tell what she was thinking +or feeling. + +So they were married before the imposing altar of cream-hued marble, and +the conventional notice went to the newspapers: + + Adriance-Murray. Elsie Galvez Murray to Anthony Adriance, Jr., + by the Rev. Dr. Van Huyden, at St. Dunstan's Cathedral. + +It was very simply done, for so daring an adventure. + +When they stood outside, in the sparkling autumn sunshine, Elsie +Adriance asked her first question. + +"Where are we going?" she wondered, in her soft, blurred speech that now +Adriance recognized as of the South. Her middle name had caught his +attention also. There once had been a governor of Louisiana called +Galvez; New Orleans has a street named for him. + +But he was not thinking of ancestry now. He looked doubtfully at his +companion. In spite of his repressed bearing, he was suffering a +terrible excitement and a tearing conflict of will and desire. He was +acutely conscious of the finality of what had been done; and one part of +him wished it undone. He thought of his father and Lucille as a man in a +fever thinks; glimpsing them in a confusion of remembered pictures, +conceiving their future attitude with the exaggeration of his +unreasoning sense of guilt and belated regret. He felt himself in bonds, +and the instinct of escape gripped and shook him. But he kept himself in +hand. + +"Where do you wish to go?" he temporized, withholding his own wish. It +became him to consider her first, now and hereafter. + +She shook her head. + +"I follow you," she reminded him, quite simply and gravely. "Where +would--it be easiest for you? You spoke of going out of town; perhaps +that would be best. I think, it seems to me, that we should start as we +mean to go on." + +"Yes!" he exclaimed eagerly. She had offered him his inmost desire; in +his gratitude he caught her hand, stammering in the rush of words +released. "Yes. If you will go, I have a house--our house. Let me tell +you. Yesterday, after meeting you at Masterson's the night before, I was +at the limit. I had to keep out of doors and keep moving, or go to +pieces. I kept seeing Fred, and Holly. Well, I took a long drive; across +the river, I went, perhaps because you were always looking over there as +if it were some kind of a fairyland. And on the way back, on the road +along the Palisades, I saw the house. It was--I stopped and went in. It +looked like a place you had made a picture of. I can't explain what I +mean, but I sat down there and thought things out. You won't be angry? +I bought it. Not that I was so sure of you! You see, if you refused to +take me, I knew I had money enough to buy fifty like it for a whim. And +if you would come, it was the house." + +There was no anger in her glance, only a heartening comprehension and +cordial willingness. + +"Let us go there," she agreed. "I should like that best of all." + +Reanimated, he put her into the waiting taxicab, gave the chauffeur his +directions, and closed the door upon their first wedded solitude. + +"But this is one of the things we must not do," she told him, bringing +the relief of humor to the situation. "We must not take taxis and let +them wait for us with a price on the head of each moment. It is more +than extravagant; it is reckless." + +He laughed out, surprised. + +"So it is. I am afraid you will have a lot to teach me." + +"Yes," she assumed the burden. "Yes." + +They rode down to the ferry, and the taxicab rolled on board the broad, +unsavory-smelling boat. When the craft started, the vibration of the +engine sent a throbbing sense of departure through Adriance such as he +never had felt in starting a European voyage. This time he could not +return. He was humbly grateful for Elsie's silence, which permitted his +own. + +On the Jersey side their cab slowly moved through the dark ferry house, +then plunged out into a sun-drenched world and swung blithely up to the +long Edgewater hill. They left the river shipping behind, presently. The +sunlight glittered through the woods that still clothe the long, +rampart-like stretches along the summit of the great cliffs; a forest of +jewels like the subterranean woods of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, +only instead of silver and diamonds these trees displayed the red of +cornelian and brown of topaz all set in copper and bronze. The storm of +the night before had littered the ground with the spoils of Lady +Autumn's jewel-box; the air was spicily sweet and very clear. + +The village on the first slope of the hills had been dingy and poor. +Here above, on the heights winding up the river, there were few houses, +with long spaces between. Elsie leaned at the window, her wide eyes +embracing all. Adriance leaned back, seeing nothing. + +The taxicab finally stopped, nevertheless, at his signal, before a +little red cottage set far back from the road. + +"Here?" the chauffeur queried, with incredulous scorn. + +"Here," Adriance affirmed, swinging out their two suit-cases and his +wife. He laughed a little at the man's face. "How much?" + +The toll pointed Elsie's warning. She made a grimace at her pupil. His +spirits mounting again, Adriance answered the rebuke by catching her +hand to lead her up the absurd, staggering Gothic porch in miniature. + +"I'll come back for the baggage," he promised. "Come look, first." + +"Is there anything inside?" + +"Oh, yes. I----" he looked askance at her. "I bought things, at a shop +in Fort Lee, early this morning. I suppose they're all wrong." + +She met his diffidence with a smile so warm, so enchanting in its sweet, +maternal raillery and indulgence that his heart melted within him. And +then, as he fumbled with the key, she took from her hand-bag a book and +a small glass bottle, and gave them to him. + +"What----?" he marvelled. + +"Don't you know?" she wondered at him. "'Where was you done raised, +man?' Don't you know there is no luck in the house unless the first +things carried into it are the Bible and the salt?" + +He did not know, but he found the superstition of a singular charm. + +"Give me the salt, then, and you take the other," he divided the +ceremony. + +"No," she denied quietly. "You should carry the Book, because you will +make the laws. I will take the salt, because I shall keep the hearth." + +So they went in, he oddly sobered by the dignity she laid upon him. + +There were only two rooms on the ground floor. The one into which they +stepped was large and square, with a floor of brick faded to a mellow +Tuscan red, and walls of soft brown plaster. A brick fireplace was built +against the north side; the furnishings comprehended two arm-chairs, a +round Sheraton table and china closet, a tall wooden clock, and four +rag rugs in red and white. In one corner, modestly retired, a plain deal +table supported an oil cook-stove, with an air of decent humility and +shrinking from observation. The open door beyond revealed a bed-chamber, +also rag-rugged, furnished with a noble meagreness, but displaying a +four-posted bed of carved and time-darkened ash. Elsie took a long, full +look, then regarded her husband with widening eyes. + +"Anthony, _where_ did you buy them? And what did you pay for them?" + +No one within his memory had ever called Adriance by his unabbreviated +name. It came to him as part of this new life where he was full-grown +man and master. And he welcomed the frank comradeship with which she +used it, without a sentimental affectation of shyness. + +"At a little place with a sign 'Antiques'," he confessed. "I had passed +it in the car. I thought they might do as well as new things, since we +have got to economize. I never bought any furniture before; if they +won't do----" + +"They are perfect." The mirth in her eyes deepened. "But you had better +let me help you, next time we shop economically. Hadn't we better build +a fire, first, to drive away the chill? Oh, and is there anything to +eat?" + +"In the cupboard over there; everything the grocer could think of," he +said meekly. "I'll go get anything else you say. First, though, I'll run +down to the gate and bring in our suit-cases." + +"Do," she approved. "I want an apron. Do you know, you never asked me if +I could cook." + +"Can you?" + +"Wait and see. What woman thought of the oil-stove?" + +"The antiquarian's wife. She said the fireplace was more bother than it +was use and suggested stuffing it with paper to keep the draughts out." + +"Well, we will stuff it with fire," she declared. + +They built the fire; or rather, Adriance built it, aided by the girl's +tactful advice. When the flames were roaring and leaping, she sent him +to the nearest shop where lamps could be purchased, the trifling +question of light having been overlooked. + +When he hurried back from the village, the need of light was becoming +imminent. Dusky twilight came early here under the edge of the hills. +Climbing the steep road, Anthony Adriance looked across the +violet-tinted river toward the chain of lights marking the street where +Tony Adriance had lived and idled. Already he knew himself removed, +altered; he was interested in keeping on with this thing. Of course, he +must keep on, he had set a barrier blocking retreat; he had taken a +wife. + +He opened the brown door of the shabby little cottage, and stopped. + +The fire on the hearth had settled to a warm, rosy steadiness, filling +the room with its glow and starting velvet shadows that tapestried the +simple place with an airy brocade of shifting patterns. In the centre of +the room stood the round table, robed in white and gay with the antique +shop's ware of blue-and-white Wedgewood. The perfume of coffee and +fragrance of good food floated on the warm air. The fire snapped at +intervals as if from jovial excess of spirits, and a tea-kettle was +bubbling with the furious enthusiasm of all true tea-kettles. It was the +room of his fancy, the unattainable home that Elsie had pictured on the +first evening he had spoken to her out of his sick heart. + +Elsie herself stood beside the hearth. Elsie? He never had seen her like +this. But then, he scarcely had seen her at all except in the severe +black of a nurse's livery. + +She had merely taken off her jacket, now, although he did not realize +the fact. Her soft white blouse rolled away from a round, full throat +pure in color and smoothness as cream. She was no sylph-slim beauty, but +a deep-bosomed, young girl-woman, fashioned with that rich fulness of +curve and outline that artists once loved, but which Fashion now +disapproves. Her mouth, too, curved in generous, womanly softness; +neither a thin line nor a round rosebud. Her dark hair rippled of itself +around her forehead and was lustrous in the firelight. + +His entrance caught her off guard. He surprised herself in her eyes, +before she masked feeling in gayety. And he saw a wistful, frightened +girl whose trembling excitement matched his own. + +The latching of the door behind him ended the brief instant of +revelation. At once she turned to him the cordial comrade's face he +knew. + +"Dinner is served," she announced merrily. "At least, it is waiting in +the oven. We have hot biscuits, scrambled eggs, a fifty-eighth variety +of baked beans, and strawberry jam. There is no meat, because you only +shopped at a grocery, sir. Do you really adore canned oysters, Anthony?" + +"I never tasted one," he slowly replied, putting down the packages he +had brought, without taking his gaze from her. + +"Well, you bought six tins of them," she shrugged. + +He made no pretense of replying, this time, moving across the room +toward her. He was remembering that she was a bride, who by her +confession loved him, and that he had given her nothing except the gold +ring compelled by custom; not a caress, not a flower, even, to speak of +tenderness and reassurance. He was astounded at himself, appalled by +his degree of selfish absorption. All day she had given him of her +understanding, her warm companionship, her gracious tact and heartening +cheerfulness, exacting nothing--and he had taken. Oh, yes, he had taken! + +Troubled by his silence, her color mounting in a vivid sweep, the girl +tried to turn aside from his approach. + +"We must have a little cat," she essayed diversion. "I hope you like +kittens? Purrs should go with crackling logs. Not an Angora or a +Persian; just a pussy." + +Her voice died away. Very quietly and firmly Adriance had taken her into +his arms. + +"I've made a bad beginning," he made grave avowal. "I am learning how +much I need to learn. And I don't deserve my luck in having you to teach +me." + +She rested quietly in his arms, as if conceding his right, but she did +not look at him. She was very supple and soft to hold, he found. There +breathed from her a fresh, faint fragrance like the clean scent of +just-gathered daffodils, but no perfume that he recognized. She was +individual even in little things. He wondered what she was thinking. The +uneven rise and fall of her breast timed curiously with the pulse of his +heart, as she leaned there, and the fact affected him unreasonably. He +did not want her to move; warmth and content were flowing into him. +Content, yet---- Suddenly, he knew; a man confronted with a blaze of +light after long groping. + +"Elsie!" he cried, his voice sounding through the room his great +amazement. "Elsie! Elsie!" + +She looked at him then, putting her two little hands on his breast and +forcing herself back against his arm that she might read his face. But +he would not have it so, compelling her submission to the marvel that +had mastered him. What the church had essayed to do was done, now. +Anthony Adriance had taken a wife. + +"I love you," he repeated, inarticulate still with wonder, his lips +against her cheek. "Why didn't you tell me? I love you." + +He never forgot that she met him generously, with no mean reminder of +his tardiness. She took his surrender, and set no price on her own. Her +lips were fresh as a cup lifted to his thirst for good and simple +things; he thought her kiss was to the touch what her eyes were to the +gaze, and tried clumsily to tell her so. + +When they finally remembered the delayed supper, that meal was in need +of repairs. And because now Adriance would not suffer the width of the +room between himself and his wife, he insisted in aiding her in the +process, thereby delaying matters still further. Nine o'clock had been +struck by the clock in the corner when they sat down to table, lighted +by the new lamp. It had a garnet shade, that lamp, upon which its +purchaser received the compliments of Mrs. Adriance. + +She delivered an impromptu lecture on the subject, as the light glowed +into full radiance and illumined her, seated behind it. + +"Red, sir, is the color of life. It was the color of the alchemist's +fabled rose, looked for in their mystic cauldrons, because if the ruddy +image formed on the surface of the brew, the bubbling liquid was indeed +the true elixir of youth and immortality. Red is the color of dawn, of +sunset, of a fireside; of bright blood, poured splendidly for a good +cause or daintily glimpsed in a girl's blush. Red are a cardinal's +robes, a Chinese bride's gown, a Spanish bride's flowers. To be kept in +a red-draped chamber, in Queen Elizabeth's time, was believed to cure +beauty of the smallpox without a scar. Lastly, red is the color of the +heart." + +"'Lord, keep our heart's-blood red,'" paraphrased Adriance soberly. "I +am not clever like you, but I know red is the color of your own jewels." + +"Mine?" + +He caught her hands across the table. + +"Have you forgotten what stones were likened to the value of a good +woman? Elsie, Elsie, when I can, I will give you--not diamonds or +pearls, but rubies. Rubies, for to-night." + +Neither of the two was given to continued sentimentality of speech. But +the deep happiness, the shining wonder that still dazzled them found +expression in plans for this new future; mere suggestions for the +comfort of the house or the pleasure of their leisure together. She +mentioned a much-discussed book, and he promised to read it aloud to +her. + +"I've always wanted to read aloud, but I never found anyone who would +listen," he told her, over the strawberry jam and coffee. "You can't +escape, so----! You can embroider, and listen." + +"Embroider!" She heaped scorn on the word. "Let me inform you, sir, that +there will be dish-towels to hem, and napkins. Do you know we have only +one tablecloth, and that has a frightful border, with fringe? Blue +fringe? And there are no curtains at the windows. Embroider? I shall +_sew_, and listen." + +"Well, so long as you listen!" He lighted a cigar and leaned back +luxuriously. "What little hands you have!" + +She spread them out on the table and seriously contemplated them. + +"Most Southerners have. Didn't you ever notice it, even with the men? +Down in Louisiana most of us have some French or Spanish blood. But mine +have not been do-nothing hands, and I think they show it a little bit." + +He stopped her, with a sudden distasteful memory of certain wax-white, +wax-smooth and useless hands that almost had laid hold on his life. + +"I hope that mine may soon show something. To-morrow I will try to +become a wage-earner, and start a pay envelope to bring you." + +"So soon?" + +"Right away. Am I one of the idle rich? The fact is, our grocer tells me +chauffeurs are badly needed at a certain factory near the foot of the +hill. I think I should rather drive a motor truck than pilot a private +car, open doors and touch my cap." + +She nodded agreement. + +"Yes, of course. What factory is it, Anthony?" + +He regarded her with a whimsical humor. + +"Well, to be exact, it is not a factory unfamiliar to us. It is one +whose sign you often have viewed from the aristocratic side of the +Hudson, and it is the property of Mr. Anthony Adriance, senior." + +"Oh!" startled. "Is, is that--safe?" + +"Why not?" he wondered. "We haven't broken any laws, have we? The worst +he could do, if he wanted to do something melodramatic, would be to +fire me. But he will not. In the first place, why should he? In the +second, he knows a trifle more about the natives of Patagonia than he +knows about the men who drive his trucks. I don't believe he has been in +this factory for ten years. New York is his end. And I'm giving him a +square deal; he will have a very valuable chauffeur, Mrs. Adriance--one +who can drive a racing-machine, if required!" + +She disclosed two dimples he had not previously observed. But her eyes +hid from the challenge of his and she rose hastily to clear away the +dishes. + +"Let them stand," he commanded, man-like. + +There she was firm in rebellion, however. Finally they compromised on +his assisting her. + +"We must have a dog, too," he decided, when all was neat once more. He +glanced about the fire-bright room with a proprietary air. "One that +will not eat your kitten." + +"With a nice watch-doggy bark?" + +"With anything you want!" He turned abruptly and drew her to him. +"Elsie, suppose I had missed you? What a poor fool I've been! Last +night---- Why don't you take it out of me? Why don't you make me pay as +I deserve?" + +She smiled with the delicately-mocking indulgence he was learning to +know and anticipate; it sat upon her youth with so quaint a wisdom. + +"Perhaps I am, or will." + +"I believe now that I loved you from the first day. I know that I kept +thinking about you and considering everything from the point of view I +fancied you would take. You"--with sudden anxiety--"you do not regret +coming with me, Elsie? What were you thinking of, just now, when your +eyes darkened? You looked----" + +"Of Holly," she answered simply. "I hope his new nurse will play with +him, and cuddle him." + +"The baby?" Her fidelity touched him with a warm sense of promise for +his own future. "Yes, I have taken you from him. But, we left him his +father." + +The allusion brought a constraint. The words spoken, Adriance flushed +like a woman and turned his ashamed eyes away from the girl. + +"You did not take me from Holly," Elsie hurriedly corrected. "Mrs. +Masterson discharged me, night before last. I was to go to-day, +anyhow." + +"You? Why?" + +She hesitated. + +"She came to the nursery door while you were speaking to me of telling +Holly the story of Mait' Raoul Galvez. You know, Holly is too much a +baby to hear stories, so she understood that you meant--other things. +And it seems that once you had spoken to her of that story. She--made +connections. She accused me of--of flirting with her guests; of +being--an improper person." + +"Elsie!" + +"It is all over. It does not matter, now. But that was how I knew she +did not send you away. Of course she said nothing to tell me; she is too +clever. But, you see I knew so much already; and when I saw she was +jealous even of your speaking to me----!" + +The silence continued long. Both were thinking of Lucille Masterson. As +if she feared the man's thoughts, Elsie shrank away from her husband's +clasp, the movement unnoticed by him. Her clear eyes clouded with +doubt, a creeping chill extinguished their glow. + +Adriance spoke first, breaking at once the pause and the barrier. + +"Once they must have been like this--like us. She would have left Fred, +left him down and out, for a new man; and she his wife!" + +Disgust was in his voice, wondering contempt. He pressed his own wife +hard against his side. But Elsie dragged her arms from the hold that +bound them, and impulsively clasped them about his neck in her first +offered caress. + +"You were thinking _that_?" she cried, fiercely glad in her triumph. +"Anthony, you were thinking that?" + +He stooped his head to meet her glance; standing together, they looked +into each other's eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ANDY OF THE MOTOR-TRUCKS. + + +The man behind the wicket leaned forward to survey the man outside. The +gate-keeper at the main entrance to Adriance's was the prey of a double +vanity that kept his attention alert: he was vain of his own position, +and of his ability to judge the positions of other men. This was his +seventeenth year in the cage of ornamental iron-work, and he had brought +his hobby into it with his first day there. He delighted in difficult +subjects, now, who baffled a casual inspection. + +It was, therefore, with an air of bored certainty that he classified +this morning visitor at a glance, and settled back on his high stool. + +"Office door to the right, sir," he directed, briefly, but respectfully. +"Boy there will take in your card, sir." + +"I understand chauffeurs are wanted here," said the visitor, his +composed gaze dwelling on a poster to that effect affixed to the nearest +wall. + +The gate-keeper stared. + +"I guess so----?" + +"Is the office the place where I should apply for such work?" + +"Trucking department; turn left, down basement, Mr. Ransome," vouchsafed +the chagrined concierge, severely wounded in his self-esteem. So blatant +a mistake had not offended his pride in years. He turned in his seat and +craned his thin neck to watch the stranger swing blithely away in the +direction indicated. + +"Chauffeur!" he muttered. "Walks as if Adriance's was his private garage +an' he was buildin' himself a better one around the corner! Hope Ransome +throws him out!" + +But Ransome of the motor-trucks was in urgent need of men and disposed +to be more tolerant. Moreover, his sensitive vanity had taken no hurt +that morning. But he looked rather closely at the applicant, +nevertheless. + +"Used to chauffing private cars, aren't you?" he shrewdly questioned. + +"Yes," admitted Adriance. + +"I thought so! Where was your last place?" + +"I drove for Mr. Adriance, junior," was the grave response. + +The man whistled. + +"You did, eh? Why did he fire you?" + +"He left New York for the winter, without taking his machines along." + +"Did he give you a reference?" + +"I can bring one to-morrow, or I can go get it now, if you want me to +start work at once. I haven't it with me." + +"Why not?" + +"I forgot it would be needed." + +This was unusual, and produced a pause. Ransome studied his man, and +liked what he saw. + +"Married?" he shot the next routine question. + +"Yes." + +"Anything against you on the police records? Accidents? Overspeeding?" + +"Nothing." + +"I can see you don't drink. You know Jersey?" + +"Not so well as New York, but well enough to pick up the rest as I go +along." + +"Well, it's irregular, but we're short-handed. Give me your license +number so I can verify that. Bring your reference to-morrow, and if it +is all right---- I'll take you on to-day, on trial. Wait; I'll give you +your card." + +The inquisition was safely past. Adriance smiled to himself as he +watched the superintendent fill out the card that grudgingly permitted +him to earn his first wage. He was intoxicated, almost bewildered by his +own lightheartedness. His body was still tired and beaten after the +miserable conflict from which his mind had resiliently leaped erect to +stand rejoicing in the sunlight. To-day he could have overcome a hundred +ill chances, where one had yoked him yesterday. + +"Name?" came the crisp demand from the man writing. + +"Anthony Adriance." + +"What!" The superintendent's head came up abruptly. "Why--what +connection----?" + +"Poor relation," classified Adriance coolly. He had anticipated this, +but he could not have endured the furtive discomfort and risk of a false +name. "All rich men have them, I suppose." + +His indifference was excellently done. The superintendent nodded +acquiescence. + +"I suppose so; must have been queer, though! What did young Adriance +call you? Did he know?" + +"Oh, yes. 