VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
tttftt 30I)tt00tt 
 
 Lawrenceville Stories 
 THE PRODIGIOUS HICKEY 
 THE VARMINT 
 
 THE TENNESSEE SHAD 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE 
 THE WOMAN GIVES 
 
i 
 
 < 
 
 That wild unleashed kiss burned her lips and cut 
 
 Across her soul like the sting of a lash. 
 
 FRONTISPIECE. See page 296. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 BY 
 
 OWEN JOHNSON 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 C. H. TAFFS 
 
 BOSTON 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 1918 
 
Copyright, 1918, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. 
 
Wig 
 
 MAivl 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 NEW YORK is a city always on the march. It 
 grows as no other city has grown, devouring its 
 past. The great capitals of the world London, 
 Paris, Rome present the phenomenon of a stone 
 dropped into a surface of water. The expanding 
 circles of population, widening and receding, leave a 
 central calm the calm of history, of traditions, of 
 cherished memories, the solidifying calm of monu- 
 mented generations. But New York is like an up 
 turned bottle, constantly charged with champagne 
 through its narrow neck, and this restless, increasing 
 pressure, driving from the Battery to Central Park, 
 has not only in one generation consumed its ancient 
 residential area and dispersed its once conservative 
 landmarks but created a new and feverish society. 
 
 As late as 1884, when Delmonico s, on Madison 
 Square, was the northern advance of public restau 
 rants, and Wallack s at Thirtieth Street, suffered from 
 its isolation in the theatrical district, New York, from 
 Washington Square to the Grand Central Station, 
 between the iron limits of the elevated railways, was 
 one unvexed stretch of brownstone fronts with high 
 descending steps, which gave to the vistas of its streets 
 the aspect of two brown-clad regiments marching into 
 each other. Each brownstone front was a home. A 
 few apartment houses (called at that time "flats") 
 had made a timid entry, but were associated in the 
 
vi FOREWORD 
 
 popular mind with that symbol of the slums, the tene 
 ment. The millionaires could be counted on the 
 fingers, and most of them were still waiting their 
 entrance into a rigid society that quoted Emerson, 
 served cold suppers for Sunday, packed the churches, 
 knew no divorce, and brought up its children at 
 home. Thirty years ago, a woman who appeared on 
 the streets rouged and powdered attracted as much 
 attention as a Zulu princess in native costume would 
 to-day. 
 
 Toward the end of this decade, the tide of emigra 
 tion surged in. The first skyscrapers began to mul 
 tiply. The front offices of the nation were transferred 
 to the lower city, and, from the Battery upward, three 
 great invading columns began their march. Green 
 wich Village was overrun, Stuyvesant Square isolated, 
 Washington Square invested, and Fifth Avenue began 
 to fall. New York society became a society in retreat, 
 driven toward the park, while historic homes, if they 
 were not leveled to permit the sudden rise of citadels 
 of industry, passed down the inevitable ladder of 
 degradation from boarding house to furnished 
 rooms, to modified flats, their lowest stories finally 
 converted into laundries, groceries, and cellars for 
 small produce. 
 
 There is something grandiose in this spectacle of a 
 city constantly on the march, a spectacle unique in his 
 tory. In the center, the main attack the heavy 
 battalions of industry leveling great areas with its 
 puissant artillery, fortifying each acre conquered with 
 immense redoubts, strikes straight through the heart 
 of a crumbling resistance toward its main objective, 
 the Park, leaving to its covering battalions the task of 
 subjugating those last strongholds of resistance where 
 
FOREWORD vii 
 
 the enemy clings to its homes in Washington Square 
 and embattled Murray Hill. 
 
 On the West Side, the spreading invasion has been 
 without discipline or directing force that horde of 
 guerillas, free-booters, and scavengers, which rolls up 
 in the wake of an invasion; a vast, contaminating, 
 pestilential torrent, engulfing the last vestiges of the 
 old Dutch and Colonial life with the greed of a tidal 
 wave. The West Side contains the true slums of the 
 city slums of little sweatshops and ramshackle fac 
 tories, slums of stagnant existences where all filth and 
 all degradation, all bleakness and all suffocation, all 
 races, intermingle in the mediocrity of arrested devel 
 opment. It is a region without clear racial definition, 
 except in the upper reaches, where the negro has estab 
 lished himself like a spreading shadow cast by the 
 advancing line of skyscrapers. If this western inva 
 sion seems at first formless and without intent, it still 
 flows upward, a soiling barrier from which society 
 recoils as from a pest. 
 
 On the East Side, like the cohorts of imperial Rome, 
 an immense army of immigration marches toward 
 the future, nation upon nation treading each other 
 down. What spectacle in history is comparable to 
 this sublime procession of races up the East Side, heal 
 ing in a generation the ills and outrages of old in 
 justices as flowing water purifies itself, its face to the 
 future, marching toward destiny for its children ? 
 
 Brawling, quick-witted, gay, the Irish landed first. 
 They formed their clans, fighting for the love of com 
 bat, hard drinkers, loyal friends, predestined politi 
 cians, establishing themselves in the old Bowery and 
 the now forgotten Five Points, until forced upward 
 by a new wave of refugees from Prussian militarism. 
 
viii FOREWORD 
 
 The great disciplined solidarity of Germany arrived, 
 bringing their theaters, their restaurants, their news 
 papers, their Turnvereins, their choral societies 
 organizers and architects of industry. The Italian 
 immigration and the Russian-Hebrew inflow followed, 
 each in defined waves, washing its precursor further 
 up the island and further up the social scale, founding, 
 in the tenacity of the national instinct, " Little Italy " 
 and the great Yiddish Ghetto. Other waves have 
 rolled in. The first colonies of Italians and Hebrews, 
 always driven upward, have seized possession of the 
 outskirts of the Bronx and overflowed across rapidly 
 multiplying bridges into Williamsburg and into 
 Queens, while below, on the lower East Side, the 
 swarming immigrants still land by the hundreds of 
 thousands, their fortunes on their backs, occupying 
 the lately relinquished tenements in that great cellar 
 to opportunity which lies below Grand Street. This 
 stupendous march of four nations completes the in 
 vestiture of old New York by piercing its left flank, 
 cutting it off from the river, and crowding it more 
 and more against the eastern boundaries of the park. 
 What has happened? Just as the discovery of gun 
 powder destroyed the social state of feudalism, and 
 the invention of the printing press, by the democratic 
 dissemination of knowledge, made possible Cromwell 
 and the French Revolution, so the configuration of 
 New York, which has made the skyscraper a necessity, 
 has determined an unrelenting conflict between the 
 Past and the Present, a war visualized to the minutest 
 military comparison which goes on day by day before 
 our eyes. Below this material destruction and recon 
 struction, a profound change has been wrought in the 
 soul of the society in flight. In 1890, New York was 
 
FOREWORD ix 
 
 a city of homes ; to-day, it is a wilderness of transient 
 hotels. 
 
 When man had achieved the right to live and had 
 conquered political liberty, there still remained ahead 
 that ultimate human goal toward which all his efforts 
 throughout history have tended, in search of which 
 he has tried every form of government and attempted 
 every code of morality the pursuit of happiness, 
 the final realization of which lies in ethical and spirit 
 ual domains. It is his final judgment on society, by 
 which it stands or falls, for which it has created its 
 forms and established its traditions. Man does not 
 seek to live under a republic, a liberal kingdom, or a 
 beneficent despotism. Instinctively he seeks his in 
 dividual happiness, but as his soul is not the soul of 
 an ox, to acquire complete happiness he must have the 
 consciousness of freedom to think, to speak, and to 
 act. The conquests of these rights (which we call 
 history) are visible and material. There remains the 
 future of human speculation, that pursuit of happiness 
 which is the inner life of the man himself, in quest 
 of which he has created the symbol of the home and 
 attempted to perfect the convention of marriage. 
 
 The most terrifying emotion which he can feel is 
 the sense of detachment which oppresses him when he 
 finds himself unrelated to the progress of the multi 
 tude, either by marriage, by the ties of a home, or by 
 intimate association with his fellows. Man is not a 
 solitary creature. His instinct is to associate himself 
 with others in the partnership of his joys and his sor 
 rows. His sanity and morality depend on some re 
 sponsibility toward others. To him, home is not 
 merely four walls and a roof. It is a symbol. To 
 
x FOREWORD 
 
 supply the need of his imagination, it must have the 
 permanence of a continuing tradition. The two pro- 
 foundest instincts of which he is capable, which direct 
 him in all his course through life, are the instincts of 
 acquisition and possession. To acquire, to add, is to 
 progress. To possess a home is to give permanence 
 to this progress. For there is a certain immortality 
 about property which extends its consoling significance 
 to its possessor. But to have that sentiment of per 
 manence which is attached to the symbol of the home, 
 he must have his feet planted in the soil. Man does 
 not possess one hundred cubic feet of air sixty feet 
 above the ground. 
 
 Three additional developments in New York have 
 been insidiously corrupting the old institution of the 
 home the telephone, which has leveled its walls; 
 the apartment hotel, which has torn it from the soil, 
 and the automobile, which has finally transferred it 
 to breathless wheels. The modern wife finds the pri 
 vacy of her bedroom invaded by a swarm of acquaint 
 ances who call her up at all moments of the day and 
 night, interrupt her conversations, disturb her sleep, 
 summon her from her table. Her automobile rushes 
 her forty miles away for dinner in a popular restaurant, 
 and she changes her apartment every three years with 
 out a memory or a regret. 
 
 A new and restless cosmopolitan society has formed, 
 always in motion, without relation to the past or at 
 tachment to the present, without definite object ahead 
 except the exigencies of pleasure. In this society, 
 maternity consists in delegating to governesses and 
 boarding schools the education of the children, while 
 matrimony is little more than a legalized method of 
 circulating in society in couples. 
 
FOREWORD xi 
 
 When one realizes in the shifting, tireless city of 
 New York the disappearance of the old-fashioned 
 home, the slight authority of the parent generation, 
 the confusion of social standards, the relaxing of re 
 ligious discipline, one can see that each marriage is to 
 its participants a fact apart, wherein two bewildered 
 mortals are suddenly compelled to establish for them 
 selves, in their search for happiness and mutual re 
 spect, some code of standards, responsibilities, and 
 concessions, as though they were themselves creating 
 the institution of marriage. 
 
 The one patent social fact to-day is man s injustice 
 to woman in the sentimentalization of her education. 
 As a child, she is taught an excessive value of her own 
 preciousness. As a debutante, she is displayed with 
 barbaric luxury in the marts of society, and the 
 crowded years of servitude to pleasure leave her tired, 
 disillusioned, and restless. She marries, and the ac 
 quired thirst for sensations tends naturally, after the 
 accident of motherhood, to send her back to the free 
 dom from responsibilities and the need of admiration 
 which was her life as a young girl. In place of a 
 consecrating ideal of duty, which alone can satisfy 
 her spiritual longing for happiness, she is taught at 
 every step to conceive of her privileged existence as 
 the pursuit of pleasure. 
 
 In this parvenu society (which finds its reflections in 
 certain social sets throughout the country), the women 
 have created a society of sensations never deep or last 
 ing sensations which must rapidly succeed one an 
 other and be constantly intensified. Man to them is a 
 multiple animal ; the flattery of the crowd replaces the 
 adoration of the individual. They are capable neither 
 of great passions nor great wickedness, and therefore 
 
xii FOREWORD 
 
 easily convince themselves that, despite luxury and 
 pleasure, they are the most virtuous of wives. It is a 
 transitory society, for it is a society profoundly dis 
 contented and tragically inconsequential, which will 
 disappear as humanity continues to move restlessly 
 onward, reestablishing its discipline and harking back 
 to old landmarks in its eternal pursuit of happiness. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 That wild, unleashed kiss burned her lips and cut 
 across her soul like the sting of a lash Frontispiece 
 
 His glance fell on her neglige e, and he stopped PAGE 
 short 156 
 
 " You will join me later with the trunks," said 
 her mistress slowly 329 
 
PART I 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES; 
 
 PART I 
 
 IT lacked a few minutes to seven by the gilded clock 
 in the brilliant yellow salon of the Forresters apart 
 ment on the tenth floor of one of those great stone 
 bastions which a society in retreat has erected to stem 
 the march of the invader. At the first stroke of the 
 hour, Gregory, who had been waiting, entered the red 
 bedroom of his master, and closed the heavy windows, 
 through which, on the crisp September sunshine, the 
 whistled cries of the awakening city were already 
 penetrating. By the time he had arranged the massive 
 lace curtains of the third window, with its slaten sweep 
 of chimneyed roofs and the flowing green of Central 
 Park, Mr. Forrester, who had sprung from his bed at 
 the first knock, was already in his riding breeches and 
 drawing on his boots. 
 
 "Well, Gregory, what s the weather?" he cried, 
 with the vigor of a man of strong health who wakes 
 with alacrity to the enthusiasms of the day. 
 
 " It s a lovely morning, sir." 
 
 " First rate ! Tell Morley Mrs. Forrester is not to 
 be disturbed unless she rings." 
 
 " Not to be disturbed yes, sir," said Gregory, 
 with the impassiveness of forty years of unemotional 
 service. 
 
4 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 His recent marriage had changed little in the routine 
 of Andrew Fon ester s day. The instinct toward 
 order which dominated his life had made each step 
 so rpeo- .anieal that Gregory himself had acquired the 
 precision of an automaton. He knew to the second 
 the precise moment when, shaved and refreshed, the 
 master would bolt from the tiled bathroom ready for 
 the tendered shirt and cravat, and when, capped and 
 clothed, he had seen him swallowed up in the volu 
 minous green ulster and conducted him to the waiting 
 elevator, he could have glanced at his watch and pro 
 nounced with certitude, " Twenty-two after the hour." 
 
 But on the present morning, to his growing aston 
 ishment, when he had offered the gray woolen riding 
 shirt, instead of the customary snap and celerity, he 
 perceived a look of abstraction on the still young face 
 of his master a face which, despite its first impres 
 sion of agreeable ugliness, had a contagious radiance 
 of success, confidence, and decision. Instead of ex 
 tending his hand for the stock which Gregory held 
 tenderly poised, Mr. Forrester wandered over to the 
 window and stood staring out on the golden city, 
 hands pocketed, whistling windily the soldiers chorus 
 from " Faust." He came back frowning, his glance 
 in the distance, and extended his arms for his jacket. 
 
 " Beg pardon, sir your stock." 
 
 "What? Oh, yes." 
 
 He took the stock, tied it hastily, and, slipping into 
 his riding coat, started for the door. 
 
 " Beg pardon, sir ; you ve forgotten your watch 
 and wallet." 
 
 " Hullo, so I have that s queer ! " 
 
 " It is queer," said Gregory to himself, when Mr. 
 Forrester had disappeared by the elevator. " Some- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 5 
 
 thing is on his mind, that s flat." And returning to 
 the servants 7 dining room, where Morley, the lady s 
 maid, was breakfasting luxuriously on a grapefruit 
 with the addition of a pot of cream which Quito, the 
 Japanese cook, had offered in respectful admiration, 
 he inquired, 
 
 " Bit of a tiff last night between the master and the 
 missis? " 
 
 " Bit of a what ? " said Morley, with a frigid stare, 
 for she resented the condescension of his attitude. 
 
 " Bit of a tiff." 
 
 " Go on now," said Morley, shrugging her shoul 
 ders; "can t you see beyond your old polished nose? 
 Why, they are like turtle doves together, stupid." 
 
 " The missis is not to be waked," said Gregory, 
 surveying the evidences of petty peculations on the 
 table. " Master s orders." 
 
 " As though she intended to get up at such an hour, 
 the pretty dear ! " said Morley, shrugging her shoul 
 ders, with instinctive hostility toward the husband s 
 pretensions. 
 
 " It s a pity she does n t. She might find some 
 thing to interest her if she would take the pains to 
 look," said the butler, with a scornful glance. " Pity 
 you would n t breakfast on champagne and humming 
 birds wings ! " 
 
 He was of the old order and, if he availed himself 
 of an occasional glass or a cigar, he never stole beyond 
 the traditions of his position, while the extravagance, 
 the disorder, and the waste which reigned in the 
 kitchen profoundly shocked his sense of loyalty 
 toward the master, whom, as a bachelor, he had pro 
 tected from other transgressors. 
 
 Meanwhile Forrester, out in the open, swinging 
 
6 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 powerfully toward his riding club through the sleepy 
 mobilization of the army of labor, which, soiled, and 
 dusty, crowding surface cars, disgorging from the 
 subway, streamed toward the river, the docks, the 
 excavations, and the waiting furnaces, was saying to 
 himself, 
 
 "Shall I take it or not?" 
 
 He had placed the question fifty times since yes 
 terday, and had come no nearer to an answer. This, 
 in itself, was unusual, for he prided himself on his 
 power of instant decision. There was no hesitancy in 
 his soaring nature, and he tolerated none in his sub 
 ordinates of the Cambridge Structural Steel Works, 
 of which, at the age of thirty-five, he was already the 
 general manager. 
 
 " A year ago, I would have jumped at the chance," 
 he said to himself in surprise a year ago he had had 
 no thought of marriage. " It s big! " 
 
 He entered the riding club, still absorbed in his per 
 plexity. From the urchin in buttons to the stable boy 
 who held his horse, everyone greeted him with extra 
 eagerness. He was a favorite with all the servants, 
 not only for the sense of health and good humor 
 which he communicated but for an exact discipline, 
 tempered with a prodigal generosity. He was well 
 served, and served with respect. He had the best 
 horse, the finest equipment, and the most expert 
 groom. Wildfire, a coal-black Kentucky thorough 
 bred, was capering in the sawdust. Forrester exam 
 ined the bit with care, ordered the girth tightened, 
 and, swinging into the saddle, went clattering into the 
 park, where the horse broke into a headlong gallop. 
 The mounted policeman smiled tolerantly at his law 
 less passage, flattered to be distinguished by name by 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 7 
 
 one who had the intimacy of such rulers of destiny 
 as magistrates and commissioners. 
 
 The sun was yet young in the sky, the air delicious, 
 and a little dew hung in the dark-green shadows. 
 Forrester snatched off his cap and stuffed it in his 
 pocket and, reveling in the cut of the wind, which 
 made his body tingle with a consciousness of his youth 
 and strength, drove Wildfire into a frenzied rush. 
 Though he rode without the elegance of the classic 
 style he used a Mexican saddle with box stirrups in 
 loyalty to early training on the Western plains he 
 had that spirit of mastery which a horse instantly 
 recognizes, and held his seat where many a more 
 graceful rider might have wavered. 
 
 He rode at life as though he were riding at a high 
 hurdle. Each salient feature seemed fashioned by 
 the action of tempestuous elements, like the sharpened 
 figurehead of a ship worked by wind and wave the 
 keen, vulturelike nose under the open flight of the 
 eyebrows, the lean, starting cheek bones, the worn 
 maxillary muscles of the jaw, the set, crooked tenacity 
 of the lips, while the black abundant hair, slightly 
 shot with silver, rippled back from the thin forehead, 
 past the large ears, which adhered to the skull as 
 though blown against it by the rapidity of his progress 
 through life. The first impression was of gauntness, 
 of primitive force, of crude vitality, but, with this, 
 there was such naturalness, such boyish zest in the 
 lighted gray of his glance, such resonant friendliness 
 in the deep bass of his voice, such a swing of success 
 and power in his bearing that this overflowing quality 
 of good humor, confidence, and decision exerted a 
 distinct physical exhilaration upon all persons with 
 whom he came in contact. At the upper end of the 
 
8 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 reservoir, he reined in abruptly for a bantering dis 
 cussion of the approaching baseball championship 
 with Corcoran, the officer on duty, and bolted away 
 on his return trip. 
 
 " I 11 put it over until to-morrow/ he said, thinking 
 of the momentous decision he would be called upon 
 to make. 
 
 Other problems were clamoring for immediate ad 
 justment. This violent racing half hour was indeed 
 not a relaxation but the beginning of his working 
 day. The sensation of speed gave him the sensation 
 of power. Under this stimulus, his mind experienced 
 an extraordinary clarity. He was of that new electric 
 business temperament, which is given to the masters 
 of New York, who ride the shock and fury of its 
 combat as the aeroplane soars above the shock and 
 fury of the storm a type which has a marked 
 resemblance to those abnormal masters of the air, 
 whose nerves, far from breaking under the shriek 
 and roar of motors, the giddy rise or sickening drop 
 on treacherous air currents, or faltering at the in 
 human spectacle of swimming earth and unstable 
 skies, derive, on the contrary, an intense emotion of 
 freedom and power, a superhuman delight in com 
 bat, a joy in returning to life, where normal imag 
 inations would collapse. The clamor and shock of the 
 city, the shattering iron beating against the ear of 
 train, trolley, truck, and steam riveter, of all the hid 
 eous uplifted scream of the day, which fatigues the 
 ears of the New Yorker and leaves its straining lines 
 across his eyes and lips, was to Forrester a nervous, 
 combustible chemistry. It awoke every mental fac 
 ulty. It surrounded his intellect with a protecting 
 wall of noise and permitted it a steady concentration. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 9 
 
 " Peters is not the man for the operating depart 
 ment," he said to himself rapidly. " Ideas but no 
 order. No economy. Fromme s my man. The over 
 head expenses can be cut another hundred thousand. 
 By the way, Dickson can dispense with a third stenog 
 rapher," he added, his mind leaping from big to trivial 
 details. " I must shave down my bid on that Argen 
 tine contract. Wonder if Argules is straight. I must 
 have that contract." 
 
 The great neglected field of South America stirred 
 his imagination, and he sought a means of making 
 sure of the contract without offense to his conscience, 
 which was built on the letter of the law. At the same 
 time, he did not intend to overlook the possibility of 
 another competitor acting with less scruple. He de 
 cided to employ that classic method of conversion, by 
 which great industries assimilate the fearless Federal 
 inquisitor. He decided to digest Argules. 
 
 " I need a representative for that field, a very com 
 fortable commission he can make of it, too," he said, 
 smiling. Instead of handling Argules at this end, 
 which was repugnant to him, it should be a straight 
 transaction a retaining-fee and a liberal commis 
 sion. What was done at the other end was not his 
 affair. By the time he had returned to the club, he 
 had passed upon a dozen bids which he would be 
 called upon to offer or accept, appropriated twenty- 
 five thousand dollars for a test of a new Swedish 
 separating process, and planned a personal visit to the 
 Pennsylvania foundries, where a knotty question with 
 a labor union had to be met with tact. 
 
 Back in his apartment, he passed under the cold 
 sting of the shower and, glowing from a vigorous 
 friction, dressed rapidly while giving his orders for 
 the day. 
 
io VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 * The blue suit, Gregory. Pack up my things for 
 over Sunday. Tell Bingham the car at four. Better 
 slip in my riding togs; I might want them." As this 
 visit, the first of his married life, represented to him a 
 social departure, he went to his bureau and carefully 
 selected a handful of cravats in dark, solid colors. 
 " A couple of silk shirts and, instead of my riding 
 clothes, put in my golf suit and a brown cutaway 
 that ought to do." He went into the hall and returned 
 to add, " And, Gregory, a pair of pumps, also." 
 
 This week-end invitation to the Dellabarres, at Chil- 
 ton, was an event of such troubling importance that 
 he felt the need of superior counsel. He passed 
 into the great tiled bathroom which separated his 
 room from his young wife s, and, tiptoeing to the 
 door, listened hopefully. He had given orders that 
 she should not be wakened and yet he had hoped 
 that just this one morning she might be up, radiant 
 and girlish in her pink panne-velvet morning gown, 
 giving a glow of fragility and gentleness to the break 
 fast table, to which for such long years he had come 
 with the feeling of a lunch counter. He listened, and 
 then, concealing his disappointment, went into the 
 green dining room, where his eggs, which had boiled 
 three and a half minutes, were waiting at his place, 
 with three newspapers and the morning mail. He 
 deviated again from his military schedule and, ap 
 proaching the white marble fireplace, in which a gas 
 fire was licking imitation logs, turned to survey with a 
 feeling of still new possession the heavy rococo walnut 
 furnishings, the massive candelabra, the stout silver 
 service, and the flagrant red-and-white sporting prints 
 an assemblage which pleased him enormously with 
 its substantial elegance. Standing thus, confident, sue- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES u 
 
 cessful, and alone, before an imitation hearth in an 
 imitation home, he might have served as a symbol of 
 modern individualism. 
 
 But Forrester was conscious of no lack. A decade 
 of boarding houses, hotels, and bachelor lodgings had 
 left him with the feeling that home was a sort of 
 inner office. Not that, in the background of his imag 
 ination, he did not have a visualization of another 
 home, set under the shelter of whispering trees, with 
 memories of other hands on olden sofas and reveries 
 in the depths of charred fireplaces. Only, this was 
 for the future. For the present, he wished to enjoy, 
 and to enjoy in the richness of his youth. He had the 
 need of the, self-made man to visualize his success, of 
 being seen, of parading the beauty and charm of the 
 young wife, whom he had chosen, as he chose his chef, 
 his chauffeur, and his tailor, with the instinct to 
 achieve the rarest. 
 
 " Decidedly I shall refuse. I have enough," he said 
 to himself suddenly. " In five years, I should be a 
 millionaire but what five years ! " 
 
 The offer which he had all at once determined to re 
 fuse was this: The day before, no less a personage 
 than T. P. Gunther himself, organizer of colossal en 
 terprises, one of the three despots of the Street, in 
 whose hands lay tfye gift of a hundred fortunes, had 
 personally offered him the presidency of the Osaba 
 Refining and Smelting a vast property recently con 
 solidated by his interests in the mining districts of 
 Arizona and northern Mexico. The offer had been 
 peculiarly tempting in financial opportunity, but the 
 condition was attached that he should not relinquish 
 office before five years. 
 
 " No ; I have enough/ he repeated, with a smile. 
 
12 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 But this extraordinary and un-American expression 
 in a country where the rich grow progressively 
 poorer was not as limiting as it appeared. In his 
 contentment, he embraced not only his present situa 
 tion but that future success which he could count 
 upon as his reorganization of the Cambridge Struc 
 tural Steel made itself felt. 
 
 He established himself at the table for that triple 
 process of breakfasting, to which he ordinarily allotted 
 ten minutes of his schedule, and which consisted in 
 devouring three or four courses while he digested the 
 news of the day in the headlines of two papers propped 
 up before him and sorted his correspondence. From 
 his mail, he carefully selected a dozen bills for Miss 
 Burroughs, the social secretary he had generously 
 provided for his wife, who, at the end of the month, 
 would give him the total required. 
 
 He finished breakfast, glanced voraciously through 
 a third paper, lit his morning cigar, and, as though 
 staggered by the grandeur of the renunciation, brought 
 forth pencil and paper in the need of visualizing his 
 situation. He drew a neat dividing line, jotting down 
 in parallel columns the figures of the decision he in 
 tended to make. 
 
 " Let s see how we stand : I have forty thousand 
 in good securities at four and a half per cent plus one 
 thousand shares of Cambridge, market value fifty-five 
 thousand will go to par in three years. Adding my 
 salary of twenty-five thousand, which certainly will 
 be increased on the publication of my year s report, I 
 can count on a capital of at least one hundred and fifty 
 thousand within three years." He contemplated the 
 figures, which, to his imagination, crowned twenty 
 years of struggle as with a monument and, to his 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 13 
 
 vision of a bachelor, they seemed grandiose. " Now 
 for the other side. Salary fifty thousand, bonus 
 twenty thousand shares of the new common stock, put 
 out at ten dollars a share/ He stopped and, before 
 his eyes, the figures expanded with the vision of the 
 future. He multiplied them by twenty, by thirty, and 
 by fifty, inscribing, in glowing progression, the sums 
 which represented the mounting fortune his efforts 
 could accomplish. "Yes; in five years I d be a 
 millionaire. But those five years that s just the 
 point!" 
 
 He rose and entered the brilliant yellow salon for 
 the morning survey of what he had himself assembled 
 for the coming of his bride. It was heavy; it was 
 massive, and it was gorgeous. A dozen eras crowded 
 together, Louis XVI, Empire, Colonial, and Heppel- 
 white, amid a profusion of Japanese prints, modern 
 porcelains, and imitation flowers. In this herding of 
 bric-a-brac, his eye detected a vacant corner which 
 offended it, and he remembered a bronze on a marble 
 pedestal which would fill in exactly. 
 
 " I 11 have it sent up as a surprise to the missis," he 
 said, delighted. He loved the room with the whole 
 some joy of possession. " Well, Andrew B. Forrester, 
 I guess we ve settled that," he said, but a little doubt 
 fully. " Years are more precious than money, and 
 I ve earned the right to take it easy. In four or five 
 years, when she s had a chance to play, we can buy 
 a country place and settle down. Children yes; I 
 suppose that will be all right then. There ought to 
 be some one to inherit what I have to leave. I ve 
 got enough as it is I m satisfied. That s settled. 
 Everything s settled." 
 
 He thought of his young wife with a sudden feel- 
 
14 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 ing of tenderness, pride, and gratitude. His pride 
 in her possession was the pride of his whole self- 
 made existence in achieving the impossible, and his 
 gratitude was deepest of all that, at the critical period 
 of his life when emerging from the struggle for 
 power, at that dangerous age when the self-made man, 
 in this first leisure, experiences the temptation of a 
 boy of twenty, she had brought to him contentment, 
 order, and security when other men found themselves 
 distracted and torn by a life of dissipation. It is at 
 this point where, in his simple faith, he saw an end, 
 that the human drama which awaits the shock of oppo 
 site sexes, the action and reaction of one mind on 
 another, the conflict of wills, of instincts, and of tem 
 peraments, was preparing its beginning. 
 
II 
 
 WELL after nine o clock, little Mrs. Forrester 
 awoke with a start, as she had done each morn 
 ing of the two weeks in her new surroundings, with a 
 feeling of being lost in some strange land. For a 
 moment, still caught in a passing dream, it seemed 
 to her that she was turning in the perfumed crush of 
 one of the brilliant balls which had crowded her last 
 year s appearance in society. 
 
 " I must be dreaming," she said to herself, with an 
 effort. " That can t be. I know very well that I am 
 in my little blue room and old Hannah is coming in 
 with the coffee and the roses. That s it. I m 
 waking up." 
 
 Smiling to herself, she succeeded in half opening 
 her eyes. But instead of the mahogany footboards 
 and the casement window with red ramblers nodding 
 across the gray thread of the far-off Hudson, she be 
 held something draped and lacy above her head, and 
 then, through the diluted shadows of the Louis XVI 
 bedroom, a shining dressing table weighted down with 
 silver, a white-and-gold chaise longue, while from a 
 corner, hazily giving back her own image in the cano 
 pied paneled bed, a cheval glass grew from the floor 
 to the ceiling of the soft pink room. She had again 
 an acute feeling of strangeness. But all at once she 
 began to laugh. 
 
 " Oh, yes I m married, and I must get up in 
 time to breakfast with Andrew." At this moment, 
 
16 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 her glance encountered the accusing face of a jeweled 
 clock. " Half -past nine ! Oh dear, I never seem to 
 get up, and I ought to it s it s my duty. I must 
 to-morrow. Poor dear boy, it s so lonely! If I 
 telephoned him " A little hand groped for the 
 receiver and stopped. " No, no too sentimental, 
 Amy! He won t say anything, but he won t like it. 
 That horrid business ! Oh, dear, I must grow up ! " 
 
 To grow up and to get up were two ideas hopelessly 
 entangled in her foggy mind. She rang for her maid 
 and went off into dreams, wherein were strangely 
 mingled rapid nights of social pleasures and memo 
 ries of the sheltered home of her childhood, where 
 everything had revolved about her, where her father, 
 Judge Starling, and her uncle Tom carried her round 
 on their shoulders as though determined that she 
 should never grow up. She was not yet twenty-one. 
 She had made her debut in society the year before, 
 and her abrupt marriage to Andrew Forrester the 
 summer after a frantic season, which had left her 
 a few illusions and a part of her health, had been a 
 mystery to her intimates and a shock to a multitude of 
 more or less fervent admirers. 
 
 Five minutes later, Morley s bleached features ap 
 peared behind the massive silver breakfast service (a 
 gift of Forrester s business associates). The maid 
 set the tray gingerly down, and stood a moment, con 
 templating the charming figure of her young mistress. 
 
 " She is quite too ravishing," she said contentedly. 
 " How in the world did he ever get her ? Pretty little 
 beauty!" 
 
 In that miraculous garden, America, where a virgin 
 soil and an ardent sky combine to produce exquisite 
 human flowers, she was of the most delicate loveliness. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 17 
 
 She slept lightly, her dainty head pillowed against one 
 soft white arm, and everything in the modeled oval of 
 her face seemed alert and on the wing the thin hazel 
 eyebrows which were lifted until they seemed to form 
 an acute angle on the forehead, the slender nose a 
 little in the air, the thin upper lip rising to a point 
 above a line of teeth that glistened like milky beads, 
 while the red splash of the under lip was sensitive and 
 full with the already awakened instinct toward the 
 pleasant intoxication of the senses. The light and 
 abundant hair was drawn clear of the neck, which was 
 as fragile as the support of a Venetian vase. In 
 all this there was something that hovered like the 
 pleasure of a hidden perfume the spirit of uncon 
 scious pleasing which remained in spite of her first 
 contact with the artificial world, a charm which was 
 not yet of art or experience but of youth and anticipa 
 tion, a charm that was just beginning. 
 
 When she again awoke, it was past ten o clock, and 
 the telephone at her bed was buzzing imperiously. 
 She took up the receiver with some petulance. 
 
 "Amy, it s Fifi!" 
 
 She gave a cry of delight at the sound of her 
 cousin s voice. 
 
 " Plow wonderful you darling! Where are you? 
 What are you doing ? " 
 
 " Down to shop. Crazy to see what you look like. 
 How s married life? May I peek in on you? ... I 
 may? ... In half an hour gorgeous! So long!" 
 
 " What did we do last night? " said Amy to herself, 
 rising reluctantly. She remembered that they had 
 gone to the theater and then to a roof garden to dance 
 until after two. " To-night early to bed," she said, 
 with a touch of remorse. " I ve kept him up every 
 night this week, and Andrew must work." 
 
i8 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 All at once, she recalled with delight the invitation 
 to the Dellabarres. In the fortnight since their return, 
 she had seen no one in the deserted city, and the isola 
 tion had weighed heavily. She was looking forward 
 to her entrance into the younger married set with a 
 little apprehension and much pleasant excitement 
 apprehension at this coming contact with the brilliant 
 women of the world, and excitement because she knew 
 she had nothing to fear. 
 
 There was about this invitation, moreover, a side 
 which she had not quite divulged to her husband. 
 When Mr. Dellabarre had stopped to speak to them 
 in a restaurant, she was then so overwhelmed with 
 loneliness that she had instinctively put herself out to 
 a little more than please. When the invitation had 
 arrived, three days later, she had experienced a sudden 
 return of that intoxicating sense of power which she 
 had felt so often in the year of her debut whenever 
 she had come victoriously into a public place. 
 
 " Never mind the eggs, Morley just heat up the 
 coffee," she said apologetically, as she slipped a tiny 
 foot into the fur slipper and felt the luxurious warmth 
 of her eider-down peignoir Andrew s gift close 
 over her shoulders. 
 
 This bourgeois consideration for the chef shocked 
 Morley. 
 
 " Not at all, madam ; the eggs and the coffee are 
 quite spoiled," she said, and departed with dignity for 
 a new breakfast. 
 
 Back from her bath, indolently installed in the deep 
 cushion of the chaise longue, Amy Forrester began 
 the perusal of her morning mail while Morley ar 
 ranged the second breakfast. There were letters from 
 schoolgirl chums, debutantes of last year, with highly 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 19 
 
 colored descriptions of their eager ventures into the 
 painted gardens of society. She smiled over their 
 extravagances, and smiled, too, at herself, wondering 
 if their vision or herself were the more unreal 
 a child installed over three servants and a chauffeur 
 and, of course, the destinies of a husband. For, some 
 times in the reveries of the day, she awpke with a start 
 and asked herself how it all had happened. 
 
 " Will you take your breakfast now, madam? " 
 
 Morley s question had the sound of an ultimatum. 
 She glanced up guiltily, very tiny in the chaise longue, 
 like a little marquise of the days when Boucher drew. 
 Morley always seemed to be watching for her mis 
 takes. It gave her the feeling of going to school for 
 the first time. 
 
 Yes, I m ready, and, Morley, bring in any pack 
 ages that have come." 
 
 She breakfasted rapidly on a new variety of hot 
 house melon, which she had found in a Fifth Avenue 
 fruit store, eggs and cream from a fancy dairy, with 
 a slice of the finest Virginia razor-back ham. While 
 Morley removed the tray, she delved into the pyramid 
 of boxes which represented an average day s shopping 
 gloves, shoe buckles, a lace collar, a new perfume to 
 try, some candied fruits, a warmer fur rug for the 
 car, two blouses, and a traveling hat. She had not 
 the slightest conception of such social annoyances as 
 addition of expenses and subtraction of income. Why 
 should she? 
 
 At the age of twelve, two years after the death of 
 her mother, her father, in a moment of poignant affec 
 tion, had said to her: 
 
 " Whatever you wish in this world, my little girl, 
 tell me. You shall have it." Of how deeply her first 
 
20 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 season had cut into his capital, she had not the slight 
 est conception. Her aunt had never interposed an 
 objection to her whim. Whatever she wanted, she 
 bought for shopping was such fun. 
 
 " Quito is ready for his order, madam." 
 
 A trim young Japanese, in white pique, wobbled in, 
 smiling. The blue eyes of Mrs. Forrester assumed 
 an expression of appropriate gravity. 
 
 " We 11 be two at luncheon," she said, frowning 
 with the intensity of the mental effort involved. There 
 was a pause. 
 
 " Bouillon some fishy? " 
 
 She nodded and said firmly, 
 
 " Yes then after the fish a filet mignon" 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " Oh, with " She came to a full stop. " Just fix 
 it up in some nice way and get whatever s best in fresh 
 vegetables. Then some sort of a salad and a dessert 
 the kind you made yesterday. And, Quito, we 11 
 be going away over Sunday." A long pause. " Get 
 whatever s necessary for the kitchen." 
 
 Quito disappeared, smiling his toothy, Oriental 
 smile, while Mrs. Forrester, these fatiguing household 
 duties accomplished, returned to her reveries. 
 
 She felt that she had nothing to do. The third 
 month of her married life found her restless and be 
 wildered, and if to Andrew their marriage seemed the 
 resolution of all his perplexities, to her it appeared 
 as the opening of all her problems. The sensation of 
 being abandoned, isolated, and alone possessed her 
 completely in the gorgeous apartment of which her 
 hands had not chosen a single bit of furniture. Every 
 thing had been prepared for her coming, even in her 
 bedroom, from the thick golden carpet to the crowded 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 21 
 
 knick-knacks on the mantel, even to the marvel of 
 panne velvet and chinchilla which wrapped her little 
 body all had been chosen for her. At times, it gave 
 her a feeling of discomfort as though there were 
 something immoral in her accepting all this luxury. 
 
 Yet she had been brought up to consider herself an 
 object of luxury, and all her education had tended to 
 enhance this value. Every responsibility had been 
 carefully spared her. All her life she had been petted 
 and spoiled and forbidden to grow up. Andrew had 
 but followed her father and uncle Tom Andrew, 
 who adored to snatch her up from the ground and 
 swing her to his shoulder. 
 
 She smiled pensively as she recalled the first time 
 it happened. They were in the old English garden, 
 under the crooked cherry tree, the second day of their 
 engagement. That morning, she had been full of 
 doubts and hesitations, yes, even of terror, as she 
 walked by his side and watched him, wondering what 
 force had bent her to this stranger who had descended 
 into her life with such imperious conquest. All at once 
 he had laughed and swung her to his shoulder, and, in 
 the sensation of riding so lightly, so securely, all her 
 questionings had vanished. This must be the buoyant 
 force to carry her slightly indolent nature out and up 
 into the great world of pleasant happenings. When 
 she thought of her husband even now, she thought of 
 herself above his shoulder, carried lightly along, look 
 ing down at his eyes, which grew young as a boy s as 
 they turned to her in pride and adoration. She smiled 
 again, persuading herself that there was something 
 symbolic about it what marriage should be. 
 
 "Madame is taking three evening gowns?" said 
 Morley, returning. She drew a peignoir over her 
 
22 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 young mistress s shoulders, brushing out the long 
 mole-colored hair that, in its undulations, had certain 
 faint violet tints. " The Dellabarre s is a fine 
 house. They do a lot of dressing there. Chilton 
 is a very smart place, lots of polo and gentlemen 
 riding. They do drink like lords. I was at Chilton 
 three years with Mrs. Challoner. She is quite the 
 fashionable beauty, though her hips are bad, but she 
 gets over that very well with these new corsets. Mrs. 
 Challoner and Mrs. Dellabarre are great friends, 
 though they do fight over a man like panthers. Mrs. 
 Challoner is a beast to serve, though. I gave notice 
 when she threw a water jug at the second man, and 
 a pretty penny it cost the master, too, hushing it up. 
 He s a beast, too but she handles him ! " 
 
 Little Mrs. Forrester was not listening to these 
 revelations about the beautiful Mrs. Challoner, whom 
 a foreign portrait painter, before presenting his bill, 
 had pronounced the most perfect blond in America. 
 She was still in the past. 
 
 How had it happened? She had passed through 
 her first season without time for any other emotion 
 but the appetite for changing pleasures and multiple 
 sensations. She had been surfeited with too much 
 success. Her physical self had finally rebelled at the 
 demands upon it; and, as her nature was neither cold 
 nor calculating, as she had from her home a genuine 
 love of simple things, of nature, and a true kindliness 
 of heart, in reviewing the record of the winter, she 
 had asked herself frankly what it had all been worth 
 and where it would lead her. She had felt in her a 
 conflict of natures one whirling her back into this 
 maelstrom of luxury, selfishness, and of pleasant vani 
 ties, and the other recoiling before the inevitable con- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 23 
 
 elusion. Andrew had come; a force beyond her 
 reasoning had swept her off her feet. Her deeper 
 nature had seen in him a sign of providence. Mar 
 riage to him had seemed the opportunity to live to the 
 fullest, to concentrate the best that was in her, to es 
 cape from the dangerous current of adulation and 
 flattery which awaited her on her return a danger 
 she was young enough to recognize. What troubled 
 her now was that it was all so different from what 
 she had imagined. Her husband was as great a 
 stranger to her as the day he had met her. 
 
 " Really, I must do something. I must talk to him 
 and make him understand." 
 
 Yet what she wanted him to understand was hazy 
 in her own mind. There was something wrong. 
 Whose fault was it ? Hers or his ? 
 
 " Mrs. Dellabarre is n t as handsome as Mrs. Chal- 
 loner, but she makes more show. Mrs. Dellabarre has 
 very fine taste," continued Morley; " she gives out for 
 twenty-six, but she must be a year or two closer than 
 that. He J s getting on to fifty. He s an odd one, 
 very attentive to the children. Mrs. Dellabarre ain t 
 maternal. Her marriage was quite a surprise, they 
 do say. Every one had figured her out for Mr. 
 Bracken Mr. Monte, that is." 
 
 She rambled on, detailing bits of gossip, painting 
 the society of the younger married set from the piti 
 less knowledge of the servant world. Amy listened, 
 wondering. It seemed to her that another life lay 
 ahead which was for her to choose, a life of contend 
 ing vanities, of unceasing rounds of pleasure, wherein 
 she found again all the returned appetite of her season 
 of the year before. Yet, as she was a creature of 
 moods and her moods changed rapidly, already, as 
 
24 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 she thought of the coming visit, she was surprised at 
 the feeling of zest which came to her, a feeling of 
 well-being, permeating all her senses. 
 
 At this moment Fifi Nordstrum burst into the room 
 and precipitated herself into her arms, almost upset 
 ting the chaise longne in the ardor of her embrace. 
 
Ill 
 
 WHAT is called fashionable society, or that por 
 tion of it which sets itself a steady task of din 
 ing, dressing, and dancing, is divided into two distinct 
 groups: the debutantes of the first and second years, 
 who are organized defensively against the married 
 women ; and the young married set, about which clus 
 ter the foolish virgins of the fifth and sixth seasons. 
 Fifi Nordstrum was a social guerrilla, pursuing her 
 predatory way through all sets. The young matrons 
 feared her; the young debutantes imitated her with 
 gushing admiration. She was in her twenty-seventh 
 year, and her portrait and doings were as well known 
 to the readers of Sunday supplements and fashion 
 magazines as the best advertised actress. She had 
 been reported engaged to three celebrities of the head 
 lines an Arctic explorer, a famous aviator, and the 
 hero of the last international polo match. She knew 
 every one of note from the opera and the stage, where 
 she had the entree, to the latest dancer with whom she 
 danced and the last cafe favorite who sang his songs 
 to her. She was a dark North-of-Ireland type, with 
 out particular beauty except for deep blue eyes that 
 were radiant with animation, and teeth of remarkable 
 whiteness and regularity. Her body was straight and 
 firm as an Indian s, her nose upturned, her mouth 
 thin and wide. She spoke in a high, nervous voice. 
 She walked without grace, and she dressed often with 
 complete disdain for coquetry. But, for all that, she 
 
26 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 knew how to place a value upon herself in the eyes 
 of men. 
 
 Her first movement, after embracing her cousin 
 with the ardor of a young bear, was to stare at Morley. 
 
 "Hullo! What s your name ? Seen you before," 
 she said, flinging her furs in the general direction of 
 the maid. 
 
 " Morley, Miss Nordstrum ; I was three years with 
 Mrs. Challoner." 
 
 t( Yes ; I remember, you were with the Ice-maiden," 
 said Fifi, who resented Mrs. Challoner s sculptural 
 beauty. " Well, Morley, hang up my things in the 
 hall, and don t listen at the door, for we want to be 
 alone." 
 
 She dismissed the maid thus in the most natural 
 way in the world, so that Morley, who patronized her 
 mistress, went out laughing. Fifi installed herself by 
 the gas log, drawing up her skirts to warm her legs, 
 lit a cigarette, made a grimace, and flung it away. 
 
 " Well, tell me all about it. You beast, you might 
 at least have waited till I got back from California! 
 What made you marry him, anyway ? " 
 
 " Could n t help it," said Amy, laughing, and for 
 getting that a moment before she had asked herself 
 the same question. 
 
 That s no answer," said Fifi, looking round. 
 " Who furnished the apartment ? Hubby ? Heavens, 
 what a scramble ! " 
 
 Amy burst out laughing, which was the only way 
 to handle her, and brought out two photographs of 
 Andrew, one on horseback, taken on their trip West, 
 and another in football togs, a memento of his college 
 days. 
 
 " I see the cave-man idea," said Fifi, in the slang 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 27 
 
 of the day. I like ugly men. He s nicer than I 
 expected." 
 
 "Keep off!" 
 
 " Oh, that kind of man has no use for me." 
 
 " What do you mean? " 
 
 " Oh, no offense," said Fifi, throwing herself back 
 in a chair and plucking out a cigarette which, this time, 
 she continued to smoke with rapid, deep-taken breaths. 
 " Business men are the only real type of Americans 
 if only they would n t be ashamed of it. The others 
 are imitation, bad European imitation. They don t 
 know how to play. They make love like sand crabs, 
 and they bore you. How can they help boring you 
 when they are bored to death themselves. If you Ve 
 got nothing to do, you must have brains to do it. 
 Well, if you don t treat Andrew decently, I shall come 
 up and play with him myself." 
 
 Amy laughed and replaced the photographs. Fifi s 
 appreciation seemed to make Andrew more real. 
 
 "And you?" 
 
 " I ? I have n t even got my winter engagement. 
 I shall fight the matrons again, I suppose," said Fifi, 
 shrugging her shoulders. " However, I am getting 
 ready for the season. I have joined a complexion 
 party." 
 
 "Good heavens, what s that?" 
 
 " Helena Partridge is giving it. There are four of 
 us, all freckled. You cover your face with a new 
 cream and keep in a dark room for three days. I want 
 Dolly to marry this season, so I am sacrificing my 
 self." She broke off suddenly. " Are you sorry you 
 are married ? Have you seen any men since you ve 
 been back?" 
 
 Amy was afraid that her cousin would take her 
 
28 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 answer from the embarrassment on her face, so she 
 hastened to say: 
 
 " Fifi, you are incorrigible ! I m terribly in love 
 more than ever." 
 
 Fifi looked unconvinced. 
 
 " Hurry up and dress. Andrew s a self-made man, 
 is n t he ? How do you like keeping house ? Who s 
 in town ? " 
 
 You re the first soul I ve seen," said Amy, avoid 
 ing the previous questions. 
 
 " And the Old Guard? " said Fifi, opening her eyes. 
 " Just because you re married, you re not going to 
 live in a convent, are you ? " She glanced admiringly 
 at her cousin, who stood glowing with youth. 
 " Really, Amy, you are too delicious to be married. 
 Oh, 3 ou need n t blush, and you need n t say it. 
 You re like all the rest, never going to look at another 
 man. But you 11 get over that quick enough. You Ve 
 got a lot of hearts to break still. Mother will never 
 forgive you. She had picked you out for a duke at 
 least. Well, I want to see him. Telephone down to 
 Andrew and tell him he can take us out for lunch." 
 
 " My dear Fifi," said Amy, with a touch of pride, 
 " Andrew is n t lounging around a broker s office " 
 
 " He s an important personage, of course," said 
 Fifi, interrupting; "yes, yes." 
 
 " Besides, we are running down to the Dellabarre s 
 this afternoon." 
 
 "To Irma? That body-snatcher!" said Fifi, in 
 surprise. " Never mind ; I dote on Irma. She s the 
 one really clever woman I know. By the way, just 
 tell her for me that I ve made up my mind to play with 
 Monte Bracken this winter, and that she can keep off 
 the reservation." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 29 
 
 " I 11 be sure to tell her nothing of the kind." 
 
 " Then I ve a mind to throw the complexion and 
 run over and do it myself," said Fifi, following her 
 out to the elevator. " I m only a hundred miles away. 
 By the way, you 11 probably find an old friend there." 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 " Tody Dawson," said Fifi, and then, as she saw 
 the dismay on Amy s face, she added, with a laugh: 
 You innocent thing! Why, he s consoled long ago. 
 He s already one of Irma s crocodiles. You don t 
 know what that is? That s what Irma calls the lan 
 guishing type of adorers crocodile tears, you know. 
 I m crazy about Irma. If I were sure Monte would 
 be there, I would come over and grab him. He s 
 quite exciting but too dangerous for you, my dear. 
 So don t lose your pretty little head. Is this your 
 car ? " she said, examining a magnificent green limou 
 sine which was waiting and, without caring whether 
 she was heard or not, she added, " The chauffeur, my 
 dear, is very handsome." 
 
 Once inside the luxurious body, dainty as a jewel 
 box, she nodded in appreciation. 
 
 "Good for Andrew!" 
 
 " We have a runabout, too," said Amy, with a sigh. 
 
 Fifi noticed the sigh. Little escaped her, and think 
 ing of all the whirl of gaiety, of flattery, and of ad 
 miration that her beautiful cousin had renounced at 
 the end of one season, she put out her hand and patted 
 her shoulder. 
 
 " You poor dear ! " she said sympathetically. 
 
IV 
 
 AT four o clock, in obedience to a telephone mes 
 sage from the office, Amy was in the car, drawn 
 up by the subway station at Columbus Circle, search 
 ing the crowd which flowed muddily up from that 
 great underground tube for the first glimpse of a 
 swinging, rapid figure. Her conscience did not ex 
 actly reproach her, for the conscience in youth, before 
 it can enlist the services of a rebellious digestion, is 
 more of a courtier than a mentor. Yet, all the same, 
 she felt she owed it some explanation. She had been 
 frightfully extravagant. When two women go shop 
 ping together, the devil begins to smile. The presence 
 of Fifi had incited her. She felt the need of estab 
 lishing that shade of superiority which her cousin 
 denied her. She knew that Fifi, in common with the 
 rest of her friends, considered that she had thrown 
 away her worldly opportunities, and she desired to 
 rather exaggerate the new independence which was 
 hers. After an orgy among the counters, Fifi, in spite 
 of the fact that luncheon had been ordered at home, 
 had carried her off, commandeering two men by 
 telephone. 
 
 The rendezvous had been at Sherry s, just begin 
 ning to fill up with the return of society. There were 
 fifty persons she knew, and as Fifi was a public char 
 acter, their entrance caused quite a stir. She felt in 
 stinctively the test of this criticism and asked herself a 
 little anxiously how they would judge her. In an 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 31 
 
 instant, she was back in the life of the year before, 
 the old chatter rising easily to her lips, eager for the 
 glances of tribute which she could detect in the crowd. 
 She felt a new vivacity, and it seemed to her, for the 
 first time in months, that the radiance of her youth 
 was returning to her eyes and to her glowing cheeks. 
 She forgot her perplexities and half-expressed long 
 ings. This world welcomed her back by a hundred 
 solicitous attentions, claiming her charm and her 
 beauty. She no longer had a feeling of isolation. 
 
 What was strange was to be waiting for him. 
 When he was absent, she could never see him 
 distinctly. 
 
 In the crowd, she saw the kind, ugly face, and, at 
 his powerful, confident approach, she had a swift feel 
 ing of gladness and delight. 
 
 " All right, Bingham ; good time, but don t get 
 caught ! " He swung into his seat, and the coupe was 
 filled with his virile, conquering strength. " Kept you 
 waiting long? Turn around, Mrs. Yum- Yum; let s 
 see how pretty we are ! " 
 
 At the pride with which he gave her his favorite 
 nickname, the little girl from school began to laugh. 
 Then she remembered. 
 
 " I ve been awfully extravagant/ she said con 
 tritely, and the obnoxious word " extravagant," like 
 the terrifying word " duty," she pronounced in a way 
 that made him break into laughter. 
 
 " I make it; you spend it," he said, taking her hand. 
 The best, and damn the expense ! " 
 
 " No, really, Andrew; you should scold me. * 
 
 "Really?" 
 
 : Yes, really," she said, with a mischievous smile. 
 Then she added, serious once more, for it shocked her 
 
32 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 in her sense of fitness that he did not reprove her a 
 little, "If you did, it would make me feel loads 
 better." 
 
 Andrew had already forgotten the incident. He 
 examined her with affectionate pride as his glance, 
 satisfied, ran over the trappings of his car and rested, 
 in final approval, on the trim figure of Bingham. 
 Bingham was in excellent style. They were at the 
 throat of the great Queensboro Bridge, halted in the 
 jam of traffic. Other cars were about them. He 
 estimated them with a little righteous pride in his own 
 wife, his own car, and his own chauffeur. He had 
 done it all, and he feared no comparison. 
 
 His hand closed over hers, with the feeling that life 
 was now happily settled and the road clear ahead. 
 
 " Fifi came in and carried me off to luncheon at 
 Sherry s," she said. " Any number of persons came 
 up to see me. My head s quite turned with compli 
 ments. Do you know a Mr. Argesinger and a Mr. 
 Devine Wall Street men, friends of Fifi ? " She 
 hesitated a moment, then added, " They lunched 
 with us." 
 
 He looked at her without the slightest shade of 
 jealousy, overjoyed at her triumph. 
 
 " Just what you need ! Play all you want ; nothing 
 would please me more." 
 
 As he said these words, his voice was so gentle that 
 a great wave of tenderness went through her. 
 
 " How kind and big he is ! " she thought to herself, 
 with a little remorse. 
 
 " What dresses have you brought ? " 
 " The black, the gold, and the cerise." 
 He frowned at the mention of this last, for, in the 
 perfect chivalry of his attitude toward women, he 
 was, by training, old-fashioned. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 33 
 
 " The cerise, my dear, is I m not quite sure. 
 The Dellabarres are quite conventional, are n t they ? " 
 
 She smiled from her superior knowledge. 
 
 " I m afraid you re in for a shock. Chilton is 
 rather the riding set." 
 
 ;< True ; but they are mostly families like the Della 
 barres and Brackens, who have had money for genera 
 tions. They 11 be a little rigid especially the 
 women. That s why I would n t wear the cerise 
 gown, not just at first not to-night." 
 
 " But with a scarf, Andrew ! " she exclaimed, 
 amused at his naive conception of a strange world. 
 
 " Well, suppose we wait and see. Now for some 
 bad news. I ve got to pass to-morrow night with 
 Gunther on his yacht. The king has summoned me." 
 
 " What to-morrow! Our first visit together!" 
 she cried, cut to the quick. 
 
 " But, Amy, do you know who Gunther is ? " he 
 answered, astonished. 
 
 " I don t care who he is. He can wait." 
 
 She had not the slightest idea of Gunther s im 
 portance. To her the blow was a vital one, directed 
 at all her prerogatives as a wife. She withdrew her 
 hand, turning toward the window to hide the tears 
 which rose to her eyes. 
 
 " It s something I can t refuse," he said slowly. 
 " I must have Gunther for a friend. It is a great 
 opportunity for me." 
 
 " Am I invited, too ? " 
 
 He hesitated. 
 
 " It is not a pleasure party. You don t understand. 
 Gunther has offered me a position which would mean 
 we d be millionaires in five years. Whether I accept 
 or refuse, I must make him interested in me." 
 
34 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 "Millionaires! Really? Then why do you hesi 
 tate ? " she said, her chagrin forgotten for this 
 word " millionaire " had to her ears the charm of a 
 fairy tale. 
 
 " Well, I ve been slaving for twenty years/ he said 
 slowly. " It would mean five years more and a lot of 
 it away from New York and you." 
 
 She was of a primitive, emotional nature, quick to 
 every influence. Before his generosity, she answered 
 impulsively, 
 
 " Not from me. Wherever you go, I go." 
 
 And in saying this, she believed it. 
 
 " No, no," he said, his frown disappearing as if by 
 magic; " you are young; you re going to enjoy your 
 self. I carried you off because I was n t taking 
 chances. But you re not going to regret anything 
 you might have had. No, sirree; nothing is going 
 to make me quite so happy as sitting back and watch 
 ing you sweep them off their feet. The best for you ! 
 And I shan t be jealous at all if men admire you 
 quite the contrary." 
 
 She was silent, profoundly moved. In these few 
 moments, he had come closer to her than in all the 
 months she had known him. 
 
 " Yes ; you are right," she said, with such gratitude 
 in her blue eyes that he had never seen them more 
 beautiful. " Give me a year or two, dear. I am only 
 a girl, and it is awfully hard to settle down and be 
 serious just yet. I know that it won t last I shall 
 get tired of it but just now I do want to be seen, 
 admired, flattered I do want to play." 
 
 He laughed in his deep, hearty rumble, a weight 
 lifted from his mind. 
 
 " Play," he said, smiling; " play for both of us, and 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 35 
 
 if you want any more money, just say so and I 11 
 make it." She turned to his arms impulsively, and to 
 each, in the happiness of this new understanding, it 
 seemed that all problems of marriage were happily 
 resolved. " Now let me explain my position/ he said 
 gently, " and wherein you can help me. I have gotten 
 to the point where I am strong enough to need friends. 
 Dellabarre is an old fogy, but he s got property and 
 connections. Make him our friend. I ve gotten to 
 where I am now, without having to say Thank you 
 to any one, but now I intend to use every arm that 
 comes handy. Make friends; make friends," he said, 
 listening to his own words. " You never know when 
 the weakest hand can give just that last little push 
 that will topple over the rock. You see, I am at a 
 critical moment." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " she said anxiously, for she 
 had not the slightest knowledge of his business affairs. 
 
 " I am about to be known as a successful man. 
 When my January report is out, I shall have a dozen 
 enemies after my scalp. You don t understand? 
 Here s the situation : American business is war. We 
 are not shopkeepers, piling up reserves in our safes. 
 We are speculators, adventurers, fighters, and we fight 
 not for avarice but for the pure joy of combat. You 
 never see any such motto as Live and let live J hung 
 up in an American office. Oh, no! If you come up 
 out of the crowd, you ve got either to impose yourself 
 or be crushed. Hit them first! This is where I am." 
 
 " But how can they hurt you? " 
 
 "If they can t break me, or buy me, or bring me 
 into the family within five years, I shall absorb them. 
 It 11 be a fight to the finish. They can t touch me in 
 side my own walls. They can t beat my organization 
 
36 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 or buy my lieutenants. Outside, it s different raw 
 materials, transportation, and credit. But don t 
 worry ; I am ready. My alliances are made. That s 
 why Gunther must be my friend." 
 
 " But you are going to refuse ? " 
 
 " I m going to be cleverer than that. I am going 
 to make him refuse for me," he said, smiling. (He 
 leaned forward, and taking the trumpet, cried cheer 
 ily, " To the right, Bingham, and the straight road 
 ahead.") "So we understand each other. You re 
 to play for both of us. It s the time of life to dance 
 and to be extravagant. Do so to your heart s content." 
 
 " You need never have any fear." 
 
 " Hush," he said gravely, as though the very 
 thought were treason. 
 
 She had no fear herself. The world was an im 
 material thing, and pleasure had no form to her ardent 
 imagination least of all a masculine form. A feel 
 ing of great content came over her, and, smiling, she 
 lifted his hand to her lips. 
 
 " How he loves me ! " she thought. 
 
 The dusk had been creeping in as they had flown 
 over the smooth macadam roads crowded with auto 
 mobiles. The air had become moist and chill with 
 the threat of rain which hung in the black drapery 
 of the autumn clouds. Lights had begun to pop out 
 of the darkness, postern lights and home lights, and 
 in the turning of the road she caught flashes of cosy 
 interiors families gathered at the supper table, 
 mothers with children. 
 
 The car slowed down. A flaring light showed the 
 entrance to the drive. A child ran out to swing a gate. 
 Ahead, at the end of the road, which lost itself in a 
 tunnel of shadows under mysterious trees, the house 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 37 
 
 lights were glowing, afloat on the night. She leaned 
 forward eagerly, gay with anticipation, free now to 
 seek without a qualm all the youth and pleasure ahead 
 under the promise of the lights which fluttered at the 
 end of the deep black way. 
 
 There was no one to meet them as they descended, 
 and the great house seemed strangely dark and in 
 hospitable. She felt a splash of raindrops as she 
 hurried into the vestibule. The butler, a family watch 
 dog, eyed them with surprise and indecision, and re 
 ceiving their names, departed. 
 
 " You ve made no mistake in the day? " she said, 
 surprised, to her husband. 
 
 " No." 
 
 At the end of a long wait, a footman hastened to 
 throw on the lights, and suddenly brilliant vistas of 
 halls and salons arose before their eyes. The butler 
 returned precipitately, followed by a rapid, noiseless 
 person, who introduced herself as Miss Bane, the 
 housekeeper, and made nervous excuses for their 
 strange reception. Underneath all this was such a 
 feeling of agitation and confusion that Mrs. Forrester, 
 her curiosity awakened, glanced at her husband. But 
 Andrew perceived nothing. He was in admiration 
 before the simple elegance of the baronial entrance, 
 noting every detail, registering each effect which 
 pleased him, making mental comparisons, already 
 perceiving new worlds to attain. 
 

 OINCE the morning, the Dellabarre household had 
 ^ been in an uproar, the guests uncomfortably con 
 scious of eavesdropping, Mr. Dellabarre sulking, the 
 children neglected, while Miss Bane ran to the tele 
 phone to command or countermand the car, postpone 
 the dinner, and send frantic inquiries for Mrs. Clove, 
 Mrs. Dellabarre s mother, who was sorely needed to 
 restore the peace. 
 
