Ladies Must Live
by
Alice Duer Miller

Part 1 out of 3



Distributed Proofreading Team



LADIES MUST LIVE

by

ALICE DUER MILLER

Author of "Come Out of the Kitchen," etc.

1917







CHAPTER I


Mrs. Ussher was having a small house party in the country over New Year's
Day. This is equivalent to saying that the half dozen most fashionable
people in New York were out of town.

Certain human beings are admitted to have a genius for discrimination in
such matters as objects of art, pigs or stocks. Mrs. Ussher had this same
instinct in regard to fashion, especially where fashions in people were
concerned. She turned toward hidden social availability very much as the
douser's hazel wand turns toward the hidden spring. When she crossed the
room to speak to some woman after dinner, whatever that woman's social
position might formerly have been, you could be sure that at present she
was on the upward wing. When Mrs. Ussher discovered extraordinary
qualities of mind and sympathy in some hitherto impossible man, you might
be certain it was time to begin to book him in advance.

Not that Mrs. Ussher was a kingmaker; she herself had no more power over
the situation than the barometer has over the weather. She merely was
able to foretell; she had the sense of approaching social success.

She was unaware of her own powers, and really supposed that her sudden
and usually ephemeral friendships were based on mutual attraction. The
fact that for years her friends had been the small group of the
momentarily fashionable required, in her eyes, no explanation. So simple
was her creed that she believed people were fashionable for the same
reason that they were her friends, because "they were so nice."

During the short period of their existence, Mrs. Ussher gave to these
friendships the utmost loyalty and devotion. She agonized over the
financial, domestic and romantic troubles of her friends; she sat up till
the small hours, talking to them like a schoolgirl; during the height of
their careers she organized plots for their assistance; and even when
their stars were plainly on the decline, she would often ask them to
lunch, if she happened to be alone.

Many people, we know, are prone to make friends with the rich and great.
Mrs. Ussher's genius consisted in having made friends with them before
they were either. When you hurried to her with some account of a newly
discovered treasure--a beauty or a conversable young man--she would
always say: "Oh, yes, I crossed with her two years ago," or "Isn't he a
dear?--he was once in Jack's office." The strange thing was these
statements were always true; the subjects of them confessed with tears
that "dear Mrs. Ussher" or "darling Laura" was the kindest friend they
had ever had.

Her house party was therefore likely to be notable.

First, there was of course Mrs. Almar--of course without her husband.
There is only one thing, or perhaps two, to be said for Nancy Almar--that
she was very handsome and that she was not a hypocrite, no more than a
pirate is a hypocrite who comes aboard with his cutlass in his teeth.
Mrs. Almar's cutlass was always in her teeth, when it was not in
somebody's vitals.

She had smooth, jet-black hair, done close to her pretty head, a clear
white-and-vermilion complexion, and a good figure, not too tall. She said
little, but everything she did say, she most poignantly meant. If, while
you were talking to her, she suddenly cried out: "Ah, that's really
good!" there was no doubt you had had the good fortune to amuse her;
while if she yawned and left you in the midst of a sentence there was no
question that she was bored.

She hated her husband--not for the conventional reason that she had
married him. She hated him because he was a hypocrite, because he was
always placating and temporizing.

For instance, he had said to her as she was about to start for the
Usshers':

"I hope you'll explain to them why I could not come."

There had never been the least question of Mr. Almar's coming, and she
turned slowly and looked at him as she asked:

"You mean that I would not have gone if you had?"

He did not seem annoyed.

"No," he said, "that I'm called South on business."

"I shan't tell them that," she said, slowly wrapping her furs about her
throat; and then foreseeing a comic moment, she added, "but I'll tell
them you say so, if you like."

She was as good as her word--she usually was.

When the party was at tea about the drawing-room fire, she asked without
the slightest change of expression:

"Would any one like to hear Roland's explanation of why he is not with
us?"

"Had it anything to do with his not being asked?" said a pale young man;
and as soon as he had spoken, he glanced hastily round the circle to
ascertain how his remark had succeeded.

So far as Mrs. Almar was concerned it had not succeeded at all, in fact,
though he did not know it, nothing he said would ever succeed with her
again, although a week before she had hung upon his every word. He had
been a new discovery, something unknown and Bohemian, but alas, a day or
two before, she had observed that underlying his socialistic theories was
an aching desire for social recognition. He liked to tell his bejeweled
hostesses about his friends the car-drivers; but, oh, twenty times more,
he would have liked to tell the car-drivers about his friends the
bejeweled hostesses. For this reason Mrs. Almar despised him, and where
she despised she made no secret of the fact.

"Not asked, Mr. Wickham!" she said. "I assume my husband is asked
wherever I am," and then turning to Laura Ussher she added with a faint
smile: "One's husband is always asked, isn't he?"

"Certainly, as long as you never allow him to come," said another
speaker.

This was the other great beauty of the hour--or, since she was blond and
some years younger than Mrs. Almar, perhaps it would be right to say that
she was the beauty of the hour.

She was very tall, golden, fresh, smooth, yet with faint hollows in her
cheeks that kept her freshness from being insipid. Christine Fenimer had
another advantage--she was unmarried. In spite of the truth of the
observation that a married woman's greatest charm is her husband, he is
also in the most practical sense a disadvantage; he does sometimes stand
across the road of advancement, even in a land of easy divorce. Mrs.
Almar, for instance, was regretfully aware that she might have done much
better than Roland Almar. The great stakes were really open to the
unmarried.

She was particularly aware of this fact at the moment, for the party was
understood to be awaiting a great stake. Mrs. Ussher had discovered a
cousin, a young man who, soon after graduating from a technical college,
had invented a process in the manufacture of rubber that had brought him
a fortune before he was thirty. He was now engaged in spending it on
aviation experiments. He was reckless and successful. Besides which he
was understood to be personally attractive--his picture in a silver
frame stood on a neighboring table. He was of the lean type that Mrs.
Almar admired.

Now it was perfectly clear to her why he was asked. Mrs. Ussher adored
Christine Fenimer. Of all girls in the world it was essential that
Christine should marry money. This man, Max Riatt, new to the fashionable
world, ought to be comparatively easy game. The thing ought to go on
wheels. But Mrs. Almar herself was not indifferent to six feet of
splendid masculinity; nor without her own uses at the moment for a
good-looking young man.

In other words, there was going to be a contest; in the full sight of the
little public that really mattered, the lists were set. Nobody present,
except perhaps Wickham, who was dangerously ignorant of the world in
which he was moving, doubted for one moment that Miss Fenimer had
resolved to marry Max Riatt, if, that is, he turned out to be actually as
per the recommendations of Mrs. Ussher; nor was it less certain that Mrs.
Almar intended that he should be hers.

Of course if Mrs. Ussher had been absolutely single-minded, she would not
have invited Mrs. Almar to this party; but though a warm friend to
Christine Fenimer, Laura was not a fanatic, and the piratical Nancy was
her friend, too.

Mrs. Almar could have pleaded an additional reason for her wish to
interfere with this match, besides the natural one of not wishing Miss
Fenimer to attain any success; and that was the fact that Edward Hickson,
her brother, had wanted for several years to marry Christine. Hickson was
a dull, kindly, fairly well-to-do young man--exactly the type you would
like to see your rival marry. Hickson had motored out with his sister,
and had received some excellent counsel on the way.

"Now, Ned," she had said, "don't cut your own throat by being an adoring
foil. Don't let Christine grind your face in the dust, just to show this
new man that she can do it."

"You don't do Christine justice," he had answered, "if you think she
would do that."

His sister did not reply. She thought it would have been doing the girl
injustice to suppose that she would do anything else.

They were still sitting about the tea-table at a quarter to seven, when
Christine and Mrs. Almar rose simultaneously. It was almost time for the
arrival of Riatt, and neither had any fancy for meeting him save at her
best--in all the panoply of evening dress.

"We're not dining till a quarter past eight, my dears," said Mrs. Ussher.

Both ladies thought they would lie down before dinner. And here chance
took a hand. Riatt's train was late, whereas Christine's clock was fast.
And so it happened that she came downstairs just as he was coming up.

There had been no one to greet him. He was told by the butler that Mrs.
Ussher was dressing, that dinner would be in fifteen minutes; he started
to bound up the stairs, following the footman with his bags, when
suddenly looking up the broad flight he saw a blond vision in white and
pearls coming slowly down. He hoped that his lower jaw hadn't fallen, but
she really was extraordinarily beautiful; and he could not help slowing
down a little. She stopped, with her hand on the banisters, like Louise
of Prussia.

"Oh, you're Mr. Riatt," she said, very gently. "You know you're most
awfully late."

"I wish," he said, "that I were wise enough to be able to say: 'Oh,
you're Miss ----'"

"I might be a Mrs."

"Oh, I hope not," he answered. "Are you?"

She smiled.

"You'll know as soon as you come down to dinner."

"I shall be quick about dressing."