'Andy' is a noncommittal nickname." + +"All right; here is your card." + +Mr. Ransome watched the new employee cross the floor, with a meditative +consideration of the uselessness of the shadow of the purple without its +comfortable substance; but he was not especially surprised after the +first moment. Few wealthy men trouble themselves about the distant +branches of their families, and babies are frequently named after them +by hopeful kinsmen. + +At the other end of the subterranean chamber where trucks rolled in and +out, piloted by weather-beaten chauffeurs and loaded with heavy packages +and bales by perspiring porters, a little man in a derby hat and shirt +sleeves was in command. With him the matter passed still more easily for +the stranger. + +"What's your name?" he shrilled in a peculiarly flat treble voice, +across the uproar of thudding weight, rolling wheels and panting +machinery. "Andy? Well, take out number thirty-five. Mike, Mike! Where +is that--that Russian? Here, Mike, you are to go with number +thirty-five. Bring your truck in for its load and get your directions +from the boss there, Andy. Report when you get back." + +A huge figure lounged across the electric-lighted space toward Adriance; +a pair of mild brown eyes gazed down at him from under a shock of red +hair. + +"I guess you're new," pronounced the heavy accent of Russian Mike; "I +guess I show you?" + +"I wish you would," Adriance cordially accepted the patronizing +kindness. He found time to marvel at the readiness of his own smile +since last night, and at the response it evoked from these strangers. "I +don't know where to find thirty-five yet, or who is the boss." + +"I know," announced Mike, grandly comprehensive; "you ride with me, +Andy; I'll learn you." + +So Andy of the trucks began his education. + +A motor-truck is not a high-priced pleasure car. Nor is the trucking +department of a large factory professional in its courtesy. Tony +Adriance learned a great many things in breathless sequence. And he +never had been quite so much interested by anything in his life--except +his newly-made wife. The men were not gentle, but they were merry. They +shouted gaily back and forth at each other with a humor of their own. +When Tony stalled his unfamiliar motor there was much unpolished +witticism at his expense; but also a neighbor jumped down to crank the +machine for him, and another sprang up to the seat beside the new man +and gave him a score of valuable hints in a dozen terse sentences. When +he finally drove up the incline into the street, he found that Russian +Mike appeared to have a complete map of the Jersey City river front +engraved on his otherwise blank intelligence and proved as willingly +efficient a guide on the streets as in the factory. If the difficulties +were more numerous than the novice had anticipated and the work harder, +these things were more than offset by the unexpected comradeship he +encountered. + +All day, amid the steady press of events, the thought of his wife lay +warm at the core of his heart. His love was matched only by his deep +wonder at the thing which had befallen him. The exultation of successful +escape was strong upon him; escape from loathsome bonds, from +complicated problems his innately simple mind detested, above all, from +the guidance of other people. He and Elsie were alone as no distance +around the world could have made them. He had come to a place in life +where he was not a boy to be governed, but master in his own right. A +heat of pride had burned his face when he had answered "Yes" to the +superintendent's question: "Married?" Decidedly he meant to stay in the +home and the factory of his first adventure, if possible. + +On his first trip he made an excuse to stop at a stationer's, where he +wrote for himself a recommendation signed by Anthony Adriance, Junior. +The ruse amused him; he found himself childishly ready to be amused. +When he brought the truck in from the last journey of the day he +presented this letter to Mr. Ransome, who read and returned it with a +nod of content. + +"All right; to-morrow at seven," he said briefly. + +He ached in every unaccustomed muscle bent to toil when he strode up the +hill at dusk, his day's work over. But he was no more affected by that +than a boy on his first day of camping--it was part of the sport. +Because he was learning unselfishness he felt more anxiety as to how +Elsie had got through the day. Housework in the rather primitive cottage +was a different thing from caring for Holly Masterson in his luxurious +pink-and-gold nursery. Would he find her discouraged, tired--perhaps +cross? He smiled audacious confidence in his ability to caress her into +good humor, but he wondered rather uneasily whether his wages would +support a maid should Elsie demand one as necessary. He was utterly +unused to the practical apportionment of money. + +There were new curtains draped across the lighted windows of the little +red house. As he turned up the ridiculous plank walk he saw a very +diminutive kitten seated on the window-sill inside washing its face. And +then he heard a fresh, smooth voice singing the drollest little air he +ever had heard in his musical experience--a minor grotesquerie +distinctive as the flavor of _bouillabaisse orleanais_. He opened the +door and his wife laughed at him across the bright room, flushed with +fire heat, dainty in her lavender frock and white ruffled apron, +arrested with a steaming tureen uplifted in her little hands. + +Perhaps she had doubted how he would come home from that first day of +work. For just a moment they drank full reassurance from each other's +eyes; then Adriance was across the room. + +"Put it down or I'll spill it!" + +"Sir, this is a soup extraordinary! Would you overturn your supper?" + +"Yes, for this," said Adriance, and kissed her soft mouth. + +"Anthony, can one be _too_ happy and affront the fates?" + +"No." + +"We can go on and on, and nothing will happen!" + +"Please God!" said Tony Adriance with perfect reverence. + +"It is not a wonderful adventure now; it is just life?" + +"Of course. I say--I wish that van-driver could see me now--the one I +told you about last night." + +"The butcher gave me the kitten, Anthony." + +"Of course he did; any man would give you all he had. What were you +singing when I came in?" + +"How should I know? I know a thousand bits of song and a thousand +stories, and they march in and out of my head. Our dinner is spoiling, +Mr. Adriance." + +"I love you!" + +"I dislike you!" she mocked him. + +There was no one in New York who would have quite recognized either +Anthony or Elsie Adriance in these two children at play together. + +"Next Saturday evening I want you to take me shopping, please," she told +him when they were seated at supper. + +"Enchanted; but why Saturday?" + +"Because you will have your wages then, naturally. We need more dishes, +and a casserole, and a ribbon for the kitten, and--thousands of +things." + +"Shall I have wealth enough?" + +"Plenty; we are going to the 5-10-20 cent store." + +"I thought those were the prices of melodrama on the East Side." + +"Wait. You may find the event even tragic, if I want too many seductive +articles," she cautioned him. "But let us not talk of mere +things--aren't you going to tell me about your day?" + +"I am. But it was a day like any other workingman's, I suppose; nothing +happened." + +"Did you want anything to happen? I imagined----" + +"All I want," said Tony Adriance fervently, "is to be left alone, with +you." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LUCK IN THE HOUSE. + + +Nothing did happen. None of the traditionary usual experiences overtook +the two in the little red house, as November ran out and December +stormed in like a lusty viking from northern seas, attended by +tremendous winds and early snow. + +In the first place, the marriage of Anthony Adriance, Junior, somehow +escaped the sensational journals, as a pleasing theme. There were no +headlines announcing: "Son of a millionaire weds a nursemaid." No +reporters discovered the house on the Palisades, to photograph its +diminutive Gothic front for Sunday specials. Adriance had written a +letter of explanation, so far as explanation might be, to his father. +That was on the morning of his marriage, and as he had given no address, +naturally he had received no answer. There were no reproaches and no +pursuit. + +Nor was Tony Adriance gnawed by vain regrets. According to every rule +of romance and reason, he should have suffered from at least brief +seasons of repining; at least have been twinged by memories of things +foregone, yet desired. But he felt nothing of the kind. Masculine +independence was aroused in him, and held reign in riotous good spirits. +With a boy's triumphant bravado he faced down cold and hard work, +delighting in the victory. He rose early and built Elsie's fires before +permitting her to rise, while she sat up protesting in the four-posted +bed as he bullied and loved and mastered her. He walked two miles to and +from work morning and evening, and drove his big motor-truck eight hours +a day. Moreover, he gained weight on the regime, and the springing step +of a man in training. He never had suspected it, but his whole body had +craved outdoors and employment of its forces; Nature had built him for +work, not idleness. The atmosphere in which he had been reared was, by a +trick of temperament, foreign to him. + +"I'm plain vulgarian," he laughed to his wife one morning as he started +to work. "I would rather drive one of my father's trucks and come home +to your pork-chops, than I would to dawdle around his house and dine +with a strong man standing behind my chair to save me the fatigue of +putting sugar in my own coffee. Are you going to have some of those +jolly little apple-fritters with butter and cinnamon on them for supper +to-night?" + +She made a tantalizing face at him. It was two days before Christmas, +and so cold that her lips and cheeks were stung poppy-bright as she +stood in the doorway. + +"Of course not; now I know that you want them. We will have cold meat. +What are you going to give me for my stocking, Anthony?" + +"A cold-meat fork," he countered promptly. "How did you know I meant to +give you anything?" + +"I didn't," she calmly told him. "But I am going to give you something, +so I thought it only kind to remind you." + +He swung himself easily over the railing and smothered her in an embrace +made bear-like by his shaggy coat. + +"The chauffeur's peerless bride shall not weep," he soothed her. "For +ten days her ruby stomacher has been ordered by her devoted husband. +Now let your Romeo depart, or his pay will get docked next Saturday." + +She lingered in his arms an instant, her shining dark hair pressed +against the rough darkness of his cheap fur coat. + +"Anthony, don't they ever notice your name, down there? Didn't they ever +ask about it?" + +"Surely! The first day I went in, the superintendent asked if I were +related to Mr. Adriance. I told him yes, a poor relation. True, isn't +it? He was satisfied, anyhow. They call me Andy, down there." + +"Andy!" she essayed experimentally. "Andy! It goes pretty well." + +They laughed together, then he gently pushed her toward the door. + +"Go in," he bade, with his commanding manner; the manner Elsie had +taught him. "You will take a royal cold out here, and then what should I +do for my meals? I have to eat if I am to labor; besides, I like my +food. What did you call those cakes we had this morning?" + +"'_Belle cala, tout chaud!_'" she intoned the soft street-cry of old +New Orleans' breakfast hours, her voice catching the quaint, enticing +inflections of those dark-skinned vendors who once loitered their sunny +rounds freighted with fragrant baskets. "Some day I will show you what I +call a city, sir; if you'll take me?" + +"I'll take you anywhere, but I'll not let you go as far as the next +corner. Now, go in-doors, and good-bye." + +She obeyed him so far as to draw back into the warm doorway. There, +sheltered, she stayed to watch him swinging down the hill through the +gray winter morning. It was nearly seven o'clock, but the sun had not +yet warmed or gilded the atmosphere. Bleakness reigned, except in the +hearts of the man and woman. + +They had been married two months. Elsie Adriance slowly closed the door +and turned to the uncleared breakfast table. But presently she left the +dishes she had begun to assemble, and walked to one of the rear windows. +There she leaned, gazing where Anthony never gazed: toward the +gray-and-white stateliness of New York, across the ice-dotted river. She +contemplated the city, not with defiance or challenge, but with the +steady-eyed gravity, of one measuring an enemy. + +Two months, and the victory was still with her! Yet, she warned herself, +surely some day New York would call. She never quite could forget that. +She herself was not unlike a city preparing for defence, feverishly +grasping at every stone to build her ramparts. How she envied Lucille +Masterson her beauty, the elder Adriance his wealth, since those +possessions might have bound Anthony closer to her! She recalled Mrs. +Masterson's exquisite costumes, colored like flowers and as delightful +to the touch; the costly perfumes that made all her belongings fragrant; +the studied coquetry that kept her like Cleopatra, never customary or +stale. To oppose all this, Anthony's wife had only--her hearth. For she +never would keep her husband against his will; Elsie Adriance never +would claim as a right what she had held as a gift. + +The kitten, a black-and-white midget suggestive of a Coles-Phillips +drawing, rubbed insistently against the girl's foot. She picked up the +living toy and nestled its furry warmth beneath her chin, as she turned +in quest of milk. She thrust forebodings from her mind with resolute +will. It was too soon to think of these things; Anthony loved her, +Anthony was content. + +She had no conception of how fervently glad Anthony was to be rid of +harassing thoughts and complications, or how gratefully the luxury of +peace enfolded him and dwarfed the mere physical luxuries of idleness +and lavish expenditure. Nor, being a woman, did she sufficiently value +his pride in the possessions he had bought with his own labor. Tony +Adriance never had noticed the table service in his father's house; he +had been known to overturn a whole tray of translucent coffee-cups set +in lace-fine silver work, without a second glance at the destruction. +But he knew every one of the cheap, heavy dishes he and Elsie had added +to their equipment on Saturday evening shopping orgies at a +five-and-ten-cent store. Knew, and admired them! When Elsie would call +from her "kitchen corner;" "Bring me the Niagara platter, honey," he +could locate that ceramic atrocity at a glance. And when he let fall the +Whistler bread-plate--it had a nocturnal, black-lined landscape effect +in its centre--he was truly grieved. Indeed, it was he who selected +their china, Elsie's taste being inclined toward a simplicity he refused +as monotonous. He never had realized the pleasure of purchasing until he +went shopping with his wife, chose with her, overruled her or indulged +her in some fancy, then drew out his newly-received wage and paid, +magnificent. + +He could not have explained his emotions to Elsie. But his candid +delight in those expeditions came to her memory, as she poured the +kitten's milk into a saucer enamelled with blue forget-me-nots. She +lifted her head and again glanced toward the distant city; but this time +she smiled with certain triumph. He was her husband; better still, he +was as eagerly her playmate as any lonely boy who first finds a chum. +She knew Lucille Masterson did not possess the art of comradeship among +her talents; it was an art too unselfish. + +"When he begins to tire of just playing this way," she +half-unconsciously addressed the kitten, "we will find something else. +There will always be something for us to think of, together. It will +come when it is needed. Perhaps----" + +Arrested, her breath failed speech. It was as if her own words had +thrown open a door before which she faltered, her eyes sun-dazzled, yet +glimpsing a wide horizon. + +Soothed by her silent neighborhood, the kitten finished lapping its milk +and went to sleep against her skirt. But the girl stood still for a long +time, steadying her heart, which seemed to her to be filling like a cup +held under a clear fountain. + +Later in the day a boy brought wreaths and sprays of holly to the door. +Elsie bought recklessly, so Adriance came home that night to a house +Yule-gay with scarlet and green, spicy with the cinnamon fragrance of +the apple-fritters, and holding a mistress who showed him a Christmas +face of merry content. + +"I could not wait two days," she explained to him. "We'll begin now and +work up to it gradually." + +But after all, Christmas morning came as a surprise, and achieved a +final defeat of doubts and forebodings that drove them out of sight for +many a day. For, kissing his wife awake at dawn, Anthony made his gift +first, forestalling hers. + +"You never had an engagement ring," he reminded her. "I'll have to make +a tremendous record as a husband to live down my blunders as a fiance! +Here, let me put it on for you. What clever dimples you've got in your +fingers! I noticed them our first night here, remember?" + +She frankly cried in her great surprise and passionate joy in his +thought of her. It really was a spectacular ring, and glittered bravely +in the early light; an oval of dark-red stones like a shield set above +her wedding ring. + +"They're only garnets," he stilled her protest of extravagance. "But +they are the color of rubies; and the promise of them. Don't--please +don't! Come, what have you got for me? Give it up." + +The diversion succeeded. Laughing before her eyes were dry, she +answered: + +"He is in the wood-box. I had to keep him in the house where it was +warm, and I was so afraid you would hear him and spoil the surprise. But +he was as good as possible; he never said one word. Open the lid, +dear." + +"He?" echoed her husband. "Him?" + +The wood-box yielded him; a small, jovial, bandy-legged puppy. + +"He is _almost_ a Boston bull," Elsie explained conscientiously. "If he +had been quite one, I couldn't have afforded to buy him. But he is a +love. Anthony, he is the watch-dog, you know." + +Finding both faces within reach, as he hung over Anthony's arm, the +puppy licked them with fond impartiality. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +MRS. MASTERSON TAKES TEA + + +It was the day after Christmas that Adriance was sent over to New York +with his motor-truck, for the first time since he had become that +massive vehicle's pilot. His destination was in Brooklyn, so that he had +the entire city to cross, and lights were commencing to twinkle here and +there through the gray of the short winter afternoon when he turned +homeward. + +The experience had not been without a novel interest. Holiday traffic +crowded the streets; traffic officers, tired and chilled by a biting +east wind, were not patient. Adriance chose Fifth Avenue for his route +up-town with the naturalness of long custom, without reflecting upon the +greater freedom of travel he would have found on one of the dingy +streets usually followed by such vehicles as his. However, the +difficulties exhilarated him. Andy of the truck could not but wonder how +the policeman who roughly ordered him away from the entrance of the +Park might have phrased that request if he had known that the intruder +was Tony Adriance, "paper, you know!" Perhaps, because of this wonder, +his cheerful grin drew a sour smile from the officer. + +"Don't you know you've not got a limousine there? You from the woods?" +came the not ill-natured sarcasm. + +"Worse than that: from Jersey," Adriance shot back. "All right; I'm +sorry." + +"Plain streets for yours; round the circle," was the direction, which +also implied a release. + +"Thanks," Adriance called acknowledgment, as he obeyed. + +The bulky figure beside the chauffeur stirred. + +"You got a nerve," commented the man, his slow, heavy voice tinged with +admiration. "I seen guys pulled fer less, Andy." + +Adriance laughed. He and his big assistant were very good friends, after +weeks of sharing the truck's seat. The chauffeur appeared a stripling by +comparison with the man lounging beside him, huge arms folded across +thick chest. "Mike," as he was known to his fellow-workers, was a +Russian peasant. His upbringing in a Hoboken slum had fixed his +patriotism and language, but had left his physique that of his +inheritance. His reddish-yellow head was set on a massive neck whose +base his open shirt showed to be covered with a red growth of hair +extending down over his chest. His large features and mild, slow-moving +eyes, his heavy, placid manner of speech were absurdly alien to the +colloquial language that he spoke. Adriance knew his helper had been an +employee of the factory for ten years, but he did not know that Mike was +always assigned to a new chauffeur until the stranger proved himself +trustworthy. Mike was dull, but he was stolidly honest. Valuable boxes +or packages were not reported "lost" from trucks under his care. +Adriance had no idea of the truth that "Russian Mike" actually had +determined the permanence of his position in his father's great mill. + +"If I cannot go through the Park, I'll go back to the avenue," Adriance +declared, when the turning had been negotiated. "I want gayety, Michael; +boulevard gayety! Four o'clock on Fifth Avenue--shall a poor workingman +be deprived of the sight? It is true that we are too far uptown, but +the principle is the same. You agree with me?" + +"It ain't nothin' to me," averred the magnificent guardian, shifting to +a new position with an indolent movement that swelled the muscles under +his flannel shirt until the fabric strained. His glance at his companion +was mildly indulgent. + +"Of course not. But it will be, next time; that is, if you do not die of +pneumonia after taking this drive with your coat wide open. Appreciation +will grow on you. What do you think of that girl in gray, in the +limousine? Pretty? I used to go to school with her, Michael; dancing +school." + +The Slavic brown eyes became humorous. + +"Fact," Adriance met the incredulity. "And now she doesn't recognize me; +and neither of us cares." + +The uplifted hand of another traffic officer halted the long lines of +vehicles. Three deep from the curb on either side, so that the street +was solidly filled, automobiles, carriages, green and yellow busses and +ornate delivery-cars stopped in a close, orderly mass. Adriance's truck +was next to the sidewalk, in obedience to the rule for slow-moving +vehicles. As his laughing voice answered Mike, his tone raised to carry +across the roar of sound about them, a woman who had emerged from one of +the shops stopped abruptly. Her glance quested along the rows, to rest +upon Adriance with eager attention. A moment later, the man started at +the sound of his own name, spoken beside him. + +"How do you do, Tony. And aren't you--rather out of place?" + +Momentarily dumb, he looked down into the large, cool eyes of Lucille +Masterson. She did not smile, but faced his regard with a composure that +made his embarrassment a fault. Against the white fur of her stole was +fastened a knot of pink-and-white sweet peas; beside them her face +showed as softly tinted, and artificially posed, as the flowers. Beside +the wheel of the huge truck, she appeared smaller and more fragile than +Adriance remembered her. Without the slightest cause he felt himself a +culprit surprised by her. He had all the sensations of a deserter +confronted with the heartlessly abandoned. + +"Aren't you going to speak to me?" she queried, when he remained +voiceless. "I have missed you, Tony." + +He hastily aroused himself. + +"Of course! I mean--you are very kind. I--we have been out of town." + +Feeling the utter idiocy into which he was stumbling, he checked +himself. The current of traffic was flowing on once more, leaving his +machine stranded against the curb; made fast, as it were, by the +white-gloved hand Mrs. Masterson had laid upon the wheel. + +Without heeding his incoherence, she looked at a tiny watch on her +wrist, half-hidden by her wide, furred sleeve. With her movement a drift +of fragrance was set afloat on the thick, city air. + +"I want you to take me to tea," she announced, with her accustomed +imperativeness. "I have things to say to you. Let your man take your car +home." + +In spite of his exasperation, Adriance laughed. He was aware of the +staring admiration which held the big man beside him intent upon the +beautiful woman; he had heard the greedy intake of breath with which the +other absorbed the perfume shaken from her daintiness, and could guess +the effect of _Essence Enivrante_ upon untutored nostrils. But for all +that, he could not imagine Russian Mike obeying the order proposed. + +"You see, he isn't my man," he excused himself from compliance. "Thank +you very much, but it is not possible." + +"Then let him wait for you. Really, Tony, I think you owe me a little +courtesy." + +Adriance flushed before the rebuke. He never had seen Lucille Masterson +since that rough farewell of their final quarrel. He had left her, to +marry another woman inside of the next thirty-six hours. He always had +been at his weakest with Mrs. Masterson; he slipped now into his old +mistake of temporizing. + +"I am not dressed for a tea-room," he deprecated. "Otherwise, I should +be delighted." + +Her eyes glinted. Grasping the slight concession, she leaned toward +Adriance's assistant with her brilliant, arrogant smile. + +"You will watch the car for Mr. Adriance, just a few moments, will you +not?" she appealed. "I have something of importance to say to him. I +should be much obliged." + +The white-gloved hand slipped forward and left a bank note in the hairy +fist. Dazed, Mike vaguely jerked his cap in salute, still staring at the +woman. Neither money nor beauty might have lured him to an actual breach +of duty, but this was the last trip of the day and the truck was empty. +It could not matter if the return were delayed half an hour; a belated +ferryboat might lose so much time. Moreover, he was not only willing, +but anxious, to do Andy a favor, and the bill in his clutch assured a +glorious Saturday night. + +"Sure," he mumbled, with a grin of shyness like a colossal child's. + +"Come, Tony," directed Mrs. Masterson. + +Because he saw nothing else to do, Tony reluctantly swung himself down +to the pavement beside her. + +"I can only stay for a word," he essayed revolt. "It is hardly worth +while to go anywhere. We should have to go find some place where these +clothes would pass and where no one knew us." + +"On the contrary! We must go where you are so well-known that your dress +does not matter," she contradicted him. "The Elizabeth Tea-room is just +here, and we used to go there often." + +He could think of no objection to the proposal. Presently he found +himself following his captor into the pretty, yellow-and-white tea-room. + +As the Elizabeth affected an English atmosphere and had not adopted the +_the dansant_, the place was not overfull. The quaintly-gowned waitress +greeted them with a murmur of recognition and led the way to a table +without a glance at the chauffeur's attire. Mrs. Masterson ordered +something; an order which Adriance seconded without having heard it. He +was recovering his poise, and marvelling at himself for coming here no +less than at Lucille for bringing him. What could they have to say to +each other, now? The scented warmth of the room brought to his +realization the cold in which he had left Mike to wait, and he was +nipped by remorse. + +It was a consequence of his education among people who never considered +that narrowness of convention which they designated as middle-class, +that Adriance had no sense of disloyalty either to Elsie or Fred +Masterson in being here. On the contrary, the knowledge of his marriage +would have enabled him to welcome frankly either of the two had they +chanced to enter and find him. It was as if his assured position +chaperoned the situation. But, truly masculine, since he no longer loved +Lucille Masterson he detested being with her. He resented the acute +discomfort he felt in her presence. + +She was drawing off her gloves with a slowness that irritated him as an +affectation; he thought the artificial perfection of her hands hideous +as a waxwork. They were not really a good shape, nor small, but merely +blanched very white and manicured to a glistening illusion. And he saw +with disgust that she wore a ring he once had given her because she made +it plain to him that the costly gift was expected. He knew she had lied +to her husband as to the giver; "Tony" had been startled and +half-awakened from his hazy content by that discovery at the time. Now +he looked at the bulky pearl set around with diamonds and recalled the +modest garnets he had given Elsie. + +"I am sorry, but I haven't long to stay," he said. "You spoke of +something important to discuss." + +"Did I?" + +"Certainly!" + +She studied him with open curiosity. + +"You want to go back to that wagon with the gorilla of a man?" + +"Yes." + +"Are you still very much married, Tony?" she questioned maliciously. + +His eyes blazed, then chilled. Her lack of finesse had led her to a +final mistake. + +"You forget that my wife is an unfashionable woman. I am still happily +married," he retorted. + +"How--romantic!" + +"Very." + +"Still, two months, or is it three? Even Fred and I lasted that long. +You will not mind my saying that you are a bit fickle, Tony. What will +you do when you grow bored? Or do you believe that you never will? Elsie +must have resources that I never suspected. Does she tell you the story +of--Monsieur Raoul, was it?" + +"She has others more pleasant. With Mrs. Adriance boredom is not +possible," he controlled his anger to state. But he felt himself clumsy +and inadequate. + +The quaint little waitress was beside him, and proceeded to her duty of +service with exasperating slowness and precision. She was a pretty girl, +in a butter-cup-yellow frock and ruffled white cap and apron. Adriance +became conscious of his work-darkened hands, of a collar that showed a +day's accumulated dust, and other signs that differentiated him from the +usual idle and dainty patrons of this place. + +"You _are_ a bit seedy," corroborated Mrs. Masterson, watching him with +furtive acuteness. She permitted herself an ironic smile. "Do you not +think it time you went home, and changed?" + +He divined an innuendo, a _double entendre_ in the speech that he did +not comprehend, yet which enraged him. He wondered if she had brought +him here for the purpose of forcing this contrast between his present +life and his past, and so tainting him with discontent or even regret +of his marriage. If so, she had failed. He merely visited his +humiliation on her, and found her beauty spoiled by her spitefulness. + +"I shall be home in an hour," he said. "And of course I am anxious to be +there, so you will forgive my reminding you of whatever we have to +discuss." + +"Oh, of course." She paused until their attendant fluttered away through +a swinging door. "You are quite cured of me, aren't you, Tony? Don't +trouble about denying politely, please. But it is lucky no one really +knew about us--I suppose you have not told?" + +"Mrs. Masterson!" + +She hushed the protest, laughing across the spray of sweet-peas she had +lifted against her smooth red lips. + +"Very well, very well! But promise you never will. Promise, Tony." + +"It is not necessary," he replied stiffly. "But if you think it so, I +give you my word." + +"Never to tell that I thought of marrying you, whatever may happen?" + +"Yes." + +She dropped the sweet-peas and sat in silence for a space, her gaze +dwelling on him. Neither of the two made any pretense of pouring the tea +cooling in the diminutive pots between them, or of tasting the miniature +sandwiches and cakes. Months later, Adriance was to learn something of +Lucille Masterson's thoughts during that interval. He himself thought of +Russian Mike waiting in the motor-truck, and that he would be so late +home that Elsie might be worried. He had wanted to stop at a shop to buy +a toy bull-dog collar for his Christmas puppy, but now that must be +postponed. He was amazed and infinitely angry at himself for yielding so +easily to Lucille's whim to bring him here. + +Unconsciously he looked toward her with open impatience in his glance. +She responded at once, with a shrug. + +"Go, by all means. Pray go, Tony. Am I keeping you? I am not the kind of +woman who mourns, you know. Just remember that our episode is not only +closed, but locked, when we meet again. Good-bye." + +"And the important communication that I was to hear?" + +"I have forgotten what I wanted to say. Good-bye, Tony." + +Puzzled and angry, he rose, leaving on the table twice the amount of the +check, at which he had not looked. Mrs. Masterson nodded an +acknowledgment of his grim salute. Her eyes had a look of triumph, and +as the girl in yellow ushered him out, Adriance saw the other turn with +appetite to the sandwiches and tea. + +The east wind had grown stronger and its current was thick with whirling +particles of snow. Darkness had come with the storm, turning dusk into +night. Adriance shivered and buttoned his cheap fur coat as he hurried +across the wet, shining pavement. Mike aroused himself with a grunt when +the chauffeur swung up into the seat beside him. + +"Swell dame, Andy!" he commented, staring with heavy curiosity at the +man pushing throttle and spark. "I guess maybe you're a swell, too, like +a movie show I seen once?" + +Adriance stepped down again, to go forward and crank the motor. He began +to glimpse the possible complications if Mike recounted this adventure +among his mates. He wondered, also, if Lucille had noticed the name on +the truck. Altogether, he was in a vicious enough mood to lie, and he +did so. + +"No," he asserted flatly, when he had regained his seat. "Don't be an +idiot, Mike. I--used to be employed by that lady." + +"Drive her automobile?" + +"Yes." + +The explanation was accepted as satisfactory. An intimate acquaintance +with the etiquette of intercourse between mistress and chauffeur was not +one of the examiner's accomplishments. But the incident appealed to Mike +as romantic, and for him romance flowed from one source only. + +"She looks like one of them actresses from the movies," he averred, +folding his huge arms comfortably across his breast. "I guess she is, +maybe? I seen queens like her, there." + +"It is a good way to see them, if they are like her," observed Adriance +ruefully. He laughed in spite of vexation. "Better stick to the movie +girls, Michael; it's safer! Now stop talking to me; if this brute of a +truck swerves an inch in this slush, some pretty car is going to feel as +if an elephant had stepped on it." + +But the ill luck of that day was over. They made a fast trip up-town and +just caught a ferry-boat on the point of leaving. + +After all, they were not to be noticeably late. And since there would be +no need of explanation, it occurred to Adriance that he might not +recount to Elsie the tale of his discomfiture. He was keenly ashamed of +the poor role Lucille Masterson had made him play. She had whistled him +to heel, and he had come with the meekness of the well-trained. She had +amused herself with him as long as she chose, then dismissed him, +humiliated and helpless. He did not want Elsie to picture her husband in +that situation, nor to find him still unable to say no to Mrs. +Masterson. + +By the time he had walked up the long hill through a beating snow-storm, +he was thoroughly chilled and self-disgusted, desirous only of shelter +and peace. Both met him, when he pushed open the door of his house and +stepped into the warm, bright room. When the door closed behind him, he +definitely shut outside the image of Lucille Masterson. + +With a little rush Elsie came to meet him, lifting her warm and rosy +face for his kiss. The puppy scrambled across the floor, uttering +staccato yelps of salute. + +"I've named our house," the girl announced gleefully. "You know, we have +named everything else. Don't you like Alaric Cottage?" + +"I like the inside of it to-night, all right. But why Alaric?" + +"Because it is so early-Gothic, of course. You must appreciate our front +porch, Anthony. Oh, you _are_ wet and cold! Hurry and change your +things--I have them all laid out--and I will feed you, sir." + +So the matter passed for that time, and was forgotten. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GLOWING HEARTH + + +Christened Noel, in honor of the day of his arrival, the puppy thrived +and grew toward young doghood in a household atmosphere of serene +content. From Christmas to Easter the days flowed by in an untroubled +current of time. Day after day, Anthony and Elsie Adriance grew into +closer and fuller companionship. The winter was a hard and long one, but +never dull to them. + +They found so much to do. In return for his reading to her, Elsie +sometimes put out the lamp and in the flickering firelight told him +quaint, grotesque legends of Creole and negro lore. Her soft accents +fell naturally into patois; she was a born mimic, and interspersed +fragments of plaintive songs, old as the tragedy of slavery or the +romance of a pre-Napoleonic France. Her voice could be drowsy as +sunshine on a still lagoon, or instinct with life as the ring of a +marching regiment's tread. + +She taught him to play chess, too, with a wonderful set of +jade-and-ivory men produced from among her few belongings. + +"Do you know these must be mighty valuable?" Adriance exclaimed, the +first time he saw them. + +"I know they are mighty old," she mocked his seriousness. "And I +wouldn't sell them, so the rest doesn't matter." + +"Tell me about them." + +"There is nothing very definite to tell." She regarded him askance from +the corner of a laughing eye. "Can you bear the shock of hearing that +one of your wife's ancestors was suspected of having secret relations +with the notorious LaFitte?" + +"Who was he?" + +"LaFitte was a pirate and freebooter, sir, who had a stronghold below +New Orleans, where the mouth of the Mississippi widens into the Gulf. +Many a ship paid toll to him, many curious prizes fell into his greedy +hands; and it was whispered that some of these strange, foreign things +mysteriously appeared in the house of Martin Galvez. Negroes were heard +to tell, with breath hushed and eyes rolling, of a swift-sailing sloop, +black of hull and rigged in black canvas, lines, and all. It slipped up +the river at midnight and down again before dawn, past all defences, +they said--and its point of landing was Colonel Galvez's wharf, ten +miles above the city. No one ever knew more than a rumor that ran +untraced like the black sloop. But it was said the ivory-and-jade +chessmen had travelled by that craft, as had great-great-grandmother's +string of pink pearls which are painted around her neck in her portrait. +Loud and often her husband laughed at the tales, inviting all who chose +to watch his wharf between sunset and sunrise, any night. The chessmen, +he declared, were presented to him by a prince of Cairo, whose enemies +had betrayed him into the hands of a slave-trader. The Egyptian noble's +dark skin and ignorance of Western speech had made him a helpless +victim; he faced the final degradation of the lash when Colonel Galvez +saw and rescued him. His gratitude sent the pretty playthings. As for +the pink pearls, they came from Vienna, by lawful purchase. At least, so +the worthy Colonel was fond of relating, with a convincing detail, over +his incomparable French wines and Havana cigars." + +"But, what was truth? Which, I mean?" he questioned. + +She shut her eyes in droll disclaimer. + +"How should I know? The pink pearls disappeared before Josephine Galvez +married Fairfax Murray, sixty years ago. The chessmen are dumb. But I +know of many an old toy from overseas, around our house still. Nothing +of great value! We are as poor as ecclesiastical mice; the family wealth +long ago fled down the wind on the black sails of ill-luck. Yes, the +Murrays usually held poor hands at cards. Will you move first, or shall +I?" + +"You," he invited. He looked at her with curiosity. "Why didn't you tell +me before that you were a princess in disguise? I never knew you had an +ancestor on record, and here you have a procession of them. You're a +funny girl." + + If you don't like me, + Why do you, why do you, + _Why_ do you stay around? + +She sang the very modern verse to him with a mockery altogether +tantalizing; and he upset all the chessboard in answering her properly. + +Little by little he learned a great deal about her home; which, he +discovered, had once been the veritable home of the punctilious Mait' +Raoul Galvez of surprising memory. He made acquaintance with her parents +and her sisters, as Elsie brought before him a living simulacra of each +one with her magician-like arts of description and mimicry. There were +five sisters, it appeared: Lee, Roberta, Virginia, Clotilda and +Nicolette. + +"Mother named the first three of us and Daddy the last three," she +explained. "Wasn't he right polite to wait so long? Mother is a rebel +Confederate up to this minute, while Daddy altogether indorses the North +and is a professional delver in romantic history." + +"'Elsie' is not historical," he objected, much diverted. + +"Oh, my truly name is Elcise; I come before Clotilda and Nicolette. But +my grandfather insisted upon calling me Elsie as long as he lived, so in +deference to him the first intention was abandoned. Poor Daddy lost one +of his turns, after all. It happened very well, though! Elsie is more +practical, and I am the most practical member of the whole family +circle." + +"Really?" + +"Why, certainly! Lee married a dramatic poet, who is also the editor of +a newspaper," she retorted upon his incredulity. "And one who lets his +two vocations interfere with one another! Roberta has been engaged to an +army officer these five years. He is stationed in the Philippines, where +she is to join him and live in some jungle with him whenever he is +sufficiently promoted to marry. Virginia is a beauty, who has the entire +college full of young men vibrating around our house; and she declares +that she is going into a convent when she is twenty-five. Clotilda and +Nicolette are twin babies of eleven years. They still have plenty of +time to do anything, you see. We were all perfectly happy as we were, +but it became really necessary for someone to relieve Daddy, if only by +supporting herself and leaving more for the others. So I began, and went +as private secretary and companion with the old lady of whom I have told +you. Wasn't that practical? Of course, Lee's husband supports her, +usually. + +"But the spring that I came away, Daddy had urged him to resign from the +newspaper and come home for six months in order to write a poetic drama +over which they both were enthusiastic. No one expects it to make much +money, but, as Daddy said, we have always had enough for dignified +simplicity, and it should be our duty as well as our glory to help Lee's +husband to fame." + +"Elsie's husband means to support her all the time." + +"Oh, I told you Elsie was practical. She married sensibly." + +"Should you call it that?" doubtingly. + +"Her husband is quite kind to her, you know." + +"Well, he is still in love. When that wears off as she grows tired of +feeding him, and ill-tempered----?" + +They laughed at one another across the hearth. But presently Adriance +became serious. + +"Elsie, I think that I should write to your father. One does not snatch +a man's daughter in this barefaced fashion, without so much as a word to +him, in civilized lands. Why haven't I thought of that before? And I +should like to be welcomed into your family, or at least tolerated +there. Do you suppose we might visit them, some day when our finances +permit? Or perhaps some of my sisters-in-law might come to see us? +George, what a time we could have given those girls with some of the +money that I had, and haven't!" + +His wife leaned toward him, her gray eyes quite wet with her +earnestness. + +"Anthony, there is nothing in the world that would make me so happy as +for you to write home and tell them that I belong to you. I have so +_hoped_ you would think of it!" + +"Why didn't you tell me to do so, long ago?" he asked reproachfully. + +"Now, how could I tell you a thing like that?" + +"Why not?" he wondered, densely. + +She made an expressive gesture with her little hands, resigning the +hopeless task of explanation. + +"Never mind. But I shall be so glad! You see, they do not know that I am +married at all. I have not dared tell them, because they have such +stately, quaint ideas that they would be profoundly offended if you did +not write yourself. They would consider it a great slight to me. So I +have just waited." + +He gazed at her in utter marvel at such patience. + +"Never do it again," he requested. "Please remember that you have +deigned to wed a poor, dull animal who needs your constant guidance. +Even yet, I have failed to grasp the delicate point of your not setting +me to work at this weeks ago. But bring the writing things and sit +beside me as expert critic; we will attend to this before we sleep." + +They did so; and were drawn still closer together by the fulfillment of +that act of courtesy and consideration which they unwittingly had +neglected so long. + +The warm, gay intimacy of their life together sank deeper into the fibre +of both, as the days went by. They found a comradeship of minds as well +as hearts, never failing in novelty and delight to the man. + +"I never before had an intimate friend," he said, one morning, with a +wondering realization of the fact. "I knew so many people that I never +guessed it, Elsie, but I've been lonely all my life. I can't see how I +could be any happier than I am now." + +They had just risen from the breakfast-table. + +Across it Elsie met her husband's eyes; her own infinitely wise, +splendidly happy as his, yet touched with that delicate raillery which +caressed and laughed at him. + +"Oh, yes!" she dissented. "Yes, Anthony." + +Puzzled, he searched her meaning in her shining gaze. + +"I could be happier?" + +"Yes. _We_ could be." + +"But----?" + +She came around the table and told him the answer, putting her hands +into his. She did not speak shyly, but proudly, with frank courage and +comradeship. + +An hour later, when Adriance went down the long hill to his day's work, +he carried himself with a dignity new as the blended exaltation and +dread that paled his face. Once he stopped in the snapping March wind to +bare his head and draw a full, deep breath, looking up at the +bright-blue sky where tufts of white cloud sailed. Although the season +was so far advanced, new-fallen snow overlay road and hills, so that +Adriance seemed to himself as standing between two surfaces of pure, +glinting brightness. His thoughts were only now becoming articulate, yet +a sense of final change had settled through him. His manhood had come to +full dignity. Now he knew what he had done when he snatched Elsie Murray +out of her cross-current of life and took her for himself. He had found +love like a jewel on the road; content had reared a shelter for his +inexperience. Now, he stood as protector and shelter as long as he +should live for the weaker ones who were his. And with responsibility, +ambition sprang fully grown to life and challenged him. Was his wife to +rank as a chauffeur's wife, and nothing more? Was their child to be +reared in that place, and he to give the two nothing better? Anthony +Adriance passed his glance, with his father's cold accuracy of +appraisal, over the great factory lying far down at the foot of the +cliffs, where he himself was awaited to drive a truck. + +Presently he went on, down the road. But he went differently. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE UPPER TRAIL + + +Adriance had not spent half a year in the mill, even in the limited +capacity of chauffeur, without observing many things. He had come to +recognize flaws in that smooth-running mechanism of which he was a part. +Might he not find in this fact an opportunity? He saw much that he +himself, given authority, might do to promote efficiency. He did not +delude himself with the idea that he could go into any factory as an +efficiency expert; he did see that here he might fairly earn and ask for +a salary that would give Elsie more luxuries than she had even known in +her own home and more than he himself had learned to desire. After all, +there had been no quarrel between his father and himself. When the young +man had chosen a course that he knew to be disagreeable to the older, he +simply had withdrawn from their life together as a matter of courtesy +and self-respect. Since he no longer gave what was expected of Tony +Adriance, he could not take Tony's privileges; now however, knowledge +of Elsie had changed the situation. His father had only to meet his +wife, Anthony felt assured, for his marriage to explain itself. Even if +Mr. Adriance were disappointed by the simplicity of his son's choice and +ambitions, even if he preferred the brilliant Mrs. Masterson to the +serene young gentlewoman as a daughter-in-law, why should there be +rancor between the two men? For the first time it occurred to Adriance +that his father might be lonely and welcome a reconciliation. They never +had been intimate, but they had been companions, or at least pleasant +acquaintances. The house on the Drive had not contained only servants, +as now it must--servants who were merely servants, too, not the +faithful, devoted, tactful servitors of romance, but the average modern +hireling. The house-keeper engaged and dismissed them and was herself a +shadowy automaton, who appeared only to receive special orders and +render monthly accounts. For any atmosphere of home created in the +house, the Adriances might as well have been established in a hotel. +Anthony wondered if even Elsie could leaven that dense mass of +formality, or if her art was too delicate, too subtle a combination of +heart and mind and personality to affect such conditions. He could not +be certain. He could well imagine her, daintily gowned and demurely +self-possessed, as mistress of that household; but he could not imagine +the household itself as altered very much or made less stupidly +ponderous by her presence. He had not thought of this before, but now he +could not think his pleasure would be quite the same if they sat +together in state in that drawing-room he knew so well, while she told +him the tales he had learned to delight in. It could not be quite the +same as a hearth of their own, and his pipe, burning with a coarse, +outrageous energy, expressed in volumes of smoke, while Elsie leaned +forward, little hands animated, gray eyes sparkling, and mimicked or +drolled or sang as the mood swayed them or the tale demanded. He knew +that he himself could never read aloud with enthusiasm and verve if Mr. +Adriance listened with amused criticism. No, Anthony realized with some +astonishment that he did not want to take his wife home. + +Nevertheless, the thing must be done. It was a duty. He could not +selfishly continue in the way he liked so well. He must consider Elsie +and the third who was to join their circle. He must pick up for them +what he had thrown aside for himself. + +But he refused to go back to his father like a defeated incompetent to +plead for his inheritance. His pride recoiled from the certainty that +his father would so regard his return; there must be a middle course. At +the great gate to the factory yard he paused to survey again the +enormous buildings with their teeming life. In more than one sense this +was his workshop. + +There was more than the usual hubbub and confusion in the shipping-room +when he went down the stone incline to that vast subterranean apartment. +The little wizened man in horn-rimmed spectacles, who vibrated around +his long platform, checking rolls and bales and boxes as they were +loaded into the trucks, had already the appearance of wearied +distraction. His thin hair was flattened by perspiration across his +knobby forehead, although it was not yet eight o'clock and freezing +draughts of air swept the place as the doors swung unceasingly open and +shut. Groups of grinning chauffeurs and porters loitered in corners or +behind pillars, eying with enjoyment or indifference, as the case might +be, the little man's bustling energy and anxiety. + +This condition had already lasted two days, like a veritable festival of +confusion. Adriance had watched it with the utter indifference of his +mates, merely attending to the duties assigned him and leaving Mr. Cook +to solve his own perplexities; but this morning he hesitated beside the +fiery, streaming little man. The little man caught sight of his not +unsympathetic face and hailed him, calling through the tumult of cars, +rattling hand-trucks, pushed by blue-shirted porters, and the complex +din of the place. + +"Here, Andy--you know New York, how long should I allow this man to go +to the Valparaiso dock, unload and get back? Three hours?" + +"Two," responded Adriance, mounting the long platform beside his chief. + +"Can't be done," the chauffeur of the waiting truck sullenly +contradicted. + +"Why not?" + +"You ain't allowing for the ferry running across here only every half +hour, nor for the traffic over on the other side." + +The tone was insolent, and Adriance answered sharply, unconsciously +speaking as Tony rather than as Andy: + +"You don't know your business when you propose going that way. Go down +the Jersey side here where the way is open, and take the down-town +ferry, that runs every ten minutes. And come back by the same route." + +"Who are you----" the chauffeur began, but was curtly checked by Mr. +Cook: + +"Do as you're told, Pedersen, and if I catch you at more tricks like +that you're fired. You've got two hours. Next! Herman, get your truck +loaded and take the same route and time; do you hear?" + +"Yes, sir; but----" + +"Get out, and the two of you come in together." + +"Excuse me, Mr. Cook;" said Adriance, his glance taking appraisal of the +second truck; "Herman has a cargo of heavy stuff, he can hardly get it +unloaded in as short a time as Pedersen." + +The little man turned on him wrathfully. + +"Can't? Can't? They've got to get back for second trips." + +"Then give him two extra helpers." + +Mr. Cook stared at him through his spectacles, then turned and shouted +the order. When he turned back he dried his forehead and relieved +himself by a burst of confidence. + +"There's a lot of stuff to go to South America by the boat sailing at +three o'clock. A rush order, and just when we are rushed with other +deliveries; and Ransome is home sick. _I_ never send out the trucks; _I_ +don't know when they should come in or how they should go. I've got all +my own work checking over every shipment that goes out, too. It's too +much, it can't be done. The chauffeurs are playing me, I know they are. +Look at the stuff left over that ought to have been got out yesterday, +not moved yet! They tell me lies about the motors breaking down; I know +they are lies; why should half the trucks in the place break down just +when Ransome is away? But I can't prove it." + +"Why not put a mechanic in a light machine to go out to any truck that +breaks down, and then give orders that any man whose truck stops is to +'phone in here at once?" suggested Adriance. + +This time Mr. Cook regarded him steadily for a full minute. Seizing the +advantage of the other man's attention, Adriance struck again: + +"Would you like me to take Mr. Ransome's place for the day? I know both +cities pretty well and I know your men. One of the other men can take +out my truck; Russian Mike, for instance." + +"He can't drive." + +"I beg your pardon, he drives very well; I taught him myself this +winter." + +The little man jerked a telephone receiver from the wall beside him. + +"Mr. Goodwin! Cook, sir. I've got a man here to fill Ransome's place for +the present; one of our chauffeurs, sir. Oh, yes! Andy--I forget his +last name. He's all right, yes. I've got to have help; can't handle the +men, Mr. Goodwin. All right; thank you, sir." + +He whirled about to Andy. In the brief moments of their talk the +congestion had thickened appallingly, and Mr. Cook looked at the +disorder aghast. + +"Go over to Ransome's box," he snapped; "you're appointed; and I wish +you luck! Fire them if they kick, and, you may count on it, I'll back +you up." + +Ransome's box was on a small pier run out upon the main floor, in such a +situation that every vehicle leaving or entering must pass it and +report. It was railed around and contained a desk, a telephone and a +chair. Adriance slipped off his overcoat and cap as he walked out on the +little elevation and took his place. The men lounging about the rooms +straightened themselves and stared up at this new arrival. A little +improvement in calmness came over the horde at the mere sight of a +figure in the post of authority. + +The invalided Ransome was missed no more. Opportunity had visited +Adriance on the day when he was inspired to seize it and attuned to +accord with it. He and his fellow chauffeurs had been very good friends, +but only as their work for the same employer brought them together. None +of them had been so intimate with him as to feel his present position a +slight upon themselves. Indeed, they were a good-natured, hard-working +set, whose heckling of Mr. Cook had been as much mischief as any desire +to take a mean advantage of the present situation. + +There was an authority in Adriance himself of which he was quite +conscious, a personal force that grew with exercise. He stood on his +elevation, sending out man after man with clear, reasonable orders, +noting the distance, the time of departure and the time allowed for the +errand of each. He acquainted each man with the new rule concerning +machines broken down or temporarily disabled, wisely giving this as an +order of Mr. Cook's. When Russian Mike came by with Andy's truck, the +big man smiled up at the man on the pier. + +"I ain't going to bust her," he assured him; "I guess I'm a pretty good +driver?" + +"Of course you are," laughed Adriance, leaning down to give him his slip +and a hand-clasp by way of encouragement. "You're all right, Michael; +take care of yourself and remember what I told you about going slow." + +"Sure!" A smile widened the broad lips. "Say, I guess it's a pretty good +thing we wasn't being checked up this way when we met that actor lady, +yes?" + +"Never mind her." Adriance's color rose a trifle. "I am not holding any +one down to too close time, either; but this is a rush morning. Go along +now." + +And Michael placidly went. + +The room began to clear before the efforts of the excitable, nervous Mr. +Cook at one end and the quiet management of the young man at the other +extremity of the place. This was far more exacting work than driving one +of those motor-trucks he dispatched in such imperious fashion, Adriance +soon discovered. For he did not merely hand each driver a slip stating +his destination, as was the custom of Ransome. Under that system +Adriance knew from his own observation that hours a day were wasted by +the men. Only if a chauffeur outrageously over-staid the reasonable time +for his journey did he receive a sarcastic rebuke, which was +sufficiently answered by the allegation of engine trouble. The new +method was received with astonishment and some scowls, but without +revolt. Instead of each truck sent out failing to return until the noon +hour, two, and even three trips were completed during the morning. There +were some complaints, of course. Adriance cut them off in their +incipience. He was enjoying himself in spite of the strain. + +In the middle of the morning, when the trucks first sent out began to +come in again, Cook left his post for a few moments. Adriance did not +see him leave, nor did he note that two other men returned with his +temporary colleague and remained standing for some time in the shadow of +the pillared arcade around the wall, watching the proceedings on the +floor. During a lull in the coming and going, when Adriance was sorting +his piles of slips, one of these men walked out to his raised enclosure. + +"Good morning," the stranger opened. + +"Good morning," Adriance absently replied; turning his head and +perceiving his visitor to be a frail little old gentleman, he offered +him the solitary chair. Of course he knew that his visitor must be +connected with the factory, if only from the air of tranquil assurance +with which he settled his _pince-nez_ and surveyed the younger man. + +"How do you keep all those apart?" he questioned, motioning toward the +slips. + +"Put them in order on a file as the men go out, then turn the heap over. +The first one out should be the first one in," explained Adriance, +smiling. "Of course, I have to keep together those who have +approximately the same distance to cover. It is a very rough and ready +method, I know; but it was devised under the stress of the moment. A row +of boxes with a compartment for each truck numbered to correspond would +be one better way that occurs to me; but, of course, I am merely a +temporary interloper." + +"My name is Goodwin; Mr. Cook did not tell me yours----?" + +The manager of the factory and his father's associate! It was the purest +chance that Tony and he never had met at the Adriance house. But Mr. +Goodwin belonged to an older generation than the senior Adriance, his +home was in Englewood and he rarely came to New York unless upon +business--the great city was distasteful to him. Something of this +Adriance recollected after his first dismay, and drew such reassurance +from it as he might, as