 While the servants were in a panic for the security 
 of their winter positions ; while the guests Mrs. 
 Lightbody, young Dawson, and Laracy had fled to 
 the country club for lunch; while the children had 
 covered themselves with grease at the garage and 
 were bawling at the top of their lungs; while Mr. 
 Dellabarre was savagely pacing his library with a long 
 ing to smash the mantel ornaments, Irma Dellabarre, 
 quietly ensconced on a Recamier chaise longue, by the 
 flowery window of her little morning room, was solic 
 itously brushing the coat of Mon Amour, the Pekinese. 
 
 At four o clock, her mother arrived like a gust of 
 wind that sets every door in the house to banging. 
 Though Mrs. Clove experienced not the slightest 
 anxiety at these periodic summons, she came all in a 
 flutter, prepared to stretch her visit to agreeable pro 
 portions by agreeing both with her daughter, whom 
 she idolized, and with her son-in-law first, because 
 she was sure he would be in the right, and, second, 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 39 
 
 because she had that sense of gratitude which is the 
 lively looking-forvvard to favors to come. 
 
 " My poor darling," she cried, after the first sympa 
 thetic embrace, " I was afraid I d find you in tears ! " 
 
 " I ? No ; why should I ? " said Irma, rising to put 
 Mon Amour in his pink cradle. Whatever her femi 
 nine subterfuges, she never deceived herself in her 
 domestic relations. " I suppose I ve been stupid 
 somehow ; but, Lord, I can t imagine where ! " 
 
 " Well, dear, who is it this time? " said Mrs. Clove, 
 drawing off her gloves. From behind she had the 
 figure of sixteen. She dressed in baby pinks and 
 blues, and might have passed for the early thirties 
 that custom-made age, toward which debutantes and 
 grandmothers now incline. 
 
 " Heavens, if he d only say! But you know Rudy. 
 He s capable of sulking a week before I can get it 
 out of him." 
 
 Mrs. Clove, reassured, looked at her daughter with 
 the keenness of one who avoided expressing her 
 thoughts in words. 
 
 " No; I assure you," said Irma, in response to the 
 unspoken question. " This time, I have n t the slight 
 est idea of whom he s jealous." 
 
 The mother, who had come to that age when a com 
 pensating Providence replaces the distractions of 
 youth by the arrival of interesting ailments, had a 
 private conviction that these temperamental outbursts 
 had a bilious origin, but as this extreme view had 
 found no favor, she contented herself with an admir 
 ing glance. 
 
 " My darling child, how can he be angry at anything 
 so lovely as you are ? " 
 
 Irma smiled. She adored compliments, even from 
 
40 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 her own mother. She had a sense of the scenic, and 
 even in her own bedroom, kept in the picture. Her 
 charm was of art rather than from natural gift, for 
 while her body was slender and graceful, her head, 
 which was Latin, was striking, though the boldness of 
 her forehead was softened by the deep black hair 
 which had been directed in curling abundance about 
 the temples. Her eyebrows were bold; her nose too 
 aquiline, but her teeth shone brilliantly against the 
 duskiness of her complexion and the brilliant rouge of 
 her lips. What was really striking were the eyes, which 
 were of a thin gray, so clear and so light, that they 
 gave the effect of being as transparent as the negligee 
 which floated lightly about her in a cloud of costly old 
 lace which had cost the price of a season s wardrobe. 
 
 " My dear mother," she said calmly. " You don t 
 know Rudy. Appreciate what he s got ? Why, he 
 would be delighted if I d go in flannel wrappers and 
 braid my hair like a dowdy little Hausfrau. I don t 
 see how I stand it. He s getting more and more 
 impossible." 
 
 Mrs. Clove, with the memory of twenty lean years 
 in genteel boarding houses, appreciated what sacrifices 
 her daughter had been called upon to make. 
 
 " Tell me all about it," she said, patting her hand 
 with sympathy. 
 
 Irma raised her eyebrows. 
 
 " Good heavens, mother, there s nothing to tell ! 
 He s been making a scene about everything but the 
 real reason." She hesitated and added, " He began 
 by giving up his hunting trip." 
 
 Mrs. Clove did not disguise her surprise. For Mr. 
 Dellabarre to renounce his semiannual outing was a 
 fact of revolutionary importance. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 41 
 
 " As serious as that? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " It s a man, of course ? " 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 " And you really have no idea ? " 
 
 " No, no." 
 
 The second negative and the impatient shrug which 
 accompanied it confirmed Mrs. Clove in her suspi 
 cions. She rose and went down to the den. Mr. 
 Dellabarre was walking back and forth before the fire 
 place with such precise little steps that one could al 
 most imagine the creaking of the joints. 
 
 " Ah, there you are! " he said, with a sudden treble 
 rise in his weak voice, but, correcting himself, he 
 added ceremoniously, " How do you do ? I am very 
 glad indeed to see you." 
 
 He gave his hand limply as though he were making 
 her a present of it, and suddenly reddened with em 
 barrassment, for his pride was excessive, and he suf 
 fered during these scenes which his timidity prolonged. 
 
 He was a gray, perpendicular little man, passing 
 fifty, with a short, stubby nose, overhanging eyebrows, 
 and a gray, drooping mustache, a drooping glance, 
 and a voice which drooped into whispers. He held 
 himself stiffly, and his arms and legs moved on hinges. 
 He dressed in a stiff gray cutaway, which appeared 
 newly starched, square-toed boots, and a made-up tie 
 of pepper and salt, pierced by a fat cameo pin. Eccen 
 tric, old-fashioned and furtively shy, there was still a 
 precise dignity about him, which commanded respect, 
 even from the crowd of irreverent youngsters who 
 danced, gambled, and paid their court to his wife. 
 
 " Tell me all about it, my dear Rudolph," said Mrs. 
 Clove, with the utmost sympathy. She glanced at the 
 
42 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 table which was littered with stray sheets of stamps 
 which he had been sorting a sure sign of a tempest. 
 " What has that poor child been doing now? " 
 
 Mr. Dellabarre instantly began to defend his wife. 
 
 " It s my fault. It s your fault yes, of course 
 it s your fault," he said in jerky sentences, after a 
 glance at the door. " It s the fault of American edu 
 cation, of the ridiculous way we permit young girls 
 to be brought up. Irma is what we have made her. 
 Yes ; but that does n t help any, and that is n t the 
 point," he added, suddenly perceiving where this 
 would lead him. " She has her side, but I have my 
 side, too, and I tell you now I am going to come to a 
 decision." 
 
 This was said in rising sentences, while he continued 
 his precise and mechanical stepping off of the carpet, 
 for he experienced the need of heating up his courage. 
 In all this, there was nothing new. So Mrs. Clove 
 contented herself with a sympathetic sigh and the 
 remark, 
 
 " It is very sad." 
 
 " What do I count for in my own house ? " con 
 tinued Mr. Dellabarre, in a thin complaint. " .Noth 
 ing! Do you suppose any one ever comes here as my 
 friend?" 
 
 ; * You mean, my dear Rudolph, what does Irma 
 bring to you in your marriage ? " said Mrs. Clove, 
 who knew that, so long as he generalized, they would 
 get nowhere. 
 
 " Exactly," said Mr. Dellabarre, for unless he had 
 worked himself up into a passion, his pride made him 
 hesitate before taking a third into his confidence. 
 
 " But she is no different from others of her set, is 
 she?" continued Mrs. Clove. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 43 
 
 " The modern wife is a monster," said Mr. Della- 
 barre angrily. " Do you suppose Irma even knows 
 the names of her own servants? Do you? I m not 
 sure she knows the names of her own children, for 
 all she sees of them." 
 
 " Now, Rudolph," said Mrs. Clove, lifting a chubby 
 hand in protest. 
 
 " You don t believe it ? Doris coughed all last night. 
 Do you think Irma has even heard about it? She 
 is n t a mother. She is n t a wife. She is n t a house 
 keeper. What does she do? She amuses herself. 
 That is all she thinks of from morning to night, and 
 that is all any of them think of ! Well, I m going to 
 come to some decision." 
 
 Mrs. Clove saw that he had no intention of being 
 specific. 
 
 " I will speak to Irma," she said, in a tone of deci 
 sion, wondering if her daughter had given him any 
 real cause for jealousy. " Poor dear, she is dreadfully 
 upset ! " 
 
 " She should be." 
 
 " But has anything happened anything special ? " 
 
 " What ! Don t you think that is enough ? " 
 
 " My dear Rudolph, of course I do ! " she said 
 hastily, starting for the door. " I will talk at once 
 with Irma. She certainly should pay more attention 
 to the children. You should ask more of her. You 
 should insist ! But, then you said it yourself 
 it s the life of the younger generation." 
 
 " Well, I ve made up my mind," said Mr. Della- 
 barre rapidly, " and I m going to make a decision." 
 
 Mrs. Clove knew her daughter and her inherent 
 appetite for admiration, but she judged her incapable 
 of going further than a light flirtation, because she 
 
44 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 understood the modern coquette s need of multiplicity 
 in her adorers. 
 
 " Well ? " said Irma, without looking up from a 
 Russian novel. 
 
 " He s very excitable." 
 
 " I see I shall have to go down," said Irma, who 
 perceived that her mother had learned nothing. She 
 rose. " It is really too humiliating. Kitty Lightbody 
 is here, and will tell it all over New York. I must 
 bring it to a head a violent scene, that s the only 
 way," she concluded, rearranging her hair in the 
 mirror. 
 
 " But you must have a suspicion ? " 
 
 "Of whom he is jealous? My dear mother, it 
 might be any one of twenty men. No one could be 
 more careful than I. Just look how people talk about 
 Kitty and Gladys Challoner. But a lot of good it 
 does me. If I gave him any reason " She paused, 
 and the need of preparing her attitude caused her to 
 feel a little real indignation, as she continued : " Do 
 you think my life is an easy one? Do you think it 
 is n t humiliating to have your husband fuddled 
 every night regularly at six o clock? Do I reproach 
 him? Do I make scenes when he sits at the dinner 
 table staring at his place and has to be helped into 
 the library ? " She shrugged her shoulders, glanced 
 at the mirror, rectified the line of her negligee and 
 tripped down to the library. 
 
 " My dear Rudolph, we must come somewhere," 
 she said quietly, " otherwise, I am determined to coun 
 termand the dinner and make my excuses to Kitty and 
 the boys. What exactly and precisely do you reproach 
 me with this time ? " 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 45 
 
 Mr. Dellabarre came to a full stop opposite his wife. 
 About her husband there seemed to be always an im 
 passable iron grating which recalled to her that feeling 
 of terror she had experienced when, in her days of 
 poverty, she had faced the dread figure of the cashier. 
 
 " You know very well," he said suddenly. 
 
 " I know what you have been saying to me all morn 
 ing and what you ve been repeating to mother. Is 
 that all?" 
 
 " All ! " exclaimed Mr. Dellabarre, who, fired anew, 
 repeated again his theories about the upbringing of 
 the modern woman. Mrs. Dellabarre arranged her 
 self patiently in an armchair and waited until the sub 
 ject should have exhausted itself. At the end of ten 
 minutes, she rose and rang for Miss Bane. 
 
 " Miss Bane, kindly call up Mrs. Challoner, the 
 Brackens, and the Ponsivals. Inform them that I am 
 obliged to countermand the dinner to-night. Say 
 that we are afraid Doris has the measles. Mr. Della 
 barre thinks it unwise to expose others. That is all." 
 
 Miss Bane, who knew enough to wait further con 
 firmation, withdrew. 
 
 " Now, my dear, every one will know that we have 
 been quarreling," she said quietly. To her surprise, 
 her husband did not flinch, despite the horror she 
 knew he had of public gossip. She determined, there 
 fore, to force the issue. 
 
 " My dear Rudolph, you may save yourself the 
 pains. I know all this by memory. Your description 
 of me is exact. I am a modern wife, if you will, the 
 wife of a rich man. I don t cook; I don t darn the 
 children s socks ; I don t haggle over the butcher s bill 
 or the price of eggs. All this is true. But why did 
 you marry me ? " 
 
46 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 As she intended, this threw him into such a state 
 of fury that he blurted out what most husbands sus 
 pect but which they do well not to reveal in the first 
 years of matrimonial discussion. 
 
 " Marry you ? " he cried. " You know very well I 
 married you because you wanted me to." 
 
 She saw the sudden flare-up of jealousy in the 
 strange shut-in nature of the man who still loved her. 
 She had a moment of pity, for she had a kind heart 
 and often returned to those good resolutions she had 
 formed at the altar, when she had passed from the 
 shadow of scheming and privation into the new world 
 of gratification and power. But immediately angered 
 by the justice of his remark, she rang imperiously and 
 gave orders to pack her trunk on the instant. 
 
 " That is going too far," she said coldly. " You are 
 quite sober, and you know what you are saying. I 
 shall leave here at once, and shall stay away until you 
 come to your senses. The situation is intolerable." 
 
 " It is intolerable," he said, and the hand which he 
 held rigidly before him began to shake, as she had 
 never seen it do before. " I quite agree with you 
 you had better go and come to your senses ! " 
 
 " What ! He is going to let me go without a word 
 of protest," she thought, frightened for the first time 
 in his presence. She had an uneasy feeling that what 
 she was facing was not a spasmodic outburst but a 
 definite rebellion. She turned and came back. 
 
 " I won t discuss your last insult. You are, at least, 
 a gentleman, and you will realize yourself the indeli 
 cacy of such a remark. Now, my dear Rudolph, if 
 you really wished the kind of fireside paragon that 
 you describe, you could easily have had one. There 
 are thousands of them. If you did n t, it is because 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 47 
 
 you wanted just what you have got, a wife of whom 
 you could be proud, a wife to give you a brilliant home, 
 whom you would carry off from other men, a wife 
 who would bring you youth and charm a wife, in a 
 word, to decorate your house. So much for that. 
 Whatever else you can accuse me of, I have never 
 compromised the dignity of your name. My name 
 has never been handed about, as some other wives we 
 know. I ve taken the greatest care that if men paid 
 me attention and you d be the first to regret it if 
 they did n t that no special one should ever be dis 
 tinguished. This, however, you don t appreciate." 
 
 In hearing her speak thus, with all the charm and 
 grace which she knew how to convey to her words, it 
 seemed to him that he was utterly wrong. He stam 
 mered out: 
 
 " What do I care about that ? You can have a hun 
 dred men about you." 
 
 " Which means it s only one person you object to," 
 said Irma instantly. " In other words, all these dia 
 tribes are just subterfuges. You are afraid to say 
 what you think, because you know that it will sound 
 ridiculous. You are jealous again of some one man." 
 He looked at her and then down at the floor. " Well, 
 who is it ? " she asked triumphantly, feeling that she 
 had regained her old supremacy. 
 
 " You know very well." 
 
 She knew, but to name him would give the appear 
 ance of confession. At the bottom, she knew what 
 he himself did not realize that the trouble lay 
 deeper, in the impossibility of simulating the love he 
 craved. 
 
 " I have not the slightest idea," she said quietly, 
 because in her certainty of victory she always felt a 
 
48 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 little compassion, and because she was impatient to 
 end this scene which interfered with her projects of 
 the evening. " Well, who is it this time ? Is it Tody 
 Dawson or Jap Laracy ? Nothing would surprise me. 
 It once was Mr. Challoner Are you still jealous 
 of him or Dwight Harcourt or Steve Lewis ? " 
 
 "No; it s not!" Suddenly he turned and, fixing 
 her with his weak eyes that all at once gathered points 
 of anger, he cried, " I won t have you talked about 
 with Monte Bracken." 
 
 " Monte ! My dear Rudy, you are insane ! " she 
 exclaimed, in excellent bewilderment. " A man I 
 have n t seen for years until last month, whom I have 
 met perhaps six times. No, that s too absurd ! " 
 
 " Exactly, Monte Bracken ! " he said, coming close 
 to her, his face disfigured with jealousy. " The rest I 
 don t care about. But Bracken I bar. The rest are 
 nothing to you, but Bracken you cared for, and he 
 cared for you." All at once his hand, which was 
 trembling with emotion, closed over her arm, and she 
 felt the sharp pinch of his fingers. " Do you under 
 stand now ? I forbid your coupling your name with 
 Monte Bracken s. I forbid it ! " 
 
 He had never before laid his hand on her. It was 
 the first time she had seen him completely given over 
 to his passion. Despite herself, she felt her face go 
 red as though, before this revelation of her husband, 
 she had experienced a sudden guilt. 
 
 A knock broke in on the tension of their attitudes. 
 She drew away hastily. 
 
 " Well, who is it ? " said Mr. Dellabarre, his voice 
 still on the pitch of excitement. 
 
 " Miss Bane, sir." 
 
 He glanced at his wife nervously, fingered the but- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 49 
 
 tons of his coat, drew a long breath, and said im 
 patiently, 
 
 " Well, why don t you come in, then ? " 
 
 The door opened half-way. 
 
 " Please, Madame, Mr. and Mrs. Forrester have 
 just arrived what shall I do? " 
 
 Mr. Dellabarre scowled, hesitated and looked to his 
 wife, in utter perplexity. 
 
 " There is only one thing- to do," she said quietly, 
 seizing the providential opportunity. " Mr. Della 
 barre will go down and explain about Doris. You 
 will have to send them away somehow." 
 
 " No, no we can t do that," said Mr. Dellabarre 
 hastily, shrinking at the thought, for once his anger 
 had shot up, it quickly subsided. " Wait a moment, 
 Miss Bane wait a moment, wait a moment outside. 
 It s annoying, very annoying, but we can t send them 
 away." 
 
 He began to walk up and down the room in his stiff 
 perpendicular way, while Irma watched him from the 
 corner of her eye. To her, it was a revelation. What 
 he had done in an access of jealousy she forgave, as 
 all women forgive such tributes. In the emptiness of 
 her own sentimental experience, it even gave her a 
 thrill to realize that the man who disposed of her could 
 love her to the point of doing her harm. 
 
 " All the same, he looked at me as though he wanted 
 to kill me," she said, staring at him. 
 
 All at once he turned, 
 
 " Well, now what s to be done, Irma ? " he said 
 petulantly, looking to her for assistance. He hesitated 
 a moment. You know we can t send them away. 
 That is not possible. That is n t done ! " 
 
 " No ; that is n t done, and other things are n t done, 
 either," she said sternly. 
 
50 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 He fidgeted back and forth, seeking some com 
 promise, and finding it difficult. 
 
 " Are n t you ashamed of yourself ? " she said, shak 
 ing her head and smiling. 
 
 " Please treat as serious what I ve said," he said 
 sullenly, his glance traveling along the carpet. " I 
 know very well I can t make you love me. You never 
 have. Put that aside yes, put that aside. You 
 can go your way up to a certain point but be 
 careful, Irma, be very careful." 
 
 For a moment his eyes rose to hers, and the sudden 
 leap of suffering and passion she saw there brought 
 her for the first time in her easy, superficial existence, 
 a real emotion a fear a genuine fear of her 
 husband. 
 
VI 
 
 MEANWHILE Mrs. Lightbody with the boys, in 
 company with the two Miss Teakes who had 
 returned with them for tea, were amusing themselves 
 in the great baronial sitting room during the continued 
 absence of their hostess. 
 
 " What can we do? " said Mrs. Lightbody, a plump, 
 rolling blond of resolute youthfulness, who was in 
 constant state of anxiety before the pursuing problem 
 of being amused. " Let s cut in for a hand of bridge." 
 
 ".No, Kitty, dear," said Tody Dawson imperti 
 nently; " I will dance with you, I will amuse you in 
 any other way, but I will not play bridge with you 
 you are entirely too expensive and I need the 
 money." 
 
 Laracy, who was at the piano, rattling up and down 
 the keys, emerged from behind the keyboard : a podgy, 
 placid, smiling, flat-faced figure, affecting tight check 
 trousers, glowing socks, and fancy waistcoats. 
 
 " Did Kitty propose bridge again ? " he said, with 
 equal impertinence, referring to some disaster of the 
 night before. " She should be stood in a corner." 
 
 " You funny, odd boy ! You know I don t play 
 half badly now." 
 
 " Not half badly, entirely so," said Laracy. " Well, 
 Tody, if we ve got to amuse her, better to keep her 
 dancing." 
 
 Yes, that keeps her out of breath," said Dawson, 
 getting up with the air of a martyr. He was a sky- 
 scraping type of youth, with long face and rising 
 
52 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 yellow hair which, after four years of college educa 
 tion, flowed back without a flurry from the untroubled 
 calm of his well-pleased expression a beau ideal of 
 that tailorable figure which advertising artists depict 
 in heroic postures, resting on tennis rackets or golf 
 sticks. 
 
 " How about thumb-wrestling? " 
 
 " Oh, I dote on that!" said Mrs. Lightbody, clap 
 ping her hands and, turning to the colorless and im 
 passive Miss Teakes, she explained, in excited phrases, 
 the principles of this latest parlor trick. " My dear, 
 he s simply wonderful ; he can wrestle you with one 
 hand and me with another, blindfolded, and beat us 
 both. It s excruciatingly funny." 
 
 " T. Y. K.," said Dawson, bowing, and meaning, in 
 the abbreviating trick of the day, " Thanking you 
 kindly." 
 
 " Saying which, Lord Ronald inclined his noble 
 brow and suffered his beautiful violet eyes to be ban 
 daged," said Laracy, drawing forth a red-and-yellow 
 handkerchief amid the titters of an appreciative 
 audience. 
 
 Dawson and Laracy belonged to that new variety 
 of household pet which supplements the absence of 
 hard-worked husbands in society. A woman of 
 fashion counts from two to ten of the variety in her 
 train, who fetch and carry, run small errands, adore 
 her in a public, harmless way, accompany her to the 
 theater or opera, surround her at the dansants and 
 invent a hundred amusing tricks to save her from the 
 necessity of reading and other forms of boredom. 
 Wise in their generation, they seldom make blunders, 
 knowing that they are admitted to intimacy only on 
 the basis of absolute docility, and acquiring the knowl- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 53 
 
 edge of worldly values, they wait patiently under such 
 patronage the opportunities of what is called a suc 
 cessful marriage. Dawson and Laracy were unusually 
 gifted. They played in masterly fashion all games of 
 chance where a friendly dollar could be sought. They 
 formed a team, which imitated the latest comic-opera 
 favorites. They spoke a jargon of their own. They 
 danced like professional dancers, with really the most 
 remarkable agility, and, from morning to night, kept 
 up a running patter of story, anecdote, repartee, and 
 picturesque slang which made easy the task of the 
 most desperate hostess. 
 
 About five o clock, the older men began to return 
 from polo practice. Tea at the Dellabarre s was an 
 institution in Chilton society, which, like many similar 
 societies, was formed on feudal lines, congregating 
 around one or two established families, with their 
 castles, their retainers, and their adherents who, by 
 some mystery of hidden economy, attached themselves 
 to the leaders, imitated their luxuries, and scrambled 
 desperately to marry their children advantageously 
 before the impending day of accounting arrived. 
 
 By the time the Forresters had unpacked and de 
 scended, the great living room had filled up with casual 
 guests, a few of the men in riding breeches, the women 
 in gaily-colored sweaters and striped skirts. From the 
 landing of the winding stair, Amy looked down on 
 the great vaulted room, paneled in brown, with pleas 
 ant regions of shadows and lights, and, at the end, a 
 great fireplace with lighted logs. A group was gath 
 ered about a card table, another about the shiny de 
 canters, while Tody Dawson, thin and active, was 
 pirouetting, his arms lightly in the air, exaggerating 
 the bend of his shoulders as he turned in saucers. A 
 
54 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 group watched this demonstration of the newest step 
 with the solemnity of a religious contemplation. 
 Somewhere in the obscurity of the deep baronial living 
 room, Laracy was pounding out the rhythmic measure 
 with youthful enthusiasm. The music ended with a 
 crash, and at the charming appearance of Amy at the 
 balustrade, there was a sudden hush of curiosity. 
 
 What the young d Artagnan experienced at his first 
 introduction into the brilliant court of the Hotel de 
 Treville, Amy Forrester felt at this sudden silence 
 which was like the rolling-up of a curtain. The new 
 world to conquer, her world, lay below. She felt a 
 quickening of all her instincts, transforming her into 
 a different and public self. At the same moment, she 
 realized that she was no longer alone but an integral 
 part of the man who followed at her back. Andrew, 
 too, was about to be judged, and by a judgment with 
 out the slightest mercy, that accepted only what it 
 could not destroy. The thought of her husband threw 
 her into a sudden timidity, and this involuntary mod 
 esty not only was becoming to her but conciliated the 
 good will of her hostess. 
 
 In a group of men, who were gathered, glass in 
 hand, at a serving table, Mrs. Dellabarre was standing 
 with her hand drawn through her husband s arm, in 
 that punctilious public advertisement of her marital 
 felicity which she never neglected and which she used 
 as a whip over the heads of her admirers, as a sort of 
 warning of the limitations she imposed on their adora 
 tion. She had slipped into a dark skirt and purple 
 sweater, drawn her hair tightly back, contriving to 
 make herself both ugly and distinguished, despite the 
 sudden looming prominence of her aquiline nose. 
 Gladys Challoner, her dearest rival, had said of her: 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 55 
 
 " When Irma gets herself up like a fright before 
 dinner, she is preparing to dazzle you after. 
 
 As she went to meet the Forresters, by the indefin 
 able subtleties with which one woman rates another, 
 Mrs. Dellabarre saw that Amy was of her world. 
 She was attracted to her instantly, as one woman is 
 attracted to another, with the pleasure of encountering 
 an antagonist worthy to be destroyed. 
 
 " We have met before," she said smiling, with a 
 little extra pressure of her hand, " but we are all 
 anxious to meet the man who could carry off the 
 favorite after her first season," she added, extending 
 her hand to Mr. Forrester. " It s rare enough to 
 make you quite a hero." 
 
 " How do you do, Mrs. Dellabarre," he said, in his 
 strong, pleasant bass, stepping forward with eagerness 
 in his eyes. 
 
 If she had been agreeably surprised with Amy, she 
 was quite unprepared for the strong attraction which 
 Andrew Forrester exercised over her from the mo 
 ment of their first handclasp. Like all neurasthenic 
 natures, she responded instantly to the buoyant health 
 of a dominant vitality. So quick was this pleasant 
 sense of well-being that the easy phrase of welcome 
 passed completely out of her mind, and only the me 
 chanical approach of her husband prevented her show 
 ing too plainly her perplexity. 
 
 Amy had a confused sense of catching names that 
 meant nothing to her, of seeing so many human mani 
 kins grouped about her Mrs. Lightbody s glance 
 set in criticism, a glance that swept her from head 
 to foot, seeking the weak point; an elderly beau 
 offered a glib compliment, and she was conscious of 
 murmuring something in answer. Mrs, Dellabarre, 
 
56 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 after a graceful introduction, returned to the men, 
 abandoning Amy to the group whose conversation she 
 had interrupted. One of the Miss Teakes, in brilliant 
 sweater and striped skirt, took up in a loud voice, with 
 out further attention to the new arrival, a discussion 
 of the polo match, seaming her comments with the 
 slang of the stables. Three men, without addressing 
 a word to her, finding Amy young and attractive, stared 
 at her with open admiration. Fortunately, at this 
 moment, from the piano a beaming waistcoat and 
 glowing smile bore down on her. 
 
 " Welcome to our city! " exclaimed Laracy. " This 
 is a surprise. Have I got to behave, Amy, and call 
 you l Mrs. Forrester ? " 
 
 " Get me away from here," she said, shaking hands 
 and laughing. 
 
 " Freezing by the fireside, eh ? " said Jap Laracy, 
 with a glance at the group. " Pretty northwest, eh ? 
 Irma engages me to thaw them out, but it s tough 
 it s tough ! My eyes and whiskers, Amy, I m glad 
 to see you ! Have you seen Tody ? " 
 
 " Not yet," she said, with a little confusion, for 
 Tody Dawson had been her most devoted admirer 
 and, in her youthful imagination, she reproached her 
 self a little at the havoc she felt she had created. 
 
 " Oh, he s pining, pining away, cruel maiden ! " 
 said Laracy. " So are we all. How could you go 
 and do it ? Here s -the wreck now." 
 
 Dawson, in perfect health, without a line on his face 
 or a ripple on the perfect edge of his trousers, came 
 up, serene and unembarrassed. 
 
 " Well, Amy, no use in pretending. Every one 
 knows you ve blighted my young existence. My 
 heart s shot to pieces, but I forgive you." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 57 
 
 He rattled this off with light impertinence, tucking 
 a lavender handkerchief up his sleeve a new accom 
 plishment. A year had transformed the young cub 
 just out of college, who used to blush and stammer in 
 the face of his youthful adoration. Amy looked up 
 at him, marveling at the change. 
 
 " I think you 11 recover," she said, smiling. 
 
 In a moment, they were laughing over old esca 
 pades, unconscious as three children. 
 
 " What are you three having such a good time 
 about?" said Mrs. Lightbody, approaching jealously. 
 She laid a plump hand on Dawson s arm in an affec 
 tionate pressure. Tody, darling, I must get that 
 step before to-night. Jap, be a dear and play for us 
 again." 
 
 " My dear Kitty," said Dawson coolly, " be calm 
 be calm and have n t I told you never to show jeal 
 ousy when I am paying attention to a pretty woman? " 
 
 Amy listened in astonishment while Mrs. Light- 
 body, vastly amused at this style of wit, laughed 
 outright. 
 
 " You funny boy. Mrs. " She hesitated, seek 
 ing the name. 
 
 " Mrs. Kezzizzas," said Laracy solemnly. 
 
 Mrs. Lightbody bit her lip but, determined, she 
 appealed to Amy. 
 
 f You don t mind, do you? " 
 
 " Say you do," said Dawson. " We are trying to 
 bring Kitty up properly. She has the most shocking 
 
 manners." 
 
 " Am I rude ? " said Mrs. Lightbody, rolling her 
 eyes. 
 
 " Oh, no I am the intruder here," said Mrs. For 
 rester quietly. 
 
58 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 Mrs. Lightbody, having contrived to isolate her 
 (though without malice, for her bad manners were 
 natural), carried Dawson off in triumph. Amy re 
 mained with her back to the group by the fireplace, 
 uncomfortable and angry, somewhat consoled by the 
 spectacle of Mrs. Lightbody s floundering efforts. 
 She took a cup of tea from the butler who came up, 
 and stood watching the swaying figures. A group 
 formed about the surface of light, the men curious, 
 the women solemn, confronted with a new responsi 
 bility, while those whose figures inclined to plumpness 
 studied the effect of Mrs. Lightbody s movements with 
 personal solicitude. 
 
 " So that s what they ve made of the tango! " said 
 a voice at her shoulder a modulated voice, curiously 
 flexible and soft. " What contortions ! " 
 
 " Why, I think he dances very well." 
 
 "Dawson? Of course. His trained legs are irre 
 proachable. But it s not the tango. I ve danced it 
 in the Argentine and in Spain, and I know. It is n t 
 the movement at all. The real tango is stately 
 danced with dignity." 
 
 " But that s the way we were taught." She turned 
 and all at once perceived that she had been talking to a 
 stranger. At the same moment, he perceived his 
 mistake. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, I thought " 
 
 " So did I," she said, smiling. Then perceiving how 
 intimate had been their comprehension of the un 
 finished thought, she blushed. 
 
 " After all," he said easily, " there is no great harm 
 done. If you are a very punctilious person, I 11 have 
 Mrs. Dellabarre present me." 
 
 Instinctively she divined who he was, by the ease of 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 59 
 
 his manner and the foreign deference of his attitude. 
 He was still in riding clothes of brown, which har 
 monized with the rather Spanish tan of his face and 
 set off the slight but alert figure, a man well groomed, 
 well ordered, assured and natural, pleasing to the eye 
 and ear. 
 
 " You are not Montgomery Bracken by any 
 chance?" she said impulsively. 
 
 " Yes. How did you " 
 
 " I don t know. I guessed it." Then realizing how 
 strange this must sound, she blushed again. To cover 
 her embarrassment, she said rapidly, " My cousin, 
 Miss Nordstrum, has described you to me." Then 
 remembering Fifi s declared intention, she laughed. 
 
 He read the amusement in her eyes rightly. 
 
 " Is my scalp in danger ? " he said. " Fifi is a very 
 determined young lady. Then you are Mrs. Forres 
 ter, of course. Is your husband here? Won t you 
 present me? " 
 
 Before she could act on the tactful suggestion which 
 relieved the embarrassment of the situation, Dawson 
 was back at her side, begging her to dance with him. 
 
 " Come on, Amy, now. Let s give them a pro 
 fessional exhibition. Kitty is gasping for breath. 
 Hello, Monte!" 
 
 " How are you, Dawson? " 
 
 She hesitated, watching Bracken with a little 
 amused malice, divining his impatience, at the assur 
 ance of the new generation. Tody had her by the 
 hand, dragging her toward the open floor, with that 
 muscular enthusiasm which has replaced man s defer 
 ence to woman in modern ballrooms. To refuse was 
 awkward, and, besides, she had a score to settle with 
 Mrs. Lightbody. 
 
60 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Here s how it s done ! " announced Dawson, with 
 the disdain of a virtuoso. 
 
 She danced instinctively, pliant to her partner, so 
 light that her flitting steps seemed noiseless, with a 
 harmony of poise and movement that charmed the 
 eye, the delight a beautiful child awakens in its grace 
 ful passing. The tango at that time was still a curios 
 ity, and the deft exhibition they gave was watched by 
 every one. She saw the crowding curiosity through 
 half -closed eyes, from Mrs. Lightbody s staring tribute 
 to the spreading pride on her husband s face. Bracken 
 was by his side, studying her with a grateful smile. 
 She knew that she pleased him and was pleased her 
 self at the thought. They ended amid a clapping of 
 hands and, flushed with pleasure and excitement, she 
 hastened to present Tody to her husband. 
 
 " How do, Mr. Forrester," said that self-sufficient 
 youngster. " I shake hands, but I really ought to 
 knife you for carrying off Amy." 
 
 " Ah were you interested ? " said Forrester, sur 
 veying him. 
 
 " I ? " said Dawson, flushing. " Why, did n t you 
 know I organized the society of the mitten ? " 
 
 " Indeed ? " said Forrester, in his deep bass, looking 
 at the product of the modern generation as a mastiff 
 endures the antics of a lap dog. 
 
 Dawson s soda-water wit bubbled out completely. 
 He stood shifting from foot to foot, seeking a chance 
 to escape. Bracken took pity on him. 
 
 " I acknowledge the superiority of your legs, Daw- 
 son," he said, with a shade of sarcasm, " but dance the 
 tango as it really is danced." 
 
 "I say, do you know it?" said Dawson eagerly, 
 as though before a great discovery. " By George, I 
 wish you d show us." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 61 
 
 " Very glad to, if Mrs. Forrester will give me her 
 assistance." He turned to Andrew. " That won t be 
 asking too much of your wife, will it? " 
 
 Forrester gave the implied permission with a nod 
 of his head. Bracken passed to the piano, where he 
 indicated a slower rhythm and certain definite accents, 
 and returning, bowed to his partner. 
 
 " Will you do me the honor to dance it with me, 
 Mrs. Forrester? There are certain steps you ll pick 
 up at once. We 11 dance it with very little movement 
 of the body, slow, rather languid, quite stately." 
 
 He waited until she gave her hand, before offering 
 his arm, with a deference that gave it the value of a 
 rare favor, and in this tactful attitude, so different 
 from the catch-as-catch-can license of the American 
 ballroom, he made her feel a new preciousness of her 
 self. In a few moments, they were dancing in unison, 
 in graceful, undulating rhythm. He held her well 
 apart from him, guiding her only with a slight 
 pressure of the left hand, yet she was aware of his 
 nearness. And, as she danced, she felt gloriously, 
 triumphantly young. The brown vaulted hall and the 
 staring strangers swam away. She was floating some 
 where between earth and sky, content to surrender all 
 her will to the touch that led her through dreamy 
 regions of melodious rhythms, fairy lights and per 
 fumed flowers. 
 
 " What is so dangerous about him ? " she thought, 
 wondering why Fifi had seen fit to warn her. 
 
 He paid her no compliment, except for an occasional 
 nod of satisfaction, but in the gentleness of his voice, 
 in the slight smile with which he watched her moving 
 rhythmically about him, she knew he, too, had the 
 same sense of spontaneous congeniality. 
 
62 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " I am sorry we have to stop," he said at last, with 
 a sigh of regret. 
 
 " I, too," she answered, in the same tone. 
 
 They looked at each other a short moment and 
 smiled with pleasure. Then they returned to the 
 others and the general conversation. She knew that 
 she would see him again soon. She looked forward 
 eagerly to the moment when he would really talk to 
 her, sure that they would find instant sympathy. Yet 
 the agreeable impression he had thrown about her 
 was so impersonal that, in their rooms, dressing for 
 dinner, she said to Andrew : 
 
 " Oh, I like Mr. Bracken. He seems really worth 
 while." 
 
 " Bracken is a real man," said Andrew heartily. 
 
 " Which means that some of the others are n t," 
 she said, laughing. " Poor Tody and Jap ! " 
 
 " I don t think I understand that specimen," he 
 said gruffly. " Why don t they put them in ruffles? " 
 
 She came up to him vastly amused, twitching his 
 ear. 
 
 " Gracious, you must n t be so fierce ! They re 
 harmless." 
 
 " Perhaps." 
 
 "Are you bored?" 
 
 "I? No." 
 
 "Truthfully?" 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 But he did not voice his real sentiments. It had 
 been a great readjustment, and his pride had suffered. 
 For the first time he had felt lost, dwarfed and in 
 consequential. The shock had awakened all his ambi 
 tion, setting in train dangerous desires for power and 
 prestige, to force the recognition he craved to be 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 63 
 
 some one in this society where he was rated lower than 
 the youngest cub with his bag of tricks to amuse. And 
 this awakening appetite was destined to change the 
 whole course of his life. 
 
VII 
 
 A FEW minutes before dinner, Mrs. Dellabarre 
 found occasion to say to Monte Bracken : 
 
 " I am putting you beside little Mrs. Forrester. 
 There are reasons why I want you to be, well extra 
 attentive to her." 
 
 " Special reasons ? " said Bracken, smiling, for 
 Irma s mental processes were a source of delight to 
 him, and he saw in the request a ruse to give the ap 
 pearance of a duty to what was already an inclination. 
 
 Mrs. Dellabarre s glance passed down the hall to 
 where the mechanical figure of her husband was super 
 intending the distribution of the cocktails and re 
 mained on it a noticeable moment. 
 
 " You are too quick, Monte, to need embarrassing 
 explanations," she said significantly. " So make a 
 point of it only don t get really interested." 
 
 " She is quite striking in her way." 
 
 "If she were two inches taller, she would be a great 
 beauty," she answered thoughtfully, putting her finger 
 on the only criticism that might hold. 
 
 " Then I am not to sit next to you ? " he said, with 
 an admiring glance at her striking and harmonious 
 toilette. With Irma he was never bored and never 
 convinced. 
 
 " It s better not," she said slowly. 
 
 He was the man to whom she held. She held to 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 65 
 
 him as she held to her youth. She looked about un 
 easily, longing to prolong the conversation. Rudolph s 
 eyes from under his bushy eyebrows were on her, and 
 there was something in the new rigidity of his look, 
 something so vaguely disquieting, that she felt a little 
 shudder run over her shoulders. " Some one walking 
 over my grave," she thought and, frowning, she 
 turned away. 
 
 Amy went in on the arm of Mr. Dellabarre, who 
 showed her to her seat with a dignity which he as 
 sumed with the same care with which he calculated 
 the descending steps and rounded the obstacles of the 
 chairs. 
 
 " I hope you are enjoying yourself here," he said, 
 in spaced solemnity, with a fugitive, indifferent look 
 in the pale eyes which had become a little watery. 
 Then he drew back into his shell, always uncomfort 
 able in the presence of new acquaintances, particularly 
 of the opposite sex. 
 
 In ten years, he had not added a friendship. The 
 butler, having watched him into his seat, saw that his 
 glass did not remain long empty. The scene with his 
 wife had upset his routine, for in his inebriety there 
 was no disorder total abstinence until six o clock, a 
 certain number of cocktails, an invariable pint of 
 champagne and later the regular measure of old pre 
 serve Scotch. But to-night he had gone a little be 
 yond his schedule, and he sat waiting for the dinner 
 to begin, staring painfully at a silver dish on the glow 
 ing tablecloth in front of him. 
 
 Mrs. Forrester, thus abandoned, waited with eager 
 ness the moment when Monte Bracken would turn to 
 her. Though the patter, based on intimate details, 
 was foreign to her, and the white fronts of the men 
 
66 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 loomed with the rigidity of social tombstones, she felt 
 like an exile returning into her own. The men were 
 mostly of the riding set, in excellent humor due to 
 proper preparation, ready to be fed and talked to. 
 The women were electrically pretty, in flashing colors, 
 daring in the decollete which that season had broken 
 down all prejudices. Opposite her was the beautiful 
 Mrs. Challoner, cold and statuesque, flawless in fea 
 ture and complexion, careless of the public announce 
 ment of her dimpled shoulders and the white fall of 
 her throat. She remembered with some amusement 
 Andrew s preconceived ideas. He was beside Mrs. 
 Dellabarre, and she thought, as she caught his expres 
 sion, that he was rather consciously examining his 
 plate. Irma Dellabarre was not as copiously revealed 
 as Mrs. Challoner, and yet she gave the impression of 
 being more so, in a deep purple velvet dress that hid 
 one shoulder and gave to the other the malicious ap 
 pearance of an accident. Her hair was built high 
 above her forehead and fell about it in softening clus 
 ters. She wore one stone against her throat a point 
 of white fire against the dark throat. 
 
 " She looks like a portrait," Amy said, turning to 
 Mr. Bracken. 
 
 " Irma always paints a portrait." 
 
 But one of the Miss Teakes, determined not to let 
 him go, recalled him with a question. Amy waited. 
 In the glance he had given her, she had felt the divin 
 ing instinct of the man. He affected her with a 
 strange sense of intimacy. Without the need of effort, 
 in the first pleased meeting of their eyes, she felt he 
 comprehended her, her varying moods and contrary 
 impulses, her bewilderment before unchartered ex 
 periences, all the good and bad which lay undisciplined 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 67 
 
 within her, and to comprehend this without criticism 
 in his comprehension of many women. 
 
 Yet when, at length, he turned to her, she experi 
 enced a sudden embarrassment, that first unease which 
 two persons instinctively drawn to each other often 
 experience in sweeping away the opening formalities. 
 
 " How stupid I am I am boring him," she 
 thought, in the first moments of manufactured con 
 versation. 
 
 All at once she saw that he was watching her with 
 critical amusement. She began to laugh. 
 
 " How do you know what amuses me? " he asked. 
 
 " I do. You were admiring my social manner." 
 
 " Right. It is terrifically impressive." 
 
 " Then let s break the ice and really talk," she said 
 eagerly. 
 
 What! Say what we really think? But that s 
 unheard of! Such a thing is not permitted in good 
 society." 
 
 " Please." 
 
 " The responsibility be on your head," he said 
 gravely. " But why do you want to put me to such a 
 test?" 
 
 " If I told you, it would sound very flat," she said, 
 smiling at him. 
 
 In the easy distinction of his evening clothes, he 
 pleased her eye, always sensitive to harmonies of line 
 and color. 
 
 They looked at each other uncertainly, each im 
 pulsively attracted, and their glances seemed to run 
 ahead of their thoughts, in mute interrogation and 
 answer. 
 
 " Of course, there is only one thing that s interest 
 ing ourselves," he said, with a mischievous upward 
 
68 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 turn of his lips which were unusually sensitive for a 
 man. 
 
 She considered this in some doubt. It was of course 
 the only subject she longed to discuss, but she won 
 dered if this was but the prelude to a conventional 
 flirtation. 
 
 " Well, begin." 
 
 "Would you do it over again?" he said, with an 
 assumption of magisterial solemnity which robbed the 
 question of half its astounding impertinence. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Bracken ! " she exclaimed, taken utterly 
 off her guard, which was what he wished. 
 
 " Dear me, is not that the most natural question in 
 the world? " he said, lifting his eyebrows. " Walking 
 through the social jungle, I meet a young lady who 
 has the appearance of having eloped from boarding 
 school, a young lady who commands me to halt and 
 say what I think. Thereupon, I look at her and, won 
 dering many things, I ask a direct question. Of 
 course, if you wish to go back 
 
 " Heaven forbid ! " she said hastily. She looked at 
 him with a quizzical smile, which brought her eye 
 brows into their odd angle and suddenly determined 
 to give him as good as he sent, said, 
 
 " Question for question ? " 
 
 " Agreed." 
 
 "If you had to make up your mind again " she 
 glanced over again to where Irma was sitting 
 " would you do the same thing? " 
 
 He laughed without embarrassment. 
 
 " Your question is more impertinent than mine," he 
 said, without pretense of misunderstanding. " And 
 some one has been gossiping." 
 
 " Then you admit yours was, too," she said, with a 
 satisfied nod. " Well,- sir ? " 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 69 
 
 " I perceive you are in love with your husband," 
 he said evasively. 
 
 She saw that he intended to treat her as a child and, 
 adopting his tone of banter, replied : 
 
 " You see, I am still a bride. Now the secret is out. 
 I am quite hopeless. Why such a serious look ? Pity 
 ing me ? " 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 " Or perhaps my husband? " 
 
 " Perhaps the husband," he said slowly, looking at 
 her more attentively. 
 
 " Really, this is the most extraordinary conversa 
 tion ! " she cried. " Are you making fun of me, or 
 do you always shock people to break the ice ? " 
 
 " Who changed the conversation?" 
 
 She looked down at the table, running her fingers 
 among the assembled forks, quite eager to hear more, 
 wondering how far he understood her, afraid lest he 
 might perceive too much and yet not certain of either 
 his seriousness or his bantering attitude. 
 
 You know, I believe you mean it." 
 
 " But I do ! The cards, my dear lady, are stacked 
 against him. You can no more escape your destiny 
 than the moth the flame." 
 
 " Are you going to prophesy? " she said, with one 
 of those fugitive looks with which only very young or 
 very innocent women give the impression of retreating 
 into an inner shelter. 
 
 "Shall I?" 
 
 She hesitated, and again the feeling came over her 
 that she had experienced in their first meeting that 
 this man who had known many women knew her in 
 stinctively. She was not sure that she wanted her own 
 forebodings to be reawakened. 
 
70 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Perhaps later," she said, glancing about to see if 
 Miss Teake was eavesdropping. " It would be rather 
 difficult now, wouldn t it? You see, I am already 
 frightened." 
 
 " Shall we return to sterilized conversation then? " 
 
 " Anything but that ! Tell me who these people 
 are." 
 
 "Who interests you?" 
 
 " Mrs. Bracken. Your sister-in-law, is n t she ? " 
 she said instantly, glancing across the table at the 
 woman who had attracted her from the first. 
 
 " Really ? " he said appreciatively. " I should have 
 thought the beautiful Mrs. Challoner " 
 
 " No, no plaster of Paris," she said maliciously. 
 
 " Beware ! She 11 become a bosom friend." 
 
 " Tell me about your sister-in-law." 
 
 " Claire? " he said, and the raillery went out of his 
 voice. " There are not two like her in the world ! " 
 
 " I believe it," she said pensively. " I have never 
 seen such kind eyes." 
 
 For a moment they were silent, studying her. 
 Among this courtesan stripping and license of attitude 
 and speech, Mrs. Bracken remained the gentlewoman. 
 Her gown of russet silk interpreted but did not reveal. 
 The light ashen hair flowed without artifice about the 
 clear temples. On her neck she wore a single emerald 
 pendant in an old Renaissance setting. Yet she stood 
 out from all the rest by the distinction of her bearing, 
 her poise, the cultured modulation of her voice, and 
 the graciousness of her expression, which lay in the 
 serenity of her eyes, the serenity of one who still re 
 tains the child s faith in the good of the world or 
 perhaps has come to charity through some suffering, 
 nobly endured. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 71 
 
 At this moment, as though aware of their interest, 
 Mrs. Bracken turned and, their eyes meeting, Amy 
 smiled impulsively and shyly. She looked a moment 
 surprised, divined that she was being discussed, and 
 responded by a little friendly nod of her head. 
 
 " Allan, my brother, is beside Mrs. Challoner," he 
 said, indicating a young fellow, who was laughing 
 boyishly in a serio-comic attitude of flattery. One of 
 the best young scamps in the world irresponsible 
 as a kitten, lovable as you make them, without a spot 
 of malice in him, and always in trouble up to his ears, 
 despite the best of intentions." 
 
 " Would that describe you a little? " 
 
 " In the past, perhaps. We re of the same stock," 
 he said lightly. 
 
 " I wonder if they are happy together? " she asked 
 impulsively. 
 
 " Claire has made everything of him," he con 
 tinued. " He might have ended in the gutter. In 
 stead, he has become a useful citizen. He adores his 
 home, his children. He is interested in a dozen activi 
 ties, and he has discovered that he has a mind. He is 
 fortunate." 
 
 "Does he know it?" 
 
 " He knows it," he said emphatically. 
 
 " You have a very high opinion of her?" she said, 
 looking at him. 
 
 " Yes, very." 
 
 The feeling which he had shown surprised her 
 had there been more than just this reverence, she 
 wondered ? 
 
 " I did n t expect you to take this view of life," she 
 said, still in her reverie. 
 
 " It s rather too intimate," he said, and returned 
 
72 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 to the lightness of his first manner. " Shall we 
 gossip? " 
 
 " Don t," she said impulsively. " I like you better 
 this way." 
 
VIII 
 
 WHEN they left the men for the parlor, the man- 
 vais quart d heure which Amy had feared be 
 gan. Mrs. Dellabarre, not yet decided to accept such 
 a formidable rival, turned her over to the mercy of 
 the others. Amy, after a moment of hesitation, 
 drew up her chair beside Mrs. Challoner and Mrs. 
 Lightbody. 
 
 " Mrs. Challoner, I have been admiring you all 
 through dinner," she began timidly. " I have never 
 seen anything so darling as your gown." 
 
 " This rag ? Oh, really ! I was about to throw it 
 away," said Mrs. Challoner, favoring her with a stare 
 and, turning to Mrs. Lightbody, she added, " I m 
 done with Prandish. The line he gives you this year 
 is something abominable." 
 
 " Gracious, Gladys, I should say so ! There really 
 is only one place in New York," said Mrs. Lightbody, 
 without deeming it necessary to specify such common 
 knowledge. 
 
 " And who is that? " said Amy, and, determined to 
 be agreeable, she moved her chair around Mrs. Chal- 
 loner s half -averted shoulder. 
 
 11 Why, Franceline, of course!" 
 
 Both ladies turned in astonishment, while their 
 glances traveled over her gown, which, though suffi 
 ciently expensive, was not from Franceline. 
 
 " Rudy was certainly leaning hard on his fork to* 
 night," said Mrs. Lightbody, in a confidential whis- 
 
74 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 per, which was her slangy way of describing his 
 familiar condition. 
 
 " Poor Irma, he does hang on ! " said Mrs. 
 Challoner. 
 
 They had another row this morning." 
 
 "About whom? * said Mrs. Challoner, interested. 
 
 " Monte, of course." 
 
 " I don t see how she stands it. I should n t blame 
 her for anything." 
 
 " What s Jack doing ? " said Mrs. Lightbody, in 
 quiring of the husband. 
 
 " How do I know ? " said Mrs. Challoner amiably. 
 
 " I say, Gladys, everything s poky around here," 
 said Mrs. Lightbody, " what do you say to getting up 
 a party for to-morrow? I can phone." 
 
 All at once, as though aware of an eavesdropper, 
 she stopped and looked at Amy, who, unable to utter 
 a word, had sat rigidly, completely isolated. 
 
 "What do they expect me to do?" she thought 
 angrily. " Get up and move away ? " 
 
 "We ll talk it over later," said Mrs. Challoner 
 significantly. 
 
 At the moment when this public snubbing had be 
 come evident to every one, Mrs. Bracken rose and, 
 approaching them, held out her hand to Amy, saying: 
 
 " Come over and talk to me a little. I want to 
 really know you." This unexpected overture changed 
 on the instant the attitude of all toward Mrs. Forres 
 ter. Mrs. Bracken came of a family which for five 
 generations had never deviated from its ideals, pro 
 ducing men of distinction and women educated to be 
 helpmates and mothers, whose conduct did not vary 
 with the wind of fashion but rested on the rock of 
 self-respect one of those families, the true moral 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 75 
 
 aristocrats of America, who continue steadfast in their 
 traditions, despite the torrential spread of a new poly 
 glot society. She had the reputation of being difficult 
 in her friendship and implacable in her judgments, 
 but the entree to her house was a passport everywhere. 
 " Here is a quiet corner," she said, and, still holding 
 Amy s hand, she drew her to a window seat removed 
 from the general conversation. " What a child you 
 are! But you held your ground beautifully! " 
 
 Amy s eyes filled with tears at the gentleness of her 
 tone. She looked at her, and it seemed to her, as she 
 met the clear, untroubled eyes, that she could have 
 opened her heart to her on the instant. Mrs. Bracken 
 perceived the emotion she had caused and gave her a 
 little pressure of the hand. 
 
 " There, my dear. They are cats, but it is a tribute, 
 you know." 
 
 Amy hardly heard what was said. She was gazing 
 at her, carried away by an impulse she did not com 
 prehend. 
 
 " I wish I could be your friend," she said abruptly. 
 
 " Perhaps you will be." 
 
 " I feel that I could talk to you about anything," 
 she said quickly, " but I know to be your friend is a 
 great privilege." 
 
 " Yes ; I don t give my friendship easily, but I be 
 lieve I could be a friend to you a real friend." 
 
 They looked at each other for a moment, surprised 
 at the abruptness of their liking, yet knowing that 
 their sympathy was mutual. 
 
 " Oh, please, I wish you would, Mrs. Bracken ; it 
 would mean so much to me ! " 
 
 " Then that s decided," she answered, with a smile. 
 " This is not the place for a serious conversation, but 
 
76 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 some day we 11 have one if you wish it. Now tell 
 me a little about yourself." 
 
 When, later, the men came in, Allan and Monte 
 Bracken joined them, visibly surprised at the cordial 
 ity of their attitude. 
 
 " Well, that is a compliment," said Monte Bracken 
 when, the dancing having begun, they installed them 
 selves in the conservatory for a breathing spell. " I 
 never saw Claire go to any one like that before." 
 
 " She took pity on me." 
 
 Bracken looked amused. 
 
 " The ladies were showing their claws, eh ? " 
 
 "And I felt them!" 
 
 " You won t be let in without a fight, you know." 
 
 " I don t know whether I want to," she said pen 
 sively. " Is it worth it ? Tell me about your sister- 
 in-law. She must be a very happy person." 
 
 He picked a sprig of ivy from a near-by bower, 
 nodded and said solemnly, 
 
 " Very very happy ! " 
 
 " I wish I were like her," she said impulsively. 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 " Worried about my prophecy? " 
 
 She looked at him and then, drawing back into her 
 chair, half covered her face with her fan, so that her 
 blue eyes looked over at him, big and round and a 
 little apprehensive. 
 
 " Go on." 
 
 "You defy the oracle?" 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 " Why are the cards stacked against my husband? " 
 
 The situation amused him, nor was it new. He 
 looked at her with a slanted, quizzical glance and be 
 gan slowly, with a mixture of impertinence and light 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 77 
 
 good humor with which he knew how to make accept 
 able the most personal disquisition. 
 
 " Because you are destined to become a profession 
 ally beautiful woman, like Mrs. Challoner over there." 
 He nodded toward the dancers, who flashed across 
 the doorway and, with an assumption of impersonal 
 ity, continued: " If I were seeking to compliment you, 
 I would not put it in the future. You are not there 
 yet. You are on the threshold. There is a whole art 
 to acquire or a profession, as you wish. That s 
 what interests me about you what is coming. To 
 me, every beautiful woman is a potential tragedy." 
 
 " In what way? " she said, too interested to be self- 
 conscious. 
 
 " A tragedy to those she consumes and exhausts." 
 He drew back, studying her with more interest as 
 he became interested in the subject. " You see, a 
 beautiful woman the professionally beautiful kind 
 quite a distinction, you know is a social ad 
 venturer. She arrives as self-made men arrive; there 
 is much in common between them." He smiled, 
 adding more lightly : " I suppose at the present mo 
 ment, you have made all sorts of good resolutions and 
 you believe in them. Futility! Throw them away! 
 You are doomed, my dear Mrs. Forrester. Society 
 needs you. You will rule it and be its slave. You 
 don t believe me ? " 
 
 " I should not let him be talking to me this way," 
 she thought, " and yet it is quite impersonal." Her 
 curiosity was aroused at the half-serious, half-humor 
 ous way in which he dissected her. Was he only 
 amusing himself? 
 
 " Can t I have a will of my own? " she said. 
 
 "A what?" 
 
78 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " A will of my own." 
 
 * You will have fashions of conducts, fashions of 
 thinking, but will that does not exist! A profes 
 sionally beautiful woman must always be in style. She 
 dresses, acts and thinks as other beautiful women do 
 because her life is to compete with them, and to 
 compete with them she must attack them on their own 
 territory. You are not convinced? Look at the dear 
 things to-night." He reassured himself with a glance 
 as to the modesty of his companion s decollete and 
 indicated, with a wave of his hand, the daring shoul 
 ders and throats of the dancers, adding : " Women, 
 women, you are a perpetual delight! You are un 
 fathomable. If you had suggested, five years ago, to 
 any woman present that she would come to dress like 
 this, how indignant she would have been! You may 
 have the same feeling to-night but next year you 
 will do what Irma and Mrs. Challoner do, because 
 they do it." 
 
 Amy, thinking of her cerise gown which Andrew 
 had found too daring, laughed guiltily. 
 
 " Well, yes; but that s only a question of dress." 
 
 "Pardon me question of style, and everything 
 else will be a question of style. The dear ladies who 
 tried to snub you to-night will become your inseparable 
 friends the moment they see they cannot down you. 
 And you, on your part, will give more time to them, 
 your dearest rivals, than to your own family. You 
 will have a sort of collective morality. You find Irma 
 surrounded by a collection of young fetch-and-carrys. 
 You 11 establish your own brigade or try to steal hers 
 from her. You 11 flirt as Irma flirts. You 11 dare as 
 Irma dares. You 11 break the conventions as Irma 
 breaks them." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 79 
 
 "Why always Irma?" 
 
 " Oh, Irma is the perfect type of a society model. 
 She has wit, she has taste, and she has a thorough 
 instinct for avoiding the ice where it begins to grow 
 thin. She is thoroughly convinced of the innocence 
 of all her intentions in fact, she is quite capable of 
 founding a school of modern social philosophy." 
 
 "Aren t you making us out very immoral persons?" 
 
 "Immoral? Of course," he said cheerfully. "You 
 are all profoundly immoral, but not in the sense you 
 attach. You are immoral because you are irre 
 sponsible, because you are not really necessary. Im 
 moral in another sense no ! That s the worst and 
 the best of you. You avoid great emotions. They 
 are too disturbing, and you can t take the time in 
 society. You seek safe little emotions to be con 
 stantly amused. The strongest emotion Irma has is 
 jealousy of Gladys Challoner. They spend their lives 
 attacking each other, poaching on each other s pre 
 serves. They outrival each other in display; they are 
 indispensable to each other ; they call each other up on 
 the telephone every morning and tear each other to 
 pieces every night. Do you think any man can com 
 pete with the strength of such an attachment ? " He 
 stopped, laughed as a man who verges on an epigram, 
 pleased at his discovery. " Gladys is a moral light 
 ning-rod to Irma it s what keeps her moral, in 
 the ordinary sense of the word." 
 
 Womanlike, while listening to this diatribe, deliv 
 ered half playfully, half seriously, she was seeking 
 the personal explanation. Was he still in love with 
 Irma Dellabarre? At the thought that this might be 
 the reason of the satire, she felt a sharp pinch of 
 annoyance which caused her to say acidly, 
 
8o VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " And this is what I am to become ? Thank you. 
 You have a very bad opinion of me." 
 
 "I? Not at all! You ll see society needs you. 
 You will be one of its martyrs. You must be admired, 
 imitated, and torn to pieces regularly, or society would 
 be a very dull place. In a year or two, when I come 
 back again, I shall hope to be your very good friend. 
 Who knows, when next we meet, I may be foolish 
 enough to lose my head ! " 
 
 She laughed at the casual way he declared this 
 impertinence, as though offering her an atoning 
 compliment. 
 
 " Even with all your wisdom? " 
 
 " Oh, the wisest is the most vulnerable ! " 
 
 " You know, I should be very angry at you, but 
 you have the most amusing way of saying the most 
 impossible things. Tell me, why do you talk to me 
 like this ? Is it just to amuse yourself ? " 
 
 He looked at her and said solemnly, 
 
 " I am prophesying, you know ! " 
 
 " So, in your eyes I am doomed ? " 
 
 " There will be compensations," he said, with a 
 smile. 
 
 She dropped her fan for a moment and raised her 
 eyes, meditative, solemn, disturbed, in a long glance 
 of inquiry. 
 
 " I believe you are more than half serious! " 
 
 " Serious never ! I never would be so imperti 
 nent as to tell the truth in a serious manner." 
 
 " But if I permit you," she added, after a slight 
 hesitation. 
 
 " Very well, then, I warn you you can t play the 
 game like Irma. If you have a spark of real emotion, 
 it is dangerous to feed on sensation, even little sensa- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 81 
 
 tions. They who live by sensations shall perish by 
 sensations! A man with a conscience and a woman 
 with a heart have no place here ! In the end " 
 He hesitated a moment ; his eyes met hers and looked 
 down through them into the secret caverns with an 
 impetuous boldness he had not shown before 
 u yes, in the end, there will be trouble. Ah, not 
 just now later, when you wake up." 
 
 " You don t think I am now, then," she said, avoid 
 ing his glance. 
 
 ".No; I do not." 
 
 There was a long pause, during which she brought 
 the soft, undulating feathers of her fan back again 
 across her face. 
 
 " Are you really leaving soon? " she said, presently. 
 
 " Yes ; I am going to take up my post in Madrid 
 immediately." 
 
 " You are really a terrifying person to talk to," she 
 said. " I don t know whether I d care to repeat this 
 experience." 
 
 " If I have told you the truth," he said quietly, " I 
 have tried to keep to generalities." 
 
 She nodded Andrew had not been mentioned. 
 
 At this moment, Tody Dawson descended on them 
 like a runaway tower. 
 
 " Here, I say, Monte ! Amy, we ve been sending 
 out search parties for you ! " 
 
 She sprang up, genuinely glad for the interruption, 
 startled at the intimacy which had grown over them. 
 She felt annoyed, angry at herself, for the ease with 
 which she had revealed herself, resenting also the 
 impersonal quality of his curiosity, so utterly devoid 
 of any tribute to her. No one had ever approached 
 her in that attitude. 
 
82 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " He thinks I am only a child," she thought 
 impatiently. 
 
 She determined, she did not know exactly why, that 
 she would give him no further opportunity. When, 
 later in the evening, he came up to ask her to dance, 
 she refused. 
 
IX 
 
 IT was well after two when the Forresters went to 
 their rooms. The maid, dozing in the hall, sprang 
 up hastily. Amy sent her away after the mystifying 
 process of unhooking had been accomplished and slip 
 ping into a negligee, vibrantly awake, stood at the 
 ivy-clad window looking down on the spectacle of the 
 departing cars; the awaking throb of the motors, 
 the sweeping, monstrous eyes searching the night, the 
 will-o -the-wisp flights across the countryside. 
 