He went on up, and she pursued her slow progress down. She felt that her
future had been settled by those few seconds on the stairs.

"He will do admirably," she said to herself, and a smile like that of a
sleeping infant curved her lips. She felt calmly triumphant. She had
always said there was no reason why even a rich man should be absolutely
impossible. She recalled certain great fortunes with repulsive owners,
which some of her friends had accepted. For herself she had always
intended to have everything--love and money, too. And here it was, almost
in her hands. There had been moments when she had been so discouraged
that she had actually made up her mind to marry Ned Hickson. How wise she
had been to hold off!

She leant her arm on the mantel-piece and studied herself in the mirror.
It was a Chinese painted mirror, and the tint of the glass was green and
unbecoming, yet even this could not mar the dazzling reflection. The only
object on which she looked with dissatisfaction was her string of pearls;
they were imitation. She thought she would have emeralds; and she heard
clearly in her own inner ear this sentence: "Yes, that is young Mrs. Max
Riatt; is she not very beautiful in her emeralds!"

Fortunately she did not say it aloud, for Mrs. Ussher came down at this
moment, and soon Hickson, and then in an incredibly short space of time
Riatt himself.

Undoubtedly he would do magnificently. He stood the test even of evening
clothes, though Christine fancied as she studied him that she would alter
his style of collars. They would be better higher. Mrs. Ussher brought
him over at once and introduced him.

"This is my cousin Max, Christine, about whom I've talked so much. Max,
this is Miss Fenimer."

They smiled at each other with a common impulse not to confess that
earlier meeting on the stairs; and he was just about to settle down
beside her, when the door opened and, last of all, Mrs. Almar came in.
She was wearing her flame-color and lilac dress. Christine knew she would
have it on; knew that she saved it for the greatest moments. She did not
advance very far into the room, but stood looking around her.

"Well," she said, "where is Cousin Max?"

It must not be supposed from this question that she had not seen him
almost through the crack of the door as the butler opened it for her; but
by speaking just when and where she did, she forced him to get up from
Christine's side, and come to where she was to be introduced to her. Then
as dinner was at the same instant announced, she put her hand on his arm.

"Take me in to dinner, Cousin Max," she said.

"I did not know he was _your_ cousin," said Wickham, who suffered from
the fatal tendency in moments of doubt to say something.

Mrs. Almar looked at Riatt.

"Will you be a cousin to me?" she asked. "It commits you to nothing."

"I don't consider that an advantage," he returned, drawing his elbow
slightly inward, so that her hand, if not actually pressed, was made to
feel secure upon his arm. "There are some things I wouldn't a bit mind
being committed to."

Mrs. Almar moved her black head from side to side.

"You must be more specific," she said, "or I shan't understand you."

"More specific in words?" he inquired gently. They were crossing the
hall, and had a sort of privacy for an instant.

"Dear me," she returned, "you do move rather rapidly, don't you?"

"I'm an aviator, you see," he answered.

Across the table Christine was trying to be gracious and graceful while
she put up with Hickson, but she was feeling as any honest captain feels
at having a prize cut out from under his very nose.

Mrs. Ussher seeing this, decided that such methods as Nancy's ought not
to prevail; she seated herself on Max's other side, and instantly engaged
in conversation.

"Don't you think my dear little Christine is an angel?" she said, without
any encumbering subtility.

"She certainly looks like one."

"Who looks like what?" asked Mrs. Almar, from his other side. She had had
this sort of thing tried too often not to be on her guard.

Mrs. Ussher leant forward.

"Max was just saying that Christine looks like an angel."

Nancy looked at him and made a very slight grimace.

"Are you so awfully strong for angels?" she said. He laughed.

"I never met one before."

"You haven't met one to-night."

"You mean that you're not an angel, Mrs. Almar?"

"I? Oh, I'm well and favorably known as the wickedest woman in New York.
I meant that Miss Fenimer is not an angel."

"You don't like her?"

"How you jump at conclusions! To say she isn't an angel, doesn't mean
dislike. As a matter of fact, I am eager to secure her as my
sister-in-law."

Riatt glanced at Hickson and was aware of the faintest possible pang.
What qualities, he wondered, had a man like that.

"Oh," he said, "is she engaged to your brother?"

"Certainly not," answered Mrs. Almar. "But it is fairly well understood
by every one except my brother, that if she doesn't find anything better
within the next few years she will put up with him."

At this a slight feeling of disgust for both ladies took
possession of Riatt.

"I see," he said rather coldly, and turned to Mrs. Ussher, but Nancy was
not so easily disposed of.

"You mean," she went on, "that you see it is my duty as a sister to
prevent anything else turning up. Suppose, for example, that a handsome,
rich, attractive young man should suddenly appear upon the scene and show
an interest in the angelic Christine." (By this time Riatt had turned
again to her, and she looked straight into his eyes as she ran through
her list of adjectives.) "Don't you think it would be my duty to distract
his attention--to go almost any length to distract his attention?"

"However personally disagreeable to you the process might be?"

"Probably if he were as I described him, the process would not be so
disagreeable."

He smiled. There was no denying he found her amusing.

In the meantime, the couple across the table had reached a somewhat
similar point.

Hickson had said as they sat down:

"Well, and what do you think of this new fellow?"

Christine's natural irritation appeared in her answer.

"I have hardly had an opportunity of judging," she answered, "but,
watching your sister's attentions to him, I would say he must be
extremely attractive."

Hickson looked a little dashed.

"Oh," he said, "Nancy does not mean anything when she goes on like that."

The only effect of this speech was to depress further Miss Fenimer's
estimate of her companion's intelligence, for in her opinion Nancy's
whole life was one long black intention. Feeling this, Ned went on:

"As a matter of fact, one reason why she's so nice to him is to keep him
away from you and give me a chance."

"Not very flattering to you, is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"The assumption that the only way to make a woman take an interest in you
is to prevent her speaking to any other man,"

"Oh, I didn't mean that--" Hickson began, but she interrupted him.

"That, if anything, Ned." And she turned to Wickham, who sat on her
other side.

Wickham was waiting for a little notice and began instantly.

"I have been taking the liberty of looking at your pearls, Miss Fenimer,
and indulging in such an interesting speculation. Here on the one hand,
you are wearing round your throat the equivalent of life, health and
virtue for half a hundred working girls, as young, as human, as yourself.
Are we to say this is wrong? Are we to say that beautiful jewels worn by
beautiful women are a crime against society--"

"One moment, Mr. Wickham," she said. "My pearls are imitation and cost
eight dollars and fifty cents without the clasp. But," she added cruelly,
seeing his face fall, "you can say that same thing to your friend Mrs.
Almar, because hers are not artificial, though I have heard her assert
sometimes that they are," and turning back to Hickson, who was
laboriously trying to carry on a conversation with his host, she
interrupted ruthlessly to say, hardly lowering her voice:

"Why in the world, Ned, did Nancy bring this Wickham man here? He's
perfectly impossible."

"Nancy didn't bring him," answered her brother innocently. "I motored out
with her myself."

"She said she wouldn't come unless he were asked. Still I know the
answer. Nancy has always had a weakness for blond boys, and last week she
was crazy about this one. Now she has turned against him, she wants to
foist him off on us, but I for one don't intend to help her out--"

By this time Wickham, aware that he had been rebuffed, had found an
explanation for it. The girl was annoyed at having been forced to admit
her pearls were imitation. He decided to put everything right.

"Miss Fenimer," he said, and she turned her head perhaps half an inch in
his direction, "I think you misunderstood me just now. My standards are
probably different from those of the men you are accustomed to. To me
the fact that your pearls are not real is an added beauty. I'm glad
they're not--"

"Thank you," said Christine, "but I'm not." And this time he understood
that he had lost her for good.

After dinner, Mrs. Almar, knowing that her innings were over, very
effectively prevented Christine having hers, by insisting on playing
bridge. She had an excellent head for cards, and always needed money.
Christine allowed herself to be drawn in, supposing that Riatt would be
one of the players, and found herself seated opposite to Hickson and next
to Jack Ussher.

Wickham, feeling very much left out and desirous of showing how well
accustomed he was to the casual manners of polite society, consoled
himself with an evening paper. Laura Ussher led Riatt to a comfortable
corner out of earshot of the bridge-table.

"Now do tell me, Max," she said, "what you think of them all."

"I think, my dear Laura," he answered, "that they are a very playful band
of cut-throats, and next time you ask me to stay, I hope you and Jack
will be entirely alone."

* * * * *

The servants in a household like the Usshers' were subjected to almost
every strain, except that of early rising. No one dreamed of coming down
stairs before eleven, and most people not until lunch time.

The next morning Riatt was among the first--that is to say he was up
early enough not to be able to escape a tour of inspection of the place
under the guidance of his host. He had seen the stables and the new
garage, and the sheet of snow beneath which lay the garden, and the other
totally different sheet of snow beneath which was the soil in which
Ussher intended next summer to plant a rose garden. He had gone over,
tree by tree, the plantation of firs, and had noted how the tips of some
were injured, and had given his opinion as to whether or not it were
likely that deer had stolen down from the wild country near at hand and
nibbled the young firs in the night.

"It's perfectly possible," said Ussher. "I have five hundred acres
myself, and then the Club owns a huge tract, and then there's some state
land. You see we have hardly any neighbors except the Fenimers and
they're eight or nine miles away."

"They live here?"

"In summer--and then only when Fred Fenimer is in funds, and that's not
often. A precarious sort of existence, his--gambling in mining stocks,
almost always in wrong. Hard on the daughter--wish some nice fellow would
come along and marry her."

"He probably will," answered Riatt rather coldly. "It's beginning to
snow again."

Ussher had just had his pond swept so that his guests could skate, and
now couldn't imagine what he should provide for them for the afternoon,
so that his thoughts were instantly and completely turned from
Christine's problems to his own.

At the house they found every one waiting for lunch; Mrs. Almar and
Christine chattering together on a window-seat as if they were the most
intimate allies; Hickson reading his fourth morning paper, and Mrs.
Ussher paying the profoundest attention to something Wickham was saying.
She had suddenly wakened to the fact that he was having a wretched time
and that he was after all her guest. But he interpreted her actions
differently, and supposing that he was at last being appreciated, he had
launched fearlessly forth upon the conversational sea. It was this
spectacle that had drawn Christine and Nancy together, in their
whisperings and giggles in the window.

"This perhaps will illustrate my meaning," he was saying rather loudly:
"this is the difference in our outlook on life. If you say 'she dresses
well,' you intend a compliment, but to me it is just the reverse. The
idea is repellent to me that a woman wastes time, thought, money on her
vanity, on decking her body--"

"One on you, my dear," whispered Christine.

"Isn't he tiresome?" answered Nancy, shutting her eyes.

"I thought he was your selection."

"Nobody's infallible, my dear. Besides, I telegraphed him not to accept
the invitation, but he says he never got my message."

"Why does he think you sent it?"

"Because I couldn't trust myself--"

They grinned at each other.

With the entrance of Riatt and Ussher they went in to lunch, and there
manoeuvering for places for the afternoon immediately began.

Hickson supposed that by starting early he could secure Christine's
company. So he at once asked her what she was going to do, and before
she had time to answer he had suggested that she skate, take a walk,
or go sleighing with him. Ussher explained that the skating was
spoiled, and Christine under cover of this diversion managed to avoid
committing herself.

As a matter of fact her afternoon was arranged. She had told Laura Ussher
a pathetic story of having to go over to her father's house, and look up
an old fur coat of his which had been left behind when the house was shut
for the winter. Mr. Fenimer was known to be rather an irritable parent
where questions of his own comfort were concerned; it was not impossible
that he would make himself disagreeable if his orders were not carried
out. Laura did not inquire very closely, but she agreed that the best way
for Christine to traverse the distance would be for Riatt to drive her
over in the cutter. Riatt sat next to Laura at luncheon, and she put it
to him, when the general conversation was loudest.

"Would you mind awfully driving poor little Christine over to her own
place to get something or other for that horrid father of hers?"

Of course Riatt didn't say he did mind; as a matter of fact he didn't. He
might even have enjoyed the prospect, if it hadn't been for the slight
hint of compulsion about it.

"It's snowing, you know," he said.

"It doesn't amount to anything," answered his cousin. "But surely, Max,
you're not afraid of a little snow, if she isn't!"

"Anything to oblige you, Laura," he said.

She did not quite like his tone, but felt she might safely leave the rest
to Christine.

Mrs. Almar, unaware of these plots, settled down as soon as the meal was
over, on a comfortable sofa large enough for two, with a box of
cigarettes at her side and a current magazine that contained a new
article on flying. The bird-like objects in the huge page of cloudy sky
at once caught Max's eye. He came and bent over it and her, with his
hands in his pockets. Still absorbed in it, she half-unconsciously swept
aside her skirts, and he sat down beside her. She murmured a
question--it was only about planes, and he answered it. Their heads were
close together when Christine came down in her dark furs ready to go.
The bells of Jack Ussher's fastest trotter were already to be heard
tinkling at the door.

"Are you ready, Max?" said Laura, rather sharply.

"Laura expects every man to do his duty," murmured Nancy, without
looking up.

Riatt expressed himself as entirely ready. Ussher lent him a fur cap and
heavy gloves, warned him about the charmingly uncertain character of the
horse; he and Christine were tucked into the sleigh, and they were off.

The snow, as Laura had said, did not seem to amount to much, the wind was
behind them, the horse fast, the roads well packed. Riatt glanced down at
his lovely companion, and felt his spirits rising. He smiled at her and
she smiled back.

"I do hope you really feel like that," she said, "not sorry, I mean, to
go on this expedition. Because it was extremely wicked of me to forget my
father's coat, and this was obviously the occasion to make amends, but
there was no one to take me--"

"No one to take you?"

"Oh, I suppose one of the grooms might have driven me over, but I should
have hated that. There was no one else. Jack is much too selfish, and I
wouldn't have gone with that Wickham person for anything in the world,
even if he had ever driven a sleigh, which I am sure he hasn't."

"And how about Mr. Hickson?" Riatt asked. "Wasn't he a possibility?"

"What has Nancy Almar told you about her brother and me?"

"Nothing but what he told me himself in every look and word--that he
loves you."

Christine sighed.

He smiled at her.

"And you're glad of it," he said.

"You mean I care for him?"

"I don't know anything about that, but you're glad he cares for you."

"You're utterly mistaken."

"How would you feel if another woman came and took him away from you
to-morrow?"

"Took him away from me?" cried Christine, in a tone of surprise that made
Riatt laugh aloud.

"That's the wonderful thing about the so-called weaker sex," he said.
"Saying 'no' seems to have no terrors to them at all. The timidest girl
will refuse a man with no more trouble and anxiety than she would expend
on refusing a dinner invitation; whereas men, with all their vaunted
courage, are absolutely at the mercy of a determined woman. I have a
friend who has just married a girl--whom he three times explicitly
refused--only because she asked him to."

Miss Fenimer looked at him thoughtfully.

"Surely you exaggerate," she said.

He shook his head sadly.

"I wish I did," he returned, "but I assure you that is the great
secret--that any man would rather marry any woman than refuse her to her
face. You see, no graceful way for a man to say 'no' has ever been
discovered."

"Why, you poor defenseless creatures!" said Christine. "I'll teach you
some ways immediately. I couldn't bear to think of your going about a
prey to the first woman who proposed to you. Let us begin our lessons
immediately. Have I your attention?"

"Completely."

"Let me see. In the first place there are several general types of
proposal. There is the calmly rational, the passionate whirlwind, the
dangerously controlled, or volcano under a sheet of ice--" she broke off.
"I don't know how women do it," she said. "I only know about men."

He smiled, "But you admit to knowing all about them, I gather?"

It would have been folly to deny it.

"And then there's the meltingly pathetic," she went on. "I imagine
that's what women attempt oftenest. Let us begin with that. Now you are
to suppose that I, with tears streaming down my face, have just
confessed that I have always looked up to you as a sort of god, that I
hardly dare--"

"Wait, wait!" cried Riatt. "This is by far the most interesting part of
the lesson, and you go so fast. I have no imagination. I don't know how
it would be, you must say all those things."

"Do I have to cry?" said Christine.

Riatt debated the point.

"No," he answered at length, "I can imagine the tears, but everything
else you must act out. Particularly that part about my seeming like a
god to you."

"But how in the world can I teach you what to do, if I have to act a
part myself?"

"Well, before we begin, just give me a sketch of what I ought to do."

"You must be very cold and firm, and explain to me that though my mistake
is natural, you are really not a god at all; and then that gives you an
excuse to talk a great deal about yourself, and tell how wicked and human
and splendid you are, and that you are not worthy of a simple, good girl
like myself, and how you don't love me anyhow. And then the essential
thing is to go away quickly, and end the interview before I have a chance
to begin all over again."

He looked doubtfully at the snow.

"Must I get out and walk home?" he asked.

"No," she said. "I think that's too complicated. We might try an easier
one to begin. Suppose we do the calmly rational first. I explain to you
that I have watched you from boyhood, and have come to the conclusion
that our tastes, our intellects, our--"

"Oh, no," said Riatt, "there's really no use in going on with that. Even
I should have no difficulty with any lady who approached me in that way.
But there was one of the others that sounded rather promising and
difficult. How about the passionate whirlwind? I say to try that next."

To her surprise, Christine found herself coloring a little.

"Ah," she said, laying her hand on her lips and shaking her head, "that's
very difficult, because you see, it really can't be imitated--"

"Can't be imitated!" cried Max. "Why, what sort of a teacher are you? I
believe you don't know your job. You are the sort of teacher who would
tell an arithmetic class that long division could not be imitated. I
believe the trouble with you is that you don't understand the passionate
whirlwind yourself. I believe you're a fraud, and I shall have your
license to teach taken away from you. Can't be imitated! Well, let me see
you try, at least."

Christine felt that he had the better of her, but she said firmly:

"Are you teaching this subject, or am I?"

"Certainly you can't think _you_ are. But if you say so, I'll have a
try."

Not sorry to create a diversion, Christine looked about her, and was more
diverted from the subject in hand than she had expected to be.

They were on the wrong road. What with the snow and the fact that she had
been so busy talking that she really had no idea how far they had been,
it took her a moment to orient herself anew. She told him with a
conscience-struck look.

"And you," said Riatt, "who do not even know the road to your own house,
were volunteering to pilot me through an emotional crisis."

Even a suggestion of adverse criticism was unpleasant to Miss Fenimer.
She was not accustomed to it; and she answered with some sharpness:

"Yes, but the road is real, whereas I understand your embarrassment
through the attentions of ladies is purely fictitious."

Riatt wondered how fictitious, but he turned the cutter about in
obedience to her commands. The horse started forward even more gaily,
under the impression that he was going home. But for the drivers, the
change was not so agreeable. A high wind had come up, the snow was
falling faster, and the light of the winter afternoon, already beginning
to fade, was obscured by high, dark, silver-edged banks of clouds.

"Upon my word," said Riatt, "I think we had better go back."

"It's only a little way from here," Christine answered, trying hard to
think how far it really was. She did want to get her father's coat, but
she was not indifferent to the triumph of making Riatt late for dinner,
and leaving Nancy Almar throughout the afternoon with no companion but
Wickham or Jack Ussher.

The wind cut their faces, the horse pulled and pranced, the gaiety had
gone out of their little expedition. They drove on a mile or so, and then
Riatt stopped the horse.

"We've got to go back, Miss Fenimer," he said firmly.

"Oh, please not, Mr. Riatt; we are almost there, and," she added with a
fine sense of filial obligation, "I really feel I must do as my father
asked me."

Riatt felt inclined to point out that she, with her muff held up to her
face, was not making the greatest sacrifice to the ideal of duty.

"Have you any very clear idea where your house is?" he asked. His tone
was not flattering, and Christine was quick to feel it.

"Do I know where I live five months of the year?" she returned. "Of
course I do. It's just over this next hill."

The afternoon was turning out so perversely that she would hardly have
been surprised to find that the house had disappeared from its accustomed
place. But as they came over the crest, there it was, in a hollow between
two hills, looking as summer houses do in winter, like a forlorn toy left
out in the snow.

"But it's shut up," said Riatt. "There's no one in it."

"I have the keys to the back door."

He touched the horse for the first time with the whip, and they went
jingling down the slope, in between the almost completely buried
gateposts, and drew up before the kitchen door.

Miss Fenimer kicked her feet free from the rugs, jumped out, and from the
recesses of her muff produced a key which she inserted in the lock.

"Now you won't be long, will you?" said Riatt, with more of command than
persuasion in his tone.

It was a principle of life on the part of Christine that she never
allowed any man to bully her; or perhaps, it would be more nearly just to
say that she never intended to allow any man to do so until she herself
became persuaded that he could, and with this object she always made the
process look as difficult and dangerous as possible at the very
beginning.

She looked back at him and smiled with irritating calm.

"I shall be just as long as is necessary," she replied, and so saying,
she turned, or rather attempted to turn, the key.

But disuse, or cold, or her own lack of strength prevented and she was
presently reduced to asking Riatt to help her. He did not volunteer his
assistance. She had definitely and directly to ask for it. Then he was
friendliness itself.

"Just stand by the horse's head, will you?" he said, and when he saw
her stationed there, he sprang out, and with an almost insulting ease
opened the door.

Just as he did so, however, a gust of wind, fiercer than any other, swept
round the corner of the house and carried away Christine's hat. She made
a quick gesture to catch it, and as she did so, struck the horse under
the chin. The animal reared, and Christine jumped aside to avoid being
struck by its hoofs; the next instant, it had thrown its head in the air,
and started at full speed down the road, dragging the empty sleigh after
it. Riatt, who had his back turned, did not see the beginning of the
incident, but a cry from Christine soon roused his attention, and he
started in pursuit, calling to the animal to stop, in the hope that the
human voice might succeed when all other methods were quite obviously
useless. But the horse, now thoroughly excited by the hanging reins, the
bells, and the sense of its own power, went only faster and faster, and
finally disappeared at full speed.

Riatt came slowly back; he was sinking in the snow to his waist at every
step. Christine was watching him with some anxiety.

"Is there a telephone in the house?" he asked.

She shook her head.

"No, it's disconnected when we leave in the autumn."

There was a moment's silence, then she said questioningly: "What
shall we do?"

"There's only one thing we can do," he returned; "go into the house and
light a fire."

But Christine hesitated.

"I don't think it will be wise to waste time doing that," she said, "if
you have to go back on foot to the Usshers'--"

"Go back on foot!" Riatt interrupted. "My dear Miss Fenimer, that
is quite impossible. It must be every inch of ten miles, it's
dark, a blizzard is blowing, I don't know the way, and we haven't
passed a house."

"But, but," said she, "suppose they don't rescue us to-night?"

"They probably will to-morrow," answered Riatt, and he walked past her
into the house.




CHAPTER II


Christine was glad to get out of the wind, but the damp chill of the
deserted house was not much of an improvement. Ahead of her in the
darkness, she could hear Riatt snapping electric switches which
produced nothing.

"Isn't the light connected?" he called.

"I don't know."

"Aren't there lamps in the house?"

"I don't know."

"Where could I find some candles?"

"What a tiresome man!" she thought; and for the third time she answered:
"I don't know."

A rather unappreciative grunt was his only reply, and then he called
back: "You'd better stay where you are, till I find something to
make a light."

She asked nothing better. She was oppressed with a sense of crisis. An
inner voice seemed to be saying, in parody of Charles Francis Adams's
historic words: "I need hardly point out to your ladyship that this means
marriage."

She had thought, lightly enough, that everything was settled the evening
before on the stairs when she had made up her mind that he would do. But
with all her belief in herself, she was not unaware even then that
unforeseen obstacles might arise. He might be secretly engaged for all
she knew to the contrary. But now she felt quite sure of him. With Fate
playing into her hands like this--with romance and adventure and the
possibilities of an uninterrupted tete-a-tete, she knew she could have
him if she wanted him. And the point was that she did. At least she
supposed she did. She felt as many a young man feels when he lands his
first job--triumphant, but conscious of lost freedoms.

Marriage, she knew, was the only possible solution of her problems. Her
life with her father was barely possible. As a matter of fact they were
but rarely together. The tiny apartment in New York did not attract
Fred Fenimer as a winter residence, when he had an opportunity of going
to Aiken or Florida or California at the expense of some more fortunate
friend. In summer it was much the same. "My dear," he would say to his
daughter, "I really can't afford to open the house this summer." And
Christine would coldly acquiesce, knowing that this statement only
meant that he had received an invitation that he preferred to a quiet
summer with her.

Sometimes throughout the whole season father and daughter would only
meet by chance on some unexpected visit, or coming into a harbor on
different yachts.

"Isn't that the _Sea-Mew's_ flag?" Christine would say languidly. "I
rather think my father is on board."

And then, perhaps, some amiable hostess in need of an extra man would
send the launch to the _Sea-Mew_ to bring Mr. Fenimer back to dine; and
he would come on board, very civil, very neat, very punctilious on
matters of yachting etiquette; and he and Christine having exchanged
greeting, would find that they had really nothing whatsoever to say to
each other.

Their only vital topic of conversation was money, and as this was always
disagreeable, both of them instinctively tried to avoid it. Whenever
Fenimer had money, he either speculated with it, or immediately spent it
on himself. So that he was always able to say with perfect truth,
whenever his daughter asked for it, that he had none. The result of this
was that she had easily drifted into the simple custom of running up
bills for whatever she needed, and allowing the tradesmen to fight it out
with her father.

Such a system does not tend to economy. Christine's idea of what was
necessary, derived from the extravagant friends who offered her the most
opportunity for amusing herself, enlarged year by year. Besides, she
asked herself, why should she deny herself, in order that her father
might lose more money in copper stocks?

Sometimes during one of their casual meetings, he would say to her under
his breath: "Good Heavens, girl, do you know, I've just had a bill of
almost three thousand dollars from your infernal dressmaker? How can I
stop your running up such bills?" And she would answer coolly: "By paying
them every year or so."

She knew--she had always known since she was a little girl--that from
this situation, only marriage could rescue her, and from the worse
situation that would follow her father's death; for she suspected that he
was deeply in debt. Not having been brought up in a sentimental school
she was prepared to do her share in arranging such a marriage. In the
world in which she lived, competition was severe. Already she had seen a
possible husband carried off under her nose by a little school-room mouse
who had had the aid of an efficient mother.

