UESTION

C)C)<pC)C)C)C)^C)C)(pC)

OF
^ttatummmmomsumifiiiiniDtii^uiiiiiimiimiiimm

IME
WfctfiioBjii oaiftM
ji

CORNELL
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY

HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE

PS 1042.Q5
A

Cornell University Library

question of time

3 1924 022 113 546

The
tine

original of

tliis

bool<

is in

Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright

restrictions in
text.

the United States on the use of the

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022113546

A QUESTION OF TIME

A QUESTION OF TIME

BY

GERTRUDE FRANKLIN ATHERTON

AUTHOR OF 'WHAT DREAMS MAY COME," "HERMIA SUVDAM," "LOS
ETC.,

CERRITOS,''

ETC.

**0 God,

we know not

yet.

If bliss Itself is not

young misery,

With fangs

swift growing."

George Eliot,

NEW YOEK

JOHN
150

W,
WORTH

LOVELL COMPANY
STREET, COR. MISSION PLA.CE

Copyright,
BY

1891,

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY

73

WITH APOLOGIES TO THE SHADE OF

OLIVER MADDOX-BROWN

A QUESTION OF
I.

TIME.

She
word
sult,

was

the

youngest "woman in the

Neither the

room, and she was forty-six.

passee, nor yet that one of subtler in-

well-preserved, could be applied to her.

as

She was young,

are,

many women

of her age

because trouble had scarcely brushed

her in passing, nor the world scorched her

with

its

hot breath; because no illness had

come

to rift her perfect health, nor ill-placed

passion to consume and wither.

In a word,

she had never lived, and a certain coquetry,

too light for discontent, yet strong enough
to

guard and enhance her beauty, made her

look like a flower half bloomed, then

still

passed by and forgotten of Time.

She rarely

failed to take part in the social

A QUESTION OF TIME.

gatherings of her neighbors, and was never

neglected
she
for younger
beauties.

To-night

was surrounded by
little,

several men,

and

al-

though she said

and

her fascination

was not of the Circean order, yet by an unconscious art she was each man's second
self

as she

listened

to him.

She was not

brilliant,

but she understood; that was her

undying charm.

Her

loveliness

had never shone with a

softer radiance.

The

silken

hair of russet

browns and gold curled about her oval face

/md lay
head.

in a shining coil at the base of her

Here and there a

silveren hair cut its

stern way, but

was worn with

a grace

which

made

it

appear a jewel wrung from Time's

unwilling hand.

Her

skin

may

not have

been as purely white as when she had spoken

her marriage vows, twenty-five years before,

but the delicate color made

fair.

it

look fresh and

Her pink mouth was

and

like a burstino-

azalea,

but there was firmness and decision

finely

in the straight nose

moulded
little

chin.

In her clear blue eyes were

yellow

A QUESTION OF TIME.
specks
:

they were like lakes lying calmly

golden

above

sand
ice.

and

covered

with

thin layer of

Innocence looked out of

all

them, almost ignorance of

worldly knowl-

edge and of

self;

but a

fine intelligence

was

there also, and at times the dreaming half-

sad expression usually seen but in the eyes

Only a small square of her neck was visible, and her black gown was
of
girls.

young

plain and cut

"

by a master-hand.

There

is

youngest of
ing that he
rather late.

Mark Saltonstall," said the " Considerthe men about her.

the guest of the evening he
is

is

It is a pity that genius cannot

'

be at

its

best at an
to

evening,'

and that we

must be content
"

merely look at him."

He

is

ugly," she said.

But she looked

again.
"

He

is

not beautiful

certainly not.

Even
delude

his

unique imagination will never

far."

him that
"

He has what Joaquin Miller would call warm tremendous mouth," said another.
She gave him a swift
smile.

"

But who

A QUESTION OF TIMB.
young man
call
?

is this

" she asked.

"

And

why-

do you

him a genius?

Mrs. Hopkins

wrote asking

me

to

meet Kedfield's friend,

but as I only
visit to
re-

Mr.

Mark

Saltonstall;

turned yesterday from a

I

my

brother

know nothing more."

"

He

is

just out of college, has just grad-

uated," said the

young man who had

in

first

spoken.
I

"

He was

my

class,

or perhaps

should say I was in

figure.

his,

as the rest of
es-

us cut a second
says,

His speeches,

poems, were extraordinary.

You

felt

blinded and dazzled

cant.
all

worst of

all, insignifi-

Then he published a poem

that set

Boston talking.

Surely you have read

his 'Restoration of Pindar's lost

Dithyram?

bics to

Bacchus and Paeans to Apollo

said, slowly,

"
'

"Yes," she
It did not

"I have read

it.

occur to

me

at the

moment

to

connect

it

with this young man."

"It was fearfully crude, of course; he

made
ive

all sorts of breaks.

But such

instinct-

knowledge of form; such vigor with;

out erotism

such scholarship

Above

all,

A QUESTION OF TIME.

such penetrative imagination and freedom

from the

influence

of other writers

for
The

even Pindar's Remains, you know, give but a

pallid suggestion of his greater works.

faculty sent for

him personally and comsomething they never did

lives.

plimented him,

before in the course of their didactic

I heard afterward that there

was a good
before they

deal

of dispute
it.

among them
it

did

Some

said that

was nothing but

a youthful

fever of the imagination and

to nothing;

would come
ity ruled."
"

but the majority

swore that he was a genius, and the major-

Was

he a friend of yours

" she asked.

Her
"

curiosity

was aroused and she looked

intently at the new-comer.

Oh, no.

did,

knew him. None of us excepting perhaps Red Hopkins, who

I barely

adored him, and

ally.

whom

he tolerated occasion-

He was

not uppish, nor a prig, but he

else.

seemed to prefer himself to any one

Perhaps he would have been disliked and

made somewhat uncomfortable, but he was

10

A QUESTION OF TIME.
class.

one of the best athletes in the

even on the base-ball ground, or
ing for a boat race, he had

But
train-

when

little to say.

He
They

had ten
rats,

cats,

a peacock, an owl, five white

and a whole regiment of toads.

all

seemed to give him

ed

the society he want-

especially
"

the cats."

He

looks," she said, slowly, " he looks

like the Sphinx."

Saltonstall

was undergoing

tlie

ordeal of

introduction to half the people in the room.

If he
it

had the shyness of youth he concealed

In spite

under an almost frigid dignity.

of his six feet, and lean strong limbs, he

would always give the impression of

ness at
first

ugli-

glance.

His

mouth almost

covered the lower part of his face, but the

lips,

in

their

grand firm curves, had the

;

repose of stone
that
hair
lie

they belonged to the faces

His straight was parted near the centre of a head,

beneath the pyramids.

large above the ears, of great width across

the top, but, unlike

full at the back.

many

intellectual heads,

The

lids of his eyes

were so

A QUESTION OF
heavy that the

TIMET.

11

lost secrets of

Egypt seemed
exbaffling,

encrypted beneath.

The depth of those

fathomless,

traordinary eyes was

appalling.

Even

their color, dark

It

though

it

was, could not be determined.

the impression of night,

gave one

when

color is not.
in that
face,

But the
with
the nose.

strangest feature

its strong,

hard, bold square lines,

it

was

Although large

was

delicate as

a lancet, and so thin and flexible were the

nostrils that

when they were

It

not quivering

like the

wings of a captured bird they lay

limply against the septum.

was a face of
stern, inscrut-

remarkable

contradictions,

yet harmonized

by a great individuality
able

the

repose of a granite Pharaoh flaming

with the soul of the Present.

He managed
tors at last,

to get

away from

his tormen-

and stood apart with

his hostess.

She babbled pleasantly, and

slowly about the room.

his eyes

moved
chair

They

rested for a

moment upon a beautiful woman whose

was surrounded by men.

" Pretty," he thought, " but like a million

12

A QUESTION OF TIME.
American

other

women."

Tlien

he,

too,

looked again.

He
"

turned abruptly to his hostess.

is

Who

that

" he asked.

The monologue

ceased,

and Mrs. Hopkins

looked up inquiringly.

"Who?"
"

That young lady over there

"
?

Mrs.

Hopkins

smiled.

"
is

My
last

dear Mr.

Saltonstall, that
six

young lady
merely
;

exactly forty-

forty-six on the ninth of

spiteful,

February."
"

She was not

"

statistical.

What

"

he stammered

"

what ?
?

" It
is

surprises you, does

it

not

Yes, she

remarkably young

looking,
is

even in a

strong light.

But she

two years older

I,

than

am we went

to school together.

however," with a sigh, "have had trouble,

and ten children, and many

duties.

She has

had an eventless

life.

Soon
i-ich

after she left

school she married a

man, and he took

her to a beautiful home.

He was

twenty
in-

years older than she, and very kind and

dulgent, almost like a father.

She would

A QUESTION OF TIME.
have liked to
travel,

13

but her husband was

absorbed in business, and she has never been

away from Danforth except for an

visit to

occasional

Boston, and once she spent a winter

in

New York,

and has got her clothes from She

is

there ever since.

is

fond of dress and

lets

very good-natured, and

the girls copy

her gowns.
died,

Four years ago her husband

pleases,

and she could do as she

doesn't

but
al-

she

seem
lazy

to

care.

She

was

ways a
tious."
"

little

and never very ambi"

What

is

her

name ?

" Mrs.

Trevor

Boradil Trevor.
is

She was She has

a Palmer, one of the oldest families in the

State.

Ah

she

going to

sing.

a lovely voice, as young as her face."

Mark watched her cross the room to Her movements had none of piano.
herself
figure

the
the

quick litheness of girlhood, but she carried

with dignity, and her round slender

perfect.

was

She sang a ballad, in a pure sweet voice with many delicate tones in it, and showed

14

A QUESTION OF TIME.
and much
intelligent appre-

faithful study

ciation of music.

"Yes," thought Mark, "a lovely voice,

but icebound like her eyes."

He watched
The
first

her with growing interest.

shock over, the anomaly appealed

Moreover, he had a progirls
;

to his imagination.

found contempt for

them any thought

at all

it

when he gave was to wonder

later

why

they were.

He
they

usually concluded that

they were made to be useful at a

period

Avhen

should

become

wives
little

and mothers.
about

In fact he
of

knew Yevj

women

any

age.

In spite of his

tremendous
passion,

vitality,

imagination had claimed

and the beauty of women was faded

his brain.

and cold beside the creations of

Of

abstract love he
it,

had sung and dreamed,

it.

deified

worshipped

With human

pas-

sion he

had never even experimented.

its

"When the song and

" I should like to
said.

encore were over

he turned to Mrs. Hopkins.

know Mrs.

Trevor," he

A QUESTION OF TIME.
"Certainly,"
" Certainly
;

15
hostess.

said

his

amiable

I will introduce you."

She was detained for a moment, and Mark

looked at her meditatively.
tronly and stout.

She was mafig-

All the lines of her

of the
lined, she
flesh.

ure were
face

stifE,

in spite

Her
in a

was careworn and

haii-

parted her
it

black and white

tight knot at the

and twisted

back of her head.

But her
indi-

expression

was sweet and her manner

eyes to Mrs. Trevor.
!

cated a nature full of patient kindness.

He

moved

his

Forty-six
!

years of nothingness
tragedy.
ess.

Great

God

\vhat a

Then he looked again

hardly

at his host-

He

knew which

to pity most.

But

there were problems of life he did not

pretend to have grasped.

felt his

Then he suddenly
felt it before.
?

youth as he had never

if

What
"What

he had been endowed with genius

if

ideas and language rushed at his

?

command
enced,

He was

but a boy, inexperiof

ignorant

for

women and
nothing.

their

eternal mystery he

knew

He was

presented to Mrs. Trevor and sat

16

A QUEaTION OF TIME.
lier in silence

by
to

for a

moment.

It occurred

him

that he

had never before given the

it

beauty of a woman's arm the credit

served.

de-

Boradil's

arm had been moulded

that a sculptor might be the wiser.

At

first

Mark looked
gown

at

it

with the rapt appreciit

ation of the artist, as

;

lay along her black

felt

but in a moment he
it

a paramount

desire to clasp

-with his hand.

its

He had
cool

no

wish to kiss

it,

merely to feel

human

roundness against the warmth of his palm.

He
had

felt as old as
felt

a few moments before he

young.
life.

He had

squandered twenty-

two years of
to go

Mrs. Hopkins had ordered the other

men

and talk to a group of

alone.

girls,

and he
"I

and Mrs. Trevor were

" I

cannot talk," he said, abruptly,

have no talent for small talk whatever."

She smiled sympathetically into his

eyes.

Were they brooding

therein
?

over the secrets of the

ages, or had she the honor of being reflected

She changed her mind suddenly

regarding what she had intended to say.

A QUESTION OF TIME.
" I hope

17

you do not think

it

necessary to

pose and be eccentric because you are a

poet," she remarked, coldly.

His dark face grew almost black. " I hope

hope you will not think me such a

fool,"

he burst out, deprecatingly.

"Indeed you

misjudge me.

What

I said is literally true.

have not the slightest idea how to make

conversation.

My

mother died when

sisters.

was

born.

I never

had any

My

father

brought

me

up, and until I went to college I

had a
ciety,

tutor.

My father
clever

never went into solot of

but he always had a

men
of

at the

house

awfully
like

men; some

them
talk.

lawyers,
artists

himself; some writers; some

I used to listen to

and
little

them

They were very good

was a
chap
;

to me, even

when

and

I could talk to them.

But they talked

and that
That
to a
is

of things that interested

me

had read and thought about.

the
first

a very different thing from talking

woman
all

time you meet her.

I

Al-

most

the
a

women

have known have lived

in books."

IS

A QUESTION OF TIME.

He

delivered

his

speech with a boyish

eagerness, unlike the frozen solemnity with

which he had favored the other people in

the
the

room

and

it

was

in strange contrast to

massive repose of his face.

Boradil

looked at him with genuine sympathy, and

said

what had been

in her

mind a few moI cannot

ments before
"

And

I will confide to
'

you that
'

talk

cannot

make

conversation

either.

I never do.

I only listen.

I turn perfectly

when a stranger is introduced to me and expects me to say something. It is constitucold

tional.

I shall never get over it if I live to

be a hundred."
" I

am

so glad,"

he said with a smile

which
" If I

just touched his

mouth and vanished.

like society
it

come

to a

dead stop I shall know that

you understand.
" I neither like

Do you
it

"
?

nor dislike

here.
meet
it

spent a wintei' in
very, very bored.

New York
end.
I

once,

and was
all for

Such a rush, and

like to

nothing

in

the

my
has

friends and talk to them.

Or perhaps

A QUESTION OF
become
just as
sucli a habit that I

TIME.

19
it

think I like

we

like our old furniture

and think

we

like our relatives."

He
If she

looked at her with some curiousness.

had not cared for

filled

society,

with what
-life
?

had she

the long years of her

He wanted

to ask her, but dared not.

But

he had not believed that a mere mortal could

so rouse his interest.

He

felt it necessary to

say something.
"

You

look

extraordinarily

young for

forty-six,"

he remarked,

felicitously.
;

She blushed, but not with displeasure

it

had never occurred

to her to

deny her

age.

Then
"

she laucrhed at his directness.

lives such a quiet life in a

One

town
"
?

like

Danforth.
" I

What

brought you here

have an aunt

Mrs.
the

Brewster

who
her.

me to spend Do you know her ?

asked
" Yes, indeed.

summer with

I have

known her for thirty

is

years at least.

When
She
is

Elnora Brewster

coming home

said to have
;

made

quite a sensation abroad

has been presented

20

A QUESTION OF

TIME.
courts,

at a lot of GeiTaan

and Scandinavian

and been travelling about with some very

fine

people.

Danfortb," she smiled a

little

satirically, " is

very proud of her."

is

"

Oh, yes," said Mark, indifferently, " so

aunt.

my

She thinks a

lot of those things."

His slow gaze roved about the room, then

i-ested full

on her once more.

to-night,"

" I did not

want

to

come
I

he went on, with

his startling frankness, "

but I

am

glad

now
all.

that I did.

like

you

amazingly,
"
?

and I

do not care for these other people at

Do you

think I can see you again

Boradil

had exactly that

instead

amount

and

quality of coquetry which

makes a woman
There were
of this

charming

of

cruel.

times, however,

when

the exercise

dainty feminine gift had proved quite as

dangerous as the
torial sisterhood.
" I will

fiercer

charms of the equa-

adopt you," she

said, softly

and

her voice was like the minor chord of a violin.

"

You

are quite

young enough

to be

my

son,

and I shall like to spoil you."

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

21

"It seems ridiculous," he answered her;

"

you do

look so

awfully young.

Yes
filial

adopt me.
as I

I will be

your
let

son,

and as

know how.

Only

me go
Here

to see

you

every day.
will

When you

get tired of
is

go back to Boston.

me I a man

coming to talk to you.

away."

Please send him

A tall,

dignified

man, of middle age, with

kindness in his brown eyes, sternness on a

mouth that

trial

had straightened, and

intel-

ligence on his broad lined forehead,

to Mrs. Trevor

came up
her.
intro-

and took a chair beside

She blushed as he approached, and

duced him as "Mr. Irving."

Mark

stood

up

at once, but bent to her ear.

"I

am

not looking for a father," he mutleft the

tered,

and then

room and the

house.
dis-

few hours

later

Boradil Trevor

missed her handmaiden, after her hair had

I'eceived its

customary brushing, and stood

mirroi*.

long before the

She

raised

the

lamp above her head and

unflinchingly.

scrutinized herself

22

A QUESTION OF TIME.
"There are a few
lines

about

my

eyes,"
one.

she said aloud, " but no wrinkles

not

There

is

little

hollow, no, a faint depresis firm.

sion, in

my

cheek, but the flesh

h.ave not that loose look that

many women
skin
is

get at forty.

My

eyes do not look tired,

and

my

teeth are perfect, but

my

no
it

longer very white, although, thank heaven,

is

not faded.
is

My

throat has just a tiny hol-

low, but

neither stringy nor soft,

and

have not a round back."

She

looked at her
;

hands.

They were

shapely and smooth.

them.

age had not touched

Her

rich

abundant hair hung to her

waist, her bust curved like pliant jade, the

skin
Still

on her neck was fresh and smooth.

she sighed.

Her eyes looked far beyond the mirror. The future leaned forward and cast its shadow over her. She
sifjhed aurain.
" I

do not know why," she thought,

"

but

I feel old to-night."

11.

Danfokth-on-the-SoUiStd had begun

its

un-

eventful existence as a fishing village, some

two hundred years before

shore.

but of late years

a town of pretensions had grown along the

In the natural course of things Soci-

ety had crystallized on the surface of Progress,

and the town even boasted the doubtluxury of a summer

hotel.

ful

But

nei-

ther local society nor

summer boarders

be-

guiled the old families of Danforth from the proud tenor of their way.

Through the
and by the

town and beyond

brick houses, each

it,

on the

hills

salt-marshes, were a dozen or

more square
single

crowned with a

tower; in them lived the

the

descendants of

men who had

their

routed the red-skins and

farmed
to boot.

acres

weaponed from breast

These simple yet haughty people

24
visited

A QUESTION OF TIME.
and entertained one another gener-

ation after generation,

and no comeling to
entered
their

the

town had

ever

doors.

They clung

to ti'aditions,

and were as conser-

vative as jseople ever are

whose experience

has been narrow.

Trevor House .was perched like an eagle

on a rocky

hill

behind the town, and comof water, and miles of

manded a broad sweep

came
in the

meadow, marsh, and wood.

to
it

When

Boradil

a bride she spent

many an hour

round tower watching the ships and

boats go by.
to

She was somewhat inclined and romance

in

sentiment

those

davs,

and, like a girl, she had

dreamed of vague

futures, forgetting that she

wife.

was already a
un-

Years ago she had stopped dreaming,

the
daily round
of her pleasant,

for

eventful life had dulled the edge of imagination.

The years slipped by

so

so quickly

She had barely noticed them speed softly

past her,
their

peacefully monotonous

were
occuafter-

days.

Her household
hours,

duties

pied her

morning

and

her

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

25

noons were varied with music, painting, and

books.

Every

night, excepting

when some
The
latent

gathering demanded her, she went to bed at

nine o'clock, and slept ten hours.

sadness in her eyes was not the child of her

intelligence,

but of the unconscious tragedy

of her

life.

When Mark
Hopkins's
little

called,

the day after Mrs.

party, he

was shown

into

Mrs. Trevor's library, which adjoined the

great

room holding the tomes

It

of Mr. Trevor

and

his forefathers.

was a bright room

facing a wood, but the oaken walls and floor

were black with

age.

The

flooi',

however,

was
gay.

half covered with Oriental rugs, and

the bindings of the books were fresh and

A piano,

covered with music, stood in

one corner, and an easel in another.

On

the

edge of the wood, facing the window, was a

magnificent clump of rose-bay laurel,
tall

the

heads crowned by great bunches of pink

blossoms, soft as

dawn

clouds.

Mark looked with some

well-filled shelves that ran

surprise

at the

about two sides

26

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

of the room, tlien eagerly scanned the titles

of the books.
"

She has done some reading in her

he thought.

forty" Per-

six yeai'S, at all events,"

haps one

may be

able to tell something of a

woman by
any
note,

the silent

company she keeps."

a

All the American and English novelists of

past and present, were there
;

good deal of poetry, and the essays and

ters to
ter,

letfil-

which Posterity

that

infallible

whose ways are past finding out

had

affixed its seal.

France was represented by

Balzac, George Sand, Victor

tier's

Hugo and Gau-

Travels.

Mrs. Trevor did not appear for twenty

minutes, and

Mark had
girl,

time to meditate. The

woman who had

the face of a

so roused his curiosity

had

and the face

is

supposed to

be the plastic medium of the

soul.

But a
books

woman could not have and know nothing of

entertained

read
life.

all these

Balzac alone

would remove any doubts she may have

regarding
tlie

resemblance of
living knowl-

Danforth to the World.

Were

A QUESTION OF TIME.
edge and written knowledge so widely
ferent that
tlie latter

27
dif-

glided from the surface

of a soul in which experience

had cut no

fur-

rows

His insight guided him to the

truth,

where a mere man of the world would have

arrived at a different and more cynical conclusion.

Boradil read of the heights and

depths of
its

human
and

passion, of the

world

in

glittering

sinful phases, but the arti-

ficially

gathered lore dwelt in one wing of

her brain, and her ego in another.

Some-

times the passions of those brain-children

touched her to responsive

fect

thrill,

but

its

ef-

went with the moment.

She had not a

its

brooding mind, and each book displaced

predecessor.

Mark turned

to the easel.

A nearly

fin-

ished water-color

was on

it

ah exquisite bit

of landscape, with a certain depth of color

and touch.

He had
to

a curious feeling that

if

he had time to study one of her pictures he

would come
better

know the woman know than she knew herself. A door

her
be-

hind him opened, and he turned to greet Mrs.

28
Trevoi'.

A QUESTION' OF
As
she

TIME.
no-

came toward him he

ticed that her color deepened.

"You
last

blushed like that for Mr. Irving

;

you always blush

night," he said, unceremoniously "

?
;

"

do

She laughed amusedly

It "

"

Almost always.
"

means nothing with me."

Are you going

to

marry Mr. Irving ?

this time, "

She laughed outright

blush grew warmer. never occurred to me.
are.
is

and the

No.

Such an idea
abrupt you
It

How

so

by the window. warm, and the woods make one

Let us
sit

here

feel

cool."

He

sat

with her before the broad window

full

and the light shone

defiantly revealed

on her

face.

The
test

few retrogressions were

;

carelessly,

almost

but she stood the

girls after their

better than
season.

many

second
like a

And

the light

made her look

splendid bit of color advantageously hung.

She wore a white gown, vnth a band of

other her small round waist.

heli-

otrope velvet clasping her throat, and an-

A QUESTION- OF
"

TIME.

29

Do you know what

1 feel the greatest

?

desire to

do with your mouth

"

demanded

Mark, abruptly.

For the
" I

first

time Boradil was somewhat

reflectively.

taken aback, but he went on

want

to take the under lip

finger

between

my
in-

thumb and
side.

and pull

it

open.

I feel

sure that more than half of

it is

on the

It looks like one of those laurel blos-

soms, half burst."

The

laurel blossom looked full

"

blown for

the moment.

You
as

certainly say the most

I

unconventional things.
correcting

had thought of

you

a mother should, but I

I

believe I will not.

like
ests

never

knew anyone

you
me.

before,

and your
"
?

originality inter-

Why
all

should I try to make you

like other people

"

Have

the people you have

known

been alike

"
?

"Mostly."
"
I

God

Forty-six years of the same people.

am

only twenty-two, and I have

known
men."

many

well, a

good many,

varieties of

So
"

A QUESTION OF TIME.
Well, perhaps
if

were to think about

it

might

find that each

most insignificant per-

son I have met had his individuality.

And

perhaps the men, you have known, have not

been so unlike after

there
ple
;

all.

do not imagine between peo-

is

so very

much

difference

the difference
is

lies in

their opportunities.

That

the reason

why

the people in novels

are so
real

much more
I

interesting than those in

life.

do not find Mr. Irving particu-

larly interesting, but I have often thought

that a novelist could

make him
That
is

so."

"Yes, arbitrarily.
tion of

Taine's defini-

Art

to

manufacture for a character

of

the opportunities

development he

may
have

lack

in real life."

" I

have never read Taine.

I often

ideas that I
I suppose
it,

come across
often
not.
so.

later in literature.

it is

The

^vrite^s

say

and we do
"

They become famous,

and we remain obscure."

Yes

it is

a mere matter of ambition."

"

With

the merely clever writer, but sure-

ly not with genius."

A QUE3TI0N OP TIME.

31

" No, I believe that genius will create be-

cause

it

must

even

if it

knew

that the world

would never stop

to

listen.

At

the same

time the resemblance in this regard between

genius and the writing epidemic of the present day
is

somewhat amusing.
'

According to

the

'

interviewers

of the press every scrib-

bling

woman
'

in the land,
idea,

with a thousand
because she
herself.'

words for each

must,'

'writes

because she can't help

The

average, brain appears to be in the condition

of a dynamited pumpkin.

But
to

let us talk of

know how you have used up your life. You said last night that you had spent a winter in New York
something
else.

want

once,

and did not like

it.

Why

did you

not like it?"

"I never cared for dancing, and the men

talked society nonsense.

When I did
is

not feel
it."

dizzy I felt tired. There seemed nothing to

"

No
I

suppose there

not.

Once or

twice I was forcibly taken out in Boston,

and

thought I should go mad.

The

girls

looked like pink and white and blue toy

32

A qjIM&TION OF

TIME.
to
col-

balloons that were just beginning

lapse,

and the men looked like paper

After two months of
"
it

dolls."

" Exactly.

came

home."
" "

But are you never lonely ?

Not very." "But sometimes?

I

Tell me.
to

You do

not

know how much

about you."
" Well,

want

know

everything

sometimes a

little.

One cannot
soul in

paint and walk and read and sing and house-

keep

all

the time, and I

know every

this place

by

heart."
travel,

"Why
"

do you not
?

now

that

you

can do as you please

Well

there
I

are several reasons.

Busi-

ness matters detained

me

for a time.

do not
afraid.

like the idea of travelling

Then I alone I am

And

may as know of no
I

well

own

to the truth. I should like

one

whom
I

to travel with.

Then

then

am

so used to

staying here.

have been so hap

well, so

contented and comfortable in this old house.

I almost shi'ink

from change.