 The echo of many compliments was pleasant in her 
 ear, the consciousness not only of the evening s suc 
 cess but of all that the future would bring hung in 
 her imagination like a disturbing perfume. She found 
 herself recalling many things Monte Bracken had said 
 to her and admitting their justice. She had seen her 
 worth in the eyes of the women, feminine mirrors, 
 which told more than the lip flattery of the men. 
 But she was still an amateur, as Bracken had said, 
 and she found herself thinking of Irma Dellabarre, 
 of her poise, her exquisite taste, the charm of her 
 manner, the ease of her silences, the naturalness and 
 elegance of her movements. 
 
 " If I were a man, I should be crazy about her," 
 she said to herself. " I wonder if he really is n t." 
 
 " Not sleeping? " said the voice of her husband. 
 
 "No, indeed!" 
 
 She left the window. Andrew wandered in, a cigar 
 
84 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 in hand. His lawn tie was pulled loose. He had 
 thrown off coat and vest, preparing to retire. He was 
 in flowered suspenders, rosebuds on a satin back 
 ground. The sight of these suspenders affected her 
 disagreeably the disillusioning intimacy of marriage. 
 
 "Didn t you bring a dressing-gown?" she asked 
 irritably. 
 
 "No why?" 
 
 " You 11 catch cold after dancing," she said hastily, 
 surprised herself at this first critical impulse toward 
 her husband. 
 
 " I did very little dancing," he said shortly. " I 
 must take some lessons to keep up. I didn t know 
 you were so fond of it." 
 
 He started to light the cigar, took a puff and 
 stopped guiltily, quenching it. 
 
 " I beg your pardon. I m absent-minded to-night." 
 He looked at her with shining eyes. " Very proud of 
 you this evening, Yum Yum." 
 
 " I m glad of that," she said, ashamed of her 
 annoyance. 
 
 "The prettiest there," he said, nodding. He 
 stopped before her, his head on one side, his eyes half 
 closed, studying the dainty figure. 
 
 " What is it? Did I do something wrong? " 
 
 " No, no. I was just trying to figure out. Let s 
 see." 
 
 He took up a scarf and, freeing the negligee, draped 
 it about her shoulders. The decollete thus exposed 
 was in the manner of Mrs. Challoner. 
 
 " What a boy you are ! " she said, with sparkling 
 eyes. 
 
 " Turn around. A little lower in the back." 
 
 When he had contemplated the delicate slope of 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 85 
 
 her shoulders, the whiteness of the skin, the slender 
 and graceful column of the neck, he said : 
 
 " I knew it ! Not one can touch you ! As for Mrs. 
 Challoner, we ll settle her!" he added proudly, even 
 defiantly. 
 
 She watched him, amused at this sudden conver 
 sion, perceiving the working of new ideas behind his 
 contemplation. 
 
 " So the cerise gown " 
 
 " Mrs. Dellabarre dresses beautifully," he inter 
 rupted, smiling guiltily. " Young lady, some new 
 dresses at once!" He looked at her again. "Mrs. 
 Challoner, indeed ! " he said indignantly. 
 
 Following his gesture she turned to the mirror. 
 The daring of the deep decollete he had arranged, the 
 flaming scarf playing over the soft slopes of her vel 
 vety skin, brought to her eyes a glow of pleasure. 
 She stood staring at the prophetic figure which con 
 fronted her. 
 
 " Don t spoil me, Andrew ! " she said, turning ab 
 ruptly and drawing her negligee hastily about her. 
 
 He had flung himself down in an armchair, plunged 
 in a brown study, so absorbed that, forgetful of the 
 past offense, he had again lit his cigar. 
 
 " What now ? " she asked, surprised at his unusual 
 mood. The satin suspenders, worked in rosebuds, 
 stood before her eyes wherever she looked. What 
 had possessed him to get them? Other men, like 
 Monte Bracken, would never appear at such a dis 
 advantage. He put his hand up as though to open the 
 collar which cut into his neck. 
 
 " If he does, I shall scream," she thought. 
 
 But he contented himself with an easing of the 
 corners. He blew out a great smoke ring. 
 
86 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " It s quite a revelation coming here," he said, 
 speaking to himself. " What do you think it can cost 
 to run this place ? " 
 
 " Heavens ! How do I know ? " 
 
 " You like it? " he said, looking at her fixedly. 
 
 " I adore it naturally." 
 
 " Nothing second chop here," he said, wagging his 
 head. " When we go back we 11 make a bonfire 
 of what we ve got." 
 
 " But Andrew " 
 
 " It s trash. This has opened my eyes. Make a 
 friend of Mrs. Dellabarre. She can teach you every 
 thing. Look at the way she runs her house, the order, 
 the charm of it! I don t know how she does it 
 but I m going to learn. Yes, sir ; I m going to have 
 a home like this." 
 
 " Andrew, but how can we ? " 
 
 " Why, all we need is a million," he said, unable to 
 resist a touch of that humorous braggadocio which is 
 the zest of the American parvenu. " Best and damn 
 the expense ! Amy, do you want it say the word 
 you shall have it ! " 
 
 Years before her father had dedicated his existence 
 to her in almost the same words ! 
 
 "Yes but " 
 
 " It means a few years plugging, but, by Jove, it s 
 worth it!" he said boisterously. The feeling of his 
 own unimportance in whatever sphere was one his 
 mounting nature could not tolerate, and the lesson of 
 the evening had been a hard one. He rose with the 
 dogged fighting face of the old athlete. " Look here ; 
 we re going to enjoy life to the fullest, you and I. 
 We re going to have everything life can give 
 and we re going to have the best. Andrew B. For- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 87 
 
 raster is going to surprise a few people around these 
 parts ! " 
 
 She understood. 
 
 "You ve decided to accept Mr. Gunther s offer!" 
 
 " Within ten minutes after I got here," he said 
 beaming. "What! Are n t you pleased ?" 
 
 "Yes, yes; I suppose so if you want it. You 
 take my breath away," she said soberly. She could 
 not have told herself why, but the prospect frightened 
 her. It seemed to her that she was dragging him 
 out of his existence into a world she coveted. 
 
 " My, how serious we are ! " 
 
 " But this afternoon, Andrew, you said we had 
 enough," she began. 
 
 He dismissed the objection with a wave of his hand. 
 
 " This afternoon, my dear girl, I did n t know what 
 money was worth ! " 
 
 " If you go, I go with you," she said impulsively. 
 
 " You 11 do nothing of the kind," he said emphati 
 cally. " You begin the fight here, and I 11 tackle the 
 other side." He caught her up and swung her to his 
 shoulder, despite her laughing protests. There ! 
 People are going to be mighty proud to know Mrs. 
 Andrew B. Forrester ! " 
 
 He set her down with sudden gravity and said joy 
 fully, what, many times later, he was to recall with 
 bitterness : 
 
 " And this morning I was satisfied ! Fool that I 
 was!" 
 
 An hour later, he was still awake, absorbed in 
 dreams of ambition, filled with the zest of new worlds 
 to conquer. 
 
 Amy, in the next room, heard him turning in his 
 bed, mumbling to himself. She found it difficult to 
 
88 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 rest. Long after she heard his heavy breathing, she 
 remained awake. The haunted silence of the country 
 night drew her out to the sighing of drifting leaves 
 and sent her imagination wandering into the future. 
 She felt almost as though she had committed a crime. 
 What was this new world into which she was draw 
 ing him? Would it bring them together or insensibly 
 separate them? Something in her better nature cried 
 out strongly : 
 
 " He is making a mistake. This is not the way. 
 He ought to take from you make you follow him ! " 
 
 All at once she sprang up and went to his bedside. 
 
 "Andrew!" 
 
 She said it softly, once, twice, and then turned away. 
 Back in her bed, she wondered at her emotion. Why 
 was she afraid? 
 
 " No one could ever be so kind," she said to herself 
 resolutely. " He will always hold me by that ! " 
 
 Her rest was fitful, disturbed by the echoes of catchy 
 music which turned about her. All night she seemed 
 to be dancing. Toward morning, she fell into a heavy 
 sleep, in which she had a curious dream. 
 
 She was in the midst of a great ballroom and, 
 whirling about her, were her father, Fifi, Uncle Tom, 
 Mr. Dellabarre, every one she knew. She saw Andrew 
 dancing with Mrs. Challoner, dancing very heavily, 
 tripping and hopelessly muddled in his steps until 
 Mrs. Challoner stopped suddenly and exclaimed: 
 
 " How absurd for you to ask me to dance ! Why, 
 you don t know the first thing about it ! " 
 
 Every woman that Andrew invited to dance shook 
 her head and laughed. All at once, to her horror, she 
 perceived that he was in suspenders, white satin sus 
 penders, worked with rosebuds ! 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 89 
 
 Then she was dancing with him, piloting him 
 through the swinging crowd. At first he stumbled, 
 and she heard a titter in the crowd. When she looked 
 round, they were alone on the glistening floor. 
 
 " Every one s stopped dancing," he said nervously. 
 
 " Don t stop, go on ! " she said angrily. " They 
 shan t make you ridiculous ! " Little by little his awk 
 wardness disappeared, his steps became smoother. 
 Some one began to applaud. " Faster," she whispered, 
 "faster!" 
 
 His arm became stronger. She no longer piloted 
 him. It was his hand which guided her deftly. She 
 was astonished at the rhythm and harmony of his 
 movements. 
 
 " But it s wonderful Andrew is a wonderful 
 dancer! Why have n t I noticed it before? " she said. 
 
 And all at once, she looked up and saw she was 
 dancing with Monte Bracken. 
 
 "You!" 
 
 He smiled his critical, amused smile. 
 
 " You see." 
 
 " But why have you come? " 
 
 " Because you did n t answer my question." 
 
 "What question?" 
 
 " Would you do it over again ? " 
 
 Then every one seemed to be rushing about them; 
 the great chandeliers overhead were swaying like a 
 surging sea, the music thundered in her ears and she 
 woke with a cry. 
 
 Andrew was in the room in a great coat, ready to 
 leave. It was ten o clock. 
 
 " A nightmare ? " he said, laughing. " You ve 
 been tossing and mumbling to yourself at a great 
 rate." 
 
90 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Yes, yes." 
 
 " What frightened you ? " 
 
 " I fell down-stairs or something or other," she 
 said hastily. 
 
TRMA DELLABARRE came in shortly after in a 
 -* fluffy dressing gown, with Mon Amour s smutty 
 nose peering from a pocket. 
 
 " I ve ordered the darling s breakfast up here, and 
 we can be as lazy as we want," she said, embracing 
 Amy affectionately. " Kitty has had a telephone from 
 New York and wants us to run up this afternoon for 
 a spree. No ; don t get up. You re a picture just 
 as you are. What a fascinating bed-cap ! " 
 
 " I m afraid I m awfully late," said Amy, making 
 friends with the Pekinese. 
 
 " Late not a bit ! I get up with the chickens," 
 said Irma, who had been called at ten. " My dear, 
 it s wonderful that Mon Amour goes to you like that. 
 He hardly ever does. He s never even accepted Rudy. 
 Poor Rudy, he hates so to be barked at ! " 
 
 Amy, in company with all Irma s acquaintances, 
 could never be brought to see Mr. Dellabarre under 
 the affectionate sobriquet of " Rudy." But Irma s 
 public attitude toward her husband was a thing of 
 mystery. 
 
 At this moment, the maid arrived with the three 
 breakfasts. Mrs. Dellabarre examined with maternal 
 solicitude the cream and bread destined for the favor 
 ite and held a consultation as to the menu of the day. 
 
 " Louise, tell Gervais that he has been giving Mon 
 Amour too much red meat lately. Yes; you have 
 been eating like a little pig," she added, shaking her 
 
92 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 finger at the blinking Mon Amour, " and your little 
 turn-turn won t stand it, no it won t. No more tour- 
 nedos for a while, Louise. A little sweetbread for 
 lunch, and be sure it s cooked enough for to 
 morrow, some chicken livers. He 11 be furious, I 
 know, but he has the most delicate digestion," she 
 added to Amy, "because he is a little prince, he is! " 
 
 " Miss Bane wants to know if you d like to see the 
 children," said Louise, " because they re to go to their 
 grandma s." 
 
 " Of course I do. But not now tell them to come 
 down after lunch," said Mrs. Dellabarre, who had 
 Mon Amour on her lap and was coaxing him to accept 
 his saucer. "My dear, he s the most jealous thing! 
 If I kiss the children, it sends him into a perfect fury." 
 
 " What a darling! " said Amy, smiling inwardly. 
 
 You must get one at once. They re so affection 
 ate! I ll select one for you," said Mrs. Dellabarre, 
 who was never satisfied until she had imposed on her 
 friends her doctor, her grocer, her dressmaker, and 
 her dog-fancier. " It s really astonishing he takes to 
 you," she added, as though, by that, Amy had taken 
 new value in her eyes. " But you are so dainty and 
 pretty, it s no wonder. You know, I was n t prepared 
 to like you at all." 
 
 "Really?" 
 
 " I was just a little bit jealous. It s the first time 
 Rudy ever invited any one without consulting me. 
 And you know, or rather you will know, that wives 
 must defend their rights." 
 
 " I m sorry. I did n t realize." 
 
 " I m delighted. You ve won us all, you lovely 
 child!" said Irma frankly. "And then, you ve put 
 Gladys s nose out of joint." She began to laugh. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 93 
 
 " She thought I did it on purpose. Gladys is my best 
 friend. Your ears must be tingling with all the com 
 pliments you Ve had! " 
 
 " Much chance I have when you re around ! " said 
 Amy, returning the compliment. " It s a very good 
 thing my husband went away after all he had to 
 say about you last night." 
 
 Irma preferred the admiration which husbands do 
 not confide to their wives; yet all flattery pleased 
 her. 
 
 " How did you get on with Monte Bracken ? " she 
 said casually. 
 
 " I had the feeling of being chopped up and sorted 
 into packages." 
 
 " Yes ; that s his way. Poor Monte ! " 
 
 " Why poor?" 
 
 " He s such a glorious failure," said Irma, pouring 
 out the coffee. " All his brains are wasted on nothing. 
 For Monte has brains. If he d only had to work for 
 his living, he d have been some one, and he knows it. 
 If only he had married the right sort of a wife! " she 
 added, thinking of herself. " However, all women 
 believe he s going to startle the world. What do you 
 say to Kitty s idea?" she continued, changing sud 
 denly. " We can pick up a couple of men in New 
 York and do something amusing. There s really 
 nothing doing here at all." 
 
 " Why, I think it would be lots of fun," said Amy, 
 a little surprised at this restlessness. 
 
 " The truth is, Kitty s having a tremendous flirta 
 tion with Joe Barrisdale you know, the one who 
 married Anita Felton," said Irma, who made a short 
 disquisition in genealogy. " They re separated. I 
 believe there s some question of divorce, so Kitty has 
 
94 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 to be very careful. The joke about it is that Kitty is 
 crazy to have us believe she s a romantic character." 
 
 " And is n t she? " said Amy, in surprise. 
 
 " Kitty ! " said Irma, who began to laugh. " Kitty, 
 my dear, is a little New England prude who s scared 
 to death the moment she s left alone with a man. My 
 dear, I know they ve told me ! Only, she s fright 
 ened to death we 11 suspect it. She s bound to be 
 talked about if it kills her. Oh, you 11 find lots like 
 her." 
 
 " And lots who are not," said Amy, with a smile. 
 
 " Who ever knows," said Irma, shrugging her 
 shoulders and beginning to brush Mon Amour s silky 
 coat. " Most flirtations are harmless enough." She 
 became serious. " You 11 see. Men are not so des 
 perately taken with us as we imagine. When you 
 know you can get them you re satisfied. It s 
 human is n t it ? to want to know your power ? " 
 
 " Yes, I suppose so," said Amy pensively. 
 
 " I m not going to be an old scold and tell you all 
 the horrors of marriage and how to manage your 
 husband," said Irma, smiling. " Only, lots of things 
 may puzzle you, and I don t want you to misunder 
 stand me." 
 
 At this, Amy could not repress a smile. 
 
 " I see it 11 be quite an amusing party to-night." 
 
 Irma, seeing that she did not have to do with a fool, 
 said, with great frankness : 
 
 " Oh, yes ; I like to play too. Exploring is such 
 fun when you are sure of yourself." 
 
 "And you are?" said Amy, enjoying this confes 
 sion, which brought them to equality. 
 
 " It s a question of principle," said Irma resolutely. 
 " It would be foolish to say that all the women we 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 95 
 
 know are innocent. They re not. With me, it s dif 
 ferent. I have my children and my husband and I 
 intend to be a virtuous wife. Why? Because I hate 
 vulgarity, perhaps. That would always stop me, if 
 nothing else. This is rather frank, but I feel we re 
 going to be close friends, and I don t want you to 
 misunderstand me do you see ? " 
 
 " I see," said Amy, with a twinkle in her blue eyes. 
 
 " Rudy, who is the best husband in the world," said 
 Irma contentedly, " can t understand that the wife 
 who keeps her admirers public is the last one to worry 
 over." She nodded, smiling to herself over some 
 stored-up confidence. " If I were a husband I should 
 only be suspicious when no man was attentive to my 
 wife. Be careful to make your husband understand 
 that, my dear," she added, unable to resist the tempta 
 tion of an older married woman to point the danger. 
 
 " Oh, Andrew s quite the other way," said Amy, 
 with a touch of pride. " Really he is the kindest being 
 in the world. He knows I m dreadfully young, and 
 he wants me to enjoy life just as though well, not 
 exactly as though I had n t married, but you know 
 what I mean. He wants me to play just as before, and 
 he is n t jealous in the least if other men are attentive. 
 Besides, I shall be careful to do nothing he does n t 
 like." 
 
 Irma, who underneath the lightness of her manner, 
 did not lack perspicacity, was thinking, " I wonder if 
 that pretty child knows the force she is playing with." 
 It was a little habit of hers, when a man strongly at 
 tracted her, to imagine the beneficent results which 
 would have come to him if he had been so fortunate 
 as to have won her as a wife. Aloud she said : 
 
 " He is very wise because, well, you are fright- 
 
o6 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 fully young and attractive, and it might have been 
 very hard for you." 
 
 " I am not half good enough for him," said Amy 
 in a burst of confidence. " At the bottom, I m terribly 
 frivolous, I m afraid." 
 
 " And a great flirt," said Mrs. Dellabarre, smiling 
 directly into her eyes. 
 
 *!?" 
 
 " Yes, my dear, you are, and the more dangerous 
 because it s instinctive. Look out. The dangerous 
 women are not the professional coquettes. Every 
 man who meets them is warned, and forewarned is 
 forearmed. No, no; if I were a man, I should be 
 mortally afraid of a little person, with the eyes of a 
 Madonna and quiet ways, who can still blush when 
 she s pleased." 
 
 " Is she warning me to keep off her preserves ? " 
 thought Amy to herself and, as she did not lack astute 
 ness or a sense of humor, she said, taking the older 
 woman s hand affectionately, " I m afraid I don t 
 know much about myself, but if you re going to let 
 me be friends, will you make an agreement. If I ever 
 trespass unconsciously, you 11 warn me ? " 
 
 This was said with a smile breaking about the little 
 red lips that gave a more direct significance to her 
 words. 
 
 "You are quite adorable!" said Irma, embracing 
 her and covering her confusion with a laugh. " We 11 
 call it a treaty, then. And to prove my generosity, 
 I 11 surrender one of my crocodiles. Oh, I d have to 
 do it, anyway ! " 
 
 Amy, who comprehended perfectly that she was 
 thus to acquire Mr. Tody Dawson, played the innocent. 
 
 "Crocodiles?" she said, raising her eyebrows. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 97 
 
 " That s my expression, my dear. Crocodiles are 
 admirers who want to look very dangerous but can t 
 move quickly enough to catch you and who like to 
 shed crocodile tears, of course. Tody and Jap are 
 young crocodiles quite harmless. Don t worry 
 about them. I ve trained them thoroughly. They 
 know quite well if they re docile and faithful and 
 don t try to use their teeth, we 11 reward them by 
 finding a good match for them." 
 
 "But are they so harmless-?" said Amy thoughtfully. 
 
 " Absolutely," said Irma, with conviction. She 
 turned to her with more friendliness. " My dear, let 
 me give you one piece of advice: When in a tight 
 corner, laugh. The most dangerous man can t stand 
 being laughed at!" She rose, cuddling Mon Amour 
 in her arms, suddenly solicitous. The only trouble 
 about to-night is what shall I do with this darling? 
 Mon Amour is so wretched to be left alone and 
 then the night air is so dangerous for the little dear, 
 and if anything happened to him oh, and about 
 to-night, of course I promised Kitty not to breathe 
 a word about Joe. She 11 do that herself the moment 
 she gets a chance at you you understand. And 
 as for Rudy, well, there s no use of course, there s 
 no real reason, but there s no use in mentioning whom 
 we meet poor Rudy is so fidgety, you know ! " 
 
XI 
 
 A FTER luncheon, Miss Bane ushered in the chil- 
 -*** dren, immaculate and rigid, as though they 
 moved in a spotless existence; Rudolph, Junior, aged 
 six, and Doris, who, at the age of eight, was shooting 
 up so rapidly that Irma never saw her without feeling 
 that she was doing it on purpose. Under the directing 
 eye of Miss Bane, they made the rounds of the table, 
 gravely performing precise courtesies and arrived 
 finally before their mother, whom they contemplated 
 in wondering admiration, as if she were some strange 
 fairy princess. Irma gathered them in impulsively, 
 one under each arm, and embraced them rapturously. 
 
 Mon Amour, from his high chair specially made, 
 began to bark in angry thin yapping. 
 
 " There, there ; I won t kiss them any more," said 
 Irma soothingly. " Did it make him jealous ? No ; 
 he shan t be teased." 
 
 " And how old are you, dear? " said Amy to Doris. 
 
 " Eleven, going on twelve," said that young lady 
 innocently. 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed Mrs. Dellabarre, in a shriek. 
 " Who told you to say that ? Tell me at once, Doris 
 at once." 
 
 " Mr. Laracy," said the child, looking frightened. 
 
 " Mr. Laracy is a very impertinent person," said 
 Irma, looking daggers at that young joker, who had 
 retired in convulsions of mirth behind his plate. But 
 as the laugh was general, she yielded to it. "Jap, 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 99 
 
 I 11 never forgive you she s quite too enormous 
 as it is ! " 
 
 " Why, mother ? " said Doris, opening her eyes. 
 
 " Never mind, my dear," said the mother. " Now 
 be good children and behave properly, and don t sit 
 down in the grass," she added impressively. 
 
 The children nodded solemnly and went out. The 
 next moment, they heard them whooping joyfully as 
 they ran out to the motor. 
 
 At five o clock the motors were brought out for a 
 run into the city. Laracy, in the runabout, shot ahead 
 with Mrs. Challoner, while Tody Dawson, at the wheel 
 of the great touring car, directed the stowing of the 
 valises, and a copious supply of rugs against the return 
 home. 
 
 "What about Mr. Challoner?" said Amy, who 
 found herself in the back seat with Kitty Lightbody. 
 
 "Jack? My, you are an innocent little thing!" 
 said Mrs. Lightbody, rolling her large china eyes. 
 " Take husbands along ! Say, child, we re out for a 
 good time." She began to hum merrily to herself, 
 wagging her head in time with her feet, which had 
 already begun to dance. " Lordy me, I m just expir 
 ing for one real spree ! " 
 
 " But there are not enough men to go around, it 
 seems to me," said Amy, concealing her amusement. 
 
 Mrs. Lightbody looked at her with a little suspicion. 
 
 " Did n t Irma tell you ? Charlie Pardee and Cap 
 tain Barrisdale are going to join us." 
 
 " I m really quite a country mouse," said Amy 
 maliciously, for she had certain scores to settle ; " you 
 must help me not to make any mistakes." 
 
 "In what way?" 
 
 " Tell me who belongs to whom. I don t want to 
 
ioo VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 make an enemy of Mrs. Challoner. Is it Pardee or 
 Barrisdale?" 
 
 Kitty laughed, looked quite flustered, laughed again 
 nervously, and finally made up her mind to explain. 
 
 " Charlie Pardee is Gladys s property," she said. 
 
 " And Captain Barrisdale is Irma s?" 
 
 " I guess not! " said Kitty Lightbody vehemently. 
 
 " Oh, I see ! " said Amy, laughing. " I was dense, 
 wasn t I?" 
 
 " When I say property " said Mrs. Lightbody, 
 hesitating between two fears, either to appear too 
 rapid or not rapid enough. 
 
 " Oh, I understand perfectly. All right ; I won t 
 trespass." 
 
 " Of course, when I say property, " said Mrs. 
 Lightbody, looking a little worried, " that s just an 
 expression." 
 
 " Now she s going to explain," thought Amy, and 
 she waited with delight while her companion floun 
 dered on. 
 
 " Of course, my dear, it s all innocent enough, at 
 least on my part. What Gladys does, the Lord knows ! 
 You can t stop all flirtation just because you re mar 
 ried can you ? " 
 
 " Evidently not." 
 
 " My dear, that would be too boresome. It would 
 make us hate marriage, wouldn t it?" said Mrs. 
 Lightbody, who prided herself on a sense of logic. 
 " Of course, you re just a bride, and that s different. 
 But after you re married a year or two, you can t be 
 going around all alone where other women are, can 
 you ? Ted that s my husband and I understand 
 each other perfectly. He would n t like it at all if no 
 men paid me attention." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 101 
 
 "Oh, that s what Andrew says to me :" 
 
 "Really, dear? Now, that is feerisible.-, : But; y(?]u 
 must n t misunderstand. 1 hefe s nothing : really 
 wrong in flirting the way I do. I like a good time. 
 Lord, we ve got so little time to enjoy ourselves in 
 this world," said Mrs. Lightbody, with a huge sigh. 
 " But, my dear, I m most careful. And I make men 
 understand that. If they want to fall in love with 
 me, all right; but they must respect me because I 
 am " 
 
 " A virtuous wife," suggested Amy softly. 
 
 " Er yes. Yes ; that s it," said Mrs. Lightbody, 
 so taken back that for several moments she stared 
 blankly ahead, without a word to say. 
 
 " And Mrs. Dellabarre ? " said Amy pensively, with 
 a significant look at Irma, who was bending over Tody 
 Dawson. " Is she a virtuous wife too? " 
 
 Mrs. Lightbody responded by raising her eyebrows. 
 
 " Irma oh, Irma s a mystery. Of course, I don t 
 mean to insinuate anything but Irma s strange, 
 very strange really, don t ask me ! " 
 
 At the end of a moment, Amy burst out laughing. 
 
 " What are you laughing at, my dear? " said Kitty 
 anxiously. 
 
 " Thinking what a splendid chaperon I m going 
 to be." 
 
 " My dear, I suppose you thought I was frightfully 
 sniffy last night," said Mrs. Lightbody, who had a 
 suspicion that her companion was laughing at her for 
 some reason or other and ascribed it to a desire to even 
 up the score. " I was ; but I did n t know who you 
 were, did I? You have to be so careful with 
 strangers." 
 
 " Oh, naturally," said Amy, who was too amused to 
 
102 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 cherish resentment 1 , for, by this time, she had come to 
 perceive Kitty Lightbody vS place as a foil to Irma and 
 Gladys Challoner - - a Heavy centerpiece, diverting 
 and useful for the purposes of contrast. 
 
 " But you must n t mind me it s just my way," 
 continued Mrs. Lightbody, whose bad manners were 
 instinctive. " Really, I admire you, my dear, and 
 I m sure I m going to like you enormously." 
 
 " Thank you." 
 
 " And I hope you 11 like me," added Mrs. Light- 
 body, who gave her confidence generously. " Every 
 one makes the goat of me, but I don t mind. I m for 
 a good time in this little burg a short life but a 
 merry one! Don t think I have n t had my trials I 
 have ! " she continued, screaming in Amy s ear against 
 the whip of the wind. " I would be in a sanatorium 
 now, if I wanted to take things seriously. But what s 
 the use and, then, your husband is n t worse than 
 any one else s, is he? What s the use of quarreling? 
 Let him go his way and you go yours. I m going to 
 enjoy myself, I am ! " 
 
 They were passing out of the open country into the 
 suburbs of New York, through the shanty civilization 
 of mingled hordes, who watched the swift passage of 
 the world from communal flats, with tired, memory- 
 haunted eyes, hoping for the day when they too would 
 move on. Incompleted factories; frame shelters to 
 let; parceled lots shaggy with unkempt grass elbow 
 to elbow with pretentious brick stores; garish trim 
 mings; noise and confusion; transitory thrift stag 
 nant acceptance of life crowded about them in these 
 multitudes who had camped the day before and would 
 crowd dustily on with the morrow. 
 
 They did not comprehend poverty or have the illu- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 103 
 
 minating vision which sees beyond mediocrity the 
 climbing- generations. Poverty and mediocrity of 
 fended their delicate nostrils like the odor of some 
 disfiguring disease. On Amy it had a depressing 
 effect like the conjured terrors of a sermon. Pov 
 erty existed as a warning the harvest of evil. It 
 brought her closer to Andrew, to what she had 
 dreamed of making of their marriage. While Kitty 
 was rushing on torrentially, she was peering out at the 
 soiled children, the old women set in the gaping win 
 dows, the bleakness and the shiftlessness that rolled 
 on like a Gipsy caravan. 
 
 She made sudden resolutions. Her husband should 
 never be to her like Kitty Lightbody s or Gladys Chal- 
 loner s. What she did, she would do openly, with his 
 full knowledge. A little season of youthful extrava 
 gance, to feel the fever of gaiety and to grow tired 
 of it. Afterward in a few years to grow into 
 womanhood and responsibility. It was right that she 
 should have this hour her woman s hour. Andrew 
 understood this need in her 
 
 But all at once, ahead, the great Williamsburg 
 Bridge, with its electric necklaces, leaped across the 
 melting night. Beyond the dusky, rolling river, shot 
 with glowworms, the blazing towers of New York 
 flamed against the horizon ; fiery balls of light, tossed 
 above the theatric flash of glass palaces which reached 
 upward to the conquest of the sky. 
 
 " Don t you love it ? " said Mrs. Lightbody ecstati 
 cally. " Don t you just LOVE it ? " 
 
 They glided skilfully among concentrating hordes, 
 checked and held in new multitudes, multitudes that 
 had the feeling of the mingled East. They were 
 caught in the jam of the holiday hour, surrounded by 
 
104 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 wabbling peddlers wagons, Hebrew, American, and 
 negro; trucks with brawny, half naked drivers; 
 thronged trolleys, white with the last warmth of the 
 summer; long, grim funeral processions jogging back 
 to life; strident, creaking cars packed with family 
 parties; mediocrity everywhere on wheels, happy, hot, 
 and noisy, eying them with covetous admiration as 
 they, the privileged caste, passed, unrelated and irre 
 sponsible, through the churning, struggling crowd. 
 
 They did not see the soiled present at their sides or 
 divine the challenge of the future. Ahead, across the 
 floating span, was the magic of the night, a breathless, 
 nervous city pursuing the phantom of pleasure with 
 the same dynamic intensity with which, during the 
 ugly day, it had scrambled for the wealth it would 
 leave for future generations to enjoy. The tired 
 masculine day was over, yielding to the glittering, 
 feminine night, and in the hanging gardens of the air 
 was the feeling of music and dancing. The night 
 was feminine ; the night was theirs. Each felt a quick 
 ening of the nerves, an awaking appetite, a sudden joy 
 of existence, a sense of possession by the right of her 
 position, her charm, and her power. All the extrava 
 gance of pleasure, all the multiple electric allurement 
 to the eye, the singing call of violins, the moving color 
 of laughing crowds existed for them. 
 
 Kitty Lightbody, rebel against a life of monotony 
 and drudgery, cried, with a staccato laugh : 
 
 " At last ! My, it s grand to have just one good 
 time!" 
 
 They passed out of the high chill of the river into 
 the sudden warm breath of the tenemented city and 
 ran down to the Langdon Hotel, where the runabout 
 was waiting. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 105 
 
 " Gang s up-stairs," said Laracy, with a fat flourish 
 of his hand. 
 
 Amy sought hungrily through the crowd in the 
 vestibule. One glance, and she experienced a quiet 
 satisfaction. Beside Mrs. Challoner was Charlie Par- 
 dee, a slim, blond youth, with the usual flowing hair 
 and pleasing face, unmarred by lines of heavy thought ; 
 Captain Barrisdale, an Anglo-American mining Croe 
 sus, dark, heavy-shouldered, copiously scented, and 
 receptively handsome, and behind them, as she had 
 divined he would be from the first, Monte Bracken. 
 
XII 
 
 IMMEDIATELY Amy was satisfied that Monte 
 Bracken would be there, she felt a sharp return 
 of her former irritation. She gave him her hand 
 loosely, turning to the others, who were already dis 
 cussing new plans for the evening. Dressing was 
 voted a bore, the conventional restaurant another bore, 
 theater a dreadful bore, and slumming the only real 
 thing to do. 
 
 " Slumming is too adorable ! " claimed Mrs. Light- 
 body, bobbing up and down and clapping her hands 
 without notice of the staring crowd. " I just adore 
 slumming. You can have so much more fun when 
 nobody s watching! " 
 
 They dined at a beer-garden in Harlem, amused 
 themselves noisily at a melodrama in the Grand Opera 
 House, until warned by the management, and came 
 down Broadway, dipping into chop-suey restaurants, 
 flashy cabarets, and shoddy dance halls. At two 
 o clock, after this profound study of the habits of 
 the unexplored races which live about Fifty-ninth 
 Street, they returned to civilization, for a little breath 
 ing spell at a roof garden. 
 
 " Hello," said Mrs. Challoner, who was ahead, " if 
 here are n t our husbands ! " 
 
 Challoner, a strapping coal miner, pitchforked into 
 society by the genius of a masterful father, greeted 
 her without surprise. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 107 
 
 "Sober?" said Mrs. Challoner, raising her eye 
 brows. 
 
 " Fairly." 
 
 " Amusing yourself? " 
 
 " So-so." 
 
 " Want us to clear out ? " 
 
 " No ; we re quite respectable are n t you ? " 
 
 " Good Lord, friend husband would n t you know 
 it?" exclaimed Kitty, in whispered anguish to Amy. 
 " For heaven s sake hang on to the captain, or there 11 
 be murder ! " With a rapid motion, she attached her 
 self to Laracy s arm, who, after a start of surprise, 
 being a wide-awake young gentleman, comprehended 
 the role he was to play. 
 
 The meeting of the Lightbodys was simplicity itself. 
 
 " Hello, what are you doing here? " 
 
 " Hope I m not in your way, Ted dear." 
 
 " You ? No. Why should you ? " 
 
 He nodded affably to the rest, and followed Chal 
 loner back to their party in an opposite box a thin, 
 middle-aged, bow-legged, horsy man, quite bald and 
 world-weary. 
 
 * Touching family reunion," said Bracken medita 
 tively. " And there is still a blue law forbidding hus 
 bands to kiss their wives in public." 
 
 " What an awful moment ! " said Amy, who, con 
 vinced by Mrs. Lightbody s agitation, was awaiting a 
 touch of melodrama. " What will she tell him ? " 
 
 "I say, Amy you are green!" said Tody Daw- 
 son, from his superior worldly wisdom. " Ted Light- 
 body care what Kitty does ? That s a good one ! " 
 He went off into a roar of laughter. 
 
 " But then " 
 
 " Oh, that s just Kitty s way of appearing devilish ! " 
 
io8 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Dancing this with me, are n t you? " said Captain 
 Barrisdale, stalking up. 
 
 " Under orders? " said Amy, with a laugh. 
 
 The captain was not a subtle person. 
 
 " Been dying to break away the whole evening," 
 he said, with a killing glance. " I say, you dance like 
 an angel." 
 
 "Look out; I ll tell on you." 
 
 " Good heavens, no ! Kitty would give me a beastly 
 dressing down," he said hastily. "I say, you would n t 
 do that. You re too good a sport. By George, I 
 could dance all night with you ! " 
 
 " Better not." 
 
 " Say the word, and I m game," he said rashly. 
 
 :< You are direct, are n t you ? " she said, leading 
 him on. 
 
 :< Yes; I don t take long to make up my mind." He 
 added pointedly, " I ve been watching you." 
 
 "And you never are disappointed?" 
 
 " Eh, what ? Oh, I see you re making fun of me," 
 he said, in short breaths, for the task of guiding her 
 through the whirling crowd was an ordeal. 
 
 "Clever man!" 
 
 " Look here ; suppose we sit this out." 
 
 " Thought you could dance all night with me" 
 
 He laughed and stopped short. 
 
 " I like you ; you ve got spirit. Sit down here a 
 moment." He turned and stared at her. " Have I 
 met you before? Tell me about yourself. What are 
 you married, divorced, or a widow ? " 
 
 " You must be awfully rich," she said, demurely. 
 
 " Why? Oh, I see! No offense. I just wanted to 
 know." 
 
 " Ask Kitty, then." . 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 109 
 
 He made a wry face. 
 
 " Look here ; you don t think I m in love with Kitty 
 Lightbody now? " 
 
 " No; you could n t be. You re a married man." 
 
 He looked at her a long moment, studying her, not 
 used to an attitude of opposition in the women he 
 condescended to admire. 
 
 " I can t make you out," he said, frowning. 
 
 " Perhaps I m divorced." 
 
 " I wish you were." 
 
 " Heavens, how rapid you are ! Look out ; Kitty s 
 watching you ! " 
 
 " Look here," he said, " if you don t believe I say 
 what I mean, ride back to Chilton with me in my car." 
 
 She stood up, laughing, as another dance began. 
 
 "Will you?" 
 
 " Tell you later," she said evasively. If Mrs. Light- 
 body wished to use her as a screen, she could take the 
 consequences. 
 
 Mrs. Lightbody, who had, in fact, watched them 
 with growing anxiety, greeted them with a marked 
 petulance. 
 
 " Joe, come right away from that designing blond 
 young woman ! You re entirely too attentive/ 
 
 " Captain Barrisdale has followed your orders splen 
 didly," said Amy slowly. 
 
 "What orders?" 
 
 " Why, did n t you tell him to make love to me? " 
 
 Barrisdale pulled at his mustache and shot her an 
 imploring glance from under his tufted eyebrows. 
 
 " Well, Joe, the joke s on you," said Mrs. Light- 
 body acidly, " and serves you right, too, wasting your 
 time on a bride ! " 
 
 Barrisdale, overcome at this revelation, murmured 
 
no VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 something inaudible amid the laugh which arose at 
 his expense, while Mrs. Challoner examined Amy 
 with more care, recognizing an ability to defend 
 herself. 
 
 Tiernan s, where they next entered as the clock was 
 striking three, finally satisfied their craving for Bo 
 hemia, with its hilarity, its banks of acrid smoke, its 
 explosive laughter, and its flashing beauties. 
 
 "Don t you just adore it?" said Kitty excitedly. 
 " Did you ever see such people ! Oh, Lord, what good 
 times men do have ! " 
 
 Freed from the censureship of social eyes and a 
 little excited, she began to grow kittenish, in a deter 
 mined effort to rival the formidable youth of Amy 
 Forrester. Mrs. Challoner, with her impenetrable, 
 smiling calm, sipping her glass of champagne, frowned 
 significantly. 
 
 "Kitty, be careful!" 
 
 " A short life but a merry one ! " exclaimed Mrs. 
 Lightbody recklessly, looking around with thirsty 
 eyes. She gathered in every tribute, even to the mean 
 est, to the slanted glances of the heavy- jowled dancers, 
 to the stares of the ratty waiters, crediting all to her 
 personal account. " I m just waking up. Look to 
 yourself, Gladys ! " 
 
 The caution did not apply to Mrs. Challoner. At 
 most, on the sculptured white cheeks, a tongue of red 
 showed and in the eyes a sparkle of gathering excite 
 ment. To Amy, she was, and always remained, a 
 complete mystery. 
 
 " She looks as though she had just come out of the 
 ice-box," she thought to herself. " Is she capable of 
 emotion ? What attracts men to her ? " Mrs. Chal 
 loner had a high-bred disdain of the crowd, a fastidi- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES in 
 
 ous air of perpetually looking down on some one. 
 Amy remembered Morley s description of her former 
 mistress and wondered. What was she like in her own 
 home, when the front door had been closed for the 
 night. 
 
 The sounds of rising laughter, the whirling, breath 
 less swaying of the dancers, the staccato music, 
 glances and whispers divined the awakening of the 
 primitive savage, the spectacle of this boisterous re 
 laxation aroused in her the appetite for movement. 
 She danced ceaselessly, never tired, never visibly ex 
 cited. Once Amy caught a glimpse of what burned 
 beneath the surface a sudden glance in her direc 
 tion when Charlie Pardee was lingering beyond the 
 needs of strict politeness. He saw it, and left her in 
 stantly and docilely. 
 
 "If I were a man," thought Amy, remembering 
 the look, " I should never fall in love with her. I 
 should n t dare ! " 
 
 She would have liked to discuss her with Monte 
 Bracken. Up to now, it had amused him to acquiesce 
 in the attitude of indifference she had assumed 
 towards him. 
 
 She resented this, as she had resented everything 
 he had done or left undone. Nevertheless, she was 
 always conscious of his presence, whether she followed 
 him in the tangle of the dancers or caught the frag 
 ments of his conversation with Irma, fragments which 
 came to her through the jumble of the strident even 
 ing. She watched the two covertly, wondering how 
 deep his interest went, resenting the intimacy of their 
 conversation. 
 
 " He thinks I m too much of a child to put himself 
 out," she thought irritably. When he should ask her 
 
Ii2 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 to dance, as finally he must, she would refuse curtly, 
 with some sharp answer which would bring him to a 
 realization of her displeasure. 
 
 He rose, at last, and approached where she sat on 
 the fringe of the rushing crowd. A little gleam came 
 into her eyes. 
 
 " Mrs. Forrester? " he said, bowing. 
 
 She turned, as though in surprise. 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 " May I give you the opportunity of refusing to 
 dance this with me," he said, looking good-humoredly 
 into her eyes. 
 
 " Why ? " she said, taken back. 
 
 " Because you will refuse." 
 
 She got up suddenly. 
 
 "Let s dance!" 
 
 He obeyed. 
 
 " If only he did n t dance so divinely," she thought, 
 as the next moment they glided surely and dexterously 
 through the dancers, avoiding the lumbering heavy 
 ships which bore down on them. All at once, a mem 
 ory of what he had told her came into her mind. 
 
 " I thought you were going abroad ? " 
 
 " I am day after to-morrow." 
 
 All her antagonism left her. She did not know why, 
 but the knowledge that he was leaving, that he would 
 go out of her life, changed everything. He was 
 going that was the essential thing. 
 
 " I ve been trying to snub you, but you would n t 
 let me," she said gently. 
 
 " Because I guessed too much? " 
 
 " I don t admit you guessed right," she said, laugh 
 ing in some confusion. " However, I ve been horrid. 
 Forgive me? " 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 113 
 
 " I had n t noticed it," he said pleasantly. 
 
 " He does n t the least care what I do," she thought 
 angrily. " He thinks I am throwing myself at him 
 like a hundred other women. I am a little idiot." 
 
 In a moment, she stopped him. 
 
 " Floor s really too crowded and beside, you 
 don t enjoy dancing like this." 
 
 " It is crowded." 
 
 When she came to her seat at the table, she looked 
 at him with a smile, which she was far from feeling. 
 
 " Don t be polite. Go back to Mrs. Dellabarre." 
 
 Laracy passed; she summoned him and returned 
 into the crush again. But this pointed revenge 
 brought her no satisfaction. Why had she accepted 
 the dance with him? Why had she sought to excuse 
 herself and, above all, what had possessed her to show 
 her ill-humor? He was sitting beside Irma she 
 could see him from time to time and he did not even 
 take the pains to notice what she did. 
 
 She began to flirt openly with the other men, toler 
 ating even Barrisdale, trespassing recklessly, feeling 
 that in the smile she gave another she was punishing 
 him. 
 
 In truth, her success was easy, for she was the only 
 one to whom pleasure was young. To her, it was not 
 a mental intoxicant but a natural impulse. This rush 
 ing progress from restaurant to restaurant, this de 
 light of music and rhythmic motion, the hundred little 
 episodes which sent them into peals of laughter, were 
 all of the sparkling surface. She saw nothing below 
 the sheen of pleasure, neither the flight from boredom 
 nor the lurking shadows of covetousness and frenzy. 
 To her, this world was really young and gay and 
 happy, and, eager as a child, she succeeded in corn- 
 
ii4 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 municating something of this illusion to the rest. 
 When five o clock arrived, and the moment for the 
 flight before the dawn, she gave a cry of disap 
 pointment. 
 
 "What already?" 
 
 The chagrin of her exclamation was so unconscious 
 that even Mrs. Challoner laughed. Barrisdale, to 
 whom this riotous sense of youth was peculiarly ap 
 pealing, found a moment, as they were entering the 
 automobile, to whisper in her ear: 
 
 " Joke s on me this time. Never mind ; I don t 
 forget, and I can wait." 
 
 " What does that mean ? " she said, laughing. He 
 was too clumsy to inspire fear, a true crocodile, as 
 Irma expressed it. 
 
 " Next year, we 11 meet again," he said pointblank, 
 " and then you may not be so indifferent." 
 
 She frowned, turned her shoulder, and sprang into 
 the car. 
 
 " What a stupid, heavy person! " she thought. " I 
 suppose he s had too much." 
 
 Would Bracken come in the car with them, she 
 wondered, looking back. There was a moment s whis 
 pered consultation between Mrs. Challoner and Mrs. 
 Dellabarre, who immediately announced: 
 
 " Monte and I 11 try the runabout. Meet you at 
 Garden City." 
 
 The racing car, with Irma swallowed up in furs, 
 shot out, leading the way. It was still murky; the 
 streets were abandoned, the lamps sickly in the dawn 
 which came oozing heavily over the housetops. As 
 they left the city and rose lightly over the spanned 
 river, the early truck wagons loomed at their sides, 
 redolent of the country. A child lay asleep on a heap 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 115 
 
 of vegetables. Horses plodded ahead in somnam 
 bulistic fantasy with drowsy drivers. Gray vapors 
 curled along the water front in the drifting confusion 
 of sky and earth. In the car they began to sing to 
 keep up their spirits against the cold bite of strange 
 hours. 
 
 " By George, Amy, you ve got more life than the 
 whole crowd ! " said Tody, under his breath. " They 
 are n t within a mile of you." 
 
 "What none?" 
 
 " Not one. Well, you Ve got me. When you want 
 me just whistle," he added, with a laugh. " I m 
 bowled over." 
 
 " You re a nice boy, Tody ! " she said, lightly pat 
 ting his arm, without thinking of what she heard. 
 
 The next moment there came a shriek from behind. 
 The motor ground to a stop. Kitty Lightbody sol 
 emnly descended. 
 
 " Kitty, what in heaven s name is the matter with 
 you ? " said Mrs. Challoner, who was sleepy and cross. 
 
 " If he wants to devote himself to you," said Kitty, 
 with a toss of her head, " let him ! " 
 
 " What? Who? Is it Joe? Good heavens, she s 
 jealous." 
 
 " Kitty, come back; we all love you," said Laracy. 
 
 Mrs. Lightbody, camped in the middle of the 
 Jericho Turnpike at five in the morning, sulkily re 
 fused to budge. 
 
 " Well, see here," said Laracy, rising as the diplo 
 mat ; " fix it this way. Kitty shall sit in the middle. 
 You don t mind, do you, Gladys ? " 
 
 " Mind ? I should say not ! What do you suppose 
 I care about old Joe Barrisdale ! " said Mrs. Challoner 
 sharply. This sally raised a laugh not at all to the 
 
n6 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 enjoyment of the captain. " Kitty, stop being a fool 
 and get in this minute. Joe Barrisdale, what are you 
 sitting there for? Jump out and bring her back." 
 
 Mrs. Lightbody, being properly coaxed, cajoled, 
 and threatened, consented to return, and, having re 
 turned, presently began to nod, to the delight of Mrs. 
 Challoner and the captain, who made pantomimic love 
 before her closed eyes. 
 
 On the pike, just beyond Garden City, they found 
 the runabout waiting. 
 
 " Here, Gladys," said Irma, calmly bundling out, 
 " you take my place. Monte s cold and sleepy and 
 perfectly unbearable. We Ve been quarreling all the 
 way." 
 
 Amy glanced at Monte Bracken, who was handing 
 her into the car. If they had been quarreling, his face 
 did not show it. 
 
 " Well, it ? s good-by," he said, taking off his hat and 
 offering his hand. 
 
 You re really sailing Saturday lucky man ! " 
 said Kitty drowsily. 
 
 " Really off." 
 
 He shook hands with Amy, without either indiffer 
 ence or interest, and returned to the runabout. For a 
 while, the two machines ran on together. Then, at a 
 fork in the road, the runabout shot away and passed 
 from sight. 
 
 " So much for that," said Amy to herself, " and 
 perhaps just as well." 
 
 A feeling of comfortable virtue succeeded. She 
 remembered Andrew. What a lot she would have to 
 tell him! 
 
 At six, just as the sun bobbed up over the hori 
 zon, they ran up to the house. A window shade 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 117 
 
 went up, and the bushy little head of Mr. Dellabarre 
 appeared. 
 
 "There s Rudy!" said Irma, waving gaily. Her 
 glance met his and turned away. How long had he 
 been up and what was in his mind ? 
 
 They went stamping and laughing into the dining 
 room and sent out a foraging party for breakfast. 
 
 "What let s do?" said Laracy. "Time for a 
 bunny-hug before the coffee. Who s game ? " 
 
 "Come on," said Amy, springing up; "I m just 
 waking up ! " 
 
 " Mercy sakes ! " said Kitty Lightbody, heavy-eyed. 
 
 She rose with a sigh, and held out her hand to the 
 captain, who was yawning surreptitiously, but when, 
 breakfast over, her young rival declared it was no use 
 thinking of sleep at such an hour, she threw up her 
 hands in despair and retreated to her bedroom. 
 
 " Good night, children not too much noise. I 
 have my complexion to think of," said Mrs. Della 
 barre, with a laugh, and, after a sleepy struggle, Bar- 
 risdale shook his head and likewise surrendered, while 
 Youth triumphant, in the beaming figure of Jap Lar 
 acy, was asking: 
 
 " What now ? Amy s game ! Bridge, a spin in the 
 machine, or a dash on the ponies?" 
 
XIII 
 
 WHEN flushed with a gallop in the glow of the 
 morning, the three came riotously back, An 
 drew, who had been traveling half the night to reach 
 her, was waiting up-stairs. Amy threw herself in his 
 arms, laughing like a child. 
 
 " Oh, Andrew, such a good time ! Wait until you 
 hear!" 
 
 She told him all breathlessly, that is, almost all. 
 She made no reference to the one disagreeable mem 
 ory of the night, Barrisdale s heavy overtures. She 
 had handled such boors before, even as a debutante, 
 and there was no use in telling him things which would 
 annoy him. Then Monte Bracken s presence was not 
 her secret. At the end, his face was radiant. 
 
 " Beat them to a finish, Yum Yum ! Go it, and 
 mind you sweep the decks every time ! " 
 
 " Andrew, what a darling you are ! " 
 
 " And now for business. I Ve agreed to take up 
 Gunther s proposition." 
 
 He began a long detailed exposition of the possi 
 bilities of the new venture. From his face she could 
 see the gravity of the step to him. So she tried hard 
 to comprehend the details he minutely explained to 
 her. But she was too mentally excited and too phys 
 ically tired. She understood nothing at all, only that, 
 some day soon, they would have lots of money if cer 
 tain things worked out. When he had finished, she 
 embraced him rapturously. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 119 
 
 " Is n t it wonderful ? " she cried, still perplexed. 
 " But, Andrew, you must n t work too hard 
 promise." 
 
 " I promise," he said grimly, his mind filled with 
 dreams of the gilded future in which all his hopes 
 would come true. 
 
 She went into her bath quite satisfied by this 
 assurance. 
 
 Three weeks later in the vast span of the Grand 
 Central Station, quite a party gathered to see Andrew 
 Forrester off to Mexico. It was still ten minutes be 
 fore the train s departure. Mrs. Lightbody and Mrs. 
 Dellabarre, with Dawson, Laracy, and young Pardee, 
 hung back discreetly, while Amy, tiny and fragile 
 against the broad shoulders of her husband, walked 
 with him down the platform. 
 
 Filkins, the private secretary, who was to accom 
 pany him, came up briskly. 
 
 " Everything in place ? " 
 
 " Everything, Mr. Forrester." 
 
 "Get all the evening papers and some magazines." 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 A late arrival came running down the platform; 
 Filkins flitted away. 
 
 " I can t bear to let you go alone," said Amy, cling 
 ing to his arm. " I don t think it s right, Andrew 
 I don t." 
 
 There was a break in her voice, and her eyes grew 
 misty. She had come down gaily, after a merry 
 luncheon, and now, all at once, before the grim mys 
 tery of life s parting, this grinning mask that con 
 fronted her, she felt a sinking in her heart, a terror of 
 unknown things. 
 
120 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Why, little girl, it s only a jump there and back 
 this time. Only a week or two," he said, patting her 
 arm. He looked at her, detecting the gathering tears. 
 " Here, here; it s not so bad as all that." 
 
 " Oh, but it s the first time ! " she said incoherently, 
 swaying against his shoulder. " Andrew, Andrew, 
 we ought n t to be separated. I feel it. I know it. My 
 duty s with you." 
 
 " Well, perhaps next time." 
 
 She looked up into his face, fear and helplessness 
 in her eyes. 
 
 "What is it, little girl?" 
 
 * Then you think I ought to have gone with you ? 
 Andrew, Andrew, tell me the truth." 
 
 " Of course I don t," he said stoutly. 
 
 " I will I 11 jump on the car now just as I 
 am," she said, under the hypnotic terror of all this 
 flurry of coming and going, this sense of looming un 
 explored horizons of life ahead and behind. 
 
 He drew his arm tighter about her and bent sud 
 denly, careless who saw them, to seek her lips. 
 
 " Of course it s only a couple of weeks, is n t it? " 
 she said heavily, at the end of the long embrace that 
 shut out the shrieking confusion about them. 
 
 " Perhaps not that," he said, lying to comfort her, 
 for her grief affected him, too. " I say do you 
 think you d better wait, Amy dear ? It s sort of bad 
 luck, seeing the train off." 
 
 " No, no ; I can t leave not now please don t 
 ask that of me." 
 
 "All right, then. Better now?" He drew her 
 back to the group of friends who pressed up for the 
 last farewells. " Good-by, every one good-by, Mrs. 
 Lightbody good-by, boys good-by, Mrs. Delia- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 121 
 
 barre mighty good of you to see me off. I say, 
 cheer up my little girl, will you? Don t let her get 
 too lonely." He caught up Amy, lifting her almost 
 off her feet, laughing. " Back in a fortnight, per 
 haps 
 
 And the train was already in motion as he caught 
 the step. 
 
 She stood with her handkerchief waving feebly in 
 the air as the train wound out in snaky flight, 
 dwindled, and was gone. 
 
 " Partings are awful. I can t bear them/ she said, 
 gulping down a sob. 
 
 " I know. I feel the same way every summer. It s 
 quite natural, dear," said Mrs. Dellabarre, who had 
 waited by her. She had never had such an emotion 
 when leaving Rudolph, and yet, she was rather af 
 fected by her friend s distress. She linked her arm 
 under Amy s, murmuring sympathetically, " What a 
 child it is ! " 
 
 In order that Mrs. Forrester should not languish in 
 teary solitude, they danced in the newest dance hall, 
 dined, and arrived for the second act of a musical 
 comedy. At two o clock, as Amy declared, if she went 
 home, she would n t sleep a wink, they decided to make 
 a night of it. Tody Dawson was devotion itself, so 
 kind and so solicitous that Amy, in her gratitude, gave 
 him a compensating smile he really was the dearest 
 boy. 
 
 In a week, her days were crowded with engage 
 ments, her nights brilliant with sensations that were 
 still young to her. To be out, to be seen, to be envied, 
 sought after, adopted, and raised to the giddy pinnacle 
 of a new favorite seemed to her the height of a 
 woman s destiny. In a month, she belonged to so- 
 
122 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 ciety to men in the aggregate, to the mass and the 
 public eye, avid of the latest novelty. 
 
 " Andrew will be so proud of me," she thought loy 
 ally, in her moments of triumph, as though, in serving 
 his vanity, she were performing her whole duty of a 
 wife. 
 
PART II 
 
PART II 
 I 
 
 "T7IGHTEEN months later, on a brilliant morning 
 ^-^ in April, when in the sky the gray winter fled be 
 fore the triumphant rush of spring, Mr. Tody Daw- 
 son, after a late night, awoke to the consciousness that 
 a disagreeable morning was ahead. A college degree 
 from one of our modern gymnasiums had brought 
 him the classic privilege of a university club, where the 
 necessary luxuries of life are obtainable to the im 
 pecunious crowd. Pigeonholed in a compartment 
 twelve by ten on the eleventh shelf of this human filing 
 machine, he enjoyed not only the services of a valet, 
 a squash court, a restaurant, a library, and the fatten 
 ing opportunities of the card rooms but, by resorting 
 to the free-lunch counter on the rare occasions when 
 he failed to be fed socially, he was able to support a 
 racing car and frequent the most exclusive tailors and 
 haberdashers. Ordinarily of smiling humor and 
 serene self-complacency, he rose this morning angry 
 at the complex scheme of things in general and at Mr. 
 Tody Dawson in particular. 
 
 u What got into me, anyway?" he said, staring at 
 the reflection of his elongated and bony figure clad in 
 lavender pajamas. " Good Lord, I should have known 
 better ! It was that tricky music, or perhaps the punch. 
 I don t know which. Well, I m in for it that s 
 sure." 
 
126 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 A shower did not relieve either his ill-humor or the 
 ache in his head. Everything went wrong. He had 
 forgotten to put out his boots, the new spring suit he 
 had intended to wear had not been returned from the 
 tailor, though they had sworn an oath on it. To cap 
 which, despite twenty-five years of subjugation, his 
 hair had developed sudden rebellions which defied the 
 brush. 
 
 He was in this state of irritation and misery when 
 Jap Laracy burst in, fresh as a schoolgirl, a flower in 
 his buttonhole, ready for breakfast and the day. At 
 Dawson s disheveled appearance, he stopped short and 
 emitted a whistle of surprise. 
 
 " Hello, there ! A little Katzen jammer? " he said, 
 amused, as a best friend has the right to be at the evi 
 dence of the morning s headache. " It s a lovely 
 day." 
 
 " Is it? " said Dawson, with a groan. 
 
 " How late did you stay in that pirate s game ? " 
 
 " Too late." 
 
 "Cleaned out?" 
 
 " How do I know ? " said Dawson, sitting down 
 and taking his head in his hands. 
 
 Laracy, overjoyed at this answer, immediately 
 searched among the furniture until, having retrieved 
 the scattered elements of last night s clothes, he could 
 assemble the contents of the pockets. 
 
 " Here, I say three cheers ! You re stuffed with 
 bills, my boy. Lucky at cards, unlucky at love." 
 
 " Oh, shut up, Jap ! " said Dawson glumly. " Can t 
 you see I m feeling rotten ? " He hesitated. " Make 
 my excuses at the office. I can t get down this 
 morning." 
 
 "Something wrong, old boy?" said Laracy, his 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 127 
 
 round, untragic face assuming a look of sympathy 
 which made it more comical than ever. 
 
 " I ve made a mess of things, and I ve got to 
 straighten them out." 
 
 "Amy?" said Laracy, who was confidant to the 
 little ills of his heart. 
 
 " I can t tell you," said Dawson, who suddenly con 
 centrated all his anger on a cuff button which refused 
 to be subdued, cursing it in a way to have won the 
 admiration of a hardened stage manager. 
 
 Laracy installed himself on the back of an armchair, 
 drawing up his legs, and looked solemn. 
 
 1 Tody Dawson, for the two hundred and twoty- 
 twoth time cut it out ! There s nothing in it, my 
 boy. Are you going to fool away all your chances? 
 Don t you know the game you re playing? " 
 
 " Oh, it s all right for you to talk, you unsenti 
 mental jellyfish," said Dawson, shaking off a collar 
 which refused to button. 
 
 " Quite right and watch where I land," said 
 Laracy, not in the least offended. " My dear fellow, 
 make love to them if you wish bless their hearts, 
 they re so grateful ! but don t go and fool yourself. 
 Good Lord, has n t Irma trained you better ? Don t 
 you know the bunch you re playing with ? So you 
 think you re madly, hopelessly in love with Amy 
 Forrester, do you you great big calf ? " 
 
 " Oh, Lord, I don t know ! " said Dawson, adjusting 
 a pink tie with nicety. " Don t ask me." 
 
 " Go down Fifth Avenue, stop at any hair-dressing 
 parlor, and make love to the first wax beauty in the 
 window," said Laracy crushingly. " You 11 be better 
 off. Buck up, Tody ! Life s a long way to travel 
 and there s a lot of bills to pay." For a moment he 
 
128 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 was silent, impressed with this momentous truth ; then 
 he added solicitously : " Don t make a colossal ass of 
 yourself ! Why, boy, you ve a chance right under 
 your nose a dozen fellows fighting for her ! A dear 
 little thing, that s ready to fall into your arms," he 
 continued vehemently, evidently referring to some 
 eligible young lady captivated by Dawson s accom 
 plishments, for he added : " Make hay make hay 
 while the sun shines. This dancing craze is n t im 
 mortal, you know ! " 
 
 " I say, you re consoling ! " 
 
 " I m giving you straight talk," said Laracy obsti 
 nately. "Well? No confidence this morning? " 
 
 " Can t tell you anything now," said Dawson, 
 looking out of the window. 
 
 " At your service," said Laracy, who saluted and 
 departed. 
 
 At noon, Dawson, who had tried fifty ways to cheat 
 the clock, descended to the street and bolted into a 
 taxicab. 
 
 " Beg pardon, Mr. Dawson, any number?" asked 
 the Buttons. 
 
 He flung out hastily an address in Sixty-fifth Street, 
 just east of Fifth Avenue, glanced at his watch un 
 easily and began to rehearse the explanation he had 
 constructed. 
 
 Arrived at the double-front Renaissance house 
 which Andrew Forrester had sublet for the season, 
 he passed through the iron grille and greeted Gregory 
 with an appearance of nonchalance. 
 
 " Morning, Gregory. Let Mrs. Forrester know I 
 am here, will you? " Then, with the knowledge of an 
 habitue, he ran lightly up the winding marble stairs 
 and into the great salon. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 129 
 
 " The old boy must be making piles down in Mex 
 ico," he thought. "Awkward situation! Might be 
 better to blame it on the punch ! " 
 
 Finally, he determined to guide his apologies by the 
 attitude he should encounter. Instead of Gregory, 
 Morley, trim and stately in black and white, brought 
 him in his answer. 
 
 " Mrs. Forrester s very sorry, Mr. Dawson, but she 
 asks to be excused this morning, sir." 
 
 " What ? " he said, his expression turning blank. 
 Morley repeated the message. 
 
 " She won t see me," thought Dawson, so utterly 
 upset that he forgot the presence of the maid, who 
 watched him with a sympathetic smile. " She refuses 
 to see me," he repeated, and he thought of all the good 
 times, the dinners, the impromptu dances, the invita 
 tions to theater and opera, which had been his in these 
 pleasant, luxurious pastures. 
 
