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attractive on this side, while holding himself under re straint against her more direct advances, puzsled and discouraged her. Especially if he were, in fact, embarking upon a whirl with Cissie Parmenter. Pat knew Cissie’s methods—or thought she did. Im truth she decidedly underestimated the b.f.’s acumen as well as her adaptability to various kinds of camaraderie. Pat determined to make herself extra-specially attrac tive to Mr. Scott that evening at the dance.

Unfortunately to be extra-specially or even ordinarily attractive to a person, you must first draw that person within the radius of attraction. To Pat's discomfiture

Mr. Scott evinced no interest whatsoever in her; barely any cognisance of her existence and presence at the dance. With the other girls in the wedding party he had early dances, to their obvious satisfaction, for in seme occult

way, though not of the party proper, he had come te be a central figure of interest. He was deemed “unusual,” fascinating, “relieving"—a word which had recently come

much into vogue in that set. Cissie Parmenter had been exploiting him. The party was notable for its pretty girls; but Pat, though on the score of actual beauty she was far behind in the running, glowed among them with her dark, exotic radiance, like a flame among flowers. She was beset with admirers competing for such fractions of dances as they could get. Every man in the room had been a suppliant except Mr. Scott. In that atmosphere of adulation Pat

seemed to become more quiveringly, femininely, alluringly alive. She exhaled delight, like a perfume of her ardent soul. Yet in all the excitement of her pleasures, she was waiting and hoping and manceuvring. . . . Twice Cary Seott had danced with Dee; three times with Connie, whe

was her old, lovely, wistful self for the occasion; Pat didn’t

/

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feel any too comfortable about that. Once he had danced with Cissie, and once sat out with her on the piazza; and Pat didn’t feel at all comfortable about that. Here it was the twelfth dance and he hadn’t come near her. Between two numbers she caught sight of him just outside a door, and then and there deserted a lamenting partner. “Mister Scott!” He turned, and, in spite of himself, felt his breath quicken. She was so superb in the sure luxuriance of her youth; so appealing in the poise of her body, the turn of

her head. “Having a good time?” he asked courteously. “Gorgeous!” she said mechanically. “Who you taking

in to supper?” “Your very charming little friend, Miss Parmenter.” “Oh!?? said Pat. “That’s terribly nice of you. If it weren’t for you,” she added viciously, “I’m afraid Cissie’d be having a dull time.” “J haven’t noticed that she’s had many dull moments,” he answered, smiling slightly. Pat stamped her foot. ‘Then you’ve been watching her all the time. I think you might have——” She choked a little. “Night air too much for you, Pat?” he inquired solicitously. “No; it isn’t. .. . Aren’t you going to ask me for a dance, Mr. Scott? You didn’t last night, either.” “Surely your programme is already full to overflowing. oF “Tt is. But I might do some shifty work with it.” “Thoughtful of you. But you would doubtless find it more amusing to sit out, or perhaps I should say stand out, the later dances in some remote nook with some attrac-

tive youth.” He was speaking quite slowly and softly. “X might even say... any attractive youth.”

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 HEY sauntered along the causeway till they came to the top of the hill on which stood that archway, the memorial to a virtuous widow, which had occupied so large a part of Kitty’s impression of the place. It was a symbol, but of what she scarcely knew; she could not tell why it bore a note of so sardonic irony.

“Shall we sit down a little? We haven’t sat here for ages.” The plain was spread before her widely; it was tranquil and serene in the morning light. “It’s only a few weeks that I’ve been here and it seems a lifetime.”

He did not answer and for a while she allowed her thoughts to wander. She gave a sigh.

“Do you think that the soul is immortal?” she asked.

He did not seem surprised at the question.

“How should I know?”

“Just now, when they’d washed Walter, before they put him into the coffin I looked at him. He looked very young. Too young to die. Do you remember that beggar that we saw the first time you took me for a walk? I was frightened not because he was dead, but because he looked as though he’d never been a human being. He was just a dead animal. And now again, with Walter, it looked so like a machine that has run down. That’s what is so frightening. And if it is only a machine how


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 gether; it had gathered its tribes and called all the neighboring people, it spake of nothing but the fight. Each heart burnt for me, men and women crying out; for each heart was troubled for me, and they said: “Is there another strong one who would fight with him? Behold the adversary has a buckler, a battle-axe, and an armful of javelins.” Then I drew him to the attack; I turned aside his arrows, and they struck the ground in vain. One drew near to the other, and he fell on me, and then I shot him. My arrow fastened in his neck, he cried out, and fell on his face: I drove his lance into him, and raised my shout of victory on his back. While all the men of the land rejoiced, I, and his vassals whom he had oppressed, gave thanks unto Mentu. This prince, Amuan-shi, embraced me. Then I carried off his goods and took his cattle, that which he had wished to do to me, I did even so unto him; I seized that which was in his tent, I spoiled his dwelling. As time went on I increased the richness of my treasures and the number of my cattle.

“Now behold what the god has done for me who trusted in him. Having once fled away, yet now there is a witness of me in the palace. Once having fled away, as a fugitive—now all in the palace give unto me a good name. After that I had been dying of hunger, now I give bread to those around. I had left my land naked, and now I am clothed in fine linen. After having been a wanderer without followers, now I possess many serfs. My house is fine, my land wide, my memory is established in the temple of all the gods. And let this flight obtain thy forgiveness; that I may be appointed in the palace; that I may see the place where my heart dwells. How great a thing is it that my body should be embalmed in the land where I was born! To return there is happiness. I have made offering to God to grant me this thing. His heart suffers who has run away unto a strange land. Let him hear the prayer of him who is afar off, that he may revisit the place of his birth, and the place from which he removed.

“May the King of Egypt be gracious to me that I may live of his favor. And I render my homage to the mistress of the land, who is in his palace; may I hear the news of her


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She moved closer to him, with puzzled eagerness in her eyes. ‘Won't you please tell me what you mean?” “Consult your memory,” he suggested. “Surely it will go back for twenty-four hours.” Illumination came to her. “Was it you who came around the corner last night?’

“It was.” Pat’s eyes fell, But there was a light in them which he would have found hard to interpret, harder than he thought her next plaintive, exculpatory words: “It’s been so long since anyone has petted me.” “And you require a certain amount of petting to keep you up to form,” he remarked with cold contempt. “You've got the meanest way of speaking,” she muttered, before making direct response. “Well, if nobody ever pets you, you get to feeling like a social leper; as if nobody cared about you. That’s a ghastly feeling.” “I’m sure you’re quite competent to guard yourself against it.” “Well, you wouldn’t pet me,” she said very low, “when you'd hurt my feelings. In the music room.” “How very remiss of me!” Her attitude changed. Her boyish shoulders straightened. Her firm little chin went up. “How much did you see last night?” “Sufficient to suggest that I was in the way.” “Were Monty and I clinched?” “Quite so.” “And you went on right away?” “Naturally.” “If you had stayed,” she said calmly, “you might have been of some use.

Monty was pickled.

te crash when I grabbed him.” “Ts that true, Pat?”

He was just going

Oe OD eek OT et Ie ON a ed Oi TI

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She met his searching look with unwavering eyes, her aostrils wide with pride. “Do you think I’m so afraid of you—or of anyone—that Id lie about it?” To look at her and disbelieve was impossible. “Besides,”

she added, her voice breaking a little in

éelf-pity, “I told you I was through with that necking game.” “How do you want me to apologise, little Pat?” Her unerring instinct for the charming, the compelling move inspired her. “I don’t want you to apologise. I want you to dance with me.” “Any and all that you'll give me—and with all gratitude and contrition.” “T’ll filch out two; the fifteenth

and the fifth extra.

You must be watching. And—about supper—couldn’t you?” “No. Not possibly. How could I?” She smiled, ruefully yet with a shining quality in her disappointment. “Of course you couldn’t. It wouldn’t be you if you did. I don’t care—now.” Until the fifteenth number Scott did not return to the ballroom but wandered outside in dreamy and restless expectation. What he expected, he could not have told, He was conscious chiefly of an enormous relief in the discovery that Pat had not gone back on her good resolutions. But this was only part of what he felt. The callowest sophomore could hardly have found himself more eager or less certain of his ground, than did Cary Scott, man of ripened wisdom and wide experience of women though he was, as he entered to claim his appointment. “But I tell you, Monty,” Pat was saying to a tall and particularly handsome youth who stood before her, pro-

gramme

in hand and a look of almost ludicrous dis-

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appointment on his face, “you've made a mistake. You'y mixed your dates with cocktails.” 3 “T teld you last night IW stay off it" muttered the

youth, “and Ive done it. And now you're throwing me down.” 7 “Oh, come areund later, sai eben carelessly. She sipped inte Scott's arms, ay “Don't let enyeae cat in.” After afewtures checoms” ee tieaRamtreettebtceriogmcss we've had a dance together.” “Te might be a thousand years in its effect en yom ee

ealled me?—your wise and guiding frend.* “Arent you that now? You must abrays he,” aul returned quickly. “And for me only. De you Hike CGissig,-

Mr. Scott?” “Tmmensely.

She's charming.”

“Better than me?” challenged Pat.

Sate msewere affthn:doce hnconght bacSes for a moment and felt the httle, excited access of laughter”

which ran through her body hike a tearless soh “What | do you think?” he queried.

sy

Her cheek fluttered against his. “Then that’s a right.” she breathed. “You dear! whispered Scott. He falt himself losing”

his head ; told himself that this was inexcusable foolishness, — unfair, unworthy, sterile trifiing with eull chance. Yet be lacked the foree to draw back.

Wook] you mindverymuch.” asked Patdeprecatiaglil after a pause, “if I remeged on the fifth extra?* _

“Indeed I should!

Unless"—he

tried for a light

tone—“there’s some special reason for it, seach asthat you,* dont want to give it to me.”

“Oh, I want to terridly. Bet Pain ech a

that dance would straighten me out. . . I thought

4

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haps you’d wait and take me home. about three.

179

I’m going quite early;

Will you?”