You

see

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

33
be-

am

forty-six,

and habit by that time has

"

come a

stronsr force

"You

are twenty, thirty years younger,"

interrupted Mark.

She shook her head.

in

" I look young,

and

many ways I feel young, but the fact remains. The forty-six years have gone ly /
and, consciously or unconsciously to myself,

have

left their

mark.

have lived forty-six

years in this world, and to-day I

sult of those forty -six years.

am the ream not blase

things

even of monotony, but I feel rather than

know

that I

am

indifferent to

many

which would have given me keen

twenty years ago."
"

satisfaction

You

talk as

if

you were three hundred,"

seem great
to his youthful

he

said, angrily,

although her age, as apart

from

herself, did

bout with Time.

scious

He went

on with uncon"

and

forty-six

they in

What are What are years in themselves? comparison with Time ? What a
increasinof eas^erness.

trivial figure

does such a number of years cut

in the history of the

world

Why do they

34

A QUESTION OF TIME.
?

seem great to man and woman

Because

man's allotted days are threescore years and

ten,

and toward the middle of the third de-

cade the teeth begin to drop, the eyes to dim,

the vigor to
of
fail.

That

is

the whole secret

what

is

known

as old age.

But

I had
as

friend in Boston, a newspaper man,

who was
much

mad on
about

the subject of physical culture, and

of

before I got rid

it

him

knew

as

he did.

Although the subject

bored

me

a good deal, I became convinced

that with proper training, diet, and observation of every

law of

health, youth could

;

be

prolonged

indefinitelj^

the god of old age

Avould wither and die of disuse.

Why," he

added, laughing,

" I

have not the faintest

doubt that a couple of centuries hence a

woman

will not be thought old

enough

to

make her bow

into society until she

is fifty,

and will lead the german at two hundred."

She too laughed, but a hope crossed her
" biit face.

flash of passionate

" Perhaps," she said

do you think the man will ever be born

will

who

want

to live

two hundred years

"

A QUESTION OF TIME.
" Certainly.

35

Two

centuries

from now the

it

world will be so rich with

will take three

interest that

enjoy
their

hundred years to know and Think of the monuments of past added to ours. And their moral
it
all.

code will have changed.

will live together,

Men and women

certain

by law, a
forty,

number

of years

thirty,

sixty

(or perhaps

only ten)

and as

the race will be two hunin-

dred years nearer perfection of beauty,

tellect,

and

character,

tMnk

of the tremen-

dous happiness and variety a

out
of his

man

will get

generous

allotment

of years.

Think of the many deep and

ences.
tlioi',

rich experiartist,

Why, he
for

could be poet,

au-

lover, scientist, discoverer, each in suc;

cession

the

mind

will

unfold

many
could

leaves in that long span, and a

man

no more remain one unalterable personality

than he to-day retains for more than seven
years the same physical structure."
" Is that " she asked

your idea of Utopia

like a prophet."

"

you look
"

Oh, I

am

a prophet of nothing," he said.

36

A QUESTION OF TIME.
settling in his eyes. "

gloom

Sometimes

think that

my

ideas are the veriest rot that

in a man's brain.

was ever born

tion

In the reac-

which follows the exaltation of conceiv-

ing a

poem

I feel like
if

an enthusiastic gush-

ing fool, as

my

brain were but full of the

It
is

rubbish of youth.

onl}?

when

am

on the heights that

whiles I often

I feel great.

Between

am

so depressed
kill

and discour-

aged that I want to

myself."

She
kindly.

j)ut

out her hand and touched his

"

Remember only

the

moments of

exaltation," she said, in her sweet vibrating

voice,
"

that poor

when you are great. Remember common mortals never have such
at
all.

moments

When
all

you

feel that

you
but

have that power over

men

that you can

all

make men's
there,

brains suddenly

empty of

the song and the thoughts you are pouring

then you have the right to

it

embalm

such a moment and keep

forever."

before your sight

She was leaning forward, her eyes

y^ith the earnestness of her

soft

sympathy, and

A QUESTION OF
he
felt

TIME.

37

the subtle spell of her momentary

identification with himself.

He was

a creat-

ure of imagination, and a kind of rapture, a

completeness of being, stole over him.

material world faded.

The

He

vaguely remem-

bered a tradition he had heard once of a race

which, existing before flesh had raised
barriers,
its

had possessed equal power

:

of uni-

ty and duality

love
;

had meant one shadduality, a floating,

felt as if
.

owy blissful
in hand.
.

outline
. .

hand

He

he had abher face

sorbed this woman.

before
the eyes of
?
. .

Was
or

his body,

down

in

his soul

She leaned back

ered a
little as

in her chair,

and he

shiv-

she withdrew her hand.

here,"

"I often paint

she

stammered

vaguely, but he stood up.

" Grood-by," he said

stay any longer.

for

"

"I do not want to Will you do something

;

me

What

is it

"
?

Will you meet me in the wood up there

" to-morrow morning ?

at four o'clock

38
"

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

At four

o'-^

it

" Yes.

Does

seem

so

very early
?

Have you never been up

at four
life.

Then

inis

deed you have wasted your

Why it

the sublimest hour of day or night.

I will teach

Come.

you something to-morrow morn-

ing that you have never

known

yet."

"Well," she

said,

"I

will be there."

III.

B0RA.DIL having set an alarm-clock to

awaken her
at eight.

at three,

went

to

bed that night

and con-

She

felt rather sleepy

fused as the clatter lifted her bolt upright

but a cold bath and a cup of coffee, brewed

over a spirit-lamp,

made her
;

feel fresh,

and

interested in her adventure

she was learn-

ing the poignant sweetness of novelty.

As

the small hours were coo], even in that mid-

summer

season, she put

on a dark woollen

gown, and crossed a white mull handkerchief across her breast.

tied a large

On

her head she

poke bonnet of white straw, and

reflecti(5n

smiled at her

in the glass.

She

looked a veritable Priscilla, and as demure a

coquette as ever breathed.
little

Then she gave a

tryst.

sigh

and started for her

She wandered far into the wood before

40

A QUESTION OF TIME.
appeared
;

Mai'k Saltonstall

and then

lie

came with a
through the

rush, like a wild animal flying

forest.

She watched him as he

ran toward her, his nostrils quivering, his

lids lifting.

He

looked youth and

life epit-

omized.

He

reached her side with a leap,

and

catchinof her

about the waist before she

could divine his purpose, whirled her up and

down
way.

the clearing.

She made one desperate

effort to free herself, then let

him

liave his
her, in a

Round and round he swung

if

dance as free and wild as

they had been

faun and dryad flashed upward from forest

tombs

then,

suddenly,

he swept her

off

the ground and seated her on the limb of a

tree.

"

Oh

is

it

not good to be alive

" Is it

"

he

cried to her.

not good

good

Do

not you feel

joy of
life
?

mad sometimes with

I should like to

the very
as high I feel
I feel
dif-

jump

as that tree

and shout
I could

like

an Indian.

light as air.

run ten miles.

as if I could divide myself into

twenty

ferent parts

and give nineteen away to

nine-

A QUESTION OF
teen
"

TIME.

41

puny men and yet be stronger than any

alive
inter-

man

"Will you please take me down?"

rupted Boradil.
fied,

" I feel extremely undigni-

and not having the strength of twenty

her

men, somewhat breathless."

He swung
fully

down and

placed her carestone, then

on a large moss-c'overed

threw himself at her feet and said no more

for several minutes.

A
iron.

great clock, far

down

in the valley

struck four, smiting, the stillness like iron on

Mark

raised himself to his knees

and

took her hand.

"

Are you rested ?

"

" Yes."

Have you forgotten that wild dance ? " " " No how could " I mean is the impression indistinct enough " to give way to another ?
"

" Possibly." "

Then

I will tell

you what
is

meant by

saying that this hour

of the twenty-four.

the most sublime

Listen."

42

A QUESTION' OF TIME.
" I hear nothing." "

That

is it

only you

do hear

you

hear

the silence."

His voice ceased again, and

this time she

knew what he meant.

silence like that.

In

all

the forty-six

years of her life she had never

It
It

known a
and

was deep
became
like

as space

vast
spoke.

as

time.
Its

personified

it

voice

was

the

speechless

thunder of arrested

waves crashing upon

turned to

phantom

rock.

She

him with

white face.
" Yes," she whispered, " I feel it."
"

This

is

the moment," he said, in the same

"

awestruck tone,
breath and writes
tions, earth

when Nature holds her the doom of man and naIt is the

and

sea.

hour of

fate.

Look

up."

She caught
with a faint

mood and looked upward shudder. The sky was a dome

his

of steel blue granite

hard,
if

cold, inflexible.
if

Pale lamps wavered here and there, as

oil

the

of

life

were low, as

they were trimmed

for humanity's wake.

A QUESTION OF
She turned
together.
to

TIME.

43

him suddenly and they clung

his

Then

mood changed

again and

he sprang to his
"

feet, lifting

her with him.

Come," he

said.

He

hurried her to the edge of the wood.

salt

Below them lay

ley looked like

marshes and

corn-fields

covered with creeping mist.

A narrow valbefore

a yawning chasm

whose blackness even the sun would pause

afErighted.

Far down

slept

the city, the

trees, clinging

about the houses like hair

Afar, a
little

about a drowned face.

town

clutched a steep hillside like wild mountain

birds their gray, bare peaks.

The

streets

were perpendicular, as
rock.

if

steps

hewn from

The
by

surface

was broken here and

there

cave-like hollows wherein

man had
and
river

crept and built his

home

on high a spire

shot upward, as

if

to pierce the stars

floor.

the golden ether of heaven's

The

swept by marsh and town, the Sound lay

cold and
still

between

its

peaceful banks.

The

sarne intense stillness

was over

all as

in the heart of the wood.

Not a wreath

of

44:

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

smoke curled upward, not a note from the

throat of a bird disturbed a

wave
is

of

air.

Then suddenly Mark shouted. "Asleep! asleep! The world

and we alone are awake.
you
feel

asleep,

Does

it

not

make
if is

omnipotent

Do
hour.
if

not you feel as

!

the world lay in your hand

That
if

the

way
ity

feel

in

this

As

nothing

were impossible.

As

the rest of human-

were dwarfed and

were almighty.

Oh

what a
bursting

sense of power; I awake, sentient,

with

life

and
''

intelligence

they

stupid, senseless, sleeping.

like Jove, like

I feel like Caesar,

God
her

He

caught

hands.
in

" I

remember
embodied

writing a

poem once
if

which

the idea that a

ever I loved a

woman
take
the
in
us,

flesh-and-blood

woman

would

her for
forest

my own

at this hour

out

when
am

Nature had forgotten

and

the great hateful

asleep.

commonplace world was

But come come

suppose you
I assure
often.

think I

a fool or a lunatic.

you

that these

moods do not occur

am

A QUESTION OF TIME.
generally fairly sensible.

45
it

Only

seems to

me

that certain hours of solitude must carry

off his feet

any man
"

who

has one seed of the

!

artist in him.

Let us take a walk "

not apologize," she said, " I

You need

understand you."

rv.

He

came home

to breakfast witli her,

and

after he

had gone she

sat long in her library-

thinking of the past few hours.

For the

first

time in her

life

she found herself vitally inIt

terested in a fellow-being.

was a new

sensation, this being lifted out of herself into

the actual
different

life

and thoughts of another

interest

^far

from the momentary

She

born
her

of a sympathetic nature.

felt as if

whole mental vision had been refocused, and

that the object filling the camera

was no

longer herself, but a

man electric with genius,

She had never
;

ardent with hope, imperious with ambition

vital, magnificent, terrifying.

woman as people go many a man and woman turned to her naturally in hours of trouble; many a poor family
been a
selfish

found

life

easier because she

;

had entered

their little radius

but, lonely in the world,

A QUESTION OF TIME.

47

she had come to feel that she was the pivot

on which that world revolved.

delightful sensation
interest in the

It

was a
It
;

that
life,

unique absorbing

personating of another.

gave a piquant zest to

unknown

before

the taste of variety had entered her

mouth

and the

flavor

was

delicious to the palate.

The past years seemed, all in a moment, bald, pale, empty and she had thought them
;

so peaceful, so pleasant, herself so fortunate in being shielded from the storms and
ills

of

life.

She sighed
;

to think that, sooner or

latei',

he must go
;

but nothing could annihi-

late her interest

she could follow his career

to follow the develop-

as she

had been wont

ment of an engrossing record between the

covers of a book.

Another
her.

thing

surprised

and

pleased

Until to-day she had never realized

she had read,

how much she knew. She had met men who possessed the subtle power of quickening her ovm egoism, how much
but this boy was without art of any
sort.
fire

His mind had touched

hers,

and struck

48

A QUESTION OF TIME.
She had been able to
tell

again and again.

him

of books he

had not heard

of, rai'e

old

volumes in her husband's moulded library,

and he had nearly kissed her in

astic gratitude.

his enthusi-

It

gave her a keen sense of

exultation to be of use to a

mind

like that,

to feel that so original and gifted a brain

could owe even a

trifle

to her.

But perhaps

the subtlest pleasure of all lay in the

sense of companionship^.

new

What

a lonely life

had hers been

Her companions had been

Life's interests, its inher, as
;

authors' marionettes.
cidents,

had been manufactured for

for thousands of other solitary

women

and

she had been able

to delude herself that

fill

they were real enough to

her nature

She believed that she should never care to

read a novel again.

She

felt singularly

young

youthful.

he whirled her back and forth in that

As mad

dance up in the woods, twenty-five years

slipped out of the
fled,

century.

Indifference

dignity vanished; her thoughts, inter-

ests,

capacity for pleasure were as vivid and

A QUESTION OF
keen, as fresh,

TIME.

49

and

eager, as if long years ago

she had bound Time's eyes about with poppy

wreaths and charmed him to eternal

sleep.

She went up
time.

to

the

little

tower after a

For twenty years she had not climbstairs,

ed those dusty old

and as she

sat

down on a
of danger.

totterinsr chair before the

window
The

a rat darted across her foot and scuttled out

But she did not heed him.

;

Sound was the same

waters, but white

yachts might

sail its

beach and hoary rocks

eyes were as dreamy

were unaltered.

Her

as of old, her thoughts as vague

fused.

and conhas

In mind and body was a certain lan-

guor

the

languor of youth before

life

set the nerves in action.

She

lifted the rot-

ting

window and

the sweet hot air

It

lay

against her face.

had not been sweeter

and warmer, more whisj)ering and caressful

twenty years ago.
It

was the same, the

she,
too,

same
same.

and in that hour

4

was the

When
first

she went down-stairs a servant told

her that Mr. Irving was in the library.

Her

impulse was to refuse to see him; he

pointless

was a component part of the old

existence; but the kindness of her nature

triumphed and she went to the room where

he awaited
her.

Her

father and mother

dying during her

childhood she and her

brother had been left to the guardianship of

Mr. Irving's elder brother.

little

She had seen

her
early
;

of
;

James Irving

during

youth

he had been away at college

but

during her husband's lifetime she had found

him a devoted and valuable

friend.

Never
exist-

by word or deed had he betrayed the

ence of deeper feeling until two years after

Mr. Trevor's death, when he had asked her

to

marry him.

Ev^er since that

day she had

nervously dreaded a repetition of the pro-

A QUESTION' OF
posal.

TIME.

51

She had refused a number of men

but passing
regret
at
inflicting

with

wound, but she had a certain respect for

Mr. Irving which made her somewhat
dent about disputing his wishes.
difii-

He was

standing by the

window when

she

entered, his face in stern silhouette.

A smile

transformed

it

as he

saw

her, flashing sweet-

ness into the calm eyes and softening the

determined mouth.

"You

have not been to see

"

me

for a long

time," she said, with a soft cordiality, natural

to her, deceptive as
it

was.

Did you walk

Sit in that

up the

hill

Are you warm ?

"

easy-chaii"

by the window.
?

It is the coolest
!

spot in the house

Oh, tender hypocrisy

The wheels

of life

would rust and stop

Avere

cold-hearted frankness to crowd you from

poor human nature's uneven garden.

Mr. Irving sank into the

ade, then talked with

chair,

and she

rang the bell and ordered a glass of lemon-

him

of the

passing

events of their

little

world.

She had changed

her thick

gown hours

before for one of white

52 mull.
figure,

A QUESTION OF TIMS.
It
fell

softly

about her beautiful

and in her belt she had thrust a

to break-

bunch of pink bay -laurel, which Mark had

handed her when she came down

fast.

The dust lay thick on the hem

it.

of her

gown, but she had not noticed

The
cur-

dreaming light was

still

in her crystal eyes,

and although she had half drawn the

tains to shut out the sun, a straggling

ray

of light enriched the autumnal tints of her

hair.

Mr. Irving talked well; his

speech had given him the
the Danforth bar
;

facility

of

first

position at

but suddenly he came to

an awkward pause, and after a moment he

rose
"

and took a chair beside

her.

Two

years ago," he began slowly, " I

asked you to marry

me and you
but
I

refused.

have no reason to think that you care any

more

for

me

to-day,

am

compelled to

speak again because I love you so deeply

that so long as you are free I must strive to

win you."
There was something prim and old-fash-

A QUESTION- OF

TIME.

53

ioned in his wooing, but his voice vibrated,

and Boradil
knovv^
is

felt guilty

and miserable.

"

You
it

my

life so well,"

he went on, " that

hardly worth while for

I am. I

me

to tell

you

what a lonely man

but you.
less boy,

have never mar-

ried because I have never loved

I loved

any woman
penni-

you when
to Mr.

was a

when

came home and found they

Trevor, and dur-

had married you

ing
all

the long years since then

I should
left their
still

five

and

twenty, Boradil.

have loved

you had the years

stamp, as on so

many women
your beauty.

but I

am
little

only a man, and

better because of

perhaps I love you a

There are other things aside

life,

from
have

my

daily

however, which you

Shall I
to
tell

have never guessed.

often

you

of
"

wanted
is

your nature

the sympathy so exquisite but I fear

Her
friendship for

" Tell me, tell me," she said, leaning for-

ward

eagerly.

him was

very deep, and the moment he appealed to

her sympathies he existed in an unpeopled

universe.

54

A QUESTION OF TIMS.
" It is not

much," he

said,

looking into the

sweet, cold eyes, " only a little of one man's

inner

life.

had great aspirations in

I

my
go
all

youth, Boradil.

wanted to

travel, to
;

everywhere on the civilized globe

to

above

know

the world, to drink the cup

I

and

bite the dregs.

had the ardent temperaand

I

ment of youth

in those days,

wanted

the varied, picturesque, romantic career of a

Childe Harold and a

Bon

Juan.

You would
?

never

suspect

that,

would you, Boradil

ever did, so
little

Well, no

human being
in

do

we know
be great

one another.

Then

I wished to

my

career.

At

college I took

high honors and I dreamed of being another

Webster.

The power was not

in

me, I

know
city
in

it

now, but I could have had a wider

reputation could I have lived in some great

where the pulse of the world throbbed

ears

my
it

and the

fi'ictiou of

other ambi-

tious

minds forced mine to sharper edge.

could not be, and you

But

know why

for years poverty held

me

here, then

my

brother died and left

my

mother with no

A QUESTION OF
companion but myself.

TIME.

55

To have taken her

like uprootits

from Danforth would have been

ing a garden flower and planting the crevice of a rock.
it

roots in

I put the thought of

from me.

A year
is

ago she died.

Much
mind's

of

my

ambition

gone,

much

of

my

elasticity

and power to conquer obstacles;

but with you

I could make the

Mark, with

efEort."

She had listened with a pang for every

word.
life

The tragedy

of that starved, barren

his conquer-

appalled her.

ing genius, his splendid future, rose before

her,

and made the pathos of

deeper

this

man's por-

tion

and more

pitiful.

And

his

story

was the story of thousands and tens of

She could have wept for the mis-

thousands.

eiy of the world.

for

For the moment her pity

wished

him was

so profound that she

to put her

hands about his neck and give

his tired heart

him the help and comfort

implored.

But even
she

in that

moment

of tur-

bulent sympathy a warning

finger wrote

on
his

her brain that

would but make

misery and her own.

56

A QUESTION' OF

TIME.

He watched
keenest
thrill

her transfigured face with the

of happiness
his

he had ever
arms.

known, and half raised

chill

Then a

touched him and vaguely he heard her

say:

"Remember, dear
3'et
;

friend,

you are not

spirit

fifty

do not talk of vigor and

having

left you.

You

are

in

the veiy prime of

life

man's

yeai's

for

enjoyment of
I

and

vic-

tory of ambition.

cannot marry you.

I

do not love you.

love a younger

Remember,

have known
hei-e

one loveless marriage.

Go from
Think

and

woman.

tJmi^

how
It is

many women
impossible
is

there are in the woi-ld.

it

must be impossible that there

but one person on this broad earth

who
!

can give each of us happiness.

My God

no
is

tragedy could be greater than that.

so

Love
sure

much

a matter of conditions, of propin-

quity
will

am

sure that

it

is

am

you

love again

and

far better

than you

have loved me."

"You speak from the standing-point of one who has never loved," he said, bitterly.

A QUESTION OF
" "With
all

TIME.

57

your instinctive knowledge of

human

kind,

you do not

realize

that the

love of a lifetime can no more be uprooted

than the earth could be plucked from her

orbit
tion.

and flung
If I

into space without annihila-

had met you yesterday

to leave

you to-morrow, doubtless

in time, but I have
years,

I could forget

you

loved you for thirty

and

so long as I

have

my

faculties,

here and elsewhere, I shall continue to love

you."

His words had chilled

ebbed a
hand.
"

her,

why, she did

not pause to define, and her sympathy had

little.

He

stood

up and took her

Good-by," he said

" I shall never give

you up
"

remember

that.

Not

until I see

you married
That

to another man."

will never be," she said.

VI.

When- Mark

called the

next afternoon

Boradil was sitting before a fresh canvas

nibbling the end of a brush.
" 1

am

glad you have come

you will give

me an

inspiration perhaps," she exclaimed,

;

and then stopped suddenly

tended by no
less

Mark was
and

at-

than six

cats.

They had trooped

ranged
Boradil,

in at his heels

ar-

themselves in a semicircle before

regaining

her

suspiciously

with

twelve green gleaming eyes.

Their bodies

were black as a Plutonian council chamber,

and they were superb specimens

kind.

of their

"Are not

they

beautiful?"
"

demanded

Mark, enthusiastically.

They are thoroughand know more

anything they
isn't

breds, every one of them,

than lots of men.

There
;

can't do, except talk

and for the matter of

A QUESTION OF TIME.
that I can understand them

59
jabin-

when they

ber among themselves.

telligence of a

Talk about the

dog

He

can't hold a candle

disposi-

to a first-class cat.
tions, too, all

Mine have good

"Well, his

but that fellow over there.

!

He

has a temper

name

is

Hell.

But he is

the one I love best."

The

cats,

with the exception of Hell,

evi-

dently approved of Boradil, for they -went

about establishing themselves on her train

and one jumped on

uous

to her lap.

Hell, how-

ever, raised his back,

hiss,

gave a

brief,

contempt-

then walked over to the hearthrug

in its

and worked himself a comfortable bed

fur.
"

He

hates

women,"

said

Mark, apologetis

ically, " but

he holds his temper unless he

is

teased,

and he

invaluable for keeping the

other cats in

order.
all

When

they fight he

wallops them
respect for

round, and they have more

for me."

him than they have

He sat down on a low chair beside her. " Tell me all your life," he said, " everything.

want

to hear it."

60
" I "

A QUESTION OF TIME.
have told you everything."
everything.
I vpant to

Not

know

it all,

chapter by chapter.
fered any
?

Have you never

suf-

Is that the reason

you look so

young ?
"

Of

course I was sorry to lose

it

my baby

but I only saw

once,

you

see

and
I

that
to

was many many years

say, before

ago.
;

was going

you were born

years before
it

but
came.

had been

married
of mine

five

A friend
me

who

has suffered everything told

once

tliat if

no thinking

woman married beis

fore she

had known a touch of the anguish of

capable, that not

which the human heart

another child would ever be brought into

this world.

I felt so strongly for her that I

realized the truth of

what she
I

said

and never

wished for a child again.

ents,

As

for

my

par-

they died

when
all

was

three.

I don't

remember them."
"

Now

tell

me

your

mental

life

at

least."

Boradil began her unoriginal history to

humor him

then the subtle sweetness of the

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

61

confessional possessed her and she revealed

herself more-fully than she

had ever done to

mortal ears

hers had been the receptive not

the confiding mind.

As
tion,

she laid bare the simple details of her

years and her half-unconscious mental evolu-

Mark

ceased to think her

life

a tragedy.

It

seemed to him beautiful that a nature

could be at once so complete and so restful

so qualified
interests,

for

appreciating

the broader
;

yet so lacking in ambition

so con-

tent with monotony, yet so far removed fi'om

the commonplace.

Young

as he

was he had
all

all the restlessness of the gifted

mind,

the

craving for recognition of the

artist's nature.

Behind

his

grand Sphinx-like face burned

dreams of greatness, a hot desire to see the

world at
his
feet.

He

felt as if
all

he had

stumbled upon an oasis where

was

rest

and peace.
ing.

He found her unspeakably soothhis brain

Although

was

as big with

ideas and ambitions as

when he had entered

hand on

her presence, they did not scorch so fiercely

it

was

as if she

had

laid a soft cool

62

A QUESTION OF TIME.

a fevered spot.
sort of
ideal.

He

looked at her with the

artist

adoration an

feels for

his

" I

have the greatest desire to work with

said

you over something," he

finished, " to feel

when

she

had

my mind
!

elbow with yours,

as

it

were.
I

Let us do some work in com-

mon.

have an idea

You

paint a picture
fit

and

I will write a story to

it

I will
Do
some;

begin

when you

are half
?

way

through.

you catch the idea

"

Nothing serious

thing altogether fanciful and romantic."

Very

well," she said, feeling that subtle

desire for
" I

communion
just

as keenly as himself.

know
Boston

what

to paint.
little

When

was

in

last I

saw a

water color

painted by an Englishman, Francis James, I

think ; and although
it

was only an
to suggest a

interior,

beautifully colored and exquisitely done, yet

it

always seemed to
I never

me

story

what
you."

could

tell.

I leave that to

He

took the cat from

her lap and she

began painting with the broad strokes of the

A QUESTION OF TIME.
impressionist.

63

At

the end of an hour he

commenced
brain
is filled

to write.

He

drove

his

pen

along with the nervous rapidity of one whose

with a sixdden swarm of images,

finished flung the

and before the picture was

result

on her

lap.

She dropped her brush

and read eagerly the incoherent fragment he

had called

A
Armor
Salve

Vagaey.

in ante-room, against dull red wall.

in letters of gold

sunk in broad

tiles

of black onyx.
slabs of

Multicolored, infinitesimal

light flung

from rose-window

to

drown
arches.

in the pellucid floor.

spiral stair

winding

past

tapestries

on the landings'

A great

curtain of blood-red velvet

light.
;

with a long

rift of

Beyond, a vast
curtains like the

room, yellow as sunset

sky on a clear night when nature has swept

aside the lid of her jewel casket.

And
of lace

yet

something

more.

Diamonds,
. . .

powdered

hair,

and black patches

satin
.

Spray

and billow of

Hands

64

A QUESTION OF

TIME.
. .
.

of steel under rufEs of lace

weary

eyes

closing
.
.

iu
.

youth's

magnetic atmos-

phere
ing

music as of mermaids chantsouls

. .
.