 " You might write a word, sir, if it s very impor 
 tant," said Morley softly. 
 
 "What? Oh, yes!" 
 
 He passed hurriedly into the library, found an en 
 velope and wrote in a bold hand, " Mrs. Forrester." 
 He studied it, finding it absurd to have written any 
 thing at all, thought a moment, took out a card, and 
 scribbled a few words on it, sealed the envelope, mak 
 ing sure that the gum had dried sufficiently before 
 entrusting it to Morley. 
 
 " Wonder what she thinks of all this ? " he thought 
 all at once, and he hastily said aloud, " It J s about the 
 Versailles fete, Morley. We ve got to decide the 
 costumes right off." 
 
 " Yes, indeed, sir," said Morley blandly. " If you 11 
 wait, I 11 bring you Mrs. Forrester s answer." 
 
130 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " You re kind, very kind, Morley," he said nerv 
 ously. " Thank you." He went to the piano and 
 began to thunder out the latest maxixe. 
 
 " No; that does n t sound right! " he said, stopping 
 short. He considered gravely, and then allowed his 
 fingers to wander languidly through a sentimental 
 ballad of the Parisian cafes, which struck him as better 
 suited to his state of dejection and repentance. 
 
II 
 
 AT the moment of Dawson s agitated arrival, Mrs. 
 Forrester, in the Louis XVI boudoir, fresh from 
 the hands of her hairdresser, was reclining in a deep- 
 cushioned bergere, enveloped in a negligee which 
 rivaled in delicacy the rare brocades and the dainty 
 cartouches of Boucher which enlivened the walls hung 
 in blue silk. Miss Pound, the housekeeper, had de 
 parted with the instructions for the day, leaving her to 
 her reflections. Her nature was too amiable and gay 
 to give in to violent depressions. Yet this morning 
 she was annoyed by the steady contraction of her 
 eyebrows and the little furrowed lines of her forehead 
 which had not been there two years ago. For this 
 unusual and unwelcome mood there were three rea 
 sons a letter from Andrew which lay in her lap, a 
 marked copy of the latest Tattle-tale, at which she 
 was glancing with a sensitive aversion of her little 
 nostrils, and, last of all, the annoying problem of 
 Tody Dawson. 
 
 The letter from her husband had arrived several 
 days before, postmarked from a town in northern 
 Mexico short, direct, complaining of his lack of 
 news from her. 
 
 MY DEAR AMY : 
 
 Three weeks now without word of you you 
 really might do better than that. Internal condi 
 tions here are so bad that I look forward to the 
 
132 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 future with great apprehension. I spoke to you 
 of this, and I thought I had made you under 
 stand the situation. Last month s account, just 
 received from Miss Pound, was therefore a dis 
 agreeable surprise. I may be up any time or not 
 for months. Please treat as serious my plea for 
 economy. If the revolution spreads, the mines 
 will have to close indefinitely. You may realize 
 what that means to us. 
 
 Aft, 
 
 ANDREW. 
 
 She had been overwhelmed with remorse on receipt 
 of this letter, the first in which he had shown a touch 
 of criticism. She was astounded and incredulous. 
 There must have been some mistake. Surely she had 
 written at least twice a week. But on consulting her 
 engagement book, the mystery was easily explained. 
 The last weeks before Lent had been absolutely 
 crowded with social duties four costume balls, half 
 a dozen large dinners at home, every night consumed 
 until three and four in the morning, luncheons, thes 
 dansants, week-ends at Irma s or Gladys Challoner s, 
 impromptu engagements at restaurants, with barely 
 time to sandwich in a few hours necessary shopping 
 before the exactions of a social afternoon. Only the 
 mornings remained, but when one woke at eleven, 
 what with the masseuse and the hairdresser, where 
 was there time to do the things one really wanted 
 to do? 
 
 Nevertheless, she had reproached herself at her 
 neglect of Andrew, who was working so hard, and 
 had resolved that she would write him religiously 
 three times a week a long letter each Sunday morn- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 133 
 
 ing and a short note on each Tuesday and Friday. 
 As evidence of good faith, she had taken up her en 
 gagement book and written across the dates selected, 
 " Write Andrew." She had even addressed and 
 stamped a dozen envelopes, so that in hurried moments 
 half the work would be done. Furthermore, she had 
 called in Miss Pound and, assuming a severe manner, 
 had said: 
 
 " The bills last month were simply ghastly. We 
 must economize this month." 
 
 " In what way, Mrs. Forrester?" asked Miss Pound, 
 bristling up. 
 
 " In every way," she replied, and in order to cover 
 her complete ignorance, and to show thai; she was 
 minutely informed, she repeated firmly, rt In every 
 possible way ! " 
 
 She had not the slightest conception of their situa 
 tion. At first, when they had sublet, at twenty thou 
 sand dollars the season, the little palace they occupied, 
 she had been aghast at the sum. But Andrew had 
 laughed and told her not to worry. She had such con 
 fidence in Andrew. There was nothing he could not 
 do if his mind were made up. Why then, all at once, 
 this bolt from a clear sky? Yet the ominous note of 
 his peremptory warning remained in her memory. 
 For there was the Versailles fete which she had 
 planned all season the fete that would be a social 
 milestone In her triumphant season. The cards had 
 been out five weeks how was it possible to recall 
 them ? And the fete would cost what all such im 
 portant events must cost. 
 
 Andrew s letter had arrived just after luncheon, 
 while she and Irma Dellabarre were waiting for the 
 household pets, Dawson and Laracy, to call for them. 
 
134 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " My, what a frown ! " said Irma, over her coffee 
 cup. " Bad news ? " 
 
 " Bills," said Amy blankly. To those obnoxious 
 words " duty " and " conscience " she had added a 
 third specter in a sort of unwelcome trinity. " He s 
 in a fearful temper about them." 
 
 " Is that all? " said Irma, with a laugh. " All hus 
 bands grumble at bills. It s quite an art in knowing 
 when to present them." 
 
 " I m horribly worried," said Amy penitently. 
 You know there s the Versailles fete. Have you 
 any idea what such things cost ? " 
 
 " Don t worry, my dear," said Irma consolingly. 
 " It s not a question of money. You know what they 
 say in the Street You don t ? They say Andrew s 
 cleaned up a million in Osaba Mining this year. No, 
 my dear; I don t think it s money." 
 
 "But what, then?" 
 
 Mrs. Dellabarre stirred her cup, meditating ; then she 
 raised her eyelashes slowly, and a faint smile touched 
 the corners of her lips as she looked at her friend. 
 
 " When a husband is jealous, he begins by complain 
 ing of the bills." 
 
 "Andrew jealous!" said Amy, astounded. "Why 
 should Andrew be jealous ? " 
 
 " Well, you have had quite a following." 
 
 " Of course, but he he is proud of that." 
 
 She had had more than the usual amount of atten 
 tion and admirers, more than Gladys Challoner, even. 
 There were a dozen youngsters of the " crocodile " 
 class who worshiped her mutely, and blissfully ran 
 her errands. There were several foreigners who made 
 love to her covertly, and a dozen other men who flirted 
 with her in a conventional way; but, so far, she could 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 135 
 
 face her conscience for she was certain she had a 
 conscience and truthfully proclaim that no one man 
 had been promoted from the ranks or acquired the 
 right to believe that she did more than gratefully 
 tolerate his attentions. As a matter of fact, she as 
 sured herself (and the answer seemed crushing) that 
 to be forced to devote herself to any one man would 
 bore her to death. 
 
 " Irma, how absurd ! " she said, with the rising in 
 flection. " No, no ; that s one thing I m not worried 
 about. I may be thoughtless and extravagant I 
 suppose I am but I have n t given him the slightest 
 cause for jealousy not the slightest." She hesi 
 tated, glanced at the letter again, and said, " Well, 
 now, have I ? " 
 
 " The Count de Faucouleur? " 
 
 " A foreigner, and besides " She started to con 
 fide, but bit her lip. " Well, who else ? " 
 
 " Frank Payson." 
 
 " Ridiculous ! " 
 
 " Britton." 
 
 "Irma!" 
 
 " Then, of course, there s always Tody." 
 
 " And Jap and Charlie Pardee and Phil and Harry," 
 she interrupted impatiently, " and the whole kinder 
 garten ; Irma, you don t call them men ! " 
 
 " I know and you know, but does Andrew know? " 
 
 " But, my dear," said Amy, in helpless virtue, " it s 
 just because I am surrounded by a lot of foolish, harm 
 less boys that Andrew should feel safe." 
 
 " And you have never had any trouble with them ? " 
 said Irma, watching her. " Now honestly ? " 
 
 Mrs. Forrester opened her clear blue eyes in un 
 affected amazement. 
 
136 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Never ! How funny to ask that ! They know my 
 principles. They would n t dare ! The only time " 
 she stopped, and then continued " the only time I 
 had to do well, a little disciplining, was with de 
 Faucouleur, and that was really no trouble at all." 
 
 " Ah, I was sure of it! Do tell me all." 
 
 " There s nothing much to tell. After I met him 
 at Gladys s, he started in to make violent love to me 
 as a foreigner will do, you know and well, I 
 made him understand oh, very kindly that I was 
 devoted to my husband. I told him that American 
 women were splendid pals and loved a spree, but that 
 they were not women of light morals; he might find 
 exceptions, but, for the most part, despite a little 
 harmless flirting, we intended to remain virtuous 
 wives." Two years before she had smiled over the 
 same characterization by Irma, but no troubling mem 
 ory returned to disturb her righteous gravity. " He 
 understood oh, at once ! He was very nice about it. 
 He apologized for having well, for having made a 
 mistake. Now he is one of my most devoted friends, 
 and I know he respects me for my honesty. Yes ; I m 
 very proud of the way I handled him," she added, with 
 a toss of her head. 
 
 " Foreigners don t always understand our point of 
 view," said Irma meditatively. Then, as she was 
 blessed with a sense of humor, she added, " nor some 
 Americans." 
 
 " You can t help men falling in love with you," con 
 tinued Amy, still studying the letter. " That s their 
 own affair. But I play fair. No; I certainly have 
 nothing to reproach myself with on that score." 
 
 She picked up the letter and examined the way in 
 which her husband had signed himself, " Affection- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 137 
 
 ately," which had been abbreviated to a rapid " Aff." 
 She found it depressingly mechanical, matter-of-fact, 
 businesslike, and lacking the true savor of romance. 
 She had grown more beautiful in a dramatic way, all 
 her charms under nice control directed by a sure in 
 stinct for values, but when her face relaxed into repose, 
 there was a difference. The unconscious pleasing that 
 had once hovered there like the fresh fragrance of a 
 flower was gone. Instead, there was a driven wake- 
 fulness, an interrupted excitement of the emotions, 
 and an impatience for the next sensation. 
 
 " Mr. Dawson and Mr. Laracy," said Gregory, 
 entering. 
 
 " Oh, the boys ? Send them up/ she said eagerly. 
 
 Dawson and Laracy had come to escort them to 
 the dressmaker s, where their manly criticisms would 
 be invaluable. 
 
Ill 
 
 THEY formed an animated and noisy group in the 
 gray-hung salons of Franceline s, who at that 
 time enjoyed the custom of fashion because she had 
 the genius to perceive that her clients preferred to pay 
 five hundred dollars for a dress which she could sell 
 them with profit for half that sum. Ahead was a little 
 raised stage with subdued footlights. From time to 
 time, the silver-gray folds at the back parted. A 
 graceful model emerged, posed like a preening pea 
 cock, descended the steps, and floated slowly among 
 the spectators with mincing steps, her arms extended 
 with feathery languor, her head pillowed against 
 imaginary cushions, a vacant smile painted on an ex 
 quisite face. Franceline herself, as an extraordinary 
 concession, stood in critical inspection, explaining to 
 the group, detailing descriptions, encouraging the flip 
 pant criticisms of Dawson and Laracy, flattering their 
 judgment, ever watchful for the first covetous glance 
 in the eyes of the women. Tody and Jap, thus skil 
 fully directed, passed from criticism to enthusiastic 
 appreciation. From time to time the glance of a 
 model Betty or Priscilla or Lois rested on them 
 in discreet recognition. 
 
 " I say, let s have another look at that Callot negli 
 gee," said Tody, who knew the Paris dressmakers en 
 connoisseur, and could name a model as unerringly as 
 an expert distinguishes the parentage of a painting. 
 " Irma, you must have jt ! It s the line you like. I 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 139 
 
 say, let s see it again. I mean the one the tall blond 
 girl s got on. What s her name ? " 
 
 " Hypocrite ! " said Irma, under her breath. " As 
 though you were n t old friends ! " 
 
 Amy, who had still a great ignorance of the ways 
 of young men of fashion, looked around in frowning 
 incredulity. 
 
 " Why, Tody, you don t mean " 
 
 "Amy, you are innocent!" said Irma, shrugging 
 her shoulders. " To-night they may be all dining to 
 gether and imitating us." 
 
 Tody, who knew Amy better, protested his inno 
 cence so volubly that she began to have doubts. The 
 suggestion pained her. She did not like to think of 
 Tody and Jap, whom she admitted to her intimacy, 
 frequenting the company of such dangerous sirens. 
 She resolved at the first opportunity to learn the truth 
 and deliver the lesson. For, above all things, she in 
 tended to exert a good influence. But the return of 
 Priscilla in the Callot negligee drove such virtuous 
 intentions from her mind. She coveted the gown be 
 cause she knew Irma wanted it and was hesitating at 
 the price. 
 
 " Yes ; it s too dainty for words," said Irma, with 
 a sigh. " If I had seen it a month ago " 
 
 " It s just arrived the newest thing," said Fran- 
 celine quickly. " And what is one more negligee to 
 Mrs. Dellabarre?" 
 
 " Now, Franceline, you know perfectly well that 
 I ve had three negligees here this spring," said Mrs. 
 Dellabarre, in a voice which carried to the farthest 
 group, " and that s quite enough. Don t tempt me. 
 Take it away this instant ! " 
 
 Amy had set her heart on its possession from the 
 
140 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 moment she had seen the desire in Irma s eyes, and 
 the moment of indecision made her tremble. She had 
 come firmly determined to remain a spectator, steeled 
 to resist the craving for beautiful things which had 
 become a daily necessity in her existence. Since she 
 must economize, she had resolved to begin at once. 
 Her resolution held while the dainty, exquisite treas 
 ure passed her once; she resisted when a second time 
 Pfiscilla, who had her own coloring, floated by, but 
 when a last time, summoned by Tody, the model ap 
 proached, she held out no longer. From behind Irma s 
 back she sent Madame Franceline an imperious signal, 
 which that astute reader of unspoken thoughts at once 
 comprehended. 
 
 " There s a newer style coming over next week," 
 she said, with a signal to the model to retire, ".which 
 I think will interest you more, Mrs. Dellabarre." 
 
 Amy felt very guilty. At her first attempt to econ 
 omize, she had stumbled. 
 
 " Oh, dear, I wish I was n t feeling so poor," she 
 said artfully. " I must have some things, but I don t 
 know when I can pay you ! " 
 
 Franceline was full of sympathy. 
 
 " Mrs. Forrester, you know I never send in bills 
 until it s convenient there won t be any trouble 
 about that." And she added solicitously, " You 
 must n t deprive yourself for a trifle like that." 
 
 Amy Forrester drew a sigh of relief. The bill 
 and it was a large one could go over into the fall. 
 All her spirits returned. She felt she had accom 
 plished something something concrete. 
 
 " Me for the panier every time," said Jap, smiling 
 appreciatively at a dark-haired little model who came 
 up on tiptoes, dainty as a Watteau shepherdess. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 141 
 
 Tody Dawson disagreed immediately, and the con 
 versation became heated. 
 
 " Panier nothing ! That s nothing but a lot of side 
 saddles stuck on. Wake up, Jap ; wake up ! The art 
 of being well clothed is all in the descending line." 
 
 " You re for the wet bathing suit." 
 
 " Certainly. The human figure is beautiful why 
 distort it ? Interpret it. I m for things that wind 
 and cling. All this other stuff is just a lot of icing on 
 the cake, the bump on the log. It s grotesque ; sure it 
 is artificial ! " 
 
 " It depends on who s inside the panier" said Jap, 
 with an appreciative look at the black-haired Betty, 
 who turned slowly before them. " It all comes down 
 to this : there ought to be two styles, one for the dump 
 lings and one for the string bean." 
 
 " Speaking of dumplings," said Tody, rising with a 
 welcoming smile. 
 
 Kitty Lightbody came rolling in, her china eyes 
 sparkling with excitement. 
 
 " My dear, am I late? " she exclaimed, making for 
 Amy. " I suppose I am hello, boys ! but Lulu 
 kept me to show me it My dear, have you seen it?" 
 
 " Seen what ? " said Amy, vaguely alarmed. 
 
 "This week s Tattle-tale! My dear, you haven t! 
 You 11 be furious." 
 
 " Hush, Kitty ; don t shout so ! " said Amy, glancing 
 about the room uneasily. " What do you mean ? Is 
 there something about me in it ? " 
 
 " Something ! I should say there was, and a nasty 
 slap, too," said Kitty, in her reverberating voice. 
 
 " At me ? " asked Amy, her heart sinking before the 
 dread specter of publicity. "But why? What? I 
 don t understand." 
 
142 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Oh, no names mentioned. It s not so bad as all 
 that," said Mrs. Lightbody hastily, at sight of her 
 friend s pale stare. " We re all exposed to it. 
 Have n t I been torn to pieces ? Well, I should say I 
 had ! It s outrageous such papers are allowed to 
 exist," said Kitty, who read it religiously. " Trouble 
 is, people always believe what they want." 
 
 Amy got up heavily, her cheeks burning before the 
 curious glances which Kitty s volubility had centered 
 on her. 
 
 " I think I 11 go," she said dully. 
 
 " I 11 come too," said Irma, with a withering glance 
 at Kitty Lightbody. " Really, Kitty, how can you be 
 so stupid ? " 
 
 " Suppose I am a fool," said that simple lady, with 
 labored contriteness, " but I was so excited." 
 
 They hastened down to the car, stopped at the near 
 est news-stand and bought a copy. To Amy s unquiet 
 imagination, even the little, weazened news-dealer who 
 served her seemed to divine the awful truth. She 
 opened it with a faltering hand and found the passage. 
 
 One of the most destructive of our young 
 matrons is Mrs. Andrew B. Forrester, whose 
 coming Versailles fete is expected to be quite the 
 hit of the season. Amy is nothing if not discreet, 
 as many of our gilded youth have found to their 
 discomfiture. The number of scalps at her 
 twenty-two-inch belt is said to have gone into 
 the third dozen. Mr. Forrester is kept busy in 
 Mexico. 
 
 "Oh, is that all?" said Irma, with a disappointed 
 laugh. 
 
 " All ! " echoed Amy weakly. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 143 
 
 The malicious little paragraph danced before her 
 eyes. She sank back. It was her first experience with 
 the pointing finger of public curiosity. She felt over 
 whelmed, bruised, soiled. 
 
 " Irma, isn t it awful?" she said, in a whisper. 
 "What shall I do?" 
 
 "Do? Laugh at it!" 
 
 " Laugh ? How can you say that ? I feel like sink 
 ing into the ground." 
 
 " Don t be absurd ! " said Mrs. Dellabarre, amazed. 
 " Every one has to face such things. Have you any 
 idea who could have done it? " 
 
 "I? Of course not." 
 
 " The worst is, it might be any one. After all, my 
 dear, there is nothing so terrible." 
 
 Terrible ? It makes me out a professional 
 I don t know what a professional coquette, a vulgar 
 flirt taking advantage of her husband s absence." 
 Irma Dellabarre looked at her silently. " I J m ill over 
 it. I simply can t come to dinner to-night. I just 
 could n t face people ! " 
 
 " Don t be a goose ! That would make talk. Oh, 
 there 11 be worse than this, but when you Ve seen 
 your name in print a dozen times, you won t mind 
 at all." 
 
 "It s terrible!" 
 
 " But it s over in twenty- four hours. Oh, it s not 
 agreeable at first. But you must grin and bear it. 
 Husbands take such exaggerated views. Lucky An 
 drew s away ! Why, you foolish child ! " she ex 
 claimed, suddenly perceiving Amy in tears. " Here, 
 this won t do ! " She leaned forward, seized the 
 speaking tube and cried, " Bingham, drive round the 
 park." 
 
 
144 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 At the end of an hour Amy had somewhat regained 
 her calm. She had an engagement at Lazare s for tea. 
 She protested she would never go, that she could n t 
 go, but Irma. laughed her into it. Nevertheless, her 
 entry through the crowded room was the most painful 
 thing she had ever done in her life. She felt her face 
 go red. 
 
 Every group whispered her name as she passed, and 
 mocking eyes grew about her like daisies in a field. 
 Yet half an hour later she found that her breath came 
 painlessly and she was able to jest over the incident 
 with Laracy, saying, 
 
 " Look out; there is still room on my belt! " 
 
 Inwardly there remained certain qualms. The din 
 ner that night bored her, the theater bored her, and 
 when they gathered at the inevitable dance-club at 
 midnight, she pretexted a headache to explain her 
 somber mood, which was so unusual as to be remarked. 
 For her success lay not alone in the rare distinction of 
 her beauty, but in that she was young in pleasure. Her 
 capacity was genuine and insatiable. When she was 
 of the party, she communicated to all her radiant 
 spirits, her tiptoe excitement, her ardent gaiety, and 
 this spontaneous quality of enjoyment, amid the coun 
 terfeit youth and laboring pleasure, was rare enough 
 to make her a valuable acquisition. 
 
 By two o clock, she could stand it no longer. 
 
 " Tody, be a dear boy ; call my car and take me 
 home," she said. 
 
 " By George, I 11 cowhide the cad who published 
 that ! " said Dawson wildly, somewhat overexcited. 
 " I will, too, if you say the word." 
 
 " It is n t that," she said glibly. " That s too ridic 
 ulous to worry about. All the same, you are a nice 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 145 
 
 boy to say that. Get my car now and don t say any 
 thing. I 11 slip away." 
 
 In the car, her doubts returned uneasily. She drew 
 back into her corner, her chin against her palm, a little 
 frown on her forehead, quite oblivious of Tody, who 
 was rattling on with loosened tongue. 
 
 "Have I really done anything wrong?" she asked 
 herself. " I don t think so. Did n t Andrew himself 
 tell me to play all I wanted ? " 
 
 She had played, and that was all, as all her friends 
 were doing, and much less than some she knew. They 
 made the pretense of being virtuous wives, but many 
 laid themselves open to gossip notably Gladys Chal- 
 loner. She herself had attracted certain men deliber 
 ately, one or two for the pleasure of infuriating 
 Gladys or Irma, but she had lain down her laws and 
 permitted not the slightest deviation. 
 
 " I can t help men being devoted to me," she re 
 peated stubbornly. " That s their look-out. I play 
 fair. No one could have been more honest, more care 
 ful than I have. Men respect me." 
 
 She had worked herself up to this state of moral 
 complacency when abruptly, out of a clear sky, she 
 heard, through the maze of her own thoughts, Tody 
 Dawson calling her name, and the next moment she 
 realized that he had caught up her hand and kissed it. 
 At first she was too amazed to move. 
 
 "Tody!" 
 
 " Amy, Amy have n t you known it have n t 
 you seen Good God, I can t hide it any longer ! " 
 he cried wildly, still clutching her hand. 
 
 She understood. She sat up, looking at him in cold 
 anger. 
 
 " Tody Dawson, how dare you do such a thing? " 
 
146 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 Frightened at her tone, he dropped her hand 
 and began to stammer out confused, incoherent pro 
 testations. 
 
 " Amy, don t be too hard on me if you knew, 
 if " 
 
 " Tody Dawson, be quiet ! " 
 
 She seized the tube and brought the car to a stop. 
 
 " Now, get out ! " 
 
 He caught one glimpse of her stern face, and 
 obeyed with clumsy haste. The silk hat he wore 
 crashed against the door and toppled off. He recov 
 ered it awkwardly and backed out on to the sidewalk, 
 terrified at what he had done. She saw him standing 
 in the rain, a ridiculous picture, hugging the crushed 
 hat, on which drops had begun to glisten. 
 
 " Now drive on." 
 
 She had acted swiftly, without reflection, without 
 thought of what Bingham would read into this 
 brusque, humiliating dismissal. 
 
 " Perhaps it was a mistake to take him so seriously," 
 she thought, instantly apprehensive the Count de 
 Faucouleur had done as much. " I should have 
 shamed him by laughing at him." 
 
 What had doubled her anger had been the malicious 
 conjunction of circumstances. Was there some right 
 to criticism of her conduct? She went to bed, a prey 
 to nervous, racing doubts, saying to herself again and 
 again, 
 
 " But what do I do that men can make such 
 mistakes?" 
 
IV 
 
 HER anger had dwindled to annoyance at the ridic 
 ulous side of the adventure, and her annoyance 
 to unease, by the time Dawson had been announced. 
 She hesitated before refusing to see him, for she real 
 ized that there must be some readjustment or the broil 
 would become public, and conclusions would be drawn 
 which would be disagreeable, especially after the pub 
 lic reference she had received. Nevertheless, he should 
 have telephoned before claiming admittance at such 
 an hour. She excused herself without explanation. 
 
 When Morley returned with his riote, she took it 
 eagerly, frowning yet relieved, for she sought a way 
 to close the incident. She tried the edges, to make 
 sure they had not been tempered with, composed her 
 expression, and read the jerky scrawl. 
 
 You must see me. I m miserable ; I must ex 
 plain, or I don t know what I 11 do. 
 
 Further down, as an afterthought was added, 
 
 You can say it s about the costumes for the 
 Versailles fete. 
 
 " But that s true, we must decide," she thought 
 immediately. " How could I have forgotten that? " 
 
 The Versailles fete which she had planned was 
 quite the most important event of her whole life. 
 There were a hundred details to settle, decorations, 
 costumes, music, lighting, but above all there was the 
 
148 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 minuet of honor, which she was to dance with Daw- 
 son, Gladys Challoner, and young Pardee. 
 
 " I simply can t give that up," she said miserably, 
 and this last eventuality seemed to her the crowning 
 burden of her successive misfortunes. " How silly of 
 Tody to spoil everything by acting like that! What 
 am I to do ? And everything is announced." 
 
 The more she considered the scrawled note, the 
 more the question of the ball emerged from the back 
 ground and dominated the situation. There was abso 
 lutely no possibility of replacing Tody Dawson, who 
 danced like an angel, according to modern conceptions 
 of a celestial paradise. 
 
 " Yes; I must see him. I must see him if only to 
 find out what I have done that he could misinterpret. 
 Yes, that s it," she said, relieved at having acquired a 
 nobler reason than her own personal need. " I must 
 know in order not to make another mistake." 
 
 She turned to Morley. 
 
 " Tell Mr. Dawson I can see him for ten minutes." 
 
 " Down-stairs, Madam ? " 
 
 She reflected. There was a morning room off her 
 apartments which would not be exposed to busy ears. 
 
 " No, in the little gold salon." 
 
 When Dawson came stumbling in, head hung and 
 plucking at his glove, she was waiting by the piano. 
 
 "No; leave the door open," she said, as Morley 
 started to close it. For a door that is closed is a door 
 with excellent ears. 
 
 The maid s footsteps died in the corridor. All that 
 he had rehearsed fled from his memory. In two years, 
 the girl with whom he had danced, flirted, and played 
 had assumed authority and poise. He felt like a 
 schoolboy caught in an absurdity. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 149 
 
 " Good heavens, if I say I was tipsy, she 11 never 
 forgive me ! " he thought. 
 
 "Well?" she said, in cold interrogation, without 
 relaxing the forbidding stateliness of her pose. 
 
 " I can t explain," he said, dropping into a chair 
 and taking his head in his hands. " Amy, I m 
 wretched. I would n t have offended you you of all 
 the world Good Lord, I d cut off my right hand 
 first." 
 
 " Is the boy really in love with me ? " she wondered, 
 and she added more gently, " but you must explain; 
 you owe me that." 
 
 "I can t; it ll only make it worse," he said 
 desperately. 
 
 " But what have I done; what mistake did I make? " 
 
 " You ? Good heavens you ! What do you 
 mean? " he said, looking up terrified. 
 
 " What I can t understand," she repeated firmly, 
 " is where I ve been wrong." 
 
 "You? Good Lord, Amy! Are you crazy?" 
 
 " My dear Tody," she said quietly, resolved now to 
 treat him like a boy, " if you took such a liberty, what 
 did you expect me to do ?" 
 
 At this he looked so utterly crushed that she began 
 to feel a little pity. 
 
 " Don t be too hard on a fellow," he said, getting 
 up and walking to the window with real emotion ; for 
 in his effort to convince her of the depth of his passion, 
 he had begun to convince himself. Men have flung 
 away their existence on just such turns of comedy. 
 
 " I suppose he s in love with me, the romantic boy," 
 she thought, impressed by a spasm which shook his 
 shoulders. Nevertheless, as she was genuinely con 
 cerned, she repeated : 
 
150 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Well, what did I do wrong? " 
 " Good heavens, Amy, be human, have a heart," he 
 said, lapsing into familiar slang. " Do you think I 
 knew what I was doing? Men don t do things cold 
 bloodedly. We sometimes lose our heads," he added 
 bitterly, digging his nails into his palms. " But what 
 ever you think good Lord, Amy, you must n t think 
 that I for a moment ever believed you you cared 
 that I meant anything to you that Oh, Lord, 
 I don t know what I am saying." 
 
 He stopped and looked at her, and as he saw her 
 standing before him, so near and yet so far beyond 
 him, so radiant and so fragile, with all the art that 
 she had absorbed, more precious than the luxurious 
 setting which surrounded her, he felt like throwing 
 himself at her knees and crying: 
 
 " Do anything to me make your conditions 
 only let me see you, let me love you as before ! " 
 
 Something of this flashed into his face, for her 
 voice became like stone again. 
 
 " Tody, I am a married woman," she said quietly. 
 " Do you realize that? " 
 
 " Realize ? I don t realize anything," he said, 
 swallowing hard. 
 
 " But what are we going to do ? " she said thought 
 fully, for while she believed in his devotion, as it was 
 easy for her to believe in all men s attraction to her, 
 she was not convinced that any devastating passion 
 existed. She took him firmly by the wrist and made 
 him sit beside her on the sofa, saying : " Now, Tody, 
 I m not going to take you seriously. We have been 
 good friends, and I won t allow you to talk nonsense." 
 
 " What do you mean? " 
 
 " You know perfectly well," she said quietly. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 151 
 
 " Now listen to me ! At first, I simply made up my 
 mind to drop you." 
 
 "Oh, I say not that!" he cried, horrified at the 
 cruelty of her tone as much as at her words a tone 
 which set before him all the absurdity of his preten 
 sions and the distance between them. 
 
 " For I won t hide from you that you ve hurt me 
 terribly." She repeated firmly, " Terribly for you 
 see, Tody, I trusted you. That s the worst of it. I 
 let you come here as one of the family. I felt you 
 understood that we were the best of friends, real com 
 rades, that I could call you up at any hour, go with you 
 anywhere, and that I was under your protection. 
 There are only four or five boys that I admit to my 
 intimacy in the same way, never men whom I meet 
 casually. For I won t be talked about. Particularly 
 as my husband is forced to be away most of the time, I 
 intend to be overcareful. That s why, when you 
 spoke as you did about that wretched article, I was so 
 touched." 
 
 " And I meant it I swear I meant every word ; 
 he began. 
 
 " So I believed, and yet the very same day " 
 She stopped, frowned. " Now that we are talking 
 frankly as we must I 11 tell you that I did believe 
 you were devoted to me " She hesitated a moment 
 over the choice of a word. " Devoted yes, in a 
 chivalrous way, as a boy can be to a woman of the 
 world without doing him any harm. Perhaps I was 
 wrong, but I felt I was a good influence for you, that 
 I really helped you perhaps that was my mistake," 
 she said all at once, stopping and questioning him 
 with her glance. 
 
 " No, no," he said, and his eyes were perilously 
 
152 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 close to tears ; " you were right it s meant every 
 thing to me. By George, you are an angel if all 
 women were like you ! " He was walking back and 
 forth, speaking in broken phrases that he seemed 
 hardly able to utter. " I see it all. What a cad I Ve 
 been ! But it won t happen again. I m not going to 
 say what is n t so. You do mean the world to me. 
 Oh, I m not asking anything only to forget to 
 go back give me another trial, Amy ! " 
 
 " Very well ; we 11 forget," she said, after a pause. 
 " But would n t it be better if you did n t see too 
 much of me for a while ? " 
 
 " Oh, Lord, that s what I was afraid of ! " he said, 
 with a groan. 
 
 " Yet would n t it be wiser ? " she said doubtfully, 
 " and perhaps would n t it be better if we did n t dance 
 together in the minuet ? " 
 
 He could not answer. He walked to the door and 
 then back to the window, struggling for self-control. 
 He had been only lightly enamoured when he had 
 entered, but now, before her sweetness and charity, 
 he felt madly, hopelessly, head over heels in love. No 
 woman had ever existed like her, so kind, so fine, so 
 unselfish, so big-hearted. 
 
 "Listen, Amy," he said, at last able to face her; 
 "Don t do that don t! I beg it of you. If you 
 really forgive me, if you re going to give me another 
 chance, you won t insist on that. And besides-, if we 
 gave it up now, every one w r ould know suspect 
 don t you see? " 
 
 " Yes ; that s the trouble," she said pensively. She 
 studied him with a last hesitation. " Tody, can I 
 really trust you ? " 
 
 "Trust me? Good heavens, Amy, after the way 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 153 
 
 you Ve been with me ? Don t you know what it means 
 to a man to know a woman like you? " 
 
 " Very well ; I won t punish you any further. 
 We 11 dance it together." 
 
 He seized her hand (he would have liked to have 
 fallen on his knees before her) and raised it respect 
 fully to his lips. Then he went out hurriedly, not 
 trusting himself to say another word. 
 
 She felt the same moral satisfaction which she had 
 felt after her explanation with the Comte de Fau- 
 couleur. She knew that he would never offend again. 
 As for his feeling toward her 
 
 " It won t do him any harm to be a little in love 
 with me," she said with a smile, " better that he should 
 be devoted to me than to some dangerous vulgar 
 woman. I can be a good influence in his life, the very 
 best." 
 
 As Tody Dawson went down the great stairway, 
 his head swimming, his heart swollen, a dimness be 
 fore his eyes, the doors below swung open. He looked 
 down and recognized Andrew Forrester. 
 
FOR a moment, before the unexpected vision of the 
 master of the house, Dawson had an impulse to 
 retreat blindly, in the desperate need to steady his 
 nerves. Then he came down slowly, extending his 
 hand, a hasty explanation on his lips. 
 
 " How do, Mr. Forrester? " 
 
 " Oh, how are you? " said Forrester, who gave him 
 a short look, an abrupt hand-shake, and began to 
 struggle out of his coat. 
 
 " We ve just been practicing the steps for the 
 minuet. Amy s going to be stunning." 
 
 "The what?" 
 
 " The minuet the Versailles fete, you know." 
 
 " Ah, yes." 
 
 " We re counting on your being there." 
 
 " Kind of you." 
 
 Dawson felt that Forrester noticed his embarrass 
 ment and that being an intimate of the household 
 demanded that he should say something more. 
 
 "How are things in Mexico?" 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "Conditions all right in Mexico?" he continued, 
 shifting to the other foot. 
 
 " About the same." 
 
 "Staying long?" 
 
 " Don t know." 
 
 " Amy 11 be surprised." 
 
 Forrester gave no answer. To Dawson the door 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 155 
 
 seemed miles away. He swallowed hard, mumbled 
 something and departed, cursing the impulse which 
 had made him tell an unnecessary lie. 
 
 Amy was content with herself. It seemed to her 
 that even Andrew, had he been present, would have 
 been proud of her. She knew that she was unwilling 
 to punish herself by losing the boy s devotion, but she 
 had handled the situation so firmly, if with kindness, 
 that he could have no doubt of her loyalty. Moreover, 
 she had gained in his eyes, and the memory of the new 
 adoration she had seen on his face gave her a spiritual 
 satisfaction which she thoroughly believed she de 
 served. As for the effect on Tody at this moment 
 in her life she was skeptical of the great passion of 
 love which novelists harped upon and newspapers 
 dressed up in sensational colors. To her, it was a 
 question of propinquity, a comfortable sensation such 
 as the emotion that made her seek strength from her 
 husband; a logical thing, born of respect and admira 
 tion rather than of any uncontrollable passion. She 
 had never known its fever, its anguish of desire, its 
 obsessing specter, and she doubted its existence. 
 
 " It was the only sensible way to handle him the 
 dignified way," she repeated, glancing about the room. 
 His card had fallen by the sofa. She picked it up 
 smiling and was about to tear it up, when Morley 
 rushed in. 
 
 " Beg pardon, madam, but Mr. Forrester is down 
 stairs." 
 
 " Mr. Forrester! " she said, vaguely alarmed by the 
 sense of precipitation in the maid s entrance. 
 
 " Yes, madam, I was passing in the hall and I heard 
 his voice talking to Mr. Dawson. I m certain of it! " 
 
156 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 Below, the outer door slammed. She remembered 
 suddenly that Morley was watching her, and angrily 
 aroused herself. 
 
 " There must be some mistake go and see," she 
 said abruptly. 
 
 The maid departed. She was alone, Tody s card 
 in her fingers. She noticed it, and started to hide it 
 in the front of her negligee. 
 
 " No, no I have done nothing wrong why 
 should I feel like this ? " she said impatiently, her ear 
 strained to catch the slightest sound. The next mo 
 ment she heard the powerful fall of her husband s 
 step on the stairs. 
 
 At the first glance into his face, she saw that he 
 was angry as she had never known him to be before. 
 
 " Why, Andrew, it isn t possible! " she cried, going 
 to him with outstretched hands. 
 
 " I was called up rather suddenly," he began, then 
 his glance fell on her negligee, and he stopped short. 
 The face, already set in nervous irritation, became all 
 at once hard, concentrated, and bitter. Before this 
 look she recoiled as though he had stepped out from 
 behind a mask. In a prophetic flash, she saw what he 
 might become if he should cease to love her, and, 
 seized with horror, she cried, warding him from her. 
 
 " Oh, Andrew, don t look at me like that ! " 
 
 He continued to look at her. His eyes blazed and 
 the color went out of his face. He turned, closed the 
 door, and said, 
 
 " I met that young Dawson in the hall." She was 
 too overcome with the shock to her heart to compre 
 hend what he was saying. She nodded, her eyes 
 blurred with tears, wounded as a child is wounded. 
 " And I have a second disagreeable experience to find 
 

 His glance fell on her negligee, and he stopped short, 
 Page 156. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 157 
 
 you in such a costume," he said, his eyes running over 
 the soft negligee which wrapped her little body about 
 as the wreath of some heavy incense. " If you choose 
 to receive men at such hours in your private salon, I 
 object to your dancing in a dressing gown." 
 
 "Dancing?" she said, startled back into attention. 
 
 " Exactly." 
 
 " You are out of your senses, Andrew ! " she cried, 
 and her modesty was so offended that her cheeks 
 blushed in indignant reproach. :t You don t think that 
 of me ! No, no ; that is impossible." 
 
 " One moment!" He stood staring at her, his 
 fingers playing like lean tentacles. " Do I understand 
 you to say that you have not been dancing with Mr. 
 Dawson ? " 
 
 She drew herself up and faced him with a flash of 
 anger. 
 
 " Certainly not! " 
 
 * That is rather more serious, then," he seemed to 
 hear himself saying. Something roared in his temples ; 
 a rush of water closing over him. " Mr. Dawson him 
 self, five minutes ago, told me that he had been re 
 hearsing the minuet you are to dance with him! " 
 
 " He told you that ! " she cried, aghast. 
 
 " Exactly that." He waited, torn by all the blinding 
 forces of jealousy, his eyes never leaving her face. 
 After a moment he said imperiously, " Well ? " 
 
 She could not assemble her wits. She felt trapped, 
 beating out her wings against a cage, convicted by 
 appearances. 
 
 " But this is awful ! " she thought, shrinking before 
 the ugliness of the situation. " He 11 believe anything 
 of me, and I am innocent! " 
 
 " Well ? " she heard his voice repeat. 
 
158 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 She glanced down at the card which was crumpled 
 by the action of her fingers her fingers that were 
 moist with perspiration and she said slowly, 
 
 " If Mr. Dawson said such a thing, he told a lie, 
 and a very stupid lie." 
 
 The silence seemed endless before she heard him 
 breathe a deep breath. 
 
 " That I believe," he said carefully. " At least you 
 have not forgotten your dignity and mine to that 
 extent. Now, may I ask why Mr. Dawson should 
 have felt it necessary to explain his presence here with 
 a lie?" 
 
 " A lie ? " she repeated weakly, feeling the forces 
 of circumstance closing again about her. 
 
 " Exactly a lie." 
 
 Before she could meet this new danger, the tele 
 phone bell rang. Glad of the opportunity to delay, 
 she made him a sign and took up the receiver. It was 
 Harry Fortescue, of the " Young Guard," as Irma 
 termed them. Nothing could have been more inop 
 portune. 
 
 " Impossible, Harry," she said irritably, " I m 
 lunching with Irma and Gladys. Some other time. 
 I m in a rush now." 
 
 She put down the receiver, but hardly had she taken 
 a step before the bell rang again. This time, it was 
 young Pardee, who was to dance in the minuet 
 Pardee whose manner toward her of late had aroused 
 Mrs. Challoner s combative instincts. 
 
 " Lunching with Gladys at Lazare s," she said hur 
 riedly. " Run in and see us there, and we 11 make an 
 appointment. In an awful rush now, Charlie can t 
 talk to you." 
 
 These interruptions from young men whom he did 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 159 
 
 not know and whom Amy already addressed by their 
 first name were not calculated to calm Forrester s 
 irritation. 
 
 "If your social duties will allow you," he started 
 to say, with cold, calculated phrase, but his anger 
 boiling up, he burst out, " Well, come now ; what have 
 you to say ? " 
 
 She had regained her poise. After all, it was quite 
 simple. She would tell him the truth everything 
 as it had happened. 
 
 " I should have told you," she said, frowning at the 
 effort this simple operation suddenly required. " I 
 have had an unpleasant experience with Tody Dawson, 
 but I have handled it in the proper way as you would 
 have wished me." She hesitated, and then continued 
 resolutely : " Last night, in the car, when he was taking 
 me home, the boy forgot himself. I don t know why 
 he may have had too much to drink " She hesi 
 tated, and recoiling before the whole truth, said, " He 
 tried to take my hand." 
 
 " In love with you, of course." 
 
 " I don t know he imagined he was, perhaps," 
 she said reluctantly, angry at herself that she had pal 
 liated the offense. 
 
 "What did you do?" 
 
 " I stopped the car at once." With the instinct of 
 a woman to appease a man who is jealous by the 
 spectacle of his rival s humiliation, she added: "It 
 was raining. I made him get out and I left him there, 
 in the rain. This morning he came around and begged 
 me to see him. I thought it was better to treat him 
 as a boy to end the incident. I saw him and made him 
 understand my loyalty to you. He is heartily ashamed, 
 quite miserable, and I am sure that he has now only 
 
160 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 the profoundest respect for me, your wife." She ex 
 tended her hand abruptly, and offered the card. 
 " This is his card." 
 
 He took a long moment to read it, and then tore it 
 slowly to pieces with unsteady fingers. 
 
 " Good God ! " he said, leaning suddenly against 
 the table. In the last terrible moments he had feared 
 everything. 
 
 She comprehended the torments of jealousy in his 
 cry and forgave him on the instant. 
 
 " He loves me like that ! " 
 
 She was ready to fling herself in his arms, to 
 cling to him and be done with words. She hesitated. 
 He had been totally wrong, she was ready to forgive, 
 but it was only right that he should make the first 
 advance. And her heart swollen, longing to be in his 
 arms, she waited for the word she was certain would 
 come. 
 
 " Well, we don t have to face that yet," he said 
 heavily; then he stopped, looked at her quickly and 
 said, frowning, " You say you taught him to respect 
 you?" 
 
 " Absolutely." 
 
 " And yet he goes out and tells me a lie ? " 
 
 " Yes; but - 
 
 " Come, now ; I m not going to believe that. There 
 is more than you have told me." 
 
 Her face betrayed her. Why had she withheld the 
 whole truth, if only not to lose in his eyes? He saw 
 her confusion, and all the happy horde of doubts 
 shrieked once more about him. He put his hand to 
 his throat and then looked away from her. 
 
 " Amy, I must know. On your word of honor, is 
 what you have told me the truth? " He hesitated, and 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 161 
 
 added in almost a whisper, as though he too shrank 
 before the test, " All the truth? " 
 
 She felt cold to her finger-tips, and in the palms of 
 her hands the perspiration rose. 
 
 " It is dreadful I am going to lie ; I must lie, 
 there is no other way out," she said to herself, even 
 while calmly and deliberately she answered : 
 
 " Why, of course, Andrew absolutely all." 
 
 " This young cub means nothing to you? " 
 
 " Oh, that I swear it to you ! " 
 
 " There is one way to find out," he said quietly. 
 He stepped to the door and rang the bell. Morley 
 appeared. " Send Gregory here." 
 
 " What are you going to do?" she cried. 
 
 " That is my affair." 
 
 " Andrew, you are in my house, before my servants 
 you won t do anything to humiliate me before 
 them?" 
 
 " And I ? Haven t I been humiliated before them ?" 
 he said sternly. " Humiliate that s good ! What 
 do you suppose Gregory thought when he heard that 
 young cub lie to me! " 
 
 "Andrew, be careful!" 
 
 " Exactly. I intend to be a little more careful about 
 many things." 
 
 Before she could protest, Gregory came in, fumbling 
 at the buttons of the duster he had forgotten to 
 change. The butler s agitation fanned Andrew s fury. 
 
 " They know everything. They ve already been 
 talking it over! This is what it s come to!" he 
 thought. Aloud he said, 
 
 " Gregory, in the future, when Mr. Dawson calls 
 here, whenever it may be, neither Mrs. Forrester nor 
 I are at home. Do you understand ? " 
 
1 62 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 Yes, sir perfectly, sir," said Gregory, with a 
 frightened look. 
 
 " That s all." And as the butler stood glancing 
 from husband to wife, he cried, " Well, why do you 
 stand there ? Did n t you hear me ? That s all, I 
 said!" 
 
 Gregory backed out, bumping against the wall, 
 seized the knob and closed the door with a crash. 
 
 " That clears the atmosphere," said Forrester 
 deliberately. 
 
 Amy was in a conflict of two emotions. The 
 further Andrew receded from her control, the more 
 she felt a thrill of admiration at his masterfulness. 
 But this sentiment was immediately brushed aside by 
 the shock to her pride. A servant had been witness 
 of this sudden superiority, which in itself fascinated 
 her. She had received the greatest affront she had 
 ever experienced. In this home, where her whim 
 had been law, suddenly the man had stepped in and 
 shown who was master. 
 
 " This I shall never forgive ! " she said in a hard 
 voice. In her everything grew cold and rigid, and, 
 all at once, from the weak, passionate longing for his 
 caress of a moment before, she felt a blind, uneasy 
 revolt, a hatred, the same hardening of all her nature 
 that she had been amazed to see in him. 
 
 " I am not through," he said, checking her with a 
 gesture. " I shall assume that after what has hap 
 pened Dawson will not appear at your dance." 
 
 " I shall dance with Mr. Dawson," she said slowly. 
 
 " I forbid you. Understand me, I forbid you ! " 
 
 " And I tell you now," she cried, facing him defi 
 antly, " now, after what you Ve done, I shall dance 
 with Tody Dawson ! " 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 163 
 
 " I think, when you consider calmly," he said 
 sternly, " when you realize what such a defiance will 
 mean you will do nothing of the kind. What you 
 do outside my house, whom you see, I cannot control ; 
 but here in my home " 
 
 " It is my house as much as yours ! " she cried 
 indignantly. 
 
 " Quite true ; but there is one obligation incumbent 
 on you," he said sternly, " to see that my dignity is 
 respected. When any man tells me a lie as to the 
 motives of his tete-a-tete with you he does n t come 
 in here again." 
 
 " Andrew I warn you, Andrew, I won t accept 
 this," she said, in a choking voice. 
 
 " You must take the responsibility of your own de 
 cision then," he said coldly. He looked at her a mo 
 ment and drew a clipping from his pocket. " I don t 
 know whether you have read this pleasant reference 
 to us. I have." And he flung on the table the un 
 lucky number of the Tattle-tale. 
 
 " You don t accuse me " she began indignantly, 
 when as though the imps of ill chance were determined 
 to overwhelm her with false testimony, for the third 
 time, the telephone broke in. Their nerves were at 
 the snapping tension. The metallic, shrill note was 
 the last irritation to him. 
 
 " What another ! " he cried, with an ugly laugh. 
 " So this is what it s come to ! " 
 
 His hand went out in blind anger, struck the tele 
 phone and swept it from the table. With a crash it 
 went rolling to the floor between them. She shrank 
 back with a scream, throwing up her arm. He stood 
 breathing hard, his lips working spasmodically. Then, 
 with an effort, he turned and rushed from the room. 
 
VI 
 
 this be Andrew?" Amy said to herself in 
 amazement. Had the floor suddenly parted 
 and Gregory appeared on extended wings, she could 
 not have been more astonished. For two years she 
 had never known her husband but as the most com 
 plaisant and tractable of men, unfailing in good 
 humor, proud of her social triumphs, an inexhaustible 
 bank to meet every caprice. Twenty times she had 
 said to Irma : 
 
 " Andrew is the most perfect of husbands. He lets 
 me do exactly what I want. He has absolute faith in 
 me. Really, I think he adores it, the more men are 
 attentive to me." 
 
 And, all at once, without warning, this outburst, 
 this arbitrary and violent climax of Dawson s banish 
 ment ! She who had looked at other wives in superior 
 pride had suddenly been overwhelmed with the ugly 
 reality. The first quarrel had come, and with it the 
 realization that here was a new man very different 
 from the adoring Andrew of the past a will and a 
 temper to be reckoned with in future, an anger that 
 had left her cold with physical fear ! 
 
 She stooped and picked up Dawson s card, now 
 twisted into an unrecognizable shred, and the copy of 
 the Tattle-tale which he had flung down. Then, notic 
 ing the telephone, she swept it up hastily. But no 
 sooner had she replaced the receiver, than the bell took 
 up its shrill clamoring. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES .165 
 
 For the moment, she was seized with the same vio 
 lent desire to sweep it aside which had possessed her 
 husband. 
 
 " Well, who is it? " she demanded angrily. 
 
 It was Tody Dawson. 
 
 She covered the receiver hastily and glanced about 
 with a frightened look. 
 
 " Mrs. Forrester is out ! " she said abruptly, and set 
 the receiver down with a bang. Of course, he had 
 telephoned to warn her of his break, but the boyish 
 imprudence of the move increased her irritation. 
 
 " The worst is, I acted as though I were guilty/* 
 she thought, as she entered her boudoir. Her cheeks 
 were burning with a dry, feverish anger. She re 
 peated insistently, " No ; never I 11 never forgive 
 him!" 
 
 Her husband s room adjoined hers. She marched 
 directly to the door, threw it open, and said sharply, 
 
 " Andrew ! " 
 
 The room was empty. He had left the house. She 
 came back, frowning and uneasy, vaguely alarmed at 
 this disappearance, which her excited imagination 
 magnified. What could she do? There must be some 
 explanation matters could not be left like this. She 
 dressed, glanced at the clock, and hurried down to the 
 waiting car. 
 
 " Why did I act as though I were guilty ? " she re 
 peated, frowning. " I even told a lie, a foolish lie ! " 
 
 Yet it was impossible to forgive such a public humil 
 iation quite impossible! Then her anger veered to 
 Tody. What had possessed him to tell such a stupid 
 lie to call up on the telephone, when her husband 
 might have been there? Perhaps Andrew had over 
 heard there was a connection in his room per- 
 
1 66 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 haps that was why he had rushed away. Of course, 
 if he was jealous, it did look terribly, with all those 
 unfortunate telephone calls. Suddenly she sat upright. 
 
 " But Andrew himself told me to play all I wanted 
 to of course he did ! And now he reproaches me ! " 
 
 Why had n t she thought of that at the time of their 
 quarrel ? There was her answer to him and to all 
 the doubts which had troubled her conscience. She 
 had done only what he had wished her to do. If she 
 had unwittingly offended against appearances, he was 
 responsible. Her innocence appeared to her so radi 
 antly clear that she settled back with a deep sigh of 
 content. When she saw him again, she would con 
 front him with this defence. What could he answer? 
 Absolutely nothing! So relieved was her conscience 
 that by the time she reached Lazare s, she was in the 
 mood to make excuses for what she had sworn never 
 to forgive. 
 
 It was almost two by the buhl clock hid in the palms 
 as she hurried through the antechamber, where the 
 first person she ran into was Mrs. Dellabarre, who 
 had been telephoning frantically. 
 
 " Really, Amy when we are going to a matinee 
 this is exaggerating it ! " 
 
 " My dear, Andrew turned up unexpectedly," she 
 began glibly. " I just could not get away." 
 
 She was in the dining room, smiling to the right 
 and to the left, making for a corner table v. hich was 
 always reserved for their special group. Gladys Chal- 
 loner s eyes were sharp and malicious; it would never 
 do to let her suspect the quarrel. She was composing 
 her expression when, all at once, she was thrown off 
 her guard. At their table, where they had drawn up 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 167 
 
 chairs for a word of greeting, she saw her cousin, Fifi 
 Nordstrum, and Monte Bracken. 
 
 She had known that he was returned from Europe. 
 She had read of his exploits lately at Palm Beach, but 
 in the long intervals since she had last seen him, the 
 impression of their last intimate conversation had re 
 mained so vivid in her imagination that to happen 
 upon him now in this odd conjecture startled her. 
 
 He arose at her approach. By the look in his eyes 
 she saw that he did not at once recognize her, until, 
 by Fifi s greeting, he could place her. 
 
 " Sorry to be late husband turned tip," she said 
 lightly. " Why, Fifi dear, thought you were in 
 Florida!" 
 
 " Just bobbed up," said Fifi, embracing her. " Go 
 on, Monte. Monte is too delightful," she added, in 
 explanation. " He has just been wiping up the floor 
 with us, and Gladys and Kitty are furious." 
 
 " Monte is exceedingly personal," said Mrs. Chal- 
 loner frigidly. 
 
 " Rats ! " said Fifi. " There are thousands like you, 
 Gladys." 
 
 "But what s he been saying?" said Irma en 
 couragingly. 
 
 " The most dastardly attack I could make," said 
 Bracken, smiling. " If I had accused you of being 
 uneducated, parasites, or immoral, that would be noth 
 ing! But I remarked that the New York woman did 
 not know how to dress, and the row started." 
 
 " But, Monte, every one admits that we are the best 
 dressed women in the world ! " said Irma, in protest. 
 
 " There you go ! What do you mean by best 
 dressed?" 
 
 " What do you mean? " 
 
1 68 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " I mean dressed in perfect taste for every occasion." 
 
 " Oh, go on and attack us ! " said Kitty. 
 
 " With pleasure. You dress for the street car as 
 you dress for a ball. There is nothing progressive 
 in your art everything is thrown out at once. A 
 well-bred woman in Europe who is well dressed is an 
 artist. When she goes shopping, she goes shopping, 
 and not to attract the admiration of motormen, bell 
 boys and shop clerks. She would be offended by such 
 attention. So she dresses not to be noticed. If she 
 lunches in a restaurant, she does not offer herself to 
 the vulgar stare of a crowd as she would to her friends 
 in the shelter of her home." 
 
 " This hits me ! " said Kitty. 
 
 " Certainly. But it does not distinguish you, my 
 dear Kitty," said Bracken, laughing. 
 
 " Well, we overdress," said Gladys, shrugging her 
 shoulders. 
 
 " Ah, but it s more than that you don t compre 
 hend that to be a woman is an art in itself ! " 
 
 " Now you interest me," said Irma, nodding in 
 approval, while each in turn, at this excursion into 
 the only field which completely absorbed them, leaned 
 forward expectantly. 
 
 " To charm always and unfailingly, a woman must 
 understand the value of surprises. She should know 
 how to admit a man progressively to her intimacy, 
 and to make him feel that each approaching step is a 
 privilege." 
 
 "Blessed if I get that!" said Kitty explosively, 
 while Irma nodded thoughtfully. 
 
 "If you meet a woman in the morning, you do not 
 wish to see her as she is in the afternoon. If you 
 meet her in the afternoqn in public, you ought to feel 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 169 
 
 that there is a final intimacy that she reserves for you 
 solely in her own home. The trouble here is, you 
 make no distinction between the admiration of the 
 crowd and the tribute from the privileged friend. 
 You are well dressed always, but how shall I say ? 
 
 you are well dressed as " 
 
 " Say it, Monte ! " said Fifi, with her elbows on the 
 table. " As demi-mondaines are well dressed." 
 
 "But why not?" said Irma lightly; for the topic 
 had now run to a favorite pose of hers. " As for me, 
 I say it frankly, I admire them! They are the only 
 real women to-day. What they do they do well " 
 
 " Irma ! " said Kitty, closing her ears with a pre 
 tense of being scandalized. 
 
 " But I mean it ! Why not be frank ? " said Mrs. 
 Dellabarre. " We do imitate them. Monte s right. 
 You do and I do. Don t be foolish of course we 
 do! Don t we fall over every little dancer or actress 
 who turns up? Don t we fight to have them at our 
 tables, copy their dress, their hair, their slang? We do 
 
 only, we do it badly." 
 
 The conversation ran into distinctions which scan 
 dalized the ears of an out-of-town couple at the next 
 table. For, at this time, Irma s pose was a cloak of 
 bravado which many women of society liked to assume 
 in the effort to startle and astound. 
 
 Amy took no part in the discussion, hearing little 
 that was said, yet if her mind could not concentrate on 
 Monte Bracken s argument, she had, as always, a feel 
 ing of his mental superiority. Her own perplexities, 
 the sudden disturbance of her equanimity, the new 
 struggle ahead which she foresaw must come with her 
 husband if she were to regain her threatened suprem 
 acy obsessed her to the exclusion of all other thoughts. 
 
1 70 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 In the air was the arrogant dominion of the New; 
 fetish and tyrant of the sensation-craving crowd. 
 Lazare s was the newest restaurant, with the newest 
 orchestra and the newest dancing favorites to patron 
 ize their dance hall. A new style had made last sea 
 son s dresses grotesque, a new lace-brim hat was the 
 magnet of all feminine eyes. About them the con 
 versation ran on the new plays, the new books, the 
 newest pianist, and the newest scandal. Nothing could 
 survive six months in the forcing heat of this social 
 hothouse, where every luxury of the body was flaunted, 
 where every sensation had to have novelty, where a 
 brilliant, driven, pleasure-drugged society met in its 
 search for the extraordinary, for the bizarre for 
 the thing that astounded. And she, Amy Forrester, 
 had become one of them, as he had prophesied. How 
 strange that Monte Bracken should bob up in her life 
 at this moment ! She was superstitious, as all women 
 are in misfortune. There was something unnatural 
 in this reminder of the past a sign and a warning ! 
 Perhaps, after all, she was wrong all wrong. From 
 time to time, as he continued his bantering attack with 
 Irma and Gladys, his glance rested on her with grow 
 ing curiosity. What was he thinking? Did he re 
 member ? Once he spoke her name, slurring it she 
 was not sure but that he had called her " Mrs. Foster." 
 If he remembered, there must be a touch of malice 
 behind the amusement in his eyes. 
 
 " If a woman s unhappy, she s lazy," said Fifi, 
 closing the subject in her downright way. She rose 
 with a glance at her watch. 
 
 " I agree, and I escape on the word," he said, 
 laughing at Kitty s militant expression. He turned 
 deliberately to Amy, holding out his hand. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 171 
 
 " I see you have just remembered me," she said. 
 
 " Not quite that readjusted my memories," he 
 said, smiling. And then, with that assumption of 
 intimacy which never offended in him, he added, 
 " Are you going to ask me to call? " 
 
 " Please soon." 
 
 She watched him as he made his adieux. He had 
 not changed much if any. He had gained in 
 authority a trifle thinner in the face and under the 
 cheek bones. He had the same easy bearing toward 
 life, the same tolerant amusement in his keen eyes; 
 and yet there was a new note which arrested her atten 
 tion a note of sadness, or if not quite that, of rest 
 lessness, of being unattached to life a seeking for 
 some intangible help, which she detected for the first 
 time. 
 
 "What s this stuff about our being lazy?" said 
 Kitty, who had been puzzled by the intricacies of the 
 conversation. 
 
 " Now that we are alone," said Irma, laughing, 
 " let s tell the truth." 
 
 " What do you mean to say a clever woman can 
 do what she pleases that is, of course you know 
 what I mean." 
 
 The other burst out laughing. 
 
 "Flirt to your heart s content? Certainly," said 
 Irma. " Fifi has hit it we are just simply lazy. We 
 take husbands for granted. If we d give one tenth 
 the time to managing them that we do to playing 
 around if we showed just as much cleverness with 
 our husbands as with other men there would be no 
 divorces." 
 
 " Irma, you re a nice one to talk ! " 
 
 " My dear, when Rudy flies into a tantrum, I blame 
 
172 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 myself. Let s whisper the truth : any woman can do 
 what she wants and keep her husband, if she is n t too 
 lazy to try." 
 
 " Not always," said Gladys, " but, even then, with a 
 little attention " 
 
 " My Lord, I must be the limit then I certainly 
 can t do it ! " said Kitty naively. " I tried, but it was 
 an awful bore. Who wants a husband around all the 
 time, tripping over your skirts ? Just because you re 
 married, you don t have to treat all men as though 
 they were lepers ! " 
 
 At this moment, a boy approached with a telephone 
 slip for Mrs. Challoner, who took it, glanced at it, 
 smiled, and rose to answer. 
 
 " I suppose you call that being clever," said Kitty 
 instantly. " Gladys gets me. The number of men she 
 can keep going without snarling the threads beats me ! " 
 
 Several younger men came in and joined their table 
 Laracy, Pardee, young Fortescue, and, finally, Tody 
 Dawson, who drew up his chair at Amy s side and 
 looked unutterably melancholy and submissive, refus 
 ing to join the chorus of raillery which always cen 
 tered about Kitty Lightbody s incursions into philos 
 ophy. Amy withdrew, too, from the conversation, a 
 prey to her thoughts. The discussion left her heavy- 
 hearted. Was it true that she, too, was coming to this 
 light acceptance of marriage? She felt like crying 
 out : " Wait, let me think it over ! Give me time 
 everything is rushing so. It is n t fair everything 
 is being thrust upon me all at once ! " 
 
 "Lord sakes, Amy, if you re pining for your hus 
 band as bad as that," said Kitty Lightbody suddenly, 
 " fly to him ! You re worse than a girl when she s 
 engaged." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 173 
 
 She roused herself hastily, defending herself with 
 spirit against the laugh which followed. 
 
 " Speaking of engagements," said Laracy, " heard 
 the latest? Fifi and Monte Bracken." 
 
 "Fifi?" said Gladys scornfully. "Fifi doesn t 
 count ! Men propose to her out of politeness. Fifi s 
 collecting engagement rings." 
 
 Irma and Amy looked at each other with the same 
 impulse, the same question in their glance, and then 
 uneasily away. 
 
 " I don t believe it," said Mrs. Dellabarre, frowning. 
 
 "Fact?" said Laracy. "They re together all the 
 time." 
 