he answered: + +"My name is Adriance, Mr. Goodwin." + +"Adriance?" + +"Yes, sir. It is not so odd; I am a distant connection of the New York +family, I believe." He had a cloudy recollection of a witty Frenchman +who alluded to an estranged member of his family as his "distant +brother." + +"I see, I see; after all, even somewhat unusual names are constantly +repeated." Mr. Goodwin scrutinized the other in the glare of artificial +light that rather confused vision. "But, excuse me, you hardly speak +like a chauffeur." + +"Does not that depend on the chauffeur?" Adriance parried pleasantly. "I +hope not to remain one all my life, anyhow." + +"Ah--certainly. Mr. Cook asked me to come down and observe the +improvement in the conditions here this morning. I am pleased, much +pleased. I should have regulated the system in this department before; +but these modern innovations press upon me rather fast. I looked forward +to retiring, I do indeed," he coughed impatiently and glanced vaguely +over the great room. "However, that is not the point. I should like you +to keep this position, Adriance; at least until Mr. Ransome recovers. I +hear he is threatened with pneumonia." + +"I should be glad to do so, Mr. Goodwin." + +"We might use him in the office to better advantage. Well, we will try +your system first. Write an order for any filing cabinets or apparatus +you deem necessary. Give it to Mr. Cook and I will see personally that +all is supplied. This is a critical moment on which may depend a +considerable trade with South America. Cook tells me that more goods +have been moved this morning than in any entire day recently. We had +thought of buying more trucks." + +"I think that is not required, sir; I wish you would try my way for a +week before doing so, at least. It is only a question of using to the +full extent the materials on hand. I fancy new troubles grow up with new +institutions, and an outsider may more easily see the remedy." + +"Yes? Young blood in the business, you think? Perhaps, perhaps." + +Two trucks roared into the place and up to Adriance's post. When he had +finished with them and sent them on to Cook's end of the room, he turned +back to Mr. Goodwin; but that gentleman, satisfied as to the improved +conditions, was already stepping into the elevator to return to his own +offices above. + +"Seventy-three, the old top is," remarked Cook, running over to pass his +fellow-worker a mass of memoranda. "Keen as ever, but not up-to-date, +that is all. Here--these to the dock, these to the Erie yards; this +straight to the decorator on Fifth Avenue, who is waiting for it--it's a +special design landscape-paper for a club grill-room on Long Island. +Rush the one to the steamer--Long Island and Buffalo can wait." + +"You were mighty good to help me that way," said Adriance. He took the +slip, regarding the little man with a glance in which many thoughts met. +He smiled at one of these, and his face became warmly kind for an +instant and rather startled Cook. + +"You helped me out of a scrape by volunteering this morning," Cook +answered, a trifle abruptly. "I only asked him to come see how things +were going. You are to keep on here?" + +"Yes, for the present." + +"Glad of it! Ever do this kind of work before?" + +"Handling trucks?" + +"No; handling men." + +Adriance considered. + +"Only on a yacht, I think." + +A group of four trucks came in. Outside a whistle began to blow; others +joined the clamor and a gong clanged heavily through the intermittent +shudder of the machinery-crowded building. Twelve o'clock! Cook hurried +away to his own men, who had fallen idle with the surprising promptness +of the true workmen; and the examination was ended. Adriance foresaw +that it would recommence, but he was indifferent. He cared very little +how soon his father discovered him, now that he had resolved to seek his +father as soon as he saw his way a little more clearly. + +He was profoundly gratified and excited by this morning's success. It +gave him self-confidence, and it enabled him to ask a share in the +factory's management with something more tangible to offer his father +than the mere assertion that he saw improvements to be made. He actually +had accomplished something. He would save many thousands of dollars by +utilizing the machines on hand instead of purchasing more of the costly +motor-trucks, with their expenses of upkeep, additional chauffeurs, and +inevitable deterioration from use. + +He walked out into the cold, fresh air to glimpse the sunshine and cool +his hot flush of satisfaction. He thought of Elsie with a passion of +tenderness and triumph. He resolved that he would not tell her of his +plans until they were better assured. He must begin to shelter her from +excitement or possible disappointment. No, he would not speak of the +reconciliation he hoped to effect with his father; not yet. But of +course he would tell her of his new position in the factory, and they +would exult over it together. Adriance decided he would wait until their +dinner was over and cleared away, then he would draw her down beside him +in the firelight and astonish her. + +There was a little lunch cart across the way, much frequented by +chauffeurs, car-conductors and ferry-men. He went there for his lunch, +as he usually did when noon found him near the factory. It seemed to him +that there was already a little difference in the way the fellow-workers +whom he found there treated him. Already they seemed to feel that he was +moving away from them--had taken the upper trail, as it were. Indeed, he +felt a change in himself not to be denied. It was not arrogance, merely +the assurance of a man who sees a definite path before him and follows +it to his own end; he had ceased to live from day to day. + +But he was quite sure that he would never forget this day. If he had a +son he would tell him about this when he reached manhood. And he would +be his son's guide to this satisfaction of work accomplished, lest he +miss it altogether, as Tony himself so nearly had done. There were to be +no worthless Adriances. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WHAT TONY BUILT + + +By a caprice of chance, it was that day Masterson came; almost at the +hour when Adriance, tired and exultant, was rearing a structure of good +dreams as he ate his cheap food at the counter of the lunch-cart under +the shadow of the huge electric sign bearing his name. + +Morning had arrived at noon, when Elsie was called to her front door by +a clang of the bell; one of those small gongs favored years ago, that +snap with a pulled handle. Down at the end of the straight path she +heard laughter and the high-pitched voices of women above the soft roll +of an automobile's motor. Surprised, she opened the door. + +Before her, on the high, absurd little porch, a man in motoring furs +stood and steadied himself by grasping the snow-powdered railing. +Confronted by a woman, he lifted his cap, and a sunbeam piercing the old +roof gleamed across his close-clipped auburn curls. + +"I was told at the little shop that a chauffeur lived here," he +explained, pleasantly enough. The glare of the sun on snow dazzled his +first vision. "Our compressed air system is out of order, and my man +forgot to put in a hand-pump. I----" + +His voice trailed away into silence. He had seen her face. + +"Elsie?" he doubted. "Elsie?" + +She smiled at him with her serene composure, although deep color swept +over her face with the startled movement of her blood. + +"Mrs. Adriance," she corrected. "Will you not come in? I am sorry Mr. +Adriance is not at home." + +He crossed the threshold mechanically, his gaze not leaving her. + +"I did not believe it," he exclaimed, under his breath. "I thought +Lucille--lied." + +"Mr. Masterson!" + +He shook his head in deprecation of offense, continuing his scrutiny of +her. He had the appearance of a man fevered by drink or illness; his +eyes were bright behind a surface glaze, his face was haggard, yet +flushed. His features, always of a fineness almost suggesting +effeminacy, had sharpened to an extreme delicacy that promised little +for health or endurance. + +"They told me a chauffeur lived here," he said, presently. + +"Anthony is a chauffeur," she answered, compassion for the change in him +making her voice very gentle. "But I am afraid we have no automobile +tools to lend. All such things are kept at the factory or in the machine +he drives." + +He swept aside the subject of automobiles with an impatient movement of +his hand, and slowly turned to look over the room. + +It had gathered much of comfort during those last months, that room; and +something more. Scarlet-flowered curtains hung at the windows, echoing +the vivid note of scarlet salvia in bloom on the sills. A shelf of books +had been put up; beneath, a small table held the jade-and-ivory chessmen +drawn up in battle array on their field. As always, the fire glowed, and +on the hearth the cat stretched drowsily. Cheer dwelt in the place, the +atmosphere of comradeship and assured love; and the pulse of it all was +the girl who stood, tranquil of regard, rich in life and beautiful with +health, princess in her own domain. + +At her Masterson looked longest, his handsome, bitter mouth oddly +twisted out of shape. + +"You're different," he pronounced, finally. + +"I am very happy." + +"Happy? Here? You married a millionaire's son to live here?" + +"I married to live with my husband," she proudly corrected him. + +Again he looked around, and suddenly laughed out with an over-loud lack +of control that in a woman would have been called hysterical. + +"Tony Adriance's house!" he cried, striking his gloved hands together. +"Tony--idle Tony, easy Tony, Tony of teas and tangos--Tony has built +this! Why----," he bent toward her. "You have been matching work with +God, Elsie Adriance; you have made a man!" + +She drew back, aghast at the bold irreverence. He laughed again at her +expression. + +"You think I meant that wrongly? I did not. I know well enough the way +Tony is going, and the way I am. That is if he sticks to this! Are you +never afraid he will not! Never afraid he will drift back to the easier +ways?" + +"No," she affirmed. A shining radiance lighted her confident eyes. She +carried beneath her heart that which made Anthony and her forever one. +Fear was done with; it no longer, wolf-like, hunted down her happiness. + +"No? Do you think he will be content to be a chauffeur on a honeymoon +all his life? I'm going to do something decent, Elsie; I'm going to help +you clinch Tony Adriance. No, don't protest. I'm going to force my help +on you both, wanted or not. Why, you can't keep him out of New York +forever! Send him there to-night, to me, and I'll finish what you have +begun." + +Amazed and dismayed, she retreated from his urgency. + +"Excuse me," she began a stiff refusal. + +He cut her short with impatience. + +"Then I'll leave a message for him. Don't look like that; I only want +him to meet me in a public restaurant. Can't you trust me?" + +"You do not understand." + +"I understand more than you do," he retorted bluntly. "But if I am +wrong, no harm will be done. I want to see him, anyhow. Are you afraid +of me?" + +"No." + +"Well, then----?" + +He pulled off his gloves and took a card and fountain pen from his +pocket. Elsie watched him helplessly as he wrote, chilled in spite of +herself by a return of the old dread. What, was she not able to hold +Anthony certainly, even now? She tried to look around her, fortifying +her spirit with all the prosaic evidences of their united life. After +all, Masterson knew "Tony"; he knew nothing of the man Anthony was. + +She was able to meet her visitor's glance with her usual calm, when he +put the message he had written into her hand. + +"Tell him to come," he pressed. "Have you forgotten he and I were +friends? And I'll always be grateful to you for loving Holly. Did you +know I had lost Holly?" + +She paled, the baby face rising before her. + +"Lost him! Not----?" + +"Dead? No. I'm the one who is dead, to borrow a bit of slang." + +His laugh was bitter as quassia; he turned his head toward the sound of +the automobile horn that summoned him. + +"A dead one!" he repeated. "I have to go, Mrs. Adriance. But send Tony +over, to-night." + +The door closed on the last word. Elsie heard the high, rather strident +voices of the women calling salute and impatience; then Masterson's +reply set in a key of strained merriment. The motor roared under the +chauffeur's hand. They were departing; evidently a means of inflating +the tire had been found. + +The peace of Elsie's day had departed with them. The alteration in +Masterson frightened her; the strangeness of his manner and of his +invitation filled her with anxiety. Something was wrong; something she +could not guess or understand. Why should he have spoken so of Holly? +Why, too, did he want Anthony this night? + +Was Mrs. Masterson to be one of the party at the restaurant? That idea +came later. The mere possibility of such an event fixed Elsie's +decision; she would not send Anthony to the meeting desired. She would +let Masterson's accidental visit pass unnoticed. + +But when evening came, and with it Adriance, ruddy with the March wind, +boyishly hungry and gay; when he took his wife in his arms and kissed +her with the deep tenderness that the morning had added to their first +love, Elsie knew better. Better any misfortune than the barrier of +deceit between them. And she remembered in time that it was not for her +to deprive him of his right of decision and free-will. + +She waited until supper was eaten and the blue-and-white dishes shining +in their rack again beside the ten-cent-shop china. + +"Shall we go on with our book?" Adriance proposed, when his pipe was +lit. Now that the moment had come, it pleased him to dally with the +surprise he held for her, to prolong his secret content. He stretched +luxuriously in his arm-chair. "Lord, it's good to get home! Funny I +never cared much about books until we took to reading aloud, isn't it? +Come over and settle down. I think we'll turn in early to-night, if you +don't mind, girl. I want to do some extra work, to-morrow." + +She came to him rather slowly. + +"Mr. Masterson was here to-day," she said reluctantly. "He came by +chance, to borrow something for his automobile. I think it was a +tire-pump. Of course he was surprised to find me. And he left this for +you." + +Astonished, he took the card, pulling her down beside him; and they read +the message together. It was very brief, yet somehow carried a force of +compulsion. Masterson urged his friend to go that night to the ball-room +of a certain restaurant known to every New Yorker, and there wait until +he, Masterson, joined him. + +There was a pause after the reading. Adriance stared at the card with +the knitted brow of perplexity, while Elsie watched his face in tense +suspense. + +"It would be too late, now, anyway," she murmured, tentatively. "It is +eight o'clock." + +Adriance aroused himself and laughed. + +"Oh, innocence! That ball-room does not open until eleven, fair +outlander. But you had better get ready, for we have a quite +respectable distance to go. Here vanishes our quiet evening!" + +"We? You would take me?" + +He regarded her curiously. + +"Did you suppose I would go without you? We will have to go, because +Fred means this; I know him well enough to tell. I'm afraid he is in +some kind of trouble." + +Elsie shut her eyes for a moment, mastering her passionate relief. She +opened them to a new thought. + +"Anthony, I haven't any clothes, for such a place." + +"Neither have I," he calmly dismissed the matter. "We will go in street +costume. It doesn't matter, since we do not want to dance. By the way, +can you dance?" + +"Certainly." + +"The new dances?" + +"Some of them," a dimple disturbed her smooth cheek. "Not the very new +one." + +"Well, I'll teach you. But you will only dance with me," he stated with +finality. + +Absurdly happy in the jealous prohibition, she went to make ready. + +Elsie Murray had possessed one dress that Elsie Adriance never had worn. +It was a year old, one brought from her distant home, but so simply made +that its fashion would still pass. It was an afternoon, not evening +gown; a clinging, black sheath of chiffon and net, covering her arms, +but leaving bare the creamy pillar of her throat. The cloudy darkness +echoed the dark softness of her hair and threw into relief her clear, +health-tinted beauty of complexion. When she wore it into the room where +her husband waited, he greeted her with a whistle of surprise and +pleasure. + +"Some lady!" he approved. "What did you mean--no clothes? Have I seen +that before?" + +"No. Do you like me this way?" + +He put his hands on her shoulders, looking down into her eyes. + +"Of course. But don't you know it doesn't matter what you wear or have?" +he asked. "We have got away beyond that, you and I." + +They walked to the ferry; two miles through the cold darkness. But they +found the journey a pleasure, not a hardship. Elsie had taught Anthony +her art of extracting amusement from each experience. On the ferryboat, +they had sole possession of the deck. "Mollycoddles," Elsie called the +passengers who huddled into the cabins. The wind painted her cheeks and +lips scarlet, as she leaned over the rail to hear the crunch of drift +ice under the boat's sides. The two evoked quite a sense of arctic +voyage, between them. Anthony gravely insisted he had seen a polar bear +on one tossing floe. They were happy enough to relish nonsense; and more +excited by the coming meeting and place of meeting than either would +have admitted. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE CABARET DANCER + + +It was eleven o'clock when they entered the revolving door of the +restaurant appointed, and faced a group of lounging attendants in the +lobby; cynical-eyed servitors, all. Tony Adriance was recognized by +these with a vivifying promptness; at once he was surrounded, addressed +by name, had officious service pressed upon him. It was strange to the +girl to see him so familiar in this place where she never had been; +strange, and a little disquieting. But her grave poise was undisturbed. +She left her simple hat and coat with a maid, aware of their +unsuitability for the place and hour. + +They did not enter the crowded room to their right, where an orchestra +was overwhelming all other and lesser din with a crashing one-step. +Instead, Anthony turned up a shining marble stair with a plush-cushioned +balustrade and too much gilding. Elsie viewed herself beside him in +mirrors set in the wall at regular intervals. + +The stairs ended at an arcaded hall, beyond which lay a long, brilliant +room, comfortably filled with people at supper. Filled, that is, +according to its arrangement: the entire central space of gleaming, +ice-smooth floor was empty, the tables were ranged around the four +walls. The guests here wore evening dress, for the most part, so that +the room glowed with color, delicate, vivid or glaring, as the taste of +the owner dictated. Here there was comparative quiet; the voices and +laughter were lower in pitch than down-stairs. + +"Is Mr. Masterson here?" Anthony questioned the head waiter, who +hastened to meet the arriving couple. + +"Not yet, Mr. Adriance," the man answered deferentially. "At twelve, he +comes. May I show you a table, sir?" + +"Yes. Not too near the music--Mrs. Adriance and I want to hear each +other speak." + +"Certainly, sir. The drum _will_ be loud, sir; but the dancers like it." + +Elsie caught the man's side glance of respectful curiosity and interest +directed toward herself, and understood why Anthony deliberately had +fixed her identity as his wife. Pride warmed her, and love of his +consideration for her; suddenly she was able to enjoy the scene around +her. She felt no self-consciousness, even when the elaborately gowned +and coifed women glanced over her appraisingly as she passed by their +tables. She looked back at them, serenely sure of herself. She was not +at all aware that many of the men stared at her with startled admiration +of a visitor alien to this atmosphere. Adriance saw well enough, +however. Elsie had an innocent dignity of carriage that, joined with her +gravely candid gaze, was not a little imposing. Moreover her pure, +bright color and clear eyes were disconcertingly natural beside the +artificial beauties. Pride of possession tingled agreeably through him; +he had not thought of this or expected the emotion. + +When the two were seated opposite one another, the regard they exchanged +was of glowing content. Adriance ordered supper with the interest of +appetite and with a fine knowledge of her tastes and his own. Then, at +ease, they smiled at each other. The extravagance of the feast was of no +moment. The utter simplicity of their daily life made Anthony's salary +more than sufficient; they already possessed the resource of a bank +account. + +So far, there had been no music, except faint echoes from the room +below. Now a tinkle of strings sounded delicately, swelling from a +single note into a full, minor waltz melody. Turning, Elsie saw the +musicians. They were negroes; not a band or an orchestra, merely a +pianist, two men with mandolins and as many with banjoes, and one who +handled with amazing dexterity a whole set of sound producers; a drum, +cymbals, bells, a gong, even an automobile horn. From one to another +instrument, as the character of the piece demanded, this performer's +hands and feet flew with accuracy and ludicrous speed. But the music was +more than good, it was unique, inspired; it snared the feet and the +senses. All round sounded the scraping of chairs pushed back, as men and +women rose to answer the call. In one short moment the place changed +from a restaurant to a ball-room. + +It was such a ball-room as Elsie Adriance never had glimpsed in either +her Louisiana or restricted New York experiences. The women were +costumed in the extreme fashions of a year when all fashion was extreme. +As the dancers swayed past in the graceful, hesitating steps of the last +new waltz, there were revelations;--of low-cut draperies, of skirts +transparent to the knees, with ribbon-laced slippers jewelled at heel +and buckle glancing through the thin veil of tinted chiffon or lace. The +scene had an Oriental frankness without being blatant or coarse. At the +tables there was much drinking of wine and liqueurs, but as yet no +apparent intoxication. Some of the women who were not dancing smoked +cigarettes as they chatted with their companions; not a few of these had +white hair and were obviously matrons, respected and self-respecting. + +"What do you think of it?" Adriance inquired, after watching his wife +with mischief in his eyes. + +"I don't know," she slowly confessed. "You know, I am an outlander. But +I am not so stupid as to misunderstand too badly. These people are--all +right?" + +"Yes; most of them. This is the after-theatre crowd. Some are from the +stage, some from the audience. That lady in green chiffon who looks as +if she had forgotten to put on most of her clothes is the wife of one of +my father's business associates. Did you see her husband bow to us as we +came in? The little black-eyed girl in the black velvet walking-suit, at +the next table, is La Tanagra, who does classic dances in a yard of pink +veil. She is a very nice girl, too. Of course, some of them----" He +shrugged. + +The music stopped. Through a press of laughing, flushed people returning +to their tables, a waiter wound a difficult passage with the first +course of the supper Adriance had ordered. + +Guests entered the room in a thin, constant stream, as the hour +advanced. But there was no sign of Masterson. Elsie wondered what he +would say on finding her with Anthony. Would he be angry, indifferent, +disconcerted? Perhaps he would not come alone. + +A sharp, imperious clang of cymbals rang out abruptly, hushing the +murmur of voices and laughter. Elsie started from her abstraction, and +saw all eyes turned toward the centre of the room. + +"Demonstration dance," smiled Adriance. "Now you'll see something!" + +A short, dark man and a woman in yellow gauze through which showed her +bare, dimpled knees, stood alone on the floor. At a second clang of +cymbals they floated with the music into a strange, half-Spanish, +half-savage dance; a dance vigorously, even crudely alive and swift as a +flight. The woman was not beautiful, but she was incredibly graceful. +Her small, arched, flashing feet in their gilded slippers recalled a +half-forgotten line to Elsie. + +"'And her sandals delighted his eyes----'" she quoted aloud. "Do you +remember that, Anthony?" + +But Adriance was laughing at her. + +"Infant!" he mocked. "Wait until you've seen it as often as I have, and +then you will not let your supper grow cold. There, it's over!" + +It was. The dance ended with the dancers in each other's arms, glances +knit, lips almost touching. The applause was courteous. The audience, +like Adriance, was too sophisticated to be readily excited. It really +preferred to do its own dancing. + +The preference was gratified during the next half hour. One-step, +fox-trot and a Lulu Fado followed in smooth succession. The room was +very full, now. One or two parties began to show too much exhilaration. + +"I wish Fred would come," Adriance remarked, with a restive glance at +the noisiest group. "I don't want you to be here much after midnight. I +wonder----" + +He was interrupted by a second crash of brazen cymbals that struck down +the chatter and movement of the crowd. With the harsh, resonant clang, +and continuing after it had ceased, came the soft chime of a clock +striking twelve. + +This time a more decided interest greeted the announcement. In fact, a +distinct thrill ran through the room. Men and women abandoned forks and +glasses, turning eagerly toward the entrance. A marked hush continued in +the place. + +"Some celebrity," Adriance interpreted, impatiently. "Confound +Masterson's whims--why couldn't he have seen me at home? Now he can't +get in until this is over." + +The music had commenced--a tripping languorous ballet suite from a +famous opera. Into the large, square arch of the doorway a girl drifted +and stood. + +She was a sullen, magnificent creature, as she faced the audience. Her +full, red mouth was straight-lipped, returning no smile to the welcoming +applause. It was not possible to imagine a dimple breaking the firm +curve of her rouged cheek. Elsie thought she never had seen a woman so +indisputably handsome, or so utterly lacking in feminine allure. Heaps +of satin-black hair framed her face and were held by jewelled bandeaux; +her corsage was dangerously low, retained in place by narrow strings of +brilliants over her strong, smooth, white shoulders. Her skirts were +those of the conventional ballet: billows of spangled rose-colored +tulle. As she began to dance, her eyes, very large and dark behind their +darkened lashes, swept the spectators with a sombre alertness. Elsie +felt the glance pass across her and rest on Anthony. Yes, rest there, +for an instant of fixed attention! But Adriance showed no change of +expression to his wife's questioning regard; he watched the dancer with +a placid interest, without evincing any sign of recognition. + +It was a curious dance, as singularly stripped of womanly allure as the +girl's beauty. Yet it was graceful and clever. She bent and swayed +through the measures, circling the room with a studied coquetry cold as +indifference; posing now and then with a rose she lifted to touch lips +or cheek. The audience looked on with a sustained tension of interest +that the performance did not seem to warrant. Elsie noticed that the men +laughed or evinced faint embarrassment if the dancer leaned toward them, +but the women clapped enthusiastically and sent smiling glances. What +was it that these people knew, but which she and Anthony did not? There +was something---- + +Just opposite the Adriances the dancer had slipped in executing an +intricate and difficult step. She staggered, catching herself, but not +before she had reeled heavily against Elsie's chair. + +"Pardon!" she panted, her voice low. "The floor is too polished!" + +For a moment her eyes looked full into Elsie's, and they were not dark, +but a very bright blue. The brush of her naked arm and shoulder left a +streak of white powder on the other's sleeve; a heavy fragrance of +heliotrope shook from her garments. Before Adriance could rise she was +gone. + +"Confounded clumsiness!" he exclaimed, with suppressed anger. "Did she +hurt you, Elsie?" + +"No. Oh, no! Anthony, I know her--I knew her eyes." + +He stared at his wife. + +"You know her!" + +"I recognized her eyes. I do not know who she is, I cannot think; yet I +know her. She knew me, too; I saw it in her face. And I believe she +knows you." + +"Elsie!" + +"She looked---- Wait; she is finishing!" + +The music was indeed rising to a finale. The dancer glided to the +central arch through which she had entered, poised on the verge of +taking flight, then raised both hands to her head. + +The black wig came off with the sweeping gesture. The dancer was a man, +whose short-clipped auburn hair tumbled in boyish disorder about his +powdered forehead. But there was no look of boyhood in his face, as he +turned it toward Adriance's table; the familiar, reckless face of Fred +Masterson. + +The room was in an uproar of laughter and applause. But the dancer +disappeared without acknowledging or pausing to enjoy his success; +indeed, as if escaping from it. + +When Elsie ventured to look at her husband, he had one hand across his +eyes. He dropped it at once, but avoided her gaze as if the humiliation +were his own. + +"Finish your coffee," he bade, his voice roughened by a dry hoarseness. +"I want to get out of this--to get home." + +"We have not spoken to Mr. Masterson," she hesitatingly reminded him. +"He asked us to meet him." + +"I suppose I have seen what he wanted me to see." + +The waiter was beside them again, checking her answer. It seemed to +Elsie that the man eyed Anthony with a furtive and malicious +comprehension. Had he ever seen Tony Adriance with Mrs. Masterson, she +wondered? Did he imagine--she thrust away the thought. + +"After all, dear, aren't we prejudiced?" she essayed, unconvinced and +unconvincing reason. "Isn't it really as if he were an actor?" + +"No, it isn't! You know it's not. It isn't what he does that these +people applaud; they applaud because he does it. He succeeds by making a +show of himself, his name, his position. The grotesqueness of his being +here succeeds, not his work. Well--are you ready?" + +"Yes," she answered, submissive to his mood. + +He paid the check, and they passed out. Elsie recovered her hat and coat +from the maid, in the dressing-room below. She was too preoccupied to +notice the attendant's inquisitive scrutiny, or the frank stare of a +fair-haired girl who was making up her complexion with elaborate care +before one of the mirrors. It would not have occurred to her, if she +had, that word had passed down the staff of servants that the quiet +girl in black was Mrs. Tony Adriance. But without knowing her own plain +attire had the reflected lustre of cloth-of-gold, she was too feminine +not to embrace with a glance of faintly wistful admiration the furs, +velvets and shining satins of the wraps left in this place by the other +women. No preoccupation could quite ignore that array. There was one +coat of gray velvet that matched her own eyes, lined with poppy-hued +silk that matched her lips. A trifle dismayed by her own frivolity, she +hastened out from the place of temptation. Anthony was waiting for her. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE OTHER MAN'S ROAD + + +The damp cold of a March night closed chillingly around the two, as they +passed through the revolving door into the street. The restaurant did +not face on Broadway, the street of a million lights; for a moment they +seemed to have stepped into darkness, after the dazzle of light just +left. Adriance turned away from the vociferous proffers of taxicabs, +with an economy prompted by Elsie's guiding hand rather than his own +prudence. Indeed, his great amazement and vicarious shame for Masterson +left him with slight attention for ordinary matters. + +But they were not allowed to reach the subway, and return as they had +come. As they neared the station entrance, a limousine rolled up to the +curb and halted across their path. The car's occupant threw open the +door before the chauffeur could do so, and leaned out. + +"Come in," commanded, rather than invited Masterson's voice. "You +didn't wait for me, so I had a chase to catch you. Put Mrs. Adriance in, +Tony, and tell the man where you want to go. The ferry, is it? All +right; tell him so." + +He spoke with an abrupt impatience and strain that excused much by its +account of his sick nerves. Adriance complied without objection. Before +she quite realized the situation, Elsie found herself seated beside him, +opposite Masterson in the warmed interior of the car. + +The air of the limousine was not only warm, but perfumed. Without +analyzing their reason, it struck both the Adriances as peculiarly +shocking that this should be so. Elsie identified the white heliotrope +scent worn by the dancer. The globe set in the ceiling was not lighted, +but the street lamps shone in, showing the thinness of Masterson's +flushed face and its haggardness, accentuated by smudges of make-up +imperfectly removed. Elsie felt a quivering embarrassment for him, and a +desperate hopelessness of finding anything possible to say. She divined +that Anthony was experiencing the same feelings, but intensified. + +The car rolled smoothly around Columbus Circle and settled into a steady +pace up Broadway. The rush of after-theatre traffic was long since over, +the streets comparatively clear. Masterson spoke first, with a defiance +that attempted to be light. + +"Well, haven't you any compliments for me? I've been told I do it pretty +well. That's the only thing I learned at college of any use to me!" + +"How did you come----?" Adriance began, brusquely. "I mean--what sent +you there, to that? Why, Fred----?" + +"I thought it was you, Tony, until to-day," was the dry retort. "I've +thought so ever since I found out who was financing the case. Until this +morning, I believed Lucille lied when she told me you were married. I +suppose I should apologize to you; consider it done, if you like." + +"Don't!" Adriance begged. His hand closed sharply over his wife's. + +"We have been married since last November," she gravely came to his aid. +"I am sure Mrs. Masterson told you only the truth in that. Indeed, the +announcement was published in the newspapers! Since then, we have been +living where you saw me this morning; on a honeymoon quite out of the +world." + +"I don't read more of any newspaper than the first pages," Masterson +returned. "I see you two do not read even so much, or you would hardly +have been taken by surprise, to-night. Shocked, were you, Tony? I +suppose I would have been, myself, once. Now----" + +"Now----?" Adriance prompted, after waiting. + +Masterson faced his friend with a sudden blaze in his hollow eyes. + +"Now, I am through with being shocked at myself, through with thinking +of myself or sparing myself and other people. Can't you see, can't you +guess for whom alone I would do this--or anything else? Have you +forgotten Holly? I may not have a wife, but I have a son. And I will not +have my son reared as I was, married as I was, and ruined as I am. I am +going to have money, if I fish it out of the gutter, to take him away to +some clean, far-off place. There I shall rear him myself, understand! He +shall never know this Fred Masterson. Roughing it outdoors will put me +in fit condition long before he is old enough to criticise. He's got a +fine little body, Tony! I'll have him as hard and straight as a pine +tree. I'll teach him to work. What will I care for the squalls of this +corner of the world, when I have done that? Since Lucille divorced me, +I've stripped my mind of a good deal of hampering romance." + +He was interrupted by the exclamation of both his listeners. + +"Divorced you?" Adriance echoed, stifled by the pressure of warring +emotions. "Divorced you, after all?" + +"You don't mean to say you didn't know?" He studied the two faces with +incredulous astonishment; then, convinced by their patent honesty, +shrugged derision of himself. "Conceited lot, all of us! We think if our +tea-cups drop, the crash is heard around the world. Yes, I have been a +single man for three months. You have been away for six, remember. But +it went through very quietly. Lucille is strong for propriety and +conventions. She even," his face darkened with an angry flood of +bitterness startling as a self-betrayal, "she even is willing to pay +pretty highly for them. Holly----" + +The sentence remained unfinished. Elsie's memory returned to that +morning, when Masterson told her that he had lost Holly. She glimpsed +his meaning now. + +The automobile had long since left behind the flash and glitter of +theatrical Broadway. When the gliding silence of the progress was +suddenly broken by a blast of the car's electric horn sounding warning +to some late pedestrian, the three within started as if at an unnatural +happening. + +"It went through quietly," Masterson sullenly picked up the broken +thread, "because she bargained with me. She said that if I made no +defence, she would let me take Holly. Well, I kept my word; I stayed +away from the whole business and didn't even get a lawyer--like a fool. +I don't even know what they said about me. I didn't care, since she +wanted it. And then she asked the court for the custody of Holly; and +got him. It was only for the boy's good, she says; I was not fit to have +charge of him." + +"Oh!" Elsie gasped. + +Masterson lighted a cigarette with an attempt at unconcern. He had a +singular difficulty in bringing the burning match in contact with the +end of the little paper tube--a lack of coordination between the nerves +and muscles that held a sinister meaning for one able to interpret the +signs. + +"Thanks," he acknowledged the unworded sympathy. "Maybe you know I was +fit, then; or, at least, would have been fit if I had had him. Not +having him, I went to--I beg your pardon, Mrs. Adriance." + +"Fred----" Adriance essayed. + +The other man hushed him with a gesture. + +"I know what you are going to say, Tony. Don't! My wife, my _late_ wife +and I have managed this business. Keep out of what doesn't concern you. +Here, I'll give her due to her, too! If I had not been weak, all this +would never have happened. But if she had played the game, it would +never have happened, either. Well, I lose. But Holly shall not pay for +the game he had no share in. I am telling you two what I have told no +one else. When I have enough money, I shall buy Holly from his mother +and take him to Oregon. Lucille always needs money. Phillips is out +there, Tony. Do you remember my Cousin Phil? Well, I started him out +there ten years ago; sold my first automobile to help him out of a bad +scrape. He says there is room for me; work that will support any man who +doesn't want too much. They raise square miles of fruit. I only wish it +was the other side of the world!" + +The limousine swung to the left, jarring across a network of car tracks. +They were turning down to the ferry. Elsie nestled her hand into her +husband's, divining his pain. + +"Nice machine, this," Masterson observed, casually. "One thing, I'm not +making a gutter exit! You wouldn't believe what they pay me for my bit +of college theatrical work. I did it at first on a bet, after a supper +party I gave to celebrate my freedom. I think it must annoy Lucille +considerably. It suits me; and there isn't any other way I could earn so +quickly what I need. Here we are." + +The automobile had stopped, and the chauffeur threw open the door. + +"The ferry-boat is just coming across, sir," he stated. + +"Very well," his employer dismissed him. "Mrs. Adriance, you had better +stay in here until the boat docks; it is cold, to-night. Tony and I will +go buy the tickets." + +"You might say Elsie, still," she answered gently. "You know we were +always good friends." + +"You are good to say so now," he returned. "Thank you." + +The two men did not buy the tickets; instead, they walked side by side +across the rough, cobblestone square in front of the ferry-house. +Adriance was pale, but steadily set of face and determination to have +done, here and now with all deceit. + +"Fred, I've got to clear things between us," he forced the distasteful +speech. "Before I met my wife, I did see a great deal of Mrs. Masterson. +You spoke a while ago of believing me responsible for her wanting a +divorce. Once I might have done such a thing, I do not know. But, I did +not. I went away, in order that I should not." + +The other nodded, almost equally embarrassed by the difficult avowal. + +"That's all right, Tony. I understand. But don't blame me too much for +my mistake. Do you know who paid all the expenses of the case, whose +influence kept it out of the newspapers as much as possible--in short, +who managed the whole campaign? Except about Holly; that was a woman's +trick! Do you know?" + +"Why, no. How should I?" + +The boat was in the slip; across the clank of unwinding chains, the fall +of gangways and tread of men and horses, Masterson's reply came: + +"Your father." + +The amazing statement stunned Adriance beyond the possibility of reply. +No outcry, no denial of complicity could have been so convincing as the +utter stupefaction of the regard he fixed upon his friend. What had the +senior Adriance to do with this affair? What had he to do with Lucille +Masterson? + +"It is true," Masterson answered his doubt. "Now you know why I did not +believe you were married, until I met your wife, this morning. And," he +hesitated, "that is why, when I did understand, I brought you to see me, +to-night. I could not say so before Mrs. Adriance, but evidently your +father is not pleased with your marriage, since you're living like a +laborer, across the river. Make no mistake, Tony; your father never in +his life did anything without reason. If he got Lucille her divorce, +why, he knows you admired her, once. And he always liked her, himself. +Suppose he figured that if she were free, you might wish to become so? +Why not? We all know couples where both parties have been divorced and +married several times, and no one says a word against them." + +The recoil that shook Adriance was strong as physical sickness. Like a +woman, he was glad of the darkness. + +Divorce between Elsie and himself? He could have laughed at the coarse +absurdity of the idea, if it had not been for his disgust and desire to +get away from the subject. + +"We shall miss the boat," he said curtly. "Thank you, Fred, but that is +all nonsense. The truth of the matter is that you are sick--and no +wonder! Come, man, pull yourself up and you'll get past all this. Why, +you are only twenty-eight; start over again here! Drop everything and +come home with Elsie and me for a while. You saw how we live; it isn't +much, perhaps, but you would get back your health. And we can force Mrs. +Masterson to let you have Holly part of the time, at least." + +"I saw the way you live," Masterson repeated. "Yes. And you see the way +I live. I'm no preacher, but measure them up and choose if ever you feel +discontented, Tony. As for taking me home, neither of us could stand it. +I drink all day to keep myself merry enough to stand that restaurant, +and take morphine at night to keep myself asleep. No, we will not talk +about it. I must put this through in my own way, and then leave this +part of the earth. I can drop all this at once when I am ready. I am no +weakling physically." + +The two wanted back to the car. Just before they reached it, Masterson +closed the discussion. + +"Think over what I've told you. You can't love your wife any more than I +did Lucille." He shivered in the damp air, drawing his fur-lined coat +closer about him. "I couldn't keep her, though I tried hard, at first. +Wish you better luck." + +It was three o'clock in the morning when Adriance slipped his key into +the clumsy old lock of his house-door, while Elsie perched herself on +the railing of the porch. Within they heard his dog barking boisterous +welcome. + +"Up to work at seven," he commented, as the clock struck simultaneously +with the opening of the door. But there was no complaint in his tone. He +threw his arm around Elsie and drew her across the threshold with a deep +breath of relief. + +"Let me light the lamp," she offered. + +"I'll light it." He held her closer. "Wait a moment; the hearth gives +glow enough. I have been thinking--if it should be a boy, I would like +to call our son after that jolly old ancestor of yours: the black-sloop +man, Martin Galvez." + +"Not Anthony?" + +"No." + +The brevity of the answer silenced her. She gave her consent more +delicately than in words. But still Adriance did not move toward the +lamp, or release his companion. + +"Elsie, you are happy, aren't you?" + +"More than happy, dear." + +"If ever you are not, if you want anything you have not got, tell me. +You know I am not going to keep you in this poor place always, or let +you work for me; I am working towards better things for you, now. I have +not told you, yet--I was promoted to a new position to-day. I have work +inside the factory, and some individuality. I am no longer just one of a +troup of chauffeurs. And, of course, this is only a beginning. It is all +for you, everything, will you remember? If ever--I'm often stupid and, +well, a man!--if ever you find me lacking, you will tell me, won't you?" + +She clasped her hands over the hand that held her. This ending to the +day of doubt and anxiety closed her round with a hush of deep content. +She wanted to cry out her love and happiness and gratitude for his +tenderness, to exalt him above herself. But with a new wisdom, she did +not. Where he had placed her, she stood. + +"Yes," she assented. "Yes." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE GUITAR OF ALENYA OF THE SEA + + +That one day, in a mood of fierce impatience, had seized upon Anthony +Adriance and hurried him through a range of feeling and experience such +as Time usually brings in leisurely sequence, spaced apart. From Elsie's +confidence in the morning, with its moving love and pride and awe he in +nowise was afraid to name holy, he had gone to the spectacle of his +friend's degradation in the tawdry restaurant. And as a completion, he +had been confronted with the new and ugly vision of a father he could +not honor. + +He always had respected his father very sincerely, and felt more +affection for him than either of them ever had realized. He had admired +the success of the elder Adriance, and secretly regretted that he was +not allowed to work with him or share it except by spending its +proceeds. His hope of a reconciliation had not been all mercenary. Now +all that was thrown down, an image overturned and shattered. He saw +only a selfish, narrow-minded man, scheming to divorce a pretty woman +from her husband in order that she might be free to come between his son +and the unwelcome wife he had taken. For of course Elsie was judged by +the servant's position she had held; there was no one to tell of her +gentle birth and breeding. Anthony had understood this, and had looked +forward with eager anticipation to enlightening his father, some day +when his other plans were quite ready. + +He had meant that day to be soon; now he knew that it would never come +in the way he had fancied. And the loss of an ideal hurt. Masterson had +told him the truth; there was no escaping the logical inference to be +drawn from it. Anthony wasted no energy in trying, instead addressing +himself still more closely to the work in hand. + +He worked harder than ever, at the mill, but the buoyant enthusiasm was +gone. Now he dreaded the possibility that Mr. Goodwin might speak to Mr. +Adriance of the young man who bore his name and who was making such +changes in the shipping department. For Anthony did not content himself +with regulating the trucking system. He had inherited his father's +ability, although the unused tool had lain undiscovered. His attention +aroused, he found other slack lines, and indicated how to tighten them +to taut efficiency. Mr. Goodwin visited the underground room more than +once, observed and approved. Cook, won by the new man's tact that never +slighted or criticised injuriously his former chief and present +associate, aided him with warm co-operation. Anthony found his salary +increased. When Ransome returned, after his illness, he was given a new +position, upstairs. + +The evenings in the little red house were no longer entirely devoted to +play, after that night spent abroad. Adriance took to keeping a book of +records, in the form of cryptic notes and columns of figures. +"Chauffeur's accounts," he called them, when Elsie questioned; and she +laughed acceptance of the evasion, forbearing to tease him with +curiosity. + +Long before, there had arrived the replies to the letters of +announcement he and Elsie had written to her parents, and Adriance had +been touched home by the serious, graciously cordial welcome extended +to the unknown son-in-law. He had promised himself, and Elsie, that some +time a visit to Louisiana should be paid. Since that, she had described +the neighborhood, the countryside and people, with her knack of vivid +word-sketching, until all lay as clearly before him as a place seen. Now +he recalled this with a new consideration. + +"Do you remember the old house and plantation that you once told me +about?" he asked her, one Sunday morning. "The deserted place, that had +been for sale so long. Do you suppose it is still for sale?" + +"It was, the last time Virginia wrote," she replied, regarding him +questioningly. "She spoke of a picnic held under the old trees." + +"If I--well, was crowded out of here, would you be content to try life +down there? I remembered yesterday that I own some rather valuable stuff +left me by my mother; nothing very much, just jewelry she had as a girl. +I do not like the idea of selling it, but if I am forced into a corner, +it would buy such a place for us. I have some ideas I would like to try +out." + +Elsie set down the salad-bowl with which she was busied; her rain-gray +eyes grave, she considered her husband. + +"Of what are you thinking, Anthony?" + +Adriance looked away. Even to her, he could not bring himself to speak +of his lost confidence in his father or to say whom he now feared as an +enemy. Mr. Adriance could not divide Anthony and his wife without their +consent, but he could make it bitterly hard for them to live together. +Anthony had known of men who had incurred his father's enmity, and the +memory was not reassuring. Before his interview with Masterson, he would +have ridiculed the idea of such a situation between his father and +himself; now, he was uncertain. + +"Put on your hat and coat," he evaded the question. "Come for a walk; I +want to show you something." + +"And our dinner?" she demurred. + +"Never mind it. We will eat scrambled eggs." + +Laughing, she complied. + +"What am I going to see, Anthony?" + +"A house," briefly. + +The walk took them quite away from the neighborhood of such small +cottages as their own. In fact, the house before which Anthony finally +halted was standing so much away from any others as scarcely to be +called in a neighborhood, at all. It stood out on a little spur of the +Palisades, delightfully nestled in a bit of woodland and lawns of its +own. + +"There!" he indicated it. "Pretty?" + +Elsie looked, with a satisfying seriousness. The house was so new that +the builder's self-advertisement still jostled the sign offering for +sale: "this modern residence, all improvements." + +"I love it," she pronounced. "Those white cement houses are adorable; it +looks as if it were made of cream-candy. What deep porches, like caves +of white coral; and how deliciously the light gleams in those cunning, +stained-glass windows! I suppose they are set up the stairs? It is a +nice size, too; large enough to be quite luxurious, but not so large as +to be appalling. How did you happen to notice it, dear?" + +"I took this road for a short cut, one day. Look what a view you have up +here. One must see twenty miles up and down the river, and over half +New York. But it is open to inspection; let us go in." + +"As if we were considering buying it," she fell in with the sport. "Yes, +and we will be very critical indeed; find flaws and finally reject it. +Really, Anthony, it does not at all compare with our present residence." + +"You'll do," he approved, drawing her up the broad, lazily-low steps. + +It really was an enchanting house; a house that developed unexpected +charms to the pair who wandered through its empty, echoing rooms and +halls. It indulged in nooks, and inconsequential little balconies; it +displayed a most inviting window-seat halfway up the stairs that could +only have been designed for lovers. + +"But none have been there, yet," Elsie observed, lingering on the stairs +to contemplate this last allurement. "Just think, Anthony, that it is a +mere debutante of a house with its ball-book all unfilled. No one has +sat before its hearth, or nestled in its window-seat, or opened its door +to let in love or give out charity. It is an Undine house whose soul has +not yet entered its cool whiteness. Oh, I hope the people who buy it +are both fair and good, and respect its innocence!" + +"Coral caves and Undines--your sentiment is all deep-sea, to-day," he +teased her. "Elsie, doesn't all this make you want something?" + +"Yes," she promptly returned looking over her shoulder at him as she +descended. "I want something that I saw in the Antique Shop, yesterday. +Will you buy it for me?" + +"That depends. What is it?" + +"A guitar. A guitar that might have been made to go with our ivory and +jade chessmen, for some heavy-lidded slave-girl to touch while her +master and his favored guest moved the pieces on the board. It is _El +Aud_ of Arabia; all opalescent inlay of mother-of-pearl, pegs and frets +marked with dull color. I am quite sure it belonged to some Eastern +princess; perhaps Zaraya the Fair or Alenya of the Sea. It will sing of +court-yards in Fez where fountains splash all the hot, still days, of +midnight, in the Alhambra gardens, and the nightingales of lost Zahara. +And the antiquarian person will sell it for five dollars!" + +Adriance threw back his head and laughed, beguiled from serious +thoughts. + +"What a peroration! We will buy the thing on our way home, Sunday or no +Sunday. That is, if you can play it for me, and if it will come West +enough for the sleepy, creepy song about Maitre Raoul Galvez that should +never be sung between midnight and dawn? I have never heard that one, +yet." + +"You shall," she promised. "And also the song with which Alenya of the +Sea charmed the king from his sadness." + +"Tell me first who Alenya was." + +"To-night----" + +"No, now." Lightly, but with determination he drew her across the +threshold of the room that opened beside them. Opposite its rawly new, +rose-tiled fireplace he pushed a tool-chest, forgotten by some careless +workman, and spread over it his own coat, making a fairly comfortable +seat. "Sit here," he bade. "You're tired, anyhow; and I have a fancy to +see you here." + +Surprised, but yielding to his whim with that cordial readiness he loved +in her, Elsie obeyed. Adriance established himself opposite, on the +comparatively clean tiles of the hearth. + +"Shoot," he commanded, lazily and colloquially imperious. "Your sultan +listens." + +She made a mutinous face at him and slowly removed her hat, laying it +beside her upon the chest. Her gaze dwelt meditatively upon the broad +ray of sunlight that streamed across from the nearest window and +glittered between them like a golden sword. Watching, Adriance saw her +gray eyes grow reminiscent. + +"Very well, I will try to tell the story as my father once told it to +me. But whether he drew it from those strange histories in which he is +so learned, or whether he drew it from his own fancy, I do not know. For +he is more poet than professor, and more antiquarian than either--and +more dear than you can know until you meet him, Anthony. Now imagine +yourself in our neglected old garden, and listen. + +"Long, long ago, before the beauty of Cava brought the Moors across +Gibraltar into Spain, there lived in the East a king named Selim the +Sorrowful. The name was his alone. His kingdom was as rich as vast; his +people were content; it seemed that all the country laughed except its +ruler. Upon him lay a vague, sinister spell, and had so lain from the +hour of his birth. + +"For always he grieved for a thing unknown, a want undefined and +unsatisfied. Royalty was his, and youth, and absolute power, yet, +because of this great longing of his he moved like a beggar through his +splendor and knew hunger of the heart by night and day. Wise men and +temples were questioned in vain, rich gifts vainly sent to distant +oracles; none could tell the king's desire, or cure it. And his dark, +wistful face came to be accepted by his people as a thing usual and +royal. + +"One day, when the king walked alone in his garden by the sea, a strange +mist crept over the land and water, silvery, opalescent, wonderful. He +stood, watching. Suddenly a gigantic wave loomed through the haze and +swept curling and hissing shoreward to his very feet, where it broke +with a great sound. When the glittering foam and spray fell away again, +a girl was standing on the sands before him; a girl clad in the floating +gray of the mist, girdled and crowned with soft, dim pearls. Her +lustrous eyes were green as the heart of the ocean, and when the king +gazed into them his sorrow shrank and fled. + +"'Who are you, desire of mine?' asked Selim. + +"'Alenya of the Sea,' she answered him, and her voice was the lap of +waves on a summer night. + +"Then the king took her in his arms and bore her to his palace." + +"And she cured him?" + +"Better! She satisfied him. Never was a change more marvellous; in all +the kingdom there was no man so happy as Selim the king. Day and night, +night and day, he lingered by the sea-maiden. Riotous