66Ves,”?

“We'll walk through the lawns; it’s only three minutes. Watch out for my signal.” She was giving him orders as one with a proprietary claim. Scott thrilled to it. He would not let himself think to what it was leading. His mind was absorbed in the delight of her, that dark radiance of personality, the sweet compulsion of her charm. He would have waited all night, though a little time before he had thought himself beginning to be bored. It did not seem long when he saw her coming toward him, her wrap over her arm. “Quick!” she directed. “Or there'll be a howl about my leaving. I’m not even going to say good-night.” Then they were in the autumn-spiced darkness together, her arm linked in his. It seemed quite natural that her fingers should slip into and twine themselves about his palm. “Isn’t it a grand little world!” she chuckled softly. “You’re a wonderful little Pat,” he replied unsteadily. “—D’you really think I’m wonderful? Sometimes I think so myself. Other times”—she hunched her shoulders in a gesture peculiar to her—“I think I’m just like everyone else,” “Like no one else in the world.” “Because no two people are alike, of course. Id hate to be exactly somebody’s twin. . . . You’re that way, too, You don’t remind me of anyone I’ve ever seen. Most men do.” They had come to a gate which resisted Pat’s attempt, being locked. ‘Oh, very well! she said, addressing it, She attained the top, agile as a cat. But in getting
 * T’ve had such fun to-night.”
 * J7ll just climb you.”

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down she tore her frock. ‘Oh, hell!” she cried lamentably. “Are you shocked, Mr. Scott? You don’t like me to swear, do you?” “T like you to be your very self, Pat.” te be with,” she meditated.
 * Tt’s easy to be that with you. You’re an easy person

She stopped under the shelter of a small arbour spanning one of the sideyard paths of Holiday Knoll. Clematis in full glory covered it. The faint, rich odour of its late blossoming, dewy and fresh and virginal as if the aging year, after all its fecund maternity of summer, had again put forth its claim to imperishable maidenhood in the blooms, enveloped them. She turned upon him the slant challenge of her eyes from beneath the clouding mass of hair. “Do

you truly like me,” she wheedled,

“better than

Cissie?” As if the words were torn from the depths of him and forced through his constricted throat, he answered: “T’m mad about you.” “‘Oh-h-h-h-h,” she crooned, and there was both dismay

and delight inthe sound. “I didn’t want you to say that.” “T didn’t want to say it,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean to say it.” He stared intently before him; his brain felt numb. There was an appalled sense of inner catastrophe, wholly unforeseen, inherent in the impossible situation. “Oh, why did you have to go and say it?” she wailed in childish resentment. “It spoils everything.” He made no reply. Her intonation changed, became daring and seductive, “It’s just a—a—sort of fatherly interest, isn’t it?” “No.”

“Now you’re angry.

But it ought to be.”

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“No. I want it to be—as it is. Yet I don’t.” He gathered himself together. “I’m sorry, little Pat. Suppose we agree to forget it.” “I won’t,” she mutinied. “I don’t want to forget it.” “TI do,” he said moodily. “Then I won’t let you.” Slowly she lifted her hands and held them out to him. The finger tips were icy cold to his clasp. He could hear
 * Do you want it to be?”

her quick, unsteady breathing. “Pat! Little Pat!”? he whispered. A smile blossomed upon her curved mouth, tender, trem-

ulous, persuasive. She swayed forward, lifting her face, half closing her eyes. With the gasp of a man whose last strength of restraint is shattered, he enfolded her, crushing his lips down upon hers. Only the one long, slow kiss in the breathless silence,

and all the world forgotten in its ecstasy. Then Pat pressed herself gently back from him, looked eagerly, curiously, triumphantly into his face, and stood clear. “My God, Pat!” he groaned. “I didn’t mean to do that.” “¥. did,” she said. From the roses drooping below her breast she detached a bud, crushed to a perfumed splotch of colour in the fierce pressure of their embrace, and held it out to him. “Keepsake,”

she breathed.

“It’s red, red, red.

It’s

the colour of life. My colour. Pat’s colour. Good-night, Mr. Scott.” “Mister” Scott! After that fusion of lips and longings

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 children. Thus will my limbs grow young again. Now old age comes, feebleness seizes me, my eyes are heavy, my arms are feeble, my legs will not move, my heart is slow. Death draws nigh to me, soon shall they lead me to the city of eternity. Let me follow the mistress of all (the queen, his former mistress); lo! let her tell me the excellencies of her children; may she bring eternity to me.”

Then the majesty of King Kheper-ka-ra, the blessed, spake upon this my desire that I had made to him. His Majesty sent unto me with presents from the King, that he might enlarge the heart of his servant, like unto the province of any strange land; and the royal sons who are in the palace addressed themselves unto me.

“The Horus, life of births, lord of the crowns, life of births, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Kheper-ka-ra, son of the Sun, Amen-em-hat, ever living unto eternity. Order for the follower Sanehat. Behold this order of the King is sent to thee to instruct thee of his will.

“Now, although thou hast gone through strange lands from Adim to Tenu, and passed from one country to another at the wish of thy heart—behold, what hast thou done, or what has been done against thee, that is amiss? Moreover, thou reviledst not; but if thy word was denied, thou didst not speak again in the assembly of the nobles, even if thou wast desired. Now, therefore, that thou hast thought on this matter which has come to thy mind, let thy heart not change again; for this thy Heaven (queen), who is in the palace is fixed, she is flourishing, she is enjoying the best in the kingdom of the land, and her children are in the chambers of the palace.

“Leave all the riches that thou hast, and that are with thee, altogether. When thou shalt come into Egypt behold the palace, and when thou shalt enter the palace, bow thy face to the ground before the Great House; thou shalt be chief among the companions. And day by day behold thou growest old; thy vigor is lost, and thou thinkest on the day of burial. Thou shalt see thyself come to the blessed state, they shall give thee the bandages from the hand of Tait, the night of


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Rh merly sworn by travellers at Highgate—such as "never to stir the fire with a sword, and never to kiss any woman above two-and-twenty" —they should in good time find their way there again. Just as the writer is taking his leave, "Ulysses, unknown to Penelope, slipped into his hand a note to Calypso, directed to the island of Ogygia." The note, in the course of their subsequent wanderings, was duly delivered, and Calypso entertained the hearers very handsomely in her island; asking, not without tears, many questions about her old lover; and also—whether Penelope was really so very lovely and so virtuous? to which, very prudently, says Lucian, "we made such a reply as we thought would please her best."

They meet with some other adventures, tedious to our ears, sated as they are with fiction in all shapes, but probably not so to the hearers or readers to whom Lucian addressed them. But either he grew tired of story-telling, or the conclusion of this "Veracious History" has been lost; for it breaks off abruptly,


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 7 CHAPTER

XVII

Ixststent jangling of the telephone woke Scott next

morning at the cluh, He was prepared for the rough sweetness of Pat's voice in his ear. “Ts that you, Mr. Scott? Aren’t you up yet? Lazy “Good-morning, little Pat. What time is it?” “J did wake you up, then. It’s terribly early—for me. Only nine. Aren't you surprised to hear me?” “Not a bit.” “Oh! You expected me to call up. Boasting, aren’t you? I didn’t intend to call you.” “But I intended to call you. Whst changed your mind?” “Oh, I don"t know,” she said evasively.

early myself, and I suppose I felt lonely.

“I woke up

When are you

coming out?" “Just as soon as I can get there.”

Her soft, elfin chuckle was the reception which this announcement

see you now.

got.

“Quick, then!

I want

awfully te

And I might change my mind later.

Throughout the hurried processes of dressing while he breakfasted,

Scott

strove

to quiet

and

command

his

thoughts, to find some clue to this tangle of passion wherein he had become ensnared. Incredible that he should so have lost himself, after the warning of the earlier experience.

She, too, had been carried beyond her depth

by a feeling presumably uninterpretable to her inexper® ence; so he believed. True, she had been through sentimental encounters before, by her own admission, but he

too fatuously assumed that these were of minor and ise

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transient import, that it had remained to him to awaken her. “Boasting,” Pat would have said. She was awaiting him in the music room. “I thought you were never coming,” she sighed. “But the. others aren’t up yet.” She half lifted her arms, expectant, enticing. “Wait,” said he. She gave him a quick glance, puzzled, ena a little angry. ‘“You’re going to scold me, It was all your fault.” “Absolutely. If there is anyone to be scolded it’s I.” “It wasn’t,” she declared with one of her vehement and

point-blank reversals. “I did it.” Her face took on its most impish expression. “Bad bunny! I don’t care.” “I care,” he said evenly. “More than I could have believed it possible to care. I love you, Pat.” “Oh, no!” she protested. “I didn’t want you to say that.” “What did you expect?” he demanded, taken aback. “Did you want this to be just a cheap and easy little flirtation—a flutter, as you call it?” “No-o. I didn’t want it to be that. I wanted you to— to like me. But why did you have to say that?” “As a justification.

No, not quite that; nothing can

justify me. But as an excuse, not for myself, but for you.” “For me? I don’t understand.” “Think, Pat.” His voice was very gentle. Her dark, delicate brows drew down in concentration.

“Yes; I think I do see.

You mean you would not have

kissed me that way without—without thinking a lot of me.” “I mean that I should not be here now if I were not deeply and wholly in love with you.”

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“And you’re telling me to keep me from feeling ashamed of myself.” “Yes. There is nothing shameful in my feeling for you, inexcusable as it is.” “I think,” she pronounced slowly, “you’re the most divine man I’ve ever met.” “Oh, no,” he refuted bitterly. “Just a weakling. But I give you my word, dear love, if I could have foreseen this I would have gone to the farthest corner of the earth rather than have it come about.” She lifted startled and wondering eyes to his. “Why?” “You know how things are with me, Pat. You know I’m not free.” A lively interest animated her expression. “Oh, yes. Though [’ve never thought of it much. Tell me about your wife.” He winced. “What is there to tell?” “Tell me what she is like? Is she dark or fair? Are you very much in love with her?” “Pat

{99

“Well, you must have loved her or you wouldn’t have married her, would you? Doesn’t she care for you?” “T will tell you this much,” he said after a pause. “We are completely estranged. But as she is still my wife in name and likely to remain so, I cannot discuss her. Not even with you.” “Oh, very well!” Pat’s familiar imp had taken possession of her face again. “It’s none of my business, of course.” “That is not quite fair of you, is it?” “Of course it isn’t.” She caught his hand, pressed her cheek down into it, and was violently crushed into his arms, her mouth quivering beneath his kiss, “My God, how I love you!” he groaned.