 Well, if we want to get the second act," said 
 Kitty, springing up, " time to be moving." 
 
 Amy, who had stopped to greet an acquaintance, 
 was momentarily detained. When she reached the 
 sidewalk, the others had gone; only Tody was wait 
 ing, ill at ease and dejected. 
 
 " I m sorry. They did n t want to wait," he said 
 contritely. "If you d rather I can take a taxi." 
 
 She frowned and stepped into the car, motioning 
 him to follow. 
 
 " Now go for me," he said with a groan. " I 
 deserve it, I know. I Ve called myself every name I 
 could think of." 
 
 She was in no humor to spare him. 
 
 "Why did you do it? And before Gregory, too. 
 What will he think?" 
 
 " I know ; I know ! " he said miserably. " I lost my 
 head like a double-barreled fool that I am ! " 
 
 " But why say anything? " she said, exasperated. 
 
 " Good Lord, Amy," he said, surprised, " be reason 
 able! I had to say something." 
 
174 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Well, you see at such an hour " He began 
 to flounder, bit his tongue, and said desperately, " I 
 had to give some explanation really." 
 
 It came to her like a shock as though uncon 
 sciously Tody himself were pleading Andrew s cause 
 that he, too, had realized that there was something 
 undignified, something demanding an explanation in 
 his presence under the conditions. She frowned. 
 
 " I suppose you told him the real reason ? " said 
 Dawson slowly. 
 
 " Of course there was nothing else to do." 
 
 " Oh, Lord ! " 
 
 You have made me exceedingly uncomfortable 
 exceedingly unhappy," she said. She looked at him, 
 angry that such an inconsequential element in her rou 
 tine of pleasure should have the power to trouble her 
 intimate tranquillity. But she could not let him sus 
 pect the gravity of the situation, so she said, " If 
 Andrew was n t perfectly wonderful, it would have 
 been more than disagreeable." 
 
 " I 11 do anything you say I ll go to him myself." 
 
 " You 11 do nothing of the kind," she said sharply. 
 " The whole thing is ridiculous but it s over ! " 
 
 Arrived at the theater, she hastened into the box. 
 Despite all of Laracy s humor and the bantering of her 
 friends, she felt too depressed to conceal her emotion. 
 Their flippancy annoyed her, their humor was stale; 
 their assumption of worldliness was ridiculous. She 
 thought of Andrew as he had been in his anger 
 masterful, trenchant, and unbending. 
 
 " Good heavens, these are nothing but puppets ! " 
 she thought. :< There is not one real man among 
 them and we spend our time fighting over them!" 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 175 
 
 At the close of the act, she rose, pretending a head 
 ache, and went home, refusing an escort. She waited 
 alone in her bedroom, trying to read, listening for her 
 husband s return. At six, a message came from the 
 office that she was not to change her plans, he would 
 dine at the club. 
 
 " He might have called me himself, 7 she thought, 
 staring at the wall. Even if she had been wrong, he 
 might have made allowances for her every one 
 always had. Hurt, weak, and rebellious, she dressed 
 and went to dinner, a stiff affair, new acquaintances, 
 where she was bored and restless. At ten o clock she 
 left and hurried home, hoping to find him back. Since 
 their quarrel of the morning, she had done nothing 
 but compare him to the men she saw about her. The 
 new Andrew impressed and awed her. And though 
 at times she rebelled furiously against the tyranny of 
 his uncompromising attitude, she felt little by little 
 that this unsuspected strength dominated her. In half 
 an hour of sudden authority, he had won more than in 
 two years of lavish devotion. 
 
 " I will do anything for him," she said to herself, 
 in a flood of emotion, " anything. I 11 give this all 
 up, if he really thinks I am wrong. I 11 give up every 
 thing. I will go with him and lead his life, only 
 only, he must say he s sorry. I can t give in utterly. 
 No; I can t do that!" 
 
 He had not returned. She went up to her room, 
 slipped into a negligee and dismissed Morley for the 
 night. It was almost eleven. 
 
 " He ought to be back soon," she thought, as she 
 took up a magazine to tease the time along. But at 
 the end of a moment she perceived that she did not 
 know what she was reading. 
 
1 76 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 "But he is wrong; he is wrong, too!" she said, 
 dropping the periodical wearily. 
 
 In the house, not a sound could be heard except the 
 ticking of the little clock on her table. Outside, the 
 street had gone to sleep, too. At most, a distant whir 
 of motors or the echo of a passing train grew, swelled, 
 and dwindled into the silence of the night. She felt 
 alone, abandoned in the emptiness, afraid as in her 
 childhood she had been afraid of the peopled dark, 
 with a weak, helpless feeling of playing with forces 
 she did not understand. At midnight, she heard the 
 heavy clang of the outer door, then his mounting steps 
 on the marble stairway. 
 
 Would he come directly to her room? She held 
 her breath and her pulse quickened. He passed. A 
 moment later she heard the click of the electric switch 
 as he entered his bedroom. 
 
 " He will knock in a moment," she thought, with her 
 glance on the knob of the door, that, at times, seemed 
 to turn slowly. " Perhaps he thinks I m asleep." She 
 rose and moved across the room, humming to herself, 
 that he might know she was up. 
 
 " He 11 come he must come now ! " she said, 
 stopping, her hands pressed over her breast to still the 
 flurry of her breathing. Minute after minute she 
 stood there, waiting 
 
 Should she go in? Could she make the first over 
 ture? Her whole nature rebelled against the thought. 
 To do so was to admit her offending the greater. To 
 make the first advance would be to renounce her old 
 empire over him. 
 
 " No, no ; he must be the first ! He must ! " 
 
 She stretched out her arms, and her lips moved with 
 his name. He must know that she was there ! If he 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 177 
 
 loved her, he must feel that she was calling him to 
 her! 
 
 All at once she -heard the click of the electric button, 
 then the sudden groan of the bed. 
 
 " He won t come he won t come ! " she mur 
 mured. " He knows I am here, waiting, and he won t 
 come ! " 
 
 The room grew blurred before her eyes. She 
 groped her way to her bed, fell on it, and buried her 
 head in her pillow. 
 
 " He must n t hear me. He shan t know how I 
 suffer," she said to herself hysterically. Yet her wish 
 was contrary to her thought. Only a door separated 
 them. Despite all her effort he must hear her, he 
 must know that she was sobbing her heart away 
 
 In the morning, when she awoke heavy from a tor 
 mented night, the maid brought her this letter : 
 
 MY DEAR AMY : 
 
 I am leaving on an early train, and perhaps it 
 is better so. It does no good to talk over an ugly 
 situation. There are, however, several things I 
 must say to you. On reflection, I feel that I was 
 wrong in giving orders as to whom you might or 
 might not receive in your house. It is your house 
 and, in the second place, it is impossible to live 
 on the basis of force. I shall therefore leave you 
 full liberty for your actions. You will realize, 
 I hope, the full responsibility this entails. I shall 
 await your decision. 
 
 ANDREW. 
 
VII 
 
 HE express was running into the outskirts of 
 Buffalo on the last lap of its journey to New 
 York. Andrew Forrester, in a private stateroom, 
 surrounded by magazines half read, three novels yet 
 to be opened, and a drifting mass of newspapers which 
 littered the floor, waited eagerly the moment when he 
 could descend for a long, nervous tramping of the 
 platform. He was returning home for a brief twelve 
 hours, for which he would have come a few thousand 
 miles, that his presence might be remarked at the 
 Versailles fete of his brilliant young wife. A dozen 
 times he had vowed to remain away, but, in the end, 
 he had come. He had come grimly, because his pride 
 was in question, and whatever his private misery, his 
 vanity insisted on concealing it before the world. 
 
 A crisis had arrived in his married life, which had 
 to be met. In response to his letter, Amy had written 
 defying his authority, announcing her intention of 
 dancing the minuet with Tody Dawson. He did not 
 believe that she would go so far as this, but if she did, 
 he would meet the situation as it must be met. 
 
 "Everything all right, Mr. Forrester?" asked Per 
 kins, the conductor, an old friend, who never failed 
 to stop in for a chat. 
 
 " Thanks, yes. Running on time? " 
 
 " To the minute. When are you coming out 
 again? " 
 
 " Just up for over night, Perkins ; back with you 
 the day after." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 179 
 
 " Up for that costume ball, eh ? " 
 
 " Yes," he said, surprised. " How do you know 
 about that?" 
 
 " My missis showed me something about it in the 
 paper," said Perkins. " She keeps an eye on the 
 doings of the Four Hundred." 
 
 " I see. Well, drop in after dinner and smoke a 
 cigar with me." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Forrester." 
 
 He tipped his hat and went his mechanical way, a 
 thin, chop-whiskered, feeble-voiced man of forty, 
 with a sweeping nose and the Yankee s prominent 
 Adam s apple. Forrester rang for the porter. 
 
 " Sam, get all the papers and any new magazines, 
 and clear out this truck." 
 
 " Yassir, yassir, I sure will," said the porter, grin 
 ning from ear to ear with the certainty of fancy tips. 
 He went out, hugging the discarded newspapers, which 
 filled his arms and hid his shining black face. 
 
 "If she does what she wrote," said Andrew For 
 rester to himself, staring out at the squatter settle 
 ments which heralded the approach of the city ; " if 
 she does that, it means only one thing." He laughed 
 an ugly laugh. " Andrew B. Forrester, what s the 
 use of fooling yourself ? It s all over long ago, and 
 you know it. You might as well readjust things now 
 face things as they are." Their estrangement was 
 not of an accident; it had crept gradually in, during 
 the long months of his absence, fatuously devoted to 
 his dream of putting her on an equal footing with the 
 great ones of America. " Suppose you ve only your 
 self to blame but then, that does n t help matters. 
 Good God, can t a woman have even gratitude if 
 nothing else ? " 
 
i8o VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 It is a popular belief that an American husband is 
 the most indulgent in the world. In great measure 
 this is true, but it is also true that he is the most sus 
 ceptible to brusque rebellion. So long as his faith 
 continues, his self-sacrifice is fabulous; but once con 
 vinced of ingratitude, and the revulsion in his nature 
 has the force of dynamite. Andrew Forrester, in the 
 direct obstinacy of his outlook on life, knew neither 
 subtleties nor compromise. Black was black and white 
 was white, and he comprehended no diluting shades. 
 Out of the ardent impulse of his nature, he had conse 
 crated his life to seek for her the precious gifts of 
 pleasure. That was a fact. She had suddenly re 
 vealed herself as unable to consider his point of view, 
 his business interests, or his dignity. Then she had 
 announced her intention of flatly disobeying him. 
 These were more facts. There could be no extenua 
 tion and no explanation. If the old attitude could 
 be restored, it could only be by an unqualified recog 
 nition of the justice of his grievance. That there 
 could be the slightest hesitation on her part in ac 
 knowledging this, once the question clearly put, had 
 astounded him. There could be but one answer. She 
 did not love him. 
 
 All this was clear and logical as a business proposi 
 tion, but once arrived at the inevitable conclusion, he 
 found himself wandering back into mazes of puzzled 
 conjecture. 
 
 " But what have I done to deserve such treat 
 ment ? " he thought wearily, going over the past. 
 " What is it she can t see ? Why won t she realize 
 that I am the important one, that what I do counts, 
 that if I am hindered, if I fail, she fails but, oh, 
 Lord, what s the use of hashing that over? We ve 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 181 
 
 gone beyond that. It s a question of authority now 
 order or anarchy. If she s brought back that young 
 cub, Dawson, if she intends to sacrifice me rather than 
 him well, there s only one thing to be done ! " He 
 fidgeted in his seat, retreating before an ultimatum. 
 " Of course there s nothing wrong she s not that 
 kind. Yes ; I know that God, but once I was n t 
 sure ! " His blood leaped up hotly at the thought. 
 For days he had been shaken with the hot insomnia 
 of jealousy, ready to believe anything. Youth sought 
 youth and the rapid gaiety of its own generation. He 
 himself had willed it. The next moment he frowned, 
 passed his hand over his forehead. " No, no ; that s 
 ridiculous. I must n t let my imagination run away. 
 I m making myself suffer for nothing. Whoa there, 
 Andrew B. Forrester ! " 
 
 He sprang up, searched in his bag for a cigar, and, 
 the train running into Buffalo, descended. It was 
 deep into the evening, and in .the scurrying, flower- 
 laden crowds was the scent of the full spring. He 
 caught a newsboy rushing past by the shoulders and 
 bought a newspaper, opening it to the day s reports of 
 the stock market. Osaba Refining and Smelting had 
 again receded a fraction on unfavorable news from 
 Mexico. He crumpled up the paper and flung it on a 
 bench, though it had visualized no more than he knew. 
 
 " Why the deuce should I be bothered with debts 
 now, when I m making twice what I did?" he said 
 savagely. " Then, nothing bothered me from morn 
 ing to night. I was in the pink of condition, could eat 
 like a schoolboy, and work twenty hours at a stretch." 
 
 In two years he had trebled his debts. Since his 
 marriage, luck had run persistently against him. He 
 had played for the gambler s maximum, sold. his solid 
 
1 82 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 holdings, accumulation of years, to plunge into the 
 new venture. Confident of golden horizons, he had 
 taken large blocks of stock on margins. To-day, Osaba 
 Refining and Smelting was fifteen points lower, de 
 spite the miracle of organization and development he 
 had worked, despite the net earnings and the pros 
 pects ahead. By one of those tricks of fate which 
 the American financier never foresees in his confident 
 manipulations of destiny, a subordinate officer in Tam- 
 pico had affronted the dignity of the American nation, 
 and forty-eight hours later war hung on the horizon. 
 Consequently, though his income was fifty thousand a 
 year, he spent seventy and faced the possibility of bor 
 rowing a large sum in order not to sacrifice part of his 
 holdings. 
 
 The thought of bills, large or small, had always an 
 noyed him, and now, confronted with the specter of 
 Amy s extravagance, he had begun to age. As he 
 moved up and down, immersed in gloomy thoughts, 
 his stride had lost its alacrity. Deprived of his morn 
 ing gallop, he had grown soft and a slight embonpoint 
 had arrived. Lines had gathered about the eyes and 
 temples. His lips had a trick of twitching when his 
 mind was perplexed, and day or night he found it in 
 creasingly difficult to relax. 
 
 "Well, if the cub s there that 11 settle it!" he 
 thought again, his mind reverting to the approaching 
 crisis. " Anyhow, in a few hours I 11 know where I 
 stand." 
 
 During the long isolation in Mexico, he had felt, 
 with an increased heaviness of heart, the change in her 
 letters. It had been not only their increasing rarity, 
 but the growing note of complete self -absorption 
 which had warned him af the widening chasm between 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 183 
 
 them. The only result of his self-abnegation had been 
 to give wings to a butterfly, with which to escape from 
 him. 
 
 Like most American men, he had married without 
 the slightest contemplation of marriage. He had had 
 no conception either of the new duties he should as 
 sume or what share of responsibility in this new atti 
 tude of life he would eventually demand from his wife. 
 He had plunged in, without chart or compass. No re 
 ligious training had prepared him, no home standards 
 existed for the necessary background. The second pe 
 riod had now arrived, when he was to examine log 
 ically what he had done on impulse. 
 
 " But what have I done that was wrong? " he asked 
 himself, as he had asked a hundred times. " Where 
 have I failed? Given without asking anything in re 
 turn? Perhaps." That was the tragedy of America, 
 and the result was the same, whether it was the hus 
 band in his chivalry, sacrificing himself to the youth of 
 his wife, or the parents, educating their children be 
 yond them in the passionate American longing to raise 
 those they loved above them. " I should have made 
 her follow me. I suppose now it is too late, " he said 
 abruptly. 
 
 The incoming crowds surged about him, whistles 
 shrieking in his ear, great volumes of heavy vapor 
 blowing under the resounding roof. It recalled the 
 first parting in the Grand Central Station, when, by 
 some impulse of her deeper self, some ominous shrink 
 ing before the future, she had clung at his side and 
 begged to go with him. 
 
 "How queer how queer life is!" he thought, 
 with a laugh of mockery. There was one moment 
 when everything might have been different a mo- 
 
184 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 ment when I would have let her if we had been 
 alone just us two if the others had n t been there ! 
 And if she had asked the next time " He 
 shrugged his shoulders. There had been no next time ! 
 
 The whistle gave a shrill blast. Sam called to him 
 in warning. He swung up the steps and returned to 
 his seat. 
 
 " Well, here I am, and what am I going to do about 
 it ? " he said, sorting the new pile of periodicals and 
 newspapers. " Face the music, of course. Other men 
 have, and life goes on just the same." 
 
 Perkins came in after dinner, and he welcomed the 
 interruption with a feeling of relief. 
 
 " Come in, come in, Perkins ; Ijejre s your cigar 
 and it s a pretty good one," he said, "extending the box. 
 " Take a couple away for a good dinner when you get 
 home. Well, what s your opinion on this little world 
 of ours?" 
 
 The thin conductor selected the cigars with an air of 
 veneration, pocketed two and bit a third, after pinch 
 ing the end, in order to save the precious fraction. 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Forrester ; that will help a lot," 
 he said, beaming with the feeling of good humor For 
 rester communicated to those who approached him. 
 He brought forward a newspaper. " Notice this ? " 
 
 "No, what is it?" 
 
 " Picture of your missus." 
 
 Forrester took the paper, drawing back and nodding 
 gravely. Before him was the exquisite profile of his 
 wife and underneath : 
 
 MRS. ANDREW B. FORRESTER 
 
 WHOSE VERSAILLES FETE TO-NIGHT is AN EVENT OF 
 THE SEASON 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 185 
 
 " Yes ; she is extraordinarily pretty," he said to him 
 self, examining it critically. " Quite different from 
 any one else." A thrill of pride went through him. 
 " Is it possible that I am in love with her? " he asked 
 himself anxiously. " That I can still be in love with 
 her?" 
 
 " Quite a story about the ball," said Perkins admir 
 ingly. " Description of the costumes and all that. 
 Guess every one worth while will be there, won t 
 they?" 
 
 " You seem quite interested," said Forrester. He 
 laid down the paper, pushing it a little away from him. 
 This was a new side of Perkins whose salary, whose 
 struggles and perplexities and hopes he knew, as he 
 liked to know the inner mechanism of all lives. 
 
 " My missus thinks a lot about such things," Per 
 kins said apologetically. You see, knowing that I 
 know you, she s been specially interested in this. She 
 says it J s the most elegant thing this year." 
 
 A fantastic idea came to Forrester. What if he 
 gave Mrs. Perkins the chance to gaze upon this para 
 dise of her imagination? It could easily be arranged 
 all she would need to do would be to help upstairs. 
 But immediately, looking at Perkins, he said to him 
 self angrily : 
 
 " I must be crazy ! Do him such an injustice ? Not 
 by a long shot ! " 
 
 Out loud he said : 
 
 " So Mrs. Perkins reads the social column, eh ? " 
 
 Perkins nodded gloomily. 
 
 " She s daffy on it." He blew out a fragrant cloud 
 of smoke, and looked at Forrester inquiringly. " Mr. 
 Forrester, what J s gotten into the women folks these 
 days?" 
 
186 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Well, what do you think is wrong? " he answered 
 defensively, startled at a question which came so close 
 to his own perplexities. 
 
 " Search me," said Perkins, shaking his head. He 
 started to continue the subject, hesitated awkwardly, 
 and switched. " What kind of openings are there 
 down in Mexico for a fellow like myself ? " 
 
 "For you, Perkins?" 
 
 " Yes, for me. I Ve been wanting to make a shift," 
 he said, looking at the end of his cigar with the gravity 
 that one assumes with brass buttons. He tugged at 
 his chopped whiskers. " Yes, Mr. Forrester, for a 
 long time." He looked up quickly, deciding to plunge 
 in. " You could n t use me somewhere, could you, 
 Mr. Forrester? " 
 
 " Mexico s a long way off," he answered, studying 
 him in surprise, " and just at present it s no place for 
 women." 
 
 " I was n t thinking of taking the missus." 
 
 " Oh ! " A silence rested between them. " Trouble 
 of some sort ? " said Forrester finally. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Not in the family?" 
 
 Perkins began to play with the brass buttons on his 
 uniform, clearing his throat nervously. 
 
 " Well, that s about it. I want to get away." 
 
 " Sorry to hear that," said Forrester, startled at the 
 conjunction of circumstances. 
 
 " Mr. Forrester, what s got into the women folks 
 these days?" the conductor repeated all at once, and 
 Forrester, at a loss for an answer, replied again : 
 
 " Well, what do you think s the matter? " 
 
 " You can search me! " Perkins said, staring out of 
 the window. " It was all right the first years, until I 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 187 
 
 got a couple of raises until we settled in the city. 
 Mr. Forrester, I think it s the dance craze s got a lot 
 to do with it. It does turn their heads, particularly if 
 they re young and pretty." He stopped, opened a 
 pocketbook, and brought out a photograph. " Never 
 showed you this, did I? Quite smart-looking girl, 
 is n t she?" 
 
 " Very," said Forrester, glancing in wonder at Per 
 kins wife, who might have walked out of his own 
 drawing-room. 
 
 " Some style," said the conductor, with a touch of 
 pride. 
 
 Forrester nodded, pursed his lips, and handed back 
 the photograph. 
 
 " You have to pay for what goes on that back, Per 
 kins." 
 
 " Exactly that s the point," he said slowly. 
 " That s where we differ one of the points. You 
 see, I m thinking ahead there s a good ways to go 
 still, and it takes a powerful store of nuts." 
 
 "Saved anything?" 
 
 " Six hundred in the bank six hundred, that s 
 all," he said wearily. He drew aside and nodded ; then 
 he sat up with a jerk. 
 
 " Only six hundred at your age ! " said Forrester, 
 astonished. " Things been going pretty badly then? " 
 
 " Pretty bad, sir, yes. Oh, there s nothing wrong, 
 you know, with Nellie. You understand what I mean." 
 
 " I understand," said Forrester, gazing out of the 
 window. 
 
 " But her life and mine don t jibe. It s society s 
 turned her head all these political picnics and balls, 
 the movies, the friend with a car and dancing 
 every afternoon. I ve tried to get her out of it. But 
 
188 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 you can t budge her from New York no, sir ; not 
 an inch ! I d a fine opening out in St. Louis with my 
 uncle, in a wholesale grocery. But she would n t go." 
 
 " Perkins, why don t you divorce?" said Forrester 
 abruptly. Then he drew back and stared again into 
 the flitting hills, shocked at the echoes of what he had 
 himself pronounced. 
 
 " Well, you see, there s a couple of kiddies," Per 
 kins said gently, " and they re fond of her. So am I 
 in a way. You saw what she looks like. She s 
 bright, always full of spirits. No ; I would n t want 
 to do anything to hurt her. But some one s got to 
 think ahead and that s me. I want to get away, 
 Mr. Forrester, or I 11 be losing my grip." 
 
 Forrester straightened up, drew out a memorandum 
 pad and pencil. 
 
 " Write down your name and address." 
 
 " You mean you 11 find a place for me ? " 
 
 * You bet I will ! " he said emphatically. He spoke 
 with decision. " You re a first-class, corking man, 
 and I m going to use you. Now, a few plain words. 
 What s important her life or yours? Who s the 
 worker ? Who s feeding the family ? These things 
 are hard hard especially coming to a decision. 
 But make your decision, stick to it, and you 11 feel like 
 another man. She won t follow you? Make her an 
 allowance and get out. You come to me to-morrow, 
 when you ve told her, and I 11 take care of you, Per 
 kins and you won t lose by it, either. Is it a go ? " 
 
 He held out his hand. Perkins took it slowly, swal 
 lowing hard. 
 
 " It s a miracle, sir, that s what it is no use try 
 ing to thank " 
 
 " Don t. I guess I can understand." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 189 
 
 When Perkins presently departed, Forrester craned 
 forward, arms on the table, hands drawn under the 
 chin, held for hours in his own thoughts. Before, he 
 had felt isolated by his own private unhappiness, now, 
 a certain kinship in misery descended on him and 
 eased the ache. 
 
 " Whatever happens, Andrew B. Forrester s not 
 going to be wrecked, either," he said stubbornly. 
 " I Ve gambled like a fool, I ve gotten in beyond my 
 depth. I Ve lived like a spendthrift. Now enough 
 she can go her way and I 11 go mine, but her way is n t 
 going to sink the ship ! " 
 
 He was still in this belligerent mood as the train 
 plunged into the long tunnel below Harlem. He rose 
 and went out on the platform. A gigantic transfor 
 mation was being worked; an immense system was 
 growing around the shell of the old, layers of tracks 
 being built beneath their roadbed, houses shored up, 
 caverns opened, new supports replacing the crumbling 
 rock, and all this myriad activity going on night and 
 day, without a single minute s disturbance to the multi 
 tudes which flowed in and out. 
 
 " By George, that is great ! " he said in awe. He 
 would have liked to have lifted his hat in token of 
 respect before the genius of his race, which stopped 
 before no impossibility. " If I had a son, I d like him 
 to do big things like that." 
 
 But he had no son. He was alone. 
 
 In the station, that great underground sky-scraper, 
 where crowds swarmed up from delving stories, the 
 same joyful reverence filled him. It was all so im 
 mense, on a scale so much bigger than any human con 
 sideration. It was like a great purposeful tempest 
 washing away little uglinesses. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " This is America ! " he said to himself, at the sight 
 of world-crowds that rushed about him. The elec 
 tricity of the moment, the swaying toward the future, 
 the regeneration of the old, tired strain, with the joy 
 of great horizons held him in its grip. A throng of 
 emigrants went past, from southeastern Europe, hud 
 dled together, gaping, ticketed for the West. " Out 
 of these staring oxen," he thought, " a master of men 
 may come. By George, this is America ! " 
 
 He stood a moment, a long moment, breasting the 
 human flood, a growing light in his eyes. 
 
 " Good Lord, what does my private grief amount to 
 before this? " he said to himself. " I ve married, not 
 as I thought I did, as a free agent, but because nature, 
 I suppose, sent me blindly out to seek a mate ! Whether 
 I m happy or unhappy, what does it matter ? This 
 is what counts. Big days and it s good to live in 
 them. This is my life my man s life my part in 
 the fight!" 
 
VIII 
 
 Tl THEN Andrew Forrester reached his rented 
 V V home, it was late afternoon. The sidewalk was 
 crowded with supplies arriving from the caterers 
 cases of wine, tins of ices ; box-trees and potted plants, 
 wreaths of greens from the florist s; carpenters were 
 carrying in scaffolding; others were erecting the awn 
 ing, rolling down the carpet. When he picked his way 
 up the steps through this straggling confusion, a 
 heavy-set man in dark clothes barred the door to him. 
 
 " What business, please ? " 
 
 " Just the husband," he said, with a snap of his jaw. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, sir. I m from the agency. 
 We have to be careful who comes in," said the detec 
 tive, who continued, however, to watch him doubt 
 fully. 
 
 " I see and it s up to me to prove my identity," 
 said Forrester, so brusquely that the detective retreated 
 a step. " Well, there is a certain element of humor in 
 the situation." 
 
 " I m only doing my duty, sir." 
 
 At this moment, Laracy, hatless and coatless, pilot 
 ing a barricade of palms which moved like Birnam 
 Wood, perceived him and came up puffing. 
 
 Won t shake hands, Mr. Forrester ; I m covered 
 with grime. Lord, I don t know how we re ever go 
 ing to be ready, but it s going to be a smasher ! " 
 
 " Kindly recognize me as the master of the house to 
 this model watchdog," said Forrester grimly. 
 
192 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 "What! Oh, I say, that s a good one!" said 
 Laracy, bursting into laughter. " It s all right, Jim," 
 he added, with a wave of his hand, which satisfied the 
 detective. " Excuse me, won t you ? I m overseeing 
 the decorations." 
 
 " Thank you for the service," said Forrester, with 
 an irony which was lost. 
 
 He entered the antechamber and thrust his way up 
 through the bedlam to the salons and the ballroom, 
 which swarmed with decorators and carpenters, track 
 ing and purposeful stage-ants, under whose industry 
 the scene was growing from chaos. Half a dozen 
 young fellows whose names he did not know, comman 
 deered by his wife, were rushing in and out under the 
 direction of Steingall, the artist, a short, electric man 
 of enthusiastic rages, who was everywhere, drumming 
 up laggards, rearranging, and directing. And the first 
 person he saw, nonchalant, at home, thoroughly self- 
 possessed, was Tody Dawson. The young fellow per 
 ceived him, wheeled, and came up with an appearance 
 of casualness. 
 
 " How do, Mr. Forrester ? It s going to be mar 
 velous. Be back in a minute. I ve got to telephone 
 for more box-trees." 
 
 Forrester bowed without shaking hands. His jaw 
 shut with a snap. The answer had come. He, the 
 husband, was to be sacrificed. It struck him as sub 
 limely ludicrous that he, Forrester, should be beaten 
 thus by a youngster who was n t worth a clerk s salary. 
 
 " For she s beaten me," he said grimly. " I am the 
 intruder." 
 
 Steingall, who was an enraged purist, stopped a mo 
 ment in his breathless turning to explain. Everything 
 would be Louis XIV., even to the paintings on the 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 193 
 
 walls which he had rented from the Caxton Galleries, 
 and the ornaments and appliques from Bootheby s. 
 The ballroom was to be transformed into an orange 
 garden ; the open windows and doors were to be boxed 
 in and lighted by invisible electric lights, to give the 
 impression of moonlight vistas; a great star-strewn 
 canopy was to be let down from the ceiling to repre 
 sent the firmament, while colored lanterns would 
 twinkle among the branches. 
 
 " Very fine very clever," said Forrester, nodding, 
 without visualizing anything in the confusion. 
 
 He wandered into the dining-room, which was be 
 ing transformed into a tent to represent a fair in the 
 days of the Grand Monarque. In one corner, Pardee 
 was passing on the liveries to be used. Steingall 
 flashed in to approve of two little pickaninnies decked 
 out in turbans and glittering red-and-gold costumes, 
 who were to circulate with trays of bonbons. 
 
 " Mr. Steingall Mr. Steingall here are the elec 
 tricians ! " 
 
 The impresario disappeared. A little woman, 
 smartly tailored, whose presence was unaccountable 
 until he perceived she carried a notebook and pencil, 
 approached Forrester, mistaking him for a confrere. 
 
 " Have you got the supplementary list of names ? " 
 
 " Eh what ? No not yet," he said, startled. 
 
 " I wish we could get some hint of the costumes. 
 It s a corking story." And, with the instinct of the 
 newspaper to make all things comprehensible in dol 
 lars, she added anxiously, " What do you imagine it 11 
 cost the old man ? " 
 
 The " old man " referred to him. 
 
 " That s just what I was trying to figure out," he 
 said, with a grim smile. 
 
i 9 4 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Well, I m going to put down One Hundred 
 Thousand Dollar Fete/ " she said excitedly. " When 
 you work out what s going to be paid out in costumes 
 and jewels, it represents about that. It s quite the 
 most expensive event of the season." 
 
 " So I judge." 
 
 " Guess old Forrester can stand it, though. They 
 say he cleaned up a million on that last break in 
 Mexico." 
 
 " That J s interesting." 
 
 At this moment, a businesslike young man with 
 derby pushed back on his head, in spats and glaring 
 waistcoat, smoking a cigar, whispered to Pardee and 
 came over. 
 
 " Mr. Forrester, would it be possible for us to get a 
 view of Mrs. Forrester s costume ? We d like to have 
 it for the morning paper." Out of deference, he re 
 moved his hat and sheltered the cigar behind his back. 
 
 The dapper little lady gave a gasp of amazement but 
 recovered quickly. 
 
 " Mr. Forrester ! Oh, I beg your pardon I did n t 
 realize!" 
 
 " No harm done it s good to hear about our 
 selves occasionally," he said, smiling. 
 
 " There are a lot of details you can give us now," 
 said the young man, breaking in professionally. 
 
 " I m afraid not. Mr. Steingall, Mr. Laracy will 
 help you out," he said wearily. " I m just out of 
 the train. I know nothing yet absolutely nothing. 
 You 11 excuse me." 
 
 He moved away, dodged a couple of workmen 
 bringing in a great screen, bumped into and apologized 
 to an electrician in shirt sleeves, grimy and smoky 
 the democrat unabashed in the palace of the rich 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 195 
 
 and avoiding the leader of the orchestra, who was 
 clamoring to Laracy for more room, went up the great 
 marble staircase. 
 
 "Who am I in all this?" he thought ironically. 
 
 " Mr. Steingall where is Mr. Steingall ? Send 
 Mr. Steingall up at once madame is ready." 
 
 He looked up and recognized Morley hanging over 
 the stone balustrade. 
 
 "You can announce me, too if it s convenient," 
 he said sharply. 
 
 Morley gave a cry of surprise. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Forrester, we ve been telephoning to the 
 station every one 9 waiting for you to try your cos 
 tume on, sir." 
 
 Steingall went past him, two steps at a time, with 
 out seeing him. He went up more slowly, a prey to his 
 own reflections. Mrs. Dellabarre, warned by Morley, 
 came out to meet him on the landing, giving him both 
 her hands in friendly enthusiasm. 
 
 " Andrew, wait till you see Amy ! She s perfectly 
 ravishing! " 
 
 " It seems like a madhouse," he said, unbending a 
 little. He liked Irma. She understood him, he felt. 
 Often he had thought of going to her in his perplex 
 ities. She was different from other women. 
 
 Mrs. Dellabarre drew her arm through his in the 
 camaraderie which had been established between them 
 and brought him thus into the morning room where, 
 in a circle of dressmakers who were turning about her 
 on their knees, he beheld his wife. 
 
 " Here he is at last ! " said Irma triumphantly. 
 
 Amy looked up with a touch of confusion, not dis 
 pleased to have this first meeting with her husband un 
 der the protection of other eyes. 
 
196 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Andrew, dear, we Ve been frantic about you/ she 
 cried hastily. Your costume is waiting for you." 
 
 She looked at him with a quick glance, ready to bury 
 -all resentment, but repulsed immediately by the irony 
 she saw lurking in his eyes. 
 
 " I suppose I must go through with it," he thought, 
 wondering if she would compel him to kiss her for the 
 comedy to be played before others. " What am I ? " 
 
 :( You ? You are Louis XIV, of course ! " cried 
 Irma. " Wait till you see yourself." 
 
 The little seamstress rose from the ground, inten 
 tionally releasing Amy. There was no escape. She 
 stepped forward, offering her cheek. 
 
 " I m a mass of pins still I don t dare move." 
 
 " I understand," he said, and kissed her. 
 
 Steingall, who was surveying the costume with his 
 head on one side, indicated a better draping over the 
 shoulder. 
 
 "Of course, you can t judge of the effect until my 
 hair is curled and powdered." 
 
 " It is very beautiful," he said quietly. He felt the 
 falsity of his position. He, too, was masquerading. 
 " I 11 go now, I think, and try on my costume." 
 
 " Do you mind dining at the club," she cried, as he 
 went toward the door. " And be here " 
 
 " Certainly but I shall see you before I go," he 
 said. 
 
 Irma Dellabarre followed him out to the hall. 
 
 " Andrew ! " He looked at her, and saw her eyes 
 set seriously on his. " Andrew, whatever you do, 
 don t discuss anything well, serious with her to 
 night. It s her night, her great night. Don t spoil 
 it. Be careful." 
 
 " She has been talking to you, then? " he said, look- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 197 
 
 ing away from her and over the balustrade at the stir 
 and conflict below. 
 
 " Yes." She added, after a moment, " She is very 
 unhappy." 
 
 When he reached his room, he burst out laughing. 
 
 Half an hour later, he heard his wife come into the 
 bedroom and went in. 
 
 " How s the costume ? " she said hastily. He no 
 ticed in her eyes, as they passed from his, a touch of 
 alarm. 
 
 " The costume is all right." 
 
 Morley, at this moment, went out on an errand be 
 fore she could think to retain her. They were left 
 alone. 
 
 He waited, and she waited for the word of explana 
 tion that ought to come. When the moment had 
 passed, he said deliberately : 
 
 " You have nothing to say to me, after I have come 
 a few thousand miles ? " 
 
 " I wonder why you came/ she said, with a rebel 
 lious flash. His anger always awoke in her the in 
 stinct to struggle against his masterfulness. 
 
 You wish to know ? I 11 tell you. I ve come so 
 that nothing should be said against you, as there cer 
 tainly would have been if you d given this fete and I 
 had been away." 
 
 " And your name? " 
 
 " I have the greatest pride in my good name yes." 
 
 " His dignity he s always thinking of that! It 
 is n t because he s jealous of me I could understand 
 that. It s just his vanity," she said to herself, though, 
 in a calmer mood, she would have recognized the in 
 justice of this. 
 
198 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 A knock, and Morley appeared. The jeweler wished 
 to know at what hour Madame would wish the neck 
 lace brought. 
 
 lt Ten o clock will be time enough," she said, a lit 
 tle confused. She explained hurriedly : " Case & Fon- 
 tenelle are lending me a wonderful necklace to go with 
 my costume." 
 
 "Lending?" 
 
 " Oh, for almost nothing. It 11 be a great advertise 
 ment for them." 
 
 " I see. May I ask you to wait a moment ? " he said, 
 as she started to ring for Morley. " I have come quite 
 a distance, and I am leaving early. May I have half 
 an hour s talk with you uninterrupted? " 
 
 " Now? " she cried, in dismay at the storm she felt 
 powerless to avoid. "Now? Don t you realize I have 
 a hundred things to attend to ? " 
 
 " You are developing quite an executive ability," 
 he said, exasperated by her attitude of evasion. 
 
 She understood the allusion, and a flash of anger 
 showed in her face. Luckily, one thought dominated 
 her : To-night she must be at her best. If she cried, 
 her eyes would show it. At this moment a box ar 
 rived with the wig from the coiffeur s. 
 
 You see ! " she said reproachfully. 
 
 " I can wait," he said, going to a chair and sitting 
 down. 
 
 Pignatelli, a stoop-shouldered little man, came in 
 with profuse salutation. The trying of the wig con 
 sumed half an hour. She was so delighted with the 
 effect that she gave a cry of delight. 
 
 "Exquisite!" 
 
 She felt herself so transformed, so radiant, that he, 
 her husband, could not resist her; in his pride at per- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 199 
 
 ceiving how beautiful she would be, his irritation must 
 soften. But when she turned to him, there was the 
 same obstinate reserve in his eyes which she could not 
 comprehend. No; it was not human to act as he did. 
 
 Then, once more they were alone. 
 
 " Andrew, I m in no mood to listen. I m all 
 wrought up," she said sharply. 
 
 " I regret it." 
 
 " What ! " she cried, aghast. " You wish to make a 
 scene now at such a time ? " 
 
 " Excuse me. It is n t I ; it is you who have made 
 an explanation necessary. I left the decision to you. 
 You have sacrificed me to bring that young Dawson 
 into the house." 
 
 "Dawson! Dawson!" she exclaimed irritably. 
 
 " Always harping on that idiotic affair ! Besides, he 
 
 is n t here alone. He s here with half a dozen others 
 
 - because I m at my wits end because every one 
 
 must help me." 
 
 " Good heavens, don t reason like a child ! " he 
 burst out in turn. " Face the situation ; understand the 
 gravity ! Be at least a woman ! " 
 
 She turned, feeling escape impossible. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " I have left the solution to your sense of delicacy, 
 of loyalty, to decide ; and you have done so." 
 
 " I have decided," she said definitely. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " That I will not be bullied by you into doing unrea 
 sonable things." 
 
 " Unreasonable ! You regard my request as that ?" 
 
 " Exactly." 
 
 " In other words, you intend to go your own way, 
 regardless of my wishes," he said, in his deliberate, 
 
200 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 businesslike manner, which had the power of doing 
 away with all her better feelings and arousing a blind 
 revolt. 
 
 " That depends entirely on you. 1 
 
 :< Your attitude does not surprise me," he continued 
 slowly. " After all, Dawson is just an incident. How 
 many others there are, I don t know," he said, with a 
 shrug of his shoulders. " The crisis has been coming 
 on for months. The trouble is that you are not inter 
 ested in my life. You do not care in the least for my 
 problems. I asked you to be careful of expenses 
 and this fete is the answer." 
 
 " Now that is how unjust you can be ! " she said, two 
 red spots standing out in her cheeks. " Who wished 
 me to give it, who suggested it five months ago? " 
 
 " Then I was n t worried." 
 
 " But I could n t give it up after it was announced ! " 
 
 " My dear Amy, you could do anything you wanted 
 to but you did n t want to. The trouble is, you don t 
 love me." 
 
 " No; that is not the trouble," she cried angrily, for 
 even at this moment she recoiled before pronouncing 
 this tragic finality. " The trouble is that you are heart 
 less and brutal, that you wish to order me about as you 
 do one of your own clerks, that you have n t any pity 
 on me that you are thoroughly selfish." 
 
 " I, selfish ! " he said with a laugh, that came back to 
 him with its ugly echo. " That is too much. The 
 truth is we ve reached a point most marriages arrive 
 at. We are utterly apart and out of sympathy with each 
 other. We don t look at things in the same way." 
 
 "It is your fault!" she cried desperately. 
 
 " We won t discuss whose fault it is. The question 
 is, what s to be done ? * 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 201 
 
 " Done ? " she cried, opening her eyes. " Are you 
 actually going to threaten me now at this mo 
 ment ? " 
 
 " I am not threatening anything. I am convinced 
 that you are at the present moment simply carried 
 away by flattery and adulation. I don t believe for a 
 moment that there is anything serious. If I did " 
 He stopped, frowned at the leap of his pulses, passed 
 his hand wearily over his forehead, and said, " But we 
 have not come to that yet. At present I intend to pro 
 tect myself/ 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I don t intend to wreck my life because you re 
 fuse to understand. In other words, in order to avoid 
 bankruptcy " he repeated the word " bankruptcy 
 I shall put you on an allowance and insist that you 
 keep to it. For the next year or so we will materially 
 change our scale of living." 
 
 Her nerves, long taut, snapped at the vision of the 
 future, which seemed the end of her ambitions. She 
 burst into tears. 
 
 " You come in to spoil everything. You make me 
 hate everything. You Ve spoiled it all now all ! 
 And I was so happy ! " 
 
 " Happy ! Good God ! " he thought. " When my 
 heart is breaking ! Who can talk to her who can 
 make her understand ? " 
 
 He threw up his hands in the air in token of defeat 
 and went out of the house. 
 
IX 
 
 T?ORRESTER came back at eleven and went to a 
 F bedroom on the fourth floor, where a dresser was 
 waiting for him with his costume. A dozen times during 
 the evening he had said to himself rebelliously that he 
 would not return, that he would send for his valise and 
 catch the midnight express, pretending a sudden busi 
 ness summons. For, undisciplined in the social arts of 
 concealment, he looked forward to the evening as one 
 of exquisite torture. In the end, he comprehended that 
 this liberty of action no longer existed, that no matter 
 what the suffering, the rigid gods of etiquette must be 
 served. He dressed, and as his body was well formed 
 and his legs gracefully turned, he made a striking fig 
 ure. Yet he was ill at ease. He felt ridiculously un 
 dressed. This was his first masquerade, and the com 
 pliments of the dresser only aroused his suspicions. 
 
 " Trying to work me for a tip, of course," he 
 thought, with a shrug of his shoulder. "Well, now 
 for it!" 
 
 He went down to the second floor. Already the gal 
 lery that opened on the great stairway was alive with 
 guests, a black arriving stream streaking through the 
 brilliant throng which descended from the dressing 
 rooms. He joined it, and it was not until he had 
 crossed the first salon that an acquaintance recognized 
 and spoke to him. In the further salon, at the foot 
 of the great carved-stone fireplace loot of impover 
 ished Italy Amy was standing. At first glance he 
 cried involuntarily, 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 203 
 
 " Good God, how beautiful she can be ! " 
 
 Her dress was a bewildering swirl of royal blue bro 
 cade, glowing as the first break of brilliant azure 
 through a clearing storm a subtle, winding pro 
 fusion which wrapped her delicate body about so airily 
 that she seemed, by some deft improvisation, to have 
 been entangled in the flowing draperies as a fragile 
 butterfly is caught in a silken net. The curled and 
 powdered hair, piling up in a white cloud, turned in 
 dainty ringlets about her clear temples and, winding 
 down the slender neck, slipped across one bared shoul 
 der, meeting a jeweled vine of starry eglantine which 
 climbed up to the perfumed lattice of her tresses and 
 hid itself in the mysteries of her head-dress. The 
 daintily turned arms and wrists came whitely out from 
 the dark-blue shadows of luxuriant folds, while her 
 sensitive nose, her gay lips, her lively eyes under the 
 quaint and pointed eyebrows, gave to the dainty oval a 
 fragile aristocracy. All poise, gesture, veiled glance 
 and scented smile held the incomparable seduction 
 that once was Woman. 
 
 He crossed gravely to take his place by her side. 
 Some one caught him by the arm. It was Steingall, 
 picturesque in the costume of Largilliere Steingall, 
 triumphant in the success of his hostess, which was his 
 success. 
 
 " Wonderful, eh, Mr. Forrester ? " he cried, with 
 glowing eyes. 
 
 "Wonderful!" 
 
 " She must be painted like that," said the artist, with 
 his head on one side. " By Jove, what blues ! " 
 
 " Of course," he answered laconically, and continued 
 on his way through the buzz of whispered praises that 
 surrounded his wife. 
 
204 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 Amy had grown restless at his delay, but this fur 
 tive anxiety only added liveliness to her expression. 
 For the Andrew Forrester who had now emerged was 
 incomprehensible to her. She resisted him ; she sought 
 to conciliate him, while she watched him with a grow 
 ing apprehension. The moment he was there, she for 
 got everything but the intoxication of her personal tri 
 umph. She put out her hand eagerly and drew him to 
 her, slipping her arm through his, to associate him 
 with her own success and thus to reclaim him. 
 
 She was in a dangerous mood. Nothing educates 
 a woman so much as the first touch of sorrow. Be 
 fore, she had been an inconsequent child, distributing 
 happiness and suffering with the same unconscious 
 ness, never stopping to consider the result of an im 
 pulse, never comprehending her responsibilities later. 
 But this sense of being protected and adored was now 
 torn from her. A mental transformation had come. 
 She stood alone, feeling that she must defend her 
 self, fight her own battles, find herself her final se 
 curity. She did not quite see what she should do, 
 but she knew that another life, complicated and un 
 certain, was beginning. And as the obscurity ahead 
 frightened her, her instinct strove to return to old 
 landmarks. An hour before, she had revolted against 
 her husband with all the strength of her nature. The 
 explanation he had sought had ended only in a quarrel. 
 But, aghast before the unknown, she felt surprised 
 herself at the impulse which flung her back to him. 
 She wished to conquer him, to dazzle him more than 
 any one else, for it seemed to her that if she could es 
 tablish the supremacy of her charm and beauty over 
 him, that all might yet be repaired. 
 
 " Andrew why, you are superb ! " she whispered 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 205 
 
 to him in a moment of freedom, and her hands pressed 
 his with a quick, impulsive pressure. " I am very, 
 very proud." 
 
 : You are very beautiful," he said carefully but 
 without enthusiasm, for he said to himself, " She is 
 afraid it is only fear of the future which brings her 
 to me." 
 
 In this he was wrong. Amy had not for one mo 
 ment taken seriously his talk of economy. She saw in 
 it only a whip to brandish over her, the sort of threats 
 husbands always make in their anger. 
 
 She looked at him expectantly. If there were a 
 flash of something in his eyes an answering pres 
 sure of his hand ! Then she turned away with a grip 
 ping of her heart. Little incidents often determine the 
 tragedies of life. He had refused to yield a jot in 
 this, the supreme hour of her youth and beauty! This 
 was her last hope. She could never again bend him to 
 her. 
 
 " What ! Other men find me charming ; other men 
 look with eyes of envy, and I can t stir him he alone 
 does n t appreciate me," she said to herself bitterly, 
 and, as she suffered acutely, she flung herself gaily 
 into the light spirit of the evening, with a theatrical, 
 dangerous excitement. 
 
 As she wandered through the rooms of the lower 
 floor, which had been skilfully converted into arbors 
 of trailing vines or alleys of boxed trees with illumi 
 nated fruit, with scores of sheltered corners for secret 
 tete-a-tetes, all at once, among the later arrivals, she 
 perceived Monte Bracken. He was in an elaborate 
 plum-colored costume of a prince of the royal blood, 
 the black curls built high over the temples and spilling 
 
206 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 over the shoulders, flashes of delicate lace at the wrists, 
 multi-colored ribbons, golden embroideries on the vest, 
 and a frill of the choicest cambric at the throat, below 
 which sparkled the orders of the Toison d Or and the 
 Saint Esprit. 
 
 He bowed with exaggerated deference, kissing the 
 end of her fingers easily and naturally. Her hand 
 rested on his a moment forgotten, as she looked at 
 him, seized with a sudden, surprised admiration, agree 
 ably drawn to his handsome, dark figure. Of all the 
 men she had met, she was the most anxious for his 
 good opinion. Their eyes met, and she felt a quick, 
 excited flutter as she saw the start of surprise that came 
 into his as he continued to look at her. The moment 
 was not long, but both were conscious of a sudden em 
 barrassment that was half delight, half unease. 
 
 She waited eagerly for his compliment, but, for the 
 first time, she saw him a prey to a certain awkward 
 ness. 
 
 " Very glad to see you, Mrs. Forrester ! I have 
 been trying to find you," he said hastily, without tak 
 ing his eyes from her. 
 
 She felt the same diffidence. She perceived that her 
 hand was still in his, and withdrew it hastily. 
 
 " And your brother and his wife? " 
 
 " They are here. They ve been trying to find you." 
 
 New arrivals broke in, forcing her attention. When 
 she turned impatiently, expecting to find him at her 
 side, he was gone. The memory of the light that had 
 leaped into his eyes when he had discovered her loveli 
 ness seemed to give wings to her step. All her fore 
 bodings were forgotten; a delicious feeling of light- 
 heartedness swept her up. She sought him in the 
 crowd, and was aware that his glance continued to 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 207 
 
 follow her, but he did not approach her again. She 
 waited with a tinge of disappointment for the spoken 
 tribute which she coveted, longing for it to give com 
 pleteness to her happiness. 
 
 But if Bracken still remained obstinately aloof, 
 other men came up eagerly men who had been more 
 or less devoted to her, and, under the license of the 
 evening, whispered their declarations to her. As for 
 Tody Dawson, he was crushed at her transformation, 
 hovering on the outskirts, watching her with timid ad 
 oration, as though suddenly conscious of his temerity 
 in approaching anything so precious. So completely 
 eliminated was he, so utterly elbowed from her pres 
 ence, that she felt a new irritation at Andrew s ob 
 stinacy in taking his boyish sentimentality seriously. 
 
 " How absurd ! " she said to herself lightly. " As 
 though a boy like that could mean anything to me! 
 He s useful, that s all." 
 
 A slight anxiety still remained in her mind until 
 Gladys Challoner arrived. At the first glimpse of her 
 dearest rival she smiled a contented little smile. 
 Gladys was a striking figure in brilliant green a 
 color few blondes would have dared but she re 
 mained, despite every artifice, modern to her finger 
 tips. Startling and imposing she was, but the fragile 
 charm of perfumed days which hovered about the 
 younger rival quite escaped her. 
 
 Claire Bracken caught her by the arm, smiling and 
 serene as usual. 
 
 " You exquisite creature, you quite eclipse us all ! " 
 she said, in genuine admiration. " And, with you, it s 
 real ! " 
 
 Between the two, opposite as they were in every 
 thing that goes to make up human character, there had 
 
208 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 been, from the first, an impulsive attraction which 
 mystified their friends. Their intimacy had not yet 
 gone further than a few formal visits, yet each had the 
 feeling that a greater friendship was waiting. Amy 
 slipped her hand under her friend s arm. 
 
 " I d rather have you think so than any one else," 
 she said warmly. " Do you know, I never meet you 
 without longing to really know you ? Why don t I 
 is it New York ? Please invite me again." 
 
 " I will next week-end." 
 
 " Accepted." 
 
 " Is your husband here ? I d like to see him." 
 
 Amy nodded gratefully. Few of the guests ex 
 pressed any interest in Andrew. In her mind, busily 
 seeking ways and means, the thought came to her that 
 she would like Mrs. Bracken to become a good friend 
 to Andrew perhaps she could bring him to reason. 
 
 Kitty Lightbody descended on them, voluminous and 
 excited. 
 
 " What s this I hear, Amy? Good Lord, we re not 
 going to dance minuets all night? " 
 
 "Don t worry," she answered, laughing; "that s 
 only the fireworks. After midnight we return to New 
 York." 
 
 " Lordy, I wish I could get back to a clinging frock 
 too ! " said Kitty, in a confidential whisper. " These 
 balloon jibs make me look like a whale. You need n t 
 shake your head they do ! " 
 
 Captain Barrisdale, who had come up in her train, 
 contrived to dodge in and out of the crowd until Kitty 
 had safely departed. 
 
 :f Jove, but you take our breath away ! " he said, in 
 his bantering manner. 
 
 " Many thanks," she said, bowing. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 209 
 
 " I wish your husband was n t so healthy," he said, 
 looking at her closely. 
 
 " And why ? " she said innocently. 
 
 " Oh, you understand very well what I mean," he 
 said abruptly. 
 
 " It sounds like an ultra-modern proposal," she said, 
 laughing. 
 
 " I say, you can guy me all you want, but look here ; 
 I m not the first one along." 
 
 " Look out," she said, raising her finger, amusement 
 still in her eyes. " I thought I gave you a lesson once, 
 and you were to behave." 
 
 " What s wrong in saying you re the only woman 
 ever got me really got me so that I d take a sec 
 ond shot at matrimony " 
 
 " You can say anything, if you know how to say it 
 but you don t." 
 
 " Perhaps not ; but, all the same " he glanced 
 about and lowered his voice " it is n t going to make 
 you feel any worse to know that if anything ever 
 happened, well one way or the other, I stand back of 
 what I said." 
 
 " And you expect me to believe you? " 
 
 " I know you believe me," he said, looking at her 
 fixedly. At times, the captain had no difficulty in mak 
 ing himself understood. 
 
 She left him with a deeper feeling than amusement. 
 A year before, she would have been indignant at the 
 rudeness of this declaration. It was significant of her 
 social progress that now it rather pleased her. Captain 
 Barrisdale, at forty-five, rich into eight figures, was 
 considered a great catch. 
 
 " Well, there is one would marry me instantly," she 
 thought to herself, as she moved somberly away. 
 
210 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 It gave her a feeling of independence. Not that she 
 had the slightest serious contemplation of such an 
 eventuality, but that, in the security of the present, it 
 was necessary for her to explore the future and mark 
 it with certain dependable landmarks one or two 
 the more the better. She made a tour of the floor, 
 seeking her husband, and perceived him on the bal 
 cony, talking to Irma. She was not altogether 
 pleased with this. She had given a measure of her 
 confidence to Irma, but it was quite another thing for 
 Andrew to do so. She did not altogether trust Irma. 
 She caught the expression in his face, and it was to her 
 like the skeleton at the feast. 
 
 " How adamant how perfectly relentless he can 
 be ! " she thought. " Nothing can move him. He will 
 never give up an idea. He is n t human." 
 
 What she could not understand was that he could 
 remain unmoved at the spectacle of her success. 
 
 " No; he ought to be happy to have such a wife 
 a wife that every one wants," she said, with a sudden 
 lump in her throat. " And he won t say a word to 
 me to make me proud just because because I 
 have shown that I have spirit, too." 
 
 Midnight rang. Dawson came up. It was time for 
 the minuet. 
 
X 
 
 MONTE BRACKEN could do more things better 
 than any man he had ever met, yet in every en 
 deavor he remained of the second rank. All games 
 and sports came to him easily. He played the piano 
 with a genuine talent and comprehended music passion 
 ately and profoundly. He had an instinct for beauti 
 ful things wherever met. His taste was sure, and 
 distinguished between the meretricious and the stark 
 simplicity of great art. He had written occasional 
 essays, distinguished for charm, humor, and an Old- 
 World penetration acquired from a short diplomatic 
 experience in Paris and Vienna. He lacked but one 
 thing the spur of necessity. Until thirty, he had 
 cherished the hope that he would make his name known 
 in diplomacy or in letters. But as the years glided on 
 in their easy course, a feeling of disillusionment re 
 placed the glow of early dreams. He became a brilliant 
 flaneur, a sort of demi-hero, and he consoled himself as 
 all such dramatic temperaments do. Love to him was 
 a periodic and necessary intoxication. When he was 
 in love, all the really brilliant qualities of his mind 
 awoke, and periodically, in that narcotic state of 
 dreams, he believed that he was on the verge of doing 
 something worthy of what he knew he possessed. The 
 need of love made him believe in love. He had had 
 his share of what the French call " bonnes fortunes." 
 Yet if he had been loved often, he had loved genuinely 
 
212 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 if without discipline. He had that rare quality of being 
 lovable a quality which one has or has not, which 
 cannot be imitated and is never acquired. He attracted 
 women by a certain element of weakness they divined 
 in his nature, that appealed to them, and called forth 
 their treasures of generosity and sacrifice. Women 
 loved him instinctively, but seldom deeply, and left him 
 with kindness but small regret. On his side, the shock 
 was acute; he experienced a profound depression for 
 each experience irreparably spent of the fast diminish 
 ing fabric of his youth. So keen was this revulsion 
 that he had come to dread the thought of any new en 
 tanglement, knowing too well the exquisite finality of 
 pain. When, therefore, quite unprepared, he had come 
 face to face with Amy Forrester and experienced that 
 quick thrill of all his senses, his first instinct was to 
 retreat. 
 
 " If I see her if I talk to her I know what 
 will happen," he said to himself. " Better to avoid 
 danger." 
 
 But if he avoided her, his eyes could not refrain 
 from seeking her charming silhouette in the play of 
 moving colors. He tried the distraction of conversa 
 tions ; he fenced with Irma, who usually amused him, 
 and found suddenly that what he was saying had no 
 meaning to him. From time to time his glance met 
 Amy s. Her eyes, conscious of his scrutiny, sent him 
 in turn their playful questioning. 
 
 " Why don t you tell me that I am charming, that I 
 please you ? What is the harm in that ? " 
 
 And then she began to dance in the stately measures 
 of the minuet. All at once he left the Challoners and 
 went to the shadow of a doorway, standing alone, shel 
 tering himself behind a.n orange tree, his eyes fixed on 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 213 
 
 the little figure in royal blue that was like the joy of the 
 deep, clear sky through a parting storm. 
 
 In the long ballroom the lackeys had cleared the 
 floor. The guests, against the walls on little footstools 
 or camped on rugs, framed the dancers with the glow 
 ing tangle of many colors. Overhead, a black-blue 
 canopy, shot with a thousand little holes, let through 
 in starry radiance jewel-rays of light from the masked 
 chandeliers above. The windows and the doors, 
 framed in foliage, gave faint vistas of lake and melting 
 hills lost in the sylvan night. Illuminated trees in the 
 four corners of the cleared floor sent golden shafts over 
 the polished surface. The air, rescued from the elec 
 tric whiteness of the modern night, floated in harmoni 
 ous and gentle flood. From the orchestra hidden in 
 the balcony came the awakened surge of violins. The 
 dancers courtesied, took places, and lifted their grace 
 ful arms. In the costumed throng, the murmur of 
 voices was hushed as each guest, under the spell of 
 rhythmic beauty, yielded to the fairyland of unreality. 
 
 At the first measure, Tody Dawson, troubled by this 
 sudden concentration of many eyes, had a moment of 
 stage fright. He blundered, missed his step, and, un 
 able to recover himself, threw the figure into disorder. 
 
 Another moment, and , the confusion would have 
 been inextricable. Amy saw it and calmly, without 
 embarrassment, clapped her hands. The orchestra 
 came to a discordant pause. 
 
 " My fault," she said in a clear, laughing tone. " I 
 ask every one s pardon but such an audience is very, 
 very terrifying! Every one ready? Begin again! " 
 
 She felt mistress of the situation, and the little 
 amical nod she sent Dawson restored his confidence at 
 
2i 4 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 once. This time the measure moved without a break, 
 amid a buzzing appreciation of her tact and poise. 
 
 The moment was critical in her life. It needs only 
 the intoxication of one waltz to change the destiny of a 
 young girl how much more so such a triumph be 
 fore a hundred rivals ! As she danced, moving in sway 
 ing grace and poised with dainty gesture, hearing the 
 murmured admiration which centered on her own love 
 liness, all the profound corruption in which she had 
 moved corruption of Morley, daily and insidious; 
 corruption of the young fellows in her train who had 
 infected her imagination with the craving for excite 
 ment; corruption of shops and the argus-eyed crowd; 
 corruption of pleasant places and brilliant audiences 
 all the multiple corruption of New York which had been 
 fastening about her, as a vine makes its capture, all this 
 corruption reached its apotheosis in the ecstacy of this 
 theatrical moment. This was her woman s career, her 
 right to youth ! If Andrew did not understand this, if 
 Andrew did not realize what he had carried off like 
 another Paris then Andrew was blind indeed! 
 
 She danced, her head thrown back and a little to one 
 side, smiling with half -closed eyes at what? At the 
 multiple public perhaps, every one of whom she wished 
 to draw to her, to dazzle, to coax, and to entice. Her 
 own sex was there, her dearest rivals. For this one 
 night she could face them and defy them to pick a flaw. 
 Glowing, serene, and awakened, her glance ran through 
 the brilliant audience, seeking to visualize it. All at 
 once, from beneath her eyelashes she found the eyes 
 of Monte Bracken set on her. From that moment she 
 danced to him. The complex public was comprehen 
 sible now in the smile on his lips and the glance which 
 never left her. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 215 
 
 The minuet over, she was caught in the crush of those 
 who stormed about her with exclamatory compliments. 
 She knew that he would not approach her in this public 
 struggle. She waited the moment when he would seek 
 her, a little restless at the insistent admirers who clung 
 to her. The general dancing had begun. Escaping the 
 crowd, she passed into the dining room with its red- 
 and-gold tent. He was not there or in the outer hall. 
 
 She came restlessly through the corridors. Why 
 did he avoid her? Why should he alone deprive her 
 of the one compliment she longed to hear? 
 
 "Mr. Bracken!" He had seen her coming and 
 started to turn away. " Do you know that you are the 
 only one who has n t said something nice to me? " she 
 said impatiently. "Are you running away from me ? " 
 
 He bowed. 
 
 " Perhaps." 
 
 " Then you didn t like my dancing?" 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Forrester," he said in a low voice, 
 " you must understand what I mean when I say that I 
 was running aw T ay." 
 
 This was the tribute she needed to complete her hap 
 piness. She felt a sudden wave of joy. He was afraid 
 - a little afraid of her. 
 
 " Please don t run away," she said, smiling happily, 
 " and do say more nice things to me. You re the one 
 person who really knows." 
 
 She stood before him on tiptoe, looking up at him 
 with the eyes of a child who looks out in surprise on 
 the world, and her glance asked so plainly, " Am I 
 pretty ; do I please you ? " that his caution was given 
 to the winds of impulse. 
 
 " You are the only one that is real here," he said 
 suddenly. " All the rest of us are actors, powdered 
 
216 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 and painted actors, without the glamour of the foot 
 lights. You are the real thing. You are France, the 
 beautiful days, the indolence that will never come 
 again. How do you do it ? How does it come so natu 
 rally to you the grace, the lightness, the exquisite- 
 ness, every movement, every motion? Even now as 
 you are listening, * nymph of the downcast eye and 
 sidelong glance, pleased at what I am saying to you, 
 you are so much more charming than what I have said, 
 that I feel as though I had told you nothing. You are 
 so transformed that I don t know you or rather, this 
 is so truly you, what you were meant to be, that I can t 
 imagine you any other way." 
 