prosperity came to +the land, the fields yielded double crops; it seemed that the king's +smile was a very sunshine of the South. + +"But by-and-by superstitious dread fell upon the people, and the jealous +priests fostered it. Strange, strange and weirdly sweet was the music +that drifted from Alenya's apartments. There came a day when the country +demanded that Selim put away the evil enchantress, or die. One month +they gave him for the choice." + +"The men of the East were poor lovers," commented Adriance. "He banished +the sea-princess?" + +"Not at all! He chose death, and a month with Alenya." + +"Well, if he lived one month exactly as he willed, he had something." + +"Very true, cynical person. But never was such month as his, when the +lonely man still possessed his love and the wearied king had found an +excitement. Intensity is the leap of a flame, and cannot endure. When +the end of the four weeks came--" she paused, her dark little head +tilted back, her regard inviting his hazard. + +"They died?" + +"Alenya sang to the king for the last time. There is no record of that +lost music; it is so sad that if it were written the paper would +dissolve in tears. When it ceased the king slept, and Alenya flitted +back to the sea and mist, alone. Later came the people and awakened +Selim with their rejoicing, but he stared in cold amazement at the +pageant of their returning loyalty. He had forgotten all." + +"Forgotten?" + +"Yes, for Alenya's last song had swept her image from his mind. From his +mind, not his heart; he was again Selim the Sorrowful, yearning for the +desire he did not know. + +"Often, often he wandered along the shore, suffering, uncomprehending. +It is written that his reign was long, and wise. But on the night he +died his attendants found the print of a small, wet hand on the pillow +where rested the king's white head." + +After a moment Adriance rose. + +"So he could not keep his own, when he had it!" he said. "Thank you, +Madame Scheherazade. Now come outside and I'll tell you why I wanted you +to sit at that hearth, for luck." + +Laughing, she followed him, carrying her hat in her hand. + +"Why, Anthony?" + +"Because I want this place for our home," he answered. + +She uttered a faint exclamation, genuinely dismayed. + +"Want it? Why it must be worth ten thousand dollars, Anthony! See, it +even has a little garage. And one would need servants; a +maid-of-all-work, at least." + +"Yes. I am working for all that. A while ago I thought I was certain of +it. Now, I am afraid not. But you are not going to live the way we are +now for much longer. Either I shall win my game, and bring you here, or +we will go South and try a new venture." + +Amazed and hushed, she met his steady, resolute gaze. She had not +glimpsed this purpose of his in all their intimate life together. + +"Do you--care to tell me about it?" she wondered. "And, you know I am +quite, quite happy as we are; as I must be happy with you always, win or +lose, my dearest dear." + +The place was quite deserted; he kissed her, before the blank windows of +the house that never had been lived in. + +"I know," he said. "As I must be with you, and am! But I will wait to +tell you the rest, until I can tell it all." + +She accepted the frank reticence. They walked home more quietly than +they had come, each busied with thought. + +But Adriance did not forget to stop at the antique shop for the guitar. +The proprietor lived in the rear of the shabby frame building and +willingly admitted his two customers, after examining them beneath a +raised corner of the sun-bleached green curtain. + +"The guitar?" he echoed Adriance's request. "For madame? But certainly!" + +He produced the instrument from the window with deferential alacrity. He +was a thin, bright-eyed French Jew; quite ugly and quite old enough in +appearance to justify Elsie's assertion that he was the Wandering Jew +and this the very shop of Hawthorne's tale. She smiled at him with a +mischievous recollection of this, as she pulled off her gloves to finger +the rusty strings. + +"It is a good guitar," she approved. "And gay, with all this +mother-of-pearl inlay and the little colored stones set in the pegs! But +these wire strings must come off, Anthony. They are too loud and too +harsh." + +"It is so, madame," the old man nodded entire agreement, before Adriance +could speak. "The guitar was used on the stage, where loudness----!" He +shrugged. "Never would you guess, madame, who brought that instrument +in to me last week." + +"No?" Elsie wondered, politely interested. + +"It was that enormous Russian who formerly rode beside your husband in +the motor wagon, madame. He has not a head, that Michael, but he has a +heart. About the cines he is mad--the moving pictures, I would say. Well +then, into the poor boarding-house where he lives came an actress. She +was out of work, or she would not have been there, _bien sur_! The +guitar was hers. Michael brought it here to sell for her. I believe she +is sick. Because she is of the stage, he is a slave to her." + +"He is in love?" + +"He, madame? It has not even occurred to him. He would not presume." + +"Poor idealist!" said Adriance. "We will take the theatrical guitar, but +wrap it up so I can get home without someone tossing me a penny." + +He laughed as he spoke, and had forgotten the guitar's story before they +reached Alaric Cottage. But Elsie neither laughed nor forgot. That +evening, as she sat across the hearth from Anthony, evoking music gay +or weird for his enchantment, she thought much of the girl who had last +played her decorative instrument. + +"Is it my guitar, truly, Anthony?" she questioned, at last. + +"It certainly isn't mine," he retorted teasingly. + +She made a grimace at him. But she also made a resolve. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +RUSSIAN MIKE AND MAITRE RAOUL GALVEZ + + +Russian Mike lived in a settlement perhaps a mile back from the river +road. He usually passed the Adriances' house each morning, a few moments +earlier than the lighter-footed Anthony set forth, whose swinging stride +carried him two steps to the big man's one. Elsie had long since made +acquaintance with her husband's assistant. During the bitter weather she +frequently had called him from the snow-piled road to warm his slow +blood with a cup of her vivifying Creole coffee. The Monday morning +following the purchase of the guitar, she knew just when to run down the +path and find the bulky, lounging figure passing her gate. + +At the sight of the girl in her lilac-hued frock, a drift of white-wool +scarf wound about her shoulders, her dark little head shining almost +bronze in the bright morning light, Mike came to a halt and awkwardly +jerked at his coarse cap. It had flaps that fastened down under his +chin, so that he was embarrassed equally by the difficulty of removing +his headgear and the _inconvenance_ of remaining covered. But Elsie's +smile was a sunshine of the heart that melted such chills of doubt, as +she came up to him. + +"Good-morning, Michael. Thank you for bringing back my kitty-puss, +Saturday night. She _will_ run away, somehow." + +"It ain't nothing, ma'am," he deprecated, confused, yet gratified. + +"It was very kind. Michael," she considerately lowered her eyes to her +breeze-blown scarf, "yesterday Mr. Adriance bought a guitar for me, from +the antique shop. We heard where it came from--how you brought it. Will +you tell the lady who owned it that I should be sorry to keep a thing +she might miss? Tell her, please, that I hope she will soon grow well, +and when she is ready I shall be happy to return the guitar to her. We +will just play that she lent it to me for a while." + +His rough face and massive neck slowly reddened to match his fiery hair. + +"You, you----" he stammered, inarticulate. His mittened fist wrung the +nearest fence paling. "I ain't----! Thank you, lady." + +Mischief curled Elsie's lips like poppy petals, as she contemplated the +discomfited giant. + +"Is she very pretty, Michael?" + +"No, ma'am," was the unexpected avowal. "Not 'less she's dolled up for +actin'. She's nice, just. I guess many ain't like the swell one Andy +used to work for: dolled up any time." + +"Andy? Mr. Adriance? He never worked----" + +"For an actress; yes, ma'am," finished Mike, calmly assertive. "He +treated her to tea, the day after Christmas, when we was sent over to +New York. Ain't you seen her? Swell blonde, with awful big sort of light +eyes an' nice clothes on?" He leaned against the frail old fence, +shutting his eyes reminiscently. "She had on some kind of perfumery----! +Since I seen her, nobody else ain't very good-lookin'." + +"He treated her to tea?" Elsie faintly repeated. She did not intend an +espial upon Anthony; the question was born of pain and bewilderment. + +"She ast him to. They went to a eatin' place an' I watched the truck. +Tony, _she_ called him." Mike ponderously straightened himself and +prepared to depart. "I guess I'll get to work, ma'am." + +Elsie nodded, and turning, crept back. + +Adriance had appeared on the threshold of the cottage, his dog leaping +about him in the daily disappointed, daily renewed hope of accompanying +the worshipful master. He was whistling and fumbling in his pockets for +a match, as he stood. But he was struck dumb and motionless by the +change in the pale girl who turned from the gate. She seemed almost +groping her way up the path. + +"Elsie!" he called, springing down the steps. "Why, Elsie?" + +To his utter dismay, she crumpled into his extended arms, her eyes shut. + +He gathered her to him and swept her into the house, himself sick with +absolute panic. Illness was so new to them; he did even know of a doctor +nearer than the stately and important family physician in New York. He +felt the world rock beneath his feet; his world, which held only his +wife. Trembling, he laid her on their bed and knelt beside it, her head +still on his arm. + +"Elsie!" he choked, his eyes searching her face. "Girl!" + +Perhaps it was the misery in his voice, perhaps the anguish of love with +which he clasped her, but she moved in his arms. + +"Yes," she whispered. "I--I shall be well, in a moment." + +"You're not dying? Not in pain? What can I do?" + +"No, no. Wait a little. Put me down; I must think." + +He obeyed, settling her among the pillows with infinite tenderness. He +dared not kiss her lest he disturb recovery, but he carefully drew the +pins from her hair and smoothed out the thick, soft ripples. He had a +vague recollection of reading somewhere that a woman's locks should be +unbound when she swooned. It was in a novel, of course; still, it might +be true. And there was one panacea that he knew! + +Elsie did not open her eyes, but she heard him rise and hurry into the +other room. The giddiness had left her now, and she could think. + +Of course she had recognized Mike's portrait of Lucille Masterson. She +had seen the other woman, lovely, imperious in assured beauty; almost +had breathed the rich odor of her _Essence Enivrante_--which was not +French at all, but distilled in an upper room on Forty-second street +where individual perfumes were composed for those who could pay well. +Anthony had gone to her, the day after Christmas. The day after that +Christmas! Lying there, Elsie recalled how she and Anthony had gone +together to church in Yuletide mood and knelt hand in hand in the bare +little pew as simply as children: "because they had found each other." +And then their first Christmas dinner in their holly-decked house, when +the puppy had sat in rolypoly unsteadiness on Anthony's knee, regaled +with food that should have slain him, while she laughed and remonstrated +and abetted the crime. The day after all that, the day after he had +given her the garnet love-ring, Anthony had gone to Mrs. Masterson? Her +reason cried out against the absurdity. Yet, he had gone. + +The clink of china hurriedly moved in the next room had ceased. +Adriance came to the bedside, leaning over to slip his arm carefully +under the pillow and raise the girl's head. In his other hand he held a +cup of hot tea, the only medicine he knew. + +All his wife's heart melted toward him in his helpless helpfulness. +Suddenly she remembered that he had come back to her from that meeting. +He had seen the invincible Lucille, yet had returned to glorious content +with his wife. The ordeal she long had foreseen and dreaded was over. +She opened her eyes and looked up at him quietly. + +He looked like a man who had been ill, and his gaze devoured her, +enfolded her. + +"What was it?" he asked unsteadily. "What is it?" + +"Anthony, why did you not tell me that you met Mrs. Masterson?" she put +her quiet question. "Why did you leave me to hear it from Michael?" + +Startled, he still continued to look down into her eyes with no +confusion in his own. + +"I suppose I should have told you," he frankly admitted. "But it wasn't +of any importance, and I--well, I cut such a poor figure that I dodged +exhibiting it to you. The woman caught me on the Avenue and fairly +bullied me into a tea-room, with my collar wilted and oily hands. I +think she did it out of pure malice, too, for she had nothing to say, +after all. But--surely _that_ did not make you ill, Elsie?" + +"You never thought that I might mind your going?" + +"Why?" he asked simply. "What is it to us? You don't, do you?" + +She put up her hands and clasped them behind his head. + +"Set down the tea," she laughed, tears in her mockery, "or we will spill +it between us. Did you think me an inhuman angel, dear darling? No, I +don't mind; but I did." + +"Like that?" amazed. "So much?" + +"You keep remembering who Mait' Raoul Galvez raised," she warned, her +lips against his. "I'm mighty jealous, man!" + +"But I love you," he stammered clumsily. "That woman--she looked like a +vixen! Poor Fred!" + +Their first misunderstanding was passed, and left no shadow. By and by +they drank the cold tea together, and Elsie persuaded her nurse to go to +the factory as usual. + +"I was not sick, just full of badness," she conscientiously explained. +"Although it might not have happened if I had been altogether just the +same as usual, Anthony." + +They talked over the affair at more leisure, that evening. But they +could find no reason for Lucille Masterson's insistence upon that brief +interview with Anthony. Why had she forced him to attend her? He could +honestly assure Elsie that Mrs. Masterson had made no attempt to win him +back to his former allegiance; rather, she had taunted and antagonized +him. As a caprice, they finally classified and dismissed the episode. + +What they did not dismiss from their thoughts was the conversation they +had held in the new white house, the day they had bought the guitar. +They did not speak of Anthony's ambitions, but Elsie came to speak often +and with freer enthusiasm of her native Louisiana. Her husband saw +through the innocent ruse with keener penetration than she recognized, +and so far it failed. He understood that she was cunningly preparing to +make easy for him their way of retreat, in case he lost his fight; +preparing to convince him that was the way she most desired to go. He +loved her the better; and was the more obstinately determined to force +his own way. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE CHALLENGE + + +Each day found Anthony less willing to leave the place he had chosen. He +did not want to abandon the work commenced in the factory; he had +attained an active personal interest in his progress there. He was well +aware that he would soon know more about some possibilities of the mill +than did Mr. Goodwin himself. His father never had concerned himself at +all with such matters. Mr. Adriance was the converging-point of the many +lines forming a widespread net of affairs in which this factory was but +one strand. He did not even find time to notice Mr. Goodwin's advancing +years and the desire for retirement the old man was too proud to voice. +But the strand whose smallness was disdained by the greater Adriance +might well prove able to support the lesser. + +An accident still further determined his wish to remain. One day Mr. +Goodwin came down to the lower room; occupied the chair in Adriance's +enclosure for a quarter-hour and watched the proceedings. These +occasional visits had done much to establish firmly "Andy's" authority, +yielding as they did the manager's sanction to the new order of things. +But this time Mr. Goodwin had something to say to the young man whom he +and Cook had grown to regard as a fortunate discovery of their own. + +"Andy," he began, using the nickname as Adriance himself had suggested +on observing the positive reluctance with which the old gentleman +handled familiarly the revered name of the factory's owner; "Andy, +to-morrow there will be a meeting at the office of Mr. Adriance in New +York City; I shall be present." He cleared his throat a trifle +importantly. "I shall have pleasure in mentioning the excellent, the +really excellent, work you have done here. I shall mention you +personally." + +Anthony carefully put down the papers he held and stood still, trouble +darkening across his face. He saw what was coming, and he saw no way to +stop it. He did not want his father to learn of his presence here from +an outsider, or at a public meeting. He wanted to tell Mr. Adriance his +own story, with their kinship to help him. He wanted to explain Elsie to +the man who was championing Mrs. Masterson; he wanted to tell him of the +new Adriance to come. He hardly thought it possible that his father +would deny him the simple opportunity he asked, or try to force the +monstrous wrong of a separation between man and wife, if he understood. +But if the bare fact that Tony was secretly in his employ were flung +before him, Mr. Adriance was quite capable of regarding this as an added +defiance and even mockery of himself. Mr. Goodwin's speech flowed +placidly on: + +"Your abilities are really exceptional, exceptional; I am sure that they +will be suitably appreciated. You are doing much better work than +Ransome. I shall advise that I be allowed to create a new position for +you at a new salary. I should like you to supervise the entire shipping +department on this floor, not merely the trucking." + +"You are very good," Adriance murmured; "I am not quite ready perhaps +for that. By the time the next meeting is held----" + +"I have said that you were competent," Mr. Goodwin reminded him with +some stiffness. "I am accustomed to judge such matters, pray recollect. +I am quite sure Mr. Adriance will feel pleasure that a connection of +his, even a distant connection, should thus distinguish himself from the +ordinary employee." + +"No! That is--I should wish----" Adriance caught himself stumbling, and +colored before the astonished eyes of the other. "I mean to say, family +influence cannot help me in that way. Can you place the matter before +Mr. Adriance without using my name?" + +The older man chilled in severe amazement. Very slowly he took off his +_pince-nez_ with fingers a trifle uncertain. + +"Certainly not," he said, rigidly. "Why should I do so remarkable a +thing?" + +That challenge was not easily answered. The silence persisted +unpleasantly. Through the breach it made trickled a thin stream of +doubt, which rapidly grew to a full current of suspicion. Still Adriance +could find nothing to reply, and the situation became more than +embarrassing. Mr. Goodwin at last arose. + +"I regret that I made this proposition," he said. "Of course it was not +in my calculations that you had anything to conceal, especially from Mr. +Adriance. We will of course drop the matter for the present." + +"You mean that I may continue here as I am?" + +"I hope so. You will comprehend that it becomes my duty to set this +matter before Mr. Adriance. It is not right that I should employ in his +name a man who fears to have his presence here known to his employer. I +will bid you good-morning." + +This condition was worse than the first. Recognizing himself as +cornered, Adriance cast a hurried glance around him, found no one within +ear-shot of his little enclosure, and took a step toward the man about +to leave him. + +"Wait! Mr. Goodwin, I am Tony Adriance." + +The little old gentleman stared at him blankly. + +"My father does not know that I am here, no one knows except my wife. +Will you not sit down again and listen to me?" + +Still Mr. Goodwin stared at him, dumb. Smiling in spite of his vexation +and anxiety, the young man quietly fronted the scrutiny. He was quite +aware that in his working clothes, his hands evidencing his winter of +manual labor, his face dark with the tan of months of wind and sun, he +hardly looked the part he claimed; that is, if Mr. Goodwin knew anything +of the former Tony Adriance. But he kept the candid honesty of his eyes +open to the other's reading, and waited. Perhaps if those rather unusual +blue-black eyes he and his father had in common had confronted Mr. +Goodwin in the brightness of daylight, he might before this have been +identified. At any rate, they convinced now, even in the deceptive +light. + +"There is a resemblance," murmured Mr. Goodwin. + +"To my father? Yes, I think so; I have been told so." + +"But--why----?" + +One of the usual interruptions called Adriance away before he could +reply. The old gentleman sat dazed, watching him. When the vehicle had +passed on, Adriance turned back to the other man. + +"I married without consulting my father, last autumn," he said quietly. +"Will you dine with me to-night, Mr. Goodwin, at my own house up the +hill, and let me explain to you what I am doing and why I am doing it? +If you have any doubt of my identity, you may easily fix it by asking my +father when you see him to-day whether his son is at home or not." + +Mr. Goodwin found his voice with some difficulty. + +"No, I would prefer to understand before I see Mr. Adriance. Come up to +my private office now; Cook can manage here for an hour without you. I +am astounded, even bewildered, Andy--Mr. Adriance----" + +"Try 'Tony'," suggested the other with his sudden smile. + +So while the indignant Cook struggled with double duties, Adriance and +Mr. Goodwin sat opposite one another in the latter's private office, and +held long converse. + +With the exception of the Masterson side of the affair, Adriance told +the story without reserve. He hoped to win Mr. Goodwin's temporary +silence, but he actually won more than he had imagined possible. Mr. +Goodwin was excited and interested as he had not been for years. When +Adriance concluded, the other was quite the most agitated of the two. + +"You will not tell my father to-day of my presence here, you will give +me time to do so myself?" + +"I will do better," said Mr. Goodwin, much moved, "I will help you--I +adopt you, as it were. Mr. Adriance----" + +"Tony." + +"Tony, I will train you to succeed me here. I wish much to retire, as I +have told you. My wife and I--we have no children--have long planned to +travel; we have even selected the places we would visit and the routes +we would prefer to take. It has been, I might say, our dream for years; +but Mr. Adriance would not listen to my desire to leave. He declares +there is no one he could trust in my place." Pride colored the thin old +face. "His esteem flatters me; but now I will give him a successor whom +he can trust. It is very suitable that you should have this position. I +will say nothing to him, as you wish; but do you enter my office here +and study the management of this concern with me. I will myself take +charge of that." + +Astonished in his turn, and deeply touched, Adriance took the offered +hand. + +"Of course you know I can find no words of sufficient gratitude, Mr. +Goodwin. If you will indeed be so good you shall not find me lacking so +far as my abilities reach." + +"They have reached quite far already," said his senior, drily. + +What had appeared a calamity had become strange good fortune. Mr. +Goodwin readily satisfied any doubt he might have felt of Tony's +identity. Next morning when he would have gone to his usual place, a +clerk stopped him and took him to Mr. Goodwin's private office, where a +desk awaited him. + +"Of course it is all my name, or rather my father's," Adriance said to +Elsie that night. "There are a score of cleverer men than I already +there who will continue, I suppose, plodding on as they are. Cook is one +of them. But I am not altruistic enough to throw away the luck I have +been born into, I am afraid. I shall take all Goodwin will give me, and +if my father refuses to keep me there, at least the training will make +me more fitted to earn our living in some other place." + +"Man, you have not enough vanity to nourish you properly," Elsie gravely +told him. + +Mr. Goodwin proved a harder taskmaster than Cook or Ransome. He entered +upon the education of Tony Adriance with an enthusiastic zest tempered +with a conscientious severity that made him exacting and meticulous in +detail. Adriance was fond enough of the outdoors to miss the motor-truck +at times--there were even hours when he thought wistfully of Russian +Mike; but he learned rapidly under the forced cultivation. Now he saw +how superficial had been the knowledge of the factory on which he had +prided himself in the shipping room, and how absurdly inadequate to the +management of the great place he would have been had his father put it +in his hands. But under Mr. Goodwin he was becoming in actuality what he +once had fancied himself to be. Incidentally the teacher and the student +grew cordially attached to one another; and as this attachment was +obvious, as the new man was known in every department where he was sent +to gather experience as "Mr. Adriance," and as Mr. Goodwin called him +"Tony," his identity was soon no secret in the factory. But the senior +Adriance never came in personal contact with any member of the force +except Mr. Goodwin, so this was a matter of indifference. Adriance +continued to be entered on the books as a chauffeur, and received the +corresponding salary. + +The genuine chauffeurs whose comrade Andy had been looked curiously +after him and whispered among themselves when, he chanced to pass, +although his greetings to them were the same as always. Cook dropped the +use of "Andy," and said "sir" if the young man spoke to him suddenly. +Mr. Goodwin advised his pupil to let such things pass without comment. +Either Anthony's position would be assured and demand such deference, or +he would leave the factory altogether; in either case protest would only +be hypocritical or useless. + +The time when Anthony should go to his father with an account of the +affair, was indefinitely postponed. The more accomplished first, the +better. Secretly, both he and Goodwin had come to dread the possibility +that Mr. Adriance would refuse to continue Anthony in his position, +either through resentment or lack of faith in Tony's ability. + +Sometimes Anthony felt a sharp misgiving that perhaps the very +preparation that fitted him for the place he so much desired, would +deprive him of it. It was more than possible that Mr. Adriance would +keenly resent what was being done without his knowledge. In a sense +Anthony was fortifying himself in his father's own territory in order to +resist the older man's will in regard to Mrs. Masterson. Anthony never +learned to think without vicarious shame and pain of the treachery his +father had planned against Elsie. He could not reconcile that idea with +anything their years together had shown him of his father. But he worked +on and thrust from his mind what he could not remedy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE ADRIANCES + + +The weeks ran quietly on, bringing spring as the only visitor to the +little red house. Masterson had been invited to come, but he never +availed himself of the invitation. The Adriances did not speak of him, +by tacit agreement feigning to forget the only painful evening they had +spent since their marriage. + +The event that fell like an exploding shell into the tranquil household, +shattering its accustomed life as truly as if by material destruction, +came quite without warning. It chose one of the first evenings of April, +when a delicate, pastel-tinted sunset was concluding the day as +gracefully as the _envoi_ of a poem. + +Elsie was making ready for her husband, much as she once had described +to him a wife's employment at this hour, and so all unconsciously had +cleansed the temple of his heart, thrusting down the false idols to make +a place for herself. The table stood arrayed, she herself was daintily +fresh in attire and mood; the little house waited, expectant, for the +man's return. The soft flattery of love lapped Adriance around whenever +he crossed this threshold; life had taught him a new luxury in this bare +school-room. + +Elsie was singing, as she went about her pleasant tasks with the deft +surety and swiftness so pretty to watch; singing a lilting, inconsequent +Creole _chanson_, velvet-smooth as the sprays of gray pussy-willow she +presently began to arrange in a squat, earthen jar. She was happy with a +deep, abiding, steadfast content, and a faith that admitted no fear. + +She was listening, through all her occupations. The crackle of Anthony's +quick, eager step on the old gravel walk would have brought her at once +to the door. But the sound of an automobile halting before the gate +passed unnoticed; many cars travelled this road, day and night. So, as +before, Masterson came unheralded into his friend's house. Only, this +time he found the door open and entered without knocking. When his +shadow darkened across the room, Elsie turned and saw her visitor. + +Rather, her visitors. Masterson carried in the curve of his arm a +diminutive figure clad in white corduroy from tasselled cap to small +leggings. The child's dimpled, ruddy-bright cheek was pressed against +the man's worn and sallow young face, the shining baby-gaze looked out +from beside the fever-dulled eyes of the other. A chubby arm tightly +embraced Masterson's neck. + +"Holly!" Elsie cried, the willow-buds slipping through her fingers. +"Why--how----? Oh, how he has grown! Holly, baby, don't you remember +Elsie? He does, truly does--please let me have him!" + +Masterson willingly relinquished his charge, putting Holly into the +eager arms held out, and stood watching the ensuing scene of pretty +nonsense and affection. He did not speak or offer interruption. When +Elsie finally looked toward him again, recovering recollection and +curiosity, baby and woman were equally rose-hued and radiant. + +"But--how did it happen?" she wondered. "Did--was the agreement kept, +after all? Is Holly to stay with you, now?" + +The man met her gaze with a strange blending of defiance and entreaty. +Now she perceived his condition of terrible excitement and that his +dumbness had not been the apathy she fancied. He was on the verge of a +breakdown, perhaps irreparable to mental health. Her question was +answered by her own quick perception before he spoke. + +"I have stolen him. No! I did _not_ steal him; I took my own. It was in +the park--he was with a nurse, and she struck him. She didn't know me. I +had stopped to get a sight of him. Well, that is all Lucille will ever +give him: nurses! She never wanted him, or had time to trouble about +him. She doesn't like children. He stumbled, fell down, and the woman +slapped him--more than once." + +She looked at him with a sense of helpless inability either to aid or +condemn. Every conscious fibre in her championed his cause, except her +reason. How could this sick man hope to keep Holly against the world? + +"You----?" she temporized. + +"I've told you what I did; I took him away from her. 