ORL Ee gS ak a ET ee PP oe) PTD ne ee m e Te R eee I

Ms

4 s

5

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 applying the oil of embalming. They shall follow thy funeral, and visit the tomb on the day of burial, which shall be in a gilded case, the head painted with blue, a canopy of cypress wood above thee, and oxen shall draw thee, the singers going before thee, and they shall dance the funeral dance. The weepers crouching at the door of thy tomb shall cry aloud the prayers for offerings: they shall slay victims for thee at the door of thy pit; and thy pyramid shall be carved in white stone, in the company of the royal children. Thus thou shalt not die in a strange land, nor be buried by the Amu; thou shalt not be laid in a sheepskin when thou art buried; all people shall beat the earth, and lament on thy body when thou goest to the tomb.”

When this order came to me, I was in the midst of my tribe. When it was read unto me, I threw me on the dust, I threw dust in my hair; I went around my tent rejoicing and saying: “How may it be that such a thing is done to the servant, who with a rebellious heart has fled to strange lands? Now with an excellent deliverance, and mercy delivering me from death, thou shalt cause me to end my days in the palace.”

“The follower Sanehat says: In excellent peace above everything consider of this flight that he made here in his ignorance; Thou, the Good God, Lord of both Lands, Loved of Rā, Favorite of Mentu, the Lord of Thebes, and of Amen, lord of thrones of the lands, of Sebek, Rā, Horus, Hathor, Atmu, and of his fellow-gods, of Sopdu, Neferbiu, Samsetu, Horus, lord of the east, and of the royal uræus which rules on thy head, of the chief gods of the waters, of Min, Horus of the desert, Urrit, mistress of Punt, Nut, Harnekht, Rā, all the gods of the land of Egypt, and of the isles of the sea. May they give life and peace to thy nostril, may they load thee with their gifts, may they give to thee eternity without end, everlastingness without bound. May the fear of thee be doubled in the lands of the deserts. Mayest thou subdue the circuit of the sun’s disk. This is the prayer to his master of the humble servant who is saved from a foreign land.

“O wise King, the wise words which are pronounced in the wisdom of the majesty of the sovereign, thy humble servant


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This time she accepted it.

YOUTH

185

“Do you?” she crooned.

Releasing herself she drew him over to the divan, where she snuggled close to him. “I believe you do. It seems so funny. But I don’t see that it makes much difference, your being married.” “This difference ;that it’s all wrong, and unfair to you,

and only means suffering later on.” “That isn’t what I meant.” With lowered face she plucked nervously at his coat sleeve. ‘I mean—suppose you were

free; you wouldn’t

want

to marry

me, would

your”

“Good God, Pat! I want it more than anything else in the world.” “Little Me?” she crowed in delight. “That seems awfully funny. You’re so—so different, and you know so much, and I don’t know anything.” She pondered the matter. “If I was ten years older, or you were ten years younger I think it would be thrilling! But of course there’s nothing in that,” she added briskly. “You’re married and that’s settled. Am I acting like a rotter?” “I am,” he answered hoarsely. “I’m sorry, little PatI’ve been a beast. But I think I’ve got your point of view, now. It’s rather a shock—but there won’t be any more of that kind of love-making from me.” Like a little, lithe tigress she pounced upon him. “There will!” she panted rebelliously. “I want it to be so. I love to have you pet me.” “And I haven’t even the strength to resist that,” he mut-

tered. “I love you so.” ‘Then you must be very nice to me all the rest of the party, and I’ll save out as many dances as I can for you, and you can take me home again to-night. Couldn’t you come back a little while this afternoon, late?”

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“I'd go anywhere in the world and give up anything in the world for a moment with you, Pat.”

“Then be here at five o’clock. All the others will be dressing or bathing or gabbling. We’ll have the place to ourselves again. Aren’t I nice to you, Mr. Scott?” “How can you call me Mister, after this?” “I don’t know,” she said pensively. “It seems more natural. But I suppose I could call you Cary. Cissie did. I was furious at her.” “No-need. There’s no room for anyone else in my heart or thought but you.” “But you’re going to run her over to Philadelphia in your car.” “Am I? [I hadn’t heard about it.” “Aren’t you? What a liar Cissie is! Then you’re going to run me over when I go back to school. Will your”

“Of course.

But what will the family think of all

this?” “Nothing. I’m only the Infant to them. If they did think anything about it it wouldn’t make any special difjerence. They’d think it was a lovely joke.” “You mean even if they knew that I am in love with gour”

She gave him a glowing glance. ‘“They’d say, ‘Little Pat’s gone and snared herself a real live man.? You don’t know this family.” Suddenly she drew away from him,

jumped to her feet, and darted to the door, where she stood smiling and poised. “What’s it all coming to, anyway?” she laughed. What, indeed? Scott put the question to himself, but in no spirit of laughter. Toward womankind Cary Scott had much of the continental attitude. Since the separation from his wife

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 fears to tell. It is a great thing to repeat. O great God, like unto Rā in fulfilling that to which he has set his hand, what am I that he should take thought for me? Am I among those whom he regards, and for whom he arranges? Thy majesty is as Horus, and the strength of thy arms extends to all lands.

“Then let his Majesty bring Maki of Adma, Kenti-au-ush of Khenti-keshu, and Tenus from the two lands of the Fenkhu; these are the princes who bear witness of me as to all that has passed, out of love for thyself. Does not Tenu believe that it belongs to thee like thy dogs? Behold this flight that I have made: I did not have it in my heart; it was like the leading of a dream, as a man of Adehi (Delta) sees himself in Abu (Elephantine), as a man of the plain of Egypt who sees himself in the deserts. There was no fear, there was no hastening after me, I did not listen to an evil plot, my name was not heard in the mouth of the magistrate; but my limbs went, my feet wandered, my heart drew me; my god commanded this flight, and drew me on; but I am not stiff-necked. Does a man fear when he sees his own land? Rā spread thy fear over the land, thy terrors in every strange land. Behold me now in the palace, behold me in this place; and lo! thou art he who is over all the horizon; the sun rises at thy pleasure, the water in the rivers is drunk at thy will, the wind in heaven is breathed at thy saying.

“I who speak to thee shall leave my goods to the generations to follow in this land. And as to this messenger who is come even let thy majesty do as pleaseth him, for one lives by the breath that thou givest. O thou who art beloved of Rā, of Horus, and of Hathor; Mentu, lord of Thebes, desires that thy august nostril should live forever.”

I made a feast in Iaa, to pass over my goods to my children. My eldest son was leading my tribe, all my goods passed to him, and I gave him my corn and all my cattle, my fruit, and all my pleasant trees. When I had taken my road to the south, and arrived at the roads of Horus, the officer who was over the garrison sent a messenger to the palace to give notice. His Majesty sent the good overseer of the peasants of the King’s domains, and boats laden with presents from the King for the Sati who had come to conduct me to the roads of Horus. I spoke to each one by his name, and I gave


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and the freedom of action which it implied, he had played the game of passion, real or counterfeit, in sundry places and with sundry partners, always married women hitherto, and always within the code as he interpreted it. But there remained in him enough of the American to inhibit him from the thought of a purposeful siege upon a young, unmarried girl of a household wherein he was a professed friend. Besides, he loved Pat too well, he told himself, to harm her. It was incredible; it was shameful; it was damnable; but this child, this petite gamine, this reckless, careless, ignorant, swift-witted, unprincipled, selfish, vain, lovable, impetuous, bewildering, seductive, half-formed girl had

taken his heart in her two strong, shapely woman-hands, and claimed it away from him—for what? A toy? A keepsake? A treasure? What future was there for this abrupt and blind encounter of his manhood and her womanhood? He could find no answer. But of one fact he was appallingly certain: that all the radiance, the glamour wherewith he had surrounded the figure of Mona, all the desire which the soft loveliness, the reluctant half-yielding of Constance had inspired in him, were merged and submerged in the passion that had swept him into Pat’s eager and clinging arms. To what bitter and perhaps absurd end? For he was

bound, and she hardly more than a playful child.

He

recalled her strange look as she had left him. What might one read in it? A glow of possessiveness? A gleam of bright mockery? Or the undecipherable Sphinxhood of the woman triumphant who knows herself loved?

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XVIII

WirH unwearying strategy Pat made opportunities for being with Scott thereafter. Each time they were together alone she came to his arms as sweetly and naturally as if she claimed him of right; each time until the evening before the wedding when, as he drew her to him, she twitched away with a boyish, petulant jerk of the shoulders. “What is it, Pat?” he queried. “Nothing. I don’t want you to pet me. That’s all.” He had the acumen to suspect that this might be a

first crisis in their newly established relations, though he did not fathom her purpose. “Very well,” he assented quietly. ‘You are quite right, of course.” This did not suit Pat at all. From her youthful suitors she was accustomed to woeful protests. “Am I?” she retorted perversely. “I’m not. There’s nothing right about it.”

“No. But there is this. I shall never make any claim upon you except as you wish it.” “Well, I don’t wish it. Not now.” A dart of lightning flashed through her clouded look. “I might to-morrow.” His brows lifted, enquiringly. Mockingly, too? Pat wondered. You never could tell with Mr. Scott. What would he say? He said nothing. “D’you know what I mean?” demanded Pat, who didn’t slearly know herself. “Perfectly.” “What?” “Coquetry. That’s a form of dishonesty between us.

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 the presents to each as was intended. I received and I returned the salutation, and I continued thus until I reached the city of Thetu.