 She colored, and drew a long, delighted breath. 
 
 " Oh ! I feel like running away myself ! " 
 
 " Don t ! " he said hurriedly, and his hand half rose 
 to retain her. " Let s play. It s part of the masque. 
 We have our parts, too. It s carnival time ! To 
 morrow is near enough ! " 
 
 " I don t know who I really am," she said, with an 
 swering excitement. " I feel well, I feel so irre 
 sponsible, as though what I did or said was some one 
 else. Do you understand ? " 
 
 " You saw me watching you?" he said, looking at 
 her. 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "Of course I did. You know, I could n t find you 
 at first. I looked for you in the gallery, and then all 
 at once I saw you behind a tree. I wanted you to like 
 me." She stopped. He had that dangerous quality of 
 making women seek him, that led them unconsciously 
 to venture further. She knew that she was on danger 
 ous ground. Yet she could not resist the intoxication 
 of enjoying what she had at last won in him. Besides, 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 217 
 
 it was all a game, a part of the masque, as he himself 
 had said. 
 
 " You have arrived," he said quietly. " That sounds 
 impertinent, but it is n t meant so." 
 
 " You remember what you prophesied ? " 
 
 " But I was mistaken in one thing." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " You have come to be what I foretold, though a 
 hundred times more bewitching and dazzling than I 
 expected, but you have kept your heart of a child." 
 
 " To-night I ve been saying just the contrary," she 
 said abruptly, sobered. 
 
 " No, no ! It is there," he said softly. " It is 
 still unspoiled and that s what s dangerous for 
 others." 
 
 " You are awfully nice," she said, smiling at him. 
 " Please always say things to make me happy." 
 
 She said this quite unconcernedly, as though she had 
 received the most trivial compliment; nor was he able 
 to divine whether this was the art of the woman re 
 storing the barrier between them or the unconscious 
 soul of a child that is ignorant of the desires it sows. 
 
 " And now I must remember my duties/ " she said, 
 with a pout, pronouncing that terrible word as only she 
 knew how. " Will you come and ask me to dance 
 later?" 
 
 " Often," he said, in a low voice. 
 
 The mischief was done, and he knew it. Had it 
 been done consciously or not? Despite his varied 
 knowledge of women, he felt as though her soft little 
 hands had closed over his eyes and a voice murmured, 
 
 " If you follow me, follow me blindly." 
 
XI 
 
 WITH the serving of the supper the ball had 
 reached its height. At the telephone, a reporter 
 was sending in the last details before the closing of 
 the presses. Detectives wandered among the guests, 
 watching the imported servants. In a corner of the 
 struggling dining room a knot of reporters, in domi 
 noes provided by Steingall, copiously fed under the 
 direction of the head caterer, passed the mighty in re 
 view, detailing anecdotes from their secret knowledge. 
 
 " Must be a million dollars worth of jewels here." 
 
 " Nearer two." 
 
 " Say, Bill, get the name of the foreign gink who 
 came with the Gunthers? What is he, Portuguee or 
 Wop?" 
 
 " Mrs. Reggie s gone off badly this season." 
 
 " Grub s all right." 
 
 " Who s the sporty girl in red? " 
 
 " Mrs. Tontee, divorced Jack Albright last winter 
 remember the story down in Palm Beach? " 
 
 The speaker, a short, baldish, old-young man left 
 the group and bore down on the lady in question. 
 
 " How do, Mrs. Tontee ? Would you mind giving 
 me some details about the costume you re wearing 
 to-night?" 
 
 " Oh, do you really want to write something about 
 me? " she said, shaking hands cordially. " The dress 
 is nice, is n t it ? It s genuine, too worn by the Com- 
 tesse de Vrilly. Came. down in my husband s family." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 219 
 
 " Which husband ? " asked the irrepressible spirit 
 of the American press. 
 
 " Well say nothing about that," said Mrs. Tontee, 
 much amused. She wasted no pretenses on the gentle 
 men of the fourth estate, knowing them of old. " I 
 don t suppose you d want photographs, but if you do, 
 Sanderson & Sanderson have taken some beautiful 
 ones." 
 
 " What s the foreign feller with the Gunthers? " 
 
 Mrs. Tontee gave the required information sweetly, 
 and volunteered several bits of useful details. 
 
 " Much obliged," said the reporter. " Anything 
 you d like mentioned ? " 
 
 " No-o. I m giving a rather important dinner. Call 
 me up next week, in the morning there might be 
 something." 
 
 Irma Dellabarre passed on the arm of Jap Laracy, 
 in search of her husband, a little apprehensive. 
 
 " I think he s in the smoking room." 
 
 " Go and see, like a dear boy." 
 
 Laracy, having located Rudolph, returned. 
 
 " Is he enjoying himself? " 
 
 " He s all right," said Laracy, who comprehended 
 the question. 
 
 " Anyhow," thought Irma, glancing round the 
 dining room, " whatever happens, he won t be con 
 spicuous." 
 
 " Say, Irma, I 11 keep an eye on him," said Laracy. 
 " Leave him to me ; I 11 get him home at the right 
 time." 
 
 " Thank you, Jap," said Irma, with a soft glance. 
 " And now run along and dance with some pretty girl." 
 
 Monte Bracken and Amy passed her, entering the 
 ballroom, so engrossed in each other that they did not 
 
220 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 perceive her. There was a light in Bracken s eyes she 
 knew a certain way, too, of holding his head as 
 though bending forward in accentuated deference. She 
 knew she was no longer in love with him, and yet the 
 spectacle of his awakening interest in another woman 
 wounded her, bringing back disturbing memories. 
 That this woman should be her close friend was par 
 ticularly hard to bear. At that moment, happening to 
 look up to the little balcony, she saw Andrew Forrester 
 gazing down. She thought a moment and then went 
 up. So engrossed was he in his own mood that it was 
 not until she touched his arm that he noticed her 
 coming. 
 
 " This is nice of you," he said gratefully, brighten 
 ing up. 
 
 " How does it feel to be the husband of a great 
 beauty?" 
 
 He smiled grimly. A moment before, looking down 
 on the fairy panorama, he had been thinking that, in 
 one night, he had thrown into the air what it had cost 
 him to live two years as a bachelor. 
 
 " Wonderful scene exquisite in every detail ! " she 
 said, looking down. " You ve justified your motto." 
 
 "What s that?" 
 
 " Hang the expense ! " 
 
 " Oh I d forgotten ! " he said, with a bitter smile. 
 
 " Now, as Kitty says, they 11 have a chance to feel 
 natural," she continued, with a gesture toward the 
 dancers, who were swinging into the lively measures of 
 an ultra-modern dance, imported from the purlieus of 
 the Barbary Coast. 
 
 The evening, which had begun in the decorum that 
 had descended out of the stately past, burst into the 
 riot of modern America. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 221 
 
 " Yes ; now they are more natural," said Irma, smil 
 ing. " We are not so far removed from the Zulus, 
 after all, are we? And listen to the savagery of the 
 music we dance to," she added, as at that moment the 
 orchestra burst into a jumble of explosive chords, ac 
 companied by every noise-provoking device of sand- 
 shufflers, cowbells, clashing cymbals and drum-pound 
 ing, which, at that time, was considered the harmony 
 of sweet rhythms. " Could Zulu make night more 
 hideous or dance more grotesquely? After all, we re 
 only a generation from the mining camp." 
 
 " It is nerve-shattering," Andrew said, laughing for 
 the first time. " But you you are n t dancing? " 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " I am too fastidious, perhaps," she said daintily, 
 " but I prefer the old conception of woman to the catch- 
 as-catch-can familiarity. I believe in maintaining the 
 preciousness of oneself. I don t enjoy being pawed 
 and mauled." 
 
 The idea was new to him. He considered it, com 
 prehending instantly. 
 
 " You are right," he said, looking at her. Her per 
 sonality at that moment enveloped him agreeably, like 
 a delicious perfume. " But not many women would 
 agrree." 
 
 " How many of them are women ? " she said, look 
 ing gently into his eyes with a glance that was all femi 
 nine. The gray, transparent eyes in the brown oval 
 reflected the smiling seduction of her lips. He saw and 
 admired the high pride of the throat and the long, 
 graceful fingers closed over her fan. 
 
 " What a woman she is ! " he thought ; but recalled 
 to gloomy thoughts, he said, 
 
 "Whose fault is it? Ours?" 
 
222 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 She nodded, and, to meet the new interest in his eyes, 
 offered her profile, extending her graceful arm with a 
 slow release of the fan, which laid the nodding white 
 plumes against the warm Spanish tints of her throat. 
 
 " So Amy has been talking to you?" he said ab 
 ruptly. " Do you blame me ? " 
 
 She turned, kindness in her eyes. If there was one 
 thing she adored, it was for other women s husbands 
 to spread their confidences before her. 
 
 " Of course I don t I understand things she can t." 
 There was no malice in her nature, and, on account of 
 her instinct of coquetry, she was surer and more dan 
 gerous. :< Your wife is very young, Andrew." 
 
 That is true," he said gravely. 
 
 She laid her hand lightly on his arm, a passing touch. 
 
 " I m sorry, Andrew." 
 
 " She can understand," he thought bitterly. He 
 looked down on the rollicking pagans below, who 
 laughed, danced, and made merry about his brilliant 
 wife, and troubled themselves not at all about him in 
 his isolation. 
 
 " There s one thing I must say," she said, for the 
 look of pain on his forehead stirred a genuine sym 
 pathy : " You give too much importance to a boy like 
 Tody Dawson. He is harmless." 
 
 " Harmless ? Is he ? " he took up moodily. " Oh, 
 in a sense, yes. In another, no. It s his kind that have 
 surrounded her, that have corrupted her. It s this 
 empty, pleasure-seeking life, restless, always on the go, 
 always wanting to be amused in some new way. It s 
 the habits of excitement such young cubs give women 
 that starts all the harm ! " 
 
 " Yes ; what you say is true," she said gravely, and 
 she was so impressed that she nodded twice. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 223 
 
 " It s not a question of him," he said hastily. " It s 
 a question of my dignity ; and a man s sense of his own 
 dignity is something he holds to ! " 
 
 " You must make her understand," she said gently. 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " That s only a little of it ! " Then he looked at her, 
 moved to confidences. " It s queer, but it was just 
 the accident of our visit to Chilton changed my life." 
 
 How so?" 
 
 " It did," he repeated, nodding his head. " It showed 
 me what money could do. It was a revelation. I 
 wanted what you had." He stopped, frowned, and, 
 for a moment, plunged into the past. 
 
 " Don t say anything if it is hard," she said, as he 
 remained silent. 
 
 " I admired you," he said, as though he had not 
 heard her. Your taste, the quiet, the real elegance of 
 your home, the order in the household, the way your 
 children were brought up. I wanted a home like yours. 
 I wanted her to be like you." 
 
 She was immensely flattered, for she adored to be 
 told that she was a good housekeeper and a perfect 
 mother. She was so grateful that he appreciated these 
 qualities that, in the genuine liking she felt for him, 
 she determined to try and help him. 
 
 " Do you realize how young she is ? " she asked. 
 " Is n t that a little your fault, too ? You needed a 
 woman to understand you and help you, and you chose 
 a child." 
 
 " A good deal my fault yes," he said loyally. " I 
 know nothing about women. I ve never had the time 
 to study them. A cleverer man, I suppose, would n t 
 have made the mistake I ve made. Now the mischief s 
 done." 
 
224 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Are you sure ? " 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " She s out of my hand now. Oh, we 11 go on 
 other marriages go on. But " He shrugged his 
 shoulders and glanced down at his hands which lay 
 locked on the balustrade. " Well, I ve readjusted my 
 self; that s over." 
 
 " I don t think she realizes this," she said slowly. 
 
 "No; probably not. She will." He paused, and 
 then said emphatically : " The trouble is, women don t 
 realize what s important in marriage. We are the ones 
 who fight the battle. We are the ones who build. Do 
 anything else, but don t interfere with that ! " 
 
 As he said this, his voice became hard and his face 
 set in sternness. She comprehended in a flash the lack 
 of compromise in his character, and what he must have 
 suffered to come where he had come. 
 
 " What a pity ! " she said, looking at him. " And a 
 woman could do so much for you ! " 
 
 The right woman, yes ! " he said abruptly. " You 
 won t think I m trying to pay you only a compliment. 
 But if I had you for my wife Good Lord, how 
 much I could do ! " 
 
 It w r as not a declaration ; it was more an apprecia 
 tion, and it stirred her and lifted her to spiritual satis^ 
 faction as nothing had ever done before. 
 
 " The pity is, it s all so much a question of accident," 
 she said meditatively. 
 
 " You turn to the right instead of the left at one 
 certain moment," he said, nodding, " and your whole 
 life hangs on it." 
 
 " I wish I could help you," she said impulsively, look 
 ing away from him. 
 
 " You have." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES , 225 
 
 " I m afraid you idealize me." 
 
 He shook his head obstinately. 
 
 " Not you ! " 
 
 " I shan t forget what you said. I understand how 
 you said it," she continued. " I can understand be 
 cause well, because you are not the only one who has 
 had to readjust." 
 
 He looked at her in amazement. 
 
 "You?" 
 
 " Are you blind ? " she said gently, her eyes far away. 
 The strains of a languid waltz floated about them, and 
 the firefly glow of the mellow lights among the swim 
 ming colors below awoke dangerous moods. 
 
 He frowned, and a picture of Rudolph Dellabarre s 
 watery little eyes and calculated steps retiring into the 
 library for the night came to his eyes. 
 
 " Good heavens, you ! " he said hastily. " I forgot." 
 
 She drew back, wondering herself at the impulse 
 which had led her thus to match confidence for confi 
 dence, glancing around uneasily, fearing eavesdroppers. 
 
 " I wish I could help you," she said. " A man like 
 you, a man who really counts, needs strength." 
 
 He looked at her, his eyes deep into hers. 
 
 " What a pity ! " he said abruptly. 
 
 " It s all a question of accident," she said again pen 
 sively. :< The right person comes at the wrong mo 
 ment, as you say. I m sorry, Andrew." 
 
 She nodded and left him. Presently he saw her be 
 low, stopping to greet some one. He liked the straight, 
 graceful carriage of the body, and the dignity with 
 which she offered her hand. There was a quiet, a 
 gentleness about her and she had a mind. Curious 
 thoughts came to him as he followed her movements 
 through the gay crowd 
 
226 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 The ballroom below him was still riotous with the 
 gaiety of succeeding dances. The sound of women s 
 laughter rose in shriller note. Perhaps if he had been 
 happy his only emotion would have been of pride ; but 
 sorrow had touched him with its clarifying vision. He 
 remembered that other crowd in which he had stood in 
 the great terminal, the surging, purposeful sweeping 
 towards the future of mingled America. How inconse 
 quential all this luxury was in the great scheme ! 
 
 " Let her dance, if that is all she understands," he 
 said grimly, " so long as it does n t interfere with what 
 I build." 
 
XII 
 
 THEY were seated in a little bower of wistaria, Amy 
 Forrester and Mrs. Bracken, and, by the gravity of 
 their expression, the conversation must have been seri 
 ous. Behind them, the low white bulk of the Colonial 
 house shone over the lawns rich with the deep green 
 tinge of early May. Before them an old-fashioned 
 garden, with early note of crocus, tulip, and narcissus, 
 wound in pleasant surprises out toward the fields, 
 where the farm hands were harrowing the red soil for 
 the early planting. In the paddock to the left Allan 
 Bracken was giving the first lessons to Bob, aged eight, 
 balanced on the back of a fat pony, while the three 
 younger children, perched on the fence, were watching 
 with tense admiration. Above them, in the arbor, the 
 first clusters of wistaria were swelling in the bud. A 
 weeping willow and a grove of maple trees in full leaf 
 caught the slight impulse of the young breeze, redolent 
 with the perfume of budding time. A lazy, fluffy cloud 
 hung motionless against the blue span. It was pleasant 
 to every sense, vaguely troubling to the imagination. 
 It was in the full awakening country, and it was spring. 
 " I envy you more than any woman I know," said 
 Amy Forrester, glancing toward the distant roll of 
 hills, where the blue flash of the bay came rippling up 
 with a myriad glancing helmets. " I wish I could live 
 like this away from New York, out among real things. 
 I used to and," she added, with a laughing glance at 
 her striped skirt, her chiffon blouse, and arched white 
 slipper that gave her the air of a Dresden shepherdess, 
 
228 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " and I used to dress in overalls and ride home on the 
 hay wagons. 
 
 " I wonder if you d be happy now," said Mrs. 
 Bracken frankly. She was in heavy boots, khaki skirt, 
 and broad-brimmed hat, and her knitted sweater was 
 covered with green remnants, while her hands were 
 stained with the flowers which she was sorting in her 
 lap. 
 
 " I wonder," said Amy, pensively. She stirred up 
 the gravel with the tip of her lace parasol without look 
 ing at her companion. In the two days she had spent 
 at the farm she had more than once been on the point of 
 taking Claire into her confidence. Yet each time she 
 found the opening difficult. " I don t see why you like 
 me," she said at last, without warning. 
 
 Claire Bracken laughed her happy, whole-hearted 
 laugh. 
 
 " In the first place, because you are a lovable per 
 son," she said directly. 
 
 " I think I am all wrong," said Amy, frowning. 
 
 Mrs. Bracken studied her a moment, trying to make 
 out how genuine was this confession. Then she said, 
 smiling, 
 
 " Yes, I think you are." 
 
 " What ! You do think so ? " said Amy, startled, for 
 she was far from thinking so herself. 
 
 " Yes ; but you are no worse than all the rest and 
 the pity is with you, there is so much real good in you. 
 You really ought to count." 
 
 " If I only had a home like this, heavens, how will 
 ingly I d give up all the rest ! " said Amy, impulsively. 
 
 " I m not so sure of your repentance, pretty lady," 
 said Claire, smiling. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 229 
 
 " I think you ve come up to a great climax, and now 
 everything is relaxed a little tame perhaps. It s the 
 end of the season, but the appetite will return." 
 
 Amy laughed in confusion. 
 
 " Heavens ! It s much easier facing my conscience 
 than facing you ! " 
 
 "Well, am I right?" 
 
 " Yes, I think you are," she admitted, serious all at 
 once. " I Ve had a taste of excitement, and I crave it. 
 I suppose it s my destiny and I 11 go on burning my 
 self out. And yet I m restless I m not really 
 happy!" 
 
 " Why don t you have children? " said Claire. 
 
 " So soon ? " said Amy, aghast, for she was far 
 from expecting this answer. She started to defend 
 herself by falling back on Andrew, but she was in the 
 mood for confession, which also is a dramatic impulse 
 of the coquette. " Frankly, I don t want them now 
 because I m selfish, because I want to enjoy my youth. 
 Now you know the worst about me. I adore society ; 
 crave excitement, and I can t give it up. Can you 
 understand a selfish little beast like myself ? " 
 
 " I can understand a good many things," said Claire 
 calmly. " I think I may see you better than you do 
 yourself. You are the kind that can do a lot of harm 
 in this world or a lot of good." 
 
 " I once felt the way you do when I was first mar 
 ried I wanted children, but Andrew, my husband, 
 did n t want them." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because he was foolish enough to want me to 
 play!" 
 
 " And yet you are not happy? " 
 
 Amy shook her head, then she corrected herself. 
 
2 3 o VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " That is, I am restless." 
 
 At this moment, across the fields came the galloping 
 thud of horses hoofs. Monte Bracken and Fifi Nord- 
 strum came racing up to the paddock with the result 
 that Master Bob, in the excitement, went sprawling 
 onto the sod. 
 
 "He s fallen!" exclaimed Amy, jumping to her 
 feet. 
 
 Mrs. Bracken glanced up without agitation. 
 
 " Bob s a good soldier," she said simply. " The 
 sod s soft." 
 
 The next moment Monte Bracken had swung the 
 youngster up into the saddle in front of him and came 
 cantering along the fence. 
 
 "All right; no bones broken. A chip of the old 
 block," he said, waving his hat in delight at the laugh 
 ing youngster. Then, wheeling, he rode back to where 
 Fifi, who had rounded up the fat pony, was waiting. 
 
 " I wish Monte would marry your cousin," said Mrs. 
 Bracken suddenly. 
 
 Amy opened the parasol and closed it again, her eyes 
 on the paddock. Just why this should throw her into 
 confusion surprised her. Since the ball she had care 
 fully avoided Monte Bracken and, despite the intimacy 
 of the house party, she had managed never to be left 
 in tete-a-tete. Yet she found herself resenting Mrs. 
 Bracken s suggestion. 
 
 " They will never fall in love with each other, I m 
 afraid." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " They are too much alike and too good friends," 
 she explained. " But you do surprise me. I thought 
 Fifi would be the last person you would pick out with 
 your ideas. I thought you would look on her as a wild, 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 231 
 
 harum-scarum tomboy, who would never settle down." 
 She felt that she was putting too much emotion into 
 her objection, so she added, " That s not my belief." 
 
 " She has two qualities that will make her marriage 
 a happy one," said Claire, without looking at her com 
 panion. " She is loyal, and she has pride. Whatever 
 belongs to her, she will make a success. I like Fifi 
 very much." 
 
 " Is this aimed at me?" thought Amy. She haz 
 arded a glance. Mrs. Bracken was bending over her 
 flowers. 
 
 " Perhaps you are right about Fifi. The trouble is I 
 don t think she would ever think of marriage unless 
 she were head over heels in love or your brother-in- 
 law either." 
 
 That is the trouble. It s a pity. They are so suited 
 to each other. She would be a real force behind him. 
 Afterward they would grow together. 
 
 That s rather the continental point of view than 
 ours, is n t it ? " said Amy, smiling. 
 
 " There is a middle ground between the two. Do 
 you wish me to speak frankly? " 
 
 Amy hesitated, and again the point of her dainty 
 parasol traced arabesques in the gravel. 
 
 " I am a little afraid of you," she said, raising her 
 glance. " You are too happy." 
 
 * You need never be afraid of me, whatever hap 
 pens," said Mrs. Bracken. She leaned over and laid 
 her hand on Amy s with gentleness in her eyes, such as 
 only those who have borne a secret cross can know. 
 " We have wanted to talk to each other from the first, 
 have n t we ? Why not now ? " 
 
 " It is very hard just now," said Amy. Her eyes 
 filled with tears. She rose, took a few steps, and came 
 
232 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 back. " I am very foolish. Don t mind me." She sat 
 down, stared ahead a long moment, and then said 
 slowly : " Mrs. Bracken, what is a girl to do who has 
 married blindly and then suddenly wakes up to the fact 
 that there is no longer anything in common with her 
 husband, neither love nor sympathy nor understanding 
 of any sort? What is she to do with her life and 
 particularly if the moment comes when she meets some 
 one else who she knows would mean happiness in every 
 way if she had only known how to choose? What 
 is she to do ? " 
 
 You are not there yet." 
 
 " No, no but it will come; of course it will come. 
 A woman really must love sometime ! " She turned, 
 terrified at what she had said. " Do you know it s 
 horrible what I ve told you ? I Ve never even thought 
 it myself." 
 
 " I don t admit that things are so bad," said Mrs. 
 Bracken, shaking her head. " And I don t think you 
 are right in your estimation of your feelings toward 
 your husband." 
 
 "I am I am," she said obstinately, her eyes 
 obscured. 
 
 " You feel too much what you say not to care," said 
 Mrs. Bracken quietly; "and as for him, I know he 
 loves you." She came near adding, " By the look of 
 pain I ve seen in his face," but unwisely she refrained. 
 
 " Good heavens ! We are a thousand miles apart ! " 
 Amy sprang up again and stood against the arbor, 
 tearing off the young buds and twisting them in her 
 fingers. " I can t talk about it just now. I can t go 
 into details as I would have to," she said hurriedly. 
 
 " Then don t, my dear. When you are ready " 
 
 " Yes, yes ; some later time," she answered. She was 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 233 
 
 not ready yet to face such a clear-eyed judge, not yet 
 sure of the verdict. 
 
 " Let us avoid personalities, then," said Mrs. 
 Bracken, and, for the first time, her glance rested on 
 the young wife with a touch of uneasiness. " Let me 
 see if I can make you understand my point of view 
 about marriage," she continued, in a quieter tone, 
 which brought Amy gradually back to calm. " I may 
 seem to you old-fashioned. I don t believe in the mod 
 ern women the women of our world, that is. I 
 don t believe in the way young girls are brought up to 
 feel that they owe nothing to life but to accept the 
 sacrifices of others. I don t believe in the disorganiza 
 tion that a young girl of eighteen is pitchforked into 
 in what is called her debutante year. I don t believe 
 in cramming into a few months all the pleasures which 
 should come naturally through life and be enjoyed 
 naturally. I don t think it s fair to the girl or to 
 the man who has to marry her. I don t believe in a 
 woman being freed of all responsibilities as a wife or 
 a mother, existing only to enjoy what her husband 
 makes, without sharing his worries or helping in the 
 economy of his existence. Moreover, I don t believe in 
 the modern wife, after a year or two, a baby or two, 
 taking up again the same life of flattery and adulation 
 she has had as a young girl." 
 
 Amy felt her cheeks go red. 
 
 " And yet you like me ! " she said, with a gasp. 
 
 " It s not the woman s fault that s the pity. It s 
 the American sentimentalization toward us. It s we 
 who are cheated." 
 
 " What do you believe in then ? " 
 
 " I believe in bringing up my girls to marry, not in a 
 sentimental mawkish outburst, but with a knowledge 
 
234 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 of the things they expect in a husband, whom they 
 wish to admire, cherish, and assist. And I am going 
 to bring them up to be prepared to play a great part in 
 that marriage, to know the conduct of the household, 
 to develop their executive qualities, and I am going to 
 bring them up to a belief that the highest ideal is to be 
 a wife and a mother and to know how to maintain that 
 ideal in the eyes of their husbands and their children. 
 I m going to do that, because I want their happiness." 
 
 " Yes ; but what ideal ? " Amy murmured, drawing 
 a deep breath. 
 
 " The ideal of duty, naturally," said Mrs. Bracken, 
 simply. 
 
 " Oh, duty, duty ! " exclaimed the younger woman, 
 in a burst of revolt. " It s always that ! After all, 
 what is duty? " 
 
 " Duty, my dear, is simply self-respect," said Mrs. 
 Bracken gently. " It means that what a woman does, 
 does not depend on any such philosophies as you and 
 I hear every day if my husband does that, I 11 do it, 
 too. It means that you are brought up first, last and 
 always, with the need of respecting yourself, and, what 
 ever comes, that you will never soil that ideal. You 
 see, I belong to a family that does n t simply go to 
 church," she added, after a moment, "but makes its 
 religious belief the reason of its conduct." 
 
 "Oh, yes; if you believe I understand," Amy 
 said, in a low voice. 
 
 "And if you don t what are you all seeking? 
 Happiness, of course. Do you think Irma Dellabarre 
 or Gladys is really happy? Are you? " 
 
 " Mrs. Bracken, it must sound terrible," said Amy, 
 and the tears came to her eyes again ; " I think I am 
 happy, I truthfully think I am. I might say no in some 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 235 
 
 moods. A dozen times since I ve been here and loved 
 your life and all that, I could have said no, but at the 
 bottom " She rose and shook her head, " Yes ; 
 I want the life I lead." 
 
 " Answer me in a year." 
 
 " Life is easier for you," Amy said, hurrying on. 
 You have made no mistakes. Don t be too hard on 
 others. Don t judge me too severely." 
 
 " I don t," said Mrs. Bracken, rising in turn. She 
 came and stood by her side. " And the proof is I am 
 going to ask something of you." 
 
 " I will do anything in the world for you, Mrs. 
 Bracken anything you ask," said Amy impulsively. 
 
 "Will you?" 
 
 " Anything if you 11 only be my friend ! " 
 
 " I want Monte to marry your cousin," said Mrs. 
 Bracken. " Don t do anything to interfere with it, will 
 you?" 
 
 " But why " For a moment she could not get 
 her breath. Then she said hurriedly, " Why, Mrs. 
 Bracken, such a thing why, I have never " 
 
 " Don t ! " said Mrs. Bracken, looking at her and, 
 before that clear look, Amy s glance fell. " You at 
 tract him very strongly. I saw that from the first 
 night. There is so much that is fine in him. I want to 
 see him happy. He means so much to us." 
 
 Amy looked at her in wonder, and this time it was 
 Mrs. Bracken s eyes that turned away. 
 
 Something caught her like the closing of cruel fingers 
 across her heart. A sob rose in her throat, before some 
 thing she could not see clearly. She caught Mrs. 
 Bracken s hand and kissed it. 
 
 " I promise," she said hastily. " I promise I will do 
 everything I can to help." 
 
XIII 
 
 MONTE BRACKEN was to drive them back to the 
 city. The afternoon had been so delicious that 
 they had postponed the leaving until after dinner. The 
 night was clear and sown with stars. Under the mellow 
 region of the porte-cochere lamps, they looked, in their 
 fur coats, like Esquimos starting on a hunt. Claire 
 and her husband stood arm in arm, while the valises 
 were stowed and the ladies bundled into the back seat 
 and were smothered in furs. 
 
 " Come again soon, pretty lady," said Allan, run 
 ning down to Amy for a last boyish handshake. " Fifi, 
 you re part of the family always. Bye-bye, Monte. 
 It s been a bully time!" 
 
 Amy freed one arm and kissed her hand to Mrs. 
 Bracken, who stood on the steps, smiling back at them. 
 Between them, no further word of intimacy had been 
 spoken, but in the meeting of their glances they knew 
 that the compact of friendship had been sealed. 
 
 The next moment the searchlights swept over the 
 low, vine-covered Colonial home into the pine grove, 
 and fastened on the white road ahead. 
 
 " What a wonderful person ! " said Amy, leaning 
 back until the sprinkled stars closed over her. 
 
 " Cleverest little woman I know," said Fifi emphati 
 cally. " Only thing I can t make out is why she has 
 any use for me ! " 
 
 "If you d heard what she said about you " 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 237 
 
 " Oh, yes; she believes in my repentance/ said Fifi, 
 cutting in. " That s because she wants me to tame 
 Monte and marry him." 
 
 "Well, why don t you?" said Amy, after a mo 
 ment s laughter at her cousin s slapdash way. 
 
 " If she d oppose me, I d do it," said Fifi frankly. 
 " I Ve never yet done anything any one wanted me to 
 do, and I suppose I never will." 
 
 " Fifi, you re incorrigible," said Amy, determined 
 to live up to her promise, despite her dislike of her 
 cousin s confident assumption that the decision lay in 
 her hands. 
 
 " Hello there, Monte," said Fifi, poking into the 
 voluminous fur back in front of her. " Did you know 
 that Claire is trying to splice us up ? " 
 
 " Don t worry ! " 
 
 " Now, that s a passionate answer," said Fifi gaily. 
 " Don t worry yourself. You re interesting as a bold 
 bad man, but as a captive husband you d be flat. You 
 shan t be spoiled if I have to mount guard over you. 
 I don t feel a bit like going home," she continued, sit 
 ting back ; " could n t we run in on Irma for the night ? 
 Friend husband s off fishing it ought to be quite 
 cheerful." 
 
 " We refused to spend the night at the Brackens ; it 
 would hardly look right, would it ? " 
 
 " Oh, no; of course not. Bother it!" said Fifi, 
 who relaxed with a sigh. " What s Irma up to, any 
 how?" 
 
 " Crocodile hunting, I suppose," said Amy, with a 
 laugh. " I have n t seen her for a week, and that s a 
 sign." 
 
 Fifi started to say something and abruptly checked 
 herself. After a moment, she said casually, 
 
238 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " I suppose Andrew s worried at the Mexican 
 muss." 
 
 "Yes, I m afraid so!" 
 
 The Tampico incident and the consequent fall in 
 Osaba shares, with the aftermath of the ball in inci 
 dental bills, had been soul-trying. 
 
 " When does he get up again? " 
 
 " Any time now," said Amy. 
 
 "Little spat over?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed!" 
 
 "That s right be firm," said Fifi, with a nod. 
 " Irma is right. When husbands growl nowadays, it s 
 usually financial dyspepsia. I say, let s shut up this 
 is too gorgeous ! " 
 
 Amy, nothing loath, relapsed into silence. In the 
 three weeks of her husband s absence, she had no word 
 of his plans. The day after his leaving, she had re 
 ceived a short, business-like note, informing her of the 
 allowance which he wished her to observe and request 
 ing the total of her present debt. She had sent them 
 
 that is, almost all and they had been paid through 
 his office immediately. She had been surprised at his 
 liberality even touched by it. There was, at any 
 rate, nothing petty about him. At least she could ad 
 mire him. But that was all. There had been no fur 
 ther discussion. She accepted his decision as an ulti 
 matum. After all, why discuss? They had never 
 really talked openly to each other, and they probably 
 never would. No compromise was possible with one 
 of his obstinacy. In a way, the decision was a relief 
 
 constant daily contact would have been more 
 difficult. 
 
 " Drop me first, Monte," said Fifi, waking up at 
 last. " No ; it s not manners or etiquette. Just sim- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 239 
 
 ply moods, that s all. If I were left alone with you, 
 I d be nasty." 
 
 Amy started to protest, for she was apprehensive of 
 a tete-a-tete, but all at once she reassured herself by 
 the thought that this would be a good moment to open 
 up the subject of Fifi. 
 
 " Why don t you spend the night with me ? " she said 
 half-heartedly. 
 
 " No, no ! Communing with nature s got on my 
 nerves," said Fifi. " Home for me ! " 
 
 They left her at the old family residence on lower 
 Fifth Avenue, just off Washington Square, and 
 started up-town, over the vacant streets, across which 
 an occasional taxi went sputtering, a milk wagon rat 
 tled, or a newspaper truck screamed on its breathless 
 rush for the outward mails. She had come into the 
 front seat beside Bracken. The car slowed down to a 
 colloquial pace. 
 
 " Nice time to talk, don t you think? Not sleepy? " 
 
 " Quite awake." 
 
 " Yes; you always are," he said, turning toward her 
 with a smile. " And tremendously alive." 
 
 The slightest compliment, even the most obvious, 
 from him gave her an instant pleasure. But to-night 
 she feared an approach to intimacy, so she began reso 
 lutely. 
 
 " You knew that Claire wished you to marry Fifi? " 
 
 "What? Oh, yes." 
 
 She hesitated, then went on with some difficulty: 
 
 You would be very happy in your own home, with 
 some one to work for and some one to help you. But 
 I suppose you don t believe in marriage." 
 
 " On the contrary, yes I do very strongly," he 
 said quietly. " I think my brother the most fortunate 
 
240 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 man in the world. He lives as human beings were 
 meant to live. He s part of the soil, part of his time 
 and part of his community. The rest of us are just 
 transients." 
 
 " Then the most reasonable thing you could do 
 would be to marry Fifi," she said resolutely. " She 
 cares for you, I m certain, and she has lots of the 
 qualities of your sister-in-law if she only had a 
 chance to bring them out." 
 
 " Fifi s good stuff," he admitted. 
 
 "Then why not?" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 He asked the question as though to himself and re 
 lapsed into a moody silence. Madison Square, with 
 its calm, green pools of darkness, its beggars huddled 
 on benches, and the high, fairy tower with its golden 
 clock, was at their side; the great thoroughfare de 
 serted, save for a wandering shadow, a flare-up of 
 gasoline at a fruit stand and a late car switching noisily 
 over the echoing stones. 
 
 "Why?" he repeated. "Because I never do any 
 thing reasonable, I suppose. Kismet. I m made dif 
 ferently or started wrong. Even Fifi sees that; she 
 would n t change me. You must have realized that 
 about me," he said, turning and looking at her. 
 
 " I don t know," she said faintly. His head was in 
 shadow, but she felt the luminous eyes looking down 
 into hers. 
 
 " They say a lot of nasty things about me, I sup 
 pose. If they only knew ! I m the one who pays. It s 
 seeking an ideal chasing a will-o -the-wisp the 
 longing for beauty." 
 
 " You must have suffered," she said involuntarily, 
 "suffered a great deal. Is it worth it?" 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 241 
 
 " It is worth it," he said solemnly. " And I am 
 willing to suffer all again," he added, in a low voice. 
 
 In all this there was nothing personal, yet every 
 word he said came directly to her. She sank her head 
 in the furs till only her eyes showed under the low 
 brim of her hat. The light of an arc-lamp flashed 
 across his set lips, and the eyes that burned darkly in 
 the soft face no, there was nothing tame about him. 
 
 " Why does he say this to me ? " she asked herself, 
 held half by terror and half by a leaping sensation of 
 joy. She sought to convince herself that she did not 
 know the answer, but she did not ask the question of 
 him. 
 
 " However, there comes a time," she said resolutely, 
 " when you change when you need other things of 
 life." 
 
 " Perhaps." 
 
 " I m going to persuade you yet." 
 
 He did not answer this, except to increase their speed 
 with a sudden release that sent them flying up the 
 avenue, past Forty-second Street with its tinsel lights, 
 past the married towers of the cathedral plunging into 
 the blossoming stars, into the opening spaces at the 
 foot of the park, and quickly into the quiet street. 
 
 " Now that all good things come to an end," he 
 said, turning to her, " I m going to say an impertinent 
 thing. I shan t forget those hours " 
 
 " Don t," she broke in hurriedly. 
 
 " Those unreal hours," he continued, " back in the 
 days of Louis XIV. When I think of you, dear lady, 
 I shall always think of La Mode Louis Quatorze. 
 If we could only live like that," he said, in sudden 
 rebellion. 
 
 " We can t." 
 
242 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " No; of course not." 
 
 He descended; helped her out with exact deference 
 no more and opened the door with the key she 
 gave him. Then he took off his hat. 
 
 " Good night and thank you for this half-hour/ 
 he said, smiling at her. " You have the quality of 
 painting memories that last. Everything about you is 
 gentle and exquisite." He took the hand she extended 
 to him with a feeling of drowsy lightness in her head, 
 and raised it to his lips. 
 
 " A la mode Louis Quatorze" he said. 
 
 She went up to her bedroom with a feeling of hap 
 piness. She assured herself that he had not trespassed 
 beyond the limits of a sympathetic friendship. She 
 had shown him plainly that she did not intend to en 
 courage a flirtation. She had kept her word to Claire 
 Bracken, and the consciousness of her own virtue gave 
 her an extraordinary self-satisfaction. There was so 
 much good in him Claire was right ; he would re 
 spond so wonderfully to a real home, to children, and 
 a wife who would give him strength. How readily she 
 understood these needs in him ! 
 
 " Yes ; he must marry Fifi," she said, with deter 
 mination. 
 
 Toward morning, she awoke in a troubled wakeful- 
 ness that defied all her efforts to return to sleep. The 
 memory of Monte Bracken haunted her. How sym 
 pathetic they were, even to the unspoken thoughts, the 
 moments of delicacy which each divined. 
 
 " I must not see too much of him," she said, turning 
 on her pillow. " We understand each other too easily. 
 I must be careful." She looked back, in the light of 
 her acquired self-knowledge, at the girl who, in the 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 243 
 
 old-fashioned garden, had decided her life so rashly, 
 so irrevocably, and, in the same revolt which had come 
 to Andrew as he had faced the image of himself the 
 night of the ball, she cried, 
 
 " If I had only known then what I do now ! " 
 
PART III 
 
PART III 
 
 KITTY LIGHTBODY came in, puffing and red, 
 making such a racket as she passed the tables, that 
 the lecturer on the news of the week, a thin, grayish 
 woman in a poke bonnet, momentarily interrupted her 
 flowing nasal comments. 
 
 "Thought I d never get here, dear," said Kitty 
 loudly, embracing first Irma and then Amy. " Eleven 
 o clock s like a dawn tea." She settled into her seat, 
 rose again to shed a brilliant topaz sweater coat, and, 
 oblivious of the waiting audience, resumed her whis 
 pering. " I m just crazy about the idea, aren t you? 
 I wish she d read the new books and magazines for 
 us. Has anything exciting happened last week ? " 
 
 " At home, as you probably all know," took up the 
 lecturer, " the week in Congress has been an eventful 
 one." 
 
 In the pleasant music room of the Chilton Yacht 
 Club, two score of women were scattered in groups of 
 twos and threes, giving a painful attention to the light, 
 gliding phrases of the lecturer, who, for three dollars 
 a ticket, relieved them of the fatiguing daily search of 
 the newspapers by these fashionable Monday morn 
 ings, felicitously named " Half-Hours With the 
 World." The windows were open to the blue flash of 
 water and the glare of white sails hung against a glow 
 ing June sky. From outside came the call of the play- 
 
248 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 ers on the tennis courts and the subdued sounds of a 
 phonograph, where, at the further end of the veranda, 
 a group had begun to dance. 
 
 " My Lord, that new fox-trot is catchy ! " continued 
 Mrs. Lightbody, with a sigh. " It s too distracting, 
 and I must listen. It s so instructive, is n t it? " 
 
 A girl in white flannels, swinging on the sill of the 
 open window, half in the room and half out, was lis 
 tening by fits and starts, snickering with a young fel 
 low who, from the veranda, was trying to upset her 
 gravity. 
 
 " At Washington, the terms of the new Federal Re 
 serve Bank law have been generally discussed," said 
 the voice of the lecturer, " but I won t trouble you with 
 such dry details." 
 
 " Excuse me," said a large, square woman, mili- 
 tantly, " but that s just what I do want to know." 
 
 Yes ; please do tell us," said a piping voice up front. 
 " I can t make head or tail out of it." 
 
 The Federal Reserve Bank law can best be ex 
 plained in this way " began the lecturer. 
 
 " Absurd to waste time on such subjects," said Kitty 
 wearily. She turned to Irma. " Has she said anything 
 about that Newport scandal yet ? My dear, he was n t 
 a count after all ! " 
 
 " Be quiet, Kitty," said Mrs. Dellabarre, with a 
 frown, as there came a sudden impatient craning of 
 heads in the direction of the disturbance. 
 
 Mrs. Lightbody s china eyes momentarily fixed 
 themselves in a solemn contraction. At this moment, 
 Jap Laracy wandering in, in search of amusement, in 
 stalled himself behind Amy. 
 
 " Fine day for the trip. Monte s coming up to the 
 dock now." 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 249 
 
 Amy glanced at her wrist impatiently there were 
 still ten minutes to be spent instructively. 
 
 " In England, the tension between the Irish Na 
 tionalists and Ulster has become exceedingly acute " 
 
 "Jap, dear, who is our vice-president?" said Mrs. 
 Lightbody, relaxing. " I tried to remember, but do 
 you know ? I could n t to save my life." 
 
 " William Jennings Bryan," said Laracy solemnly. 
 
 "Of course." She looked at him a moment sus 
 piciously and then appealed to Amy. 
 
 " Abroad a rather important bit of news is an 
 nounced in the morning s papers," continued the mo 
 notonous tones on the quiet June morning. " At Sara 
 jevo the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria is rumored to 
 have been assassinated." 
 
 There was a stir of surprise. A woman s voice was 
 heard exclaiming, 
 
 " I read the papers, but I did n t notice that! " 
 
 " Now, that is exciting," said Kitty Lightbody, sit 
 ting up. She frowned on the incorrigible Jap, and said, 
 with an admonitory shake of her head. " Behave, 
 Jap ; we must concentrate ! " 
 
 But Laracy was not so easily subdued. A salad of 
 pink and green trimmings on a platter of a hat in front 
 of him had caught his eye. 
 
 " It excites all the little birdies on the bonnets," he 
 said, in a whisper. " Look look, how they Ye try 
 ing to reach it ! " 
 
 Mrs. Lightbody forgot the triviality of another as 
 sassinated Archduke and began to giggle at this banal 
 ity. Thus encouraged, Laracy passed the audience in 
 review, according to his own peculiar style of wit. 
 Amy glanced again at her watch. A year ago, she 
 would have shared Kitty s amusement. To-day, she 
 
250 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 scarcely gave ear. The antics of the household pets 
 had no longer their first charm. She had passed be 
 yond playing with children into the more dangerous 
 need of stronger emotions. Dawson, Pardee, and 
 Laracy and their kind were still useful, but only to fill 
 in. At length, with a sigh of relief, she sprang up. 
 The lecture was over. 
 
 " Goodness, what awful names they select ! Sara 
 Sara I shall never get it," said Kitty Lightbody. 
 She turned to Amy, who was chatting to a group. 
 " Amy dear, what news of friend husband ? " 
 
 " Down in Mexico, of course," said Mrs. Forrester, 
 lightly. She turned on the brilliant red parasol, which 
 she held from her to give length to her arm and free 
 the line of her graceful body, and, knowing that the 
 pose was becoming, she held it a little longer while ex 
 claiming to the group of women whose eyes devoured 
 greedily the Gainsborough hat and the flowing line of 
 her new gray taffeta dress, " Oh, I m getting used to 
 the role of a neglected wife. We all come to it, don t 
 we?" 
 
 But suddenly remembering her engagement, she 
 freed herself from the group and linked arms with 
 Mrs. Dellabarre. 
 
 " Irma, really, can t you arrange to come ? " she said, 
 in final entreaty. 
 
 " I would if I could, my dear," said Irma, shaking 
 her head. " It s quite impossible for me to leave the 
 house to-day. I must be there when the doctor comes 
 to see Doris." 
 
 " It 11 be gorgeous running back in the moonlight." 
 
 " I know don t make it harder." 
 
 " But that leaves us with an extra man," said Amy, 
 frowning. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 251 
 
 " Don t worry; Kitty 11 take care of two," said Irma, 
 with a smile. 
 
 " She won t go because I ve taken Monte away 
 from her/ thought Amy, noticing the smile. Aloud, 
 she said : " It s not a twos-ing party at all. We keep 
 together!" She turned to Mrs. Lightbody, "Well, 
 if we re going to make New York for lunch, we must 
 be off. All the same," she thought, as they passed into 
 the glare of the sun and made their way down the 
 dock, " it s going to be a bore having an extra man. 
 The extra man, of course, was Tody Dawson. 
 
 " I don t believe Doris is ill at all," said Kitty, link 
 ing arms with her. 
 
 " Nor I." 
 
 " She s done it on purpose," said Mrs. Lightbody, 
 with a convinced nod. " Unless unless it s a ques 
 tion of Rudy. He s been in a dreadful state lately, 
 have you noticed?" 
 
 " I ve a mind to leave Tody behind," said Amy pen 
 sively. 
 
 "Oh, my dear, it would break the poor boy s 
 heart!" said Kitty instantly. "His nose is out of 
 joint as it is." 
 
 " He s going to be dreadfully in the way. You will 
 have to look after him." 
 
 " Don t worry, my dear ; I know my role ! " said 
 Kitty, laughing. 
 
 At this moment, Dawson, as though divining her 
 thoughts, came up. 
 
 " I say, Amy, if Irma s backed out, I 11 walk the 
 plank if you say the word." 
 
 The look of entreaty in his eyes, the perfect docility 
 of his attitude moved her to compassion. 
 
 " Poor boy, he s still dreadfully in love with me," 
 
252 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 she thought, and aloud she added, " No, indeed. Tody ; 
 would n t leave you out for the world." 
 
 At the smile with which she favored him, his face 
 lighted up. A moment before, the sky was tumbling 
 down. Now, just to be near her, to watch her covertly 
 from a distance, to hear the sound of her voice and fill 
 his eyes with her loveliness, changed the face of the 
 world. 
 
 " By George, you are a trump, you are ! " he said in 
 coherently, and he went hastily up the dock. He 
 adored her as a pagan worships, with his head to the 
 soil. No woman could be so angelic, no woman! 
 
 Monte Bracken, in white flannels, was at the gang 
 way of the speedy little motor-yacht that had its red- 
 and-white awnings out. The next moment, they were 
 lounging in lazy, cushioned chairs, the spray curling 
 whitely at their sides, rushing across the mackerel 
 waters to New York. 
 
II 
 
 AMY FORRESTER, like most women of her 
 bringing up, had dramatic moments of good im 
 pulses which surprised even herself, but these once 
 over, the old habits of irresponsibility and self-in 
 dulgence resumed their sway. Old habits led her 
 to satisfy her desires without further tax on her 
 conscience than the need of deceiving herself as to 
 her motive. She wished to see Monte Bracken, so 
 she easily persuaded herself that the new intimacy 
 which developed was in reality working for his hap 
 piness and the interests of Fifi Nordstrum. But, 
 a week before, that independent young lady clari 
 fied the situation by announcing her engagement to a 
 Western engineer without a cent or a social connec 
 tion, sublimely confident in his own star a convic 
 tion which Fifi cheerfully shared. After her surprise 
 had subsided, Amy was well-enough pleased with this 
 denouement. She had performed her whole duty, and 
 she was now absolved. Monte Bracken in future 
 would be on the basis of any other attractive man of 
 the world, forewarned of the terms and limitations of 
 the intimacy permitted. 
 
 A certain stiffness settled on the party, despite the 
 determined efforts of Kitty Lightbody and the usual 
 minstrel patter of Jap Laracy and Tody Dawson. It 
 had neither the intimacy of a tete-a-tete nor the oppor 
 tunities of a crowd. Bracken was in bad humor; the 
 
254 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 conversation plainly bored him and, having no inten 
 tion of descending to its level, he retired behind his 
 cigar. Amy shared his impatience. It was not thus 
 that she had looked forward to this excursion. Tody 
 Dawson, knowing himself in a false position, floun 
 dered on heavily, seeking to conciliate Amy by being 
 amusing without perceiving how much he bored her. 
 At such moments, the gentlest of women are capable 
 of a refinement of cruelty. 
 
 " Really, Tody," she said, with a shrug of her shoul 
 ders, " if you are going to be amusing, you must learn 
 some new tricks. Those jokes are very old. I know 
 them by heart." 
 
 Tody Dawson s face went blank under the reproof. 
 
 " It s too far to swim," he said, glancing at the dis 
 tant shore with an attempt to cover up his misery. He 
 turned up his collar and said, with a submissive bow : 
 " I *m crushed. Put me in a corner and punish me." 
 
 He went up forward in gloomy dignity where, in a 
 moment, Kitty Lightbody, after an exchange of 
 glances with Amy, went to console him with Jap 
 Laracy. 
 
 " Now, I suppose I Ve hurt his feelings," said Amy, 
 " but really those boys do get on my nerves some 
 times." 
 
 Bracken s good humor returned instantly. 
 
 " No great harm s done. They 11 amuse them 
 selves." He drew up his chair by hers. " I can t abide 
 the type. Have n t you progressed beyond them? " 
 
 " It s rather hard to drop them all at once," she said 
 pensively, " and they are so convenient." 
 
 He looked at her, his amusement returning as his 
 ill-humor cleared. 
 
 " Yes ; of course they are convenient," he agreed. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 255 
 
 " I suppose they fill a place in the lives of you women 
 that real men could not. We ought to be grateful for 
 that" 
 
 " Are you in a very bad humor, Monte? " she said, 
 glancing up at him. In the last month they had pro 
 gressed to the intimacy of their first names. 
 
 " Not now. Can t we manage to lose them in town 
 somehow ? " he said suddenly. " The ride home 
 ought n t to be spoiled." 
 
 She shook her head slowly. 
 
 "A sailor and a butler are chaperons enough surely !" 
 
 ".No; I can t do that," she answered firmly. She 
 had often, in self-defense, fallen back on her intention 
 to remain a virtuous wife. The phrase flashed into 
 her mind, but she decided not to employ it on Monte. 
 Instead, she added decidedly, " I won t be talked 
 about." 
 
 " You re a strange person," he said impatiently. 
 
 " I m like that," she said quietly. " You know my 
 ideas." 
 
 " At the bottom," he said rebelliously, " I believe one 
 man is just the same to you as another. Despite all 
 you say about the Tody Dawsons in this world " 
 
 " Well? " she said, as he stopped. 
 
 rt Total docility and innocuousness are quite suffi 
 cient." 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " I give you permission to abuse me." 
 
 Monte Bracken had returned into her life at a criti 
 cal moment. It was not that she was tired of society, 
 but that she was momentarily tired by it. The dra 
 matic thrill of her personal triumph at the Versailles 
 fete had been the climax of her season. After those 
 dazzling hours, everything else seemed tame in com- 
 
256 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 parison. She had felt let down. A new mental pro 
 gression had come that moment which arrives to 
 every brilliant woman. In the whole world, nothing, 
 for the moment, interested her so much as herself. 
 She wanted to annex Monte Bracken, because she felt 
 the need of some superior mind, capable of under 
 standing her, of explaining her, and of admiring her 
 completely, even to the smallest trifles which escaped 
 the ordinary eye. Whether Bracken flattered her or 
 humorously dissected her, her interest was always the 
 same as long as the subject discussed was herself. 
 Perhaps, if anything, she liked him in his savage 
 moods, for then, underneath his sarcasm, she divined 
 how completely she had established her empire over his 
 imagination. 
 
 " I can understand Kitty Lightbody turkey-trotting 
 through life, but I can t understand you," he began, 
 assuming a tone of raillery which she disliked because 
 to her, like most women, it was the only male weapon 
 she feared. " Are you going to be contented with 
 nibbling at life? Women like that have only passions 
 for great emotions like ping-pong, bridge, the tango, 
 ice-skating." 
 
 "And I?" 
 
 " I wonder." 
 
 You warned me once I was not like that." 
 
 " Yes ; I gave you credit for a heart," he said, 
 smiling. 
 
 "And now?" she asked, drawing back and half 
 veiling her face with the collar of her golden polo coat. 
 There were times when she found it difficult to face 
 him. 
 
 He looked into her eyes steadily until, at last, she 
 turned hers away. Then he said quietly, 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 257 
 
 " I still believe it." 
 
 " That I still have a heart after all the bad things 
 you believe of me? " she said, raising her eyebrows to 
 their characteristic angle. " And you ? " 
 
 " Too much," he said, with a laugh. " Some day, 
 I 11 make a confession." 
 
 " It s such fun to play with you, Monte," she said 
 brightly. " And now, please, say some nice things to 
 me. No one can say them so nicely as you." 
 
 To-night if we are alone." 
 
 "No, no and no!" she said, so delighted to re 
 fuse him that she punctuated each rising negation with 
 a tap of her parasol. 
 
 " What a strange emotion it would be to you," he 
 said in the same light tone, " to do just one thing you 
 wanted to do one thing unconventional to dare 
 once ! " 
 
 " Undoubtedly, but I don t intend to do it," she said 
 complacently. She looked at him a moment and said, 
 " Were you very much in love with Irma? " 
 
 " I tried to be." 
 
 " I don t think she s ever gotten over it." 
 
 You mean she s not gotten over my getting 
 over it." 
 
 " Do you suppose that s the reason she would n t 
 come to-day ? " she said, looking down at the tip of 
 her red parasol and thinking of the compact she had 
 once sworn not to trespass. 
 
 " Dellabarre s in a bad state." 
 
 " Really? But he s always been, has n t he? " 
 
 " Not like at present." 
 
 She felt the conversation was slipping from the sub 
 ject which interested her. She glanced out over the 
 flurried back of the Sound. Far off, the low outline 
 
258 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 against the horizon was growing out of the gray void, 
 the tiny towers of New York, shooting up like reeds 
 emerging from the water. Another boat or two 
 breasted the foam and cut sharp trails; a yawl with 
 brilliant sails stood out in dazzling whiteness against 
 the infinity of blue. All at once, the prospect of the 
 matinee ahead lost its anticipated zest. 
 
 " Somehow, going into a stuffy theater does n t 
 appeal to me," she said dreamily. 
 
 "Why do it, then?" 
 
 She glanced ahead significantly. 
 
 " There are others." 
 
 This time, he suggested no alternative. 
 
 " You said something rather puzzling a moment 
 ago," she began slowly, leaning over the rail and flirt 
 ing with the swirl of the cleft waters, one hand 
 extended. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " You said you tried to be in love with Irma. Why 
 tried? " 
 
 11 Because I am a great comedian though I don t 
 know it at the time." 
 
 He had the instinctive sense of drawing women on 
 without seeming to make any effort to attract them. 
 He was in love and he knew it, though he still was 
 ignorant as to the extent to which he had let himself 
 go. He felt that he had played too easily into her hand 
 by giving her the opportunity to refuse his request, and 
 he determined to regain his supremacy. 
 
 Amy glanced at the group in the bow. Tody Daw- 
 son was covertly watching them. She shifted her 
 chair to shut him out, rested her chin on her hand, and 
 said, 
 
 " Why do you tell me that? " 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 259 
 
 " Just to play fair," he said carelessly. " We are 
 both much alike rather irresponsible children." 
 
 " Go on." 
 
 " You really want me to blacken myself ? " 
 
 " I am interested." 
 
 " You say I play well. I do. I have too much 
 curiosity, I suppose, to be really able to love. I am 
 curious about women. I want to delve into their minds 
 and, when I have done so, I end by being disillusioned. 
 I fool myself. I always have, and I probably always 
 shall. That s why I say I am a great comedian." 
 
 " And you have nothing on your conscience ? " 
 
 " No. I think I understand the sort of women I am 
 thrown with. They want to be amused until dinner 
 time," he added, smiling. " Women of the world, if 
 you wish, but without depth to hold a real wound. I 
 come into their life in their need of amusement 
 on the same basis as their dressmaker, the cabaret, or 
 a new variety of Pekingese. Some men are deceived 
 by looking into their eyes. I m not. Sometimes," he 
 added, with gathering amusement in his eyes, " some 
 times in a humorous way I like to consider myself as 
 an avenger of my sex. Very conceited, is n t it ? But 
 awfully frank. Now you know the worst about me." 
 
 She perceived that, under pretense of confession, he 
 had been amusing himself with a description of herself. 
 
 " I don t like you when you are ironical," she said, 
 when he had glanced at her for her verdict. She rose 
 and summoned Kitty Lightbody and the boys, to whom 
 she made amends by being particularly gracious. But 
 during the matinee she was so bored that when Kitty 
 alleged the need of an errand, she accepted the excuse 
 gratefully and they separated to meet at Lazare s for 
 tea. 
 
260 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Shall we go there directly? " he asked. 
 
 She hesitated. 
 
 " I d like a bit of fresh air. The theater was dread 
 fully close." 
 
 He called a taxi, assuming to have understood her 
 wish. 
 
 " Twenty minutes run in the Park. We 11 be the 
 first at that." 
 
 He helped her in, took his place, and waited for her 
 to decide the note of the evening. She looked up, 
 caught his waiting expression, and, despite her first 
 intention, began to laugh. 
 
 " War or peace? " he asked, relaxing. 
 
 " You can be so horrid," she said, pouting. 
 
 " Don t try to be the conventional coquette then," 
 he took up instantly. " You re much nicer than that." 
 
 She turned jaway hastily to hide her smile. Then, 
 after a moment, she said gravely, 
 
 " Are you always such a great comedian ? " 
 
 " I believe so," he answered solemnly. 
 
 " But I could n t go home with you alone to-night," 
 she protested. 
 
 "Of course not I only objected to the way you 
 refused." 
 
 "What was wrong?" 
 
 " You should have answered, I can t, but I m 
 dying to do it. 
 
 " Well, but that s true," she said frankly. 
 
 When they reached Lazare s, Amy was in a mis 
 chievous good humor. Daughter of Eve, the taste of 
 stolen fruits was sweet. 
 
 " I hope they 11 be late," she said, with shining eyes. 
 
 " Amen." 
 
 Lazare s was already well filled. They passed 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 261 
 
 among the tables in the central hall, seeking a quiet 
 corner. All at once, Amy stopped, with an exclama 
 tion. Ahead down the aisle, directly facing her, was 
 Irma Dellabarre. 
 
 " Monte, do you see her? " 
 
 "Irma? Yes." 
 
 "The wretch! That s what she s up to!" she 
 cried, delighted. " Well, this time, I ve caught her! " 
 
 She hurried ahead with merry eyes, her curiosity 
 bubbling over. The next moment, she stopped, in 
 capable of word or movement. The man whose back 
 was toward her was Andrew her husband. 
 
Ill 
 
 TO go forward and find some glib word of greet 
 ing, to master herself and hide the rushing con 
 sternation which swept over her seemed impossible, 
 and yet she did it. The shock was too unexpected, the 
 situation too inexplicable for her to comprehend it. 
 What she did comprehend was that she was in the 
 midst of a hundred acquaintances who were watching 
 her and that a false step meant a public scandal. She 
 felt the leaping heat in her cheeks and .her voice 
 sounded strange to her ears, but she went on, and said 
 cordially, 
 
 " Well, this is a surprise ! " Then she added in 
 coherently, " How are you ? " 
 
 Irma Dellabarre was quite self-possessed. 
 
 "It looks terribly dramatic, doesn t it?" she said, 
 smiling, " but it s quite simple. I came in, after all, 
 and the first person I should meet was Andrew." 
 
 " Of course, my dear ! " 
 
 She knew it was a lie, and, despite herself, momen 
 tarily she gave a note of scorn to the exclamation. 
 But instantly she caught herself. Husband and wife 
 looked at each other, each cut to the quick at the 
 humiliation they had to stand and take unflinchingly 
 before these sudden strangers. 
 
 " I did not expect you," she said, to say something, 
 and she looked at him in order not to look at Irma. 
 " Are you coming out -to Chilton ? " 
 
 * 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 263 
 
 " Perhaps," he said coldly, looking at her steadily. 
 " I thought you were in a party." 
 
 " Yes, we are," she said slowly. To stay longer 
 was humanly impossible. " Well then, I may see you 
 at Chilton ? " She nodded and went down a ways 
 to where the head waiter was standing at a table for 
 two. 
 
 " Table for five, please," she said sharply, mistress 
 of herself as she had been the night of the fete, when 
 Tody Dawson had blundered in the minuet. She saw 
 some one bowing to her in the haze of things, and 
 bowed with a smile in the general direction. 
 
 " Sit down here," said Monte Bracken s voice. She 
 took the chair he indicated, with her back to her hus 
 band, and drew off her gloves slowly, a mist before her 
 eyes. The waiter stood at her side for his orders. She 
 was not aware of his presence. 
 
 " Tea and buttered toast for two," said Bracken 
 quickly. " Or no might as well make it for five, 
 Philip," he added, summoning the head waiter, who 
 knew him. " Leave word at the door where we are. 
 Mrs. Lightbody will join us." 
 
 Then he sat down. 
 
 " Talk to me," she said. " Keep talking to me." 
 
 Gradually, under the pleasant sound of words which 
 she did not comprehend, she regained her self-control. 
 
 " Thank you," she said, drawing a long breath, but 
 her eyes remained on her plate. " It s strange Kitty 
 does n t come. What time is it ? " 
 
 " Half-past five." 
 
 Not for an instant had she the slightest doubt that 
 Irma had lied to her. She had seen the truth in 
 Andrew s eyes in that bitter moment of mutual hu 
 miliation. How long had it been going on ? All her 
 
264 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 anger was directed toward the woman. Yes; she had 
 taken her revenge threefold ! 
 
 " She was n t embarrassed at all," she thought 
 bitterly. " Quite delighted, of course." 
 
 "Tea now?" 
 
 " I don t see why they don t come," she said 
 nervously. 
 
 " Kitty never is on time, you know." 
 
 "Yes; but I want them to come," she said dully. 
 Andrew must see all the difference that existed be 
 tween his situation and hers. 
 
 " They may be waiting outside. Shall I see ? " 
 
 " Please." 
 