'Tell Mrs. +Masterson that Holly has gone with his father,' I said. That was all. I +carried him to my car and drove straight here. You will keep him for me? +You and Tony? I have got to go; to get back and make my last fight." + +Elsie gently set down the baby. She saw what Masterson in his dazed and +selfish absorption overlooked: that she and Anthony were to be drawn +into a conflict surely evil for them. Mrs. Masterson must resent this, +and call on the law to undo the kidnapping. She herself and Anthony +would be dragged from their happy obscurity, their long honeymoon ended. +More menacing still, Anthony's position in his father's factory would be +discovered and exploited by the newspapers, with the probable result +that Mr. Adriance would end that situation by dismissing the impromptu +employee. + +But she never even thought of sending Masterson away. The baby hands +that grasped her dress grasped deeper at her heart. Also, this man in +need was Anthony's friend and one to whom he owed atonement for a wrong +contemplated, if not committed. + +"Of course we will keep him," she promised, kindly and naturally. "But +you must stay, too. You are not well and must rest for a while--it is +absurd to speak of fighting when you can scarcely stand. Sit there, in +that arm-chair. Presently Anthony will come home, then we will have +supper and talk of all this." + +The serene good-sense calmed and cooled his fever. Sighing, he relaxed +his tenseness of attitude. + +"I must go," he repeated, but without resolution. + +For answer she drew forward the chair. He sank into it and lay rather +than sat among its cushions, passive before her firmness. + +Elsie moved about the matter at hand with her unfailing practicality. +She took off Holly's wraps and improvised a high-chair by means of a +dictionary and a pillow. To an accompaniment of gay chatter she made +ready her small guest's evening meal, tied a napkin under the fat chin +and superintended the business of supping. Hunger and sleep were +contending before the bread and milk and soft-boiled egg were finished. +Afterward, Elsie carried a very drowsy little boy into her room and made +him a nest in her antique-shop four-posted bed. Masterson looked on, +mutely attentive to every movement of the two as if some dramatic +interest lay in the simple actions. When Elsie returned from the +sleeping baby, he abruptly spoke: + +"You know, I only mean you to keep him for to-night, not always. I will +come back for him. You know all I planned for him and myself. This has +hurried me, but I have money enough. Earned money. Did I tell you Mr. +Adriance, Tony's father, has offered me a considerable sum to stop +'making a mountebank' of myself at the restaurant? No? He has. I fancy +her former husband's occupation grates on Lucille." He laughed, moving +his head on the cushions of the high-backed chair. "Well, I refused." + +"Of course!" + +"You knew I would? Then you grant me more grace than she did." + +"She? You said Mr. Adriance offered----" + +He glanced keenly at her face, then turned his own face aside that it +might not guide her groping thought. + +"I must go," he said, again. But he did not move, nor did Elsie. + +The pause was broken by Anthony's whistle, the signal which always +advised his wife of his return. + +But to-night it was not the blithe hail of custom. The clear notes were +shaken, curtly eloquent of some anger or distress. Acutely sensitive to +every change or mood of his, Elsie caught both messages, the intentional +and the one sent unaware. Dropping upon the table a box of matches she +had taken up, she ran to the door. + +It opened before she reached it. Anthony, his face dark with repressed +anger, his movements stiff with the constraint he forced upon them, +appeared outlined against the soft, clear dusk of April twilight. He +looked behind him, and, holding open the door of his house formally +ushered in a guest. + +"My wife, sir," he briefly introduced to his father the girl who drew +back, amazed, before their entrance. + +Mr. Adriance showed no less evidence of inward storm than his son. But +he stopped and saluted his daughter-in-law with precise courtesy. + +"Mrs. Adriance," he acknowledged the presentation, his voice better +controlled than the younger man's. + +"Light the lamp, Elsie," her husband requested, dragging off the clumsy +chauffeur's gloves he had worn home. "It seems that we are under +suspicion of child-stealing. My father has done us the honor of looking +us up, to accuse me of conniving at the kidnapping of Mrs. Masterson's +boy. I have not yet gathered exactly what interest I am supposed to have +in the lady or her affairs, or whether I am presumed to be engaged in a +bandit enterprise for ransom. But I understand that there is a detective +outside, who probably wishes to search the house." + +Elsie made no move to obey the command. In the indeterminate light +Masterson's presence had been unnoticed, shadowed as he was by the deep +chair in which he sat. She was not afraid, or bewildered so far as to +conceive keeping him concealed, but she was not yet ready to act. + +"My son is inexact, as usual," Mr. Adriance gave her space, aiding her +unaware by his irritation. "Mr. Masterson is known to have crossed the +Edgewater ferry with the child, and we know of no friends he would seek +in this place except Tony and you. His brain is hardly strong enough, +now, to plan any extended moves. Surely it needs no explanation that we +wish to rescue a two-year-old child from the hands of a drug-crazed +incompetent?" + +Elsie laid her hand over the match-box, wondering that the other two did +not hear, as she did, the very audible breathing of the man in the +arm-chair. + +"He is hardly that," she deprecated. "But, if you find him, what will +you do?" + +"To him? Nothing. We want the child. If he persists in annoying the lady +who was his wife, however, he must be put in a sanitarium." + +"Elsie, why do you not say that we know nothing of all this?" Anthony +demanded, harsh in his strong impatience. "Why do you feed suspicion by +arguing? I don't say that I would not shelter Holly Masterson, if he +were here--in fact, I should! But I do say that he is not here, sir, and +I expect my word to be taken. Elsie----" + +His wife put out her hand in a quieting gesture. + +"Now I will light the lamp," she stated, in her full, calm voice. + +Oddly checked, the two angry men stood watching her. The flame-touched +wick burned slowly, at first, the light rising gradually to its full +power; the circle of radiance crept out and up, warmed by the crimson +shade through which it passed. It crept like a bright tide, shining on +the figure of the woman who stood behind the table, rising over the +noble swell of her bosom, submerging the curved hollow of her throat +where a small ebony cross lay against a surface of ivory, flooding at +last her face set in generous resolution and glinting in her gray, +serenely fearless eyes. She looked, and was mistress of the place and +situation; perhaps because of all those present she alone was not +thinking of herself. + +"You see," she broke the pause, "there was much excuse. It is always +wiser and kinder to listen to the excuse for actions; I think usually +there is one. Mr. Masterson loves his little son very dearly, and that +they have been separated is terrible to him. But he was patient, he did +not interfere until to-day; he saw Holly struck and roughly treated by +the nurse. He could not bear that, and just look on. No one could! So +Mr. Masterson, obeying his first impulse, snatched up the baby, and he +did bring him here. It was only a little while ago, Anthony; a very +little while." + +Before either Adriance could speak, the third man lifted himself out of +the shadows into the light. He was laughing slightly, all his reckless, +too-feminine beauty somehow restored as he faced them. + +"Here is your drug-crazed incompetent, Mr. Adriance," he mocked. "Have +you succeeded so well in training your own son that you want to +undertake bringing up mine?" + +The insult changed the atmosphere to that of crude war. Elsie drew back, +recognizing this field was not for her. Mr. Adriance considered his +antagonist with a deliberation cold and very dangerous. + +"I think a comparison between my son and yourself is hardly one you can +afford to challenge," he said bitingly. + +"Now, no," Masterson admitted. He laughed again. "But a year ago--who +was the best citizen, then? Fred Masterson, with all his shortcomings, +or Tony Adriance, dangling after Masterson's wife? Hold on, Tony! I'm +not saying this for you; you quit the nasty game as soon as you saw +where it was leading. I'm only explaining to your father, here, that the +difference between you and me is chiefly--our wives. Of course we ought +not to lean on our women; we ought to be strong and independent. But I +was not born that way, and neither were you. Lucille wanted me down, and +I am down; Mrs. Adriance wanted you up, and you're standing up. Be +honest, and out with the truth to yourself, if you never speak it, Tony. +As for your father, if our guardians had started us differently, it +might not have been this way with us. I don't know, but that is the +chance I am giving Holly. He shall not have to pick up his education on +the road. I have brought him here, and here he stays with Mrs. Adriance +until I take him away with me. She has given me her promise." + +"You forget that the court has given the child to its mother," Mr. +Adriance reminded him, before Anthony could reply. "And let me tell you +I have nothing except contempt for a man who foists off his +responsibilities upon a woman's shoulders." + +"Neither have I," retorted Masterson. "Did you imagine I had any vanity +left, or that my self-respect still breathed? You are dull, Mr. +Adriance! But all that is aside from the case. Holly stays here, unless +Anthony turns him out, and then he goes with me, not with his mother. Do +you think I fail to understand why she wants him, and you want her to +have him? It is because he is a social vindication; her possession of +him brands me as the one found lacking in our partnership. Well, he is +not to be so sacrificed." + +"May I ask how you intend to enforce this?" + +"You may, and I will tell you." He looked return in full measure of the +older man's irony and determination. "I can enforce it because you care +about the public at large, and I do not; because it would make a +beautiful sob story: how Holly's reprobate father rescued him from +neglect and ill-treatment, taking him away from a brutal nurse in the +Park; and how Mr. Adriance, _the_ Mr. Adriance, pursued and recaptured +the child. The newspapers would be interested in learning that Mr. +Adriance had managed the whole Masterson divorce case; with his usual +tact and success. They might wonder why he had done it. I have wondered, +myself, you know. That is, I might have wondered, if I had not known how +much you once approved of Mrs. Masterson as a possible daughter-in-law, +before Tony disappointed you by marrying to please himself. You have the +reputation of never admitting a defeat; and, after all, two divorces are +as right as one! I beg your pardon, Mrs. Adriance." + +Elsie uttered a faint cry, abruptly confronted with the hideous thing +Masterson had shown her husband on the night that had changed Anthony +from her playfellow to her defender and fightingman. + +"Fred!" Anthony exclaimed indignant rebuke, springing to the girl's +side. + +She caught his arm fiercely, as it clasped her. Suddenly she was one +with the men in mood, burning with defiance and alert to make war for +her own. And Anthony was her own, as she was his. Pressing close to her +husband she held him. Arrayed together, the three who had youth stood +against the man who had everything else. + +But Mr. Adriance had reddened through his fine, gray, slightly withered +skin like any schoolboy. His dark eyes lightened and hardened to an +unforgiving grimness of wrath that dwarfed the younger men's passion and +made it puerile. + +"You will restrain yourself in speaking of the lady who had the +misfortune to marry you," he signified, with a clipped precision of +speech more menacing than any threat. "Since yesterday she has been my +wife." + +Of all the possibilities, this most obvious one never had occurred to +any of the three who heard the announcement. The effect held the group +dumb. All thought had to be readjusted, all recent experience focussed +to this new range of vision. In the long pause, Anthony's dog yawned +with the ridiculous sigh and snap of happy puppyhood; ticking clock and +singing kettle seemed to fill the room with a swell of commonplace, +domestic sound derisive of all complicated life. After all, men were +simple, and involved evil usually a chimera. Plots and counterplots +resolved into a most natural happening; thrown into companionship with +Lucille Masterson by Anthony's flight, Mr. Adriance had fallen in love. +Probably at first he had aided her through sympathy, as Anthony himself +had done. There was no mystery in the rest. + +The reckless challenge and false gayety died out of Masterson's face, +leaving it dull and bleak as a stage when the play is over and the +artificial light and color extinguished. Quite suddenly he looked +haggard and appallingly ill. Circles darkened beneath his eyes as if +dashed in by the blue crayon of an artist. He was conquered; with his +fancied right to resentment and contempt he also lost all animation. The +fire was quenched, apparently forever. + +"I apologize, of course," he said, his lifeless ease a poor effort at +his former manner. "Certainly I would have been--well, less frank, if I +had understood. Pray convey my congratulations to Mrs. Adriance. No +doubt you will be happy, since you can buy everything she wants. But +neither you nor she can care to keep Holly Masterson in your house. I +want him. After all, I am his father, you know, and entitled to some +direction of his future. No? Come, I'll bargain with you! Leave him +here, and I will do what I refused to do for money: I will quit public +dancing and drop out of sight." + +The unexpected offer allured. The wrath in the eyes of Mr. Adriance did +not lessen, but speculation crept into his regard. His abhorrence of +scandal urged him to grasp at this escape from having his wife's name +constantly linked with the escapades of her first husband. There could +be no question of Masterson's genius for spectacular trouble-making. +Moreover, Holly would still be with the Adriances, so that dignity was +assured. He did not believe that Masterson really intended to burden +himself with the child. Lucille Masterson had formed his opinion of the +other man; he credited him with no intention good or stable. + +"Of course I must consult Mrs. Adriance," he answered stiffly. "But I +have no doubt that she will meet your wishes in the matter, since Tony +is now the child's step-brother. That is, if my son and his wife are +willing to undertake the charge you thrust upon them?" + +He turned toward the two, as he concluded. For the first time, the +Adriance senior and junior, really looked at each other as man at man. +For "Tony" no longer existed; in his place was someone the elder did not +yet know. Indeed, he and Tony had been merely pleasant acquaintances; he +and this new man were strangers. + +"Why, yes," Anthony replied to the indirect question. He had regained +his composure as the others had lost theirs. His cool steadiness and +poise contrasted strongly with the strained tension of his guests; he +spoke for both himself and Elsie with the assured masterfulness she had +nursed to life in him during these many months. "We will take charge of +Holly until his father claims him, unless it is going to be too +difficult for me to take care of my own family. As you may see, sir, we +are not rich." + +"Is that my affair?" + +"It has not been. But it is going to be." + +"As a question of money----" + +Anthony checked the sentence with a gesture. Gently freeing himself from +Elsie's clasp upon his arm, he drew from a pocket of his rough coat that +notebook which had absorbed so many of his leisure hours. + +"Let us say a question of business," he suggested. "Six months ago I +entered your employ as a chauffeur. You will find my record has no marks +against it. I did not think at that time of drawing any advantage from +the fact that the mill belonged to you; I worked exactly as I must have +done for any stranger. I was not late or absent, I accomplished rather +more each day than the average chauffeur in the place. Cook and Ransome +can tell you whether I gave them satisfaction. I only speak of this, +sir, because I should like you to understand that I was in earnest. It +was not until months had passed at this work that I began to think of +changing my position. One day Ransome fell sick. I asked for his place +to try out a better system of checking the shipping that had occurred to +me. I was given this at first tentatively, then permanently. In fact, +the system worked so successfully that--Mr. Goodwin came to see me." He +hesitated. "I wish you would ask Mr. Goodwin to tell you himself +something of what has happened." + +"Very well." + +The laconic assent was somehow disconcerting. + +"I had to tell him who I was," Anthony resumed, with less certainty, "I +had meant to find out what your attitude would be, before that happened, +but I had no choice. He was good enough to take me into his office and +offer to teach me the management of your factory. Now----" + +"Now, since it is a matter of business," said Mr. Adriance, dryly, "what +do you want?" + +"I want a stranger's chance, and your pull," was the prompt return; +Anthony's smile flashed across seriousness. "That is, I want your +influence to give me Mr. Goodwin's position as manager, and after that I +am willing to stand on the basis of my business value to you. Goodwin is +old and anxious to retire. If I hold his place for a year and fail to +earn his salary, then discharge me and I'll not complain. I know this +end of your business as you do not, sir. You are brilliant, a genius of +big affairs; I have discovered in myself a capacity for meticulous +attention to detail. Will you take this little book home with you? It +contains a collection of notes and figures for which you would gladly +pay an outsider. Mr. Goodwin and I have found the plant is enormously +wasteful; every department contributes its quota of mismanagement, +except the office under his own eye. I want a chance to do this work, to +buy a house I like up on the hill, here, and put my delicate Southern +wife in a setting suitable for her. Will you let me earn all this?" + +"I am not aware that it has been my custom to interfere with you," +retorted Mr. Adriance. He eyed his son with icy disfavor. "Between you +and Mr. Masterson it appears to be established that I am the typical +oppressor of fiction and melodrama. Kindly look at the other side of the +shield. Last autumn you chose to marry and leave my house. You did both, +without paying me the trifling courtesy of announcing your intentions. I +knew of no quarrel between us. The rudeness appeared to me quite without +warrant. Nevertheless, I tied all the loose ends you had left behind. +I kept your marriage from furnishing a sensation to the journals. The +lady who is now my wife helped me in convincing our friends that your +wedding was in no way unusual or unexpected, if a little sudden, and +that you had met the young lady from Louisiana at her house. In short, I +smothered curiosity, a task with which you had not concerned yourself. +You choose to enter this place as a truck driver. You did not ask if +that were pleasant to me. It was not, but I made no objection. Oh, yes; +of course I have known what you were doing! Why should I not know? Now, +you meet me with the air of a man hampered and pursued. Why?" + +"I was wrong," admitted Anthony, simply. He had flushed hotly before the +rebuke, but his eyes met his father's frankly and with a relief that +gladly found himself at fault rather than the other. "I did not +understand. I am sorry." + +They shook hands. A constraint between them was not to be avoided. The +marriage of the older man had thrust them apart. Unforgiveable things +had been said of Lucille Adriance; things that had the biting +permanence of truth. + +"I will arrange for Goodwin's retirement," Mr. Adriance remarked. "You +will take his place, and this winter's work may pass as your whim to +study the business from the bottom. I spent an hour discussing your +affairs with him, on my way here, to-night. I had called on him to +ascertain your exact address. He has agreed to remain as your adviser +and assistant for a month or two, until you have quite found yourself. +And of course I will be at your service. That is enough for this +evening; I have already stayed here too long. Come to my office +to-morrow." + +When he turned toward the door, Elsie was awaiting him. A moment before +she had slipped away from the two men. + +"This is the first time you have been in Anthony's house," she said, her +soft speech very winning. "You aren't going without taking our +hospitality?" + +She held a little round tray on which stood a cup and plate. The action +was gracious and graceful, quaintly alien as her own legends. Mr. +Adriance gazed at her, then bowed ceremoniously, lifted the coffee and +drank. + +"I think I had forgotten to congratulate Tony," he regretted. "Allow me +to do so, most warmly." + +Anthony closed the door behind his guest; presently the sound of a +starting motor ruffled the calm hush of the spring evening. + +"I want my supper," Anthony announced, practically. "I shall not have +any more of your cooking, Elsie. What are you going to do with your idle +time--learn to play bridge?" + +She ran into his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE CORNERSTONE + + +When they looked for Fred Masterson, he was not there. Elsie remembered, +then, that he had gone into Holly's room while Anthony and his father +were intent on each other. On the bed where the baby was asleep they +found an envelope upon which was scrawled a message. + +"I'm off for the present," Anthony read. "I'll drop in to-morrow or next +day, when Holly is awake. Thank Mrs. Adriance for me. I'm going to be +old-fashioned, Tony--God bless you both." + +"He never will come, I know it!" Elsie exclaimed, her heavy lashes wet. +"Can't we do something? Can't we go after him?" + +"I will go after him," her husband agreed. "But not to-night." He +crumpled the envelope and flung it aside. "Fred Masterson is not going +under without a fight. If doctors, sanitariums, his love for Holly and +our help can set him on his feet again, he shall be cured and do all he +dreams of doing. To-morrow I will find him." + +"Not to-night?" + +"Not to-night. Elsie, don't you understand? He loved his wife. If I lost +you so--if you married someone else----" + +She put her small fingers across his lips, stilling the sacrilege. + +"No! Do not let our little house even hear you say it!" + +"Nor any house of ours! To-morrow I will buy the house we looked at +together, and you shall have an orgy of shopping to furnish it. Oh, yes, +you shall, and I'll help you. Have lots of dark red things and brown +leather in that front room where you told me about Alenya of the Sea. +And--do nurseries have to be pink?" + +"Of course not, foolish one. We might make ours sunshine-color, like the +satiny inside of a buttercup or a drop of honey in a daffodil. +Anthony----" + +"Yes?" + +The rain-gray eyes laughed up at him, demure and daring. + +"Please, I want a cloak all gorgeous without and furry within; a +shimmery, glittery, useless brocaded cloak like those in the cloak-room +of that restaurant. I--I just want it!" + +"How do you know?" he wondered at her. "How do you always know the +gracious way to delight me most? What a time we are going to have, girl! +I'm going to drag Cook out of his rut and start him up the ladder, for +one thing. If he hadn't given me a chance, and then brought Mr. Goodwin +down to see how I handled it, who can tell how much I might have missed? +I shall bring him here for you to see, before we move, too. You won't +mind?" + +"Try it and see." + +"And we will spend my first vacation in Louisiana! Can't we take a +trunkful of junk to each girl--including your mother? Let's bribe a +publisher to bring out the poetic drama, if it's ever finished. Ah, be +ready to come to Tiffany's next week. I'm going to buy you a ruby as big +as the diamond advertisements on the backs of the magazines." + +"Anthony!" + +"Two of them!" + +"Dear," she hesitated, "are we going to have so much money? I do not +quite see----" + +Her husband looked at her, and laughed. + +"You haven't learned to understand your father-in-law. I have not +mastered that study, myself, but I know some branches. He is not a +half-way man. He will expect Tony and Mrs. Tony to proceed precisely as +Tony used to do. And we will offend and disgust him with our +small-mindedness if we do not take this for granted. When I remember the +things I allowed Fred to make me believe of him! Elsie, I always could +have earned our living somehow; I think the best news to-night was that +my father is as fine as I grew up to believe him. By George, I never +told him----" + +"What, dear?" + +"Don't you know?" + + * * * * * + +They had almost finished their delayed supper, an hour later, when +Adriance set down his cup with an exclamation and stared across the +table at his wife. + +"I have just thought of something! Now I understand what Lucille +Masterson wanted of me, that day, in the tea-room. She made me give my +word never to tell anyone that she had been willing to marry me. I was +angry enough that she should suppose such a promise necessary. But now I +can see the reason: she feared I might tell my father enough of that +affair to prevent his falling in love with her. You do not know him, +Elsie. If he had suspected her attachment to him was greed, and that she +had been willing to marry either Adriance for the Adriance possessions, +he would have suffered nothing to bring them together, nothing whatever. +I suppose she told him she never thought of me except as a pleasant +young fool. Think of us!" He pushed back his chair and took an angry +turn across the room. "Fred, and I, and my father--all puppets for her +to move about!" + +[Illustration: THE WINTER WAS HARD AND LONG, BUT NEVER DULL TO THEM] + +"Holly has Mrs. Masterson, and I have you," Elsie demurred, her mouth +curling into a smile as her glance followed him. "And I do not believe +she has your father, Anthony; I think he has her. You know--excuse me, +dear--both you and Fred Masterson were too young and inexperienced. And +your father heard, in spite of himself, Mr. Masterson's story, this +evening. I'm going to borrow a sentence from Mike: 'She's got her a +boss.' Let the mills grind; we know what grain we put in! Anthony, did +you notice that I gave your father coffee in the Vesuvius cup? If he +noticed its five-cent atrocity, he will ostracize me; and you know who +bought it." + +"It is a good cup!" He dropped into his chair again and leaned across +the table to catch her hands in his. "Elsie, we will never sell this +house, or change anything in it, will we? We can come back to it, often, +for just a day. It was the beginning place, however far we go." + +"Yes. Oh, yes! Anthony, our hearthstone is our cornerstone; on it we're +going to build, build splendidly, eternally----" + +Her voice faltered before the vision. Silent, the two looked into each +other's eyes, seeing a happiness strongly secured, closing them around +like folded wings. + + +FINIS + + * * * * * + +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY'S New and Forthcoming Books + + +Peg Along + + By GEORGE L. WALTON, M.D. 12mo. Cloth, $1.00 net. + +Dr. Walton's slogan, "Why Worry," swept the country. His little book of +that title did an infinite amount of good. "Peg Along" is the 1915 +slogan. Hundreds of thousands of fussers, fretters, semi- and would-be +invalids, and all other halters by the wayside should be reached by Dr. +Walton's stirring encouragement to "peg along." In this new book he +shows us how to correct our missteps of care, anxiety, fretting, fear, +martyrism, over-insistence, etc., by teaching us real steps in the +chapters on work and play, managing the mind, Franklin's and Bacon's +methods, etc., etc. Send copies of this inspiring little work to friends +who appreciate bright wisdom. Win them into joyful, happy "peggers +along" to health and happiness. + + +Under the Red Cross Flag + +At Home and Abroad + + By MABEL T. BOARDMAN, Chairman of the National Relief Board, + American Red Cross. + + Foreword by PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. + + Fully illustrated. Decorated cloth. Gilt top. $1.50 net. + +The American Red Cross and the name of Miss Boardman have been +inseparably connected for many years; her own story is one of +fascinating human interest to all who feel a bond of sympathy with those +who suffer. To-day it is the European War, but in unforgotten yesterdays +there was the Philippine Typhoon, the Vesuvian Eruption, the Chinese +Famine, and almost countless other disasters in which the heroes and +heroines of the Red Cross have worked and met danger in their effort to +alleviate the sufferings of humanity. This is the only complete +historical work upon the subject that has yet been written; no one, +accounting experience and literary ability, is better fitted to present +the facts than is the author. + + +Joseph Pennell's Pictures In the Land of Temples + + With 40 plates in photogravure from lithographs. Introduction by W. + H. D. Rouse, Litt.D. Crown quarto. Lithograph on cover. $1.25 net. + +Mr. Pennell's wonderful drawings present to us the immortal witnesses of +the "Glory that was Greece" just as they stand to-day, in their +environment and the golden atmosphere of Hellas. Whether it be the +industrial giants portrayed in "Pictures of the Panama Canal" or antique +temples presented in this fascinating volume, the great lithographer +proves himself to be a master craftsman of this metier. The art of +Greece is perhaps dead, but we are fortunate in having such an +interpreter. There is every promise that this book will have the same +value among artists and book lovers as had his others. + + "The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! + Where burning Sappho loved and sung," + +have never had a more appreciative and sympathetic lover. + + +Christmas Carol + + By CHARLES DICKENS. 13 illustrations in color and many in black and + white by Arthur Rackham. Octavo. Decorated cloth. $1.50 net. + +All the praise that can be showered upon Joseph Pennell as a master +lithographer, is also the due mead of Arthur Rackham as the most +entrancing and mysterious color illustrator in Europe. His work is +followed by an army of picture lovers of all types and of all ages, from +the children in the nurseries whose imagination he stirs with the +fiery-eyed dragons of some fairy illustration, to the ambitious artists +in every country who look to him as an inspiring master. + +If the decision had been left to the book-reading and picture-loving +public as to the most eligible story for treatment, we believe that the +Christmas Carol would have been chosen. The children must see old +Scrooge and Tiny Tim as Rackham draws them. + + +Historic Virginia Homes and Churches + + By ROBERT A. LANCASTER, JR. About 300 illustrations and a + photogravure frontispiece. Quarto. In a box, cloth, gilt top, $7.50 + net. Half morocco, $12.50 net. A Limited Edition printed from type, + uniform with the Pennells' "Our Philadelphia." + +Virginians are justly proud of the historical and architectural glories +of the Old Dominion. All America looks to Virginia as a Cradle of +American thought and culture. This volume is a monument to Virginia, +persons and places, past and present. It has been printed in a limited +edition and the type has been distributed. This is not a volume of +padded value; it is not a piece of literary hack-work. It has been a +labor of love since first undertaken some twenty-five years ago. The +State has done her part by providing the rich material, the Author his +with painstaking care and loving diligence, and the Publishers theirs by +expending all the devices of the bookmaker's art. + + +Quaint and Historic Forts of North America + + By JOHN MARTIN HAMMOND, Author of "Colonial Mansions of Maryland and + Delaware." With photogravure frontispiece and sixty-five + illustrations. Ornamental cloth, gilt top, in a box. $5.00 net. + +This is an unique volume treating a phase of American history that has +never before been presented. Mr. Hammond, in his excellent literary +style with the aid of a splendid camera, brings us on a journey through +the existing old forts of North America and there describes their +appearances and confides in us their romantic and historic interest. We +follow the trail of the early English, French and Spanish adventurers, +and the soldiers of the Revolution, the War of 1812 and the later Civil +and Indian Wars. We cover the entire country from Quebec and Nova Scotia +to California and Florida, with a side trip to Havana to appreciate the +weird romance of the grim Morro Castle. Here is something new and +unique. + + +The Magic of Jewels and Charms + + By GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ, A.M., PH.D., D.SC. With numerous plates in + color, doubletone and line. Decorated cloth, gilt top, in a box. + $5.00 net. Half morocco, $10.00 net. Uniform in style and size with + "The Curious Lore of Precious Stones." The two volumes in a box, + $10.00 net. + +It will probably be a new and surely a fascinating subject to which Dr. +Kunz introduces the reader. The most primitive savage and the most +highly developed Caucasian find mystic meanings, symbols, sentiments +and, above all, beauty in jewels and precious stones; it is of this +magic lore that the distinguished author tells us. In past ages there +has grown up a great literature upon the subject--books in every +language from Icelandic to Siamese, from Sanskrit to Irish--the lore is +as profound and interesting as one can imagine. In this volume you will +find the unique information relating to the magical influence which +precious stones, amulets and crystals have been supposed to exert upon +individuals and events. + + +The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria + + By MORRIS JASTROW, JR., PH.D., LL.D. 140 illustrations. Octavo. + Cloth, gilt top, in a box, $6.00 net. + +This work covers the whole civilization of Babylonia and Assyria, and by +its treatment of the various aspects of that civilization furnishes a +comprehensive and complete survey of the subject. The language, history, +religion, commerce, law, art and literature are thoroughly presented in +a manner of deep interest to the general reader and indispensable to +historians, clergymen, anthropologists and sociologists. The volume is +elaborately illustrated and the pictures have been selected with the +greatest care so as to show every aspect of this civilization, which +alone disputes with that of Egypt, the fame of being the oldest in the +world. For Bible scholars the comparisons with Hebrew traditions and +records will have intense interest. + + +English Ancestral Homes of Noted Americans + + By ANNE HOLLINGSWORTH WHARTON, Author of "In Chateau Land," etc., + etc. 28 illustrations. 12mo. Cloth $2.00 net. Half morocco, + $4.00 net. + +Miss Wharton so enlivens the past that she makes the distinguished +characters of whom she treats live and talk with us. She has recently +visited the homelands of a number of our great American leaders and we +seem to see upon their native heath the English ancestors of George +Washington, Benjamin Franklin, William Penn, the Pilgrim Fathers and +Mothers, the Maryland and Virginia Cavaliers and others who have done +their part in the making of the United States. Although this book is +written in an entertaining manner, and with many anecdotes and by-paths +to charm the reader, it is a distinct addition to the literature of +American history and will make a superb gift for the man or woman who +takes pride in his or her library. + + +Heroes and Heroines of Fiction Classical, Mediaeval and Legendary + + By WILLIAM S. WALSH. Half morocco, Reference Library style, $3.00 + net. Uniform with "Heroes and Heroines of Fiction, Modern Prose and + Poetry." The two volumes in a box, $6.00 net. + +The fact that the educated men of to-day are not as familiar with the +Greek and Roman classics as were their fathers gives added value to Mr. +Walsh's fascinating compilation. He gives the name and setting of all +the anywise important characters in the literature of classical, +mediaeval and legendary times. To one who is accustomed to read at all +widely, it will be found of the greatest assistance and benefit; to one +who writes it will be invaluable. These books comprise a complete +encyclopedia of interesting, valuable and curious facts regarding all +the characters of any note whatever in literature. This is the latest +addition to the world-famous Lippincott's Readers' Reference Library. +Each volume, as published, has become a standard part of public and +private libraries. + + +_A Wonderful Story of Heroism_ + +The Home of the Blizzard + + By SIR DOUGLAS MAWSON. Two volumes. 315 remarkable photographs. 16 + colored plates, drawings, plans, maps, etc. 8vo. $9.00 net. + +Have you heard Sir Douglas lecture? If you have, you will want to read +this book that you may become better acquainted with his charming +personality, and to preserve in the three hundred and fifteen superb +illustrations with the glittering text, a permanent record of the +greatest battle that has ever been waged against the wind, the snow, the +crevice ice and the prolonged darkness of over two years in Antarctic +lands. + +It has been estimated by critics as the most interesting and the +greatest account of Polar Exploration. For instance, the London +Athenaeum, an authority, said: "No polar book ever written has surpassed +these volumes in sustained interest or in the variety of the subject +matter." It is indeed a tale of pluck, heroism and infinite endurance +that comes as a relief in the face of accounts of the same qualities +sacrificed in Europe for a cause so less worthy. + +To understand "courage" you must read the author's account of his +terrific struggle alone in the blizzard,--an eighty-mile fight in a +hurricane snow with his two companions left dead behind him. + +The wild life in the southern seas is multitudinous; whole armies of +dignified penguins were caught with the camera; bluff old sea-lions and +many a strange bird of this new continent were so tame that they could +be easily approached. For the first time actual colored photographs +bring to us the flaming lights of the untrodden land. They are +unsurpassed in any other work. + +These volumes will be a great addition to your library; whether large or +small, literary or scientific, they are an inspiration, a delight to +read. + + +Heart's Content + + By RALPH HENRY BARBOUR. Illustrations in color by H. Weston Taylor. + Page Decorations by Edward Stratton Holloway. Handsome cloth + binding. In sealed packet. $1.50 net. + +This is the tale of a summer love affair carried on by an unusual but +altogether bewitching lover in a small summer resort in New England. +Allan Shortland, a gentleman, a tramp, a poet, and withal the happiest +of happy men, is the hero; Beryl Vernon, as pretty as the ripple of her +name, is the heroine. Two more appealing personalities are seldom found +within the covers of a book. Fun and plenty of it, romance and plenty of +it,--and an end full of happiness for the characters, and to the reader +regret that the story is over. The illustrations by H. Weston Taylor, +the decorations by Edward Stratton Holloway and the tasteful sealed +package are exquisite. + + +_A New Volume in THE STORIES ALL CHILDREN LOVE SERIES_ + +Heidi + + By JOHANNA SPYRI. Translated by ELISABETH P. STORK. Introduction by + Charles Wharton Stork. With eight illustrations in color by Maria L. + Kirk. 8vo. $1.25 net. + +This is the latest addition to the Stories All Children Love Series. The +translation of the classic story has been accomplished in a marvellously +simple and direct fashion,--it is a high example of the translator's +art. American children should be as familiar with it as they are with +"Swiss Family Robinson," and we feel certain that on Christmas Day joy +will be brought to the nurseries in which this book is a present. The +illustrations by Maria L. Kirk are of the highest calibre,--the color, +freshness and fantastic airiness present just the spark to kindle the +imagination of the little tots. + + +_HEWLETT'S GREATEST WORK: Romance, Satire and a German_ + +The Little Iliad + + By MAURICE HEWLETT. Colored frontispiece by Edward Burne-Jones. + 12mo. $1.35 net. + +A "Hewlett" that you and every one else will enjoy! It combines the rich +romance of his earliest work with the humor, freshness and gentle satire +of his more recent. + +The whimsical, delightful novelist has dipped his pen in the inkhorn of +modern matrimonial difficulties and brings it out dripping with amiable +humor, delicious but fantastic conjecture. Helen of Troy lives again in +the Twentieth Century, but now of Austria; beautiful, bewitching, +love-compelling, and with it all married to a ferocious German who has +drained the cup and is now squeezing the dregs of all that life has to +offer. He has locomotor ataxia but that does not prevent his Neitschean +will from dominating all about him, nor does it prevent Maurice Hewlett +from making him one of the most interesting and portentous characters +portrayed by the hand of an Englishman in many a day. Four brothers fall +in love with the fair lady,--there are amazing but happy consequences. +The author has treated an involved story in a delightful, naive and +refreshing manner. + + +The Sea-Hawk + + By RAPHAEL SABATINI. 12mo. Cloth. $1.25 net. + +Sabatini has startled the reading public with this magnificent romance! +It is a thrilling treat to find a vivid, clean-cut adventure yarn. +Sincere in this, we beg you, brothers, fathers, husbands and comfortable +old bachelors, to read this tale and even to hand it on to your friends +of the fairer sex, provided you are certain that they do not mind the +glint of steel and the shrieks of dying captives. + + +The Man From the Bitter Roots + + By CAROLINE LOCKHART. 3 illustrations in color by Gayle Hoskins. + 12mo. $1.25 net. + +"Better than 'Me-Smith'"--that is the word of those who have read this +story of the powerful, quiet, competent Bruce Burt. You recall the humor +of "Me-Smith,"--wait until you read the wise sayings of Uncle Billy and +the weird characters of the Hinds Hotel. You recall some of those +flashing scenes of "Me-Smith"--wait until you read of the blizzard in +the Bitter Roots, of Bruce Burt throwing the Mexican wrestling champion, +of the reckless feat of shooting the Roaring River with the dynamos upon +the rafts, of the day when Bruce Burt almost killed a man who tried to +burn out his power plant,--then you will know what hair-raising +adventures really are. The tale is dramatic from the first great scene +in that log cabin in the mountains when Bruce Burt meets the murderous +onslaught of his insane partner. + + +A Man's Hearth + + By ELEANOR M. INGRAM. Illustrated in color by Edmund Frederick. + 12mo. $1.25 net. + +The key words to all Miss Ingram's stories are "freshness," "speed" and +"vigor." "From the Car Behind" was aptly termed "one continuous joy +ride." "A Man's Hearth" has all the vigor and go of the former story and +also a heart interest that gives a wider appeal. A young New York +millionaire, at odds with his family, finds his solution in working for +and loving the optimistic nursemaid who brought him from the depths of +trouble and made for him a hearthstone. There are fascinating side +issues but this is the essential story and it is an inspiring one. It +will be one of the big books of the winter. + + +_By the author of "MARCIA SCHUYLER" "LO! MICHAEL" "THE BEST MAN" etc._ + +The Obsession of Victoria Gracen + + By GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL LUTZ. Illustrated in color. 12mo. + $1.25 net. + +Every mother, every church-worker, every individual who desires to bring +added happiness into the lives of others should read this book. A new +novel by the author of "Marcia Schuyler" is always a treat for those of +us who want clean, cheerful, uplifting fiction of the sort that you can +read with pleasure, recommend with sincerity and remember with +thankfulness. This book has the exact touch desired. The story is of the +effect that an orphan boy has upon his lonely aunt, his Aunt Vic. Her +obsession is her love for the lad and his happiness. There is the +never-failing fund of fun and optimism with the high religious purpose +that appears in all of Mrs. Lutz's excellent stories. + + +Miranda + + By GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL LUTZ. Illustrated in color by E. L. Henry. + 12mo. $1.25 net. + +Nearly all of us fell in love with Miranda when she first appeared in +"Marcia Schuyler," but those who missed that happiness will now find her +even more lovable in this new book of which she is the central figure. +From cover to cover it is a tale of optimism, of courage, of purpose. +You lay it down with a revivified spirit, a stronger heart for the +struggle of this world, a clearer hope for the next, and a determination +to make yourself and the people with whom you come in contact cleaner, +more spiritual, more reverent than ever before. It is deeply religious +in character: a novel that will bring the great spiritual truths of God, +character and attainment straight to the heart of every reader. + + +_"GRIPPING" DETECTIVE TALES_ + +The White Alley + + By CAROLYN WELLS. Frontispiece. 12mo. $1.25 net. + +FLEMING STONE, the ingenious American detective, has become one of the +best known characters in modern fiction. He is the supreme wizard of +crime detection in the WHITE BIRCHES MYSTERY told in,--"THE WHITE +ALLEY." + +The _Boston Transcript_ says: "As an incomparable solver of criminal +enigmas, Stone is in a class by himself. A tale which will grip the +attention." This is what another says:--"Miss Wells's suave and polished +detective, Fleming Stone, goes through the task set for him with +celerity and dispatch. Miss Wells's characteristic humor and cleverness +mark the conversations."--_New York Times._ + + +The Woman in the Car + + By RICHARD MARSH. 12mo. $1.35 net. + +Do you like a thrilling tale? If so, read this one and we almost +guarantee that you will not stir from your chair until you turn the last +page. As the clock struck midnight on one of the most fashionable +streets of London in the Duchess of Ditchling's handsome limousine, +Arthur Towzer, millionaire mining magnate, is found dead at the wheel, +horribly mangled. Yes, this is a tale during the reading of which you +will leave your chair only to turn up the gas. When you are not +shuddering, you are thinking; your wits are balanced against the mind +and system of the famous Scotland Yard, the London detective +headquarters. The men or women who can solve the mystery without reading +the last few pages will deserve a reward,--they should apply for a +position upon the Pinkerton force. + + +_THE NOVEL THEY'RE ALL TALKING ABOUT_ + +The Rose-Garden Husband + + By MARGARET WIDDEMER. Illustrated by Walter Biggs. Small 12mo. + $1.00 net. + +"A BENEVOLENT FRIEND JUST SAVED ME from missing 'The Rose-Garden + Husband.' It is something for thanksgiving, so I send thanks to you + and the author. The story is now cut out and stitched and in my + collection of 'worth-while' stories, in a portfolio that holds only + the choicest stories from many magazines. There is a healthy tone in + this that puts it above most of these choice ones. And a smoothness + of action, a reality of motive and speech that comforts the soul of a + veteran reviewer." _From a Letter to the Publishers._ + +Edition after edition of this novel has been sold, surely you are not +going to miss it. It is going the circle of family after family,--every +one likes it. The _New York Times_, a paper that knows, calls it "a +sparkling, rippling little tale." Order it _now_,--the cost is but one +dollar. + + +The Diary of a Beauty + + By MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL. Illustrated by William Dorr Steele. 12mo. + $1.25 net. + +From the assistant postmistress in a small New England village to the +owner of a great mansion on Fifth Avenue is the story told not as +outsiders saw it, but as the beautiful heroine experiences it,--an +account so naive, so deliciously cunning, so true, that the reader turns +page after page with an inner feeling of absolute satisfaction. + + +The Dusty Road + + By THERESE TYLER. Frontispiece by H. Weston Taylor. 12mo. $1.25 net. + +This is a remarkable story of depth and power,--the struggle of +Elizabeth Anderson to clear herself of her sordid surroundings. Such +books are not written every day, nor every year, nor every ten years. It +is stimulating to a higher, truer life. + + +RECENT VALUABLE PUBLICATIONS + + +The Practical Book of Period Furniture + + Treating of English Period Furniture, and American Furniture of + Colonial and Post-Colonial date, together with that of the typical + French Periods. + + By HAROLD DONALDSON EBERLEIN and ABBOTT McCLURE. With 225 + illustrations in color, doubletone and line. Octavo. Handsomely + decorated cloth. In a box. $5.00 net. + +This book places at the disposal of the general reader all the +information he may need in order to identify and classify any piece of +period furniture, whether it be an original, or a reproduction. The +authors have greatly increased the value of the work by adding an +illustrated chronological key by means of which the reader can +distinguish the difference of detail between the various related +periods. One cannot fail to find the book absorbingly interesting as +well as most useful. + + +The Practical Book of Oriental Rugs + + By DR. G. GRIFFIN LEWIS, Author of "The Mystery of the Oriental + Rug." New Edition, revised and enlarged. 20 full-page illustrations + in full color. 93 illustrations in doubletone. 70 designs in line. + Folding chart of rug characteristics and a map of the Orient. + Octavo. Handsomely bound. In a box. $5.00 net. + +Have you ever wished to be able to judge, understand, and appreciate the +characteristics of those gems of Eastern looms? This is the book that +you have been waiting for, as all that one needs to know about oriental +rugs is presented to the reader in a most engaging manner with +illustrations that almost belie description. "From cover to cover it is +packed with detailed information compactly and conveniently arranged for +ready reference. Many people who are interested in the beautiful fabrics +of which the author treats have long wished for such a book as this and +will be grateful to G. Griffin Lewis for writing it."--_The Dial._ + + +The Practical Book of Outdoor Rose Growing + +NEW EDITION +REVISED AND ENLARGED + + By GEORGE C. THOMAS, JR. Elaborately illustrated with 96 perfect + photographic reproductions in full color of all varieties of roses + and a few half tone plates. Octavo. Handsome cloth binding, in a + slip case. $4.00 net. + +This work has caused a sensation among rose growers, amateurs and +professionals. In the most practical and easily understood way the +reader is told just how to propagate roses by the three principal +methods of cutting, budding and grafting. There are a number of pages in +which the complete list of the best roses for our climate with their +characteristics are presented. One prominent rose grower said that these +pages were worth their weight in gold to him. The official bulletin of +the Garden Club of America said:--"It is a book one must have." It is in +fact in every sense practical, stimulating, and suggestive. + + +The Practical Book of Garden Architecture + + By PHEBE WESTCOTT HUMPHREYS. Frontispiece in color and 125 + illustrations from actual examples of garden architecture and house + surroundings. Octavo. In a box. $5.00 net. + +This beautiful volume has been prepared from the standpoints of eminent +practicability, the best taste, and general usefulness for the owner +developing his own property,--large or small, for the owner employing a +professional garden architect, for the artist, amateur, student, and +garden lover. The author has the gift of inspiring enthusiasm. Her plans +are so practical, so artistic, so beautiful, or so quaint and pleasing +that one cannot resist the appeal of the book, and one is inspired to +make plans, simple or elaborate, for stone and concrete work to +embellish the garden. + + +Handsome Art Works of Joseph Pennell + +The reputation of the eminent artist is ever upon the increase. His +books are sought by all who wish their libraries to contain the best in +modern art. Here is your opportunity to determine upon the purchase of +three of his most sought-after volumes. + + +Joseph Pennell's Pictures of the Panama Canal + + (Fifth printing) 28 reproductions of lithographs made on the Isthmus + of Panama between January and March, 1912, with Mr. Pennell's + Introduction giving his experiences and impressions, and a full + description of each picture. Volume 7 1/2 x 10 inches. Beautifully + printed on dull finished paper. Lithograph by Mr. Pennell on cover. + $1.25 net. + +"Mr. Pennell continues in this publication the fine work which has won +for him so much deserved popularity. He does not merely portray the +technical side of the work, but rather prefers the human +element."--_American Art News._ + + +Our Philadelphia + + By ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL. Illustrated by Joseph Pennell. Regular + Edition. Containing 105 reproductions of lithographs by Joseph + Pennell. Quarto. 7 1/2 x 10 inches. 552 pages. Handsomely bound in red + buckram. Boxed. $7.50 net. + + Autograph Edition. Limited to 289 copies (Now very scarce). Contains + 10 drawings, reproduced by a new lithograph process, in addition to + the illustrations that appear in the regular edition. Quarto. 552 + pages. 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Three-quarter grain levant, $7.50 + net. + +"In its present form and with the new illustrations, some of which +present to us works which are unfamiliar to us, its popularity will be +greatly increased."--_International Studio._ + + +The Stories All Children Love Series + +This set of books for children comprises some of the most famous stories +ever written. Each book has been a tried and true friend in thousands of +homes where there are boys and girls. Fathers and mothers remembering +their own delight in the stories are finding that this handsome edition +of old favorites brings even more delight to their children. The books +have been carefully chosen, are beautifully illustrated, have attractive +lining papers, dainty head and tail pieces, and the decorative bindings +make them worthy of a permanent place on the library shelves. + + Heidi By JOHANNA SPYRI. + Translated by Elisabeth P. Stork. + The Cuckoo Clock By MRS. MOLESWORTH. + The Swiss Family Robinson Edited by G. E. MITTON. + The Princess and the Goblin By GEORGE MACDONALD. + The Princess and Curdie By GEORGE MACDONALD. + At the Back of the North Wind By GEORGE MACDONALD. + A Dog of Flanders By "OUIDA." + Bimbi By "OUIDA." + Mopsa, the Fairy By JEAN INGELOW. + The Chronicles of Fairyland By FERGUS HUME. + Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales + + Each large octavo, with from 8 to 12 colored illustrations. Handsome + cloth binding, decorated in gold and color. $1.25 net, per volume. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man's Hearth, by Eleanor M. 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