When the land was brightened, and the new day began, four men came with a summons for me; and the four men went to lead me to the palace. I saluted with both my hands on the ground; the royal children stood at the courtyard to conduct me: the courtiers who were to lead me to the hall brought me on the way to the royal chamber.

I found his Majesty on the great throne in the hall of pale gold. Then I threw myself on my belly; this god, in whose presence I was, knew me not. He questioned me graciously, but I was as one seized with blindness, my spirit fainted, my limbs failed, my heart was no longer in my bosom, and I knew the difference between life and death. His Majesty said to one of the companions, “Lift him up, let him speak to me.” And his Majesty said, “Behold thou hast come, thou hast trodden the deserts, thou hast played the wanderer. Decay falls on thee, old age has reached thee; it is no small thing that thy body should be embalmed, that the Pedtiu shall not bury thee. Do not, do not, be silent and speechless; tell thy name; is it fear that prevents thee?” I answered in reply, “I fear, what is it that my lord has said that I should answer it? I have not called on me the hand of God, but it is terror in my body, like that which brings sudden death. Now behold I am before thee; thou art life; let thy Majesty do what pleaseth him.”

The royal children were brought in, and his Majesty said to the Queen, “Behold thou Sanehat has come as an Amu, whom the Sati have produced.”

She cried aloud, and the royal children spake with one voice, saying, before his Majesty, “Verily it is not so, O King, my lord.” Said his Majesty, “It is verily he.” Then they brought their collars, and their wands, and their sistra in their hands, and displayed them before his Majesty; and they sang—


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And between us there is no reason nor place for anything but honesty.” She came to him then, encircled him closely, drew her

lips from his, after a time, to murmur: “You understand me so. When you say things like that I’m crazy about you.” Against his better judgment he said: “I wonder how much you really care for me, Pat?” “Oh, an awful lot! Or I wouldn’t be acting like this, But,” she added with pensive frankness, “I’ve been just

as crazy about other people before.” “I see. It’s the normal thing for you io feel this way toward someone.” “Oh, well; you expect to have somebody in love with you,” she explained. “Think how lost you’d feel without it. And it’s natural to play back, isn’t it? Now P’ve hurt you.” She spoke the words with a kind of remorseful interest as an experimentalist might feel pity for the animal under his knife. “That doesn’t matter. One gets used to being hurt.” All woman, at this she tightened her embrace. “I don’t want you to be hurt. I do love you. Only with me it doesn’t last.

But there’s never been anyone who inter-

ested me as much as you do. I don’t see what you find ix. me, though.” ‘Said the rose to the bee.”?” He forced himself to laugh as he gave the quotation. But within, the cold disillusionment of whatever blind hopes he may have felt, which had underlain his passion from the first, asserted itself. What constancy could he expect from this will, of-the-wisp girl? And what could a lasting attraction mean for her except such unhappiness as he knew himself fated to suffer? He took his resolution, Whatever might come to him he must so command himself and his actions

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as to safeguard Pat in every possible way.

Already, he

knew, his intellectual influence over that unsated, groping, casual mind was strong enough to outlast any change in the more purely physical attraction which she felt for him. If he could find the strength to crush down his own passion, he might still mould her to make something of herself, direct her ardent temperament into channels through which she would eventually come to safe harbour. There lies in every man of strong mentality a trace of the pedagogue. Scott had it. If he could not be Pat’s lover, he might find some self-sacrificing satisfaction in being her guide and mentor. That he was prepared for self-

sacrifice was the best evidence in his own mind of the quality of his love for the girl. In his lesser affairs he had sought only self-satisfaction. “My dearest,” he said, “I think we have come to a turning-point. We’ve got to stop this sort of thing.”

She cuddled closer to him in the remote darkness of the swing where they sat out two successive dances which she had contrived to save for him. “I don’t want to!” she rebelled. “Do you think I want to! But I’m thinking of the FESKe “You said there wasn’t any danger with you,” she teased. “Boasting, were you, when you claimed you had self-control enough for both of us.” “Ym not thinking of that kind of danger.” “What then? Oh, of our being trapped! But there’s only one more day after this,” she pleaded, “and then I go back.” “But you'll be coming home again before long.” “By that time I may be crazy about someone else,” was the calm reply.

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“Which is pleasant for me to contemplate,” he replied grimly. _ “Tt’s a mess, isn’t it? What d’you expect me to do? What do you want me to do?” “Tf it’s a question of the best thing for you,” he said,

speaking slowly and with effort, “that would be for you to fall in love genuinely with some man who would understand you and safeguard you de “You want me to marry? Do you, Cary?” “Tt will almost kill me,” he said between his teeth.

“But

—it’s the way, for you.” “Probably it is. Ill make a rotten wife,” she said, as she had said to Dr. Osterhout. “You could make heaven or hell for a man. But marriage alone isn’t going to be enough. ‘There are other things.” “You mean—children?” “That, too. But what I meant was some background for yourself. Your music, or reading, or some interest to fall back on.” “Why

p??

“Because you’ve got an eager and active mind, Pat.

half-starved mind, if you only knew it.

A

It’s going to

demand things when the novelty begins to wear off.” “When I get tired of my husband?” “TI hope you’re going to marry a man of whom you won't tire,” he said gravely. “But there’s a certain monotony about marriage. Many women tire of that. Then is the danger time.” “Then I'll send for you.” A devil sparkled in her eyes.

“JT wouldn’t come.” “Not come! Not when I needed you?” “From the ends of the earth if you needed me. Bu* not for any caprice. I’d put you on honour there. Hap-

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Pinmess doesn't He im that direction, Httle Pat, aa want for you is happiness.” She brooded upon this darkly. “J believe you do,” ae whispered after a time. “More than for yourself.” “More than for myself,* he repeated. “Why not?* — <

“Don't make me ery,” she sak,

2: “Te tears me to pieces

nee

te ery. And then, Pm such a sight

“Nonsense ® he returned brusquely. “You're not going ta.

What is there te ery about?

‘Men have died” you”

know, ‘and worms have eaten them, bat mot far Jere? ® “What's that from?" she asked, seeking relief inthe fern.

“Tbsen?

ti ccestiy* heonded. “Tk.wonsald an© Se by a charming and rebellious Pat of her time named Rosa> tied” “Oh, I know! ‘As You Like RY Aren't I clever! The Rosalind reminds me of something. Aunt Linda’s here, Have you seen her?

“Ne. Whe is she?” “My very pettest aunt. She's an old peach. Fil take you to her if she's broken away from the bridge game. But Grst————"_ She Hfted pleading and hungry eyes to him. “Well, Pat?

“Our being so—so dem" good and proper doesn't have te begin until I go, does it

He swept her into his arms, held her dase and long. “Oh, Pat! Little wonderful Pat.” he breathed. am = ever to de without you”

“What

“J dent want you toe do without me.” she murmared. “J want you to be always somewhere—somewhere where I ean find you if Be careful! Here comes some buthin? They returned te the dancing floor, where Pat carvey drew Scott by thehand seross theream tea group ima cerner. “Here she is,” she announced. “That's Aunt ‘

AY/

oe Br, Ps

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Linda.” Before she could go further with this informal presentation a circle of importunate claimants had swept about her. “flow do you do, Mr. Cary Scott?” said the lady before whom he found himself standing. “Mrs. Parker!” he ejaculated. Pat’s description of “old peach” was decidedly overdrawn as to the adjective, though not as to the noun. Aunt Linda was a slim, twinkling, rose-complexioned woman of thirty-five, gowned in a work of art and characterised by a quality of worldliness which, like Scott’s own, was a degree above mere smartness. She carried with her a breath of the greater outer world. Moreover she was, if not beautiful, extremely attractive to rors at by virtue of a sort of eternal fitness. “You’ve forgotten me,” she accused lightly. “Or at least, my name. I’m Miss Fentriss.” Not a muscle of Scott’s face testified to his surprise at this unexpected denial of a perfectly remembered name. “So stupia of me,” he confessed. “Won’t you try a round of this dance?” “No; I’m not dancing. But you may take me to some - cooler spot, if you know of any.” No sooner were they beyond earshot of the crowd than she said: “So you have not forgotten Taormina.” “T have forgotten whatever you wish me to forget.” “Always the perfection of tact,” she mocked. “It would be more flattering that you should remember. Though not too much.” “A cliff of beaten gold overlooking a sea of shimmering silver, a waft of perfume on the air, the charm of beauty

and mystery, both of which still endure after these seven years.” “Shall I dispel the mystery? I was Mrs. Parker then

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only because an independent-minded vagrant such as I am finds travel in Europe more convenient under a married name than as a Miss.

So one does not take, but invents

a husband. Here and now I am Ralph Fentriss’s halfsister and Patricia Fentriss’s aunt.” “Something

of an occupation in itself,” he reflected

aloud. “Tt is. What, if one may ask, are you doing ia thaté gallery? Pat curled herself on the foot of my bed this morning and discussed the universe for an hour. Chiefly you.” “Vastly flattered!

“Afterward?

Et aprés?”

That is for you to answer, isn’t it? Why

are you laying siege to the child’s mind?” “Because I dislike waste. It is too keen a mind to be frittered away on nothings.” “Has Pat been making love to you?” The question was put without the slightest alteration of the easy tone. “Really, that’s a question which———” “Don’t pretend to be shocked. Women always do make love to you, don’t they?” “You didn’t,” smilingly he reminded her, “at Taormina. Hence my blighted life.” “No. I preferred to have you make love to me. You did it so expertly.” “And wholly unsuccessfully.”

“What did you expect? A correct young married woman going on to meet her husband by the boat! Would you have been so vehement if you had known me to be an unmarried girl?” “T haven’t made it a practice to make love to unmarried girls.” “Why select Pat, then?” She paused, giving him time to speculate upon what Pat might or might not have unin-

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Said his Majesty, “Let him not fear, let him be freed from terror. He shall be a Royal Friend amongst the nobles; he shall be put within the circle of the courtiers. Go ye to the chamber of praise to seek wealth for him.”

When I went out from the palace, the royal children offered their hands to me; we walked afterward to the Great Gates. I was placed in a house of a king’s son, in which were delicate things, a place of coolness, fruits of the granary, treasures of the White House, clothes of the King’s guardrobe, frankincense, the finest perfumes of the King and the nobles whom he loves, in every chamber. All the servitors were in their several offices.

Years were removed from my limbs: I was shaved, and polled my locks of hair; the foulness was cast to the desert with the garments of the Nemau-sha. I clothed me in fine linen, and anointed myself with the fine oil of Egypt; I laid me on a bed. I gave up the sand to those who lie on it; the oil of wood to him who would anoint himself therewith. There was given to me the mansion of a lord of serfs, which had belonged to a royal friend. There many excellent things were in its buildings; all its wood was renewed. There were brought to me portions from the palace, thrice and four times each day; beside the gifts of the royal children, always without ceasing. There was built for me a pyramid of stone among the pyramids. The overseer of the architects measured its ground; the chief treasurer wrote it; the sacred masons cut the well; the chief of the laborers on the tombs brought the bricks; all things used to make a strong building were there used. There were given to me peasants; there were made for


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tentionally revealed to this shrewd observer. “I was twenty-eight then,” she pursued, “and I found you a dangerous wooer, even though I knew it was not pour le bon mottf. Pat isn’t nineteen yet.” “Mademoiselle has taken the ordering of this matter into her own hands?” he queried mildly. “Dieu m’en garde!” she laughed. “It is as an old friend of yours that I speak.” “Then I am prepared for the worst,” he sighed.

“Strike!” “Still of a pretty wit.” She spoke sharply, but her eyes were not without kindness for him. “Danger, Mr. Cary Scott! Danger!” He did not pretend to misunderstand. “Let me assure you that I am not wholly without principle, Miss Fentriss.” “You? Granted. But what of Pat? Has my scapegrace little witch of a niece any principles whatever? I doubt it.” So, after all, he had misunderstood.

“Are you, then,

warning me of danger to myself? C'est a rire, n’est-ce pas?” “It is not to laugh at all. I am serious. I have been watching you this evening when you were with Pat and when you were only following her with your eyes. Your expression is not always guarded, if one has learned to read the human face.” He flushed. ‘Then there came upon him the reckless desire to ease his soul of the secret which filled it. She had invited it, and he instinctively knew that to this serene, poised, self-sufficing, sage woman

of the world he

could speak in the assurance of sympathy and without fear of incomprehension or betrayal.

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 me a garden, and fields in it before my mansion, as is done for the chief royal friend. My statue was inlaid with gold, its girdle of pale gold; his majesty caused it to be made. Such is not done to a man of low degree.

May I be in the favor of the King until the day shall come of my death!

(This is finished from beginning to end, as was found in the writing.)


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“Tt’s true,” he said beneath his breath.

“I love her.

I love her as I never dreamed it possible to love.” “And you’ve told her so.” He made no reply. “I know you have because I know Pat. She’s as greedy as she is shrewd ; she’d know and she’d never be happy until she’d had it out of you. And then she’d be sorry and blame you for speaking.” “Yes. Ive told her,” he muttered. “Inevitable that you should have. Not that it makes any particular difference, but you’re still married, aren’t your” VY

as,??

“Any prospects of change?” “Prospects? No!” “Ah, well; I haven’t

an idea that Pat would

marry

you anyway. She appears to regard you as rather an elderly person, quite delightful to play with, but belonging to another world. Her infatuation will probably die out.” “Give me credit for being decent enough to hope and

know that it will.” “Yet there is no certainty about it. Your appeal to her senses may be temporary, doubtless is. But you have taken hold upon her, mind to a degree which she herself does not appreciate, and that is a more profound and lasting influence. I wonder if you did it deliberately.”

“No.

Yes.

I don’t know whether I did or not.

It

may have been at the back of my brain all the time.” “That sounds more like Pat’s honesty than your own

diplomatic way of looking at things.

It would be quite

incredible that she has exerted a counter-influence upon you.” “Why ineredible, since I love her?’ was the quiet reply. She gave him a swift, estimating glance before she went

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on: “I’m very fond of Pat, Mr. Scott. Most of my money will go to her eventually, unless I marry.” “Which is inevitable,” he put in. “Which is the most improbable thing in the world. And I want to see her happy. She has great possibilities of happiness, and great possibilities of tragedy. It is a tragic face, rather; have you noticed that?” “It is a face impossible to analyse.” “True enough. It has the mysterious quality that quite outdoes beauty. Men go mad over that type of face, though one doesn’t find it in poetry or painting. I wonder why? Is it because genius doesn’t dare that far, because it is untransferable even for genius? Perhaps it is genius in itself. Didn’t some poet say that beauty of a kind is genius? ... What are you going to do with Pat, Mr. Scott?”

“Nothing. What is there to do?” “Laissez faire? There’s danger in letting things take their course too. There is danger everywhere in this sort of affair. Let me interpret a little of Pat’s mind for you. She is a combination of instinctive shrewdness, ignorance, false standards and beliefs, and straight thinking. There’s an innocence about her that is appalling, an innocence as regards life as it really is. One might say that her ideas of the more intimate phases of life are formed mainly from the trashy, sexy-sentimental plays and the more trashy motion pictures that she loves. She believes that sin is always punished in the direct and logical way. If she should surrender to a man she would expect first, ta have a baby at once; second, that the man would naturally despiserand abandon her; that’s what the modern drama

teaches, on the ground, one supposes, that it’s an influence for safety. And perhaps,” continued the analyst

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thoughtfully, “it is.

YOUTH

Though I'm rather for the truth

myself. But there are other things taught in the same school that aren’t so safe. Did you happen to read a fool book called The Salamander some years ago?” Yes; but I didn’t think it so bad.”

“Because you’re a man and don’t understand what the effect of it has been. A Salamander school of fiction and drama has grown out of it. The central idea is that if a girl is ‘pure’ she can get herself into any kind of situation, take any kind of chance with any kind of man, play the game of passion to the limit and yet come out unscathed ;virtue its own safeguard, and that sort of thing. Why I saw a play this winter which was written to prove that a girl of to-day could spend a night alone in a house with a man with whom she was in love without any thought of harm. Yet the censors suppress honest portrayals of life as it really is. It’s a great little world, Cary Scott, if your mind doesn’t weaken. But I think mine has!” Pat, passing by on the arm of a worshipping partner, stopped to give them a smile. “What are you talking about, you two?” “You’ve guessed it; about you,” returned the young aunt.

For a hidden moment Pat’s eyes met Scott’s and shot forth their ardent message before the sweeping lashes curled down. “Leave me a few shreds,” she called back

gaily. “Pat considers herself a miracle of astuteness and knowledge,” pursued the aunt. “Having been taught the gospel of lies and trash, she is sure of her own natural

inviolability.

If anything in the world ought to be banned

from the access of Pat and her kind, it is the Salamanderstory of the Girl Who Always Comes Out Right. It isn’t

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true; it never will be true; it never has been true.

199 Women

aren’t that way.” She let her pensive, grey gaze wander to the doorway wherein Pat had vanished, then return to meet Scott’s.

“T know,” she said coolly.

“I’ve tried.”

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XIX

Stow and stately, the measure of the Lohengrin Wedding March pulsated through the church; much slower and statelier than Herr Wagner ever intended that it should be delivered, unforeseeing that his minute directions would be universally disregarded off the stage in order that the bride might make her progress up the aisle less like a human being with a happy goal in sight than like a rusty mechanism directed by a hidden and uncertain hand. Even to that halting rhythm, however, Mary Delia Fentriss, owner of her own name and her own maiden self

for the last time, managed to walk like a proud and graceful young goddess to the accompaniment of something more than the usual hum of admiration and excitement. T. Jameson James stood awaiting her, looking handsome,

well-groomed, perfectly self-possessed, and even more selfsatisfied. As Dee turned she raised her head slightly and let one slow look range over the gathered congregation, a gesture inscrutable to many, though the more romantic among the women deemed it conventionally suitable, as a farewell glance proper to the drama of marrying and giving in marriage. But two men in that assemblage, both observers of humankind, both genuinely caring for Dee in diverse ways, read that look and were secretly disturbed. The rector caught his cue and swung into his part with all the empressement due to a highly fashionable occasion, the ceremony proceeded, its gross symbolism of sex worship, broad paganism, and underlying acceptance of women’s slavery as a divine system, thinly cloaked in the 200

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severe beauty of the words; and Dee Fentriss was Mrs. T. Jameson James. Returned to her father’s house for the post-ceremonial festivities, Dee admitted Pat to her room where the last

packing was going on, and was caught in a swift, hard hug. “Oh, Dee! You looked lovely.” “Did I?” said the bride indifferently. “You surely did. Where are you going on your trip?” “Secret. Washington first, if you want to know.” Pat lowered her voice though there was no one else in the room.

“Dee, aren’t you scared?”

“Of course not. “Vd be.

Don’t be an idiot!”

No; I don’t know as I would either, if I was

crazy about the man.” Pat, thinking aloud, did not see her sister wince. “I’d be too curious about—about what came

next.

You’ll

tell me,

won’t

you,

Dee?

Every-

thing?” The bride laughed not over-mirthfully. “Wait till you’re older, Infant. Though I believe that’s what they always say and I don’t know why they should. Had a good time?” “The most priceless time!” “That’s right. I wish I could always be at the top of the heap, as you are.” “Sometimes I’m at the bottom. IT’ll have a poisonous grouch after this.” ‘Will you? You’re a queer kid. By the way, do you know that Mark Denby is quite nuts over you?” Denby was best man, an attractive but not highly intelligent Baltimorean. Pat shrugged her shoulders affectedly to hide her satisfaction. ‘“He’s all right in his way.” “Be nice to him to-night, will you? You haven’t shown him much.”

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 Statistics

By

I'm tired of listening to sun-shine talk,

This pie-in-the-sky stuff,

This travesty on patient toil;

Let the Jesus-screamers,

The open-shop artists,

And their ilk

Hook their fat necks over a flying emery wheel

For eight long hours;

And to the beat and whir of machinery,

Chant this:

"I work to get money to buy food to get strong,

So I can work to get money to buy food and get strong."

Then, maybe, they will understand

Why the church pews are empty,

And men die for unionism. 21


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“Low speed,” remarked Pat. “T wouldn’t think Cary Scott was specially high speed, though he’s a dear. You’ve been playing round with him quite a bit.” “Well, that can’t hurt me, can it?” said Pat, a little

impatiently, as one suspicious of criticism. No such notion was in the mind of Dee, who answered promptly: “No. Best thing in the world for you, I'd say. But do give Mark a run for his money this evening.” “Oh, very well! I don’t have to marry the bird, do I?” Dee laughed. “You might do worse. He’s got lots of money and you could manage him like a lamb.” “IT don’t want a lamb. I don’t want anything yet but to have a good time.”

“Shoot along and have it, then.” Thus it was that Cary Scott was mulcted of several expected dances with no other explanation than a whispered “I'll tell you why later,” which, however, left him not ill-content. Just before the bridal couple left he got his first private word with the busy maid-of-honour. They stood together on the tile of the loggia, now a bower of greenery and a narrow thoroughfare for the guests going outside to smoke. Pat’s first words were: “Oh, Cary; did you see Dee’s face?” “Yes.” He did not need to ask her when, “What did it mean?” “T don’t know. Nothing probably.”

“You know it did!? Her confidence in his understanding, her appeal to him in this, the most intimate of family matters, thrilled him with a new sense of their rapprochement, was stronger testimony to his claim upon her inner self than a thousand kisses. “You’re fond of Dee, aren’t

you?” she pursued. “I'd be fond of her anyway, aside from her being your

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 1

They comprise three commandments: One positive commandment and two negative commandments.1

It contains laws on eight topics; and this is their order: Laws of Defilement by a Corpse; Laws of the Red Heifer; Laws of Defilement by Leprosy; Laws of Those Who Defile Bed or Seat; Laws of Other Sources of Defilement; Laws of Defilement of Foods; Laws of Vessels; Laws of Immersion Pools.

One positive commandment; and that is

They comprise two positive commandments.1

They comprise eight commandments: Six positive commandments and two negative commandments.1

They comprise four positive commandments.1

They comprise three positive commandments.1

One positive commandment; and that is

One positive commandment; and that is that each

It contains laws on five topics; and this is their order: Laws of Damages to Property; Laws of Theft; Laws of Robbery and Lost Property; Laws of One Who Injures a Person or Property; Laws of a Murderer and the Preservation of Life.

They comprise four positive commandments.1

They comprise seven commandments: Two positive commandments and five negative commandments.1

They comprise seven commandments: Two positive commandments and five negative commandments.1

One positive commandment; and that is

They comprise seventeen commandments: Seven positive commandments and ten negative commandments.1

It contains laws on five topics; and this is their order: Laws of Sales; Laws of Ownerless Property and Gifts; Laws of Neighbors; Laws of Agents and Partners; Laws of Slaves.

They comprise four commandments: One positive commandment and three negative commandments.1

The matter of these laws is to know the law of one who acquires ownerless property – how he may acquire and with what he may acquire, and the law of one who gives a gift and receives a gift, and which gift gets returned and which does not get returned.

The matter of these laws is to know the law of the division of land between the partners, and distancing of damage to each one of them, and the law of the owner of the strait, and the law of the owner of the straits.

The matter of these laws is to know the law of the agent of a man and partners, and their law with their purchase and their sale and with their loss and their payment.

They comprise thirteen commandments: Five positive commandments and eight negative commandments.1 The law of buying a Hebrew slave. 2

It contains laws on five topics; and this is their order: Laws of Hiring; Laws of Borrowing and Deposit; Laws of Creditor and Debtor; Laws of Plaintiff and Defendant; Laws of Inheritances.

They comprise seven commandments: Three positive commandments and four negative commandments.1

They comprise two positive commandments.1

They comprise twelve commandments: Four positive commandments and eight negative commandments.1

One positive commandment; and that is law of a plaintiff and he who admits or denies.

One positive commandment; and that is the law of the order of inheritances. In conclusion, all the commandments that are included in this book are twenty-three. Eleven of them, positive commandments; and twelve negative commandments.

It contains laws on five topics; and this is their order: Laws of the Sanhedrin and the Penalties within their Jurisdiction; Laws of Testimony; Laws of Rebels; Laws of Mourning; Laws of Kings and their Wars.

They comprise thirty commandments: Ten positive commandments and twenty negative commandments.1

They comprise eight commandments: Three positive commandments and five negative commandments.1

They comprise nine commandments: Three positive commandments and six negative commandments.1

They comprise four commandments: One positive commandment and three negative commandments.1

They comprise twenty-three commandments: Ten positive commandments and thirteen negative commandments.1

And in conclusion, all of the topics of these fourteen books are eighty-three topics. And now, I will begin to explain the laws of each commandment and all the laws that are included therein from its count according to the order of the laws with the help of God Almighty.


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342 barking in this expedition. She had left a very young child behind her in France.

The corvette La Nathalie, having Citizen Riche on board, had been dispatched from Isle de France to Batavia in order to demand our vessels from the Regency; but, after she had arrived in the roads, she was detained for five months under the cannon of two Dutch ships of war, and all that she could obtain was to sail back with those persons belonging to our expedition who were in confinement, and some other French prisoners of war.

At length, on the 29th of March 1795, we set sail for the Isle de France.

It was high time for me to be released from my confinement amongst the marshes of Fort Anké, as I had laboured already more than a month under a dysentery, which was making a very rapid progress. But as soon as I was removed into a purer air, my malady diminished from day to day.

On the 18th of May we arrived at Isle de France. I made frequent excursions among the mountains, where I observed a great variety of natural productions.

I had long been waiting for an opportunity of returning to my native country, when at length


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] General Malartic dispatched the Minerva to France, under the command of Citizen Laignel, one of my companions in misfortune. I embarked in this vessel, which sailed from Isle de France on the 20th of November.

It is remarkable, that during a run of upwards of 600,000 toises west-north-west, from 25° N. lat. and 31° W. long. we found the sea covered with a prodigious quantity of fucus natans, which indicate the existence of some very extensive banks upon which this sea-weed is produced. This is a subject well worthy of the investigation of navigators.

On the 12th of March 1796, we cast anchor at the Isle of Bar, from whence I soon returned to Paris.

Soon after I arrived in that city, I was informed that my collections of natural history had been sent to England. The French Government immediately put in their claim for them, which, being supported by Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society of London, with all the exertions that were to have been expected from his known love for the sciences, I soon had the satisfaction of finding myself again in possession of the requisite materials, for making known to the world the natural productions which I had dis-


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O. 36 B. M.—“To King Annumuria (Amenophis III) Son of the Sun, my Lord thus (says) this thy servant Akizzi. Seven times at the feet of my Lord I bow. My Lord in these my lands I am afraid. Mayst thou protect one who is thy servant under the yoke of my Lord. From the yoke of my Lord I do not rebel. Lo! there is fear of my foes. The people of this thy servant are under thy yoke: this country is among thy lands: the city Katna is thy city: I am on the side of my Lord’s rule (yoke). Lo! the soldiers and the chariots of my Lord’s government have received corn and drink, oxen and beasts (oil and honey?), meeting the soldiers and the chariots of my Lord’s dominion (coming?) to me. And now let my Lord ask the great men of his dominion. My Lord, all lands tremble before thy soldiers and thy chariots. If these lands are under the dominion of my Lord’s land, and they are seizing them, let him order his soldiers and his chariots this year, and let him take the land of Marhasse, the whole of it, to the yoke of my Lord, when—my Lord—the soldiers of the slaves are For six days ago he went out into the land of Hu(ba), and truly Aziru is sending them, and if in this year my Lord does not send out the soldiers and the chariots of his government  to meet Aziru (and) make him flee  all will rebel  My Lord, know him. My Lord (know) the men who are


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 FLAMING

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sister and the person closest to you in the world.

203

She

is, isn’t she?”

“But she doesn’t know as much about me as you do,” murmured Pat. “In some ways she does, though. After all, you’re only a man. . . . But Dee’s a wonder, isn’t she??? “She is a fine and high personality.” The jealous coquette in Pat asserted itself. ‘Finer than I am?” “Much.” His answer was grave and sincere. Pat made a little face at him. “T don’t think it’s nice of you to think anyone is nicer than I am.” “TI love you, Pat.” She quivered a little with delight of the words. “It would make no difference if another woman were as far above you in character as the stars are above the earth; it would still be you and no one else

in the world forme. Isit enough? Or do you want rather to be flattered ?” “No,” she breathed softly. “I want you to—love me.” There was the faint hesitancy over the committing word which she always evinced. “Just your own way. But Dee——

Oh, Bobs!” she exclaimed as the doctor entered

the place. ‘Come here.” “Hello, Bambina. Ah, Cary.” Osterhout’s face was moody. “What’s on your mind?” demanded Pat. “You look

grouchy as a bear.” “Nothing,” he disclaimed. ‘Did you notice Dee, in church?” Osterhout’s heavy gaze lifted to study Pat’s face, then passed to that of Scott. “Did you see it, too?” he muttered. “Bobs, what was she looking for?”

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C

“What could she have been looking for?” he fenced. “Tt was so helpless, so hopeless,” went on the girl; “and yet as if she had one hope left and weren’t going to give up without—without looking.” Osterhout had his own private interpretation of that last, long quest of the bride’s eyes before she turned them to her bridegroom, but he was not going to betray it. “All of us are a little high-strung,” he opined. “Imagining a vain thing. Dee's all right.” He passed on his way. <As if by thought transference there flashed into Scott’s mind the strange passage be tween Dee and the electrical repair man, his old acquaintance, Stanley Wollaston, at the famous Dangerfield “swim au naturel,” and the memory of her possessed, dreamhaunted face. Could T. Jameson James ever evoke that yearning? Scott knew that he could not, and a great pity for Dee filled him. Pat left him, not to return until the party was

dis-

persed, all but a few heavy-drinking remnants who had stood by to help Ralph Fentriss finish up the punch, Later Pat and Cary passed them on their way to the clematis arbour. ‘The girl’s face was sombre and thoughtful. “T wish she hadn*t married him,” she burst out.

Seott sought to reassure her. est.

As

QOsterhout

up——”

said, we’re

“It’s all right, dear all emotionally

stirred

.

“I wish she hadn’t,” persisted the girl. “It must be terrible to go away—like that—with a man—when you don’t love him!”

“Oh, nonsense!

He strove for a light tone.

“She

does love him. Otherwise why on earth should she have married him?” Pat’s brows were knit, her gaze far away, fixed upon

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 "Canned"

By

To hell with you!

You ain't the whole earth,

Not by a damn sight!

You sneak around shaking your fat paunch shouting:

"I'm losing money hurry-up  pull-out

"Step-on-it!" and you "can" anybody that talks back.

I've seen your kind before―always losing money―

Riding in limousines, showing off on the golf links,

And talking open shop at the Union Club.

On Sunday you go to church and tell everybody

What a nice employer you are

On Monday you go blue in the face cursing your men.

You can't bull-doze me!

To hell with you!

You ain't the whole earth,

Not by a damn sight! 22


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194 And broken gleams of brightness, here and there, Glance through, and leave unwarmed the death-like air.

The trampled earth returns a sound of fear— A hollow sound, as if I walked on tombs; And lights, that tell of cheerful homes, appear Far off, and die like hope amid the glooms. A mournful wind across the landscape flies And the wide atmosphere is full of sighs.

And I, with faltering footsteps journey on, Watching the stars that roll the hours away, Till the faint light that guides me now is gone, And, like another life, the glorious day Shall open o'er me from the empyreal height,

With warmth, and certainty, and boundless light.


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YOUTH

“I wish it was us,” she murmured.

Going away.

To-night.

205 “You and I.

'Together.”

“My God! Pat!” “I do. I wish there weren’t any laws. I hate laws.” The terrible, fiery desire seized him to claim her then and there, to bid her leave everything for love and go with him to the ends of the earth, to overwhelm her with the force of his desire; to make her believe that with him

she would know a happiness greater, fuller, more real than anything in her petty and tinselled prospect of life; seized and scorched and convulsed him, until she felt, through the hand which she had let fall upon his arm, the tremors shake his strong frame; felt them and exulted, through her woman’s dim alarms, ne was by the struggle against himself. “Not that, Pat. Not for you. I’d give the soul out of my body to take you away with me. You know that, don’t you?” “Yes,” she assented. She was daunted by the depths of passion which she had evoked. But only for the moment. The reaction brought back to her her hoydenish flippancy. “You don’t for a minute think I’d go, do you? I was only wishing!” “For God’s sake, don’t wish!’
 * No!” he said hoarsely, in a voice which told how spent

“I do wish there weren’t any laws. There ought to be a world where we could go when we’re tired of this one, where laws and rules and things don’t count, and we could come back when—when things got too hectic there.” “Fools think there is, and go there. But they don’t

come back.” “Let’s pretend that there is such a world,” she besought childishly, “and that we can go there whenever we want to. There you could kiss me as much as you liked whethes

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 his foes And lo! now the King of the land of the Hittites with pride rebels against his gods. And men who are destroyers serve the King of the land of the Hittites: he sends them forth. My Lord, my servants, the men of the city of Katna, Aziru expels, and all that is theirs, out of the land of the dominion of my Lord; and behold (he takes?) the northern lands of the dominion of my Lord. Let (my Lord) save the of the men of the city Katna. My Lord truly they made he steals their gold my Lord; as has been said there is fear, and truly they give gold. My Lord—Sun God, my fathers’ god —the men have made themselves your foes, and they have wasted from over against the abode of their camp (or fortress); and now behold—O Sun God of my fathers—the King of the Hittites makes them march. And know of them, my Lord—may the gods make slack their hand. As has been said there is fear. And lo! perchance the Sun God of my fathers will turn his heart toward me. My Lord’s word is sure, and let the (increase or tithe of gold?) be given him, as we have purposed for the Sun God of my fathers. As has been said they have done to me; and they have destroyed the of my Lord. For this corner—the dwelling of their fortress (or camp)—is out of sight of the Sun God.”

37 B. M—“To King Annumuria, Son of the Sun, my Lord, thus (says) Akizzi thy servant: seven times at the feet of my Lord I bow. My Lord, now there is flight and no breathing of the of the King my Lord. And behold now the of this dominion of my Lord, in these lands  and behold now  the King of the land of the Hittites  sends forth  and the heart of  smites him. And now behold the King my Lord sends to me, and is complaining with me as to the rule of the King of the land of the Hittites. And as for me the King of the land of the Hittites. As for me I am with the King my Lord, and with the land of Egypt. I sent and as to the rule of the King of the land of the Hittites.”


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people were around or not. . . . There’s nobody around right now in this world, Cary... . “T’ve got to go in,” she sighed at last. “And I don’t want to at all. Tell me good-night.” His last kiss was very tender, very gentle, long and almost passionless, ‘“That’s good-bye, my darling,” he said. “IT don’t want it to be good-bye.” She stretched out her arms to him.

“Oh, I do wish it was us!”

He took her hands, pressed them to his hot eyes and released them. ‘“Good-night, Pat. Go in. Please!” “T will,” she acquiesced, obedient for once before the pain in his voice. “But you’re driving me over to-morrow, aren’t your” “To-morrow is another day,” he said. Almost was

Pat

convinced

on the morning

following

that she had made a mistake in commandeering Scott ond his car for the trip. The train would have been far quicker and possibly more amusing. For Scott was unaccountably silent all the early part of the drive. Having arrayed herself with much selective thought for the occasion, and being conscious of her charm as set forth by a

gown that clung to her budding form, and a tight little, bright little hat prisoning her dusky, mutinous hair, Pat resented the lack of attention she was receiving and thought proper to “jolly” her companion into a more

fitting frame of mind. She elicited little response in kind. “You’re about as gay as a hearse this morning,” she observed with annoyance as the car main highway to a more sparsely “This isn’t anybody’s funeral that we going, anyway?” “By a route I like to take when

swung aside from the travelled back road. I know. Where are I’ve plenty of time.

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207

We'll reach the Maple Swamp in time for luncheon.

I’ve

packed a hamper. I’m sorry if I’m dull, dear.” “You’ze quiet. I don’t know that you’re dull, exactly. I don’t quite see you ever being dull. But I don’t want to be quiet to-day. It gives me too much time to think, And thinking’s the very thing I want the least of right now. I just want to be happy—because I’m with you. There’s nothing to be solemn about, is there?” “Nothing!” he agreed. But though he talked with his usual charm thereafter, she was resentfully conscious of

the effort it cost him. Arrived at the luncheon place he ran the car up beside a stone wall enclosing a coppice which was all ablaze with the last, defiant splendour of the year. Autumn was going down with all colours flying. Pat snuffed the ksea scented air with nostrils that quivered. “Oof!? she cried. “I’m ravenous. What a apiffy

luncheon!

Coffee?

Hold

out your cup.

When

and

where shall we lunch together next time, I wonder? Isn’t there an old song or something, ‘When Shall We Two Eat Again?’ Oh, no; it’s ‘When Shall We Three Meet Again?” I’m glad there aren’t three of us here; aren’t you?” she

chattered on. “You don’t look glad about anything. What are you thinking about so hard?” “Only that we aren’t likely to see each other for some time.” “Some time?” Her face showed alarm and suspicion. “You’re not going to see me any more at all,” she accused. “Ts that it?” He smiled wanly. “Hardly as bad as that.” “When, then?” 39 “How can I tell? Business she echoed scornfully. “Business!” away—from me.”

‘“You’re going

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FLAMING YOUTH

“For a while.” “Why?” she demanded, “when I need you so much?” “No. You don’t really need me.” “When I want you, then?” she said imperiously. “Tsn°t that just a little selfish of you?” “Of course itis. Have I ever pretended to be anything else? I always get what I want if I can, and I never give up anything I want without trying for it. Why should I?” “An unanswerable proposition,” he made reply, with his subtly ironic smile. “But the tide never runs all one way; I'm afraid that you’ve got some harsh disillusionments in prospect.” “T don’t care. If I have to pay, Pll pay.” “Tt may hurt.”

“Let it! Pm not afraid.” “Because you've never been hurt. If I were a praying nan Pd pray that you never may be. But that’s foolish of course. Life will hurt you. It hurts all of us.” “Has it hurt you, Cary?” “Tt is hurting me now—a little. Not more than I deserve.” “Why do you deserve? You couldnt help iking*— he smiled—“being in love with me, could you?” “T could have helped making love to you.” She had a superb gesture. “Could you, though! When I wanted you to? What harm has it done?” “So long as it hasn*t harmed yor——” “Tt’s helped me. That’s why I can*t bear to think of your going. [Im going to miss you so terribly!” There followed the little, slighting, boyish, devil-may-care hunch of the shoulders. “Not for long, though. I never do. I go crazy over someone and think he’s the whole thing and I can’t see anything in the world without him, and then, pout! It’s all over.”

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209

“So may it be with you now.” “You want it to be?” “JT don’t want you to have the pain of missing me as I shall miss you. But I’m afraid you’re going to feel it more than you think.” “Boasting!” she retorted, but there was no conviction in the word. “No; I’m not boasting. But I’ve given you something, Pat, that you haven’t had from your minor flirtations. Much that you won’t readily forget. Nor do I want you te forget it all. But—I want it to drop into the background for you.” “Background? I don’t understand.” “When the real man for you comes along into the foreground of your life——” “You want me to compare him with you?” she broke in quickly. “Perhaps that wouldn’t be quite fair to him. I’ve had more opportunities, more experience of the world than your younger lovers are likely to have had; you can’t expect quite so much of youth in some ways. But before you commit yourself finally, suppose you ask yourself whether you care for the man more than you have at any time for me; if, in case you married him, you would miss

out of your life together certain phases that we have known.” “But of course I shall!” she cried. “What boy do I know that could understand me as you do?” Upon the naive egotism of this he made no comment. “TI haven’t made myself quite clear. Before you decide, go back to our association, go back to all the associations you have had hitherto, and ask if the new one will take the

place of all of them.

If not—don’t.”

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“You're trying to keep me from marrying someone else because you can’t have me, yourself,” she accused. “Do you think that of me, Pat?” “Oh, no;no!

me so hateful?”?

Idon’t.

You know I don’t. What makes

She threw herself upon him, pressed her

face close to his, turned so that their lips met; then drew

back with a questioning look in her eyes. “That was a very white kiss,” she murmured discontentedly. “You're so strange to-day.” ‘“There’s more, Pat. It isn’t so easy to say.” Her intuition leapt to meet his thought. “It’s about this.” She touched her cheek to his again. ‘‘With other men. I won't, if you don’t want me to.” “TI can’t claim any promises from you. You wouldn’t keep them anyway.” “I would,” was the instant and indignant response. “No; probably I wouldn’t,” she amended, her voice trail-

ing off, “after you’d been away from me for a while. But what’s the harm, Cary?” “T’ve told you; it’s dangerous.” “And I’ve told you; it’s not, for me. Suppose I’m in love with the man. Must I act like an icicle?” “Ah, that is a different matter. If you’re really in love.” “But how am I to tell whether I am or not without letting him make Jove to me?” The naive logic of it left Scott without adequate answer.

After

all, these direct

contacts

were

the very

essence and experiment of mating, the empiric method which inexorable Nature prescribes. Had the modern flapper, with her daring contempt of what older generations considered the proprieties if not the normal decencies of social intercourse, only reverted to a simpler, more natu-

ral method?

Of course, carrying the scheme a little fur-

—

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21T

ther, there were obvious arguments against it, arguments which he did not care to advance to Pat. “Only be certain,” he said after a pause, “that it isn’t merely a casual fascination.” “You know I’m past being an easy necker,” she replied with a touch of self-righteous reproach. 99 “I know that you are of a sensuous temperament “Oh, I hate that word!”

“TY didn’t say ‘sensual,’ my dear. I said ‘sensuous. 9 You are one of those fortunate people who are vividly alive to all impressions of the senses. But with you, the sensuous beauty of life is linked up with imagination. That is why physical attraction alone won’t suffice for you in the long run; sooner or later your mind is going to awaken and demand the things of the mind.” The morbid look of introspection darkened down over her face. “You talk as if I had a mind. I’m an awful fool. You make me forget it when I’m with you a “Because it isn’t true.

You’re a woefully uneducated,

untrained, undisciplined child. But you have the hunger of the mind, the discontent. Just now your senses are hungry” (she winced and flushed) “and so you don’t feel the deeper hunger. You will in time. It is for that time that Iam anxious. The time of the Second Dreaming.” “Tell me,” she begged. “The First Dreaming for you,” he prophesied, “will be passionate and romantic. You may be carried away by mere physical beauty or superficial charm. I have known women of your type marry their chauffeurs or elope with gypsy fiddlers.” Pat gave a tiny snort of disdain. “Probably you are fastidious enough to escape that extreme. But unless the man you choose can satisfy what is deepest in you, you will awake from that First Dream-

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ing to an empty world. And afterward, unless you have found something to satisfy your craving mind, will come the danger and the seductiveness of the Second Dreaming.” “Will you come back then?” she challenged. “T shall be a middle-aged man then; though I suppose you regard me as that now.” He forced a wry smile. “No; I shall never come back, in the way that you mean.” “T’ll make you,” she laughed. ‘Unless you’ve stopped caring.” “I shall never stop caring.” “If I get engaged shall I bring him to you? And if you say not, I won’t marry him.” Scott’s face contracted.

“No; my dear.

I don’t think

I could quite endure being put in that position.” “I don’t suppose I'll ever understand about you,” she sighed. ‘We ought to be going on, oughtn’t we?” She looked at him expectantly, but he only set about packing the things into the hamper. It was her turn to be thoughtful and silent when they

re-embarked in the car.

As they neared the city, she said

suddenly, “Come to the Parmenters’ this evening.” “T think not, Pat.”

‘Your voice sounds hard as iron. Why not?” “I don’t think it’s wise.” She affected not to understand him. “They’ll all be out, Cissie told me so.” “We said our good-byes last night. I don’t think I could stand it again.” A long silence followed. “I wish I’d never teased you,” said the girl. “I wish there was nothing between us that I had to be sorry for— things that I’ve done to hurt you, I mean.” “They are nothing, compared to the sweetness and

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magic of it,” he said. doesn’t matter.”

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213

“Don’t let yourself think of what

“Yes; that’s like you.”

She went on with down-drawn

brows and face darkened in thought: “Whatever happens don’t ever think that this hasn’t been the best thing I’ve ever known in my life. When I’ve been crazy over men before I’ve never had a thought for anyone but myself....

I wish there was something, anything that I could do for you, dear,” she concluded with passionate wistfulness. “There is. Be yourself; the real self that you are now.” “Tl try. Oh, I will try! But it’s so hard with you gone.” At the door of the Parmenter house she did not raise her eyes to his, but her strong young hand clung within his fingers in a fluttering clasp. “Good-bye, Cary, dear.” “God keep you, my darling.” She had to grope her way in past the astonished maid

who opened the door,

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 CHAPTER XX

“Wispom may be where you are, dear and lost one.*

So

wrote Robert Osterhout, seated in Mona Fentriss’s sun-

impregnated room, which seemed still to be fragrant of her personality. “Certainly it is not here. All of us had the sorriest misgivings over Dee’s marriage, and behold, it has turned out better than most matrimonial arrangements of this ill-assorted world. They have been married for nearly six months and all goes as smooth as machinery. One could not say that Dee is rapturous; but she is not a

rapturous person. She seems to run evenly in double harness with James and makes an admirable mistress for his establishment. I wish I could really like James. If he makes Dee happy I shall have to like him. But he is so infernally self-content. And equally content with Dee, evidently considering her a part and portion of himself. Absorptive—that is what Jameson James is. “IT should have been equally skeptical of Pat’s management of Holiday Knoll. Another instance of the fallibility of human judgments, for she runs the place excellently, as even Ralph, who prophesied a hurrah’s nest from which he would have to take refuge at the club, now admits. I dare say the bills are something to shudder at. “Connie also has a new occupation: another baby coming. At first she was querulous; now she is quite taken up with the idea. And the extraordinary Pat has seized upon this to bring Connie and Fred together again. Fred is cutting down on the bottle and showing interest in business. Connie has quit her nonsense with Emslie Self. ridge; it was only a makeshift, stop-gap sort of flirtation. 214

4

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215°

anyway; the marriage may yet be a success. If it is, credit to Pat. But imagine the Bambina becoming the managing director of the family, the schemer for happiness, the adjuster of difficulties. She bosses Ralph within an inch of his life. All of this does not seem to interfere with her raids upon the male portion of the community, who clutter up the place largely. “Cary Scott has quit us.) Why,Ido not know. Can it be that he was seriously interested in Dee? ‘There is no doubt of her strong liking for him, but I would have sworn that it was quite unsentimental. Possibly his feeling was deeper; the abrupt cure of his infatuation for Connie has

never been clear to me. In any case, I miss him. He has brains and charm and, I think, character. Atmosphere, too, which the men of our lot lack.

I’ve had a letter or

two: from him from California. ‘Through a.friend who lives in Paris I have heard about his marriage, too. His wife is of the leech type, a handsome, heartless, useless, shrewd beast who hates him because he revolted against her taking everything and giving nothing, and who will never, out of sheer spite, give him his divorce. They say he has amused himself widely; yet he retains a reputation for decency even in the more rigid circles of the foreign community there. “That queer little mystery of Pat’s mind-reading of which I wrote you, remains unsolved. I have tried to catch her napping on it; made careless mention of having talked with her before about marrying a man of thirty. But she is not to be trapped; maintains an obstinate reserve. Jt is too much for me. She is developing fast, but into what I cannot say. Conscious, conquering womanhood, I should say; yet she is still so much the simple, willful child with it all,

What

I fear for her is

the difficulty of adjustment to life when she meets with

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the severer problems. She is so uneven. Too much background and no foreground; the background of tradition, habit, breeding, les convenances (which she recklessly overrides yet always with a sense of what they imply), the divine right of being what she is, a Fentriss, and the lack of what should fill in, training, achievement, disci-

pline, purpose, any real underlying interest in life. Cary Scott was, I believe, giving her something along that line; the more reason for regretting his defection. ... Pat declares that she will keep a vacant place for him at the family dinner party which she is projecting for next week,” The dinner party was designed by Pat, to convince the Fentrisses, one and all, of her competence to run the house. ‘“Mid-Victorian stuff,’ Fred Browning called it, but he announced himself as for it, as did also Dee James,

while her husband was graciously acquiescent. Ralph Fentriss was humorously obedient to any whim of his youngest daughter’s, while Connie was delighted with the idea.

Osterhout

was

of course included,

as was

Linda

Fentriss, bird of passage between winter sports in the Adirondacks and a yachting trip in Florida waters. The gastronomic part of the dinner was a marked success, aided by a contribution of three bottles of champagne from the private and dwindling cellar of the head of the family. He summed up the verdict after his second glass in a toast proposed and responded to by himself: “We Fentrisses! We’re a damned sight better company for ourselves than most of the people we associate with.” To which satisfying sentiment there was emphatic response, participated in by Robert Osterhout. It struck him, however, that if there were any exception on this occasion, it was the second daughter, who alternated

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