 She thought of the anger she had shown in the first 
 shocked moment of recognition. That had been a 
 mistake. It had only played into Irma s hands. She 
 should have stayed and shown her indifference, treated 
 the situation with lightness, covered up the wound to 
 her vanity. What a delicious revenge she had given 
 Irma! 
 
 " What a fool I was ! " she said angrily. " But she 
 shan t have him alone." 
 
 To be forced to continue her little game under the 
 eye of the wife would be the last thing Irma would 
 relish. 
 
 " She shan t have things her own way," she said 
 determinedly, and rose. The thing to do was to accept 
 Irma s declaration that the meeting had been acci 
 dental, and force them, under appearance of cordiality, 
 to join the party. To her consternation, when she 
 turned their table was empty. She was still standing 
 when Monte Bracken returned. 
 
 " I am sorry they have n t turned up." 
 
 " It does n t matter now," she said abruptly. 
 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 265 
 
 He glanced at her brilliant eyes and feverish cheeks, 
 wondering just what to offer. 
 
 " I m afraid they won t come at all," he said slowly. 
 
 As a matter of fact, from the first he had never 
 expected that they would turn up. 
 
 " It does n t matter," she said impatiently. 
 
 " Curious thing," he said, frowning. " Do you 
 know whom I thought I saw just now? Rudy 
 himself!" 
 
 " But he s in Chilton," she said, answering him 
 mechanically. 
 
 " He was this morning," he replied thoughtfully. 
 
 Her imagination was racing. At one moment, she 
 repeated to herself what she should have said to them 
 in the first moment of her surprise. The next, it 
 jumped to the future, constructing the scene of her 
 reproaches to Irma the way she should demand an 
 explanation from Andrew. The next moment, she 
 switched to the past with feverish alarm, seeking some 
 remembered indications which could clarify the present 
 unbelievable revelation. Andrew Andrew of all 
 men ! She could believe all things but that ! 
 
 " I m afraid the others have gone off on their own 
 boat," he repeated. " What do you want to do ? " 
 
 She passed her hand hastily over her forehead, 
 touched her lips to a glass of cold water, and said, 
 
 " If you don t mind, Monte, I think I d rather have 
 a bite to eat now and go right home. I m sorry to be 
 so stupid." 
 
 " Do anything you like," he said hastily, moved by 
 the suffering in her eyes. " We can dine here and go 
 back by the train? " 
 
 " By the train ? " she said, perplexed. " And why 
 not by the boat?" 
 
266 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " I prefer not, Amy," he said kindly. 
 
 " Oh, I see what you think," she said slowly. 
 
 They ate their dinner rapidly. He saw her per 
 turbation and refrained from addressing her. When 
 the meal was ended, she said, out of a clear sky, 
 
 " I prefer to return in the yacht." 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 " You are not in a mood to decide," he said gently. 
 " I don t want you to do a thing you 11 regret." 
 
 " You don t understand the situation," she said, 
 looking at him. " It has nothing to do with Andrew. 
 My husband and I have been nothing to each other 
 for months." 
 
 " Are you sure? " he said gravely. 
 
 " Quite. Yes ; I am upset, mortified, hurt, but it s 
 not on his account. It s it s to be deceived by her." 
 
 " Really, I had rather we did not go back, alone," 
 he said frowning. 
 
 "But if I wish it?" 
 
 " Very well." 
 
 She glanced at him. 
 
 " You are not annoyed at me ? " 
 
 " I could n t be." 
 
 " Please don t be annoyed, Monte whatever I do." 
 
 In the antechamber, an idea came to him. He 
 stepped in the cafe for a quick glance. He had not 
 been mistaken. At. a corner table, huddled over his 
 glass, was Rudolph Dellabarre. 
 
IV 
 
 ANDREW was already home, in the broad, gabled 
 cottage he had taken for the summer. By the 
 time they made the landing, she had not the slightest 
 doubt that he would be there. Irma would have seen 
 to that. If she had any one to thank for even this 
 momentary return, it was the woman s need of safe 
 guarding appearances. She gave her hand hurriedly 
 to Monte Bracken. 
 
 :t You are very kind," she said gratefully. " Good 
 night and I shan t forget how you ve been." 
 
 " I will do anything I can at any time for 
 your happiness," he said, in a low voice. 
 
 He sprang back on the deck ; the yacht backed out, 
 and she watched it glide over the silky waters. At 
 the bow, silhouetted against the tapestry of stars, his 
 dark figure continued standing, still looking back at 
 her. He had been very much of a gentleman, tactful 
 and respecting her reticence, the true Monte Bracken 
 of the finer metal that occasionally flashed out below 
 the adroit and brilliant flaneur of the world. He had 
 left her in long silence to the tumult of her own 
 emotions. 
 
 " It s Irma Irma I can t forgive," she repeated 
 to herself dully, in long contemplation, as the shadowy 
 goblin palaces of New York, the fiery lacework of 
 vaulted bridges, the crowded throngs of electric lights 
 fell behind and sank into the waters of the night. 
 
268 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 Across the bay, a few sentinel-lights followed their 
 shooting progress faint and distant as all mankind 
 in the complexity of the stars which hung from the 
 firmament above her and swam up from the deeps 
 below. What did she really feel? Was it only the 
 treachery of a friend? At times, she had felt the 
 tears wet on her cheeks tears of bitter disillusions, 
 she had told herself. 
 
 The veranda and the parlor were ablaze as she came 
 slowly from the pier. 
 
 " Mrs. Lightbody and the others will be home later," 
 she said to Gregory. 
 
 " Mr. Forrester has arrived, madam." 
 
 " Mr. Forrester ? How long has he been home ? " 
 
 " About an hour, madam." 
 
 She waited a moment, half expecting some message 
 from her husband, a demand for an interview, and 
 then went up to her room, dismissing Morley as soon 
 as she had removed her hat and ulster. Would he 
 come to her? The odor of tobacco was in the upper 
 hall. He was awake. 
 
 At the end of ten minutes, which seemed an inter 
 minable hour, she made up her mind suddenly and 
 going to his door knocked. 
 
 " Who s there ? " said her husband s voice. 
 
 " It is I." 
 
 " One moment." She heard him moving hurriedly 
 inside. " All right now. Come in." 
 
 She entered. He had been in his shirt-sleeves at 
 his desk and had stopped to slip into a dressing-gown. 
 A year ago, he would never have thought of that. 
 
 " Come in," he repeated calmly. " Room s pretty 
 heavy with smoke. I 11 open a window a moment." 
 
 She stood by the door, watching him uneasily. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 269 
 
 " Why, he is n t angry at all," she thought, troubled, 
 " unless he is concealing it very well." 
 
 He closed the window, but, perceiving the lighted 
 cigar on the desk, crossed over. 
 
 " I d better get rid of this, too, I suppose," he said, 
 tossing it into the fireplace. 
 
 She felt like screaming out, 
 
 " Good heavens, don t be polite! " 
 
 But she controlled herself and murmured, " Thank 
 you." 
 
 Whatever happened, she was determined he should 
 not have the satisfaction of perceiving the slightest 
 trace of irritation. She refused the chair he indicated 
 to remain still was impossible and going to the 
 mantelpiece, she rested her arm on the ledge in an atti 
 tude of coquetry which had become unconscious. 
 
 " I did n t expect you back before the end of the 
 month," she began lightly. 
 
 Yes ; I got off earlier than I expected." 
 
 " Then things are going better ? " 
 
 " In a way thank you." 
 
 " I am always glad to know something of your 
 affairs," she said quietly. 
 
 He threw himself into an armchair, crossed his legs, 
 caged his hands and looked at her. 
 
 " I am sorry you left Lazare s so quickly. I wanted 
 you to come back with us." 
 
 He did not reply. 
 
 " It was a wonderful trip ; the night was heavenly. 
 I don t know when I ve ever seen the stars so beauti 
 ful," she added, trying to rouse his jealousy. " I am 
 sorry you missed it particularly because Kitty went 
 off on some wild spree and I did n t want to come back 
 alone with Monte." 
 
270 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 The simple question threw her into confusion. 
 
 " On account of appearances, of course. I prefer 
 not to be talked about like some other wives we both 
 know." 
 
 " I see." 
 
 " I am getting nowhere," she thought, before the 
 calm of his attitude. How long had this intimacy 
 with Irma been going on, and how serious was it? 
 These were two things she must learn at all costs. 
 
 " So you have suddenly blossomed out into a lady- 
 killer?" she said, smiling at him. 
 
 " I beg your pardon." 
 
 " So you are having a flirtation with Irma Della- 
 barre," she said, holding the smile with an effort. She 
 felt that she had her emotions under perfect control, 
 but to him her eyes shone out like angry coals. 
 
 " I do not intend to discuss Mrs. Dellabarre," he 
 said coldly. 
 
 " You won t pretend that her ridiculous story of 
 meeting you by accident was the truth ! " she burst out, 
 all restraint gone. 
 
 " I have nothing to discuss," he said precisely. 
 
 " No, I should say not, because you know she told a 
 lie and a stupid lie," she cried, in a passion. She was 
 convinced that Irma had lied, but she wanted to know 
 if he would go to the extent of a lie. " Whatever I 
 do, I do openly. I don t need to hide it. I don t " 
 She stopped. Her voice was shaking, and her eyes 
 dangerously filled with tears. In a moment, she con 
 tinued bitterly, but with more calm, " I hope you en 
 joyed the mortification and the shame of our meeting 
 like that being humiliated before others." 
 
 " What do you objeet to? " 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 271 
 
 " I object to deceit to underhand methods, to a 
 woman who pretends to be my friend in public! " she 
 flashed out. 
 
 " Oh, that s it," he said thoughtfully. " You, of 
 course, don t object to my friendship with another 
 woman." 
 
 " Friendship ! " she exclaimed angrily. " You 
 need n t tell me it s just friendship. You re not that 
 kind. If you see a woman like Irma, it s because 
 you re interested really interested. You are not a 
 society hanger-on, indulging in light flirtations." 
 
 " Thank you for the distinction." 
 
 " No ; you care, and you care a great deal ! " she 
 rushed on. She felt that she was showing her worst 
 side, but she could no longer restrain the passion of 
 wounded vanity, jealousy, and anger which flamed up. 
 " Well, at least let s know where we stand. How long 
 has this been going on? " 
 
 " I don t intend to discuss this," he said again. 
 
 " But I do intend," she cried. " Can t you see in 
 what a mortifying, humiliating position you have 
 placed me ? " 
 
 " I quite understand that you resent being humili 
 ated," he assented. Then he said gently, " Unfortu 
 nately, you made the decision." 
 
 "I?" 
 
 " You know what I mean." 
 
 " Good heavens, you are not going to drag in that 
 poor fool of a Tody Dawson! " she cried, every nerve 
 on edge. 
 
 " I am simply recalling to your mind," he said, in the 
 businesslike preciseness that she hated, " that I was 
 once as sensitive to being humiliated as you are now. 
 You speak of appearances. According to appearances, 
 
272 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 my servants had heard a man tell me a lie in my own 
 house. They were free to draw any conclusions they 
 pleased. That was appearances, I believe." 
 
 This can t go on ! " she said abruptly, her head 
 in a whirl. " Andrew, we can t go on like this." 
 
 " Probably not." 
 
 She left him and walked to the window, flung it 
 open, and closed it again. 
 
 " Listen, Andrew," she said, in another tone; " let s 
 call quits. Let s begin all over again. This sort of 
 life means nothing to me. I am willing to give up 
 seeing any man you object to all men if you ask 
 it " 
 
 " Even Monte Bracken," he said instantly. 
 
 " Even Monte Bracken." 
 
 " If I give up seeing Irma." 
 
 1 That is, of course, the condition. Will you start 
 fair ? Begin anew ? " 
 
 He was silent, looking at her such a long moment 
 that she grew restive under the stern glance. 
 
 " It is n t any real repentance. It is n t any real love 
 of me," he said to himself. " It is just wounded van 
 ity. She will sacrifice any one or anything to revenge 
 herself on the other woman. That is it." 
 
 " Well ? " she said impatiently. 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 " What ! I offer all this and you refuse ? " 
 
 " I refuse." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because Irma Dellabarre s friendship means a 
 great deal to me in my life and I don t in the least 
 intend to give it up." 
 
 " Ah, there now we have it ! " she cried. " Why 
 go on pretending. You know you are in love with 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 273 
 
 Irma Dellabarre and you believe she is with you ! I 
 knew it I knew it ! " 
 
 " Amy, I have already said to you," he began, with 
 out anger, " that I did not intend to discuss Mrs. Della 
 barre, and I won t. Furthermore, I do not recognize 
 that I owe you any explanations for my conduct or the 
 reasons for my friendship." 
 
 " I don t admit that! " she cried. 
 
 " You will have to admit that," he took up in the 
 same quiet tone, " because you are the one who has 
 brought this situation about." 
 
 " I ? " she cried in protest, for, strange to say, she 
 had not the slightest conception of her own re 
 sponsibility. 
 
 " You. I prefer not to go into recriminations and 
 complaints. It is now too late for that. You have 
 created the situation. I have accepted it. In a way, 
 our position is not different from many marriages of 
 our kind. You have had complete liberty and I have 
 determined to have mine. I do not intend at the pres 
 ent moment, just because your vanity is wounded, for 
 that s all it is, to change my attitude, because you 
 demand that another woman should be sacrificed. Go 
 your way and don t interfere with mine." 
 
 " Andrew," she cried desperately, " we can t go on 
 like this! We have got to understand each other. 
 Let us tell each other the truth. You don t love me any 
 more, do you? " 
 
 " Naturally not ! " he said, plainly surprised at the 
 question. 
 
 She had expected a protestation, grudging, half 
 hearted, indignant even, but still a protestation of affec 
 tion. It had never once occurred to her, even in the 
 constraint and estrangement of the last months, that 
 
274 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 her husband could ever cease to love her. She put her 
 hand suddenly to her eyes as though the thing he had 
 said was a specter she could shut from her sight. 
 
 " Very well," she said slowly, and mechanically she 
 repeated, " Very well." All the vitality of her anger 
 deserted her. She felt weary and worn, while he 
 watched her curiously, marveling. " That is at least 
 frank," she said, looking at him at last. " Then, of 
 course, you are in love with Irma. Say it." 
 
 " I prefer not to discuss that," he said quietly, " but 
 I will say this : If Irma Dellabarre were free, knowing 
 what I do now, of what marriage should be, of what 
 I wish in a wife to respect and cherish, I should be 
 honored if Mrs. Dellabarre would be my wife." 
 
 " I understand," she said, in a low voice. " I knew 
 it. I knew it from the moment I saw your eyes. Well 
 now I know." 
 
 " Yes ; now you know," he said. His glance, which 
 had never left her, continued without passion on her. 
 " And now that you know what are you going to 
 do about it?" 
 
 "What?" she said, frowning and staring at him, 
 as though she could not translate his words into her 
 comprehension. 
 
 " What are you going to do about it? " 
 
 " I don t know," she said slowly. She frowned 
 again, staring at the hand which lay on the mantel as 
 though the whiteness of the skin had offended her eye. 
 
 " It is, of course, for you to decide." 
 
 "How immovable, how hard you are!" she said, 
 her voice hardly intelligible, and a shudder passed over 
 her shoulders. 
 
 " Yes ; that is so," he said gravely. " I was willing 
 to give all I will not give half-way. Don t think I 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 275 
 
 have n t suffered. I have. But I don t intend to 
 hash over what is done." 
 
 You say for me to go my way," she began, with 
 an effort, clinging to a last straw. " How far do you 
 wish me to go my way, Andrew ? " 
 
 " I have said I will accept any situation you may 
 propose," he answered. " That ought to be plain to 
 you. You have your self-respect. I count on that. 
 You bear my name. So long as you continue to do so, 
 I am confident that you will treat it with respect." 
 
 She began to shiver. Her head felt of lead. She 
 was alone alone in the immensity of the world. 
 
 " I think I think I d better go to my room," she 
 said incoherently. 
 
 He sprang up instantly, as he would have done to a 
 stranger. She went blindly toward the door. But 
 all at once, before the snapping of all the links of the 
 past, before the mystery beyond, she turned and 
 stretched out her hand toward him. 
 
 " Andrew it can t be it can t be true! " 
 
 " It is true," he said resolutely. " To pretend would 
 only make matters worse. Don t deceive yourself 
 either, Amy you do not love me ; you have not loved 
 me ; you could not have loved me ! " he added, with 
 more force ; " or it would never have come to this. Be 
 as honest to me as I am to you. That is all I ask." 
 
 She bowed her head suddenly and went out. He 
 had beaten her at every point. 
 
 When she had left, he shut the door carefully. Then 
 he came back to the desk and buried his head in his 
 hands, torn by the thought of the suffering which he 
 had been forced to inflict on the woman he had loved, 
 who, in her moment of defeat, had looked at him with 
 the wounded eyes of a child. 
 
V 
 
 THE next morning Andrew Forrester was up with 
 the sun and out for a morning gallop. The first 
 thought in his mind was how to arrange to see Irma 
 Dellabarre. For see her he felt he must after the de 
 cisive events of the night. Until the explanation with 
 his wife, he had not been quite sure of his own senti 
 ments, but the declarations he had made gave a note of 
 finality, an answer to the perplexities which had existed 
 in his own mind. 
 
 He had burned the bridges behind him and every 
 instinct now impelled him to the other woman with a 
 strength which surprised him. For there had been 
 moments of irritation, of grave doubts in the intimacy 
 which, from an accidental meeting, had grown into a 
 deep confidence. 
 
 Amy was not down at the breakfast, pretexting a 
 cold contracted on the ride home. Kitty Lightbody 
 and the boys went off immediately for a tennis tourna 
 ment which was scheduled at ten o clock. Every one 
 would be lunching on the Club veranda. He seized 
 the opportunity eagerly, had Gregory telephone the 
 Dellabarres that he was coming and drove off in the 
 limousine. Amy, of course, would learn of his destina 
 tion, but, though he would have spared her any un 
 necessary affront, he felt that he must see Irma, and 
 see her at once. 
 
 To Irma he had never put into words the emotion 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 277 
 
 which drew him to her. It was not necessary. She 
 could be under no illusions on that score. The sense 
 of chivalry in him would have restrained him if noth 
 ing else. Neither by word nor action had he departed 
 from the attitude of deep veneration which she had 
 inspired. Beyond that, he had opened his heart com 
 pletely and in return he had felt that by a word here 
 and there, a look of sadness, by a chance suggestion, 
 she had shown him the Calvary which she endured at 
 home. 
 
 When the car slowed up and ran into the deep pine- 
 covered entrance, with the low vine-covered home 
 ahead, he recalled all at once that first time, in the night 
 and glistening rain, when he had come to its welcom 
 ing lights in company with Amy. Despite himself, he 
 could not master a momentary pain, but immediately, 
 frowning, he said to himself, 
 
 " No, no, that s past ! That can t wound me now ! " 
 
 He did not get out of the motor but said to the but 
 ler who came out smiling, 
 
 " Just say Mrs. Forrester s car is waiting for Mrs. 
 Dellabarre, will you ? " 
 
 That was rather foolish," he thought the next 
 moment. " It looks rather strange if I don t get out 
 and go in." 
 
 He rose, descended, and then changed his mind. 
 Pretending was not in his nature, and being in a false 
 position left him irritated and uncomfortable. To 
 give himself an excuse, he passed to the front of the 
 car and threw up the hood. 
 
 " Do you find it carbonizes much, Bingham ? " he 
 inquired. 
 
 " No, sir. Not so much now, sir." 
 
 The door opened, he looked up eagerly. Mr. Delia- 
 
278 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 barre came out, frail, mechanical, bushy like a marion 
 ette on strings. 
 
 "How do, Dellabarre?" he said, closing the hood 
 not to have to offer his hand. 
 
 "Isn t Mrs. Forrester with you?" said Dellabarre 
 slowly. 
 
 "That s stupid now. Why should he say that?" 
 he thought. Out loud he said hurriedly, " Amy s dos 
 ing up a sore throat and so to save time I ran over to 
 get Irma." 
 
 " I understand." 
 
 Andrew came around the car. Their glances met. 
 The appearance of Dellabarre was a shock to him. 
 There was an unmistakable pasty look about him and 
 the hand on the button of the jacket shook. 
 
 " There s death in that fellow s eyes," he thought, 
 and the next moment recoiled before the sinister specu 
 lations that started up. 
 
 Irma Dellabarre, in a blue foulard, smiling and 
 composed under a sweeping leghorn hat, came out 
 with Mon Amour under her arm. 
 
 " Hello, Andrew ! well, this is a surprise," she said, 
 lightly offering her hand ; " mind my taking the dar 
 ling? Why, where s Amy? " 
 
 Mon Amour set up a yapping as he took her hand. 
 Somehow her words grated on his ear. He repeated 
 again the excuse he had given the husband. The situa 
 tion was horribly false. He felt guilty and humiliated. 
 
 " Coming over later, Rudy ? " said Irma, stepping 
 into the motor and installing Mon Amour. 
 
 " Later, yes." 
 
 " Do. It s going to be quite exciting and luncheon 
 will be lots of fun. Every one will be there." 
 
 Mr. Dellabarre was .still standing at attention as 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 279 
 
 the car swung into the drive. They were silent, each 
 under the echo of the parting. 
 
 " He is in a terrible state," she murmured, looking 
 away. They passed the gate-keeper and swung out 
 on to the main road. She leaned back and drew a long 
 breath of relief, passing her hand over her eyes. 
 
 " Good God, what an existence ! " he thought. 
 
 The embarrassment of their mutual deception before 
 the husband was still upon him. Before his eyes rose 
 again the racked figure of Rudolph Dellabarre. How 
 long would he drag out this shattered existence, he 
 thought moodily. 
 
 " It may come all in a moment," he said to himself, 
 " and then it may drag on for years. You never can 
 tell. It J s awful to have such thoughts awful and 
 yet " He glanced at her, wondering if that sinister 
 possibility were back of the melancholy in her eyes. 
 
 " You have had a talk with Amy ? " she said, without 
 turning towards him. 
 
 " Yes, last night." 
 
 " I supposed so." 
 
 " It was painful, very," he said, frowning. 
 
 " I m sorry, Andrew." She laid her hand on his 
 arm. " You have so much to bear. I m sorry if I 
 have made it any worse." She hesitated a moment. 
 " Do you think it was wise to come for me like this ? " 
 
 " I had to see you." 
 
 " Yes ; but at the club you could have managed that. 
 Will she be there?" 
 
 " I don t know. She was n t down for breakfast," 
 he said gloomily. " Well I Ve told her all." 
 
 She looked so alarmed at this that he hastened to 
 add, " I said nothing about you." 
 
 "Are you sure?" 
 
28c VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " I refused to discuss you." Then he corrected him 
 self. Your name, of course, was mentioned, but I 
 said nothing about my feelings toward you. I did 
 say that if we were both free, I should consider it an 
 honor to have you for my wife. I said it to show the 
 respect I felt toward you," he added. 
 
 Yes, I see," she frowned and buried her lips in 
 the little nosegay of sweet peas which she, had in her 
 hand. " I think you had better tell me all. Of course 
 she did not believe that I met you by accident." 
 
 " No, of course not." 
 
 " Did you did you admit that ? " 
 
 " I refused to discuss you in any way." 
 
 She nodded in approval. 
 
 " What a pity ! " she said, turning to him with sad 
 ness in her eyes. " Why could n t they leave us alone ? 
 Why spoil something that was so genuine, so real? 
 But that s the trouble, Andrew. Now it will be so 
 different." 
 
 He drew a long breath, and the fighting look, which 
 was characteristic of him when he was crossed, set 
 over his lips and his forehead. 
 
 " No, it won t," he said doggedly. " We have done 
 nothing wrong. It is our own affair." 
 
 " How little you know," she said with a sigh. 
 
 " I think the situation is clearer than you think," 
 he said slowly. " Shall I tell Bingham to take the long 
 way round ? " 
 
 " No, no, I would n t do that," she said hastily. " It 
 is rather conspicuous as it is, our coming up like this." 
 
 " I m sorry," he said gloomily. 
 
 " I don t blame you, Andrew," she said gently. 
 " Now tell me quickly." 
 
 When he had finished the details of his interview 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 281 
 
 with Amy, there were tears in her eyes, and she looked 
 away that he might not perceive them. 
 
 " Yes, it was hard," he consented. " I did n t get 
 much sleep last night. It s always hard when you 
 come to a parting of the ways. And yet, now, frankly, 
 it is a relief. It was all false, our pretending toward 
 each other. For, Irma, don t make any mistake. Amy 
 does n t love me she has n t for a long while." 
 
 " I don t know," she said, shaking her head. " I 
 wonder." 
 
 " I have no hard feelings toward her now," he 
 said slowly. " I ve been responsible for much. At 
 the bottom, of course, we should never have married, 
 that s the plain fact. All other explanations are be 
 side the point. I have left the matter in her hands." 
 He stopped and then added significantly, " I think I 
 know what she will do." 
 
 " You are quite sure that this will mean nothing to 
 you ? " she said, resting her glance on him a moment. 
 
 " It may mean everything to me," he said directly. 
 " You must understand, of course, what I mean." 
 
 She nodded and looked away. 
 
 You are fortunate." 
 
 "I?" he said, startled. 
 
 You have no children," she said sadly. " Children 
 complicate everything! " 
 
 " Good heavens, Irma," he exclaimed, " you are 
 the one I marvel at how can you go on? " 
 
 " And yet I do." 
 
 " But why why? " he cried. " Every one knows 
 the situation. No one would blame you." He checked 
 himself. " I won t talk of that to-day your side of 
 it but you must have considered possibilities." 
 
 " Considered! Of course, of course! " 
 
282 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 In the distance he saw the lazy pennants of the 
 Yacht Club and the thronged piazzas. 
 
 " Some time we will talk the future over hon 
 estly, without fear, not now," he said hurriedly. 
 " There s a big life ahead for both of us." 
 
 She did not answer. Her head bent, her glance 
 deep in the multicolored bouquet of sweet peas. 
 
 " You understand," he said gently. He laid his 
 hand over hers. His touch had always a magnetic 
 power over her. She looked up at him, a smile on her 
 lips, sadness in her eyes. 
 
 " What a pity, Andrew ! " she said, shaking her 
 head. " If I thought you could be happy with her, I 
 would sacrifice myself oh, yes, a hundred times 
 over." 
 
 ".No, no, not you wait, wait a little longer," he 
 said huskily, and his hand closed over hers in a sudden 
 tension which woke up Mon Amour and sent him into 
 a furious yapping. 
 
VI 
 
 A MY FORRESTER was already in the white 
 * * throng which crowded the veranda and streamed 
 over the green lawns. She came up bravely to meet 
 them, waving her handkerchief. 
 
 " Good gracious, what lazy people ! Really, Irma, 
 if you run away with my husband like that, I shall be 
 getting jealous," she exclaimed loud enough for sev 
 eral persons to hear. 
 
 "Is she going to fight for him?" thought Irma, 
 while Andrew was divided between irritation at an 
 attitude which he knew to be false and admiration for 
 the gameness with which she bore it. 
 
 " Well, she stands up to the guns," he thought grate 
 fully. Under the merciful shade of the lace sun hat 
 she wore, he detected the shadows of a sleepless night. 
 Unaccustomed to the manners of society, to its stoic 
 etiquette and its hidden sorrows, its ambuscades, its 
 treacheries and its smiling hatreds, it shocked him 
 profoundly to see the two women join arms and move 
 into the crowd. He followed more slowly, revolting 
 at the comedy he saw they would be forced to play. 
 
 " Is there an interesting match on ? " said Irma 
 mechanically. 
 
 Yes, indeed, Tody and Jap are playing against the 
 Bartons, one set all," she answered. The pressure of 
 Irma s arm burned her. Yet, determined on her role, 
 she said with calculated lightness, " Why all this mys- 
 
284 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 tery, dear? Only too delighted if you 11 wake Andrew 
 up a bit. It s just what he needs ! " 
 
 Despite the nonchalance of her words, her eyes 
 fastened eagerly on Irma, seeking to learn from her 
 expression the true state of affairs. All night long, in 
 wakeful turning hours, she had asked herself how far 
 it had gone ? What was she capable of ? Was it pos 
 sible that Irma herself cared ; and if she did, what then ? 
 
 " Of course you 11 think I m fibbing," said Irma 
 pleasantly, " but it really was an accidental meeting." 
 
 " And his going for you this morning was too, I 
 suppose ? " said Amy quietly. " Oh, Irma, Irma, at 
 least play the game." 
 
 " What was I thinking of to come here with him? " 
 thought Irma uneasily. The ring of emotion in Amy s 
 voice made her wonder how far she could trust to the 
 other s breeding some women would make a nasty 
 scene. 
 
 "Where is Monte this morning?" she said 
 pleasantly. 
 
 " It is serious. He has told her everything," Amy 
 thought instantly. They were by the tennis courts, 
 picking their way through the crowd on the lawn to 
 their seats, which Gladys Challoner was holding for 
 them. Above, on the elevated stand, Monte Bracken 
 was refereeing the match. He looked up, startled, at 
 their arrival, and then ceremoniously lifted his hat in 
 response to Irma s fluttered waving. 
 
 " There," said Amy to herself, studying the faces 
 which turned curiously toward them, " if any one has 
 seen them together, he 11 know now how perfectly in 
 different I am to what they do." 
 
 She did not see clearly what was happening on the 
 courts. Tody and Jap were bounding about, indulg- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 285 
 
 ing in antics which set the crowd in roars of laughter. 
 She saw only the faces of Irma and Andrew at her 
 side and at times, far off as in a mist, the glance of 
 Monte Bracken turning toward her. When the match 
 ended and the crowd rose to return to the veranda, 
 Kitty Lightbody, jubilant at the victory of the boys, 
 came up rapturously. 
 
 " Was n t it grand, my dear ; was n t Tody just 
 splendid? I won a hundred on them, bless them!" 
 She drew Amy aside and whispered, " Well, you might 
 thank me! " 
 
 "Thank you? What do you mean?" said Amy. 
 She was watching Irma. 
 
 " For leaving you alone with Monte, of course," 
 said Kitty, astonished. 
 
 Amy was so irritated at this unwelcome reminder 
 that she lost her temper. 
 
 " Kitty, don t be a fool ! You know perfectly well 
 that I m exceedingly annoyed at what you did." 
 
 " Annoyed ! " said Kitty, so startled that the china 
 eyes rolled comically. 
 
 " Certainly annoyed. You made a very embarrass 
 ing situation for me. The last thing I wanted was 
 to go home alone with Monte Bracken. I don t see 
 how you could have been so thoughtless." 
 
 " But, my Lord, you need n t be so fierce ! You 
 were n t really alone," said Kitty indignantly. " And 
 say, look here, who wanted to get rid of Tody in the 
 first place?" 
 
 Amy was aghast. She had blundered again. 
 
 " I m sure I did n t mean to be cross," she said 
 hastily. " Forgive me, but I particularly don t want 
 to be talked about, as you ought to know." 
 
 She left Kitty Lightbody, still murmuring in her 
 
286 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 astonishment, and went in quest of the others. She 
 had already forgotten her, her mind intent on surpris 
 ing the two in some revealing moment. Bracken was 
 talking to Irma. During the morning he had studi 
 ously avoided Amy, divining the irritation his presence 
 might bring. She came up restlessly. 
 
 " Monte, you lunch with us get a table for four! " 
 she said, determined to carry out her part to the end. 
 
 " And Kitty and the others ? " he said, seeking a 
 way out from this tragic intimacy. 
 
 " Oh, they 11 manage for themselves ! " 
 
 He started to object, saw how agitated she was, 
 and finally bowed acquiescence. " Yes, very glad to." 
 
 She would have liked to have carried Monte away 
 from Irma, but for fear of showing too much eager 
 ness she left them and went up herself to select a 
 table. 
 
 Andrew was standing on the steps talking to Mr. 
 Gunther and a group of the older men, who were listen 
 ing to his exposition of Mexican affairs. 
 
 " He looks his best in flannels," she thought from 
 habit. He looked particularly well to-day, holding 
 himself well, speaking with authority among men 
 he was some one. She started to join them, but the 
 thought that she would be welcomed as his wife 
 stopped her. She turned back, forgetting her errand 
 and returned to Irma. 
 
 Lunch was a torture. The two men sat gloomily 
 listening to the chatter of the women who faced each 
 other across the shining cloth, smiled, fenced and 
 acted for their benefit, with unnatural gaiety. Amy 
 suffered profoundly, more profoundly than she had 
 ever remembered, yet she consoled herself with the 
 thought that she was inflicting a greater humiliation. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 287 
 
 She had but one idea to keep them constantly under 
 her supervision. It was a martyrdom she imposed 
 on herself. So determined was she to carry it through 
 to the last drop of bitterness that with the end of the 
 afternoon she called Bracken to her. 
 
 " I have something to ask of you/ she began 
 " something disagreeable." 
 
 " What is it? " he said, watching her anxiously. 
 
 " I want you to go back with me in the car." 
 
 "With with them?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Good heavens, Amy," he exclaimed in revolt, 
 " you can t do that flesh and blood won t stand it ! " 
 
 " Yes, I can. I ve made up my mind to. I m going 
 to carry it through to-day, through to the bitter end! " 
 she said in a lifeless voice. " She shall enjoy what 
 she s done. After to-day, I don t care what they do 
 but to-day I have a right to punish her ! " 
 
 " Amy," he said earnestly, " I beg you not to do 
 that-" 
 
 " And I am going to. Will you come ? " 
 
 " It s not an easy thing you ask of me," he said 
 abruptly. 
 
 " I know will you come ? " 
 
 " If you insist yes," he said after a moment. 
 
 But this last torture was spared them. Rudolph 
 Dellabarre arrived in his motor skiff and Irma, seizing 
 the providential way out, announced that she would 
 return with her husband. 
 
 From the veranda Amy and Monte Bracken 
 watched the little cockleshell of a racer go shooting 
 out around the pier, Dellabarre at the wheel, Irma 
 standing well up forward, looking away from them. 
 
 " I wish she d drown! " she said to herself bitterly, 
 
288 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 seeing nothing but the slender figure against the sheen 
 of water. 
 
 " Better go back in a party all of us," said Monte 
 Bracken at her elbow. They were a little apart from 
 the crowd which was breaking up, automobiles depart 
 ing, motor boats streaking over the bay. 
 
 " Yes, I suppose," she said wearily. 
 
 " You are very tired." 
 
 " Very." 
 
 " Listen, Amy," he said suddenly, carried away by 
 the pain of seeing her suffering. " I m going to say 
 something to you, and I don t want you to answer me. 
 I want you to hear it, that s all. Don t turn around, 
 but listen. It s a tough moment for you, God knows. 
 I understand more than you think. The whole world s 
 breaking up. Now, I want you to have something to 
 cling to. I want you to know where I stand. Per 
 haps I should n t say this now. It s a horrible thing 
 to say such things. But I feel you need to know one 
 thing. Whatever turns up, count on me. No, don t 
 say anything that would spoil it. If you need me 
 when you need me I am ready, that s all." 
 
 She did not answer, nor did her glance leave the 
 motor boat which had now dwindled into a speck. At 
 most her lips tightened a little, and a breath went 
 through her body. 
 
 " Do you understand? " he asked, touching her arm. 
 Despite all he had announced, he watched her, hoping 
 for a sign. He repeated. " Do you understand, 
 Amy?" 
 
 She nodded, a faint, almost imperceptible nod. She 
 did not speak. She did not look at him, her glance 
 still out among the waters of the bay at a shadow that 
 fled. 
 
VII 
 
 THE next weeks passed on the edge of a volcano. 
 Andrew came and went. Outwardly there was no 
 sign of anything changed between them. The house 
 was always full of gaiety, and the occasions when they 
 were left alone were rare. At times, by accident, they 
 met, and each time in his eyes was the same waiting 
 question : 
 
 " What are you going to do about it ? " 
 This constant intimacy, this estrangement in the 
 crowd, was hard enough ; but what was worse were the 
 days when he was in New York, when at the last mo 
 ment came a telephone that he would not return for the 
 night. What did he do in the city? Was he seeing 
 her? Her pride forbade her to inquire directly, but 
 by a dozen subterfuges, through Kitty or the boys, she 
 followed the movements of Irma Dellabarre. From 
 the evening on the veranda of the yacht club, when he 
 had declared himself, Monte Bracken had studiously 
 avoided seeking her. When she saw him at a dinner, 
 on the bathing beach or at a dance, he came up to her 
 immediately, and in his eyes, which questioned her 
 steadily, she read the same question : 
 " What are you going to do about it ? " 
 She held them from her, these two men, and exam 
 ined them calmly, without prejudice; for it seemed to 
 her that she was playing with life and death, and that 
 in her hands were the destinies of both. Monte 
 Bracken appealed to all the fallow sources of sentiment 
 
2 9 o VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 in her. With him, every instinct of enjoyment awoke. 
 She felt his understanding, his complete sympathy, the 
 comradeship of every desire and every impulse. She 
 said to herself that she did not yet love him, but im 
 mediately she admitted that to do so would be the easi 
 est thing in the world, and to love him meant all the 
 romance of youth that had escaped her. 
 
 Her husband she saw clearly for the first time. From 
 the beginning she had had no feeling of resentment 
 toward him. A great feeling of pity moved her. She 
 wished to protect him against himself. How could he 
 be so blind ? Yes, she had failed, failed utterly in her 
 relations toward him. The crisis at which she stood 
 was too great for her to deceive herself about that. 
 She had meant nothing to him and he deserved so 
 much ! He was fine all the way through. He had not 
 even reproached her, when he had every right. But 
 Irma how could she surrender him to Irma ? Irma, 
 of all women Irma, who was only playing with sen 
 sations, who dramatized herself, who had no pro- 
 founder instincts than the staging of her coquetries. 
 What had infatuated him? What could he see in 
 Irma, who saw her so clearly ? The best thing perhaps 
 would be to hold on for a while until the veil had 
 lifted ; then if he wanted a divorce and the opportunity 
 to find some woman who would give him a true home, 
 she would do so gladly, with only the kindest of feel 
 ings. But when she came to this inevitable conclusion 
 of her problem, her head burned and her eyes were wet 
 with tears. 
 
 " I don t love him ! I wanted to love him, but I 
 can t I can t!" she assured herself. "We can t 
 make ourselves do that? But I respect him and I ad 
 mire him yes, even more than Monte. I don t want 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 291 
 
 any more unhappiness to come to him. Oh, if I could 
 only see him happy I should not feel this terrible 
 remorse ! " 
 
 The only one being she did not understand was her 
 self. Why this hideous thing had come to her she 
 could not comprehend. The idea of divorce frightened 
 her, like all the unknown steps in life. Her standards, 
 her judgments, her prejudices, were a sample of the 
 collective opinions of those who surrounded her. What 
 would be their attitude toward her? Would she have 
 to go abroad and live in some mingled ostracism of 
 Europe ? She searched among her acquaintances, and 
 when she found some one who had been divorced she 
 hastened to invite them to dinner, watching them with 
 the curiosity of a child, trying to divine whether at 
 bottom they were really happy if they suffered from 
 the feeling of the world s criticism. 
 
 The evil shadow in all her struggles toward an hon 
 est recognition of her duty was the thought of Irma 
 Dellabarre. Irma had taken her revenge; Irma was 
 the element that aroused all the worst in her, Irma, 
 who stood as her rival, not only in the present of An 
 drew, but in the past of Monte Bracken. 
 
 She had tried to put Monte out of her thoughts. 
 She was afraid of him ; not of his brilliant side the 
 mind that awoke her mind, the dramatic touch about 
 him which captured her imagination but the gentler 
 side, the exquisite deference toward her, his tact, his 
 patience, and the longing in his eyes to hold forth his 
 hand, the deeper side of the man which she had 
 reached; the Bracken who, since the night of their 
 return over starlit waters, she knew loved her. In the 
 end she yielded to the need of knowing him at hand. 
 When he was in the room she had a sensation of elec- 
 
292 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 trie strength to which she went avidly in the utter weak 
 ness of the loneliness in which she wandered. Every 
 day, somehow or other, she managed to see him, but 
 always in the presence of others, and at times when 
 she thought no one was watching, her eyes fastened 
 themselves on him his destiny, his happiness, too, 
 lay in her hands. 
 
 And then, abruptly, without prearrangement, a week 
 when Andrew had been called West, the solution pre 
 cipitated itself. 
 
 It had been a dry day in July, but towar.d the evening 
 a little breeze had set the bay to rippling and the 
 evening had been delicious. They had gone for a sail 
 in Bracken s racing sloop, the Water Sprite, a marvel 
 of light grace and speed, which he was preparing for 
 the races at the end of the month. From the glowing 
 decks Kitty and Amy, stretched in an ecstasy of lan 
 guor, dozed in feline daydreams. Above them, the 
 white spread of sails flattened against the brittle blue 
 sky. Across the wrinkled waters, moving like a fairy 
 wraith, Challoner s rival yacht, the White Streak, 
 slipped easily at their side, with Gladys and Irma loung 
 ing at the bow. Between the two men an intense rivalry 
 existed, which the fleeing boats seemed to comprehend 
 in the swift coquetry of their agile manoeuvring, the 
 sweeping descent on each other for an attempted blank 
 eting, the challenge of the right of way which brought 
 them from time to time in perilous proximity, only to 
 glide easily away under a swerving tack. 
 
 From where she lay under the creaking boom that 
 passed and repassed in the light breeze with the ease of 
 a swallow s darting, Amy Forrester, through half- 
 closed eyes, watched Monte Bracken. He was bare- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 293 
 
 headed, the dark hair a little loose about the temples, 
 the tanned throat and arms revealed in the creamy 
 shirt, a pipe in his mouth, his body balanced against 
 the slight tilting of the deck, where below, a beaded 
 edge of watery lace curled on the flurried blue. From 
 time to time he gave a staccato order to a sailor at the 
 ropes, studying the set of the topsails or watching with 
 appraising eyes the answering challenge of the White 
 Streak, jibing, tacking, flinging out a great, lazy bal 
 loon sail, testing the qualities of his adversary. Yet 
 in all this solicitude of the master, occasionally his 
 glance came back to her, rested a moment on her half- 
 veiled eyes, lit up with a smile, passed and returned 
 again. 
 
 Life with him would be very like this gliding ease, 
 she thought, pleasant and drawn on languid breezes. 
 When Andrew was away and she was no longer racked 
 by the thought of imagined meetings with Irma Della- 
 barre, she yielded to the charm of this personality, and 
 there were moments, as in this glory of the rosy set 
 ting of an untroubled day, when she felt in the momen 
 tary meeting of their glances depths of feeling which 
 surprised her. Life would be pleasant with Monte 
 Bracken even now she could not think of it without 
 him, without a feeling of rebellion. To-day there was 
 a new longing in her, a longing that came to her, dis 
 turbing and delightful, a thrilling impatience against 
 the very reserve and deference which he held toward 
 her with such fine courtesy a reticence she did not 
 feel always in his glance. 
 
 Something new, something that she had never 
 known, stirred in her as the gossamer sails stirred and 
 swelled above her against the blue deep. 
 
 With a waving of scarfs, the White Streak gave 
 
294 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 way and sped toward the Dellabarre anchorage up the 
 bay. They took in their balloon jib, tacked and made 
 the dock. 
 
 " Lordy, I love sailing when it s like that ! " said 
 Kitty, jumping up with a sigh of regret. " I say, 
 Monte, I m dying to make some money. What do 
 you think can I back you against the White 
 Streak? " 
 
 11 Backing myself pretty heavy, Kitty," he said con 
 fidently. In their necessity of an amiable third, he had 
 come to almost a liking of Kitty Lightbody. 
 
 " Then I 11 take up Gladys at evens! " 
 
 " What are you doing to-night ? " said Amy, in a 
 low voice, when Kitty had been propelled to the wharf. 
 
 " I had promised to rush over to Claire s." 
 
 " Come to dinner instead," she said impulsively. 
 " To-night I feel I need you around." 
 
 " You want me ? " he said, looking into her eyes 
 eagerly. 
 
 " Please will you come ? " 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 The supper was on the piazza, by the light of candles. 
 They had not much to say, speaking in perfunctory sen 
 tences, content to let Kitty Lightbody babble on. Tody 
 and Jap, who were due for the week-end, had tele 
 phoned that they would be down after dinner. At 
 nine Kitty went off to the station to meet the train, 
 leaving them on the covered porch with its far shore 
 lights and the lapping of waters below. The butler 
 returned to clear the table, and in his presence the 
 unease they felt became unbearable. 
 
 " I say, suppose we get a bit of air while Gregory 
 tidies up," he said, rising. Gregory was almost the 
 eye of the husband. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 295 
 
 " It s stuffy here," she assented. They passed 
 across the lawn to the edge of the breakwater. The tide 
 was low, and below the pebbles shone in the obscurity. 
 Occasionally a wisp of air, damp from the bay, struck 
 across her face like a moist cobweb. 
 
 " It was selfish of me to ask you to break your en 
 gagement," she began slowly. 
 
 They stood apart consciously. 
 
 " No, it was not that." 
 
 " It was so quiet this afternoon out there. You 
 understand things so well, Monte. It s good just to 
 have you around." 
 
 She said it without emotion a child afraid of 
 loneliness. 
 
 " Thank you." 
 
 His quiet acceptance reassured her. She could in 
 dulge herself. With him she was sure to be under 
 stood, sure of his patience and his unquestioning loy 
 alty. She looked down at the beach, seized with an 
 impulse to go skipping along the flat rocks like a 
 child. 
 
 " Come on ! " she cried, and made for the steep steps. 
 
 " Be careful, Amy, it s slippery ! " he cried anxiously 
 from above her. 
 
 " Oh, I never fall," she said recklessly, but at that 
 moment, in the darkness, a stone turned under her and 
 she gave a cry. 
 
 " You see ! " he said, catching her arm. 
 
 " Then give me your hand." 
 
 His hand closed over the one she held to him, as she 
 balanced on a ledge. She went several steps and then 
 stopped. 
 
 " No, I Ve had enough of that," she said in a differ 
 ent voice. 
 
296 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 She tried to draw her hand from his, but he held it 
 firmly. 
 
 " Monte ! " she said hurriedly. " Monte, don t do 
 that!" 
 
 " I beg your pardon," he said, releasing her instantly. 
 
 Free, she had a feeling of terror. Her heart was 
 beating so that she thought he must hear it. 
 
 " I don t like it here let s go back." 
 
 " As you wish." 
 
 In her hurry to avoid the touch of his hand again, 
 she sprang ahead and up the steps to the embankment, 
 but at the top her scarf became caught in a ledge of 
 rock, and before she could release herself he was at her 
 side. 
 
 " I m caught, I can t see how ! " she said, her heart 
 fluttering. 
 
 " Let me try." 
 
 He bent over so close that she felt a suffocation in 
 her throat, a giddiness in her head. 
 
 " There ! " he said at last, straightening up. 
 
 She whirled, but the motion was again an unfortu 
 nate one, for it sent her scarf flying about him, where 
 it caught on a button of his coat. The next moment 
 she heard, as in the distance, her name called once, 
 twice and then everything went tumbling around 
 her. She was in his arms, powerless to move. A feel 
 ing of terror and of joy swept over her. His eyes were 
 looking down into hers, coming closer and closer. She 
 could not cry out. She could not struggle. She felt 
 a sudden pain across her heart, her eyes closed. It 
 had come an accident had decided for her. And 
 then he kissed her. 
 
 That wild unleashed kiss burned her lips and cut 
 across her soul like the sting of a lash. Something 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 297 
 
 primevally rebellious rose up. Her brain cleared. She 
 flung back her head. Her arm struck violently against 
 his lips. 
 
 "Let me go!" 
 
 No longer helpless, but strong with the strength of 
 anger, she wrenched herself free and stood from him, 
 trembling in every limb. 
 
 " How could you oh, how could you ! " 
 
 She tried to speak she tried to voice the scorn 
 that rose unreasoningly against him. Words choked 
 in her throat. This had been no kiss such as Tody 
 Dawson had stolen. During the one instant of giddi 
 ness she had lain in his arms, seeing and hearing noth 
 ing, she had been under the absolute mastery of his 
 will, dominated and crushed. 
 
 " Why, Amy ! " he began in wonder, and in the dark 
 ness she felt his hands coming toward her. 
 
 " Don t touch me ! " she cried furiously, striking 
 his hand away. " Don t you dare ! " 
 
 "Amy!" " 
 
 " Oh, what a brute you ve been ! " she cried hysteri 
 cally. " You, whom I trusted you! And this is the 
 way you protect me the way you respect me ! " 
 
 " Good God ! " he cried in amazed protest. " But 
 I love you ! " 
 
 " Love ? No ! That s not love ! You ve made me 
 despise you despise myself ! " 
 
 " Wait ! " he said hurriedly. " You don t know what 
 you re saying you can t, it s impossible! " 
 
 " Impossible ? I ve never been so humiliated so 
 hurt and by you! Oh, to think that this could hap 
 pen to me ! " All at once she gave way and fell back 
 against the wall, shaken by sobs. He stood stern and 
 silent, without attempt to justify himself, waiting. 
 
298 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Are you yourself now ? " he said, when at length 
 she had grown quiet. " Are you calm enough to 
 listen?" 
 
 " I am," she said coldly. Of course, now he would 
 seek to justify himself, to entreat her pardon. 
 
 " You said," he began slowly " you said you de 
 spised me." He waited. 
 
 " Do you mean what you have just said ? " he asked, 
 in a tone which should have warned her. 
 
 "I do exactly as I have said it ! " she cried. At 
 the moment her only thought was to humble him as he 
 had humbled her before his sudden strength. 
 
 " By heavens ! " he said with a flash of anger. " I 
 beg your pardon I guess, I see well there s only 
 one thing to do. I 11 rid you of my presence and at 
 once." 
 
 " I am glad you can at least perceive that ! " 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Forrester," he said, wheeling around 
 as though he had received a blow, " I think you don t 
 quite understand my reasons." 
 
 " There s no use in trying to justify " she started 
 precipitately to say. 
 
 "Justify? Hardly," he cut in. "You seem to 
 quite misunderstand the situation. I have not the 
 slightest intention now or at any time of excusing my 
 self for having, in a moment beyond the control of any 
 man who loves, lost my head in a perfectly human 
 way." 
 
 " It is useless," she cried loudly, to still the feeling 
 of uneasiness which was creeping over her. There 
 is no excuse, none! " 
 
 " I m sorry," he said in a low voice. " I had another 
 ideal of you. I did n t think you were like the other 
 crowd. I thought there was something genuine in you 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 299 
 
 something that would mean something to some 
 man." 
 
 " You have no right to " 
 
 " Oh, yes I have. I have the right to say this, for 
 I have protected you in trying moments. In the mo 
 ment of your trouble I offered you everything my 
 self, my name, only after you gave me clearly to under 
 stand that you and your husband were on the verge of 
 separation. That is something for a man to offer - 
 to put at your feet, without demanding an answer. If 
 I have made a mistake, you have led me to it ; you have 
 tried me beyond what a woman has the right to try 
 a man. But understand this : when I offered you what 
 I did I did it in the belief that your feeling was not 
 simply one of calculation, but that your heart was in 
 it and that you had a heart ! " 
 
 " Monte, don t ! " she cried, recoiling and covering 
 her face. She had never been able to see herself, nor 
 to comprehend her own motives, and when some one 
 laid them before her without mercy, she was always 
 shocked. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, I did n t mean I should have 
 gone without saying such things but it s been 
 well, rather a shock!" He laughed, and said with 
 forced gentleness, " The trouble is, Amy, you really 
 are like the others Irma and Gladys and the rest. 
 You want to play with something you don t understand, 
 something you don t need in your life. You re willing 
 to take everything from a man and give nothing. You 
 can t understand what you do, because you can t feel 
 yourself. Well, to me that s more immoral than the 
 woman who sacrifices everything because she does 
 love. Possibly I am wrong in that opinion, but I hold 
 it." He drew a long breath, and when he continued, 
 
300 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 his voice was even again. " You see, I am not a mani 
 kin. I am not a Tody Dawson. No, I can t make any 
 excuses. If I lost my head to-night, honestly, blindly, 
 like a human being, I had every right to do so. A 
 woman who really loves does n t act as you do and 
 if you don t love me and were only playing with my 
 life like that, then Amy He stopped, checked the 
 hot words on his tongue, shuddered and said, " I 
 must n t say any more, it s dangerous. Well, I think 
 I understand now. Good-by." 
 
 What ! He was going he was leaving her, when 
 every word he had said had convinced her ? Her head 
 turned, she felt herself reeling. She stretched out her 
 hand. 
 
 "Monte!" 
 
 He was already up the path, swinging rapidly with 
 great strides. 
 
 " Monte, don t go like this Monte, listen to me ! 
 Monte!" 
 
 She ran after him a few steps, faltered, and suddenly 
 her knees bent beneath her. Then she was alone, hud 
 dled against the side of the veranda, helpless and weak. 
 In the distance the sound of his retreating steps ceased 
 on the gravel path. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE day of the yacht races a storm came up un 
 expectedly and by ten o clock a nasty sea was on, 
 with the wind still freshening. Several skippers, after 
 a searching of the sky and a contemplation of the 
 churning course, prudently withdrew. By the pier, a 
 group in yellow slickers was discussing the prospect, 
 a large element arguing for a postponement. Chal- 
 loner and Bracken, however, having declared their in 
 tention to attempt the course, race or no race, an an 
 nouncement was made that the test would be held. Of 
 twenty-one boats entered, only five decided to stay, 
 and in the sheltered waters the crews set to work on 
 the busy preparations. 
 
 " Well, Jack," said Monte Bracken, as they went 
 down to the landing wharf together, " this is the kind 
 of weather that 11 show em up." 
 
 " It certainly will," said Challoner grimly. " Bet 
 stands?" 
 
 " A thousand ; yes," said Bracken carelessly. " But 
 winner to finish the course." 
 
 " Understood ! Want to take another five hundred 
 my tub comes in and yours does n t? " 
 
 " Why, yes, Jack, that s a good bet." 
 
 A little flurry of rain came across the troubled water 
 of the anchorage, flinging sharp pellets into his eyes. 
 He pulled down the brim of his slicker, shouted an 
 order to the crew, and went back toward the clubhouse 
 on a restless impulse which he did not acknowledge 
 
302 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 to himself. Under the porch the spectators had gath 
 ered, the women in great coats and ulsters, the veils 
 whipping to and fro about their shoulders. He saw 
 his brother and Claire, who came hurriedly out of the 
 crowd. 
 
 " Is it a race?" 
 
 " Sure it s a race," he said cheerfully. 
 
 " What the devil are they thinking of ? " said Allan, 
 with an oath under his breath. " Monte, you re not 
 going to be fool enough to try it? " 
 
 " My dear Allan, that s just what you can always 
 count on my being," he said with a grin. " Want to 
 come ? " 
 
 " Thanks, no I prefer to stay behind and inherit 
 your property." 
 
 " You 11 have a chance," he said instantly. " Well, 
 the Water Sprite has n t a show, but it 11 be good 
 sport. You see, there s a bet up," he added, lowering 
 his voice, " and I m not the one to drop out with the 
 odds against me." 
 
 "Do be careful, Monte!" said Claire. She had 
 been standing silently until now. 
 
 " Careful ? " said Allan. " He s just as apt to get 
 out under full sail with a spinnaker set." 
 
 " Well, no, hardly that," said Bracken, with a glance 
 at the bay, where the blue waves with foaming crests 
 were storming from the northeast like gallant battal 
 ions surging to the attack. 
 
 " Do be careful ! " said Claire Bracken. 
 
 There s not as much danger as that," he said 
 cheerily. He glanced up the piazza and added, " Tell 
 Kitty she d better hedge ; the White Streak is the boat 
 in a wind like this." 
 
 He went into the locker room, taking the long way 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 303 
 
 around, his eyes eagerly on the crowd. Irma and 
 Gladys were there, but Amy Forrester had not yet 
 arrived. Since the night by the breakwater, he had 
 fought desperately to put her from his mind. He 
 had told himself that the break was final, that after 
 the words he had pronounced, no further intercourse 
 was possible. He had not spared her in his mind. He 
 had assured himself again and again that it was for 
 tunate that he had found her out in time, while yet 
 he could withdraw from the chasm of servitude which 
 opened at his feet. She was like the others he had 
 known, those virtuous wives, without constancy or 
 depth, to whom the passions they inspired were but a 
 pastime and a variety. He had believed her different. 
 She was not; the same light emotions sufficed, the 
 same dread of appearances bound her. He had never 
 sought an intrigue, but a love which would give pur 
 pose to his life. He had deceived himself as he always 
 deceived himself. But when he had heaped up all 
 these reproaches against her, when cruelly and bitterly 
 he had shown himself that she was only inconsequent, 
 light, and a creature of style and fashions, there still 
 remained one thing he could not destroy the charm 
 that her memory exercised irresistibly over his imag 
 ination. When she was absent, the sun was out of 
 the day and the world a vast and desert place. 
 
 " Why the deuce have I got to come up here just 
 to get a glimpse of her," he said to himself angrily, 
 " for that s what I m doing, damn it I might as 
 well acknowledge it ! " 
 
 He returned through the crowd, still seeking the 
 light and graceful figure which was the thrill of the 
 day to his eyes, and went down to the wharf, where 
 the crew was waiting for him impatiently. 
 
304 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Five minutes to the first gun, sir," said Oscar, 
 his sailor. 
 
 " That s enough." 
 
 He stepped into the dory and passed on to the deck 
 of the Water Sprite, which was tugging at her hawser 
 like a restless racer. He took the wheel, and the boat, 
 released from its mooring, shot across the waves. At 
 this moment he looked up and saw the Forrester car 
 turning into the club grounds. 
 
 " She has come ! " he thought joyfully. " She could 
 not stay away ! " 
 
 " Don t know whether she 11 stand so much sail, 
 sir/ said the sailor, with a glance up at the mast. 
 
 " Don t think so either, Oscar," he said, " but one 
 thing s certain : if she can t, we have n t a ghost of a 
 chance of winning this race, have we? " 
 
 "Well, damn it, but there are other races!" said 
 Oscar, mumbling to himself. 
 
 "Don t worry!" he said joyfully. "I ll get you 
 back. What s the time?" 
 
 " Twenty seconds more, sir." 
 
 " We 11 tack, then." He shouted out his orders, the 
 zest of the struggle sending the fighting blood pulsing 
 through his veins. If the mast would hold, he d make 
 a bid for it now that he knew she was there watch 
 ing. She too had suffered, for in the end she had not 
 been able to stay away. 
 
 Amy Forrester, in fact, had had no intention of 
 coming. Pretexting an indisposition, she had kept to 
 the cottage for days. She knew that in the end she 
 must see him, and yet she recoiled from it. She had 
 waited, hoping that he would come, but as each day 
 succeeded she realized that the decision lay with her. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 305 
 
 "What is left for me to do?" she asked herself 
 again and again in the quiet of the waking, in the 
 hollow of the afternoon, in the long, tortured sleep 
 lessness of the night. If he had only stayed after his 
 outburst of indignation there in the dark garden by 
 the breakwater, there could have been but one answer. 
 But he had gone, and now it was not the question of a 
 dramatic impulse, but of deciding three lives coldly, 
 without emotion, after long consideration. That was 
 the difficult thing to make the decision herself and 
 not to have it made for her not to be able to yield 
 to forces of the moment which would sweep over her 
 emotions. 
 
 " What am I? What sort of a woman am I? " she 
 asked herself wearily, in the isolation she imposed on 
 herself. Never had she held the mirror to her soul 
 and looked into its clear verities. Now, there was no 
 escape; no subterfuge would suffice. She could not 
 shift the responsibility. The decision lay in her hands 
 alone. " If I see him again," she admitted to herself, 
 " I must go to him, I must leave my husband. It s 
 either that, or never to see him again ! " 
 
 Monte Bracken had told her the truth, as Andrew 
 in his chivalry had refused to tell her. She counted 
 for nothing in this world. She had only been playing 
 with forces she did not understand. It was all fright 
 fully immoral. She had seen it in Irma, in Gladys and 
 a hundred others the selfishness and the cruelty. 
 She had never seen it in herself. She had deluded 
 herself with sophistries. She had believed that she 
 sought only friendships and lulled her conscience with 
 the belief that she ought to exercise a good influence 
 in these intimacies. 
 
 Andrew was right, too, in what he had said and in 
 
3 o6 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 the things he had left unsaid. She had never counted 
 in his life. She had been disloyal. She had allowed 
 men to make love to her; more, she had sought that 
 tribute. She had wanted to be surrounded by flattery 
 and adulation. And the worst was, she had never 
 intended to give anything in return. She had cheated 
 always. The capturing of her prey had been sufficient 
 to her needs. She had adored it until suddenly she 
 had discovered that Andrew was doing the same thing. 
 Then she had been willing to stop, if only he would 
 stop! That, too, had been cheating, and all her re 
 proaches, likewise. 
 
 " Am I as bad as that ? What is wrong with me ? " 
 she asked herself. 
 
 Once she had the longing to rush over and lay her 
 confession before Claire Bracken Claire, with her 
 calm and peace of soul, who saw her without illusions 
 and without harshness. 
 
 " Ah, but I know what she 11 say to me," she 
 thought, "and I can t, I can t go on with Andrew ! It 
 isn t a question of duty of self-respect; it was a 
 blunder a blunder, when neither of us realized what 
 marriage meant. Besides, if I did wish to go on 
 it is too late. It would n t be fair to Andrew ! " 
 
 Yet she thought many times of what Claire had 
 said, seeking for some qualifying excuse. Why had 
 she been brought up to believe that she was a privileged 
 person ? Why had she been taught life was the pursuit 
 of pleasure? The harm had been done before she 
 had even married Andrew, in her debutante year, when 
 the wardrobe of a princess had been lavished on her, 
 when she had lived the disorganized life of a demi- 
 mondaine, when week in and week out she had burned 
 up the night until four, five and six o clock in the 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 307 
 
 morning, and that ceaseless, tumultuous cramming 
 into the first months of all the pleasures and surprises 
 that should be spread through life, had left in her the 
 fatal heritage of excitement, a craving to go on, the 
 horror of being alone. The pursuit of pleasure; that 
 was all she had been taught that was all she knew ! 
 
 At times when she saw her own figure clearly she 
 shuddered. What was she to do ? Be selfish, be weak, 
 hold to her respectability and Andrew? Suffer the 
 sting of humiliation and see Monte Bracken, with his 
 fine scorn, go out of her life ? Pick up the old threads, 
 play the old, inconsequential games again and again? 
 Find new admirers ? Be a little more clever in keeping 
 them outside the bars that would protect her timid 
 conscience? Or would she have the strength to set 
 Andrew free and marry Monte Bracken, defiant of 
 the world, but proud in her self-respect? 
 
 " But do I love him really love him, as real 
 women love? " she asked herself in the distress of her 
 mind. " Am I capable of loving any one? " 
 
 And there her debating with her conscience always 
 ended. 
 
 On the day of the race she had not yet found her 
 answer. Kitty and the boys, who were down for the 
 week-end, had gone over, leaving her to the solitude 
 of the house. Yet something Jap had said had re 
 mained in her memory. 
 
 " Holy cats, if they race in this gale, half of them 
 will go down ! " 
 
 " Race ? They won t race ! They are n t lunatics ! " 
 Tody had replied. 
 
 She knew enough of Monte s daring nature to know 
 that no risk would hold him. She went uneasily out 
 on to the little porch which gave from her bedroom. 
 