But now for the first time in her life, she saw that the game was in her
own hands. She had only to do the right thing--only perhaps to avoid
doing the wrong one--and her future was safe.

She heard Riatt calling and she followed him into the laundry, where he
had collected some candles: he was much engaged in lighting a fire in
the stove.

"But wouldn't the kitchen range be better?" she asked.

"No water turned on," he answered.

To her this answer was utterly unintelligible. What, she wondered, was
the connection between fire and water. But, rather characteristically,
she was disinclined to ask. She walked to the sink, however, and turned
the tap; a long husky cough came from it, but no water.

After this burst of energy she sank into a chair, amused to watch his
arrangements. Thoroughly idle people--and there is not much question
that Miss Fenimer was idle--learn a variety of methods for keeping other
people at work, and probably the most effective of these is flattery.
Christine may have been ignorant of the feminine arts of cooking and
fire-making; but of the super-feminine art of flattery she was a
thorough mistress.

Now as Riatt finished building his fire, and began to bring in buckets of
snow to supply their need of water, the gentle flow of her flattery
soothed him as the sound of a hidden brook in the leafy month of June.
Nor, strangely enough, did the fact that he dimly apprehended its purpose
in the least interfere with his enjoyment.

"If ever I'm thrown away on a desert island, I speak to be thrown away
with you," she said. "There isn't another man of my acquaintance who
could bring order out of these primitive conditions."

He laughed. "Well, you know," he said, "this isn't really what you'd call
primitive. I was snowed up in Alaska once."

"Alaska! You've been snowed up in Alaska?" she echoed in the tone of a
child who says: was it a _black_ bear?

Oh, yes, it lightened his toil. Nevertheless, he asked for her
assistance in trying to find something to eat. She knew no more about
the kitchen than he did, but she advanced toward a door and opened it
gingerly between her thumb and forefinger. It was the kitchen closet.
She opened a tin box.

"There is something here that looks like gravel," she called. He rushed
to her side. It was cereal. He found other supplies, too, a little salt,
sugar, coffee, and a jar of bacon.

"How clever of you to know what they all are," she murmured, and he felt
as if he had invented them out of thin air, like an Eastern magician.

He carried them back to the kitchen. "I wonder if you'd get the coffee
grinder," he said.

She hadn't the faintest idea what a coffee grinder looked like, but she
went away to find it, and came back presently with an object strange
enough to serve any purpose.

"Is this it?" she asked.

"That's a meat chopper," he answered, and then laughed. "You're not a
very good housekeeper, are you?"

"Of course not," she said. "Did you ever know an agreeable woman who was?
Good housekeepers are always bores, because they can never for an instant
get their minds off the most tiresome things in the world like bills, and
how the servants are behaving. All clever women are bad housekeepers, and
so they always find some one like you to take care of them."

He was putting the cereal to boil, and answered only after a second.
"Perhaps you'll think me old-fashioned, but I cannot help respecting the
art of housekeeping."

"Oh, so do I in its place," replied Miss Fenimer. "My maid does the whole
thing capitally. But let me give you a test. Think of the very best
housekeeper you ever met. Would you like to have her here instead of me?
You may be quite candid."

Riatt stopped and considered an instant with his head on one side. "She'd
make me awfully comfortable," he said.

Miss Fenimer nodded, as much as to say: yes, but even so--

"No," he said at length, as if the decision had been close. "No, after
all I would rather do the work and have you. But it isn't because you are
a poor housekeeper that I prefer you. It's because--"

Compliments upon her, charms were platitudes to Christine, and she cut
him short. "Yes, it is. It's because I'm so detached, and don't
interfere, and let you do things your own way, and think you so wonderful
to be able to do them at all. Now if I knew how to do them, too, I should
be criticizing and suggesting all the time, and you'd have no peace. You
like me for _being a poor housekeeper_."

He smiled. "On that ground I ought to like you very much then," he
answered.

"Perhaps you do," she said cheerfully. "Anyhow I'm sure you like me
better than that other girl you were thinking of--that good housekeeper.
Who is she?"

"I like her quite a lot."

"I see--you think she'd make a good wife."

"I think she'd make a good wife to any man who was fortunate enough--"

"Oh, what a dreadful way to talk of the poor girl!"

"On the contrary, I admire her extremely."

"I believe you are engaged to her."

"Not as much as you are to Hickson."

Christine laughed. "From the way you describe her," she said, "I believe
she'd make a perfect wife for Ned."

"Oh, she's much too good for him."

"Thank you. You seem to think I'll do nicely for him."

"Ah, but she's much better than you are."

"And yet you said you'd rather have me here than her."

He smiled. "I think," he said, and Christine rather waited for his
next words, "I think I shall go down and see if I can't get the
furnace going."

Nevertheless, she said to herself when he was gone, "I should not feel at
all easy about him, if I were the other girl."

She knew there was no prospect of their being rescued that night. When
the sleigh arrived at the Usshers', if it ever did arrive, its empty
shattered condition would suggest an accident. The Usshers were at that
moment probably searching for them in ditches, and hedges. The marks of
the sleigh would be quickly obliterated by the storm. No, she thought
comfortably, there was no escape from the fact that their situation was
compromising. The only question was how could the matter be most
tactfully called to his attention. At the moment he seemed happily
unaware that such things as the proprieties existed.

At this his head appeared at the head of the cellar stairs.

"Watch the cereal, please," he said, "and see that it doesn't burn."

"Like King Alfred?"

"Not too much like him, please, for that pitiful little dab of food is
about all we have to eat."

When he was gone Christine advanced toward the stove and looked at the
cereal--looked at it closely, but it seemed to her to be but little
benefited by her attention. Presently she discovered on a shelf beside
the laundry clock a pinkish purple paper novel, called: "The Crime of the
Season." Its cover depicted a man in a check suit and side-whiskers
looking on in astonishment at the removal of a drowned lady in full
evening dress from a very minute pond. Christine opened it, and was so
fortunate as to come full upon the crime. She became as completely
absorbed in it as the laundress had been before her.

She was recalled to the more sordid but less criminal surroundings of
real life by a strong pungent smell. She sniffed, and then her heart
suddenly sank as she realized that the cereal was burning. She recognized
a peculiarly disagreeable flavor about which she had often scolded the
cook, thinking such carelessness on the part of one of her employees to
be absolutely inexcusable.

She ran to the head of the cellar stairs. "Mr. Riatt!" she called.

He was now shaking down the furnace, and the noise completely drowned her
voice. "Oh, dear, what a noisy man he is," she thought and when he had
finished, she called again: "Mr. Riatt!"

This time he heard. "What is it?" he answered.

"Mr. Riatt, what shall I do? The cereal is burning terribly."

"I should think it was," he said. "I can smell it down here." He sprang
up the stairs and snatched the pot from the stove. "You must have stopped
stirring it," he said.

"Oh, I didn't stir it!"

"What did you do?"

"You didn't tell me to stir it."

"I certainly did."

"No, you said just to watch it."

Riatt looked at her. "Well," he said, "I've heard of glances cutting
like a knife, but never stirring like a spoon. If I were a really just
man," he went on, "I'd make you eat that burnt mess for your supper, but
I'm so absurdly indulgent that I'll share some of my bacon and biscuits
with you."

His tone as well as his words were irritating to one not used to
criticism in any form.

"I don't care for that sort of joke," she said.

"I wasn't aware of having made a joke."

"I mean your attitude as if I were a child that had been naughty."

"It wouldn't be so bad if you were a child."

"You consider me to blame because that wretched cereal chose to burn?"

"Emphatically I do."

"How perfectly preposterous," said Christine, and a sense of bitter
injustice seethed within her. "Why in the world should _I_ be expected to
know how to cook?"

"I'm a little too busy at the moment to explain it to you," Riatt
answered, "but I promise to take it up with you at a later date."

There was something that sounded almost like a threat in this. She turned
away, and walking to the window stood staring out into the darkness. He
was really quite a disagreeable young man, she thought. How true it was,
that you couldn't tell what people were like when everything was going
smoothly. She wondered if he would always be like that--trying to keep
one up to one's duty and making one feel stupid and ignorant about the
merest trifles.

"Well, this rich meal is ready," he said presently.

She turned around. The table was set--she couldn't help wondering
where he had found the kitchen knives and forks--the bacon was
sizzling, the tin of biscuits open, and the coffee bubbling and
gurgling in its glass retort.

She sat down and began to eat in silence, but as she did so, she studied
him furtively. She was used to many different kinds of masculine bad
temper; her father's irritability whenever anything affected his personal
comfort: and from other men all forms of jealousy and hurt feelings. But
this stern indifference to her as a human being was something a little
different. She decided on her method.

"Oh, dear," she said, "this meal couldn't be much drearier if we were
married, could it?"

"Except," he returned, unsmilingly, "that then it would be one of a
long series."

"Not as far as I'm concerned," she answered. "I should leave you on
account of your bad temper."

"If I hadn't first left you on account of--"

"Of burning the cereal?"

"Of being so infernally irresponsible about it."

"Oh, that's the trouble, is it?" she said. "That I did not seem to care?
Well, I assure you that I don't like burnt food any better than you do,
but I have some self-control. I wouldn't spoil a whole evening just
because--" A sudden inspiration came to her. Her voice failed her, and
she hid her face in her pocket handkerchief.

Riatt leant back in his chair and looked at her, looked at least at the
back of her long neck, and the twist of her golden hair and the
occasional heave of her shoulders.

The strange and the humiliating thing was that she had just as much
effect upon him when he quite obviously knew that she was insincere.

"Why," he said gently, "are you crying? Or perhaps I ought to say, why
are you pretending to cry?"

She paid no attention to the latter part of his question.

"You're so unkind," she said, careful not to overdo a sob. "You don't
seem to understand what a terrible situation this is for me."

"In what way is it terrible?"

"Don't you know that a story like this clings to a girl as long as she
lives? That among the people I know there will always be gossip--"

"You're not serious?"

She nodded, still behind her handkerchief, "Yes, I am. This will be
something I shall have to live down, as much as you would if you had
robbed a bank."

She now raised her head, and wiping her eyes hard enough to make them a
little red, she glanced at him.

Really she thought it would save a great deal of time and trouble, if he
could just see the thing clearly and ask her to marry him now.

But apparently his mind did not work so quickly.

"Who will repeat it?" he said. "Not the Usshers--"

"Nancy Almar won't let it pass. She'll have found the evening dull
without you, and she'll feel she has a right to compensation. And that
worm, Wickham; it will be his favorite anecdote for the rest of his life.
I was horrible to him last night at dinner."

"Sorry you were?"

"Not a bit. I'd do it again, but I may as well face the fact that he
won't be eager to conceal his own social triumphs for the sake of my good
name. Can't you hear him, 'Curious thing happened the other day--at my
friends the Usshers'. Know them? A lovely country place--'--"

"I'm awfully sorry," he said. "What a bore! Is there anything I
could do--"

"Well, there _is_ one thing."

He looked up quickly. If ever terror flashed in a man's eyes, she saw it
then in his. Her heart sank, but her mind worked none the less well.

"It's this," she went on smoothly. "There's a lodge, a sort of
tool-house, only about half a mile down the road. Couldn't you take a
lantern, couldn't you possibly spend the night there?"

"It isn't by any chance," he said, "that you're afraid of having me
here?"

"Oh, no, not you," she answered. "No, I should feel much safer with you
here than there." (If he went her case was ruined, and she was now
actually afraid perhaps he would go.) "I should be terrified in this
great place all by myself. Still, I think you ought to go. It's not so
very far. You go down the road a little way and then turn to the right
through the woods. I think you'll find it. The roof used to leak a
little, but I dare say you won't mind that. There isn't any fireplace,
but you could take lots of blankets--"

"I tell you what I'll do," he said. "No one will come to rescue us
to-night. I'll sleep here to-night, and to-morrow as soon as it's light,
I'll go to this cottage, and when they come, you can tell them any story
you please. Will that do?"

It did perfectly. "Oh, thank you," she said. "How kind you are! And you
do forgive me, don't you?"

"About the cereal? Oh, yes, on one condition."

"What is that?" She was still meltingly sweet.

"That you wash these dishes."

She felt inclined to box his ears. Had he seen through her all the time?

"I never washed a dish in my life," she observed thoughtfully.

"Have you ever done anything useful?"

She reflected, and after some thought she replied, not boastfully, but as
one who states an indisputable fact: "Never."

He folded his arms, leant against the wall and looked down upon her. "I
wish," he said, "if it isn't too much trouble that you would give me a
detailed account of one of your average days."

"You talk," said she, "as if you were studying the manners and customs
of savages."

"Let us say of an unknown tribe."

She leant back in her chair and stretched her arms over her head. "Well,
let me see," she said. "I wake up about nine or a little after if I
haven't been up all night, and I ring for my maid. And about eleven--"

"Don't skip, please. You ring for your maid. What does she do for you?"

Imagine any one's not knowing! Miss Fenimer marveled. "Why, she draws my
bath and puts out my things, and while I'm taking my bath, she
straightens the room and lights the fire, if it's cold, and brings in my
breakfast-tray and my letters. And by half-past ten, I'm finally dressed
if no one has come in to delay me, only some one always has. Last winter
my time was immensely occupied by two friends of mine who had both fallen
in love with the same man--one of them was married to him--and they used
to come every day and confide in me. You have no idea how amusing it was.
He behaved shockingly, but I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for
him. They were both such determined women. Finally I went to him, and
told him how it was I knew so much about his affairs, and said I thought
he ought to try and make up his mind which of them he really did care
for. And what do you think he said? That he had always been in love with
me." She laughed. "How absurdly things happen, don't they?"

"Good Heavens!" said Riatt.

"But even at the worst, I'm generally out by noon, and get a walk. I'm
rather dependent on exercise, and then I lunch with some one or other--"

"Men or women?"

"Either or both. And then after lunch I drive with some one, or go to see
pictures or hear music, and then I like to be at home by tea time,
because that's, of course, the hour every one counts on finding you; and
then there's dressing and going out to dinner, and very often something
afterwards."

"Good Lord," said Riatt again, and after a moment he added: "And does
that life amuse you?"

"No, but it doesn't bore me as much as doing things that are more
trouble."

"What sort of things?"

"Oh, being on committees that you don't really take any interest in." She
rather enjoyed his amazement.

"Now tell me one thing more," he said. "What would you do if you had to
earn your living?"

The true answer was that she would marry Edward Hickson, but, though
heretofore she had been fairly candid, she thought on this point a
little dissembling was permissible. "I should starve, I suppose," she
returned gaily.

"And suppose you fell in love with a poor man?"

She grew grave at once. "Oh, that's a dreadful thing to happen to one,"
she said. "I've had two friends who did that." She almost shuddered. "One
actually married him."

"And what happened to her?"

Miss Fenimer shook her head. "I don't know. She's living in the suburbs
somewhere. I haven't seen her for ages."

"And the other?"

"She was more practical. She married him to a rich widow ten years older
than he was. That provided for him, you see, at least. But it turned out
worse than the other case."

"How?"

"Why, he fell in love with this other woman--"

"His wife, you mean?"

"Yes. Imagine it! Men are so fickle."

"Do you know that you really shock me?"

"It's better to appreciate the way things are."

"It isn't the way things are among decent normal human beings."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, I imagine it is," she said, "only
they're not honest enough to admit it."

He continued to stare at her and, strangely enough, she had never seemed
to him more beautiful.

"And do you mean to tell me," he said, "that people who have the
standards that you describe will attach the slightest importance to an
innocent little adventure like this of ours?"

"Of course. They are the very people who will."

"Nonsense."

"Yes, because they make a point of always believing the worst, or at
least of pretending to."

"Why pretend?"

"Because it makes conversation so much more amusing. Sometimes," she
added thoughtfully, "I have a terrible suspicion that there really isn't
an atom of harm in any of them--that they all behave perfectly well, and
just excite themselves by talking as if they didn't."

"And you call that suspicion terrible?"

"Well, it makes it all seem a little flat. But then sometimes," she went
on brightly, "one does find out something absolutely hideous."

"See here," he said, "it's a crime for a girl of your age to talk like
this. It's a silly habit. I don't believe you're like that at heart."

"You talk," said she, "like Edward Hickson."

"In some communities that would be thought a fighting word," he returned.
"But you haven't yet answered my question. You've told me what your
friends have done; but what would you do yourself, if you fell in love
with a poor man?"

"In the first place, I never should. What makes a man attractive to me is
power, preeminence, being bowed down to. If I lived in a military
country, I'd love the greatest soldier; and if I lived in a savage
country, I'd love the strongest warrior; but here to-day, the only form
of power I see is money. It's what makes you able to have everything you
want, and that's a man's greatest charm."

"And it seems to me that the most tied-down creatures I ever saw are the
rich men I've met in the East."

She was honestly surprised. "Why, what is there they can't do?"
she asked.

He smiled. "They can't do anything that might endanger their property
rights," he answered, "and that seems to me to cut them off from most
forms of human endeavor. But no matter about that. You say you would not
be likely to fall in love with a poor man, but suppose you _did_. Perhaps
it has happened already?"

Miss Fenimer looked thoughtful. "I was trying to think," she said. "Yes,
there was a young artist two years ago that I was rather interested in.
He was very nice looking, and Nancy Almar kept telling me how much he was
in love with her."

"And that stimulated your interest?"

"Of course."

"Just for the sake of information," he said, "do you always want to take
away any man who is safely devoted to another woman?"

Christine seemed resolved to be accurate. "It depends," she answered,
"whether or not I have anything else to do, but of course the idea always
pops into one's head: I wonder if I couldn't make him like me best."

"And do you always find you can?"

"Oh, there's no rule about it; only as a newcomer one has the advantage
of novelty, and that's something."

"And what happened about this artist?"

Christine smiled reminiscently: "I found he wasn't really in love with
Nancy at all: he just wanted to paint her portrait."

"I should think he would have wanted to paint yours."

"He did and gave it to me as a present, and then he behaved very badly."
She sighed.

"What did he do?"

"Well," she hesitated. "He did not really want to give me the picture. He
thought he wanted to keep it himself. It was much the best thing he ever
did. I had to persuade him a good deal, and in persuading him, I may have
given him the impression that I cared about him more than I really did.
Anyhow, after I actually had the portrait hanging in my sitting-room, I
told him I thought it was better for us not to meet any more. Some men
would have been flattered to think I took them so seriously. But he was
furious, and one day when I was out he sent for the portrait and cut it
all to pieces. Wasn't that horrible? My pretty portrait!"

"Horrible!" said Riatt. "It seems to me the one spark of spirit the poor
young man showed."

She glanced at him under her lashes. "What would you have done?"

"I'd take you out to the plains for a year or so, and let you find out a
little about what life is like."

"I don't think it would be a success," she returned. "I don't profit by
discipline, I'm afraid. But," she stood up, "I'm perfectly open minded.
I'll make a beginning. I'll wash the dishes--just to please you."

He watched her go to the kitchen sink, and pour water from the steaming
kettle into a dish pan, saw her turn up her lace-frilled cuffs, and begin
with her long, slim, inefficient hands to take up the dirty plates.
Suddenly, much to his surprise, he found he couldn't bear it, couldn't
bear to see the lace fall down again and again, and her obvious shrinking
from the task.

He crossed the room and took the plates from her, and then with a clean
towel, he deliberately dried her hands, finger by finger, while she stood
by like a docile child, looking up at him in wonder.

"Don't you want to reform me?" she asked plaintively.

"No," he answered shortly.

"Why not?"

"Because you would be too dangerous," he returned. "Now you have every
charm except goodness. If you turned good and gentle you'd be supreme."

"I never thought goodness was a _charm_," she objected.

"And that's just what I hope you will never find out."

She laughed. "I don't believe there's much danger," she said. "I think I
shall go on being wicked and mercenary and selfish to the day of my
death, and probably getting everything I want."

"I hope not. I mean I hope you won't get what you want."

"Oh, why are you so unkind?"

"Because I shall want to use you as a terrible example to my
grandchildren."

"Do you think you will remember me as long as that?"

"I feel no doubt about it."

She smiled. "It seems rather hard that I have to come to a bad end just
to oblige your horrid little grandchildren," she said. "As a matter of
fact, I shall probably run them down in my motor as they go to work with
their little dinner-pails. And as I take their mangled forms to the
hospital, I'll murmur: 'Riatt, Riatt, I think I once knew a half-hearted
reformer of that name.'"

"You think you, too, will remember as long as that?"

"I have an excellent memory for trifles," she returned, and rose yawning.
"And now I think I'll go to bed--unless there's anything more you want to
know about our tribal customs. Are you going to write a nature book about
us: 'Head-hunting Among the Idle Rich'?"

"'The Cannibals of the Atlantic Coast' is the title," he answered as he
gave her a candle. "I'll leave your breakfast for you in the morning
before I go. And by the way, if some one comes to rescue you, don't go
off and leave me in the tool-house, will you?"

"Oh, I'm not really as bad as that."

He shook his head as if he didn't feel sure.

She went away well satisfied with her evening's work. There had been
something extremely flattering in his mingled horror and amusement at her
candid revelations. Holding up the candle she looked at her own image in
her mirror. "I wonder," she thought, "if that young man knows what a
dangerous frame of mind he's in?"

He had some suspicion, for as he dragged a mattress downstairs and laid
it before the kitchen fire, he kept repeating to himself, as if in a
last effort to rouse some moral enthusiasm: "What a band of cut-throats
they are!"

Christine woke the next morning to find the sun shining on an unbroken
sheet of snow. The storm had passed in the night. She dressed quickly and
went down to find the kitchen empty, and the track of footsteps in the
snow leading away in the direction of the tool-house. Her coffee was
bubbling and slices of bacon neatly laid in the frying pan were ready for
cooking. She thought he might have stayed and cooked it for her.

"No one will come as early as this," she thought, plaintively.

But hardly had she finished her simple meal, when the sound of sleigh
bells reached her ears, and running to the window she saw that Ussher and
Hickson in a two horse sleigh were driving down the slope.

A moment later they were in the kitchen. And after the minimum time had
elapsed during which all three talked at once recounting their own
individual anxieties, Ussher asked:

"Where's Max?"

Christine cast down her eyes with a sort of Paul-and-Virginia expression,
as she answered: "Oh, he is sleeping in the tool-house!"

"Well, I call that damned nonsense," said Ussher. "Let a man freeze to
death! Upon my word, Christine, I thought you had more sense." And he
strode away to the back door. "Yes, here are his tracks, poor fellow."
Ussher went out after him, and Hickson turned back.

"But _you_ think I was right, don't you, Edward?" said Christine, for she
had never failed to elicit commendation from Edward.

But now his brow was dark. "But, I say, Christine," he said, "there's one
thing I don't understand. These tracks of his footsteps in the snow."

"He didn't fly, Ned, even if he is an aviator."

"Yes, but it didn't stop snowing until four o'clock this morning."

How irritating the weather always is, Christine thought. For though she
was willing to use scandal as a weapon over Riatt, she was not sure that
she wished to put it into Hickson's hands.

She thought hard, and then said brightly:

"Oh, perhaps he came back for his breakfast before I was up."

Hickson shook his head: "They only lead one way," he said.

In the face of the tactlessness of hard facts, Christine decided to
create a diversion.

"I can't stand here gossiping about the conduct of an aviator," she said,
"when there's so much to be done. Look at all these dirty plates. What
ought to be done with them, Edward, dear?" she appealed to him as to a
fountain of wisdom, and he did not fail her.

"They ought to be washed," he said. "Give me a towel. I'll do it." And
he felt more than rewarded when, as she handed him a towel, her hand
touched his.

The many duties of which she had just spoken seemed suddenly to have
melted away, for she sat down quite idly and watched him.

"How well you do it, Edward," she said, not quite honestly, for she
compared his slow gestures very unfavorably with Riatt's deft hands.
"It's quite as if you had washed dishes all your life."

"Ah, Christine," he answered, looking at her sentimentally over a
coffee-cup, "I shouldn't ask anything better than to wash your dishes for
the rest of my life."

"Thank you, Edward, but I think I should ask something a good deal
better," she answered.

It was on this scene that Ussher and Riatt entered, and the eyes of the
latter twinkled.

"Engaged a kitchen-maid, I see," he said in a low tone to Christine.

"I think it's so good for people to do something useful now and then,
don't you?"

"A form of education that you offer almost every one who comes near you."

Hickson did not hear everything, but he caught the idea, and said
severely:

"I don't suppose any one would ask Miss Fenimer to wash dirty dishes."

Riatt laughed: "No one who had ever seen her try."

Ussher, who had been fuming in the background, now broke out:

"Upon my word, Christine, that tool-house was like a vault. It was
madness to ask any one to spend the night in such a place."

"Did you spend the night in the tool-house?" said Hickson with unusual
directness.

"There are worse places than the tool-house," said Riatt, as he and
Ussher hurried down to the cellar to put out the furnace fire.

Hickson turned to Christine. "The fellow didn't answer me," he said.

"Perhaps he thought it was none of your business, Edward, my dear,"
she answered.

"Everything connected with you is my business," he returned.

"Oh, Edward, what a dreary outlook for me!"

"Christine, answer me. Did or did not this man make advances to you?"

"Edward, he did."

"What happened?"

"He gave me a long, tiresome, moral lecture and, judging by you, my dear,
that is proof of affection."

"You're simply amusing yourself with me!"

"I'm not amusing myself very much, Edward, if that's any comfort."

"You drive me mad," he said and stamped away from her so hard, that
Ussher came up from the cellar.

"What's Edward doing?" he said.

"He says he's going mad," returned Christine, "but I thought he was
washing the dishes."

"There's no pleasing Edward," said Ussher. "He was in my room at six
o'clock this morning trying to get me to start a rescuing party (and I
needn't tell you, Christine, we none of us had much sleep last night),
and now that he is here and finds you safe, he seems to be just as
restless as ever." And Ussher returned to the cellar still grumbling.

"You know why I'm restless, Christine," Hickson said when they were
again alone.

Christine seemed to wonder. "The artistic temperament is usually given as
the explanation, but somehow, in your case, Edward--"

He came and stood directly in front of her.

"Christine, what did happen last night?"

Although not a muscle of Miss Fenimer's face moved, she knew very well
that this was a turning-point. She had the choice between killing the
scandal, or giving it such life and strength that nothing but her
marriage with Riatt would ever allay it. She knew that a few sensible
words would put Hickson straight, and Hickson would be a powerful ally.
On the other hand, if he came back plainly weighted with a terrible
doubt, no one would ask any further evidence. The question was, how much
would Riatt feel the responsibility of such a situation. It was a
fighting chance. Themistocles when he burnt his ships must have argued in
very much the same way, but probably not so rapidly.

"There are some things, Edward," Christine said in a low shaken voice,
"that I cannot discuss even with you."

Hickson turned away with a groan.




CHAPTER III


Christine had been right when she told Riatt that Nancy Almar would be
resentful after a dull evening at the Usshers'.

The evening, as far as Nancy was concerned, had been very dull indeed. To
be bored, in her creed, was a confession of complete failure; it
indicated the most contemptible inefficiency, since she designed the
whole fabric of her life with the unique object of keeping herself
amused. Nothing bored her more than to have the general attention
centered on some one else, as all that evening it had been focussed on
the absent ones. Not only did she miss the excitement of her contest with
Christine over the possession of Riatt, but she was positively wearied by
the Usshers' anxiety, by her brother's agony of jealousy and fear, and by
Wickham's continual effort to strike an original thought from the
dramatic quality of the situation.

She was finally reduced to playing piquet with Wickham, and though she
won a good deal of money from him--more, that is, than he could
comfortably afford to lose--she still counted the evening a failure, bad
in the present, and extremely menacing to the future. For with her
habitual mental candor, she admitted that by this time Christine, if not
actually frozen to death--which after all one could not exactly hope--had
probably won the game. The chances were that Riatt was captured.

"What is the matter, Ned?" she said to her brother, as he fidgeted about
the card-table, after a last futile expedition to the telephone. "Can't
you decide whether you'd rather the lady of your love were dead or
subjected for twenty-four hours to the fascinations of an irresistible
young man?"

"What an interesting question that raises," observed Wickham, examining
rather ruefully the three meager cards he had drawn. "A modern
Lady-or-the-Tiger idea. I am not of a jealous temperament and should
always prefer to see a woman happy with another man."

"And often do, I dare say," said Nancy. "I have a point of seven, and
fourteen aces."

"I must own I can't see Riatt's irresistible quality," said Hickson
irritably.

"Rich, nice-looking and has his wits about him," replied Mrs. Almar
succinctly.

"About as good-looking as a fence-rail."

"And they say women are envious!" exclaimed his sister.

"Are you a feminist, Mrs. Almar?" inquired the irrepressible Wickham.

"No, just a female, Mr. Wickham."

"I never thought a big bony nose made a man a beauty," grumbled Hickson.

"Ah, how much wisdom there is in that reply of yours, Mrs. Almar," said
Wickham. "Just a female. Your meaning is, if I interpret you rightly,
that you are content with the duties and charms which Nature has bestowed
upon your sex--"

"Until I can get something better," replied Nancy briskly, drawing the
score toward her and beginning to add it up. "My idea is to let the other
women do the fighting; if they win, I shall profit; if they lose, I'm no
worse off. I believe I've rubiconed you again, Mr. Wickham."

"Well, I don't understand women's taste, anyhow," said Hickson.

"You never spoke a truer word than that, my dear," said Nancy.
"Seventy-four fifty, I think that makes it, Mr. Wickham, subtracting the
dollar and a half you made on the first game. Oh, yes, a check will do
perfectly. I'm less likely to lose it."

"I never had a worse run of luck," observed Wickham with an attempt at
indifference.

Mrs. Almar stood up yawning. "Doubtless you are on the brink of a great
amorous triumph," she said languidly, and went off to bed.

Hickson did not attempt to sleep. He sat up for the remainder of the
night, in the hope that some sudden call might come, and at six o'clock
as Ussher had told Christine, he was ready for new efforts.

Rescued and rescuers reached the Usshers' house about half past ten the
following morning. Nancy was not yet downstairs. Wickham had not been
able to judge what was the correct note to strike in connection with the
whole incident, and so did not dare to sound any. The arrival was
comparatively simple. Mrs. Ussher received her beloved Christine with
open arms; Riatt went noncommittally upstairs to take a bath; Hickson had
decided, in spite of his depression of spirits, to try to make up a
little of last night's lost sleep, when he received a summons from his
sister. Her maid, a clever, sallow little Frenchwoman, came down with her
hands in her apron pockets to say that Madame should like to speak to
Monsieur at once.

He found Nancy still in bed; her little black head looking blacker than
usual against the lace of the pillows and the coverlet and of her own
bed-jacket. The only color about her was the yellow covered French
novel she laid down as he entered, and the one enormous ruby on her
fourth finger.

"And now, Ned, my dear," she said quite affectionately for her, "I hear
you have brought the wanderers safely home. Tell me all about it."

Hickson, to whom this summons had not come as a surprise, had resolved
that he would confide none of his anxieties to his sister but, alas, as
well might a pane of glass resolve to be opaque to a ray of sunlight.
Within ten minutes, Nancy knew not only all that he knew, but such
additional deductions as her sharper wits enabled her to draw.

"I see," she murmured, as he finished. "The only positive fact that we
have is that he did not leave the house until after five. How very
interesting!"

"Very terrible," said Hickson.

"Terrible," exclaimed Nancy, with the most genuine surprise. "Not at all.
From your point of view most encouraging. It can mean only one thing. The
young man very prudently ran away."

Edward was really stirred to anger. "Nancy," he said, "how do you dare,
even in fun--"

"Oh, my dear," answered his sister, as one wearied by all the folly in
the world, "how can I be of any use to you if you will not open your
eyes? He ran away. We don't know of course just from what; but we do know
this: Max Riatt is the best match that has yet presented himself, and
that Christine is the last girl in the world to ignore that simple fact.
Come, Ned, even if you do love her, you may as well admit the girl is not
a perfect fool. Fate, accident, or possibly her own clever manoeuvering
put the game into her hands. The question is, how did she play it? I know
what I'd have done, but I don't believe she would. I think she probably
tried to make him believe that she was hopelessly compromised in the eyes
of the world, and that there was no course open to an honorable man but
to ask her to marry him."

"I can't imagine Christine playing such a part."

"I tell you, you never do the poor girl justice. If she did that--and the
chances are she did--then his running away is most encouraging. It means,
in your own delightful language, that he did not fall for it--did not
want to run any risk of compromising her, if marriage was the
consequence."

"But, Nancy, Christine almost admitted that--that he tried to make
love to her."

"I can't see what that has to do with it, or what difference it makes,"
replied Mrs. Almar. "However, too much importance should not be attached
to such admissions. I have sometimes made them myself when the facts did
not bear me out. No woman likes to confess, especially to an old adorer
like you, that she has spent so many hours alone with a man and he has
not made love to her."

Hickson shook his head. "I'm not clever enough to be able to explain it,"
he said, "but I received the clearest impression from her that she had
been through some painful experience."

"Good," said Nancy. "Do you know the most painful experience she could
have been through?"

"No, what?"

"If he hadn't paid the slightest attention to her; and that, my dear
brother, is what I am inclined to think took place. No, the game is still
on; only now she'll have the Usshers to help her. This is no time for me
to lie in bed."

Ned looked at her doubtfully. "I thought I'd try and sleep a
little," he said.

"The best thing you can do," she returned. "Lucie! Lucie! Where are the
bells in this house! What privations one suffers for staying away from
home! Oh, yes, here it is," and she caught the atom of enamel and gold
dangling at the head of her bed, and rang it without ceasing until the
maid, who regarded her mistress with an admiration quite untinctured by
affection, appeared silently at the doorway.

In an astonishingly short space of time, she was dressed and downstairs,
presenting her usual sleek and polished appearance. Wickham was alone in
the drawing-room, and a suggestion that they should have another game of
piquet quickly drove him to the writing of some purely imaginary
business letters.

The coast was thus clear, but Riatt was still absent.

Nancy's methods were nothing if not direct. She rang the bell and when
the butler appeared she said:

"Where is Mr. Riatt?"

"In his room, madam."

"Dressing?"

"No, madam, he is dressed. Resting, I should say."

Nancy nodded her head once. "One moment," she said; and going to the
writing table she sat down and wrote quickly:

"I should like five minutes' conversation with you. Strange to say my
motive is altruistic--so altruistic that I feel I should sign myself 'Pro
Bono Publico,' instead of Nancy Almar. There is no one down here in the
drawing-room at the moment."

She put this in an envelope, sealed it with sealing wax (to the disgust
of the butler who found it hard enough, as it was, to keep up with all
that went on in the house) and told the man to send it at once to Mr.
Riatt's room.

She did not have long to wait. Riatt, with all the satisfaction in
his bearing of one who has just bathed, shaved and eaten, came down
to her at once.

"Good morning, Pro Bono Publico," he said, just glancing about to be sure
he was not overheard. "It was not necessary to put this interview on an


 


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