Te Deum of uprisen mur of voices

. .

mur-

voluptuous throb

of laughter, hushed in the throat.

Gethaught, sensuously touched with the

curtain's half-revealing mystery,

sank upon

a brawny chair, looking upward with heavy

eyes to the light, waving behind the rose

window.

A spirit
?
.

beating against the pane

. .

for admittance

A blue crescent, like

Lo
!

a curving swoi'd cuts a thin dark face.

he

is

a visitor whose earthly

way had

lain

through marble tombs.

red blade smites.
in halls of flame.

The
is
.

light swings, a
hell poison

He
. .

brewing

palpitating hush in the

room beyond, a

mighty sound from brass and

woodfainting

into a sea of fettered passion to toss aloft a

woman's

voice.

Vaguely the soul of Getfuture.

haught leaped

not to give memoiy her claim

in resonant tumultu-

the echoes pealed back from the

The music surged out

A QUESTION OF
ous waves.

TIME.

65

Full, ttrobbing, it rolled about

him, an ocean of unrest.

It rose in clanging
it

chords of triumphant joy,

pain.

died in a sob of

Then, bursting forth in thunderous

it

harmonies

hurled defiance at Time and the

ravenous abyss of space.

Gethaught breathBeat upon by

its
its

ed with exquisite tremor.

that storm ocean, swept from

throne, his Soul shuddered from
cast itself

tottering

body and

upon the mighty quiring waves.

rose higher, higher, in eager swell,

The waves

in impatient bondage

then

out into the

night they rush to roll through space in eager

High on a crest they carried the Soul they had stolen, drowning his eai's with rioflight.

tous gloiy of sound

lapping his swim-

ming

senses with wavelets of

melody

Tareaking in a sigh.

They boomed,

those

hurrying waters, above vast choirs of mermaids, plaining for the loves of earth
.
. .

Over and above the long swell

Soul,
like

rose the

cloud wrapped

peplum-wise

about the wind.

5

Oh

the supernal beauty

of that singing ocean out in shoreless night.

66

A QUESTION' OF TIME.
their

The humming spheres held

sleep

breath.

Whirling night- clouds, black with blinded

and big with storms, quivered

to their

hearts

then broke in harmless

!

raindrops.

And now
calmer
;

the waves grow longer, lower,

immortality in their farest

their voices fainter, thinner, sweeter

yet ever with

echo

And now
waves

at

extremest

marge those
rise in their

curl roaringly up.

They

might and sweep back to the Soul.

the sun unpent

"Why do
The great
. .
.

they look like a tidal wave of light as had

its
.

liquid fires
. .

wave nears him

hovers above
.
. .

in it are infinite currents

each cur.

rent fine as thread of flame.

It rolls softlj^

about him
.

back
.

whence

it

came

as if

far

away

...

an imperious hand held the

. .

spring of those golden threads.

Music no longer
effable streaming

...
...
roll the

a fragrance in-

from the clinging meshes

In deeps
.
.

of a

woman's
.

hair,
. .

on heights

waves

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

67

deeper sinks the Soul fainting in that wondrous

perfume

twist
.

and
.

twine
.

and sting the golden serpents

ing with
life's

bit-

sweet venom.

A shock.
Have

That harmonious motion

ceases.
?

the waves broken upon a rock

still.

The

Soul knows only sudden

No

no rock

has called to pause those perfumed waves.

He

is

pressed closer
strong, supple.

closer
.

arms

Where
?

has he

felt that long, lithe

touch before

Where
the ages

has he not ?

Back through

through the world's forgotten

pages.
. . .

Down
fires,

through the golden haze burn two

their flames green

and scorching.

Shriek!
discord
!

Shriek!

Shriek!

The hideous
!

She has

loosed her hold

!

She

has flung him from her

She has hurled

!

him down
screech.
.

into an icy vortex

. .

In his ears

Gethaught, blindly stumbling, stood in the

great

room beyond the

to silence.

curtain.

The music

had crashed

Powdered men and

68
courtly

A QUESTION OF

TIME.
fro.

dames surged, trembliug, to and

cries

Sobs and
"

smote the fading notes.

"
!

She

is

dead

"

She has
sharp

oijly

swooned

The music
soul,

rolling through the halls of his

fire

on his mouth, Gethaught

flung the
stage.

crowd asunder and leaped to the

A woman lay prone.

as death.

Her

ice- white

face

was still
lids

Through the

gossa-

mer
her

shone the green of her eyes.

billows of boiling gold.

About
caught

fell

He

her in his arms

the
ber,

close,

hard

He fled through
the

startled throng,

across

ante-cham-

The tapestry swept apart, a great key turned. High in the stone wall was a window, against it lay the
up the
spiral stair.

moon.
floor,

He
cries

placed the woman's feet to the

holding her against him, crushing her

of
fear.

with

He wound

her hair

about him, pressing his lips to her pulsing

face.

As

she awakened the warnith of her

the room.

body

filled

the stout old door. the Song of Songs.

Angry hands beat The echoes whispered

VII.

The
most
phered

writing was nervously irregular,

al-

illegible in places,
it.

but Boradil decithe pages she

As

she laid

down

Ipoked up to find
her.

Mark

standing in front of

"That
months
I

is

nothinga
"

chaotic

trifle,"

he

said, rapidly.

But

want

to write.
in

For
mind.

have had an idea

let

my

Will you

me

write here

do not know

why, but

I feel that I could write better if

you were near me."

She rose and opened the door leading into
the larger library.
"

Go

in there," she said.

"

No

one will

disturb you."
"

And you

will

not leave this

room

Promise me."
" I promise," she said,

and for a moment

she, too, felt a feverish exaltation.

70

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

As
cats

the door closed beliind

made a wild dash at it, mewing piteously, Hell leaving

his claws

him the six five of them

the

marks of
Boradil

on the dark oak panel.

gave the shepherd of the flock a wide berth,

but knelt among the others striving to coax

them
until

into resignation.

But they
milk,

sat

limp

and woe-begone, refusing to be comforted

she sent for some

when they

gorged themselves. Hell included, and were

shortly oblivious of afEection's bonds.

Boradil ordered her supper brought to her

and

sat

through the long evening with her

dreaming eyes on the library door.

never rebelled against her lot
she
;

She had

but to-night

knew

absolute contentment.

The past
She
be-

was

annihilated, the future a

blank.

was touched with the exquisite sense of

ing necessary to another.
perfected.
It

She

felt complete,

was

as if

Nature had sudden-

ly lifted the curtain of her

Holy

of Holies

and shown her the heart of the world shaking with

all

men's motives, passions, dreams,

and high endeavor.

A QUESTION OF TIME.
She moved her head from

71

side to side.

She
been

felt intoxicated

with her new knowl-

edge, the

new

sphere into which she had

therein,

lifted.

But two people dwelt

the air throbbed with their united purpose

and

victory.

She rose once and listened at the door, but

the oak was thick and she heard no sound.

She shook her head impatiently, then

turned to her chair.

re-

As

the night wore on the cats

lap.

awoke and
liv-

sprang upon her

closely, feeling the

She pressed them

something Avonder-

sudden necessity for

is

ing warmth.

There

fully satisfying about a cat

when one

is

but

vaguely lonely, and no cats were ever more

soft

and yielding than these

afflicted five.

After a time, however, a succession of short

emphatic hisses recalled them to the hearthrug,

and they deserted her once more.

Midnight had come and gone when Mark

opened the library door and threw himself
on his knees before Boradil, burying his face
in her lap.

73

A QUESTION OF
" I

TIME.
tired.

am

tired,"

he murmured, "

Let

me

stay here a

moment."
his

She clasped her hands across

bent over him,
ecstasy.
It
filled

head and

with a sort of maternal

first

came to her for the

time in

her barren

life.

She had been too

ill

when
in-

her child was born to feel anything beyond

the pangs of motherhood, but
stinct flowered to its full.

now

the

warm

fingers

As if her firm transmitted this new gift which

he raised his head, regard-

had come

to him,

ing her with adoration.

all

His face was pale

it

the light had gone out of

but what

she had awakened.

"I

want

to stay with you," he said, " to

be

something to you

hardly

know what.

But promise me that

I need never leave you.

And
"

never wrote as I did to-night."

Why

should you go

" she said.

She rose and led him

to a table

where supfin-

per had been spread, and after he had

ished she

made him

lie

on a

divan,

and

watched him as he
near
its

slept until the

day was

prime.

A QUESTION OF TIME.

73

When
he

he awoke she had disappeared, and

house at once and struck across

left the

the fields to his aunt's home, followed by his

devoted

and hungry
ideas,

cats.

His head

felt

emptied of

and ambition for the mo-

ment was

felled

by exhaustion, but he had a

light sense of exultation that a long torturing

conception had forced

left

its

way

to

paper and
his interest

him

free.

For the time being

gone, but he
fire

in the

poem was

knew

that

when

he began the revision,

return.

and

enei'gy

would

For the present he was divided

between a profound sense of thankfulness,

almost of obligation, to Mrs. Trevor, and an

uneasy speculation regarding his aunt's view

of his prolonged absence.

VIII.

Mes. Brewster was the

acknowledged

leader of the exclusive set in Danforth, partly because of her strong personality, partly

owing

to the fact that she

life in

had spent every

boasted.

winter of her

Boston, and was the one

little circle

woman-of-the-world the

She was a

tall

woman, matronly

in appear-

ance, but possessing

extreme elegance and

pride of carriage.

drawn high over a

and
face,

Her iron gray hair was pompadour roll, and her

Ambition

low forehead was well -shaped.

life's

annoyances had drawn lines on her

little

and her mouth was

more than a
still clear.

straight line, but her fair skin

was

Her small gray eyes were

ly capable of a
stare.

cold and peculiar-

round, hard, embarrassing

fifty

She was

and she looked her age,

but she was an interesting

woman

still,

part-

ly owing to her indomitable will, partly to a

A QUESTION OF TIME.
certain suggestion

75

of passion

beneath the

trained almost aggressive placidity of her

face.

She had borne seven daus'hters and married

six of

them

to

men

of family

and wealth,
until, as

scheming and managing to that end

in-law had presented her with a

a candid friend told her one day, each son-

new wrinkle.
power and

Power she worshipped, and

husband and
youth.
children,

to

ambition she had sacrificed the love of her

and the springs, of her

"Whatever

noble and spontaneous

impulse

had

originally

dwelt within her

it

nature had been wai'ped out of

long ago,

and she ruled her family with a rod which

bent their heads and cauterized their hearts.
It

was a

cruel disappointment to her that she

had not a fortune large enough to make her the same being of paramount importance in
Boston that she was in Danforth, and the
bitterest

a great

moment of her life had been when New York woman failed to recognize

her the second time they met.

She had not been on cordial terms with

76

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

her brother, John SaltoQstall, for

many

years,

an unpleasantness having resulted from the

lady's desire to
tonstall's

wave her rod over Mrs. head. The young wife had

Salre-

sented her interference with no little spirit,

and being upheld by a doting husband, a

family breach had ensued.
tonstall's

After Mrs. Salsister

death neither brother nor

to close the

had

made any attempt

wound, until

the talk of Mark's genius had prompted Mrs.

Bi'ewster to drive out to

Harvard and make

much

of her promising nephew.

When

she

troubled herself to be fascinating she succeeded, and

when

she invited
her,

Mark

to spend

the

summer with

promising him an un-

used building for his brutes, he found the

prospect attractive.

Mark

stood somewhat in

awe

of his im-

perious aunt, and as after housing his cats, he

mounted the verandah

force of her
"

steps

and faced the

cold white glare of her eyes, he felt the full

famous personality.
she demanded,
in her

Where have you been ? "

ominous sharpness

with an

voice.

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

77

"The

servants have been out all night look-

ing for you."

He had

intended to make a clear statement

unconventional as

of facts, but

he was,

it

suddenly occurred to him that the truth

would place Mrs. Trevor

position
;

in

an unpleasant

he had spent the night in her

her unselfishness thrilled
it

house.

A sense of

him and brought with

her.

the desire to protect

In the meantime his aunt was awaiting his

answer.

He

looked into her penetrating eyes from

the baffling depths of his own.

" I took a boat

and rowed up the Sound,"

he

said.

" I

wished to think out a poem,

and the water always helps me."

And then
his
felt

he drew a long breath and raised

head proudly, almost triumphantly.

ten
!

He
for a
his

years older.

He had

lied

woman

The blood rushed through

veins faster for a moment, and he mentally

kissed the

white small hands which had

clasped his head a few hours before.

78
"

A QUB8TI0N OF
Your poem seema
remarked
he
I
said,

TIMB.

to

have been a suc-

cess,"

his aunt, dryly.

" Yes,"

looking calmly at her, "

it

was.

But
I

am more
you

sorry than I can say

to have
trouble.

put

to so

much worry and

to have sent

was a brute not

you
any

word.

Will
?

will
the

it

prevent

my having

breakfast
"

I could eat

an ox."
-

Go

into

dining room," said Mrs.

is

Brewster, severely, " breakfast

waiting for

you."

IX.
" Well, I never thought of
it

personally,"

said Mark,

"

but knowing the strength and

solitariness of the artistic nature, I can safe-

ly

assei't

that no

ai'tist

worth the name could

better than his
it

love a mere
art.

human being

He

can love, of course, but

life."

will oc-

cupy, say, one-third of his

Kedfield Hopkins picked up a stone impatiently and threw

it

into the lake.

?

"

A mere human being

You

speak as

if

man were
ments."

not the highest of God's achieve-

Mark

lifted his shoulders.

"

God
" I

created

man, and

man

created literature."
outright.

Hopkins laughed
your egoism, at

admire

least.

It is sublime.

Do
in

you mean
"

to say that that is all

God had

view when

He

created
I

man ?

"

Perhaps

not.

merely mean that since

80

A QUESTION OF
has allowed

TIME.
create

He
if

man

to

something

better than himself,

He

has nothing to say

it

an occasional man prefers

"

to his

own

kind."

You speak from the viewing-point of a man of genius, which is a narrow one, genius being rare. You are too young to have
lived much, especially as

you have been too

is true,

absorbed with your imagination to dabble

in facts.
I

am no

older,

it

but I

have been in love several times, and have

seen

a fair share of the

byways

of life

wherein the ladies of the lower ten thousand

take their constitutionals.
that
I can tell

you

when

the

human element

gets hold of

you, you are no stronger than a

beam

in the

middle of a burning house, and you go into

love head foremost and remain
heels kicking in the
air.

with your
it

Oh, I have seen

case
is

a hundred times.

My own

nothing.

the brainiest

Do you remember Ned Griswold ? He was man in his class. Talked like
a book and graduated at seventeen.
himself to death because a

Drank
wouldn't

woman

A
have
hiin.

<i,UE8TI0N

OF TIME.

81

We

all

was Jack Latimer. predicted that Harvard would have

there
to

Then

the honor of giving

artist of his

America the

first

day and generation.

What

did

he do but go and study medicine because

the girl he was in love with did not approve
of poor artists and
is

Bohemia

generally.

He

now

flourishing in his father-in-law's pi-acis

tice,

and

getting stout and has six brats

quite happy, and I
it."

to feed.

But he looks

never heard him say that he regretted

"

Probably he does

not.

He

is

not a case
of genius.

in point, for he

was not a man

He was
popular.

a clever painter and tremendously

The combination does not make

world has pulled the
re-

genius, although the

wool over
gard.

its

eyes several times in that

Cleverness, the great

American

char-

acteristic,

he possessed to an unusual degree,

but there was never anything in his work to

make you

marvel, to

lift

you up

in a word,

to suggest the unsuspected

wonders revealed

by a microscope.
6

As

for Griswold, he

was

stufEed full of other men's lore, and he re-

82

A QUESTION OF
it

TIME.

delivered
sentences.

in

ponderous and impressive

absorbed
everything
is

He

and

gave out nothing.

Genius

the faculty of

creating something out of nothing, of seeing

what does not show

of giving the world a

itself to

common

eyes,

new
the

figure clothed in

new garment.

And

man who
I

can do

that can never be dominated

by a weaker

passion

beyond

the moment.

may

not

have gone through the actual throes of

but I understand
it,

love,

respect

it,

and know

own
kind

capacity, or rather the capacity of

;

my my
self-

have not spent much time in

analysis.

I shall love, of course, with pas-

sion, afEection,

and friendship

I feel capa-

ble of all three, as well as of tenacity.

if

And

I speak

from

my

viewing-point only, I at

least understand it quite as well as

you do

yours.

It is

always a mistake to

genei'alize.

Men

are not all cut out with the

same pair of

scissors,

except in superficial

traits,

and the

unrecognition of this fact has been the stumbling block of

I loved a

many a would-be analyst. If woman I would have her, if I stood

A QUESTION OF
the

TIME.

83

Sound on

end.

Having
if

her, I should

continue to love her,

she were in sympathy

with

me

but she could never control

sit

mentally nor
for giving
it

on high with

my work.

me As

up one year

of this short life to

please her

I should hate her if she pro-

posed such a thing.

She must accept the

second place, for I should be incapable of

ofEering her the
first.

Art

is

as

much a
by

master as a slave.
the spirit of
soft clay
it

You

are dominated

while you are pressing the

between your hands.

And

then,

when ambition grafts itself on success my God the combination is appalling. Just imagine a mere human being trying to
!

'

'

rival that.

But there
if

is

no reason

man

of genius should not be a

why a married man

and
I

and happy,

his wife is sympathetic

knows when
want

to let

him

alone.

Clear out.
is

to take a swim,

and the lake

not big

enough for two."

Eedfield obediently went home.
lay in the midst of a thick chestnut

The lake

wood on
re-

the edge of the Brewster estate, and was

84

A QUESTION OF TIME.
To-day

served for swiinming.

Mark

lay in

the water longer than usual, floating idly.

In addition to the mental supineness due to

reaction,

was a

certain

physical languor,

which he did not understand.

His health
toil.

was too
Moreover,

vigorous to resent a night's

it

was pleasant
;

so

it

could hardcon-

ly be allied with illness

and he drifted

tentedly with his face upturned to the heat-

faded sky, his body moving gently in the

warm

luxurious water.

Finally, he floated

into a little

wing of the lake where the

were the embracing

water was

cold, so thick

boughs above.

Green were the low banks,

trees,

green the slender

green the thousand

leaves reflected in the pool.

So quiet was
vines
to

the

surface

that

serpent-stemmed

seemed rising from the

pebbled

floor

twine about the long body lying motionless

above them.

So thick were the branches

the crowding trees, a patch the

the pool seemed but the floor of a cave, but

through a
of

rift in

sunlight

quivered afErightedly in

gloom.

A QUESTION OF TIME.

85

Mark found

in this corner that absolute

quiet which said so

much more

to

him than

the most maojical of earth's sounds.

Around

the outer lake the birds sang, but the darkness repelled

them

here,

and only the leaves

chill

made

silent music.

The

touched him
to the soft

after a time

and he shot out

waters of the lake, darting back and forth

until the blood in his veins

was warm once

more.

Then he

lay looking at the dense

wood with the black shadows in its narrow aisles. The thick trees closed the vista, and the wood looked as if it might be infinite,
primeval.
eyes,

His imagination half opened

self

its

and he saw a prehistoric

trees,

roaming

amidst the
hills

on the edge of chaos, the

valleys

and

forests, the

and plains of

the convulsing earth as yet untangled, his

echolesa
solitude

unshared.
of

Running up

and down the

bounding in the
fallen trees,

aisles

the green wood,

air like a deer, leaping over

soft,

throwing himself on the

it

green earth, and kissing

of a lover;

with the passion

once leaping far out into the

86
lake,

A QUESTION OF TIME.
breaking the
surface into

swinging

waves

He came
mouth was

to himself with a gasp.

His

full of water.

X.

Maek

Saltonstall, like

all

men

of genius,

was, as he Lad admitted, an egoist.

Not

vain or conceited, bat born with a supreme

consciousness of power, and a habit of focus-

ing the world to his

ual,

own

large,

but individself-

vision.

natural phase of this

his

consciousness

was

proneness to morbid

attacks of self-doubt,

when he

questioned
efflor-

whether his genius were not youthful

escence
;

his ambition, self-love

his enthu-

siasms, gush.

At

such times the world beto die.

It

came a blank and he wanted

in one of these
dil the

was

moods that he sought Boraon the verandah as he

next evening.
sitting

She was

walked up the path.

white shawl was

bust,

drawn about her head and

a
little

and she
It

sat

sidewise, leaning back.

attitude,
full

was a
she

graceful

of repose, and

88

A QUESTION OF TIME.
-

looked very young.

Mark threw
;

himself

heavily iu a chair opposite

sullen,

his face

was
than

and more
Boradil

like carven granite

usual.

divined at once

that the
in-

blues held

him

fast,

and while talking of

different things, let

him

feel her

sympathy

in every inflection of

her voice.

He

slid

down
"

at her feet after a time,

and put

his

head on her lap

like an indulged child.

?

What

is

the trouble

" she asked.

She

did not put her hand to his head, but he was

not repulsed.
" I

have been wondering

a whole
is

I often

do

if

life as

worth while as compai-ed

it.

to the little

we

are allowed to get out of

On

Friday night I was

mad with

enthusiasm,

bursting with fervor.

I felt the equal of

any man, living or dead.

commonplace, empty, cold."
" I think

To-night I feel

Aunt Anne has something

to do

with

it
;

this time,"
" that

he continued, after a mohas the most blighting

ment
effect

woman

on me.

I talked to her for

two hours

last evening,

and she obtained that peculiar

A QUESTION OF
and strong,
if

TIME.

89

temporary, control over me,

that commonplace people always do

she

made me feel commonplace. It is the same when I read a cleverly-trashy book I feel
;

for the

moment
I never
is

that I do not

know

the dif-

ference between such stuff and high achieve-

ment.

have this experience with a

man who
or

my

superior

in

knowledge,
I

when

I read a great book.

am

only
de-

stimulated

and encouraged then, never

someone
else

pressed
did
is

because
I

has

splen-

gifts.

do not mean that Aunt Anne

a nonentity.

On

the contrary,
of

she has
strong,

character
if
'

and

individuality
sort.

conventional,
'

mean
is

that

her

tliinker

and

all

her aims and ambitions are

worse, that

deadly commonplace, and, wliat

she has a secret contempt for literature and

artistic ambition.

I feel sure that she has

far

more respect for the leader of a german

She
it;

than for any author living or dead.

never acknowledges
this,

but she conveys

and as
of
'

I hear her talk

'

with lingering pride

'

swells

and

'

position,'

social

honors

'

90

A QUESTION OF TIME.
'

and

good form,'

feel as if

my

head

Avere

slowly flattening, and I find myself wondering

I
if I

am

not

all

wrong and she

often

all right.

have

felt

this

this

tremendous

psychological power of atmosphere (T do not

know what

other

word

to give

it

but

it

is

certainly foggy

and nearly chokes me), but

such a clever woman,

never so strongly as with her ; probably because in her

way
in

she

is

and

delivers

her narrow views with such

calm belief

her

infallibility.

She ex-

claims with a burst of actual

'

enthusiasm,

Margaret Hunt

is

the swellest

woman
She

in

America,' and I feel a snob myself and experience a contempt for literature.
lates
di-

upon the polished elegance

and I
to be
feel like

of her sons-

in-law,

an awkward giant and

aspire

approved by

my

cousins, Avho

would probably bore me

hour.

to death in half an of the

Of

course this
it

is all

moment,
on a

but while

lasts it has a
It gives
is

bad
one a

effect

sensitive nature.

listless dis-

gust of

life

that

worse than
it

fierce despair.

What

is

the use of denying

I need

to be

A QUESTION OF
flattered,

TIME.
continually.
It

91
It

encouraged

and

does not

make me

conceited.

merely
the

me out of the slough. The higher pedestal I am put on, the better work I
keeps
do.

can

Abuse, even stinging

criticism, stimu-

lates me,

but the calm superiority of inferior

minds simply demoralizes me."

"

Then you should get away from such

people as qxiickly as possible.

You owe

a
to

more peremptory duty to yourself than

your kinspeople."
" I cannot-

go without leaving you, and

If I leave

never wish to do that.

my

aunt's

house

must leave Danforth, for

I have

no

excuse to go to an hotel."

"I wish I could ask you here," she

regretfully, " but
alone,
it

said,
all

would never

do.

am

you

see,

and young as you

are,

people

are always waiting for something to gossip

about, especially in a little place like this."

"

Do you know,"
all

he exclaimed suddenly,
to let

"

it

was awfully good of you

night,

me
to

stay

here

and I was a brute

be so

thoughtless."

93
"

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

Sometimes things cannot be helped.

To
la-

have interrupted you would have been an

unpardonable act of petty egotism, and
ter,

immediate rest seemed to

me

impera-

tive." "

Your one

instinct vpas

to take care of

me," he said, triumphantly.

" Fortunately

no one saw you," she an-

swered, evasively.
"
is

You

are an angel, all the same, or -what

better, a perfect

woman.

do not wish
it is

you were
ridiculous.

my

mother
I

cannot;

too

But

do wish you were some-

thing to me, and that I could live with you

Your effect on me is the exact opposite of Aunt Anne Brewster's. My blues have gone already. You make me feel that
always.
I

am

equal to the achievement of

my

wildest

ambitions.

You

say

little

it is

your mys-

terious power.

It is because

you understand
all believe.

and sympathize,
I feel

respect,

and above

sure

you never doubt me, and that you

place

me

one or two planes higher than the

cotillion.

leader of a

With you

I should

A QUESTION OF
never be blue
oi'

TIME.
;

93
if

discouraged

or

moods

came from

reaction

you would
I

flatter

them

away, but so subtly that

should not recog-

nize the art until I analyzed

you

in the soli-

tude of

my room
better.

as I do every night.
it
!

understand you, but

only makes

me

like

you the you ?

for

Ah why cannot

I live with

Only commonplace people were made

For the matter of that
father to
I

conditions.

might get
us; then

my
it

come and
all

live

with

would be
live

right.

Or you
" It is

might come and

with us in Boston."
her mouth.

A faint smile touched

conventions no longer

a sad day for a woman's vanity when the

concern themselves

with

her.

Perhaps that consoles me for

being denied the pleasure of living with two

delightful
is

men

for
No
;

make
must

sure your father

live here

delightful.

by myfrom
Boston

self

and be content with

Perhaps, however, I

flying visits

you.

may go
?

to

next winter."
"

Will you promise me that

"

he asked,

eagerly.

94
"

A QUESTION OF TIME.
Yes
;

why

not

I should like to spend

I have not gone before

a winter in Boston.

because I dreaded being lonesome in a great

city.

do not care for Anne Brewster and

her family, and I

" I will

know no one
men

else there."

show you every inch of Boston and

to

introduce some splendid

you

big
have

men,

big, I

mean, with talent and men.

brains.''

" I like intellectual

I never

pretended to be clever myself, but for some

reason I can get along better with clever

men

than with mediocrities.

I suppose it is be-

cause I hate to talk and like to listen."

" Clever

men

will always

worship you, beis

cause you

draw out the

best that

in

them

and spur
tion.

their desire to

win your admirabeing interested

You have an
it is

air of

only in their best, and of being equally sure

that
there."

" Will

you do something for me

after a

"

he

added abruptly,

moment.

"What?"
"Spend a whole night
in the

woods with

me?"

A QUESTION OF
"

TIME.

95

What
is

"
!

" It

a romantic fancy, but I

all

always

cherished a wish to walk about

night with

an absolutely companionable woman, even

before I believed that she existed outside of

my

imagination.

I have often spent

whole

nights tramping about with

my father.

But
an

with you
ideal."

it

would be
for a

like the painting of

She mused
to all

moment.

The

risk

and

unconventionality appealed to her as they do

women who have

strict

spent a goodly num-

ber of years in
prieties.

observance of the pro-

No

girl ever feels the subtle

charm

of committing an act open to misinterpretation as does a

woman whose
often does

face

is

turned to

the west.

And how

an elderly

woman

fairly revel in being accused of the sins of

youth, and bare her torso at a ball after a

fashion to
this

make a

girl

blush and gasp.

Of

development

Boradil was

incapable,

having too exquisite and dainty a womanliness

;

but she was

still

a woman.

96

A QUESTION OF
" Yes," she said, "

TIME.

"1 will go."

Then
a

I will be here to-morrow night at

ten."

And
gayly
after

little later

he

left

her and whistled

all
all.

the

way home.

He was

but a boy,

XI.

The
had

next afternoon Elnora Brewster re-

turned home after six years abroad.

quite forgotten her

Mark
night at

intended arrival
first

when he made
her.

plans for her

home, and in truth he took

little interest in

He had
if

privately

made up
up

his

mind

that

he found her a bore he would ask his

his quarters in

aunt's permission to take

the old building with his cats and toads.

Reminded

of his duty, he

went to the

sta-

tion to meet his cousin,

and was impressed

only by the fact that she looked older than

Boradil, although she

had not yet recorded

Tall, slender,
air of ab-

her twenty-tbird

birthday.

and perfectly poised, she had that

solute repose

which a woman rarely acquires

still

before thirty, and more rarely

before

marriage.
startle her,

She looked

as if nothing could
still

nothing shake her

self-corn-

98

A quESTioir of time.

mand.

Her

face

was one of remarkable

incongruities.

contradictions, almost

Will

held the full red curves of her mouth in

check.

Beneath her turban was a great

coil

of ashen hair.
so

Her

eyes resembled nothing

much

as the

moon.

icy-gray,

polaric,

They were a brilliant The sweeping chilling.

like the first

brows and lashes were

shadowIt

ing of an eclipse upon a white-faced sky.

was a face both

the face of a

repellent

and fascinating,

woman who

either

had had, or

would have, an unique

She
gaze,
tui'ned her eyes,

history.

with their cold, frank

upon Mark

several times during the

drive to the house, and found

satisfactory

him the most

;

man

she had seen

such a face
re-

and head could only belong to a man of

markable mental endowment.

She did not attract Mark.

cold,

He

found her

somewhat washed-out, thoroughly un-

sympathetic, and he addressed most of his

remarks to Mr. Brewster,

who had been

visit,

in

Boston during his nephew's

the return of his daughter.

awaiting
did not

Mark

A QUESTION OF
find

TIMS.

99 of

him more

interesting.

The hobby

that amiable gentleman's life

was gardening,
his wife to her

and he rarely accompanied

native town.

Mrs. Brewster and her daughter greeted

one another as calmly as

the day before, and
his cousin until
bell sounded, he

if

they had parted

Mark saw no more of supper. When, just as the

went out
to the verandah
cac-

and saw her clad from throat to foot in

tus-red gauze, standing like a tongue of flame

against the gray sky, he confessed that she

was washed-out no

longer,

and looked the

reverse of commonplace.

During supper the conversation was

clusively of the great people Elnora

ex-

had met

abroad and the court balls she had attended.

Mark

shut up like an oyster, but lacked the

bivalve's ear-fitting shell.

his face,

Gloom

sat

upon
exist-

and once more he floundered aband forgot the

jectly in a shallow lake

ence of the ocean.

Elnora followed him to the verandah after

supper, and began talking at once about
art.

100

A QUESTION OF

TIMB.

She had done the

galleries

and studios of

Europe with exactness and discrimination,

and told Mark a great deal that he was eager
to hear.

Then she spoke

flattery

of poetry, conveyart.

ing

much

with subtle

She

began to

interest

Mark.

With

the keen per-

ception of the analyst he

artificial

saw exactly how

she

was

in

manner and sympathies.

He

found himself comparing every note of

in-

her voice, every clever manifestation of

terest,

every evidence of artistic tact with

the divinely natural qualities of the

woman

whose personality seemed

his

at times to lie in

own.

Boradil Trevor rarely talked of

Elnora, more rarely
still.

herself.

But the

former forgot her individuality, the latter

suppressed hers.
nature as
difference.

Only a man

as close to

Mark

Saltonstall could feel the

She further interested him because there

was something indefinably mysterious about

her.

Little as he

knew

of girls, he

had

his

desultory ideals, and Boradil with her fortysix years

was

closer to

them than Elnora

A QUESTION OF TIME.
Brewster.
question.
"

101

He
are

startled her with a

suddea

Why
as

you

as

much
?

woman
he

of the

world

Aunt

Anne

"

demanded.

"You
"

are only twenty-two."

T

Think of the experience

;

have had dur-

ing the last four years

ever since I finished

school I have not been out of society for a

month
ter's

at a time,

and thanks to our minis-

wife and one or two great people

who

took a fancy to me, I have had a brilliant

and unusual
"
life

experience.''

But you give one the impression that

could teach you nothing more."

Miss Brewster glanced past him and

the dark perspective of the avenue.
"

down

Your imagination

will
yet, I

weave a highly
have no doubt,

romantic past for

me
I

whereas
to

my
it

heart

would need a sharp knife

take naturally to the
is

pry

open.

world.

My

nature

one to fashion very

rapidly under the chisel of society, and be-

ing a fascinating
perience of

woman

have had the exis all."

many men.

That

102

A QUESTION OF TIME.

This speech, which would have been some-

what conceited between the

women, was delivered with an
of-fact that it

lips of

most

air so matterits

but carried conviction of

truth,

Elnora had long ago learned that

its

the world takes

valuation,

children at their

own
had

and

this fact mastered, she

studied the art of presenting the valuation.

As the hall Mark rose.

" I

clock struck half-past nine

am

going to prowl about the country

to-night,"

he

said.

" I often

do

and probaTell

bly will not be back until morning.

my

aunt not to

sit

up

for

me and

not to be

alarmed."
" I see you

know

the value of a reputation

for eccentricity," said his cousin.

"

That

is

a good idea," he replied, with a

laugh.

" Good-night,"

XII.

Before he had walked a quarter

he had forgotten Elnora Brewster
felt Tinpoised or's

of a mile
;

he

still

and longed for Boradil Trev-

unique power of adjustment.

She was walking up and down the verandah, muffled in a white shawl, her
full, soft

gown

of violet mull floating about her.

tlie

She

came down
"

steps as he

appeared, and

they went toward the wood together.

You

are sure

you
?

will not be tired

stay-

ing out

all

night

" lie asked,

with sudden

compunction.
" Positive.
steel.

I have a constitution of pure

is

That

the reason," with a

little

laugh,

"why

I look so

young for an old

of a brook, swollen

woman."

They were on the edge

and rocky.

Mark put

his

hands about her

104

A QUESTION OF TIME.
swung her
is

waist and

across as if she

were a
"

child of ten.
"
said.

What

your age to
balance
is

"The
if

in

my strength my favor."

he

"

You

could do as

much

for your grand-

mother
"

she were a slender

woman," said

Boradil, dryly.

My

grandmother had she lived would, I

am

convinced, have been a large and portly

like

Aunt Anne Brewster. She would have been too much for even my muscle, and dame
I should
insr

have regarded her with correspond-

awe."
i-eached the wood, and Boradil asked

They
him
"
if

he had put any more work on hia

poem.

Not

yet.
it

I shall wait a

week
I

or

two and

then go at
library, if

again in your delightful old

will let me.

you

simply could

not write a line in

" " "

my

When
Oh,

will

you publish

aunt's house." "

it
?

God

knows,'' he

said,

impatiently.

The moment
put
it

I conceive an idea I

am mad

to

on the world and hear people talk-

A QUESTION OF
ing of
it.

TIME.

105
house-fly
is

It is the

wisdom of the
high genius

which

asserts that all

above

ambition.

Recognition and approbation are

life to it

the very breath of

lated cases.

except in
;

iso-

I want to be acknowledged not

only a master but

the master, and yet I

that no matter

know
what

that I

must wait years

an

my

gifts,

only years of hard work will

artist

perfect
talent is
life will

me

as

without which raw

One day
it

worth nothing.
seem
short.

I suppose

Now

seems terribly

long.

want

to leap over the next ten years

and hear myself called the greatest poet of

modern
dreamer,

times.

Do you think that I am a mad with my own vanity " he de?

;

manded, savagely
nothing
less
!

"

but that

is

what I want,
not think

I hate mediocrity as I hate

If I

commonplace people.
I could one

did

day stand alone on the high-

est pinnacle, I

would row out on the Sound

some stormy night and turn

down."
"

my

boat upside

And when you

are great

will

you be
to

content?

when

you have nothing more

106
strive for?

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

When

you have distanced your

rivals

and silenced dispute, will not half the

gone ? "
for then
I

flavor be
"

No

shall try to be as great

as those

who

are dead.
if

There

is

no limit for

ambition.

Oh,

you knew what a blessed

all this to

relief it is to

say

you

I have

never revealed one-tenth as much even to

father.

my
am-

Most people do not suspect

my

bition

they think the delight of ci'eating

occupies

me

alone.

But

bare

my

very soul to

am willing to lay you. You not only

I

understand
before

you have the power of flashing

materialized.''

me my dreams

A few moments later he burst

ly
:

out sudden-

"A
I

dreadful thought comes to

me

at

times.
lines.

have genius, but

is to

it

is

on the old

That

say, that in spite of

my

in-

dividuality and even originality, I

am

but a

poet as

many

others have been.

Suppose

that posterity decides that the poets

who

have gone before

my
it

generation are sufficient

is

for literature, that

weary of
!

repetition.

Suppose, maddenicg thought

that the

man

A QUESTION OF TIME.
of

107

my

generation

who

will stand to posterity

this

as the great

and representative man of

age, will discover a

new form of expression

a form that

is

neither poetry, novel, romance,

history, biography, essay. " fallen to my lot

And

that has not

"Hush,"
be the

said

Boradil.

"Why

do you

torment yourself ?

man ? many men of

discoverers.

And why should you not You are but twenty-two, and
made them
fifty

genius have stumbled for years

before finding the mine which

Wait

until

you are

before

you begin
" Yes,

to concern yourself with posterity

or unborn rivals."

you are

right," he said, gratefully.

"You

always are."
strolled

They

up and down the dim wood,

things.

hearing the town-clock clang the hours, and

talking of

many

Mark, like

all

imaginative minds, embodied the people of

history

who had

interested him,

and he

dis-

cussed them as eagerly with Boradil as his

aunt and cousin discussed the midgets of

their little

world.

They rambled through

108

A QUESTION OF TIME. Egypt and

;

old

sat

on the thrones of the

Pharaohs
time

the stern barbaric beauty of the

hid the woodland.

They danced

at

Versailles in ruffles and patches, and

supped

with the young Bonapartes in their Corsican

home.
sonified

Mark with
all,

his glittering

power

pei'-

and Boradil thrilled with a sense

of having put her foot on the magnetic pole of a

new world. They turned

into a little

clearing

and
at

Boradil, leaning against a tree, looked

up

Mark
more
ever

as he stood with the

his face.

The white

glare

moon shining on made him look

But the grand

like a creature of antique granite than

art.

hewn with a lost

calm curves of his mouth were pulsing with

the red torrents of youth, and under his lids

the unmeasurable darkness of his eyes seemed

crossed with flame, as

when a

torch flares

suddenly in the gloom of a cave.

She raised

hei-

eyes to the gray-blue

skj',

thick with marching gold.

Her pure

profile

lay like carven pearl against the dark leaves,

and the beautiful

line of

her throat rose

A QUESTION OF TIME.
high above the fleecy shawl.
her enraptured

109
at

Mark gazed
work

at

first

as he

would stand
of art.

breathless before an exquisite

Then

as he

looked his

artistic sense

with-

drew and he made a sudden overwhelming He realized that he was a man. discovery.
For a moment more he gazed in
eyelids flung
fires

silence,

his muscles rigid, his nostrils expanded, his

upward

as if scorched

by

the

beneath, his

breath coming
first

in short

gasps.

So may the

man have looked

when he beheld woman. An extraordinary languor seized him and he trembled violently, then that left him and he stamped his foot
on the ground with a loud cry.
cry of a savage
It

was the

who

feels the boundless free-

dom

of an unj)eopled world, realizes that it

is his,

that he

is

king, omnipotent.

At

that

moment he was

the living, quivering incarna-

tion of elemental man, the personification of

the world's youth and vital riches, a creator.

The woman turned quickly

looked for a
ous eyes.

at the cry

and

moment into his blazing imperiThen she too gave a cry. She

110

A QUESTION OF
lier

TIME.

covered

face with her hands

and cowered

against the tree.

He approached hesitatingly,
step.

yet with eager

She had suddenly become the repre-

new idea, almost another being. He hardly knew what he wished. He drew to
sentative of a

her as to a magnet, yet with rapturous fear.

She threw out her hands, motioning him

back, and they touched his.

He

clutched

them
flung

fast,

and the

veil

was rent that hid

sex.

from him the great myster}^ of

embrace.

He

them from him and caught the woman

in his

He had
;

no purpose nor he was but a

instinct.

desire

beyond the moment

creature actuated

by primeval

Bo-

radil lay passive in his arms.

In her wide

eyes was an expression of horror fighting

with rapture

the knowledge of age and the

knowledge of youth.

Then

the

first

book of

his life closed

he

bent his head and kissed the woman.

His arms relaxed suddenly, and Boradil

slipped from his embrace and ran through the

wood.

He made no

attempt to follow her.

XIII.

BoEADiL sped down the

herself in

hill to

her home,

keeping the road by instinct only, letting

mechanically at the side door,

never

pausing until locked in her room.

chair and pressed

Then she dropped upon a

ened to start from the

her hands to her face until the blood threatnails.

Oh, mysterious heart of woman, locked

and tepid
of

for nearly two-score years

and ten

woman's
!

allotted time

What

an awak-

ening

What

a travesty on the sentimental

!

ardors of youth

What mockery

in that

narrowing end of the future's perspective

What

a tragedy of youthful passion and

!

reit

lentless array of years

Age

brings with

the more

dignified affections of nature, oh,

!

Boradil Trevor
ests,

The wider range

of inter-

the calm and peace of the long shadows

hill-side.

on the

You

are forty-six

forty-

112
six
!

A QUESTION OF TIME.
forty-six
!

Boradil Trevor
;

the age of
thrill-

maay

a granclmotlier

yet here you are

ing and quivering under the kiss of a boy,

passionate as a girl in her
first

awakening.

What

have you to do with passion,

Bo-

radil Trevor!

Go

to

the daily drivel of

social obligations.
it

your household needs and

Squeeze your heart into a tumbler and cast

upon the great

river of

life,

where

it

belongs.

What
before

right have

you

to happiness, since the

world, that omnipotent, infallible monarch,

has

whom even God hides his face abashed, decreed that a woman of two-score years
violets
?

and ten shall eat of autumn leaves and turn

from the scent of

True,

God made
pas-

you

as

you

are.

If

you are shaken with

sion at the dignified age of forty-six; if

your

heart

is

great with one grand unselfish single;

purposed love

if

you are possessed of every

and
re-

qualification for happiness, yielding

ceiving;
fuller,

if

your nature
its
?

is

but the richer,

stronger for

unconscious sleep

why, what of that

dil

The World,

Boraits

Trevor

says thou shalt not transgress

A QUESTION OF TIME.

113

holy commandments and mate your forty-six

perfect,

beautiful

years
of

with
life's

twenty-two

groping revolutions
complete the man.

wheel
?

^and

Why

weep

Why beat
Surely you

your pretty

little

white hands against the

?

bronze grinning mask of Fate

had your day

your
He

youth.

True, love did

not come then.

trick,

played you a shabby

skulked in waiting for the serious dig-

nity of your two-score years and ten.

But
cares

what
radil

of that

A mere accident.
!

One

nothing for reasons in this world,

Bo-

Trevor
is

Results

alone concern us.

failure.
its

There

no excuse for

You
joys
:

lost

your youth without knowing

is

that

the beginning and the end.

You

have no

right to

shame your sex and take them now.

She looked through

Boradil's white rigid fingers curved up-

ward, spreading apart.

them
the

as through the bars of a cage.

lit

Only

moon

the room, but

it

shone athwart

her haggard horrified eyes.

Every exquisite tumult

imperious desire for

of first love, every

surrender,

every su-

114

A QUESTION OF TIME.
for

preme longing

mate and union she had

first

felt to-night for

the

time in her fortyfor a

six years.

And

felt

them

boy who
chil-

might have been the youngest of many

dren.

She gave a hoarse, angry

cry.

The
and
the

sweet nature of the

woman was

gall

wormwood,
For the

bitter,

rebellious,

against

outrageous trick that fate had played her.

first

time in her

life

she felt that

;

she had been cheated and defrauded

felt

she

the shameful waste of her best and rich-

est years.

Above
if

all,

alas

alas

she felt

the weight of time, the meagreness of the

future.

But

that blank past

had

to be,,

and
to

this strange intoxicating love-rose

had

blow

in the gray level of her years,

why

could not a

man

of

her
it

own age have

?

stooped and plucked

with her

Why
That

could not she have loved Mr. Irving

would be a calm and decorous union, and the world would have pattered its approval.

Her

eyes grew as rigid as the white bars

they stared through.

What

use to ring the

changes on the eternal unanswering

Why

A QUEfirION' OF TIME.
She loved Mark
Saltonstall,

115

and that was

the question to face. that had struck her

In spite of the passion

life,

own into

she did not

believe that he really loved her.

No
!

dan-

ger that he would wish to marry her

The

inthralment of the hour had given him that

sudden knowledge of his manhood wliich

is

an episode
the one

in the lives of all men.

She was

woman

near

that was

all.

Her mouth had

lost its pink.

The

lips

curled inward against the set teeth.

She

was not a beautiful woman

loudly, with long vibration.

in that hour.

In her breast tolled forty-six knells, slowly,

Then again
shriek,

and

again.

She wanted to scream, to

to curse.

But the tragedy was too deep

She
sat stiff

for

vocal expression.
less,

and speech-

feeling as if each passing

moment were

another year, adding fresh silver to her hair,

etching
lines,

revolving her nearer the end,

already so

close.

She was an old woman

old womanold
soul's

woman.

An

owl hooting by the window

seemed to intone the words of her

116

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

monody.
two.

And
!

she loved a

man

of twentyit.

Oh

the hideous irony of

ridiculed

How
woman

she would have

another

discovei'ed guilty of such a folly.

In spite
this

of the intense

sympathy of her nature,

was a phase
tempt.
herself.

of

human weakness

for which

she could have had only impatience and con-

Now

and again she doubted

it

of

To-morrow's sun must surely mock

at the vapors of the night.

Then

she shud-

dered.

She knew that she had loved Mark

Saltonstall the night she

had met him.

On-

ly

its

preposterousness had kept the knowl-

edge from her until to-night.

Her hands suddenly dropped

showing the
livid imprints

to her chest,

they had made

at

on her

face.

For a moment she clutched

it

her gown, striving to tear

apart, then fell

gropingly to the

floor.

XIV.

At

three the next day the maid brought

up word
Boradil,

that

Mark

Saltonstall

was below.

who was

lying on a lounge in her

girl so crossly to

darkened room, told the

excuse her that the devoted servant stared

in amazement.
Boradil's nerves were taut.

Even her
one with

inactive felinity

had

reared

its

graceful head and longed to scratch someits

sharp thoroughbred claws.

She

scarcely recognized herself.

cid existence
al

Truly, her plaoccasion-

had given her but an

hint of the heights and depths

of her

woman's nature.

The maid went down-stairs and returned

with a note.
" I

must

see you," it said.

if it is

" I shall

wait

until

you are better

maid

not until to-mor-

row."
told the

Boradil hesitated a few minutes, then

to say she

would go down

pres-

118
ently.

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

When

the blinds

was alone she threw apart and stood before the mirror. She
she
still

looked haggard, but her hair was

brown

and no wrinkles had come

in

the night.

Her mouth, however, had

usual to
it,

a hard look, uneyes.

and bitterness was in her

After some deliberation, vanity triumphed

over the indifference born of disgust, and she

covered the severe front of her black goAvn

with a kerchief of white mull and

lace,

and

twisted her hair into a softer knot, fluffing

it

about her

face.

She was almost herself

mo-

again.

Her

toilet completed, she stood

tionless for a

few moments, her hands locked

stinging with a

together, her face

sudden

rush of blood.

She turned sharply from the

ordeal of meeting this man, this

boy who

must look upon her with wondering contempt

and who had doubtless come

Then an idea came
know, that
is, if

to apologize

to

her aid.

He must

he had any coherent I'emem-

brance of those moments, that she had been

helpless in his arms, that if she

had made

any attempt to free

herself,

he in his greater

A QUESTION OF

TIME.
it.

119
Still,

strength would not have noticed

the position

had been a ridiculous

one,
;

and
then

she twisted her hands in futile disgust

summoned her pride and went below. Mark was standing at the window with
his

arms folded.

He was

as white as a dark

man
eyes.

can be, and his lids almost covered his

In some inscrutable

way he looked

The semblance of boyishness, at least, had left him for the time. Boradil greeted him with a cold dignity
older.

as unlike her usual

manner

as

snow

to the
his

flower

it crushes,

and he flushed darkly,

It

lids lifting a little.

ward moment would gladly have seen the world flash back
to
its

was a horribly awka moment in which both

original vapor.
sat

She

down

in a high-backed chair,

and

crossed her hands on her lap.

She noticed

vaguely that they looked very white on the

black gown.

Mark shook suddenly from

were knouting
wheeled a
subjection, then

head to

foot, as if his will

his nerves into

chair directly in front of her and sat down.

120
"

A QUESTION OF TIME.

You are angry with me," lie said, rapidly. " You look upon me as a ridiculous fool of a
boy wlio
to touch
lost his Lead,

and dared

you.

Tell
"

me

presumed
is

tell

me,

that

what you think ?

think
"

Boradil looked hard at her hands.

it

"I

was unfortunate," she

to end

said,

coldly.
one.

Our

friendship

was a very pleasant

it." it

It

was a pity
"

"Don't say that

sharply.

is

ended," he
!

cried,

Don't say that

"

He

covered

her hands suddenly with his and thrust his

face beneath her own.
"

Do you

not love

me

at

all

"

he whis-

pered, hoarsely.

"That

that

that could

not be."
"

Hush

" she said, trying to "

draw away
you
talk-

her hands from him.

ing about
"
?
!

What

are

" Boradil his

''

he cried, loudly.

He

swept

two hands about her face and forced her

chair,

head back against the

her
dil
!

looking into
" Bora-

eyes with terrified entreaty.

" he cried, "

you do love me.

I felt it

A QUESTION OF TIME.
last uight.

121

Mad
!

as I was, I felt that.

But

say

it.

Say
let
it

it

''

She

her face sink

down

into his hands,

turning

slowly from side to side as if grate-

ful for their

"

warmth.
"

What do you mean ?

Not
possible
?

she whispered.

" It is not possible that

you love me." you and love

?

"

What do you mean ?

!

Why,
one.

I idolize

you

I love

in

Do you know what that means you think every man feels that if he
three lifetimes
?

Do
lives

Look
their

at me."

She raised her head.

Her

eyes seemed

swimming

in

melted crystal.

mouth was pink

again,

and parted.

Her But
She

only for a moment.

to her feet, thrusting

She sprang suddenly

Mark from

her.

tore the soft mull

and lace from her neck,

and

flunn;

it

to the floor.

She thrust her

brow,

hands into her

hair, parting it at the

and dragging
side

it

in

hard strands down each

In
that

of

her

face.

moment

she

touched the supremest pinnacle of woman's

bitterness

and

despair.

122
"

A QUESTION OF
Look
at
!

TIME.

me " she screamed. " Look at me and see me for what I am an old woman A woman who might have been the

mother of a family before yon were born.

A woman
And you
live

nearly half a century old.

God

do you understand now how old I

love me,
vie,

am

you a boy hardly out

of your teens,

who

will have barely

begun to

when
words

am

tottering about with a cane,

toothit

trying to
less

make people understand my

!

Lord

Lord
!

the irony of

the horror

the cruelty
!

happy
cursing

in

being alive

And I have been Happy Why, I

!

would not have lived a moment without

my

birth

if

I could
is

have foreseen

the end.

I tell

you there

no tragedy of

youth which can touch the horror of what I

feel

to-day."

She turned upon him with

still

blazing eyes,

holding the hair

"

stiff

and

straight about her face.

"

Go

" she cried.

who can give you youth for youth. Go to some woman who is beginning life, not ending it. Go Go Go
to

Go

some

girl

and

foi'get

your grandmother."

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

123
i-ap-

Mark had watched her with

ture
;

a sort of

passion

was pushed
a

aside for the mo-

ment by a new link

manhood.

in the evolution of his

He saw

woman who

loved

him, but he saw also a terrible suffering and

despair,
fort

and pity and a great desire to comto her

;

and protect awoke within him. and took both hands

in

He went
one of his

with the other he pushed her

its

hair back to

waves and

curls.
it

Then he

picked

Tip the

mull and put

awkwardly
vital-

about her.
ity

She made no resistance;

to

seemed suddenly

have

left her.

He

put both arms about her and drew her down

upon a

sofa.

" Listen to me,"

he

said. It is

"

Love has nothinstinct,

ing to do with years.

an

not

a thing of law and

to

line.

If

you happened
Noth-

be born

first,

that

was an

accident.

ing can alter the fact that you are the only

woman
fit

in this

world for me.

Our

natures

and we make a complete whole.

We will
eternal

never be able to remember where the one begins and the other ends.

You have

124

A QUESTION' OF TIME.
;

youth in your heart

was born

at a

mo-

ment when the divine rays

at focus,

of the ages

were

and they pierced

;

my

brain.

You

will never be old

I will never

be young.

You have
Boradil

never lived ; I can never live ex-

cept as part of you."

listened, half incredulously,

but

feeling the force of his deliberated words.

When
the

he had finished she put her head betears.

tween her hands and burst into

tears

With

passed the

bitterness,
its

and the
sway.

sweetness of her nature resumed

Mark, with his

sensitive nature, felt the

tears,

meaning of those
close

and he held her

In

with a man's strong sympathy.

that

moment he was

older than she.

She dried her eyes after a time, and drawing

down

his face, kissed

him

gently, then

withdrew from
" I

his arms.

am

willing to grant all that

you

say,"

she said, " and I shall love

you always and

felt

with thankfulness that I have

last.

love at
at once.

But you must leave me, and

is

There

no other

"

A QUESTION OF
"

TIME.
said.
it

125

We will be

married at once," he

" It is for

never be.

me to You will

decide that, and

can

rebel now, but one

It

day
well

you
hate

will

understand.

would

be

enough for a few years

then

you would

me

for havinsr taken advantage of a

boyish infatuation.

Such a marriage would

I should be little
it.

be preposterous.

better

than criminal to permit

Think,

Mark

when you
you
" I can

are thirty, I will be sixty.

-"

When

are forty, I will be seventy

do

my own

arithmetic, thank you.

When you

are seventy

you

will be no older
like

than you are now.

A woman
Go
to

you

re-

mains young forever.

find out.

history and

As

for

the rest, I answered all

your arguments a few moments ago.

Do
"

you want me
"
'

to say

it all

over again

"
?

Mark, you must

listen to reason

I listen most attentively to the voice of

reason.

Otherwise I should go and be misit

erable because

does not happen to be the

to

custom for
than

men

marry women
!

older
the

themselves.

My God

because

126

A QUESTION' OF TIME.
it

world "wags one way, does

cal sequence that that is

follow in logi-

the right

way

Has
was

it

not admitted again and again that

it

wrong and faced to the right about ? Once a woman would have been stoned from
all
tlie

stage.

Now, when an
in

actor wishes to
ridiculous

make
dresses

himself

particularly

he
di-

up

woman's

clothes.
it

Once
is

vorce
ble.

was

criminal.

To-day

fashionaat the

Once the Catholic was burned

stake.
estant.

Then the Catholic broiled the

Prot-

Then the Protestant wanted

to lay

Science in ashes, and

now

Science has the

Protestant on a gridiron.

You and
is
all.

I are

atead of our times, that

will

The day
like the

come when a man and woman will

their natures

marry because
arcs of a circle

meet

and

fit,

and for no other rea-

son whatever.
account.

Years will not be taken into

Surely you can rise above this

world, which stumbles blindly
in-

poor

little

to its conventions

and gets out of them at

the
"

first

decent opportunity."

And

suppose

I listened to

you and

ac-

A QUESTION OF

TIME.
?

127

knowledged that you were right

Have

you thought of the other consequences

the
?

storms of ridicule, the fury of opposition

Our names would be town talk. Every woman I know would cut me. Every man you met would take care that you knew he
thought you a
" Yes,''
that.

reckless, ridiculous boy.

test

Do
all

you think you could stand that

he
said.

"
?

" I

have thought of

I have

money

of

my own

and we

will

go abroad at once.
father will think of
it,

I cannot say

what

my

but I believe and hope

If he does not I shall
difference.

that he will consent.

be sorry, but
there
is

it

will

make no

So

no question of
?

my

courage.

Have
is

you enough

That

is

the question.''

" I can stand that," she said.

"It

only

you

I fear

ten years from now."

Will you marry me ? "
said.

" I absolutely refuse to argue that question

any further.
"

Let me think," she

"

Let

me tliiuk.''
Temp-

She buried her face

in her

hands and the

struggle, although brief,

was sharp.

tation never comes to the

young with such

128

A qXIESTION OF TIME.

force as to the

woman whose most

precious
endless
;

years are behind her.

vista of change
is

Youth has an

and promise and mystery

picturesque to suffer.
life's

it

easy to

resist,

But

when
main

the terrible realization of

brevity
re-

has awakened,
to
drift

when but a few

is

pictures

across this mortal diorama,

tasteless

when

the past

and the
!

last short

opportunity has come

ah
it

does the

woman

live so wise, so foolish, so strong, so

weak, so

mad,

so passionless, as to press the fruit to

her nostrils and throw

down untasted

At
some

least she could inake

him happy
the time

for

years.

A younger woman
in less.

might make

him miserable

When

came

wherein he looked at her with aversion, she

could go and leave him to his

own

full life.

She would have but few years

ing,

left for suffer-

and meanwhile she would know a happi-

ness which she

to a single year

would willingly compress

in-

and know the bitterness of

death for

fifty.

And

passion, long unfelt, is

a tremendous factor in deciding such questions as these.

A QUESTION' OF TIME.
She raised her head, leaning
eyes looked
stars.
it

129

back.

Her

like

blue

ether flecked with

" Yes," she said, " I will

marry you."

XV.
That evening
andah.
after supper

Mark was
tlie

sit-

ting witli his aunt

and cousin on

ver-

Elnora had been talking in her cold

but came after a time to a
of
it

brilliant fashion,

pause.

Mark took advantage

announced
his
silence of the ensuing

and

de-

liberately

engagement.

The

moment rivalled
in

that of

his favorite four

the morning.

The
face

light

from the
it

hall shone on his aunt's

and he saw

grow

livid.

Her

cold

gray eyes seemed to vent white flames as she

clutched an

arm

of

her chair with either

hand and bent

"

herself slowly forward.

?

What
"
?

did you say

" she "

demanded, in a

harsh, cracked voice.

What did

you
felt

say

"I am going

to

marry Boradil Trevor,"

he replied, calmly, although his nerves

like a net-work of electric wires.

A QUESTION OF
Mrs. Brewster's

TIME.

131

straight

mouth curved

downward with an expression of disgust and contempt which made her nephew shudder.
" Perhaps," she said,
sis,

with cutting emphain

"

perhaps

it

would be more becoming

She
just about

a boy of your age to speak of Mrs. Trevor

with more respect.

age,

is

my

and

is

several

years older than your

lived."

mother would have been had she

" I

expect that sort of thing, of course,"

he

said,

but he would have given a great

deal at that

moment to go behind the house and knock a man down. "A philosopher,
however, has said that a

woman

is

as old as

she looks, and Mrs. Trevor might pass for

my

younger

sister."

It

was Mrs. Brewster's turn

to flush with

anger.

She hated many women, but none so

She resented

cordially as Boradil Trevor.

her beauty, her popularity in Danforth, her

charm
youth.

for men,

above

all

her perennial

Every human being

selects

one other

for a rival, with or without reason, and Mrs.

Brewster could not

recall the time

when

the

132

A QUESTION OF TIME.
Boradil Trevor's name or the

mention of
sight of
vi^ithin

her lovely face had not kindled

fire.

her a dull jealous

" If it is true that

you contemplate
idiocy,"

sucli

an act of

ofadolescent
But
if

she re-

plied, savagely, " she will pi'obably

have the

pleasure of hearing strangers allude to you

as her son.

she has actually convv^ith

sented to link her old life

your feather-

headed youth, she

is

an unprincipled vroman,

a bad woman, and deserves legal treatment."

Mark rose.
ously
;

"

That

will do," he said, furi-

"

you

will oblige
to

me by
again.

never men-

tioning her

name

me

And

if

you
to-

will excuse me, I will leave

your house

night."

Mrs. Bj'ewster, trembling, sprang to her

feet,

nearly overturning her chair.

It

was
all

rarely that passion mastered her cold repose,

but when
of us
"

it

did the devil that dwells in

little
tell

made her

better than a fish-wife.

You

dare to

me

that this thing

is

true," she screamed, barring his

way.

"

You

dare to

tell

me

that you will disgrace yom*

A QUESTION OF
family and hold us
cule
?

TIME.

133
ridi-

all

up

to

shame and

I will

have your father put you in a

think I will submit to

mad-house.

Do you

be

the
will

laughing-stock of Boston?

What
are.

man

marry Elnora
is

They

will all be

afraid that she

as big a fool as

you
"
!

You

shall not, I say.

You
is

shall not

" I shall

not dispute the matter further

with you.

My

father

the only one to

whom
this

am

answerable, and

we can

settle

between ourselves."

"

But

I tell

you that you

"

shall think of

me," cried the enraged woman, " you ridiculous little fool
!

She could not

spring, but

she hurled herself suddenly

upon him and

caught him by the shoulder.

When

she

found that she could not shake him, she gave

a hoarse choking cry and slapped him
lently on the face.
vio-

Mark took
"

her hand, and holding

it

it

at

arm's length, dropped

gingerly.

You

have done honor to the blood of the

Saltonstalls," he said, with a coolness born

of her abandonment.

"

And

it is

interesting

134

A QUESTION OF TIME.
all,

to learn that the vulgarian is in us

and

that

we have only

progressed a step beyond

barbarism in our centuries.

But

cutting emphasis equal to her

with a best you

" "

make
more

a favored few seem more charming,

refined,

more exquisitely feminine by

and entering the house,
;

contrast."

He

put her

aside,

went quickly down the hall

but before he

reached the stair a hand slipped through

his arm.
"

Mark," said Elnora,

softly, " I

want

to

speak to you.

Will you come to

my room
go
;

moment
wish
it.

" Yes,"

he

said, shortly,

" I will

if

you

But do not say too much

not scold
I

I have

had enough for the present."

"I
that

will

you.

But there are

I feel

some things
it

wish greatly to say.

is

my

duty to say them, Mark, for

they

may

prevent

your

hearing

much

worse."
"

All right.

Fire away."

She opened the door of her room at the

A QUESTION OF
head of
tlie stair.

TIME.

135

It

was a long apartment

She

with two windows facing the south.

lit

one of the lamps and drifted to and fro

for a

moment, her gray gauze gown and twi-

light hair
mist.

making her look

like a

wreath of

Mark threw

himself

into

an easy His
recall,

chair and stared moodily at the floor.

aunt's,

words were not agreeable to

said wherever the

and had given him an unpleasant

of

foretaste

what would be

fame

of his marriage should reach.

Elnora sat opposite him and leaned

ward, laying her hand on
"
his.

for-

Mark, dear," she

said, "
is

you

will under-

stand that what I say

love for you,

prompted by
your great
duty."

my

my

interest in

gifts,

and by
"

my desire

to

do

my

You

are verj^ good.

I do not

mind your

saying anything you like."

"Mark, have you

really
"
?

made up your

mind

to take this step

" Irrevocably."

"You have
quences ?
"

thought

of

all

the conse-

136

A QUESTION OF TIMS.
is

"There

no argument

sJie

has not used

to dissuade me.
point.
It

We

have discussed every

was not

so easy a matter to get

her consent as you

may

imagine."

"Mark," said Elnora, turning upon him

the pale

splendor of her ashen eyes, and

" I

looking at him with solemn earnestness.

know just how much you love this woman, I know what the full scorching power of first love means, and I know what an exquisite woman Boradil Trevor is. But, Mark, you
have a higher duty to
gratification of love ius

yourself

than the

the duty to

your gen-

and your future.

its

Think of that future

successes, the stimulus

the intoxication of

of rivals and enemies, the most delicious possessions of all

fame and power.

so lovely a

I suppose

you would argue that

woman

as

Boradil would but aid and inspire you, and

so she

would

if

you could but have the

only

divine

wisdom

to foresee that she is the

woman you
perhaps
five,

could ever love, and that ten,

years from now, with ripening
ideals

character

and experience, new

and

A QUESTION' OF

TIME.

137

other wants would not come which the wo-

man you
sight, of

loved with your

first

boy's passion
the gift of
in-

could not satisfy.

You have

prophecy, which goes with the crea;

tive

mind

cannot your imagination conceive

"
" it cannot. I shall never
satisfies

such a
"

moment ?

No," he

said,

love another

woman.

She

every

want of
twice.
ideals
self.

my

nature,

and no woman does that

She goes with me into

my

world of

home In some mysterious way

and
is

as

much

at

there as

my-

she possesses

what

I lack,
look.

and conveys

it

to

me

without

word or

I have gone to her despairing

because thoughts I searched for would not

come, and

when with her found them

ar-

ranging themselves in
think that two

my

mind.

Do you

women
"
?

could possess that

power over me
"

But, Mark, that might be coincidence, you

know.

And

in your great love for her

you

may have

idealized her.
first

You may
it
is

be lov-

ing love with the

hood, not Boradil.

ardor of your manfor both your

And

138

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

sakes

for

you must know that she could

be even more miserable than you

that

ask you to listen to the plan I have to propose."

"Well, what

is

it?"
that

"Mark,

repeat

with a

man

or

woman
That
this

of your years love is only passion.

gratified, the love goes.

Do

not marry

woman.

Learn

without

taking the

world into your confidence

love her lastingly or not.

whether
many

you

If at the

end of a
in

year you

still

love her,
it

you may believe

yourself and
If

will

be safe to

her.

you

find that

you have made a mistake, no

harm

will

have been done and everything be

gained."

He
"

had flung her hand from him as had turned to

scales.

if its

soft skin

Plow dare you

insult such a

woman

"
?

he gasped, purple with rage.

"How
if

dare

you?"
She smiled.
ten years older
"

My

dear boy,

you were

you would speak of wisdom,

not of insult."

A QUESTION- OF

TIMB.
liers,

139
his

He

put his face close to

in sudden curiosity.
is it

wrath
" he

drowned

"How

that you

know

so

much

demanded with

his crude abruptness.

The pink
crossed the

color rose to her hair.

Then she
in

room and unlocked a drawer

She

a quaint old chest.

lifted out a large

portfolio like those used for photographs of

famous pictures and

"

laid

it

on a

table.

Come
she

here," she said.

side,

Mark, much mystified, went to her

and

opened

the

portfolio, displaying

three large squares of cardboard.

face of but one

The
it

sur-

was

visible,

and on

was
and

mounted a pen and ink drawing

skilful as
"

as fine

an etching. do you see ? " she asked.

What

" I see

what

I suppose

is

a court

ball.

That looks

like royalty over there,

and there

are enough diplomats hanging about to boil

Eui'ope alive.

All these

men and women

!

look like Germans or

ah

that

is

you "
!

He
lamp.

lifted the picture, holding

it

nearer the

Elnora was evidently resting from

140

A QUESTION OF TIME.

the dance, and over her

whose face
though
his

was bending a man Mark could not see. But alhis shoul-

head was turned, the great star on

his breast

and the white ribbon on

der proclaimed his rank.

He
next.

put

down

the sketch and took up the

outlines

The bold

and battlements of

a mediseval castle towered in the background.

A few

stars lit a park, a wilderness in the

night, bleak

and mysterious.

Half-hidden

by the shadows were two

close embrace.

figures clasped in

Elnora's white profile

was

cut against the dark like the

night, but again the face of the

seen,

new moon on man was unin-

although his figure was unmistakably

that of the

man whose

devotion had been

dicated in the other picture.

in his straining arms,

Passion was

and in the sudden eager

downward sweep

of his head.
first,

Mark
The
was

hastily sent the sketch after the

interested to the core of his romantic nature.

third scene
night.

was a

chapel, and again

it

The shadows thronged

like the
altar.

buried dead in every part save

by the

A QUESTION OF
Behind
tlie

TIME.

141

chancel rail stood a priest with

his face.

more fear than holiness on

Before

him
there

stood a

man

and a woman.

The
of

woman's back was

also turned this time, but

was no mistaking the proud repose

head and the splendid poise of shoulders.

Near them stood two men

chapel.

in full unifoi'm,

one of them glancing furtively about the

The carved beams, the

stately altar,
all

the rich pictures, the pointed windows,

were indicated with startling

effect

the very

shadows seemed

to move.

Mark
Elnora.
for the

laid the picture

down and looked

at

He
first

Avas deeply

interested in her

time.

She was no longer the

he

conventional young woman.

" This is a real live romance,"
said,

"

and you are a

"

"

You must

ask

me

no questions.

It is
life is

enough

to say that that episode in

I

my

sealed and sepulchred.

have shown you

these pictures for an

objectin the hope

that

my

experience might be useful to you

now.

I loved that

man with

all

the passion,

142
all

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

the self-abnegation, all the reckless disrefirst love.

gard of consequences of

He was
the end
I

intellectual, witty, fascinating.

At

of a year I

was

so tired of

him that

grew
and

to anticipate every inflection of his voice

to speculate

which would give me the pro-

foundest feeling of ennui.

Now, have my
"
?

words any weight with you

He

had watched her with the keen delight

of the born analyst, his

own

affairs for the

moment
yourself
" I

forgotten.

"And what
now
?

are you going to do with

" he asked, curiously. "
!

wish to marry you

actually

Mark

blushed, but he felt the

flatteiy of

being the choice of a

woman with

such beauty and such a history.

" I shall

never love again," she continued,

calmly, "but I wish to marry

you because
you
I

you

are a

man

of genius, and through

I

can become famous myself. a salon, to have great

a second

wish to have
feet, to

men

at

my

be

Madame Recamier.

Men
is

of genius

are apt to be low-born, but there

no better

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

143

blood in America than the Saltonstall's, and

you are one of the few men

as a husband."
"

I could endure

Upon my woi'd, Elnora, if I did not love another woman with every drop of blood in

my body
believe I

and

every

cell

in

raj brain, I

would accept your proposal, for

you are a stunning woman.

are so ambitious,

But

if

you

why

did you not cling to

your
" I told
tions,"

"

you that you must ask no quesShe came

his

interrupted his cousin.

to

close

him and

laid

her

hand on

arm.

In the half-light she looked

like

dim
"

cloud queen, as softly cold, as subtly en-

veloping.

"

Have I not moved you ? " she murmured. You still persist in your mad determina"

tion?"

You have

not

moved me," he

said, " be-

cause you

have no argument.

You were

dazzled by the romance, the adventure, the

danger.

You

loved the

his shallow attractions.

man for his rank, You will not admit

144
it,

A QUESTION' OF

TIME.
inferior.

but mentally he was your

If he

had been the prince of a Boston drawing-

room you would have accepted him with no

illusions,

and a public wedding.

You would
en-

probably have tired of him during the

gagement and foregone the honeymoon.

know

that

man's mental capacity by the

shape of his head."

She had turned her face from the

" I give

light.

you up," she

replied,
"

and her even

tones betrayed nothing.

But perhaps some

day you will remember

blooded though
it

my

advice,

cold-

may be.

Well, gang your

own
"

gait.

I will stand

by you."
"

He

gave her hand a grateful pressure.

for that," he said.
I shall

Thank you

And now

good-night.
hotels, for I

go down to one of the

do not care to meet Aunt Anne

I shall see

again.

To-morrow morning
engagement at once.

Red

Hopkins and ask him

of

to circulate the story

my

do

this that

Mrs. Trevor shall have no chance to retract

through any mistaken idea of duty."

"

Good-night,"

she said.

" I await

the

A QUESTION OF TIME.
the pictures " no one
this
"

145
to

denouement.

And remember " pointing

in

America knows of

but you."

And

no one
10

will,"

he

said.

XVI.
BoKADiL went about for a few days
atmosphere of half-tones.
in

an

The

step taken,

she gave no more regret to the past, shot no

more

terrifying

glances

down

the future.

Her youth had never

first

left her, therefore

the

mental shock having passed, the love

she felt and received, the profound stirring

of her emotions, seemed natural enough.
possible, she

If

looked younger than before.

Her

face

was more mobile, her eyes more

luminous, her

mouth

fuller.

Mark

spent

almost every hour of the day with her, and

the sense of fellowship deepened, although

they were a
strations
;

little

shy about outward demonto

it

was too new an experience

both.

Mark had
to meet him.

written at once to his father,

later he

and three days

went to the station

was
sitting

Boradil

alone

A QUEfiTION OF TIME.

147

when Mrs. Hopkins's name was brought in. She felt much like sending an excuse, knowing what her friend had come to say, but on
second thoughts concluded to have
once.
it

over at

So Mrs. Hopkins was shown

little stiffly,

in.

She greeted Boradil a

her hands were

although
as

trembling.

Then

she

seated herself, she blurted out

"Tell me, Boradil Trevor,

thing I hear about you true
"
?

is this terrible

"

That I am going to marry Mark Salton?

stall

Yes."

She spoke calmly, but blushed

little.

Mrs. Hopkins put her handkerchief to her

face

and burst
!

into tears.

"

Oh, Boradil
never,

Boradil

"

she sobbed,
it

"I

never

would have believed

of you."

Mrs. Trevor made no reply, and in a mo-

ment the good lady put down her handkerchief

"

and resumed.
at school together, dear, in the

We were
class,

and you know that I love you, and what I feel is only for you. Nothing could ever make me love you less, but I

same

148

A QUESTION OF TIME.

cannot understand this or sympathize with

it.

feel

so

old, so

matronly, that such

rashness, such

youthful folly in a

woman
I

my own
look at
children,

age

is

incomprehensible to me.
daughters, at

my grown

my

grand-

and I marvel that a

age can act like a girl of sixteen.

realize, Boradil, that

woman of my Do you you might be like me

you might have
only an accident
"
?

stout,

eare-worn?
?

that
it is

grandchildren

That
j^ou

thatthat arenot
" If I

were like you, Hetty," said Boradil,

gently, " with a

husband

had loved from

youth, I should not love any other man, old

or young, at any age.

But you must

re-

member
and

that I have lived an almost solitary

life
;

loveless

and now that love has

come
"

to

me

at the last

moment I

have not

the strength to

i^esist it."

But such a young man

such

a boy,

Boradil.

How
?

can you love one

it

who might

be your son

If

were an older man

Mr.

Ii'ving, for instance

I should not say a word.

Indeed, no one could blame you, so young-

A QUESTION' OF TIME.
looking

149
again.

and pretty, for marrying

boy.
I

But that young

it."

cannot understand

" Hetty, can

you explain
"
?
;

to

me

wliy you

love Mr.
" I

Hopkins

suppose
?

no

how can we explain those

things
"

Then

I can no better explain I love

why
in

I love

Mark
and
if

Saltonstall.

him

absolutely,

you did not make a mistake

is it

your

inexperienced youth,

make one with my mature judgment ? " But, Boradil, you know it is an
stood fact

likely that I shall "

underthese

everybody

says

so

^^that

marriages always turn out badly.

don't

Oh, you
!

know what
is

people are saying

I

Every-

body

perfectly wild.

hear that even

summer hotel talk of nothing else. And when they are not ridiculing you, dear, and making the most dreadful
the town and the
jokes,
is

they say that his

life is ruined,

that

it

always the case when a young man marries

an old

a woman

much

older than himself.

And

they say that you will be the most

150

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

wretched now.

woman in

existence

two years from

you and
fall in

He

will get tired of

love with some girl.

Then he

will sufEer
!

and make you

sufEer.
it."

Oh, Boradil

I can-

not bear to think of

"Did not you

the
foi'e
first

tell

me

once, Hetty, that

two years of
"
?

yoxir

married

life

be-

your children came and cares began

were ideally happy

"

They
"
!

were,

indeed,

Boradil.

They

were
"
all

And would you

the care and

not willingly bear again

suffering,

and petty and

the sake

heavy

trials of the later years, for

of having

had those two

"
?

" Gladly, Boradil."

"

Then know that

for

two years of a

like

happiness I would be willing to drag out

the rest of

my

life in

such wretchedness as
of.

you have never dreamed

imperious demand of
its rights."

Such

is

the

my woman's

nature for

"

Oh, Boradil, I sympathize with you, I

do, I do.

And you

have made

me

see just

A QUESTION- OF TIME.

151

how you
you face

feel

and are impelled

to act.

But
can

dear, dear, think of the scandal.

it
?

How

ple are talking.

1

You cannot imagine how peoYou will be in the papers.

am
"

sure you will."

" I shall not read them."

And
you

dearest I
"
!

am

afraid people will

cut

" If in the forty-six years of

my life

have

not

made
I

friends strong enough to stand

by

me now,
what

they will be well exchanged for

have found.

As

I look

back

it

does

not seem to

me

that these same old friends

have troubled themselves much about me.

They have been absorbed

domestic
lives,

in their

own

full

and have not gone out of

life less lonely.

their

way

to

make my

It does

not seem to

me

that they should weigh very

heavily against
life."

the

dearest wish

of

my

" I

have loved you, Boradil "

!

Mrs. Trevor bent forward and laying her

two hands about Mrs. Hopkins's

face, kissed her affectionately.

tear-stained

152
" I

A QUESTION OF TIME.

know you

have, and you love

me

still.

You
It

will never desert me, uo matter

scold."

how
when

much you may

was impossible

to resist Boradil

she chose to be winning, and Mrs. Hopkins

straightway put both arms about her, and

vowed
body.

that she would love her until death,

and defend her while breath was in her own

She drank the cup of peace and went away

soon after,

much

to Boradil's relief.

She

had hardly gone, however, when Mr. Irving

was announced.
but told the

Boradil groaned in
in.

spirit,

maid to show him

He
it

took a chair where he could

command

a good view of her face, and what he saw in

smote him sorely.

felt

It

was an acuter pang

of her en-

than he had

when he heard
"

gagement.
" Is this true, Boradil
"
?

he asked, lamely.

Yes."

"

And you
me
!

love a boy, although

"

you could

not love

he burst out, bitterly.

" Yes."

A QUESTION OF TIME.

153

The monosyllables seemed

cruel,

but she

could think of nothing else to say.

"Do you do you

Boradil?"
"

love

him very much,

Do you
By

think anything else could give

"
?
!

me
"

the courage to do such a thing

heaven, you have got courage

if

I
It
it

admire you for that

is

for nothing else.

an heroic

act,

mad and

reprehensible as

is."

"Are you
the world
"

conventional, like the rest of

"
?

Such a thing

is

counter to the very laws

of nature, assuredly to those of society."

" I said

you were conventional."

world and avails himcivilization, it
is

" If one lives in the

self of the

enjoyments of

only just to conform to the laws laid

in
it.

down

Conventionality is not as ugly a word

many that will be applied to you." You have said that you love me. If you met me now for the first time, and
as
"

were but twenty-two, would

you love

me?"

154
"

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

You know that I could love no other " woman " Would not you wish to marry me ? " " Certainly. But I am I see your drift. it would be an entirely different a man
;

matter."

"Why?"
"

Because

it is

always

fitting that

man

should be older than his wife."

"

You mean
It

it

is

the custom, an ancient

me no more fitting that a man should marry a woman thirty years his junior, than that a woman should take a husband as many years younger than herself.
habit.

seems to

The one word

sure
is

is

done every day, and hardly a

;

said

the other

is

a signal for cenhates to get out

and abuse.
;

The world

of its rut

it

resents being taken

by

surprise.

When

all

women who happen

to love

men

younger than themselves have the courage to

marry them, the world

prised,

will cease to be sur-

and then
is

it

will

cease to censure.

Custom
right

the

only standard

we have

of

and wrong."

She half smiled

as she

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

155

found heraelf using Mark's arguments to

herself.
"

You have always had

clear

head,

Boradil, in spite of the fact that you are the

most exquisitely feminine Avoman on

earth.

But you surely know how

"

disastrous such a

marriage must be in the end."

Have you never heard

all

of other marriages

where age was which ended

that

it
?

should be and yet

in disaster

Among

the thou-

sands of divorces that are granted every year

does the rule show that the

woman

is

older

than the man, or that they are of nearly

equal years
?

Do you know
are

of so

many
?

people

who
!

happy

and well-mated

Has your
lawyer
"

experience taught you

and you a

that the conventional difference of

?

years insures a happy union

There are as many happy as unhappy

marriages in the world."

"
else

True

and age has nothing

all

to

do with

it,

would they

be happy.

Happiness

grows out of true sympathy and companionship.

Love averts the

disasters

which are

156

A QUESTION OF TIMS.
trials of matriraony,

born of the

not a deco-

rous difference of years.

I believe that

my
first

chances of happiness are far greater than

those of a callow girl

who

marries the

boy who

flatters her."

" Perhaps,

Boradil,

perhaps."

He was
The
bitter
all

not in the

mood

for arguing.

truth that she loved another

man with

the sweet strength of her nature

was becom-

ing harder to endure with each

uttered.
"

word she

One thing does not seem

to have occurr" Before I

ed to you," continued Boradil.

was twenty they married me to a man double

my

age,

and no one seemed

to think, there

was anything incongruous

fact 1
I'ich

in the match.

In

was considered
I

ver}?-

lucky, for he

was

and

was

poor.
it

made no

protest, for

was

a child,

and

seemed a charming thing

to have a big house of

my own
it

and to be a

married woman.
not until this past
to

developed so slowly that

ever occurred

week has

me

that

to

be married for twenty-one

years to an unloved

man was

a horror the

A QUESTION- OF
greater tbat iu

TIME.

157

my
it.

di'eaming existence I
else

never suspected
to

But no one
of
girl to a

seemed

think of

it

either, or

the wi'oug of

marrying a young

dry and prosaic

man

now when I wish to be happy and to marry the man of my choice, the world turns upon me and cries,
of business.

And

yet

'Thou fool!'"

Her
angry,
finished.

voice

had grown

passionate, almost

and Mr. Irving

stood

up
" I

as

she

His face was very white.

said,

"

Good-by, Boradil," he

would

rather not hear you say any more.

this

Marry
only

man

if

you

will,

and I hope and pray

that

you may be happy.

You have

my

good wishes.

You

deserve nothing but the

best that the world can give you."

XVIL He
he
drove over to Mrs. Brewster's because
to

away from his own thoughts, and because he had been bidden there in common with the rest of his circle
wished
get
to

meet Elnora Brewster.

Many women and

few moments

several

men were
it

seated a

on the broad veranda, and

took but

to learn that Boradil

Trevor
Elnora,

was the

sole topic of conversation.

non-committal,

clad

in

diaphanous black,

looked like a placid moon resting on a stormcloud.

Mrs.

Brewster

was

sitting

in

straight-backed chair, her cold eyes aflame,

her mouth hard.

All had appealed to her to

make up
she do
?

their

minds for them.

What would
What had
she

How

would she

treat Boradil Tre?

vor?

What

did she think

said to her

nephew ?

A QUESTION
" This is

O'F

TIME.

159

what

I will do," said

Mrs. Brews-

ter, " I will never

speak to either

my nephew
is

or Boradil Trevor again.

fool

He

a young

and she
"

is
!

a bad woman."
Oh's,"

There were
Brewster
"

several

Oh

but Mrs.
heat.

went on with the same cold

She

is

bad woman because she

old,

is

nearly fifty years

foolish

and she takes advantage of the

She and disgraces

passion of a boy of twenty.

ly ruins his
life,

deliberate-

his family

and

her own.

I should never respect myself if

I spoke to her again.

You, of course, can

do

as
It

you

please."

was evident that most

of the

company
few

would do

as their leader pleased, but a

looked rebellious and disposed to stand by

Boradil Trevor.

The

girls
all

were

tittering

and sneering

they had

the contempt of

inexperience for the weaknesses of their sex

but an occasional
felt

woman

of maturer yeai's

a vague sympathy, perhaps envy, for the

passion which impelled

such reckless
it.

defi-

ance of the World

" I

and respected

wish to say," continued Mrs. Brewster,

ICO

A qUESTION OF

TIME.

" that I should

be glad to have those

who

in-

tend to continue their acquaintance with this

woman

let

me know

of the fact, as I shall

not care to run the risk of meeting her at

their houses."

Manifest disturbance followed this declaration of war.

Disruption of Danforth's

exclusive

forty

was threatening.
little

People

gave

each other
;

apprehensive side-

glances

no

one

seemed to yearn for the

first.

honor of speaking
could become
silveren as her
" I

Before the silence

as

awkward Elnora's voice, eyes, made itself heard.

" I

would not bother any more

she said
;

just now,

mamma,"
good.

hear that Mrs. Ti-evor

intends leaving

Danforth at once and for

That

will settle matters."

sigh of relief swept softly

down

the ve-

randa, and Mrs. Brewster's

talking with

guests
so

began

unwonted animation for

warm

a day upon a variety of topics in which Boradil

Trevor had no place.

Mr. Irving made

his

way

over to Elnora.

Her

tact

reminded

him

of Boradil, and as he talked with her

A QUESTION' OF
the

TIME.

IGl

resemblance deepened.

He had
all

not

Mark's insight to teach him the spurious

from the

real,

and he paid

a man's trib-

ute to Elnora's manufactured charm.

11

XVIII.

At
da,

eight tliat evening, as Mrs. Brewster

and her daughter were sitting on the veranone of the town hacks drove up
Saltonstall
alighted.

and
tall

Mr.

He was

slender man, distinguished and intellectual

looking, and bore that fleeting resemblance
to his son

which a photograph of the wrong

side of a face does to the subject.

Mrs.

Brewster received him

stiffly,

but

curiosity

made her

less cold

than

if

she had

been already acquainted with the result of

his
visit.

Elnora gave him a soft earnest

welcome, patting his hand sympathetically,

and he kissed her and told her that she

looked like his grandmother,

who had been

the handsomest of the Saltonstalls.

He

sat

down by
"

her, facing his sister.

?

Well

"

demanded

Mrs.

Brewster.

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

163

"What
" It is
stall

do you think of tMs unfortunate

"
?

and ridiculous business

very interesting," said Mr, Saltonslight,

with a

somewhat

cynical, smile.

"

Very what ?

"

" Interesting.

You know
little

that I loved

my
in I

wife very deeply, and that since her death

I have
life.

taken

personal

interest
live,

But, as I

am

compelled to

find

deep and constant amusement in the

ever-varying phenomena of
Its

human

nature.

problems

like

the one which concerns

us

are

intensely fascinating to me.

Think

of a

woman

of forty-six having the mental

youthfulness to love a

man
?

of twenty-two

What more
him,
is

interesting
all

And Mark,
me

al-

though I have
far

a father's affection for

as the ge-

more

interesting to

nius than as the man, and I have kept a sort

of mental diary of each of his successive

developments.

This

is

the most significant

and entertaining of

all."

"Oh,

know

of old your cold-blooded

way

of looking at things," interrupted his

164
sister,

A QUESTION' OF

TIMS.

impatieutly, " and I cannot say that I

am

at all interested in
life.

your peculiar method

I wish to

of taking

What

know

is

what

steps are

you going

to take to prevent

your son disgracing himself and his whole

family
"
?

"
let

Oh, I shall

him marry Mrs. Trevor."

"
!

"John
"

Saltonstall
I will give

Yes

you

my

reasons

if

you

care to hear them."

Mrs. Bi'ewster was shaking from head to

foot,

but she wished to keep her self-control

before her brother.

As

she

was speechless
Trevor this
is

Mr. Saltonstall continued.

" I spent

an hour with

Mi-s.

afternoon,

and

am

convinced that she

the wife for

my

son, the

woman who
It is

will

most further his advancement.

tured opinion that

my mashould

men

of genius

marry women older than themselves.

this

For
his

reason

when a man has genius

less of

character rarely develops beyond boyhood.

He

is

always more or

a child, impul-

sive, irrational, irresponsible.

He

is

like a

A QUESTION OF

TIME.
fair

165

double flower, growing with a

equality for a while.
to

show

of

Then one

side begins

draw

to it all the sunshine

and moisture,
it

leaving the other perfect as far as

perhaps, but stunted for the rest of

goes,

its

time.

Therefore

when a man

of that order marries

an undisciplined
both.
It

girl it

means the ruin of

so

would not make

if

much
but
it

differ-

ence about the girl

she were commonplace,

be,

which she probably would

leave

would
to the

him rudderless and incomplete

end of his days.

Now,

if

he marries a

an more than his age, a

womwoman who posalone

sesses the self-control, the patience, the calm,

the

deliberation,

which years
has

can

bring,

woman who

absorbed expeit

rience

and knowledge from time as

practically little has
will supply

passes,

even

if

come

to her,

such a

woman

what the man of

and together

intellectual

endowment

lacks,

they make the perfect whole.

Of

course she
intellect-

should be intelligent without being

ual

and ambitious; she should have

tact

and cleverness without genius or even

talent.

1G6
Intellectual "

A QUESTION OF TIME.

women

are

mentally

polyga-

mous

At
eyes.
"

this

point Mrs.

Brewster

rose

and

looked at her brother with white lips and

You

are a fool," she said,

and swept into

the house.

Elnora leaned forward and fixed her

like

ice-

magnetic eyes on her uncle's

face.

"

You make

this strange afEair

very interall

esting,"

she said, " and I want to hear

it.

you have to say about

You have

an ex-

traordinary faculty of putting things in a

new

light

view.

of changing one's whole point of But there one thing surely you
is

do not mean to
cate of
"
?

me that you are an young men marrying women

tell

advotwice

their age
"

Not under all circumstances, no," he said, warmed to new interest, and stroking her
hand as
it

lay white and cool as a moonbeani

on her black gown, " only when a

over-intellectual

man

is

even

when not a

genius.

Then, always.

I believe it to

be the only

A QUESTION OF
possible balance.

TIME.

167

There must be absolute

in

respect

and fellowship

married

life

and no

woman
period,

of matiire age will respect a young

fool or fail to be bored

by him

after a short

no matter how

his

youth and beauty

may have

conquered her senses.

He must

counterbalance her acquired wisdom by superior intellect."

" But,

uncle,

men

of genius are

usually

passionate to sensuality, and after a time an

old

woman must
see that

cease to have any

charm for

them."
" I

you have studied men and

if

done some thinking even

of your sex
of
as
cal
fifty,

you are a

girl

but being a young woman, your knowledge

is

natui-ally limited.
is

A woman
young
Physi-

whose health

perfect, is as

you

are and likely to remain so.

is

youth

not a matter of years, but of

good

constitution
loss of heart,

and

careful

life.

Age
health,

means

and allowing the

the

body

to

run to seed.

Neglect one

rose-bush and water another of the same age

and you

will

see

what

I mean.

Boradil

168

A QUESTION or TIME.
slender and

Trevor,

dainty as

she

is,

Is

wrought of supple

steel.

The

simplicity of

her character will preserve her youthful expression,

and her woman's vanity and

clever-

ness will look after hei* complexion and figure.

I don't believe Mrs.

Trevor ever

lost

a
in

night's sleep or felt a

pang of dyspepsia

her

life.''

" Well, uncle,

you convince
if

me

that Mrs.

Trevor

is

the wife for Mark,

he must have

one," assented this delectable

young

diplo-

mat

"

but I confess I do not agree with you

it is

in thinking that

necessary for

him

to

marry

at
?

all.

If he has genius is not that

enough
"

What
"
?

does he want with personal

happiness

My

dear Elnora, to say nothing of the

fact,
last,

already dwelt upon, that he needs bal-

sympathy,

and

encouragement,

lov^e

gratified will

develop his genius and give

insight.

him deeper
and

Balked,

he

would

spend a half dozen years eating his heart out

inflicting the public

with the false and

life.

morbid wails of a blighted

It

would

A QUESTION OF
take him

TIME.

169

many

to readjust himself

and com-

prehend life broadly and impersonally.

narrowing and contracting of the ego by

The
ear-

ly disappointment has taken the best years

out of
tive

many an

artist.

Real geniusintui-

wisdom, creative power

can

dispense

with worldly experience but cannot pass

through an unfortunate one of the heart unwarped. or unscathed.

Human

nature

is

at

once too strong and too weak."

He
" I

rose

and walked up and down the

:

porch, then spoke again

am minded
niece.

to

make you
It is this
:

a confession,

my

charming

Everything

that

my

son

is

I wished to be.
;

had the am-

bition without the gift

at
night,

I used to lie

awake

even when I was a college boy,

trying to string grandly sounding phrases

together and
construct

make them rhyme.

I

used to

air

worlds which I shook like

preached upon a mount

Byron or wherein
like Shelley.

By

one of those mysterious

evolutions of

soul

and of mind

my

off-

spring combines the desire and the power.

170

A QUESTION OF TIME.

the ambition and the genius.

Not

to call

one of those planets up there

I lay the slightest blight

my own would
of his brain.
suicide.

upon him, put a

and a

stone in his path,

warp a corner

I should feel both a murderer

I should feel that I like

had entered

his brain
sat

an assassin and maimed the god

If I found
this

there enthroned.

who woman

un-

worthy,

my power
me

over him

is

strong enough

to enable

to convince

him

of the fact,

and
here

he would recover from a none the worse

;

little
it
is

heartburning

but as

Well,
is

comes the hack.

an hour.

I told the

man

to return in

Good-night.

There

nothing

commonplace about you, by the way; you

are as charming a listener as Mrs. Trevor,

and you have a face for

to marry a big man."
" I shall," she said.

history.

You

ought

Her uncle laughed, and bidding her goodnight drove away.

IX.

BoKADiL
into

sat alone again the next night.

Mr. Saltonstall had asked Mark to ride out

the country with

him

to visit an old

friend, and, all

things considered, his son

could hardly refuse.

He had made
him

Boradil
in the

promise, however, to walk with

wood

at four,

and not feeling sleepy she had

sit

determined to

up.
at

She had been surprised and elated

Saltonstall's

Mr.

sanction of her marriage, but

to-night she

was

depressed.

The
letter

late mail

had brought her a stinging

brother,

from her

who knew how

and
gall.

to season his ink

also,

with

acid

Some one

had

kindly sent her a marked copy of a

New

York paper

containing a letter from a Dan-

forth correspondent.

In this letter she was

light,

placed in a ridiculous and humiliating

described

by

a person

who had

never seen

172
her, as

A QUESTION OF TIME.
pass^e and "

made up."

cartoon

portrayed a large fleshy prancing

woman
Being

dragging along an unwilling- looking youngster

by a hand

soiled

with

mud

pies.

unused to the sensational world, she was

disgusted and indignant that her
life

private

should be unrespected, her most sacred

held up to
feel

feelings
It

comment and

ridicule.
;

made her
pride

trivial

and vulgar

her

delicate

seemed slipping from her

she she

ceased for the

moment

to

believe that
;

was

really

gentlewoman

she

felt,

rather, like a third-rate actress.

an's

Her woman
ugly

vanity

had
cai'ed

also

received

thrust.

She

nothing for the world,

it

but she did not find

it

pleasant to learn that

believed her to be faded

course she

and common.

Of

had anticipated some notoriety

and made a resolution not to look at the

papers
;

but when the marked copy came

curiosity

had triumphed.
it

She tore
it

suddenly into strips and flung

Its vulgarizing influence

on the hearth.

withdrew

after a time, but left discourage-

A qUBSTION OF
meat
in its wake,

TIME.

173
to assail

and fears began

her once more.

Mr. Saltonstall had told her

that her splendid health

as his son.

made her

as

young

What

if

that should give

2

way ?

What had
ciated
tality.

she left but that

The sympathy

of an invalid wife soon ceases to be appre-

by a husband

full of impatient

vi-

And

suppose the sneers of the world

should have their effect on

Mark

at last

after the enthusiasm of his love

to

had begun
this

temper

She had not thought of

filled

before and the idea

her with terror.

The
soon
in

sensation caiised
die,

by her marriage would

neither

but never the contemptuous feeling

it?

regard to

True,

she

nor

Mark

cared for or intended to be of the

world, but they could not live like hermits

and they expected

to

travel.
?

Could

he

stand that ever-recurring smile

She had

no fear for her own steadfastness, but she

knew
tears.

the power of ridicule over men.

She

put her hands to

her face

and burst into

again.

She

was

unanchored

The

bliss of the past

few days plunged

into the

174

A qUESTION OF TIME.
She wondered at
h.er

fog-banks of memory.

content, the downfall of her reason, the girllike folly of

merging the future into the

present.

She remembered her doubts of the

night she had realized her love.

They had

been

swept

aside

by Mark

Saltonstall's

dominant personality and her own passion,

but they returned now.
she,

What

right

had

a weak, insignificant woman, to

set at
?

defiance the laws laid

down by

the world

She

felt

wretched, forlorn, conventional.

she but a natural product of
?

What was
letter

these despised conventions

Her

brother's

and that vulgar paper had flung her

out of her fool's paradise and

the everyday creature she was. a genius like Mark.

made her feel She was not

There was nothing in

her to warrant the committing of such an extraordinary

act.

What had
?

blinded her to

her folly but a passion which was ridiculous

in a

woman

of her age

It

was true that

Mr. Saltonstall championed her, but might

not he be a dreamer, an illogical theorizer
?

Might not she

really be ruining this

young

A qUEBTION OF
man's
for
life as

TIME.

175

people said
years
?

preparing a hell
a

Ms

later

Might not such

?

marriage affect his prospects

If the
it

world

was going
to take

to laugh at

him would

consent
?

him

seriously as a

man

of letters

Would

not every mention of his

name

in

those loathsome newspapers be coupled with

a satire or a joke which would rob him of

dignity, forbid
all

all

respect?

She dropped
This thought,
to

her hands with a faint cry.

most appalling of
her before.

all,

had not occurred

feet,

She sprang to her

hardly

knowing where she was bound, what her She ran down the hall and up the purpose.
old stair to the tower.
little

Her breath came

to

in

sobs, the hot tears blurred her sight.

felt

She

her

way up
little

the

door and
tears lay

stumbled into the

like
blisters

room.

The
her.

on her

eyes,

but she brushed

them away and looked about

the
dirt
to-night, the

She saw
chair,

dilapidated

stooping like an aged woman, the rotting

casement, the broken pane.
hio-h

The moon was

cobwebbed

and

flooded

the

dusty

176

A QUESTION OF

TIME.

room.

It looked like the rickety skeleton of

a memory's ghost.

She sprang to the window and pushed

up.

it

She saw the populous town, the yachts

on the sound.

Wild and waste had

!

it

all

been twenty-five years before

Age had
it

come

to it as to her, but age

had brought

strength,

and peopled

its

churchyards.

She tugged the neck-band of her gown

apart, choking

and reeling a

little.

For the

moment her

i-eason left her,

and she screamed

hoarsely again and again.

Every nerve

in

her body seemed an imp, stabbing and stinging.

Every year
into

in her past

seemed crowd-

ing

the

little

room with scorching

breath and derisive laughter.

They

rent

themselves asunder and became mouths, then

weeks, then days, hours
!

minutes

seconds

She gasped and struggled for breath. Again

she screamed, and again

At
"

that

moment Mark
is

Saltonstall flung

open the door, and caught her in his arms.

For God's sake what

" I heard

the matter

"

he

said.

you scream, and saw you

A QUESTION OF TIME.
from the
road.

177
ghost.

I tliouglit
is

it

was your
"
?

What

what
brain

the matter

Her

swung back

to its balance, but

she pushed him from her, fearing his touch.

" Go," she said, " go.

I will never

marry

you.

I have seen the whole terrible truth

I

to-night.

could

almost say that I

am

grateful.

So help me God,
I

I will never see I

you you

again.
to

am

strong at

last.

command

go from me."
wall, holding her

She had retreated to the

hands before
pins,
her.

Her

hair

had escaped

its

and

fell

over her white gown.

Her
Mark.

face

was

flushed, her eyes blazing.

" I "

had

expected

this,"

said

Come."
Before she could pass him, he had lifted

her in his arms.

He went down

the stairs
hill to the

and out of the house, and up the

wood.
"

When

they neared the clearing, he

feet. said.

put her on her

Twist up your hair," he

She obeyed him.

ins:.

He

led her to the clear-

Three men awaited them, Mr. Salton12

178

A QUESTION OF TIME.
Hopkins, and a clergyman of

stall, Eeclfield

the Churcb. of England.

Far down
great

in the valley the

gong of the

town clock smote the

air four times.

GLAITOE AT THE QUESTION

of

One woman

the

first

sentiments born to a

reciprocally loved
is

by a man younger

than herself

gratitude.

A
as

young woman

accepts love carelessly,

her birthright

the violets blooming in the hedge, the petal-

ous beauty of roses damasking spring, expect

to

be plucked

for that they

were made
un-

but the autumn leaves

fall softly, lie

touched until the rain comes to wash them

down

into the earth, enriching

is

it.

The

full-

blown rose

very beautiful, but the vigor of

itself

youth has spent

in

the
is

expanding

leaves; the scent of death

in the

heavy

perfume.

Even though a woman may have

A QUESTION OF
filed

TIME.

179

a record of continuous conquest, the love

of a

man

inferior in years touches her first

with surprise, then doubt, then pi-ofoundest

gratitude.

Of

course the sentiment wears

away with

possession, all sentiments do, but

in its fleeting existence does her

most abiding

danger inhere.
vive gratitude.

Man

as a lover cannot sur;

Pride puffeth him

he

floats

upward and

reclines

upon

rarefied heights,

gazes abstractedly, indulgently, upon

the

woman below
wander.

and eventually his gaze doth

And
a

It smites his self-respect to adore

that which admits itself unworthy.

woman
caprice,

in gratitude further endangers her

peace of heart because coquetry, feminine

and power, go with that

loss of self-

confidence which follows the upward gaze,

enwrapt and

fixt.

She begs for small favors

instead of refusing greater, she scatters tears

upon a man's

indifferent

moods; she

loses

her head instead of skilling herself in the

game

of chess.

As

man

to be beloved of
in all things

women

should be

virile

and

protective and reliant, so should he ever be

180

A QUESTION OF TIME.

the one to sue.

stinct

Deep
desire.

in

him abides the

from

in-

and the

Let a
rises

woman usurp
his knees

his prerogative

and he

nor cares to kneel again.

love should have
still

Every woman

in

another

man

in love

with

her.

It feeds the hesitant flame of

her

vanity, prevents her knees

If the imderstudy
is

from giving way.

answers almost as
all

not to be had, let her

It

etch one in her brain.

well;
for,

if life

does not yield us

we long
us
the

sometimes

imagination
it.

gives

bright resemblance of
Conversely, the
a

woman who
and

loves without

modicum

of gratitude neither feels nor conlasting

veys such

quietly

satisfying

happiness, as does the

the sadness of years

woman upon whom has fallen or who has

in gratitude

not been given the large gift of sexual fascination.

Let the

woman

keep

her head, and she flowers to a high degree of

womanliness unattainable to one sated with

easy
conquest.

She

sees

and

draws the

noblest in the

man

she has mated, she looks

to herself sharply lest she deflower, be less

A QUESTION' OF TIME.
desirable to the
spite of time

181

man who
has

has chosen her in

or unadornment.

The

fasci-

nating

woman
it,

somewhat of contempt
and draw
is

for passion, and not valuing love, does not

respect

hence

is

more apt

to see

a man's worst than his best.

She

more
it.

bored by constancy than appreciative of

Love with her

is

either a caprice or an un-

conscious selection of the

man who

can give

her greatest pleasure.

I

am

prepared to

liear the readers of this fool,

book

call

Boradil Trevor a

and

let

her

go to her fate without sympathy.

But here
her

and there a philosopher

wisdom.
the path

may commend
is

The heart

is

stabbed often along

brain
pierced by

of life; the

many

doubts, allured

by many ambitions,
;

stunned by
sions are

many disappointments
ashes remain to

the pas-

troubled, stung, quicked, finished

when

only

burn.

Then
the curit

Death, standing at the end of the path, or

hovering obeisantly at our

tain

side, lifts

and

all is

over as

we wonder why

Avas

and

cross ourselves regretfully or triumph-

182

A QUESTION OF TIME.

antly to the religion of pleasure.

Whether
sufits

we

cast our eyes on earth or

is

on heaven,

fering

the

common

lot

but earth has

pleasures, brief

though they
Let us

may be

let

ns

take them.

Nirvana at the end, grants the

left in us.
eat, drink,

one desire

and

be merry, for to-morrow

we

die.

MRS. Pendleton's

FOUR-IN-HAND

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

I
Jessica, her hands clinched

and teeth

set,

stood looking with hard eyes at a small

heap of

letters lying

on the

floor.

The

sun,

blazing through the open window,

made her
to

blink unconsciously,
voice rising to the
reiterate
"

and the ocean's deep

Newport sands seemed

"
!

Contempt

Contempt

Tall, slight,

with the indescribable

air

and

style of the

New York woman,

she did not

suggest intimate knowledge of the word the

ocean hurled to her.

In that moss-green

room, with her haughty face and white pure

skin,

her severe
outlines,

faultless

gown

following
the

classic

she

rather suggested

type to

whom

poets a century hence would

186

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

indite their sonnets

when she

and her kind

past.

had been
if

set in the

frame of the

And

her dress was conventional she had let im-

agination play with her hair.

sive color of flame,
it

The

clear eva-

was brushed down to

her neck and parted, crossed and brought

tightly

up each

side of her head, just behind

her ears.

Meeting above her bang, the curlfly loose, it

ing ends allowed to

vaguely

re-

sembled Medusa's wreath.

Her

eyes were

gray, the color of mid-ocean, calm, beneath

a gray sky.

Not

twenty-four, she

had the

repose of one whose cradle had been rocked

by

Society's foot,

and although

at this

mowas

ment her pride was

in the dust, there

in her face.

more anger than shame

The door opened and her hostess

entered.

As

Mrs. Pendleton turned slowly and looked

at her,

Miss Decker gave a

!

little cry.

" Jessica

"

she said, "

what

is

the mat-

ter

" I

have been insulted," said Mrs. Pendle-

ton, deliberately.

She

felt

a savage pleas-

ure in further humiliating herself.

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

" Insulted
!

187

You

"

Miss Decker's correct

voice and calm

brown eyes could not have

if

expressed more surprise and horror

eign diplomatist

a for-

had snapped

his fingers in

the face of the President's wife.

sleek

Even her

brown hair almost quivered.

tones,

"Yes," Mrs. Pendleton went on in the

same measured

"four men have told

despise

me how much
walked
slowly

they

me."

She

up and down the room. Miss Decker sank upon the divan, incredulity,
curiosity, expectation,

feminine satisfaction

marching across her face in rapid procession.

"I

have always maintained that a married

has a perfect right to
"
flirt,"

woman
if

contin-

ued Mrs. Pendleton.

The more

especially
life
'

she has married an old

man and
?

is

somewhat of a bore
tuous world.

in consequence.
'

Why
vir-

do you marry an old man

snaps the

'What a contemptible
eats the dust at

creat-

ure you are to marry for anything but love,'

it cries,

as

it

Mammon's

feet.

I married an old

man

because, with the wis-

dom

of twenty, I

had made up

my mind

that

1S8

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

could never love and that position and

w^ealth alone
I

made up

the

sum

of existence.

had more excuse than a

girl vrho

has been

always poor, for I had never knovrn the

arithmetic of

money

until

my

father failed,

a year before I married.

People

who have

never

known wealth do not

realize the pure-

ly physical sujBEering of those inured to lux-

ury and suddenly bereft of

difference

it, it

makes no
Pendleton.

what
is.

one's

will or

strength of

character

So

I married Mr.

So

I amused
had spent

myself with other men.

Mr.

Pendleton gave
clear of scandal
if I

me my head, because I kept he knew my pride. Now,

life

my

demoralizing myself

and the society that received me, I could not

be more bitterly punished.
serve
it.

I suppose I deflirt is

I suppose that the married

just as poor

and paltry and contemptible a

measure morals by
it

creature as the moralist and the minister depict her.

We

results.

Therefore I hold to-day that

ness of a lifetime to
ried flirt."

is

the busi-

throw stones at the mar-

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-INHAND.

189
in

For Heaven's sake," cried Miss Decker,

a tone of exasperation, " stop moralizing
tell

and

me what has happened "Do you remember Clarence

!

"

Trent, Ed-

ward Dedham, John Severance, Norton Boswell

"
" "
?

Do

Poor moths

"
!

They were apparently devoted

to me."

Dryly: "Apparently."
"

How
?

long

is it

since

Mr. Pendleton's

death
"

About he died on the sixteenth why, yes, it was six months yesterday since he
died."
" Exactly.

You
They

see these four

notes on

the floor?

are

four proposals

four
just

and she gave a short hard laugh through whose red had sudden faded from the four men have
proposals "
lips

ly

"

mentioned."

Miss Decker gasped.

"

Four proposals
"
?

Then what on

earth are you angry about

lip

Mrs. Pendleton's

curled

scornfully.

She did not condescend to answer at once.

190
"

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

are clever enough at times," she said,

You

coldly, after a

moment.

" It is

odd you

can-

not grasp the veiy palpable fact that four proposals received on the same day, by the

same mail,
er's

fi-om four

men who

are each oth-

most intimate

friends,

can mean but one

thing

practical joke.

Oh

"

slie

cried,

the jealously mastered passion springing into

her voice, " that

is

what

infuriates

me

more

even than the insult

that they should think

aright," ventured

me

such a fool as to be so easily deceived.

Oh!"
" If I

remember

Miss

Decker, feebly, " the intimacy to which you

allude
fore
fact,

was a thing

of the past

some time beIn

you disappeared from the world.

they were not on speaking terms."
it

"

Oh, they have made

up long ago
I

Don't make any weak explanations, but

tell

me how
give

to turn the tables

on them.

would
com-

my

hair and wear a gray wig,

my

plexion and paint to get even with them.

And

I will.

But how

How
her

"
?

The

stateliness

left

walk and she

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

191

paced up and down the room with nervous

steps, glancing for inspiration

from the

deli-

cate etchings on the walls to the divan that

was

like

a moss-bank, to the carpet that

might have been a patch of forest green, and

from thence

to the sparkling ocean.

Miss

Decker offered
Suddenly back to her

no suggestions.

She

had
and

perfect faith in the genius of her friend.

Mrs.

Pendleton

paused

turned to her hostess.

thin

The red had come

sensuous

curled

mouth.

Her
zling,

eyes were luminous, as

when the sun

falls,

breaks through the gray sky and

daz-

on the waters.

" I

have

it

"

she said.

"

And

week

from to-day
that

I will keep them in suspense longNew York will have no corner

small enough to hold them."

11.

The
The
still

hot September day was ten hours old.

of the St. Christopher

office

Club was

deserted but for

sleepy.

a clerk

who looked
just

warm and
left

The postman had

a heap of letters on his desk and he was

sorting

them

for their various pigeon-holes.

young man entered and the clerk began

more rapidly.

to turn over the letters

The

newcomer,

tall,

thin,

with sharp features

face,

and shrewd American

nervous manner.

had an extremely

As

he passed through the

vestibule a clerk at a table put a

site

mark oppo-

the name. " Mr. Clarence Trent," to indi-

cate that he
"

was
?

in the club.

Any

letters

" he

demanded

of the office

clerk.

The man handed him two and he darted

into the

morning room and tore one open.

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

letting the other fall to the
flooj-.

193

He

read

as follows

"

My

dear Friend
delayed.

I have but this

mo-

ment received your

have
been

letter,

which seems to
course
!

["

Of

Why

did I not think of that? "J I say nothing here of the happiness which its contents

have given

nie.

Come

at once.

" Jessica "

Pendleton.
a profound
is

Our engagement must be

se-

cret until the year of

my mourning

over."

Trent's drab and scanty whiskers seemed

to curl into
cial

hard knots over the nervous

fa-

contortion in which he indulged.

Nat-

ure being out of material

when

at

work
his
it

upon him had apparently constructed

muscles from stout twine.
joining his nose to the upper

An
lip,

inch of

the former's

pointed tip was wont to punctuate his conversation

and

emotions

with

the

direct

downward movement
puncturing cloth.
in
his
13

of a machine needle

He

crumpled the

letter

bony nervous

fingers,

and

his pale,

194

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

sharp gray eyes opened and shut with sud-

den rapidity.

"I knew I could not be mistaken," he

thought, triumphantly.
"

She

is

mine

"
!

In the vestibule another

ed off
er

name was
desk.

check-

"

Mr. Norton Boswell," and

for the

its

own-

made eagerly

His dark

intellectual face

was

flushed and his sensias the clerk

tive

mouth twitched suddenly

roll of

handed him a
"

MSS.
he said,
hastily.

Never mind
letters."

that,"

"

Give

me my
The

clerk handed

him

several,

and whisk-

ing them

from

left

to right
all

through his
but one into

impatient hands he thrust

his pocket

and walked rapidly to the mornSeating himself before a table he

if

ing room.

looked at the envelope as

not daring to

solve its mystery, then hastily tore it apart.

"My

deae Friend,"

it

began, and Bos-

well, despite his ardor,

threw a glance down

a certain corridor in his

memory and thought,

!

with kindling eyes

"

Oh

with what divine

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

195

sweetness did she use to

'

utter that

word

friend.' "

Then he

fixed his eyes greedily

" I

on the page once more.

have but this

moment

received your letter, which seems to

["

have been delayed.

Ah

" rapturously,

the paper dancing before his eyes, " that

accounts for

it.

knew

she

was the most

I say
its

tender-hearted

woman on
Come

earth."]

nothing here of the happiness which

tents have given me.
at once.

con-

" Jessica "

Pendleton.
a profound
is

Our engagement must be

year of

se-

cret, until the

my

mourning

over."

Boswell plunged a pen into the ink-well

with quivering
nostrils,

and

in

that quiet

room two hearts thumped

so

loudly that

only passion and scratching pens averted

mutual and withering contempt.

As Boswell left the office a man entered it. He possessed

script blond complexion

very young
that nonde-

which seems to be the

youth of fashion.

uniform of the
It is said that

New York

Englishmen are the cleanest

196

MBS. PMNDLETON'8 FOUR-IN-HAND.

looking

men on

this planet Eartli,

whether

scaling the Matterhorn or taking a duchess

in to dinner
;

but the ciphers of the Four

the
vrell-scrubbed

Hundred have achieved

fully than his accent.

appearance of the Anglo-Saxon more success-

Mr.

Dedham might

have been put through a clothes wringer.

Even
his

his

minute and recent mustache looked

as if each hair

had

its

particular nurse,

and

pink and chubby face defied conscientious

dissipation.

He

sauntered up to the clerk's

indif-

desk with an elaborate affectation of

ference,

and drawled a demand for

his mail.

The
with a
air,

clerk
crest.

handed him a dainty note sealed

He

accepted

it

with an absent

although a look of genuine boyish delight

its

thrust

way through

the fishy inertness of

his average expression.

It

took him just a minute and a half to

get into the morning

fateful lines

room and read these

"

My dbak Fkiend

["

Enchanting phrase

can hear her say

it."]

I have but this mo-

MliS.

PENDLETON'S FOUIt-IN-HAND.
letter,

197
to
!

ment received your

have been delayed.
this

which seems
!

["

Ah

this

perfume

perfume

"]

I say nothing here of the

its

happiness which

contents have given me.

" Jessica Pendleton. Come at once. " Our engagement must be a profound se-

cret until the year of

my

mourning

is

over."

A rosy tide wandered

was no sound
in the

to the roots of Mr.

wild,

Dedham's cendr6 locks and he made a

uncertain dab at his upper
lip.

Again there
St.

morning room of the

Christopher Club but the furious dashing of

pens, the rending of

parchment paper, or the

foot.

sudden scraping of a nervous

A tall broad-shouldered
much
office

young man, with

at the pigeon-

repose of face and manner, entered the

from the avenue, glanced

holes above the clerk's desk, then sauntered

deliberately
into

the morning

room

and

looked out of the window.

of the
nostrils

A slight rigidity

alone betokened the impahis

tience within,

and

uneasy thoughts ran

somewhat

as follows

198
"

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

What a

fool I

have been
to

After

all

my
ass

experience with

women

make such an

of mjj^self over the veriest coquette that ever

breathed;

but her preference for

me
''
!

last

winter was so pointed

oh, damnation

He

stood gnawing his under lip at the

'bus,

lumbering

but turned suddenly as a

presented

man approached from behind and

several letters on a tray.

The

first

and only

one he opened ran thus

"

My

dear Friend

I have but this

mo-

ment received your

have been delayed.
the happiness which

letter,

which seems to

I say nothing here of

its

contents have given

me.

Come

at once.
" Jessica

Pendletok.
se-

"

Our engagement must be a profound

cret until the year of

my

mourning

is over.''

Severance folded the note, his face paling

a
little.

"

Well, well, she

is

true after

all.

What
strolled

a brute I

was

to

misjudge her."
" I will

He

back to the

office.

go home and

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-UAND.

199

write to her, and to-morrow I shall see her

Great heaven
before
?

were six months ever so

lona;

As he turned from
entered the
"
office

the coat-room Boswell

door.
lark,"

by the opposite
as

The fellow looks

"

gay as a

he

thoujrht.

He

hasn't looked like that for

I'll

six months.

I believe

make

it

up with
"
!

him
"

particularly as
Give

I've

come out ahead

me

that package,''

demanded Bos-

well dreamily of the clerk.

sight of Severance.
"

Then he caught
Jack, old
?

Why,
are

fel-

low
go

"

he

cried, "

how

you

Haven't
Don't

seen you looking so well for an age.

out.
It's

too hot."

"Oh, hang it! I've got to. I'm off for Newport to-morrow. It's so infernally dull
in town."
"
I.

Going to Newport to-morrow

So am

My aunt is
heir,
?

quite

ill

and has sent for me.

I'm her
"

you know."

No

Didn't

congratulate
sure."

know you had an aunt. I you. Hope she'll go off, I'm

200
"

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

Hope

SO.

Here comes Teddy

ball.

he looks

like

an elongated rubber
"

It's

some

time since I've seen him so buoyant.

are you,
"

How
''

Teddy ?
are

How

you, Norton, old

"

boy ?

ex-

claimed Dedham, rapturously.

I

How

glad

am

to hear the

old the

name once more.

cold

You've
late."

given

me

shoulder

of

"

Oh, well,

my

boy,

you know men

will be
go-

fools occasionally.

But give bygones the

by.
I

I'm going to Newport to-morrow.

Can
" to-

take any messages to your numerous

"

Dear boy

I'm going to Newport

morrow.
sician.''

Sea bathing ordered by

my

phy-

"

By

Jove,
too.

am

in luck.

Severance

is

going over
it."

We'll have a jolly time of

" I should
"

say so

"

murmured
are

Teddy.
Didn't

Heaven

Hello, Sev,

how

you ?

see you.

For the matter of that you've been

trying to

make me

forget the shape of that

stern profile of yours of late.

But

as long

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

as

201

we

are all going the

same way we might

as well

bury our hatchet.

"
?

What

do you

say,

dear boy
"

Only too happy," said Severance, heartily.

never unearth
it

"And may we
comes Trent.
"

again.

Here

He
you
?

looks as

if

he had just

been returned for the senate."

How

are
"

''

demanded
it

Trent, per-

emptorily.

Yoa have made

up

Don't

leave

me out in the cold." Dedham made a final lunge

it

for his desertits

ing dignity, then sent

on

way.

" I

should think not," he cried with dancing

eyes.
"

Give

me your
off,

fist."

In a moment they were

other's

all

shaking each

hands

and good-fellowship was

streaming from every eye.

"

Come over

to
''

my

rooms,

all of

you,"

gurgled Teddy,
"

and have a drink."

"

With pleasure, my boy," said Trent. But native rudeness will compel me to
I

drink and run.

"

am

off for

Newport

"

Newport
Yes
;

" cried three voices.

"

anything

strange in that

I'm

202

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

tlie

going on vital business connected witt

coming

election."

" This is well,

cist.

a coincidence,"

exclaimed Bos-

with the appreciation of the romanti"

Why, we are all going to l^ewport. Dedham in search of health, Severance of

pleasure,

and
is

I of a fortune

only the old

get there."

mummy

always making out her checks,

in.

but never passes them

see a lot of each other " "

Well, I hope we'll

when we

Oh, of course," said Severance, hastily.

will

We
"

have many another game of polo

together."

Well,"

said

Dedham,

"

come over

to

my

rooms now, and drink to the success of

our separate quests."

III.

Miss Decker paced

restlessly

up and down
mail.

the sea-room waiting for the

Mrs.

Pendleton, more composed but equally nervous, lay in a long chair

with expectation in
lips.
?

her eyes and triumph on her

"

Will they answer or will they not

" If the mail

" ex-

claimed Miss Decker.

only come
ous?
!

would

Will they be crushed ?

?

furi-

orwill they apologize

what they
"

" I care nothing

do,''

said Mrs.

Pendleton, languidly.
to see

All I wanted was

them when they received

my

notes,

and

later,

when they met

to

compare them.

I hold that
in

my

revenge

is

worthy of a page

Machiavelli's Prince.
let

To turn the joke

see that they could

on them and to
not

them

make a
!

fool of

me
1

at the

same time

Oh

how

dai'ed

they

"Well,

they'll never

perpetrate

another

20i

MBS. PENDLETON'S

FOUBINSANB.

practical joke,

my
;

dear.

You have your

if

re-

venge, Jessica
of

you have blunted

I

their sense

humor

for

life.

doubt

they ever even

read the funny page of a newspaper again.

Here comes the postman.

has rung.

There

the bell
I'll

Why

doesn't Bell go

go

myself in a minute."
Mrs. Pendleton's nostrils dilated a
little,

but she did not turn her head even when the
man-servant entei'ed and held a silver tray
before her.

Four
on her

letters lay thereon.

She placed them

lap,

but did not speak imtil the

man

had

left

the room.

Then she looked

fingers.

at Miss

Decker and gave the

with the tips of her
" "

letters a little

sweep

They have answered," she

"

said.

Oh, Jessica, for Heaven's sake don't be

!

so iron-bound

cried her friend.

"

Read
I

them."

"You

can read them

if

you

choose.

have no interest beyond knowing that they

received mine."

Miss Decker needed no second invitation.

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

205

She caught the

letters

from Mrs. Pendleton's

She read a

lap and tore one of them open.

few

lines,

then dropped limply on a chair.

!

" Jessica

''

she whispered, with

little

agonized
Mrs.
ingly,

gasp, " listen to this."

Pendleton turned her eyes inquir-

but

would not stoop

to

curiosity.

" Well," she said, " I " It

'

am

listening."

is
!

from

Mr.

Trent.

And

listen

Angel

I think if

you had kept me waiton the Newport

ing one day longer you would have met a

lunatic wandering
cliffs.

Last night I attended a primary and

made

such an egregious idiot of myself (althoughi

I

was complimented

later

upon

my
I

speech)

that I shall never understand

hissed.

why

was not

But

hereafter I shall be inspired.

will shine
in

And how you

That
is

Washington

the place for our talents, not mer-

cantile

New

York.

After reading your

re-

served yet impassioned note, I do not feel

that I can talk

more

rationally

upon

politics

than while in suspense.

I did? I

What do you

think

made

it

all

up with Severance,

206

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

I

Dedham, and Boswell, whom

receiving
it.

met

just after

I could afEord to forgive

them

They, by the way, go to Newport to-morrow.

Farewell, most brilliant of

women, destined

by Heaven

to be the wife of a diplomatist

(for I will confide to

you that that

"

is

my

ul

timate ambition).

Until to-morrow,
'

CiABENCE TbENT.'
think of that
"
?

"

Well

What do you

A pink wave had risen to Mrs. Pendleton's

hair,

then receded and broken upon

the

haughty curve of her mouth.

" "

Read

the others," she said, briefly.

Oh

how can you be

so cool

"

and Miss

Decker opened another note with trembling

fingers.

" It is

from Norton Boswell.

for looking at the

'

You

once

chided

me

world through

gray spectacles, and bade

me always hope
was decided.

for the best until the worst

When you
the last six

were near to encourage me the

sky was often pink, but even the memory of

months has faded before the ago-

nized suspense of the last seven days.

Oh

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-BAND.

I shall be an author now,
final lesson.
if

207

suffering

is

the

But what incoherent

I can write no
!

stuff I

am

writing.

Loneliness and despair are alike

forgotten.

more
"

To-mor-

row
"

To-morrow

'

BOSWELL.' "

Read

Severance's," said Jessica, quickly.

"I believe you like that man," exclaimed

Miss Decker.
" I think he's a brute.
!

But

you're in a scrape

This

is

from the lordly

Severance
"
'

An

Englishman once said of you with

memory
speak."

a drawl which

wound
;

the words about

flirts

my

" Y-a-a-s

she

on

ice,

so to

Coldest and most subtle of women,

me in suspense for seven Do long days you think I believe that fiction of the delayed letter You forget that we have met before. But why torment me ? why
did you keep
? ?

Did
six
test

I not in

-common decency have

I counted those days.

to wait to the

months before I dared put

1

my fate
I

How

had a

calendar and a pencil

in short I

made a

208

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

fool of myself.

Now
more

the chessboard
;

is

be-

tween us once
ground
;

we

start

on

even

we

will play a

keen and close game

I love

to the end of our natural lives.

you

but I

know
;

you.

I will kiss the

rod

until

we marry
I shall see

after that

we

shall play chess.

you to-morrow.
that's

"Well,
" I

what

I call a beast

of a

man," said Miss Decker.

hate him," said Jessica, between her

teeth.

She looked hard at the ocean.

gray sky today
as cold
it

Under
The

its

was the

color of her eyes,

glitter-

and as unfathomable.

ing Medusa-like ends of her hair seemed to

flame

upward and writhe

"

at each other.

" I should think

you would hate him,"

he
is

said Miss Decker,

the only living

man
Nice

who
little

ever got the best of you.

But

listen to

what your devoted infant has. to say.

boy, Teddy.
"

'

Dearest

Sweetest

Do you know that

am

almost dancing for joy at this

moment ?

MUS. PENDLETON'S F'OUR-IN-EAND.

Indeed,
pen.

209

my

feet are going faster than

! !

my

To think you really do love me after all. But I always said you were not a flirt. I knocked a man down once and challenged him to a duel because
he said you were.

To think

He

wouldn't

fight,

but I

had the

satisfaction

of letting

him know
I can

what
prove

I
it

thought of him.
to all the world
!

And now
But

I can't write
this

any more.
now, the pen
never was

There are three blots on

is

jumping

so,

and you know I

much

at writing letters.
tell

But
all.

can talk, and to-morrow I will

you

"'YouE
"'P.S.

Own

Teddt.
a coinci-

Is

it

not queer

dence

quite
back

Severance, Trent, and Boswell are gotoo.

ing to
I shall

Newport to-morrow
be

How
;

proud
I only

but
;

no, I take that

pity them, poor devils, from the bottom of

my

heart

or I would

if it

wasn't

filled

up

with you.
" Well,

"

'

T.'

madam coquette,
14

diplomatist, in-

spiration and queen of veracity, you're in a

210

MMS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

scrape and I don't

envy you.

"What will

you do

Mrs. Pendleton pressed her head against

the back of the chair, straining her chin up-

ward
" I

as if she

wanted the

salt breeze to rasp

her throat.

have been so bored for six months,"

"

she said, slowly.

see each of

Let them come.

I will

them

alone,
so.

and keep the farce

It will

going for a week or

be amusing

to be engaged
will

to four

men

at once.

You

command

the forces and see that they

Of course it cannot be kept up very long, and when all resources are failing I will let them meet and make them
do not meet.

madly

jealous.

It will

do one of them good,

at least."

"Well, you
Miss Decker.
"

have

courage,"

ejaculated

You can't do it. But yes, you can. If the woman lives who can play jackstraws with firebrands, that woman is And what fun you. We are so dull here
!

both

in

mourning.

I'll

help you.

I'll

carry out your instructions like a major."

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

211

Mrs. Pendleton rose and walked up and

down
only

the

room once or
thing,"

twice.
said,

"There

is

one

she

drawing

her

straight black

brows

together, " if I
will

gaged

to

them they

am enwant to hm kiss

me, you know.

I never
dleton,

It will

be rather awkward.

was engaged

to anyone but Mr. Pen-

and he used to
'

head and say

"I
tact

my

dear

me on my forechild.' I am afraid
kiss
!

they won't be contented with that."

am

afraid they won't

to

But you have

Come,
In

enough

manage a regiment.
it."
it.

say you will do

" Yes," said Jessica, " I will do

my

boarding-school days I used to dream of

being a tragedy queen

I find

myself thrust

by circumstances
no doubt
it

into comedy.

But

I have

will suit

my

talents better."

IV.

SCENE

I.

Seveeance strode impatiently up and down tlie room overlooking the ocean.
"
'

Will be down in a minute.'

I suppose
reflection

that

means the usual thirty for

bric-^-brac.

and contemplation of
pretty room.

What
it,

No

bric-^-brac

in

by the

way.
Jessica
self.

wonder

if this is

the

room

my

lady

is

said to have furnished to suit her-

It looks like a

woodland

glade.

She

must look stunning against those moss-green

curtains.

wonder how the madame liked

It

my

letter.

was rather

brutal, but to

man-

age a witch yoii have got to be Jove astride

a high horse.

Here she comes,

it

know that
venom

perfume.

She uses

to sweeten the

of those snakes of hers."

Mrs. Pendleton entered and gave him her

hand with frank welcome.

Her

"

snakes

"

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-UAND.

213

seemed vibrant with

life

and

defiance,

and

her individuality pierced through her white

conventional
hueless sky.
"

gown

like a solitary star in a

How

do you do
;

" she said, shaking his

hand warmly

then she sat

down

at once as

as a matter of course.

He

understood the manoeuvre, and

all

"Let us play chess by

means,"
"

lie said,

and took a chair opposite.

the crest of a

Your

seclusion

has done you good," he added, smiling as

wave appeared
than a widow.

in her eyes,

"you have more like a

ters,

lost

your fagged look and look

Dissipation
win-

girl

does not agree with you.

Two more
You would

and you would be that most hopeless of

try to

horrors, a faded blonde.

make up
line

for

it

by your

wit,

and then your

nose would get sharp, and you would have a

down

the middle of your forehead and

another on each side of your mouth."

"

You

are as rude as ever," said Jessica

coldly,

but the wave in her eyes threatened

tidal.

to

become

" If

you marry a blonde

214

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUR- IN-HAND.

her, however,

and incarcerate
"

you may

find

the efEect more bleaching than society."

Was
?

that a reflection

upon

my own

so-

ciety
fiend.

You
I

are becoming a real repartee

I only warn."

do not incarcerate.
I," said

"

So do

Mrs. Pendleton, significant-

ly

"I have occasionally gotten the best of

a bad bargain."
"

And

as

you

will find

me

the worst you

have ever had you are already on the defensive," said Severance,

with a laugh.

"

Come,

have not seen you for six months and I

I wrote

am

really hard hit.

off each

you that

marked
Don't

day with a pencil

it

red one at

that; I bought

for the occasion.

take a base advantage of the admission, but

give

me

one kind syllable.

as a

I ask for it as

humbly
"

dog does for a bone."

I

You

do, indeed.

began by making

dis-

agreeable remarks about your personal appearance, did I not

I will
"
?

If

you

will be a brute

be a

cat."

You
I

will acquit yourself

with

credit.

But

will not quarrel with

you to-day,"

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

215

He
she

rose suddenly

and went

ovei" to

her,

but

was already on her

feet.

She dropped

her eyes, then raised them appealingly, but

the sea was level.
" "

Do

not kiss me," she said.

"
?

Why not

" I

would rather not

yet.

Do you know
lover, I

that I have never kissed a

man a

mean
I

in my
raised

life

And

this is so

sudden

would rather wait."

He
lips.

her hand chivalrously to his

;

" I will wait," he said

"

but you will

circlet

wear
"
it

my

ring

''

And

he took a
it

from

his pocket

and slipped

on her

finger.

Thank you,"
little

she said, simply, and touched

with a

caressing motion.

He
"

dropped her hand and stepped back.

do you
;

Miss Decker had pushed aside the portiere.

How

do, " I

Mr. Severance

"

she

said, cordially

did not interrupt even

take
Jessica

to

congratulate you, but to

for a

away

moment.

My

dear, your dress-

maker came down on the

train

with Mr.

Severance and has but a minute.

You had

216

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND,

better go at once, for

is

you know her temper

none of the sweetest."

"

Provoking old thing," said Jessica, with

It

a pout.

was

the fourth

mood

to

which

she had treated Severance in this short interview, and he looked

"

at

her with delight.

But

I will get rid of her as

soon as possi-

ble.

Will you excuse me for a few mo?

ments
"

I will

be back in
is

ten, sure.''

dressmaker
I

the

only tyrant to

whom

bow, the only foe before

arms.

whom

I lay

down my
"

Go

but come back

soon.''

" In ten minutes."

Which

is it,

and where

is

he ? " she whis-

pered, eagerly, as they crossed the hall.

"

Mr. Trent.

He

is

in the library."

SCENE n.

Tkent was standing before a bust

iel

of Danprofile

Webster, speculating
in bronze.

how

his

own

would look
"

You would have

to shave ofE
soft voice

your side

whiskers,"

murmured a

behind him.

He

turned with a nervous

start,

and a

sus-

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

picion of color appeared under

217
skin.

Ms gray
lier

Mrs. Pendleton was standing with

resting lightly on the table.

hands

She smiled with

saucy dignity, an art she had brought to perfection.

" I give "

you
"

five years,"

she said.

With you
arm

to help me,"
!

he

cried, enthusi-

astically.

Ah

I see

you now, leaning on

the

of a foreign ambassador, going in to

some grand diplomatic dinner."

" It is too

bad

I shall
;

have to take the

will be but the

arm
en

of a small

one

you

American
!

minister,

you know.
;

[Great heavI

how

determined he looks
"
first

know he
keep his

means
" I

to kiss me.

If I can only

ambition going.]
will

be senator

and pass a

bill

placing this country on an equal diplomatic

footing with the proudest in Europe.

You

will then go to your legation as the wife of

an ambassador."
" I
it

know you
else."

will accomplish

it.

And

let

be Paris.

I cannot endure to shop any-

where

218

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

" It shall

be Paris."
tired
?

"

Are you not

Tired

"

she asked, hur-

riedly.
"
?

I have not thought of fatigue."

is

"

The day

so

warm."
"
!

" I "

have not felt it. Jessica O h h h " and catching her face

is it

convulsively in her hand she sank into a

chair.
"

What

What

is it

"

he

cried, hop-

ping about her like an agitated spider, the

tip of his nose punctuating his excitement.
"

What
"

can I do
:

Are you
ring
for

ill ?

Faintly

" Neuralgia." shall I

?
?

What
?

Antipyrine

?
?

Horseradish for your wrists

Belladonna

What
"

Nothing.
it

Sit

down and
I'll

talk to

me and
down."

perhaps

will

go away.

Tell

me something
Sit

about yourself and

"

forget

it.

There

is

but

little

to tell.

I have been
elec-

busy making friends against the next

tion.

have addressed several meetings with

I

great success.

have every chance for the

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

219

house this time

for
"
?

the senate next term.

How's your
"

face
!

Misery
"
!

You

said that several

of

my

old friends

came down with you.

not?"
all

How

odd

"Was
" I

it

suppose they will

come

to

see

me."

"Hm.
know you
getting in

don't

know.

Doubt
to see

if

they

are here.

1 shall not tell them.

They would only be coming

you and

my

way.

I'll

wait until our wed-

ding-day approaches, and ask them to be

ushers.

But now,

seem

to suffer so acutely

Jessica, that "

you do not
hear

"Oh!
Edith.]
"

Oh!

[Thank Heaven,

Trent sprang to his feet in genuine alarm.

" Dearest
!

Let me go for the doctor.

"

cannot stand this

Miss Decker entered with apparent haste,

spoke to Trent, then stopped abruptly.
" Jessica
!

"

she cried.

"

What

is

the

matter

220

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

face.

"My
fered.
" tyr, "

You know how

ever."
!

have

suf-

Worse than

Oh, you poor dear

''

She

is

such a mar"

Mr. Trent, with that tooth

Neuralgia
!

" T

mean

neuralgia.

She was up
think

all night.

But,
fiend,

my

dear, don't

me

a heartless

but you must see your lawyer.

He

is

here with those deeds for you to sign, and he

says that he must catch the train."
"

That

estate has given

me

so

much

trou-

ble,"

"
is

murmured Mrs. Pendleton, wretchedly, and how can I talk business when my head
on the rack
?

do not wish to leave Mr.

Trent so soon, either."

"

Leave Mr. Trent to me.

I will talk to
I "

I will entertain

him.
"

May
?

speak to

him about you." you one moment before

you go
pain, "

asked Trent.
pinching her lips with extremest

" Yes,"

you need not mind Edith."

in the least."

"Not

He

took a box from

his pocket with

an

air of resignation
trials

which

boded well for the

of a

diplomatic

MB8. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

career.
" I

221

cannot wait longer to fetter you.

once that
tlie

You

told

me

emerald was your

favorite stone."

She relaxed her

lips

and swept her lashes

"

down and up
you
love
"

rapturously.

So good of
;

to

remember," she murmured

" it

i*e-

minds me of mermaids and

it."

things,

and

You were

always so

poetical
?

But

wliere did

you get that ring

rings.

I thought

you never wore

finger, too

On

your engagement

"
?

" It

was a present from grandma, and

it

wear
finger

to please

her.

I'll

slip

it

in

my
be-

pocket

now

it

is

too large for any other

it

and

you can put yours where

ofE until
?

longs."
"
its

You

will never take

it

you need

place for your wedding ring

" " "

"

Never

"
! !

Angel

And your
is

face

is

better

"
?

Yes

but Edith

looking directly this

way."

222

MBa. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

SCENE

III.

Mrs.

Pewdletow
tiptoe,

entered

the

drawing
and the

room on

with hand upraised.

fall,

"Well! the sky did not

train did not ditch,

and the lightning did

not strike, and

we

are neither of us dead.

And you
"

you
is

look as strapping as a

West

Point cadet.

Fie upon your principles." a charming tirade with which to

lover," cried
"

That

greet

an impatient
face.

Boswell,

with beaming
course
"
?

You

are serious, of

"You have
man's
'

heard the parable of a wo"

No

'

She
little

gave

both

his

out-

stretched hands a

shake, then retreated

its

behind a
back.
"

chair,

and rested both arms on

appeased, but I think I

My

anger

is

am

entitled to
"

some recompense."
can he mean
"
?
?

What
There

Would you

prefer

sherry or red wine

"
is

a draught brewed
call nectar

upon Olym"

pus,

which the gods

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-EAND.

"

223

So

sorry.

We
!

are just out.

gave the

last thimbleful
"

away an hour

ago."

Oh, you did

it ?

May

I enquire to

whom
tell

you gave
you
"

"

"You may,

indeed.

And
!

would

could

T only

remember."

Provoking

goddess
what

But perhaps you

Perchance
I

will allow I

me

to look for myself.

might find a drop or two remaining.

I can get

am

willing to take
ful." "

and be thank"

[Then you will never get much.]

The

dregs are always bitter."

"

There can be no dregs to the nectar in

question."
"

And
I

the last drop always goes to the

head.
thority.

have heard

it

asserted

upon

au-

Think
!

of the scandal

the butler

oh.
"

Heaven

The

intoxication
air.

would make me but

walk right over the
did

tread the
butler's

I should

head.

Where
?

you
"

get that

ring

" Is it not lovely

It

was

heaving

22i

MMS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

last gift of

profound sigh" the

poor dear

Mr. Pendleton."
"

Indeed

Well, under the circumstances,

it

perhaps you will not mind removing

and

wearing that of another unfortunate," and

he placed one knee on the chair over which
she leaned, and produced a ring.
"

Not
"

at

all.

What
the

a beauty

How

did

you know that

stone
?

ruby was

my

favorite

And

she bent her body backward,

under pretence of holding the stone up to

the light.
"

But you have a number

of rubies and

pearls in your possession of

which I consider
Shall I have to
"
?

myself the rightful owner.

call in the
"'

law to give me mine own

are sharp,

The

pearls
paste.

and the rubies

may be
gain,"
" I

I have the best of the bar-

am

a connoisseur on the

subject of

precious stones
sorts, in fact.

of

pi-ecious

articles of all

you are

What What is

an outrageous coquette
the use of keeping a

man

in

misery ? "

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

"

225
?

Why

are

If I

were a

meu always in such a hurry man now and an author

would

wait for moonlight,

all

waves breaking
it."

on rocks, and

the rest of

" All the old property business, in short, I

am
"

both a

man and an

author, therefore I
life."

know

the folly of delay in this short

But suppose the door should open

have been here ten minutes and
might, you

sud-

denly?"
" I
it

has

not opened yet."

"

But

it

know

and the small

all

boys of this house are an exaggeration of

that have gone before.

Ah

here comes
chair
in-

someone.
stantly."

Sit

down

on

that

Miss Decker entered and looked deprecatingly at Boswell.

"

You have come

help

at last," she said.

"

We

were afraid something had happened to you.

I

cannot

this
is

interruption, Jessica.

Your grandmother
you immediately.
15

here and wants to see

She has been telegraphed

for to go to Philadelphia; Mrs.

Armstrong

22G
is

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

very

ill.

would not keep her wait-

ing."

"Poor grandma!

To

think of her being

obliged to go to Philadelphia in September.

Where
"

is

she

"
?

In the yellow reception-room.

Mr. Bos-

well will excuse you for a few minutes."

Boswell
gloom.
"

bowed, his face stamped with

"
?

What have you done

Mr. Severance
is

with the others

asked Jessica, as she closed the door.

"

storming up and
is

down

the sea-room, Mr. Trent

in

like a caged lion

the

library

I expect

to

hear a crash

every minute.

But both know what lawBoswell will

yers and dressmakers mean.

learn something of grandmotheiu

are
safe for a quarter of
all to

But they

an hour longer.

Trust

me."
SCEKE
IV.

Dedham was

sitting

on the edge of one of

the reception-room chairs, locking and unlocking his fingers until his hands were as

MMS. PENDLETON'S POUB-IN-HAND.

227
nerv-

red as those of a son of

ous,

toil.

He was

happy,

terrified,

annoyed.

"

That beastly porter to keep me waiting

long for

so

my
"

portmanteau," he almost
she think of

cried aloud.

What must
slip.

me ?

And

I forgot

my

Severance will have

his on this afternoon, I

know, and
it

might

have been the

first

to

wear

in

Newport.
!

She won't

see him, though,

his

thank Heaven "

He

examined

unornamented vest in an

opposite mirror and shrugged his shoulders

with an

air

of resignation.
if

He must
new

be

content to look as

he had one waistcoat

on instead of two.
tique for

"

And

that

cosmeI

my

mustache.

How could
it ?

have

been so stupid as to forget be able to see

all the
it.

She'll not

can't be pulling at it
it

time, I've

twisted

almost

out,

already.

But she won't mind,

for she adores

ah!" " You

late?
if

wicked boy," said Mrs. Pendleton,

"

with gentle reproach.

I

What made you

But

so

was

just about to send

and inquire
sit

anything had happened to you.

228

MBS. PENDLETON'S EOUB-IN-HAND.

down.

How
!

tired

you must
and a
!

be.

Would
"
?

you
"

like a glass of sherry

biscuit

Nothing

Nothing

You know

it's

not

my

fault that I'm

late.

My

portman-

teau got mislaid and

my

travelling clothes
really are glad to

were so dusty.
see
"

And you
!

me ?

What
Young

a question

It

makes me

feel

young again
" " I

to see you."
!

again

You

"
!

am

twenty-four, Teddy, and a widow,"

lier

and she shook

fearfully

head sadly.
your mother.

" I

feel

old

like

have

had
life,

so

much

care and responsibility in

so careless

my

and you are

"

and debonair."

"You'll make

me
to

cry in a minute," said

Teddy,
that.

and

wish you wouldn't talk like

You seem

put a whole Adirondack

between us."
" I can't help
it
it
!

Perhaps

I'll

get over

after a time.
six

It's so
!

sad being

mewed

up

whole months

"Then marry me
the point.

right

off.

That's just

We'll go and travel and have a

MliS.

PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.
time.
feel as

229

jolly

good

"That'll brace you tip and

make you

young
I

as

you

look."
in

" I can't,

Teddy.

must wait a year

common
talk."

decency.

Think how people would

soon find something
"

"
else

Let 'em.

They'll
us.

and forget

Marry me next month."

to be the hero

"

Next month well

sensation,
after.

" It

would be rather fun

everybody's

and heroine of a

anyhow.
You're
"
?

That's
just

what

nonentity until you've been blackguarded in

the papers.
"

Whose

ring
I

is

that
it

One

of Edith's.

put

on to remem-

ber something by."

" Well, take it off
It'll

and wear
"
!

this instead.

help your

memory

just as well."

"

What, a

solitaire

" I

knew you would

do,

prefer

it.

know

all

your tastes by

instinct."

"You
"

Teddy.

Colored stones are so

tiresome."

By

the way, I think your old admirer.

Severance, must be about to put himself in

230

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

as

silken fetters,

Boswell would say.

fine

caught him buying an unusually

in Tiffany's yesterday.
sister.

sapphire
for his

Said

it

was

Hm hm."
I

" Kather. "

wonder who

it

can be

"
?

Don't

kno\N^.
left.
it

Hasn't looked at a

wom-

an since you
picion
port."
" "

But

I have a strong sus-

that

is

some one here in Newcan be Edith

"
?

Here

I wonder

if it

Miss Decker ?

Sure

enough.

Never
sixteen

seemed to pay her much attention, though.

She's not

dozen

my style too much other New York girls."

it

like

He
twist.

buttoned up his coat, braced himself

against

and gave his mustache a frantic

"

" Mrs.
ately, "

Jessica

he ejaculated
to

desper-

you are engaged

"

me

won't

you

won't you

She drew herself up and glanced down

upon him from her higher chair with a look

of sad disapproval.
" I

did not think

it

of you, Teddy,'' she

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

said.
"

231

And

it is

one of the things of which

I have never approved." "

But why not

"

asked Teddy, feebly.

"I thought you knew me better than to

ask such a question."

know you are an You do make me feel

" I

angel

oh,

hang

it

as if

you were

my

mother."
"

Now,

don't be unreasonable, or I shall

believe that
"

you are a
?

tyrant."

tyrant

Horri

no,

wish I
are.

was.

What
!

a model of propriety you

it

I never should have thought

mean^
so.

darling

you were always such a

coquette,

you know.

Not

that I ever thought

You know
if I let

I never did

oh,

hang

it all

but

you have your own way

in this un-

reasonable

mean your

perfectly natural

whim me in

you might
a month.

at least promise to

marry
that
if

you are an angel

" Well,

And indeed I think I am a saint."

"

on one condition."

"

Any

Any

" It

must be an absolute

secret until the

232

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUE-IN-HAND.

is

wedding
and
if

over.

hate congratulations,

we

are going to have a sensation

we

might as well have a good concentrated one."

" I agree with you,

and

I'll

never find fault

with you again.

You
"

"

Miss Decker almost ran into the room.

" Jessica," she cried.

Oh, dear Mr. Ded-

ham,

how

are

you

Jessica,

mother has one

of her terrible attacks,

and

must ask you to

stay with her while I go for the doctor myself.

I cannot trust servants."

!

"Let me go
" I'll

let

me go

"

cried Teddy.

bring him back in a quarter of an hour.

shall "

Who
" "I alone.
"

Coleman.

He

lives

"

know.
"

Au revoir,"

and the

girls

were
"

There

exclaimed Miss Decker,

we

have got rid of him.

Now

for the others.

You slip upstairs and I'll dispose of them one by one. You are taken suddenly ill. Teddy
will not be

back for an hour.

Dr. Coleman

has moved."

V.

A
two

LAMP burned
girls

in the sea-room,

and the

were sitting in their evening gowns

fire.

before a bright log

Miss Decker was in

white this time

an elaborate French concocwhich made her

Jessica
cr^pe, above

tion of embroidered muslin

look like an expensive fashion plate.

wore a low-cut black

which she

rose like carven ivory and brass.

to-night

The snakes
hair-

were held in place by diamond

pins that glittered like baleful eyes.

In her

lap sparkled four rings.

"

What
life

shall I

do

" she exclaimed.

it

" If

my
ber

depended upon

I could not

remem-

who gave me

which."

"Let us

think.

What

sort

of

stone
"
?

would a

politician be

most likely to choose

"

Mrs. Pendleton laughed.

If couleur

good

idea.

de rose be synonymous with con-

234
ceit,

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

then I think the ruby must have come

from Mr. Trent."

" I

am

sure of

always in the

And as your author ia dumps, I am certain he takes

it.

naturally to the .sapphire."

"

But the emerald

"

" Is

emblematical of your deluded Teddy.

The

solitaire therefore falls naturally to

Mr.

Severance.

Well,
first

now

that

you have got

through the
are

interviews in safety,

what

you going

to

do next?

"

" Edith, I

do not know.

Thev

are all so

dreadfully in earnest that I believe I shall

finally take to

my

heels in downright terror.

I'll

But

no, 1 won't.

come out of

it

with the

upper hand and save

actress.

my
up
to

reputation as an
for
it

I will

keep

it

two or three

clays more,
sible.

but after that

are

will be impos-

They

bound
"
!

meet here sooner

are rid of

or later.

Thank Heaven, Ave

them

for to-night, at least

The man-servant threw back

"
"

the portiere.

Mr. Trent."

Heavens

''

cried

Edith

under

her

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HANB.

breath,
" I forgot to give orders that

235

we
Mr.

were
Trent
"

not
?

receiv

how

do
"

you

do,.

And which

is

his ring

Jessica

made
She

a frenzied dab at the jewels in her lap.

slipped the sapphire on her finger, and hid

the others under a cushion,

Trent,

who had

been detained a moment by Miss Decker,

advanced to
"

her.

" It is verjr soon to

come again," he
call

said,

but I simply had to

I

and inquire

if

you

felt better.

am

delighted to see that you

apparently do."
" I

am

better,

thank you."

Her voice was

of

rather weak,
again,"
" "

" It

was good
that
"
!

you

to

come

Whose

ring

is

Why a to sure
!

" "

" Jessica

" cried

Miss Decker,
?

have you
are so

gone

off

with

my

ring again

You

absent-minded.

I hunted for that ring high

and low."
"

You

should not be so good-natured, and

my memory

would turn over a new

leaf.

236

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

Here

^take it."

She tossed the ring to Miss

her eyes
guiltily

Decker, and
Trent's. "

raised

to
"
?

" Shall I

go up and get the other

No.

But

thought you promised never

to take it off."

"I forgot that water ruins stones."

" Well, it is a consolation- to

know

that
circ-

water does not ruin a certain plain gold

let."

"

Mr. Boswell."

Jessica gasped

and looked

at the flames.

crisis
?

had come.

Would

she be clever

enough

Then the

situation stimulated her.

She held out her hand to Boswell.

"You have come

delightedly.
"

to

see

me," she cried,

tell-

Mr. Trent has just been

ing us that you came

down with
sure.

him, and I

hoped you would

" Yes, to

call soon."

be sure

to be

have known I would

stiffly

call soon."

You might He bowed

close be:

to Trent,

and seating himself

in her ear
?

side Jessica,

murmured
"
?

"

Cannot

you get rid of that fellow

How did he find

you out so soon

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

"

237

Why, he came
"
?

to see Edith, of course.

Do you
" I "

not remember
"

how

devoted he

al-

ways was to her

do not
I

May

ask what you are whispering

about,

Mr.

Boswell ? "

demanded
" Is

Trent,

breaking from Miss Decker.

he confid-

ing to you the astounding success of his last

novel, Mrs. Pendleton? or

was

it

a history

of the United States

" to

I really forget."

Not make

the last, certainly.

I leave

it

to

you

history
is

an

abridged edition.

My

ambition
"

a more humble one."

Oh, you will both need biographers,"

said Mrs. Pendleton,

who was beginning

Arrange for

to

enjoy herself.

" I will

give you an idea.

rein-

Join the theosophists.

carnation.
tion

Come back in the next generaand write your own biographies. Then
you have not had
!

your friends and families cannot complain

that
" "

justice

done you."

Ha

ha

" said Trent.

You

are as cruel as ever," said Boswell

("

with a

sigh.

Where

is

my

ring

")

238

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

" It

was

SO large that I could not

keep

it

on.
"

must have a guard made."

little fingers

Dear

"

"

You may

never have been taught

when
ex-

you were a small boy, Mr. Boswell,"

claimed
in

Trent. " that it is

rude to whisper

company.

Therefore, to save your

manyou

ners in Mrs. Pendleton's eyes, I will do

the kindness to prevent further lapse."

And

he seated himself on the other side of Jessica

and glared defiantly at Boswell.

Mr. Severance and Mr. Dedham."
" I

"

Severance entered hurriedly.

glad to hear
"

am

so

ah, Boswell
first

Trent

"
!

How
!

odd that you should

all find

your

way

here the very

"

evening of your

arrival

And
but

Jessica held out her

hand

with a placid smile.

nervous,

Miss Decker was more

seasons
"

the training of five

stood her in good stead.

Ah

"

continued
too

Mrs. Pendleton,

"

and Mr. Dedham,

"

This
"

is

a most charming reunion."

Charming

beyond

expression

said

Severance.

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

239

Bo swell and Trent being obliged to rise when Miss Decker went forward to meet
the newcomers, Severance took the former's
chair,

" "I

Dedham that of You are better ? "

the future statesman.

whispered Severance.

have been anxious."

"

Oh

have been worried to death,"

in her other ear.

murmured Teddy
gone out of town
last,

"

That

wretched doctor had not only moved but

;

and when I came back at

"

and found

"

Mr. Severance," exclaimed Trent, " you

have

my

chair."

" Is this
taste.

your chair

You have good

A remarkably comfortable chair."

You were
is

"

" You would oblige me " By keeping it ? Certainly.

ever generous, but that I believe

acteristic of genius."

a char-

" Mrs. Pendleton," said Boswell, plaintively, " as

Mr.

Dedham

has taken

my

chair, I

will take this stool at your feet."

Trent was obliged to lean his elbow on

the mantelpiece, for want of a better view

2i0

MBS. PENDLETON' B FOUR-IN-HAND.

of Mrs. Pendleton, and Miss

Decker

sat

on

the otlier side of

"

Dedham.

How

are you,

Teddy

" she said.

" Fine.

You must

let

me

congratulate

you."

"For what?"
"I
"
see

you wear Severance's

?

Sev, did the ring suit your sister

ring. "

Ah,

To a

T.

Said

it

was her
"

favorite stone."

He
this

stopped abruptly.

What

the dev

below
:

his breath,

and Jessica whispered

hurriedly
"

Edith was looking at

in,
!

it

when Mr. Trent

it."

came
"

and forgot to return

Boswell, I
"
?

Ah

am

sure

you are

sitting

on Mrs.
"

Pendleton's foot.

By

the

way,

how's your aunt

Dead better."
wonder you could tear yourself away
"

"I

so soon," said Trent, viciously.

ter

You'd

bet-

be careful.

She might make a new

I spent the happiest
life

will."
"

Don't worry.

fif-

teen minutes of

my

with her this

after-

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

noon.

241

She promised me
"

all."'

He

turned to

Severance.

You have
better,

been breaking hearts

on the beach, I suppose."

"

Whicli

is

at

all

events,

than

breaking one's head against a stone wall."

" Politics

brought you here, Mr. Trent, I

" I

suppose," interrupted Miss Decker.

hear

you made a
" I did.

stirring speech the other night."

It

was on the question

Civil

of Rad-

icalism in the Press versus

Service
revol-

Reform.

Something must be done to

utionize this hell

beg pardon

this hot-

bed

of iniquity,

American
;

politics.

Such
"

principles need courage

but when the hour

comes the man must not be wanting

"

That was

all in

the paper next morning,"

" Mrs. Pendleton, did

drawled Boswell.

you
a

receive the copy of

my new

book

I sent

fortnight ago

Unlike many of

my
it.

others I
It

had no
lighter,

difficulty in disposing of

was

brighter,

less

philosophy,
it,

less

brains.

The

critics

understood
said

therefore
"

they were kind.

They even
the

"Don't quote
16

critics

for

Heaven's

242

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

!

sake

" said Severance.

" It

is

enough to

have read them."

" " if

Oh, Mrs. Pendleton," exclaimed Teddy,

you could have been

at the yacht race.

Such excitement ?

Such -"

"To change
did.

the subject," said Trent, with

determination in his eye, " Mrs. Pendleton,

you receive

all

the

marked papers
?
''

I sent

you containing
"

my

speeches, especially

the

one on Jesuitism in Politics

Don't bother Mrs. Pendleton with poliexclaimed Boswell, whose

its bai's.

tics,"

was kicking against

think

my book

too long, did

"

own egotism You did not you ? One pur"

blind critic said

"

Good-night, Mrs. Pendleton," said

rising

Sev-

erance,

abruptly.

" Good-evening,"

and he bowed to Miss Decker and to the

men.
Jessica rose suddenly

and went with

him to the door.

" I

am

going to walk on the

cliffs

Forty
'

Steps'

at

eleven to-morrow," she

" This

said,

as
un-

she gave

him her hand.

may be
it."

conventional, but /choose to do

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

243

He bowed
said.

over her hand.

" Mrs. Pendle-

ton will only have set one more fashion," he

" I shall
left

be there."

As he

the room

by one

door, Jessica

crossed the

room and opened

another.

" Good-night," she said to the

astounded

company, and withdrew.

VI.

Severance sauntered up and down the

"

Forty Steps," the repose of his bearing be-

lying the agitation within.

"

Why
is

on earth doesn't she come ? " he

thought, uneasily.

"Can

she be

ill

again?

She
did

ten minutes behind time now.

What
last

it

mean

all

those fellows there

like

night?

She looked

an amused spectator
ac-

at a play,

and Miss Decker was nervous,

tually nervous.

Damn
"
?

it

Here they

all

come.
der

What

do they mean by keeping un-

my

heels like this

Dedham, Trent, and Boswell

from various
directions,

strolled

up

and although each

looked

had expectation

in his eye, neither

overjoyed to see the other.

cold nods, a

There were four

then

dead pause, and

cough.

Teddy

gave a

little

"Beautiful after

I mean morning."

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

" It is indeed," said Severance.

245

" I

won-

der you are not taking your salt-water constitutional."

" I

always take a walk in the morning,"

his shoul-

and Teddy glanced nervously over

der.

Boswell and Trent, each with a

sive

little mis-

burning his pocket, turned

red, fidgeted,

glared at the ocean and

made no remark.

Severance darted a glance at each of the

three in succession, and then looked at the

ground with a contemplative

stare.

At

this

moment Mrs. Pendleton appeared. Three of the men advanced to meet her with an awkward attempt at surprise, but she waved them back.
"I
said.

have something to say to you," she

face had given

The cold languor of her

place to an expression of haughty triumph.

A gleam of

conscious

power lay deep

in her

calmly scornful eyes.

The

final act in the

drama had come and the denouement should

be worthy of her talents.

She looked

like a

246

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

judge

who had

smiled encouragement to a

guilty defendant only to confer the sentence

of capital punishment at
" Gentlemen," she said,

last.

and even her voice

all to

was
meet

judicatorial,

"I have asked you

me

here this morning"

starts,

but she went on

three angry unmoved because

"

came

to the conclusion last night that it is

quite time this farce shotild end.

am

some-

what

bored myself, and I have no doubt you

are so, as well.

Your joke was a

clever one,

worthy of the

idle

days of autumn.

When I
will

received your four proposals

mail, I

by the same

appreciated your wit

say

more, your genius

and
all

felt

glad to do any-

thing I could to contribute to your amuse-

ment, especially as

the world

is

away

in

Europe, and I knew that you must be

dull.

So I accepted each of you, as you know, had

four charming interviews and one memorable

one of a more composite nature

that

and now
length I

we have

all

agreed that the spicy and

its

original little

drama has run

take pleasure in restoring your rings."

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

247

She took from her handkerchief a

ful little

beauti-

casket of blue oynx, upon which

reposed the Pendleton crest in blazing dia-

monds, and touching a spring revealed four

rings sparkling about as
ions.

many
stood

velvet cushspeechless

The

four

men

neither dared protest his sincerity and see

ridicule in the eyes of his neighbor.

Mrs. Pendleton dropped her judicial

air,

and taking the ruby between her

"

fingers,

smiled like a teacher bestowing a prize.

Mr. Boswell," she

said, " I

believe this

belongs to you,'' and she handed the ring to

the stupefied author.

He

put

it

in his poc-

ket with never a word;

She raised the emerald.

is

yours
"

or

is it

the sapphire

" Mr. Trent, this "

?

The emerald," snorted Trent.

it

She dropped
Teddy.
"

in his nerveless

palm with

a gracious bend of the head, and turned to

You gave me
sweetly.
for
it is

solitaire, I

remember,"

she said,
gift,

"A

most appropriate

the ideal life."

248

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

as
if

Teddy looked
tears,

about to burst into

gave her one beseeching glance, then

Trent and Boswell hesitated a mo-

took his ring and strode feebly over the

cliffs.

ment, then hurried after.

Jessica held the casket to Severance, vpith

little
it,

outward sweep of her

wrist.

He

took

and folding his arms looked at her

steadily.
hair,

A tide

of angry color rose to her

then she turned her back upon him and,

looking out over the water, tapped her foot

on the rocks.
"

Why

do you not go ? " she asked.

"I

hate you more than the other three put together."

"

No.

You

love me."

" I hate you.

est,

You

are a brute.

The

cool-

the rudest, the most exasperating

man

on two continents."
"

That

is

the reason you love me.

My
lat-

dear Mrs. Pendleton," he continued, taking

the ring from the casket, and laying the
ter

on a rock, " a

woman

of brains

and heada brutal

strong will

but

unegoistic

likes

MRS. PENDLETON'S FOUB-IN-HAND.

249

and mastei'ful man.

An

egoistical

woman,
a slave.

whether she be fool or

brilliant, likes

The reason
man, places

is

that egoism, not being a femi-

nine quality primarily, but borrowed from

its fair

possessor outside of her

sex's limitations

and supplies her with the

satisfying simulacrum of those stronger characteristics

which she would otherwise look

for in man.

You

are not an egoist."

He
"

took her hand and removed her glove

her resistance.

in spite of

Don't struggle.

You would
much
stronger.

only look
Besides,
it

ridiculous if anyone should pass.

is useless.

am

so

" I

do not know or care what really pos-

sessed

you

to indulge in such a freak as to

at once,"

engage yourself to four men

he con"

tinued, slipping the ring on her finger.

You
it.

had your

joke,

and

hope you enjoyed

The denouement was highly dramatic.

said
:

As

I desire

no explanation, for

am

never

concerned with anything but

results.

And

now

you are going

am

to

marry me."

" I

not," sobbed Jessica,

250
"

MBS. PENDLETON'S FOUR-IN-HAND.

You
in

are."

was

sight

He He

glanced about.

No

one

put his arm about her

shoulders, forcing her

own

to her sides, then

bent back her head and kissed her on the

mouth.
"

Checkmate

"

he

said.

THE END.