3 o8 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 The wind was howling around the corner, tearing the 
 flower bed with its raking fingers. Above, the swollen 
 clouds went bowling down the stormy heavens, and 
 across the bay white lashes fell upon the angry back 
 of the waters. It was n t possible that they would let 
 the race go on! And if they did? If Monte went out 
 in bitterness and despair ? 
 
 The thought struck her cold with fear. She dressed 
 frantically, and jumping into the car, hurried to the 
 clubhouse. She had hardly reached the crowd before 
 the starting gun boomed out. The next moment the 
 Water Sprite and the White Streak, gunwales awash 
 and skippers high in the sky, were sweeping over the 
 line. 
 
 Those who saw the race never forgot the suspense 
 of those short hours. It was a foolhardy thing to 
 attempt in the gale that was shaking the sky, and be 
 fore the first leg was run, all but Challoner and 
 Bracken had refused the risk and had come staggering 
 back to harbor. The wind was blowing in drumming 
 puffs, a gale from the northeast. The first leg was 
 a reach, close-hauled. From the clubhouse top, where 
 the crowd, braving the flurries of rain, was massed, 
 the two boats could be seen rushing over the crested 
 waves. At times in the hollow of a trough, one or 
 the other momentarily sank from sight, and each time 
 as the white sail climbed out and up, a sigh of relief 
 came from the crowd. 
 
 Amy stood without cover from the occasional 
 splashes of rain, encased only in a tarpaulin which 
 some one was it Tody, or was it Jap ? had thrown 
 about her. She needed no one to tell her of the game 
 with death which was -being played out there. The 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 309 
 
 quiet, the muttered solicitude of the crowd, the long, 
 unflagging tension, told her all. Monte was out there 
 in the agony of the storm. What had she been in his 
 going? 
 
 " Turning the first buoy now," said a low voice. 
 
 "Who s that around?" 
 
 " The White Streak no yes ! " said some one 
 with a telescope. 
 
 " Monte s around, too," said Allan Bracken with 
 a terribly calm voice. 
 
 " That s over one third s over ! " said Claire. 
 
 " One third s over," Amy found herself repeating. 
 She understood nothing of the comparative danger of 
 the different legs, but she could understand that one 
 third was over one third ! 
 
 She was standing between Claire Bracken and Irma 
 Dellabarre, drawn by a common feeling of impending 
 doom, the instinct of the animal when the breath of 
 death passes in the air. Their faces were white and 
 staring, too yet she was not conscious of them. 
 Once, at a cry from the crowd, she swerved against 
 Irma without noticing it. One thought obsessed her. 
 Could she control herself, even even if the horrible 
 thing should happen? Could she stand there, as she 
 must, without crying out and revealing all? She shut 
 her eyes. Why was not the second third over? Far 
 off, two white specks, like handkerchiefs, were dipping 
 in and out of the whipped sea, lost in a sheet of foam. 
 
 " Why don t they get nearer? " she said helplessly. 
 
 " Second leg, the tack takes longer," said Claire. 
 
 " It s the last, the run home is the worst," said 
 Allan under his breath. 
 
 " What do you mean? " she asked sharply, turning 
 to scan his face. 
 
310 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 The last is running before the wind," he explained 
 laboriously. " Danger is " 
 
 " Hello ! " some one shouted. " By George ! 
 Thought he was over that time ! " 
 
 " Danger is," continued Allan Bracken, " in possi 
 bility of jibing, and they re both carrying too much 
 sail " 
 
 " The Water Sprite s held her own this leg! " said 
 a voice. 
 
 " They 11 both make it on this tack." 
 
 "Wow! There she goes!" 
 
 "Who s around?" 
 
 " The Water Sprite, by Jove ! " 
 
 " Look at the wind grab her." 
 
 " Mast won t hold never in the world." 
 
 " The White Streak s around ! " 
 
 " She 11 pick up the distance now ! " 
 
 " Look at them come ! " 
 
 " Two thirds two thirds gone," said Claire ; then 
 to her husband, " Is this, the last leg, really the 
 worst?" 
 
 " Yes," he said shortly, " with Monte at the wheel ! " 
 
 Amy closed her eyes, afraid to look. A prayer 
 went up in her tortured mind. If only he would come 
 back safely only back to life again, she would go 
 to him openly. Anything rather than to have the 
 horror of remorse on her conscience ! " 
 
 " Topsail s gone torn to tatters ! " 
 
 "Whose?" 
 
 " Water Sprite." 
 
 From the bending peak the split sail streamed out in 
 white jets. The Water Sprite was carrying too much 
 sail, much too much sail for such a gale as this, but it 
 was her only chance to win, for the White Streak, 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 311 
 
 bigger and steadier, was running away from her. At 
 times the booms went soaring into the air, threatening 
 to jack-knife, and each time an involuntary cry went 
 up from the waiting spectators. Amy stood, eyes shut, 
 unable to face the suspense of the awful last moments, 
 feeling the perilous approach from the excitement 
 about her and the voluble comments. 
 
 " What the deuce is Monte standing in for like 
 that?" 
 
 " He s pulling up." 
 
 " Sure, but he can t make the mark without going 
 around, and then where 11 he be? " 
 
 " That s true, but he s figuring on some time 
 allowance." 
 
 " Even then, the White Streak will be over be 
 fore " 
 
 " She s over now," cut in some one, as a gun 
 boomed out and some mechanical voice announced 
 " 12:42 exactly." 
 
 " By George, Monte s sailed a great race ! " 
 
 " Yes, but he has n t a chance ! " 
 
 "Glory Hallelujah! Look at the White Streak 
 run!" 
 
 The White Streak, first over the line, swept like the 
 flash of a searchlight into the harbor, running wild, 
 the crew bailing desperately, Challoner cramped 
 against the wheel. Down the course the Water Sprite, 
 which had made the second buoy a minute behind its 
 handicap, came tearing over the frothing sea, carrying 
 every inch of canvas that the mast would hold. And 
 presently Monte s intention became plain. 
 
 " By the Lord Harry, he s going to jibe ! " 
 
 "In this gale? Never!" 
 
 " He is he s going to jibe ! Watch him ! " 
 
3 i2 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Good-by, Monte, then." 
 
 Something beyond Amy s control forced open her 
 eyes. She understood that this was the decisive mo 
 ment. She looked down over the slated roofs, beyond 
 the neck of land into the yellowish sea, into the saucer 
 of fury, where the Water Sprite, like an inhuman, 
 frightened monster, was rushing on. She could see 
 the crew bailing frantically, she could see even his face, 
 a white smutch in the rushing confusion. He was 
 going to attempt something, something foolhardy and 
 like Monte Bracken, the dramatic. And the next mo 
 ment it came. In order to pick up precious seconds 
 and not to pinch her, Bracken had come down under 
 full sail to the leeward of the mark. To come around 
 and take his sail on the other side and thus around the 
 mark, meant the loss of the seconds he needed. One 
 hundred yards from the finish he prepared to jibe her 
 in a gale that was blowing thirty to thirty-five miles 
 an hour. 
 
 Some one, in the tension of the moment, grabbed 
 Amy s arm in impulsive excitement. A shout went 
 up, as the sail, under the deft handling of the crew, 
 came slowly in. 
 
 " Look out look out now ! " 
 
 " Here she comes ! " 
 
 "Wow!" 
 
 With a report like a cannon the sail shivered, jibed 
 and filled, shaking the boat as though it were a leaf. 
 They heard Monte s shouted oath in the wind. The 
 next moment mast, sail and all went by the board ! A 
 cry went up from the onlookers. Irma Dellabarre fell 
 against her heavily and slipped to the floor. What 
 had happened? Amy saw her, and then her eyes met 
 Claire Bracken s. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 313 
 
 "What s happened? Is he is he dead?" she 
 said, staring at her. 
 
 " I don t I can t see!" 
 
 " Man overboard ! " cried a voice. 
 
 Some one pushed them aside, jumping up on the 
 chair. 
 
 " No, no ! I can make them out they re all there, 
 I think one, two four five ! " 
 
 " Boat s smashed to hell, though ! " 
 
 " Clean ripped to pieces." 
 
 A piece of the sail, whipped into shreds, slapped 
 up against the roof, rose and slid away over their 
 heads, a thing that a moment before had been over his 
 head. The Water Sprite, with the crew clinging to its 
 sides, drifted slowly over the line half a minute too 
 late! 
 
 " Is is he safe? " she said faintly. 
 
 " Yes, now he is safe," said Claire quietly. 
 
 And again, woman to woman, they looked into each 
 other s eyes, while about them, relieved of its tension, 
 the crowd grew vociferous. 
 
 " By George ! Just made it at that ! " 
 
 " Another five minutes and they d have sunk." 
 
 " Spunky devil." 
 
 " Fool thing to do." 
 
 " Bet up, I suppose." 
 
 Amy Forrester went down with the crowd, elbowed 
 and carried along down to the pier, where the men 
 were coming up, Challoner and the crew of the 
 White Streak, dripping and exhausted, and presently 
 up the steps came Monte, acclaimed and feted 
 Monte, who had done the dramatic thing, but as al 
 ways, had come in second. She went to him directly 
 and held out her hand resolutely, without flinching. 
 
3 14 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 His eyes had been waiting for her from the first. They 
 said no word her look and the answering compre 
 hension in his were enough. Each felt the solemnity 
 of the act the decision once and for all. 
 
IX 
 
 TO Andrew Forrester, too, the situation had grown 
 intolerable. After the explanation with his wife 
 he had waited day by day for the only decision it 
 seemed possible that she could make. Any other to 
 go on living under the same roof when they had come 
 to recognize that they had ceased to love each other 
 was in his philosophy a spiritual slavery. Yet the 
 thought that she shrank with pain from the decisive 
 word hurt him more than he could have believed. He 
 had loved her, she had been part of his life; he could 
 not remain indifferent to her. That she still hesitated, 
 he ascribed not to any vestige of affection for him, 
 but to a timidity before the censureship of that world 
 whose vassal she had become. Each day in the mail 
 he looked eagerly for a letter from her that would tell 
 him that her decision had been made. The suspense 
 wore on him. At times he feared for his own strength, 
 that he couM be tricked sentimentally into a belief that 
 he still loved her. 
 
 Then there was the other woman to whom in his loy 
 alty he felt bound. She had her right to happiness, 
 too. For never for a moment had he a doubt that once 
 Irma knew him free to act, she too would free herself 
 from the long horror in which she had lived. Della- 
 barre s condition had become so shockingly apparent 
 to every one that no action of hers could surprise. 
 What wore on him was that everything in his situation 
 was horribly false, the assumed attitude before the 
 
316 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 world to Amy, the mask he was forced to wear when 
 he offered his hand to Monte Bracken or Rudolph Della- 
 barre, and last, the prohibition Irma had placed on their 
 intimate meetings. Every day that this masquerade 
 continued it seemed to him that all of them lost some 
 thing of their pride were a little soiled by ugly 
 contact. 
 
 He arrived at Chilton three days after the yacht race. 
 That night there would be the weekly dance at the 
 yacht club, and he had come down impatiently, know 
 ing that there at least he would have a chance to meet 
 Irma Dellabarre. An hour after his arrival Amy had 
 said the words to him which he had been waiting for, 
 and yet which struck him cold with their suddenness. 
 She had chosen the moment when the porch was gay 
 with callers at the tea hour, to leave her guests and 
 signal him. 
 
 " Little private consultation with the head of the 
 house," she said in laughing explanation. 
 
 They went down the piazza and turned the corner, 
 where they were hidden from the chaffing and the gos 
 sip which buzzed behind them. 
 
 " I wanted to say to you, Andrew," she said, without 
 preliminaries, " that I have come to your point of view. 
 I have decided that there is nothing else to do but to 
 separate and divorce. That is what you wish, is n t 
 it?" 
 
 He was taken back by the suddenness of her an 
 nouncement. Why had she chosen such a formal mo 
 ment for so mortal a thing? To steel herself against 
 crying out? To surround herself with the discipline of 
 the world her world ? That must be it. 
 
 She repeated her question, looking up into his face. 
 
 " Yes, that is what 1 wish," he said gravely. He felt 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 317 
 
 embarrassed before her calm. He added awkwardly, 
 " Thank you." 
 
 " It is best for both the only thing. What I have 
 decided to do I will let you know later." 
 
 " When? " he asked gravely. 
 
 " Perhaps to-morrow," she said, hesitating. " And 
 perhaps sooner." 
 
 He looked at her, wondering, inclined to question, 
 restrained by a feeling of generosity. 
 
 " I have been rather a failure with you, Andrew," 
 she said hurriedly, and then stopped, a lump in her 
 throat. 
 
 " Don t ! " he said hastily. " That s all too trivial 
 now. Let s be generous both of us now." 
 
 " Yes, of course " She turned away, started to 
 speak, shook her head; and he, seized with the cold 
 horror of seeing her tears, said hastily : 
 
 " Be careful, Amy they re they re here." 
 
 "Yes, thank God for that!" 
 
 " And it s no use saying anything we under 
 stand." 
 
 " Of course we do." 
 
 She stood a moment, her hands resting on the balus 
 trade, smiling down at the canterbury-bells which 
 stretched their dainty cups up to her. Then she left 
 him and went humming back to her guests. He had 
 no such power over himself. He turned and went to 
 his room. He did not attempt to see her again alone. 
 They dined in company of others and went off to the 
 club. It was all distressingly tragic and so needless. 
 He had not expected to suffer as he did, nor that she 
 would quiver under it. Whatever else came, they had 
 been man and wife and there had been moments of 
 unshaken faith! 
 
3i8 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 They dined at the Challoner s and went over to the 
 Yacht Club for the dance. Amy s composure amazed 
 him. Whatever her faults, she met a crisis like a thor 
 oughbred. He had endured the dinner gloomily, con 
 scious of his equivocal position, exaggerating the malice 
 that he believed in the eyes of every one. At the Club 
 he drifted away into the billiard rooms, where the 
 smoke was hazy and the green tables under the hooded 
 electric lights looked like green valleys dropped far 
 below him. The talk was all of war in this shattering 
 first week of August, 1914, and in the stupefaction of 
 the imagination social lines disappeared. He listened 
 to a group in the corner nearest him, who were arguing 
 that a conflict was inevitable, and from time to time, 
 as phrases detached themselves, he frowned. 
 
 "What do you think?" said a man next to him, 
 whom he did not know. 
 
 " There won t be any war," he said obstinately. 
 " Germany s trying to bluff France into deserting 
 [Russia." 
 
 " Paper to-night says they ve started through 
 Belgium." 
 
 " That s only a feeler, too," he said, frowning. 
 " When they find England s in it too, it 11 all sputter 
 out. The Germans are n t fools enough to tackle that 
 combination you 11 see ! " 
 
 " Hope you re right," said his neighbor nervously. 
 
 " Of course I m right," he assured himself. The 
 thing was too incredible two thirds of civilization 
 drenched in blood ! Never ! " 
 
 " If it did, think what would strike the stock mar 
 ket ! " said his neighbor with a huge sigh. 
 
 Forrester had been thinking of that, too. More than 
 once in the past days he had felt an impulse to sell out 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 319 
 
 and take his losses. But he was not a speculator who 
 plays for the shifting of the wind. He was an investor 
 who had been speculating an investor who held to 
 one idea obstinately. Then, too, the unfolding drama 
 of his internal life had obsessed him to the exclusion of 
 all other considerations. He was convinced of the 
 sanity of his judgment when so many others were swept 
 by hysteria, yet the doubt that rose shrilly about him 
 was disconcerting. The stakes were heavily against 
 him if the incredible should happen. He rose and 
 drifted back in search of Irma. He jostled some one 
 as he avoided an outstretched cue, and turned to apolo 
 gize. It was Rudolph Dellabarre, of all men ! 
 
 The accidental meeting gave him an unpleasant sen 
 sation, for his nature was a frank one, and, coveting 
 what he did, it was repugnant to him to face the weak 
 eyes which had the right to accuse him. 
 
 " Beg pardon. How are you ? " he said gruffly, pass 
 ing hurriedly, to avoid giving his hand. 
 
 "Wonder what he ll do?" he thought, despite 
 himself. Then he snapped his fingers angrily. What 
 became of Dellabarre was the one thing he did not 
 wish to consider. After all, Dellabarre was a failure, 
 a miserable, weak failure, and must take his punish 
 ment. 
 
 " We have a right to our happiness," he said, think 
 ing of Irma. " Even for the children s sake, she should 
 leave him ! " 
 
 If only he, the husband, had been of man s stature 
 and strength, if he had the sensation of taking her from 
 an equal 
 
 The feeling was so strong that he could not go from 
 him to her; the thing was repugnant. He saw Irma, 
 caught her eye and smiled, and his face, untrained in 
 
320 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 dissembling, showed too plainly his happiness. Then 
 he turned for a stroll on the piazza. Again Dellabarre 
 crossed his path. 
 
 " That s strange ! Why is he here ? When he s in 
 that condition can t he stay at home?" he thought 
 angrily. " Confound him, is he following me? " 
 
 He seated himself on the railing, crossed his arms, 
 and, to convince himself, watched Dellabarre. who con 
 tinued aimlessly to winder back and forth, avoiding 
 recognition. Finally he perceived Forrester s look, 
 straightened up and went off hurriedly. 
 
 It was almost midnight when Forrester finally found 
 his opportunity in the thinning crowd. 
 
 " I Ve been waiting to see you," he began in a low 
 voice. 
 
 " Be careful/ she said in warning, " and don t show 
 so much on your face; others are looking." 
 
 " Walk outside, then. It s vital I Ve got to 
 talk to you ! " 
 
 She hesitated, searching a moment in the crowd with 
 an unease which she hid behind her fan, before taking 
 his arm and moving down to the shelter of the summer- 
 house that jutted over the water. From the first look 
 into his eyes she had guessed, not what news he brought 
 her, but that the inevitable moment had come when she 
 would have to set him right, readjust him to her own 
 changed caprices. She did not like these inevitable 
 moments of reckoning, that always left their little sting. 
 She would have avoided explanations altogether, only 
 she was afraid of the crudity of his nature, afraid of 
 the social blunders he might commit. 
 
 " Well, now for it ! " she said to herself, summoning 
 up all her wits. After all, he was a man and could be 
 handled like others, without ruffling her moral coiffure. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 321 
 
 Distressing scenes were so mussing and she had the 
 feline need of appearing neat in her own eyes and 
 in the world s. 
 
 " At last! " he began precipitately. 
 
 " Be careful, Andrew ! " she said in warning. 
 " Voices carry over the water. It s rather imprudent." 
 
 " Imprudent? " 
 
 " There has been a good deal of talk about us." 
 
 He broke in, sweeping aside trivialities. 
 
 " Well, it s done ; we separate and divorce ! " 
 
 It came to her as a shock. 
 
 "I I did n t believe she would," she said slowly. 
 This complicated the situation decidedly. 
 
 " She has and I admit it she s been very de 
 cent. Well, you can understand what this means to 
 me." 
 
 She felt the demand that was coming, and sought 
 desperately to turn it. She had long ago realized her 
 true feelings, as she always did after a little pardonable 
 self-deception in the first delights of a new adventure. 
 She was not insensible to the electric quality of his vital 
 ity and stubborn strength. Free, she might have mar 
 ried him. The trouble was that she had adopted an 
 attitude toward him that she had found a constant 
 effort to maintain the attitude of the maternal, min 
 istering woman. Frankly, it bored her now. Curi 
 ously enough, w 7 hen she examined herself dispassion 
 ately, she admitted with a laugh that, of the two, it 
 was Amy who was necessary to her. 
 
 The game had interested her. Now that she had 
 won, all her sympathy was with Amy the sympathy 
 of one woman of the world toward another. That 
 Amy had taken it so to heart weighed on her con 
 science. She had revenged herself for Amy s trespass- 
 
322 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 ing, and now she felt kindly disposed. Then she missed 
 her; she was sympathetic, a good companion, a truly 
 intimate friend and intimate friends are rarer than 
 adorers, and harder to replace. 
 
 " You have suffered a great deal," she said mechani 
 cally, still seeking her attitude. " I am glad very 
 glad for your sake ! " 
 
 " The last weeks have been hideous. I felt every 
 thing I did was a lie. Well, the thing is cleared up. 
 I ve not said anything to you until I knew I had the 
 right, Irma. I respect you too much, but, well I 
 guess we both understand! Now I want you to end 
 this hell you ve been living in ! " 
 
 " How do you mean ? " she said faintly. 
 
 " Leave your husband and start a new life. The rest 
 is easy. There is n t a court in the world would refuse 
 you a divorce ! " 
 
 " Divorce ! " she cried, so surprised that she blurted 
 out the truth. " Oh, never ! I could n t do that ! " 
 
 He stopped point-blank, not believing his ears. 
 
 " I can t I can t ! " she cried, recoiling as though 
 she were clearing her dirty skirts from the filth of a 
 threatening scandal. " I never thought of such a 
 thing!" 
 
 In the darkness she felt that he was staring at her, 
 so still that she could not even hear the taking of his 
 breath. Alarmed at this ominous silence, she laid her 
 hand on his arm. 
 
 " But, Andrew, why ? What made you believe that ? 
 I never thought of such a thing I never said a 
 word." 
 
 Still he made no answer. 
 
 " He is suffering," she thought, and her emotions in 
 clined her to pity. She would have the tooth out and 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 323 
 
 the consolation afterward. "If we were free, both 
 free, to-day, of course I d marry you you know 
 that. But that s not the point ! " 
 
 " What is the point ? " he said brusquely. 
 
 " Why, other things. We are not living in a prairie. 
 There are my friends my position in society what 
 people would say." 
 
 " Does that mean anything to you ? " 
 
 " Yes, of course everything." 
 
 He put his head down into his hands and began to 
 laugh a laugh that made her shudder at the nudity 
 of her soul which she had exposed to him. 
 
 " Listen, Andrew," she said, pleading against this 
 silent arraignment. " Don t think I don t care. I 
 never meant to do you harm. I m weak, perhaps 
 but that s what I am. I am what my surroundings 
 have made me ; I can t be different." 
 
 " And I am a parvenu," he said mercilessly. 
 
 " No, no," she protested. " You are much finer 
 than I am, than we all are. And then and then " 
 she said incoherently, " there are the children " 
 
 " Of course, the children," he said dryly. 
 
 " Oh, Andrew, don t be angry with me. I can t help 
 it if I am as I am. If you despise me I don t know 
 how I shall go on. You don t know you don t know 
 what it is. You can t understand. You force me to 
 say what is terrible what I hoped you d spare 
 me " 
 
 " And what is that ? " he said, in the tone of a 
 prosecuting attorney. 
 
 She hesitated a long moment, and then she laid her 
 hand over his. 
 
 " Wait! " she said in a tragic whisper. " It 11 only 
 be a short time now." 
 
3 2 4 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 He looked at her and saw her as she was. She felt 
 again the baring of her soul before him, and she 
 struggled to hide behind the cloak of plausibility. 
 
 " It s terrible, what I Ve said ; but that I ve been 
 willing to say it should convince you " 
 
 "Of what?" 
 
 " That I care," she said in a low voice. " All I ask 
 is to be protected. Do this as a man of the world 
 would do it, Andrew, and all will come out in the 
 end." 
 
 " I see." 
 
 She breathed a sigh of relief, assuring herself that 
 she had convinced him. 
 
 " You are such a child in worldly matters, Andrew," 
 she said softly. " A man can stand up against slander. 
 But think what it would mean to me just at present 
 to have my name dragged through the mud." 
 
 " And, of course the children," he added. 
 
 She drew back, started to speak, and stopped. 
 
 At this moment, outside on the gravel path they 
 heard a crunching sound. 
 
 " Say something talk to me she whispered. 
 
 " Despite which," he said, raising his voice, " I 
 am certain that England cannot stand quietly by 
 and " 
 
 In the darkness the steps came nearer. 
 
 " Hello, is that you, Rudy? " said Irma, breaking in. 
 " I m here with Andrew." 
 
 The steps came to them, and in the blurred light a 
 short figure loomed in the entrance to the summer- 
 house. 
 
 " Are you ready to go home now, Irma ? " said her 
 husband, and the voice that reached them quavered 
 unsteadily. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 325 
 
 " Goodness, no ! So early? " she cried, jumping up. 
 " Don t worry. Andrew s here. He 11 take me home ; 
 you need n t wait, dear." 
 
 Andrew Forrester stood up. 
 
 " You 11 have to excuse me," he said. " I m off 
 early to-morrow. I m turning in now myself." 
 
 For a moment no one spoke. Had she dared she 
 would have touched his arm in mute entreaty. 
 
 " Well," she said at length, in a tired voice, " if 
 every one s going, I suppose I might as well. Is the 
 launch here, Rudy?" 
 
 " Yes here," he said thickly. 
 
 " We can put Andrew down at his wharf." 
 
 " Thanks, my car is here. No need to trouble you," 
 he said obstinately. 
 
 They had left the summer-house, making for the 
 lanterns of the landing. She delayed purposely, letting 
 her husband pass ahead. 
 
 " Do come," she said quickly. " I m afraid of him 
 lately terribly afraid." 
 
 " I think you worry unnecessarily about Rudy," 
 he said slowly. 
 
 She stopped and caught his sleeve in the darkness. 
 
 " You hate me, don t you? " 
 
 He made no answer. 
 
 " I wish I were different," she said plaintively. " I 
 wish I wish it could have gone on just as we were, 
 without any one knowing " 
 
 " Don t !" he cut in harshly. 
 
 " I must see you ! " 
 
 "Why?" he answered, with a shrug of his 
 shoulders. 
 
 " You don t understand." 
 
 " The trouble is, I do understand too much ! " 
 
326 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 They were at the launch now. There was nothing 
 for her to do but to accept his hand and get in. 
 
 " Not coming? " said Dellabarre from the stern. 
 
 " No, thank you," he said loudly. " Good night, 
 Irma. Good night, Dellabarre." 
 
 " Good-by, Forrester ! " 
 
 The husband s voice alone replied, and the note of 
 rising excitement made him stop short. He turned 
 back uneasily. Was Dellabarre really worse than 
 usual ? Irma had half risen from her seat. 
 
 " Rudy it s awfully rough ! Do you think we re 
 safe?" * 
 
 "Sit down!" 
 
 The command rang out. The water widened be 
 tween the boat and the dock. The motor spun and 
 began its chugging iteration. The next moment the 
 curtain of the night dropped between them. Forrester 
 stood listening. He heard again Irma s voice in plead 
 ing, once, twice, more faintly. Then the chugging of 
 the motor dwindled away. 
 
 He called up his car and went directly home. 
 Gregory was up, waiting, and in his hand a letter 
 which he seemed to have been holding before him 
 for hours. 
 
 " Mrs. Forrester, sir," he said, stammering. 
 
 "Well, what?" 
 
 " Mrs. Forrester left was called suddenly to 
 town She said I was to give this letter to 
 you." 
 
 " All right, Gregory," he said gently. " Give it to 
 me, and don t worry. I know all about it." 
 
 He took the letter and went up to his room. 
 
 " I know what that means," he said aloud. 
 
 He sat down and opened the letter. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 327 
 
 " Andrew I have chosen this way. I am 
 leaving openly, so that you can have your divorce 
 for desertion. It is only right for it s been 
 my fault. Do try to think a little kindly of me if 
 you can and be careful do be careful what 
 you do now. You have the right to be happy. 
 
 AMY." 
 
X 
 
 A T ten o clock Monte Bracken had arrived in his 
 4 * automobile, and five minutes later Morley, pale 
 and frightened, had brought down her mistress lug 
 gage and seen to its storing. Bracken, who remained 
 in the back seat without descending, made no offer of 
 explanation. 
 
 " Good evening, Morley." 
 
 " Good evening, sir," she had replied, and to herself 
 she thought, " He looks more like a ghost than she 
 does." 
 
 " Put the bags in front." 
 
 " Yes, sir. Mrs. Forrester said to say she d be 
 right down." 
 
 " Very well." 
 
 It was all done quite openly. There could be no 
 question of what was happening. Gregory, who was 
 aiding with the bags, did not dare to question Mr. 
 Bracken s chauffeur, even with his eyes. Among the 
 servants was the terrified calm, the panic of all the 
 senses, that comes below stairs with the approach of a 
 catastrophe above. Morley hesitated as though half 
 expecting some explanation would be volunteered 
 some plausible lie that would deceive no one. Then 
 she ran back upstairs hurriedly, out of breath. 
 
 Amy, cloaked and veiled, was waiting by the trunks. 
 She had been entirely calm and matter-of-fact until 
 now, but at the last moment her fingers faltered on 
 
" You will join me later with the trunks/ said her 
 mistress slowly. Page 329- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 329 
 
 the keys. Try as she might, she could not manage the 
 lock. " 
 
 " The key sticks ; lock the trunks," she said hastily. 
 
 Morley obeyed. One lock stuck. She was quite a 
 moment before she rose. 
 
 " You will join me later with the trunks/ said 
 her mistress slowly. " I will telegraph you in a day 
 or so. You understand? " 
 
 "Yes, Madame yes." 
 
 " That is all now," she said, looking around and 
 going over to the desk. She took up the letter she had 
 written Andrew. " You will give this to Mr. Forrester 
 immediately when he returns. Or, no you need not 
 stay up; Gregory will attend to that." 
 
 She gave the letter to Morley, who stood transfixed, 
 turning it over in her hand. 
 
 "Well, I am quite calm," she thought. "It s 
 strange, I am doing something that is going to upset 
 everything, and I don j t feel as though it were anything 
 out of the ordinary. I am calm, and I know just what 
 I am doing." 
 
 Nevertheless, as she was descending the stairs, Mor 
 ley came running after her with her handbag, which 
 she had forgotten. She took it with a first feeling of 
 agitation. She was annoyed to have betrayed an emo 
 tion before a servant emotion which she was cer 
 tain she did not feel. 
 
 She passed through the hallway. Outside, standing 
 by the door, Monte was waiting for her. She nodded, 
 took his hand and stepped immediately into the car. 
 Each instant seemed long and horribly decisive. She 
 heard them going as though a clock were ticking them 
 off. He entered, closing the door. 
 
 " Well, I am here," she said in a low voice. 
 
330 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " You are quite quite sure ? " 
 
 " Absolutely." 
 
 It never occurred to her that he also might have 
 been hesitating before the cost, before >vhat he too 
 might have to face. She was not thinking of him 
 at all, only herself was important. The one thing 
 that was important was that she should prove to 
 herself that she had the heroism to make the great 
 sacrifice. 
 
 " Drive on ! " she heard him say. The next moment 
 they were moving out from the region of light into 
 the darkness ahead. 
 
 " Well, it s over I have had the courage," she 
 said to herself. " It s decided now. I wonder what 
 they 11 say?" 
 
 From the moment she had come to him at the edge 
 of the pier and held out her hand, it had all been 
 settled. It could not be otherwise. She had seen him 
 again the evening of the second day after, and all had 
 been said. It was out on the veranda of the Chal- 
 loner s, where they had met for dinner. 
 
 You know what it meant when I came to you the 
 other day ? " she said directly. 
 
 " I know." 
 
 " I came because I could not help it because I 
 found I could not live without you." 
 
 " I too " he began hurriedly. 
 
 " Yes, I know I saw," she said, nodding. 
 " Monte, all that you said of me was true at least, 
 was true then. Now I ask only one thing of you." 
 
 He looked at her apprehensively, struck by the note 
 of exaltation in her manner. 
 
 " I want to leave openly with you. I want the world 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 331 
 
 to know that it is my act my responsibility, and that 
 I am not afraid to take it on myself." 
 
 He was silent a long moment. 
 
 "Do you realize all this would mean?" he said 
 slowly. 
 
 " Yes, all," she said firmly. " But I am tired of 
 cheating, tired of being just what you told me I was. 
 I don t want to fall back on subterfuges sacrifice 
 others. I want to do what I do proudly I want to 
 believe in myself." 
 
 " Yes I see," he said gravely. 
 
 " And then, it is only fair to him." 
 
 "And after?" 
 
 " I shall go to a hotel in New York to Europe 
 perhaps. Andrew will sue at once for a divorce rn the 
 grounds of desertion. I think it would be better for 
 you not to join me until then. As long as I bear his 
 name I shan t do anything against that. You would 
 not want me to either ! " 
 
 "You have thought this all over, Amy?" he said 
 again. 
 
 " All ! Again and again ! " 
 
 " When " He hesitated, " when do you want to 
 go away? " 
 
 " Andrew will arrive Friday the next night." 
 
 He was surprised at the imminence of the thing, at 
 every word she had said, at the complete assumption 
 of his acceptance of what she had decided. Down 
 the porch a door opened and Kitty s voice called, 
 
 " What are you two whispering about down there ? 
 Come in, you re necessary ! " 
 
 " And Monte," she said, quickly, her voice growing 
 gentle, " when I do, then you will believe that I am 
 capable of love won t you ? " 
 
332 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 He nodded, touching her hand lightly. He would 
 have liked to have said a hundred things that were in 
 his perturbed mind but others were bearing down 
 on them. He felt as though he were struggling hope 
 lessly against something that could not be avoided. 
 Every word he had said had been enforced on him 
 every action dictated by his code of honor, which was 
 the Samurai creed of his kind. 
 
XI 
 
 THE car, as though pursued by the consciousness of 
 some guilty deed, turned and twisted through tor 
 tuous roads, throwing its searching glare into the sleep 
 ing secrets of the woods. Ten minutes, fifteen min 
 utes had elapsed, and still they sat silently side by side, 
 each immersed in his own thoughts. He had not bent 
 toward her. He had not put forth his hand to take 
 hers. The silence of the night, the guilty flight away, 
 oppressed him and ahead was the waking reality of 
 the morrow. His mind had been filled with the sweep 
 ing imminence of the great events that were impending 
 in the world. France, the country he loved with a 
 Crusader s adoration, was on the brink of a shattering 
 war. Men whom he had known and played at life with 
 were turning with hallowed eyes toward the great sac 
 rifice, the final deed of atonement that washes away all 
 selfishness and the sins of the flesh. All these last days 
 of July and the opening of the bleeding month of 
 August he had had before his eyes the spectacle of the 
 titled idlers, the play-boys of fortune, leaving their 
 revelries; the simple, faith-borne peasants waiting in 
 the fields ; the crowded workmen scanning the bulletin 
 board ; the women listening in the night. The leaping 
 moment of heroic regeneration was sounding on the 
 bugle s call, and he, soldier of fortune, was powerless 
 to respond, entangled in the trivialities of an infatua 
 tion that had mastered him. It had always been so. 
 
334 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " It s curious," he thought bitterly, " that with all 
 people say against me, it is I who have always yielded 
 with women. It is I who have followed where they 
 would go ! " 
 
 The woman he loved was there at his side, and yet 
 something inexorable intervened between them. Per 
 haps it was the man s further vision that could not dwell 
 on the present before the specter of coming conse 
 quences. He saw the headlines in the papers, the flaunt 
 ing colored stories, the apposition of photographs, the 
 whole shrieking clamor of a prying public s satisfac 
 tion in a new scandal among those it meanly envied and 
 pitilessly pulled down. Did she realize what was 
 coming? 
 
 " We are wounding each other irreparably," he 
 thought, " and yet how can I tell her? " 
 
 For she had done the thing he had believed her in 
 capable of doing. It was mad, it was theatric but 
 it was from her heart. She was doing it as a spiritual 
 rebellion, and to show him that in her awakened love 
 she was willing to sacrifice all for him. How could he 
 refuse that? Suddenly he bent over and said reso 
 lutely : 
 
 " Amy dear it is a fearfully serious moment. You 
 are sure, there is no doubt you want to do this? 
 Just this way?" 
 
 She looked at him in amazement. Had he read her 
 thoughts ? Yet she answered : 
 
 " Yes, yes I do I m sure ! " 
 
 Ever since they had fled from the house she had had 
 but one figure before her eyes Andrew. When 
 would he return? Would he read her letter when it 
 was handed to him by Gregory at the door, mastering 
 his emotion before the servant as only he knew how ? 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 335 
 
 Or would he go with it to his room ? And then ? What 
 would be the emotion in his eyes, there alone where no 
 one would be present to see? His shadow was there 
 in the car, intruding and inexorable; his voice kept 
 crying in her ears. 
 
 She felt like seizing the trumpet and crying: 
 
 " Faster, faster ! Get it done with ! " 
 
 And then this question from Monte ! 
 
 What must he think of her silence ? Perhaps he too 
 was thinking of the one left behind, of Andrew. Per 
 haps it was a touch of remorse that held him so silent. 
 
 " Listen, Monte," she said suddenly. " There are 
 some things now I must tell you. It is your right to 
 know. You may suspect, but I want you to know, so 
 so you won t feel any responsibility." 
 
 She told him of Andrew and Irma Dellabarre, of the 
 new infatuation which had come to her husband, of his 
 own desire that she should take this step to set him free. 
 
 " I tell you all this," she repeated insistently, " so 
 that you won t feel that you or I that we have any 
 thing to reproach ourselves with." 
 
 " I am glad that it is so," he said gravely. It was 
 not quite what she had led him to believe of their rela 
 tions, yet it was a justification. 
 
 " I don t think Irma will ever do what you have 
 done," he said slowly, but his mind was on other things. 
 
 " Nor I," she said impulsively. " And for Andrew s 
 sake, I hope not ! " She explained, " I want to be gen 
 erous toward him. It was not his fault. I don t blame 
 him I was not the wife for him it was a great 
 mistake. Yet I yet there is nothing petty about him. 
 He has been very fine in his attitude toward me that 
 is why I want to see him really happy. You under 
 stand, don t you ? " 
 
336 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 :< Yes, of course," he said somberly. This mention 
 of the other jarred on him. She really might have 
 spared him such praise at such a moment. 
 
 What sort of a wife would she be to him ? 
 
 A sudden report, and the car grounded hastily to a 
 stop. 
 
 " What s that? " she cried, jumping. 
 
 "Only a blow-out." 
 
 He descended and went to consult with the chauffeur. 
 It would be necessary to change a rear tire. 
 
 The accident seemed to her something ominous. 
 She got out and walked in the shadow, while the two 
 men busied themselves with the tires. Would it never 
 end ? Surely they would miss the train now ! A whirr 
 of motors, and she shrank back into the protection of 
 the wood. 
 
 " If it were Andrew ! " she thought, with a leap of 
 her pulse. 
 
 The searchlights glared, swept the ground and 
 passed. 
 
 " How foolish ! What possessed me to imagine 
 that?" she thought 
 
 " All ready now," said Monte Bracken. 
 
 She sprang into the car before he could offer his 
 hand, and shrank into a corner. 
 
 "Oh, do hurry!" 
 
 " Make time," he said, and got in. 
 
 " I m horrid, Monte, but don t mind me it is up 
 setting ! " 
 
 " I understand, dear," he said in his quiet voice. 
 
 They were on straight roads now, and the speed at 
 which they fled shook the car so that conversation was 
 impossible. She was grateful for this, leaning for 
 ward, her chin in her hands, staring out of the win- 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 337 
 
 dow. Above, in the moonlit skies, great banks of 
 clouds were scurrying. 
 
 " It does n t look real," she thought. " Just like the 
 way they put it on in the theater." 
 
 The next moment they had made Burnham Village 
 and swung up to the station. She sprang out, leaving 
 Monte to bring up the bags, and ran up the steps. The 
 platform was deserted. They had missed their train 
 by three minutes ! Monte came up, valises in hand. 
 
 " It s too provoking ! " she said tearfully. " We Ve 
 lost it!" 
 
 " Never mind, there 11 be another soon. I 11 go and 
 make sure. I 11 keep the car, we can always run in - 
 
 " No, no I don t want to go in the car ! " she said 
 hastily. To go in the intimacy of the car seemed to 
 her something indelicate, something that could n t be 
 done. He ought to have understood that ! 
 
 She went up the platform toward the red, sinister 
 lights. The night was hot and flat. Each minute that 
 kept her from her purpose undermined her resolution. 
 Would she be able to go through it? Even now she 
 was seeking the obscurity to avoid a chance encounter, 
 and in a moment they would have to enter the crowded, 
 lighted train together ! 
 
 Up the platform came a shuffling step a train 
 hand, with smudged lantern at his feet, smelling of 
 rank tobacco. What was Monte doing all this time? 
 Everything he did irritated her, even to the languid 
 way in which he returned, when he must have known 
 her impatience. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Ten minutes, that s all." 
 
 She drew a breath of relief. But ten minutes passed, 
 and no answering shock of steel. 
 
338 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " I thought you said ten minutes ? " she said fret 
 fully. 
 
 " It must be late." 
 
 " Go and see and please don t take forever ! " 
 
 First the accident to the tire, then the missing of the 
 train, and now the third delay! It was intolerable. 
 All at once, in the distance, a roar, a white belch of 
 steam and along the rails long slivers of light ran 
 down. 
 
 She started hastily back to the bags as the train came 
 rocking in. Where was Monte ? Why did n t he 
 come ? What could he be doing ? 
 
 The passengers were streaming about her when he 
 came up. 
 
 " It s not this one ; this is a train from New York," 
 he explained hastily. 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 She turned, took two steps, and suddenly, without 
 warning, came face to face with Claire Bracken! 
 
XII 
 
 RECOGNITION was so swift that she had no time 
 to protect herself. She put her head down has 
 tily the one betraying movement she should not 
 have made and fled up the platform. Mrs. Bracken 
 stood puzzled, looking after her. The next moment 
 she saw Monte. 
 
 " Why, what are you doing here? " she said, shaking 
 hands. 
 
 " Going up to New York," he said hastily. 
 
 " But was n t that Mrs. Forrester? " she said, glanc 
 ing up the platform at the little figure seeking the 
 obscurity. 
 
 " That? No indeed ! " he said readily. 
 
 " Are you alone, Monte? " she said abruptly. 
 
 " Absolutely let me take your things." 
 
 " John will attend to them," she said, surrendering 
 her bag to the footman who came up. 
 
 They stood a moment, awkwardly. 
 
 " Are you going to New York ? " she repeated 
 slowly. 
 
 " Why, yes ! Is there anything surprising in that ? " 
 he said with a forced laugh. 
 
 The light was on his face, and her glance hung on 
 his eyes. He did not dare to turn away. 
 
 She hesitated, took a step, and he began to breathe 
 freer. All at once she turned and took his arm. 
 
 " I want to talk to you," she said quietly. " Walk 
 up the platform with me." 
 
340 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 He stood without moving. 
 
 " I had rather not." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " I cannot tell you." 
 
 " What I have to say is to be said to Mrs. Forrester 
 also," she said with decision. " Come." 
 
 Amy was at the foot of a great telegraph pole as 
 they came up. She did not turn at the sound of their 
 steps but put her head down and swayed against the 
 fence. So abject a picture of mortification and shame 
 was she that Mrs. Bracken in pity hesitated a moment. 
 Then she went to her and threw her arm about her 
 shoulder. 
 
 " It is I, Amy." 
 
 " Oh, go away, please go away ! " she said des 
 perately. 
 
 " I think God has directed me to you," said Mrs. 
 Bracken solemnly. 
 
 Amy Forrester raised her head and turned slowly, 
 indignantly. 
 
 " Why, what do you mean ? " she cried, starting 
 back. 
 
 " It is quite evident what you are doing." 
 
 " You are making a mistake," she cried, cut to the 
 quick. " I have left my husband s house with his 
 knowledge and consent." 
 
 " Then you should do it alone," said Claire Bracken, 
 more gently, " and not in. this mad public way." 
 
 " Mrs. Bracken, you have no right to judge me " 
 
 " The way you resented what you thought I might 
 have thought, ought to open your eyes," she answered, 
 without yielding. " And if you care nothing for your 
 own reputation " She hesitated. " This means, 
 of course, that you are going to marry Monte? " 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 341 
 
 They stood faintly in the obscurity, straining their 
 eyes like three white shadows. 
 
 " That is, of course, what it means," she said. 
 
 " Then, Amy dear, if you are taking his name you 
 should protect it as though it were your own." 
 
 " Oh, don t don t try to stop me now ! " The 
 cry was wrung from her. All the long days of de 
 liberation and soul-anguish were useless now if the 
 thing had to be again delayed, if she must pass through 
 another day of doubt. 
 
 Claire took her hand in hers, bending toward her 
 like a mother to seek the truth in the face of a way 
 ward child. 
 
 " You child, do you know what you are doing 
 are you capable of knowing? You want to be free - 
 but do you want to face all the ugly stories that will 
 spring up now? " 
 
 " Oh, you don t understand ! I must do one thing 
 or the other and do it now ! I can t fight it all out 
 all over again. I want to be honest with myself and 
 and with him! " she cried bitterly. 
 
 " With Monte ? Then don t you see that you are 
 sacrificing him ? " said Claire firmly, as Monte began 
 to protest. 
 
 Amy had not meant that. It struck her as tragically 
 grotesque that Monte should have taken it to himself. 
 She had been thinking of her husband, the shadow 
 that w r as at her side, blending with her shadow. 
 
 " I say, Claire, you Ve no right to say that ! " 
 
 " You know I m telling the truth, whether you 11 
 admit it or not to her," she swept on. " You are a 
 gentleman born and bred, whatever you may have 
 done, and you don t wish your name and the name of 
 your wife dragged into every filthy sheet! " 
 
342 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Mrs. Bracken ! Mrs. Bracken ! " 
 
 " Well, do you ? " said Claire, facing Monte. 
 
 Down the track came the warning whistle of the 
 arriving train. 
 
 The papers the scandal written large the ugly 
 innuendoes ! She had never thought of that, never once 
 had it occurred to her that beyond to-night was to 
 morrow, with its distortion of big things and small. 
 
 " But I can t go back ! " she said in a last weak pro 
 test. " If I don t go now I 11 never go," she said 
 solemnly, looking at the man. 
 
 " You need n t return to your husband. Leave that 
 to me," said Claire decisively. " To-night you stay at 
 my house. To-morrow we 11 see. Monte, you must 
 go up to New York and take care to be seen." 
 
 The train was now in sight. With a sudden obsti 
 nate squaring of his shoulders he turned to Amy. 
 
 " Amy, this is between you and me. What do you 
 say?" 
 
 They waited for her decision, there in the faint 
 obscurity of the platform, in the precious dwindling 
 seconds. 
 
 " Oh, it s easy for you to do the right thing," she 
 cried, with a sudden revolt against the calm of the 
 other woman. " Life has been easy for you you 
 don t know what it is to feel the way I do " 
 
 Monte Bracken must have felt what was coming, 
 for he stepped forward hastily, as though to interpose 
 between the two women. Claire Bracken stood quietly 
 looking down, then she raised her head and said 
 gravely : 
 
 " It s natural you should say that. But you are 
 wrong. I had to face once the same situation al- 
 mO st that you are facing now, and I gave up what 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 343 
 
 I wanted, for the sake of others. I will tell you all 
 that, for it may help you. I can do no otherwise, for 
 I have the right the one person in the world who 
 has the right to demand that that name shan t be 
 sullied now." She waited a moment and then said : 
 " You will go alone to New York, Monte. It is the 
 first thing I have asked of you. * 
 
 He stood, his glance held by her glance and the 
 clear look on her face. A moment of judgment, of 
 reconstruction, and the clear, enduring memory won. 
 It was all over in a moment. He turned without a 
 word and went up toward the station. The two 
 women stood together watching until he had swung 
 up the steps and into the train. They were still watch 
 ing as the cars went past. He was not even on the 
 platform. Then Mrs. Bracken felt an arm slip about 
 her, and the next moment Amy Forrester was on her 
 shoulder, weeping out her heart. 
 
 She made no resistance when a little later Claire 
 drew her down the platform and led her to the waiting 
 car, but over on the highroad she sat up with a sudden 
 fright. 
 
 :< You are not taking me back ? " 
 
 " No, no. Not to-night and not to-morrow not 
 until you are ready to go." 
 
 " But it s over all over ! " 
 
 " Then all the more reason to do nothing on im 
 pulse. Whatever is to be done must be done with 
 dignity, with regard for all concerned." 
 
 " I will do as you say," she said wearily. " I 
 thought oh, I wanted to do the right thing, the 
 brave thing! " 
 
 Just before they came to the Bracken house, Claire 
 laid her hand on her friend s. 
 
344 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " One thing you may have misunderstood some 
 thing I said. After I was engaged to Allan I met 
 Monte, and well, it was a question if I had 
 broken that engagement Allan could not have stood 
 up alone. We knew it both of us. That was the 
 decision to make." 
 
 " Hush ! I feel like a criminal ! " she said, drawing 
 back and through her tortured imagination she re 
 membered only the look on Monte s face when he had 
 answered Claire s request immediately, reverently, 
 without thought of any one else. What was she, to 
 replace such an ideal in Monte Bracken s memory ! 
 
 The next day the world was torn asunder with the 
 catastrophe of a colossal war. The first pages were 
 filled with headlines that cried out the tramp of mus 
 tering armies; Austria attacking, Germany declaring 
 war, France hastily mobilizing, England deliberating, 
 Russia moving ponderously. And on the fourth page, 
 crowded out by the tempest in the air, a bare half- 
 column of what a week before would have been fea 
 tured on the front page : 
 
 "DRAMA IN SOCIETY 
 ACCIDENT OR MURDER 
 
 At Chilton late last night the bodies of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Rudolph Dellabarre were recovered from 
 the bay." 
 
XIII 
 
 i"T was on the second morning after Amy s leaving . 
 * Andrew Forrester was in the library alone, sunk in 
 a great chair, hands clasped before him, staring at a 
 mass of papers on the table, which he had not touched. 
 At any moment Amy would return to take up the com 
 edy of respectability which they would play a little 
 longer before the world. So much had happened in these 
 last forty-eight hours, so much had crowded in against 
 his waking brain, that he could not realize clearly the 
 full measure of any one grief. All was in a daze, 
 through which he tried weakly, patiently, and wearily 
 to see clear. Amy had gone away, publicly, with Monte 
 Bracken he had her letter there in his pocket read 
 and re-read the servants knew, every one must know 
 that. But now she was coming back. She had n t 
 eloped. She had been with Claire all the time, it 
 seemed. What did it mean, and why was she coming 
 back ? Respectability, the great god Respectability, the 
 god of all her kind, the god of Irma Dellabarre. 
 
 He passed his hand nervously across his eyes, to shut 
 out a picture that intruded upon them a pier in the 
 mist of the night, a boat with the water widening, and 
 a woman s voice in fear. He must not think of that, 
 or he would not be able to hold down his nerves. For 
 if he continued to think, he must answer that fearful, 
 obsessing question which had been beating against his 
 brain ever since that fatal night. 
 
346 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 "Was it an accident?" 
 
 " But I I am not responsible ! " he took up 
 wearily. " There is no reason why I should torture 
 myself !" 
 
 He had not affected Irma Dellabarre s life the sway 
 ing of a hair. She had loved him no more than she 
 loved the man whom at the moment she wished to love 
 her. He had been the dupe, the fool who had plunged 
 from one chasm into another. Yet the retribution to 
 her had been swift and horrible. He could not think 
 of Irma as they had brought her in, as he had been 
 forced to look upon her. He had loved her and then 
 he had despised her, and yet her death had seared into 
 his soul. 
 
 " Was it an accident, or was it through mistaken jeal 
 ousy of him that Rudolph Dellabarre had done this 
 thing?" 
 
 There was no refuge from pain but in other trials. 
 For there was more. The unbelievable had happened. 
 The world had gone mad. The Stock Exchange had 
 gone mad, and in three hours panic everything he had 
 had been swept away. All was to begin over. Of all 
 the phantoms which oppressed him, this was the least. 
 There was an acute satisfaction in the completeness of 
 his isolation, in the knowledge that nothing could be 
 added to the cup of bitterness and failure which he had 
 filled with his own hands. 
 
 Outside he heard the motor. In a moment Amy 
 would be here. Ordinarily he would have shrunk from 
 the unnecessary pain of the meeting. Now he waited 
 it indifferently the measure had been exceeded 
 he could feel nothing more. 
 
 She came in and shut the door behind her, before he 
 realized her presence. Then he got up slowly and said, 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 347 
 
 " I beg pardon I did n t hear you." 
 
 The sound of his voice shocked her. She came for 
 ward, peering up into his face, so close that she could 
 have put out her hand and touched him. He straight 
 ened up with a righting return of pride that could not 
 quite replace the settled sadness of his face. 
 
 She was shocked by his appearance. The room 
 shocked her, too the chairs out of place, the litter of 
 envelopes spilling on the floor, the yellow telegrams 
 trailing to the fireplace. It was so shockingly unlike 
 the Andrew she had known. She found it harder to 
 explain to him than she had thought. And yet she must 
 to have it over and to be away. She stood fighting 
 down a desire for tears, plucking at her gloves. 
 
 " I am sorry I went away as I did," she said hur 
 riedly, in a low tone. " I thought it was the right 
 thing to do; I didn t realize what would have been 
 said." 
 
 " Glad you came back," he said, nodding. " It 
 would have been a mistake. For I want you to get the 
 divorce " 
 
 No " she broke in. 
 
 "Yes," he said, "you have been my wife you 
 have borne my name. Some things we can t forget. 
 I want always to protect you. There must n t be the 
 slightest imputation against you. I insist on that. I 
 ask it." 
 
 He had begun firmly, he ended gently, the gentleness 
 that comes with an overwhelming sorrow ; for sorrow 
 and happiness, in their fullest realization, are alike 
 cleansing to the soul. 
 
 " Oh, Andrew ! " she said, and turned away hastily. 
 
 " I am very glad that you came back in time." 
 
 " I did n t do it," she said in a burst of frankness. 
 
348 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " It was all an accident. Claire Bracken found us. 
 She made me see ! " 
 
 " Then I am deeply grateful to Claire," he said 
 solemnly. 
 
 She turned, and without warning the cry burst from 
 her : " Andrew, did he do it on purpose ? " 
 
 He shrank back, and the hunted look flashed into 
 his face. 
 
 "Don t!" 
 
 " Oh, I did n t mean to ! " she cried instantly. " I 
 could n t help it I have dreamed " 
 
 " Don t, Amy, don t! " he cried. He pressed his 
 hands against his temples as though to still their leap. 
 Then he said in a voice that fought for calm, " It is 
 more than I can bear. It is horrible, it is ghastly ! 
 I don t know I shall never know ! All I know is, 
 there was no reason why Rudolph Dellabarre should 
 have done this hideous thing ! " 
 
 "But " 
 
 " Irma Dellabarre never would have left him for 
 me or any other man. She could n t it was n t in 
 her. I tell you this to clear her memory in your eyes. 
 I did not realize it until that night." 
 
 But " 
 
 "Until I knew I had the right, I had never asked 
 anything of her. That night I realized just how little 
 it all was to her. God ! I cannot reproach her 
 now!" 
 
 His voice had risen in his excitement. He mastered 
 himself, went to the mantelpiece and leaned on it, look 
 ing down into the grate. 
 
 "But you loved her?" 
 
 "Then? I suppose so." 
 
 The moment of silence stretched endlessly. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 349 
 
 " AndreAv, I shall never forget your chivalry toward 
 me," she said, clasping her hands. " I thank you from 
 the bottom of my heart for all you ve done and all 
 you re going to do for me." 
 
 He stiffened abruptly, and the old demon of pride 
 seized him. He would not be pitied by her. 
 
 " That is nothing nothing more than a gentleman 
 must do," he said quickly. 
 
 " No, no ; don t say that ! I mean it," she cried pas 
 sionately. " There was so much that you could have 
 reproached me with and you did n t. I Ve been 
 such a failure! " 
 
 His face softened. 
 
 " Those are such little things now, Amy, with what 
 we have both got to face. They re all forgotten, be 
 lieve me. There is no bitterness in me. No, it is n t 
 fair to blame all on yourself. I ve been all wrong 
 too all wrong ! " He stopped, again caught by his 
 pride, and added, " Just one thing when you marry 
 Monte Bracken pray God to send you a child soon ! 
 It will make all the difference. The other thing is n t 
 marriage ! " 
 
 She stood fingering the papers on the table, her eyes 
 blurred with tears. He saw her head bent over, and be 
 lieving she was reading what lay there, said hastily : 
 
 " I don t know whether you heard I have been 
 rather badly caught in the stock market." 
 
 She raised her head indifferently money was such 
 a trivial thing at such a moment. 
 
 " I m sorry," she said mechanically. " Not too 
 badly, I hope?" 
 
 " Well, yes. The bottom, you know, dropped out 
 of everything, and everything I had was margined 
 and, well, I guess it s a pretty clean sweep." 
 
350 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Do you mean, Andrew, you Ve lost everything? " 
 she cried, wrinkling her forehead. 
 
 " Yes, that s about it. Fortunately," he said wearily, 
 " there s my salary, you know. There s always that. 
 Try to be a little careful these next few months until 
 you get the divorce." 
 
 She was staring at him incredulously. Andrew 
 bankrupt ! Andrew, who was the breath of success it 
 self ! Andrew bruised and overthrown ! 
 
 " Fortunately, I placed a certain sum of money in 
 your name when I realized that we would separate," he 
 began. " It s not much, but " 
 
 " Oh, don t talk of that ! " she cried indignantly. 
 She took a step toward him. " Does this mean that 
 you that you have nothing left ? " 
 
 " Not in the bank," he said, shrinking, " but there s 
 the salary. Half of it 11 have to go to squaring up 
 debts, but I can t starve on the rest," he added, with 
 the simulation of a smile. 
 
 " But if if you did n t have that ? " 
 
 " I m not worrying about that," he said, frowning, 
 though the very suggestion brought such a panic to his 
 nerves that he bit his knuckles without noticing what 
 he did. " Gunther knows my worth." 
 
 " But then you are starting over all over again," 
 she said, bewildered. 
 
 He nodded. " Other men have done it. Don t 
 worry about me. I 11 win out, too." 
 
 The news overwhelmed her. Andrew bankrupt! 
 What was the world without money? What could he 
 do, all alone, without money ? She watched him, dazed, 
 unable to readjust her conception of him all at once, 
 and slowly drew off her cloak. She looked around 
 helplessly, still striving to seize the full import. 
 
VIRTUOUS WIVES 351 
 
 " I think I 11 go to my room," she said, her brain in 
 a turmoil, " I 11 come back in a moment." 
 
 She went out and up to her bedroom and stood in 
 the middle of the floor, thinking. What had happened 
 changed all. Before her were two doors, both open, 
 one into the obscurity of the hall and the other into 
 the riotous glow of the flowering porch. That was 
 her choice, and she was free to make it: Monte, and 
 all the pleasant things of life, the luxuries she had 
 learned to crave, ease, brilliancy, the jewels of exist 
 ence spread before her; and below, through the other 
 door, her husband and struggle Andrew, stricken 
 and staggering, under all his assumption of bravado. 
 
 And at that moment, below, a door slammed with 
 the suddenness of a pistol shot. 
 
 She shrieked, and in a blind, unreasoning panic, 
 ran down the stairs, crying his name, and flung into 
 the library. He stood up, staring at her in surprise. 
 She put out her hands as though to touch him, and 
 fell back against the wall, her hands to her heart. 
 
 " Andrew ! Andrew I heard I thought 
 Good God, I thought you had killed yourself ! " 
 
 He had started hurriedly to her side. At her words 
 he drew back. 
 
 " I am not made of that stuff," he said, cut to the 
 quick. " I should think you would have known that." 
 
 She looked at him and shook her head sadly, once, 
 twice. His pride could no longer wound her. She 
 had seen, beneath the mask, the raw wound in his soul. 
 What she did came on the impulse of the moment, 
 born in the revealing horror in her soul. A moment 
 before she had seen him stretched before her on the 
 carpet, dead a bleeding, trickling gash across the 
 forehead which he had held so high. 
 
352 VIRTUOUS WIVES 
 
 " Andrew, listen ! " she cried in anguish, as though 
 there in the room the shadow of death were still lurk 
 ing. " Andrew, listen to me answer me ! Oh, don t 
 be hard don t be bitter ; answer me honestly." 
 
 He stood staring at her, no longer defiant, but so 
 broken that in his need he put out his arm, seizing the 
 table to steady himself. 
 
 "Andrew, is it too late?" 
 
 A look of fear, as though before an impossible solu 
 tion, came to him. He put his hand to his eyes wearily. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " he said in a whisper. 
 
 " Oh, Andrew, if you 11 only hold out your hand to 
 me! " she said incoherently. " If you 11 only do that, 
 I 11 come, I 11 stand by you, I 11 make you forget it 
 all ! Can t you won t you just hold out your hand 
 to show you want me ? " 
 
 And all at once the bars broke in his soul. He tried 
 to speak nodded, and held out his arms to her. 
 
New Uniform Edition 
 
 LAWRENCEVILLE 
 STORIES 
 
 By OWEN JOHNSON 
 
 THE VARMINT 
 
 THE TENNESSEE SHAD 
 
 THE PRODIGIOUS HICKEY 
 
 Illustrated. $1.35 net, each. 3 vols. boxed, $4.05 net. 
 
 Faithful transcripts of American school life, full of 
 idiomatic flavor and the savor of fun, with a perfect 
 understanding of boy nature, these are books to be 
 enjoyed by all ages, from nine up to ninety. 
 
 Of "THE VARMINT," George Ade says: "The only 
 real prep school story ever written." 
 
 JACK LONDON: "An amazingly splendid, delicious 
 story." 
 
 BOOTH TARKINGTON : " It s a wonder ... and the 
 joyful pathos of the last instalment choked me all up 
 it was true, and general, and specifically bully." 
 
 THE TENNESSEE SHAD chronicles! the rise and 
 fall of the enterprising firm of Doc Macnooder and the 
 Tennessee Shad, daring financial adventurers. 
 
 THE PRODIGIOUS HICKEY has been called the 
 only book of its kind since "Tom Brown at Rugby," and 
 it has what Tom Brown in a measure lacked humor. 
 This may seem effusive to you now. It will not after you 
 have come to know the Prodigious Hickey and his satelites 
 Hungry Smeed, Doc Macnooder, Lovely Mead, the 
 Gutter Pup, and Dink Stover. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 
 34 BEACON STREET. BOSTON 
 
The Truth About France. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE 
 
 By OWEN JOHNSON 
 
 Illustrated from drawings and photographs. $1.50 net. 
 
 A vivid and intensely dramatic account of a famous novelist s 
 experiences and impressions in Paris, at Rheims and Arras, and 
 in visits to the trenches at the front, where he was actually under 
 fire. Included in the volume is the interview with General Joffre 
 which created a sensation when it was published in Collier s 
 Weekly. 
 
 Inspired and written with a fine swing and vigour. Bookman, 
 New York. 
 
 Although Mr. Johnson s is one of many books on the war, it 
 is one with a difference. It is a disclosure of "The Spirit of 
 France," and it could not be better named. France has been 
 sadly misunderstood in the past; she is coming through the war 
 into her very own. Boston Transcript. 
 
 Mr. Johnson has done an exceptionally good piece of war 
 reporting in his earlier chapters and in the initial and final chap 
 ters has estimated successfully the unanimity and high patriotism 
 that are the forces behind the French military power. Spring 
 field Union. 
 
 A vivid picture of the war . . . the attractiveness of this 
 book is greatly enhanced by the pictures which are by Walter 
 Hale. Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 34 Beacon St., Boston. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 RENEWALS ONLY TEL. NO. 642-3405 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 NOV15 1968 13 
 
 
 
 
 RECEIVED 
 
 
 MOV 1 ( 68 "4 P 
 
 M 
 
 i f"i /V.^4. ID i* 7 
 
 
 
 
 OCT271993 
 
 
 AUTO DISC CIRC .SEP 
 
 30 93 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 LD 21A-38m-5, 68 
 (J401slO)476R 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
i VtfS 
 
 912881 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES